Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

A friend's husband got laid off right after she resigned from her job. I've already worked through her charts with her, but I'm working up her husband as well.

V.K. Male
Feb 27, 1980
1:40 am
Chennai, India (formerly known as Madras, India, which Solar Fire prefers)

Last SSR: Houston
Current Residence: Houston

i don't see anything in his progressions. I don't know how to do directions yet. I don't see much in his SSR. I'm looking at his one-degree, hard transits for the upcoming year.

I'm betting that angular tNeptune is already in effect, and it looks like he may be feeling it most of the year.He's got a tSaturn square rNeptune coming partile in March, and a tSaturn opp rSaturn coming partile in April. And the tUranus opp rUranus in April-May looms large.

But all that stuff seems like it's too far off to have affected his layoff, and he had worked there for 21 years.

Does anyone see anything that I'm missing? Am I limiting myself to one-degree transits too much?

Also, that tSaturn square rSaturn comes back for the finale in Oct-Dec. I'm unsure what to tell them about this. I'm scared that it reads as, "He's going to be unemployed for about a year," and I don't want to say it. Any interpretive correction/advise?

Thank you.

Birth time? - And when was the event?

(I can't look until I get home, but might as well get the pieces together.)

Sorry.

His birth time was 1:40am.

Working on the event date.

He was laid off January 27th at approx 10am.

I at first wondered that maybe a young man who has worked half his life at a place, and was laid off (not fired, so he gets compensation and a potential to be reinstated) might look upon this event in a different light then other people, especially his spouse. He might be in a different state of mind about this separation from service then we might think. With the Uranus opposite Uranus, he will be moving toward change and new things, so he might be initially shocked, but not so much as to stop this inner need for change.
I see Transiting Mars and Venus aspecting his natal on the day of separation from service aspecting his natal planets as well, which may internalize as passionate feelings coming at him ...as well as in his Solar arc chart, his Pluto Venus aspect aspecting his Sun.
I would think possibly that this did not come out of the blue and that he may have been aware that his company was needing a change. I think that it is very possible this event has a more negative manifestation in his spouses chart, that it possibly took her by total surprise and was not something considered in her economic choices recently made.
I did not relocate the charts to Houston, nor did I look at his last year's SSR or the LR right before the event. He has a new SSR in a few weeks that could be relocated to put beneficial planets on angles and give a beneficial tone to his LRs for the year. I have not explored that avenue as I am unsure if the charts should be relocated from his original natal in India, or from his already relocated Houston?

Lance wrote
"I'm scared that it reads as, "He's going to be unemployed for about a year," and I don't want to say it. Any interpretive correction/advise?"

Just off the cuff I wanted to mention that this sentence seems to speak about your personal synastry with her...you are saying that you are scared..which inclines me to think Neptune Mars and Mercury are being aspected in your chart.
Why would you feel scared Lance? With your phrase "I don't want to say it" it seems Saturn is in play restricting you as well.

The universe is providing an opportunity, giving the time to focus on other aspects of his being that have not had the chance to unfurl and develop, this is an opportune time for deep introspection about how he has been meeting his needs, and possibly not meeting inner needs/denying needs, and to examine behaviors that have worked successfully for him in the past, behaviors that have not worked successfully in the past and to let the unsuccessful choices/behaviors go so that he can focus on meeting the totality of his characters needs with a clear heart and mind.

Lance wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 3:22 pm He was laid off January 27th at approx 10am.

V.K. has a natal chart that is marked by both strong, vibrant indications of success in his ambitions and also a significant chance of downfalls and self-defeat, all wrapped up in a tendency to have (i.e., to need and thus to have) powerful interruptions or disruptions in his life. All of this is from Sun opposite a Mars-Jupiter conjunction; Saturn and Neptune in 1° mundane square right on his angles,; and a close Moon-Pluto square.

He has a strange mix of solar arc directions. (They're not bad at all.) The most important is surely d Moon op r Sun 0°03', which, at the very least, suggests this is a pivotal time in his life, a real turning point. Relationships (or, where one gets attention) are often a big part of such progressions and it's never a bad aspect unless something else makes it bad (e.g., afflictions to it). This is the closest and most significant but not at all the only one: He has one of the most powerful sets of direction of his entire life right now, all pre-programmed in his natal.

Specifically, at birth his Sun-Mars-Jupiter is (mostly) octile his Moon-Venus-Pluto. At age 45 - with his progressed Sun having moved 44°37' since his birth (and taken all the other planets with it by solar arc direction), the two parts of this six-planet configuration fell atop each other. Here is the lineup (given in two parts, but they tightly connect to each other):

9°57' Tau - d Venus
10°39' Leo - r Jupiter
10°41' Leo - r Mars
11°38' Sco - d Pluto
12°56' Aqu - r Sun
12°59' Leo - d Moon

25°11' Vir - d Jupiter
25°18' Vir - d Mars
25°19' Pis - r Venus
27°00' Vir - r Pluto
27°33' Pis - d Sun
28°22' Gem - r Moon

It's tempting to try to break this apart but, ultimately, all of these aspects aren't separable. Besides the 3' Moon-Sun (and 49' Sun-Moon) there are two-'way Venus-Jupiter, two-way Venus-Mars, and one each of Pluto-Mars, Pluto-Jupiter, Pluto-Sun, and Pluto-Moon.

If you'd given this to me blind, I'd have said, "Oh, that's easy, he just met the love of his life and they're aff-over-teakettle all over each other, and he's about ready, perhaps in half a year, to entirely reinvent his life" (d Pluto op r Sun, applying 33'). The directions are full of passion, vitality, and readiness for reinvention with (yes) some immediate interruption.

Taking only the very closest, those which are ripening exactly now and at the same time as each other, we might get a handle on the immediate event. Ignoring the octiles, we have:

d Mars op r Venus -0°01'
d Moon op r Sun +0°03'
d Jupiter op r Venus -0°08'

The Mars-Venus and Moon-Sun directions have orbs that average to essentially zero (actually, 0°01'). They are exact together. One of the remarkable things about solar arcs is that, since all planets and points advance at exactly the same rate, the distances between things in the solar arcs is always the same as the longitude differences in the natal. ("Equal gaps" are preserved.) This is always the key to interpreting large groups of concurrent solar arcs: When two directions hit at the same time, they are ALWAYS - never an exception! - showing a natal midpoint structure that is getting unlocked. In this case, natal Mars and Moon were both advanced 44°37' and fell - almost to the minute of arc - into precise opposition to natal Venus and Sun, respectively. Without even looking, we know that his natal chart has the Sun/Mars midpoint exactly on the Moon/Venus midpoint. (Wow, double masculine = double feminine.) Checking, we see in his natal:

11°44' Tau - Sun/Jupiter
11°48' Tau - Sun/Mars
11°51' Tau - Moon/Venus
11°42' Leo - Moon/Pluto

This pattern has existed in his natal chart from his first breath waiting to be activated exactly now. It's meaning will be some blend of female essence, nurture, love instinct (Mo/Ve) with male essence, heroic ideal, identity linked to power (Su/Ma). It isn't negative at all - and surely has something to do with instincts, sexuality, masculine identity, and the like. A new romance is the easiest to see in this, but it could be other things - but ultimately connected to the idea of "being an amazing husband" (or something like that).

This core idea is supplemented by royal, blessed, identity linked to aspiration and recognition (Su/Ju) and anomalous instincts, emotional eruption, purging automatic patterns (Mo/Pl).

I don't know what these exact events are, but this does single out the present time in his life as extraordinarily important, something he will look back on as a turning point - and, other than the sense of disruption or interruption, there isn't a single intrinsically bad thing in the mix.

That's the big picture - the macro-view - of his life. Time to zero in a bit.

Let's check his secondary progressions. These are complicated. For example, he has a long-term (years or decades long) progressed Saturn opposite natal Mercury (currently 0°05') which - over time more than just right now - gives him hurdles to overcome and skills to develop. But there are also a lot of quite important mid-range progressions within a degree:

1°06' Sco - r Uranus
1°35' Leo - p Mars

12°56' Aqu - r Sun
13°11' Tau - p Venus

27°00' Vir - r Pluto
27°32' Pis - p Sun
28°22' Gem - r Moon

Those with luminaries are most important, basically defining the life stage. Progressions (being natural developments of something innate in the person) often show as "this is the lesson or skill or mind-shift I have to master right now." Two things jump out at me from these progressions, one being that two of them (Ma-Ur, Su-Pl) are quite disruptive, showing (things like) a need to break free of others' control and act entirely in terms of his own impulses. The other two (Ve-Su and Su-Mo) - one that has been going on for a year or so and has climaxed, the other that is just beginning its two-year run - deal with intimate relationship more than anything else.

I don't know what these mean within this particular man's life as it's currently constituted. Most often, these last two aspects suggest the time when a young man finds profound love and gets married. (But you said he is married, so I don't jump to conclusions on what it actually means.) If these two are connected to the first two progressions (Ma-Ur, Su-Pl), besides a "sexual adventuring" spirit they basically means he will ignore outside input and rely entirely on his own inner necessity in making decisions about such things.

These messages have some things in common and some things quite different from the solar arcs. They may not apply to the immediate events at all.

But... with this setup... what I most wanted to tell you about the progressions is that progressed Moon is ready to set off terribly important planets. If the only question were success in his ambitions, the progressions show some excellent opportunities for that in the next few weeks. For the time he was laid off, we find:

9°49' Aqu - p Moon
10°33' Leo - r Jupiter
10°41' Leo - r Mars
12°56' Aqu - r Sun
13°11' Tau - p Venus

Progressed Moon will exactly reach his Mars-Jupiter mid-February (with a one-month orb either way). This can be quite excellent for his ambitions - it can show exceptionally well. Then, on April 14, progressed Moon exactly conjoins his natal Sun (replicating the solar arc Moon exactly opposite natal Sun) while progressed Venus is still within half a degree. I'm not sure which set of events will come to a peak about then: I think it depends on what is most important to him, where he is ready to put all his life-energy into the idea of a new cycle lasting at least 7 years and perhaps 27. It could mean a significant breakthrough in his career or, in the alternative, a significant event in his romantic-married life. In any case, it likely will be an expression of whatever is most fundamental and important to him.

Which brings us up to his transits.

There are no long-term transit factors going on - nothing from the five outer planets. (It was the day of a 0°00' Saturn-Pluto sesqui-square in space but, so far, this doesn't seem to touch anything in his chart.) What does show is transiting Mars' square natal Pluto (having spent a few days conjoining his Moon). This is at least abrupt, disturbing, perhaps shocking. Most often, though, Mars transits to Pluto are connected to some sort of blame or "getting caught." It may not have been literally that, but does usually show events that result from cumulative stress, things building up that finally hit a critical mark; and, coming right after Mars to his Moon, might have had some blame attached.

(This is actually transiting Mars square the opposition of progressed Sun and natal Pluto, all within a few minutes.)

That's not a judgment on your friend. We've all been in those places where circumstances (connected to us or not) build to a head and, suddenly, we're standing in the spot the hammer will fall. You didn't say why he was let go. It does seem to be described by transiting Mars square natal Pluto. (He may have felt some sense of personal betrayal since transiting Venus also exactly squared his Neptune-Ascendant.)

There's not much else to go on for the transits, which seem to mark the "breaking point" that a strong Mars transit usually triggers in a crisis. While looking at the transits, I see he is a month before his next solar return and that the event occurred about a day before his demi-lunar - so, obviously, we'll check those.

Ignoring Eris, his current SSR has transiting Moon and natal Moon, Venus, and Pluto angular - none of them super-close, and natal Pluto the closest. Its mostly neutral-to-positive unless the foreground natal Moon-Venus-Pluto is stirring some interruption in an important emotional relationship.

I'm not sure the solar has much to say about this event. Its progressions don't bring anything (like Moon aspects etc.) to maturity.

His January 13 SLR has several strong angularities both positive and negative. It tends to show the world being much kinder to him than he is to the world or himself. In fact, it's intensely positive except for something he does that sabotages or undercuts that. (Look at the 0°00' square between natal Sun and Neptune that only exists in this return, plus the super-strong natal Saturn-Neptune in contrast to transiting Venus-Jupiter.) There are multiple kinds of Saturn-Neptune.

t Neptune Z -2°14'
t Saturn MC -8°38'
t Venus MC -2°36'
t Jupiter EP-a -0°05'
------------------------
r Saturn N +0°15'
r Neptune Dsc +1°07'
r Sun MC +1°07'
r Mars IC +1°49'
r Jupiter IC +3°24'

r Sun-Neptune sq 0°00'
r Mars-Jupiter co 0°08'
r Sun-Mars op 0°42' M
r Mars-Neptune sq 0°42' M
r Jupiter-Neptune sq 2°17' M
t Venus-Jupiter sq 0°59'
t Neptune op r Saturn 1°14' M
r Sun-Jupiter op 2°23'
r Saturn-Neptune sq 2°26'
t Venus co r Sun 3°03'

I don't know what all this means. I've laid out the balances above. There is something incredibly generous, beneficial, and kind about this - and yet it also shows (three different ways) everything Saturn-Neptune can show, including themes like termination or removal, remorse, regret, perhaps as strong as humiliation. I'd have to call it positive on balance but with a lot of sour things in it.


His demi-lunar occurred early the next morning. I'd expect he would have been feeling it at the time he was let go but it may not have referred to the event itself. It certainly would have been felt the next day. It's an especially strong Uranus chart. It expect it to be a particular strong, positive-leaning chart.

r Sun IC -6°55'
r Mars MC -6°08'
r Jupiter MC -4°58'
r Uranus Asc -1°52'
------------------------
t Uranus Dsc +1°07'

r Mars-Jupiter co 0°08'
r Sun-Mars op 0°47' M
r Sun-Jupiter op 1°57' M
t Uranus op r Uranus 2°56'

Looking forward... we already saw a lot in his lunar progressions. But he also has a new solar return in less than a month.

If he stays in Houston for his birthday, it's not exactly kind, though it does repeat the horny indications of everything else we've seen.

r Pluto MC -7°33'
r Moon WP -1°58'
-----------------------
r Venus IC +1°30'
t Mars WP-a +0°53'

t Mars co r Moon 0°34' M
r Moon-Pluto sq 1°22'
r Venus-Pluto op 1°41'

I don't like the Mars transit to natal Moon being so close to the angle. I also note that the natal Moon-Venus-Pluto is near the angles, with the same meaning as all the other times I've mentioned it. Also, by the time of the SSR Neptune will be in partile opposition to his MC. - That's the most worrisome since, if given full leash, it could mean two years of going nowhere in a bad way.

But... those upcoming Moon progressions really are quite excellent. I think I'd focus on those for now. If he's going to turn this around in the near future, they're the best indicator. Solar Moon doesn't have any progressed aspects coming up.

If he's willing to relocate for his SSR, the first priority is getting that Mars conjunct natal Moon (partile mundo) off the angles. You also want to avoid the Mercury-Saturn conjunction atop his natal Mercury-Neptune. I don't know how far he could travel (especially since they surely have financial limitations right now), but transiting Jupiter is on Descendant through Los Angeles and then on a curve cutting through mid-Nevada and on northeast. In fact, he gets and exact Venus-Jupiter convergence in an obscure spot in northeast Montana (somewhere near Malta, MT, just to put a pin in it, though I haven't calculated exactly). A Venus line cuts through New Orleans. I haven't worked up any of these in detail but, if he's up for a trip, we surely can find a spot that maximizes advantage for the year.

Jim Eshelman wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 7:23 pm If he's willing to relocate for his SSR, the first priority is getting that Mars conjunct natal Moon (partile mundo) off the angles. You also want to avoid the Mercury-Saturn conjunction atop his natal Mercury-Neptune. I don't know how far he could travel (especially since they surely have financial limitations right now), but transiting Jupiter is on Descendant through Los Angeles and then on a curve cutting through mid-Nevada and on northeast. In fact, he gets and exact Venus-Jupiter convergence in an obscure spot in northeast Montana (somewhere near Malta, MT, just to put a pin in it, though I haven't calculated exactly). A Venus line cuts through New Orleans. I haven't worked up any of these in detail but, if he's up for a trip, we surely can find a spot that maximizes advantage for the year.

Taking at least a basic first look:

Los Angeles has Jupiter 0°32' from Descendant, Neptune 2°51' from IC, natal Saturn MC 0°10', with various good and bad aspects. I wouldn't recommend that natal Saturn so close to MC (which means it keeps transiting Neptune opposite natal Saturn foreground). Strike LA.

Malta, Montana is damn close to the right spot. Venus is 0°15' off IC, Jupiter 0°03' off Descendant, and they have a 0°17' mundane square. (We could refine this to an exact place with all these orbs at or near 0°00', I imagine.)

New Orleans isn't an exact spot, but it's more easily reachable from Houston. (It could be refined.) Transiting Venus is half a degree from Nadir, natal Moon and Pluto are 1° and 2° off angles, respectively, and the only foreground aspect is natal Moon-Pluto. I'd prefer the Venus-Jupiter simplicity of Montana (even though it's not a place I'm not eager to go myself), but near New Orleans at least makes the chart benefic-biased. You probably can't get Venus closer without taking a swamp cruise, the exact spot being on the southern edge of Lake Bargne in the Biloxi State Wildlife Management Area, perhaps at St. Malo (just to have a concrete place):

r Pluto MC -1°24'
-----------------------------------------------
t Venus N +0°01'
r Moon WP-a +0°53'

Wow. Thank you for all your effort. This is helpful.

BTW, Lance, the way to do solar arc directions most easily in Solar Fire (I think you have it) is:

• Select the natal chart.
• Click Dynamic > Animate Biwheel. [This shows transits around the natal.]
• Click the Charts button and, for the outer wheel, select Solar Arc Directions.
• Progressed/directed Sun moves about 1°/year, which means everything moves 0°05'/month.

If you click from Wheel to Dial - putting it on a 90° - you can see the 90°-multiple aspects instantly and, across the wheel (opposite them), see the octiles. I created a custom 90° dial that also shows the longitudes, which makes my life much easier - I can post this for download if anyone actually wants it.

For example, here are your friend's solar arcs for the termination date. See how the 90° aspects are instantly obvious and you can also see how the two groups relate to each other.

Yes, thank you.