March 1 - 6, 2022: WE ARE IN FOR A WILD RIDE.

 

March 1 - 6, 2022: WE ARE IN FOR A WILD RIDE.

 

This is the most global and granular war we've ever seen, with non-governmental players in the tech sector (Saturn in Aquarius) making unilateral moves to help Ukraine, such as Elon Musk, Microsoft, the "Anonymous" hackers, and others. With hundreds of thousands of citizens defending their homeland with rifles and mobile phones (North Node / Uranus in Taurus), real-time reports from the front line on social media battle Russian disinformation bots (Mercury conjunct Saturn in Aquarius, Sun sextile Uranus). 

 

Hope springs afresh with the New Moon in Pisces, where Jupiter is currently expanding compassion, and Neptune is currently distorting perception.

 

Venus, Mars, and Pluto meet in a triple conjunction at 27 degrees Capricorn (the degree of the USA's natal Pluto), with the Moon in war-like Aries on 3/3, which is Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet. Mars-Pluto can be very dangerous; Venus hardly takes the edge off and in fact the oligarch angle of this unfolding story should be watched closely. In any case: these events will feel exceedingly personal even if you are half a world away. 

Regarding the outcome: THE DECREE IS NOT FIXED; IT CAN BE SWEETENED. Those who understand the power of prayer and the chutzpah it takes to make intercession, as Avraham Avinu and Moshe Ribbaynu and Dovid haMelech did, may they be strengthened at this time.

 

3/5, Shabbos Parshat Pikudei, the Sun conjuncts Jupiter in Pisces and the glory of the Lord fills the Tabernacle. Sunday 6/6, Venus and Mars both move into 0 degrees Aquarius, the exact degree of the "Great Conjunction" of Jupiter and Saturn which occurred in December 2020, the doorway to the Aquarian Age. The hallmark of the epoch is the uniting of governments, NGO's, sports teams, industry, tech, and every sector (Saturn in Aquarius again) under Aquarian ideals (brotherhood, humanitarianism, scientific progress, freedom ) to defeat a global threat.

 

What time on the Cosmic Clock is it, folks? It's half an hour before Purim. 

 

THE DECREE IS NOT FIXED; IT CAN BE SWEETENED.

 

Jewish Astrology in The Aquarian Age An International Conference of Academics, Scholars and Mystics

 

Jewish Astrology in The Aquarian Age

An International Conference of Academics, Scholars and Mystics

December 21, 2020, the Winter Solstice,

and the day of the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction in the Sign of Aquarius, for the first time since 1405.

Via Zoom 

Info at https://aquarianminyan.org/aquarianage

Cost: $26 for all-conference day pass, including access to all session recordings

Register at https://aquarianminyan.com/astrology

 

The periodic conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn hold a special place in the history of Jewish astrological thought. The three conjunction cycles of 20, 240, and 960 years which take place within elemental triplicities were viewed as portents of political and social change, the emergence of a new dynasty, nation, or a great prophet. This “Great Conjunction” was the focus of Jewish messianic speculation from the earliest contacts with its origins in third century Sassanian Persia through Abu Ma’ashar, the medieval commentators such as Abraham Bar Hiyya, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and others.

Jupiter and Saturn make a conjunction in the zodiac sign of Aquarius on December 21, 2020. This marks the first time the conjunction has been in Aquarius since the year 1405. This is significant because of the special relationship of both the planet Saturn and the constellation of Aquarius to the Jewish people.

This online conference examines the implications of this celestial event in light of current terrestrial realities, and how this might be understood in terms of the Jewish esoteric tradition, Jewish history, and messianic thought. We’ve invited academic, scholarly, and lay mystic participation around this subject. Our hope is to bring scholars and mystics together on common ground to explore a subject with multiple layers of historical, symbolic, existential, and prophetic meaning.

 

Schedule (all times Pacific times)

9:30am

Welcome and Introduction to Jewish Astrology

• ·        Lorelai Kude
  

 

9:45am

Invocation and Blessing

• Rabbi T'mimah Audrey Ickovits 

10am Pacific Time

Panel Discussion: Astrology in the Sefer Yetzirah

• ·        Rabbi Jill Hammer
• ·        Piergabriele Mancuso
• ·        Marla Segol
• ·        Rabbi T’mimah Audrey Ickovitz

 

12 Noon Pacific Time

Keynote: Ibn Ezra’s Jewish Astrology and the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction in Jewish Thought

• ·        Meira Epstein

 

2pm Pacific Time

Panel: The Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction in Jewish Messianic Thought & The Dark Side of the Aquarian Age

• ·        Lorelai Kude
• ·        Rabbi Jonathan Seidel PhD
• ·        Special Guests TBA

 

 

About Our Panelists and Speakers:

Meira Epstein has been researching Abraham Ibn Ezra’s astrological texts since the late 1980’s. Her published translations are The Beginning of Wisdom (1998), The Book of Reasons (1991) and The Book of Nativities and Revolutions (2008). In preparation are The Book of Elections and The Book of Interrogations. She is a certified professional astrological consultant and a principal teacher for the NCGR education and certification program, focusing on science, astronomy, and history. Meira lectures and teaches internationally on all aspects of astrology. A college degree and a career in teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) in Israel was followed by a full-cycle career in computer programming on Wall Street. Her website is www.bear-star.com 

 

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author, scholar, ritualist, poet, and dreamworker, is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion (www.ajrsem.org), and co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute (www.kohenet.org). Her new book on Jewish mysticism is titled Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah. Rabbi Hammer is also the author of other books including The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership (with Taya Shere), The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for all Seasons, Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries. She lives in Manhattan with her wife and daughter.

 

Rabbi T’mimah Audrey Ickovits, BSE, is the spiritual leader of Holistic Jew in Santa Monica, CA. She and cultivates a wide variety of ritual. These include prayer, Torah study, Liquid Kabbalah movement, and meditation. Rabbi T’mimah teaches courses in “Davvenology” and “Kabbalah and Prayer” highlighting the connectivity between spiritual practice and nature’s movement. Rabbi T’mimah recently published the ”Holistic Jew Shahareet Weekday siddur” and “Seven Sacred Circles”. Both these publications include commentary from classical Kabbalah. Passionate about the environment and committed to equality in death, she teaches in support of green, cost-effective, the traditional end-of-life options. Through engagement with the classical text, Rabbi Ickovits learned to track patterns in Jewish practice. Indeed, the basis of Rabbinic Judaism is the calendar cycle. Moreover, she found Jewish Tradition is filled with skillful guidance to support living a nourishing productive life, which includes time off from work as a foundational value. Rabbi Ickovits’s unique strength is in engaging with traditional texts through a different ‘slant of light’ – that is, from a traditional, yet egalitarian, eco-aware spiritual perspective, to bring forward the renewed meaning and practice, creative sparks, & movement into contemporary Jewish life. Rabbi Ickovits attended Modern Orthodox Yeshivah and resonated with the deep initiation this offered into Torah Study, Hebrew, and traditional Jewish practices. The school's philosophy of strict adhesion to rigid, patriarchal, and ethnocentric rules fueled her inquiry into the subtle and deeper intentions (Kavanot) of Jewish practice. Her website is Holistic Jew. 

 

Lorelai Kude, MA received her Masters Degree in Jewish Studies from Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union, where her thesis “Yesh Mazal l’Yisrael: Astrology in Jewish Cultural Heritage” laid the academic foundation for her upcoming popular book, “Astrolojew: The Big Book of Jewish Astrology”. A practicing, professional astrologer for 30+ years, Lorelai writes a syndicated Jewish astrology column (“Astrolojew”) for the Jerusalem Post, J the Jewish News of Northern California, The Detroit Jewish News, and Alliance, France’s biggest online Jewish publication. Along with maintaining and growing her private astrological consulting practice, Lorelai also teaches classes, publishes a podcast on Jewish astrology, and is the Executive Director of The Aquarian Minyan and “Mother” of the Aquarian Minyan Yeshiva. This conference has been her dream since the summer of 2018. 

 

 Piergabriele Mancuso received his doctoral degree in Jewish Studies from University College London, 2009. He studied in Oxford and has been a fellow of the Warburg Institute, London. He taught at Boston University and Abroad Programs, Ca’ Foscari University (Venice) and the University of Kentucky (Lexington). He is the director of the Eugene Program in Jewish Studies at the Medici Archive Project, Florence and the Venetian Centre for International Jewish Studies. He is the author of several studies and monographs on medieval Italian Jewry and Jewish music.

 

Marla Segol is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies.  She earned her PhD in Comparative Literature at Rutgers University New Brunswick in 2001, with a dissertation on religious conversion and cosmopolitanism. Recent books include Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah: The Texts, Commentaries and Diagrams of the ‘Sefer Yetsirah’ (Palgrave, 2012), and Sexuality, Sociality, and Cosmology in Medieval Literary Texts, coedited with Jennifer Brown (Palgrave, 2013)  Professor Segol has published articles on medieval cosmopolitanism, medieval and early modern kabbalah, history of medicine, magic and astrology, American kabbalah, New Age religion, and contemporary self-help literature. Recent awards include the Humanities Institute Fellowship, and a Research Grant from the Gender Institute at the University at Buffalo. Her forthcoming book, Kabbalah and Sex Magic: A Mythical-Ritual Genealogy discusses the history of the components that make up contemporary sex magic ritual as they appear in Jewish esoteric texts. 

 

Rabbi Jonathan Seidel was born in Newark, New Jersey, descended from a rabbinic lineage of scholars in the Ukraine. He grew up as a cultural New Yorker and actively observant Zionist within a Jewishly engaged family involved in Temple Emmanuel in Westfield, New Jersey. There his rabbinic teachers were Rabbis Charles Kroloff and Leonard Thal. His spiritual journey was radically altered after meeting Rabbis Shlomo Carlebach and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Later, it was Reb Zalman who first encouraged his entry into the ALEPH ordination program. Rabbi Jonathan studied at Oberlin College, the Jewish Theological Seminary (MA 1981), and was a Fulbright-Hayes scholar at Cambridge University. He received his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, in Near Eastern Studies (1996). He has taught Judaic Studies and Religion at Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, University of Arizona, Portland State University, Northwest Christian College, Oregon State University, University of Oregon and most recently Lane Community College. He was ordained in 2004 by ALEPH, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, after many years of serving the Jewish community in the West.Rabbi Jonathan has served as a spiritual leader and Cantor for a number of Jewish communities in California and Arizona. He has an extensive background in and commitment to Interfatith and Intercultural activism, Jewish music (as Chazzan for many years), Social Justice work, Jewish education and environmental activism. Rabbi Jonathan has worked, along with many Renewal colleagues, to bridge the gap between historical academic research into Jewish ritual and prayer and contemporary practice that combines the contemplative and the ecstatic. He is the Visiting Rabbi of The Aquarian Minyan and Rosh haYeshiva of the Aquarian Minyan Yeshiva. 

Saturn in Aquarius and Celestial Notes for This Week

This week: At 15 minutes before midnight Eastern Time on Sunday March 22, Saturn entered Aquarius, and will spend the majority of the rest of 2020 playing zig zag, running between the final degrees of Capricorn and the first degrees of Aquarius, before settling in for the long haul of about the next 2 ½ years of Saturn in Aquarius, beginning in December 2020. 

This is the first time Saturn has been in Aquarius since the last time, the last time being February 1991 through the beginning of 1994, more or less, considering the retrogrades at both the beginning and the end of that period. But this Saturn in Aquarius differs in that it contains the conjunction of Saturn to Jupiter, the Great Conjunction, in the sign of Aquarius for the first time since 1405. This happens in December of this year, and the entire year is a lead-up to this celestial portent which signals the paradigm shift, change of world leaders, systems, and the end of the old cycle, beginning of the new. We’re in labor folks, and we’re dilated to 10 and we’re pushing! We’re pushing!

Also Sunday Mercury, back in Pisces but finally going in the right direction, that is to say moving forward, makes a sextile to Uranus in Taurus, which is going to make vague information (that’s Mercury in Pisces) more embodied (that’s Taurus) and solid, maybe in a surprising way or from someone “different” or unique, or perhaps it’s the information itself which comes as a surprise. Venus in Gemini sextiles Neptune and with the Moon in Pisces conjunct Neptune, I’d worry about too much data overload confusing everything, and the inability of those at the highest levels to see the forest for the trees. 

Monday March 23^rd, Mars in Capricorn conjuncts Pluto. Friends I’m going to try to spin this as positively as I can, but I just can’t sugar coat it, much as I’d like to! Mars in Capricorn is big business, Pluto in Capricorn is big power and big money. The conjunction of these two may trigger outrage and then maybe some outright rage later in the evening when the Moon leaves passive, too easily victimized by external circumstances Pisces and goes roaring into Mars-ruled Aries. 

The astronomical New Moon in Aries Tuesday morning makes a conjunction to the asteroid Chiron, the Wounded Healer. You know what I’d love to hear when that happens? “Hello, we’ve discovered a cure for the Corona Virus!” I hope and pray that’s the call. However because of the Mars/Pluto machinations of the previous day, what I’m the most worried about is Wednesday’s conjunction of the Sun in Aries to Chiron in Aries. With the Cardinal Fire sign of Aries, which remember is the Tribe of Yehuda so just think Yehuda energy but basically unrectified because this is the world we’re living in – The Sun illuminates the pain of this whole world, which is Chiron in Aries. Chiron is “the wounded healer,” this asteriod’s legend and archetype is this: a centaur who lived on Mt. Olympus as tutor to the children of the gods, Chiron was wise, kind, and beneficent to all – maybe a little bit too much so, for because he took pity on the human race and taught them the secret of fire, Zeus, the king of the gods, punished his centaur / tutor by giving him a wound which would never heal. The only relief Chiron could get for his wound was to heal others who were also wounded. So we have Chiron in Aries, the sign of blood, the sign of fire, the sign ruled by Mars, conjunct the Sun. I’d like to hope this means the healing ultraviolet rays of the Sun illuminate the consciousness of all of mankind and remove the primal woundedness from each person through self-awareness. OR it could be a violent (that’s Aries) manifestation of woundedness (people rioting via Zoom?) because the government is dragging their feet around sending relief and dealing with this thing? 

Rosh Chodesh Nissan comes on Thursday and the Moon enters Venus-ruled Taurus. Now things start to get real. We’ve moved out of Solar Pisces and even now out of Chodesh Adar into Chodesh Nissan – the month G*d willing of REDEMPTION, for the Jewish People and the Human Race, may it be so! 

The Moon in earthy Taurus squares practical Saturn in Capricorn on Thursday, prompting investment into solid and concrete value – stocking up on canned goods? Toilet paper? Buying stock in Weight Watchers because you know from all this stress-eating their stock is going to go sky high in the summer? The Moon in Taurus also makes a conjunction to Neptune Thursday evening, and a sextile to Pluto Friday morning. The rich get richer and the poor get angry. Revelations of powerful elites receiving favorable treatments and financial outcomes may stress the general public to the breaking point. That’s on a national level. On a personal level: Emotions are going to ping-pong all over the place, from hopelessness to empowerment, from fear to desperation to climbing the ladder of faith all over again. That’s a description of the New Normal but it’s also Thursday and Friday by the stars. 

Saturday which is the 3^rd of Nissan is Shabbat Parshat Vayikra, Venus in her home sign of Taurus trines Jupiter in Capricorn, and later trines Pluto in Capricorn as well. If you listen to Venus in Taurus what she’s saying is this: take a bath. Eat some chocolate. Make love. Jupiter and Pluto are only too happy to oblige, empower, and facilitate her requests. I suggest you cooperate as well. We are all going to need the most de-stressing of activities to counteract all the stresses going on all around us as the days turn into weeks of social isolation.

The Vernal Equinox: Forecasting The Year of the Jupiter-Saturn Great Conjunction

The Vernal Equinox, or "The Revolution of the World-Year" (tekufat ha-olam) as our great commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra & the medieval Jewish astrologers referred to it, occured in Washington, DC Thursday March 19 at 11:50pm, and Jerusalem Friday March 20 at 5:48am.

The horoscope for the Vernal Equinox (by location) determines the forecast for the year ahead. But this Vernal Equinox is different - because it occurs in a year during which there will be the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (which occurs in December 2020).

The three Jupiter-Saturn conjunction cycles of 20, 240, and 960 years which take place within elemental triplicities (fire, air, earth, water) were viewed as portents of political and social change, the emergence of a new dynasty, nation, or a great prophet. This “Great Conjunction” was the focus of Jewish messianic speculation from the earliest contacts with its origins in Third Century Sassanian Persia through Abu Ma’ashar, the medieval commentators such as Abraham Bar Hiyya, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and others.

Ibn Ezra taught (in his "Eight Macro-Astrological Rules" laid out in the various versions of his Sefer haOlam) that casting the horoscope for the tekufat ha-olam during the year which contains the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction forecasts these world affairs, political and social change, etc.

The upcoming Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in December occurs in Aquarius, for the first time since 1405.

Aquarius is the sign of the Jewish people.

Saturn is the planet known to "rule" the Jewish People (Saturn is "Shabbtai" - a variant of Shabbat).

Pictured here are the horoscopes for both Jerusalem and Washington, DC for the Vernal Equinox 2020.

DAYS ARE COMING. They're coming - and they're already here.

The Saturn - Pluto Conjuction: Destruction of the Old, Making Way for the New

#Saturn / #Pluto conjunction (exact today after a tortuously long build-up) at 22 degrees of Capricorn. Destruction (Pluto) of systems, structures and constrictions (Saturn) which previously seemed useful but are now exposed as impeding progress and prosperity.

Decay/Death (Pluto) of structures and systems (Saturn) to make way for the new. Separation of the essential / useful from that which no longer serves. End of the cycle which began in 1982/83 - death of the last remnants of the NeoCons, for one thing (though their death-throes be nasty with long-lasting effects; they're still dying). Collective and personal grief and loss over the destruction of the status-quo; breakdown and failure of social and economic systems consolidating power and wealth in the hands of the few. 

They that are not busy being born are busy dying (Dylan, more or less). That's the theme of this transit.



The Saturn-Pluto opposition September 2001 brought us 9/11. There Saturn in Gemini (information, communications, immediate environment i.e. "our neighborhood") was opposed by Pluto in Sagittarius (religion, "foreign" people, places and things). We all know what happened.

At the conjunction of Saturn/Pluto in Capricorn we've seen the US and Iran at the brink of war last week. Iranian students are being seen refusing to trample US and Israeli flags after discovering their leaders lied about shooting down the Ukrainian passenger plane last week.

It's interesting to note than in his Sefer HaOlam, Ibn Ezra gives the zodiac signs and planets associated with certain cities and countries. He states that Bagdad (the capital of Persia during his lifetime as well as during other periods of Persian history) was associated with 21 Cancer: exactly opposite today's Saturn/Pluto conjunction. 

It's also interesting to note that in the natal chart for the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Saturn/Pluto conjunction is exactly opposite the current Iranian government's natal Vertex. I call the Vertex "the rabbit hole" because in my experience as an astrologer it's the point where, like Alice in Wonderland following the White Rabbit, one unconsciously follows patterns which lead to repeating the same mistake over and over again until the lesson is finally learned. How many times must one fall down the rabbit hole until one learns not to follow that White Rabbit? 

The Vertex has to do with unchosen but seemingly "fated" encounters, those that seem compelled. In the Islamic Republic of Iran's natal chart, the Vertex at 23 Cancer in the 8th House (values/valuables/resources & intimacies we share with others) opposite Saturn/Pluto seems to be saying: Wait a minute! Was that really a White Rabbit I saw running past me, and do I really have to follow him down the rabbit hole again?

The consequences and long term effects of this conjunction will unfold this year as Jupiter and Pluto make three conjunctions in Capricorn, enlarging (Jupiter) the Pluto effect: death/destruction in order to create transformative change. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes of his own self-immolation, Pluto (modern planetary ruler of Scorpio)  doesn't do things halfway. There is no half-death and partial transformation: it's all or nothing now. Leading up to December 2020's Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at Zero degrees Aquarius (classically ruled by Saturn; modern ruler Uranus), by the time we get to the end of 2020 we'll be looking at ourselves and our world in the mirror and asking: Who is this? What are we becoming? Let us hope the angels of our better/best selves collectively agree we're getting better, not worse, as a human race.