More Astronomy Notes – end of April

Notes on ancient Mayan sites like Chichen Itza, the Pyramid of the Sun, the Caracol — all show evidence that the Mayans had a superior grasp of mathematics and the length of the solar year. Their buidlings were used as observatories, as deduced from their alignment to key sunrises of the Solstices and Equinoxes.
How did Venus lose its water and become the inferno it is today? Venus’s surface water evaporated and entered the atmosphere. “Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas and it caused the planet to heat-up even more. This is turn caused more water to evaporate and led to a powerful positive feedback response known as the runaway greenhouse effect,” says Grinspoon.
A new planet has been discovered in the constellation Leo. While most planets discovered recently are gas giants, this one is more likely to be a rocky type similar to Earth.

Your Milky Way Horoscope – April 27-May 3

The main news this week is that Venus enters Taurus Wednesday and quickly forms a trine to Pluto in Capricorn and Saturn in Virgo. Earth sign types will be favored during this brief alignment Thursday (and while it is waxing), so roll out your website, blog about your book, and generally promote anything that you yourself have produced.

A Few Astro News Clips from This Month

Cambodian royal astrologer says Year of Rat will bring angry wives; Harry Potter – A Hero’s Journey (article and speculative chart on AstroDienst); ‘Breakthrough’ at Stonehenge dig

What Kind of Pope Will Benedict Be?

The most striking thing about the chart is the Jupiter-Mercury conjunction in late Pisces, plus Uranus in the first degree of Aries. Jupiter is the natural ruler of Sag and ninth-house matters, which include publishing, higher education, religion and law. With Sag in the tenth house of career, it is interesting that Ratzinger has pursued a career that has spanned all four areas.

Fourth Week of April 2008

Happy birthday to all the Taureans as the Sun enters your sign this week! Taurus natives include Martha Graham, Fred Astaire, Margot Fonteyn, Helen Tamiris, Shirley MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn — and those are just the dancers! Saturn and Pluto having just entered the other earth signs, trining your Sun, and Jupiter is already in Virgo. The first two can be tough taskmasters, but if you have learned the major lessons of life, you should be in a position to reap the rewards of working in harmony with the Earth. Read up on the effects of biotech crops and speak out for farmers and consumers.

In other news, the planet Pluto and the asteroid Juno become an odd couple for most of the year as they travel in close company. Juno lingers at the very end of Sagittarius and Pluto just entered Capricorn in late January. This will likely force partners to re-evaluate their relationship, and evolve into something healthier. Whether actual psychotherapy or counseling is involved, is up to you. But I feel that working on the relationship issues will bring about a much richer, rewarding and more productive level by fall.

A T-square between Mars in Cancer, Venus in Aries and Jupiter in Capricorn is in place this week. You may hold on to your house in spite of the crisis, but could very well cost you much more in monthly payments.