The Radical Virgo

Be Mine! Win a Free Reading and Revisit Previous Valentine Features

2012-02-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

Another February 14^th is right around the corner, and with my Venus-ruled chart, I can’t resist sending you my version of a Valentine. At first, I wanted Auntie Joyce to tell all—her secret list of the best gifts she has given her love interests, who span every sign of the zodiac. (Auntie came of age during the sexual revolution and certainly has had her share of kiss, but she wasn’t quite ready to tell.) I think we’ll save that for next year. She needs time to work up her courage to reveal how she lured potential partners from Aries to Pisces with her astro-savvy presents. She also needs to quit hyperventilating, while she reminisces about her single life, when she was still seeking the perfect earth or water sign.

I decided a more practical idea, especially during Mars Retro, would be to re-do something that worked in the past, the Valentine’s comment contest we had in 2010. This one’s updated with a new spin.

From the time of this announcement and through the rest of February, anyone who makes a substantial comment on any post on the Radical Virgo—or makes the Valentine two-way by sharing what you appreciate about the Radical Virgo blog in a comment—will be entered into a drawing. The prize is a free e-mail mini-reading or $50 off a full-length reading with me.

More Than One Chance to Win!

Each time you make a substantial comment on The Radical Virgo with a specific response and reference to blog content (any post), your name goes into a hat for a drawing at the end of the month. (Generic comments like “nice blog” will not qualify.) Same goes for your “Valentine’s” about the blog. To better equalize the spirit of chance in the “game,” the maximum number of comments accepted for the contest will be three per person. You may make as many comments as you wish, but your name will be placed in the hat a maximum of three times. The contest ends at midnight, Pacific Standard Time, on February 29. The Radical Virgo reserves the right to determine if a comment meets the intent of the contest. The drawing will be made on March 1 and the winner announced no later than March 5.

Prize

If you win, you can choose either the mini-reading by e-mail or $50 off my normal $150 astrology reading by phone or in person, if you’re local to Sacramento, CA. I will ask you to focus on a single issue, if you choose the e-mail reading—up to three issues in a full, discounted reading. (This discount can also be applied to Astro-Tarot, my favorite reading that combines the best of both symbol systems. If you want a reading as soon as possible, please note it will be subject to the first vacancy in my schedule.

Why Readings--Now

It’s 2012, change is thick in the air, and the conversation in the sky is urging us to grow. I encourage you to get a professional opinion from me or another astrologer you trust, if you’re wondering how to navigate these interesting times. I have never enjoyed doing readings more than I have lately in this climate of fast evolution! If you want to know more about my readings, how I do them, and see some client feedback, see Personal Consultations on my website.

Quotes Worth a Déjà View

For a smile and a possible good line for your homemade Valentine, see 2010’s Valentine Quotes for the Signs. You might also enjoy another look last year’s, Love’s Many Aspects.

Happy Valentine’s Day, and a hearty year of joining our love and purpose to create the world we want to see. That’s what Neptune in Pisces offers us. “Sees” the moment!

~~~

Photo Credit: © FloatingLemons - Fotolia.com

Don’t Miss the Radical Virgo E-book Sale! Lowest sale prices this year through Valentine’s Day. See sidebar.

February Fun Fest: Fiction for Under a Dollar and Astro Gadgets and Gismos

2012-02-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

I’m sending this via carrier pigeon from my Mars Retro cocoon! Thanks for all the hits on 10 Ways to Celebrate Mars Retrograde. I’m practicing what I preach, as much as possible …

… but I did want to poke my head out of the pod for a couple of minutes to share a few bits of news and fun tools. Those on my mailing list already know: I just put out my first fiction e-book in PDF format with Kindle, Nook, etc. to come within the month. You can now buy it on joycemason.com and on the sidebar of The Radical Virgo for only $0.99. Matters of Life, Death and Laughter contains three stories to make you laugh, cry and think. They are very Jupiter in Scorpio!

Now, onto some other fun. I co-presented a wonderful program in January at NCGR-Sacramento Area Astrologers with one of my favorite local astrologers and colleagues, Linda Kaye. I want to share the overall content with my readers and introduce you to Linda. Our program was called Astro Gadgets and Gismos. Linda focused on her use of Astrodice as an astrological oracle, and I shared my experience with AstroDeck, a keywords card system for studying your chart, bit by bit.

Click to purchase on Amazon

Astrodice

The Astrodice have been around for a long time, but I hadn’t tried them for ages. They are an astrological oracle. There are three dice, one each for planet, sign and house. One way to use them: You, your client or friend thinks of a question. You throw and interpret the three-part astrological “sentence.” Example: How can I improve my finances?

Astro Dice throw: Jupiter, Libra, 6^th

Possible interpretations: Promotion through work relationships, the importance of referrals, expansion of finances through friendships and willingness to work, expand your work but keep it in balance, partner with someone and work together to expand income potential for both of you.

Linda mentioned that the Astrodice provide an easy way to do readings at fairs or other events where mini-consultations are required in short time periods, or where you don’t have precise birth data or your computer handy. She also likes to use the Astro Dice as a wrap-up to a reading. They seem to work well, not only as an effective last thought, but often recap major themes that preceded them.

Chiron card created to go with my Astrodeck.

AstroDeck

First, let me get the bad news over with. This wonderful keyword tool is out of print, but a deck comes up for auction on eBay every few months. What’s more, it’s easy to make your own rendition of this terrific tool.

What It Is. AstroDeck consists of four sets of colored cards with lists of key words for each:

Red for planets
Blue for signs
Green for houses
Yellow for aspects

There’s a card for every planet, sign, house and aspect. The primary way to use them is to take any chunk of your chart, usually what I call an aspect configuration, and lay out the cards to delineate it. Each card has a long list of key words for each of the components.

The AstroDeck doesn’t include Chiron, my specialty, so I created a facsimile Chiron card. It’s constructed similar to the AstroDeck cards, so it should give you the flavor of what they look like.

Why I Like It

Variety is the spice – We tend to have “pet” keywords for planets, signs, houses and aspects. The AstroDeck gives a reminder of more choices and combinations.

Keywords enable you to “go deep” into each piece of chart, then glean a more thorough synthesis

It helps us when we’re stuck for whatever reason, such as being too close to an issue or having a Neptune transit that makes us foggy—or we’re in too big a hurry for a Mars aspect.

Potential Users

AstroDeck works great for anyone and everyone! It’s great for beginners and just as helpful to the seasoned pro. Chart reading is a creative act that involves the client and astrologer. AstroDeck or tools like it can allow for greater client participation in the process and overall, a larger landscape of possibilities for expressing any astrological energy combination. It helps us remember that each astrological signature has a variety of ways it can express, and we can harness that energy toward the expressions we want most.

Ways to Use Keywords

With a long list of choices, I recommend first seeing which keywords light up for you or feel right. Start with those. Another way to explore is to close your eyes and point to a word on each card—our use a pendulum. If you’re really compulsive, you can try them all on! Obviously, not all these interpretations will fit at a given time, but playing with the least likely certainly opens the mind to possibilities.

How to Score a Good Used Deck

• Create a Saved Search on eBay to be notified when decks become available (every 3-4 months on average in my experience, so far)

• Use keywords AstroDeck + astrology. It’s very important to use the word astrology, as “Astrodeck” is also a form of decking and artificial material used in various products. Without the starry reference, you may end up lost in a maze of links to a type of Astrodeck you didn’t mean.

• Rule of thumb for a good buy is $20-30, including shipping. You might find one for a less or a little more. (I've done well on the side of bargains.) They’re getting rarer, so figure that into your analysis of whether the price is worth it.

• Periodically check in a general search engine, like Google, with the AstroDeck + astrology keywords. You may unearth something somewhere other than eBay.

How to Do It Yourself

It’s probably a weekend project—or at least a day of the weekend, but it’s worth the time for the learning you’ll get both in the process of putting it together and using the card system from then on.

Get out your favorite beginning astro books or any that feature keywords.
Make no more than a half page list for each planet, sign, aspect and house. (Use columns to fit in as many as you can.) Be sure to include both likeable and less likable connotations of each and parts of the human body the signs and planets they rule. For instance, for Saturn: discipline, wisdom, earthiness, getting grounded ambition, self-control. Rules bones, knees, teeth
Go to Michaels or another craft store. Buy half-sheets of cardstock, multi-color, in a package. The brand I bought was Recollections with 5 different colors. It cost $3.99
Buy a package of glue sticks, too ($1.99).
Choose a color for planets, signs, houses and aspects. (I replicate the AstroDeck colors, because I already associate red with planets, blue with signs, etc.)
Trim your half-page keywords so they’ll fit with the colored edge showing on the cardstock. If you have a spiffy printer, fancy enough to print directly on the cardstock, skip the glue sticks and simply print on the appropriate colored sheet info for each planet, sign, house and aspect.

Note that you’ll spend only about $6 and have a keyword tool that’s priceless.

Got AstroDeck Info?

I believe AstroDeck could enjoy a renaissance, if republished now. I’ve been unable to find out a thing about the creators and their former company, Soliton, in Woodstock, NY. If anyone knows anything about Authors Louis S. Acker, Mary Orser or Irwin A. Weisberg and James Wasserman/Studio 31 who produced the cards, please let me know. I’d love to encourage them to re-release AstroDeck. I think its time has come again. The world is becoming more astro-savvy, in part thanks to the Internet.

I own two of the decks, so I’ve got a spare for “parts” in case I lose anything from Deck #1! That’s how committed I am to these brilliant “flashcards.” I’ve gifted a deck to my best friend, a fellow astrologer, as well.

And I went right home and purchased some Astrodice after Linda’s demo at our astrology group.

Let me know how you like sampling my fiction—and these gismos and gadgets!

~~~

Photo Credit: Cover, Matters of Life, Death and Laughter - theatre stage & masks © koten_ok - Fotolia.com

Ten Ways to Celebrate Mars Retrograde

2012-01-23T03:18:00.000-08:00

Giving Mars a rest can be rewarding!

January 23 thru April 14, 2012

23 Virgo 05 – 3 Virgo 41

My article, Ten Ways to Celebrate Mercury Retrograde, was one of the Top 10 posts on The Radical Virgo last year. As I contemplated the upcoming Mars Retro, I thought to myself, “I’d like to read one of those for Mars.” So, I decided to write it and share it. Here are some ways to take optimal advantage of this cycle. Thanks for contributing your own ideas in the Comments. I hope this adds a big dollop of Virgo practicality to what you can do with Mars while its riding its “retrocycle.”

1. Stop rather than start something new. Mars rules Aries, those energetic self-starters, wired to go get it now, whatever “it” is. When Mars is retrograde, it’s better to contemplate what you might want to stop doing rather than start. In the sign of Virgo, begin with the one of the things Virgo is famous for, namely habits. Habits are what we do with repetition and little thought. What are you doing mindlessly or obsessively that you know is better for you not to do at all—or at least to lessen? Apply this to other Virgo key areas of interest, such as health and communications.

2. Review your desires and impulses—and how they get you into trouble. Mars is the planet of passion and wanting. This doesn’t just apply to your hormones. How do your longings serve you—or not? Are you obsessing over a lover, money, fame or other cravings? How about food cravings, given Virgo’s affiliation with diet? Stop for a quiet, objective review during this period and see what happens. Try de-emphasizing those desires or giving them a rest during the retrograde period. If you can’t control your impulses, become more aware of them so that you can take action, perhaps in a different direction, when Mars moves forward and you’re ready for it. What evolves?

3. Look at where Mars Retro falls in your chart. This will make its influence more specific to an area of life and to the aspects it makes to your personal planets. Some examples: Mars Retro in the 1st may ask you to stop and look at how you’re “putting yourself out there.” What does your first impression look like out in the world, whether it’s your physical face, how you dress, or your posts on Facebook or Twitter? In the 5^th, you may want to stop and review what you’re creating. What are you doing, overdoing, or under-doing with your creative energy? And so on ‘round the zodiac. Turn you Inner Investigator loose on your “do” in this house and area of life. What changes would serve you better?

As to aspects, how ‘bout taking the planets in aspect to it “inner” along with this Mars Retro? My Uranus squares Mars Retro at its starting point at 23 Virgo. Think I’ll look at where my actions are erratic and how I push myself to make progress, perhaps at the expense of some things I value. (A step at a time is sometimes better than constantly pushing the envelope for change.)

4. Check out your relationship with physicality. I was discussing with a friend and colleague recently how many athletes have Mars Retrograde in their natal charts. I’ve been contemplating that fact while considering this upcoming Mars Retro. Since retrograde planets often reflect an energy expressed in a more inner than outer way, I’ve come to an interesting hypothesis. Mars Retro may be an expression of someone wired for movement and action. Having this inner drive for motion, action, even aggression and competition may fuel the drive to express it outward via athletics. What better channel? (Beats beating up on people!) I suspect that Mars Retro, by transit, may not give us the same feeling as the more personal natal type. However, it may grant us a period where conditions are more conducive to feeling Mars more acutely in our bodies, especially when Mars is in an Earth sign, as it is in the current retrograde. Our bodies are the Earth element. Experiment with feeling the Mars inside you, first, then how it craves expression in the outer.

5. Analyze how you make the choices that precede action. Actions result from decisions. How are you doing with discrimination in the choices you make (Mars in Virgo)? For everything we do, we made a decision to do it. We live more and more in a world of a million options, every second of our waking day. Modern communication tools bring us nearly endless opportunities. We know the old saws—there are many spins on the same idea—Think before you act. What is your Mercury to Mars connection? How do you come to your decisions about taking action? Need any revamping on the circuitry between idea, analysis and action? Reflect on these patterns and whether they are serving you.

6. Review your relationship with anger. Do you blow your top a lot? Hold in your rage and suffer illness because you let it seethe? How can you find ways to express anger in a healthy, productive way? As the wonderful quote in Ecclesiastes tells us, To everything, there is a season. Anger is. What we do with it is good to contemplate when Mars is in retrograde. In Virgo, especially consider angry words and communication patterns. Pay special attention to passive aggression—that nasty look or snarky sarcasm.

7. Examine your patience. Do you have too much or too little? (A friend once told me I was ridiculously patient, and she wasn’t far off during an era of my life when I was short on boundaries and too long-suffering.) Mars is about going for it, but sometimes it’s the season for rest. It’s winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, and that’s a fact. Mars Retro gives us an opportunity to look at how we handle being in harmony with nature rather than with what we want—now—regardless of other considerations. I love that most of the Mars Retro cycle this time precedes spring. But it remains Retro for the first few weeks after the Spring Equinox. Given that, you might want to ease into your new beginnings, even though spring is the right time for them. By mid-April, the timing will be better for launching your new projects. Don’t hurry, even then. Mars Retro will have a “shadow” just like Mercury Retro. You’ll likely feel its afterglow till June.

8. Take the pulse of your vitality. Mars is highly connected to our physical energy and life force. Depending on your natal Mars configuration, you might be naturally energetic or like that commercial with the two adorable tortoises, a Mr. or Ms. Slowsky. Are you happy with your “juice?” Is it up to par or do you need rejuvenating? Again, with Mars in Virgo, look at what health habits you need to keep your engine running in top form. It’d be a great time to go to a spa, to give your Mars a vacation and your energy a booster shot.

9. Get more intimate with you natal Mars. Is your natal Mars retrograde? How do you feel during Mars Retro? It may be different from those of us with Mars direct. What is the element of your natal Mars? If it’s in water, it may feel a bit like it’s retrograde. Whether its fiery, airy, or earthy, how does the Martian energy play into how you operate? Pay special attention to things like Mars angular (1^st, 4^th, 7^th or 10^th houses) or in its own sign of Aries or Scorpio (co-ruled with Pluto). My own Mars is in Water (Cancer), and it’s my only angular planet (on the IC). It trines Jupiter in Scorpio. What could otherwise seem like a watered down Mars principle is actually big in my life. I’m Marsy enough that many people mistake me for having Aries Rising. Don’t take too seriously the classic interpretations of your Mars position. Discover what your Mars means to you with an open mind and a commitment to express its highest possibilities.

10. Look at your relationship with the masculine principle. Do you “have balls” when you need them, whether you’re male or female? Are you a good leader, initiator and extrovert—when its called for? Can you win when important principles are at stake? Ideally, we balance yin and yang, masculine and feminine in our lives. The reason the yin/yang symbol has a dot of the opposite energy in each half is that we all need both energies to function as whole human beings. Mars Retro is a great time to rest with your male energy and look at how you’re working with it. Is it hostile? Accident prone? Selfish? Or does it have some of the more enviable qualities of Mars like drive, excitement, and strength?

I get a kick out of the fact that the Mars glyph looks so phallic. It reminds us that to take action, we need to point our male energy in the direction of where we’re going and just do it, as the Nike commercial says. But remember this. All those Viagra and Cialis commercials warn about too much of a good thing. You can harm yourself with too much for too long. Users of male enhancement drugs are warned to get themselves to the emergency room if the drug is effective for too many hours. This also applies to Martian energy in general. Too much testosterone, drive, anger, impatience—it can all lead to flashing lights and the emergency room.

There are many other qualities of Mars we could take retrograde this cycle for learning: jealousy, ego, and impetuousness, to name a few. While the motto of The Radical Virgo is live on the upside of the zodiac, we still have to be realistic about the fact that Mars Retro can make us more accident prone, if we refuse to slow down. I’m going to repeat one thing I said for Mercury Retro that applies to both planets in retrograde: Quit running around so much.

That’s hard for most modern people. One profession considered ruled by Mars is law enforcement. I can’t help but think of that positive and nurturing sergeant on Hill Street Blues. After every roll call and before he sent his officers out onto the streets, the Sarge said, Let's be careful out there.

We can’t quit living during retrograde cycles, but if we’re smart, we’ll stay in rhythm with them and “do less” for this 2.5 month cycle. It only comes every couple of years.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meditate on Mars and celebrate it!

~~~

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