Master’s Musings, October 2022

Here’s one you’ve heard before:

If only pigs could sing…

Here’s another one, cut from the same cloth…if only God would appear in a flash of light and say, “Here’s the plan…”  

Then we would know what to do. Then we would always know where to put our foot next. Then we would never make any more mistakes.

It’s a beautiful, unreachable dream. We’re human, so we’re left to just muddle through as best we can. Perhaps we can avoid the most grievous moral blunders and spare ourselves the problem of creating further karmic entanglement. But even doing that much is a lot to ask of a bunch of monkeys such as ourselves. 

Beyond those karmic pitfalls, what about people making simple, honest mistakes? Choosing the flight that’s going to turn out to be diverted to Peoria, minus all the luggage? Or buying the one car on the lot that’s a lemon? No one can foresee those kinds of errors.

Well, almost no one . . .

We astrologers, of course, have a superpower. It is not infallible. Astrology is hard to read sometimes. Plus our own fears and desires are constantly getting in the way. But still, via a knowledge of transits, progressions, and solar arcs, your chart does map out what you are trying to learn – and how you can learn it. It can even warn you that this is not the day to book that flight or to buy that car. All we have to do is to remember to pay attention to the personal messages – direct from God to us – that are written in the sky. 

All that is true of you and me – but it’s also true of anything that came into existence at a definable moment. Businesses have charts. So do marriages. One example of that principle is our school. We’ve looked at its chart before. For those of you who are new to our community, here it is again. This chart is set for the moment that Catie Cadge and I sat down with Jeff Parrett and began to seriously plan the FCEA. That’s the moment that the die was cast. What you see here also includes a progression, a solar arc, and a couple of transits which I’d like to put in the spotlight in this newsletter. I’ve arbitrarily set them all for the middle of October.

A lot is going on astrologically for the school this (northern!) Autumn. Let’s look at a few of the highlights. Let’s see, in other words, what the universe’s advice for us might look like. Maybe as a school we can walk our talk and let the planets light up the path that lies before us. I’ve picked out a few configurations to consider in this newsletter. I’m going to explore them one at a time and quickly sketch them out for us.

THE PROGRESSED MOON ENTERED TAURUS ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

The school was “born” with the Moon in Pisces and so via progression it stayed in that sign by progression until entering Aries a year or so later, on April 12, 2020. An important point to remember is that we didn’t “open our doors” until December 21, 2020, so the Moon has “always” been in Aries – at least since we really got launched publicly. 

As befits the sign of the Warrior, for all the excitement, it has been a stressful couple of years! Aries always tests our courage and our resolve. It invites us to face risk. It wants us to roll the dice. What a wild ride it has been! Jeff Parrett needing to leave back toward the end of 2021 was stressful – for the FCEA to remain afloat, we had to quickly hire three people just to fill his shoes. And our plans for the school depended on hiring (and training) tutors as well. Where would the money to pay everyone come from? Could we do it? There were times when we didn’t know the answer. All we could do was to keep banging away.

What about the sheer number of hours we’ve all needed to put in? That’s been stressful too. Our tutors are hardworking people – all our students can attest to that! Our tech wizard, Carlos Velazquez, and our financial lighthouse, Paula Wansley, have come through for us every time. If our Communications Coordinator, Penelope Love, were a voodoo goddess, she’d be called The Slayer of Deadlines. Thank you, Penelope! For myself, I’ve made about 250 videos, half of which no students have yet seen. That’s a lot of videos!

Let me offer a particular “hats off” to our Dean, Catie Cadge – her commitment to making the school actually work in a competent and loving way has required absolutely relentless effort on her part. We’ve all been working hard, but she gets the “above and beyond the call of duty” award, along with a “Purple Heart” or two.  

Does all of that sound a bit military? Hey, we’re talking about Aries the Warrior!

Last but not least, here’s a Progressed Aries Moon shout-out to you students. You know better than anyone how hard you’ve been working. On top of the rigors of the courses themselves, you’ve had to deal with the FCEA’s “shakedown cruise” and all its inevitable glitches. Thanks for hanging in there, and for keeping your criticisms kind and constructive. 

I am happy to say that now that we’re a month into our well-deserved Taurus season, we can confidently foresee that the emotional tone of the times is easing. The switch has flipped on all of that endless Arian challenge and intensity. That switch happened just three weeks or so ago, so we’re barely aware of it yet.  With the progressed Moon now in Taurus, we can anticipate calmer weather. It’s time to take a breath and let it out. There’s a groove waiting for us out there, and it’s time to find it and settle into it. 

As befits an Earth sign, we’ve also entered a period of solidification. Taurus turns our attention in practical directions – getting our finances in more predictable order, getting the new crop of tutors launched, and – we hope – taking some of the weight off poor Catie’s and poor Penelope’s shoulders. 

We’ve got time – the Moon will be progressing through Taurus until January 31, 2025. Now that we’re not constantly putting out fires, we can attend to some more long-term plans. We’ve been committed, for one example, to creating a scholarship program for the school. I can almost guarantee that will be happening during this lunar progression.