Why I ended up teaching

To work astrological houses out, one needs a person’s time and place of birth so that the Sun Ascendant’s sign and its degree can be calculated (a complicated process but I have a programme that does that) and it’s from that sign’s degree that each house starts. My Sun Ascendant is 3 degrees Sagittarius, so my first House starts at 3 degrees Sagittarius and 30 degrees from there, at 3 degrees Capricorn, my 2^nd House begins and ends at 3 degrees Pisces and so on. It’s appropriate that my 2^nd house is mostly in Capricorn because Capricorn, according to Nicholas Campion “is the ideal industrialist or merchant,” Capricorns feel a need to make money and the 2^nd House is the section referring to a person’s basic security, earned income, possessions and also self-worth.  Mind you it’s not from my earnings but that of my parents’ that I have a roof over my head! I’ve barely managed to pay my way.

The 5^th House as already explained in Part Three is the House of creativity so when a planet passes through it (in my case from 3 degrees Aries to 3 degrees Taurus) the characteristic of that planet affects “one’s creative self-expression” and, as my astrology teacher, Robert Taylor, explained it, this covers artistic creations and talents, children, love affairs (I’ll give that a miss I’m in a relationship), games, amusements, hobbies, speculation, recreation and pleasure.  So Uranus will be giving things in that house a bit of a shake up – being the planet of change to get people out of a rut so they fulfil their roles in life. In my case, as the shake-ups concern the affairs of the 5^th House of creativity perhaps Uranus will make me use my creative and artistic talents. Uranus takes about 8 years to pass through Houses, its transit started for me in May 2011 and ends May 2019.  Already there have been changes, for example regarding children, I was asked by the village council if I wanted to teach English 3 times a week in the local schools for an hour after school finished, the children’s ages ranged from 3 to 9 years. A new law, here in France, says the council have to look after the children who can’t be collected at 4pm, and the village mayors thought it a good idea that the children should be taught something useful while waiting to be collected at 5pm (the former finishing time for schools). I kept up teaching for a full school year and two school terms more – the latter terms were only two hours a week in the same school, teaching English and art. I finished this Easter as it became too much for me!

Regarding the artistic side of creativity: since painting a mural voluntarily for the council in 2009, I have been commissioned five times to paint animals on milk churns – besides other artwork. In September 2015, my first article in Starts at Sixty was published, 3 more followed. I’m intrigued to know what more is to happen before 2018.

Now to Saturn, the planet of discipline and restriction! It stops people from running before they can walk by putting blocks across their path or causing delays to stop them moving forward too quickly. It’s going through my 1^st House (from Feb. 2015 until Oct. 2018) and the 1^st House is to do with personality. My Sun Ascendant gives me my personality and that’s Sagittarian, Nicholas Campion says that the great strength of Sagittarians lies in their optimism and enthusiasm. Perhaps Saturn’s rays are going to make me a bit more restrained.

Now to the other slow-moving planet: Neptune. It is transiting my 4^th House of home, family, domestic issues, property, racial traditions, psychological roots (early subconscious conditioning).  It entered in 2012 and leaves in 2026. Neptune is the planet of transformation, it brings about gradual change, like the sea wearing away the coastal landscape. Neptune influences us through our subconscious and through dreams. Neptune gets us to purify our emotions; it instils idealism, divine love, sacrifice. So Neptune is working on my attitudes regarding the affairs of the 4^th House, probably to be less materialistic and more sacrificial.

I’ve mentioned the 1^st, 4^th and 5^th Houses. Here are the others that get affected by planets transiting (travelling through) them. The 3^rd House concerns what a person thinks and how they communicate, also siblings, neighbours, short journeys. 6^th House concerns work, health and service, pets and small animals. 7^th House: marriage and close relationships. 8^th House: it’s the House of transformation, regarding death, sex, rebirth, occult, legacies other people’s money, business.  9^th House: sense of purpose or direction, the search for new horizons (which may be mental), long distance travel, residence in foreign countries, beliefs. 10^th House: career, public status. 11^th House: social contacts, acquaintances, general hopes and wishes. 12^th House: the House of drawn shades: secrecy, unconscious need for privacy, seclusion, sacrificial service and can mean confinement in prisons, asylums and hospitals.

There is much more to working out forecasts and it takes years to learn, (I’m always discovering something new) but at least now, having read the basics of astrology, you too can start to learn more if you’re interested.

Read Parts one, two and three here.

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