The Last Post

Barbara Schermer, 67, of Chicago and Ajijic, died on Tuesday morning at 4:00am CST, at home in Mexico. Barbara had been very courageous over the sixteen years she had faced bouts of cancer. She had many good years in between. Barbara was exemplary for her positive attitude and was much loved, even by those she only met in the four years we have lived in Mexico. She also gave anyone an example for how to live with death looking over your left shoulder, and she died with a dignity that would honor any Eastern saint.

Our love continued to deepen, especially in the last four years, and will remain with me forever.

I will leave the site up for a while to allow her many admirers to read or download her writings.—Bob Craft.

Living "Downton Abbey" in 2014

In 2014 we enter into a Downton Abbey kind of year with surprises, ambitions, intrigues, new loves, betrayals, revenges, and noble, courageous actions. The cosmos has complicated plot lines this year, as there are multi-faceted characters—Pluto, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars, in multiple interactions—squares (conflict within) and oppositions (conflict without) that manifest in both our collective and personal lives. In short, 2014 is more dramatic than any we have seen.

I thought about how to simply explain this and came up with the diagram below. You can use it experientially. Either engage it spontaneously to bring feelings to mind and journal your process, or use the diagram to interact with a close friend. I included the particular birth dates most affected along with remedies to address these challenges. The accompanying link explains more.

Most important is to realize that in a time of challenge there is always innate potential within.

See my article in the January 2014 Monthly Aspectarian magazine for an explanation of the diagram and how to use it.—Barbara.

Diagram

 

Who? For those of you born on these birth dates regardless of the year:

12/29–1/17, 3/29–4/17, 6/30–7/20, 9/30–10/20.

For specific generations:

Saturn in Aries: 3/38–6/38, 10/38–4/39.

Neptune in Libra: 10/45–10/49, 5/50–9/50

Saturn in Cancer: 8/44–7/45..

Uranus in Cancer: 7/50–1/51, 5/51–8/52, 2/53–5/53.

Uranus in Libra: 11/69–3/70, 8/70–11/71, 4/72–8/72.

Pluto in Libra: 10/74–10/78, 5/79–8/79.

Saturn in Libra: 11/80–3/81, 8/81–11/81, 5/82–7/82.

Neptune in Capricorn: 2/87–7/87, 12/87–3/92, 6/92– 11/92.

Saturn in Capricorn: 1/89–12/89.

Uranus in Capricorn- 1/90-7/90, 11/90-1/92, 7/92–12/92.

Remedies: Stay in your center; pranayama (alternate breathing); Be resilient, resourceful and adaptable; Choose your cause; What’s new?; Who and what nourishes me? Seek to go deeper. Let go and forgive through the opus contra naturum. Be not do.

A Clip from My Latest Monthly Aspectarian Interview

Walter Perschke: It is always a pleasure to have these conversations with you. You serve up astrology in such a clear and practical way. Before we shift to our ongoing discussion, you said you wanted to first talk about the upcoming equinox and the meaning of the quarterly movement of the sun through the signs. What can you tell us about these four points each year?

Barbara Schermer: Every year is marked by two equinoxes (the third week of March and the third week of September) and by the two solstices (the third week of June and the third week of December). Equinoxes are the "equal day, equal night" time of year, and solstices, "sun stands still," are when the sun reaches it farthest southern or northern point in the zodiac. The winter solstice, for those of us living at the mid-latitudes in the Northern hemisphere (Chicago), gives us six plus hours of sunlight each day and the summer solstice fifteen plus hours of sunlight.

For many traditions and in many countries, both ancient and current, there are festivals marking these four quarters. They are considered, "spiritual portal points." What this means is we are more naturally in harmony with the movements of the sun and therefore can more easily realign ourselves to our own center and in yoga what is called the Sun chakra (the energy center between and just above your eyes commonly called your third eye). The ideas of actual portals seem to be supported by recent studies. There is new confirmed research emerging that shows there is a direct connection between the sun and earth in what are called magnetic portals. They seem to be from above the Earth's equator and move towards the south pole of Earth in December (winter solstice), or the north pole of Earth in summer in June (summer solstice)....

See the complete article here, as well as the Monthly Aspectarian magazine issue—for free.

Monthly Aspectarian Column Update

Hi All,

The latest issue of the Monthly Aspectarian is out, with the newest edition of my Cosmic Trends column. I hope you enjoy it!

     —Barbara

My Column in The Monthly Aspectarian

Chicago's Monthly Aspectarian magazine was published every month for 30 years. After a lapse, it's back, with a new editor and both print and online versions. This is such good news! Chicago residents may once again pick up the free publication at dozens of locations throughout the city and suburbs. If you are out of town, you can find it every month online.

MA's publisher, Walter Perschke, is a longtime client of mine; he's asked to interview me quarterly for the magazine, getting my take on the unfolding astrological cycles. He and I will continue to discuss the key planetary cycles affecting us all. We hope to give you a fresh perspective on these collective and personal influences.

Take a look at the first two interviews, appearing in the November 2012  (right-click to download the pdf file in the background) and the January 2013 issues.

Enjoy!—Barbara