Misfortune Teller: Random Meanderings

• When someone sits down for a tarot reading, what they are essentially saying is, "I trust you to tell me what the universe has in store for me." So if you decide to give someone a reading, your job is to tell them what you see--honestly, directly, and with compassion--to the best of your ability. 

• No matter what you see, you take no responsibility for the future; it's dynamic and it can change. Nor should you take the credit or blame for your client's reaction to what you say.

• When I started reading professionally, I was worried sometimes after I read for people. I wondered if I said the right thing, or if I said too little or too much. A very wise woman told me, "Johnnie, if you said it, you said it, and if you didn't, you didn't."

• If you ask me about a reading I did for you, it's very likely I'm not going to remember it. Since that information doesn't belong to me, I use what I call my mental "delete key" once your reading is over. Also, some days I do more than 15 readings, so even if I wanted to keep them all straight, I couldn't. I never write down readings except for those I do for myself, and I don't share those with anyone.

• I have seen physical death in the cards twice in nearly 23 years. I'll talk more about that in my upcoming post on the Death card. 

• Just because someone doesn't have a lot of tarot reading experience does not mean you shouldn't respect what they have to tell you. And if they use a book as they read for you, please be patient. We all have to start someplace! I read with a book for my first 13 years as a reader, and I consult books frequently--we used to call it "studying"--to keep growing in my practice. 

•  A tarot reading belongs to the client, and it is private. If you had a reading and you would like to share what you were told, that's up to you, but don't bug anyone to tell you about a reading they had. If someone decides to tell you about a tarot reading they had, pay attention to them; they've just given you a big compliment by sharing it with you. Be worthy of it by not sharing it with anyone else.

• Don't ever pressure anyone to have a reading. Ever. 

I want to take a moment to thank my spiritual community, the Tradition of the Witches Circle, and all of my faithful clients. I am blessed to have each and every one of you, and I am humbled and honored to serve. May the blessings of the Lord and Lady be upon all of you! 

Astrological Chart of George Custer

Astrology is part of a larger whole that includes your upbringing, your experiences, your family, and a host of other factors. You may be well suited to be a concert pianist, for example, but if your family doesn't have the money for a piano and lessons, likely you're not going to end up as a concert pianist. 

St. Augustine, who, incidentally, was a sun sign Scorpio, had a great saying about astrology: "The stars may impel, but they cannot compel." In other words, your astrological makeup can tell you a lot about who you will become and give tendencies that may affect your life, but in the end it's all about your choices. It's especially interesting to cast a chart for a newborn and see what happens as the child grows older, and see what choices s/he makes.

So why did I choose to say this today? Well, there are certain astrological signs and scenarios that make people a particularly good fit for what they do in life. The repressed emotion of Capricorn moon, for example, will make for an outstanding general, but that moon placement would suck for someone who works with children, for example. The intensity of Scorpio sun is fantastic for the military in many cases, and the sign rules matters of life and death. But I know plenty of Scorpios who are incapable of following orders, much less killing someone in combat.

Looking at Custer's chart, some parts are very suited for military work, while certain others are not. I'll try to highlight these qualities as we move forward.

Aries Chart Signature--The "signature" of a chart is based on some calculations of the overall dominant element and quality (cardinal, fixed, or mutable). Aries is the ultimate sign for combat, so while Custer is a sun sign Sagittarius, the Aries signature will make him more suited to leading troops than your standard Sag.

Sun in Sagittarius--With its fiery temperament, and sharing the fire element with Aries and Leo, Sag might seem on the surface to be a good choice for military leadership. And it's far from the worst choice. You have many, many fine qualities, including a fantastic sense of humor, an ability to take life and themselves with a grain of salt, a penchant for honesty, and the ability to think philosophically/spiritually. And as a fire sign, bravery is not usually an issue. What's interesting is that Custer was a cavalry commander and Sagittarius, the Archer, is a centaur. So he was in the perfect branch of the military, I'll say that. What's the problem, then? 

It's not the best choice for one big reason: Sag is the wanderer of the zodiac and the ultimate freedom-seeker.

As a mutable (flexible) sign, Sag folks are typically good at following orders, to a point. In other words, if given orders that go against their "truth"--a very subjective thing for Sag that they refine throughout their lives--the Sag might very well refuse to obey those orders. With the understanding that "ground truth" from commanders in the field might very well cause those planning any given campaign to change their minds, Sag might decide on a moment's notice that a particular objective--one that likely is a piece of a much larger puzzle that Sag may or may not be aware of at the time--is no longer viable from his point of view, despite command opinion that it is important.

Also, that "to a point" illustrates another facet of Sagittarius. They love their freedom. They don't want to be tied down to anything, and that includes a set of rules that everyone follows. That's not to say that they are constantly deliberately disobedient or insubordinate. But to quote a famous movie, for many Sag people, rules are "guidelines" to follow when they're convenient, but can be ignored at will. Custer got in trouble once for going AWOL to see his wife, and it was supposed to cost him a one-year suspension until his higherups interceded on this behalf.

Large amount of "night" planets--The majority of Custer's planets are underneath the equator of the chart. Nine of the major celestial bodies fall into this category. Since "personal" matters"--involving mostly things that are extremely important to you and mainly you alone--are a big part of night planets, Custer likely had a "me first" attitude in many different areas. For me, this would be a command deficiency. 

Venus in the 1st House--Venus has a great placement in Libra, in its dignity. But it's sitting in the 1st house, which represents ourselves, our personal expression, and how we see ourselves. With Libra in this most personal of houses, Libra being the love planet and all could give someone with this placement the idea that they're, well...pretty damn awesome. So it's pretty likely that Custer thought pretty highly of himself. With Libra rising--the edge or "cusp" of the 1st house is the rising sign, the mask through which we see life--he probably thought he was good-looking, too. (He may not have been wrong; Libra rising people have a tendency to inherit Venus' good looks. No, really. But I digress.) Again, this could be a problem on the battlefield. 

Mars in Capricorn in the 4th--We know that Mars is the planet of war, and its position is of particular importance for a military man. One of the great things about this position is that Mars in Capricorn gave Custer excellent battle organization skills, and up until his death he had the pedigree to prove it; he was a skilled commander. But an even larger benefit would be for Custer to think before committing to a battle; Sagittarians are not usually ones for planning things out terribly well. Mars in Capricorn in the 4th house is common for a military background, so it's not surprising that this is what Custer ended up doing. 

Alternate career--Based on my read of this chart, Custer would have made an outstanding teacher if he hadn't gone into the military. As a Sagittarius with a heavy third house, he'd have done very well teaching, especially children. I wonder how much training he did; I'll bet he was excellent at it. Younger soldiers would have done better with him than the older ones, generally.

Thanks as always for stopping in! See you next Friday for another military chart! 

Misfortune Teller: The Tower

The Tower

Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck

US Games Systems, Inc. 

No tarot cards evoke "shock and awe" like the Tower. Overall, it can go either positive or negative for me, but it's the WAY that the Tower says the events will happen that scares many clients.

Some of the meanings for the Tower for me include:

• Any shocking or unexpected event that upsets the status quo
• A revelation that seems unreal or incredible
• A huge reality slap
• Someone getting taken down a peg--"How the mighty have fallen" or "the bigger they are, the harder they fall"

Whatever it turns out to be, the Tower's appearance means that it will something that shakes us to our very foundations. I like to think of the card as "The Great Equalizer" because every single person goes through events such as this in life.

I have two examples, both of them times when I was receiving a reading instead of giving them for a change. Some years ago, my wife Jen Wells did a card reading for me about my job. I was working for a company that was doing well and had recently expanded, opening an office in England and hiring a whole bunch of new people. She pulled the Tower and called it right on: "Layoffs." I couldn't believe it. Everything was going fantastically...at least, that's what I thought, until the first of three rounds of layoffs came. It was a bloodbath. I didn't lose my job, but I lost 1/3 of my staff and as such my position as a manager was no longer needed. I was lucky enough to go back to my old job; I had only been in management for six months anyway, but the whole thing was still very unexpected.

The second time was many years after the first. I had an acquaintance do a reading for me for the next week, and the Tower came up. I must admit that while I was cavalier about the first reading and didn't believe it, this one I took a little too seriously. I came home that night and started wondering what might be going on. Should I take the car in to be looked at? Was there a problem in my checking account? I started freaking out a little bit. Jen finally got tired of it and said, "There is a surprise birthday party for you tomorrow!!" Whoops. It would have truly been a shock since I was totally unaware. Surprising a Scorp is hard enough, and she had succeeded. So I could understand her being angry about it.

One other possible meaning that has been coming up a lot in my practice lately is one I call "Chicken Little Syndrome". It's what happened in the second example above. Sometimes we're so afraid that the world is going to screw us over that we're seeing the potential for it to happen at any second, and then when it does it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I will often tell clients "You have a tremendous sense of the awful." And to an extent, as human beings we all do. We want to see the worst. But the Tower doesn't necessarily represent something bad. Think about the couple who is told they will likely never conceive, and then they do. Or the boss that you hate gets canned out of the blue and all of his employees are given the raises they were denied. Or you fall in love with someone you didn't expect when you are still moping from your last breakup.

Make sure that anyone you read for knows that they are in for a turbulent time. Use the cards around it to figure out what may happen and how things will end up, but don't you dare pull punches with the Tower; your client needs to hear the message.

Astrological Chart of Dwight Eisenhower

Let's take an astrological look at one of the most well-known military commanders of all time, Dwight Eisenhower!

NB: Big caveat here, folks. This chart has a Rodden rating of "DD", which means that two or more sources have given different birth times, and that while sincere efforts have been made, there are no conclusive results. Since a chart's accuracy is based on a very specific moment of birth, unless and until additional information is found concerning the subject's birth time, the analysis that follows is based solely on the birth time listed in this chart, 3:00am.

Heavy Air--Ike's chart has so much air in it, far overpowering any other element in the chart.  Air deals with the mental body--the collection of our thoughts and ideas and our ability to communicate are two big examples--so Ike was likely an excellent communicator. Considering the kind of commander and commander-in-chief that he was, this isn't surprising. When you're able to easily convey your message to others, and you do a good job of convincing them to follow you (there's another air trait!), you have a much better chance for success.

Grand Trines in Air--When two planets are trine, they are 120 degrees apart. This is an easy relationship between planets, which normally you'd consider a good thing, because it means that they are working well together. Problems can arise, however, because trines can foster laziness. Think of the person who is so talented at what they do that they don't ever have to practice it or work at it. There's no challenge, so it may be difficult for them to improve on what they can already do. 

In Ike's case, he has two grand trines in air. Mercury, Jupiter and Neptune all trine each other, forming a large triangle in the chart; you can see it above if you look at the 4, 8, and 12 clock points. What this means is that anything air-related would come very easy to Ike. Mercury is the planet of communication, so speaking, writing, and listening were all skills that Ike likely did very well. With Mercury in Libra, he would want to build consensus. With Jupiter in Aquarius, he'd want to expand his message by working through large groups of people; Aquarius rules things that affect a society as a whole, for example. Pluto in Gemini would allow for time and flexibility for the message to be understood. Neptune in Gemini would allow for creative visualization of the message. On the negative side, grand trine in air folks can be extremely talkative, and Ike probably wasn't in a rush to do most things.

Libra = Peace?--Libra is a sign that does well at mediating disputes and as I mentioned earlier, building consensus among people. One of the most interesting thing about Eisenhower's terms as President is that there were no new wars. He ended the Korean War, but no new ones were started. Libras are typically excellent at avoiding conflict. What can be a problem, however, is that Libra people tend to avoid conflict even when it would be the most efficient method of resolving a problem. They want everyone to get along. That's not to say that they LIKE everyone; they're human beings, and no one likes everyone else. Eisenhower certainly had his share of people he didn't like personally. But generally, he knew how to get them to do what he wanted them to do.

No Water at All--Water rules the emotional body, and there is not one single planet in a water sign (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) in this chart. This may have made it challenging for Ike to show emotion and use his intuition, so likely he wasn't used to doing either. People like Ike with heavy air in their charts work with information--intelligence--and "hunches" are not usually viewed in a positive light. I can see Ike having a conversation with one of his advisers, and the adviser says, "I just have a feeling we should..." and Ike responding with, "Get me the intel to support that opinion, and we have a place to start the discussion. But until then..."

When he had to be firm, likely he had no problem with it, and "sob stories" probably didn't move him, either. For a military commander, this is a fantastic asset, but in his personal life I'm sure there were many people who might have seen him as undemonstrative. Luckily, Libra sun and moon balance out some these effects. 

Interesting note: People who have little or no water often lack compassion and can be very cruel. One example of this is Hitler, who had almost no water in his chart at all, but Hitler had repressive Capricorn moon backing up as well. Luckily for us, we had Eisenhower instead.

Anyway, that's a quick look at Dwight Eisenhower. Tune in again next Friday for another famous military astrological chart! :)

Astrological Chart of George Patton

Let's take a look at the astrological chart of Gen. George Patton. 

Capricorn Moon--George has a Capricorn moon. I can't stress this one enough. The Moon is our emotional body, or the sum total of our emotions and how they affect us. If you're sitting there thinking, "Patton wasn't an emotional guy!" you would be right. 

Capricorn moon is the WORST--as in least desirable--moon position, opposite Cancer, which is the best. Think about emotions as a river. While Cancer moon allows for free-flow of water and fantastic sensitivity, Capricorn moon is like Hoover Dam. It allows water through, but not much, and it's selective. 

In Patton's life as a general, this was a true asset. When you have to order people to do things that might get them killed, Capricorn moon helps you from worrying too much about the possibility of people dying and do what Capricorn does best: Focus on the long-term goal. I have a Capricorn moon myself, and I have to actively try to show emotions and not repress them to keep myself balanced. So while it is the hardest moon position to deal with, it can be a rewarding challenge as well. 

You probably also noticed in his speeches that he's not trying to win prizes for pretty words or being sensitive to others. He's just laying out the goal, plain and simple. 

Scorpio sun in the 6th--Intensity is always the name of the game with Scorpio, but with its placement in the 6th house, he was ideally suited for the military, which rules service in general and the armed services in particular.

 

Flexibility--Patton's planets were by and large in mutable (changeable) signs. Scorpio evolves over time, but it's a fixed (stubborn). The fact that there was so much mutable energy in this chart gave Patton another dimension most Scorpios don't possess. Had he had more planets in fixed signs--13% in fixed signs as opposed to 50% of this planets were in mutable signs--likely he would not have been as effective a commander. His "unpredictability" comes from that ability to change tactics quickly. His Gemini rising also helped with this skill.

Mercury in Sag in the 6th--Mercury in Sagittarius is also in its detriment, but it is bolstered for military work because of its position in the 6th house (see above). Patton and Petraeus share this sign placement; sadly, with Petraeus' lack of birth time we don't know what house it is in. But with Patton, we know that Mercury is sitting in the 6th house. Likely his colleagues found him too blunt, but you always knew where you stood with him when it came to military matters, and he knew how to give orders.

The 6th house--This is the strongest house in Patton's chart. We've mentioned its connection to service and the military, but people with this placement do well at the workplace in general and anything routine or day-to-day. The 6th house, ruled by Virgo, is also about being detail-oriented. I'd guess that it took Patton a while to give up the idea of being down in the weeds on every single thing. His Gemini rising sign, which is, like Virgo, ruled by fast-moving Mercury, would only have fueled his desire to know it all. Put this together with his Scorpio sun and Capricorn moon and you get "ultimate control freak", someone who has the potential to be extremely critical. I haven't done any historical research on Patton, but as an astrologer I'd wonder about his eating and health habits. Typically, a 6th house sun can indicate a health nut, or someone very concerned about what they put into their body. Patton was very concerned about the soldiers under him, and took extra steps to make sure they were well cared for; this is another manifestation of the role of the 6th house in his chart: responsibility to others.

Moon in the 8th--This house is naturally ruled by Scorpio, Patton's sun sign. While Capricorn moon is in its detriment here, the 8th gives it depth and a lot more intensity. The Scorpio nuclear explosion of temper from Patton was likely legendary, when it happened. But I'm guessing people didn't get to experience that much; the moon in the 8th lends a secretiveness to the moon, and since the moon rules private and emotional matters and is in its detriment in Capricorn, he likely kept his emotions to himself. But this position likely also fueled his interest in occult/metaphysical things.

 

Venus in Capricorn in the 7th--Married with children is exactly how you'd expect things to go with someone with this placement. Venus has more power here than the average Venus in Capricorn because one of its signs, Libra, rules this house. Astrologers call it an "accidental dignity". It was surprising to hear that he had extramarital affiairs; the sun, moon, and Venus signs in this chart don't really support that. But astrology is only part of the picture; our upbringing, society, and our egos have a role in who we are. I suspect in this case that it was the latter driving the bus.  

Neptune in Taurus in the 12th--This is a great placement for artistic and/or musical ability. Neptune in Taurus, a sign ruled by Venus, in the very sensitive 12th house, can indicate someone who is drawn to the arts. With it in retrograde motion--moving "backward" at the time of his birth--it may not have had as much effect.

 

Mars--The planet of war is not particularly well aspected in Patton's chart. While it is trine Venus--the two have a nice, easy relationship in the same element, earth--Mars also squares (shares approximately 90 degree angles with) both Mercury, planet of logical thought and communication, and Pluto, the planet of transformation. Squares are challenges to overcome in an astrological chart, and they tend to propel us forward. In this case, talking (Mercury) vs. doing (Mars) was likely something Patton struggled with.

 

I hope you've enjoyed this brief look at Patton's chart. Tune back in every Friday as I talk about the astrological profiles of other military leaders.

Misfortune Teller: The Moon

"The Moon"

Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

US Games Systems, Inc.

"There's something rotten in Denmark." That sentence from Shakespeare should be going your mind whenever you draw this major arcana card. 

I'm not going to say there's nothing good about this card, but I'll say there's very little to like when you turn this one over, folks, and the watchword for it is BEWARE. Nothing here is as it seems.

Some of the standard meanings for this card for me include:

• Deception and self-deception (including "wishful thinking")
• Confusion
• Bewilderment and/or illusion
• Uncertainty and doubt
• "Spin" of any kind
• CAVEAT EMPTOR [Let the buyer beware!]

Some of us are good at lying to others. While I'm not one of those--I truly SUCK at falsehoods!--I'll bet I'm as good as anyone else in lying to myself. That's where we as human beings truly excel. When the Moon comes up, it's imperative to take a hard, honest look at a situation and start asking questions.Whatever the Moon's light hits should be called into question. 

The Moon can often alert us to a potentially dangerous situation. You know exactly what I mean. You're in a new relationship and you're on your best behavior and your date starts going off on his/her ex. You do your best to be polite and listen, but as you do so you hear some things that make you want to run in the other direction. Your gut is agreeing, and you find yourself making excuses why you can't go out again. Or you go in to sign what was supposed to be a sweet job contract, only the salary isn't as high as they said it would be and the percentage of time you will be traveling is much higher than what you discussed. 

I had a boss who epitomizes the Moon for me, a real scumbag whose didn't care what anyone's agenda was except his own. He asked me to lie for him to customers, which I hated. He held me to a standard that was totally unreachable, but he didn't tell me what that was, either. When you had a conversation with him, you had to be careful because he was an excellent wordsmith; try to hold him to a promise and inevitably he would say, "Well, that's not exactly what we discussed." When I transferred out of his department after a year or so, he continued to expect me to perform duties that weren't a part of my job description anymore. It took my new boss to instruct him to re-assign those duties to one of his own people. I think you get the idea. 

The Moon represents the entire idea of spinning any event or story to show what you wanted it to rather than the actual facts. We used to joke in the software industry that when problems with the software were reported--"bugs"--they were actually "unintended features". Any euphemism falls into this category, those words we use to soften the blow. Ever notice how the term "problem" has disappeared in favor of the term "issue"? I HATE that word because it's spinning something to be better than it is.

If a situation is confusing, the Moon will often appear. At that point, take everything that you see or hear with a grain of salt. It might not be what's really going on. You know sometimes how you hear noises at night and they sound like someone may be in your home when there's no one there? That's one of the few good points of the Moon: When something looks better than it was at first glance. But the opposite could just as equally be true when you "ding" your car door and brush it off, only to realize that it's going to need some body work when you look at it in the light of day the next morning.

One other example: When this card comes up in love, there is a lot that you don't know about that person you're with, OR you've decided to settle for this person and not see their flaws. Either way, it's a problem. What about that guy you met online who neglected to mention that he's in prison, married, or in serious financial difficulty?

With this card, nothing is as it seems. So blindly rush ahead at your own peril. Make sure that you're telling any client this as well if you're reading for others. You might not know exactly what's wrong, but there is definitely something off. This one may be easier for you to tell people about, simply because you can say, "Something in this situation doesn't feel right to me."

The Moon can also represent Pisces or Neptune-ruled people. It won't surprise you to know that Neptune is known as "The Great Deceiver". 

Solar Chart of David Petraeus

Here's a look at the solar astrological chart of former US Army General David Petraeus.

 

Many of you may not be familiar with looking at astrological charts, so let's talk about a few things first. Gen. Petraeus' chart has a Rodden Rating of "X", which means we do not have his actual birth time. We call this a "solar chart" because we use noon as the birth time on the day of his birth. All of the relationships between the planets, the rising sign, and the houses of the chart are inaccurate without the birth time. So this will be a general planetary overview. In future charts, I'll try to pick out the ones with more accurate information. 

As a sun sign Scorpio, David would be very comfortable with secrets of all kinds. Many Scorpios are drawn to professions that involve intelligence of some kind for that reason. Every Scorpio has their own moral code, and unfortunately his decisions to have an extramarital affair made front page news. Sadly, he had the ultimate Scorpio dream job as Director of the CIA. Not trying to second guess or judge him, but COME ON, MAN. Any Scorpio on the planet--including this one--would LOVE that job. Losing it must have REALLY hurt.

Scorpio is also the sign that rules sex. What I also found interesting was that his lover was also a sun sign Scorpio. But David didn't leave his wife for this woman. He may have known that it's entirely possible he'd have run into the same problem with another person. More detail on that below.

Moon in Cancer is the moon's most comfortable position (in its dignity in the sign that it rules) and it rules our emotional selves. Underneath the hard exterior Scorpio shell was an extremely sensitive individual. I wouldn't rule out some natural psychic ability there, either. But one area that we could consider is his relationship with his mother. Many lunar Cancers have problems with mom that carry over into their adult lives. In this particular chart, the moon is conjunct Uranus; that could indicate abrupt emotional changes or shifts.

Mercury in Sagittarius means we're dealing with a straight shooter. One area he likely has to watch for is being too blunt, but likely he also has a great sense of humor. Venus in Sagittarius, however, can be a problem romantically; Sag's attitude is "don't fence me in", and it can give the tendency to become restless in love. I also wouldn't be surprised if David enjoyed being away from home almost as much as he liked being at home, and not just for extracurricular activities.

Mars in Capricorn is great for slow, steady career growth. Mars is also the lust planet, so it's quite likely that his affair started slowly and very gradually.

Unfortunately, without a birth time there's not a lot else to say on this one. But I hope you will tune in again soon when I do another astrological chart.