Blog

The Runes were the letters with which the ancient Norse wrote until approximately 1000 A.D., and they can be seen carved on Runestones across Scandinavia to this day. They also had oracular, mythological or psychological import. The chief Norse god, Odin, was said to have been voluntarily wounded with a spear and hung for nine nights on the nine worlds of Norse cosmology's axle-tree, Yggdrasil, in order to obtain knowledge of the Runes' meanings and magical uses--a kind of Norse shamanic initiation.

Many historians, mythologists, occultists and modern pagans have studied the Runes. One good place to start reading about them is Freya Aswynn's book Leaves of Yggdrasil, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN 1994. The following interpretations were researched and elaborated by Jodie and Steven Forrest. They are not the definitions of a Norse scholar, nor a modern day godhi or gytha (Norse priest or priestess) but those of a novelist and an astrologer. As in Jodie's Nordic-Celtic historical fantasy novels , which feature the Runes, some poetic license has been taken! Still, we think you'll find them interesting.

Read more

First, a review of the full Moon: Remember that the Moon rules the ocean's tides, and that water is a primordial symbol of feeling. Everyone's emotional "tides" are running higher (or lower) during a full Moon. This effect is more emphasized if you have a Cancer Sun, Moon or Ascendant, or a full or new Moon natally, or the Moon in an angular house natally. Try to give everyone a bit more compassion and understanding, and remember that they (and you) are more subjective under the full Moon. 

If the transiting full Moon falls within about 4 degrees of a conjunction OR an opposition to one of your natal planets, then how you express that planet *vis-a-vis other people* is lunarized for the two lunar months before and after that full Moon. The month before the full Moon is probably felt more strongly, and the month after involves more reflection and processing.

Read more

by Jodie Forrest

Four planets are retrograde all month (August 2009):  Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The Earth temporarily overtakes them in its orbit, so they temporarily appear to be going backwards in the zodiac. As above, so below--retrogradations of the outer planets are times when their energy goes "widdershins," or backwards. I like the fanciful term "widdershins" more; it implies there is a purpose to this energy doubling back upon itself, a method in this reversal of motion. What's ruled by a retrograde planet is commonly supposed to go haywire during its retrogradation. I suspect that's more likely to happen if we either don't pay conscious and reflective attention to the affairs of that planet, or if we try to push its affairs forward too fast without such reflection.

Read more

by Jodie Forrest
Copyright 2000. This article first appeared in The Mountain Astrologer magazine. Reprinted with permission.

Wouldn't it be grand to be able to use our Mars function as easily as we can learn to understand it? At first glance, Mars, the warrior planet, seems to rule some pretty basic, organic and instinctual material. Fight or flight. Assertion and aggression. Boundaries and self-defense. Courage. Initiative. Drive. The ability to act. Knowing what we want, and doing what we have to do to get it.

Read more