By Hermes! You have got to read this!
Aries Spring Prediction for the US 2021
The Aries ingress chart has been used as a predictive tool for nations and lands for a long time now. I follow the text of Mash’allah when I do the Aries Ingress chart. He lived in 8th century Baghdad and was one of the forerunners of Medieval astrology, which is my favorite form of astrology. Astrology has been around for a long time.
I will walk through the considerations with you here. Hopefully it will fill you with joy and a love for astrology. When we predict with astrology we should remember as Robert Hand once said, “Astrology is perfect it is the astrologer who is flawed.” I get predictions wrong, but I always go back and try to learn from them. When I do go back, I see what I missed and misjudged, because the correct answer was obviously in the chart. The chart I am using is 5:38 AM when the Sun entered Aries at 0º 0′. in Washington D.C., the seat of power that rules over the US.
The prediction
To start with the analysis Mash’allah, who I will refer to as the Master for the rest of this post, says, first judge the Lord of the Ascendant. The Ascendant in this chart is Aquarius. Its ruler Saturn is in the 1st house, which gives it strength, and it is in an experience of Rulership over its house. Well this is friendly.
Ah, but medieval astrology is like physics, despite my totally surface shallow mind and childish intellects desires to just ramble on, the Master says we also have to look at The lord of the Triplicity, the lord of the bound, and the lord of the hour and see how all of these relate to each other. At this point I always want off the train and the ability to go back to Sun sign astrology. Astrology is work you see. Anyways…it is not that bad, in this chart the Triplicity Lord is Mercury, the bound lord is Venus, and the Hour lord is Mercury. Both of these are in the second house in Pisces ruled by Jupiter which is ruled by Saturn. So, in the end Saturn rules them all. This is good for the nation and people, as it represents this year the US will experience more order in government than it has the last few years. In other words, things will get done that are productive for the people. Remember we are in Saturn here, so what happens will create long term changes that are beneficial for the nation.
Next the Master tells us to look at the position of the in sect luminary to the Lord of the Ascendant. Here it is the Moon in Gemini in the 5th trining the Ascendant. It is a good moon and this according to the master shows the people will do well this year. But the Moon is in Gemini, so the political divisions among the nation continue. Still the ruler of the Ascendant in good condition is superior, so law and order will prevail this year over the diversionary politics. Since the moon is moving away from Saturn, the people take less interest in governance this year than years past.
Mars being in the 5th though does show violence in areas of entertainment and pleasure. This was just forced upon us by Massage Parlor shootings. Who the hell goes and shoots up massage parlors. Mars in the 5th does I guess. That can also be amusement parks, movie theaters, places of recreation, yoga studios etc. But I digress.
I am skipping a lot of detail the Master points to, because this is a blog. Should you wish to do this on your own, please purchase The Works of Sahl and Mash’allah by Ben Dykes, which lays out the whole method. On to the lord of the Year. The Lord of the Year is the planet with the best dignity in the chart. Since this planet is strongest at the moment of the ingress, it has all of the power over the year. It is again Saturn. Saturn is not expansive, it is cold, solid, steady, and durable. I think this represents that we are all still working with the cold realities of isolation. This does not show covid restrictions lifting quickly.
Now, it is interesting here because I am using whole sign astrology so Saturn is in the first, it would be in the 12th by a house based system. Maybe this is why some European astrologers were dour on the US this year.
Because Saturn shares the same sign as Jupiter this agains shows a more joyous year and a strength of the nation we have not seen in a while.
For the President, we are looking to the Lord of the Midheavan or Lord of the Sun. For the MC here we have the Jupiter, for the Sun we have Mars. Jupiter is going to have more dignity, and importantly more relationship to the Ascendant and Lord of the Ascendant, so I am going with Jupiter.
Jupiter is strong in the 1st in Aquarius which it likes because Jupiter likes air signs. So the President slowly (again this is Saturn) Marches his agenda forth, and is not subject to sickness or violence. This is because it does not receive energy from malefics, or the ruler of the 6th or 8th. However, the MC is in the 11th conjunct the South Node, there is hinderance from congress which requires new thinking to move past. For this reason, I believe there will be reformation of the filibuster by this chart.
Interestingly enough, the Lord of the First being the people of the nation. Masha’allah calls them the rustics , (oh dear, he would be jumped on all over social media for that kind of classism). The rustics rule over the king here. That would mean that Biden is following the will of the people this year. I can see that, I think the corporate elite whatever you want to call them are sufficiently convinced they need to throw the rustics some soup bones. Jupiter is free of the malefics, so there is no great threat to Biden’s life this year.
We find Mars in this chart in Gemini in the 5th house, which is the south conjunct the North Node. This should bode fierce winds, heat, strife and discord in Southern states and cities. This will arise most fiercely in July and September. Because Mercury reaches mars in conjunction by profection on June 24th one could speculate a disaster by transportation on that day.
The ruler of the 8th being in the second again shows a wealth transfer from the rulers to the people this year, which is a good thing. Concerning the health and the Covid pandemic, because the ruler of the sixth is trine Jupiter in Aquarius my forecast is that science greatly aids and relieves the stress of the people, however, because moon is Peregrine in the 5th in Gemini, the public is of two minds and this makes the efforts and putting out the pandemic moderately less successful because the public is of two minds on the subject.
The ruler of the 10th being in the 5th it should be a year with much prospering in the entertainment industry. Thre are indications that we are repeating history and getting ready to enter the roaring twenties. As you go to party, relieved of the pressure of the previous year, be safe and do not expose yourself to illness or sickness. The ruler of the 9th being in the second, the US should gain over foreign currencies over this year.
Concerning hostile powers to the US, since the ruler of the 7th is in the 3rd, it does not seem to be that they strike the US this year. However with the ruler of the 7th in 3rd, I can see explosive extremist violence striking in Europe or England this year, those two being the siblings of the US.
I do see this as an excellent chart for the year, and hope your year is blessed.
Mercury and Spelling
To spell, is to craft words, because words craft concepts, and concepts craft our realities. So to spell is to cast a spell, by which you effect how you and others perceive reality. This is the power of the bardic tradition, and also your tweets and facebook posts. Everything you write is a sigil. Mercury and spelling go together to unite the intention of our spirit and soul.
It is also a moment of an astrological election by which you are creating anew the universe that no only are you living in, but are also sharing with everyone else. Sometimes your spelling is invoking the good, sometimes your spelling is cursing. These incantations are endless.
In the tradition of Buddha Dharma I had the good fortune to be taught, it is said that all speech is mantra. This is a meditation on how all words are indeed enlightened words manifesting from emptiness and awareness. They are pure when we hear them and pure when we speak them, because there is no self uttering them or hearing them. Relatively though, they do create effects, this is the karma of speech. Because speech has karma, we should be conscious of how we use it.
At the least we should be conscious of our spelling, just as we should be conscious of the spelling we allow into our minds through our reading, listening, and watching. At the writing of this, Mercury has just entered Pisces. Mercury rules speech, the transmission of ideas and thus spell craft. Pisces rules the waters that connect us, symbolically Pisces is the end result of the zodiac or the fruition of understanding life as universal principles.
Our words in life are a river that we are pouring from the glaciers of all who came before us into the ocean of all who are to follow us. Sometimes our words are muddy, some times pouring over rocks that will not move, sometimes, crystal clear and full of life.
Our spells our pure and impure, we are pure and impure, but through our spell work we are clarifying the water of our own consciousness and souls. Some come into the earth with the purpose of creating spells to guide the Über soul of humanity with new spells.
Others of us will spend our entire lives just crafting spells of self hypnotism, it matters not, we are all spelling out the world story. Every spell is a thread in the fabric of the world, every spell is magic, the spelling of every word is creation, and you are great.
Mercury the philosophical trickster
The Sun is the soul, the moon is the spirit, to them we add mind. Mercury is mind. They are a trinity, for mind is the medium between the soul and the spirit. Mercury the divine being, who is also known as Hermes, is said in the old myths of the ancient occidental wisdom traditions to represent the god of language, science, and philosophy. Let us pull the curtain back then and say that mercury is thought and thinking. Language communicates thinking, thinking has produced the world we live in and made it what it is. Thinking is also though a trickster, it pulls one out of soul and spirit, and while it can lead one to wisdom, it also more commonly leads one to confusion. So mercury is the philosophical trickster.
Let us say then, where Mercury is in your chart is an area where your thoughts will wander. You can have a whole life, with many activities and things to think about, but where Mercury is, that is where your thoughts will naturally go back to. The thinking of that place will be influenced by the sign Mercury is in. They way we think about the world colors how we percieve it, thinking is sense organ. In the prajna paramita when Shariputra is negating sense perceptions as being existent, he says ‘ No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;’ We have this wonderful faculty then called thinking, which attempts to create and order our perceptions of the world. This is Mercury, uniting the energy of the planets and being a messenger between them as it travels the celestial sphere within and without our being.
How Mercury is aspected will effect your experience of how you think and how you communicate. Mercury aspecting the benefics creates hope while aspecting the malefics it creates fear. If it is retrograde in the natal chart it creates alternate ways of thinking, and alternate approaches to thinking from mainstream thought. (This is where the breakthroughs of novel thought come from, by the way. ) When it is combust it creates thinking that is from the other-side, the upside down, the spirit world. This is because it is not seen by the world, rather it is hidden behind the rays of the solar deity.
Mercury goes retrograde a lot. Three times a year three weeks a time. That is 9 weeks a year. Really though the retrograde cycle is 27 weeks a year for the following reasons. Before it goes retrograde it enters the shadow period, this is a forecast of what will be reviewed when it is retrograde. Here it is traversing the degrees before it is retrograde. During this time, observe the themes that are coming up as a way of preparation for the retrograde. During the retrograde one is rethinking approaches to life, after the retrograde it covers the degrees in the chart for a third time, this is the summation or conclusion of the matter of the retrograde period. It is a wonderful tool for looking at your life and relationships, and making them more appropriate for the narrative you are tasked with carrying out.
The retrograde motion is thus a journey within for review, occurring half of the year, with the direct cycle being a journey without occurring half the year. I feel like if we lived in a less materialistic society judging people by their outer appearance, actions, and possessions, Mercury Retrograde would not be as big of a deal as it is in modern astrology.
Mercury then can be a trickster, because it is reversing itself all of the time. Mercury holds the energy between the Sun and the Moon, between Strength and Beauty. I remember being fascinated by the chaos magic exercises in Liber Null in the early 90’s where one would intentionally whip ones mind into a frenzy of oppositional thinking. This is what Mercury is the wisdom of, holding the space between two different thoughts, thus it is mutable. Mercurial people, that is those who have a strong Mercury in their chart by rulership and thus by extension through being a significant almuten are mercurial. Their lives will always be changing. They are shape shifters. This constant transformation makes them seem unreliable to those who expect solid definitions, but it is not out of malice, a mercurial person is constantly changing, it is their nature.
To master the energy of Mercury in your chart, you will need to do two things that are not easy. The first is to develop a capacity for logical thought that builds on itself and constructs paradigms of truth from the philosophical understanding the unification of experience. Simultaneously you will have to divorce your self from thinking of your thoughts as real or true. Mercury has to become your tool for developing mastery over your sense of self, not a fragmenting fiction of your sense of self.
How to do this is indicated by the location and the condition of Mercury in your chart. For example, if it is in Sagittarius in the fifth house, then it will be through the philosophy of pleasure and enjoyment, such as eastern yoga. Remember though, mercury is the reconciliation of opposites, so it will be simultaneously harmonizing the philosophical path of pleasure and aversion to that path. This does not mean that one has to go have wild sensual experiences, all though one may well do that, it means that one has to develop a philosophy of understanding of that house and sign that is whole. This then will help you to have a sane mind, and there are not too many of those in this world.
Remember, Mercury is where you will reconcile opposite impulses of your soul and spirit. This is true by your natal chart, and where it is transiting the sky right now.
Year of the Metal Ox
Welcome to the Year of the Metal Ox. Originating in Asia, the 60 year cycle calendar is Asian is practiced in a unique and individual way by numerous cultures within the Asian geographical region. The celebration of the lunar new year is now a world wide phenomena. I have been doing forecasts for the year ahead using the sexegenary cycle since the year 2000.
I was first encouraged to do so by one of my kind Lamas, Lama Drimed Norbu. He is a true and excellent yogi of the Nyingma tradition. We would hold a week long ceremony every year to usher in the Tibetan New Year. The aspiration was a new year with no new obstacles. At the end of the ceremony, in the morning we would eat kaptse’s (tibetan fried pastry bread) and drink chang (fermented grain alcohol). We did this at Rigdzin Ling in a manner that we were taught by H.E. Chagdud Tulku the 14th.
The Ox
When contemplating what the year ahead holds, I contemplate the animal and the element nature of the upcoming year. This seems to be a good approach. The animal is obvious, it is the ox. The Ox is the second animal in the cycle. The way the story was told to me is that the 12 animals that make up the Asian Zodiac are in an order set from the time of the Buddha. They had a race to pay homage to the buddha, and the Rat, who is the first animal asked the Ox for a ride. Because the Ox is slow and steady and yet strong, he was the first to make it to the Buddha. The Rat jumped off his head as he began to bow down to prostrate to the Buddha, and was thus the first animal in the cycle.
I can tell you that the Ox are slow steady and powerful. I have two boys who are Ox’s and they stubbornly plod ahead to get whatever they want. They are rather relentless in that way. We can expect this year to be one of slow and steady progress towards goals. The Rat is known for being tricky and also carrying disease. We are through that now, but the slow steady progress of the Ox is probably going to seem a little boring. Look at President Biden! No one is even noticing him as he slowly and steadily governs. It is not him, it is the year of the Ox. That is the way it goes.
The Ox tills the fields traditionally. Think of this year as a year to prepare the ground for future crops. You are going to divide the earth that is you life, and sew seeds that will bring you harvest. Do not hurry, there is no need this year. Be steady and sure in everything. This is the lesson of the Ox.
The Yin Metal (Iron) Ox
The Iron Ox is imperturbable. It is a force of nature that can not be stopped. Yin Metal is associated with a dagger or a needle. This Ox is then focused but passive. The Ox has pointed horns. They are yin metal and if you try to force your way around obstacles this year, they will strike you with little daggers. Instead we have to work strong and steady to our goals and work away at our obstacles with steadiness. Do not get in the way of the Bulls dagger horns. Bulls also were used to help move bricks and create the foundations of buildings. Think of this year as a year to create strong foundations for the future.
The Ox is opposed the Ram, and square Dog and Dragon. It is said that during Ox years Ox, Sheep, Dogs, and Dragons can have obstacles. Oxen should look to eduction to get past this years obstacles. Sheep will avoid obstacles if they refrain from gambling and speculative investments. Dogs will generally have good luck if they avoid being conned by others. Dragons can avoid bad circumstances this year by being decisive and not hesitating. Roosters and Snakes do well during Ox years. If you are a Rooster or Snake you can be more aggressive in your approach to life this year and you have the backing of the Ox. Ox will be your wingman. The harmonious animal to the Ox is the Rat. Having an Image of the Rat or Mice will help you get through the year of the Ox in good shape. I prefer Mickey Mouse.
Yin Metal Earth.
The nuts and bolts of the sexegenary cycle is that the animals are actually symbols of an element. The Bull or Ox is yin earth. So this year is Yin Metal Earth. This is how the system known as Ba Zhi or Four Pillars engages in its analysis. It compares the four pillars of the given hour day month and year to yours. The elements involved and their interaction with each other reveal the nature of the moment or times. To know how you will be effected by the year of the Yin Metal Ox, you actually need a Ba Zhi reader to look at your chart. I can do that, their are others who are good at it too. If you want, you can get a reading from me here. BA ZHI READINGS.
The reason for this is you want to know how all four pillars just mentioned in your chart are effected by the vibration of Yin Metal Earth. The most important thing is how your day pillar is effected. But we can say some general things from just knowing Yin Metal Earth. Since Metal drains Earth we can speculate that in general it will be a dry year. However in regions where metal dominates, such as mountainous regions it will be wetter than usual. Because Metal is considered to be sharp, it is considered to be a year of conflict and aggression. Yin Metal is a dagger, and so it is common to see assassinations during yin metal years. Because Earth produces metal it is a good year to invest in tangible metal assets such as gold or silver.
Earth produces Metal and Metal cuts wood, thus usually it is common for housing markets to fall in Metal years. Metal rules technology, so I would expect the tech sector to continue to be hot and new technologies to come online. Metal also represents the intellect, I would guess that we will see more novel scientific and intellectual thought during this year. Remember if you do not want to get cut, do not get into an argument this year, as sharp knives will about. Since metal is technology and coins, I could see Block Chain Coins really taking off this year for good. This is true of the small ones especially as it is a Yin metal year. Be careful of over investing in Doge though, as the Dog comes with a warning of not being conned. Do not put in more than you can loose.
Because Earth is stability and Metal is clear mind, it is a great year for practicing meditation. Both elements are consolidating in force, so do not expect negotiations to be very fruitful. Like I said earlier, lay the ground work for the next year, but do not push to hard this year. Just go slow and steady and you will come out on top of the race!
Best wishes,
Dorje
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