astrology study group ~ gemini

The more I learn here, the more I realise I have to learn

I have wedge in my natal chart between Mercury (ruler of Gemini), Sun (both 12th House and Pisces) Pluto (8th House and Scorpio) and Uranus (6th House and Gemini)

According to Forsyth, wedges are a pattern with extreme focus and intensity. I guess one would need to look at the planets, the houses and the nature of the aspects to work out what this actually means . I have a sense that it means a real preoccupation with spiritual or psychic change.

I think I came to this life needing to learn a whole range of lessons very quickly. They say the Soul choses its challenges in life. I have just recently been doing some work around North Node awareness, and this wedge makes sense in that context.

I also have Mercury in the 12th sextile Neptune in the 10th. This is related to the expression of spiritual values and beliefs, I understand, and it makes sense now in terms of some of the writing I'm trying to do. The writing brings feelings and experiences to the surface in a very curious way. It is as if I am discovering another person deep within.

I must say to Minderwiz, Isthmus and other members of this study group, what an interesting and profound learning experience it is! By going through the chart so systematically and gently one learns an incredible amount and still has the impression that the door is just beginning to open.

One word that keeps repeating itself is *awareness*. Astrology and Tarot are both tools of awareness in different ways. If I had not encountered both last year I would have misssed out on so much.

When I studied philosophy at uni, I was most struck by Socrates who said words to the effect that a wise man is one who knows his own ignorance and started all discussions from the basis of his own lack of knowedge.

This is a forum (and indeed site as a whole) where can try and work our way towards a better understanding of who we are and where we fit into the cosmos. As I read more Astrology I realise how small my knowledge base is - but the joy of expanding it and learning from others (as I do regularly on this site) is a great reward. Incidently one measure of my ignorance is that I have up to now associated wedges with potatoes - so I must find out more about Forsyth's theory.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Tarot and Astrology.

purplefishy... you're welcome! Our society can be tough on water/feeling heavy charts (esp in males). We seem to hold the erroneous belief that feeling based cognition is somehow 'irrational' or 'illogical', when this quality is equally shared by air/thinking types

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A big, fat WORD to this! My chart is extremely heavy on the water signs as i've mentioned before. Oddly, I have virgo in Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (all retrograde), which would seem like the opposite sign to a Pisces. Lots of oppositions there.
While we are on the subject of Mercury, if it is stationary retrograde in Pisces, does it make it different than if it is direct?

Moongold,

A quick look at your chart shows Sun, Mercury and Jupiter in the twelfth, nothing in the eleventh (ignoring the nodes) then, what I take to be the wedge, Neptune in 10th, Mars in 9th and Saturn and Pluto in 8th. a continuous run of planets in houses, the 7th is free then there is Uranus in the sixth. You have Venus in the first contiguous with the 12th planets - that leaves the Moon on its own in the third (a mini wedge?)

I am guessing, but help me out, that Forsyth is going to argue the 8th, 9th and 10th have a particular signficance for you. The wedge is bounded by Neptune - dreams, hopes, need to merge with the eternal, and Pluto - hidden depths and fundamental transformation and contains Saturn, fears, structures, boudaries and Mars drive and assertion. The eight to tenth run includes the hidden, the occult and the esoteric, learning and self development and your social status and place in society. - Seems to resonate with what you were saying in your post.

Minderwiz said:

. Incidently one measure of my ignorance is that I have up to now associated wedges with potatoes - so I must find out more about Forsyth's theory.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Tarot and Astrology.

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I used to as well! I have Winstar Express which identifies aspect patterns in a chart as one of the program features. The information about the wedge came from there. Seeing to expand my awareness beyond potatoes I went to Forsyth's "Soul centred astrology" for a definition of "wedge" as an aspect pattern.

She defines "wedge" as a pattern in which all the Planets are grouped within approximately four Signs, a distance of about 120 degrees. ......The wedge is a pattern of extreme focus and intensity. If you have this pattern you'll be happiest when you're choosing a few goals and concentrating all the force of your personality on them....."

Going from there I looked at the planets in the wedge or "bundle", how they aspect to one another and tried to make sense of it. The five in this particular wedge are Sun, Mercury, Saturn, Pluto and Uranus. I'm just beginning to think about this, Minderwiz and let my immediate response out first because they are often the most reliable. I'm discovering that thinking too much often stifles understanding for me particularly. I'm experimenting with allowing intuitive responses to bubble up first. I can't see you later analysis from here and need to go back and have a thoughtful look at it.

Thanks for the time you took to look at it. I think I'm going to have to buy another book on aspect patterns . They hold a lot of interest for me.

'Wedges' may be new but bundles I have heard of LOL

As you say it is all planets in the space of a trine. However in your case I'd say that you are more a 'bucket' - nine of the planets within 180 degrees - Pluto in Leo to Moon in Pisces (OK its just over 180 degrees) - with the tenth in the middle of the opposite hemisphere. In your case Uranus in Gemini. Again its not exact but its not far off.

The bucket 'handle' in this case Uranus becomes a focal planet and the house that it is in also becomes focal. In your case this is the sixth house of service. This will be one of the main ways in which you express your energies - service to others but via unusual and unconventional ways, or through the means of modern technologies or Astrology. With Uranus in Gemini this may well involve communication technolgies - computers and the internet.

Uranus is also in opposition to your eleventh House Sun and Mercury. The opposition of Sun and Uranus will probably be especially important in the way that you do channel your energies.

How you harmonise your creative expression and need for friendship and association, with the need to serve in an unorthodox fashion may well play a large role in your life.

Thanks Minderwiz...

Sun and Mercury are in the 12th house. Your observations about the Sun - Uranus opposition are congruent with my own awareness that creativity for me is truly bound up in service of some kind. This activity opens up the channels so that energy flows.

I'm glad we sorted it out about wedges and buckets, but it's still hard to get away from the potato metaphor. You get potato wedges in buckets A new spiritual food? Undoubtedly suitable for someone like me of Irish Catholic descent......

Moongold said:

Thanks Minderwiz...

I'm glad we sorted it out about wedges and buckets, but it's still hard to get away from the potato metaphor. You get potato wedges in buckets A new spiritual food? Undoubtedly suitable for someone like me of Irish Catholic descent......

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Great!!!! I must admit that the image of the potato wedge remained with me for the rest of the night. However I do seem to have invented a new type of aspect pattern in my sort of pie shaped wedge of planets in contiguous houses forming the wedge or slice bounded by 'empty' houses. It must be my background in statistics and teaching people about pie charts.

Now I wonder if I could publish my new theory.....................

purplefishy, I believe retrograde planets do make a difference, however I'm not sure what the difference is lol! Perhaps it means the energy will not express itself 'directly', it is more latent, or not as immediate as other energies in the chart?

All this talk of food is going to make me hungry! Moongold, I find your planets are spread out relatively evenly around the chart (although elementally, you're very firey!). How many planets are required for a wedge?

The difference between Direct and Retrograde motion is often linked to Direct motion being associated with outward manifestations and Retrograde motion being more associated with inward manifestations.

I'm sure its something of an arbitrary boundary because often what happens outside us produces an internalised reaction and changes internally may manifest in differences in the way we relate to the outsided world.

I think we need to remember that Retrogression is not random - the outer planet, Mars through to Pluto are all retrograde for a period leading up to and just after their opposition to the Sun - Roughly from quincunx to quincunx via the opposition. The opposition has the symbolic meaning of these planets opposing the creativity and vitality that the Sun brings. For the inferior planets, Mercury and Venus Retrogression occurs when they are conjunct the Earth and between the Earth and the Sun. In this position the Sun blots them from the sky, we do not see them and their influence is in a sense overwhelmed.

The other thing to remember is that Retrogression is part of a cycle - one of the rhythms of the universe - in away its almost like watching the universe breathe.