(Intro Video read by Emma Thompson)

Nemonte Nenquimo is an indigenous Waorani leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon. Born in 1985, Nenquimo led a historic, successful lawsuit in 2019 against the Ecuadorian government to protect half a million acres of pristine rainforest from oil drilling. She represents the front lines of indigenous activism.

The Waorani Nation is a culture of traditional hunter-gatherers who had lived in relative isolation until first contact with Christian missionaries in 1958. Her worldview was shaped entirely by the oral histories of her elders and her grandfather, a legendary warrior who fiercely defended their territory. At age 12, a formative trip with her father to visit an aunt living near an active oil well changed her life forever. Seeing the literal smoke, fire, and social destruction caused by resource extraction instilled a deep, lifelong determination to protect her pristine homeland.

Her memoir also describes her identity struggles throughout her adolescence and how she admired the straight white teeth of the white missionaries. She hammered out her own teeth in the hope that the white people would give her new ones. Her memoir recounts the disturbing interactions she experienced with the Christian missionaries who both mistreated and sexually exploited her.

After briefly studying in the city of Quito, Nenquimo returned to the rainforest with a mission. In 2014, she co-founded the Ceibo Alliance, a groundbreaking non-profit that united four distinct Indigenous nations (the Waorani, A’i Cofán, Siekopai, and Siona peoples) across Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. Historically, some of these tribes had been divided, but Nenquimo recognized they faced a shared existential threat: the auctioning off their ancestral lands to foreign oil companies.

Nenquimo focused on making her people self-sufficient so they wouldn’t have to rely on oil company handouts. She spearheaded projects to install rainwater harvesting systems, solar panels, and organic cacao farming. Simultaneously, she organized a massive community-mapping project to digitize and chart their territory using GPS, proving their historical and ecological connection to the land.

In 2018, Nenquimo made history by being elected the first female president of the Waorani organization of Pastaza province (CONCONAWEP). Almost immediately, the Ecuadorian government announced plans to auction off sixteen oil concessions covering millions of acres of primary, biodiverse Amazon rainforest.

Nenquimo and her allies launched a massive global digital campaign called, “Our Rainforest is Not for Sale,” gathering nearly 400,000 international signatures. More importantly, she served as the lead plaintiff in a historic lawsuit against the Ecuadorian government, arguing that the state had systematically violated the constitutional right of Indigenous peoples to give free, prior, and informed consent before their territory could be exploited.

In April 2019, the courts ruled in favor of Nenquimo and the Waorani, a victory that permanently protected 500,000 acres of pristine Amazon rainforest from oil drilling and set an invaluable legal precedent for Indigenous land rights across the entire Amazon basin. Nenquimo was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize (the “Green Nobel”) in 2020, named a United Nations Champion of the Earth, and featured on TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People. She also published a highly acclaimed memoir, We Will Be Jaguars (published as We Will Not Be Saved in the UK), making her the first Indigenous woman from the Amazon to have her life story published in multiple languages worldwide.

Link to Time Magazine Article

Many Stars’ Connection to the Stars

To understand how Nemonte Nenquimo transformed her personal trauma into change, I examined her chart through the specific lens of Chiron, the architect of resilience, and Ceres, the steward of the harvest.

Chiron and Ceres in Living Archetype

Nenquimo was one of ten environmental activists whose charts I studied recently through a focus on Chiron and Ceres. Chiron rules the “method of the quest,” and is known as the “Wounded Healer.” Chiron represents our capacity to turn our deepest struggles into our greatest strengths, confronting our own imperfections and fears, so that we can step more fully into our power. Since Chiron is a celestial body that sits between Saturn and Uranus and goes between the two, Chiron is also a bridge builder.

Ceres, on the other hand, represents the force behind the harvest in mythology. In terms of earth activism, Ceres is the protective energy that ensures sustenance and demands that we respect nature’s boundaries. Ceres represents the Earth stewardship principle.

Nenquimo’s Chiron

CHIRON at 7/8° Gemini 7 Gemini is "an old-fashioned well," or “a well beneath majestic trees,”while 8 Gemini is “aroused strikers round a factory." In Sabian symbolism, the old-fashioned well represents deep, primordial, ancestral resources, the life-source that sustained previous generations, requiring manual effort to draw up, but offering pure sustenance unaffected by modern, artificial infrastructure. While the symbolism of the aroused strikers is more obvious when connected to Mars.

Nemonte’s Chironic wound and medicine are both deeply tied to the oil well. In her book she often refers to oil as the “blood of my ancestors.” The wound is the modern world threatening to poison or dry up the ancient, pristine and primal sources of life (literal clean water and ancestral heritage in the Amazon). Or, one could tie this directly to the visit she made to the oil well which made such an impact on her at a young age. In recovering and reclaiming her own identity and the stories of her ancestry within her family and tribe, she taps into the wellspring of strength and spiritual support. The writing of her own story itself becomes the clear water from life-giving well providing healing. So you have both the negative connotation of a polluting oil well, and the positive connotation of the wellspring of story as a life-giving force like water.

Chiron is the energy of the translator. Just as Chiron taught the heroes of mythology the arts of healing and music, Nemonte translates the language of culture and the rainforest. She transforms her personal suffering into healing teaching.

Mars (The Warrior) conjunct Chiron at 8/9° Gemini
Sabian symbol for 9 is “a medieval archer stands with the ease of one wholly sure of himself, bow in hand, his quiver filled with arrows” Mars is how we fight, express anger, and defend our boundaries. For an Indigenous activist who stood up to international oil consortia and her own government’s industrial plans, this symbol shows how she organized a massive, unified front across four distinct indigenous nations to say: “The factory cannot operate here. The rainforest is not for sale.”

Gemini rules mapping, communication, local networks, and signatures. Nenquimo fought her battle using community-led GPS mapping tools (Gemini data) and a legal lawsuit/petition (Gemini documentation).

Nenquimo’s Ceres

Ceres is the archetype of the steward, and Nemonte operates with that same fierce, protective focus on the source of life. By installing rainwater systems and prioritizing cacao farming, she is actively cultivating the 'harvest' of her people’s future. She understands that you cannot defend the land without also securing the physical, day-to-day resources needed to sustain it.

CERES at 16/17 Gemini opposing Uranus
Sabian Symbol: "The head of a robust youth changes into that of a mature thinker." Outmaneuvering powerful corporations is no small feat. Ceres in Gemini nurtures and protects through communication, education, and the written or spoken word. Nenquimo co-founded the Ceibo Alliance and mobilized her community to map their own lands, blending ancient oral history with modern GPS technology. She had to pivot from the ancestral wisdom to the legal and technological realms

Nemonte Nenquimo does not just advocate for the Earth; she embodies it. Her life is a blueprint for what is possible when we stop waiting for a savior and begin to act as the architects of our own preservation. Her journey is a reminder that we are all capable of defending the sacred. We are not just witnesses to the modern crisis, we are the stewards of the next harvest.

Further Resources

The Amazon Frontlines. “I want the People to Wake Up”: Nemonte Nenquimo on growing up in the rainforest and her fight to save it.

Nenquimo’s TED Talk

One Earth. Nemonte Nenquimo- Defender of the Amazon

Time Magazine, Nemonte Nenquimo

Wikipedia, Nemonte Nenquimo

Highlights covered in video:

• Saturn Opposition Age 14 - Disney’s Shake it Up

• Transiting Chiron Conjunct Natal Saturn - Euphoria 2019

• Jupiter conjunct natal Saturn, Venus conjunct Sun - Sept. 2022, 2nd Emmy Award

• Pallas Athena conjunct Neptune - Feb. 2025 Odyssey Filming Begins

• Pallas Athena on ASC - Aug. 2025 filming Odyssey ends

• Saturn Return - Apr. 2, 2026, Pluto on ASC, Uranus on IC, Pallas Athena entering 2nd House

• Pallas Athena conjunct natal Saturn 1 month after Saturn Return

A Note about the Making of This

I made a total of six Planetary Portrait short reels this summer for Instagram all available on my Youtube Channel here. My intent and interest in creating this Planetary Portrait Series was to reach a broader audience and to demystify the cycles of Jupiter and Saturn and how they shape the timeline of a human biography. I think if more people understood the way that astrologers view biography, perhaps people could gain greater perspective on their own lives.

For me, writing is by far my preference over making video because of the simplicity. A writer’s quality speaks for itself. A writer doesn’t have to worry about the quality of audio, the lighting, the wardrobe or makeup, or deal with all of the glitchy things that can happen when you try to record yourself at home, like when the neighbor decides to start mowing, or the air conditioner kicks on. I always want my message to be the focus, not me or my furniture. I have always lived by the saying that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly at first.

That said, even though I don’t “love” the final result for myself, may you enjoy my stumbly first forays into creating these videos. 1 Thank you and I welcome constructive feedback by personal email.

Zendaya’s upcoming portrayal as Athena in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey prompted me to take a peek at Zendaya’s chart and biography recently. Not only did she just pass through her first Saturn Return this April, her natal Pallas Athena, the asteroid of wisdom and strategic defense sits in Scorpio, in direct opposition to her Moon in Taurus and made transits to her ASC during the filming of The Odyssey.

Background

Zendaya got her big break at age 14 during her first Saturn opposition when she was cast in Disney’s Shake it Up. Many other roles followed. By 2019, in Euphoria she truly leveled up the Scorpionic depth, for which she was rewarded, as her 2022 Emmy chart shows. As the youngest person to ever win not one, but two prime time Emmys for her role in Euphoria, she proved her staying power at the ripe age of twenty-four. Chiron conjunct her natal Saturn got my attention as the film exposes the depths and intensity of addiction.

Fast forward a half-Jupiter cycle, when filming began for The Odyssey in February 2025, Pallas Athena was conjunct her natal Neptune (film). As filming ended in August, Pallas Athena crossed her ascendant. This shows a sort of thru-line or connection point to embodying this role.

One month after her Saturn Return in early April 2026, transiting Pallas Athena formed an exact conjunction with her natal Saturn. By May, Zendaya was pulling back a bit on her public appearances, and even stated in an interview on Mar 26, 2026, (though perhaps only jokingly) that she may need to “go into hiding.” An interesting tactic considering Athena’s guidance to Odysseus.

Athena essentially teaches Odysseus that to achieve a great goal, one must sometimes disappear into the background to observe the terrain and prepare for the final, necessary confrontation. Conserving your energy and picking your battles, or “hiding in plain sight,” is wise if it furthers your preservation, or intelligence gathering before taking action and timing your attack. This had me looking at Pallas Athena in my own chart in a new way, seeing where I might be able to apply some of the same preserving/withholding logic and strategy.

As she balances so many high profile roles at once with the need for personal preservation, Zendaya is an interesting generational forerunner with her natal Pluto at 0° Sag on her MC. Though its clear her acting career is off and running gang busters, time will tell if she can also truly master the Athenian art of the “strategic no.”

I created a companion video breaking down these charts, coming to you this Sunday before the movie release on 7/17 to round out these thoughts on Zendaya’s chart. Keep an eye on for it! If you go to see movie The Odyssey, let me know your opinion on it.

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At age 11-12 Jupiter returns to the place where it was when a person was born, sort of a Jupiter birthday if you will, opening up a new phase of growth that marks the onset of puberty. By age 14-15, Saturn is halfway around the Sun from where it was when a person was born. In astrology this is the called the first Saturn opposition, and it is linked to that well-known time period when a young person tests authority. These two transits form the architecture of the often challenging, rebellious teen years, a “Shadowland” as astrologer, Alex Trenoweth calls it, through which a person must pass during those pivotal years of adolescent development.

About two years after the Jupiter birthday, Jupiter makes a sextile (60 degree) aspect to its natal position, providing extra impetus for growth, extra bravado and risk taking, as well as curiosity and desire to explore new realms of knowledge with a greater capacity for abstract thinking. The planet most associated with independence, Uranus, also makes a sextile to its own natal placement at age 14 during that same time period, providing further sparks of rebellion and independence. Because of the variance in planetary retrograde periods, it may seem like a dice roll as to whether a person experiences their Jupiter Sextile first or their Uranus Sextile.

My curiosity is this: How do these transits mirror human development? Does having a Uranus sextile first mean something as opposed to having the Jupiter sextile first during this window of development? Could the sequence possibly show a higher correlation to risk-taking or suicide? If a large enough sample group of people who had committed suicide were taken, would any other patterns emerge? How does it compare to a more random sampling of the population? Most importantly, how can we support young people making their way through these challenging developmental phases?

I am not a counselor or research analyst. I have never even taken a course on Statistics. I’m a teacher in the trenches, a parent of three young adults, and now a grandparent. Over the years I observed many different kinds of young people from many different walks of life all experiencing these exact development phases. It seems only natural to connect my study of biography and astrology to my work with young people. If astrology (or anything) can be an aid to understanding how to better support young people in the process of growing up, why wouldn’t we utilize it?

Suicide is also an issue that has touched my life personally. My first personal experience with suicide came when the best man from our wedding, Bobby Markham, committed suicide a few years after our wedding. We knew Bobby had a drug problem, but he was also a young father with a promising career and new wife. He had a bright future ahead of him. We never expected his addiction to lead him to take his own life so suddenly. A decade or so later I was working at a small private school, and a bright teacher we had hired from the UK was experiencing mental and physical illness which ultimately brought her to take her own life. Lulu Black was a creative woman in her late twenties, so vibrant and full of life. We were all very saddened by this loss, and it left all of us who had worked with her wondering if we had missed warning signals. Sadly, these were only two of the personal experiences I have had with suicide. So, it is fair to say I have a personal interest in this topic.

What the Research Shows

Brain experts explain the massive “rewiring” that occurs during the teen years and how it is only rivaled by the earliest stages of life during fetal development. So why aren’t more people paying attention to it? Some quotes:

The “Perfect Storm” of Change

This period is described as a unique developmental “spurt” that mirrors the foundational learning seen in toddlers.

• Dr. Ron Dahl (Institute for Human Development, UC Berkeley): “It’s a perfect storm of change... the adolescent learning spurt is second only to the rapid brain development of the first five years of early childhood.” — The Hechinger Report

• Maricopa Open Digital Press: “Second only to infant development, adolescents experience rapid development in a short period of time... an astounding transformation in their brains.” — Adolescence – Lifespan Development

The consensus among organizations like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Harvard Medical School is that while the fetal period focuses on building the “hardware” (the physical structures), adolescence is the most rapid period of updating the “software” (the connections and social-emotional processing).

When students of today spend far greater number of hours in closer contact to computers, cell phones and social media, rather than in the company of real, in-person, loving human beings, healthy friendships and healthy family relationships, it is not much of a surprise the devastating outcomes for both long and short term mental and social development. This may be why we now see the worldwide rate of increase in suicides in teens and the mental health crisis as such a growing concern.

Studying Suicide Charts

A week after Christmas 2025, I began studying charts of people who had committed suicide. It was kind of a dark undertaking at what normally be a more festive occasion. In taking a preliminary look at this question, I began looking at the charts of seven famous people who I knew had committed suicide. At first I was looking at the adolescent time period between the first Jupiter Return and the Final Saturn Opposition of age 14-15 and whether the subject had Uranus Sextile or Jupiter Sextile first. Also of interest was the length of this time period because it seemed logical to me that if a young person must experience all of these software upgrades in a shorter time period it might cause more shock to the system to have to integrate those changes more more quickly.

In the months that followed I went further, looking at a total of thirty charts, of mostly famous people who had taken their own life regardless of their age at time of death. 60% of them had experienced their Uranus sextile before the Jupiter sextile. That number seemed high. While I recognize that in the general population everyone will experience a Uranus sextile and I don’t know what that number is, (it could also be 60%!) the variability of this transit makes it harder to pin down, so all of this leads to more questions.

Questions Arising

While every human being experiences a Uranus sextile during their youth around the age of 14, the variability of planetary retrogrades means the timing shifts quite a bit. When Uranus—the planet of sudden disruption, shock, and radical individuation—strikes a fragile adolescent psyche before the stabilizing, hopeful expansion of Jupiter can anchor it, does it create a unique pressure point of vulnerability? I realize I may be putting my own interpretation into it, so it seems like it could use more eyes on it. My primary point is about the compressed nature of this developmental window. If a young person is hit with these major software upgrades in rapid succession, does it shock them even more with less time to integrate them? I realize that suicide is multi-causal, multi-factorial and one of the most complicated topics to study for moral and ethical concerns. I also realize that these thirty cases of famous people who committed suicide are just a starting point.

One helpful and recent case study can be found in the tragic biography of Robert Carradine, whose youthful years serves as an illustration of how this exact planetary timeline tracks alongside sudden, volatile life shifts that reverberate later on throughout a person’s life beyond the teen years. When we look at his chart and biography, it opens up deeper questions about generational patterns, questions that become even more intriguing when looking at the broader Carradine family timeline, similar to the Presley and Huston families. There is far too much to share about Carradine’s chart in this post, so I will have to save it for a future post. I’ve included Carradine’s birth chart below as a starting point for those curious to take a look.

Where This Goes Next

I am not saying, “Let’s look at all these famous people and how awful they committed suicide.” What I am saying is, “Look at this intense cosmic pressure cooker of a time period that all young people must walk through at the age of 14-years-old.” Here is why they are struggling and pushing boundaries, and here is why they desperately need our grounded, real-world support. I am not a clinical psychologist or a career statistician. I am a teacher, parent, and a grandparent. I have watched hundreds of young people navigate these crosscurrents from age 12-14. If astrology (or anything) can serve as an early warning system to help adults support struggling teens before they hit their breaking point, we would be irresponsible not to use every means at our disposal to aid them.

I am building a foundation for a more formal research project that I am hope to get published in a professional astrological journal so that other research astrologers can look into it.

Are you interested in the intersection of astrology, biography, and youth advocacy, or know others who are? Share this post!

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Suicide is a serious topic. If you know of anyone needing help, don’t ignore the warning signs. Get help!

The Saturn Square Reality Check

Both the Sun and Moon are squaring Saturn in Aries. If there is a structural flaw in your long-term plans or you have avoided a responsibility, this transit may expose it. Don’t avoid restrictions; use them to build a sturdier foundation.

Mercury Stationing Retrograde

Locking into place on the exact day of the Full Moon, Mercury begins its retrograde journey. But, fear not. The universal mandate for the Mercury Retrograde is simple: Just do your homework. Check before you commit. Treat agreements as drafts that require a careful second, or even a third look, not something set in stone at this point.

The CEO’s Brain Dump Strategy for this lunation

Because Capricorn respects tangible strategy over wishful thinking, adopt the tactical “Brain Dump” approach recommended by Kevin Van Paassen & ACS, which I think makes sense for this structured time period:

1. Clear the Deck: Write down every large or small professional and personal anxiety cluttering your mental space.

2. The Ruthless Edit: Channel Capricorn’s pragmatism and aggressively cross off anything that isn’t actively serving your long-term growth or ultimate purpose.

3. Micro-Action: Pick your top three remaining priorities and commit to one small, actionable task for each within the following 48 hours.

By this Full Moon, Mars and Uranus are already pretty darn close (within 3 degrees of each other), but will make their conjunction exact on July 4th, so hold on to your hat until then. Fireworks will be forthcoming.

PS Can’t wait for the new Odyssey movie to come out next month!

I have been fiddling around with my online stuff this summer and I have now utilized my existing personal domain name, Gabelsberg.com for my Substack. I will try cross posting a bit more between my Substack and website blog at eagleeyeastrology.com to see how I can streamline my output more. Like the old saying goes, “Don’t mind the dust.”

This post was adapted for Substack from my original post located at https://eagleeyeastrology.com/f/%E2%99%91-the-capricorn-full-moon-no-fluff-reality-check

To honor Chiron’s return to Taurus, I decided to study ten famous environmental activists by looking at the Sabian Symbol degree for both their Chiron and Ceres. I put it altogether in a pdf and posted on my website for download. There are some really interesting connections. Enjoy !

Link to Chiron, Ceres, and the Call to Activism on my website.

Here’s a teaser from the intro.

The call to protect the Earth rarely arrives as a general idea. More often, it comes through the immediacy of a burning forest, a river poisoned, the disappearing of a species, or a community ignored. For the environmental pioneers in this study, activism emerges not merely as a political stance, but as a healing response to the tragedy and consequences of humanity’s separation from nature.

In astrology, Chiron describes the wound that becomes a medicine, while Ceres speaks to nourishment, agriculture, protection, loss, and the sacred responsibility of sustaining life. Together, these two archetypes offer a powerful lens for examining environmental activism. Chiron reveals where pain becomes purpose; Ceres reveals how that purpose is cultivated into care for the Earth and its communities.

This study explores the Sabian symbols for the Chiron and Ceres placements of ten well-known environmental pioneers, five women and five men. Rather than delineating each chart from top to bottom with every planet and aspect, my goal was to listen for symbolic echoes between their biographies, their ecological work, and the mythic language of the zodiac. This is not intended as a deterministic reading of character or destiny.

What emerges is a portrait of activism as both personal initiation and collective service: a call to heal the wound between human civilization and our living planet.

1. Greta Thurnberg— The Institutional Mirror

2. Nemonte Nenquimo— The Ancestral Guardian-Warrior

3. Vandana Shiva — The Philosopher-Scientist

4. Vanessag Nakate — The Sovereign Diplomat

5. Jane Goodall — The Sacred Translator

6. Bill Mollison — The Systemic Gardener

7. John Robbins — The Micro & Macro Experimenter

8. Bill McKibben — The Global Network Mobilizer

9. Paul Hawken — The Restorative Architect

10. Buckminster Fuller – The Architect of Synergy

Download the pdf at Chiron, Ceres, and the Call to Activism on my website.

It was right in the middle of that when I really started to ponder Chiron’s upcoming shift into Taurus. Right now, Chiron sits at 29 Aries 49 minutes perched on the precipice of Taurus. On June 19th, it’s going to make its first temporary dip into the bull’s territory (see ingress chart at the end of his post). It will go back into Aries to clean up the show. Then in April 2027 it moves on more permanently into Taurus. Chiron has been in Aries since 2018, and boy, haven’t we all changed a lot since then?

Chiron was discovered in 1977 while in the sign of Taurus and so we are entering a time when collectively, humanity will experience our first consciously-experienced Chiron return. Old systems that focus on accumulation of wealth have proven simply unsustainable. The issue of the cost of living and the worth of things and the connection to the value of human life (global infertility) could remain a very big topic in the time ahead.

Chiron here can bring about increased awareness and clarity, making the healing that needs to be done more obvious, specifically around the wealth divide, resource distribution, and collective perceptions of value. Taurus relates to the reproductive organs. Chiron here is not so subtly suggesting that we heal the Earth and heal our bodies, that we put a higher value on human life and human fertility.

The Chiron timeline:

June 19, 2026: Chiron’s initial ingress into Taurus (the summer preview begins in a few days as I write this and only lasts through the summer, see the chart at end of this post).

August 3, 2026: Chiron Stations retrograde at 0 Taurus.

September 17, 2026: Chiron retrogrades back into Aries for a final clean-up of the past eight years.

April 2027 – 2034: Chiron in Taurus for the long haul. (Note: In the chart of Chiron’s Discovery, Chiron sat at 3 Taurus. Chiron will makes 3 hits to that point:
June 7, 2027, October 6, 2027, and April 5, 2028.)

Last night I watched the documentary, The Plastic Detox on Netflix. Add it to your watch list. (And yes, it relates to Chiron in Taurus.)

Dr. Shanna Swan, a fertility researcher, takes six couples who are trying to conceive and puts them on a plastics detox protocol. The team of researchers completely overhauled their homes, eliminating plastic food storage, synthetic cookware, plastic-wrapped foods, and personal care products containing phthalates and bisphenols.

They then followed the biometrics of all the couples, like the male’s sperm count, the female’s egg quality and overall fertility markers. The results were convincing. Every husband had an increase in sperm count after the period of plastics detox; some were more dramatic. Three of the six couples were able to conceive after long periods of infertility. All reported feeling better, sleeping better, increased mental clarity, and increased energy. Do people forget that plastics are made from petroleum?

Collectively we will have to face the toxic reality and the human and ecological cost of all of our plastic conveniences. We need a break from it. The Earth itself needs a break and a detox. Maybe the interruption of the flow of oil from the Middle East will help bring about a PLASTICS DETOX for the next seven years, wouldn’t that be nice!? (I know, I know, can you let a girl dream at least can’t you?) But, it’s like the old saying, “When you know better, you do better.” This whole thing reminds me of the tobacco industry and the things that the establishment knew for a long time, but kept the public in the dark to keep the profits rolling in.

Chironic healing starts with reclaiming the sacred worth of our own bodies. Systemic corporate greed and destruction can be brought into the light and faced in new ways through smart problem-solving, inventiveness and curiosity and a desire for collective fertility and well-being. We can’t dream our way out of the toxic consequences, but we can start making different choices right now in our own “duckponds.”

…. Sorry, I need to go clean out my kitchen now.

Chiron’s Summer Ingress Chart - June 19, 2026

But there has been a distinct luxury in this, too, and it isn’t that I am keeping up with my laundry or weeding my flower bed. I’ve been able to take my information in smaller doses—which suits my slower, sensitive Mercury in Pisces quite well. Pacing the lectures gave my brain time to digest the ideas, saving me from the acute infogestion of data overload. Like slowing down after a good meal, our brains and nervous systems need time to gel with new experiences and ideas. When we look at the Gemini transits approaching this summer, slowing down the infogestion may become more important for many of us because we may experience a sharp reality check on our collective nervous systems in July.

Pacing the Gemini Frequency of 2026

On July 4, 2026, Mars and Uranus form a conjunction in early Gemini, producing a sudden rebellion, shock or rupture, a jolt to the electrical nervous system of the collective, our communication or transportation systems. Together, the two planets make a tight trine aspect to Pluto at 4 Aquarius, which simultaneously sextiles Neptune at 4 Aries. With Neptune also sextile Pluto, the outer planets form a configuration known as a Minor Grand Trine, sometimes called a Talent Triangle or Magic Triangle.

In this alignment, Neptune in Aries acts as the midpoint and fulcrum. This triple aspect at 4 degrees will remain influential throughout the rest of July.

As we add Jupiter in Leo to it, things shift. As astrologer Hiroki Niizato notes in his analysis of 2026 Astrology: A Year of Change and New Beginnings, harmonic aspects like trines and sextiles are beautiful, but they can be passive.

It is the tense Jupiter in Leo to Pluto in Aquarius opposition that acts as a catalyst, throwing a match into the room and forcing this latent triangle into active, visible expression.

Further, scan the ephemeris forward and you will notice a coming brief period of 12 days beginning on June 6, 2027 where these three planets also return to this exact same aspect pattern, but further along at 6 degrees. It isn’t until 2028 that this Minor Grand Trine Pluto-Neptune-Uranus configuration truly starts to dissipate and loosen up.

It may be helpful to consider pacing our nervous systems through this period leading up to next summer in 2027 and through 2028 because the pace could be frenetic. The nervous system in Gemini can easily fry its circuits.

As someone entering the freshman class of old people, I find I have to consciously keep grounded: eat well, simplify my activities and attention, but especially prioritize good quality sleep to cope with the tendency to overload. Setting personal limits on cellphone use may be especially helpful in modulating the Gemini energy, not only because of the techno- tyranny that excessive screen use invites, but also because it’s better for your nervous system and helps to slow things down.

Ang Stoic put it quite directly recently when he wrote:

“The organic body needs to stay sovereign over the device if we are to avoid becoming welfare system slaves of the techno oligarchy.”

We do still live in organic bodies. Sovereignty is an important word here. Kids can be led around by their noses, and so can the masses. Teachers can readily see the detrimental effects on our young people, whose brains are still maturing. Their neural circuitry is being rewired by the device just as the natural 'pruning' processes of adolescence are underway. But while the kids are staying up all night on their phones texting their friends and scrolling TikTok, serious damage is being done. Meanwhile, algorithms are gathering up the data from mapping what their young eyes land on to hold them captive more effectively. It is a quiet, systemic captivity.

Cracks in the Foundation

During the panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence, astrologer Rick Levine spoke about our physical bodies becoming weaker in this tech-saturated era. We can recognize this in many ways. I always think of the movie Wall-E when it comes to this. And yet, perhaps at some point, technology may bolster our health such that the line between what is artificial and what is natural is no longer distinguishable. Whether that’s good or bad misses the point. It just is. It is here, implying that we simply accept the situation. Big Tech might improve our health, but with rapid degradation of the environment, it is a massive, and terrifying gamble. The relentless fact is that we all depend on the natural world for food, water, sunlight, and air. Just as technology is not going away, our dependency on Earth is not going away anytime soon either.

I recently saw an image that perfectly captured our modern dilemma. It was titled, “The House That Eats Its Foundations: A system cannot survive by consuming what it holds up.” The schematic style drawing showed a giant multi-level house. At the bottom are the earth, the land, and the animals. Above them are the ordinary people who do the daily work to keep us fed, built, and repaired. Yet, all the wealth is concentrated at the very top. Nothing is being done to shore up the foundation despite more weight continually being added at the top. Eventually it leads to collapse.

Countless ordinary people are holding up the system. Wealth is continuously extracted from bottom and moved into the storehouses of the few at the top. Meanwhile, the workers who power this engine have all their exits blocked. A peaceful dissenter cannot simply escape to the woods like Henry David Thoreau. The Earth itself is drilled, mined, logged, and burned to fuel the penthouse suite. Rents are high, food is expensive. Our core institutional systems lost coherence decades ago. Healthcare has become impossibly expensive for the insured and uninsured alike, while the extreme political polarity over which party 'did us the dirtiest' serves only to divide and conquer the public. Yet, the building continues, ever reaching upward.

This situation cannot last. History shows us this when we look at fallen empires. I believe the profiteers have known that eventually a reckoning would come. Maybe the dove will someday arrive and there will still be a rainbow after the rain, but we (and our children’s children) are stuck on this earthship together and we need to start acting like it.

Neptune in Aries as a Personal Pivot Point

As we navigate this multi-year peak of intensity between July 2026 and June 2027, the macro-system may feel like it’s fracturing, but our individual power lies in how authentically we choose to act or express ourselves and how well we can anchor ourselves through the midpoint/fulcrum of Neptune in Aries and/or any planets or points at 4 degrees. Neptune in Aries represents the collective dream or “ideal,” or in some sense, the cultural zeitgeist of this coming 14-year period. With Aries often playing the “warrior,” there could be an over-idealization of war, the hero complex, or literal conflict. Interpreting where Neptune falls in a Solar Arc progression, or where it transits the natal chart, may serve as a powerful indicator for the road ahead on an individual level. As one speaker noted during the AI panel discussion in the conference:

“Authenticity is the last great rebellion.”

I think that originality in the age of AI will be key, and it also sums up the raw, survival-oriented Neptune in Aries quite well. Aries is me-focused, even though it wants to lead.

Business and evolutionary astrologer Kathryn Hocking also reminds us that Neptune’s midpoint activation is ultimately our “cosmic pivot point—a rare invitation to realign purpose, structure, and strategy while making courageous, future-focused moves.” I would also stress that it takes time, coalition building, preparation, work, and clarity on your values to lead others toward practical, realistic realignment of purpose or mission.

Aries energy expressions tend to go off half cocked, alone, and without a plan and you don’t map out a systemic realignment in the middle of a fight. The necessary counterpoint here is Libran diplomacy, logic, and coalition strategy. America “going it alone” falls apart in the context of the global economy. Neptune in Aries gives the vibe of unrealistic, excessively idealistic, “unhinged,” potentially self-righteous holy wars.

The need for creative disruption isn’t new; it’s an economic necessity that observers have been noticing for years. Writing when Neptune was at a mere 7 Pisces, David Brooks noted in the New York Times:

Wall Street, Washington, big agriculture, big energy, big universities - are dominated by interlocking elites who create self-serving arrangements for themselves. Society is split between those bred into these networks and those who are not. Moreover, the U.S. economy is increasingly competing against autocratic economies, which play by their own self-serving rules. Sometimes government is going to have to be active to disrupt local oligarchies and global autocracies by fomenting creative destruction - by insisting on dynamic immigration policies, by pumping money into research, by creating urban environments that nurture innovation, by spending money to give those outside the clusters new paths to rise.

Channeling the zeal of Neptune in Aries through the community focus of Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini, we can work towards creative destruction by remembering that the wellbeing of the PEOPLE is what equals PROGRESS. We tend to think of all destruction as just being “bad,” but it can be creative. Activating local networks of people and resources that buffer the shocks we may face reduces the risks involved when attempting to go it alone. ( I am talking food, clothing, shelter.) On a personal level, get to know your neighbors, call and connect with your siblings and make plans in case of family emergencies, invest and plan for strategies that respond to sudden survival situations. In other words, activating all that is local and of a communicative nature to mitigate the sudden winds of change and hold us up in times of stress.

We see the value of local alliance most clearly when the power grid fails and forces us to unplug. When Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area in 2008, cutting power during the stifling August heat, our neighborhood became a maze of fallen trees and blocked roads. Yet, as the screens went dark, people emerged. I was shocked to see dozens of children walking around outside whom I had never even met, prompting me to ask, “Where did all of these kids come from?”

For an entire week, curious kids played outside while neighbors checked on the elderly, sharing generators, chainsaws, and hot meals. There was immense comfort in that sudden, raw community connection. But the moment the power grid came online, the kids retreated indoors to their familiar devices. The Matrix rebooted.

That is the ultimate challenge of our times: harnessing the impulse for action (Aries) towards what will strengthen local communities and person to person engagement (Gemini/Aquarius). Creative destruction doesn’t have to mean complete societal collapse; it could mean an opportunity for a controlled burn of all that moves too many resources to the elites at the top, reducing what consumes our attention and resources, thereby robbing and weakening our local, physical networks.

We cannot fix the entire crumbling house in one day, and we don’t have to wait for a hurricane or a winter storm to force our hands. The next time the world moves too fast and the 'infogestion' sets in, try the most radical, rebellious act available to you: claim your sovereignty, put the device down, step outside, and log off the matrix. Go meet your neighbors. Engage with your local community. That is where creative destruction begins.

Some astrologers have their eyes on July 4, 2026, and the end of July as a time of spiraling toward greater economic meltdown and deeper global conflict. So why the sunflowers, you ask? I mean, why not? We may need them more than ever right now just to brighten the mood, or at least to give us some compost.

How so?

Mars will join Uranus in Gemini on July 2 to July 4, and Rob Hand puts it better than I can.

Rather than worry about it, maybe plant a garden and eat your veggies. The New Moon is the perfect time for planting.

As we get nearer to Uranus joining Mars in July, it is also a time of both rebellion and self-assertion.

The father of permaculture, Bill Mollison, is quoted as saying, “The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”

As for me, it’s not this lunation I am worried about, actually. I think the real sticky time will be July.

I recognize not everyone has even a tiny patch of soil to do this with, and if that is your situation, maybe you can make a pot out of an old container and scoop up some soil outside and water a seed in it. A seed is a tiny defiant act and during this time we all need a grounding force that keeps us from flying off in fits.

Maybe the sunflower’s lesson is that when the world feels like it is spinning out of control, the most radical thing you can do is root down, look up toward the sun, defy gravity, and grow.

Like many Houstonians, my family was subject to the larger economic forces that tied Houston to the boom-bust cycles of oil and gas. I have seen this directly impact families, including my own. When gases prices are high, Houston benefits, people move in, growth booms. When gas prices are low, Houston enters a bust cycle and oil and gas companies tend to lay off workers and regular Houstonians struggle, housing and job markets drop. In the early 1980’s when Houston’s economy tanked due to these global economic realities, my dad lost his job at a small energy management firm and we were forced to relocate back to New England where my parents came from, for better jobs and a new start.

So, Houston and I have a love-hate relationship. I have left three times. The people I love are here and that is always what brings me back, but I have never “loved” living here: there’s the hurricanes, the humidity, the traffic, the flood-prone streets, the over-developed commercialism, and the boom-bust cycles that make it a temporary home for waves of global gypsies, like my grandparents. But Houston has some sort of black hole vortex power that always sucks me back in no matter my trajectory or escape velocity. Even though I have left three times, I have also returned three times, each time for very different reasons but always involve the bigger economic forces beyond my control.

As an elementary school teacher, I can readily admit my general ignorance when it comes to the complexities of geopolitics. However, I am beginning to think that maybe everyone should take a broader and deeper interest in understanding how the oil and gas industry works and how it is driving our current global crisis with regard to Israel, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran. Oh yeah, don’t forget Europe and the entire rest of the world too, messing with pretty much everyone’s day to day livelihood. This includes regular people like teachers and not-so regular people like astrologers. But, there is always the hope that the more informed we can become, the more we can exercise some form of autonomy, voting with our wallets or our feet.

For the three decades I have been Houstonian and a teacher I have taught the children of oil and gas execs like Exxon employees in both public and private schools: the children of geologists, highly paid oil and gas administrators, and engineers, all the way to children from lower-income families, children of the men who work the off-shore drilling platforms and for piping companies who are subject to extremely “seasonal” ups and downs of the industry. This has brought me at least a few glimpses of how people’s lives are impacted by the ups and downs of big oil.

Anyone can read Exxon’s history in Wikipedia which gives a broader overview of the federal anti-trust history all the way back to the Rockefellers, revealing the now hundreds of billions of dollars at play. It gives a sense for the magnitude of global impact that just this one company has which sort of speaks for itself. Though I do the daily work of teaching young people to be better readers, writers, and thinkers, another thing I do now is look for the correspondence in astrology to make sense of the world and my place in it. It just gives me another view besides what “they” tell you. Whoever “they” is to you.

In looking at the “astrology of big oil” I was intrigued to find that this week (yesterday, actually) marked the eight year anniversary of the Rex Tillerson’s split with Trump administration over the Iran deal and Tillerson’s exit from the first Trump administration back on May 8th, 2018. Tillerson was the former head of Exxon and the man who Trump named Secretary of State. This eight year anniversary of course marks the Venus opposition to the natal Venus in the Exxon chart. [Astro Note: I used the date of Exxon’s 1973 brand formation which could be taken as November 1, 1972 or January 1, 1973 (I used a noon time) as a natal chart for the Exxon company entity and include that chart at the end of this Substack.]

Many other possible dates may exist for creating an “Exxon natal chart” due to the long and complex history of this company. But I feel that the US public recognizes the “Exxon brand,” and so I took this date of its brand reformation as its current iteration as an entity. Branding relates to Venus, because it symbolizes the relationship of Exxon to the public, but this can also be related to its public valuation since Venus=values. The Exxon brand formation is officially linked to January 1, 1973, because this was the date that the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey officially dropped its regional brands—Esso, Enco, and Humble—and began nationwide, unified marketing under the new "Exxon" name. 1 Also, according to the New York times article in my footnote, “On this date, the company formally merged its domestic subsidiaries into the parent company, which was renamed Exxon Corporation.”2

When I checked the charts for Tillerson’s exit against Exxon’s chart it showed this Exxon-Venus opposition. Give a quick listen to this 3 minute segment from a CBS interview, which I now find almost comical because it discusses the “values split.”

One thing I also noticed too was that if we take Neptune to represent “oil,” then there will be perhaps a big change for Exxon in April of 2029. With Jupiter conjunct Exxon’s natal Uranus there may be some opening or shift, however once transiting Uranus reaches Exxon’s natal Saturn it may face some new challenge when it reaches 15 Gemini, which incidentally is 1 degree from the 14 degree Saturn of the WTC disaster on 9/11. I think other astrologers may find it interesting and worthy of a deeper look at the Venus and other cycles of Exxon and the relationship to the US and world economy, topics far beyond my depth.

Here is the “natal chart” of Exxon I used.

Here is the comparison to the future unknown event date of April 6, 2029, when Neptune crosses the ASC of Exxon. Since Neptune is trine the natal Moon here and also trine its natal Neptune, it would seem a “good event” for big oil/Exxon. Note the transiting Uranus however, applying to conjunction with Saturn.

I first heard mention of of Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp, published in 2025 from a recent quote shared by a fellow Substacker. Kemp warns that Goliaths contain the seeds of their own destruction when you examine these societies over time. Throughout human history, agrarian societies bred elite classes who wanted control of the wealth: extracting, grain, metals, timber, gold, beaver pelts or whatever the subjugated target offered; while dominating the hunter-gatherers and capturing slave labor. Humanity has seen many of these hierarchical states, built on dominance and elite rule.

Modern society has become a global mega system of first world, post-industrialized countries extracting cheap labor and materials from poorer, less developed countries. But much of this has been hidden through international WTO deals, the World Bank, the IMF, and corporate law. Researchers in 2022 totaled up the booty gained from this unequal condition, according to Kemp.1

From 1990 to 2015, $10 trillion dollars was transferred every year from the global south to the global north. That is 30 times what poorer countries receive in aid each year. Overall, $242 trillion dollars was moved during that 25 year period, enough to eliminate extreme poverty 70 times in a row.

The current flow of capital is dictated by legal systems that stem from English law and New York state law. As King Charles pointed out this week in his address to the US Congress, the UK and the US share the same roots going back to the Magna Carta. We cannot forget that the shared history of empire-building and RISK continues to this day, only now our fates are more intertwined than ever.

But, Kemp also argues that at least empire collapse in the past wasn’t always “bad” for the people who experienced it. Collapse sometimes caused greater resilience as people voted with their feet by moving to places where living conditions were better. That would seem like good news, but I am not sure that such options exist anymore. Afterall, wee, the sheeple, are all the captive frogs in the boiling pot called Earth. I am left wondering where exactly would anyone “flee” to in this current situation? Mars? A Moon base? (Not getting there without oil, btw.)

Here are few more interesting nuggets from Kemp’s book:

• It is estimated that it would take 400 years of global photosynthesis to power the modern world for just one year. Our supply of fossilized energy contained in oil produced from dead plants from 360-286 million years ago is a problem. It takes 98 tons of hundred million-year old buried plant matter to become 5 liters of today gas.

• Global investment in renewables and nuclear energy has recently doubled that of fossil fuel. Meanwhile the US regained the position of the largest oil producing country in the world in 2018 and has kept it every year since then.

The Astrology of Oil

Neptune is the planet associated with OIL. So, I went looking for a chart of the first discovery of oil in the US. I thought it might have been the eruption of Spindletop, in Beaumont, Texas, currently located about 100 miles from me, but that would be incorrect. The first successful drilling for oil was in Titusville, PA on August 27, 1859. Spindletop didn’t happen until 1901. The formation of Standard Oil and Trust, and the setup of the geo-politics that would result from the rise of oil goes back to the late 1880’s.2 At the date of the Titusville drilling, Neptune was at 26 Pisces, Uranus at 7 Gemini.

Uranus at 7° Gemini for this date is just 1 degree from the natal Uranus at 8° Gemini in the US Chart. Transiting/Return of Neptune passed up the 26 Pisces position of the Titusville drilling in February of 2024. (For more context on the US Sibley chart, see also https://alextrenoweth.co.uk/sibley-chart-usa-birth-horoscope/)

The US will experience a return to its natal position in the summer of 2027 - a very Uranian year. Below is the bi-wheel for this event. The second Uranus return will be in November 2027, and the third in 2028. Since this is so, it seems we may only be at the beginning of this current conflict. May the 4th be with you.

In a bellwether case, a Los Angeles jury found the companies Meta (Instagram) and Youtube, liable for the mental harm suffered by Kaley G.M., a 20 year old who used the app since the age of six years old. The jury returned a verdict against Meta and Youtube for $3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $3 million for punitive damages. 1

The jury confirmed that the platforms were negligently designed to foster addictive use. Other companies, Snapchat and TikTok settled their portions before the trial began. The plaintiffs sued saying that the company’s product had defects.

A second case that took place one day before on March 24, 2026, in New Mexico a jury awarded $375 Million in a verdict that focused on online predators. The jury found Meta liable for 75,000 violations of the Unfair Practices Act. “Operation Metaphile,” an undercover sting that took place led by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, had investigators posed as children under the age of 14. These proxy accounts were immediately flooded with sexually explicit material and solicitations from adults. While the L.A. jury punished the companies for making the apps too addictive to put down, the New Mexico jury punished Meta for creating a ‘marketplace’ for predators—a two-pronged Uranian strike against the current social media status quo.

There are many other cases on-going from hundreds of families, school districts, and state attorneys general who argue that the platforms lead to suicide, eating disorders, and self-harm.

From Click2Houston, KPRC 2 (Associated Press), “ The era of Big Tech invincibility is over,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project. “After years of gaslighting from companies like Google and Meta, new evidence and testimony have pulled back the curtain and validated the harms young people and parents have been telling the world about for years.”2

The Astrology Behind the Event: Uranus Delivers the Lightning Bolt

The announcement of the verdict occurred March 25, 2026 at 4:25 pm in Los Angeles, CA. The Sun is conjunct Saturn in Aries, Mars is in Pisces, indicating speaking out for the victims, along with Mercury and the North Node in Pisces. But the most notable feature of this chart is Uranus on the midheaven, Uranus is associated with the discovery of electricity, technological breakthroughs, shock and disruption, as well as revolution.

Compare this to the chart for the first trading of Facebook of May 18, 2012, 11:30 am New York, NY in which we see Facebook’s Sun also at 28 Taurus, the same degree of the transiting Uranus on the MC of the court verdict, so Uranus is making its presence known quite loudly here.

We could also take the chart for the “rebirth” of Facebook into Meta on Oct. 29. 2021, 5:45 am, Hobart, Tasmania and compare that to the verdict event chart. In this chart, transiting Jupiter is on the MC and we see Pluto applying to conjunction with Meta’s Saturn on the cusp of the 5th house relating to children.

This is a long overdue reckoning for the families who have lost children to the darker side of these apps, in particular with regard to increases in suicide and sex trafficking. Parents and teachers, and even law makers have not been equipped to fight the social media giants, but this verdict marks a needed change.

Bottom Up vs. Top Down

This L.A. verdict is an example of “the people” fighting back big business in a “bottom up” approach. There have also been various efforts from governments around the world in creating legislation in a top down approach to the problem. In a previous post last year, I explored Australia’s Social Media ban for children.

Australia’s move to ban social media for young people has since created a “digital land grab” for regulation in other nations. France, Spain, Norway, Denmark and the UK are looking to get social media bans or age-verifying features in place. But, the real danger here is lurking in the shadows. The bottom line is that these apps are not simply going to go away. Teens are not suddenly abstaining from the internet. As teens move off of mainstream apps, they are popping up in new, less-regulated apps like Yope or Lemon8, or using VPN to hide locations. Reports show a 251% surge in downloads of these less-regulated apps.

So how it is going in these places that have bans? While some parents report an improvement with in-person interactions since the ban, 25% of parents report children felt more isolated or that they lost their peer support networks.3

From Rules to Digital Sovereignty

This verdict signals a bottom up revolution in digital sovereignty. Parents have had enough! Parents would not let a stranger into their child’s bedroom to whisper in their ear all night, we should not feel obligated to let an algorithm do the same.

While lawmakers and tech companies can do far better to protect children, caregiving adults including doctors, counselors, teachers, and parents may need to continue to be much more proactive in teaching their children about online safety. Parents and kids need to know the serious damage that excessive social media use can cause to mental and social health. Just as a responsible parent might put a late night curfew on a teen, or limit the amount of candy or soft drinks a younger child consumes, there is perhaps more cushion and protection we can provide if we simply turn off the household wifi at night or collect the cellphones before saying goodnight. Truly, we are still living through “the wild west” phase of the internet on a global scale.

As I continue to study the biographies and charts of famous suicides and the transits of the teen years, I am finding these recent developments particularly relevant, as these platforms have had such an enormous influence on GenZ and Gen Alpha. As we move further into 2026, this verdict may only be the first of many to come, and may represent a “Changing of the Guard” in Silicon Valley.

Practical Steps for Parents Claiming Digital Sovereignty

• Sacred Sleep: Turn off wifi at night or collect phones and other devices from children before saying goodnight to preserve the sanctity of sleep

• Analog Alarms: Use a real alarm clock instead of a phone to prevent the first dopamine hit of the day

• Tech-free Table: Reclaim the family dinner table as a “no phone” zone

• Take advantage of the many new parental control apps available

Dr. Jane Goodall, the Chimpanzee Lady

Jane’s chart shows a Sagittarius Rising with the Moon on the horizon. Her Sun is conjunct Mars in Aries, which is also conjunct her Part of Fortune, an outspoken champion for her cause. Her natal Uranus is also in Aries. The most elevated planet in Jane’s chart is Jupiter in Libra, which opposes her Sun/Mars/Uranus in Aries.

The Radical Departure

Jane left England as a very young woman in the 1960’s with no formal education. National Geographic states, “As a child, she had a natural love for the outdoors and animals. She had a much-loved dog, Rusty, a pony, and a tortoise, to name a few of their family pets. When Jane was about eight years old, she read Tarzan and the Dr. Dolittle series and, in love with Africa, she dreamed of traveling to work with the animals featured in her favorite books.”

Jane could not afford college, so she worked and saved her money to travel to Africa. At age 23 she left England and went to Nairobi, Kenya. She arrived in March of 1957 to visit a family friend and found a temporary job in Nairobi. Someone told her about paleoanthropologist, Dr. Louis Leaky, and she simply called him up one day. When she met the famous paleoanthropologist it just so happened that Leakey was in need of a secretary and he offered her the job. In three years’, time, she was given a permit to study the chimpanzees at Gombe preserve in Tanzania. By following her call to the wild, Jane’s dream unfolded.

From National Geographic, “[Leakey] felt her passion for, and knowledge of animals and nature, high energy, and fortitude made her a great candidate to study the chimpanzees. Leakey felt that Jane’s lack of formal academic training was advantageous because she would not be biased by traditional thought and could study chimpanzees with an open mind. His hope was that by studying our closest living relatives (chimpanzees who share a common ancestor with humans) he could discover more about what early humans were like−things he could not learn from fossils alone.”

Jane’s Big Discovery

In November 1960, Jane discovered the use of tools among the chimpanzees. What is interesting to me here in her astrology is Ceres contacting her North Node with Uranus opposing on the South Node. This is representative of her soul purpose of awakening humanity to the sentience of animals.

Less than three years later, Jane’s discoveries were published in the August issue of National Geographic in 1963. (Chart below) as her Saturn Return approached.

Saturnian Shifts

Jane’s first Saturn return became exact the following February of 1964. Two years later, she was granted a PhD from Cambridge University for her groundbreaking discovery, becoming one of only a handful of individuals admitted to Cambridge’s PhD program, without an undergraduate degree. She married Dutch filmmaker, Hugo van Lawick and her research was brought to film (Neptune), giving her a global spotlight.

Transiting Jupiter came to Jane’s outspoken Aries Sun/Mars placement, opposing her natal Jupiter in Libra. It is interesting that transiting Pluto is joined by Uranus conjunct to her Natal Neptune, which seems to lend weight to the truly revolutionary nature of her discovery along with the connection to film. With each of these charts I find the position of Ceres eye-opening.

John Robbins, Author

Like, Goodall, Robbins had a mutable ASC too, but in Virgo-Pisces with Moon in Pisces on DC and Uranus on the MC. He was deeply empathic towards the suffering of animals. With a 3^rd House Scorpio Sun, he became an investigator who revealed hidden truths about the food industry. He also had Jupiter at 0 °Sagittarius squaring Saturn, Mars, and Pluto in Leo.

John Robbins grew up heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire and was groomed to join his father’s empire. As a young man in the height of the cultural revolution of the 1960’s, in a Thoreau-like move, he walked away from his father’s trust fund at age 21 to live a life of simplicity in a cabin. He lived a quiet life with his wife and child and remained cut off from his father for many years. By 1976, the time of his first Saturn Return, he had earned his master’s degree from Antioch College. He continued to research and write about how our modern diet and the food industry impact the planet until his Uranus opposition.

Uranian Disruptors: Redefining Our Relationship with Nature

Diet for New America was published in 1987 during the exact same year that Robbins experienced his Uranus opposition, which made three conjunctions in 1987, in February, May, and December. Uranus at 25 Gemini is the most elevated planet in his chart, showing his trailblazing efforts which nominated him for a Pulitzer. His network, now headed by his son, Ocean Robbins, is called the Food Revolution Network, a great name for someone with Uranus on the MC. Chiron made a conjunction to his natal Uranus at the same time as transiting Saturn and Uranus opposed his MC/ natal Uranus. Transiting Mars and Pluto contacted his natal Scorpio planets late that year.

The Second Saturn Return: Trials, Foundations, and Legacies

Both John Robbins and Jane Goodall solidified their legacies during their Second Saturn Return through their education and advocacy foundations. Robbins created EarthSave and Jane created the Jane Goodall Institute. Jane founded Roots and Shoots to focus on youth activism. Robbins sponsored a youth-outreach group called YES, Youth for Environmental Sanity. Robbins also experienced the personal financial crisis of losing his investments and savings in the Bernie Madoff scandal (reminds me of Willie Nelson’s IRS crisis at his Second Saturn Return). The experience led him to another book, The New Good Life.

The Ceres Connection: Astrology of the Natural World

The asteroid Ceres, which represents the natural world and animal instinct in astrology, was conjunct Jane’s North Node at the time that she made her discoveries about chimpanzees. The North Node represents a soul’s destiny, purpose, and life path. For Robbins, Ceres in Taurus was conjunct his Part of Fortune and opposed his Sun in Scorpio.

The role of the dwarf planet Ceres in these two charts is profound and deserve further analysis. If the Moon represents how we mother or nurture, Ceres represents how we mother or nurture the planet. For Jane, the Ceres transit to her North Node at the time of her discoveries suggests her destiny of protecting the sentient life of the forest. For Robbins, Ceres in Taurus conjunct his Part of Fortune points to a life where his greatest ‘wealth’ was found in reclaiming the purity of food systems.

Robbins’ research on the living conditions of animals raised for consumption was shocking (Uranus on his MC). Though they are both well-known for drawing attention to the sentience of animals and humanity’s ethical responsibility towards animals, both Jane and John advocated plant-based diets to combat environmental degradation.

I was not aware that Goodall had written a guide for mindful eating until I researched for this post. Her book titled Harvest For Hope was published in 2021. Her institute also published a cookbook containing 80 vegan recipes with essays explaining why transitioning to a meatless diet or even a meat-reduced diet is crucial for planetary health.

Both Jane and John had a significant fire element in their natal charts that gave them the courage to stand up to big business, and the establishment science and academia. Because I have special interest in adolescent development, I use a technique taught by Alex Trenoweth that involves looking at the timeframe from age 12-15. I affectionately call this developmental window “the gauntlet” because a young person has the critical task of coming to terms with identity. I determined that both Jane and John had their Jupiter Sextile first during the gauntlet period. (During that window of time, a person will experience a Jupiter Sextile to natal Jupiter and Uranus Sextile to Natal Uranus, but which one comes first varies by person.) If the Jupiter Sextile is first, there is a quest for Truth, and the young person could be called a “Scholar.” If Uranus sextile comes first, the young person could be called a “Rebel.” Both Jane and John experienced their Jupiter sextile first, followed very soon after (within a month) the Uranus sextile, thus making them uniquely heretical scholars. That also seemed an uncanny similarity between these two scholars.

Closing Thoughts

The simultaneous departure of these two Earth stewards in 2025 is the passing of a torch. Jane taught us that animals have souls and stories; John showed us that our dinner plates are political and ecological battlegrounds. Their charts reflect their Jupiterian task and the courage to seek knowledge even if it opposes established ideas or norms. As we navigate the dramatic times we are living through, our connection and responsibility to the Earth remains. 2026-2033 (Uranus in Gemini) will be a time like no other. Jane and John’s lives make a statement to us: Our individual actions, voices, and choices make a difference.

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Don’t Be a Food Bitch

Last year I made the switch to eating a plant-based diet. The hardest part was the social expectations- I didn’t want to be a “Food Bitch.” Besides harboring a life long fantasy of growing all of my own food, I started to write cheeky reflections, venting about the challenges (and also share the joys) in a separate Substack called The Food Bitch Chronicles.

References

Appleton, S. (2022, October 24). Jane Goodall. Education.nationalgeographic.org; National Geographic. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/jane-goodall/

Food Matters. (2024, June 6). Love Over Money: The Man Who Walked Away From Baskin-Robbins [Online Worldwide Premiere]. YouTube.

Goodall, J., & Morell, V. (2019). Jane Goodall: The Leakey Foundation Oral History Project: Jane Goodall. Digital Collections; Oral History Center. https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/218946?v=pdf

John Robbins – Obituary. (2025, June 16). Food Revolution Network. https://foodrevolution.org/john-robbins-obituary/

Powers, T. G. (2026). Welcome To Zscaler Directory Authentication. Schoolofevolutionaryastrology.com. https://forum.schoolofevolutionaryastrology.com/index.php?topic=1294.0

Pruitt, S. (2025, July 17). How Jane Goodall Changed How We Study Animals. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/articles/jane-goodall-research

As Dolly Parton turns 80 this week on January 19^th and Willie Nelson and his sons compete for Grammy gold on February 1st, the parallel journeys of these two icons remind me that astrology gives us a remarkably consistent lens through which to consider biography. Also, who wouldn’t appreciate a break from apocalyptic forecasts and predictions about______ (fill in the blank.)

This third and final post compares these two remarkable artists, revealing a common grounding influence of Earth signs, the creative-artistic spark of Venus, and the groundbreaking influence of Uranus. Their perseverance paid dividends in proportion to their 10,000 hours of Saturnian songwriting discipline, their innovative career choices, and their Neptune-inspired storytelling which shaped country music history.

EARTH ELEMENT AND VENUS INFLUENCE

Both Dolly and Willie are grounded though a strong presence of Earth signs in their astrological charts. This gives them both a unique mix of creativity and practical, diligent endurance over decades. Dolly Parton’s Capricorn Sun, governed by Saturn, highlights her sharp business sense and her capacity to turn dreams into reality—as shown by the creation and growth of Dollywood and Imagination Library. On the other hand, Willie Nelson’s Taurus Sun, ruled by Venus, is reflected in his unwavering dedication—decades spent touring in the same bus with his beloved guitar “Trigger” and preserving the essence of his outlaw image.

For Dolly, the conjunction of her Sun and Venus fuses her identity with rhinestone glamour, and music, establishing her as a defining face of country music. Willie’s Venus-ruled Sun in Taurus lends to his rich, signature voice and a love for life’s (herbal) pleasures. Both also have EARTH signs rising if using the 11:45 pm time for Wille’s chart.

SATURN CYCLES COMPARED

Both artists reached their creative and commercial “peaks” not through overnight luck, but through the discipline of their Saturn Returns. (Both artists achieved major careers milestones at their Saturn returns.) Dolly brought forth the “nurturing” image of community philanthropist while building her business empire. Willie used his Saturn in Aquarius (a loyal fan base) to recover and re-establish his legacy, not once, but twice! When faced with the IRS seizure during his second Saturn Return, he ramped up his songwriting and recording. Dollie built an empire at home (Saturn with Mars exactly conjunct in Cancer) in the Tennessee mountains with Dollywood. Dolly’s Mars conjunct Saturn here adds to her willingness to stand up for the home and family. Her literacy foundation supports the youngest and most impoverished children by providing free books.

URANIAN INNOVATION: Challenging Nashville’s Norms

Uranus symbolizes breaking tradition, a key trait for both Dolly and Willie. Dolly has Uranus conjunct her Midheaven, marking her a publicly professional innovator—her radical business decisions, such as retaining her publishing rights and refusing Elvis, defied expectations. Willie’s Taurus Sun opposes Uranus, reflecting his transformation from a conventional Nashville songwriter to a free-spirited hippie in the early 1970s.

NEPTUNE

Willie and Dolly both channeled Neptune’s influence towards myth-making and cinematic storytelling. During each of their crossovers into film, both experienced significant transits to their natal Neptune. Willie’s natal Mars-Neptune conjunction shaped his image as a spiritually-driven, “Peaceful Outlaw,” dissolving boundaries between groups. When the release of the movie 9 to 5 happened in 1980, Dolly experienced Saturn and Jupiter conjunct on her natal Neptune in Libra. The Libran topic of equality in the workplace was a major cultural touchstone of the movie. The film, and the film’s anthem created a movement. At the time, as a society, we didn’t even have workplace laws in place about maternity leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act wasn’t0 passed until 1993.

The film hit No. 2 at the box office in 1980, beaten only by The Empire Strikes Back. But its original theme song, written and performed by Parton, had a life of its own, reaching No. 1 on three different Billboard charts and earning an Oscar nomination. 1

FINAL THOUGHTS

Though one built a literal mountain empire and the other became a traveling poet of the highway, their charts reveal both Saturnian discipline and Venus-inspired soul. Their parallel journeys of Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton feel even more notable when I think about each Pluto generation they represent and the balance between the feminine and masculine imagery they project to their society and culture. (Pluto in Cancer for Willie softens the male image through his poetic style, and Pluto in Leo for Dolly strengthens the feminine, “the Iron Butterfly”.) They both offered complimentary gestures at a time in our cultural narrative when we were ripe for a redefinition. Dolly and Willie not only weathered Nashville’s changes in the 1960’s but also made unique and lasting impacts on society through philanthropy and advocacy while contributing meaningfully to their home communities and fans.

Their Saturnian message is clear: the willingness to work and the courage to stay true to oneself turns a life story into something legendary that can impact millions.

His wife even recently joked that he is “Benjamin Buttoning“ her due to his high energy levels.

Despite his well-known reputation as a pot smoker, as of late 2025, Willie is still thriving. Maybe that means we can all expect Snoop Dogg to live into his 90’s as well. In 2026, Willie was nominated for Best Traditional Country Album for Oh What a Beautiful World. He was also nominated for Best Americana Album for Last Leaf on the Tree, which was produced by his son, Micah Nelson, who was also up for an award. Who else can claim such a feat at 92 years old? Though, they did not take home the awards, the Nelson family still made history, as the first “Grammy family.”

Willie’s long and eventful life offers a great example of how to use setbacks as compost for higher levels of creative output. For astrology lovers, his biography is perfect for examining his career highs and lows through the longer cycles of Saturn and Uranus.

Two Birthdays and Three Rulerships

Willie Hugh Nelson was born near midnight on April 29, 1933. Consequently, he is noted for celebrating two birthdays, both April 29^th and the 30th. 1 (see footnote) While Dolly Parton built empires with her Capricorn workhorse energy, Willie eventually rebelled against the Nashville music industry. His “outlaw” mantle and mystique became the creative engine of his show business persona. His chart forms a locomotive pattern with Saturn in Aquarius as the lead planet. Saturn can be in rulership in either Capricorn or Aquarius, but when in Aquarius it can show up as a “rebel with a cause.” Willie also has Venus in Taurus and Moon in Cancer, making three planets in rulership. But when I checked his adolescent gauntlet period and whether his Jupiter or Uranus sextile came first, I was initially surprised that he showed to be a “Truth Seeker.” 2 His outlaw, rebel mystique is largely due to this Saturn in Aquarius in the first house, with a big dose of Mercury and Uranus in Aries, creating a strong individual style of expression. The rest of his chart is heavy on Earth and Water signs.

Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton both share benefic Venus conjunct the natal Sun in Earth signs, Dolly in Capricorn, and Willie in Taurus. Willie, however faced 7^th House and 8^th House challenges, including 4 marriages, and the very public IRS seizure of his assets in the early 90’s during his second Saturn return, which was largely blamed on mismanagement of his accountants over a ten year period. In addition, that rebellious natal Uranus and Mercury in Aries might be reflected both in how he stepped out of the Nashville machine and then continually broke norms in the music industry.

Willie Nelson’s Early Life

Willie’s upbringing was humble. Times were hard and Willie picked cotton in the fields and grew up singing church gospels in the rural Texas town of Abbott. His older sister, Billie who was his piano player in his band until her death, reported that their parents were “too young to be parents.” His mother was Cherokee and his father was reported to have another woman, so Willie was raised by his Grandparents. His Grandfather Nelson was a blacksmith, and died when Willie and his sister were still quite young, placing financial burdens on the family.

Like Dolly, Willie Nelson began writing songs at a very young age and never stopped. As a young man, Willie worked a bevy of odd jobs, supporting himself while he wrote, traveling from place to place. He sold encyclopedias and vacuums, worked for a leather company, and briefly joined the air force, but managed to get a medical discharge for back problems. Eventually he moved to Houston and landed jobs in radio.

But to understand how Willie became a global icon and digest the sheer volume of his life achievements, I began to look at how he navigated the three great tests of time: his three Saturn Return cycles. As with my previous piece on Dolly Parton, I decided to focus on the strongest astrological transits of his public life and music career. Here is an overview of how I broke it down:

• 1^st Saturn Return 1963 - Nashville Success and Creating “Outlaw Country”

Willie’s clean cut Nashville songwriting era culminates. He signs a contract in 1962 with Liberty Records following the release of Patsy Cline’s version of Crazy in 1961. He continues in Nashville until 1969-70, but becomes disillusioned and returns to Texas after a house fire. Once back in Texas, Willie develops the “Outlaw Country” genre and later celebrates career highs in the 80’s and 90s. In 1985, Nelson holds his first 4th of July Picnic with the Highwaymen (Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Chris Christofferson) during which time Jupiter was conjunct his Natal Saturn denoting gifts, luck, and opportunity coming to this key planet in his chart, and Pluto was on the MC, showing public transformation while Ceres was on the DC. (Ceres is connected to agriculture and keeps showing up in his chart as Farm Aid becomes his major philanthropic endeavor.)

• 2nd Saturn Return 1992 - IRS Fiasco and Loss of his Son, Billie

In 1990, IRS seizes Willie’s financial assets for accrued debt of $32 mil due to negligent accounting. During this period, transiting Neptune and Uranus are conjunct the ASC. 1992 proves to be the worst year of his life, but Nelson turns this around and settles with the IRS for $16 mil in 1993. With help from his fan base he buys back his assets and clears his name. Pluto clears his 10th House by the time of the settlement. He also experienced the loss of his son to suicide at the end of 1991. Both the suicide and the previous catastrophe of the house fire occurred on Christmas.

• 3^rd Saturn Return 2022 - Independent/Creative Mastery

Cementing his legacy, Willie expands his family (his band) through writing, recording and touring with many other notable musicians, including working with his own family members. Awards, accolades and honors follow. Willie is inducted to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, but also experiences the loss of his beloved sister in 2022. He announces his 72^nd studio album.

By breaking down his life achievements into these three segments, we can see the patterns of his Saturn return comebacks.

In this next section, I provide additional biographical events and their transit charts with more detail, beginning with his first Saturn return.

Songwriting Success in the Nashville Scene of the 1960’s

In 1961, Patsy Cline’s version of Willie’s song, Crazy was released, which became widely regarded as the most played jukebox hit ever. Nelson achieved further success with his own recordings between 1961-1970 as well, but he became more and more disillusioned with “business as usual” in Nashville.

(See Chart for Release of Crazy, 1961) What stands out to me is the Neptune and Mars opposing his Sun/Venus and the Transiting Saturn/Jupiter still in conservative Capricorn. The Neptune signifies that disillusion so often mentioned in his biographical stories, and until Saturn makes it to Aquarius, he hasn’t yet fully expressed that “outlaw country” version of himself. Uranus in Leo waits at 29 degrees. Then on Mar 5, 1963, Country Music lost many musicians all at once. In a Facebook Post I learned of the untimely deaths of country musicians that all occurred within the same week, including the death of Patsy Cline. This was pivotal transit point for Willie Nelson. Not only was it his first Saturn Return, but Pluto was conjunct Ceres transiting the 8th house while Uranus transited his Natal Mars. (See Chart for Mar 5, 1963). (keywords sudden, shocking loss, 8th house, life or death).

The Nashville Fire

Then, in 1970 a house fire literally burned away Willie Nelson’s Nashville life. He ran back into his burning house to save his guitar, Trigger, and his stash of pot, but he wasn’t just saving possessions; he was saving his identity. At the time of the fire, Mars in Scorpio opposed his Sun/Venus. Uranus transited his 9^th house, approaching his Uranus opposition, also known as, the “mid-life crisis” point. This later became a time period of philosophical re-negotiation in his life reflected in Pluto transiting his 9^th house at the 29th, anaretic degree of crisis and transformation. Another marriage had failed, and he lost nearly all of his worldly possessions. This was the ‘Plutonic’ spark that ultimately prompted him return to Texas. After some soul searching, he reinvented himself and recorded the “Red Headed Stranger” on his own terms.

When he walked away from the Nashville music industry structure, he didn’t just move back home, he changed his frequency. Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain (See chart) won him a Grammy for best male country vocal and it was at this point that Uranus transited his midheaven. Not long after that he shot the pilot episode of Austin City Limits. (See chart for Austin City Limits) I was the most surprised by this Austin City Limits chart.3 Also, the recent documentary mentions how Willie’s music brought together two cultural groups, who until that time had never mingled, the hippies and the rednecks. I was only about ten years old in the mid 80’s, so I was too young for any of this to occur to me, let alone to appreciate what it meant. Willie’s career really took off in the late 70’s and 80’s under this new, independent style and brought a long whirlwind of success. Like Dolly, Willie later made film crossovers in The Electric Horseman and Honeysuckle Rose. (Jupiter conjunct Natal Neptune ruling film) In 1980 he performed on the White House lawn (Jupiter Return) and topped the charts in ‘82 with “Always on My Mind.” While traditional country music was gasping its last breath thanks to the advent of synthesizers, Willie’s career was defying old Nashville and riding new highs. (Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn crossing MC)

Nov. 8, 1980 - “On the Road Again” tops the charts - 9th/10th House transits, plus transiting nodes hitting that Saturn in Aquarius

Farm Aid and More

His huge success soon afforded Willie Nelson the opportunity to give back to his fans, and the struggling, rural, farming community he came from. While involved in a Live Aid concert to benefit AIDS victims, Bob Dylan proposed an idea that Nelson carried out – Farm Aid concerts that generated money to aid failing family farms in the U.S. The first concert generated $9 million and Farm Aid concerts were held annually after that. Later, Nelson got involved in supporting the normalization and legalization of marijuana (NORML) and he founded a biodiesel business among many other ventures. Willie’s charitable work ultimately creates good karma. His fans later save his butt, but even good karma didn’t stop Saturn from further exacting its toll.

View Sept 22, 1985 Farm Aid Chart This is also perhaps one of the more striking charts in his biography, which I think deserves even more analysis for its connection to his fans. Ceres (representing the farmers/agriculture) opposing his Saturn, while Mars is conjunct Natal Neptune with Venus, and the transiting Nodes conjunct his Sun. Neptune ingress into Capricorn nears his ASC.

IRS, Pluto, and The “Underworld” Journey

From late 1990-early 1993, Willie Nelson endured one of the darkest periods of his life, which encompassed his Second Saturn Return. On Nov. 9, 1990, the IRS seized his assets. It wasn’t just a financial setback; it was a total uprooting of his private world. Then an even more terrible loss occurs the following year, the death of his son to suicide. Pluto’s presence suggests a “death and rebirth” of his sense of public identity and security. The experience brought out deep, hidden financial details (Scorpio) into the light (Sun) through intense legal communication (Mercury).

While this would be career-ending for most artists, Willie rose from the ashes again from the literal “death” of his assets and even the seizure of his personal memorabilia. With his Strong Saturn in Aquarius, he went to work to record The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories? Friends, allies and fans literally bought back his property and memorabilia, snapping up his items at auction and returning them to him free of charge. The end result was a complete renegotiation of his life’s work, which led to another legendary comeback by the close of his Second Saturn Return. Through the good karma he built up through his Aquarian ties and the success of Farm Aid, he negotiated with the IRS, and got to work (Saturn) making his brand of rebel (Aquarius) music. As before with the Nashville fire, he picked up the pieces and kept working.

Since Saturn rules his 2nd house of finances and is also his chart ruler, the IRS seizure wasn’t just a legal headache—it was a literal “reckoning” of his physical reality. It suggests that his wealth was always meant to be tied to his groups of friends and his “rebel with a cause” identity.

Willie settled his debt with the very thing Saturn demands: discipline and time. He used his recording of The IRS Tapes as a pragmatic, structured response to the massive financial burden—classic Saturnian “work” that reclaimed his autonomy.

Legendary Status Solidified

Sadly, on Mar. 10, 2022, Willie lost his sister Billie shortly after the release of his 72^nd studio album. But once again, his personal losses only seem to become compost for more creativity. By his Third Saturn Return, Willie had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and accrued many more honors, awards, and accolades than I can mention here. He had authored and co-authored multiple books. (Book List by Willie Nelson.) In 2023, Paramount+ produced Willie Nelson and Family, a 4-part docuseries on his life and music career with many guest contributors, including Dolly Parton, family members, collaborators and band members.

With Oh What a Beautiful World nominated for the 2026 Grammys, Willie Nelson proved that his Saturnian ‘master builder’ energy was still at its peak at age 92. In February 2026, he was alongside his son, Lukas at the Grammy’s, competing in the same category. Lukas was nominated for American Romance. This beautifully solidified his family legacy for all time.

Closing Thoughts

When I consider what it is that makes Willie Nelson unique, it is his larger-than-life, Jupiterian, “family band.” His band was always his family and his family extended to every musician he ever worked with. He even brought in his fans and all family farms in the U.S. into that definition of family. He was a Texas “Truth-Teller,” in the true, storytelling sense of the word. Uranus in Aries and Saturn in Aquarius color his “rebel,” outlaw mystique. His authentic, no bullshit legendary story, proves that while the big bad wolf, the tax man, and the fires may come, a foundation built on truth is “Still Not Dead.”

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Willie’s life shows us that we aren't just at the mercy of the stars; we are co-authoring our stories with them. If you want to see exactly how these planetary transits look in Astrologuese, I’ll be hosting a detailed video walkthrough of Willie's life through the lens of astrology star only available for subscribers. Join me to celebrate the Red Headed Stranger’s legendary music career as he steps into the Grammys this February.

Dolly Parton marks her 80th birthday on January 19, 2026. She is celebrated as one of the most successful country singer-songwriters of all time, sharing a record 25 #1 hits with Reba McEntire and boasting over 3,000 songs. To say she is prolific is an understatement; classics like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” are the foundation of a legacy that has transcended one genre of music to become a global cultural touchstone.

I love Dolly. Even though I am not a country music fan, living in Texas for most of my life ensured that some of that country music vibe rubbed off on me. Dolly didn’t just write and play music, she shaped the entertainment landscape, especially for female artists.

Dolly’s “larger-than-life” status brings to mind another southern icon: Willie Nelson. Both Dolly and Willie came from humble beginnings, both achieved massive “crossover” success, and both have used their fame and wealth to lift up their communities—Willie through Farm Aid and Dolly through the Imagination Library. Seeing these parallel paths made me wonder: do these two icons share a cosmic blueprint? It turns out they do.

This is the first installment of a series of three exploring their charts in comparison. We will begin by deconstructing the “Workhorse” Capricorn energy of Dolly’s natal chart, followed by Willie in my next post, before wrapping up with the similarities.

Dolly’s Natal Chart

Dolly Parton was born January 19, 1946 in Locust Ridge, TN. She was the fourth of twelve children to tobacco farmer Robert Parton and mother, Avie. She inherited her father’s work ethic and her mother’s creativity and she claims she wanted to sing for an audience at a young age. She recorded her first single at the age of 10. At 13, she first performed at The Grand Ole Opry. After high school, she moved to Nashville and became Porter Wagoner’s duet partner. She recorded her first song with Wagoner in 1967 and was celebrated for hits “Jolene,” and “Coat of Many Colors.”

She describes herself as an early-riser, getting up at 3am to pray and write. With Sun, Venus and Mercury all in the sign of the Sea Goat, her chart is heavy in what my twenty-year-old daughter would call 'boss-bitch' energy—that raw, cardinal drive to initiate and execute.

Born two days away from a full Moon, Dolly’s primary relationship is a critical part of her life, as Full Mooners often learn the most from their primary relationships. Indeed, Dolly was married to her husband, Carl Dean for nearly 60 years and Dean passed this March 2025 after a long illness. Though Dean and Dolly had no children, their long marriage stood the test of time, fame and the intensity of superstardom. Despite this, Dean managed to stay out of the spotlight.

A zero degree Virgo Moon would give Dolly a sensual, critical, nervous, and somewhat meticulous nature. Dolly’s chart has creative quintiles from Jupiter to Venus/Sun, lending to her creative artistry and a quintile from Jupiter to Pluto speaks of her business acumen and financial savvy. Mars and Saturn are conjunct in Cancer, making her highly protective of her loved ones.

The major standout feature of her chart is Uranus on the midheaven, marking her for unusual career success and setting her out as a trailblazer. The Midheaven is one’s public face. It explains why Dolly’s Sun and inner planets can be traditional Capricorn, but she looks like a "technicolor dream" (Uranus).

Jamie Partridge, of the website Astrology King, describes natal Uranus on the Midheaven as follows:

“Uranus conjunct Midheaven natal, also called Uranus culminating, makes you a strongly independent and exciting person. It is unlikely you are a member of the establishment, and if forced to conform to standards or rules, you will rebel.”

“Your creativity and brilliance need the freedom to explore all possibilities to reach your full potential and find some contentment.”

“Your creativity and genius shine most brightly through your career. If you stay true to yourself and are confident in your uniqueness, you will enjoy acceptance, success, recognition, popularity, or even cult status. Flying solo is another good option, such as self-employment, consulting or contract work. You may change your career often, change roles, or have to travel or relocate.”

As for “cult status,” Parton’s Sun is on the same degree as Elvis’ Venus, 29° Capricorn. For more on Elvis’ chart, see my previous post.

In my September 2025 article in Evolving Astrologer, I explored the adolescent transits of members of two famous families, that of Elvis Presley and John Huston. In that piece, I pointed out that the age 12-14, is a “gauntlet” period in which a young person faces critical identity tests and choices. The gauntlet period is between the first Jupiter return and the final Saturn opposition during which Uranus and Jupiter make sextiles to their natal position. Depending on which sextile comes first, we have the tendency to become a “Truth Seeker” if Jupiter occurs first, or a “Rebel” if Uranus occurs first. In the case of Dolly Parton, Uranus made 3 sextiles first during her gauntlet time period, giving more of a “Rebel” quality. Julien’s Auction is quoted saying,

One prime example of how Dolly did her own thing was in marrying Carl Dean, against the wishes of her record label. How do these natal promises show up in real-time? Let’s look at the transits that defined her biggest life milestones. For someone like Dolly, with six decades in the spotlight, it is hard to limit her biography to only a select handful of events, but in an effort to keep this as succinct as possible, I have chosen the following four main areas songwriting, film, business, and philanthropy.

Dolly’s Major Life Transits

1974 Release of “I Will Always Love You”

As Dolly approached her first Saturn return, she released the song, “I Will Always Love You.” By this time, she has already put in the 10,000 hours as a musician. The song has a unique history because Elvis offered to record a version of it in 1974, but Dolly refused to give Colonel Parker and Elvis the rights. Later, Whitney Houston recorded her own version of the song in the 90’s which went #1 and earned Houston the Grammy, which Dolly delivered to Houston on the night of the awards.

Below is the chart for the original release of the song in 1974 on the outer wheel and Dolly’s natal chart in the inner wheel. Several major alignments can be seen here, including transiting Uranus on the natal Jupiter in the second house of resources and Pluto with natal Neptune.

Fast forward into the 90’s. When the song “I Will Always Love You” was re-recorded decades later by Whitney Houston in the 1990’s, we see additional strong alignments. Because it was on the soundtrack of the movie Body Guard, starring Kevin Costner, we see Jupiter on Dolly’s Neptune, bringing her millions in royalties from the use of her song through film and her Cancer-Capricorn axis is loaded with 5th house planets. Transiting Uranus sits exactly conjunct to Dolly’s natal Mercury, the ruler of the chart at 15 Capricorn and trine to the ASC.

Then of course, we can also compare the alignment between the natal charts of Dolly and Whitney, in which we see the nodes of Houston aligned with Dolly’s Saturn and an exact alignment of Houston’s Mars with Dolly’s Neptune.

Listen to Dolly's Music

9 to 5 Film Crossover

Dolly made her film debut in 9 to 5 co-starring with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. The massive success of the title song in 1980 marked a significant crossover. Neptune rules film, glamour, and “the illusion.” Here we see transiting Saturn and Jupiter pinging Dolly’s natal Neptune at the release date of the film. Dolly goes on to star in many other films like Steel Magnolias, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Miss Congeniality 2.

Dolly’s Financial Success

Dolly’s estimated net worth of around $650 million is fueled by her music, acting, and business ventures. In 1986, Dolly opened a theme park called Dollywood which is estimated to be her largest source of income and employs around 4,000 people. The chart below shows the Nodes with Pluto transiting the second house Jupiter at the inception of Dollywood. At the same time, Venus, the ruler of the second house is at the Midheaven with Chiron.

Philanthropy of Literacy

“In 1988, Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation. In the early 1990s, the foundation promised $500 to area seventh- and eighth-grade students who went on to graduate from high school.” In doing so, she decreased the dropout rate from 35% to 6%, according to the organization’s website.” By 1995 Dolly launches Imagination Library, a non-profit organization, which gifts free books to children from birth until they start school. It is frequently cited as one of her proudest accomplishments. She is quoted as saying,

The program has distributed over 150 million books worldwide and has been recognized by the U.S. Library of Congress. Parton frequently tells about her father’s struggle with illiteracy and her desire to make him proud by combatting it.

Mercury, often considered the planet most associated with writing, communication, and publishing is the ruler of Dolly’s ascendent. During this event, Dolly’s Capricorn-Cancer axis is populated by Uranus and Neptune transiting the Sun/Venus, while transiting Sun sits on her natal Saturn/Mars. In addition you have the presence of Mercury and Jupiter approaching the IC, representing her home community and the legacy of improving literacy that she begins to build.

This lifelong dedication to community and literacy reached its ultimate cosmic culmination during Dolly's Second Saturn Return in Cancer (2004). In April 2004, the U.S. Library of Congress officially honored her with the prestigious Living Legend Award. For a Capricorn, whose entire life is an exercise in discipline and building a lasting foundation, this major milestone marked the exact moment her structural efforts matured, cementing her status as an official, permanent pillar of American cultural heritage. Saturn made three passes to its natal position between 2004 and 2005.

All told, the natal promise of Dolly’s Uranus on the MC truly colored these major events in her life and set her apart as a trailblazer, while had the Capricorn discipline, grit and grindstone to make the most of her opportunities.

Recent Death of Dolly’s Husband, Carl Dean

Over the years, Dolly had been quite private about her relationship to her husband in the media. Pluto had been dancing over Dolly’s natal Sun for the past several years however and media mentioned that Carl had been ill for “quite some time.” In the chart for Carl’s death date, transiting Mars, natal Saturn, and transiting Pluto make an alignment. During this time of loss, Dolly experiences a massive 7th house pileup (7th house is the house of relationship) with transiting Jupiter exact on her midheaven. I imagine that the loss of someone so dear who has been ill such a long time may have been a great relief to release, to no longer see your loved one suffering or in pain. That, along with the public outpouring of condolences may have also been a gift or blessing, thus the Jupiter presence on the MC. See her poignant public message.

80th Birthday and Beyond

Dolly’s life story will debut on the Broadway stage as a musical in 2026. The same musical was put on this past summer in Nashville, titled Dolly: A True Original Musical. With Mars and Mercury conjunct her Sun/Venus and Jupiter conjunct her natal Saturn/Mars it will be a good year for celebrating her legacy. While date for the curtain rise remains under wraps, the transits suggest a peak in either mid February or early summer.

Uranus returns occur for anyone reaching their early 80’s and Dolly’s Uranus return will have 3 hits forthcoming: 1.) April 2028, 2.) Oct 2028, and 3.) the last in 2029, seems to suggest that even bigger things are in the works for Dolly. Uranus returns bring greater reflection, a breaking out of status quo or societal norms, or a breaking free or breaking out of some lifelong pattern or expectation, marked by a freedom in one’s thinking. Jupiter, Mercury and the Sun form a conjunction on her Neptune and the transiting nodes are conjunct her Saturn during this first Uranus pass in 2027-2028. Could another movie be in the making?

From the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to the lights of Broadway, Dolly has lived out her natal promise with rare, “rhinestone rebel” energy, individuality and authenticity. She is a reminder that being a Uranian “rebel” doesn’t always mean doing drugs or breaking the law —sometimes it means following your own dreams or building something that no one else thought possible.

Stay tuned for Part II: The Astrology of Willie Nelson, where we see whether the “Outlaw” and the “the Iron Butterfly” were written in the same stars.

Peace out, ya’ll!

References

Dolly, T. (2025, January 29). Dolly: An Original Musical Announces World Premiere Production This Summer in Nashville Before Heading to Broadway in 2026. Dolly Parton | Official Website. https://dollyparton.com/life-and-career/dolly-an-original-musical-announces-world-premiere-production-this-summer-in-nashville-before-heading-to-broadway-in-2026

Gabelsberg, L. (2025). Through the Gauntlet: How Planetary Transits Mark Adolescent Development. In opaastrology.org (pp. 40–44). Opaastrology.org. https://opaastrology.org/magazine/OPA-TEA-2025-September-Equinox.pdf

Partridge, J. (2017, October 4). Uranus Conjunct Midheaven Natal and Transit. Astrology King. https://astrologyking.com/uranus-conjunct-midheaven/

Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, August 8). Dolly Parton. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_Parton

Wright, J. (2025, November 24). Dolly! People Magazine, 26–31.

Young Dolly Parton. (n.d.). Retrieved December 22, 2025, from RCA Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

NATURAL DISASTERS

The hum of the holidays had barely worn off when the L.A. fires broke out in early January. People were shocked at the scope of the devastation.

LA Fires (View Chart)

The Los Angeles Fires that took place on Jan. 7, 2025 were the costliest on record, ranging from $76 billion to over $250 billion, depending on the source. Insured losses alone were projected to be around $45 billion.

• 16,251 homes destroyed

• 31 killed

• Over 7500 firefighters during peak deployment

Astrologically, the depleted water resources could be reflected in the transiting Mars in Cancer at the 29^th degree opposed by Pluto in Aquarius on the IC. The intensity of these fires could be interpreted from the transiting Sun exact on the city’s natal Mars while transiting Moon in Aries brushed the natal North Node. Also notable here is the transiting Jupiter opposed to the natal Saturn and the transiting Uranus opposing natal Jupiter. The whole scene played out like a literal battle of the elements between wind and fire with water and human resources stretched to the maximum, entirely overwhelming, shocking and disruptive the dry, vulnerable earth element. (View Chart)

Some interesting in-depth analysis on this event was done by astrologers in the following posts. Mystic Medusa and Zoey Wind on Substack.

Texas Flooding (View Chart)

The Texas Hill Country Floods occurred July 4, 2025, where 135 were killed. The rivers rose 26 feet in 45 minutes, devastating the areas. (Before/After Photos)

This event hit closer to home for me. I was vacationing with family near Cedar Creek lake for the Fourth of July weekend in the Dallas area when I heard news. (Read my previous post on the floods.) The waters rose so fast in the dead of night that the young girls at the overnight summer camp, Camp Mystic, were swept away while they slept in their riverside cabins. Again, sudden and devastating loss of life and property. Like the LA fires, again, there are claims of incompetence of those handling of the emergency. Outcry over why there were no warnings given to the public caused a media blame game. As a recent update, I noted that flood alarm systems were just recently installed along this Texas riverway.

What seems remarkable looking at each of these events is the planets at the anaretic, 29°. For the Texas Floods, Venus and Uranus at 29°Taurus. For the LA Fires, Mars at 29° Cancer while Pluto opposed and Mercury at 29° Sagittarius. Here is an additional astro-analysis on the floods I found helpful. (See post)

Hurricane Melissa (View Chart)

With the fall came Hurricane Melissa on October 28. Jamaica was in the crosshairs of a Cat 5 storm, facing winds of 185 mph. The storm killed 75 people.
Melissa became the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Jamaica and tied for second strongest Atlantic hurricane by wind speed, joining a small group of storms with winds greater than 180 mph.1

When Melissa made landfall, Mars and Mercury in Scorpio were on the midheaven and Pluto on the ASC in Aquarius, with a Grand Water Trine as Neptune was at 29° Pisces. Uranus at 0 degrees Gemini bisected the Grand Trine at the IC. So, in each of these major disasters, we saw planets at 29°.

From elemental battles to big shifts in world leadership, the wheel in the sky kept turning. Let’s take a look at politics.

POLITICS

On Jan 20, 2025 Donald Trump made history. He was inaugurated for a second time, becoming the first President since 1890’s to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Astrologers and political commentators have written much about DJT, but the most interesting for me came with the comparisons of this two-term president to the last one who last served two non-consecutive terms, and that was Grover Cleveland. Both presidents took strong stances on tariffs, though in opposite directions, and I found several comparison stories of interest that were worthy of sharing.

Basically, in 1893, Grover Cleveland was faced with the Great Panic of 1893, the worst economic situation to occur before the Great Depression. That was the first year of his second term. It carried through 1894 and 1895. Bank failures and high unemployment were triggered by railroad debt and gold reserve issues. Basically, it was an economic bubble. To solve it, Cleveland made a controversial deal with JP Morgan to bailout the federal reserve and that cost his party the mid-term elections.

Since the transiting nodes cross Trump’s ascendent in late July 2026 and Mars transits Trump’s ASC 3 times from November 2026 to May 2027, I am expecting flight turbulence to continue.

Since those that don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it, there are two comparison pieces of Trump to Cleveland I can recommend from Hungarian Conservative and Time. There are some really uncanny similarities to know about.

Yet, 2025 wasn’t just about the return of a president, but the unexpected rise of other global figures. For a well-rounded overview of additional events link here.

RELIGION

On May 8, 2025, an American, Robert Francis Prevost from Chicago became the first pope from the US, now named Pope Leo XIV.

An interesting analysis comes from Susie Cox of Pope Leo’s chart, who has natal Jupiter in Leo, of course.

This first American Pope took a vocal and direct stance in opposition to Trump’s immigration policies on the world stage. 2

ENTERTAINMENT

2025 delivered entirely new forms of belief and myth-making designed to captivate a new generation—specifically, the GenAlpha blockbuster movie and the storytelling power of gaming.

June 20, 2025 KPop Demon Hunters was released and became Netflix’s most watched movie ever. The soundtrack song “Golden” spent eight weeks at the top of U.S. pop charts and garnered nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song at the upcoming 83rd Golden Globe Awards. The song was also nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year. I sat down to watch the film last night and was pleasantly surprised. Though I thought at first that the movie would be too GenAlpha for me, it had a very Joseph Campbell/George Lucas/Good vs. Evil monomythic thing going for it. The music and storyline was engaging and I could recommend it for PG family viewing.

Also on the best of 2025 list was Beyonce’s album Cowboy Carter, Chappel Roan as Best New Artist, and Kendrick Lamar’s song “Not Like Us.”

Also in June 2025, Nintendo Switch 2 was released and 10 million units were sold, the fastest selling game console ever!

2025 in SPORTS

On Nov 1, 2025, the LA Dodgers win the World Series against Toronto Blue Jays. Shohei Ohtani hits 3 home runs and struck out 10 batters as a pitcher. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named MVP.

MLB: Los Angeles World Series Win Nov 1, 2025
NFL: Philidelphia Eagles win Superbowl Feb 9, 2025
WNBA: Las Vegas Aces win WNBA Finals Oct 10, 2025
NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder win NBA Finals June 22, 2025
NHL: Florida Panthers win NHL June 4, 2025

It’s easy to see how each city chart was impacted by the win through the Mars, Nodes, and Uranus placements in these, Mars being associated with sports activity, competition, and physicality.

2025 DEATHS of NOTABLE PEOPLE

As the wheel of the year turned, we also said goodbye to the icons who shaped our cultural landscape.

Oct. 1, 2025 Jane Goodall died. Goodall studied the behavior of chimpanzees in the 1960’s in Tanzania and devoted 65 years of her long life to protecting chimps and improving awareness of animal sentience. Her chart is so impressive that her biography deserves a much deeper dive.

David Lynch 1/20/46 – 1/15/25 Director
Gene Hackman 1/30/1930 – 2/18/25 Actor
Roberta Flack 2/10/37 – 2/24/25 Singer
George Foreman 1/10/49 – 3/21/25 Boxer
Val Kilmer 12/31/59 - 4/1/25 Actor
Pope Francis 12/17/36 - 4/21/25
Michael Madsen 9/25/57 – 7/3/25 Actor
Ozzy Osbourne 12/3/48 – 7/22/25 Musician
Sly Stone 3/15/43 – 6/9/25 Musician
John Robbins 10/26/47-6/1125 Author
Brian Wilson 6/20/42 – 6/11/25 Singer of Beach Boys
Hulk Hogan 8/11/53 - 7/24/25 Wrestler
Charlie Kirk 10/14/93-9/10/25 Political
Robert Redford 8/18/36 – 9/16/25 Actor
Diane Keaton 1/5/46 – 10/11/25 Actress
D’Angelo 2/11/74 – 10/14/25 Musician

LOOKING AHEAD

The intensity of 2025 sets the stage for 2026, The Year of the Fire Horse. This powerful “double-fire” energy is poised to bring acceleration and breakthroughs next year, as well as transformation. If you want to stay ahead of the ‘Fire Horse’ energy of 2026 and receive astro commentary and analysis delivered to your inbox, consider becoming a subscriber and check out my post with Charts for 2026: Year of the Fire Horse.

Sagitta links to anatomy where it signifies the sagittal plane of movement, and also to botany where it signifies sagittate leaves, or arrow-shaped leaves. Sagittate leaves demonstrate adaptability, adapting their shape to better suit the water levels in their environment.

It follows, then, that our challenge during this new month ahead is to stretch our adaptability and correct our aim. Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars are closely grouped at 28° Sagittarius. Even though Mars is no longer in Sagittarius, it is just a few degrees away in early Capricorn, still quite close.

When shooting an arrow, an archer steps, aims, anchors, and aligns, releasing the arrow with unwavering focus, hitting a perfectly marked target with direction and precision. Powerful, yet graceful. Anchoring comes through archer’s posture or stance.

So this month, look for those activities, people, and situations that you rely on to provide extra stability.

In anatomy, the sagittal plane of the body is that plane that divides the left half from the right and allows for front to back movements along that plane. The body parts associated with Sagittarius are the large muscle groups of the thigh, which support the largest and strongest bone of the body, the femur. Sagittal movements are the very movements that define us as humans such as walking, running, bending, carrying heavy loads, and going up stairs. They are complex movements incorporating the whole body. The human body itself is even shaped like an arrow when you think about it, with the tapered torso, forward facing orientation, and projectile-like limbs.

It could very well be that there are too few sources available to provide that stability, and consequently, one may have to rely on one’s own centering and anchoring. In any case, panic is only helpful for quick adrenaline and strength for fight or flight. After that, exhaustion sets in and panic is not so helpful in making the best decisions.

Accepting the current situation, rather than pretending or wishing for some idealized past or overly optimistic future can help us. Eventually, we require the systems-thinking, logic and efficiency of Capricorn to plan and build something more sustaining in the longer term.

The NEW MOON on December 19th at 28° Sagittarius is inconjunct URANUS and JUPITER, showing us the areas of disconnect, and this New Moon squares Neptune, showing the misalignment with the ideal, while Venus squares Saturn, Jupiter squares Chiron, Mercury squares the South Node, and Mars squares Ceres. (view chart) This shows the layers of complexity to untangle. It may not be a particularly comfortable time ahead, but this time could be potent if we are willing to recalibrate our aim.

In my classroom, I always say that no learning is lost, unless we refuse to learn. What we aim for is determined by what we are able to see, or what choose to see. We can adjust the realms of daily, practical life to better ALIGN with reality.

In using this archery metaphor of AIM, ANCHOR, and ALIGN we see the representative stages of the zodiacal cycle itself, which is the very process by which the universe makes matter manifest from the spiritual. “ANCHOR” represents the FIXED modality. We need stability to create and sustain life. ALIGN represents the MUTABLE, and allows for life to change and adapt, and AIM represents the CARDINAL, that action or decision that guides the process of life forward with each new attempt, like the new seed bursting out of the seed coat.

We are in constant movement as we aim-anchor-align. This is seen in the phases of the whole process of birth, growth, maturity and the creation of new life through reproduction, followed by decay and death that folds back vital nutrients into the earth to create and sustain more new life.

As we leave Neptune in Pisces in early 2026, we will be forced to abandon prior illusions if we haven’t already, and take a more realistic inventory of our current situation. This could be a form of initiative, honesty, or preparedness for new things to come. Preparedness is a key word I would like to emphasize for 2026, as astrologers expect events to bring great change next year. Preparedness = adaptability.

Winter Solstice 2025

A few days following the New Moon, we officially begin the WINTER SEASON with the Winter Solstice on December 21. This is the shortest day and longest night of the year when the Sun seems to stop its movement in the sky. In the northern hemisphere, the Sun sits at its southernmost place on the local horizon. It stops moving south and then starts moving north along the horizon. The following days then slowly get longer as we move from Solstice to Equinox, when day and night are equal.

The solstice itself is a metaphor for the need to STOP and take a breath in the present moment. We have gone as far as we can go. We are out of air. The solstices are the EARTH’s seasonal exhalation point, and as EARTHLINGS, we can stop too, take a new breath, and tune in, if we choose. Throughout human history in the northern hemisphere, this is the time of year when it would naturally follow that people had more time to spend indoors, meaning more time to reflect as well.

By balancing the needs and demands of the situations we face, and asking questions that lead us to truth, we can reach through the challenges of the coming season and come out on the other side. The space from Leo to Sagittarius of the solstice chart below are vacant, and require some integration. The Saturn/Neptune conjunction that sits at 29° Pisces and will be moving towards 0° Aries in early 2026. The opposite point to this is 29° Virgo/0° Libra. 0° Aries/Libra are the cardinal points (along with the Solstice at 0° Capricorn/0° Cancer).

At what point do we find the younger, more vital energies, the seedling, coming in and taking over? As things evolve, we can take the best qualities of what is passing away with us into the future, and yet strive for a new, revised and better version.

Other aspects in the Solstice chart include Jupiter square to Chiron as Uranus is inconjunct to the inner planets grouped with the Sun. Moon and Mars in Capricorn can help us take a more logical inventory, putting emotion aside, or being more practical, honest, or direct. This can better help us prepare for 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse.

Practical Ways to Aim, Anchor & Align

AIM

• Inventory: Take a few moments to honestly re-evaluate a long-term goal. Does it align with your current reality, or are you chasing an “idealized past or overly optimistic future”? Make one small, realistic adjustment to your plan.

• “Draw the Arrow”: Before December 19th, choose one thing you know you need to initiate (a conversation, a new habit, a budget review) and commit to starting one small step of it during the New Moon phase (CHRISTMAS WEEK).

ANCHOR

• Body Centering: Engage in a simple, grounding movement each morning—perhaps 10 minutes of gentle yoga, a brisk walk, or a short meditation focused on your core. This taps into the “sagittal movements” and helps with self-centering.

• Stability Audit: Identify the one or two people or activities that consistently bring you peace and stability. Schedule specific time with that person or for that activity this week to reinforce your “systems.”

ALIGN

• Reality Inventory: Write down three things you are currently accepting about your life situation right now, rather than wishing were different. This helps you “ALIGN with reality” and bypass unproductive panic.

• SOLSTICE STOP: On the Winter Solstice (December 21st), make a deliberate “stop.” Set aside 30 minutes to do nothing, preferably out in the SUNLIGHT, but sit, breathe, and reflect on the year past. Use this stillness to prepare for the “new breath” ahead. 2026 will be a dynamic year with much change, we need this moment of stillness to recharge.

Wishing everyone a wonderful winter season, and as we head into the new year I wish you the clarity, stability, and strength to take the truest aim.

~Laura Lee Gabelsberg

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“These four points, the Lunar Nodes and their squares, are pivots of the Moon’s latitude cycle that mirrors the Sun’s declination cycle.”
- AstrologyInstitute.com

It’s helpful to understand the astronomy here. The Griffith Observatory Website has some clear explanations and diagrams that I highly recommend. Basically, there are three different planes involved: the ecliptic (apparent path of the Sun), the celestial equator (Earth’s equator projected into space), and the moon’s orbit, which has a “swivel” and a 5 degrees tilt, that when added to the 23.5 degrees of the Earth’s tilt it makes up the 28.5 degrees of incline of the Moon. All of this creates the 18.6 year cycle of lunar standstill that we see. It amounts to the moonrise and set being the furthest south (or north) on the horizon that it can possibly go for any given location, similar to the Sun’s annual solstices. Suffice to say, this Full Moon is a little more special than your average, run-of-the-mill Full Moon.

The astronomy of this moment calls to my mind the ancient marvels of architecture like the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworths, which was established as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in Ohio, Hopewell is a huge interconnected structure of earthen mounds aligned perfectly with movements of Sun and Moon. It became the 25th World Heritage site in the United States in 2023 and joins such places like the Pyramids at Giza and Stonehenge.

Time and technology march on, but we cannot simply build airports, strip malls and hotels overtop of the Pyramids at Giza. As facts about Hopewell’s ceremonial and astronomical design “came to light,” Hopewell finally received the global recognition, awareness, and cultural preservation it deserves. That gives me some hope. At least this shows that it is still possible to honor past and future generations. That is good news for all of us.

We live relatively short human lives, but observing the movements of Sun and Moon help us think in terms of the grander scale of the universe and time, and helps keep our human activities like tourism and commerce in perspective. That humans build such remarkable marvels at all seems to point to this Sagittarian quest for TRUTH over the millenia.

I have recently experienced a significant decrease in visibility of stars in my local area due to development close to my home. Ironically, a new church boasts an excessively illuminated parking lot. Add to that the additional building of homes and a Costco not more than a mile or so away and there you have it. The visibility of the brightest stars in the sky have decreased significantly in the past two years. Again, it’s a situation where we have a responsibility to preserve the environment for future generations. How sad that children anywhere might see the stars simply because we want to shop or go to a church function at night. Suffice to say, I did send the church an email requesting they consider alternative lighting options that would reduce the light pollution. They have yet to respond.

Refusing to talk to or listen to people with opposing viewpoints remains a major obstacle to overcoming many of our modern problems. Feeling “cut off” or separated by time and space from people (or nature) causes harm. Feeling cut off is a choice though.

In my classroom, every year we read a novel about a Native American boy who befriends a white settler boy and teaches him how to survive. While the book is full of Native American stereotypes that make me cringe, the story does have some redeeming value. I explain to my students about the background of the fur trade during the 1700’s. They are normally justifiably shocked. But, the friendship between the two characters brings each a new cultural understanding of the other, even if the greater cultural conflict of the whole setting remains unresolved at the end. That is sort of my point, people heal through 1:1 connection, one at a time, over time.

Seeing beyond the immediate situation when people only want a sale, higher ratings, “likes” or “subscribes” or recognizing when an individual, business, group, or nation really doesn’t have our best interests at heart is a form of self protection. I am not suggesting that we ignore our own self-preservation. We do need to keep our wits about us in the world. The wolf is always at the door so to speak. Even family bonds can be toxic, but I would argue that these still need to be understood to be overcome.

Venus close to the Sagittarius Sun might suggest that we need to seek the TRUTH in relationships, whether about our past or present, or just to know ourselves better. In fact, all of the personal planets are with the Sun, but the Moon is solo, and 15 degrees away from Uranus.

Mercury, Neptune-Saturn, and Jupiter form a water trine, but now that Mercury is moving direct, it will be separating from this trine. A water trine would suggest increased or easier movement, flow, or exchange into the emotional sphere. I suggest using opportunities this month for healthy exchange to the full advantage rather than denying them outlet. Making the effort of connecting to family and friends, especially when estranged, may teach greater adaptability (mutability) in our character, even if it isn’t immediately fruitful in solving a given problem in a situation.

Wishing everyone a no so “Cold” December Full SuperMoon.

As I write this in the last week of November 2025, Uranus is retrograde but will go direct on February 4, 2026 at 27°27’ Taurus. That 27°27’ caught my attention as an appropriately Uranian number because 27 is the number of named moons that Uranus boasts. In addition, when a person turns age 27, Uranus forms a trine to its natal position and that transit sets the stage for the first Saturn Return. The informal list of famous musicians who have tragically died at age 27 are part of what is termed the “27 Club,” including Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison to name a few.

The last full moon for the Year of the Wood Snake occurs just a few days before that on Feb 1. The Year of the Fire Horse by Chinese Astrology begins with the New Moon that follows on Feb. 17th. This first New Moon also features an eclipse that looks like an Aries freight train, thus the quote.

Uranus spends approximately seven years in each sign, and in 2026 it officially changes signs from Taurus to Gemini. When Uranus stations to go retrograde again it will be on Sept 9, 2026, and it will not re-enter Taurus until its next go round the sun, another 84 years.

Back in 2020, when we were in the midst of the global pandemic, I remember when I took out my ephemeris and first noticed the Neptune-Saturn conjunction in 2026 along with the Uranus in Gemini. I hoped it would represent some sort of sea change or end to the “Post-COVID-era.” With all of the political tensions and power grabs across the globe that we have now, this all seems much more like waiting on top of a dry haystack for someone to light a match.

Just prior to Uranus entering Gemini in late April 2026, Mars forms a conjunction with Saturn on April 19 at 7° Aries. See Chart for Mars Conjunct Saturn.

Less than a week later, Uranus enters Gemini April 25, 2026.

As summer progresses, Uranus makes a dramatic conjunction with Mars on July 4, 2026, occuring at 3° Gemini. There has been a lot of discussion in the astrological community about this, speculating what it indicates.

In late July, the Nodes change from Virgo-Pisces to Leo-Aquarius, re-shuffling the deck from Earth and Water to Fire and Air. Uranus is in an Air Trine with Venus and Pluto as Mars enters Cancer the following month in August. During late summer, many planets are in still in the fire signs, Aries and Leo. Mars’ entrance into Cancer represents a more defensive space, such as defending the homeland, family, or tribe, but overall it doesn’t seem like there is enough water and earth to balance out the heavy fire and air here.

September 9, Uranus stations and then goes retrograde at 5°Gemini.

During its retrograde, Uranus moves back to 1° Gemini from September to February and resumes direct motion on Feb 8, 2027. Remember, no planets truly move backwards, it is only from Earth’s perspective they appear to move backwards, but astrologers give this significance.

In between, on the Beaver Full Moon of Nov 24, 2026, Uranus is with the Moon in Gemini, opposing the Sun in Sagittarius at the same time that Mars, the South Node and Jupiter are conjunct in Leo. Uranus forms an exact trine with Pluto on November 29, 2026 and that trine dissipates some by the end of December 2026.

Here is a quick list of the major dates for Uranus’ movement in 2026 to early 2027 mentioned in this post.

Uranus in Gemini 2026-2033

Below is a graph of the complete Uranus in Gemini time period with the waves of Uranus in and out of retrograde as the blue ribbon stretching across the Sibly Chart of the US labeled on the right hand side. Uranus makes 3 returns to the natal Uranus of the Sibly chart from 2027 to 2028.

• July 26, 2027 First Uranus Return

• Nov 5, 2027 Second Uranus Return

• May 11, 2028 Third Uranus Return

Further on, Uranus makes 3 conjunctions to natal Mars of the Sibly chart from 2030 to 2031.

Overall, 2026 feels strongly Uranian, but the truth is, 2026 is only the first year of a much longer 7 year cycle of Uranus in Gemini, given the three passes of Uranus to the United States chart and put that with the strangely Uranian significance of the number 27 (as discussed earlier), and 2027 might be even more Uranian year than 2026.

More Info on Uranus in Gemini

For more information check out Nick Dagan Best’s work. You can also search up his podcasts and videos such as this one.

I can also recommend The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End by Neil Howe. Many thanks also to Adam Sommer for his reference to the original version of The Fourth Turning, which I found quite interesting.