NATURAL BUILDING PIONEERS:
Building an Earth-Friendly Home
by Simone Butler

First published in The Whole Life Times, 2001

In the coming times, as gas and oil prices hit the roof, eco-friendly homes will be in demand. A home built with straw bales as insulation uses a fraction of the energy of a regular home-and is much more quiet, nurturing and environmentally sensitive. I’ve been researching this topic since the mid-90s, with the intention of creating a community of these homes. I wrote the following article in 2001 for The Whole Life Times in Los Angeles. Since that time, more and more straw bale building has been happening in the Southern California area as well as the rest of the world. Check out San Diego builder Bob Bolles’ website for more information.

In 1996, WANDA DERENOUARD SAT ON A MOUNTAINTOP in Jamul, east of San Diego, gazing out at the lavender peak of sacred Mt. Kuchumaa just south of the Mexican border. As Wanda and a companion meditated on the stunning view, they agreed that there was something special about the land. She and her husband Erik had recently bought this rocky desert property, the site of a former gold mine and when Wanda’s friend suggested she build an environmentally friendly straw bale home on it, the idea sounded right.

Alas, the timing was wrong. Structures made of straw bales stacked and covered with plaster, despite their popularity in the Southwest region, were not yet approved to California code. (Though there are many other ways to build a non-toxic, energy-efficient building, straw bale has become the most popular due to its phenomenally high insulation value, ease of labor in stacking bales, and cheapness of straw as a building material.) “We [commissioned] plans for a different kind of home,” Wanda recalls, “but we didn’t build it.”

Wanda and Erik DeRenouard put their building plans on hold, but the following year brought good news. The post-and-beam method using straw bales as insulation, which creates a home that’s not only energy-efficient but resistant to fire and earthquakes, was included in the health and safety code. When they heard a straw bale home was being constructed to building code specification not far from their property, they eagerly investigated.

Another couple, Dick Dunham and Jeannie Kidwell, had employed the services of Hubbell & Hubbell-famed artist/builder James Hubbell, his architect son Drew and their intrepid team-to create one of the first straw bale homes in San Diego County. A long-time straw bale advocate who designed the first permitted structure within the city of San Diego-a seed bank constructed in a “barn raising” at the Wild Animal Park in 2000-Hubbell and his associates were becoming known for green design in San Diego.
The home Hubbell & Hubbell designed for Dunham and Kidwell is especially unique because it incorporates a massive boulder, the original “resident” of the site, as thermal mass to help keep the interior cool. The deRenouards were impressed, and immediately scheduled an appointment with Drew Hubbell.

Creating a Home

With project architect Juergen Zierler’s assistance, the deRenouards drew up plans for a 3,000 square-foot straw bale home and separate office to be built into the hillside, taking advantage of the earth’s thermal properties and including plenty of windows on the southern side to maximize passive solar heating and cooling.

In addition to such green details as recycled newspapers for ceiling insulation, the house was also wired for eventual inclusion of solar photovoltaic panels. “They are still very expensive,” Hubbell explained, adding that once the price comes down and they can afford to buy the panels, the deRenouards will be able to swing both ways: they’ll still be hooked into the utility grid, and can sell back the electricity they don’t need. The homes basic cost (without embellishments) was $110 per square foot, roughly equivalent to the average stick frame house. But savings will be substantial over time, as two-foot-thick bale walls greatly reduce heating and cooling costs.

Wanda, a realtor, and Erik, who owns a car dealership, spent plenty of time on the dusty work site supervising the proceedings during the two years it took to complete their home. “We also did a lot of hands on work,” she says. “I don’t know how you could do it any other way and get what you want.”

Building the house was a stressful process that tested their marriage, Wanda admits. But the result of the couple’s persistence is a home that feels like a temple.”It has a wonderful energy, different from a normal house,” explains Wanda, an outgoing woman in her 50s. “It’s very quiet and serene. It feels soft, because sound is muffled.”

Hubbell Senior’s artistic touches are evident throughout, from the mosaic-tiled swimming pool and fireplace to hand-crafted doors and stained glass windows. And elements of Feng Shui employed throughout the home, such as varied ceiling heights, reate a sense of flow. “It could also be the influence of Mt. Kuchumaa,” she adds, “but it seems to ask you to be more accountable, more true to who you are.”

Natural Building Boom

The deRenouards are riding the crest of a natural building wave. Straw bale construction, which began in the early 1900s in Nebraska, has grown rapidly over the last decade with thousands of barns, wineries, schools, homes and greenhouses now scattered throughout the world. The only real danger to the densely-packed bales is not fire, but moisture. Unless you add big roof overhangs to keep rain from soaking the walls water can seep in through cracks in the plaster and rot the bales, leading to infestation. That’s why straw bale building is best-suited for a drier climate.
Certainly, it seems to be catching on in Southern California. San Diego-based Bob Bolles of Sustainable Building Solutions, a straw bale consultant to owner-builders, says he has 14 projects in the works right now, ranging from Pioneertown and Sky Valley in San Bernardino County, to Alpine and Descanso in San Diego County. And recently deceased composer Lou Harrison’s Egyptian-style straw bale retreat in Joshua Tree won a major structural engineering award for engineer Dave Mars, in a salute to its fortess-like vaulted roof.

One major advantage of straw bale construction is that it’s been tested and approved to many state codes where, ironically, even older methods like traditional adobe and rammed earth have not. Still, the city or county you live in must approve your plans before you can get a permit, and many building officials are unfamiliar with straw bale materials or downright disapproving of them. In California, it’ particularly tough because of earthquake standards. The Hubbell studio went through a lengthy process with the City of San Diego before finally getting plans approved for the seed bank. “They really make you jump through hoops if they don’t understand it,” noted Hubbell.

Ventura Venture

The experience of The Ojai Foundation’s Center for Living Council is instructive. Many readers will be familiar with this mountaintop educational center in Ojai, just north of Ventura. At one time informally known as the “Wizard’s Camp” for its celebration of shamanic elders and cutting edge scientists, the Foundation has been experimenting with natural materials for the last 20 years. Touring the grounds, you’ll see thick-walled earth block storage sheds and a whimsical cob-and-earth bag variation. Being under 120 square feet in size, none of these structures required a permit. But when it came time for something bigger-such as an 850 square foot straw bale reception center with an adobe exterior-the Foundation became the first in Ventura Co. to attempt a legal straw bale structure.

When county building officials were first approached with the idea, says Foundation Director Marlow Hotchkiss, “They were not receptive; in fact they were flatly skeptical.” The straw bale part, he adds, is only 300 square feet of the total structure, which is just one story high. “It’s not a big deal; nobody’s sleeping in it. Nonetheless, we have been subjected to every conceivable test.

Marlow says he understands the country’s mandate, however. “After all,” he grins, “it’s called ‘Building and Safety,’ not ‘Building and Innovation.’” Ventura County, he adds, has the cleanest legal record in the sate. “Their structures are built exactly to code. They win their lawsuits. They know this is going to be a demonstration project, with people coming from all over to look at it, so they’re gonna make sure their nose is clean.”
After six months of plan checks, the Foundation finally got its permit approved on Valentine’s Day-just two-and-a-half months before the expiration of its $56,000 state grant to build with recycled materials (part of California mandate to reduce the amount of material sent to landfills.) The estimated cost of the Gateway Center is $80,000 (plus an extra $14,000 for permits, architects and engineers’ fees); what’s not covered by he grant will come from donations. Designed by Ojai Valley architect Jane Carroll and featuring a vine-covered pergola, curved bancos in an open-air patio and a half-moon shaped reception area, the building will be finished in ongoing workshops through the spring.
According to Hotchkiss, who’s been with the Foundation for almost 20 years, the earth-building program has only just begun. “We envision having a mini-village-like atmosphere with a variety of earthern structures that support our programs,” he says. Next up will be the long-awaited, 12-sided Council House, a combination sanctuary, kiva and classroom. Conceived by groups of people sitting in council, it will be made of sustainably-harvested wood and recycled steel frames, and covered with mud plasters. Bermed into the hillside, the design features radiant heated bamboo floors and north-facing curved windows. Permits are in place and the foundation has already been poured.

More Alternatives

In the future, expect to see more variations on the earth-friendly theme popping up all over. Cob construction, a mixture of clay, straw and sand once popular in the British Isles, is experiencing a revival in California and Oregon, thanks largely to the efforts of lanto Evans of the Cob Cottage Company. A simple, low-tech method of forming “cobs” or loaves with your hands, then stacking and sculpting them into curved walls, cob is a soul-satisfying yet time-intensive way to build a home. California got its first permitted cob structure six years ago.

Architect Nader Khalili of Cal-Earth in the high desert of Hesperia, Calif. has pioneered an ingenious method called Superadobe, in which long bags are filled with earth and coiled to create inexpensive, super-insulated and earthquake-proof structures. The city of Hesperia has been won over by the architect’s techniques, granted him permits, and even hired him to create a 9,000-square-foot nature center. New-fangled methods like papercrete (paper mixed with a small amount of concrete, then poured into forms or blocks) push the natural building envelope even further.

If you’re still wondering why anyone would go through all the hassle and expense that it takes to become a natural building pioneer, you probably have never been inside one of these earthy, thick-walled dwellings. Sleep overnight in one sometime-the experience is guaranteed to make you a convert. Not to mention the savings on gas and electric bills!

Tips for Getting Started:

• Find out if your city’s building department is receptive.
• Gather the research that’s already out there.
• Locate an architect who is familiar with and enthusiastic about straw bale building.
• Set up minimum standards for your straw bales, making certain each bale is a standard size.
• Plan extra time for the permit process, which is sure to take longer than you thought.

© 2001 Simone Butler. All rights reserved.

WHAT’S YOUR MEDICINE?
Your Opposite Sign as a Stimulus to Growth

Your opposite sign represents the medicine that makes you whole. Each sign has its natural polarity-an axis that works best when you’re “working” both ends. For example, I’m a Cancer by Sun sign-emotional, domestic, a bit shy. My natural polarity is Capricorn-a sign that’s business-like, practical and grounded. When I hang out with Capricorns, I feel more balanced. They have a lot to teach me about the “outer world,” while I have a direct line to the “inner world” that they find stimulating.

Not that we should rely on our opposites to do everything for us. See them, instead, as beacons of light to lead you in a new direction-even if they sometimes drive you crazy because you don’t understand where they’re coming from. They’re different from you, and that’s the point. Which is why relationships of opposites work best when the individuals are older and more willing to accept these differences as growth-producing instead of just crazy-making.

Here are some suggestions of how you can develop your opposite energy.

Aries: Develop Libra medicine of refinement, social justice, give-and-take in relationships, thoughtfulness, romance, peace, beauty, art, intellectual and creative skills.

Activities: Volunteer for a cause, go to art galleries or take art classes, let others help you.

Taurus: Develop Scorpio medicine of emotional depth and power, commitment, passion, empathy, digging deep to solve problems or discover your desires.

Activities: Try hypnotherapy, do martial arts, assist with a birth or death, study Tantra.

Gemini: Develop Sagittarius medicine of finding a larger purpose or sense of faith, spiritual development, higher education, long distance travel, frankness in speech.

Activities: Set goals, get a Master’s degree, learn a language, teach a class, find a new religion.

Cancer: Develop Capricorn medicine of being comfortable out in the world, patience, embracing a challenge, groundedness, business sense, taking good care of yourself financially.

Activities: Start a business, climb a mountain, master a skill, become your own father.

Leo: Develop Aquarius medicine of cool-headedness, focus on others instead of self, intellectual and computer skills, networking and developing unusual new social circles and friendships.

Activities: Build a website, throw a big party, get involved in politics, study astrology or Tarot.

Virgo: Develop Pisces medicine of compassion, unconditional love, being in the flow, accepting what is, relaxation, spirituality, forgiving the past, musical and artistic skills.

Activities: Join a spiritual group, meditate, swim, learn to dance or sing, make a film.

Libra: Aries medicine of get-up-and-go, assertiveness, decisiveness, passion for life, outspokenness, love for physical sports and fitness, courage to begin again, originality.

Activities: Become a leader, join a gym, speak your truth, spend time alone regularly.

Scorpio: Taurus medicine of directness, earthiness, calmness, ability to take care of self, appreciation for the finer things, financial knowledge or expertise, good sense of humor.

Activities: Plant a garden, make your own money, take a cooking class, get a massage.

Sagittarius: Gemini medicine of detail-orientation, scaling your life down to size, finding inspiration in the everyday world, sisterhood, communication and writing, inventiveness.

Activities: Make a schedule and stick to it, write articles or poetry, join a women’s group.

Capricorn: Cancer medicine of nurturing, homemaking, sweetness, mothering, honoring the past, defending what you love, birthing something new, developing your inner world.

Activities: Build a home, grieve your losses, do yoga, open your heart, mother yourself.

Aquarius: Leo medicine of passion, self-expression, humor, direct involvement in life, warmth and affection, healthy self-love and generosity with no strings attached.

Activities: Play with children, get off the computer, tell jokes, taking an acting class.

Pisces: Virgo medicine of learning to say “no,” working with the earth, health-consciousness, time-management, choosing companions wisely, self-reflection and self-care, facing reality.

Activities: Have a physical or see an acupuncturist, plant an herb garden, keep a journal.

© 2004 Simone Butler. All rights reserved.

JUPITER-NEPTUNE:
MAGICIAN OR FOOL?
by Simone Butler

First published in The Mountain Astrologer, Oct./Nov. 1997
“Jupiter inflames Neptune’s longing, and Neptune raises Jupiter’s eyes beyond the National Lottery to the celestial realm above.”

—Liz Greene, The Astrological Neptune

Walking along the beach one blustery morning, I began to reflect on the nature of Jupiter and Neptune. Since they are both linked to Pisces, which symbolizes the limitless expanse of the ocean, my reverie must have drifted in with the waves.

My first thoughts were of how connected these planets are with that greatest of all mysteries, death. I remembered how my 92-year-old grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep when Jupiter trined his natal Neptune. And, alternately, how a friend’s father passed on more painfully from an ongoing battle with leukemia when Jupiter squared his Neptune and Ascendant. It is said that transiting Jupiter must be active at death, as a boost to the great beyond. It would make sense that, in addition to the other planetary transits occurring, a harmonious or difficult contact to Neptune could illustrate the nature of the passing.

Next, I thought of certain Jupiter transits in the lives of those with prominent Neptunes. There was the childhood friend who, when Jupiter conjuncted his 1st-house Neptune, came back for our high school reunion and convinced us all that he was part-owner of a successful restaurant in Vail, Colorado. Not long after, one of our classmates went to Vail and discovered that the owners of that restaurant had never even heard of our friend. Here was Jupiter-Neptune as master of illusion and deceit.

Another friend, with Neptune right on his natal Ascendant, planned a showcase for his music during the time when Jupiter crossed that point (I was green at astrology then and told him this could be a really lucky transit). He rented a 2,000-seat auditorium and invited everyone he knew-200 showed up. It was a huge financial loss to him, and caused a rift in our friendship. In this case, Jupiter-Neptune symbolized the delusions of grandeur that led him to believe he could pack a large auditorium. (Be careful when you make predictions for friends!)

I considered the natal chart of a former boyfriend, who has Jupiter, Neptune and the Moon conjunct in Sagittarius. As you might expect, he is a spiritual dreamer, a beautiful soul always chasing after one fantasy or another. He finally found his calling when an older man took him on as an apprentice to his bonsai tree business, then left him the business when he died. By shaping and pruning the little trees into artistic forms, my friend expresses the creative side of his Jupiter-Neptune. Unfortunately, he now stands to lose the business through poor financial management as this planetary combination’s dark side is activated by a transit from Pluto.

Jupiter-Neptune aspects also symbolize extremes of magic or illusion. I decided to do a little research on the manifestations of these aspects in famous peoples’ charts. In her wonderful book, The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption, Liz Green offers the emperor Nero (whose chart has Sun/Pluto/Ascendant in Sagittarius, and a close t-square between Jupiter, Neptune and the Moon), as an example of “some of the most florid emotional and artistic excesses the world has ever seen.” Nero considered himself a god (how Jupiterian!) and the power hunger of his Plutonian configuration, along with the illusion of invincibility fostered by Jupiter square Neptune, motivated him to claim what he felt was his by divine right.

The square can be excessive in metaphysical terms as well. The horoscope of magician Aleister Crowley contains a fixed t-square, in this case between Jupiter, Neptune and the Ascendant. Crowley was a colorful figure in the early part of the 20th Century, who specialized in forms of magic some considered dark. His Pisces Moon sextile both Pluto and Mars, plus a compelling Sun-Venus conjunction in Libra, gave him an extraordinary power over others. He used his sexual magnetism to charm people of both sexes, whom he then discarded when he was through with them.

Yet Crowley’s Jupiter-Neptune also brought him to great spiritual heights. His little-known devotional poetry was truly inspired. He was as influential in the field of metaphysics as Freud or Jung were in psychology, but his Leo Ascendant, with Uranus sitting boldly in the first house, frequently got him into trouble. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” was his prescription for living. According to Israel Regardie, Crowley’s one-time personal secretary, in The Eye in the Triangle, Crowley’s often-misinterpreted law was actually an admonition to find one’s true purpose in life and follow it. This was Crowley’s definition of genius-another Jupiter-Neptune potential.

Aspects from Saturn can help to bring the Jupiter-Neptune personality down to earth, or inhibit the person’s spiritual growth. Sigmund Freud’s Jupiter-Neptune conjunction was squared by Saturn. Freud was often accused of being closed-minded or fearful about the spiritual dimensions of his psychoanalytical work. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, had a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction trined by Neptune and Uranus. Eddy was an advocate of faith healing, a wonderful blessing when it worked. When it didn’t, and people died due to lack of medical care, the darker side of “faith” was revealed.

Jupiter-Neptune is also tremendously creative and inspired. Poet Maya Angelou and singer-songwriter Bob Dylan possess the trine. Writer Henry Miller and dancer Isadora Duncan had the square. Visionary artist Paul Klee had the sextile. The conjunction is featured prominently in the chart of otherworldly sitar player Ravi Shankar. Attorney Marcia Clark’s trine netted her an extremely lucrative book deal, and Newt Gingrich’s sextile lets him get away with far more than he would without it.

When natal Jupiter and Neptune are triggered by transit, one’s divine mission in life can become apparent. It can also be revealed when Jupiter and Neptune conjoin in the heavens. Last January’s Jupiter-Neptune conjunction at 27 Capricorn powerfully affected whatever house or planets it activated in your natal chart. Since Neptune stays in that vicinity for the rest of 1997, insights or expansion experienced in January may be reactivated throughout the year.

One thing is clear: Jupiter-Neptune is not a combination to be taken lightly. It is a potent cocktail. Sip carefully of the divine nectar and the world of spirit opens its gates. Drink wantonly of the magic brew and risk a death by drowning. If Jupiter and Neptune are prominent in your chart, the choice is yours.

© 1997 Simone Butler. All rights reserved.

TAJ MAHAL:
Monument to Love
by Simone Butler

First published in The Mountain Astrologer, Feb./March 1997
When you interview celebrities by phone, you’re usually given only 20-30 minutes in which to ask your questions. If the person likes you, maybe you’ll get 40. On the day of my interview with blues legend Taj Mahal, he showed no signs of losing steam after an hour had passed. This man likes to talk. So I’m thinking Sagittarius, maybe Gemini. I laughed out loud to discover that he has a Moon-Mercury-Jupiter conjunction in Gemini, and that the transiting Moon was exactly conjunct the Moon and Mercury at the time of our conversation!

That powerful Gemini conjunction is what makes Mahal, in the African parlance, a griot – storyteller, history-keeper. He’s been singing the blues all over the world since the late 1960s, keeping the traditions alive, touring over 200 days a year. And though he still doesn’t get recognized much on the street, now that he has relocated from Hawaii to Los Angeles (when his progressed Moon left comfy Cancer and entered Gemini, heading for its conjunction to natal Moon-Mercury in November of 1996), don’t be surprised if you see him popping up on movie screens.

He’s been developing his acting skills, with transiting Uranus hovering around his Aquarian Ascendant and activating his Pluto in Leo by opposition. His song, Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes, is getting lots of airplay, and he’s just finished a collaboration with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir on a musical play about the life of baseball great Leroy Satchel Paige. His 1993 release, Dancing the Blues, was Grammy-nominated, and his latest effort, Phantom Blues, which features the contributions of Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt, continues the trend toward rollicking, 1950s-style New Orleans R&B dance music.

Mahal is a Taurus with his Sun trine musical Neptune – he claims to hear music in his head on a constant basis. That earthy Sun has kept him going for 30 years as a music professional, with 35 albums to his credit. His Sun is conjunct both Saturn and Uranus, giving him stability and a fierce determination to make it on his own terms. Born Henry St. Clair Fredericks and raised in a culturally sophisticated home in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was eleven when his father died as the result of standing up to racial prejudice on the job. Henry determined then and there that he would never be dependent on anybody else for his income. “It’s last hired, first fired. So fire me from playing the guitar!” he chuckles.

Originally, Mahal was going to make a career for himself in agricultural farming, since a career in music didn’t seem viable at the time. No stranger to hard work (Taurus Sun conjunct Saturn), he started picking tobacco at age 14 and put himself through vocational agriculture school working on a dairy farm. “A lot of people just don’t know how to work,” he says. “They think work is just sitting down at a desk all day long.” He’s got a big garden in his Pasadena backyard, where he experiments with permaculture and other alternative forms of growing food (Sun conjunct Uranus and Aquarius rising). Mars in Cancer in the 6th house gives him extra drive toward self-sufficiency.

With the rising wave of interest in the blues, Taj Mahal may soon become a household name as something other than a 17th-century Indian monument to undying love. The Aquarian theme comes through loud and clear in his decision to choose that particular handle. “As I was surfing the names that were out there,” there wasn’t nothing as hip as Taj Mahal,” he says. ‘Still, it’s way far out for people. I just can’t believe that people are so limited, but I guess they are. If I had it to do over again, I might have called myself Timbuktu, which is closer to the heart of where I’m coming from, musically.”

Mahal’s Pluto in the 7th house and his Venus-Mars square speak of an intense and abiding, but erratic interest in women. Now divorced, he maintains plenty of contact with female fans. Does he consider himself a monument to love like his namesake? He laughs in that rich gravelly voice that’s been honey-cured over the years by an endless succession of cigars. “I sure am. I would daresay that the majority of my fans are women, and they are legion. They love the music, and are constantly writing me, letting me know how it affects them.”

With transiting Pluto opposing his 4th-house Uranus and Saturn, Mahal not only relocated, but took charge of his life in other profound ways. “I’ve changed my work habits,” he says. “It’s the first year I’ve stepped up to the plate and said, ‘Hey, I’m in control here.’ I had to get out of the fog of touring all the time.”

With most of his planets below the horizon, fame is not what motivates this musician. “I was never thrust out into that Michael Jackson space,” he says with evident relief. “When have you seen a video of Taj Mahal? There’s not even the Taj Mahal blow-up doll! At a recent concert, he brought his guitar out to the parking lot before the show, just to connect with the folks a little. Such a heavy emphasis on the western half of the chart makes him very much a people person, and those 5th-house planets do need applause and attention.

It’s really the love of the blues, however, that keeps him going. When asked how he has survived the vicissitudes of a 30-year performing career, Mahal replies, “By not considering the career to be anything” (Mars, ruler of the Midheaven, in the humble 6th house). “I’m about the music, and the music is alive every day, every second.”

© 1997 Simone Butler. All rights reserved.

SUN-URANUS SIRENS
by Simone Butler

Feature article in The Mountain Astrologer, Oct./Nov. 2004

Many of my closest friends are Sun-Uranus conjunctions-we seem to attract each other. Non-conformists all, we’ve long been convinced that the traditional model of marriage and family was not for us. In spirit, we lean more toward the ecstatic archetype of the feminine-variously called the Wise Woman, Muse, Courtesan or even the Siren, whose seductive song lures sailors to their death.

The Greek story of the Sirens who enchanted Ulysses and his men, echoed by similar tales throughout mythology, has several layers of meaning. On one hand, it symbolizes the magical effect of a woman in the full glory of her feminine power, singing her song. Men cannot resist her. You could even say that the crashing of the boat on treacherous rocks represents man’s awakening to his true self. He is lured by his unconscious feminine to plunge into the deeper aspects of his soul. It’s only the false, outer self that dies, so that something more powerful can be born.

On the other hand, this sounds rather painful for the man. And, what kind of life is this for the Siren? She is forever set apart, excluded from the “normal” joys of committed relationship, doomed to being the initiator. Her sense of fulfillment, though intense, may be fleeting.

Now in our 40s and 50s, my friends and I are beginning to gain some perspective on our Siren-like tendencies. This society doesn’t offer much support for the woman who chooses that rock in the middle of the ocean, or is thrust there by the dictates of her nature. Liz Greene, in her book Relating, points out the need for the Sun-Uranus woman to bring her personal relationships into a more transpersonal sphere, one in which the less-individualized Uranian archetype has more room to express itself and therefore wreaks less havoc in her life. In other words, perhaps there’s a more graceful way to bring about awakening than by crashing the relation “ship” on the rocks.

After much crashing about (as well as plenty of excitement!), my friends and I have instinctively begun to move toward this state of grace through such avenues as spiritual sex, celibacy, strong friendships with men and our own unique, creative work. None of us is married or even in relationship at this time. Which isn’t to say we don’t want this kind of intimacy; we’re just not willing to sacrifice our freedom to have it. We share a deep delight in solitude. Though we do enjoy a man’s company, we don’t need him around in order to be happy.

We have some inspirational Sun-Uranus role models, like Taurus Shirley MacLaine, who famously went “Out on a Limb” in the 80s as the first celebrity to actively embrace Aquarian concepts like past lives and astrology. Cancer Meryl Streep has made a career of playing unconventional characters so masterfully that she’s won two Oscars and been nominated 13 times. Her character in The French Lieutenant’s Woman was a classic Siren. Yet Streep has sustained a happy marriage since 1978, probably because she channels her Uranian nature into her work.

And then there is Madonna. This iconic Sun-Uranus Leo is the ultimate rule-breaking Siren, at least in her public image. Still making waves at 45, she has succeeded in staying on top by continuously reinventing herself-from “material girl” and sex goddess to yoga advocate and spiritual explorer. Once disastrously married to another Sun-Uranus Leo, Sean Penn, she now seems content in her union with director Guy Ritchie, who is ten years her junior. And the 16-year-old girls her music caters to still love her as much as their counterparts did 20 years ago.

Sometimes it seems as if Sun-Uranus types have found the key to eternal youth, which is undoubt-edly part of our Siren-like appeal. We’re trend-setters, not followers, who always seem to be ahead of the curve. As a young fashion editor in the early 80s, I made the most of my newly-discovered ability to see where the cultural zeitgeist was headed. I jumped on the astrology bandwagon around the same time, largely due to my driving need to know what was going to happen next.

What astrologer Zip Dobyns called the “freedom-closeness dilemma” is painfully familiar to me as a Sun-Uranus Cancer. Still unmarried and childless at 48, I am both drawn to and repelled by the Cancerian comforts of home and family. I have enjoyed many liberating relationships with men, which as Liz Greene also predicted in Relating, have served to shake me and wake me up, often through the shattering of the relationship itself. I used to prefer relationships with younger men, in which I often played the role of initiator into the deeper mysteries of sexuality. Yet recently, during the “maturing” transit of Saturn to my Venus, I discovered the exquisite joys that an older man can bring.

The Greek god Ouranos (Uranus) was the original Sky Father who mated with Gaia, the Earth Mother, to create new life. Uranus therefore represents the essential force of creation. So, it stands to reason that a woman with Uranus conjunct the Sun might carry more than her share of erotic power. We are modern-day priestesses, channeling Uranus’s high-voltage energies of awakening to mankind. Because it is our nature to act as a conduit for “higher love,” we are rarely satisfied with “normal” relationships. Still, with our all-too-human desires for attachment, it’s difficult to sustain the freedom that Uranus requires. We long for the embrace of protective arms, yet our innate need for autonomy demands equal time.

CELESTE

The constantly changing Sun-Uranus Gemini nature includes an extremely bright mind and active imagination, coupled with a stubborn independent streak. As a young girl, Celeste knew how she wanted to live. She once told a teacher, “I want to get married, raise horses, and live on the same street as my husband.”

Celeste realized even then that she was going to need some space in her togetherness. But with the moon in the relationship-oriented sign of Libra, she first needed to experience a closely bonded union. After traveling the world and having many adventures, she fell in love at 23 with a famous poet-singer in her home of Quebec. Though never married, the couple lived an earthy and artistic life together on a farm for many years. The musician matched Celeste’s inner image of the beloved, that of “an earthly man who would relate to me in the most heavenly way possible.” (Pisces on the 7th house cusp). As many of us did at that age, Celeste lost herself in the relationship, and it ultimately fell apart.

Her next serious encounter, in the late 80s, was with a Sagittarian spiritual teacher who surrounded himself with beautiful women at a California retreat center. “It was all about union and communion,” she recalls. “I was with him 24 hours a day, and I was in heaven the whole time.” But there was a problem. After 11 years Celeste could take the lack of earthy sex no longer and opted for a very sexual-but brief-marriage instead, to someone outside the spiritual community.

The vivid fantasies of Celeste’s Sun-Uranus Gemini mind, combined with the lack of earth planets in her chart, had led her into yet another situation that didn’t suit her-and she had to break free from it. “Freedom is the most important thing for me,” says Celeste, “but it has also created a lot of pain for myself and others. I’ve been abandoned a thousand times and done my own abandoning.”

And yet she has also been a mythological force in her men’s lives. “I think that the Courtesan, or Muse, is my archetype. Women like myself are schools for men. That’s why, for us to look for conventional or enduring relationships is to miss our calling. We have an incredible task, which certainly isn’t more important than being a faithful wife, but because society only honors the faithful wife and not the courtesan, we are not honored. I love the Lilith myth; she was like the dark Eve. I see us as that, too. Kind of tricksters of the heart, not to deceive but to jar men’s inner images of women, which are so limited.”

In a nod to her Virgo Ascendant, Celeste bought a cabin in a small, high-desert town some years ago to help ground herself. “I even put up a little white picket fence around my cabin,” she laughs. “Before I would have died before coming anywhere near a white picket fence. But I wanted to befriend the conventions I had run away from most of my life.” Being a rule-breaker is an inherently Uranian trait. But Celeste, 57, says she has learned over the years what freedom really means. “I’m doing a lot of things now that are conventional, but they allow me unconventionality in other areas, like my art or my writing. I don’t have to dress weird anymore, or drive a really outlandish car.” With three planets and the North Node in Gemini near the Midheaven, Celeste also channels her restless nature into a creative career as an antique dealer.

Menopause gave Celeste much relief. “Now that I look back on my life before The Change, I see that it was deeply dominated by the erotic force. I was seeking this electric union with everything: music, food, men, God, dogs, all of it. It brought me a hugely interesting life, but also a very painful one, because it didn’t bring me peace. I was always hungry for that intensity. Now the quality of it has changed, because I don’t need to act on the impulse like I did.”

Celeste has still not manifested her ideal of living down the street from her husband. Instead, she has been cohabiting for the past year with her much-younger boyfriend. The couple moved slowly, taking four months to finally dive into sexual waters-with satisfying results. “Much of what I believed about myself in relationships, the opposite turned out to be true,” she says. “For example, I never thought I could live happily and freely with someone, and now we’re sharing a one-room cabin.” This works, she adds, because she and her partner are so similar. “We both have a great need for complete trust and freedom and an equally great need for physical contact.” Celeste’s partner, an unconventional Aquarian, is sometimes away on business for months at a time. “But we love our lives apart as well as together,” she says. “We do have issues to work out, but this is done with love. It’s a whole new ballgame.”

DIANA

The Sun-Uranus Cancer often appears deceptively mellow on the outside, but a rebellious nature lurks not far below the watery surface. “I’ve always been different,” says Diana, an easygoing Sun-Uranus Cancer. “Always done things that weren’t totally acceptable at the time.” By the age of 13 Diana was pushing her rather frail body (Chiron in the 6th square Saturn) to its limits by hard core surfing and dropping acid. By 18 she was traveling the world, smuggling hashish out of places like Afghanistan. Even with music, her chosen profession, when she played the sax she “had to be out front channeling Coltrane and being wild.”

Diana was determined to be fearless in ways that women usually aren’t. “A lot of what I’ve done was to prove that I can do whatever guys do.” Rather than the seductive Siren archetype, here we see the androgynous side of Sun-Uranus-which has its own magnetic appeal. Often the only woman in a group of men, Diana learned early on how to be one of the guys. The result, she says, is that men have always seen her as being very real. “I don’t play girl games. There’s nothing that shocks me, which seems to be a relief for men. I think I really see them, and they like that. Especially now that I’ve taken on the role of a teacher, they find me fascinating because I’ve done so many things and lived such a free life. I’ve never had kids, never been tied down by anything.”

Diana has moved almost every year of her life (Uranus conjunct the Sun, ruler of her 4th house) and had a number of career changes along the way. “Every time I move, I meet whole new circles of people, so that now I have friends who are like family all over the U.S. and Europe. It used to bother me that I didn’t have roots, but now I realize I have roots wherever I go.” (Since Sun-Uranus rules my 4th as well, I also move quite frequently. Perhaps it’s part of the compelling need to break free of tradition and create family in unorthodox ways.)

Diana now makes her living doing a form of healing work she calls “tracking,” in which she tunes into another person’s body to release energy blockages. But in another age, Diana could well have been a courtesan. “I’d rather be a mistress and keep my own space than have to deal with the mundane aspects of relationship,” she says.

Even at 54, her arthritic legs barely functional due to the early abuses of surfing, men still gravitate to Diana. “I think I will always be attracting men no matter how decrepit the body is, and I also see that in my Sun-Uranus friends. We’re very interesting women who have a lot more going for us than just the physical. I think of us, who happen to be women who never had children, who do interesting things in their careers, as being similar to what courtesans were. Able to discourse with men on a wide variety of subjects, loving great sex and companionship and beautiful gifts. Men give me beautiful presents. I know there’s something about me that almost demands that.” (A regal moon in Leo, perhaps?)

Though she has had several intense, monogamous relationships, one of which lasted for 12 years, Diana was often on the road touring while her partner was off doing his own thing. She admits that the idea of a long-lasting marriage is still a bit scary for her. “I think I’m threatened by permanence. My nightmare is being in front of the TV all comfortable and cuddling up.” After living alone for so long, she adds, “I may be too set in my ways. Plus, I get all the intimacy I need from my men friends.”

But doesn’t she miss the sexual aspect of relationship? “I like sex and I’m always open to it,” she explains, “but if there’s no man around I’m interested in, there’s nothing to miss. I’m really not looking. I find something sad about people who are looking, because in some way it takes you away from the sweetness of your life.” Diana has reached a place where she no longer feels separate from things. “I can’t say I get lonely; I’ve found a core of connectedness where I don’t have that same longing as I did in my 20s and 30s. In each moment I feel connected to whoever or whatever or wherever I am, that truly feeds me so that nothing is missing.”

Lovemaking, for Diana, is similar to playing jazz. “It’s like being completely improv, never knowing where you’re going next. In my last relationship, we were in past lives together during sex. Things were happening in so many dimensions at once. When two people are in the same vibration, it’s an amazing journey.”

Not surprisingly, Diana has remained friends with most of her exes. “With the men I’ve been intimate with, the love never goes away. We are still connected; we’ll love each other till we die.”

CARYN

The Sun-Uranus dynamic reaches its wildest, most colorful expression in the fiery sign of Leo. Caryn is a dynamic Sun-Uranus Leo whose pals call her the “Redhead Deadhead.” For many years, she has supported herself as an administrative assistant while following underground bands all over the country in her spare time.

With Sun-Uranus sitting on her Ascendant along with four other planets in Leo, Caryn has the energy and passion of five people. “You can call me many things, but not normal or boring,” she says. Men love Caryn’s youthful spirit. “I think it’s exciting for them to see somebody who’s very vibrant and passionate about music and sports and travel. Who’s really living in the now, taking chances and jumping in with both feet.”

This includes her sex life, which began at the age of 16. “I was able to have sex the way a man would have sex,” she explains. “I didn’t even need to get a phone call later. It’s been very much for pleasure, without any intimacy or commitment. But now I’m trying not to use sex as a drug. Before it was a way for me to feel better about myself, and now I’ve found other ways to get there.”

At 46, she toys with the idea of settling down-but is loathe to give up her free-wheeling lifestyle, which brings her into contact mostly with younger, often irresponsible men (Chiron in the 7th in Aquarius). “I like things that are a little bit off the grid, and that’s why I found this music scene,” she says. “But it’s not the greatest place to go husband-hunting. Hopefully anybody I’d get involved with would join me and enjoy it too. And if not, I’ll see him when I get back.”

With Neptune in the 4th house squaring her Sun, Caryn has suffered from her stern father’s disapproval. “The four men I’ve lived with were fun and exciting and had the good recreational drugs,” she says, “but being with them was also a way of getting a father figure to take care of me, to provide some stability in my life. Yet at the six month mark almost to the day, I was up and gone.”

Like Diana, Caryn often plays the role of gal pal with guys, and has always been a bit of a tomboy. “I had three brothers and no sisters, so I never learned how to be a lady. But it totally hinders my relationships, because a man wants to be with a woman who’s soft, and where he can be the leader. Every time I go to dance with a man I instantly start to lead. It’s going to take someone with a lot of self esteem to be my mate.”

Like Celeste, Caryn is a horse-lover who never wanted kids. “I had my own horse for ten years and that was the closest I came to having a child. I’m just too selfish to be a mother; I don’t want to take all that time and energy. I’ve never even had the yearning to have a baby.” (Saturn in the 5th). She also admits to a fear of commitment, or being boxed into a corner. “That’s why I never live in one place for too long, I’m always moving around. I’m like a gypsy.”

Caryn’s colorful, offbeat nature is her Siren call. Most people can’t believe she’s in her 40s, she says, “because I dress like a teenaged hippie and run around with younger people.” Her desire to stand out from the crowd stems from having half her planets in the approval-seeking sign of Leo. Couple that with the high-frequency vibe of Uranus, and you get a person who commands attention. “I see people looking at me all the time; I must have an aura or energy that’s just a little more captivating than the average bear,” she says with a grin.

Caryn’s feelings about her Siren nature have changed over the years. “I used to think there was something wrong with me because I didn’t have a man, but now I really get that I may be better off without one. I’m not so needy that I’m just grabbing anything I can get. So many women I know did that, and they’re not happy. And they’re jealous of me ’cause I’m traveling around and having this exciting life.”

Caryn admits there’s a part of her that refuses to grow up. But she has recently begun to address her childhood insecurities through therapy, with encouraging results. “I’ve been working on learning to love and accept myself fully, and now all these guys are looking at me going, God she’s a woman who’s in her own power, and they’re attracted to that. But the funny thing is, now I am being pickier and pickier. I’m not sure I’d want to get married, even if I found the right man.”

IS MARRIAGE IN THE STARS FOR US?

I do know a few Sun-Uranus people, men and women, who are happily married or in long-term relationships. A Sun-Uranus Cancer client of mine, who’s been married 19 years to a man who is also her business partner in an interior design firm, shared the keys to their success:

1. Affection: “Though sex isn’t like it was in the beginning, we are always lovey-dovey.”
2. A sense of humor.
3. Separate trips: “so we realize how much we appreciate each other during the absence.”
4. Being spontaneous: having surprise dinner parties or taking last-minute trips together.
5. Respecting each other’s spaces, privacy and dreams.
6. Allowing each other freedom “to do what we need and allow the other person to grow.”

Working and living together can make things complicated for this couple. But the husband’s unflappable Aquarian nature helps balance the wife’s high-strung temperament. Plus, he’s seeking exactly the nurturing yet electric qualities she has to offer (his Descendant is in Cancer with Uranus conjunct it) and he matches her Aquarius Descendant perfectly. Friendship is the core of their connection, and has seen them through life’s ups and downs.

When one partner is Uranian, the other needs to be fairly grounded and secure in order for the relationship to work. I was once involved with a Sun-Uranus Libra, but the connection was almost too electric. It started out as a friendship and remains so to this day, but the sexual bond proved too hot to handle, literally burning us out. My most successful relationships have been with Taurus and Capricorn types, who provide the earth I lack. As long as they are respectful of my eccentricities and make room for the presence of magic in our lives, we get along well.

I once met a couple, both architects, who had renovated an old downtown building and split it in half for their separate living spaces. In his, a messy workshop vibe prevailed. Her living and dining area looked like something out of Architectural Digest; this was where they took their meals together. They had separate bedrooms connected by a leafy porch, and could choose to sleep together or not. I have no clue about their astrological charts, but I could see the presence of Uranus at work. Rather than live down the street from my mate, I’d prefer the peaceful co-existence of a situation like this (though my lack of earth demands thick, earthen walls).

So yes, I believe a lasting union is possible for the Siren, if that’s her choice. But it’s up to her to seek an unconventional relationship that honors for her highly independent spirit and satisfies her deeper spiritual yearnings. In this relationship, her beautiful music falls on receptive ears and awakening occurs-but no one gets injured too badly in the process!

© 2004 Simone Butler. All rights reserved.

Confrontation is not my strong suit. As a child, speaking up meant harsh condemnation. In conflicts with Dad, I always lost. So, I learned to pick my battles. I’d remain mute at family gatherings when Grandpa embarked on a bigoted tirade, or my cousins mocked astrology. What was the point in taking them on? They’d never come around to my point of view. Instead, I decided to surround myself with those who hold views similar to mine and try to ignore those who don’t.

But now I watch in amazement as the Occupy movement spreads. People are taking to the streets, daring to speak out on behalf of what they hold dear—freedom, equal rights, democracy–and risking the wrath of authority. I was in grade school in the late Sixties when widespread public protest last erupted. That was when devil-may-care Uranus joined hell-raising Pluto. Now we have the square from those same planets (through 2015) and, like clockwork, we’re starting to see similar results. Though I stand in solidarity with those who protest corporate control, I’m not out in the street with them. Yet reading columns like this one by Chris Hedges reminds me what’s really going on. And, who knows what I’ll be willing to risk by next summer, when the square becomes exact.

Meanwhile, this Thanksgiving could spark ideological battles that challenge everyone’s comfort zones. The Sagittarius New Moon eclipse (Nov. 24 at 10:10 p.m., PST) coincides with Mercury turning retrograde. Mercury stations in fiery, opinionated Sagittarius, making it easy to take offense at perceived slights. Confrontations or miscommunications are likely, as this solar eclipse thrusts the sensitive, emotional Moon front and center. And, because the Sun and Moon square touchy Chiron and aggressive Mars, many a family gathering will be the site of old wounds revisited. Yet the New Moon also trines independent Uranus in Aries, encouraging us to forge our own path, (tactfully) express our opinions and stand up for freedom.

Sagittarius rules thankfulness as well as wide open spaces. This New Moon asks: Do you need to incorporate more time in nature into your life? How about a gratitude ritual on Thanksgiving before sitting down to eat, and then a hike afterwards? You may also find that playing a game dissolves any tensions. The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon’s degree, 3 Sagittarius, is “Two men playing chess; the transcendent ritualization of conflict.”

Mercury’s retrograde phase doubles its usual stay in Sagittarius (Mercury turns retrograde on Nov. 23, goes forward on Dec. 13, and remains in the Archer’s sign through Jan. 7.) During this time, examine what you stand for, what you believe in and what you’re willing to speak up for.  Write down the injustices that exist in your own life, or the world at large, and consider what you can do to improve things. Maybe you’re ready to “occupy” your town, and just need to connect with a supportive group. Or perhaps you’d rather write a letter to your local paper or speak out in a blog. Maybe, for you, it’s more about “occupying” your heart or severing ties with some aspect of your life that is no longer serving you.

Things are changing rapidly as we prepare to enter the momentous year of 2012. Where are you headed? Making a treasure map is a wonderful way to imagine a new future. Here’s an Astro Feng Shui ritual for the Sagittarius New Moon to inspire you. And, for an even more revealing roadmap to the year ahead, I’m offering all first-time or updated astrological readings for only $150 (reg. $175-$195) through the end of 2011. Contact me soon to set something up, or to order someone special a holiday gift they’ll never forget.

Last Monday I was driving to Sedona, grooving to James Brown’s funky beats, when flashing lights appeared in my rear view mirror. Yikes! How fast had I been going? At least 80, maybe more. Everybody zips along on this open stretch of highway between San Diego and Phoenix. Thank god I had just crossed into Arizona, where the cops tend to be friendlier. I was sent on my way with a warning.

Counting my blessings, I pondered the concept of slowing down. In our culture, fast is hip, cool and sexy. Slow is dull and boring. I didn’t want to be one of those fuddy-duddies in the slow lane. My Gemini Moon and Mars/Jupiter in Leo don’t have time to waste.  But I took a deep breath, set the cruise control and made it safely to my destination.

With Mercury and Venus traveling together in speedy Sagittarius this month, we may find ourselves rushing even more than usual. Yet a series of Neptunian aspects next week urges caution. On the 7^th, Mars opposes slippery Neptune, which is extra powerful as it prepares to station direct on the 9^th. And, on the 10^th, Chiron stations direct in Pisces at the Taurus Full Moon.  These aspects favor healing, revelations and sensual pleasure, but could also lead to inattention, sloppiness and accidents.

If, like me, you have trouble slowing down, consider the words of a yoga teacher whose class I took while visiting Sedona. When we move quickly, he said, we’re sending an anxious message to our bodies. But as we consciously slow down, the body starts to relax and know that all is well.

Enjoy this magical season, and stay safe!