Dear Fellow Astrologers,
About 15 years ago, I was warned by the noted astrologer Scott Andrich (a writer for Mountain Astrologer, who, alas, I understand has passed!) that the transfer of my job to my present location would likely invoke powerful new conflicts in my public life and career – perhaps “devastating” – because it put my MC in exact square to my natal Pluto intercepted in Leo in the 7th House; my Pluto is already opposite my Aquarian Sun, intercepted in the 1st House, i.e., weak.
I had no feasible way out of this ‘in-house’ move other than risking unemployment, or at best, accepting a more drastic pay cut than I was already suffering (the job market in my field had collapsed at that time as it was post-9/11 and I’m in international education).
So I determinedly took the old “stars incline us, they do not bind us”, and I optimistically recognized all the positive things about still having a secure job, making an easy transition to a new place, luckily working for someone I had known for over a decade (but honestly had always been irritated by…), one who was “so delighted” that I would be working for her, etc., etc.
However, Andrich was right…dammit! Fulfilling my immediate impression of her years earlier, my former colleague/now new boss, albeit charming, turned out to be insidiously Machiavellian, quite amoral. Unbeknownst to me for the first few years, she had been slandering me as her “pet neurotic”, her “poor darling wacko”, to very important, very influential colleagues in our field, both on the phone and at international conferences.
A few years after I’d been working for (and covertly slandered by) this amoral woman, a couple of former colleagues who knew me well took me aside at an international conference in Vancouver and asked me if I knew what my boss was telling everyone about me – not only was she branding me with demeaning (though saccharine) epithets like the above, but she was outright lying about things I was supposed to have said, most seriously, terrible things she “swore” I’d said about the VIPs in our profession (things I had never even thought!). I confronted her back at the office, but she said “Oh, I might have said something along those lines, but we were laughing and drinking wine! They all know I was just joking. They know what an excellent professional you are – they all said great things about you to me!”
But when the job market began to pick up and I was more than ready to leave, I found that my applications, calls, e-mails, etc., to former employers and conference friends were never answered. In fact, I was quite upset that more and more former co-workers – even friends – at conferences would actually try to avoid me! While before I had ever worked under this woman, I often had to turn down job offers and had to choose which invitation to accept to lunch and dinner every night of any conference.
My oh-so-sweet slanderous employer made the mistake of hiring a former employee from two decades before to manage a temporary summer program at our university – and there was no other place for him to work but at a vacant desk in my office. Thus, I got to know John very well, and he actually said one day that he pitied me working permanently for this woman for so long! After I told him what I had learned about her slandering me, he answered with a knowing smile: “Oh, she hasn’t changed a bit! She used to do that to every employee that she didn’t want to lose. If she ruins your reputation with every other potential employer, your HERS! Captive in this job for as long as she wants you!”
I was so sickened that I just about threw up my lunch. Try as I may, I was never able to repair the damage that she had done to me professionally. I had to work for her until retirement, but she did everything imaginable to keep me from retiring early and continuing teaching for her, because the one area of my profession she hadn’t ruined was my high reputation among international students, one which she apparently promoted diligently as a significant boost for enrollment.
But I knew I needed to retire ASAP to avoid alcoholism or insanity. After she had failed to do ANYTHING for months to officialize my retirement. I finally slammed the door on her office and threatened her and her boss with a lawsuit, and presto! All the proper forms for retirement were drawn up and duly signed overnight!
So Scott Andrich, God rest his soul, was absolutely right. But there was no way out of that huge spider web I’d fallen into except retirement. And even that was not a clean break. She pulled out an old departmental manual that said everything I had produced – the vast amount of curriculum I had written, the computer programs I had designed, all the detailed syllabi I had constructed, all legally belonged to her department – and would I please load everything I had onto a thumb drive she handed me, “pretty please, before you leave the building?”, she said, grinning demonically.
Now three years after retirement, I find that she has pretty much alienated everyone I knew, and the younger, savvier ones who got out before she could nail them down, the colleagues who I had formed the closest of friendships with, encouraging them to take advantage of any “lifeboat” and get out ASAP, are now scattered around the world, and my last three best friends here have died of leukemia, stroke, and alcohol dementia.
I’m back in good health and working for an international instructional company based in D.C., via the Internet, but there is nothing for me locally but bad memories and no friends – no one left at the university wants to talk with me, but from what I’m told, my ex-boss has “seen to that” – she has an brilliant ability to defame someone, ever so sweetly.
BTW, this woman’s natal chart has a stellium of Mars, Saturn & Pluto (conjunct my own singlet Pluto) in tight square to my local MC of 18SCO46; her Moon is EXACTLY square my Moon; her Chiron is square my Sun and my Chiron is square her Sun; her Saturn is square my Moon and opposite my Sun (even though my natal Sun and Moon are NOT square to each other – her Saturn “fills in the gap”)…and that’s just for starters.
So at long last, my point: I want to move “to greener pastures” since my current employment does not limit me to any one place.
The lovely mountainous area that I want to move to (in north-central New Mexico) would relocate my MC several degrees away from the current exact square to my Pluto, but it would place my relocated Moon exactly on my IC (my 4th House cusp). Realizing how very, very right Andrich was about this present MC/Pluto square, I’m not ever going to dismiss another significant angular aspect!!!
If I move into the south-central region of the States (nearer my place of birth), I would regain an exact trine of my Pisces stellium to my MC, as well as a loose Saturn trine to my ASC. When I lived in this area before, I enjoyed the greatest recognition and rewards for my talents in theater and music, rather than language, which has been the basis of my career elsewhere.
However, if I move to the SSE, I free my Aquarius from interception. When I lived in that direction, I enjoyed the greatest social life and popularity that I had ever known. However, it would not bode well for my ever-worsening allergies to outdoor mold (global warming is partly to fault, I’m told). I suppose serious allergy immunization therapy could remedy that. It might be worth it to be a free Aquarian again.
But first, I’d love to read some others’ experience or knowledge of a relocated Moon on the IC. Would it make me more reclusive? Should I opt for freeing my Aquarius and being a free social being again? Any advice is welcome and most appreciated!
Thanks for suffering through my novelette if you’ve gotten this far! My natal birthchart will be in my profile soon. I’d be happy to specify the coordinates of the places I have in mind if anyone happens to be interested. (And apologies for my conventional Aquarian chart and the Campanus Houses – it has proven more accurate in placing my Chiron and in timing events than Koch or Placidus.)
Byron
