When things get really crazy, there are steps you can take to outmaneuver the storm...

...Or, What Else To Do When The Sky Is Falling...

By John  Townley, Summer Solstice 2010

When the sky is choc-a-bloc with change, and not of the easy kind, it starts you thinking of just how much use astrology really is in actually protecting yourself. Sure, you know it’s going to be a hurricane coming down, so how does just knowing that help you survive the storm? Our previous article on this subject had a few excellent tips, but here are some more arrows of self-protection and even self-advancement for your quiver that are strictly astrological.

The bottom line is this: You can’t change what’s going on outside (or above), but if you know what’s coming and when, you can dodge the bullets, the falling buildings (and general life edifices) and give yourself the room to dart through the openings of opportunity that appear in the ongoing flux. Previously, we enumerated some of these:

1) Avoid daily entanglements when afflicting planets/patterns are on the angles locally. No point in walking into a bad electional event when you can elect to sidestep it.

2) Be at the right places for your lunar and especially solar returns. Even a short trip from where you normally are, especially due east or west, can make all the difference between a month (lunar) or year (solar) of confrontations and a time when they are put into the background and the better aspects are emphasized.

3) Emphasize the best areas in your chart, the ones that are undergoing good transits (there are always some) and be prepared to deal with or even write off the areas where the difficult ones lie, a matter of priorities of attention and shifting your emphasis.

But, there are some other important options we forgot to mention, other tools for the artful dodger of astrological mayhem:

A) One of them is to find and go to the right locality, a relocation (if necessary) away from your place of birth to spots on the planet that put your stronger natal planets on the angles and, hopefully, tuck the current transiting difficulties into the corners. Not just for your solar return, but for as long as it takes. That’s easy to do if you have an astrocartography map of your chart, showing lines where your natal planets would be angular – many astrological programs have that feature. But, if you don’t have one, an interesting and illuminating (in other ways as well) way to search for places is to do a Birthday Report (solar return) not for this year but for the year of your birth. That way, the location feature of this program picks out cities that would be advantageous to spend your life in, not just the coming year. In fact, it turns the whole solar return report into a life report. If in the text you mentally replace the phrase “this year” every time it appears with “this lifetime” you get an astonishing take on things. And, the first three months of the transits/progressions section at the end describe your evolving life experience, with each day after the birthday “solar return” being a year after your birth. Clever, and it reopens your head to the scaled, wheels-within-wheels nature of both astrology and life in general.

B) Another gambit, perhaps more controversial, is to beware of problem people, as many come bearing the very afflictions of the skies you’re looking to avoid. Someone whose chart is currently covered with the ongoing transits will, without meaning to, bring them more closely into your life. That sounds terribly selfish, and it is – nevertheless be aware. That doesn’t mean desert your mother, your spouse, and your best friend if they are having bad transits, but be aware of possibly dodgy situations and the people involved. I once got hired at a slick, new disco magazine that seemed like a well-funded high-roller (every writer had a personal IBM ball typewriter, which had just come out, expensive high tech!). Yet, when I did the charts of all the staff, their planets were hugely focused around Leo, which Saturn was just about to enter.  Duly warned, I wisely kept my foot in my previous job, and when the magazine mysteriously failed only months later, I still had work…

C) Finally, watch for anomalies, those moments of intensity that catch you unawares, like full and new Moons (and, of course, the more intense versions, eclipses). If they are on one of your degrees, that could really rock your world, or certainly mark the month’s turnaround, so duly arrange coping space for the unexpected. And that also applies to those around you, who may suddenly flip out for perfectly good reasons that you should have known about already.

Of course,  all that may still not keep you totally out of the difficulties exploding all around you, so finally...

  When the waves roll high, it's not planning that counts, it's instincts, so follow them to fair weather past the storm...

...even if you can’t help getting caught in the crossfire – which will be likely if the troublesome planets are hitting you directly and will also bring you into the company of others experiencing the same (the very ones you might have looked to avoid if you weren’t already in the middle of it) – just remember that this, too, will pass.  No matter what happens, keep your eye on the sea ahead, even if you think your ship is foundering, because that is where salvation lies. Find where the good planets are and ride them over the wave, around the rocks, and into the calm after the storm. Times like these are the tests not of your previous planning (which gets totally shot down), but of your own inner resources and innate flexibility to change course on a dime and instinctively adapt with calm, while others around you are losing their heads. That is the true art of being an artful dodger…  

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