In Radu’s latest Editorial from the Astrology Weekly Newsletter Jan. 15-21, 2006 he asks, “Are we the person defined in our natal horoscope? Is that all a human being is all about?” And, “We are mentally confined to a single life perspective, but our soul, our deeper self knows much more than that.”

Only hours later I get my answer to last nights heart call for assistance and guidance! Another great question is….Who (from higher levels) helped Radu reconnect with speaking a foreign language, most probably a past life one for him, while asleep? Who made sure he had a physical witness in his wife being awake then to hear him? That I would read his Editorial first thing this morning? This is exactly how multidimensional reality works through and with each of us. Such complex multi-leveled interconnections and grand Creativity, that linear thinking simply can’t perceive or contain it.

I’m the first to admit that I’m not a gifted ‘technical’ astrologer and never will be. However astrology has been a part of my life for over 40 years, and will always be. I am however fairly gifted at perceiving knowledge and other realities beyond this physical one. I’ve also remembered some past lives since age 5, and more as an adult. This, in combination with other insights I’ve had over the years, and this timely push from Unseen guidance through Radu, leads me to share this.

Indeed “we” are the person defined in our natal horoscope…..now, lets define we. From what I understand, we or you and me, the aspects that have splintered off from our Higher Selves to incarnate, are exactly that. Aspects. These aspects as I’ll call them, are what we perceive and refer to as ‘us’ or ‘you’ and ‘me’ in these lives, these incarnations. Our natal charts are the physical maps of what’s not only possible for each of us through these unique incarnations, but indicators of all the things our Higher Selves desires ‘us’ to work on, develop, and integrate in this particular incarnation in three dimensional reality and time. Through ‘us’, you and me, our Higher Selves has It’s Multidimensional Agenda’s and ‘we’ go out and attempt to accomplish these many individual agenda’s. In 3D physicality these agenda’s are represented by our individual, custom designed, natal horoscopes.

Because I’ve remembered different so-called ‘past’ lives, plus been involved with astrology, I’ve gazed long and hard at my natal chart looking for any tell-tale indications of these remembered past lives. In all honesty I don’t see a one of them there. This brings us back to the issue of our natal horoscope as a single current representative of this single current incarnation. I think it is exactly that! I’ve learned that combing through our natal charts searching for clues to any of our past lives, using linear thinking, isn’t going to get us the results we’re after.

Envision a very large perfect diamond floating is the black of space. This diamond represents your Higher Self, let’s say. Now look at all of the perfect facets on this huge perfect diamond. These facets represent all of the different incarnations that You are having. Now, look at all the razor fine lines, edges, that connect all of these facets to one another like an almost invisible honeycomb of light. Think of these fine lines or edges between the facets as energetic pathways like nerves that keep all connected to all the rest of the All within just your multidimensional Self! These lines between facets (incarnations) on the diamond (Higher Self) are the links connecting all the multiple levels of you with all the other you’s throughout time and space, and far beyond.

Back to our current natal charts, our spiritual blueprints, our cosmic homework assignment for this incarnation. I feel there are certain planets that make it easier to increase our vibratory rates/consciousness to the level where we can perceive many of our other past/future lives and selves. Namely, all the planets and planetoids etc., from Saturn on out – Chiron, Uranus, Pholus, Neptune, Nessus and Pluto. Outer planetary energies and newly discovered assistants in the form of the Centaurs that fine tune and expand our awareness, our consciousness, out beyond our ego, linear awareness only, selves. Back to multidimensional awareness where we naturally resonate at multiple higher frequencies also. Never forget that we are multidimensional beings.

I do feel that the North and South Nodes are strong indicators of areas, energies, consciousness we’ve already perfected in other past lives – the South Node. The North Node is a heavy indicator of areas, energies, and consciousness that our Higher Self would like us to do a lot more work with. Actually, the whole natal chart may just be showing us the areas that “we” don’t need to deal with, here and now, because other aspects of us are doing so in those lives. What is present in our natal horoscopes, is what we are supposed to be dealing with in this live.

Once we’ve done enough prep work through different incarnations, truly integrating the archetypal lessons and energies of the Inner Planets, we’re ready to begin a much more direct and conscious interaction with the Outer Planets and beyond. Why? Because we’ve already prepared energetically, and won’t be harmed by encountering these higher planetary frequencies directly. With this more direct connection and interaction with the Outer Planets, we’re learning how to deal with more of, not only Ourselves in the form of remembered past/future lives, but also larger chunks of consciousness, larger realities, and different dimensions at the same time.

So we come back to Radu’s insight. “We are mentally confined to a single life perspective, but our soul, our deeper self knows much more than that.” How true this is, until we pass the Initiations of the Inner Planets, and begin to integrate with the energies of the Outer Planets where, like I said, the fine line between self and greater self and Higher Self starts of openly reconnect from ‘our’ perspective. From our Higher Self’s perspective there never was any separation between any aspect of Us at all. Ever!”

Source: http://www.astrologyweekly.com/

For instance, Manuel I Comnenus, emperor of the Byzantine Empire between 1143-1180, utilized astrology in his political and personal life, as well as supporting translations of occult literature in his court. When the Church Patriarch presented Manuel with a letter from a simple monk claiming that the astrological teaching was a sacrilege, Manuel could not allow a charge of heresy to be leveled against him. He composed a defense of astrology, asserting that it was compatible with Christian doctrine. Only as he became ill and eventually died in 1180, on the advice of Theodosius (Patriarch of Constantinople), he renounced to astrology.

Anna Comnena’s Comments on Astrology
Byzantine Princess Anna Comnena (1083-1148) was the daughter of Emperor Alexius Comnenus of the Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire). When the first Crusaders reached Constantinople (=ancient Byzantium, todays Istanbul), Anna witnessed their arrival and their alien customs, and would later record her observations for posterity in a 15-volume work: the Alexiad. She is considered the world’s first female historian.

The “Alexiad” of Anna Comnena has long been used as a source of information by historians of the Byzantine Empire. Here’s an excerpt from the Book VI of the “Alexiad” where Anna Comnena expresses her views on astrology and astrologers of her time, starting from a fulfilled forecast by the philosopher Symeon Seth on the death of Robert Guiscard:

“A certain mathematician named Seth who boasted much of his knowledge of astrology had forecast Robert’s fate by an oracle, after his crossing to Illyria, written this forecast on a paper, sealed it and entrusted it to some of the Duke’s intimates, bidding them keep it till a certain time. After Robert’s death they opened it by the astrologer’s order and the prophecy was as follows: “A great enemy from the west shall fall suddenly after having stirred up great confusion.”This caused everybody to marvel at the man’s knowledge; and in truth he had delved very deeply into this branch of science, and if I may be allowed to make a short break in the course of my history, the following are the facts about astrological prophecies. The discovery is fairly recent, and the science of it was not known to the ancients. For [149] this method of divination did not exist in the time of Eudoxus, the greatest of all astronomers, neither did Plato have any knowledge of it, and even the astrologer, Manetho, had not brought it to perfection. Now these (astrologers) observe the hour of the birth of the persons about whom they intend to prophesy, and fix the cardinal points and carefully note the disposition of all the stars, in short they do everything that the inventor of this science bequeathed to posterity and which those who trouble about such trifles understand. We, also, at one time dabbled a little in this science, not in order to cast horoscopes (God forbid!), but by gaining a more accurate idea of this vain study to be able to pass judgment upon its devotees. I do not mention this for the sake of boasting, but to prove that during my father’s reign many of the sciences made great progress, as he honoured both philosophers and philosophy itself, but towards this teaching of astrology he showed some hostility, I believe because it tended to make people of a guileless nature reject their faith in God and gape at the stars. This was the cause of the Emperor’s waging war against the teaching of astrology. Yet in spite of this there was no dearth of astrologers at that time, for the Seth I have mentioned flourished then, and there was also a famous Egyptian, Alexandreus, who was a strong exponent of the mysteries of astrology. He was consulted by many and used to give most accurate forecasts in many cases, not even using the astrolabe, but made his prophecies by a certain casting of dice. There was nothing magical about that either, it was an art practised by the Alexandrians (or by Alexandreus). When the Emperor saw how the young people flocked to him and regarded the man as a species of prophet, he himself consulted him twice and each time Alexandreus gave very correct answers. But the Emperor was afraid that harm might come to many from it and that all would be led away to the vain pursuit of astrology, so he banished him from the capital, assigned Raedestus as his dwelling-place and showed great consideration for him, and his means of living were amply supplied from the imperial treasury. Nay more, the great dialectician, Eleutherius, also an Egyptian by birth, cultivated this art too and carried it to such perfection that he yielded the palm to no one. Later again, a man called Catanances from Athens came to the capital, anxious to carry off the first prize among astrologers and when questioned by some about the date of the Emperor’s death, he foretold it as he thought, but was proved wrong in his [150] prognostication. It happened, however, that the lion which was kept in the palace died that day, after four days’ fever, so the vulgar considered that the prophecy of Catanances had been accomplished. After some considerable time he again foretold the date of the Emperor’s death and was mistaken; yet the Emperor’s mother, the Empress Anna, died on the very day Catanances had foretold. Because Catanances had made repeated mistakes in his predictions about him, the Emperor did not like to banish him as he was self-convicted, and also it might seem that he banished him in anger. But now let us return to the point in our history where we abandoned it, otherwise we shall be thought to be stargazers, obscuring the main theme of our history with the names of astrologers.”

Astrology in the Byzantine Empire as viewed in Niketas Choniates’s History
Another important testimony on the situation of Byzantine astrology we get from the historian Niketas Choniates in his work “O City of Byzantium. The Annals of Niketas Choniates.”

As Niketas Choniates depicted him, Alexius III was very keen on astrology and its interpretations of the daily circumstances. Although Choniates considers this a common practice of the emperors of the times, he does not fail to thoroughly criticize it and ridicule those who professed it. He accuses them of denying Divine Providence and perversely turning to interpreting the movements, positions and configurations of the stars, misusing expressions like ‘it is fated’ or ‘what is ordained by necessity…cannot be undone’ in order to explain the paradoxes of life.

Niketas’ objection to astrology is very well depicted in his account of Manuel I. He blames Manuel for believing in the astrologers as if they were uttering the word of God.

In the episode of Manuel’s illness and death, Choniates seizes the opportunity to expose and deride astrologers, as well as criticizing the emperor’s belief in their assertions.

“But those pestilential astrologers had the audacity to say that the emperor would shortly recover from his illness…they shamelessly predicted the razing of enemy cities to the ground. What was more outrageous, they, being quick-tongued and used to lying, foretold a great commotion of the universe… the transformation of the whole natural order, thus proving themselves ventriloquists rather than stargazers. They… told the weeks in which these things would happen, and notified the emperor accordingly;… as if they had clear knowledge of the things which the Father has kept in His own power, and about which Our Savior reprimanded his disciples for asking. So not only did the emperor seek out caves… and prepare them for habitation…”

Likewise, Niketas denounces Alexius’ inclination on astrology which he finds totally incompatible with Christian faith.

Source: http://www.astrologyweekly.com/

Over the course of Peter Jackson’s directing career, the arc of his expression of his Scorpio Sun has passed over much of the Plutonian realm. He first start directing gory movies like Bad Taste and Dead Alive; obviously the death element of Scorpio is evident in these movies. He directed the most scatological puppet movie I’ve ever seen, Meet the Feebles, which includes every possible despicable gross-out thing you can imagine, and many more you can’t imagine. Every conceivable bodily function is exploited.

Jackson also has Sun conjunct Neptune. Neptune rules the imagination, fantasy, and dreams, as well as sacrifice and martyrdom. He took a sudden twist with his next film Heavenly Creatures, which is about two adolescent schoolgirls in New Zealand who fall intensely in love with each other (Scorpio) and escape into their rich fantasy life (Neptune) to cope with the challenges of reality. One of the girls hates her mother, and the other cannot bear being once again abandoned by her parents while she recovers from tuberculosis. The film ends in murder because the two girls resist being separated from their parents.

Following this wonderful film was The Frighteners. I have not seen this film since its release; however, the plot summary states that a “psychic private detective who consorts with deceased souls becomes engaged in a mystery as members of the town community begin dying mysteriously.” Here we have a private detective (Scorpio), ghosts (Neptune) and death (Scorpio). ‘Nuff said.

The running theme of Lord of the Rings is the grand obsession that overtakes people who are in possession of the Ring, and the power (also a Pluto keyword) that comes with it. The Neptunian theme of sacrifice and selflessness, taking action for a higher good, is prevalent in all of Frodo’s actions. Throughout the entire journey he returns to Mordor with no ego-involvement.

Despite the awesomeness of its computer animation in Jackson’s most recent film, King Kong is ultimately a love story. All water signs concern intimacy. Cancer relates to the bond between mother and child; Scorpio between intimate adult partners; and Pisces between humans and the Cosmos. Scorpio involves the intimacy between King Kong and Ann Darrow. As Scorpio rules many of the dark, ugly emotions that come up in marriage, we see King Kong’s jealousy, rage and possessiveness. His obsession to find Ann when he is in New York City is Scorpionic, and his willingness to risk his life to save her (from the dinosaurs, on Skull Island), and simply to be with her (on the Empire State Building, as biplanes are attempting to shoot him down) involves a Scorpionic fight-to-the-death.

Neptune is god of the seas, so it is appropos that filmmaker Carl Denham and his crew sail the high seas to find Skull Island, which is obscured by fog (another Neptune keyword) and is not on any ordinary map. Neptune also rules sacrifice; when Denham and his crew arrive at the island, they are captured by tribal people, who offer Ann Darrow as sacrifice to appease the giant beast. Neptune is also natural ruler of the 12th house, which rules confinement. (Spoiler…) At the end of the film, Kong is captured and brought to Times Square in New York City, where he is shackled inside a theater for the purposes of a spectacle, a re-enactment of the crew’s adventures on Skull Island. Finally, Kong is killed at the end while on top of the Empire State Building. Neptune is the martyr—think of Christ as the symbol of Pisces—who is misunderstood as only a threat, when he is really just a very large animal, capable of a range of emotions that only his love can see.

Source: http://www.jeffreykishner.com/

The Grand Cross consists of four or more planets spread at intervals of approximately 90° and two oppositions is formed in the chart. This configuration is a very stressing one because the energies of those 4 planets involved are forming hard aspects (quadratures and oppositions). The energy released by this configuration is very intense one and it may lead to all kinds of powerfull and changing events.

The current Grand Cross is already activated and the results are known to everyone.I’m reffering to the Hemel Hempstead oil depot explosion near London.

I’ve searched in the past (using Configuration Hunter Software ) to see if this Grand Cross occured before. And for my suprise in September 1926 the same Grand Cross was active for several days (from 12.09.1926 to 25.09.1926).

The 1926 Grand Cross took place in the same fixes signs as it follows: Mars in Taurus, Jupiter in Aquarius, Saturn in Scorpio and Neptun in Leo.

The 2005 Gradn Cross contains the following structure: Mars in Taurus, Jupiter in Scorpio, Saturn in Leo and Neptun in Aquarius.

If in 2005 the event in discussion is the oil depot explosion near London in 1926 we have the Great Miami Hurricane .

This means that in 2005 we had fire events and in 1926 we had water events. On both cases the air was a very important element.

Now let’s take a look at the astrological implications:
- Saturn in 2005 it was in Leo (fire sign) and in 1926 it was in Scorpio (water sign)
- Jupiter as an amplifier it was in Scorpion in 2005 (sign of accidents, explosions) and in 1926 it was in Aquarius (sign of winds)
- Mars in the same sign (earth sign) could indicate that the effects of these events are impacting large areas of dry land.

No question that the Grand Crosses are very strong and powerfull and very often the energy is released in a violent way.

I looked for in the future and until 2100 I couldn’t find these configuration forming again.

Source: http://ciuboda.blogspot.com/

The natal chart of the animator reflects the themes portrayed throughout his films. Nick Park expresses the stressful dynamics in his chart through his protagonists. He has a Mars-Jupiter-Uranus fixed T-Square, with Uranus at the apex. Sue Tompkins writes of Mars-Uranus aspects: “Some people, usually with the hard aspects, seem to have machinery, especially electrical machinery, forever cutting out on them, as if their own electricity is getting in the way of the circuit.”¹ Uranus rules technology, electricity, and sudden unexpected changes. A square from Mars excites and energizes this archetype. In this stressful combination, one’s desire to act on the world (Mars) conflicts with what one’s technology can handle (Uranus). Imagine a personal computer burning out after a surge in electricity; this aptly describes the recurrent technological failures in Park’s films.

Technology Gone Awry
Park’s most famous characters are Wallace and Gromit. Wallace is an eccentric bachelor who spends his time inventing novel contraptions; he has a penchant for cheese. Gromit is his mute canine companion, who is obviously the brighter of the bunch.

In A Close Shave, Wallace creates a machine called the Knit-O-Matic. One inserts a sheep; out pops a shorn sheep and a sweater. Wallace’s machines typically have a number of settings, ranging from “mild” to “extreme.” In one instance, a sheep is shorn so closely that he pops out with bandaids to cover his wounds. Also, at the end of the film, the evil cyber-dog Preston, who is kidnapping sheep so that he can turn them into dog food, ends up in his revamped clone of the Knit-O-Matic and is shredded into spare parts.

In The Wrong Trousers, Wallace invents a pair of techno-trousers—essentially robotic legs—to which he affixes Gromit’s leash to take him out on a walk. Later, the trousers go awry because the evil penguin Feathers McGraw reprograms them, thus taking Wallace—who woke up wearing them—on a wild tour throughout the city.

Park’s first feature film was Chicken Run². He was not ready to bring Wallace and Gromit to the silver screen, so he developed a story about chickens who try to escape from a chicken farm. The chicken farmers, the evil one being Mrs. Tweedy, decide that making chicken pies would be more lucrative than selling eggs, so she buys a machine to make chicken pies. In comes a chicken, out comes a pie. Of course, in a test run the machine goes haywire, thus giving the chickens more time to plan their escape. And near the finale, Rocky Rooster and Ginger narrowly escape death inside the machine. During the release of the film (6/23/2000), transiting retrograde Uranus in Aquarius was completing a grand cross to Park’s natal T-Square, highlighting the yearning for freedom and independence associated with the once-in-a-lifetime Uranus opposition.

Park’s most recent feature film is Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit³, which is likely to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Film. In Curse, Wallace and Gromit are running a pest control business, which is thriving because their small town has an annual Giant Vegetable Competition. They humanely collect rabbits and keep them caged in their basement. However, they are running out of space; Wallace has the brilliant idea of combining two of his recent inventions to solve this problem. The first invention is a vacuum which sucks rabbits out of their holes. They then fly around a container as if in a zero-gravity blender. The second invention is a mind control device. (Wallace wants to use it on himself to eat more vegetables and less cheese.) He hooks the two up to get the rabbits to lose their interest in carrots, by affixing the mind control device to his head, and connecting it to the rabbits. (”Carrots, bad.”) Unfortunately, the machine goes haywire, and one of the rabbits gets sucked into the mind-control device. The poor wabbit loses his interest in carrots, and instead develops a fondness for cheese. The rest I will leave to the viewer, so as to avoid spoiling the movie.

On the release date (10/7/2005), transiting Pluto was conjoining Park’s Mercury. Pluto rules pests and pest control⁴. Pluto-Mercury also corresponds to mind (Mercury) control (Pluto). Additionally, the transformative power of Pluto is a prominent theme in this film.

The T-Square: Dark and Light
The Mars-Jupiter-Uranus T-Square expresses itself most explicitly in Chicken Run. The protoganist, Ginger, convinces and inspires (stellium in Sagittarius) the other chickens that there is a better world outside the chicken farm, and that if they stay, they will be resigning themselves to death. The chickens fight (Mars) for freedom (Uranus). Certainly, Jupiter-Uranus does not want to be hemmed-in. Jupiter expands the freedom-loving, revolutionary impulse of Uranus.

The yearning for expansion can also be witnessed in A Grand Day Out, in which Wallace designs a rocket ship (Uranus) to travel (Jupiter) to the moon, because he has run out of cheese (and of course, everyone knows the moon is made out of cheese!).

The darker side of this combination is the use of technology (Uranus) to aggressively or violently (Mars) acquire wealth (Jupiter). The Mars-Jupiter opposition is along the Taurus-Scorpio axis, which is concerned with money. Scorpio adds the element of secrecy and deviousness associated with the malevolent characters such as Feathers McGraw, who uses Wallace and the techno-trousers to steal a diamond (The Wrong Trousers); Mrs. Tweedy, who buys a chicken-pie machine (Chicken Run); Preston, a product of technology himself, who steals Wallace’s plans for the Knit-O-Matic and makes a dog-food machine (A Close Shave); and Victor Quartermaine, who wants to shoot the rabbits who are destroying Lady Campanula Tottington’s lawn, so that he can marry into her riches (Curse). Come to think of it, there’s an awful lotta implied killin’ in these animated films: turning chickens into pies, sheep into dog food, shooting wabbits, the use of a gun by a penguin. Remember that in Scorpio, Jupiter celebrates death!

Fortunately, Jupiter is also the planet of humor, which is prevalent in all of Park’s films. Jupiter rules Park’s four-planet stellium in Sagittarius. This benevolent influence adds fun and lightness to the otherwise dangerous combination of Uranus and Mars.

Towards a Rectified Chart
Nick Park was born on December 6, 1958, in Preston England⁵. Without an exact birth time, we cannot know the house placements of the above planetary configurations. Assuming an Ascendant at 0 Cancer, and using the Placidus house system, many aspects of Nick Park’s cinematic world fall into place⁶. Cancer Rising corresponds with the importance of home to Wallace, as well as his fondness for cheese. An Aquarius Midheaven relates to his occupation as an inventor; this occupation is also mirrored by Park’s Sun-Uranus trine. Jupiter in Scorpio, as well as the stellium in Sagittarius, all inhabit the sixth house, which is not only associated with pets (obviously Wallace’s closest companion is his dog), but with the extremely detail-oriented work required to mold tiny bits of clay over several hours to create a few seconds of film.

Mars is placed in the twelfth house, which is associated with prison and confinement. The chickens are confined in the farm; both Gromit and Feathers McGraw find themselves in jail in A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers, respectively; and Park’s early series of shorts, called Creature Comforts, concerns the feelings of imprisonment experienced by zoo animals.

At the moment, there is little to support these placements in terms of transits and progressions. However, at the release of Chicken Run in summer 2000, Uranus was at 20 Aquarius, passing over Park’s presumed Midheaven. This film has been one of the highest-grossing films to come out of the UK.

Notes
1. Tompkins, Sue. Aspects in Astrology. (p. 207).
2. Co-directed by Peter Lord (birth time not available).
3. Co-directed by Steve Box (birth time not available).
4. Bills, Rex E. The Rulership Book.
5. Source: imdb.com
6. This would give Park a birth time of 4:35 PM GMT.