Even though I have been messing with astrology for about 32 years, there's always been some fraction of me that has held back, reserved judgment, didn't 100 percent believe. I think some of that is just that I was really just holding back on myself.

Currently I'm in a really critical time period. Nothing terrible is happening to me, don't get me wrong, but I'm in a state of flux that is different in that this time I'm really *aware* of it. Once you really *get* it, it all seems to fall into place in a way that is just bizarre, for lack of a better word. It's kind of like a plug that wasn't fully seated in the outlet? it connects but buzzes and fuzzes, and then you shove it in and then there is FULL current, and the power is *on.* Strange, synchronistic things happen.

It's scary. And awe-inspiring. And I still half don't believe it, but more from a position of wonderment than skepticism.

Does this make sense? I had a weird weekend, a very emotional Sunday, and am pretty sure I lost my marbles temporarily. I'm so not a crier but I cried a lot. 

Saturn's conjunct my ascendant, south node and Pluto -- and sesquiquadrate my natal Saturn -- exact tomorrow and all this stuff that Elsa's been talking about is hitting my stuff in the keister. Pluto's still working on me from the 4th. Uranus is crisscrossing my descendant. My entire life plans have done a 180 degree turn in the past month. I hardly know who I am anymore. My plans now involve things that sound so nuts as to be unutterable, either here or elsewhere. But I feel I can do them. Things I doubted before? Now I *know.*

I've noticed this kind of energy bouncing around here for other people too, lately. I vote for one of Elsa's famous ass checks sometime in the next 14 days, make sure we're all here and getting through this, er, interesting time.

You know, I've been reading about but not putting any serious effort into astrology for the past several years.

And today.  TODAY I had this moment:

video link

(Embedding didn't like me today)

This goes here and that goes there and when they fit together like this, THAT happens, and ..... ok!  The bolts all dropped at once.

Thanks Elsa.  It's only because you posted something interesting on Xanga back in the day that I even started really getting into this.  <3

Astrology hit me when I discovered Elsa :)

When I figured out there was a Moon sign and a Rising sign. This was about 2004 or so!

It wasn't until about 6 months ago when I read the description for Pluto aspects (to my sun, asc, moon, venus, etc) that everything just *clicked*. So I guess just my increasing attraction to the detail of it all has sealed it for me. To say that I was just a sun sign Cancer or a cusp Gem/Can never scratched the surface, and while finding out my moon and asc helped, I knew that there was still something missing. Now I've found it and for better or worse I'm committed to this cosmic system.

*laughs* Yeah I hate to admit it but fairly recently since I am fairly young to be so eager to try and do things with Astrology-

 *clears throat* It was last May (08) and I studied it... hours everyday after coming back from the hospital-

 After getting off my backbrace I felt free and wanted to test myself (my memory, I've always been OCD with that)- I would study for hours, as if I was at school and began to go to astro.com's forum-

 I fell in love with interpreting my own chart and began to interpret others and... after a while it felt really rewarding- I asked millions of questions and I'm sure I got on a lot of people's nerves with being a "naive beginner" but I am glad for the experience-

I've found that most people have jobs/careers/lives when they learn but not for me- I was alone in bed/on the couch/online seeking knowledge of the stars. 

 I was so determined and wouldn't take no and not understanding for an answer so I would stare and stare at chart after charts, trying to "feel" them out-- I think all those hours, days, weeks and months of intensely studying paid off though because now I have a fairly good understanding of them-

 Being in my 20's I have so many more years ahead to experience life and learn more astrology and I'm eager for what the ride may bring. 

in 1976, my relationship was on the rocks.  I had taken some astrology classes, and I had subscribed to one of the first computer generated daily horoscope services. I got bored with reading the printout, but unbeknown to me, my boyfriend was reading it.

One day i came to work and the gals in the office said, "we saw your boyfriend with another girl" I was really upset and asked him "WHY DIDn'T YOU TELL ME?" his response: "I thought you knew, it was in your daily horoscope.  "   Sure enough, it was in there!

for me, it was when i started reading about pluto and my twelfth house sun, saturn and jupiter.

I have been reading astrology since I can remember, but it was only to keep my interest with heavenly bodies and the myths behind them. It was only in the beginning of 2008 when I had a terrible premonition about myself, that I took astrology seriously. My intent was to soften the blow ahead of the road for me. I knew that something real bad will happen to me and I want to somehow "control" its outcome and cushion my fall. So the last year and a half had been more like firefighting and damage control activities for me.

I began to seriously think that the events of my life can be explained mathematically. There has to be a pattern. So I looked for answers in astrology and so far so good. It has given me answers far more than I expected. In fact, it is putting lamppost on my road ahead.

Very, very personally rewarding so far. 

Probably like a lot of people, astrology clicked for me when I finally took the time to investigate my chart in full.  I knew I was a sun sign Libra, but the description of the Libra person didn't quite do the job.  All that stuff about being diplomatic.  I certainly make an effort at diplomacy, but I also have a really persistent impatient streak (it's getting mellower as I age).  Oh, I'm laid back, but not laid back like a lot of people, and certainly not as docile as Libras are supposed to be.  So it all came together when I saw that my moon is in fire, my mars is in fire, my jupiter is in fire, and my saturn is in fire.  Plus, the house placements and the descriptions of the conjunctions are on the money.  The other thing I like about astrology is the symbolic language and the mystical path, not unlike the Tarot.  To some extent, then, it's the search for truth that has me hooked. 

Two Words:

Saturn Return.

I agree with you, citygirl. I was seeing a therapist during my saturn return who recommended I get my chart done. Before that, I hadn't really known much about astrology except for sun sign stuff.

Saturn was transiting my 12th house and hitting my natal Saturn, Sun, and Mercury over a period of time. I think once I started reading about experiencing your whole chart, that was when it hit home for me.

The most helpful thing about it was that it showed me that I'm not crazy just because my emotions have little relation to what's going on in the outside world sometimes. That there isn't always a rational 'reason.' That helped alleviate a lot of the self hatred I had felt before then, because I was taught that feelings are concrete, and mine are anything but, sometimes.

it was from reading elsa's old blog that it started to sink in. i didn't even characterize myself as interested any anything metaphysical at the time (although i'd dabbled in my younger years). that was maybe 5 years ago? i thought it was all a bunch of wishful thinking hocus-pocus.

i used to skim over allllllll the planetary references and just read the story part of posts. snort! then it snuck in, little by little, and i started to connect the dots when it was always on target. i'd check this or that aspect in my own chart. elsa did a solar return reading for me several years ago and bam - she nailed who it to the wall with a flourish.

i remember when i read the "miracle healing" story on the old blog. initally, i'd thought the old blog must be true life, but when i read that, I thought, "Wait a minute. Those kind of things don't happen." I was confused for a while until Elsa started specifying her stories were true and including a few photos. I realized the stories weren't a clever literary device, and this chick was for real and it challenged my preconceived perceptions dramatically.

in fact, opening my mind up and putting my own truth on the line as i see it beyond what others might think has been a specific gift i've gotten from elsa's work.  that's a BIG one, man...

Thank you, goddess. :)

Neva....I hear you!!  I also have Saturn crossing my Ascendant (my ASC at 2 degrees Libra) and there is ole Pluto on the IC in 4th house.  Life feels VERY different.

I've believed in astrology since I first learned of it...I guess as young teen.  Not sure if I knew about it as a child...I just don't remember my first encounter.   But it HIT home in the biggest way with my first reading with ELSA not too many months ago.   Suddenly my pain wrapped up with my 7th house impestuous Venus in Aries ...always squaring and jarring with my Saturn in CAP....well, I saw the 'script' of my life and loves floating in front of me with such clarity  for the first time.  I had the reading just before a vacation and spent a lot of time in the pool swimming and crying under the water (...true to Pisces)  I realized that all those years when I wondered why my life was not turning out like my sister or star-blessed trined (and otherwise) friends....was....well, it was written.  It has been a life of blessings and burdens, but my life to live and come to terms with.  And I thought .... thank god I lived to this age (48) to really begin to understand astrology.....imagine not knowing this.

So I guess this is the way I'm approaching  this somewhat monumental  Saturn sq. Pluto....and on the angles.... it's my life....I want to live it and simulataneously transcend it.  Astrology brings this home, now more than ever.

OK ... sorry, I was waxing poetic....fish tales !! 

It didn't. I just find it to be another lens through which I can look at myself, like a personality test or something. It's definitely just as useful.

When did astrology really hit home for you?

When I applied it to a (criminal) situation that had been playing out over many decades, involving many players, but had never "burst" (of its own) or been busted... until ~I~ came along.

Looking at all the charts involved (including mine) spelled out "why me", why ~I~ was the agent of exposure, and what all the other parties' parts were, and why.

Even the "victim", who knew nothing about astrology and was not a believer until then, dropped her jaw and "saw it all", clear as spring water.

That "case" was a turning point in my own development as an astrologer.

Some time after Saturn Return.

Goddess, what you said about Elsa "it snuck in, little by little, and i started to connect the dots when it was always on target. i'd check this or that aspect in my own chart" is something that has made a major positive difference for me, too.  Through osmosis the astrology began to make sense!

I've used astrology and other cosmic windows most of my life; but the details of the craft was out of my reach.  When I found Elsa's blog a year ago astrology in real life starting talking a language I could understand.  The aspects, houses, transits made sense through her stories.  I relate to story ... I was raised on stories.  Finding Elsa's blog and reading the comments from people fleshed out a theory of looking at life; and then I began to speak up on the blog.  Little by little I could add the astrology of things to my real life.  At a very crucial time in my life, I found astrology to be a way to look at my choices.  Building upon Elsa's stories, I am better able to understand and feel my way through the Houses, and appreciate the Moon to my Sun ... on and on.

Elsa storys (like creates) real life astrology and then I can get how it works/doesn't work because of the sky at work/play/war.  At this later stage of my life, I appreciate astrology as a navigation tool.   

My brother gave me an astrology book with software for xmas one year (10? years ago) and I was shocked, surprised and delighted (he is aquarius with a lot of scorpio and he always gives me fantastic gifts). The rest has been little by little with periods of Aha! brilliance and depressing plateaus and seas of confusion, but its all growth, i think.

Astrology made sense for me when I saw my first computer generated chart.  My sister did my natal chart for me and handed me several books a little later.  I'd tried several decades earlier to make my own chart and couldn't quite decide where my moon was.   The moon changed signs on my birthday.  The book I was reading said to read both signs and decide.  NOT to offend anyone, but I thought Cancer was too mushy and Leo too arrogant.  It turns out my moon is in the last few degrees of Cancer.  After reading some more, I've learned that Cancer fits.  

I'm a hobbiest only.   I've learned a lot by looking at the charts of my family members.