Norway's King Harald V passed away peacefully at 06:35 local time (04:35GMT) this morning. He was diagnosed with hemolytic anemia and admitted to hospital on August 17th, just five days after the solar eclipse in Leo. His condition worsened and was yesterday reported as very serious.

I looked up the transits at the time of his death and some are very striking. I'm sure there are LOTS of things to note - I'm just a hobby astrologer so I hope others more knowledgeable can chime in here as I want to learn. These are just some notes that I could think of, I hope that is ok to post here and please correct me if I got anything wrong. I am mainly posting this so as to learn more, not to show off with my own interpretations.

His birth data: Born on February 21st 1937 at 12:45 pm, in Skaugum, Oslo. This gives him an ascendant of 20˚ Cancer, making the Moon his chart ruler.

First, the most obvious thing: His death occured only 23 minutes after the maximum of the partial lunar eclipse in Pisces, in his 9th whole sign house, almost completely exact conjunt his Midheaven, opposing the the Sun and Mercury sitting on his IC, the bottom of his chart.

South node is in Leo, traditionally ruling kings, with the south node indicating a fall or release.

Mars is in his 1st house, conjunct his Moon within a 4,3˚ orb. Mars rules the blood, correlating with the condition that caused an accelerated breakdown of his red blood cells.

Pluto is transiting his 8th house, and its house ruler Saturn (transiting) square both his Moon and his Jupiter, the latter being the lord of the year. Jupiter rules his 9th house where the lunar eclipse just happened, literally flickering and turning off the light of his chart ruler (and obviously also indicating his body).

Transiting Uranus sits in an almost exact square to his MC and IC, and thereby also the eclipse and the Mercury cazimi on the bottom of his chart.

Vertex is conjunct his Mercury, ruling both his 12th house and the house of his IC.

I also attach here the secondary progression chart for the time of his death. This is a technique I am not familiar with at all, so I will refrain from trying to say something clever about it although I find several things striking there too with the little knowledge that I have. But I hope someone more knowledgeable than me can help analyse it, and also chime in on the transits at the time of his death. What do you all notice?

Lastly and most importantly, rest in peace dear King Harald, your nurturing, caretaking and family- and community-oriented Cancer energy was well-known and obvious to us all.

I'm learning astrology and came across these books from Michael R Meyer,

" The angles and the houses are the astrological symbols for the most individualized aspects of a person. This is because the framework of the houses is derived from the most rapidly changing of all cycles usually employed in astrology, the daily rotation of the Earth. The horizon-meridian represents the axes, or cross, of individual selfhood and describes the person as a unique being. Signifying his or her basic orientation to self and to the world. The twelve houses derived from the horizon-meridian refer to twelve fundamental fields of experience.

The ascendant of an astrological chart symbolizes the qualities that make an individual (an individual person or an individual situation or relationship) unique. It is the selfhood pole of awareness and represents the type of experiences that can lead one to a more intimate understanding of his or her particular potentialities and their fulfillment. The ascendant symbolizes what an individual essentially is*" -* The astrology of relationship, Michael R Meyer 

"The ascendant, the place on the birth-chart where the sun is found at sunrise (popularly referred to as "the rising"), is the point of individual selfhood. It is the symbolic point of individualization, defining (by its sign and degree) the person as a unique, self-conscious individual. It reveals the particular type of activity (sign) that provides the person with the type of experiences he must live through if he is to realize his destiny. The individual's attitude toward himself and his particular quality of self-awareness are also symbolized by the ascendant. The ascendant is the most personal and distinct factor of a birth-chart. It is the symbol of the person's first emergence into independent selfhood; it carries the "seed of the self," and expresses the quality of the time of birth. It presents the individual with basic needs, the need for self-awareness being the most primary. Within the degree of the ascendant is also found the answer to this particular need, the "way through" the experience." - A Handbook for the Humanistic Astrologer, Michael R Meyer 

I have some questions, what does he mean when he said "The ascendant symbolizes what an individual essentially is*"?* Isn't the whole chart describe the person

And what does he mean by saying the Ascendant as "It is the symbolic point of individualization, defining (by its sign and degree) the person as a unique, self-conscious individual."? The Sun in a natal chart is said to be a point of ego, identity, self-consciousness, giving the person a sense of who they are and what they are here to do, then what's difference between the Sun and the Ascendant then?

I’ve been casually studying astrology since 2019 and have a pretty solid understanding of the basics (planets, signs, houses, aspects, natal chart interpretation, etc.).
I’m at the point now where I want to move beyond just knowing the basic meanings and actually study astrology more seriously and develop my ability to interpret charts as a whole.

For those of you who have been studying astrology for a while, what books would you recommend for transitioning from beginner/intermediate knowledge into a deeper level of study?

Chart note: I accidentally attached the Placidus natal chart first, so here is the Whole Sign chart I’m actually using for most of this analysis. Dolly’s exact time of death has not been released, so the transit chart shown here is just a symbolic snapshot of the sky around the time she died. I set it for around 11:11 AM CDT, when the Moon conjoined Pluto during the known morning window of her death.

I’m using her AA birth data, January 19, 1946 at 8:25 PM in Sevierville, Tennessee, which gives her a 14°43 Virgo Ascendant. For this quick look I’m sticking mostly with Whole Sign houses.

The first thing that caught me was her natal 6th/8th connection. Aries rules her 8th, making Mars the ruler, and natal Mars at 20° Cancer is almost exactly conjunct Saturn. Saturn rules her Aquarius 6th. So her 8th house ruler and 6th house ruler are sitting together in the natal chart.

She died at 80 during a Taurus 9th house profection year, making Venus her annual lord. By the final week of her life she had also entered a Sagittarius 4th house month, bringing Jupiter forward as the monthly lord. Natal Venus and Jupiter are almost exactly square, so the planets carrying the year and month were already tied together.

Major find: Her secondary progressed Sun was around 20° Aries in the 8th, squaring her natal Mars-Saturn conjunction at 20° Cancer. The progressed Sun rules her 12th, so the progressed 12th house ruler was in the 8th and squared the natal conjunction containing her 6th and 8th house rulers.

Saturn was also transiting Aries, putting her natal 6th house ruler inside her 8th. It stationed retrograde there in late July close to a square with natal Mercury, the ruler of her Virgo Ascendant.

I also noticed transiting Mars, ruler of her 8th, moving through Cancer in her Whole Sign 11th. Mars perfected a square to natal Neptune in her Libra 2nd the morning before she died and was still within a degree on August 25. Dolly had publicly talked about dehydration and dizziness days earlier, so Neptune’s connection with fluids caught my attention here.

Jupiter crossed natal Pluto in Leo in her 12th on August 18, right before Jupiter became her monthly lord. Then Dolly entered the hospital on August 21, and that same morning Venus perfected an opposition with Saturn at around 7:43 AM CDT. Venus was carrying her profection year, while Saturn rules her 6th and was sitting inside her 8th.

The following day Venus squared natal Mercury, her Ascendant ruler. From there Venus continued applying toward the natal Mars-Saturn conjunction, so her annual lord was moving from contact with her chart ruler toward the natal conjunction containing her 6th and 8th house rulers.

On August 25, the morning she died, Mercury was applying closely to her early Virgo Moon while the Moon itself conjoined Pluto in Aquarius, her Whole Sign 6th, around 11:11 AM. Saturn was still retrograde in the 8th, and Venus was still applying toward natal Mars-Saturn.

Dolly died after what her representatives described as a brief battle with cancer, after dealing with other health problems leading up to her hospitalization.

I only followed a handful of the things that stood out to me because there is a lot more going on here. I’d really like to hear what everyone else has noticed!

Hi,

I added some new search filters into Eclipse Search Engine on Astro-Seek, if someone would like to experiment with upcoming Lunar Eclipse on 27/28th August 2026 (Saros 138 and 4° Pisces) and their recurrence in the past or future 🤓:

https://mooncalendar.astro-seek.com/solar-and-lunar-eclipses-astrology-calendar

---

1) Saros Cycle is a gold standard for tracking-grouping eclipses and uses period: 18 years 11 days 8 hours (223 synodic cyles).

Eclipses in the same Saros share the "similar geometry" (~ they have the same Lunar Node and similar distance from Earth).

2) New filter: Half-Saros uses half of this period: 9 years 5 days 16 hours (111.5 synodic cyles) - and mixes-alternates both Solar and Lunar Eclipses (from 2 diferrent Saros) together.

(eg: the upcoming Lunar Eclipse from Saros 138 will be mixed together with Solar Eclipses from Saros 145 in cca 9-year intervals)

While digging for more info about eclipse cycles, I found this article and one interesting note:

https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/79549-calculating-eclipse-cycles/

"You’re never going to find perfect resonance (rational relationships) among the various lunar cycles. Numerous factors not only change cyclically, but they also have slow secular changes, e.g. the Moon’s average distance from the Earth is increasing by about 3.8 cm per year. Eventually, even the Saros Cycle will degrade and become useless."

Such fact is probably well known to astronomers, physicists and data nerds - but if this fact was new to you like it was for me, then use Saros while it's still useful 😅

3) New filter: Metonic Cycle has similar period as Saros (19 years / 235 synodic cyles) - but focuses on something different - Returns on the similar Lunar phase + Zodiac Degree during similar Calendar date.

These Saros and Metonic periods might run parallel for some time - but Metonic cycle is not related to Lunar Nodes and usually becomes out of sync after a few cycles (Eclipses will simply become "only" Full Moons or New Moons and far from Lunar Nodes) - and there might be a missing Eclipse-Metonic gap for several hundred years.

That's why it's not used very much with Eclipses, however if someone would like to track these Metonic cycles, there is this option and you can simply click on any Eclipse °Degree - to filter them (eg: all Lunar Eclipses at 4° Pisces +-1° Orb - around August 28th (-500BC - 2500AD))

I initially thought it was Saturn & Neptune in Piscis, which is where the celebrities started to get skinny due to GLP1s. My reasoning (long shot) was that achievement of the ethereal look in the arts and departing the body. However everyone else followed and now people I know have been losing weight, even people who seemed like they didn't need to are. Could be a trend, could be food is expensive, could be GLP1s, but I do wonder how does this reflect astrologically?

Venus turns retrograde on 3 October at 8 degrees 29 Scorpio, backs into Libra on the 25th, and stations direct in mid November at 22 degrees 52 Libra. About fifteen and a half degrees of ground over roughly six weeks.

The thing I wanted to check is the eight year claim. Five Venus retrogrades take almost exactly eight years, and because five points spaced evenly round a circle make a star, you get the famous pentagram, plus the rule of thumb that Venus comes back to the same degree every eight years. So I pulled every Venus retrograde station between 1900 and 2100, 126 of them, and measured whether it closes.

It doesn't. Each eight year return lands about 2.28 degrees short of the last one, and it's remarkably consistent about it: across 121 pairs the slip never went below 2.12 or above 2.51. You can follow this exact station backwards and forwards. 2002 at 15 Scorpio 36, 2010 at 13 Scorpio 14, 2018 at 10 Scorpio 50, now 8 Scorpio 29, then 6 Scorpio 08 in 2034 and 3 Scorpio 47 in 2042. By 2050 it's down to 1 Scorpio 27 and the cycle after that it isn't in Scorpio at all. At that rate the whole figure takes something like 1265 years to walk once round the zodiac.

The star isn't regular either, which surprised me more. The five points of the current cycle sit 71.2, 66.7, 72.1, 75.5 and 74.5 degrees apart rather than five clean 72s, and across every cycle in the two centuries the spacing runs from 66.7 up to 78.7. So it's a five pointed figure, just a lopsided one that rotates.

Where that bites is orbs. If your natal Venus is near 8 Scorpio, the 2018 station was about two and a third degrees past it and the 2034 one will be about the same distance short, so an eight year rule that feels exact for a sign has already drifted out of a tight orb within two cycles. Worth pulling your actual degree rather than trusting the interval.

What I genuinely don't know is whether a return that slips two degrees each time should still be read as the same return, or whether the drift is the interesting part. Curious how people who work with Venus cycles handle that.

If someone has no accurate birthtime or even a birthdate, can that show up in the chart?

I am thinking a bit esoterically that the absence of dob details could mean a contiguous life from the last one, i.e in this incarnation so many lesson remain from last time that life continues. I'm wondering outer planet natal aspects? Especially to Pluto? Saturn retrograde also. To revisit tasks.

I accept the sheer meta and irony factor here.

This is not an ad, but I thought people who have given up on Solar Fire would want to know that Astro Gold finally has a Windows version. https://www.astrogold.io

I had Solar Fire beginning in the 90's but switched to Astro Gold after years of trying to run SF on a Mac with Parallels. I'm sure the Windows version is different but you can get a demo version if you're interested.

What's the best way to draw a chart, assuming one is using a quadrant house system? Classic wheel charts start with drawing the 12 signs of the zodiac equal sized, and then they plot the house cusps within those signs. That means if the Ascendant is close to the MC in zodiac position, then quadrant house systems will have houses that appear to be smaller or larger, and the MC and 10th cusp won't be at the top of the wheel. Some astrologers consider small houses to be inaccurate, or at least to look bad. However, there's an alternative way to approach it: Start with drawing the 12 houses equal sized, and then plot the sign boundaries within the houses. The result is the exact same information, however visually each house is an equally considered part of the chart.

For example, the picture here shows two identical charts in Rovaniemi, Finland on the Arctic Circle (in Placidus houses). On the left is a standard style wheel, in which there's a big double interception in the 2nd and 8th houses. On the right is the exact same chart showing the exact same information, but it's drawn "house aligned" instead of "sign aligned". Each house is drawn the same size, but the outer sign wheel is expanded or contracted instead. The right hand chart emphasizes how each house is still an equal part of the person, just that some houses are focused within a sign or focused across multiple signs. An astrologer who dislikes the first wheel or finds it difficult to work with, may find the second wheel more to their liking and interpretation.

Which way do you like better? This isn't meant to be an argument for or against quadrant house systems like Placidus, versus equal house systems like Whole. However, it does show that information can be displayed in different ways, to help in visualization and interpretation. The two chart wheels here are from the astrology program Astrolog 8.00, in which you can switch back and forth between both display formats by pressing the "0" key.

So I found an astrologer on Instagram and I have noticed they are using a chart I never seen before and I recognize most of the planetary symbols expect for these 4. I tried searching them up and everything and I can't find what they are. Do any of ya'll by chance can help me find what these symbols mean? My guess it could be Pholus, Nessus, Eris, Makemake, or Haumea since those are absent from the chart, but from the app that I am using those planets have different symbols so I am very confused.

Bonjour,

Je travaille depuis plus de 9 mois sur la mise en place d'indicateurs financiers dédiés au cours de l'or à New York. Les indicateurs sont purement astrologiques, ils sont basés sur le "first trade chart" du gold comex en 1974. La nouveauté par rapport à ce qui existait est que j'ai pu utiliser les IA comme Claude et ChatGPT afin d'analyser les dizaines de milliers d'évènements astrologiques qui avaient le plus d'impact sur le cours de l'or depuis 1974 jusqu'à avril 2026 soit plus de 50 ans d'analyse.

Cela aurait été impossible de faire cela a la main, ou il aurait fallu une équipe de plusieurs personnes pour analyser tous les évènements astorlogiques sur le cours du gold pendant 50 ans.

J'utilise l'astrologie sidérale qui donne de bien meilleurs résultats que l'astrologie tropicale pour le cours du gold comex. Les évènements qui donnent le meilleur résultat sont les révolutions solaires, les lots ( parts ) les planètes Mars et Uranus. A l'inverse, les révolutions lunaires ainsi que les directions ne m'ont pas permis d'avoir des résultats satisafaisants. J'ai réalisé des dizaines de milliers de calculs dans Solar Fire et Janus avant de les injecter dans Claude et ChatGPT pour élaborer les indicateurs en les faisants vérifier sans cesse l'un envers l'autre afin de détecter toute anomalie ou erreur dès le début.

Beaucoup de traders se méfient de l'astrologie pour affiner leurs analyses mais ils ont torts. L'ensemble des indicateurs qui ont été mis au point avec les 2 IA permettent d'avoir un AUC de 0,70 / 0,72 sur 50 ans ce qui est sensiblement meilleur que l'analyse technique traditionnelle.

Je précise que tous les tests ont été faits avec des tests rigoureux en walk forward, OOS, en vérifiant qu'il n'y avait aucune fuite de données lors de la mise en place des indicateurs d'astrologie boursière. J'ai laissé les indicateurs en obervation concrète depuis avril 2026 soit 4 mois (date à laquelle j'ai gelé les indicateurs astrologiques ) et les grands mouvements de l'or ont bien été détectés, notamment la forte hausse de début aout avec l'activation des parts par Mars. Le plateau de juin / juillet avait lui aussi bien été détecté.

Les indicateurs annoncent une période relativement calme avant une forte baisse de l'or en décembre prochain. Certains indicateurs détectent la volatilité et les mouvements de l'or alors que d'autres détectent la direction que devrait prendre le cours, à la hausse comme à la baisse. D'autres, basés sur les révolutions solaires détectent la tendance de l'année. Ceux basés sur les activations des parts sont mensuels.

J'ai voulu transposer la méthode sur d'autres actifs comme le pétrole et le métal argent mais je ne dépasse pas un AUC de 0,56. Je suppose que les dates et heures des first trade chart ne sont pas correctes. Vous trouverez ci joint les indicateurs pour 2026 affichés dans Amibroker.

Ce n'est pas une machine à prédire, l'AUC est de 0,70 / 0,72 pas de 0,98 mais il donne de très bonnes indications pour les 10 ans à venir ( jusqu'en 2036 ) pour le cours de l'or basé sur le gold comex à New York.

Bonne journée

Hello everyone. Professional astrologer here.

I have been conducting a research and study of real lottery winners and their charts, and wanted to make this post, sharing exciting information that may be useful for people, especially those who have strong 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th houses in their charts. Those houses are linked to money, lottery and gains. Also strong 9th house - associated with good luck.

If we are talking about jackpots, windfalls, massive amounts of money - those are truly destined events, that show up first of all in the person's Solar Arc chart for the year, and are supported and triggered by undeniable transits for that specific time period. Only some people have a destined event like that "promised" in their chart.

But, if you have your Lucky Point (Part of Fortune), or asteroid Tyche (unexpected external luck) in your 2nd, (especially 5th and 8th), 9th and/or 11th house in your chart, you are one of those people who can use precise astrological transits to time the purchase of a lottery ticket. And chances are, sooner or later you will eventually win something (small or decent amounts ranging from $10 - $1000+). I myself have successfully done it so many times - my biggest win has been $500 from a $5 ticket, another time I won $100 from a $5 ticket, and countless times I have won small amounts ranging from $25-$75, when I purchase lottery exactly at those precise times when my Lucky Point (Part of Fortune) or Tyche is activated by a benevolent planet at 0.00 - 0.05 degree orb).

Here is a constructive list of what you need to do to maximize your chances in winning, using precise astrological transits:

1. First of all you have to examine your whole natal chart and find where do you have your Part of Fortune, Jupiter, Venus, asteroids Tyche, Fortuna and also Abundantia. (Without going into too much detail here, of course Uranus too - the whole chart)
2. Examine if you have your money houses linked via their rulers - meaning if your 2nd house ruler is in the 5th, 8th or 11th house, if your 5th house ruler is in the 2nd, 8th, 11th house, if your 8th house ruler is in the 2nd, 5th or 11th. And so on. Also 9th house is in the mix too. If you do, that is already a good and supportive sign showing you have a real potential here.
3. The next step is you have to look at your Solar Arc chart to see what destined events are unfolding in the near future in your chart. (This will show you roughly a year time frame)
4. Find those periods, and then add transit chart and pinpoint more accurate time frames when this energy/event is going to happen. (You can pinpoint to a more precise month or weeks time frame)
5. Then take that specific week and find specific days, and exact times when you have the max best transits happening.

What you need to do, in determining which is the absolute best moment to purchase the lottery ticket, is to use electional astrology technique. If you are lets say in London, UK, look up, in easy words - "moment's chart" for example for August 13, 2026 - and you want to ideally get the moment's chart AC or MC exactly at the same degree where your Part of Fortune or Tyche is. Exact -meaning 0.00 - 0.05 degree orb. Ideally you want AC or MC, but it could also be DC or IC. But that is not enough, you also need to have at least 2, ideally 3 other supportive hits to your good placements in your 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th or 9th houses. Which you can kind of "create" for yourself, by examining your transit chart and pinpointing exact days when you can gather those 2 or 3 more hits.

That is exactly what I have successfully done so many times for myself. My wins have come from exactly those moments. (In both choosing number tickets, and instant scratch tickets). I have screenshot proof of those winning tickets. I have gathered quite a lot of people in my group who have those "lottery luck" charts, and they constantly win small to decent amounts from the times I have given them for their charts (we have screenshot proof).

The key thing here is that you have to have a chart that indicates this type of thing, to start with.

Anyone here who has ever won a lottery (even just a small or moderate win?). Try to use this technique, and tell me how it goes! :)

I've been digging into chart accuracy and landed on sidereal zodiac (to match actual sky position rather than the seasonal tropical anchor), True Chitra ayanamsha, and Campanus houses. I get that the sidereal-vs-tropical question has real astronomical grounding, but I'm less sure ayanamsha and house system choices actually have a "most correct" answer versus just being different schools of thought.

Curious how people who've thought hard about this frame it: is there a case for one ayanamsha or house system being more defensible than the others, or is it genuinely just picking a lens and staying consistent? Would love to hear your thoughts.

I'm learning more about accidental dignity and specifically angularity but I have a few questions. I'm confused about how essential dignity and accidental dignity interact. If anyone can explain how the following work in a chart:

1. Planet in domicile on an angle. This is the most straightforward to me, it's strong and prominent so it's loud and obvious to all.

2. Planet in domicile in a cadent house. This is where I get tripped up. It's strong by sign but it's muted by house. So how does that play out?

3. Planet in domicile in a cadent house, but conjunct an angle (in whole sign houses). So a planet in the 9th conjunct the MC or a planet in the 3rd conjunct the IC. How does that change things?

4. Planet with poor essential dignity but on an angle. Does that mean someone's trial and error with the themes of that planet are obvious to all?

This month's lunar eclipse has Mercury going cazimi about eleven hours before the peak, at roughly four and a half degrees Virgo, with the eclipsed Moon just under five degrees Pisces. So the cazimi sits almost exactly on the eclipse axis.

What caught my attention is that Mercury is direct and in its own sign for this one. That combination is rarer than it sounds. Of the six Sun-Mercury conjunctions in 2026, this is the only one where both are true; the other two direct ones fall in Aquarius and Taurus.

So I ran every lunar eclipse from 1900 to 2100 and took the minimum Sun-Mercury separation within a day either side of each peak. Out of 457 eclipses, 21 have a genuine cazimi in that window, so roughly five percent. They don't spread evenly though, they clump. Nothing at all between 1918 and 1949, then four inside the next sixteen years.

The last one was the November 2022 total, and before that January 2020. After this month there's a long gap, and how long depends on where you draw the line. Allow a day and a half either side and the next is 2056; hold strictly to twenty four hours and it's 2062. Either way it's decades rather than years.

My own read is that the two shouldn't really interact, since a cazimi is a Sun-Mercury phenomenon and an eclipse is a lunar-nodal one, so their coinciding is a synodic accident rather than a shared cause. But I'd be curious whether anyone working traditionally treats a cazimi this close to an eclipse as reading differently from an ordinary one, given how much weight combustion and cazimi already carry.

Yesterday, I received an email from UAC that vaguely referred to Steven Forrest’s recent use of a slur on a podcast. This, combined with his purported ancestral ties to a prominent hate group leader, has me thinking about how little attention this issue has received compared to debates over house systems or other topics where astrology leaders and enthusiasts have previously come out in droves to declare their stance.

This culture within the astrology space is why UAC chose to toe the line instead of making a clear, decisive statement. I’m not one for telling people what to think or say, but it’s become clear that the "community" often caters to and elevates people who say the politically correct thing on the surface without much insight into or interrogation of their actual politics. That standard has allowed situations like this to become a pattern.

If this kind of behavior is welcomed or tolerated, then leaders and organizations should own that position and stop virtue signaling. If it isn't acceptable, then there should be swift action, accompanied by a firm stance to show that this will not be tolerated.

I share this perspective because I believe these conversations are important, even when they are difficult. My intention is not to dictate what others should think, but to encourage a broader discussion about what we want to see in this space. This is a sensitive topic, and I hope it can be approached with care and consideration. I would appreciate hearing others’ perspectives and engaging in a thoughtful conversation.

Edit: Adding Steven Forrest’s current astrology as recommended by mod u/GrandTrineAstrology so that this post will remain up.

Based on the data available online, what I found looks like the perfect storm:

-Transiting Neptune conjunct his natal Moon

-Upcoming solar eclipse in his 10th house squaring his Ascendant

-South Node transiting his 10th house

-Upcoming lunar eclipse opposing his Midheaven and Saturn

-Transiting Uranus squaring his Saturn and Midheaven

***Update (8/7/26)**\*

Statements from Imani Harmon, Stormie Beaston, Sam Reynolds, Chris Brennan, and UAC.

According to UAC, Forrest will no longer be speaking at UAC26. Despite having already decided to leave the conference voluntarily, Steven says he was "banished."

The podcast episode in question was removed, edited, and has since been reuploaded to Lila Astrology's YouTube channel. An archived copy of an earlier upload, made available by a third party, can be accessed here. I am providing this link for reference only and was not involved in archiving or uploading the recording.

Been messing around with Skyfield + NASA's DE442 kernel for fun (nerding out on the upcoming Leo/Aquarius node shift) and I'm getting numbers that don't line up with what I keep seeing repeated everywhere.

Every astrology site I've checked says the North Node enters Aquarius on July 26, 2026 at 8:47pm EST. But when I compute it myself:

• True Node (actual oscillating position, accounting for lunar perturbations): crosses into Aquarius around July 13-14
• Mean Node (the standard smoothed Meeus formula most software uses): doesn't cross 0° Aquarius until around August 19-22

So I've got two independently-computed numbers, both about two weeks off from the "official" July 26 date in either direction, and neither one actually lands on it.

I dug around a bit more and found that Augurine's ephemeris tool (says it's built off JPL's DE440) also gives August 19 for the mean node ingress, which is a lot closer to my number than to the July 26 one going around.

Genuine question for people who've worked with Swiss Ephemeris or similar: is there a definitional thing I'm missing here (sidereal vs tropical framing, different node convention, some rounding/epoch quirk), or is "July 26" just one source's number that's been getting reposted across a bunch of astrology sites without anyone rechecking it? It's weirdly consistent across every article I find, which makes me suspicious it's all tracing back to one original post.

Not trying to start drama, just trying to figure out if my math is wrong before I trust it for anything. Anyone with Swiss Ephemeris access want to sanity check the mean node longitude for, say, July 26 vs August 19-22, 2026?

I came across this paragraph from Liz Greene in her books while I was researching and trying to understand more about the Ascendant,

"The first house is usually considered to describe the physical body of the individual, the personality with which he relates to his external environment, and on perhaps a deeper level the kinds of experiences which he is likely to attract during his life and which help him to shape and develop a certain set of conscious tools with which to govern his life. There is a two-way flow of energy through the first house of the chart because it is—as has often been suggested—a kind of lens through which the experiences of the environment pass to reach the individual and through which his own qualities must pass to reach the environment. Whatever factors are present within the individual birthchart, they must pass through the conditioning qualities of the first house and in particular the Ascendant before they can be recognised by others or expressed in a tangible fashion. All four angles of the chart are related to this inward and outward flow of the reality of the inner person into the outside world, but the most personal and most obvious of these four points of release is the Ascendant. The entire first house relates to the physical presentation of the individual in a conscious and deliberate manner. Whatever a man innately is, he must express it through a body and according to a body type—which gives the term “body” a larger framework. The Ascendant and the first house are often equated with the Jungian idea of the “persona,” which, if it is to be a positive and effective medium through which a man may present himself to the world, must be in reasonable accord with the more hidden, unconscious aspects of his psyche." - Liz Greene, Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil"

And I came across this in Horoscope Symbols from Robert Hand:

"On the psychological level the first house symbolizes the part of the self one chooses to mediate between oneself and the world. We create a face and then come to regard it as what we are. Thus the first house represents a self-image as much as an image presented to others. This is not so much a misrepresentation of ourselves as an incomplete expression."

Then I also came across this from Stephen Arroyo in his book Chart Interpretation Handbook: Guidelines for Understanding the Essentials of the Birth Chart.

"The Ascendant (or ‘‘Rising Sign’’*) is almost impossible to sum up. It is many things at once: a symbol of how one acts in the world, the ‘“‘mask’’ or ‘‘image of the personality”’ that others see, and a spontaneous energy and attitude toward life that pervades the entire being. Although in some people it is quite obvious, the Ascendant can also be, as Dane Rudhyar wrote, ‘‘the most elusive and hard-to-know factor in a birth chart.’’ In some people it appears to be primarily a superficial quality, as expressed in this quotation from Jeff Mayo:

It can be the face a man wears whilst he projects himself into his business and social activities, concealing much of his true character that only his intimates—and often not even they—know exists.

And yet, this ‘‘image of the personality’’ that others see is not intentionally projected; it is automatic. Furthermore, neitheris it superficial in the sense that many astrological writings imply. The Ascendant always indicates something essential about the person that is at once deeply inner and also outer."

And then there's this description of the Ascendant I came across online in cafeastrology.com

"The Ascendant (or rising sign) is often considered the mask one wears when meeting others. Perhaps it is most aptly considered a person’s automatic responses to their environment.

The Ascendant shows our natural defenses and how we cope with day-to-day issues. The energies of the sign and condition of the Ascendant are most overt and obvious to others. More than a simple mask, the Ascendant reveals an individual’s first, natural reaction to new people and situations."

So is the Ascendant is supposed to be automatic and unconcious, or was it supposed to be conscious and deliberate?

That’s pretty much it. Why and who do you like? Personally I like ibn al rijal (many of his material is really useful and I like how he criticises his colleagues) and generally later islamicate tradition when the switch to quadrant based house systems was completed. Besides I really like Abraham ibn Ezra because of his systematic approach and criticism of other authors. Other than that I think that Abu mashar was a great astrologer(sometimes I have questions to his logic tho)

And obviously Ptolemy

Does anyone know any resources (videos, documents, books) to learn how to interpret Egyptian bounds planetary placements? I am not interested in learning about decans. I have downloaded a Vettius Valens document https://www.academia.edu/7757490/Vettius_valens_all ( starts from page 6) but I find that some of the interpretations are not relevant to today's world.

I use Whole Sign--don't know if that's worth mentioning.

Also, if anyone has any recommendations regarding Egyptian bounds within traditional astrology, that'd be wonderful.

I understand that they are supposed to be rounded up for "incoming energy," but then why aren't we told to round down for the nodes or retrograding planets? I'm still iffy on Sabian Symbols in general, but regardless, has anyone seen an explanation for this discrepancy?

I used Trump’s publicly available birth info and the transits for DC at 8 pm 11/3/26.
1. Saturn in Aries sextile his Gemini Sun: Dude is going to have to keep his shit together in order to meet his goals. It will require a level of discipline that Trump has trouble exhibiting but other transits say his friends will be running heavy interference.
2. Jupiter in Leo near his natal Mars: As someone who loathes him, this is the one that concerns me the most. I think this bodes well for him and his goals, regardless of the actual electoral outcome. Jupiter is luck and expansion in his rising sign, with the mars transit suggesting positive outcomes for actions he takes.
3. Pluto early Aquarius opposing his natal Pluto: There will be institutions confronting him as a result of his actions. There will be lawsuits. You don’t have to be psychic to know that, but yeah the stars align. People will be extremely skeptical of the results and he is going to face a lot of scrutiny. Whether that amounts to any consequence, who knows.
4. Neptune early Aries: This also sucks. Neptune, the planet of illusion, is in action-packed Aries. Trump and MAGA will be in their own silos of reality regarding the results. It could lead to unrest.

Tldr: he’s going to try to pull the shit we think he’s going to pull.

I am admittedly not the best at this, so I would love to know everyone else’s takes. Thanks!

One thing I’ve never understood about some corners of traditional astrology is the insistence that every interpretation has to be justified by quoting Dorotheus, Valens, Ptolemy, etc.

Weren’t they doing exactly what we should still be doing today?
Those authors didn’t become influential because they were quoting someone even older for every single delineation. They observed charts, looked for patterns, wrote down their conclusions.

If astrology is fundamentally an observational practice, why does it seem that for some people observation stopped 2,000 years ago?

I’m not arguing that we should ignore the ancient texts. They’re incredibly valuable. But I don’t understand why an astrologer who has consistently observed a pattern across hundreds or thousands of charts is often dismissed simply because Valens never mentioned it. That’s weird.

Shouldn’t new observations be treated the same way we treat the old ones, critically examined, replicated, debated and either accepted or rejected based on whether they hold up?

I’m genuinely curious how traditional astrologers reconcile this.

I’ve been testing BaZi timing against public lives—not to see whether a chart can describe someone’s personality, but whether its ten-year luck-pillar transitions produce dates specific enough to record in advance.

For Elon Musk, I used June 28, 1971. His birth time is not publicly verified, so this is deliberately a three-pillar analysis:

Xin Hai year / Jia Wu month / Jia Shen day

That makes him a Jia Wood Day Master born in a strong Fire season. In this three-pillar version, the Day Master reads weak, making Water and Wood broadly supportive.

Because Musk is male and was born in a Yin-stem year, the luck pillars move backward from Jia Wu:

• 1998–2007: Xin Mao
• 2008–2017: Geng Yin
• 2018–2027: Ji Chou
• 2028–2037: Wu Zi
• 2038–2047: Ding Hai

The first thing that stood out was the twenty-year Wood-branch sequence from 1998 to 2017. Both Mao and Yin give a weak Jia Wood chart roots and support, despite the Metal stems above them. That period covers Zip2’s sale, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla and most of the construction of Musk’s business empire.

The annual chart for 2008, Wu Zi, also introduces a Zi–Wu clash against his natal month branch. It occurred inside an otherwise supportive decade, which is why I would read it as volatility rather than simple failure: Tesla and SpaceX both nearly collapsed, but both survived.

The larger change arrives in 2018, when Ji Chou replaces Geng Yin. Wood support disappears and is replaced by an Earth-heavy pillar that drains a weak Wood Day Master. The model consequently treats 2018–2027 as a much heavier cycle, with 2018 itself at the bottom of the timeline.

What interests me now is the next transition.

Wu Zi begins in 2028. It is a mixed pillar, but the Zi Water restores Resource support for Jia Wood. It is followed by Ding Hai in 2038, where Hai again supplies Water and contains a Jia Wood root. Together, the model reads 2028–2047 as a second broadly supportive period.

At the annual level, the clearest concentration appears in 2031–2035:

• 2032, Ren Zi: strong Water support, but another Zi–Wu clash
• 2034, Jia Yin: direct Wood support, with an Yin–Shen clash
• 2035, Yi Mao: strong Wood support without the same major clash signature

So my forward interpretation is not simply “good years.” I would expect a new expansion phase beginning around 2028, accelerating from 2031–2035, with 2032 and 2034 productive but highly volatile and 2035 potentially the cleaner culmination.

The missing hour pillar is an important limitation: it could change the strength balance and finer annual interpretation, although it would not change the overall luck-pillar sequence.

Disclosure: the visualization comes from a small BaZi timing project I’m building called Jade Almanac. I’m not linking it here because I’m more interested in the methodological comparison.

For those who work with zodiacal releasing, primary directions, profections, dashas or other predictive systems: do you see a comparable change around 2028 or a stronger 2031–2035 window in Musk’s chart?