Woodstock

It was billed as three days of peace and music. Woodstock. A concert that never happened in Woodstock but in Bethel, N.Y. over 40 miles away. Certainly there was plenty of music and peace, but all was not tranquil. This month, Shayn Astrology takes a look at the chart of one of the most famous rock concerts in history.

Woodstock. The huge rock concert event of the 1960s has come to symbolize peace, music, and the collective reaction of a young generation to an unpopular Vietnam war. Forty-five years ago from August 15 - 18, nearly a half million music lovers descended upon the sloping fields of Max Yasgur's farm. Originally, a crowd of 200,000 was expected thus outstripping food and water supplies and creating unsanitary conditions. Traffic jams purportedly closed down the New York State Thruway and roads leading into the concert venue were littered with abandoned cars. The gates were torn down and Woodstock became a free concert to the hordes. Two deaths and two births were recorded along with a number of drug overdoses and other injuries. Rain, wind, and mud contributed to the chaos and sometimes the sound system badly shocked the performers.

The good news is that it WAS an event of peace and music. Generally concert goers were polite to one another and enjoyed the sounds of 32 musicians with the top groups of the day, some of whom are still performing. One person in attendance reported "there was a feeling of immediate friendship, and the sense of a group mind at work."

At 5:07 pm of the first day, a reluctant Richie Havens was coaxed onto the stage and thus began the incredible Woodstock story. What does a chart for this time tell us?

Sagittarius rising shows that Woodstock was all about a philosophy and ideals of living in harmony and peace and against the inhumanity of war. Jupiter, the ascendant ruler is well placed near the most effective point of the tenth house thereby thrusting the event into the public consciousness. Its benevolent rays aspect the second house of status, the fourth house of peace of mind, and the sixth house thus ameliorating what could have been much more sickness and conflict.

Did you notice the strong Venus in the seventh house? This planet represents the music and peace this event stood for. It is also recreation and entertainment. The seventh house has to do with other people. There were plenty of caring volunteers to assist all participants. The mass of humanity there was definitely in for an amazing treat!

Now on to the ugly. The Moon is in extreme old age, with an utterly weak dispositor, and afflicted by the Rahu/Ketu axis. The Moon signifies nourishment which
in this case mainly was provided by drugs. There was little food supplied at the event for all there. It also governs public relations. And to be sure, many local residents and others across the country were not impressed with this "hippie gathering." As ruler of the eighth house, the Moon's weakness revealed a financial situation in ruins. Sexual mores were pretty loose, too, with open lovemaking and plenty of skinny dipping.

And what of the significance of the debilitated ruler of third house, Saturn, in the fifth house? The planet itself rules authority which was the object of protest in this case. Read anti-establishment. The third house represents business initiatives which dissolved when the four partners in the venture parted ways very quickly after the concert.

No, I wasn't there nor could I have attended since I was thousands of miles away on an island in the western Pacific. I oftened watched dark-colored B52s take off from that island headed for southeast Asia. Woodstock was a strong statement against the war, and for a moment in time, the music and peace, like Venus in the western part of the chart, shone brightly above all other things.

Saturn Moves Forward Today

Today Saturn is stationing and turning direct in sidereal Leo. This means there is alot of concentrated Saturnian energy pouring down on us. Folks with sidereal ascendants of Cancer, Virgo, and Pisces and with planets or the most effective points close to 20:55 Leo, Libra, Aquarius, and Taurus may feel pressure, tensions, illness, obstacles, and/or expenses. Hang in there! For the rest, enjoy the fruits of your hard labors...

Saturn enters Virgo on September 9 of this year.

Astrological Analysis of an Auto Accident

At 9:00am on Saturday, September 21, 1968 I waited for my friend Earl to arrive in his Oldsmobile to take us into town for a little fun. I was 16 years old and had recently moved to Guam from New York, a distance of over 7500 miles. I might as well moved to the Moon. I was doing well in Plattsburgh, New York, enjoying the glory and excitement that came with being in a rock band, The Individual Needs. I was missing my friends and loathing the hot, suffocating humidity of an island just 13 degrees above the equator. Earl and his mom were the folks who greeted our family at the airport and acted as the hosts to this strange and foreign land.

I've always loved music and took along a tiny Panasonic reel-to-reel tape recorder with rock songs I lifted off the local radio station. As we took off along the back roads of Dededo, Guam, we listened to Cream's "White Room." The day was beautiful and already quite hot, but I felt free, glad to get out of the house. Yes, there were seatbelts in those days, but I wasn't wearing one. Cruising at 60 miles an hour, life was good...until a hairpin turn suddenly appeared. Earl tried to take it without slowing down much and we ended up in the "boonies" as they call untamed land in Guam. I went flying into the windshield and broke it. My head rebounded as the car came to a quick stop. Blood gushed from my face, staining my yellow shirt. Earl was okay and was apologizing profusely. I got out of the car and tried to think of something funny to say to ease the calamity of the situation. But I couldn't. I remember looking into the side window of the car and seeing my face, all cut up from broken glass. As I looked at the deepest gash over my left eye, I could see some white. Hmmm, I thought to myself, that is my skull.

I was able to hitch a ride back home. I was more terrified of confronting my parents in this condition than I was of the condition itself. Surely, I would be grounded for the rest of the year and punished in other ways I thought. My father greeted my at the door and quickly went to get my mother so that we could all drive together to the hospital. I took a brief moment to change into a red shirt to better mask the blood that was still pouring from my face.

At the hospital I was cleaned and stitched up. Twenty-seven of them, I think. In addition to the gash above the left eye, I was stitched on the left side of my nose, on my left ear which was sliced in two, and behind the ear. My father made sure the doctors removed all the glass. My face swathed in bandages, I returned home.

It was only a few years later that I took up astrology, but not until recently, with the help of Systems' Approach to Vedic Astrology, developed by Professor VK Choudhry from Gurgaon, India, that I could understand the planetary factors involved in that horrible accident.

The chart on the left is my natal chart. I have Virgo rising which makes Mercury and Saturn rulers of my body and health in general. Both are weak, but Mercury more so because of its bad placement and combustness and affliction from the Sun, ruler of hospitals. Also the sixth house is afflicted by Rahu which brings unexpected catastrophes. I was in the main period of the malefic Saturn, ruler of my house of injuries, and in the subperiod of Mercury, also a ruler of transportation. The stage was set.

The chart on the right shows transits on the day of the accident. Both my main and subperiod rulers were in extreme infancy, under weak dispositorship, and Saturn was afflicting Mercury from the eighth house of accidents. Both were traveling slower than normal that day thus intensifying the effect. Mars, the ruler of the eighth house of accidents was afflicting the twelfth (losses and hospitals), third (transportation), and sixth (injuries) houses. It was also in mutual affliction with the natal lunar nodes. The transiting Sun also contributed to the accident by its placement near the ascending degree.

Since that day I had stopped wearing yellow believing that it was inauspicious. However, I since realize that as it is the color of Jupiter, a benefic in my chart, it prevented me from much greater danger to my body and possibly my life.

Hello All,
After a brief hiatus to finish my Ketu dasa I am ready to begin anew here in the dawn of my Venus dasa. Venus rules my 2nd house of status, family, and wealth and is located in the 5th house of children and creativity. So, if you have any astrological questions, go ahead and post them. Let's see what the planets reveal!

On this day in 1965 the entire Northeast section of the United States experienced a blackout that affected 30 million people for 13 hours. I thought it would be interesting to see how this event manifested in the SAMVA USA chart. I believe the stationary movement of the functional malefics Saturn, Rahu and Ketu contributed to the crisis.

L8 Saturn, ruler of obstructions, was the main period lord and Mars, ruler of energy, was the subperiod lord. In transit, Mars was in infancy, badly placed in H6, and also suffering from a weak dispositor. Because of this transit weakness, the otherwise strong natal Mars had difficulty protecting itself from the stationary (and thus more powerful) transiting nodes which afflicted it (77%).

Communication and transportation were chaotic as millions of people were stranded during rush hour. Natal Mercury, natural significator and L3 (communication) was afflicted by transiting Rahu (83%). In transit, Mercury was afflicted by Saturn (72%) . Transiting Saturn also afflicted natal Rahu (86%) further adding to the confusion while natal Ketu afflicted transiting Saturn (86%).

Other afflictions occurred, but to a lesser degree.

I was giving a presentation yesterday which included a discussion of the Age of Aquarius. As some know, the precession of the equinoxes over the years has placed the vernal equinox against the backdrop first of Aries almost four thousand years ago, then Pisces, and on to Aquarius by around 2600.

Well, we just had to talk about the lyrics of the song that says "When the Moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars..." No special planetary significance here because this happens every several years. Last time was around December 11, 2006 and the next will be in February, 2009.

So until the actual "Age" arrives, let's experience it now...by practicing "harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding."

Yeah, that's cool!

Last week, two people I know lost their beloved pets. This event can cause alot of pain and depression to many pet owners. A look at these people's charts reveal similarities.

Because it deals with affection, the 5th house and its ruler denote pets. So does the planet Venus. For both pet owners, the natal chart set up the tragedies while the subperiod and the transits created the timing.

The first person is in a Rahu subperiod and the second is in a Ketu subperiod. Lunar nodes can bring about disturbing events in their subperiods.

In the first chart, the weak 5th house ruler is aspected by Rahu and weak Venus is closely conjunct the Most Malefic Planet (MMP). The transiting lunar nodes aspected the weak transiting 5th house ruler and weak transiting Venus simultaneously.

In the second chart, the weak 5th house ruler is aspected by Ketu. Transiting Rahu and MMP, Moon, aspected the transiting 5th house ruler. Weak transiting Venus was also afflicted by the nodes simultaneously.