Podcast Episode:
Ever wanted to know about astrology? We’ve got the scoop on this edition of Frank Relationships.
FRANK RELATIONSHIPS: SAMUEL REYNOLDS, ASTROLOGIST
Date: March 2, 2014
Guests: Samuel Reynolds, Hasanna Tyus
Frank: Ever wanted to know how to become an astrologist? We’ve got the scoop on this edition of Frank Relationships.
Welcome to Frank Relationships where we provide a candid fresh and frank look into relationships with goals of acceptance, respect and flexibility. I’m Frank Love and you can find me, my blog and my various social media incarnations at franklove.com. You can also download the podcast of this and other archive shows on iTunes or using your favorite podcast app.
Once again, I’m proud to have my co-pilot here in the studio, the Rev Coach, La Tonia.
La Tonia: I’m here, ready.
Frank: What’s up, dear?
La Tonia: Ready.
Frank: Ready to go, alright.
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The mission of today’s guest is to professionalize astrology and unleash its potential to help millions of people find clarity and realize their potential. His center, The Astrology Career Institute, focuses on creating rewarding career opportunities for people interested in astrology.
Our guest is none other than a mercury retrograde astrologer, a gifted speaker and a writer. He is Mr. Samuel Reynolds. Welcome to the show.
Samuel: Thank you, Frank. Thank you, La Tonia.
La Tonia: Welcome.
Frank: How did you become or decide to become an astrologer?
Samuel: By trying to disprove it, actually.
Frank: Alright, well that’s–
Samuel: So, this is my most glorious failure. I was in academic and I went to see an astrologer in 1992.
Frank: What kind of academician were you?
Samuel: Well, ’91, actually. I was pursuing my Ph.D. in African American studies at Temple University and I had looked at that particular point at everything in terms of race, gender and class, and so when a friend of mine said that I should look into astrology, because she found it very deep and she was curious as to what I really was in terms of my sign.
I actually did take myself to an astrologer, I had a mind blowing experience, but my rational mind couldn’t accept that this art form existed as it did. [I though I had to have been tricked] 04:12
Frank: So, you consider it an art form instead of a science?
Samuel: I consider it more an art form than a science. I think science has specific connotations at this point in human history, with replicable results, with being able to kind of have certain methodologies that are not a part of astrology. Astrology is a lot more intuitive and there’s replicable results, but they work on the basis of interpretation. They’re more qualitative than quantitative.
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: Most people talk about science in quantitative forms now.
Frank: And it being an art leads it to more of what?
Samuel: A creative, interpretive and imaginative aspect of human consciousness.
Frank: Okay and what did you find as you went to that astrologer?
Samuel: I spent 10 years charts and specifically focusing in on-because I felt the only way to do it any justice was to actually do the charts, not just read about astrology and what I found was that I kept doing these charts and people kept saying that they made sense. So, I was like, “Okay, there may be something to it,” and it was only after 10 years and being at a party that someone asked me, “Well yeah, yeah, but do you believe it,” and I said, “Yes” and I realized that I had become a believer and that I could take astrology seriously.
Frank: What does it mean to do a chart?
Samuel: It means that you take the time of someone’s birth, based on their date and place of birth and you construct a model or a replica of what the heavens look like at that particular time of birth. We have a way by which we used 12 different pieces of a wheel to examine areas of people’s lives and by virtue of that we see where the planets are-
Frank: Those 12 different ways of the different zodiac signs?
Samuel: Yes.
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: You can imagine 12 pieces of a pie spread out with different signs, depending on when that person was born on each of those house cusps-we call cusps-for those pieces of pie and then we find the planets involved and how they’re relating to each other and how they relate to those pieces of the pie.
La Tonia: I have to cheat a little bit, because I have to say that Sam is one of my favorite astrologists.
Samuel: Oh, thank you.
Frank: So know this guy?
La Tonia: Yes, I’ve had a chart done by Sam that’s been very, very helpful and it was a few years ago, but it’s still relevant today and I also include astrology in my my individual coaching as a part. I do charts.
Frank: Really? So now you know how to do them?
La Tonia: I do know how to do it on a very, very neophyte level.
Frank: Got you.
La Tonia: But my question is, I’m surprised to hear you say that it’s more of an art, Sam, because you have uncanny ability to have highly scientific discussions about trends and that type of thing. So, I’m surprised to hear you say that. Could you share a little bit more why?
Samuel: Sure. I think that one of the things has happened with the dominance of something that’s called scientism and scientism is where people have a certain reverence for science almost as if it’s a religion and what has happened is that it’s displaced all other kinds of knowledge as not being able to rational, not having some measure of empirical quality, not having some aspect of specificity. And so. I actually do apply all those things to the work that I do, but I call it an art, because one of the key demands of science is that it has to be replicable. I do have to be able to do the same thing produced by someone else and get the exact same results and that isn’t necessarily the case.
You might look at a chart, La Tonia and I might look at a chart and we might focus on two different things or we might even at some point, say some of the same things, but it’s not as “replicable” as the expectation with scientism or science.
La Tonia: Okay.
Frank: And so what does astrology tell us?
Samuel: It can tell us and give us insight and unlock what potentials that we have within ourselves. It can give us tools for understanding and knowing ourselves and it can also provide some insight into what’s happening in the world around us and how we engage people in relationships or how we engage particular areas of the world.
For instance, there’s a form of astrology called, astrolocality in which one can actually see how a particular place resonates with you in relation to your chart. So the same thing can happen with another person in terms of the dynamics of relationships and you also can look at that in relation to just time itself in terms of understanding what particular themes and issues are on deck for you at a particular time of the year or a particular time of your life.
La Tonia: Yeah Frank, I’ve even learned that there’s medical astrology, where you can look at certain trends–your body, the issues you may have for your body when it’s the optimal times to conceive. There’s shamanic astrology that goes even further, so there’s all types of forms–
Frank: Wow.
La Tonia: That people specialize in. I wanted to hear more about this retrograde.
Samuel: Oh yeah, I mentioned the Mercury retrograde. What I was explaining is that Mercury appears to be going backwards from the earth’s prospective and one analogy we like to give is that imagine that you’re on a speeding train-let’s say it’s like the express train and you’re passing the local in the station. What that would mean is that as you’re passing the local, you’re moving ahead and that other train, the slower train appears to be moving backwards. That’s the same thing that’s happening with the Mercury retrograde and what it signifies, what it means for us on the planet is that all things related to things material, communication, transportation, how we’re dealing with particular thought processes, those seem to be warped or transformed or not working according to plan at that particular time.
Frank: But in actuality what?
Samuel: It actuality, they are not, but what’s actually adjusting is that Mercury is about to go through a renewal phase and what’s being asked of us, because to realize that how we kind of rely on things or the bad habits we may have picked up, like, “Oh, I’m going to text, instead of talk on the phone,” or “I’m going to wait five minutes since I usually do before I leave to go catch the train,” all those things get challenged.
Mercury is going to play a trick and be like, “Okay, you thought that you could leave five minutes before and be cool. Ha, ha, no.” So, what’s going to happen is that you have to do a little more planning, a little more thinking, you may have to reach out and call someone instead of relying on text, because you can’t get the tone of someone talking on the phone or texting by phone.
Frank: Let’s play a little bit with the astrology and relationship concept that you introduced a few minutes ago.
Samuel: Sure.
Frank: What can you genuinely learn about your partner or about yourself as it pertains to partnerships? Please jump in wherever you like.
Samuel: My pleasure. So, the key thing is knowing yourself and knowing what your needs are, what’s important for you and some measure of your communications style, knowing how you may think about things. These things are something that you can see from looking at your chart.
Once you kind of know those things, then you can start looking at-or an astrologer can look at patterns of consciousness between you and another person and looking at how that person may think about things or their speech or thinking patterns and also what are their needs.
Then an astrologer can go to the next level to start talking about how those things would blend together or not, in terms of your needs verses his or hers. So, it’s a way of understanding the blending of people, both within themselves and then with each other.
Frank: Okay.
La Tonia: Can I go back a little bit?
Frank: You should.
La Tonia: Okay, you were talking to us about what astrology tells us and I don’t want to leave this on the table, because we have all types of listeners and there’s a little bit more like, the astrology wheel relates even to some the different deities that we use and refer to everyday, certain energies correctly. Is that correct?
Samuel: Oh, yeah.
La Tonia: Excuse me.
Samuel: Yeah, so–
La Tonia: Can you do an overview for the folks who come from different traditions, where they see it every ay and what they’re doing?
Samuel: My pleasure. You know astrology is embroidered in our way of life, without most of us recognizing it. So, let me ask you, what’s today? What day is it?
Frank: Is it the 20th?
La Tonia: Twentieth.
Samuel: Well, that’s the date, but what day is it?
Frank: Wednesday?
La Tonia: Thursday.
Frank: Thursday, February 12th.
Samuel: Thursday, its Thors day and Thor relates to Jupiter and it’s clear in the romance languages when we say like in Spanish, Jueves. It’s Joe’s day. So, each day of the week actually does relate to a planet and then even the idea of a month, actually it’s old English or based on old English, for [moonth] sp 14:07, which is a cycle of the moon. And then, for some people who are more into religion, they think, “Well, I keep the Sabbath.” Whether that’s Saturday or Sunday, depends on your religious observance.
But here’s something to know about the Sabbath. It actually comes from a Lunar cycle, so the moon changes cycle out of four cycles-out of four parts of a cycle, every seven days.
So, that seventh day, when it would actually change cycles, was a day of rest, when nothing happened and that comes to us from ancient Babylon. And who was of course in ancient Babylon, the Jews, who also brought to us the idea of the Sabbath.
Lunation, stars how we talk about the planets is in every aspect of modern time keeping, down to how we talk about the minute. There’s a reason why its 60 seconds, there’s a reason why its 24 hours, it’s a reason why we have 12 months and 12 signs.
Frank: Whoever established-who did establish the month, year all of that?
La Tonia: Good question.
Frank: You got any insight into that?
Samuel: Sure. The one beautiful aspect about astrology is that it’s a global project and as La Tonia mentioned, there are different forms of astrology, but different cultures have also established different means of understanding the correlation between the heavens and the earth. But the one that has become the most known is the one that is Western Astrology and that’s a collaboration between ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Mesopotamia and Babylon and then also what kind of came up through Morse culture in the middle ages and then also through European and civilizations and came later. So, it’s a collaboration of understanding and looking at all these different planetary cycles over thousands of years.
La Tonia: I love it and as it relates to love and relationships, there are dynamics. Would you like to talk about–
Samuel: Sure.
La Tonia: Some of those dynamics and how they affect love?
Samuel: Yeah. One of the key things that I actively do on my practice is something called synastry. And synastry is really looking at the compatibility between two charts, which represent two people and often people ask me related to romance or romantic relationships, and that becomes a way of gauging how these two people interact in terms of their potential, in terms of their sexuality, in terms of a sense of purpose, in terms of their communication and then something that we also use, called temperament.
Temperament is more the foundational character or make up of a person. That’s different than personality. And so, one of the things I pay attention to is the classic idea of temperament. There are four key Temperaments that I use and some people are familiar with some of the names.
One of them is melancholic, so most people associate that with being depressed, but that’s not it. It’s more serious. There’s phlegmatic, there’s choleric and then there’s sanguine as one temperament. So, I look at the mixture of those things in a person and then how they mix or don’t mix with another person and their temperament and other things.
Frank: And what advice might you end up giving? Would you tell two people, “Hey, you all don’t really need to be together?”
Samuel: No, I don’t play God. I let God be God. What I do, do in my practice and not all astrologists do this, but in my practice I actually give a percentage of how compatible these two charts would be as is. It could be, if it’s at 60 percent out of a 100 percent, then that’s not the highest of *(inaudible) 18:16. That’s a little better than 50 percent, right? But I say, “This is where you are, but this is not where you have to stay.”
So there’s some work and some things in particular areas to pay attention to, let’s say a sexuality, let’s say it’s your communication styles, let’s say that related to the idea of love languages your needs and how you express them, how you kind of deal with daily living together or not. All these different areas are where you can direct your attention in order to improve this probability, this particular percentage. My focus is–
Frank: How high do the marks get? You said that 60 percent. Can there be a 100 percent?
Samuel: I’ve never seen a 100 percent, but what I have seen is 80 percent to 90 percent.
Frank: Okay.
La Tonia: You should’ve had–
Frank: But I’ve never–
La Tonia: Our guest from the last show, do their charts.
Frank: We just did a show with Tara and Mike of the Kissing Tour and they basically spend 100 percent of their time together and they kiss a lot, but that’s an over simplification. The interview was really a good one. I suggest you listen to it and I’m curious about where they fall on the astrological chart.
Samuel: Yeah, I would love to see their chart.
La Tonia: Yeah.
Samuel: I would love to see their chart.
La Tonia: That would be a nice blend.
Samuel: Yes, that would be–
La Tonia: Let’s see if I can facilitate that.
Samuel: Okay, that would be great.
La Tonia: Frank Love, you’ve never had a chart done?
Frank: I have never had a chart done.
La Tonia: I am absolutely shocked.
Frank: Okay.
La Tonia: The reason why I asked that question is, because I notice you didn’t ask about specific signs, because usually that’s kind of where you always want. When you got an astrologer you want to use this time wisely.
Frank: Okay, okay.
La Tonia: So, would it be helpful to do a little bit of an overview?
Frank: Yeah, I’m down.
La Tonia: Okay.
Frank: I’m a Libra.
La Tonia: Okay, cool. You’re a Libra?
Samuel: Yeah, we can talk about that, but let me just say, this is a caveat, when people ask about particular signs, it’s one thing to have one’s own understanding of astrology, it’s another thing to have an astrologer’s understandings.
When someone comes to me and says, “Well, I’m an Aries and she’s a Virgo, what do you think is our compatibility?” In my head what I just heard is, “I’m from Brooklyn, she’s from Queens, what’s our compatibility?” And most people don’t know that, they think like. “Oh, it’s about my sun sign and how those two things blend-”
La Tonia: Yes.
Samuel: “And then by virtue of that, I can know or this person can tell me how successful we’re going to be.”
La Tonia: It’s true.
Samuel: And the key thing to realize is that, I can go with some certain assumptions based on your sun signs, but those assumptions actually are not as poignant as getting the full chart. So, when someone says I’m an Aries, I’m a Virgo, what it really sounds like, is okay, then you might have different *(inaudible) 21:10 preferences or different ways in which you can interact. Or let’s go a little farther, let’s say you’re from Brooklyn and she’s from Bombay, so I might even kind of conjecture, “Okay, maybe you speak English together,” but in terms of how you’re going to function in the world, those details come more from looking at the overall chart.
A lot of people seem to think and focus a lot on sun signs. Another thing I like to talk about that’s a bigger thing, is aversion and I don’t know if you’ve heard that. People will say, “Well, I can’t stand Sagittarians,” or “I can’t stand Virgos,” and I always pay attention to that, because two things really come out of those particular things. One, they often may have a strong signature in their chart, like what we call moon sign or sun sign or rising sign, with that particular sign. They may have some way in which they haven’t learned to integrate or make peace with that particular sign, because of something that’s prominent and required of them in their own charts.
And then, we can focus in on what are the traits usually that you don’t like about that sign that somehow you feel iffy about or you have trouble kind of making peace with? That’s usually where the juicy stuff comes in, because that will reveal often where they really don’t have a problem with the sign, but all their imaginations or exaggerations or traits associated with that sign.
Frank: And then what?
Samuel: I can give an example.
Frank: Yeah, go.
Samuel: I was going to give an example from my own life, so for awhile I actually had an aversion to Sagittarians and my aversion to them was like, “Why do they exaggerate so much and why are they always kind of so enthusiastic? Why do they have to kind of bring so much energy? Just state the facts.” Now what I realized is–
Frank: I can think of a couple Scorpios, Libras that do the same thing, but okay, all right.
Samuel: Okay, they might have strong Sagittarian and Sagittarius traits in their chart, because remember, there’s a composite picture that we get from a chart, not just a sun sign.
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: I was even guilty of that same practice, but what I had been–
Frank: I’ll be guilty when this show is over, because I still will need to replay the show to get a better understanding of astrology, because it really is new to me. So yes, I’m learning plenty as I’m listening and interviewing you right now, but a lot of it still gets behind me and I’ll have to catch up. This is good stuff. This is valuable information.
Samuel: Do we need to slow down, because I can slow down?
Frank: No, no. I can–
Samuel: Okay.
Frank: Replay.
Samuel: Okay.
La Tonia: Okay.
Samuel: The key thing I was saying about what I needed to integrate in that sense of how I associated that kind of over-enthusiasm and kind of zeal from Sagittarius was my own aversion to enthusiasm and embracing it, because I wanted to avoid disappointment. Why, get enthusiastic about things when you may experience disappointment about them.
So, it’s all about managing disappointment, rather than embracing enthusiasm. I had to make and still making peace with enthusiasm. The more that I made peace with all the things I associated with Sagittarius, I was also able to better integrate Sagittarians in my life. Low and behold I end up marrying a Sagittarian.
La Tonia: How about that.
Samuel: A double Sagittarian.
La Tonia: Wow.
Frank: And what was the work you did to become more at peace with those characteristics and traits?
Samuel: First it was kind of identifying what I was avoiding and in my particular case, like I said, it was disappointment. So I had to become clearer and better friends, so to speak, with disappointment and realizing that it doesn’t always have to be that way, in terms of embracing it as disappointment. And enthusiasm isn’t just about the downside or the upside of disappointment. Enthusiasm has its own blessings in giving energy to a particular thing and keeping one invested.
So, I had to see–and I know this may sound strange for other types, I had to see the positive aspects of enthusiasm. Now more fire signs or people kind of excited by those particular things may find that really strange and that’s also one of the gifts of astrology.
One of the key gifts and you also know this from the love language book, is that your assumption, how you think the world works has nothing to do with how that world may work for another person.
La Tonia: Wow.
Frank: And secondly–
Samuel: That’s a very powerful thing to realize, because I wasn’t even kind of as an astrologer myself, paying attention to how I see the world in contrast to others. For instance and we have this discussion with my wife, I’m a workaholic and I am very factual, matter of fact, so usually enthusiasm is not a perquisite for me. I just need to do the work and put myself to the grindstone and that’s all I need. But for her, she is very much into enthusiasm and experiencing energy and getting affirmation, so it’s kind of learning the attentive, not only to your needs, but also what another person needs.
Frank: Okay. I introduced you, talking a lot about your organization and we have not talked at all about it thus far. Please introduce it.
Samuel: Okay and there’s a couple reasons for that. One thing is that I have, since 2005, operated an institute called The Astrology Career Institute and one can reach it through Astrologycareerinstitute.com. Here’s the thing to know. I’m phasing it out.
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: Even though I have it, I am phasing it out, because I’m preparing a whole new cycle of ways of communicating astrology and teaching people. I have been and it’s still open and it’s still available, but I am phasing it out slowly and have been for the last year or so. But I am very much still about educating people about astrology, but with wider audiences. I’m doing it through writing horoscopes like for ebony.com.
I’m also going to be doing it with a new site to launch and I will announce, once it launches next month, actually at the beginning of the month, so there’s a lot more I’m going to be end up doing. Online web classes and things like that, webinars.
I have done Astrology Career Institute and I’ve had some great students throughout the years. In fact, I have another student who just published an article in a major astrology publication online. I’m very proud of the work that we have done, but I think there’s more we can do. I’m looking to broaden my reach.
La Tonia: And you’re on Essence, correct?
Samuel: No, Ebony.
La Tonia: Ebony, okay.
Samuel: The other one.
La Tonia: The other one.
Samuel: The first one. The first one.
La Tonia: Right, and you also talk a lot about trends like this Mercury retrograde. I imagine you already talked about a little bit on Twitter.
Samuel: I do a lot of talking on Twitter. I actually have two main accounts that I operate from: one, the main account where we met, is S-F-Reynolds that’s twitter.com, and sfreynolds, so Sam Fred Reynolds. And the other one that I’ll be operating and using more for astrology, exclusively is unlock astrology, so that’s @unlockastrology.
La Tonia: Okay.
Frank: You’re listening to Frank Relationships. We’re talking with professional astrologist, Sam Reynolds. Would you tell our listeners how they can find you and-
Samuel: Yes.
Frank: Your services?
Samuel: You can reach me three ways. One, some people still like the phone and communicate by phone. So, my phone number is 484-727-8277. My web address is new. Now you can contact me @unlockastrology.com. My email is unlockastrology@gmail.com.
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Tell me what information do I have to give to an astrologer in order to create a chart?
Samuel: Excellent question. We need your birth date with year, birth time (A.M. or P.M.) and birthplace as in city. That’s it.
Frank: And–
La Tonia: Yeah.
Frank: Paint a picture for me. What will I see on that particular chart, particularly coming from a layman? If you give me a piece of paper with a bunch of planets and Jupiters and moons and stuff like that, I will have no clue of what I’m looking at. Help me, walk me–
Samuel: And that’s the truth. You won’t know what you’re looking at, because–
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: It’s using symbols that you might recognize vaguely. For instance, the symbol from Mars is what’s often associated for the symbol for men. The symbol for Venus is what’s often associated with women and it is the cross with a circle on top. But other than that most of the other symbols and even the [glist] 31:59 for the signs may not be easily recognizable to you.
So even at this point, there’s some astrologers who actually do give charts to clients. I only give them upon request, because most of my clients would say to me, “I don’t even know what I’m looking at.”
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: My job is to be able to interpret and say to them. Now, I definitely will give them upon request, but like I said, most people don’t know what they’re looking at. Maybe I think what you’re also asking is, “So, what can I expect when someone talks to me about my chart?”
I focus in on three particular key signs in your chart. That’s usually the first 20 to 30 minutes of a 60 minute constellation that I have and most people know their sun sign and so I talk about what the sun sign represents.
Frank: You mentioned the sun signs several times, but the sun sign is the–
Samuel: Yes.
Frank: Sign that most of us know we have. I’m a Libra.
Samuel: That’s correct.
Frank: Okay.
La Tonia: Yeah, can you say a little bit more about that?
Samuel: Yes, I’m definitely going to lead into that. First I want to introduce what the three signs are: there’s a sun sign, the moon sign and then the rising sign and they’re all different levels of specificity and let me explain.
The sun sign usually correlates to the month you were born and that also correlates to the sign that you are during the sun moving through a particular time of year. Right now if someone were born today, the sun is moving through the sign of Pisces, so we often would say that this person is a Pisces.
Then we have to kind of look at the moon sign and the moon sign does not depend on the time of year from year to year. It can change, actually. So the moon sign, depending on that particular year could be, for instance today, it’s in Scorpio. This person born today would be born with a moon in Scorpio, for example. And then, in terms of the rising sign–
Frank: How does that change? So, the sun sign changes by month, what causes the moon sign to change?
Samuel: By day. By every two and a half days, the moon changes sign and because it keeps moving, it’s not in the same place every year. Someone could be born February 20th this year and someone born February 20th, 40 years ago and have completely different moon signs.
Frank: Got it.
Samuel: Even though they have the same date of birth and then the same “sun sign.” The rising sign is even more specific and it depends literally on the time that you were born and if you were born let’s say now at 10:30 A.M., then you would have a particular sign rising depending on your location. If you’re born in California it’s a different thing. If you’re born let’s say here in New York, then your rising sign would be in Gemini as an example. Right now, if we were talking about literally right now. It all depends on different cycles of understanding time.
Now what do these three things mean? Why are they important? I usually give an analogy. The sun, let’s say you have an intention to go to the store to get some milk, the sun would represent what is your overall soul’s intention. What are you trying to get and understand from the perspective of that sign? Then the moon would literally represent the vehicle by which you go to the store to get this milk. What becomes your emotional experience, what is the physical nature of this experience in terms of needs and cravings and inclinations and what becomes your limited understanding or daily understanding of that sign and that intention to get the milk from the moon’s perspective, from the vehicle’s prospective or that’s a bike going along with the analogy or we’re talking about a car. What becomes that way of getting to the store.
Frank: Okay.
La Tonia: I have Frank’s here.
Samuel: Okay, we can talk about it and then the route becomes the ascendant or the ascendant is or the rising sign is reflective of the route by which you get to the store. What are you paying attention to as you go to the store? What’s the way in which you get there? Do you go around the block? Do you go around the city? Do you go around the country? What become the things that you also resonate as you kind of go along with getting to the store to get this milk. So, there’s three different levels by which we encounter the world based on an intention from our sun sign.
La Tonia: I call it our own personal trinity, Sam. That’s the way–
Samuel: Okay.
La Tonia: When I talk to my clients, I mention it as the trinity and can I share yours?
Frank: Yeah.
La Tonia: Okay, so Frank is a Libra sun, Gemini moon and Virgo rising.
Samuel: Okay. He’s a what, sun?
La Tonia: Libra.
Samuel: Say it again.
La Tonia: Libra sun.
Samuel: He’s a Libra sun, Gemini moon and Virgo rising.
La Tonia: Yeah.
Samuel: You were born a communicator, born talker and why am I saying that Frank is, because you actually have two key signatures that are ruled by the sign of Mercury. Your moon in Gemini and your Virgo rising signify to me that you are someone who is very mercurial in terms and Mercury, remember, relates to communication.
We know that you’re not a cab driver or may be you have been, so it’s not transportation, but it’s more usually communication, talking with people. And Virgo rising is very interesting, because I find that these people are very much interested in being some measure of practical service and giving some measure of efficiency in terms of improving something in the world, and so in your particular case, without seeing your whole chart I can see you’re looking to improve the dynamics within relationships and you do that in a very moon in Gemini fashion, which is through communication and relating to people through how you deal with your feelings.
Now the thing for you, if you were a client and I was talking with you in terms about your needs, one of the things is I would say to someone, let’s say, it was a water sign and they were more related to dealing with things about feelings, I would say the key thing is communications and asking Frank, particular things rather than trying to guess, because you might always assign more mystery and more duality to him than really what’s there.
Moon in Gemini’s I kind of call often one of the mystery signs for people, because they don’t realize that Gemini is always balancing between the heart and the mind and dealing with dynamic in terms of figuring out what becomes really emotionally true and it’s not going with the feeling of it, it’s also thinking about it. This bothers people, especially those that are more connected for feelings sake and often they associate things with the moon in Gemini that’s not fair.
I think as an example, President Obama has some moon in Gemini. So, i really bothers people that he deliberates and thinks about things and he actually can balance the equanimity, two different things at once, like being both black and white and coming from different areas of life and areas of the world and that really has upset a lot of Americans, because they don’t know how to deal with that duality.
Frank: Now, do you ever find yourself, I don’t know if you’re a President Obama supporter or not, but do you ever find yourself saying, “Hey, hey y’all leave him alone, his moon’s in Gemini. He’s going to be thinking, he’s going to take some time. Ever find your self defending the President?
Samuel: Yeah, but I don’t know if it’s just a matter of defense. I think it’s more so I kind of weigh-in on what are some key traits about the character. For example, during the last election when people saw him “on the ropes,” I predicted and said, this is where Leo’s usually thrive. They like to be on the ropes and feel like they’re doing the rope-a-dope thing so that when their back is against the wall they have to get their haunches up and that’s when they’ll leap and that’s exactly what he did.
That was true for Clinton, too, another Leo President. He was someone who–and even kind of thrived on that, that’s why he was called the “comeback kid.”
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: They like odds stacked against them.
La Tonia: He’s looking at me and I was just waiting for a break, because I thought it was interesting as a co-host, a new co-host with him that I have a Gemini sun, a Taurus moon and a Libra rising and I see–you see that?
Samuel: Yeah, yeah, there’s definitely that felicity between you two and understanding. That’s good.
Frank: And to add to the mix, my wife happens to be sitting here in the studio with us and I’m sure she has something to say about me running my mouth a lot and also treading between being in my head and in my heart. What you got, babe?
Hasanna: Well when I heard you say that, I smiled to myself, because you hit the nail–
La Tonia: He’s good.
Hasanna: Right on the head. You just described him to a tee. I’m impressed.
La Tonia: And what about your sun sign?
Hasanna: I’m a Cancer.
La Tonia: How about that.
Hasanna: And he used water as an example.
La Tonia: Right, exactly.
Samuel: Right.
Frank: I’m lost.
La Tonia: That’s why I wanted you to do an overview, because I want the listeners-because I want just an overview of the air signs, the water signs, the fire signs, at least at the very least can you please just do that?
Samuel: Okay, can you give me two minutes with that?
La Tonia: Sure.
Samuel: Okay, this is what I’m going to say, especially for our religious listeners. One of the key dynamics to understand astrology is that it is the mystery of two numbers: four and three. The three as La Tonia mentioned, eludes to even trinity and that becomes the way by which we understand the cycle of spirit. Four deals with how we understand the material world, the material encounters of the world.
Four deals with four elements and the key elements are: fire, earth, air and water. The fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. The air signs are Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. The water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. The earth signs are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. When we look at those dynamics–
Frank: Do you ever forget those? Is that like engrained in your mind? Do you got a piece of paper in front of you?
La Tonia: Yes, it becomes a part of you.
Samuel: Yeah, at some point it does become a part of you, because you’re thinking about how those things blend. I might think I forget the order in which to set them or repeat myself. Did I say that one already, but I never forget them. You have those four elements and then the three relates to what we call “Three Modalities of Action.”
There is the cardinal, which relates to those signs that start seasons, especially in the northern hemisphere. Then we have the sixth signs, which are those signs that relate to how those seasons become maintained and fix themselves. And then we have the mutable, which are in between the seasons.
So, right now as an example, Pisces is a water sign that’s mutable, so we’re actually between winter and spring and soon, especially for those of us on the, eastern seaboard, we’re going to start to see that dynamic. It’s been winter for sure, but now we’re about to experience a little bit of the spring once it reaches those 50 degree temperatures that the weatherman’s forecasting.
That’s one of the things that’s kind of happening where we’re getting the blend between signs. The same thing is true for Gemini. Gemini is also a mutable air signs, because it’s in between spring and summer.
Your wife in contrast is Cancer, so she starts a season. You are also a cardinal Sign, you’re a Libra air sign and your cardinal, you start fall for us. It’s just a little side note, because a lot of people may not know this. One of the reasons why we call fall, fall has nothing to do with falling leaves. It has everything to do with something from astrology. The sun springs back to life in Aries. The opposite sign to Aires is Libra, so we go toward not the springing but the fall. The sun is set to fall in Libra, which is a good thing, because that means the sun representing the ego, it means now that we can create space for the other. So that’s why Libra’s often associated with relationships and other people.
La Tonia: Yes.
Frank: Any advice for the misses sitting here and her dealings with me or me with her, but you don’t have all of her stuff? But so–
Samuel: I was about to ask, “What’s her moon,” because that would be critical. La Tonia, do you know what her moon is?
La Tonia: IWhile you all are talking, I can try to pull it up.
Samuel: Okay.
Frank: Oh, go on.
Samuel: What I was going to say, one of the things that I do like, is that you both are cardinal signs, so there’s a way, there’s a lot of energy, there’s a lot of charge. A lot of times you may read in books that Libra and Cancers can’t get along. That’s not entirely true.
You actually want a kind of tension, because those are both cardinal signs. What that means is that they both want to get stuff started. It’s a question of who wants to start the stuff, so that sometimes can get into critical egos. The good thing about that is that can create energy, both active sexual energy and active mental energy, so that means that one is kind of forced or pressed to work out those issues even though there’s tension.
A lot of people think that you want everything smooth and smoothly running between people’s charts as kind of the key blend. The problem with that is that if you don’t have enough dynamic tension, you end up feeling like you’re married to or dating your sister or brother. Yes, you have your best friend, but you don’t have someone who makes your toes curl.
Frank: Okay. It’s interesting that you said that, because one of the questions that we ask each other often is, “You want to fight,” and sometimes we’ll say, “Yeah, yeah I want to fight. Alright.” And then the other person sometimes will say, “No, I don’t want to fight.” It’s an ongoing kind of a joke, but it has some seriousness to it also, because we’re constantly starting stuff with each other, picking on each other and that sort of thing. But one of the things that she and I were discussing just yesterday was, we’re not mad at each other for long, so I don’t know if that fits into what I’m saying in your book, but it does somehow in mine.
Samuel: Yeah it does. It’s a very good thing to be able to let things go and not have that fixity. I’m curious like I said, to hear where your wife’s planets are, but just from knowing your chart, you can keep things moving. So someone kind of clinging onto things and bringing up things, maybe someone who has a lot of strong Scorpio in their chart like the moon or the sun or even the rising, someone kind of saying like, “Yes you know what you did to me three weeks ago on that Tuesday,” that would sound crazy to you.
Frank: I’ve been in a relationship like that.
La Tonia: Okay, I got it.
Frank: Okay, alright, go on.
La Tonia: So, Hasanna is a Pisces sun, Scorpio moon and Leo rising.
Samuel: Wait, wait, wait. She’s a Pisces sun or Cancer?
La Tonia: I got Pisces.
Samuel: She’s July.
Frank: Alright, back to what I was saying.
La Tonia: Okay, I didn’t change the date. I’m sorry. That’s my fault. I’ll work on it.
Samuel: Okay, alright but go on, what were you saying?
Frank: I don’t know what was I saying?
Samuel: You’ve been in a relationship.
Frank: Oh yeah. Yeah, I’ve been in a relationship where the memory is long. “Remember what you did to me three years ago, two years ago. I never forgave you for that.” That didn’t work that well.
Samuel: No, it wouldn’t, because you’re mutable and in terms of your moon sign and your rising sign, so one of the things that you can do is keep it moving. So, someone kind of always kind of processing the past and not able to easily release things, whether that’s strong water or one of the “fix” signs that won’t vibe well with you.
Frank: I believe you.
La Tonia: Okay, I have the right thing here now and I’m like “wow.” She’s a Cancer sun, Scorpio moon and Scorpio rising.
Samuel: So she does have a lot of Scorpio. Okay, so you don’t encounter-well that’s great. What does she have for Mercury, because she doesn’t seem like she’s holding long to the past a lot?
La Tonia: Well, I don’t have the whole chart in front of me either.
Samuel: Okay.
La Tonia: Just the three.
Samuel: Okay, alright well she has a Scorpio moon, so it’s not like she’s holding on to the past, but that one of the things that could be challenging. I want to ask, can I talk to her, right quick?
Frank: Yeah, she’s right here ready to chomp, ready to chomp–
Hasanna: Hello.
Frank: At the bit.
Samuel: What’s your name?
Frank: Hasanna.
Hasanna: Yeah.
Samuel: Hasanna.
Hasanna: Hasanna.
Samuel: Hasanna, one question I have, did you have a lot of fixation on the past, holding things in at one point?
Hasanna: No, I don’t think so.
Samuel: Okay, because that usually is, with Scorpio and Scorpio rising, it’s usually an association with thinking about the hurt that one has experienced and thinking about–
Frank: What about greatness of her husband, like she thinks about that a lot?
La Tonia: Oh, wow.
Frank: She tells me all the time how great I was–
La Tonia: Can she have her moment?
Frank: A year ago and two years ago.
La Tonia: Can he just finish?
Frank: Well, I just threw that in. I mean I don’t want to–
La Tonia: Can he just–
Frank: Let that go, you know.
La Tonia: I swear that’s really Leo of you. That’s very Leo–
Frank: Give her a full reading, you know.
La Tonia: This whole thing is very Leo of you right now.
Frank: Okay, alright. I’ll shut up.
La Tonia: Don’t you love it, Sam?
Samuel: Yeah. I am curious to see his whole chart now and I’m also curious to see hers.
La Tonia: Leo somewhere right, Sam?
Samuel: Yeah, but maybe he’s in touch with his Aries.
La Tonia: That would be true. Now, back to Hasanna.
Samuel: Yeah, I was just curious in terms of Scorpio rising and kind of talk about it. Scorpio rising is the truth serum of rising Signs. So one of the things I like to say about the Scorpio rising is that, if I had to choose between a lie detector and a Scorpio rising, I would always have a Scorpio rising in the room, because you’re born to kind of be able to perceive things beneath the surface, in terms of being able to investigate and kind of see things deeply. Do you work in some kind of therapy to capacity yourself?
Hasanna: I’m not, professionally, but it’s in there. Yes, it is definitely in there.
Samuel: Yeah, you’re definitely someone who feels deeply, experiences things deeply and one of the things that I imagine that you help Frank on is, kind of get into the depths of deeper waters in terms of life. He might keep it moving, but you also keep stirring the pot in terms of giving him a reason to keep moving.
There’s a lot of depths that you have and in terms of your own capacities to kind of connect to people and resonate and speak the truth. You can perceive a lot into people. You read people fairly well and that usually comes from usually some circumstances, perhaps early in life that prompted you to realize the world is not as you see it, so you have to look deeper.
La Tonia: You know, before I forget this question, I want to ask you, because you kind of touched on in your answers. Do you deal with past lives and when you look at a chart, do you look at some indications around past lives? Can you talk a little bit about it?
Samuel: No.
La Tonia: You don’t?
Samuel: No, I don’t believe in past lives.
La Tonia: Got it and you don’t believe in cusps either, do you?
Samuel: No.
La Tonia: Okay.
Samuel: And Frank may not know and our audience may not know what cusps mean. Cusps is when we have-because I’m born actually “on the cusp.” My birthday is November 22nd, so that is said to be between Scorpio and Sagittarius and some of our listeners may also have that experience where like to say born February 18th and they’re like, am I an Aquarius or Pisces?
La Tonia: I’m a cusp.
Samuel: The key thing is-right, I do remember that, but the thing is, if we know what time you were born then you are either one sign or not. What you may have are other planets in other signs, like the next sign, but you also may not.
For instance, I don’t have any Sagittarian planets. I don’t have any planets in Sagittarius. All my planets are either in Scorpio, Virgo, some in Libra, but that’s about it. It’s not technically a cusp where you’re like experiencing the dynamics of both, because you were born between the dates. That’s not traditionally how astrology works. If we know the time, you’re one way or another.
Frank: What’s the cut off time? Is it midnight?
Samuel: It depends on the year.
Frank: Okay.
Samuel: No, it depends on the year, because the sun, one of the things that’s interesting to study about time is that these things that we kind of have constructed in terms of midnight as the day starts and all these different things, they’re arbitrary. That’s not necessarily true. For instance, in Islam, the day begins when the sun goes down, so that was generally the perception of how a day began, but we kind of established midnight.
So, what happens with a particular sign or sun sign is that the sun actually goes through a different particular transition every year roughly around the same time. The other day the sun went into Pisces on, I guess the 18th, but some days it may actually make that transition on the 19th.
Frank: Okay. You’re listening to Frank Relationships and we’ve been talking with astrologist, Samuel Reynolds, co-owner of The Astrology Career Institute and astrologist extraordinaire. Sam, please tell our listeners how they can find you and your services.
Samuel: You can find me by phone at 484-727-8277, by email at unlockastrology@gmail.com–one word and then you can also reach me at unlockastrology.com.
Frank: Along today’s journey, we’ve discussed suns, moons and risings, cusps and definitely charts. I hope you’ve had as much fun as I’ve had discussing compatibility, astrology and relationships.
As always, it’s my wish for you to walk away from this conversation with a heaping helping of useful information that’ll help you create a relationship that’s as loving and accepting as possible. Let us know what you thought of today’s show at facebook.com/relationshipflove, on Twitter @mrfranklove or franklove.com.
On behalf of my producer, Phileta Legette and my engineer, Jeff Newman, keep rising. This is Frank Love.
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