April 7 - Washington, DC1
I am so happy. I just had a call from Sofia announcing that she is pregnant. I am going to have a grandchild!!!! The couple wanted to start a family. All is well!
Time to put on my astrological hat. I know Sofia’s natal chart by heart which made feel slightly apprehensive considering that the two houses that are relevant to children and childbirth present some challenges. The 5th house is where we look into circumstances around children and childbearing2 and the 8th house is where we look into transformational experiences. Becoming a mother is definitively one of them! The 8th house is also indicative of crisis.
Sofia has Moon in Cancer in the 5th house which translates into a great nurturing ability but she has also Saturn in the same house. This indicates possible impediments, difficulties, barriers to overcome in exactly the same theme of children and childbirth. In the 8th house she has a Sun and Uranus conjunction3. In the past this configuration has manifested by Sofia going from life (Sun) to a serious health crisis (8th house) with the suddenness that only Uranus represents. However, Spica, one of the great stars in the sky, is close to Sun and Uranus. Spica is in the constellation of Virgo, shining on the sheaf of wheat, representing the bountiful, the plentiful. The Romans believed Spica to be the goddess Ceres, the one that brings the gift of nourishment. A gift is symbolically good fortune because it is bestowed without effort.
“Mom, I have great news, I am pregnant!” still resonates in my ear and in my now very apprehensive heart as I start looking at what is going on in the skies around her due date of November 10.
I notice that on October 14 there will be a solar eclipse 2º away from the Sun, Uranus, Spica conjunction. Traditionally an eclipse is considered a bad omen. I have not found evidence that necessarily supports that but it is certainly something worth noting because after a period of darkness, a "new light is shed". This usually happens when the planet Mars activates by transit the eclipse degree. Mars will do exactly that on October 28.
That is very close to the due date….. Now I am nervous, anxious…. These are going to be very long months.
Oct. 28 - 4 am in Washington, DC, 9 am in London
I just received a call from Sofia… I am off to the airport. “Mom, I am at the hospital, I came for a scheduled appointment and the doctor will not let me leave. Maybe the baby is coming early.”
Oct 29 - London
7.00 am - Something is very wrong with Sofia, she is in horrible pain, the doctors are assembling a team and want to talk to us.
3.00 pm - In the morning Sofia’s body went on a shut down mode in a very rare syndrome that shows up unexpectedly4. We were told that her condition was extremely serious. The only option to save her life is a C section to be performed under the direst circumstance. This will put the baby at some risk. I am devastated.
My astrology has given me a deep connection between above and below, and I reach for this connection in the worst moment of my life. I concentrate my energy on the fixed star Spica, the provider of gifts and pray to the Goddess Ceres, the Great Mother of the skies. There is Grace in the Universe, there are Gifts in the Universe, there is Good in the Universe, Spica and the Goddess Ceres are my way of accessing them.
7.00 pm - Teddy is fine. I just gave him his first bottle. Sofia is still a bit out of it because she spent quite some time in the operating room under anesthesia. She is out of danger. After a moment of total darkness a new light is shed on our futures when she received the gift of life. This is also the best day of my life.
I do not believe that Spica actually interfered to save Sofia. Planets, stars do not actually “do” anything to the affairs of Men/Women. I believe cosmic bodies symbolically represent energies that mirror what goes in our psyche and in our environment. “As above, so below. As within, so without. As the Universe, so the Soul”5. The value of astrology is not to second guess what the Universe has planned for us but through the belief that we are One, with our god like powers to open ourselves to hope, healing, transformation.
1.These events happened in 2004
2.The full meanings of houses and planets are beyond the scope of this article. My analysis represents a partial interpretation
3.Technical astrological term meaning in close proximity
4.This syndrome is called HELLP
5.The Law of Correspondence is attributed to Hermes Trismegistus
©2009 Luiza Azancot This article was published in the Spring 2009 edition of Cape Healing Arts Magazine
