Happy, Happy Birthday, Babyyyyyy.

Four years ago on February 26, 2008 at 12:39 a.m., I posted my first Willow's Web Astrology post on this site. It's been quite the ride since - personally and on the planet, in general. 

Time is definitely a relative concept at this point. I couldn't tell you whether I've been writing for four months, forty years, or four millennia. Four years is the Earth Time they say has passed, so that's what we'll go with. 

I didn't plan to post the first WWA article at a particular time or on a particular date, as many astrologers would have. The original format wasn't even my own. Another astrology site was looking for an astrologer/writer to write a monthly forecast, and I wrote a couple to send in. When that astrologer passed on them, I held them for a while until asking my friend Saviabella for instruction on how to start my own site. (Thanks, Savia.) 

As I said, there was not much planning or foresight. I just slapped the first two articles up when the mood struck, when I was impelled to do so, all messy-like. And yet, the exact aspects and positions are uncanny. You can see clearly from the chart for Willow's Web Astrology's "birth" the workings of the universe through the lens of astrological intelligence. 

This is a Pluto on zero Capricorn site. That's pretty apparent, I'd say, and it kind of speaks for itself. 

The site's Jupiter is also in Capricorn. 

Willow's Web Astrology site had its birth during the Uranus in Pisces - Neptune in Aquarius mutual reception, and it was certainly meant to be in existence for these times - a true "straddling the ages" navigational enterprise. The site's Aquarius North Node is conjunct Neptune in Aquarius, and Chiron in Aquarius is exactly semi-sextile Uranus in Pisces, increasing the theme. 

Willow's Web Astrology site has a Pisces Sun in the 4th house tightly trine a Scorpio Moon in the 12th. You'd never know, would you? (sarcasm) 

In addition to the Scorpio Moon, the site has a Scorpio Ascendant with true Black Moon Lilith on the 29th degree of Scorpio in the 1st house. 

The site came into existence with Mercury and Venus forming an exact conjunction in Aquarius in the 3rd house. The Mercury-Venus conjunction is loosely conjunct Chiron in Aquarius and square the Scorpio Moon. 

The site has Mars in Gemini in the 8th house exactly trine the Aquarius North Node in the 3rd house and sextile the Leo South Node in the 9th house. 

Saturn was retrograde in early Virgo at the time, tightly conjunct the Virgo Midheaven, trine Pluto in Capricorn, and sextile the Scorpio Moon. 

The site's 2012 Solar Return chart looks to me like a "go balls out" sort of chart, but along pristine channels with pristine filters. Who would expect anything less? 

I was introduced to one of the major Sun sign astrologers a few months ago - a Canadian woman who has gained her reputation by writing syndicated Sun sign horoscopes for newspapers and magazines. She'd written a book letting people know that they are more than just their Sun signs (sort of ironic) and was doing a talk in the city where I live to promote it. I normally wouldn't have known about it, but I was asked to go by an astrologer friend who, it turns out, is this woman's long lost cousin. Talk about weird. 

I was introduced to her as a blogger and as one of the better astrological writers out there, and her reply was, "But have you actually written anything?" 

What she meant, of course, was have I written a book? Because for a lot of people, if you haven't written a book, you aren't considered a real writer. (This despite all the shite books published these days.) 

How can I explain what this site is, what this writing is, to people who don't believe you're legit unless you have a publisher? 

I don't have a publisher. I don't have a book to sell. I'm not sure I ever will - not because I couldn't write one but because I don't know that a book is the way to go. I don't have a fancy website. I didn't even bother migrating to WordPress, the blog site considered more pro. I'm not a member of the associations or societies. I don't attend the conferences. I can't name drop any big name astrologers I've had dinner with recently (I'm more likely to have throwdowns with them, anyway). I'm outside the scene - or maybe at the edge of the scene, practising a form of astrology that doesn't fit neatly into pre-structured channels. 

And I guess that remains a struggle with this site: working and writing as a professional astrologer, and as a DIY punk astrologer, when the markers that would indicate career success - along with the parity with other astrologers who have those markers - are not apparent to a lot of people. When what I do here is diminished in the minds of people who look for daily blog hits in the hundreds of thousands; shiny, new books sitting on bookstore shelves; a book tour; a lecture circuit; magazine articles; candid photos taken with gurus-of-the-day; television appearances; a tiny picture of my face in every newspaper in the country. 

I just can't get all that jazzed about that stuff, you know? 

Maybe it's the site's Leo South Node in the 9th house (publishing). Despite its generally much lower prestige value, I can't imagine anything could usurp the relevance and potency of finger-on-cosmic-pulse blog/internet writing. I mean, what a weird and wonderful thing. Though I would love to have the usual indicators of "success" just to shut people the fuck up and put them in their places, I can't imagine anything more interesting than writing astrology on my own site, in the moment, as it happens. 

Is it a waste to write this way? To offer it up, article after article, to the worldwide web? I don't think so, but I can't be sure. What I do know is there are reasons I started writing this way, there are reasons I'm still writing, and I guess I'll just keep going until I'm advised to stop! 

Here are some of the articles I particularly like from the past 365 days: 

From December 27, 2011: Saturn in Libra (Not Quite) Trine Neptune in Aquarius and Saturn Retrograde: Neptunian Relationship Fodder From the Anaretic Degrees 

From December 6, 2011: Uranus Direct on Zero Aries (The Fukushima Degree) at the Gemini Full Moon Eclipse 

From December 1, 2011: Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots 

From November 6, 2011: Weeping Willow Designs with Mars in the Last Degrees of Leo Opposite Stationing Neptune in Aquarius and Closing Out a Creative Cycle  

From November 2, 2011: Scorpio on Not Letting it Go Too Soon 

From October 23, 2011: Via Combusta Scorpio New Moon October 26 Opens Into the Dark Half and Sets the Tone for Saturn in Scorpio 2012 - 2015  

From September 18, 2011: New Social Authority For the Pluto in Libra Generation and Blazing the Plutonic Trail Through Relationship Constructs Past  

From July 10, 2011: Ceres Stations Retrograde at Zero Aries Conjunct Uranus and Buying Organic Is a Revolutionary Act 

From June 27, 2011: Warning: You're About to Read a Plutonic Punk Astrologer. Proceed at Your Own Discretion. 

From June 14, 2011: The Law of Attraction Fukushima-Style  

From June 6, 2011: Saturn Stationing Direct in Libra Says: Time to Get Very Serious About Who You Have in Your Life 

From May 24, 2011: Neptune Stations in Pisces and We Head to the Gemini New Moon Entryway Into the Cardinal Grand Cross/Triple Eclipse Summer of 2011 

From May 8, 2011: Canada Day Cardinal Grand Cross Eclipse: Well, Golly Gee Whiz. Look Who's Fuelling the Global Nuclear Industry  

From April 18, 2011: Pluto in Capricorn Retrospective: It's All Just a Norman Rockwell Painting, Isn't It? 

From April 1, 2011 (April Fool's Day post): A Message From Our Starry Brethren at the Galactic Centre  

From March 20, 2011: The Sun Conjunct Uranus at the Zodiac Birth Point Marking Astrological New Year and the "Odyssey Dawns" 

From March 9, 2011: The Precession of the Equinoxes, Shifting Astrological Eras and '2012'