An Introduction to Relationship Astrology

An Introduction to Relationship Astrology
At The Turning Of The Ages

This is a transcript of a talk Daniel Giamario
gave in San Antonio, Texas in 1993
transcribed by Cayelin K Castell

If we could assume that we are in the last 20 years or so of an entire 26,000 year cycle, the time period we call the Turning Of The Ages, there are at least 2 phenomena that are taking placing in our lives that I would like to describe, because these two ways of looking at the changes in the world right now, help us to get the overall context on how to address relationship issues. The first phenomena is called acceleration. Everything speeds up. One of the quickest ways to see how this works in connection to relationship is to notice that recently, seven weeks of a relationship today seems like seven years of a relationship during more “normal” time periods in history. Things are moving at a much greater speed. I used to say seven months of a relationship was like seven years, but it has since then speeded up even more. The rapidity of change is on one side of it, the other side of it is called recapitulation, or summary.

That means your own individual horoscope these days is now, not just a horoscope of one life, but rather is a summary of the entire 26,000 year time track. Which means on your time track what you have done with relationships is now summarized and recapitulated in an extremely powerful form, this includes things like unfinished business. Whomever we have unfinished business with on our time track will be coming through very fast. If on your time track you have always had the dream of monogamous, pair bonder, until death do us part type relationships and you have never done it, now is the time you get to do it, in the final outworkings of this cycle. If we turn it around and suppose your time track contains the desire to experience multi-bonding reality and you have never done that, now is the time to experience it.

This version of astrology absolutely makes no statements or judgements about one path being better than another. No judgments are made about what “right relationship” is in an absolute sense, but rather it looks at it from the entire spectrum of possibilities, an entire color wheel. An astrological framework is one of the ways to cut up the pie of life. The astrological western model is 12 times 12. Y

ou have twelve tribes and twelve mystery schools, 12 times 12 is 144. 144 different flavors of life experience. Mayan astrology is 20 times 13. 20 solar tribes and 13 months in the year coming up with 260 basic archetypes. This is an example of a different framework for looking at life. If you look at the hexagrams of the I-Ching you get a system of 64 archetypes, Tarot has 20 major arcana. These are just a few examples, there are many different ways of looking at this. Astrology by no means is the only way to do this, but it is an extremely powerful way of doing it, especially if you look at it in an archetypal way.

The astrology I am doing here is archetypal astrology. It is not technical astrology based only upon mathematics. The purpose of this type of astrology is primarily to bring up images and pictures and stories and myths that reside in all of our psyches. We are going to be revealing the spectrum of the archetypes of the male and the female and their possible combinations to assist people in figuring out what is going on in their lives in regard to relationship. From this perspective we are going to take 12 archetypes from the feminine and 12 archetypes from the masculine, which totals 24 different archetypes. For example, if a man has Mars in Libra, it is different than if a woman has Mars in Libra. The archetype of Libra in the feminine is different from Libra when it is in the masculine, and this holds true for all twelve signs. Thus we will actually come up with 24 different images.

Archetypes are the fastest way to have astrology work in people’s lives. I feel if you can not contribute something powerful, important, impacting, and dynamic for someone in two hours with astrology, what is the point? The point is not to train people to be astrologers, but rather to share the archetypal material so you can get a sense of the possibilities that are available, and which ones apply to you. For example, let’s take the issue of enlightenment. Understand that far from taking a pretentious stance of explaining enlightenment, something I feel can’t ever really be explained, because it is beyond duality, my approach is to say there are twelve valid ways of reaching an enlightenment experience.

One person’s way might be through conscious partnership, another person’s way of reaching it might be through having a family, or karma yoga, or transcendent union with the absolute. There are different paths for different people. The same thing applies to the spectrum of possibilities for relationship. I feel it is extremely important for all the paths or possibilities for relationship to be revealed in order for us to have true freedom. It is necessary to know all the possibilities in order to be really free. For instance, suppose your true tone, your true color, your true vibration, is indigo, and you are brought up in a family that only sees red, white and blue. What is going to happen to you as indigo? You will either be invalidated for being chaotic, for being out of place, for being no good, for being a problem, or a more subtle difficulty would be never receiving any valid feed back for how well you are doing with indigo, and then essentially indigo would not get developed. Therefore, what we are doing here is looking at all the different valid possibilities available to human beings in relationship.

One of the remarkable phenomenons at the Turning Of The Ages is all the paths once again become available. When that occurs it is a double edge sword. On the one hand it is remarkably chaotic, what do you choose when all the possibilities are available. All the valid paths are there in their purity, the entire color wheel is available, but there are very few clues as to what to choose. The astrology chart is one of the best sets of clues for what to choose that is available. I am going to give you an overview model of how to approach a chart. First we look at the Moon. For the majority of western culture when people asked each other what their sign was, they gave the Moon sign, they did not give the Sun sign.

The difference between the Sun sign and the Moon sign is that the Sun moves through a sign in about one months time. There are twelve signs in the year, that correspond somewhat to the twelve months. This is an extremely general piece of information. The Sun sign is completely tied into the seasonal calendar. For this reason, all the Sun sign really does is indicate the type of fuel you burn. It represents a certain energy that is available at different times of the year. It is a calendric, seasonal indicator. The Moon position on the other hand moves through a different sign every two and one half days. So your Moon position could be any one of the twelve signs any time of the year. It is much more individualistic. The Moon position is the main symbol for what you have come in with, your lineage.

These days lineage could be thought of in the following way. As a combination of past life themes, family history, and what is written in your genetic code. It is what was already in place when you began to live the current life. This understanding comes from the view, that when we are born we are not a blank slate. We have already come in with a predisposition to experience life in a particular way, through our habits, attitudes, addictions, and expectations coming from our lineage. Throughout most of human history it was known that the Moon sign carried most of the information that had to do with personality, a person’s feelings and expectations, and even some of their best qualities were indicated by Moon position, not the Sun. We won’t be looking at the Sun sign much at all.

We do have to start with the Moon sign, because whatever area of investigation, be it paths of enlightenment, relationship, the way we think, communication, or right livelihood, we start from the Moon position to get an idea of what we came in with. You will get an idea of the vast implications the Moon position has for how we understand relationship, because each of the lineages, or tribes, (tribe refers to the shamanic way of looking at it), or trainings, (these are different ways of referring to the Moon position), are radically different from each other and have a different purpose and intent. Some Moon positions are householder Moon positions and some are totally independent with no concern for the householder path at all. By householder I mean, you are here on the planet to either bring your family in, concern for the children, concern for the seven generations to follow, or you are here to do career on a level that is a giveback to the world, you are here to make a productive, responsible contribution to the planet.

The Moon positions representing the householder path are; Capricorn, Libra, and Cancer definitely. There are other Moon positions that can also play the householder role, like Virgo, Pisces, or Leo, but are not typically thought of as householder signs. The only three that are definitely always householder are Libra, Capricorn and Cancer. There are Moon positions that have been in what we could call the outer reaches of society. Their job has been more exploratory, intellectual, mental, or more transcendental. There concern is not for family, or responsible perfection. The Moon positions in this category are Gemini, Aquarius, Aries, Sagittarius. These are the ones that operate outside the system.

It is important to note the difference between what the essence of a tribe is about and what the culture will cause it to do. For example, Taurus is primarily a non-householder sign, but it is also not out on the fringes. Taurus is in a special category. Every Moon position has a tribal totem, meaning a God or Goddess that stands behind it. The totem for Taurus is Aphrodite. Original Aphrodite was mainly concerned with aesthetics and intimacy. Aesthetics and intimacy are the twin pillars of Taurus.

When we look at cultures before patriarchy, we see originally Aphrodite was a multi-bonder, and she had more than one relationship. For Aphrodite the purpose of the relationship was not to have babies, or to be married, it was intimacy per se. She was using intimacy as an art form. Examples of expressions of this through out history are found amongst the people who have no concern for bringing children in, but they are more concerned about culture. Historically, most every civilization gives the gay, lesbian, or homosexual culture, the job of preserving culture from one generation to the next, because they were not concerned about bringing children in. That is not to say Taurus is homosexual, but it is to make the point that Taurus is about a different issue. Taurus is in the world. Taurus is not out in the woods. Aphrodite was a city girl, she was not somebody who liked to be out in the woods. She enjoyed the comforts of civilization. But Taurus still would not be called primarily a householder sign.

Taurus is interested in intimacy on the basis of friendship, rather than intimacy based on finding a husband to build a home, or for the purpose of bringing in children. What has happened in a patriarchal culture is Taurus has had only one option and that is to fall into the householder side. The same thing has happened to Virgo and Pisces, so recently they have been used as householder energies, although they originally were not. Virgo’s approach to life could be described as the Priest or Priestess, where the bottom line is the sacred work, the devotion and dedication to something transcendental. However, with no real place for the sacred work in the recent culture, it has been propelled, channeled, motivated into the householder path.

I have worked with hundreds of women with Virgo Moon who have been perfectionists in raising their family in a traditional family type way, because they have been trained by the culture to believe that is what they must do, then later in life they discover having the personal family was not what it was all about at all.

This is how knowledge of the Moon position is so useful in understanding what is happening in a relationship. If you are trying to put together a pair bond, monogamous, committed relationship, with someone who has Aquarius Moon, Gemini Moon, Aries Moon, Sag Moon, it is helpful to know that person does not have any past history in that type of relationship, they have very few clues about how to do that type of a relationship, because the have been operating on a different ray. Having a bonded relationship is a new development for them. I am not saying they are incapable of this type of a relationship, what I am saying is they don’t have any past history in doing it.

Now let’s suppose you are involved with someone who has Libra, Cancer, or Capricorn Moon, or you have a child with ones of these Moon positions and he or she finds themselves in a broken home where a divorce is taking place, or they come into a dysfunctional home and see imbalance far from what they expected family life should be, this is very traumatic for them, because they don’t have any past experience in being on their own. Now if you are trying to put a relationship together and the person you are with has a Moon position that doesn’t have a history for a bonded relationship you have to be extra patient, allowing, and understanding they don’t have the same cards in their deck that you have. We are not all equal on this particular issue.

Another way of saying this is, there are some people on the planet who are incredibly good at bonding, but have no knowledge or experience with being autonomous, sovereign, or independent. There are people on the planet who are tremendously good at being autonomous, sovereign, and independent, with no clue about how to bond. In fact, there are some people in that category who have no interest in bonding ever. It is not even on their path to bond.

Then there are people who are tremendously good at being on their own, who might for whatever reason, based on their own personal horoscope, or their own personal choice want to learn how to bond. When that person bonds, it is a different kind of bond, than the one who bonds and they are not sovereign and complete unto themselves. It is a completely different set of mysteries. There are people who come into the life, where their evolutionary path is best served by learning how to be monogamous with a committed partner for life. There are other people who are the opposite and their path is the liberation path. These things can really be sorted out by looking at the astrological chart.

The second dynamic of the relationship material is an analysis of the Venus and Mars positions. On a woman’s chart, Venus will be what portions of the spectrum of the feminine she is now here to experience. If we look at the feminine principle as a twelve-spoked wheel, then whatever sign Venus is in would be an indicator of what is now being tested, experimented with. Freud is known to have once asked, “What does woman want?” If we apply that question to astrology there are twelve answers to it and whatever sign Venus is in, gives major clues as to what a woman is really here to work on this time in regard to the feminine.

There is a dynamic interaction between the Moon and the Venus on a woman’s chart indicating how she experiences the feminine principle. If a woman knows her Moon position and what Goddesses, what stories, what mysteries, what myths are associated with that Moon position and then she dialogues with her Venus, knowing what Goddesses, what stories, what myths, what theme structure is associated with the Venus, very amazing information can come through as far as what that woman is really about, and what she really wants. In a relationship what a man most needs to know about a woman is her Venus and her Moon. There is a formula a man can use to honor the woman in his life that works very well. One third of the time he honors her for her Moon and two thirds of the time for her Venus. If a man can do this, then balance, harmony, and intimacy will work quite well. I will go into more detail later, this is just an overview.

For men, the Mars position is what portion of the spectrum of the masculine they are here to work on this time. “To know your sword and to know how to use it,” is how Carl Jung defined masculinity. If we apply that definition to astrology we could say there are twelve kinds of swords, or a sword could have twelve different contents. For example, if a man had Mars in Cancer the quality of his masculinity is his ability to do responsible nurturing, to take care of a woman, to take care of a family.

If a man has Mars in Aries, his masculinity is all wrapped up in aggressive play. Those are two very different qualities. It is my belief that the rage, anger and grief of men today is based upon men not getting to do their Mars. If they don’t get to be their Mars, there can be a great lack of self worth. The same formula applies to men as it does to women. If a woman could honor her man one third of the time for his Moon and two thirds of the time for his Mars, harmony, balance and intimacy in the relationship works great. This is not just about romantic love life, husbands and wives, but rather it works for all relating of some close nature. If you have a child and you have this material, it works. If you have a close friend, or business partner, it works. The same kind of inner dialogue could take place for a man between the Moon and the Mars. There will be some examples of this later on.

Next step is to look at a woman’s Mars and a man’s Venus. On a man’s chart the Venus is his connection to the feminine principle, it is his inner woman, or what Jung calls the anima, or the soul. Generally, this is the part of the horoscope that has to do with physical attraction and romantic love. Ultimately it is the position with the most important piece of information for achieving what is called the sacred marriage. I will explain more about that later. Sacred marriage for a man is defined as being able to walk through life with his inner woman on his arm at all times, regardless of who is with, or whether he is with anyone at all. This definition applies to women only she is walking through life with her inner man on her arm at all times, regardless of who she is with, or whether she is with anyone at all. Union with one’s own inner partner. Clues on this comes from a woman’s Mars and a man’s Venus.

The third dynamic is why would we even want to be in a relationship at all? What is the bottom line? Let’s suppose the issue is getting married, there is a way of looking at the horoscope to get the final answer, bottom line why would you even want to be in a marriage, or in a formal, long range, agreement oriented relationship. The answer comes from the axis of the Rising sign, Ascendant, or Personal Identity Project (all three of these terms mean the same thing), and the Descendant, the seventh house point, or the Partnership Project opposite the Rising sign. If you know your Rising Sign you know what the Descendant is.

If you have Scorpio Rising, the opposite point is Taurus, if you have Leo Rising the opposite point is Aquarius and so on. The opposite sign of the Rising sign is what is going to answer the question about relationship intent. If you put the Rising sign and the opposite sign, or Descendant, together this is called the relationship axis. There are twelve signs, or six pairs. For example, if you have Leo or Aquarius Rising the bottom line intent is totally different than if you have Cancer or Capricorn Rising. One is a total householder path, and the other is a radical freedom, personal independence, radiant self-love path.

Figuring out what your own individual path is, could be thought of as what the Native Americans refer to as “finding your place on the wheel.” There are different ways of finding your place on the wheel. I had an experience with that when giving a workshop in Phoenix. After I had gone through the whole thing, a woman came up to me and said, “I really loved this workshop. I agreed with most of what you said, but come on, my guides have told me and you must know you can’t get enlightened unless you are in a monogamous relationship, period.” I looked at her and said, “That’s your guidance, that is what you have received and maybe, that is in fact your path, but there is no way I could ever make that judgment for every person.”

Different people have a different place on the wheel, so you will not get any judgements from me about one path being better than another. We can help sort it out, in regards to what each archetype does. There are different Gods and Goddesses doing different dances in different ways. An even more interesting issue here, and this is what excites me more than any other thing in astrology is these Gods and Goddesses are dancing in different ways now. Every horoscope today has at least one area, and some have many more than one, that shows a totally new creative possibility.

There is no story from the past that can show us the answer. I will give you one quick example. A woman who has Venus in Sag and Moon in Taurus, that combination looking at mythical stories is a dance between Aphrodite and Diana Artemus. There is no story in Greek myth about what happens if those two dance together. You could surmise that they don’t like each other very much at all. Diana is a Virgin Amazon. Amazon meaning a woman whose identity is based upon her accomplishments and achievements, and virgin meaning, not that she doesn’t have sex, but she is complete unto herself. She doesn’t have to be with anyone in order to know who she is. Diana loved being in the woods and the wilderness, in nature. Aphrodite on the other hand was a city girl and she was always in an intimate relationship. Diana and Aphrodite do not like each other very much at all.

This does not mean a woman who has this combination is in trouble or dealing with something totally unworkable, rather she is doing a dance that has not been done previously, but it is up to her own current life purpose to develop a creative solution. It is creating a new myth, new mythology. Carl Jung calls it, “Dreaming the dream onward.”

This is an entire overview of all I am going to share with you. The mistake might be made to over emphasize anyone part of this material, but it is when all the pieces come together, we can get some clues about what is going on. All the pieces are equally important.

Now let’s take a more extensive look at the Moon material. This material alone, even without the rest of what we are going to talk about, can really assist people in their relationships. If you know the Moon position of the person you are with and you honor them for their Moon when they are out of balance, scared, over their head, or frightened because the relationship has gone too deep, or because it is shaky and out of balance, it brings them back to center. If we apply this idea to the overview I gave you, we could say when a person comes into the life the center of their being is in the Moon.

The purpose of the life is to recenter the center of your being into another place, which is generally in the Venus or the Mars on the way to the Rising Sign. It is ambiguous to say where it is to be recentered, but it is in the direction of the Rising sign. However, if a person is scared and out of balance, it makes sense to give them strokes for where their original center is.

Capricorn Moon
When a person is a Capricorn Moon it suggests that for lifetimes (we can use that phrase, not as a literal statement, but as a mythic way of looking at life), the Capricorn Moon person has had the role of being the elder who has called out the law. The one, who, by definition must know how things fall together and how to be responsible so that everything doesn’t fall apart. Some types of Capricorn jobs on the planet are teachers, Prime Ministers, good father’s, people who call out the law, and are in fact givers. However, to call it giver is much like the neurosis where the teacher might need the students, much more than the students need the teacher. In other words, the Capricorn role needs to have a function. If they don’t have a function it is very difficult for them. Every Moon position has a certain job that needs to be done on the planet. In any group of 12 it would be great if at least one of those 12 people could be counted on to carry the weight. The high side of Capricorn is the teacher, Prime Minister, and so on, the down side of it is the scape goat.

In the ancient Yom Kippur ritual, two goats were taken. One goat was killed, and his blood was used on the altar. On the back of the other goat was placed all the icons, and symbols that represented the sins of the community. Then the goat was sent out into the wilderness. The goat was chosen to bear this load because it was the one they knew could survive the wilderness. However, in the evolution of a psychological complex what happened to the goat was it soon began to suspect it was the one responsible for the problem, and began to take it personally. This is how “scape goat” originated. Originally the goat didn’t do anything wrong, it was chosen because it was the one who had the strong back and could survive the wilderness, but it ended up believing it was the one who screwed up. Hence, Capricorn Moon is all about carrying the load and believing you are some how guilty and you have to atone for something. Everything positive and everything negative can come from that story. The truth is Capricorn Moon people do know how to keep things together, they can take responsibility.

The following statement applies to every Moon position. The law of every Moon position is, WERE YOU TO LIVE YOUR LIFE IN PERFECTION RELATIVE TO YOUR MOON POSITION, IT WOULD NOT BE SUFFICIENT TO YOUR LIBERATION. If you only lived your life based upon your Moon position and you were really good at it, there is no more feedback, no more pay-off, no more advancement that takes place. If you have a Phd in something, and you enter a university to get a Phd in the same subject, at best it is redundant. “What else is new!” You get to do the same thing again. There is an exception when a person’s Rising sign and Moon sign are the same, however, even then the challenge is to take that archetype to the next level, to an even higher level of expression, not to rest on the accomplishments and achievements of the past.

This brings us back to how knowing a person’s Moon position let’s us know what to do to help bring that person back to their center. If you find somebody with a Capricorn Moon and all they ever do is take responsibility for everybody else, all they ever do is teach, all they ever do is counsel, they may be in deep addiction. But, if a person with Capricorn Moon gets really scared, or over their head, the most loving thing you can do for them to bring the back to center, is to give them something important to do and tell them they did a good job. They need a function. We can turn this around.

How might you invoke the shadow of someone with a Capricorn Moon? Tell them they are irresponsible, they don’t know what they are doing, they are incompetent. That will cause them to really freak out. The truth is the Capricorn Moon person has mastered taking responsibility. Another way of saying it is, Central Casting has a lot of different jobs that need to be done on the planet. One of the jobs is the Capricorn job, if you have a Capricorn Moon it means you have already done that job.

Metaphysically, here is how it seems to work. There is one thing dying and being born have in common. Both require a tremendous ego loss, an incredible letting go. Whatever your attainment was in a pastlife, no matter how much you knew, when you are born into this life, you are required to come in with innocence, to come in not knowing what your previous attainment was. Never the less there is still an unconscious residue. If you have a Capricorn Moon, you are going to expect your previous experiences to continue. You got rewarded for being the teacher, or the counselor, so you expect to get rewarded again for doing that. The best way to let a person know they are on their path is to reward them for their accomplishments. Essentially that is how the game works.

The problem with the Moon position is, even if you are perfect with the Moon position you can never be rewarded enough to make it ultimately worthwhile. People are generally one of two types in regards to their Moon. Using Capricorn Moon as an example, everyone totally validates them for how much they know, how responsible they are, how they’ve got it together. All that does is have a person tread water. They are exactly at the same point they were when they incarnated. It is utterly redundant.

The other possibility is, you come into the life and you don’t get any respect. You might be the best possible teacher on a subject, you might be the most brilliant person in the world for keeping it together, but nobody gives you any respect. Then you probably feel like you are beating your head against the wall, “Maybe someday I will be taken seriously.” The day that you are taken seriously, is the day you get the joke, when you realize you are back at square one, and you can get on with what your life purpose really is. Even if you do get validated for doing your Moon, it can not take you into new territory.

Six, seven, eight years ago I reached a place of great crisis. I was extremely angry. I didn’t seem to get any respect for what I spent so many years studying. It was a place of not only anger, but things weren’t working. Finally I let go. I got the joke that my job on the planet this time was not based upon Capricorn Moon at all, but true happiness for me in this life lay down another path. So, I did a meditation where I imaged what my life would be like if nobody ever asked me my opinion again, or if I never had another reading to do, or if I never had another talk to give.

I had to look into the abyss on that one, but I got to the point where I was okay with those possibilities and then amazingly a new creative fantasy emerged for me in doing astrology. I began to see myself as an entertainer and I knew the most important person I needed to entertain was myself. What happened after I began taking this approach was more and more people took me seriously, and in fact now the phone is always ringing with people needing to have work done. The catch for me now is potentially I have a tendency to fall into an even deeper level of addiction.

I have absolute certain knowledge that I could be the most successful astrologer in the world and the people of power on the planet could all looked to me for advice, and yet, I would be no happier than I am at this very moment. Ultimately, it does not make any difference whether it is negative or positive addiction to the Moon position, it is still an addiction. Therefore, if a person is going to operate from their Moon position it has to be for the fun of it and because it easy, but not because there is any anticipation of an additional reward other than the pure enjoyment of doing it.

Sagittarius Moon
Capricorn Moon is a householder position. Sagittarius Moon is from elsewhere. These were the people who previously had the job of being truth seekers, questers for the truth. The theme structure for Sagittarius Moon is, to boldly go where no one has gone before, the expansion of the self to the widest possible horizons. It is actually the mythical enlightenment path called the Vision Quest. If we look into myth, Sagittarius might be the voyages of Odysseys, or the labors of Hercules, or Jason looking for the Golden Fleece. The mission for Sagittarius is to find the meaning of life, to find God.

If we describe all three fire signs Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, with the imagery of climbing a mountain, each of the three would be climbing the mountain for a different reason. Aries climbs the mountain because it is there. It seemed like a good thing to do that day. Aries climbs the mountain for the fun of it. Leo climbs the mountain because there is a film crew filming the expedition for a marvelous documentary and there is a chance they might win an Emmy for the film. Sagittarius climbs the mountain to find God, to find the meaning of life. If a person has a Sag Moon this was their particular approach to life.

This brings up an important point. No judgements can be made about one Moon position being better than another. Not in real astrology. Cultures, however, make judgements. For example, it is very common for someone to come to a reading and the first question they ask is if that’s good. If they don’t ask that, then the question is if that’s bad. These are statements that are motivated by cultural prejudices. You might read a patriarchal astrology book and it might say Scorpio or Gemini Moon or some of the other non-traditional Moon positions are not good places for the Moon to be.

Hogwash, these are cultural judgements. There is no better or worse Moon position. We have to say if a woman in our culture is born with one of the fire Moons she will be judged for those qualities. It will be harder for a woman to have an easy experience with a fire Moon than it will be for a man. The other side of the coin is a man is going to have a harder time having a water Moon than a woman is. If a man has Cancer, Pisces, or Scorpio Moon he will find it more difficult than if a woman has a Moon in one of those positions, because of cultural judgments. In a matriarchal culture it might be different. What we are trying to do is isolate the bottom line on the Moon. A woman with a Sag Moon at an early age might be judged by the culture as being a “Tom Boy” or a woman who is really into her independence. Maybe she wants to go for a long hike, or study issues of philosophy, then heavy judgment comes down. That is not what she is going to get strokes for. With a Sag Moon getting back to square one, getting into a place of harmony and balance is when you can feel good about your lineage.

In most cases for a Sag Moon woman this is when she takes responsibility for her own spiritual path, for her own quest, she integrates into her life the ability to boldly go where no one has gone before, the higher chakras, the higher intelligence, the quest for the truth, that type of thing. In a relationship where that issue is not ever validated then there will be some very real problems for the woman with a Sag Moon. On the other side of it, if she is only validated for Sag Moon, but she is really working on something different in this life, it will be an addiction or a trap. However, that addiction or trap is not seen very often for a woman, because it is much easier for a man to be addicted to Sag Moon. The man is much more likely to be validated for his Sag Moon and it is easier to remain stuck in that position. While a woman with a Sag Moon has to get to the place where she can get her power back, meaning getting to a place where she is comfortable with what the original identity was.

If we look at the twelve-spoked wheel of the feminine principle both Sag and Aries are what could be called Virgin Amazon. This is not a description of who you are now, but it is the archetype that is at the roots of who you are. Amazon represents a version of the feminine where a woman’s identity is based upon her accomplishments and her achievements, as opposed to a woman based upon her relationships, or a woman based upon her family, or a woman based upon her spiritual merging with the divine. Virgin in this case does not mean no sex, but it’s the original meaning of virginity, which is a woman who is totally complete unto herself. She doesn’t have to be with anyone in order to know who she is.

If we back this up to the principle of restoring someone’s balance when they are way out of balance by giving them strokes for their Moon, how does that work with Sag or Aries Moon? If a relationship is out of balance, if it is scary, if it is intense, difficult, and so on, that is precisely the time for the woman to be given strokes for her Moon. That’s when she would go to a workshop, or go for a hike in the Mountains, or go meditate. Another words that would not be the time to try to extract intimacy, or assume that this person wants to get closer. Actually, to get in balance what they want to do is to have their “sacred space”.

This is extremely important to know in your relationships because the person you are with might be exactly the opposite type. You might think when the relationship is out of balance is the most important time to begin processing and try to go deeper, but when a person has a Sag Moon that is when they need to have space, and from the place of the space, then they can decide to go deeper into the relationship, because it allows them to get restored to their center and then from their center they can begin to work on what it is they are here to work on.

Remember the basic principle, WERE YOU TO BE PERFECT WITH YOUR MOON, IT WOULD NOT BE SUFFICIENT TO YOUR LIBERATION. However, if you are not in a healthy relationship with your Moon their comes a point where you have to be restored or get your power back with reference to the Moon. So if somebody has Sag Moon and they have never experienced the “quest” or been given strokes for their higher intelligence, their higher mind, their spirituality, then they will be out of balance with their original center.

Aquarius Moon
Aquarius Moon is an approach to life very similar to Sag Moon. In fact, sometimes we can use the same myth to apply to both archetypes. This is the myth of the Pleides. I am saying myth because I don’t want to get into whether this is really true or not, but the Earth is littered with myths that have to do with this issue. In this myth if you are from the Pleiades, and you notice their are things needing attention here on this planet and you want to be of assistance, the only way to accomplish that desire is to actually incarnate here, because of something called the Prime Directive which disallows interference. The one way around this law is to incarnate here. By fully incarnating here you can make a difference. The problem is you might forget your mission, or the karma of this place can be so intense and overwhelming you never get to your mission

Another way of looking at Aquarius Moon is illustrated in the first book of the Vedas. The Vedas are a written ancient spiritual teaching in India, and begins with this statement. “The creator, after having created the creation, entered into it.” If a person has Aquarius Moon it implies someone who has really been in a place of great detachment, great spiritual freedom, not connected to water, not connected to earth, not engaged in the householder way of life, who decided to come into the system, to come into the relative life, into the material plane, into density of matter, on a mission, to check out what it is like down here.

It is like the imagery of scientist, who wonders what they have not experienced and decides they haven’t fully experienced feelings, and they decide to see what it would be like to go in and do feelings, or they have never experienced partnership on a deep bonding level, and they want to see what that would be like. The Aquarius Moon is coming in from a place of detachment and then is faced with the predicament of detachment itself not being good enough. In the midst of doing this experiment the Aquarius Moon is overwhelmed so they don’t get to be at the level of the stratosphere complete with the cosmic overview.

Those with Aquarius Moon come into the life already having attained some degree of cosmic consciousness. Cosmic consciousness is detachment, it’s like being involved in life, but having your witness self constantly watching it. If we look at this in a balanced way, the state called detachment is a genuine spiritual quality, which all of us need to learn at a certain point on our path. But, if a person is over identified with it, then it becomes disassociation, they don’t really dive in, they don’t really feel what they are feeling, or do what they are doing. If a person has Aquarius Rising, or Venus, or Mars in Aquarius they may actually be here to be working on those qualities, but if you have an Aquarius Moon it says you already have a Phd. there, and there is no advantage in being over identified with detachment any longer.

Another angle on Aquarius Moon is the person who has done Aquarius from the perspective of the intellect. This might be someone who is a philosopher, who writes books on life that are accurate and correct reflections on life, but they never actually get their hands dirty. This is called the Ivory Tower Philosopher. An example is a person who writes books on relationships, but has never personally had one. If in the current life, the Aquarius Moon continues on this path this is an example of a person who is attached to Aquarius Moon.

By looking at the rest of the chart we can determine what the mission of the Aquarius Moon is. How deeply the person is going in. How deep is the experiment with feelings, emotions, physical reality, or householder path. The Aquarius Moon is an example of one of the Moon positions that is more difficult to have if you are born female as opposed to male, because generally women don’t get validated for their intelligence, or for their “spiritual” qualities.

If a woman is born into a family that channels her directly into becoming wife, mother, or nurse which are the accepted patriarchal roles for women, then Aquarius Moon is not in its power. The challenge then, is for Aquarius Moon to get her power back in the area of intelligence and detachment. However, the Aquarius Moon, be it man or woman, may not know very much about the other realms in third dimensional realty associated with feelings, and partnership on a deep bonding level, so one has to be sensitive and delicate to whatever issues they might be working on. For example, in a relationship with someone who has strong Aquarius, foreplay for them would be to meditate together. For Sagittarius it might be, to do a workshop together, or a quest for the meaning of life together.

Gemini Moon
Gemini Moon is in the same category as Aquarius. It shares many of the same qualities as Aquarius, such as being mental, and detached, but it is a totally different archetype. While Sag archetype could be thought of as Virgin Amazon or as the Diana Artemus imagery, and Aquarius could be thought of as the imagery of detachment and spiritual evolution, Gemini has a different image. The troubadour minstrel, trickster magician, court jester, clown, fool, contrary, the coyote, the heyoka, the Fool card in the tarot, who is the eternal youth who is ready to jump off the cliff empty handed into the void, are all valid images for Gemini. However, the Fool is no fool. He knows the law of gravity does not affect him. He is above the law.

The infamous or great (however you want to look at it) magician of the 20th century, named Allister Crowley said something once that applies to Gemini Moon. “The ultimate mantra for humanity is, DO WHAT THOU WILT IS THE WHOLE OF THE LAW.” However this statement only applies to someone who has already fulfilled the law and thereby attained utter, total and complete freedom. They have leaped empty handed into the void. If someone has Mars or Venus in Gemini or Gemini Rising then this is what they are working on in the current life. If a person has Gemini Moon, this is what they might be attached too, or over identified with. So the Gemini Moon comes into the life with the absolute expectation that they are driving around with diplomatic license plates. That the law does not apply to them, and they are free to do and be whatever they desire. Depending on the rest of the chart this may not be what they are working on.

The Moon position in and of itself is insufficient to a person’s liberation. Yet, if a person has been denied access to their Moon, at a certain point they must go through a process that allows them to become healthy with their Moon position. This is called getting your power back. If the person you are involved with has a Gemini Moon, laugh at their jokes, because Gemini channels the divine comedienne. They are the divine trickster. The court jester is essentially the only one who can tell the king the truth and is not killed for it, because, there is nobody home, they are not presenting an ego front.

If somebody comes forth and tells the king a harsh truth and is perceived as a threat, he will lose his life or be imprisoned. But the court jester who is but the Fool, the clown, the one who pulls the rug out from under, he is free to do whatever he wants. The intent of the Fool is not known. In fact, one assumes the Fool is intentless, just doing their magic act. If there is any suspicion of an intent there, the game is blown. Therefore, what happens in a relationship with someone who has a Gemini Moon? The same principle applies for Gemini as for Sag, or Aquarius. They may not be good at getting very close especially when things start to get heavy, intense, too deep, the Gemini Moon may want to run away, or become empty, or detach, or to just simply not be present, vanish, or do the exact opposite of what is expected and tell jokes or make a joke out of the situation.

I am not going to go through all twelve Moon positions, but I will go through all twelve archetypes with reference to a certain part of the puzzle. I want to do one or two more Moons to give a contrast, to describe a totally different version of reality, because I have dealt with the most radical Moons so far. Now remember to just know a person’s Moon position does not really tell the story of the person. What it does tell is the story of their lineage. In our closest relationships, it is extremely important to know this position so we can help our friend, our lover, our husband, our wife be in balance.

Comment: Sag, Aquarius, and Gemini don’t have any experience in being a householder, they don’t have any experience in intimacy, and they don’t know about emotion because that is not one of their fortes. So those of us with that type of Moon might have judgements about emotions and attachments.

Correct. There are four elements in astrology fire, air, water and earth. There are twelve signs, three each in each of the four. Air is Gemini, Aquarius, and Libra. This is connected to what is called the thinking function. Water is Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, which is connected to the feeling function. Thinking could be called left brain masculine, having to do with information, logic, reason. The feeling function is right brain feminine. It is something in the present moment. You can not do the feeling function except through being connected to another human being. It is an empathic, sensitive, feeling, interpersonal quality. Thinking function doesn’t require another person. Feeling function does require another person. The fire signs are Leo, Sagittarius, and Aries. This is called right brain masculine. The intuitive function.

I am using intuitive the way that Jung used the word. The tip of the arrow, the tip of the spear, spontaneously plunging into the realities of life. Not pre-planning. But it is an aspect of logos, it is higher mind. It is a “spiritual” quality. It doesn’t particularly require other human beings. The earth signs are Virgo, Taurus, and Capricorn. This is the sensation function. You’ve got to have hands on experience. It is in the body. Hence, it is feminine left brain. We could call it the left brain of the Goddess. It is analytical, but it’s not data and information.

This information can be applied to any part of the chart, but since we are dealing with the Moons and we have talked about two air Moons it is interesting that their are two of them that are non-householder and there is one of them that is, Libra. If you come into the life with one of the fire Moons or Gemini, or Aquarius, your previous experience is not going to be in the feeling function. You are not going to have much of a back ground in the full experience of those states. Which is why sometimes there can be judgements made against feeling.

These Moon positions have developed the talent for cutting off strong emotions at their source. It is an old yogic technique. Go to any metaphysical bookstore, and about half the books on spirituality will teach, learning detachment, or what is referred to as cosmic consciousness. They will even describe exploring the feelings as counter productive. The other half of the spiritual books say just the opposite. They say what makes a human being truly unique on the planet is our ability to explore highly refined, sensitive experiences of deep feeling. What I would like to suggest is neither is right and neither is wrong, it’s just explaining different facets of the same crystal. Those coming in with their Moon in an air sign will have a built in difficulty in dealing with feelings. So much so they might even bracket it, or put it into a different realm so they don’t even recognize it. The opposite happens if you come in with a water Moon. Feelings are everything. So the reverse mistake can be made.

In regard to relationships there are people who will sometimes make statements like, “jealousy, possessiveness, insecurity in relationship doesn’t apply to me, I have developed my spiritual body enough I can forgive anyone, I am not attached in any way.” The person comes across as being detached in those areas. There are two kinds of people who will say that. There are people who have been through many kinds of experiences of a broken heart, many experiences of going very deeply into personal intimacy and after many times of being in there they reach a place of detachment. They are no longer jealous, or possessive, or insecure. Then there are people who say they are detached and have never even begun to go deeply into personal intimacy.

There is a huge difference between those two categories. Saying this is not to say the first example is better than the second example. There are numerous people on the planet who are not even here to go into deep personal intimacy. They have a different path. That’s why it is important to be careful about making judgments about the appropriateness of the feelings we have or don’t have. For example, the Sufi’s say one of the paths is the “path of the bloody heart.” This path is when you open your personal heart to someone in a deeper way than ever before and it doesn’t work out according to the way you thought it would, causing you the greatest hurt you have ever known.

The way the Sufi’s say this is an example of a good experience and you know you are on the right track with this type of experience if you are here to develop personal heart in this life. This is really a sophisticated way of saying “it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.” Some are here to do experience this path and some aren’t’. So beware of judgments and where a person may be coming from when they claim detachment or no jealousy, or no possessiveness. They might not even be on a personal relationship path.

Libra Moon
What makes Libra paradoxical and different from the other two is Libra is a householder sign and it has to do with relationship and partnership. Libra’s biggest issue is to answer the question, “what is the nature of partnership and relationship?” Theoretically, Libra Moon already knows everything there is to know about relationship, or they get married and follow what the contract says. So it is like the formalism of the marriage, being able to do what the traditions say, but it does not occur on an emotional or physical level. In a relationship, the difference between Libra and Scorpio, 7th house and 8th house, the 7th house is the formalism, the rules, the agreements, the theory behind relationship. Scorpio is what really happens behind closed doors. It is what happens when a person goes really deep into personal intimacy.

An example of a shift of gears is a person with an Aquarius Moon, who is now burning Libra fuel. This is a person who has been outside the system and is now taking on a mission to experience Libra. They are asking the question, “what is the nature of partnership and relationship?” If the person has Libra Rising their whole life purpose is based upon how well they answer that question. But if they have Sag or Aquarius Rising and an Aquarius Moon they are probably here to study for awhile so they can get even more free.

Pisces Moon
Pisces Moon is similar to Cancer Moon. Of the twelve Moons, four of them are givers. In other words, they do not have an identity save for what they do for others. Pisces, Cancer, Capricorn and Virgo are giver Moons. The Pisces version of giving is to operate out of the feeling function. Therefore, it has to do with what happens between people. The job of Pisces Moon, looking at from the perspective of central casting, is to do selfless service, to be available to everybody else, to be a safe space and to share feelings.

I call this generic Boddhisattva. Boddhisattva is one version of enlightenment. Buddhism says, if you work out all your individual karma and become technically enlightened on a personal level, the person then has a choice to become a Boddhisattva. This is the individual who does not go to the celestial realms, and does not merge with the absolute, but they stay on Earth as a regular, normal, ordinary, human being, because there are people who are hurting and suffering, and they want to help. So out of compassion they are here to be of service.

This is radically different from the guilt ridden Social worker who feels they have to save the world, or they are not okay. It’s the joy of being in service to others. If you have a Pisces Moon it suggests you already have a Phd there, that you played that role a lot in the past. Another Sufi saying states, “you can not lose your ego until you have one.” There is no personal ego in Pisces. Pisces is a merge energy. The mantra for Pisces is, “I surrender to the will of God.” However, depending on the rest of your chart, you might be here to develop a central self, or to develop a householder way of life. If the Pisces Moon has Cancer Sun and Cancer Rising they have a minor shift from the universal service of Pisces to service directed to the family or focusing in on a specific group.

An interesting way of looking at the water signs is to note all the water signs, Cancer, Pisces, and Scorpio, are about the feeling function, but the focus of the feeling function is different for each of them. With Pisces the focus is totally universal, feeling the same about everybody, general merge energy with everybody. Scorpio is intensely personal with the one you are with. It is totally personally tantric.

The best way to explain how Cancer works in the feeling function is to tell this story. If you go to China what you will discover is there is one law if the person is a member of your clan. There is another law if they are Chinese, and there is yet another law if your not Chinese. The way this relates to Cancer, is that Cancer can be totally loving, giving and accepting in every way, as long as they are your family member. If they are beyond the bounds of the family you treat them with a different approach. If your Moon is in Pisces and we invoke the law that says, IF YOU ARE PERFECT WITH YOUR MOON IT IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO YOUR LIBERATION, we can see the down side of Pisces Moon would be the addicted giver.

The person who gives and gives and gives and nothing ever changes, or the person who gives and gives and feels if they keep giving they will get validation or strokes eventually, but nothing changes. This helps us to understand how co-dependency works. Someone with a Pisces Moon is tremendous at being there for other people. The mistaken belief is, if they keep giving and giving eventually they will get good strokes for giving. The fact is they have already gotten strokes and validation for giving, they already have a PhD in giving.

They know they are doing perfect service in a relationship, with the children, or in a job, and they don’t understand why they aren’t getting much benefit from it. So they give more, thinking they must not be giving enough or giving in the right way. Still nothing changes. Now they begin to think they are in an unfair universe, something is off, something is wrong. They don’t understand, because they know they have done good stuff and they aren’t getting any return. No matter how much spiritual teaching one might receive saying don’t give for a return, there is still a built in memory from their past that remembers being validated and rewarded for being a good giver.

Next the shadow side of co-dependency becomes expressed and they start forcing the other person to respond in certain way. It seems to them, legitimately, rationally, and logically, they have a right to force the other person to act in a certain way, because after all the Pisces Moon has given lots of wonderful stuff. I feel there has been too great an emphasis on co-dependency, so much so, it can make a person feel guilty if they are a giver. But, there are many people (Pisces Rising for example) legitimately here to be givers, it is their intent to master giving. The over emphasis on co-dependency tends to make people feel it is a character flaw to be a giver. It is not a character flaw, it is simply a misunderstanding.

Comment: That is why the co-dependency movement grew out of the “me” generation.

Excellent point. The “me” generation is the Pluto in Leo generation.

We are now going to begin to introduce the Venus and Mars material. According to this particular dynamic, Venus on a woman’s chart is the main imagery for what portion of the spectrum of the feminine the woman is now working on. If you know a woman’s Moon position and her Venus position you will know about the old goddess and the new goddess. Then we can do an inner dialogue between the old goddess and the new goddess. I am referring to the old goddess and new goddess as a way that is more all embracing than simply naming goddesses from some old pantheon. For example, the feminine principle does not really have a goddess that applies to Gemini Moon or Aquarius Moon, therefore I have to come up with other images to explain it. So, when I am using God and Goddess I am using that term to also refer to psychological archetypes, and stories.

Aquarius
Two images come forth for Aquarius. One is the image of the female avatar. A woman who is developing her spiritual awareness to the point where she may actually end up leaving any connection to the physical and the emotional. The other image now emerging is represented by a statue erected by the Chinese students in Van Couver, similar to a statue that was in Tienanmen square before the massacre. The inscription of the statue says, “The Goddess of Democracy.” The facial structure of this statue is Kwan Yin the Chinese Goddess of compassion. This is a beautiful image for Aquarius, for a woman.

Gemini
Whatever female images you can think of that are associated with the coyote, trickster magician, troubadour minstrel, connection to the creative muse, eternal youth, the divine comedienne, or female Peter Pan, or Tinkerbell.

Taurus
This archetypal story applies to both the Moon and the Venus, just remember where it plugs in on the script. If the Moon is in Taurus that is where you have your PhD. and it is not a feature of the current path necessarily. If the Venus is Taurus it is what you are working on in the current life. Of the twelve tribes, four of the them are givers, one of the them is a receiver. If a masseuse IS giving a massage to someone who is totally open and receptive, and loves to receive, this is a marvelous gift to the masseuse.

It is wonderful to give to someone who likes to receive. Receiving in this case is not a negative state, it is a spiritual quality. Aphrodite, the Goddess associated with Taurus might make the following statement, “I am by definition beautiful, I don’t have to work on it. I shall be with whomever honors me, loves me and savors me, in a manner befitting my status. One more thing, you don’t own me. I shall be this way with anyone who honors me according to these standards.” I am speaking about the archetype here and not every woman with Venus in Taurus will play specifically that role. Venus in Taurus is about bringing spirit into third dimensional reality. It is like the Garden of Eden, aesthetics and intimacy to the max.

If a woman has Taurus Moon she already has mastery of that realm. However, some women have a Taurus Moon with heavy Pluto/Saturn or other hard aspects to the Moon, which makes it difficult for her to receive. For this type of woman getting her power back has to do with learning how to get back to her original reality of being a great receiver. If a woman has Venus in Taurus her intent is to learn how to be a receiver, to be in a position where she can be truly honored, truly loved.

In patriarchy there has been a tremendous violation to Taurus and Aphrodite. It shows up as the cult of the physical body, or the cult of physical beauty, especially in advertising where the images of female beauty have so much importance placed upon them. It’s not just men, there are women who use their beauty for these ends. Aphrodite is now violated, because when original Aphrodite was beautiful, she did not do it for the men, she did it for herself. She did not try to be beautiful by anyone else’s standards. She just was beautiful by definition.

In Japan, Taurus training for women was in becoming a Geisha. The Geisha was not just a woman who was good at sex, but she also knew everything about intimacy. Intimacy was for them an art form. The Geisha was the only fully educated woman in that particular culture. She was trained in all aesthetics, and all personal intimacy talents and skills.

An example of a combination necessitating the creation of a new myth is Sag Moon and Venus in Taurus. The archetype associated with Sag, the Virgin Amazon, and the archetype associated with Taurus, (used in it’s best sense) the courtesan, have almost no communication with each other. The Amazon Goddess has complete independence and autonomy and the Courtesan focuses on intimacy. When a woman has this combination on her chart, then it is important to know the Rising sign in order to know what direction this is leading to. Even so, we can’t appeal to any ancient myth to understand what happens.

There is a wonderful old myth that illustrates a lot of principles. This is the story of the judgment of Paris. Three of the Goddesses, Hera (or Juno) the wife of Zeus, Aphrodite, and Athena, were arguing with each other about which one was the most beautiful. They decided to go ask Zeus and let him determine which of them was the most beautiful. Naturally Zeus refused to get involved with this argument since his wife was one of three that were arguing. Zeus gives the job to a young aspiring super hero named Paris. (Paris shows up in astrology as Libra, he is not a God, but more of a super hero type character.) Just prior to choosing who is more beautiful, each of the Goddesses offers Paris a bribe.

Hera offers Paris the opportunity to marry well, with position, material possessions, the right family, and the right connections. (Hera is the Goddess associated with Libra). Athena’s bribe is wisdom and intelligence unsurpassed. She tells Paris he will win all of his debates in the Senate, he will make all the right decisions on the battle field, and she will always be there to whisper in his ear and tell him the right course of action, if Paris will choose her. (Athena shows up as a combination of Aquarius, Sagittarius, and Libra. She was actually a “Virgin” (which means complete unto herself) Goddess, but she was a city girl. She was not the Amazon type out conquering mountains and riding horses.) Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world would fall in love with him if he chose her.

Paris took Aphrodite’s bribe and Aphrodite kept her promise. The most beautiful woman in the world at that time was Helen of Troy. The problem was Helen was already married to the king of Troy, but a promise is a promise. So a meeting was arranged when the King was away, and of course Helen and Paris fall in love, and the result of this was the Trojan War, the war that split the ancient world.

This story is a good one for illustrating three of the different Goddess archetypes. Earlier I mentioned Diana Artemus, the huntress, she is a good example of a Sagittarius Goddess. She wouldn’t have been caught dead in a beauty contest. Now we can look at some ways we might have a dialogue between Sagittarius and Taurus. The new journey associated with Venus. If Sagittarius is proud, detached, untouchable, completely identified with intellect and achievement, how can that transform into a Goddess who is more tactile, more physical, more associated with intimacy and receiving? It is an interesting challenge. I find in our current culture when women have a lot of Taurus and Taurus is wounded in any way, the judgment this woman might make is against Aphrodite. This is because what they are judging against is the patriarchal culture’s understanding of Aphrodite, which is the woman as a surface image of beauty, or a woman as a sex object, but that is a violation of original Taurus.

If twelve women all have Venus in Taurus, it does not mean they are all the same. It does mean they all have the same intent. In our culture we might ask, what does a woman with Venus in Taurus want? Her answer might be something like, “You can be in my life if you give me a two hour massage every night, buy me wonderful things on a regular basis, get that I am one of the best receiver’s on the planet, and you are dammed lucky you get to give to me.” This is healthy Taurus. Healthy Taurus would also not have a single thought during their two hour massage that they should give something back.

It is pure receivership. It is a spiritual quality of receiving. If a man happens to be involved with a woman with a Taurus Moon their are certain secrets for him to know. What does she most want? If she is out of balance, if she is feeling scared, if things aren’t going well, rub her neck, give her a massage, give her special strokes. Treat her in the way that Aphrodite would like to receive treatment.

Taurus Moon/ Venus in Aquarius
This is an example of another dilemma. What kind of inner dialogue is that? That would be a dialogue between Aphrodite and Palace Athena. Taurus or Aphrodite says, enlightenment is tantric union with my beloved. Aquarius or Athena says, enlightenment is coming to me in my light body, or you honor me best when we meditate together, or we explore the higher chakras together, or when we explore the philosophy of enlightenment.

Taurus says, if you can bring that same awareness and sensitivity, the same clarity of perception, that same cosmic consciousness into the physical, then we are onto something. Aquarius might make the judgment that enlightenment operates through the light body, or the higher chakras.

Taurus makes the judgment that the enlightenment path operates through bringing the spirit all the way into the physical, into the level of density for the purpose of savoring and enjoying life. My experience with this combination is that it’s ultimate destination is called Mahamudra. Mahamudra means all the centers open simultaneously and everything is connected, full chakra connection with your beloved. You want them to honor spirituality in your higher chakras and you want them to honor you physically, and emotionally in the lower chakras, too.

When you find a partner like that then all the centers open and it is a spiritual unfolding. The downside is this combination has the greatest possibility of one side short circuiting the other side. Someone might go through many years of their life totally hanging out with their Aquarius side, or they can go through a time period where the Taurus side is what dominates. To have both of them work to together is the challenge.

Aries/Cancer
A Goddess image for Aries that I love the most is a Celtic Goddess on horseback with flaming red hair, leading the troops into battle. I do what I want! Don’t tell me what to do! Aggressive play, two rams butting horns together, not trying to kill each other, they are egging each other on. Competitive.

For Cancer the Goddess image is every image we might have of the nurturing mother. If a woman has Venus in Cancer, what she is here to learn (and if she has Moon in Aries the place she may be most insecure), is to be in a position either in a relationship, or career, or family, or anything she is committed to, to demonstrate responsible nurturing, to take something at a seed stage and be committed to it until it grows to what for it would be maturity. A key principle here is if the Venus position of a woman’s chart is radically different from the Moon, it can show up as the place of greatest insecurity, because their is not a heritage there, there is not a lineage there, their is not a comfort zone there, and yet, this is precisely where the person most needs strokes.

The quest of the current life on the level of the Goddess is going to be the Cancer experience. If the woman is totally honored for her Moon, say it is in Aries, it would not be sufficient to her liberation. Women who have a weak or insecure Venus in Cancer has a weak, can find somebody who will give them the opportunity to take care of them, to play a giving nurturing role, and the man might not even value what she is doing for them. It is a case of pearls before swine. The insecurity in the woman can be so strong, she feels there might not be anybody else out there who will give her the opportunity to be nurturing. Possibly if a woman like this ever does get out of this type of relationship she might decide she never wants to get stuck in anything like that again, so she hangs out with her Aries Moon because it feels safer. The down side is now two thirds of her feminine nature is not being worked on.

The same thing can happen to men. Let’s look at the Mars position on a man’s chart, which is the same as the Venus material for women. The men experience an inner dialogue between the Moon and the Mars.

Mars in Virgo on a Man’s Chart
Virgo in Patriarchal culture is the most misunderstood, misrepresented, and misconstrued of all the astrological energies. If you go to an astrological conference all the jokes are reserved for Virgo. So much so when I have done readings for people who when find out their Rising sign is in Virgo, their faces sink. This really is a great tragedy, because original Virgo represented the feminine principle in its most autonomous, sovereign, definition. The original feminine energy is represented by Virgo.

There is one constellation in the sky which is truly the Goddess herself, Virgo. The archetype of Virgo for a woman is the Priestess, herself. But if we look at this archetype in a non-gender way, what Virgo is about, is dedication and devotion to the sacred work. It could be called a transcendental principle, but not mystical transcendental. It refers to the reality of life not connected to the householder path. For example, the native Americans have an imagery of Spider Woman. Spider Woman is the Goddess who spins the web. What web are we talking about? The web of life we are in, the tapestry of life, this matrix, this beautiful dance we are in, these are the workings of Spider Woman. Virgo is the one that perceives and co-creates with this web of life. Sacred function, sacred perception of patterning, and then the honoring of that patterning, the sacred work. If somebody has a Virgo Moon their past life history was dedicated to the sacred work, honoring the sacred timings.

An imagery for Virgo that works is of a whole group of women, running through an open field under the harvest Moon in wild celebratory abandon. This ecstatic dance connection to the natural rhythms and cycles is then followed by the return to the village where some of the women will be doing the work of the community, such as the invention of agriculture, food preparation, the weaving of clothes, the breeding of animals, sacred functional work. Not women’s work, not a compensation, but something empowered by the natural rhythms and cycles. The other aspect of these women would go to the temple, they were the priestesses of the religion. Or the priest, this not meant to be strictly about women. These women would be virgin, meaning they would take a vow not to form any personal connection to a man. In the pre-Christian times it didn’t mean they didn’t have sex. For them sexuality would happen during the great festivals or when a stranger would come one night a month or one night a year as a supplicant. It was ceremonial, religious sexuality, in the dark, wearing a mask. It was not a personal exchange. Virgo is impersonal.

What happens if a man has Mars in Virgo? He is developing the archetype I like to call the sacred Priest. The bottom line is the dedication to the sacred work. How well he is doing depends upon his connection to the sacred work. There is a big problem here. In patriarchy Mars in Virgo on a Man’s chart will almost always show up as the work-a-holic. The male who has no time for personal relating.The male who finds it difficult to share personal stuff. If a woman happens to be with a man with Virgo Moon or Mars in Virgo and they are totally patriarchal, they might be the type of man who when he is in his office or his workshop or he is doing his work, you better not interfere. This is directly analogous to the old understanding of a woman’s menstrual cycle. During those days is her sacred time, the sacred space. If the Priestess is in the temple you better not interfere with the ceremonies. It is the whole issue of sacred space. So if a man has Mars in Virgo, honor him by giving him his sacred space.

There is a new emerging version of Mars in Virgo. When Virgo is open to sharing feelings and honoring women, open to doing personal intimacy, it is actually a version of masculinity that can truly honor a woman where she is. Personal intimacy and sexuality for men is a wide spectrum. One version of the spectrum is the man who is totally narcissistic, totally self-centered, and the woman is a prop so he may have a richer and greater experience of himself. This man not have any real understanding, or sensitivity to what a woman is experiencing. This type is associated with the fire sign male. In our culture their are two types of women who like to be with this type of man. Women of the same type, or women who feel it is their job to be the feelings for a man. There is a healthy version of that and there is an addicted version of that.

On the other side of the spectrum is a man who is not narcissistic, not self-centered, but a man whose greatest joy comes from assisting a woman in having her greatest experience of intimacy, etcetera. Mars in Virgo, when they are open to personal intimacy, funnily enough can be that type. The archetype of a man with Mars in Virgo who chooses personal intimacy is the man whose is called the servant of the Goddess. There is a positive and negative version of this. The negative version is men who give their power away to women all the time. There are men who are anima possessed, addicted to the feminine force. They are wonderful at honoring women for where they are at, but lose themselves in the experience and give their power away. This happens most often among men with Mars in Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces, Virgo and sometimes Taurus.

There are different versions of Mars and if you know the man in your life’s Mars position you will know how to treat him so the god will be present, so the sword will be strong, so he will feel a sense of virility and self worth. Mars in Virgo needs to honored for their craftsmanship, their dedication to the truth and the sacred work. There is also a version of Mars in Virgo that wants to learn how to serve the Goddess and is capable of learning to honor the feminine principle where it is. Mars in Virgo could however make the choice to not be involved with personal intimacy at all.

Mars in Capricorn
The catch phrase for Capricorn is “responsible administration of one’s domain.” To be elder, to be taken seriously, to be respected, to be able to take responsibility. For a man with Mars in Capricorn the biggest issue is how well he is doing with his domain, how much responsibility can he take? This man’s sword is tied up in being a responsible provider, being a knowledgeable person. This is what he is working on.

Mars in Scorpio
The archetype of Scorpio deals with the feeling function. Not only does Scorpio deal with feeling the feelings, but there is an additional aspect Scorpio requires, command and mastery of the feeling function. In Scorpio school it is required of each student to feel their feelings. That is the first and foremost requirement, the student can not get out of it. The second requirement is to then command the experience.

The mantra for Scorpio is “I will, my will, be thy will.” Here there are three wills being stated and two of them are your own. God wants you to have that job. Unlike Pisces whose mantra is, “I surrender to the will of God,” this includes a strong will, a strong individuated self, a strong powerful sense of self. Scorpio works as a combination of will and desire. The predicament is, of the four types; feeling, thinking, sensation, and intuition, the one that has been most underdeveloped in our culture is the feeling function, especially if you are born male. Of the three signs that deal with the feeling function the one that has been most disenfranchised is Scorpio.

It hasn’t been safe to be Scorpio for the past 4 or 5 thousand years. For a great portion of our history, if a woman did anything even as innocent as gathering herbs, or to have some knowledge of the women’s mysteries it could be dangerous for her. Literally millions of women were killed in Europe during the middle ages and beyond, for simple things like, midwifery, and herbs. Scorpio is a feminine sign. It has to do with the mystery teachings of the feminine, death and rebirth, regeneration.

If you were born in 10th century Japan you could have gotten valid Scorpio training as a Zen Samurai. The Zen training is more than learning to be a good sword fighter. It included incredible grounding in the spiritual discipline, including things like honor and passion. It was designed to get a person to the point where they would discover the human experience and how well you do it, is beyond life and death. People born with Scorpio Moon remember the command and control of the feeling function. They generally forget the part where they totally have to feel it, especially in a culture that does not honor feelings anyway.

For most people in our culture, command of the feeling function means repression, suppression, and denial of the feeling function. Unfortunately this is radically different from what true Scorpio training is about. It requires most Scorpio Moon people to have to come to a place where they can get their power back in connection to this area and to reconnect with the mystery teachings of the feminine. Be in touch with the sorceress/witch. Scorpio is the path of the sorcerer/scorceress. Not in a negative sense, but as one avenue of pursuit. Command of life force energy, of the reality of life that has to do with earth and water. It is tantric. Tantra means the life force energy itself is the path to god. Not detachment from it, or separation from it but fully diving into it, even being swallowed up by it, consumed by it, and then mastering it. Conscious sexuality is part of this path.

Mars in Scorpio, Venus in Scorpio, Scorpio Rising, these are the indications of those people who are here to work on Scorpio. That means they are taking Scorpio training. Often these people create melodramatic circumstances in their lives, something they can’t get out of, something so overwhelmingly and melodramatic there is no way they can not feel what they are feeling. Until this happens a person can’t even get to phase two of the training.

What God or archetype is Mars in Scorpio? The wild man in the woods, the horned God, the king stag, the green man, the organic, lusty, powerful version of masculinity, that 6,000 years ago walked arm and arm with the Goddess. This is who she sought out in the oak grove, who she sought out when she looked for a consort. This was not a husband, or father of the children, this was a way of connecting the energy circuits. The dilemma for Scorpio in our current culture is finding a place where men can go and have a healthy way of experiencing this. Scorpio generally ends up going undercover, or underground, in a secret, repressed, or denied life.

In my own life with Mars in Scorpio it wasn’t until I began to really give myself permission to feel what I was feeling before I really started to have some degree of success and personal power in my life. I thanked people who really gave me an opportunity to really feel my feelings. I had one great experience during a workshop I was taking in the early 80’s, called The Art of Personal Marketing. The workshop was designed to train people to be able to say succinctly who they are and what there life purpose is.

I was operating during that workshop out of my Capricorn Moon, so I felt I had to be perfect, do the appropriate thing, do everything right. At one point during the workshop I was singled out to come up and tell about a workshop I had put together. The woman who was leading this workshop was actually doing me a favor, but I was feeling terrible and I really didn’t want to have to do give a talk at that moment. I went up and gave my little talk and it was a terrible performance. I wasn’t really present because I was feeling so bad.

When I was finished this woman leading the workshop decides to do a critique on what I just did. People were saying what I had done wrong and how I didn’t come across. I got incredibly pissed. I gave a scathing indictment to the woman leading the workshop. I was really allowing myself to be what I felt at the moment. When I sat down my feeling was I had totally blown it. My Capricorn Moon was horrified that I could have behaved so poorly. After the break, three different women came up to me and said they hadn’t noticed me until now and they were really turned on seeing me in my feelings.

It was a great Scorpio lesson for me as far as not punishing myself for feeling what I am feeling. Scorpio is about passion and passion is the full spectrum of feelings where no judgement is made about a positive feeling or a negative feeling, and then to ultimately be in a position to be in command of that experience. The worst thing a woman can say to a man with Mars in Scorpio or Scorpio Rising is, “all you ever think about is sex.” Even if this is true for a man with Mars in Scorpio, it is through the vibrant expression of one’s passionate nature that spirit is reached.

Same thing is true for a woman with Venus in Scorpio. A woman with Venus in Scorpio wants a man’s total complete attention, she wants him to be totally emotionally there for her. A date with a Venus in Scorpio woman is not watching television together. It is total complete eye contact, or emotional intensity and exchange. There has been a lot of judgment against this, so there are a couple of traditional astrology books that joke about this and say women with Venus in Scorpio are to demanding, or what she really wants is the man’s soul. Of course she does, she wants his full attention, particularly the emotional and passionate.

Leo
Leo training is about radical, radiant self love. When a person is healthy with Leo they can walk into a room and know their greatest contribution to humanity is showing up. It isn’t based upon how good they are or what they do. It is based upon their own self confidence and their own self worth. If a person has Leo Moon they have already had a shot at the experience of radical self-love. Two examples of how a person could engender radical self-love are, to be born into royalty or be a super star.

The archetype of the king or queen, the ruler, the person ultimately in charge, was originally intended to represent the best qualities of the people. Royalty was automatically deferred to, and the laws were written in their favor. The superstar or famous person is someone who has a quality or talent or ability that is so special they are deferred to, they get special privileges.

Leo Moon says the person has already had that experience and they come into the life with the unconscious expectation the special treatment should continue. If the Leo Moon is working on Capricorn or Cancer or something that involves working on a project, they might feel bummed at having to now be one of the people. They might think, “How dare I be treated this way.” The Leo Moon usually has to give up their attachment to special privileges. The risk to the Leo Moon is they might go from total self confidence to being completely insecure about whether they have anything together or not.

Mars or Venus in Leo or Leo Rising means you are here to work on Leo this time. The philosopher teacher Gurdjieff once said, “Self love is humanities greatest problem when it is vanity, but you cannot get enlightened without it.” So at a certain stage you do have to develop a radical sense of self worth. “I am that I am.” It is no different than the new age idea of each one of us being God. The Leo version of reality is totally contradictory to patriarchy’s idea that the love you receive and the success you achieve is due to how good you are at what you do. In Leo you are already good at what you do just by virtue of the fact that you exist.

If you are with somebody with Venus or Mars in Leo what they are working on is this radical self love. What kind of strokes to give someone working on this. Tell them they are the leading man or leading woman, they are the star, they are the most special wondrous being on the planet. This is example of reverse psychology. It is by giving them these type of strokes that causes their heart to melt. I am not suggesting this strategy works for everybody. For some people this strategy is irrelevant, and ridiculous. But with Leo it is exactly the thing that works.

Leo’s intent is to dynamically empower others. It’s fun to be around someone who really loves who they are in a healthy way. This is not the arrogant, pompous individual who assumes everyone else loves them. That is a negative expression of Leo. One of my favorite imageries for Leo is this. Someone is playing the role of positive Leo. They are the leader of some project, and you walk into their office and explain an incredible idea you have. With their power and superior intuition they get that your dream is a valid one, and they love it. So they make available to you whatever you need to make the dream come true. As the Leo acts to empower others it increases their own auric field because they are receiving more and more love from the people they are empowering. This is different from Pisces or Cancer or other giver signs, because this is about increasing personal power, even though it is done in a way which benefits everyone.

Aries
Aries is similar to Gemini in that they are both associated with the Puer or Puella Iternis, the eternal youth. The spiritual version of Aries is exactly what Christ means when he says in order to enter the kingdom of heaven you must enter as a small child. Aries requires a combination of trust, innocence, and courage. Aries has been badly mistranslated by patriarchy, which says it’s about war.

Aries is not about war, it’s about aggressive play. A marvelous image for describing Aries is a sports image. In the 1976 or 1977 world series, Cincinnati has just lost game number six and the entire series. It was an incredible game requiring an extra inning. The reporters go into the loser’s dugout and there are all these faces looking very much like they are going through the agony of defeat, except for Pete Rose who is in a state of ecstatic joy. He just can’t get over what an amazing game it was. He was so ecstatic because he always played the game like a little boy. The interviewer doesn’t know what to say, he is stunned by Pete’s reaction. Pete’s experience of the game is an example of Aries view of life, what is positive about competition.

Aries is the innocent child like archetype of entering into the kingdom of heaven out of innocence, but as a general way of looking at a Moon in Aries or a man’s Mars in Aries a guy needs to have his play. You can not extract personal intimacy from him all the time. A stereo typical image for our culture would be a guy who goes out with the boys a couple nights a week. Aries is the innocent delight for experiencing life.

Now we are going to look at the other side of the story, the Mars position on a woman’s chart and Venus position on a Man’s chart. On the horoscope relationship shows up in two totally different areas. Our 20th century western culture is one of the most peculiar cultures in the history of humanity, because it is one of the few cultures that has chosen romantic love, or physical attraction to be the basis for marriage.

There is good news and bad news about this. The bad news is, there are literally thousands of men and women who have found someone who looks exactly like their inner picture, or found someone with great physical attraction, or someone with great romantic love, who is absolutely the worst possible person for them to be in a relationship with. The good news is at least we recognize the importance of the phenomena. For example, other cultures have chosen family history, family status, caste, class, economic status, as the factors for choosing who to be married to. There is another part of the horoscope for indicating those factors. I am not suggesting we go back and do it that way, but it is important to recognize there are two separate issues.

The good news about recognizing romantic love and physical attraction is that for many people in our culture who have lost a living connection to a spiritual tradition, physical attraction or heavy romantic love may be the most spiritual experience a person ever has in their life. That’s why it is good to recognize the importance of it. However if the area of physical attraction and romantic love on your horoscope is dissimilar from the part of the chart that has to do with relationship intent, serious problems can develop.

Some cultures practicing arranged marriages chose a partner corresponding to the seventh house. For example, Capricorn on the seventh house would mean the partner chosen would be a Capricorn. This corresponds to the version of astrology I use. If you know the first and seventh house angles, or the axis, you will know the current life relationship intent. However, if your inner man, or inner woman, the anima or animus as Jung called it, or where the physical attraction and romantic love is found, is in a completely different archetype. It’s important to be able to sort that out. It explains why a great number of people in our culture have so much difficulty finding someone they can have a good relationship with. Many people who have difficulty finding someone to have a workable relationship with are not lacking in merit, or they are bad at relationship, they may just have this great divergence of archetypes.

As an example, I have Venus in Virgo. The kind of woman I have always been most attracted to is the Virgo type. The Virgo type is Virgin Priestess. This type of woman has as her bottom line, her work, her connection to the sacred work, and she is more into her personal sovereignty and autonomy than she is into bonding. I would constantly find this type of woman, be highly attracted to them, and I learned how to honor them in such a way they felt really comfortable with me. The problem is I have Libra Sun and Libra Rising. My relationship intent this life is to learn how to bond. I have an intense desire to bond. The type of women I was most attracted to were Virgo types, who were not interested in bonding. What happened to me over and over, is I would treat these women really well, they would become very comfortable with me, they were amazed that someone knew them as well as I did, but the minute I projected onto them my bonding agenda they would say, “if there is anyone on the planet who should know to not do that, it’s you.’ Then they would shut down. What I had to learn was, if I wanted to bond I had to stop choosing that type of woman.

A woman’s Mars and a man’s Venus is the main factor on the horoscope that has to do with romantic love and/or physical attraction. This tends to be what is projected out on to another person. It is a valid, real part of the psyche. The problem occurs when we project it onto someone who is not really that way, or we believe finding someone who resembles our inner picture is the key to happiness. Neither experience solves anything.

A Woman’s Mars in Gemini
A woman with this Mars position, from the perspective of physical attraction and romantic love would be attracted to a man who represents the little boy, the troubadour minstrel, the trickster magician, the eternal youth aspect. If the man in the Mars in Gemini woman’s life has no connection to the Gemini archetype, does that doom the relationship? Not at all. Some of the finest relationships I have seen have had absolutely no connection to the anima or animus (a man’s inner woman and a woman’s inner man). But for a man to know a woman’s animus can be very useful. Whenever things get to heavy all he has to do is to play the Gemini role, be a little boy, be playful, laugh at her jokes. If a woman with Mar’s in Gemini is with a man who doesn’t know how to do that, she is in a position called, animus starvation. She would then have to find that experience somewhere else.

A Woman’s Mars in Cancer
This woman’s inner picture of the masculine is of a man who can share his feelings and beautifully connect to the feeling function, and who is interested in demonstrating responsible nurturing and the ability to commit. The problem in our culture is the type of male who is connected to the feeling function is usually very wounded. In our culture there are two types of men who do not share their feelings. There are men who simply aren’t working on the feeling function, or there are men who have a well developed feeling function, but learned at an early age it is extremely dangerous to reveal that side of themselves. Depending on a woman’s aspects to her Mars in Cancer she may have a tendency to be attracted to the wounded, deeply feeling type male.

Mars on a woman’s chart has less to do with who you bond with and more to do with sacred marriage. This means walking through life with the inner man on your right arm at all times, regardless of who you are with or whether you are with anyone at all. What does a woman with Mars in Cancer have to do to get the sacred marriage? It doesn’t mean she has to nurture other people, it means she learns to nurture herself. Any woman with heavy Saturn or Pluto aspecting her Mars has almost no possibility of finding her inner man, externally. Therefore, she is forced to get the sacred marriage. Once a woman has gotten the sacred marriage, right relationship will generally follow.

The sacred marriage for a woman with Mars in Gemini would be to have activities that are Gemini like, through communication, writing, speaking, the connection to the creative muse.

Mars in Capricorn
A woman with Mars in Capricorn would be attracted to a man who has it together in the material world, a man who knows what he is doing, a solid bottom line, possibly a man who is a father figure, a man who has his act together. In order for her to get the sacred marriage, she has to learn for herself, responsible administration of her domain. In patriarchy a woman is trained to project this onto a man. Ultimately, completion within for a woman is when she does her own Mars.

If a man’s Venus is the same position as a woman’s Moon it is a past life karmic link. It is an example of a combination of archetypes in the most enjoyable way.

For me (with Venus in Virgo) getting the sacred marriage was learning to walk through life with the Virgin Priestess on my left arm at all times. The way I accomplished this was by inviting her to give some of my talks, by inviting her to do some of my readings. One of the things I have had an opportunity to do a lot of is to articulate for women there reality. Whose doing that work? Is it me, the male side of me? No, it is my connection to my own inner feminine coming out. This is one of the ways to look at sacred marriage.

There is a dilemma for personal relationship in this approach to the sacred marriage. If I am involved with someone who has no Virgo, no connection to that archetype at all, I still tend to project onto her those qualities. The way that comes across to her is like me saying to her, “when are you going to be critical of me, when are you going to tell me know I don’t make the grade, when are you going to let me know you don’t really want to bond with me?” That’s what I project out. A great breakthrough in my relationship with Debby occurred when she said to me, “I am feeling an overwhelming desire to be critical of you and I just realized where it is coming from, it is coming from you. Remove thy projection!” It was an amazing revelation and I continue to be aware of my tendency to do that.

A Man’s Venus in Pisces
The man with Venus in Pisces has as his inner picture of the feminine a woman who has a tremendously well developed empathic sense of the feeling function,
a woman who is totally there for him, especially when he needs to share his inner most vulnerabilities. She demonstrates unconditional love for him. She tells him he’s okay, totally okay. The sacred marriage for a man with Venus in Pisces is developing a connection to Mother Divine, or the spiritual qualities of the feminine, ones own bahkti path, or being the lover of the celestial feminine. To have this operate through a personal woman is a very fortunate experience.

Mar’s in Libra for a Woman
The woman with Mars in Libra envisions her inner man as someone who has as their bottom line, “the relationship”. A man whose idea of life is “we” rather than me. A man who is completely into the relationship.

A joke illustrating the difference between men and women shows a circle graph with cut outs on it showing what is most important in life. On the male side it has 30% sports, 40% sex, 20% the job, and a little tiny sliver for the relationship. On the female side it shows 75% of the circle is for the relationship. I usually don’t like generalizations describing the difference between men and women, but this one does make an interesting point. The point is if the woman has Mars in Libra she is desiring to have a man in her life who is really into the relationship. The downside of this is the typical Libra type male in our culture maybe into relating, but generally it is a very weak version of it. It is the man who can only be there with the woman on his arm, or a man who is no body unless he is in a relationship.

If a woman has an Aries Moon, Mars in Libra, and Venus in Cancer it creates an interesting predicament. For this woman the Libra/Cancer side wants to be honored for her nurturing and commitment and she wants a man who is really into the relationship. Meanwhile the Aries side ants to be free and independent!

Sacred marriage for a woman with Mars in Libra is for her to learn to be her own best partner, developing the ability to partner with your self.

A Man’s Venus in Gemini
This man’s romantic fantasy is the woman who is connected to her creative muse, the troubadour minstrel, the trickster magician, the woman who channels the divine comedienne, a woman whose Puer Iternis, the female Peter Pan, with a sharp intellect, good at communication and very independent.

A Woman’s Mars in Leo
She is attracted to a man who is into radical self-love, a man who is the star, who runs the energy, who really loves himself. If a woman has Mars in Leo conjunct Pluto or squared Saturn she would still be attracted to this type of man, but over and over again she would find it to be a dangerous experience for her, because the man is into suppressing her, controlling her, and denying her. Then she must get the sacred marriage and take responsibility for her own Leo side. She becomes the star herself, gets into her own radical self-worth and self-love.

If a person repeats the same pattern over and over in relationship encounters with their inner feminine or their inner masculine they may decide it is not safe for them to associate with that any longer. It is easy to be caught either in repeating the same pattern or going into denial and deciding to have nothing to do with it. Their is a third possibility. That’s when a person begins to get the sacred marriage and develops those qualities associated with their inner feminine or masculine side. For example, a woman with Mars in Scorpio might take African Dance class, or tantra workshops, anything that enables her to tune into her own life force energy.

Then the next time the woman who has taken responsibility for her own Mars in Scorpio encounters the Scorpio archetype she may still feel she is attracted to that, but because she is in her own power there is no longer a need for her to give her power away to that. She now owns it and can choose to get involved with the man or not, based on reasons other than why she was doing it before. Now she can wait for and recognize the healthy version of the Scorpio archetype.

A Man’s Venus in Scorpio with a Woman’s Mars in Aquarius
If a man has Venus in Scorpio his inner woman is a woman of provocative sexuality, and sexuality is her path to God, and he is with a woman who has Mars in Aquarius and this woman has heavy judgment against sexuality being a path to God, what might happen is she projects onto him heavy judgement. In fact, for this man, his Venus in Scorpio is a very valid part of his psyche. So maybe she catches him with his collection of erotica, or she discovers he is sneaking out on lunch breaks and going to topless bars.

The reason he is doing this is a semi-conscious way for him to deal with his own anima. This is not the only way a man with Venus in Scorpio can work that out, but if he is not getting any strokes from the woman in his life for his Venus in Scorpio then he’s got to do something. If this couple decides to do relationship counseling using this model of astrology and they get all the cards on the table, and the woman suddenly understands what is going on for her man, she might say, “I really love you and I really want to make this relationship work, I will go to that special store with you and get that special lingerie, and we will spend time twice a week exploring and experiencing that realm. Or the woman might say she gets the Scorpio side is a valid part of his psyche, but her upbringing and training and who she is can never be that for him. Then out of love she can say one of two things. Either, “we can’t be together, or I don’t mind you are doing this other stuff.”

At the same time the woman with Mars in Aquarius has all her cards on the table. Her inner man look is someone whose whole focus in life is going to be spiritual and intellectual. This is a man who would want to meditate with his mate, or pursue the mysteries together, or start a spiritual revolution. This woman’s partner might say, “Now I get it. I never really understood before that this is a valid part of your psyche. I will go to that mental development class with you, or I will go meditate with you, I will give you a couple of times a week to learn about this with you.” Or he might say, “This does not interest me, it is not part of my life. Therefore, I do not want you to project that onto me.” At that point they could choose to not be together, but they make that choice out of love and understanding of each other and what is valid for each other. They can also choose to work on it. One never knows how it is going to work out, but either way it can be done out of love.

In my relationship with Debby, I have to remember she has Moon and Venus in Aquarius. She has a need to have her space. I have Capricorn Moon and Mars in Scorpio. Our styles are actually opposite. If I get scared and over my head, my tendency is to go deeper, immediately. I want to work it out right now, and find out what is behind this. When Debby is scared or over her head she needs some space to center herself and then come back and deal with the situation. The lower level of this would be to pretend the situation never happened. The higher side is the legitimate need for spiritual centering.

It is important to note that all the combinations are doable. The criteria for whether or not two people choose to work at a relationship would ideally come from the knowledge of what is legitimate for each person and whether or not both people want to honor each for where they are at and where they intend to go. The best clues for determining what is valid for each person in regard to relationship are found in the personal horoscope.

Relationship Intent
The part of chart that was looked at in the cultures that did arranged marriages was the seventh house or the descendant. They would find a partner that corresponded with this part of the chart. This is the part of the chart that indicates why a person would even want to be in a relationship, the bottom line.
It is called the relationship axis, and is indicated by the Rising sign and the 7th house point.

Cancer/Capricorn Axis
Imagine a father and mother totally dedicated to providing a sense of security, a solid foundation to the family, the qualities of nurturing a commitment where most developed is concern for the next seven generations to follow. They have a strong desire to become a responsible pillar of the community. A deep sense of caring and commitment, to accomplish the goal of the family and the community as the primary purpose of the relationship. It is the traditional family path. What makes this challenging is the content of this is not the same as what the previous generations thought this to be.

If someone has Cancer or Capricorn rising it doesn’t necessarily mean just be a father or a mother and take care of a family. It is now to become a person who is on the front lines in discovering a new way of doing family. We have to reinvent family and community at this point. Because much of todays family is dysfunctional we now have to be completely conscious about it and take responsibility for it anew.

The Capricorn/Cancer rising person is here to receive the new information about how to do family and community. One of the key factors is to find something to really believe in and then be committed to it. That is the bottom line. So you could be with someone who has Aquarius Moon, Sag Sun, and Venus and Mars in Aries, but if they had Cancer or Capricorn Rising amazingly enough they are actually here on a family or community path. They might have very few clues on how to go about doing it, but to be visionary, and radical and to finally find what works and then be committed to it, is a very important job.

Libra/Aries
This is the path of the soul mate. Imagine the ultimate beloveds in complete union and unity. It doesn’t matter what you are doing so long as you are doing it together. There is no more “I” there is only “we”. The partner is the mantra. For the beloveds, the relationship itself is the highest spiritual path. The relationship as a path to God is the primary purpose of the relationship. This is called the Yoga of conscious relationship. It is not a weak expression such as defining who you are by who you are with. It is conscious equal partners.

Most people on this path in our culture stop short of the door step for one of two reasons. First, a person can be so much of an idealist and a perfectionist, that they never find anyone who meets the criteria, and therefore they never begin their path. Second, a person gets involved with someone and the first time something goes wrong in the relationship they think they have failed when in fact this is the path of process, where a healthy argument, and discord can be every bit as valuable as the divine rapture that comes when two people are in complete harmony. It is the work of relationship.

This also represents a new kind of path, different from arranged marriage, different from what the previous culture viewed as soul mates. This is a path of constant process. The person you are with is the mantra. In a meditation technique the instruction might be, if you are not thinking the mantra and are off thinking other thoughts, go back to thinking the mantra. In this path if you are off the partner, go back to the partner. It is the refinement of awareness through the feedback from the partner. This does not apply just to the husband or wife. In my own life as a Libra Sun and Libra Rising, I always learn the most through constant interaction with other people. These same issues apply to business partnerships.

Technically someone could get enlightened on a Libra/Aries path in a celibate marriage. The Aries/Libra path is not about sex, it is about partnership and relationship. So, if you are in a celibate marriage and a householder with that person, but you are still constantly refining your awareness with the constant interaction with a partner.

Taurus/Scorpio Axis
This is the path called Tantra. The path of the sacred consort. Imagine two lovers constantly stimulating and recharging one another through passionate and energetic connection. The increase of the life force energy is the primary purpose of the relationship and the path to God. If you are on the Taurus/Scorpio path the way to know if you are in the right relationship is to answer the question, “Are your batteries getting charged, is there an increase in life force energy?”

If you are in a situation on the Taurus/Scorpio path and you are drained or even worse, if it is neutral, then it is not fulfilling the relationship intent. Using the word sexuality here is not just genital sexuality, we are talking about the whole life force energy issue. On the Taurus/Scorpio path the question of whether your batteries are getting charged are not applies to everything you do. Who cuts your hair, who gives you a massage, what astrologer you go to, whatever you do, should result in an increase in the life force energy. Is it a turn on, is it something that stimulates you in some way? If you are neutral or drained then it is not the right choice. A radical example of how this material works in relationship counseling is as follows.

Two people come in for counseling and they have been married for five years. The reason they have come in for counseling is because the woman is having an affair and has been caught. In the midst of the counseling we find out a couple of things. She has Taurus or Scorpio Rising. This couple has not had a good sex life since the sixth month of their marriage. When was the commitment broken in that marriage? The commitment was broken the day they got past the point of having good communication and a healthy connection sexually and refused to work on it. It could be considered heroic that the woman had gone 4 and 1/2 years without having an increase in her life force energy. The affair is a symptom of something else, it is not what went wrong in their marriage.

There are other marriages where the life force energy issue is not the bottom line or even close to the bottom line. If people are on the Cancer/Capricorn axis, the bottom line has to do with the family, or the long term project or something to believe in. The Libra/Aries path is called high monogamy. You choose to be with one person. It is a situation of choice to be with one person in order to go deeper and deeper and have a richer and richer experience of each other. It has nothing to do with whether it is morally or ethically correct or God’s law or somebody else’s law, it is a choice.

On the Taurus/Scorpio path it does not have to be pair bonding, or multiple bonding, life force energy is the issue. A version of Taurus/Scorpio is called Tribal Pagan tantra. This version is similar to the old mystery school in India where they train people in tantra and the youngest male student is trained to run energy with the oldest crone. There is absolutely no sharing of personality, it is simply a way of honoring life force energy. It could be considered impersonal or transpersonal in this expression of the this path. Or a person could be on the Taurus/Scorpio axis and be totally here to be a pair bonder. Taurus/Scorpio can be totally monogamous, if it operates in the following way. You meet someone where the life force energy is so strong, it is the strongest hit you can find, and it is so strong you don’t notice anybody else. We call that defacto monogamy, meaning your attention is on the strongest thing you find so you don’t notice anything else.

Scorpio/Taurus is about life force energy. It is not the bottom line for the family, it is not the bottom line for the soul mate, or the spiritual path itself for relationship.

Pisces/Virgo Axis
This is the path of the help mate. The path of dedication, sacred work and service. Imagine two helpmates equally committed to the service of higher ideals, worthy projects, and who support each other in the purpose. The shared experience of the sacred is more important than the relationship itself. Selflessness, joined service, dedication to higher ideals are qualities of this path. Assisting another as helpmate in service to the work is the primary purpose of the relationship.

This could show up as a primary partner, pair bond situation. The way you can tell the difference between this one and the Libra/Aries is in Pisces/Virgo relationship the most important thing is the work or project, not the relationship, it is just the opposite for Libra/Aries. In Pisces/Virgo the relationship serves the work. If you are Pisces or Virgo Rising and totally obsessed with the relationship to the point that it is detrimental to the work, then you know it is the wrong relationship. If you have the Libra/Aries axis and they have a partner who is a marvelous helpmate and totally serves them in the work but really doesn’t have any interest in conscious partnership then that would not be workable. It is a subtle difference.

Sagittarius/Gemini Axis
This is the path of the quest mate or the trail mate. Imagine two riders exploring new lands, each supports the others independent quest for truth in the adventures of life. Freedom, self sufficiency, and seeking are qualities in this relationship. To allow and be supportive of the independent quest for truth as the primary purpose of the relationship. That seldom looks like our primary partner pair bond. There is a lot of freedom in this one. Maybe you
might share each other’s tent every other night. There is a lot of space. It can be multiple bonding or primary bonding.

It brings up an interesting point. It has been said there are three kinds of people on the planet. One third of human beings are pair bonders for life or would like to be. One third of human beings are into serial monogamy, or they can only be intimate with one person at a time. In these speeded up times it might be only a couple of weeks or even shorter. Then one third of human beings are multi-bonders, they can be fully intimate with more than one person at a time. Some people are coming from one direction and going into another one. The modifications on this are endless and there is no one formula that says any of the relationship paths are only one or the other of these. However you can get some good clues by looking at the rest of the chart.. For example, if a person has a Libra Moon, Capricorn Sun, and Libra Rising you can be pretty certain they are going to be a pair bonder. If someone is loaded with Sag, Gemini, and Scorpio and that’s about all that is on their chart, chances are they will be either a multi-bonder or somebody who doesn’t bond at all. But you can’t make an absolute cookbook statement on that. All we are trying to do is show their are a lot of different paths.

Leo/Aquarius
This is probably the most radical of all the relationship paths. I believe their is an emerging paradigm that all relationships fall under. Whichever of the six relationship paths you choose their is still validity of the pair bond, the family path, the tantric path, but there is an emerging paradigm for all of the paths and I think the dominate one is the Leo/Aquarius path. One technical reason is due to the procession of the equinoxes. Now emerging is a new abstract horoscope for humanity. The new abstract horoscope has Aquarius Rising and Leo on the seventh house point, Scorpio at the 10th house point and Taurus and the bottom of the chart. This means the relationship axis for humanity is no longer Aries/Libra, it is Leo/Aquarius.

Leo/Aquarius is the path of uniqueness and individuation. The path of conscious equal partnership and empowerment. Imagine two masters who have found each other to be the most suitable person, to promote and empower, to advocate their personal strength, creativity and autonomy. They do not need each other. The relationship is not based on needs. Each person knows they are capable of handling their own life. To create a new type of partnership based on equality, total respect for differences and freedom is the primary purpose of the relationship.

People with this axis may not know what type of relationship path they will choose. It could include any of them. Another way to understand this is when two people sit across the table from each other and one of them says, “I am really fine on my own and I don’t need you.” And the other person says, “I know that and I am really fine on my own and I don’t need you.” Then strangely enough there is a spark that goes across and they decide it would be incredible to choose to do a dance together.

The Leo/Aquarius path can also be very scary. Often what happens to people on this path until they get the joke, or until they get to a place of some degree of harmony and balance, meaning getting to a place of their own sense of Godhood or self worth, is they find relationships will be of two kinds. If a person is in the dependant role in the relationship, they will choose someone to bust them of that. On the other hand if the other person in the relationship is playing the dependant role, it is the job of the Leo/Aquarius to bust them. This will keep going back and forth until the Leo or Aquarius Rising meets the conscious equal partner, someone who wants to dance as equals. This demands we take each other seriously as masters in our own right.

I am Capricorn Moon, Libra Sun, Libra Rising, which is tied into the two that have been the old law. I found myself in a circumstance years ago, where I had three people I was traveling with, all on the Aquarius/Leo axis. During a four day period, I was systematically broken down by these three people. They were exposing in me, my preset attitudes about relationship. They basically let me know that all my attitudes were based on caretaking, condescension, wanting to have rules, because I didn’t trust people could make decisions on their own, I espoused all of these wonderful ideals for conscious partnership, but all I was doing was caretaking or wanting to make it safe.

They said I didn’t understand, I wasn’t trusting their ability to come from a position of freedom and concurrently choose to do things that were safe for everybody. They were right and I still wanted to propose rules and regulations so things would work out for everybody. They said “nope, you can’t do that, if we are going to have a new age and a new world and use these new principles, we are either all God, or nobody is. There can not be one person who says we have to do it a certain way.”

So I guess Leo/Aquarius translates out as spiritual anarchism, but it is in the best sense of the word anarchism, where each person is in the position to be their own authority, and the belief that if enough people had the freedom to be that way, they would choose to cooperate rather than be at each others throats. We are now at this threshold.

Higher Heart and then Higher Mind. The fact that if each individual was honored as God they would come from a place of heart. The Aquarius side of it says we are all in it together. Spaceship Earth is an Aquarian ideal.

What I like about Capricorn Moon is that it is constantly concerned about what works. I am constantly trying to tune into what works, I would not bring up something that was purely theoretical. People’s experience with this helps to refine the material. Getting feed back about what actually does happen.

Question: Just so all the people with Leo/Aquarius Axis don’t get the big head, what is the down side of this path?

The downside to Leo is arrogance, or pomposity, or self centeredness. The downside to Aquarius is the mob rule, a different example is if you study with a new age group and it isn’t long before you discover an agenda, or a belief system that says you can not really be different from that particular belief system. That is the shadow of Aquarius.

Aquarius and Sag also have a need to constantly be expanding the context. Incidentally that is the true definition of spirituality as a opposed to religion. To be spiritual means you are in a position to continue to expand the context, you constantly see a larger and a bigger picture.

The issue of the downside of Leo/Aquarius seems to show up much less when it is the Rising sign than when it is in other positions. The reason is when it is the Rising sign it is the new thing we are working on. Generally the biggest problem people have on this path is the difficulty they have in moving into the new territory, not what goes wrong when you are too much of it. Leo Rising is an agenda, a curriculum, a need to develop self love, self worth, confidence, being able to make a major contribution. If we looked at life from the perspective of Leo Rising guess what central casting wants you to be? God. To be in a position of loving yourself so much that your greatest contribution is showing up. Most people with Leo Rising are scared of Leo Rising, but that is precisely what gets you free.