Part 2 of My Interview by Cathy Bouroughs of Astrology for the Soul


On your being a man: Does the fact that you are a man inform your approach to this work? What in your chart depicts how central this has become in your astrological research? Does your interest and work with the Archetype Shifts affect your relationship with or view of women, your marriage, the woman you magnetized to yourself as your partner, your view of women and/or the function and image of The Goddess in the collective world view and the existing paternalistic cultural emphasis/bias?

 

I suppose my being of the male gender does inevitably color my perception of the Goddesses, however I feel that psychologically I am relatively androgynous (I score as such on measures such as the Bem Sex Role Inventory) and so I think the fact that my physical gender is male is somewhat less important than my mindset and worldview. I see and have always seen my spiritual self as an artist, and as such a part of our culture much more in touch with the sacred feminine than the profane masculine which rules this world currently.

As far as my chart, well the Goddesses are heavily involved. I suppose that means I have a strong Animus. Morning Star Venus is in mutual reception with Mars –the dispositor of half my chart. Venus is also square the Sun/Moon midpoint. Ceres and Juno are in the 10th whole sign -opposite Mars. Vesta is in the 2nd whole sign opposite Uranus/Pluto. Pallas is conjunct the Moon in the 8th whole sign.

With respect to my views and such –it’s hard to say which came first –the chicken or the egg, lol! The Goddesses have most definitely transformed my work into the more holistic structure I was always looking for. I think they have filled in a gap (pun intended -the asteroids inherit the gap between Mars and Jupiter) where I have always felt a more personal and free will focused element of transformation should be. And they most definitely bring back the masculine/feminine balance of the original Olympian Pantheon –which is sorely needed in this World as it has been missing for so long.

 

 

This is not my perspective, but please speak to this: There was a time in the Feminist Movement when women were extremely sensitive and hostile even to men using or"appropriating" Female Imagery like this. For example, I went to an all womens' college and when it converted to co-ed, Men began to fill in all the leadership roles in student government, etc.. Any thoughts about this as it applies in general to our culture, to astrology, to your work with The Goddess?

 

Well, I will be happy to stand aside if there were just others doing it, lol! You know, Aries is more than happy to move on. But seriously, I cannot believe that in such a female populated profession that more people have not taken a serious look at these archetypes. I feel that Demetra’s book, while certainly seminal, was –as any “cookbook” must be –well, a bit too logical, fact based and left brain oriented. I am looking for a more process oriented, meaning seeking, right brained approach. This is why I have tried to expand on the first ten pages of her book instead of just writing yet another mass appeal cookbook.


I also think it is very important that we define the asteroids as they function as a planetary group within the entirely new heliocentric Cosmology which is emerging –along with the Centaurs as a group and the “Plutoids” or Kuiper belt objects.

Ceres and the asteroids represent the transformational process form the personal to social planets as well as from social to personal. Centaurs represent more specific (than Uranus or Neptune) agents of the process of true individuation beyond social structures (as renegades from the Kuiper belt whose mythic deaths represent models of individuation/evolution). Because they dwell beyond the invisible gas giants (Uranus and Neptune) -I think of Eris and the other Kuiper belt objects (even Pluto) as representatives of trans-generational (rather than trans-personal or generational) themes.  

 

Definitions? What key phrases or definitions are you using for the Asteroid Goddesses?

 Ceres: The Bringer of Seasons. The Re-Claimer of lost or abducted parts of ourselves. The Re-Cycler of dead growth. Our capacity for personally initiated transformation and the self-initiated transformational process as a whole.

 Vesta: Focus, Compression, Withdrawal. The first step of the transformative process where we are compressed like a spring.

 Pallas: Creative release. Springing forth of new patterns and stories. The second step of the transformative process where we repeat various small versions of the new larger order we would like to invite into our lives.

 Juno: Connections and connectivity. The third and final phase of the transformational process where we follow synchronistic connections with new players who represent the new pattern we have invited into our lives.

 

Female example: Are there any female examples or goddess-types who could illustrate this from the female heroic perspective? Sarah Palin  and or Diana Ross or other well-known female musician whose life has seen major transformations?

 

Well, Sarah Palin is certainly an interesting figure! We covered her and the election chart on episode 16 of my podcast. Many people know that Election Day hosts a t-square from Evening Star Venus –but not too many know that Pallas complete this to a grand cross! And the other three Goddesses (Ceres, Vesta and Juno) form a grand trine!

I had my doubts about Hillary being a true representative of the sacred feminine –but Palin clearly wants to roll back Roe v. Wade –which is pretty scary –along with her foreign policy which seems to justify the continuation of pre-emptive strikes and covert ops in countries w/o their permission. In my opinion, these policies can have no good end and are clearly aligned with the profane masculine or patriarchal model. In other words, she is just a prettier and smarter version of the puppet we’ve had for the last 8 years.

Now Diana Ross –there is a Goddess! Wow, looking and listening to old clips of her early stuff just gives me the chills. We can look at her chart in a minute, but first I want to look at some mundane charts because I find the entire history of African Americans and also Motown very interesting.

 

The chart for the arrival of the first slaves is really something. Penfield gives a time of 10:15am which is probably speculative, but the date is pretty much solid historical knowledge. John Rolfe documented the arrival on August 30, 1619 of “twenty and odd negroes” in Jamestown on what we now know was a pirate ship. They had been stolen from slavers on the high seas and the pirates traded them for “victuals” –which means foodstuff and supplies. Clearly Ceres is in operation here on both the literal and archetypal levels as these twice abducted people are traded for food. Accordingly, Ceres is in grand trine to the Sun and Moon. Ceres in Capricorn also speaks to the eventual importance of slaves to the agricultural economy of the South and the resulting “Slave State” of the Confederacy.

 

I think Ceres also speaks to the process of transformation which Dr. King alluded to as America finally living up to the ideals of the forefathers. Most people don’t realize the closest aspect in the Sibley chart for the USA is Ceres square Uranus –the closing of the Agricultural age and the dawning of the Industrial Age -which is what the Civil War was largely about. It is interesting that after Pluto’s discovery Inauguration Day was moved so that the transit Sun on that day would be conjunct Sibley Pluto. Before then it had been March 4 –which was conjunct Sibley Ceres. That kind of put a period on the whole process of transforming from Agriculture to Technology.

 

I don’t have a chart for Motown records, but as a Mundane Astrologer, I might want to go even deeper than that. Why did the Motown sound start in Chicago? Well, in some ways it is probably because of Chicago’s musical PRECEDENT. 

The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues (meaning Mississippi) and adding electrically amplified instruments. The music developed when poor Black workers did the "Great Migration" from the South into the industrial cities of the North such as Chicago in the first half of the twentieth century.

Now, what was this “Great Migration?”

The Great Migration was the movement of approximately seven million African Americans out of the Southern United States to the North, Midwest and West from 1910 to 1970. Precise estimates of the number of migrants depend on the time frame. African Americans migrated to escape racism, seek employment opportunities in industrial cities, and to get better education for their children, all of which were widely perceived as leading to a better life. Some historians differentiate between the Great Migration (1910-1940), numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and the Second Great Migration, from 1940-1970. In the Second Migration 5 million or more people relocated but migrants moved to more new places.

What are the Mundane events we can specifically connect with this Great Migration?

Well, the last line in the song Led Zeppelin covered “When the Levee breaks” says “goin to Chicago.” That is a great hint that these white boys were singing a song by an African American blues artist -Memphis Minnie (6-3-1897) -who had a Grand Square from Chiron opposite Venus square the Nodes w/ Mars conjunct S. Node. “Mean ole levee taught me to weep an moan”

The levee that broke was the Mounds Landing Levee, on 4-21-1927 8am at Mounds Landing Mississippi. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/timeline/timeline2.html

You will notice in this chart that the Sun is conjunct Chiron –and Ceres is conjunct the Moon –which is just about to set. I think this speaks to a chapter in African American history which was about to close. The would soon embark on a self-initiated process of transformation known as the “Great Migration.”

 

This levee breach was the final straw which led to the Great Mississippi flood of 1927 which was WAY worse than Katrina as the Mississippi River reached 60 MILES wide in some places. The Mississippi River broke out of its levee system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square miles or about 16,570,627 acres (70,000 km²). The area was inundated up to a depth of 30 feet (10 m).

The reason why this event had specifically to do with the Great Migration is because the overt racism was on display as never before. Blacks were forced at gunpoint to work on the levee before it broke and then afterward they were left on the levee while the white folks with boats gathered up all “their own kind.” Thirteen thousand African Americans are stranded on the levee with nothing but blankets and makeshift tents for shelter.

The overt racism following this Mundane event can be seen to be one of, if not the most significant forces leading to the Great Migration, an expanded African American presence in Chicago, the Chicago Blues –and hence the Motown sound.

 

And of course Diana Ross was from nearby Detroit (born 3-26-44 @ 11:46pm EWT). She has a Scorpio Asc with the ruler Mars in Gemini in a close out-of-sign conjunction with Ceres in Cancer. I can hear her as Ceres singing to Mars “Someday, we’ll be together.” I also think this symbolizes her assertive, and some might say aggressive approach to personal transformation. She also has Pallas, the warrior Goddess and patroness of the Arts, conjunct an exalted Moon in Taurus.

 

Diana’s music career began in 1959 when The Supremes formed from neighborhood friends. Progressed Vesta had reached conjunction with natal and progressed Saturn in Gemini.

The group changed members a couple times and eventually auditioned and signed with Motown in 1961. Progressed Pallas was trine the progressed Midheaven during this period.

Motown CEO, Berry Gordy (whom Ross would later have a child with) named Diana the lead singer in 1963 as progressed Morning Star Venus moved to conjunction with progressed Juno. The Supremes had their first #1 hit with “Where Did Our Love Go” in 1964. And the rest, as they say, is history. Recording a total of 12 number-one singles, the Supremes became the most successful American vocal group of the 1960s, and the second most successful group worldwide, second only to The Beatles.