Jill - Part I

Jill's Chart

Welcome to the first article in the “Jack” and “Jill series. Unlike the children’s story, our Jack and Jill do not know each other, although if they did, my optimistic Sagittarius rising nature would certainly believe that they would be getting along famously. The process of making these selections was not easy. Since there were many applicants, I received help from several graduates of the School and especially from LeeAnn Lambright, who reviewed half of the original submissions. Many thanks to her for her help.

In the beginning, we had to decide the qualities that we wanted for the person in this series. The first attribute that was necessary was, of course, an interest in participating in a project that will last at least three months. We didn’t want the person to leave prematurely. This, as it turned out, was not a problem. Many of the applicants were willing to engage in this lengthy process. The second priority was that the chart be very active in terms of transits and progressions. That turned out to be the main rationale for how the decision was made. There are two very important transits occurring in the next several months that will be affecting all of us. The first is the coming Mars retrograde, which lasts from December 21, 2009 – March 7, 2010. The second is the transit of Saturn squaring Pluto which is in effect right now and lasts for nine more months. Our Jack and Jill are affected strongly by these transits and is why they were selected. I hope this series will be interesting and informative as my intention is for you to discover that the application of astrology to one’s natal chart actually makes our life more alive and authentic. I will not focus on prediction, although I will be extrapolating on where events seem to be taking the person. What’s more interesting and important is the process the person is going through as they navigate the turbulent waters in which each person is immersed and how astrology can assist them at this challenging time. With this introduction to the series, let’s begin.

Introducing Jill

As you can see by her chart, Jill just turned 41 years of age and has been going through quite a few career changes in the past few years. For many years she was a professional make-up artist in Hollywood and had a successful career in this, until she began to discover more about what was driving her interest in this field. For Jill, it wasn’t just a lucrative and glamorous career, although at times it was that. What she saw was that the challenge of the make-up artist was in bringing forth the inner essence of either the actor himself/herself or the character they were playing. She noticed that the makeup was enhancing the ability of the actor to portray a character that was genuine. It was an assist to both the actor and audience that allowed for the character to emerge in a way that was convincing and real. But for this to occur, a transformation had to happen. The actor had to reinvent themselves. They had to find a way to ‘be’ someone that was either not who they were, or an aspect of themselves lying dormant in one’s own psyche. It is this aspect that caused Jill to become interested in something much broader than being only a makeup artist. She began to want to help clients find ways to reinvent themselves so that they could take their lives to the next level, whatever that meant for the client.

It was between 1993-94, during a very important transiting conjunction between Uranus and Neptune that she began to feel a great need to expand her work and subsequently her career goals. Jill began to study and practice a variety of metaphysical techniques such as chakra balancing, guided imagery and meditation and, in addition, the study of astrology. She sought to combine these into a unified set of practices and services. This is very typical of the sign of Sagittarius, which often seeks to combine seemingly unlike things. Jill’s Sun is in Sagittarius in the 12th house along with her Ascendant or Rising sign. This combination is one of the most positive and optimistic in the zodiac for it constantly seeks to achieve and assist others to aim as high as one can imagine. It also includes learning to set goals that push oneself to one’s limits and to achieve one’s dreams of success. This is what Jill pushed herself to do and now she sought to help others do the same. Astrology became for her a way to understand the central goals a person could achieve and a better understanding of the cycles of their development. She then began to relate all of this to the chakras in a person and to their level of functioning.

One of the most significant aspects in her chart is the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus at the Mid-Heaven. This is the planetary pair of finding brilliant solutions to life problems and situations and it showed itself powerfully when she said that “Helping people succeed requires out of the box thinking.” Jupiter also is extra strong in her chart as it is the ruler of her Ascendant and expands everything it touches. These types want to make a difference in the world, often in a big way and are willing to make sacrifices to accomplish this. During her 1993 transit she began to shed everything in her life that didn’t enable her to be the kind of person she knew she was inside. She didn’t know where it would lead her, but she knew somehow it was necessary. This time of intense self-examination is an essential aspect for people with 12th house planets and Jill has three, including her Sun. Another fact of life for these people is the need to surrender or let go of anything that is holding them back from the fullest expression possible and anything that blocked her natural proclivity of having a can-do philosophy of life. This led her to the need to deal with her emotions from her past, especially her childhood. She knew she would have to clear away any psychic debris that prevented her from growing.

In her interview with me, Jill made a point several times of telling me that there was a reason why she had to go deeper than she had ever gone. With Saturn in her 4th house, which often indicates some type of family restriction or disadvantage, Jill did not know who her father was. This theme will be developed further in future articles. But for now, it is helpful to understand that hardship and pain often drive us to examine our life in ways that we simply wouldn’t do if everything was fine or normal.

Right now, transiting Saturn is conjunct her mid-heaven and natal Jupiter and Uranus. Transiting Pluto also squares these. We will be examining these transits closely in the next several months, but right now she expressed what’s happening in the following way: “I feel that I am in the right place and that things will be working out well, but as of now, nothing seems to be happening.” Money is tight for her right now, which has not been true for many years. This is very typical of what transiting Saturn can do when it is as active as it is. Saturn requires patience, hard work and if it delays progress, one must hang in there while not giving up on the guiding dreams and goals. Also, although Mars is not retrograde yet, it is moving very slowly and is making a semi-square aspect to her mid-heaven. This further slows things down for her.

In future articles we will go deeper into what’s happening for Jill as well as what she’s going through internally. We also will be looking at other aspects of her life, such as relationships and her life history.

The next newsletter article will introduce “Jack” where we will get to know him a little bit. Stay tuned for this wonderful chance to observe astrology and life in action. Let’s see if we can discover where the line is between ‘fate’ and ‘free will.’