If you are on a road to nowhere, find another road.

Recently I was at a holy site. I walked through a couple of arches and at the entrance I saw a huge life sized doll, I remember that this is a well known icon all over the world. I entered the building and fond memories were flowing back to me from my youth, truely this was a magical place. Always when I came to this place there was this atmosphere of it being special. I came there mostly on Sundays with my family...

Anyway, around me people where sitting on benches, but I paid them no attention. Slowly but surely I worked my way to the altar in the back, where a person was standing in clothes befitting for this kind of place.

This person at the altar looked at me and said "Hi! Welcome to McDonalds, how can I help you?"

I've been associating things to the 12 signs the last couple of days. You're free to add what you associate with different signs, it IS quite entertaining!


Aries:
Energy, the basic, fuel, force, speed, the raw, the new, activities, action, urges, flames, the primal, sports, exercise, hunting, aggression, conflicts, guns, knives, arrows, racetracks,

newborns, children, animals, pioneers, athletes, hunters

(This aries list is the most inconclusive, what do you think should be added?)


Taurus:
Property, ownership, land, belongings, legacy, things, crafts, labour, patterns, wood, forms, solid things, gardens, plants, soil, flowers, agriculture, the countryside, fertility, art, collections, savings, money, inheritance, routines, food, dinners, gourmet, wine, tobacco, houses, boats, storages, containers, merchandise,

Owners, collectors, farmers, gardeners, carpenters, chefs, mechanics,


Gemini:
Communication, words, speech, conversations, exchange, mobility, letters, marketing, affairs, sales, the commercial, the light, the temporary, plastic, journalism, articles, *newspapers, magazines, humour, comedy, traffic,

communicators, salesmen, businessmen, journalists, schauffeurs, comedians,

*I think gemini is the printed word, newspapers,magazines and all that, but the modern news outlets,the internet and the technology involved makes the mass communication an aquarian matter.
So while gemini stood for the media outlets and mass communication in the past (envision the cigarsmoking journalist in the 1950's) nowadays it's an aquarian and even a hint of pisces-thing since modern technology and "virtuality" has taken a vital role in the communication channels, which in all "astro-logic" the current neptune in aquarius and uranus in pisces speak for themselves.


Cancer:
Home, family, the past, personal matters, inner/private spheres, emotions, sleep, *dreams, lakes, seas, drinking water, nourishment, safety, protection, shelters, origin, childhood, fairytales, fantasy, beds, retrospection, intuitions, sentimental values, traditions/family traditions, habit patterns, cycles, retainment,

mothers, historians, caretakers and ??

*(Pisces is most commonly associated with bodies of water and also sleep, but I've noticed people that have professions involving water studies etc tends to have prominent cancer placements, in the case of pisces it relates more to vast oceans and metaphorical oceans such as the universe and things like virtual realities. As for sleep, cancer rules the night hours and natural cycles of sleep, fantasy and dreams, while the type of sleep and dreams associated with pisces are more visionary and even artificially induced)


Leo:
Warmth, scenes, performances, fronts, podiums, extravagance, luxury, performance arts, fame, leading roles, shows, theatres, drama, acting, hobbies, sensations, exaggerations, entertainment, headlines,

Leaders, exhibitionists, rulers, actors, celebrities, bosses, kings
(this leo list also falls a bit short, so feel free to say what you think should be added)


Virgo:
Instruments, details, design, analysis, calculations, words, writing, lists, crafts, techniques, handmade things, discretion, the systematic, health, fruit, vegetables, studies, bookeeping, logic, fabric, metals, tools, filigrees, pens/pencils, threads, herbs, small things, doodles, quality, functions, information,

Designers, maids, engineers, nerds, taylors, secretaries, housewives, servants


Libra:
Social gatherings, parties, invitations, memberships, romanticism, esthetics, sensualism, justice, fareness, images/looks, esthetic/romantic enviroments, pleasures, dining rooms, social arts, symmetry, exhibitions, prestige, status, glamour, luxury, social range, dance, alcohol, drinks, bars, social experiments, perspectives, film, photo,

Teenagers, socialites, hipsters, members, architects, filmmakers, photographers


Scorpio:
Depths, deep seas, undercurrents, transformations, birth/death, destruction/recreating, the hidden, psychology, psychoanalysis, research, desire, mysteries, secrets, magic, power, obsessions, metaphysics, the subconscious, underground scenes, archeology, drills, cores,

psychologists, poets, detectives, experts, addicts, artists, magicians,


Sagittarius:
Culture, travel, experiences, expansions, the unlimited, adventures, spirituality, religion, extravagance, sensations, metropoles, themeparks, luck, consumption, adrenaline, neon signs, import/export, other countries, the wilderness, jungels, vast spaces, expeditions, imigration, casinos, gambling, games, stadiums

Adventurers, foreigners, nomads, conquerors, adrenalin junkies, missionaries, gamblers, thrill-seekers


Capricorn:
Structures, buildings, structured matter, constructions, the old, the sustainable, corporations, businesses, industries, work, professions, careers, authorites/authority, conservatism, captialism, traditions, duties, rules, laws, powerpositions, formalities, *facades, stones, stairs, chains, mountains,

Old people, authorities, hermits, businessmen, father figures,


Aquarius:
Electricity, technology, innovations, modern things, experiments, wires, computers, the internet, society, the people, the enviroment, public places, crowds, organisations, transport, subways, airplanes, large boats, the future, networking, society issues, debates, politics, news, media, schools, concerts, festivals, special effects, riots, *comedy,

Young people, students/teachers, technicians, computer nerds, politicians, social workers, innovators, entrepeneurs, rebels, eccentrics, humanitarians, comedians, bloggers,

*in a way comedy seems to relate more to aquarius than gemini. Alot of comedians have aquarius positions or uranus influence in general more so than gemini I've noticed. Afterall comedy is all-in-all about making the 'crowd' laugh. However I think comedy is associated with both gemini and aquarius.


Pisces:
Oceans, virtual realities, channels, the universe, the abstract, tones, music, dimensions, mediums, fantasy, illusions, belief, spirituality, healing, art, fogs, screens, holograms, merging/fusing, chemistry, chemicals, potions, drugs, sedatives, hallucinations, dreams, allergies, drinks, smells, poison, toxins, gas, oil, magic, tricks, fraud, make-up, dance, grace, suffering, illnesses, *the media, cyberspace, the mass consciousness

Artists, chemists, drug addicts, magicians, healers, fortune tellers,

*As the media qualifies as a channel I think it is a pisces thing.



So, what do you think correlates to what sign and/or do you have any further thoughts on this?

Hey everyone, just wanted to do a quick poll. I was curious as to what most people who study western astrology thought about Chinese astrology. Thanks for your input! Feel free to elaborate in the comments.
Poll #1485579
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 34

Do you believe in chinese astrology?

Also i'd like to clarify something as someone made a point as to the wording of my question... my use of the word belief. I'm usually not inclined to use the word "belief" in association w/astrology because then you're kind of grouping it with religion, and its more of observation of synchronicity than anything. However I guessed that wording it that way would be least confusing to the general community. Maybe I should have been more conscientious of how i worded that. But I'm sure you get the "gist" of my question, and it is to satisfy my curiosity as to whether western astrologers put weight into chinese astrology. So just take that into mind, thanks :)

http://paxmercurius.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/transits-archons-and-free-will/

I wrote an article on the topic of free will in astrology - predicative astrology in particular - and how Occult/Gnostic concepts of free will are strongly bound up with the concept of the planets as spirits. There's more to the bibliography than I put there, but I thought I'd include only a couple for brevity's sake :D

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

I get these emails about astrological events that are going to happen and what it usually means for me. This is pulled directly from it so have a look.

( cut for my name )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Just for fun we've developed a new app that calculates your personality profile based on your western and eastern horoscopes. Visit http://www.iconjurecandles.co.uk/eastwesthoroscope/index.html - Or on Facebook, http://apps.facebook.com/eastwesthoroscope - Pass it on to your friends!

I am interested in learning about as many different beliefs related to text/script/written language and to tattoos as possible.  One person has recommended to me John Rush's Spiritual Tattoo: A Cultural History of Tatooing, Piercing, Scarification, Branding, and Implants.  I haven't checked it just yet, and no one's yet recommended anything about text.  I'm specifically looking mostly for religious and magical beliefs about text itself or about particular magical texts, as opposed to generic beliefs such that a particular text is sacred or the like.

I'd like similar information about tattoos, but broader information about cultural notions of the form and function of tattoos is good.  I'm also looking mostly for noncontemporary beliefs, though contemporary beliefs that have roots in or are revivals of older beliefs would be good (such as the recent Maori revival of tattoo traditions that had more or less died for a century or so).

Can anyone make any recommendations?

I have one last question for the nite, and I'll acquiesce for a while.

How many of you use the fixed stars in your horoscopes? I used to like to keep track of fixed stars, but it's been a while. Even if I didn't know what they meant (when in contact w/a particular planet of mine) or if they'd be irrelevant if the right planet wasn't in aspect to them. I'd at least know where they were and what the star was about. No astrologer has ever done a horoscope for me or anyone I know that included the fixed stars or things like the weeping degree of pisces.

Laters.

Let's say that the ruler of the 8th house, when in contact w/ someone else's major planets or angles, such as the midheaven, asc. etc., is supposed to be an indicator of sexual attraction. But what if the ruler of your (or even hers) 8th house is deterred or fallen or otherwise in a bad spot, somehow. For example: Mine is Mercury, and he is deterred in Sage. Does the deterriment of this planet effect attraction at all?

Btw. Where is your Mars? I'm looking for Mars in Gemini or Virgo. Mars in Cap & Cancer. Mars in Taurus or Scorpio. Mars in Cap/Can must be at around 27 d. Mars in Taurus/Scorpio must be at 17 d.

I thought this was interesting... http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091112/fatals_gta_091112/20091112?hub=Toronto
what transits happened here?

Notes augmented

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New FCK fixes rich text editor!

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Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

http://paxmercurius.wordpress.com/

Having made the decision to start working as an astrologer, I have put up a website! The blog features topical posts, updated every two or three days at this stage, as well as information on services that I offer.

As an astrologer, I draw heavily on my spiritual background in Hermetic occulistism and Gnosticism, and in my training as a literature critic, teacher and counsellor. I am sure there will be the occasional bit of good-natured snarking at conspiracy theorists and New-Age nutters, too.

At this stage, I am looking for a limited number of volunteers who would like free chart readings - this is for practise, as I feel myself to be at an 'apprentice' level in regards to my abilities. The rule is 'One Chart Per Person' - I would also like some ongoing contact with anyone who would like a full reading done, for feedback, discussion and confirmation on the interpretation of their charts.

If you would like to participate, please email me with your name, details, chart data, any questions, and a contact (email or instant messenger, your preference). Natal charts, synastry or composite charts and electional (deciding on a date for particular events) charts are my main offerings at the moment.

I would like some volunteers for forecasts, as this is the area I am currently studying. If you'd like a forecast, I'd be very grateful to draw up transits or horary for someone willing to commit to updates about whether or not they are accurate over the coming months.

Edit: Whoohoo! The response to this was awesome - plenty of volunteers have signed up. Unfortunately, I only have so much time on my hands, so I am not accepting further requests at the moment. However, the Chart of the Week event will be starting up soon on Pax Mercurius, so keep an eye on the feed and comment there when its announced.

After a few months off, it's out. In iTunes and at http://tdjacobs.com/blog.
I answer a listener question about a life transition including work, and then take a look at Hillary Clinton's chart in terms of her karmic skipped steps, some heavy squares to her nodal axis.

I'd flip a coin between the Series 3 and Series 4 soundtracks for Doctor Who, because they're both full of awesome music that I can listen to over and over and over again.

In truth, though, I would most likely burn a mix CD of my own, pulling selections from Doctor Who, some Yoko Kanno, various geek songs, and fill it in with some favorites until the disc is full. That's probably cheating, as far as the spirit of the question goes, however. :)

I raise a glass in the name of my great-grandfather, who was a Marine in WWI, and in the name and memory of my grandfather, who served in the Navy in WWII, and finally with utmost respect and great thanks to all who have served their countries in the military, with honor, in time of war or peace.

Thank you all!

EDIT@08:16 UTC/GMT. Wow. That was ugly. I expected it to go for 30 minutes and have maybe 1 minute of broken connectivity. Instead it lasted over 4 hours and we had 10 minutes of downtime directly related to the load balancer upgrades and then another 5-10 minutes of downtime when our primary Pingback database server crashed and the secondary couldn't take over; which could have been indirectly caused by the network upgrade missing a self-VIP.

Anyways, we're up, we're working, the load balancers are barely breaking a sweat right now and I need some food and a shot of whiskey. I don't even *like* whiskey!!

Thanks mhwest and dnewhall for helping out!

---

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

Now that saturn has finally transited into my twelfth house, I am watching anxiously for that "initiation" into the next house theme, and unlike my previous saturn transits I don't have any idea of what to expect. Maybe I'm dull, but the usual interpretations don't seem relevant to me at all. Then I read that most astrologers don't actually know what the 12th house signifies. If any of you geniuses can supply me an explanation that makes sense, gives me a good idea what's coming, I'd appreciate it.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9660/astro2gw01na295945923.gif

"Goth" is fairly Scorpionic/Plutonic, right? I thought so, but I was just checking. Could always use a 2nd opinion. Horror movies and books are also fairly Scorpionic/Plutonic, right? Is science fiction fairly Aquarian?

Also:

Game terminated. Someone cheated.

Btw, speaking of the 11th, who else is a 11th house person? Since I haven't seen a lot of 11th house charts, I assume we're in the minority. Are we?