Timing and reflexes and sometimes, nerve. That is what taking advantage of opportunities is all about. One reason I have had a passion for doing astrology (been doing it professionally since 1977) is that it absolutely tells you when is the red light, the yellow light and the green light, and at which intersections. It tells you when the killer waves are going to come in and what you can do to position yourself to catch them. It tells you when you might feel dead in the water as you are forced to re-trench. You may not know what dishes life is going to serve you up, but you know what the flavors will be.

Shakespeare admonished us not to blame the stars for our failures for it is not their fault if our efforts seem to come to naught sometimes. He also said, "the stars do not compell, they impell." When I do readings, so often a person is able to bear witness to how attuned they were to the flow of energy in their charts even while they felt they were in the dark or being swept along by tides outside themselves.. They can actually see how life wasn't so much doing to them as they were responding to life  as it was presenting at that point. You get the ball back in your court by such awareness..

 We ourselves have to sniff the wind, decide what is important and which risks are worth it, and play to our strengths. There are no guarantees about anything in life, but there are probabilities, and the stars shed light on what they are, if you will pardon the pun.  Into each life, some rain must fall so, contrary to the American compulsion to have pleasure at all times and avoid pain at all costs, we are strengthened by handling challenges. Perhaps most importantly of all, we have a chance to get to know ourselves very intimately as we respond to the rough stuff as well as to the times of exceedingly good fortune.

My philosophy - love the challenges as much as you love your prospect of success in the eyes of the world. The world will fade away from you at some point, but you will be with yourself forever. Self respect for how you decide to handle your very unique -to-you life choices is a wondrous thing.

And who knows, maybe a chart reading for 2013 is "in your stars." Here's more information! 

Yikes! An eclipse! What does it mean, and how will it affect me?

In days gone by, eclipses were scary stuff. Dragons swallowing the sun and the moon. Now, we understand from an astronomical standpoint what happens during an eclipse. But still, from a synchronistic standpoint, there is symbolic significance. As an astrologer, who has studied the significance of what the planetary bodies are up to, I look to what is the symbology of a solar or lunar eclipse.
 
For example, in your own particular astrology chart (based on your birth time and date and place), I would see where the eclipse would fall in your chart. That would tell me something about what your current experience is like. In the case of a lunar eclipse, I would be shown an area of preparation for you to undergo some letting go, some change that would require an emotional adjustment. Does this mean something negative? No, That is not what it means. It just means that all of life is about cycles and when a cycle is changing to something else, our job is "to go with the flow" and many people do not appreciate nor trust change.
 
The beauty of a lunar eclipse is that it gives you advance warning. It is like it is saying, change is coming within a year in this area of your life, and you can take your talents and abilities to make it good for you. In an age where staying distracted is the chosen lifestyle of many, eclipses and their messages will tend to go unnoticed.

The lunar eclipse occured today in the signs Sagittarius and Gemini. These two signs will be the most impacted. One thing that may give you a hint of what you need to focus on for the next period of months would be any dreams you can remember from last night. My own dreams last night made me laugh when I woke up due to the message being so clear. I know exactly what I need to do with this eclipse. I wish you the same insights.
 
If you wish to know more about your chart and what is going on for the next year, feel free to sign up for an astrology reading (see home page under "astrology"), and I will let you know what the stars and eclipses have to say. It is all about making you the captain of your own ship!

Every morning when I am out in the yard feeding my two wild and wooly huskies (and I use the word 'wooly' advisedly), I take advantage of their food focus to pull out the undercoat that loosened from the night before. It is so satisfying to see how light and airy the coat is without the leftover fur just being in the way. The dogs enjoy this as well. And of course, a new undercoat comes in as the season moves on so this process is endless, and a reminder that, in nature, all is about cycles and letting go of what is no longer needed. Snakes shed their skin. Birds molt and huskies produce mattress loads of fur stuffing.
 
So what about us humans? What do we do seasonally to flow with the cycles? Humans have a strange way of wanting to impose things on to cycles (sort of a 'business as usual' mentality). The show must go on. There is money to be made or . . money never sleeps. And yet, when the days are shorter, that means something to our circadian rhythms i.e. to our body. We ignore things like that at a cost. We can lose our inner sense of what is needed. 

As an astrologer, much of my intent is to help people find where are they in a given cycle. What is it time to shed. What is it time to launch from a place of renewal? Over and over again, I witness people reducing stress as they remember what they know about their own rhythms but forgot because they no longer see themselves as part of the natural world. Astrology plunks you right back in the middle of the flow of time, or the Tao, as it is known in the East. To find yourself in your chart is like a homecoming. You no longer have to fear loss when you see the bigger picture and the ebb and flow and locate yourself in the stream.

I for one derive so much courage not just from knowing, during challenging times, that "this too shall pass", but finding out what a certain set of experiences is good for, and then taking advantage of that knowledge. Now my dogs don't know anything about their astrological charts but what they do know is that whatever it is time for, it is time for, and they offer no resistance. They don't need to look at their astrology chart. They are living it very successfully. To the extent that they are allowed to live "in dogness" they flow with cycles and seasons perfectly. I observe my dogs and feel admiration. I think to myself - "watch and learn."