Dawne Kovan’s Blog

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Further to my article “A-Level Results Day” that spoke about the fact that a change in our education systems is about to occur – hopefully in the way that young people seem to be hurriedly pushed straight out of secondary education into university without any opportunity for learning life skills, such as paying their own rent, paying for their own food – and indeed cooking it! – and generally trying out being an adult first.

Alternatively, they could be encouraged to grow up in the market place for a couple of years, rather than being removed from it as is the case at present. They could then go on to study something that really turns them on, instead of than gaining a degree in a subject that will never support them or even interest them long term. How many people really work in the subject that they are qualified in? And, yes, some young people take a Gap Year, which can fill this need to some extent. But such is the manufactured panic to gain a university place, many of them forgo this, in order to get ahead of the game….

Read the rest…

Today it is A-Level results day. This is the day when students throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their exam results that will get them into University.

Or so they have been led to believe. We are heading for early evening, and as I write this piece, many are already becoming aware that it is definitely not true for them. There is no automatic passage into tertiary education (University) at this time in our current financial climate.

It is also a special day from an astrologer’s viewpoint, too, because Saturn, planet of limitation, delays and reality checks is finalising his 9 month hard relationship with the planet Pluto, he who is tearing down all our institutions that are represented by Capricorn, one by one. Uranus is also involved in this picture, planet of technology and brilliant ideas. For further information on that please see my earlier article on the economic downturn and my free ebook  “Pluto in Capricorn – How it will impact on your life”.

So, this Results Thursday, is not a good day to hear good news. Although, for some students, there will always be good news – Pluto loves wealth, it’s where we get the word Plutocrat from. So, for those with money – need I say more. It was ever thus …..

Read the rest…

A client was telling me yesterday that he was concerned about going from his new home in Paris next week to return to Israel to celebrate Jewish New Year with his family there.

He told me that he always has hassles from European airports when coming and going. “They always want to look at everything,” he complained. “And yet they know I live here and they have checked me enough times to know that I’m not a threat.”

I sympathised with him for all of two minutes and then suggested that he tell me the story again. And it was the same words as before – exactly, word for word.

“You know what?” I said. “Change your language – say ‘thank you” to the Universe for making your journeys easy and straightforward.”

“Yes, but …” he said.

Read the rest…

There is a lot of talk right now about this ongoing meeting that began on 6th June between Jupiter – the Great Benefic, or Good Guy, and Uranus – the Master of the unexpected and sudden reversals. This meeting takes place right at the beginning of Aries, although it all started a few weeks ago with Jupiter still in Pisces. The aspect is called a conjunction which combines the energies of the two planets.

I have a few things to say about this meeting – not least that, while there is undoubtedly excitement in the air, this is a conjunction that repeats every 14 years or so. Those born in the late 60s and mid 80s carry this in seed form within their psyches. It will ignite their lives and bring inevitable changes from now through until January 2011 – some upsetting and many brilliant. The conjunction will reform a further twice, falling back from Aries to the end of Pisces. So, anyone with birthdays around 18th – 24th March this year will notice something going on.

The German astrologer Rheinhold Ebertin called this the “Thank God” combination because people were heard to utter this when their lives were smiled on by these two planets. He suggested that any difficulties previously experienced would suddenly (Uranus) be removed by the Big Good Guy that is Jupiter. So, he would say that it brings “sudden Grace”.

If we put together the attributes of the two into what my dear friend Dennis Elwell called a holograph, we can begin to see more clearly and accurately what we could experience over the next half year: Read the rest…

In this article I will discuss the latest work by Dr Wayne Dyer – the book “Stop the Excuses – how to change lifelong thoughts” and the CD set “Excuses Begone – how to change lifelong self-defeating thinking habits”. Both of these complement each other and their combined effect is greater than their parts. I have read and reread, listened and re-listened and each time I do, I get more out of them.

Back at the beginning of 2007, Rhonda Byrne’s CD set “The Secret” fell into my lap. Did it change my life? You bet it did -  I picked up the idea and ran with it, because I knew that this was the missing piece that would set me free. Since then, I have regularly run seminars, mentored individuals and written this blog to spread the word.

However,  many times I hear people say that the LoA doesn’t work for them – and it hasn’t worked for their friends either. And, while I believe them, I know something isn’t right with it either.

If we look at the principles that are taught in The Secret, they tell us that all we have to do is ask and it will be given. And that’s a quote from the Bible, by the way, so it must be right. However, if it’s not happening for you or me, and is definitely happening for those people who are the teachers in the DVD, what on earth is going on? Have they kept a little nugget of secret for themselves?  Or are they just not very good teachers? I don’t think either of those questions can be answered in the affirmative, by the way. They are clearly honest and open in what they tell us and they are obviously skilled teachers.

What, then,  is it that keeps us away from what we want? We have asked and shown gratitude. We have visualised down to the smallest item. We have put up our vision boards and written post-it notes everywhere around the house. We have even learned how to make positive statements instead of negative ones and worked on keeping our thoughts positive, too. And yet everything stays the same.

Read the rest…

Oops! I forgot to include the signs that cannot regard each other – they are below.

Please do NOT take this as an indication that there is anything bad in these relationships – I am simply saying that there is more going on than meets the eye; therefore the phenomenon needs to be understood as some kind of life lesson, perhaps, as these relationships do often endure.

Aries with either Virgo or Scorpio

Taurus with either Libra or Sagittarius

Gemini with either Scorpio or Capricorn

Cancer with either Sagittarius or Aquarius

Leo with either Capricorn or Pisces

Virgo with either Aquarius or Aries

Libra with either Pisces or Taurus

Scorpio with either Aries or Gemini

Sagittarius with either Taurus or Cancer

Capricorn with either Gemini or leo

Aquarius with either Cancer or Virgo

Pisces with either Leo or Libra

Just so that you know where I’m coming from on the subject of astrology and relationships  – if you think that this article is going to give you the magic formula for identifying  your “perfect” mate or even “soul” mate, then stop reading right now, because it isn’t.

There are many publications that suggest by following certain rules, such as your Mars with their Venus, you will have the perfect marriage. However, life, as everyone knows, isn’t actually like that. The only people who use these traditional rules are those whose job it is to arrange marriages in traditional societies – and yes, they too have divorce in those cultures as well.

So, what can I tell two people who have found each other and say they’re in love and ask me if this person is “The One”? 

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Every morning, if I have the time, I like to do a Sudoku puzzle – and no matter what the difficulty level, I happily fill in the numbers until successful completion. I prefer to do the game online because it enables me to add and remove mistakes, etc, without cluttering and messing up the page, as in the newspaper versions.

For those of you who are not familiar with Sudoku – it is a Japanese number game designed to test and develop logical thinking. It is made up of 9 blank boxes, each of which has 9 blank squares within it. Depending on the difficulty level, certain squares will be filled in already for you. Each of the 9 boxes then must be filled in with the remaining digits – 1 to 9 – one only of each digit. The across and the down rows will also follow the same rule – one digit per row. And that’s it!

However, I have struggled for some time with the “hard’ and “very hard” categories, until I realised that the devil is in the detail. Each blank square in each box can have a number of values determined by the numbers already in the box or rows up and down, and the remaining numbers needed to complete them. So, it is vital to fill in the blank squares with the correct possibilities carefully and accurately – if not, you will throw the sequence off course and be unable to complete the game.

This morning, as I completed today’s “hard” category puzzle, I realised that here in front of me was a metaphor for life. I was learning something beyond a simple game of Sudoku – I was learning the most important lesson that life could teach me.

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From Edgar down in Oz. (This link opens in a new window)

A full Moon Lunar Eclipse has just taken place in ambitious Capricorn last July 7, which in case you didn’t notice yet, emphasizes your career and worldly activities, while the Jupiter/ Neptune conjunction this weekend July 11-12^th keeps your idealism and optimism in full bloom.

There is not an ounce of cynicism in this spiritual pairing!  As feisty Mars enters communicative Gemini on Monday July 13, you have everything you need to sell an idea or convince anyone of anything!

You’ll have plenty of exciting ideas and stimulating conversations as Mercury, communications, plays favourably with Uranus, your friends and new meetings to go to, all this week! The Communicator, Mercury, enters dramatic Leo on July 17 — definitely a time for bold ideas. Make sure you break out of old patterns as the Sun, solar power energy, excites forward-thinking Uranus, for unexpected new social adventures by next weekend.

The Venus, romance and art planet, challenges Saturn, so don’t be too verbally critical for the next 10 days and it also means it is time to assess your most important relationships. Then, July 22 brings a solar eclipse in the last degree of Cancer and casts a huge spotlight on the security, family and home issues that are so important to this sign.

This Solar Eclipse is, and will be, the longest one for ages and carries enormous changes to all those ethic groups under dictatorship ruling powers through Russia, Iran, Pakistan, India and most of all China which is a Libran based Zodiac sign, currently under enormous challenge by Pluto thru Capricorn. This means that Australia under the sign of Capricorn is going to be tested in its relationship with China as already being reported. The challenge for China is to see itself in a changing world and the need to be more responsive and flexible.

The 11^th to 30^th October has Mars over this point to trigger the most progressive changes ever seen in China’s history! This is the year that could see the most earthquakes in Asian history!

It will also herald a change in the political leaders (in particular the Liberal Party) of ACT and South Australia and possibly the Northern Territory which are under Capricorn energies! We shall await the outcome of the present difficulties (under Mercury’s rule over the trickster email issues) with interest.

Just as the ancient Chinese curse suggested, we are living in interesting times – all of us – and that includes you, me, the people next door, the Prime Minister, the US President, and the person who empties our garbage bins – or ‘buckets’ as they are called here in Fife, where I am right now.

And the way we respond to what’s going on in the world comes out of who we are. So, if we are filled with dread by the reports of doom and gloom in the various news media, then we need to change the dread into some other feeling that can enable rather than disable us.

We have an old maxim that the leopard cannot change its spots – and maybe it can’t because it has a leopard’s consciousness that keeps it camouflaged in the jungle  in order to survive. We humans are different in that we have another kind of consciousness, however, the above maxim is repeatedly churned out and it keeps us believing it. This in fact means that most people have no idea that they can actually change anything about their lives, least of all themselves – and in fact, don’t even realise that there exists a self to change. I think that’s where the panic can set in – if we feel cut off from ourselves – then how can we be effective?

The show that’s keeping us all enthralled on our screens and in the newspapers may not be as serious as they try make out. I know that many people feel they have less money right now and fewer options than we thought we had last year – however, unless we’re living in a war zone, no one’s dying and there are no bombs falling from the sky attempting to annihilate us.

So, the question has to be – what do we want? And how can we make it happen?

This is being bandied about in all the “Self help” media at the moment – and I think that while these are fair questions to ask, they may also miss the point.

What’s more to the point is to ask – what is the meaning of my life? Why do I feel so ineffective? And how can I stop feeling as if I’m on that hamster wheel just going round and round until I fall off it?

Read the rest…

Solar Eclipse by Edgar Winter – my Australian AstroPal – with thanks

The next new moon Cancer ‘Eclipse’ at 29 degrees in that sign is the 22^nd July!

Now the age bracket of those born 1935 through to 1941 are about to feel the effect of that ‘Eclipse’ strongly from now over the next 2-3 months at least!

They were born with Pluto in the sign of Cancer at the tail end of that sign or early Leo in the first couple of degrees.

This was the generation (aged now 67 to 75) born at the end of a fearful depression and the beginning of WW2! With similar world events at hand it would be helpful for that generation to lift up the hearts of those depressed now and tell them that they succeeded and came through against all odds. To keep healthy they need to be in good unpolluted, unspoilt environment and assisting friends or charities that need their services.

The group centred around the year 1941 may have throat or afflictions affecting the Thyroid gland and metabolic system. This in ‘metaphysical’ language was a time of being restricted and unable to speak freely and there was a possibility of chemical or radiation poisoning. Also it was a time of stubborn resistance to change and seeking others help so this reacts strongly around the neck, throat and lung areas of the body.

Anyway that is what the planets are saying now and you may find some with those planetary correspondences.

Eclipses in July/August

There are no fewer than 3 eclipses occurring in July and early August – a Total Solar eclipse bracketed by two Lunar eclipses. The size of this eclipse and therefore its power, could make it the most important solar eclipse in the 21st Century, according to some astronomers. Certainly it is the longest in duration occurring between 1991 and 2032.

There are other more technical reasons why this eclipse is noteworthy described by the  Moon’s perigee and syzygy – but quite frankly, if you want to know more about that, then take a look at Guy Ottewell’s “Astronomical Calendar 2009″.

As you should know by now, my interests lie a little closer to home – to you and me, to our families and to national events. However, I do think a little information could be useful for deepening your understanding of this wonderful phenomenon called an eclipse.

Basically a Solar Eclipse is a very special New Moon.  A New Moon is when the Sun and Moon are together in the same zodiac sign – this happens regularly every month – what makes an eclipse is when the body of the Moon sits between the Earth and the Sun, and effectively disrupts the flow of sunlight coming to us for a brief period of time. As the earth turns,  the shadow thus created shows up as a slick of darkness moving across the planet. Each eclipse creates a shadow on a different part of the earth – across different nations – and focuses the cosmic energy patterns there.

On the International level

The shadow of the upcoming eclipse of 22nd July, 2009 (GMT date) swings across India and China, which would indicate that those nations  will be where the cosmic energy is at its strongest and most intense. However, last August, the eclipse that heralded the Olympic Games also fell across China, as will the next eclipse of January, 2010, which will begin in West Africa (where China has interests) and swing across India and up past Beijing, pulling in Korea and Japan.

Read the rest…

Pluto has really started as he means to go on through his sojourn over the next 17 years in Capricorn – particularly, though not exclusively, focusing on the countries ruled by Capricorn: UK, Mexico, Australia and Afghanistan.

Remember the themes that this combination represents are: Pluto  = power, destruction and transformation, force majeure, birth, death and rebirth; and Capricorn = the State, it’s oldest institutions, such as ruling families, governments, big businesses, tried and tested methods, traditions, conventions and old age. 

Here in the UK we are watching in horror as Pluto strips bear our most treasured of institutions, our Parliament. Politicians and even ministers are being found to have had their hands in the public purse for years and it is now being brought into the light. The problem that we now have is that the various tabloid media are mindlessly whipping up support for a general election before the issue has been fully addressed – which may mean that the very right wing BNP (British National Party) could benefit from this and gain a great deal of power. It’s fascism by the back door and very, very worrying – however, typical of Pluto in Capricorn. 

For more on Pluto in Capricorn please see my previous article on this blog.

A small side issue that fits in with the above symbolism is the impending birth of a child, here in the UK, to a mother who is 66 years old. Well, how about that for transformation of old age? Rather her than me, but hey! Good luck to her, I say….. 

Saturn changed direction last week so will move ahead quickly to oppose Uranus again through September and then heading off into Libra, where it really is at its happiest. The global financial situation will be on everyone’s mind again and will continue to be an issue right through 2010.