Manchester United’s Win was Written in the Stars
By Leah Whitehorse | January 28, 2010
Having finished my work for the day yesterday, I decided to amuse myself with casting a horary chart entitled “Will Manchester City Win?” For those of you outside the UK,the city of Manchester is split into two factions when it comes to football – you are either RED (Manchester United) or BLUE (Manchester) City. Yesterday evening was a clash between the two teams, fighting it out for a place in the Carling Cup Final.
I hasten to add that I am neither a Red or Blue. I have friends and colleagues in both camps who are avid and passionate supporters but my footie interest has never extended that far. Most people are surprised to discover the my hippy astrology loving, tarot reading, dream-walking self has any interest at all in football. But sit me in front of an international match in which Portugal are playing and you’ll find that I can shout at the referee with the best of them
“Come on, kick it footballer!” 
International football is my secret thrill that I occassionally indulge in and I’m a sore loser; in my defence I have got Mars in the 10th together with a healthy does of Aries in my chart!
I have flirted with horary astrology. Coming from a background in tarot, I am fascinated with the divinatory aspect of astrology. To me, everything is connected and the right question asked at the right time will yield a relevant chart. Whilst I have spent a little time over the years reading horary rules, I have not yet studied this in depth, perferring instead to simply work with the symbolism of the chart to see what is suggested.
I had no vested interest in the results of this match, nothing but a genuine curiosity to see whether astrology could connect with the sporting world. To my surprise, a quick look on the internet yielded some interesting articles on sport’s astrology which I have included below. It’s true that you learn something new everyday!
Anyway, I cast my chart at 6pm (and 47 seconds if you wish to take a look yourself). Locality Manchester UK. I had already decided that Manchester City would be shown by the Ascendant and Manchester United by the Descendant as it was Manchester City I was initially enquiring about. Take a look at the chart yourself…
My first thought was wow – Mars (The Red Planet) is conjunct the Ascendant. Red is Rising. That in itself made me think that was a cosmic pointer hinting at victory for the Reds. But as Mars was on the side of the Blues I felt as though this wasn’t going to be an easy match by any means. They had a fight on their hands.
Next I looked at the chart as a whole. Notice the preponderance of planets in the Western hemisphere. The ‘weight’ is with the opposition. More importantly, the Sun (ruler of the Ascendant and therefore of Man City) is also placed on the western side of the chart opposing the Ascendant and Mars. Joy (Jupiter) is also significantly placed with the opposing team in the 7th house.
I looked then at the Moon. What is immediately obvious is that the Moon is strong in her own sign in Cancer. Admittedly she is under stress with the squares to Uranus and Saturn but she is ‘at home’ in Cancer. Cancer also is the sign of the zodiac that rules ‘home’. So the ‘home team’ again have the emphasis.
By this point I was seriously feeling that Manchester United really had the stars in their favour. The Midheaven (the highest point of the chart) is situated in fiery Aries, ruled by Mars. Whilst I noted that Mars is currently retrograde I felt that this did not seem to detract from the overall message the Red was in the air and on the up.
Looking further, malefic Pluto is brooding in the 5th house of gambling and games, not a good position for City and grumpy Saturn is stuck in the 2nd house suggesting that survival is at stake.
Lastly I simply stared at the chart, seeing three planets in the 7th house of the opposing team and one planet on the Ascendant. 3 – 1 I thought to myself, to United. The three red goals also seemed to be written into the 3 squares between the Moon and Uranus, the Moon and Saturn and Saturn and Pluto.
Looking to the series of short notes I made when I read the chart, the only main error I could see was that I had wondered if a goal may come from United via a penalty or free kick because of the confusing presence of Neptune but this did not manifest.
I cast and interpreted the chart well before the game started. I kept my thoughts to myself however because on the one hand this was a completely new practice for me so I wasn’t sure how well it would work, and two because I didn’t want to scare my Blue friends
I am sad for the Blues and happy for the Reds. I have no allegience so I can commiserate or celebrate with either. But I am certainly fascinated to find the wonderful synchronicity between the cosmos and the beautiful game. Sport’s astrology isn’t a professional branch that I particulary want to follow but it has made an interesting exercise.
If any of you have any further thoughts on this chart or your experiments with sports astrology, I’d love to hear them.
In the meantime, here are some useful links:
Sports Predictions through Horary Astrology
Astrology Weekly Sports Astrology Forum
Topics: Horary Astrology | No Comments »
A Short Film for Moon in Pisces
By Leah Whitehorse | January 20, 2010
photo credit: ZEDZAP>Nick
In the midst of the friction of Mars Retrograde, there is the ocean of calm as the Moon passes through Pisces. Someone gave me a link today to an exquisite film by Alex Roman that I feel captures the Moon in Pisces perfectly. It’s so beautiful it moved me to tears. Put simply, it’s a film about photography, the dance of simplicity, lighting, mood, how space evokes emotion. Take 15 minutes out of your day, put the film on full-screen and absorb the poetry of symmetry.
Topics: Moon, Pisces | 3 Comments »
Mars – Get Outta my House!
By Leah Whitehorse | January 11, 2010
My sword has been sharpened, my armour polished and I’m ready for battle! Mars is currently retrograde and war dancing back and forth across my Ascendant. During his hopping mad journey he will be opposing my Moon,then squaring my natal Mars and Sun and oh yes, retreating back into my 12th house to glower and growl at my subconscious; oh the fun.
When Mars retreats, it is time for us to go inwards and assess the damage from previous battles, reflect on our scars, lick our wounds and deal with our anger issues. I noticed as Mars was travelling direct through my 12th house that rage was somehow nearer to the surface, frustration bubbled and I had little patience with myself let alone anyone else. As Mars is currently moving into the opposition with my 7th house Moon, I found myself on the receiving end of a woman’s anger and my mind tripped into what I can only call complete paranoia that a hidden enemy was preparing to attack in an unrelated situation. I became so angry with an appliance that didn’t work that I smashed it to pieces on the floor then, losing patience with a carton which was too difficult to open, my hand slipped and I managed to punch myself in the face giving myself a reasonable black eye in the process (Mars rules the face!). Had I not been so annoyed I would have actually laughed. The horrendous ice and snow (the opposite of heat which Mars adores) has had me walking in tiny steps slow, slow, slow, slow to the day job; hating every step with the terror of falling and the frustration of wanting to walk at my normal speedy pace. Ruling my 9th house, Mars has found me plodding through my studies and distracted every 5 minutes, thoroughly embracing the Aries gift for suddenly getting excited about a whole other project and delaying my progress in the bargain!
“Fight or flight, do or die” says Mars as he stands paralysed with indecision at his stationary point.
“Retreat. FALL BACK ” he bawls as he moves his battle lines. Nothing feels safe, everything feels threatened. I trip back into previous hurts, festering scars, blistering rage oh and chilblains on my feet after warming them too quickly one frozen day.
My head buzzes with internal arguments, with myself, with others. I’m right, your wrong. Everything is about winning or losing.
“I’ll beat you”, “I’ll beat this…” my head screams and I find myself shaking with the chaos. My energy strangely peaks and troughs as for days at a time I sleep little and wake early buzzing with energy and other days I could sleep like a dreaming bear all winter under the cold sparkling stars.
photo credit: Jonathan Clay
It was an enormous relief to spend a few hours delineating the meaning of all this in my own chart, to realise that I’m not going mad, to see the light at the end of the long snowy tunnel at the mouth of hell. What interested me most is the how intense this particular retrograde is which is not perhaps surprising considering it involves my Ascendant. As Mars
leapt into my first house direct, I found myself with a battle plan to lose weight, planning it like a military campaign and nearly 9 pounds lost I might add . I’ve always been conscious of my weight and whilst I weigh much less than I used to, I began to feel that what remained was too heavy – like a warn-out chain mail that is rusted and outdated, defending me from something I no longer need to defend myself against. Old wounds revisited and finally seen clearly. My image needed a boost to coincide with the Spring blossoming which I look forward to with baited breath after this intense cold. Mars in the first house helps us reflect upon how we appear to others and how we want to appear. He gives us the courage to face fears.
During my flurry of understanding, I began to look back in my diaries to see what had happened the last time Mars stomped over my Ascendant. Whilst I didn’t go far enough back to find another retrograde crossing, I did notice some fascinating correalations with my dreams as he reached the end of my 12th house each time.
photo credit: JosephLeonardo
On the past three occassions, my dreams have been filled with either threat or anger. During one 12th house jaunt, I had a series of 5 dreams that were all about being mugged. By the last dream I had managed to resolve the internal conflict by chasing the muggers down the street and insisting they give me my money back! Before that my dreams were about anger pure and simple, about being hurt without having ‘done anything’, or being unable to run away.
Two weeks ago I dreamed that I was back in a place I had been before in my dreams. I wasn’t completely lucid but had some awareness that ‘this had all happened before’. The location was a gothic town built in a circle. We lived in the castle and I was looking out of the turret and could see a red light (no kidding!) bleeding across the dark landcape. With it came an ominous feeling, a shadow on the edge of the unconcious of evil that was so ancient it had no name. Yet in the dream, despite the creepiness, despite the fluttering of my heart, I knew we had fought and conquered once before. This time we knew how to defeat the demon. With the knowledge of defeat firmly in my grasp, the dream skipped to the end after the war and I stood on the grass below the castle watching as daybreak filtered across the landscape. The imagery is brutally simple. Mars doesn’t like to mince with words and poetic symbolism. He just likes to get the job done.
So I keep my sword sharp and prepare myself for the onslaught as Mars shouts down my Moon and bickers with my Sun. I’ll keep my self to myself, endeavour to still the warring voices within and remember that inner demons can be vanquished. When planets go retrograde, they don’t do it just to p*** us off despite the War God’s attempt to persuade me otherwise. Beneath the gruff voice and the alert gaze, Mars reminds me that I must face my inner demons so that I can face the world with courage and passion. But Mars, I really do wish you’d get outta my house!
Topics: 12th House, 1st House, Mars, Planets | 2 Comments »
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