Hey Headcase...sounds like you didn't get the info you were looking for...so maybe it's time for me to sound like a crazy-woman! ha.

I have a little time right now, so let me attempt to describe what I believe is going on here.

Basically - all this physical world is just an illusion - well, I mean it's 'real' because it's our reality and it appears to be solid (knocking on the substances around me) but everything physical is a just a SYMBOL for the true energy behind it. Everything around us is a symbol (and you have to remember that I'm a fire sign with lots of fire - but lots of water too! - and fire signs tend to beleive that there is MEANING everywhere) for what is actually going on.

You and your physical self are symbolic of the energies that have gone into making YOU up! You can see the state of the energy behind you (and others) by looking at their bodies, eyes, body language etc...That seems plain enough eh?

Each of our physical 'houses' or homes are a good representation of our Selves as well...we,as individuals and we, as a communication and we as a city and we as a Country...and we as a planet....are co-creators...creating our environment around ourselves all the time. We have agreed that red is red and a chair is a chair and basically we're in a kind of hypnotic state - all of us together - agreeing what the world looks like and how it works, what makes sense etc...

Hey, have you read The Holographic Universe yet? You gotta read it - it has some great experiments in it...

One that springs to mind is a very interesting case where, at a University, a prof put his helper into a hypnotic state...and then the helper put the prof into a hypnotic state (both at the same time) and then they both saw the exact same world together! It wasn't an Earth-world - it was different, more sparkly and less solid....but they experienced the same place (on a beach) and it was really like they were there together - apparently it was such a freaky experiment that one of them never wanted to be hypnotized again. Hmmm....So there you have a little co-creatorship happening...

So...how does this relate to Astrology? Well - you admit that it is pretty damn freaky that, well, Venus, Mars, Jupiter etc were all named by scientists (not astrologers!) after mythical gods/goddesses and 'lo and behold....the 'energy' of the planet takes on the energy of the Name/myth it was given...And, the later planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) were all discovered WAY after people really believed in astrology and white rationalist scientists named them and 'lo it happens again that in birthcharts the myths behind these names are totally accurate!

The interesting thing, too, is that the TIMES in which these planets were discovered also have the energy of the myth/planet that is discovered. Like..Pluto in 1930 - Pluto is the god of the underworld - darkness - power - and that was when the Atom bomb was made (the ultimate Pluto symbol - explosive, destructive, transformative, powerful....for good or bad).

So....it seems to me that this is actually proof that we create our world - we put our stamp on it - or it's probably co-creative - that the 'plutonic', say, energy is out there and in it goes into that rationalist astronomers head and out it goes into the world to be stamped on the planet and voila! We've got a reflection of ourselves and what is going on in the world - I cannot imagine looking at a chart without Pluto in it now, ya know? But before 1930 Pluto didn't 'exist' - and it probably didn't! Energetically. Think of how much we have Transformed since 1930...things change...and we seem to get more planets too!(which bugs scientists and people that don't want the world to change!) Pluto is a 'higher vibration' of Mars too (the outer planets are 'higher vibrations' of some of the personal planets: Venus/Neptune, Mars/Pluto and Mercury/Uranus) - which is interesting because it shows that our consciousness is evolving!

Astrology is just one little 'blueprint' that reflects ourselves back to us. There are other 'blueprints' as well - on smaller scales...the hand (palmistry), the ear (the Chinese - and they've had thousands of years to develop their medicine, energy-qi ideas, meridians which run on energy - not physical connections - through the body) - the chinese believe there is a 'man in the ear' (you can see him curled around in the shape of your ear) and that parts of your ear energetically represent parts of your body - just like the feet/reflexology.

So, we have macro/micro blueprints that represent us all around us....so we can actually SEE ourselves - if we don't see ourselves we won't get anywhere. Self-awareness, all that...

In the Holographic Universe I remember a story about a small-town American housewife who kept dreaming (?) of this symbol - she told her therapist that it looked like an upside down sailboat and she drew it for him. Turns out it was an exact replica of a Hindu symbol (for one of the chakras I think) - well this woman didn't have any contact with this culture AT ALL...but this dreaming of the ancient symbol seems to be saying that whatever we THINK and whatever we BELIEVE and CREATE EXISTS!! Oh yessirree - energy doesn't die - our thoughts and creations exist out there.....

So...those many Hindu's believing and creating that symbol made it actually exist enough for this woman to tap into it and receive it...hmmm...

Don't know if I'm explaining this at all well!

But the bottom line is....once you start seriously studying astrology and hundreds of charts you see that yes, indeedy, the planets truly do have the energies of the myth that some astronomer gave them (the implications are quite mind-boggling don't you think?)..what's cool is when you can guess what someone is (not in terms of he's a Sagittarius - but in terms of He is very Plutonic - either has lots of Scorpio, a strong Pluto or a heavily-populated 8th house)...and then you know without a shadow of a doubt that you're in there able to translate the energies - and that our world is an amazing place (much more fascinating that I ever thought it was!) when you can 'feel' stuff like that...

I'm reading this book right now 'The Long Walk' about this man (true) that spent a year tortured in Russian prisons, then 2 months hell travel to a Labour camp in Siberia - then time at hard labour in Syberia - then escape....walked for months and months through icy Siberia, across Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert!!! (ugh, tragedy) and then across the Himilayas!! Jesus. Anyway it's a fantastic book and a White World-Bridger will probably like it!

Anyway, I just got this strong Pluto feeling from him as I read the book (he talked about Surviving a lot and Pluto is THE Survival planet)...and I looked him up and sure enough he has Pluto right beside his Mars!! I should have known it was something like that because people with just lots of Scorpio will not have the actual DRIVE (like Mars does - to spend all ones energy and action towards) to Survive like he did...

Anyway, Headcase, hope you enjoyed my ramblings a bit (very Mercury and Neptune conjunct in Scorpio?? heh heh)....

Looking forward to hearing from you!

love Tracey