Stellarium

nice free software

The sea goat, or the story of Capricornus

Zodiak sign Capricornus  is strange creature half goat, half fish.
Sumerians and Babylonians had an affinity to amphibian entities.

Greeks called this constellation Pan. He usually spent his time chasing after women, and taking a nap. He loved to play pranks on mortals, frightening people with his loud shouts. (this is the origin of "panic")
One of his sons was Crotus, identified as the constellation Sagittarius.

Pan helped the gods against the Titans, he blew a conch shell to put the enemy to flight. Later he shouted a warning to the gods, that the monster Typhon, sent by Gaia (Mother Earth), was approaching. At his suggestion, the gods turned themselves to animals, to escape from Typhon. Pan took his refuge in a river, transforming his lower part of his body to a fish. Zeus fought with Typhon, but the monster pulled his sinews out of his body, leaving Zeus crippled.
Hermes and Pan replaced  the sinews, allowing Zeus his revenge. Typhon was cut down with thunderbolts and finally buried under Mount Etna.

13th zodiak sign: Ophiuchus, the snakecharmer

"Ophiuchus holds a huge snake, Serpens, in both hands as shown in the Atlas Coelestis of John Flamsteed. Serpens is unique in being divided into two halves." - which means that the Snakecharmer is himself divided in two.



The Greeks identified him as Asclepius, the god of medicine. Asclepius was the son of Apollo and Coronis.


In a rage of jealousy, Apollo shot Coronis with an arrow, because she slept with a mortal man. Rather than see his child die with her, Apollo snatched the unborn baby from its mother’s womb, as the flames of the funeral pyre engulfed her.


He took the infant to Chiron, the wise centaur (represented in the sky by the constellation Centaurus -in the Southern Hemisphere).

    Chiron raised Asclepius as his own son, teaching him the arts of healing and hunting. Asclepius became so skilled in medicine that not only could he save lives, he could also raise the dead.

In those days, in Crete, Glaucus, the young son of King Minos, fell into jar of honey and drowned. As Asclepius contemplated the body of Glaucus, a snake slithered towards it. He killed the snake with his staff; then another snake came along with a herb in its mouth and placed it on the body of the dead snake, which magically returned to life. Asclepius took the same herb and laid it on the body of Glaucus, who became alive.

Because of this incident Ophiuchus is shown in the sky holding a snake, which became the symbol of healing. Snakes shed their skin every year and are seemingly reborn.

Others, say that Asclepius received from the goddess Athene the blood of Medusa, the Gorgon. The blood that flowed from the veins on her left side was a poison, but the blood from the right side could raise the dead.

Some other legends tell that the Snakecharmer was Hippolytus, son of Theseus, who died when he was thrown from his chariot. Reaching for his healing herbs, Asclepius touched the youth’s chest three times, uttering healing words, and Hippolytus raised his head.

Hades, god of the Underworld, began to realize, that the flow of dead souls into his kingdom would soon stop, if this technique became widely known.
He complained to his brother, god Zeus, who struck down Asclepius with a thunderbolt. Apollo was outraged at this harsh treatment of his son.
To mollify Apollo, Zeus made Asclepius immortal (in the circumstances he could hardly bring him back to life again) and set him among the stars, as the Ophiuchus.
The head of Ophiuchus is marked by its brightest star, called Rasalhague, from the Arabic meaning ‘the head of the serpent collector’ (Alpha Ophiuchi).



Persian astrologists visualized a shepherd (the star Alpha Ophiuchi) along with his dog and some sheep in this area.

How can we interpret these old dusty stories?

First important thing is, that the serpent and its charmer are divided! Even in the greek legend of Asclepios receiving Medusa´s blood is the splitting the quintessence. Top-heavy or bottom-heavy, this is here the question...

The civilized and the brute part of human mind are these two halves, fighting about the right to live and to dominate. Usually one of them is neglected, angry and frustrated - getting more and more demonized. Actually, after decades of there regressive, repulsive forces, the main personality reaches the edge of defense. No further enhancement!

This is the time, when the body comes down with illness, pain and even psychical disorders.

And we keep going on with this splitted behaviour, whishing everything to function properly. WTF? All systems working on the edge, no more resources, defense is getting weak - and you still want to carry on the same way?

Perfect Enemy -opposites attract

We love and hate our enemies.

They help us to define who we are, and where our place is. And if we look closely - we are too similar, so we keep bumping into each other.

"I´m a living, breathing contadiction..." sang Everlast. Thanks for that wise sentence ;)

Devil´s eye

Analizing a birthchart, it is very important to look both ways! Or the next truck is going to catapult you into orbit. Always look what the opposite figure is doing.

Dealing with opposite sides is very important to understand, how the story will work out. Everybody need a favourite enemy... so everybody gets what he/she merrits or desires.

An exemplary opposite couple are: Taurus and Scorpius. They are fighting the war between light and the shadow - destruction and creation.

The old legend of Mithras shows, that the holy bull and the minion of the evil, skorpio are responsible for creation, their blood mixed formed all beeing matter.

Taurus is creating and preserving matter. He/she is a family man/woman. The head of family, deciding what is the best for everyone. Usualy he/she is a tireless worker and a fair person.

Nothing wrong with that - but...

There is a weakness! "Everything should stay the way it is! It not broken - so don´t fix it!" This is his credo. Actually, I could say that it is frantic belief.

His change-phobia is transforming him/her into a despotic ruthless person. The only cure were if he/she could face the greatest fear - the fear to die, the fear that something has to end, or to change - and they cannot controll it.

Facing the own shadows and demons smashes the familiar world, the familiar lies and the usual behaviour... It smashes everything.

Scorpius is made of these chaotic energies, making the Taurus shit in his pants. For this zodiak sign, nothing is worse than beeing stuck in a structured boring life, which is predictable from the begining to the end. This vision is horrifing for him.

Scorpius is an unusual person driven to chaos, destuction, shadows and the dark deep sides of a human soul. He instinctively understands death, transformation and its mighty power to regenerate.

This the gift of the dark side: "Everything changes, this is the only everlasting thing, the only truth, so embrace it."

For Scorpius it is a joy to search for mysteries, to look for details and to puzzle things out. His affinity to odd things is legendary, as well as his love of freedom. It is hard for him to put up with a boss, or any supervisor. An automatic feeling of superiority influences his behaviour. So noone is good enough - nothing is good enough...

the sun and the rising sign

Everyone, who is interested in astrology, knows, which zodiak sign is their own.

The main zodiak sign shows where the SUN actually is at the individual birthtime, on your birthday. This may be interpreted, as the inner psychic world of the individual. It is referring to your character and your mind.

And of course, there ist the ASCENDENT. It is the rising sign in the east, at your birth. This is the way others see you, the way you behave with others, this is the way the world sees you. It also refers to your own picture of yourself.

Well, of course, if I want to be accurate, I have to tell you, that in truth, there are 13 zodiak signs - not 12. Modern astrology uses 12, it is much easier to calculate with. But it is not the way our sky really looks like.

Now you may ask, what´s the point?

If it is only a virtual sky, with so much inexactness, what´s all about?

Good question! Do you have an answer?

We try to give our lives sense - that´s all. We have fate, we have purpose, we have meaning. And still, there is something more... or just wishful thinking?

Well, at least you should know, that everything is virtual.

I mean not the internet, and not the tv, or cell phone calls. I mean the world we see, the thoughts we have, the dreams we dream.

Human brain works virtually. It cannot tell the difference between the thought of the taste of your favourite cake, and the real taste you sense on your tongue. To the brain, it doesn´t matter, if you think of pain and really feeling pain.

But I´m not here to tell you that!

Anyway, the virtual sky is used to perdict, your reactions on any situation, that will occur...

Truth & beauty

I´ve met several people born in the zodiak sign of libra. Venus, the goddess of love, dominates them.
So, guess what is the most important for them - naturally: love, beauty, harmony!

Love ist their elixier - they desire it so much, that they will do almost anything for it. Libras have a natural sense for aesthetic and beauty. They are entirely addicted to harmony, in every area of life.

Using their senses and instincts, they become great artists, with an exquisite, fancy taste. They are great conversationalists. It is a pleasure to spend time with them.

Unfortunately, if anything goes wrong in their lives, they will lose their great sense for beauty, and lapse into kitsch.

Somehow, those with a wounded venus (this means, that the venus in the birthchart is attacked by any other planets - or that it has no connections with other planets) get the fuzzy end of the lollipop. They never find Mr or Mrs Right.
For them, a relationship is always trap, cause they give themselves up, for the sake of harmony. Or it may be the other way round, they are too dominant, expecting the partner to give his/her identity up, to have no opposed opinion.
For Libras, relationship easily becomes a field of rivality and competition: Who has to back down? Who is the "decider"?

If you let a libra choose between truth and and harmony, he will pick harmony...