The Stonewall Chart

The following article originally appeared in The Mountain Astrologer, Feb./Mar. 2005. It is the first in-depth exploration of the significance of the gay/queer movement as indicated by an analysis of the Stonewall event chart that has been published by the world's leading journal for professional astrologers.

An Astrological View of Gay Spirit

by Joe Perez

According to a Harris Poll conducted in 2003, 31 percent of the public believes in astrology. If so many people believe that astrology can predict personality, it’s worth asking whether homosexuality is a fate written in the stars.

Webster’s dictionary says that astrology is “the divination of the supposed influences of the stars and planets on human affairs and terrestrial events by their positions and aspects.” Today, many astrologers claim only that the movements of celestial bodies describe or symbolize the events of human life and do not say that they “influence” us or cause things to happen to us.

Few astrologers believe that sex or sexual orientation can be predicted on the basis of a birth chart alone. However, a generation ago, some claimed that homosexuality was evidence of a poor response to a hard aspect to Venus, a prominent positioning of Uranus, or some other “malefic influence.”

Many astrologers believe that there is no one “gay signature” in a birth chart but that there are a variety of astrological factors that can indicate a predisposition toward homosexuality. There has never been a comprehensive study of homosexuality in birth charts, so there’s no hard evidence regarding exactly what this signature might be. Even though sexual orientation may not be predictable from the birth chart, some schools of astrology maintain that the chart can help us to understand the universal spiritual lessons we are here to learn through our homosexuality.

The evolutionary school of astrology asserts that souls reincarnate; it looks at the birth chart as an indicator of the soul’s karma and dharma. [1] In other words, astrology is a tool for looking at the leftover spiritual lessons from past lives and the soul’s ongoing work in this lifetime. Evolutionary astrology doesn’t claim that people choose to be gay but, rather, that our souls have chosen homosexuality (along with our other personality traits and characteristics). Why would a soul choose to be gay? Quite simply because our souls have spiritual lessons to learn that can’t be learned any other way.

Dan Keusal is a professional evolutionary astrologer and counselor in private practice in Seattle, Washington. Before I became an astrologer, I went to Dan for an astrology reading, and I confessed to being a skeptic. I told him that most of what I knew about astrology came from occasionally reading news-paper horoscopes for amusement.

“I agree with you. That kind of astrology is pretty silly,” Dan said. “You pick up the newspaper today, and all 30 million Libras in the world are supposedly going to have the same experience.”

Dan explained the principles of evolutionary astrology; then he said he would tell me a story that could help me to understand my birth chart. But first, he wanted to be respectful of my spiritual beliefs, so he asked if I was comfortable imagining that my soul may have had past lives. I said I didn’t know what to think about reincarnation, but I was open to that possibility. Then he offered me this story:

I want you to imagine that it’s September 3, 1969. It’s about six in the evening, about two hours before you’ll be born. You’re up on the cosmic diving board with God. Moses Lake, Washington, is rolling beneath you, about to become part of your biography.

God turns to you and says, “Joe, I want you to know that I love you ... And I’ve got some pretty clear ideas, as you’re getting ready to go down and incarnate as Joe Perez — ideas about the next steps your soul needs to take in its growth ... That is to say, what kind of people, experiences, dilemmas, and events will keep you more engaged, more alive. And which choices you could make that will take you off track. What’s more, you have the freedom to choose which of these possibilities come to pass.”

Then God says, “There’s something else. Once you’re born, you’ll forget everything I’m about to tell you. That’s not so bad ... This wisdom will show up in this life as your intuition. For instance, if you were a nun in a past life, maybe you learned about service, prayer, and denial, but this time you’re going down with a healthy libido that you can’t quite deny anymore."

With that, the chart reading began.

Later, I walked out of the astrologer’s office. Dan’s style of astrology is evolutionary, not traditional, so he ventured no predictions about my sexual orientation.

I didn’t “believe” in astrology going into that reading, and in a sense, I still don’t. The astrology reading required no blind leap of faith, because it simply worked. It accurately described the central questions that I’ve been wrestling with on my spiritual journey. Most of all, it inspired me to face life’s challenges with renewed vitality and hope.

I agree with something that gay astrologer Ed Steinbrecher once said: “I don’t believe in astrology. I use astrology and find it works. The same way I don’t believe in electricity, but if there’s juice in the wires and I flip a switch, something happens.”

The Stonewall Chart

“In our spirituality, we reach for consciousness, awareness, and the highest values; in our soulfulness, we endure the most pleasurable and the most exhausting of human experiences and emotions. These two directions make up the fundamental pulse of human life ...” — Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul

In the history of spirituality, there are two main currents for defining the goal of life. The ascending current sees life as directed toward an otherworldly reality and exalted state of consciousness. The descending current views life as directed toward this Earth, this body, and the details of ordinary existence. Spirit describes our ascending impulse, whereas soul describes our impulse to descend.

Today, it is commonly believed that spirit and soul are strictly individual and personal realities. Other philosophies suggest that spirit and soul are also found in things, places, and communities; those are the philosophies that will guide this inquiry into the spirit and soul of contemporary gay life.

The night sky offers a poetic view of our spirit and soul. Astrology is the applied poetics of the night sky, a way of interpreting the sky’s symbolism that transcends the theories and prejudices of any one person or even the dominant cultural myths. Astrology is rooted in nature itself and grounded in ancient traditions from many cultures, such as Babylon, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and Mesoamerica.

As a gay man and a writer with a strong interest in queer spirituality, I have wondered what astrology has to say about the spirit and soul of the gay community. How does astrology shed light on our collective ethos, group personality, or communal character?

To answer this question, you need to start with a birth chart. Finding a chart for the gay community was not difficult. One event is widely heralded as the defining moment of the modern gay liberation movement in the United States. That event is the uprising at the Stonewall Inn tavern in New York City on June 28, 1969.

At that time, bars were virtually the only public gathering places for gays and lesbians, and it was common for police to raid the bars and haul their patrons off to jail. Not only were the clientele subject to bogus charges of indecency, but their names were often published in newspapers as a result. On that particular night, patrons at the Stonewall Inn fought back; according to one legend, a drag queen started swinging at a policeman who had prodded him with a nightstick. To this day, Gay Pride parades are held each year in cities throughout the world at the end of June, to mark this historic event. In June 2004, the queer community celebrated the 35th anniversary of Stonewall.

When casting a chart for an event, there is always room for argument over details such as the critical time of birth. Fortunately, in the case of the Stonewall uprising, there is a clear record of an approximate time: The New York Times of June 29, 1969, reported that the “rampage” began “shortly after 3 a.m.” Dermod Moore selected 3:10 a.m. for the Stonewall chart in his essay, “Reflections on Ganymede,” published in the April 1999 issue of Apollon: The Journal of Psychological Astrology. In light of the New York Times reporting, Moore’s precedent, and my own astrological analysis, I have set 3:10 a.m. as the moment of inception of the Stonewall uprising (see Chart).

The Mask and the Social Role

In spiritual astrology, the sort of astrology that I practice, planets are correlated to functions of the psyche or collective character, and the twelve signs of the zodiac are linked to archetypal strategies for spiritual development. The Ascendant and the Midheaven, respectively, describe the mask and the social role of the gay community. In the Stonewall chart, Gemini is rising in the sky; Mercury, ruler of Gemini, is in the 1st house. Aquarius is on the Midheaven; Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, is in Libra in the 5th house. Venus, ruler of Libra, is in Taurus in the 12th house.

The Stonewall chart suggests that the mask (or surface personality) of the gay community is described by the sign of the Twins, an instance of the archetypal Double. The Twins depict paired sameness. In Gay Soul, Jungian psychologist Mitch Walker tells us that the archetype of the Same includes homoerotic dimensions: “an image of reflecting selfness, but a paradox of similarities and differences together in an erotically yearning, intense way that’s hard for us to talk about, especially if we’re raised in male/female ways of thinking.” [2]

The 1st house, like the Ascendant, describes personality and style. With Mercury, Gemini’s ruler, in this place in the Stonewall chart, the queer image becomes dramatically “mercurial.” Roget’s Thesaurus lists 22 synonyms for mercurial, including these: active, bubbleheaded, buoyant, capricious, changeable, effervescent, erratic, expansive, fickle, flaky, flighty, flip, fluctuating, gay, impulsive, inconstant, irrepressible, light-hearted, lively, resilient, spirited, sprightly, ticklish, unpredictable, unstable, volatile. Picture the mannerisms of the character Jack on TV’s Will & Grace: He is what you would call mercurial.

It seems that the association between “gay” and “mercurial” is so close, the two words are actually synonyms! Mercury is not only given prominence by virtue of its location in the 1st house, but also because that planet is the ruler of the Ascendant. It is, therefore, the chart ruler, a focalizing planet whose energy permeates everything else in the chart. It is interesting to note in this connection that, according to The Astrology Encyclopedia: “Traditionally, most planets and signs were designated as either masculine or feminine. Mercury was the only planet in pre-modern astrology that was said to be neutral or androgynous. In contemporary astrology, Uranus has also come to be regarded as an androgynous planet.” [3]

Astrology indicates that the social role (Midheaven) of the gay community is described by the sign of Aquarius, symbol of the outsider, rebel, or exile. Aquarius is also said to be the traditional ruler of homosexuality. [4] The status of homosexuals as outsiders can be a source of alienation, but it can also be a boon to both gays and society at large. Gays can aid society’s self-understanding by witnessing to an alternative way of being and challenging erroneous assumptions about gender roles and sexuality.

The Stonewall chart tells us not only that gays of the Stonewall era will not fit into conventional society, but also exactly how we will individuate. The position of Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, in the 5th house suggests that we will be different by virtue of how we seek joy and pleasure — including the territories of love, romance, and the raising of children.

Furthermore, by marching to the beat of our own drummer, gays will be motivated by Libran aims (Uranus is in Libra): seeking beauty and harmony by initiating relationships between equal partners. In an even wider perspective, our social role will be to bring into conventional society certain aspects of sensuality and self-directed pleasuring (Venus, ruler of Libra, is in Taurus) that have hitherto been largely repressed and unconscious in our culture (Venus is in the12th house, the location of the collective unconscious).

The two planets with the most prominence in the Stonewall chart, Mercury and Uranus, are also the only two planets characterized as androgynous. This androgyny should be understood to infuse all other planets and may color our interpretation of them. James Broughton, the artist, filmmaker, and writer, says in Gay Soul: “Androgyny is … the mystery of the total self … The most androgynous men, whatever their sexual preference, embody the sturdiest gay spirit. What could give all men liberation and depth would be realization that their souls include all the reaches of human possibility.” [5]

In mythology, there is a close relationship between “spirit” and “fire.” I see the spirit of the gay community as described primarily by the planets that rule the fire signs Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. For this reason, I call Mars, the Sun, and Jupiter the “fire planets” (or “spirit planets”) and note that they represent the spirit in its passion, enthusiasm, and desire for scaling the heights of all values and possibilities.

Among the four elements of astrology, water has the closest connection to the soul. Therefore, I see the soul of the gay community as described primarily by the planets associated with the water signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. I call the Moon, Pluto, and Neptune the “water planets” (or “soul planets”) and note that they represent the soul in all its emotionality, depth, and sacredness; they show our capacity to endure both the pleasures and the agonies of life.

Now, let’s look at the planets describing gay spirit and gay soul. By examining the signs that rule the fate and opportunities of the gay movement, we can understand its path to growth and development; by examining the houses, we can see which spheres of life dominate our outlook; and by studying the plan-etary rulers, we can probe the applying subtexts and motivations for the actions and identity of the gay movement.

Gay Spirit

Mars represents the energy, desire, power, enthusiasm, and libido of the gay community. At the time the Stonewall riots began, Mars was retrograde in Sagittarius in the 7th house; Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, was in Virgo in the 5th house.

The power and libido of the gay community come into being with a significant challenge. Mars retrograde suggests that the gay community is learning to reclaim power that it has renounced or that has been wrested away through oppression. Gay power and libido are most fully expressed in the 7th house, the sphere of life associated with enduring, long-term relationships between equal partners such as spouses. In our will to form relationships, we are expressing desires springing from the 5th house (joy, playfulness, romance, and love).

Mars is linked mythologically to the God of War. Where Mars appears in a birth chart, a battle must be fought before spirit can be fully initiated. Mars indicates the location of the battle and the optimal weapons of warfare. When the patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back against the police, they started a battle that encompasses nothing less than the right of all gay people to initiate our own relationships and marriages.

The optimal weapons in this fight are Sagittarian: that is, we must seek to expand the consciousness of society in the area of marriage and relationships. Our community’s most critical battle is to transform ideas of relationship in the territory of philosophy, religion, and belief systems.

The Sun describes the spirit of the gay community in the fullness of its vitality. At the birth of the gay community, the Sun was in Cancer in the 2nd house; the Moon, ruler of Cancer, was in Sagittarius in the 7th house. Astrologically speaking, the vitality of the gay community is fully expressed only when we realize healthy self-esteem (pride). The Sun is in the house of money. From a spiritual perspective, the central task of the 2nd house is the formation of a sense of self-worth — in other words, Gay Pride. To recognize our fullest value, we must fulfill desires springing from the 7th house — that is, we must successfully establish nurturing, stable, and loving intimate, long-term relationships (Moon in the 7th house).

The Stonewall chart suggests that the spirit of the gay community comes into being with serious questions about our own worth. This challenge is connected to our relationships with authority (Sun sextile Saturn) and the primal wound of alienation from community (Sun square Chiron in the 11th house). This hard aspect to Chiron indicates that heterosexism and homophobia pose a challenge to the gay community’s sense of pride. [6] Our response to that challenge is depicted by Cancer, sign of the hard-shelled crab. Cancer seeks to shed its hardened emotional defenses (the crab’s shell) by attaining inner emotional security, so it can feel comfortable giving and receiving love. The crab’s shell is like the closet in which we have been hiding, a protective psychological defense mechanism that restricts the formation of healthy self-esteem. By shedding the shell, or coming out of the closet, gays are learning how to reveal our heart and soul in an unwelcoming and sometimes hostile world.

Jupiter describes the gay community’s capacity for expanding consciousness by trusting in the meaningfulness of life. At the inception of the gay liberation movement, Jupiter was in Virgo in the 5th house. The Stonewall chart says that the gay community’s capacity for trust is most fully needed (and tested) in the 5th house, the house of children. As we learn to have faith in the ultimate meaningfulness of everything that happens, we grow closer to Spirit, the Source of all. Gays come into the world with a sexual orientation that does not lend itself to the conventional means of sexual reproduction. Gays are learning to trust the mysteries of life not by begetting children, but by being more childlike ourselves. Indeed, the 5th house is connected not only with children but, literally, with “gaiety” — finding joy in creative self-expression, love affairs, and frivolous romance.

With Jupiter in Virgo, the first step down the road to self-acceptance could very well be a humbling one. We may judge ourselves harshly for not living up to conventional standards. From a spiritual point of view, we are learning to trust that our own romantic and creative yearnings are perfect exactly as they are. Gay Soul

The Moon describes the attachments and emotional needs of the gay community. In the Stonewall chart, the Moon is in Sagittarius in the 7th house; Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, is in Virgo in the 5th house. The emotional needs and yearnings of the gay community are directed primarily toward long-term, enduring relationships and partnerships. The 7th house of marriage is the critical territory, therefore, for sparking both gay spirit and gay soul.

Emotional comfort and satisfaction for gays depend upon demanding our right to have relationships with whomever we choose (Mars) and entering into nurturing, safe, and stable partnerships. The critical resource for achieving this aim is represented by Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius: trust and belief in the truth of our own intuitive knowledge regarding love and romance.

Pluto describes the deepest and darkest dimensions of the gay community’s soul. As the Stonewall uprising began, Pluto was in Virgo in the 5th house; Mercury, ruler of Virgo, was in the 1st house. The Stonewall chart suggests that the soul of the gay community is profoundly linked to attachments, wounds, and shadows in the 5th house. As previously noted, one way to interpret this is that the gay community’s deepest wound (Pluto) is in the area of sexual fecundity. [7]According to the Astrology Encyclopedia mentioned earlier, certain astrological markers traditionally associated with barrenness can indicate sterility when they are placed on the cusp of the 5th house. Virgo is one of the three signs (along with Gemini and Leo), and it is on the 5th-house cusp in the Stonewall chart.

Gay soul is deeply attached to an abundant procreative impulse, but not necessarily of the heterosexual kind (the begetting of children). Gay soul is driven to direct our procreative energy into acts of full creative self-expression: art, acting, music, writing, entertaining, playful merrymaking, or passionate love affairs. Virgo on the 5th-house cusp can be taken as not only a sign of barrenness, but also a description of the spiritual aim of our creative endeavors: the perfection of joy.

Mercury in the 1st house suggests that full self-expression for gays requires great courage, to realize the union of our desires and our actions. It is also worth noting that, with Leo on the cusp of the 4th house — the territory of heritage and deep family roots — honoring gay history and ancestors can be a vital part of our creative self-expression. The original definition of “gay” was “merriness and high-spiritedness”; however, the Stonewall chart indicates that gaiety is not a birthright for homosexuals, but our task and our mission.

With Pluto in the 5th house, we face the risk of becoming stuck in an immature form of the pleasure principle: the promiscuity and debauchery of the eternal adolescent. And there’s also the dark possibility of severe psychological repression and attempts to restrict our pleasures, thus we become so bogged down in harsh self-judgment that we deny our own gay erotic impulses.

Neptune describes the capacity of gays to dissolve the ego by surrendering to the profound mysteries that surround us. As we learn to transcend the ego, consciousness enters the realm of spirit. When the gay movement began, Neptune was in Scorpio in the 6th house.

The capacity of gays for transcending the ego can be fully realized by fulfilling our duty and performing concrete, selfless acts of service for others. In the history of the gay movement, the most striking example of this selflessness may be the compassionate response of millions of gays to the massive death and suffering resulting from the AIDS epidemic. Gays were a powerful force behind the creation of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, one of the most profound and moving memorials erected in the 20th century.

In the symbolism of the Stonewall chart, suffering and gay spirituality are profoundly connected. Both Venus and Saturn make their homes in the 12th house, traditionally known as the house of sorrow from self-undoing. This house is linked to disease, poverty, and every sort of misfortune. With Aries on the 12th-house cusp, there is a connection between reclaiming gay spirit (Mars) and creating the opportunity for the growth of our capacity for compassion through diseases such as AIDS.

Neptune is a symbol of the divine or the holy. Experiences of a Scorpionic nature may be especially suitable for teaching the gay community about the sacred dimensions of life; this includes learning about the divine through sacred sexuality and other Tan-tric mysteries. Yet, there is a great potential shadow: If we make poor and irresponsible choices, then sex and drug addictions — distorted attempts to embrace the divine mysteries — are a definite possibility.

With Venus in the 12th house, we see a link between Venus, mysticism, and our impulse to love. According to the Stonewall chart, gay love, self-pleasuring, and same-sex attraction (Venus in Taurus) have been repressed in the collective unconscious. When gays express sexuality within the context of a loving relationship as part of a social order of service to others (Neptune in Scorpio in the 6th house), the connection between sex and mystical or spiritual experience is significantly heightened. The Sabian Symbol

The Sabian symbols are psychically derived esoteric symbols that are traditionally associated with the meanings of specific degrees of the zodiac. [8] In the Stonewall chart, the Sun at 7° Cancer is represented by this Sabian symbol:

“In a moonlit fairy glade two little elves are dancing. Man’s recognition of the elusive play of underlying forces in nature. Cooperation with the invisible. Unusual good luck.” [9]

It seems noteworthy that the Sabian symbol linked to the core identity and spirit of the gay movement is an instance of the archetypal Double: a pair of dancing elves. Thus, this archetype appears in the Stonewall chart in three very prominent locations: the sign on the Ascendant (Gemini), the sign of the chart’s planetary ruler (Mercury in Gemini), and the Sabian symbol for the Sun. The image of the two dancing elves is linked with “unusual good luck,” says Dane Rudhyar, but this luck is recognizable only when human beings are moving in harmony with the underlying, invisible forces of nature or evolution. Goals of Gay Spirituality

The Stonewall chart reveals numerous themes that, taken together, announce the particular character of the gay community’s spiritual work:

• Fighting for the right to form intimate relationships and marriages
• Reclaiming our libido and expressing our romantic drives in committed and enduring partnerships
• Expanding the ideas, religions, and philosophies of our societies in the area of relationships
• Healing shame, homophobia, and heterosexism in our lives and our societies
• Building a healthy sense of self-esteem and pride
• Overcoming a victimizing sense of alienation and separateness from society
• Coming out of the closet by shedding unnecessary emotional defenses
• Believing in the meaningfulness of life despite a lack of fecundity in our same-sex expressions
• Learning to relax and enjoy our gaiety, playfulness, and childlike energy
• Fully accepting that our own erotic desires are perfect exactly as they are
• Initiating nurturing, stable, and life-affirming intimate relationships
• Trusting our innate intuitive knowledge regarding love and romance
• Channeling our procreative energies into art, playfulness, and passionate love affairs
• Examining shadows of unhealthy self-denial or sensual debauchery
• Performing altruistic, compassionate acts of service to others in need
• Embracing suffering and pain as a part of life and memorializing our grief
• Holding on to memories of the departed and honoring the histories that give us our roots
• Bringing forth Venusian energies from the collective unconscious, especially same-sex love and sensuality
• Connecting our sexual expressions with loving relationships and intimacy
• Facing and reclaiming our shadows around sexuality, death, and the taboo surrounding homosexuality.

Spirituality and soulful expression are two sides of the coin of life, so it’s possible to achieve happiness and personal growth regardless of whether life tosses us heads or tails. In fact, there are so many possible ways of growing that it’s helpful to have a single, overarching goal in mind — a vision of our destiny — to guide and inspire us not only as individuals, but also as a united lesbian, gay, and queer community.

The Destiny of the Gay Movement

For many astrologers, the South Node of the Moon represents the soul’s evolutionary past (karma), and the North Node, the soul’s future direction. In this view, the North Node forms a specific picture of our highest and final spiritual destiny. In the Stonewall chart, the North Node (defining the overarching goal of the gay community) is in Pisces — the sign of the Mystic — in the house of friendship.

Pisces is connected with the archetypes of the mystic and the poet. The ultimate aim for the gay movement is to form a community of friends based on spiritual self-awareness, which supports and affirms individuality and diversity. Moreover, we are seeking our own personal freedom, and by doing so, we find that we share a common spiritual destiny with each other. The 11th house is linked to friendship, social activism, and forming communities of like-minded individuals.

Through the processes of building relationships and a sense of kinship, we are also coming to understand the nature of divinity (Pisces). Specifically, we are learning to see the sacred reflected in our friendships and in the entire lesbian and gay community. The Stonewall chart suggests nothing less than this: The queer colors of the divine itself are being revealed to us through the rainbow-hued diversity of our loves, sexuality, and connectedness.

Conclusion

In this essay about gay spirit and gay soul, I have presented many ideas about who gay people are and why we’re here. Certainly, some aspects of this interpretation are subjective, for they reflect the methodologies I have been taught and reveal only the messages that I am able to see at this time, given my current state of consciousness and knowledge of astrology. However, I believe that any competent astrologer trained in the methods of spiritual astrology would likely come to an interpretation that shared the same essential themes.

In closing, I want to stress that these are not merely my own pet theories, nor just a collection of the best insights from queer spiritual gurus or religious leaders. This is not an “invented mythology.” Rather, this is a poem or vision of gayness discovered in nature itself, readily apparent for all to witness and interpret. The existence of such a vision lends support to a vision of astrology as a window onto the soul of a developing world — and the gay movement itself as an unfolding stage in the evolution of Spirit or World Soul toward greater degrees of liberation.

The basis of this reading is not only a New Age fad or fashionable intellectual currents. This vision of the gay movement is based on spiritual astrology, a tradition derived from a multitude of both Eastern and Western cultures over thousands of years. My vision of gay spirit and gay soul in the era of Stonewall is a reading of the poetry of gayness itself, as it was written in the night sky some 35 years ago.

References and Notes

1. In Indian philosophies, karma is the force generated by a person’s actions and is believed to transmigrate from one lifetime to another. Dharma is a duty that is fulfilled by obeying the ethical standards dictated by our individual nature. Evolutionary astrologers generally hold that the birth chart reveals karma and dharma; however, some astrologers regard these as poetic or metaphorical truths rather than literal metaphysical realities.

2. Mitch Walker, “Coming Out Inside,” from Gay Soul: Finding the Heart of Gay Spirit and Nature with Sixteen Writers, Healers, Teachers, and Visionaries, by Mark Thompson, HarperCollins, 1995.

3. James R. Lewis, The Astrology Encyclopedia, Visible Ink Press, 1994, p. 20.

4. The likeliest explanation of the link between Aquarius and homosexuality is that the original Greek symbol for the sign was a handsome youth holding a water jar to heaven. In Greek myth, that youth is Ganymede, a handsome mortal boy who was seized by Zeus and taken up to Mount Olympus to become his servant and lover.

5. James Broughton, “Gaiety of Soul,” in Gay Soul, by Mark Thompson, p. 258.

6. Homophobia is the fear or hatred of homosexuality or homosexuals. Heterosexism is the belief in the superiority of heterosexuality over homosexuality or the presumption that all persons are heterosexual by nature.

7. I have spoken of wounds in connection with both Chiron and Pluto, so I would like to distinguish between them here. Pluto is linked to the mythology of Hades, Greek God of the Underworld; it represents the power of the unconscious or shadow to produce inner transformation toward the maximum expansion of consciousness. In contrast, Chiron is linked to the myth of the Wounded Healer and describes a self-inflicted wound whose healing integrates the mind-body split. In the Stonewall chart, Pluto describes the gay soul’s wound around sexual fecundity; Chiron describes internalized homophobia.

8. Not all astrologers use Sabian symbols, because their meaning is highly symbolic and often difficult to interpret. However, those who do, such as Dane Rudhyar, explain that the symbol for a degree is an archetypal “quality” that describes the collective energy or significance of the energies associated with a particular moment. Rudhyar explains that each degree represents a modality or type of individual selfhood on the planet Earth, a characteristic that can only be perceived and studied in terms of a symbolical representation.

9. Dane Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality, Aurora Press, 1991, p. 283.

© 2005 Joe Perez – all rights reserved

Joe Perez is a Seattle-based writer whose biweekly column, “Soulfully Gay,” is syndicated among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender newspapers and on the Internet at www.joe-perez.com. He has studied comparative religion and philosophy at Harvard University and the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Raised Roman Catholic, today his approach to spirituality is catholic in the truest sense of the word: open to truth, goodness, and beauty wherever they are found. Joe can be reached by e-mail at jperez@gmail.com.

Comments

[Joe Perez]

An additional resource on this topic has come to my attention thanks to the RainbowStars email list. Thanks Jenny for the tip!

http://www.lesbian.com/columns/astrology/2004_0501_jenny.html

[Dermod Moore]

Hi there,

Only just discovered this piece, well done, lovely to see such reflection. You are kind enough to mention my article “Reflections on Ganymede,” published in the April 1999 issue of Apollon: The Journal of Psychological Astrology. The piece is online at http://www.dermod.moore.name/bootboy/ganymede.html if anyone cares to read it.

Best,

Dermod

[Eden Bereket]

wow very interesting thanx for sharing.

[Malc]

Hi
Great site with lots of good info. The posts and comments are very informative indeed...
Thanks Malc

[Tarot readers]

So fresh!!!!!

[Sandra Weidner]

I have a paper on the astrological significators of homosexuality, shown in charts of fifty men, posted on my website if you want to review and/or include link here.

My method is very different, so I am not expecting anything--t'is usually too much trouble.

The site is located at www.angelfire.com/sd/binah/homosexuality.html with links to papers that expand on the method and its empirically-derived "rules for reading."
Best wishes,
Sandra Weidner