May, 2012

Is Norah fake or real : the truth about the internet rumor:

“It’s a funny feeling having your reality questioned. I can feel myself breathing, I can sip my tea and taste it, brush my hair from my face and feel its texture, but how can I persuade someone who isn’t in the room with me that I am real? Especially given how full of tales the internet is, I suppose I can’t blame them for wondering.” This is what my professional colleague as well as close friend Norah told me when we discussed the latest internet rumors about her. As someone who has shared many a meal
and long conversation with her, I assure you Norah is a real person. I think perhaps the rumors started because of the fact that Norah is a pseudonym chosen to protect the privacy of a woman who does not want public attention.

 Norah is a Real Person

Norah is a real person who started Premium Astrology. She does have a genuine desire to help others through her God-given talents in astrology and clairvoyance, but does not want her husband, her children or grandchildren to have to put up with negative comments from the kind of people who are closeminded about metaphysical subjects. She uses the internet soubriquet of Norah in the same way that both writers and psychics have often chosen professional names to keep two parts of their lives separate. She chose the name Norah because it has belonged to women in her family for generations, including her beloved grandmother who passed many years ago. She feels that by using this name, she draws on something of the strength and wisdom of these ancestors. It also offers her a means of sharing something of her self with her clients while still maintaining a boundary which protects the people in her private life. Norah is a real person, who happens to use a nom de plume (or perhaps we should say nom du internet?) but her desire to help others is real and sincere.

Rising signs part 2

Sometimes people decide that astrology doesn’t make sense because they know someone who doesn’t act like the description of their sun sign. This kind of judgment is like deciding that it is a waste of time to eat because fast food hamburgers taste bad. Sun sign astrology is like fast food, quick but not a good representation of the real thing.

(image:Zac allan via Wikimedia)

Real astrology does not try to reduce all the millions of people in the world to just 12 zodiac types. Astrologers recognize that individuals are complex mixtures of different sign and planetary influences which can be read in the natal chart. To continue using the food analogy, if you think of each individual as a dish made by mixing multiple astrological “flavors”, then one of the dominant seasonings comes from the rising sign, also known as the Ascendant.

One of the reasons the Ascendant is talked about less than the Sun sign is that to calculate the rising sign, you must know the individual’s exact time of birth. The Ascendant refers to the zodiac sign rising on the horizon when the person entered the world. In terms of astrological significance, it is often compared to a mask the person wears or the front door of a house. However, it influences not just how others see the individual but how she/he organizes a sense of personal identity.

In the previous entry in this blog, we talked about the rising signs of Libra through Pisces. This article looks at Aries through Virgo.

Virgo through Aries Rising

Virgo: You to hold yourself a bit aloof from most other people, often preferring to listen to others rather than confide your own thoughts and feelings. You have a strong consciousness of your body, both in terms of health and your physical needs and desires, which may be slightly unusual. You spend time analyzing matters which others take for granted. You have a finely tuned, Princess and the Pea type of sensibility about how things ought to be.

Leo: You are charismatic, tending to have all eyes upon you when you enter a room. You can be very warm, fun-loving, playful and generous. However, you may also be prone temper tantrums if you feel you are not receiving the respect due to you.

Cancer: You derive happiness from nurturing, whether you apply that to your friends, spouse, children, animals or plants. However, if you perceive someone as a threat, you armor yourself against them and may seek someone to protect you. Emotions and daydreams have the solidity of facts for you. You have a strong need for security.

Gemini: Whatever your hobbies and passions, talking about them matters as much to you as doing them. You have a natural manual dexterity which you tend to take for granted and you wonder why other people are not equally good at doing things with their hands. You have many talents and may have a hard time choosing one to develop into a career.

Taurus: You tend to be very centered and calm and have the ability to make others feel that way. You are capable of hard work and perseverance but you also appreciate the good life and may have tendency to put on weight. You are slow to anger, but can be implacable once aroused.

Aries: Most people need a few cups of coffee before they have as much energy as you do naturally. You dislike people who describe themselves as “laid back” because you believe life is meant to be lived full throttle 24/7. Some people are thrilled by your vibrancy, others react as if you were a radio turned up too loud.

The Ascendant sign in astrology

The rising sign, also known as the Ascendant, reveals both how we see ourselves and how others tend to view us. As you begin to go beyond the level of sun signs in your studies of astrology, you will notice that people who share the same sun sign but have different ascendants tend to express the energy of their natal Sun in very different ways. For a change, we start this time with the second half of the zodiac, and will cover Aries through Virgo rising signs next article.
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How to relate to Venus in any sign

Venus through the signsThe Golden Rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” doesn’t always work because it assumes everyone wants to be treated the same way. For instance, you might love it if someone flatters you, but some people are suspicious of compliments. The more you learn about astrology, the more you realize that sun signs are only a part of the picture.  If you’re interested in having a romance—or even just a friendship or positive work relationship—with someone, try to find out about their natal Venus. Venus’ sign can reveal a lot about what a person need in order to relate to someone.
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SednaAstronomy and astrology look at a newly discovered object in space

“What’s bigger than an asteroid, smaller than a planet, red all over and far, far away? The answer — a mysterious planet-like body orbiting our Sun — has been discovered by NASA-funded researchers led by an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.”

That’s how NASA announced the discovery of Sedna on March 15, 2004. As the quote above indicates, Sedna is a bit unusual. The NASA press release further noted that “the extremely elliptical orbit of Sedna is unlike anything previously seen by astronomers.” This unusual orbit takes 10,500 years to complete as Sedna swings to the furthest edges of our solar system, halfway to the next nearest star. Also, the name bestowed on this trans-Neptunian object derives not from Greek and Roman mythology, as is the usual tradition in astronomy, but from Inuit myth. The planetoid’s discoverers compared its isolated position far from the sun’s rays to the frigid Arctic waters ruled by the ocean goddess of tribes dwelling in far northern Canada and Greenland.
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Vesta: Your Inner Flame

For period of less than four decades in the early 19th century, there were four additional planets in the solar system: Ceres, Pallas Athene, Juno and Vesta. These heavenly bodies named for Greek goddesses were demoted, just as Pluto was more recently, to the status of asteroids. However, many astrologers find it useful to cast natal charts which include the positions of these asteroids as they can answer questions about specific aspects of an individual’s personality left unanswered by the rest of the chart.
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