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The combination of seashore dwelling crab (Cancer Sun) and the ocean going fish (Pisces Moon) make for a Sun/Moon pairing uniquely attuned to both the actual ocean and the oceanic realms of emotion. In his book Heaven Knows What astrologer Grant Lewi describes this pairing in distinctly sea-faring terms:

In their 1994 book Sun Sign Moon Sign, astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey offer a similarly sea-faring description of this pairing, explaining that it’s at its best when working with imagery involving the oceans:

To illustrate: using its launch date as its date of birth, NASA’s legendary 1978 oceanographic space satellite known as SeaSat One is a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) True to its Cancer/Pisces pedigree, SeaSat was a “remarkable barometer of the environment” whose “subtle powers of observation” and “receptivity to hidden messages” totally revolutionized how we study the oceans.

If you haven’t heard of SeaSat that’s okay as even the most remarkably astonishing of Cancer/Pisces individuals can easily slip into the background. In short, pretty much everything we’ve learned about the oceans during the last thirty plus years stems from SeaSat. A NASA article celebrating the satellite’s 25th anniversary explained:

An AllBusiness.com article entitled “SeaSat’s Legacy” explained that, “in a manner of speaking, SeaSat sired a series of satellites that continue today.” (Source) Here, for instance, is an image of Hawaii captured by EnviSat using the remote sensing technologies first demonstrated by SeaSat. The white dots are ocean waves not clouds:

Take a look at this much higher resolution version of the above image for a truly wonderful visual treat. (Make sure to right click on the “magnify” icon to get the full view.) Here’s another image taken by EnviSat employing the technologies first used in space on board SeaSat. This one is of the Canary Islands, the green plumes are part of an active underwater volcano according to the ESA Multimedia page.

What’s amazing about SeaSat’s sensing technologies is that, technically speaking, SeaSat was blind. It did not have an on board optical camera nor did it rely on the availability of light to capture images. Instead, it remotely detected what was going on deep beneath the ocean’s surface by using the echoes of radar waves to sense through the water, similar to what a medical intuitive does when they detect what is going on with your body by seeing into and through it. A 1996 NY Times article describes SeaSat as being akin more to a space-age psychic antenna than simply a camera lofted to high-altitude:

That doesn’t make it “psychic” in a literal sense but SeaSat’s astonishing imaging capabilities can certainly be analogized to a technological version of extrasensory perception. Keep in mind it did much more more than absorb and send back images. From 500 miles above the earth it was also able to remotely sense wave heights, wind speeds and direction, sea temperatures, coastal conditions, and even to discern what was going on hundreds of feet beneath the water’s surface. NASA’s original SeaSat launch press release states, “the spacecraft has all-weather capability and can see as well at night as during the day”. (Source)

Helen Keller is also a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) Like SeaSat, she was technically blind and deaf yet she too could see (sense) as well at night as during the day. Keller didn’t posses ESP or remote sensing technologies nor was she known to be psychic. However, she adapted to her limitations in a manner so phenomenally intuitive that it might have seemed downright magical. According to her Wikipedia entry:

Given this pairing’s attunement to the watery realms of emotions maybe it’s no surprise that the first word Keller was able to communicate was “water”. (Source) The moment Keller was able to spell out “water” was famously dramatized in the 1962 movie Miracle Worker:

According to astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey, a metaphoric image for the Cancer/Pisces individual is, “An artist teaches recuperating patients to paint images of their dreams in soft water colors.” (Source) That’s an uncannily accurate metaphor for SeaSat. It’s obviously not a literal artist who teaches recuperating patients to paint with water colors but its technologies have enabled scientists to produce incredibly moving images of the Earth’s oceans. Should the patient – in this case humanity – ever commit to recuperating the oceanic realms that comprise 70% of our planet’s surface then SeaSat’s legacy will play a role similar to that of the artist in the Harveys’ image. Thirty five years after it was launched, climatologists and oceanographers are still combing through the wealth of information it generated for information on how we might go about helping the oceans recuperate from the devastation that’s been wrought upon them. (Source)

The Harveys’ second metaphoric image for the Cancer/Pisces individual is, “A lone sailboat offshore . . .” (Source) Take a look at NASA’s original drawing of SeaSat, pictured above, as it matches up nearly literally to the Harveys’ metaphoric image for this pairing.

Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon: Encounters with the Grim Reaper, Monsters in the Closet, and Ancestral Secrets

If SeaSat was so effective and managed to sire so many subsequent satellites then why did it operate for less than four months? That’s where things get murky. The official story is that SeaSat abruptly stopped operating on October 9th, 1978 due to a massive electrical short circuit. (Source) Many, however, believe the satellite’s power was ordered cut off when it begun detecting things it was absolutely not supposed to detect.

What we do know is that SeaSat detected the undersea waves generated by nuclear armed submarines as well as the tell-tale shadows of experimental stealth aircraft which at the time were still an unacknowledged “black project” being run out of Area 51. According to Peter Westwick, author of Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, officials back at the Pentagon darn near went ballistic when they learned what SeaSat’s unexpected powers of discernment had revealed. (Source)

Recall that one of the Cancer/Pisces individual’s strengths is “the ability to detect the hidden”. This is also one of its greatest liabilities. What happens, for instance, when a person as tuned to other realms as a Cancer/Pisces native detects or encounters something more intense then their sensitivities are able to handle? What happens, for example, if they detect or encounter the Grim Reaper?

It’s an apt question to ponder as the Grim Reaper is exactly what SeaSat inadvertently came in contact with. On a metaphoric level, submarines carrying nuclear ICBMs are a fitting stand in for the “bringer of death”. On a more literal level, the experimental stealth aircraft detected by SeaSat were flown by the 4450th Tactical Group, a highly classified test squadron known as “the Grim Reapers.” (Source) Take a look at the squadron’s flight patch to see the true nature of what SeaSat managed to detect:

Speaking of encounters with the occult, astrologer Linda Goodman warns the Cancer/Pisces combination as follows:

I wouldn’t go so far as to advise this pairing to stay way from such matters all together but I would say the Cancer/Pisces natives should only enter occult waterways under the tutelage of a very experienced mentor (navigator) or if they feel confident in being able to apply discernment to what they find “out there”.

For instance, author Annie Jacobsen is a Cancer/Pisces whose made a career out of this pairing’s “ability to detect the hidden”. (Chart) She’s best know for applying the intellectual acumen and forensic skills of an investigative reporter to occult topics such as secret bases, government sponsored seances, and high level experiments involving magic, mind control, and hypnosis. Cancerians are known for their elephant like memories while Pisces Moons are nourished by the mystical and the magical. Jacobsen is, in effect, a historian (Cancer) of our government’s attempts at interacting with the ghost worlds (Pisces Moon). Like Seasat, she too has experience with matters pertaining to Area 51 while more recently she wrote what may be the definitive account of the U.S. government’s investigations into psychic spying and paranormal phenomena:

Bizarre coincidence: Using its release date as its date of birth, the 1983 hit song “Secrets that You Keep” by The Romantics is also a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. (Chart) The song includes the line, “When I hold you in my arms at night, don’t you know you’re sleeping in a spotlight?”. Take a listen to the song, then take look back at NASA’s original drawing of SeaSat embedded above and see if you don’t notice something extremely uncanny about that image as it relates to the lyrics:

The song could be a theme song for SeaSat as the chorus “I hear the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep” describes exactly what SeaSat did during its operational lifetime. It’s also an accurate assessment of the role Ms. Jacobsen plays in our culture as she has accomplished with writing books something similar to what Seasat accomplished via imaging in space. Jacobsen’s a Pullitzer Prize finalist in history while Seasat is a history making oceanographic satellite; both have shined spotlights on secrets carried out while the rest of us have been asleep or kept in the dark. Among other similarities, acobsen’s conclusions regarding the truth about what happened at Roswell, New Mexico during the summer of 1947 are every bit as unsettling as Seasat’s encounters with the 4450 “Grim Reapers” squadron. (Hint: they’re far more disturbing than just space aliens.)

Seasat’s imagery has proven enormously popular with scientists researching the health of ecosystems beneath our oceans while Jacobsen’s books have become best sellers among citizens concerned about what our government(s) are doing behind closed doors. She is, in effect, an intuitively inclined merchanteer of history books (Cancer) about phenomena so strange they mystify the imagination (Pisces Moon).

Mercury/Jupiter in the 8th House: Seeing the Monsters in the Closet

Assuming the 6:12 pm launch time cited in NASA’s final 1980 report is accurate, SeaSat’s Mercury (communication) and Jupiter (expansion) were both in its 8th House. In Western astrology, the 8th House is the house of “other people’s resources.” Astrologer Dana Gerhardt refers to the 8th House as where “monsters in the closet” are kept hidden. (Source) Nuclear armed ICBM loaded submarines lurking beneath the ocean’s surface and classified black projects being flown out of Area 51 certainly fit the description of “monsters hiding in the closet”.

The 8th House is also considered the house of “ancestral legacy”. (Source) It’s where we keep those matters that “the family simply doesn’t speak about”. Although SeaSat was a civilian craft on a mission of peace, most of the technologies it carried on its insides could be traced back to classified military projects. When SeaSat detected those nuclear submarines it was, in a manner of speaking, glimpsing the secret history of its own ancestry.

Mars/Uranus Transit: Accidents, Authority Figures, Electrical Explosions

Astrologically, SeaSat’s demise coincided with the transit of Mars (explosions) directly over its natal Uranus. (Chart) In western astrology, Uranus is considered the ruler of electricity both out in terms of technology and the electrical impulses that run through the human body. It’s not uncommon for people going through a Mars/Uranus transit to experience “overload” in either their body’s electrical systems or in their chakras. Both mental breakdowns and kundalini awakenings are associated with Mars/Uranus contacts. SeaSat, of course, is not a human but it did have an electrical nervous system not totally unlike what humans have. Consider, for instance, the language astrologer Robert Hand uses to describe a Mars/Uranus transit and see if it doesn’t parallel what happened to SeaSat:

Even if SeaSat’s early demise was entirely coincidental there’s no doubt that A) energy did burst out all over its electrical system and B) the authorities were none too pleased with it and certainly hoped to place limits on it.

The transiting Mars to natal Uranus contact that coincided with SeaSat’s demise was in Scorpio, the sign most associated with covert operations. It took place right on the cusp of SeaSat’s 12th House, the “House of Secret Enemies” in traditional astrological parlance.

Mars in Virgo in the 9th House: Florence Nightingale Takes to the Wild Blue Yonder

Mars is a person’s inner warrior. SeaSat’s Mars is in the 9th House, the House of long distance travel, philosophy, expanded horizons, and higher education. People with Mars in the 9th will often fight (Mars) for social reform (the 9th House). SeaSat was not a person fighting for social reform but the technologies it demonstrated have certainly served to deepen levels of environmental awareness.

SeaSat’s Mars is in Virgo, the sign of duty and service, due diligence and detailed analysis, professional competency and technical wizardry. Astrologer Sue Tompkins says Mars in Virgo “conjures up the notion of military service, ambulance driving, or involvement with organizations such as the Red Cross.” (Source) Perhaps then it’s no coincidence that SeaSat’s technological offspring such as the EnviSat and the ERS were instrumental in organizing relief efforts following the Haiti earthquake of 2010 as well as understanding the global wide impact of the Fukushima earthquake in 2011. (Source)

North Node in the 10th House: Point of Destiny in the House of “Gifts to the World”

The North Node represents destiny, should the native choose to accept it. SeaSat’s North Node is in Libra, the sign most associated with maintaining an appropriate “balance of power”. It’s in the 10th House, which is considered the world stage. Astrologers Steven and Jodie Forest tell us that when the North Node is in the 10th House, “the essence of the evolutionary strategy lies in simply launching themselves into the white water of life lived in the context of the community . . . (Source) SeaSat wasn’t launched into the (literal) “white water of life in the [world] community” but it did go bravely into the dangerous world of outer space from where it studied the white water of life in the oceans.

Although no longer transmitting data, SeaSat is still “up there” dutifully orbiting the Earth. A member of the Heavens Above satellite tracking project managed to capture a glimpse of it above the Brighton AIDS Memorial in London as recently as August 2010. (Source) That SeaSat would last be seen above an AIDS memorial seems fitting. At its highest expression, Cancer/Pisces is very attuned to the alleviation of unnecessary suffering.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults at his contact page.

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Symbolized as a centaur-archer armed with a quiver full of flaming arrows, Sagittarius is the sign most likely to ride into a sleepy village in the middle of the night and raise absolute holy hell. Women with their Sun (identity) in this wildly adventurous sign will often come to be identified with their boldness, their athleticism, and their propensity to “grab the spotlight and set shit off” to quote astrologer Sonya Magett. (Source) This is the woman you’ll see “showing up in an outfit made for the comic books” Magett observes. (Source) To illustrate: using the comic book’s original publication date as the character’s date of birth, Wonder Woman herself is a Sagittarius. (Chart) She’s been showing up in “outfits made for the comic books” and “setting shit off” for the last 70 years. If Bruce Lee and Samuel Jackson are the ultimate examples of Sagittarius men who became icons for firing flaming arrows of truth, justice, and total badassery at all-comers then Wonder Woman is a case-study in the Sagittarius female’s desire to outfight, outrun, and outshoot the boys:

Sagittarius loves two things more than anything else: wild adventures and straight shooting honesty. Not coincidentally, Wonder Woman has her own airplane for spur of the moment adventures and is armed with a magical lasso that compels others to speak the truth.

Astrologer Austin Coppock describes Sagittarius as the “Doom Super Soldier” of the zodiac whose life is all about non-stop action while Stella Hyde says Sagittarians make for great rock stars, car-jackers, and crocodile wranglers. (Source) They are particularly well suited for work as “stunt artists” since this line of work allows them to “crash through plate glass windows and get paid for it” Hyde tell us. (Source) To illustrate: using its premier date as its date of birth, the 1980s all female professional wrestling promotion known as the “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling” (GLOW) has its Sun, Venus, Saturn, and Uranus all in Sagittarius. (Chart) The promotion was, in effect, a band of female stunt artists who (briefly) became something akin to rock stars for raising absolute holy hell in the sleepy village that was late night television during the uber-conservative Reagan era. Two of the performers even came to the ring dressed as car-jackers (“Hollywood and Vine”) while another arrived as an actual crocodile wrangler (“Jungle Woman”). More than a few appear to have been “doom super soldiers” of various persuasions, whether in spirit or by trade. The ladies of GLOW may not have crashed through actual plate glass windows but they did shake up society’s glass like assumptions regarding what women should or should not do with their bodies. They did such a memorable job of breaking barriers that the promotion is now the subject of a top ranked Netflix series:

Sagittarius women love to make audacious proclamations every bit as much as their male counterparts and, indeed, the line from the GLOW rap “we come from the streets, we come from the city, we come from the world where there is no pity” is an excellent summary of the Sagittarius female’s bold approach to life.

It may seem ridiculous to use a cultural roller coaster as spectacularly absurd as GLOW to illustrate anything serious but truth be told it’s a textbook example of all things Sagittarius. During its four year run the promotion “grabbed the spotlight and set shit off” so boldly that shortly before its unexplained folding it had amassed 7 million weekly viewers, an incredible number given its threadbare budget and kitschy production values. In true Sagittarian fashion, GLOW even managed to fire off a few flaming arrows of competition at the World Wrestling Federation, the vastly larger wrestling company that considered women incapable of getting the job done as actual in ring performers. As a surprisingly moving 2012 documentary about GLOW explains, the ladies were politically incorrect, totally out of control, and unlike anything else on television at the time. In other words, they were as Sagittarius it gets:

It’s a toss up between Aquarius and Sagittarius as to which astrological sign is most likely to believe “the powers that be” are suppressing advancements in science and technology or silencing truth-tellers. GLOW obviously had nothing to do with suppressed science or advancements in technology but one can’t help but why, out of the blue, it was forced to close up shop after only 4 years in existence. With 7 million weekly viewers, very healthy profit margins, and seemingly unlimited marketing opportunities something doesn’t add up about why it was shut down at the very height of its popularity. Maybe the idea that wrestling was obviously entertainment and that women could draw ratings as well as men was a bit too much truth for the wrestling world’s version of the “men behind the curtain”. Female icon and all round Super-Sag Wonder Woman has never gotten her own motion picture the way iconic male superheroes like Superman and Batman have, perhaps for some of the same narrow minded reasons GLOW has never been resuscitated.

Like her male counterpart, the Sagittarius woman will often outdo her competition by leaps and bounds. Magett warns her readers that this is the sign most likely to take a broken champagne bottle to somebody’s neck at a party or to solve a workplace dispute by leaving a bag of snakes on their boss’s desk. (Source) None of the GLOW ladies ever went quite that far but one did routinely make her way to the ring operating an actual chainsaw while another once wrestled a live bear. (Being half-horse Sag is usually an animal lover) Even those performers who shied away from industrial strength power tools or 700 pound killer animals made no apologies for venturing way outside the boundaries of what was considered socially acceptable for women to be doing with their lives.

Astrologer Raven Kaldera associates Sagittarius with the myth of Vainamoinen, the Finnish God of adventure whose array of fascinating friends and talented sidekicks help him save the day. (Source) According to Kaldera, Vainamoinen’s gift is “to see the golden dream on the far horizon, to figure out the pathway there, to shoot for it, and to inspire others to do the same”. (Source) As the high decibel haute couture favored by the ladies of GLOW makes quite clear, the promotion had no shortage of “fascinating friends and talented sidekicks”:

More importantly than its array of fascinating and talented performers, GLOW inspired its fan base of young women to shoot for the horizons, dream the dreams, and venture the pathways of their own choosing without being held back by society’s assumptions regarding their gender. At the height of its popularity a number of the wrestlers were receiving upwards of 300 fan letters per week, most from young girls seeking advice on how to follow in the footsteps of the Vainamoinen inspired women they were watching on television each week. Writing for Vice Magazine, journalist Jennifer Juniper Stratford recalls the uplifting effect GLOW’s “take no prisoners” approach had on her as a teenager, emphasis added:

In other words, what was most Sagittarian of all about GLOW had noting to do with the big hair, outrageous outfits, or wildly out of control performances. According to a review of the GLOW documentary, “GLOW was about a whole lot more than wrestling or even sports: It was about politics, race, sex, gender, and power, and about who controls narratives about women’s bodies and desires”. (Source) Sagittarius is ultimately the sign of the Philosopher and the Clown, both of whom on are quests. The Philosopher is on a quest to seek great spiritual truths while the Clown is on a quest simply to have fun. Behind all the absurdity and camp of GLOW the ladies truly were on a pair of Sagittarian style quests, one to show that women are perfectly capable of defining their own experiences and the other to have outrageous loads of fun while doing so.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults at his contact page.

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Along with being the most health conscious sign of the zodiac, Virgo also excels at writing, analysis, and forensic research due to its eye for detail, accuracy, and love of footnotes. In medical astrology, Virgo is associated with the intestines which through their power of analysis and discretion decide what stays with the body and what is discarded as waste. Virgo’s penchant for analysis and association with the intestines is also why you’ll find a disproportionate number of muckrakers born under this sign. Journalist Upton Sinclair, whose 1903 book The Jungle exposed the horrors of the early 20th century meatpacking industry, is a representative Virgo Sun. Combine the intellectual leanings of a Virgo Sun with a Leo Moon’s instincts for showmanship and the result is a Sun/Moon that is capable of doing muckraking journalism (Virgo) in a fashion that’s highly theatrical (Leo). To illustrate: using its on-air premier date as its date of birth, the 2003 ESPN television series Playmakers is a Virgo Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart)

Yes, Playmakers was about football but don’t let that dissuade you from giving it serious consideration. The series was absolutely riveting, receiving acclaim from critics (Virgo) and sky high ratings (Leo) from viewers; a well crafted, smartly written (Virgo) piece of theater (Leo) that was to professional football at the turn of 21st century what The Jungle was to the meatpacking industry at the turn of the 20th. The show was designed for male football aficionados yet brought in huge numbers of both women and non-sports fans because it depicted the most human of dramas: depression and drug addiction, unsettling power dynamics and deeply troubling family legacies. The plot lines were thought-provoking (Virgo) yet entertaining (Leo), featuring multi-faceted characters cast into complex ethical dilemmas with no easy solutions. The show’s story arcs were fictional but highly realistic and more than a bit prescient: a star quarterback keeping his painkiller habit from his doctor, a young running back trying to escape a family curse, a respected veteran player covering up un-respectable actions from the past, a team doctor caught in an ethical quandary, a head coach keeping his cancer diagnosis from his family, and a Catholic wide receiver keeping his homosexuality from everybody — all issues that the NFL has done its best to deny or dismiss over the last 15 years. The show was a hit because it depicted the players not as caricatures but as human beings, exactly what Upton Sinclair did with meatpackers in The Jungle a century earlier.

Unfortunately, despite sky high ratings and critical acclaim, the series only lasted for one season as it absolutely enraged the NFL who pressured ESPN to kill it. Amazingly, one team owner said he felt the NFL was as wholesome an institution as Disneyland but that Playmakers had depicted it as being akin to the Medellin drug cartel. That’s a strange analogy to make since the NFL is arguably responsible for more heads being bashed and lives being shortened than Pablo Escobar himself.

The theme for Playmakers includes a line “Still on beat, showin’ love to the streets come on you know me” — which just so happens to describe this pairing’s combination of conscientious mindfulness (Virgo) and full-hearted bravura (Leo Moon). In her book Love Signs, Linda Goodman describes the Virgo/Leo pairing as being exceptionally well suited for taking the beats to the streets and doing so with lots of love:

Goodman goes on to describe high functioning Virgo/Leo pairing as “miracle set to music”. To illustrate: music journalist and hip-hop legend Fred Brathwaite is a Virgo with his Moon in Leo. (Chart) Braithwaite, best known as “Fab Five Freddy”, started off as rapper and street artist in New York’s early 1980s underground hip hop and punk scenes. In 1988 he came to public attention as the original host of Yo! MTV Raps, the first television show dedicated specifically to rap music. Freddy has likely never played the ukulele or piccolo but as the host of Yo! he did put in a lot of work getting hip hop music onto to the multi-billion dollar Yellow Brick Road of mainstream acceptance:

These days hip hop music is nearly ubiquitous. In fact, it’s such a part of contemporary culture that there are now a not insignificant number of police officers who grew up listening to rapper Ice Cube belt out “F–k Tha’ Police” while KRS One’s hit “Sound of the Police” is now used to sell internet services. At the time Freddy started hosting Yo! things were a good deal different. Back then hip hop was seen by middle America as occupying a space between fadish and irrelevant, dangerous and criminalistic. Freddy’s work as the host of Yo! helped bring it from the fringes of the party to being the party itself. In 1988 there was no Twitter or YouTube or Soundcloud for independent artists to get their work in front of the public. If you were an up-and-coming rapper who aspired to be a real playmaker, your best bet at the time was to score an appearance on Yo! with Fab Five Freddy where you’d get a chance to “stay on beat” while “showin’ love to streets”.

Yo! may not have been a literal “miracle set to music” as per Goodman’s description of the Virgo/Leo pairing but with Freddy at the helm it definitely served as a working class (Virgo) home for entertainment (Moon in Leo) at its finest. Numerous household names in the hip hop game ranging from Fresh Prince (Will Smith) to Queen Latifah to Salt-N-Pepa’ made their television debuts alongside Freddy on Yo!. Once there they were free to serenely sing their songs, blow their notes, and be as melodious as they wanted (or didn’t want) to be.

According to astrologer Stella Hyde, Virgos make for great homeopaths and life coaches while Leo Moons are nourished by highly theatrical jobs such media mogul, circus ringmaster, and WWE wrestler. YouTube health and fitness celebrity Brandon Carter is a Virgo Sun, Leo Moon. (Chart) Carter is, in effect, a life coach (Virgo Sun) with the stage presence of a WWE superstar (Leo Moon), a statistician-homeopath (Virgo) whose the circus ringmaster of a social media empire (Leo Moon), a DIY nutritionist (Virgo) surrounded by an entourage of compatriots (Leo Moon) — some hailing from the halls of high society, some straight from the ‘hood, some sophisticated, some scurrilous. If you haven’t seen his YouTube channel it’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see if Tony Robbins (“Awaken the Power Within”) collaborated with John Shaft (“He’s a Bad Mother . . .”) or Tim Ferris (“Four Hour Body”) co-hosted a seminar with rapper Too Short (“Born to Mack”). It’s one part Dr. Axe, one part LL Cool J:

Carter’s best known for helping to popularize what are known as “street workouts”, an insurgent exercise movement that is one part old school calisthenics, one part freestyle break-dancing. Unlike expensive memberships at corporate owned globo-gyms or the over priced pretentiousness of many yoga studios, street workouts require nothing more than access to an outdoor park and a good attitude. The workouts are a highly efficient (Virgo Sun) form of exercise that rewards stagecraft and creativity (Leo Moon), one whose adherents are to mainstream gym chains what crypto-currency investors are are to the Federal Reserve or what builders of “tiny homes” are to the Toll Brothers corporation. Some samples are viewable at this link:

Don’t be too distracted by the shirtless theatrics, there is more to this pairing then keeping the body fat low (Virgo) and the drama quotient high (Leo Moon). According to astrologer Raven Kaldera, Virgo/Leo is the Sun/Moon of “The Bard” whose job is to speak truth (Virgo) to power (Leo):

Kaldera tells us that in addition to speaking truth to power, the Virgo/Leo Bard can often be found speaking, writing, or reading “eloquent and inspirational political writing and thinking deeply about how it moves them.” (Source) Prior to becoming a fitness (Virgo) celebrity (Leo), Carter had gained some traction in the independent music scene. Like the music of any good Bard, his lyrics were aimed at putting a check on the tyrannical rule of various out of control Kings. Consider, for instance, these excerpts from his 2010 single “Blood Money”:

Carter’s video for “Blood Money” was released to YouTube where it quickly racked up 200,000 views before YouTube removed it from their site for reasons that are not totally clear.

Carter released “Blood Money” during the heyday of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a brief time during which it seemed the forces of decency might be turning the tables on the forces of tyranny. Unfortunately, that era did not last long. By the fall of 2016 autocracy was on the rise and hate on the offensive. Despite the efforts of Bards throughout the country, Donald Trump ultimately ascended to the office of the Presidency via a campaign of garish misogyny and race based grievances. Furthermore, a number of respected outlets suspect the Trump family is funded by blood money while it’s now become clear they intend to bleed the country dry.

An ad-hoc, Aquarian-era network of groups has since coalesced into “the Resistance”, a series of loosely affiliated tribes who seek to oppose the Trump family and turn back the damage they’re doing to the country and world. The Resistance has scored some definite victories in recent months, mostly by rallying together the targets of Trump’s scapegoating: women, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community, and others. However, it has also struggled mightily to connect with the disaffected young males that form the backbone of the “alt-right” — the internet era, social media shock-mob that propelled Trump into power.

Purusing his YouTube channel, it appears that Carter has pivoted from his more politically oriented, Occupy Wall Street era musical projects into selling sports supplements and providing life success tips. That sort of pivot is certainly understandable given how difficult it is to monetize one’s creativity in the current media environment. That goes double if you don’t have family money, a fat curriculum vitae, or flush Silicon Valley stock options to fall back on. At the same, it’s really unfortunate. The forces that have mobilized to oppose the alt-right eventually must connect with at least a portion of those disaffected males if they hope to turn back the tides of fascism. Running 76 year old Bernie Sanders or establishment wonder-boy Joe Kennedy out there is only going to get “the Resistance” so far. If they really want to win they’d be wise to consider enlisting the services of some legitimate playmakers who can “stay on beat while showing love to the streets” ala Brandon Carter.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults via Twitter, his first YouTube channel, his second YouTube channel, SoundCloud, LibSyn or this site’s contact page.

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Editor’s Note: an audio/video version of this video is available on YouTube. -Matt

In medical astrology Virgo rules the intestines which separate what stays with the body for nutritive purposes from what must be discarded as waste. This is the sign most accustomed to dealing with pathogen loaded waste, be it the type our bodies produce or the sort pumped into the environment by Fortune 500 corporations. Astrologer Stella Hyde says Virgos’ obsession with being “au naturel” and precision calibrated intelligence means they make for great homeopaths and nano-technologists while people with their Moons (unconscious emotional needs) in Sagittarius (the Super Crusader) need to feel as though they’re on a mission of great spiritual significance to feel themselves. (Source) Both Virgo and Sagittarius are considered intellectual signs so this is often a profoundly intelligent Sun/Moon combo. To illustrate: using its debut as its date of birth, the cult 1980s children’s series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future is a Virgo Sun, Sagittarius Moon. (Chart) Don’t let the cartoonish metal costumes fool you. This was one of the few shows that sought to smarten kids up rather than dumb them down. As one reviewer for IGN put it, “Captain Power proved an immeasurably intense series. There was a shockingly mature story underneath . . . it dealt with the darker side of humanity while openly dealing with death, compassion and redemption of mankind in a profound way.” (Source)

Set in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by a Dick Cheney look-a-like known as “Lord Dread”, the Captain Power series follows a small team of service minded (Virgo) guerrilla fighters (Sagittarius) as they fight to stop the “digitalization” of surviving humans into the global “OverMind”, an advanced supercomputer prison that is one part Monsanto, one part Facebook. The guerrilla fighters are equipped with high tech “power suits” that give them the near superhuman abilities necessary to do battle with Dread’s fleet of flying “Bio-Dreads”, nano-technology based (Virgo) super-soldiers (Sagittarius) that bear more than a passing resemblance to today’s predator drones. Medical supplies are in short supply and the guerrilla fighters are often found delivering or rounding up medicines for people traumatized by the ravages of ecological ruin and political collapse. Sadly, significant numbers of humans have pledged their allegiance to Lord Dread, becoming traitors to both their own species and the planet itself. Suffice it to say, many of the issues the show approached as speculative fiction back in 1987 are now the most pressing matters of our time.

The show was ahead of its time in other ways too. Lord Dread’s cybernetic machine empire was clearly the inspiration for “the Borg”, the infamous race of nano-technology (Virgo) super-fanatics (Sagittarius) that didn’t make their debut on Star Trek: The Next Generation until three years later. In one episode, entitled “Flame Street”, Captain Power contracts with a team of underground computer hackers for access to the “mental matrix”, a direct neural link to an artificial reality known as the “cyber-web”. Once inside the “mental matrix”, Power does battle with Lord Dread who attempts to manipulate his perception of what’s real versus what’s imaginary. Watching that episode on YouTube it’s hard not to notice just how much it looks, sounds, and feels like the plot to The Matrix, the blockbuster film franchise that wouldn’t hit movie theaters for another twelve years:

Captain Power was highly original not just in terms of its on air plot-lines but also in terms of how it was filmed and produced. The show was the first television series to make regular use of CGI graphics and the first to be produced via the internet. According to a recent documentary on the series, the show’s writers were based in Los Angeles and would “modem over” their scripts to the cast and crew who were filming the show in Toronto. They would then modem back photos, suggestions, and revisions. This was all done via 56k connections — primitive by today’s standards but cutting edge technology at a time when 99% of the population hadn’t even heard of the internet let alone ever been on it.

The show was one of the first children’s shows to feature a legitimately strong female character in the form of Jennifer Chase, a pilot and tactical systems experts portrayed by actress Jessica Steen. More than a few Virgo/Sagittarians are raised in restrictive, oppressive religious or social environments. This is because Virgo’s shadow is often expressed as an obsession with sexual or moral purity while the Sagittarian shadow is expressed as religious fanaticism and dogmatic fundamentalism. The Chase character, for instance, grew up as a member of the “Dread Youth”, a fanatical political group for children modeled on the Hitler Youth of the 1930s and 40s only to escape its clutches as a young adult.

That a Virgo/Sagittarius like the Captain Power series would be so far ahead of its time in both plot-lines and production methods makes sense if you understand the psychological operandi of this paring. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, the planet of the lower mind, while Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of the higher mind. As astrologer Sue Tompkins explains in her book Aspects, when the two minds are working together the result is somebody adept at thinking, writing, or communicating about the future:

The Captain Power series checks out on all points: the show was for designed for kids and used science fiction to communicate very “Big Ideas” about how to improve the future. Almost thirty years after it went off the air the show is still talked about among science fiction aficionados, both viewers who remember being riveted by it at home and Hollywood production staff who remember being impressed by its graphics, design, and special effects. Virgo/Sagittarians are often excellent teachers and many of the crew who worked on the show would go on to teach the methods they pioneered on the series to people throughout the entertainment world.

Like a good teacher, Captain Power may also have planted seeds within the minds of at least some of the young people who grew up watching it. The series was very popular among children, many of whom are now in their mid-to-late thirties and early forties. This is the generation already at the forefront of dealing with the consequences of a society turning its life support systems over to an armada of giant, artificially intelligent computer systems owned by defense contractors, pharmaceutical corporations, Wall Street banks, and other entities whose intentions in the real world are every bit as nefarious as Lord Dread’s were in the imaginary one. “We can’t just sit back and wait for things to get better” Power insists when it’s suggested that he and his team simply hide out from the forces of evil:

According to astrologers Suzi and Charles Harvey, two metaphoric images for the Virgo/Sagittarius pairing are, “A bespectacled librarian locks the door at closing time and transforms into Superwoman” and “An anthropology class goes on a field trip”. (Source) Both images are excellent approximations of the Captain Power series. The Jennifer Chase character, for instance, was something of a computer technician-librarian type until she donned her power suit at which point she transformed into a laser-pistol wielding, homeopathic (Virgo) rough rider (Sagittarius) ready to take on all comers. To keep costs down the production staff took a year long field trip from Los Angeles to Toronto. Once there, they created a complex anthropological back-story for a futuristic world filled with enormous amounts of pain and despair but also some pangs of hope, a world uncannily similar to the one we all now occupy.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults via Twitter, YouTube, Spreaker, Soundcloud, or his contact page.

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Image: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, available via Amazon.

Scorpio is the sign of the Shaman and the Spy, the Sorceress and the Spell-Caster, the Hitman and the Detective, the Covert-Op and the Deep Cover Cop. When a person or project has their Sun (identity) in this clandestinely inclined sign they will often come to be identified with matters of a secretive nature, be they financial or scientific. According to astrologer Judy Hall, Scorpios are naturals in “silent-but-deadly” professions such as experimental science or submarine surveillance while Aquarius Moons are emotionally nourished by unusual hobbies such as UFO-watching or computer hacking. (Source) To illustrate: using its establishment date as its date of birth the Tonopah Test Range, aka “Area 52”, is a Scorpio Sun, Aquarius Moon. (Chart) Area 52 is the sister of the much better known Area 51 base. This Area 52 mission patch, obtained by way of geographer Trevor Paglen’s book Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes, seems to suggest the base is home to occult projects, secret technologies, and silent-but-deadly UFO-looking aircraft that are to the year 2013 what black magick guilds were to the year 1320:

Astrologer Carolyn Reynolds says the Scorpio/Aquarius pairing is often a prophetic inventor whose first words are likely to be “star-ship”. (Source) Stella Hyde says Scorpio is the sign of the secret agent while Aquarius is the sign of the astronaut so it’s certainly not inconceivable that the base is home to “secret agent astronauts” who fly around in star-ships of one sort or another. Along these lines, the airspace at Area 52 is restricted all the way out to beyond the atmosphere and into outer-space.

Strangely enough in regards to “secret agent astronauts”, star-ships, and things going on all the way out to outer space . . . using its premier date as its date of birth the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is also a Scorpio Sun, Aquarius Moon. (Chart) The film starts off with researchers trying to solve a mystery (Scorpio) involving a squadron of airplanes (Aquarius) that have mysteriously gone missing out in the Sonoran desert. It ends with the U.S. government constructing a secret (Scorpio) base where space aliens (Aquarius) will land:

Fortunately for us humans, the space aliens encountered in Close Encounters turn out to be friendly. It’s highly unlikely that whatever’s going on out at Area 52 these days is of such an affable nature. For instance, during the 1980s the base was home to the 4450th and the 4451st test squadrons, two highly classified units known as the “Night Stalkers” and the “Ghost Riders” (originally the “Grim Reapers”), respectively. (Source) Scorpio is ruled by the planet Pluto which is associated with the Grim Reaper himself while Aquarius has long been considered the sign of aviation, space travel, and advanced technology. The imagery on the 4451’s mission patch makes it pretty clear their work out at Area 52 involved death (Scorpio) by way of the stars (Aquarius):

Sue Tompkins says the Scorpio/Aquarius combination “often holds highly unconventional views on sexual or occult issues of death which they feel might alienate the larger population were they to share them.” (Source) We don’t know what, if any, highly unconventional matters of an occult or “alienating” nature are being hidden at Area 52 but Youtuber ChiChang Wu has located some incredibly strange structures on the base visible by way of Google Earth’s satellite imagery service. The camouflaged structure visible in his video at 2:30 is a mind-boggingly 900 yards (2,700 feet) long so whatever it’s hiding it’s darn important:

Linda Goodman warns her readers to “have your seat-belts on” when these two signs meet as they form an intensely unpredictable combination which generates the type of energy that “makes windmills spin, ships sail, trains run, and spacecraft break the time barrier.” (Source) The time barrier hasn’t been broken yet, at least not officially, but if the government was working on such a project it would make sense for it to be associated with a Scorpio/Aquarius outfit such as Area 52. The idea that a Scorpio/Aquarius like Area 52 might be involved in such futuristic projects sounds both intriguing (Scorpio) and exciting (Aquarius) but keep in mind that Scorpio can be incredibly dark while Aquarius Moons have an emotional need to be shocking. To illustrate: Charles Manson is a Scorpio/Aquarius whose visions of the future were some of the darkest (Scorpio), most shocking (Aquarius) ever imagined. Strangely enough, Charles Manson promised to lead his followers to “a city underneath the earth” and that’s more or less exactly what Area 52 appears to be.

Fortunately, few Scorpio/Aquarians will express themselves in such a darkly (Scorpio) ice-cold (Aquarius) fashion. To illustrate: using its original publication date as its date of birth, Phrack Magazine is a Scorpio/Aquarius. (Chart) If you haven’t heard of Phrack before, it was a well-regarded computer hacking and cryptography magazine that was going deep cover (Scorpio) in matters of advanced technology (Aquarius) 30 years before the general population began waking up to the realities of ubiquitous government surveillance. (Source) Phrack wasn’t a literal time traveler but in many ways it did foresee a future characterized by spying (Scorpio) via technology (Aquarius), one which we are all now living in.

Some Scorpio/Aquarians will channel their bent for extreme (Scorpio) forms of futurism (Aquarius) into art or music. Darin Mcfadyen, best known as “DJ Freq-Nasty” is a Scorpio Sun, Aquarius Moon. (Chart) Mr. Freq is widely considered one of the world pioneers in breakbeat electronic music, which is an intensely (Scorpio) advanced (Aquarius) form of music that sounds almost as futuristic as what the UFO in Close Encounters of the Third Kind plays. Mr. Freq is not from another world like whatever may be going on at Area 52 but to anybody whose tastes in clothing, music, and aesthetics are on the conservative side he would appear as if he’s from a different planet. Freq may not own an actual UFO but he’s almost certainly taken a few trips in “starships”, albeit ones powered by forms of energy more organic than technological in nature:

On a similar note, British author Naomi Mitchison is a Scorpio Sun, Aquarius Moon who wrote about topics such as rape, abortion, prostitution, women’s rights and other topics that for her era were one part taboo (Scorpio), one part futuristic (Aquarius). (Chart) In addition to to being very interested in space travel, she smuggled letters out of Nazi occupied Austria by concealing them in her knickers, the 1940s equivalent of smuggling classified materials out of an off-limits base in the Nevada desert. In other words, like the classified projects being carried out inside Area 52, she too was something of a “Ghost Rider”.

About the Author: Matthew David Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults via Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook, or this site’s contact page.

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