Donna Kiefer Astrology

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Donna Kiefer Astrology

Donna Kiefer Astrology Donna has been teaching and practicing astrology in the Boston area for over ten years.

She uses a person’s birth chart—a picture of the sky at the moment and place of birth—to allow them to see all the gifts, talents, and abilities, the sparks of brilliance that they alone possess. Donna inspires people to feel better about themselves and to live more empowered and fulfilling lives. Donna completed a two-year course with England’s Faculty of Astrological Studies (FAS) in 2000

for more information see www.donnakieferastrology.com

03/22/2020

We live in some of the most challenging times we have ever seen. This can be traced to January’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction, in effect all year. While this planetary duo, occurring 3 times a century, holds many positive potentials, on the world stage it is associated with serious challenges, including epidemics. • •

But another planetary body led the conjoined planets last January, making this Saturn-Pluto conjunction unique. Chariklo, a centaur planet, was just a degree away from Saturn & Pluto. Thus her meanings are very much interwoven with this conjunction, & we are being called to embody them, even as we face our deepest fears & uncertainties. •

Chariklo (from the Greek: “spinning grace into creation”) was discovered in 1997 in the heart-centered sign of Leo, at 6 degrees—a number associated with harmony, calm, serenity. She was in peaceful, flowing connection with 6 other planets, in an extremely rare & beautiful 6-pointed star alignment. All of these other planets are at 5 degrees, a number associated with tension & conflict. •

Chariklo’s role is to collaborate with these disparate, jangling energies, weave them together & elevate their combined effects to a higher, more graceful vibration--6 degrees. •

Said another way, Chariklo is meant to open the collective heart chakra. With lockdowns & social distancing, we are more acutely aware of how much we need each other. With the seismic shifts in our daily lives caused by the virus, we may become consumed by fear & anxiety. This can cause our bodies to tense up & contract—personal “lockdown.” Chariklo provides the antidote to these ills, because she represents love & harmony; calm, peace, & stillness. We embody her by holding sacred space for ourselves & our loved ones; by being still for long enough that the voices in the news & the fears that they breed grow quiet. This stillness can give rise to a deeper, calmer wisdom. •

That you are safe in the larger cosmic web of creation. You are sacred. And you are loved.

03/06/2020

“Love the earth and sun and the animals…” proclaimed Walt Whitman, a mid-19th century poet who had Ceres tightly conjunct (joined with) the Sun. If anyone embodies Ceres, it’s those whose Suns (core identities) are right next to the Earth-mother planet in their birth charts. And Whitman here suggests a key meaning for Ceres: joyful love for the earth & its inhabitants, including us humans. •

Whitman’s poetry was known for its sensuality, & this, too, is Ceres at its essence: appreciation for the tactile, earthly wonders of our bodies, the animals & plants that surround us, the stones & the rivers that form our world. Ceres occupied Ta**us, the earthiest of the earth signs, when it was discovered. Taureans are known for their slow, grounded, pleasurable connection to everything around them. •

Whitman continued, “And your very flesh shall be a great poem…in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.” •

Another Sun-Ceres person is Auguste Renoir, one of the founders of the Impressionist style of painting. Renoir may be most known for his celebration of the female form in his many n**e paintings. Glorious, earthy, sparkling with color and light, these images could be the visual accompaniment to Whitman’s words. •

Nina Simone, a singer who encompassed many musical styles, was also born with Ceres tightly conjunct her Sun. “Sensual” is one word often used to describe her, a quality that seemed to emanate from her during performances. It also took shape in some of her lyrics, such as these from “Images”: •

She does not know

Her beauty,

She thinks her brown body

Has no glory.

If she could dance

Naked

Under palm trees

And see her image in the river

She would know.

Ceres encourages us to connect to the inner knowing which we have had for millennia, of how gorgeous & radiant we are in these human bodies, how intimately & intricately connected to the sensual beauty of the Earth around us. We *are* nature—not separate from it—and that is a glorious thing.

02/27/2020

What is dwarf planet Ceres doing in the historic Saturn-Pluto conjunction that dominates 2020? She may be pleading with us to feel & express our grief & anger at the loss of our home, the Earth.
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Saturn, Pluto, & Capricorn all relate to endings & losses. Capricorn is associated with melancholy, & Pluto with buried feelings, especially anger.
•
Ceres, earth mother, grieved & raged terribly at the loss of her daughter, Persephone. As inhabitants of the great mother, it’s time we return the favor. We have violated & abused her, & she is in many ways already lost to us—she is not the same planet as when humans arrived here thousands of years ago. •

In ancient myth, Ceres’ distress was necessary to allow life on Earth to continue. Now, ours is required. Otherwise, as Greta Thunberg (Sun square Ceres) & countless others have pointed out, it will be too late. •
Environmentalist Joanna Macy (Sun conjunct Ceres) says, “Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear war, none is so great as the deadening of our response.”
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Many have heeded the earth mother’s call, & put our time, energy, & even our lives on the line in efforts to save her. Clearly, more is required.
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“What we need is a great, powerful, tremulous falling back in love with our old, ancient, primordial Beloved, which is the Earth herself,” says storyteller Martin Shaw. Such love inescapably awakens in us the deep grief & anger of having despoiled & abused the precious Earth we once knew.
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Without connecting to these feelings, we can go about our daily lives as though nothing is wrong. But as environmental activist Jane Fonda (Ceres conjunct Mars) says, “We must start to live our lives as though this is an emergency, because it is. •

Those with sensitive points—Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Ascendant, or MC--at 20 to 25 degrees of Capricorn, Aries, Cancer, or Libra, are most urgently summoned at this time to embody Ceres’ energy on behalf of the planet.

02/21/2020

To better understand the meaning of Ceres—earth mother & goddess of grain & agriculture—in our charts, & in the Saturn-Pluto-Ceres conjunction (meeting) that dominates this year, let’s look at a famous person for whom this planet is prominent. •
•

With Ceres next to the Sun (core identity) in her birth chart, singer/songwriter/actress Beyonce embodies Ceres’ qualities. •
•

Honored & admired worldwide, Beyonce can easily be seen as a modern-day goddess. And she personifies two key Ceres traits: depth of feeling, & appreciation for the beauty of the human form. •
•

Beyonce expresses the wide range of emotions that motherhood elicited from Ceres. Ceres’ daughter, Persephone, was abducted by Pluto & taken to the underworld. After making a deal with Jupiter, Persephone was allowed to live aboveground for half the year, & Ceres’ joy at this allowed the earth to grow & blossom, giving us spring & summer. The other half of the year, Persephone returned to Hades, & Ceres’ anger & grief caused the death of plants on earth—autumn & winter. •
•

Beyonce lost several children-to-be to miscarriages. She called this “the saddest thing” she had ever endured, & in her song “Heaven,” said
“I fought for you…�So tell me your secrets�I just can't stand to see you leaving.” •
•

Several years later, having given birth to her first child, she experienced the joy of that unique bond. In “God Made You Beautiful,” she exults:
“I kiss those little feet and watch for your perfect smile,
And when it comes, the world stops in your eyes, �I found love, I found peace of the purest kind.” •
•

And finally, like a true earth goddess, Beyonce celebrates the human body in all its forms, including pregnancy. These photos convey the radiance & power of this essentially female experience. •
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In an interview, she said that new mothers shouldn’t have to downplay the taxing effects of pregnancy on their bodies or live up to impossible “bounce back” beauty standards. •
•

Above all else, she said, “I think it’s important for women & men to see & appreciate the beauty in their natural bodies.”

02/14/2020

🦋 These times can feel frightening & uncertain. The systems we have been living under seem to be breaking down, & we don’t have a clear picture of what will replace them. The Earth that sustains us is threatened, & we don’t know if it can be saved.

Distressing as these developments may be, they are in sync with universal cosmic energies.

Most of us are familiar with the phases of the Moon. There is a point from just before to just after the New Moon when the Moon is invisible. This is sometimes called the “dark Moon,” & can be a time of outward chaos & uncertainty. Yet symbolically, its akin to a seed lying dormant under the snow.

What many of us don’t know is that there is a Moon-phase type of cycle between every pair of planets. Right now an extraordinary number of these cycles are coming to an end, creating a prolonged & powerful dark Moon period. Accentuating this effect is that many of the planets involved are associated with endings, or death & rebirth.

Take the Ceres-Saturn-Pluto conjunction (meeting) of last month. Each planet symbolizes endings (Saturn) or death & rebirth (Ceres, Pluto). Like three simultaneous New Moons, their conjunction marks the end of three planetary cycles & the beginning of new ones. This year will also see the end, & new beginning, of the Jupiter-Saturn & Jupiter-Pluto cycles.

What to do? Breathe, meditate, quiet the mind. Pluto urges us to let go of what no longer serves us, allowing ourselves to grieve what’s been lost. Tend to those feelings, & any others that arise, with the protective mother-love that Ceres offers. Finally, there is no better time than now to cultivate faith. Jupiter’s presence in these cycles supports that.

And it might help to keep in mind that, like a chrysalis, this period holds a butterfly-to-be. New cycles are beginning. We might not notice their signs right now, but in a month, a year, or ten years, we’ll be able to look back & say, “yes, this started then.”

Finally, remember that we each have a role to play in these new cycles. At this very moment, we are all creating the future. What kind of world are you giving birth to?

02/07/2020

The Saturn-Pluto-Ceres conjunction that we are living through is quite powerful. Saturn and Pluto combined can achieve almost anything. But the intensity of this planetary combination may produce a cold ruthlessness. Putting Ceres in the picture allows for a much wider range of emotions. This can humanize us & soften any hard edges.

So, what do we do with these energies? It helps if you know where in your chart these planets fall. What house contains 20 to 25 degrees of Capricorn? To find out, go to: https://astro-charts.com/ This tells you what area of life is up for renewal. If these degrees fall on or make a hard aspect (square or opposition) to a sensitive point in your chart—Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Mercury, Venus, Mars or the Midheaven—then the impact is magnified.

The first step is to set goals (Saturn) for ourselves, remembering that we have titanic power (Saturn-Pluto) to make changes at this time. But we must do so in a gentle, compassionate manner, giving ourselves plenty of motherly love (Ceres). What is waiting to be born?

This is an ideal time to shed anything that no longer serves us (Pluto). This could be a relationship; a job or even a career; possessions; a habit; a way of thinking. What are we holding onto that is weighing us down? Evaluating this may require us to go deep into our past, and root out that which is weak, sick, or dying.

As we move forward with our goals, many different feelings may arise. These might include challenging emotions like fear, anxiety, anger, and even shame. Ceres encourages us to love & embrace all of them, and to express them whenever possible. This could take the form of exploring them in a journal or talking to a trusted friend or family member.

Ultimately, we can create a safe container (Saturn) for ourselves or our community using moral and ethical fortitude (Saturn), going deep to transform and let go of the past (Pluto), making sure to honor and respect women and our planet (Ceres) in the process. This container has the power to evolve (Pluto), endure (Saturn), & bear fruit (Ceres) for many years to come.

02/01/2020

🌾 Some words on Ceres during this historic Saturn-Pluto-Ceres conjunction of 2020 🌿
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Ceres was known in Greek & Roman myth as goddess of grain & agriculture, earth mother. Discovered at the exact degree of the fixed star Algol, the two bodies’ meanings are linked.
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Known as the “demon” star, Algol is still widely referred to as the most “evil” star in the sky. It is, not surprisingly, located in the head of a woman—Medusa. Medusa was exceptionally beautiful, with long, golden locks, & sworn to celibacy. Sea-god Poseidon r***d her in the temple of Athena (goddess of wisdom). Hearing of this, Athena turned Medusa’s hair into snakes, which caused men who looked at her to be turned to stone. Hence her reputation as a “demon.” A classic blame-the-victim story. Was it Medusa’s fault for being beautiful? Did she “cause” men to r**e her? She has no agency in this story, yet is seen as evil.
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A more modern interpretation is that Athena was guarding Medusa from further violence by giving her the power to avoid the male gaze. A bit of sisterhood playing out in the heavens, something we don’t often see in Greek & Roman myths, which were created at a time when patriarchy was replacing goddess-worship in these societies.
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Like Athena, Ceres acts as a protectress, whose myth brings the Earth into the picture. Ceres’ daughter Persephone was abducted & r***d by Pluto and taken to his domain, the underworld.
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Ceres became enraged & beset by grief, & in her torment, stopped the grain & other plants from growing. Jupiter, king of the gods, brokered a deal to reunite Persephone aboveground with her mother for half the year, in return for which Ceres allowed life on earth to resume—spring & summer. The other half of the year, Persephone returned underground to Pluto’s realm & the crops & other living things withered & died—autumn & winter.
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Ceres’ myth represents both women’s empowerment & the life-giving force of Earth herself. It also conveys the strength of emotions--Ceres’ anger and grief so potent as to kill living things; her love and joy enough to bring them back to glorious, abundant life.

01/25/2020

You’ve probably heard a lot about the recent conjunction (meeting) of Saturn and Pluto. This aspect happens only three times a century. Both planets are powerful in their own rights, and even moreso in combination, so their joining deserves great focus. But what hasn’t received as much attention is dwarf planet Ceres. At the time of the historic Saturn-Pluto conjunction on January 12, 2020, Ceres was at the exact same degree as the other two planets, effectively making it a triple conjunction.

So what does this mean? Ceres is the goddess of grain and agriculture, also known as the Earth mother in Greek and Roman myth. Her presence in this conjunction draws our attention to two main issues: the rights of women and the state of the Earth.

High-profile feminists with Ceres powerfully placed in their charts include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Tarana Burke, and Malala Yousafzai. A strong Ceres is also present in charts of women known for Earth-advocacy: Greta Thunberg, Winona LaDuke, and Vandana Shiva.

The combination of Saturn (endings) and Pluto (death and rebirth) in Capricorn (earthly manifestation) could be called a “do-or-die” moment. It signals the end of at least some aspects of the existing world order. Ceres’ presence in this historical configuration shows a precipitous moment both for women’s rights and for the Earth’s ability to sustain human life. The decisions that are being made now will likely affect us for many years to come. This combination prompts each of us to ask what we are doing on those issues, and what more we could be doing.

10/25/2019

Look at the birth charts of two family members, and you’re likely to see many connections. In the charts of two strangers, there are usually far fewer links. Yet we see remarkable similarities between the birth maps of two people who have surely never met--Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate change activist, and Rachel Carson, the scientist-author who helped pioneer the environmental movement in the 1960s.
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Both are instinctive, courageous truth-tellers. Rachel’s Moon (innate nature) and Greta’s South Node (inborn tendencies) are in Sagittarius, sign of openness, honesty, and authenticity. Sagittarians can be intrepid, even fearless. Neither was deterred by the great personal difficulties and attacks from many quarters that came as a result of their speaking out.
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Greta is meant to work toward something that was innate in Rachel. Said another way, Greta’s highest potential is to become like Rachel. Greta’s North Node—where she must put effort to fulfill her destiny—is conjunct Rachel’s Sun and Mercury—Rachel’s essential self, and how she expressed that. All these points are in Gemini—the communicator or messenger.
While Rachel was a natural communicator—she wrote professionally from an early age, including a National Book Award winner--Greta must work on communicating in order to reach her greatest fulfillment. She seems to have achieved this quite admirably. After a period at age 11 in which she became depressed and did not talk at all, Greta began to speak publicly at age 15, and has since spoken at many events, gaining an international reputation as a climate activist.
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Rachel had a stellium (group of planets) in Cancer—a water sign symbolizing the mother, the nurturer. She showed a deep and abiding protectiveness toward loved ones, as well as the earth herself. This stellium is opposite Greta’s Sun (core identity) and Chiron (maverick nature). Rachel’s powerful mothering instincts have flowed down through the generations to nurture Greta’s ability to think for herself and speak her own unique truth. You might say that Greta is Rachel’s spiritual daughter.

10/18/2019

Mercury, planet of thought and communication, will soon go retrograde for the final time this year. Let’s use this opportunity to look at the chart—and words—of someone who was born with the Winged Messenger in this condition.
At the UN Climate Action Summit last month, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg didn’t mince words:
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words…People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Just 16 years old, Greta was born an adult, a sage, a wise old woman, with Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Chiron all in Capricorn, the sign of the hermit, the father, the elder. Capricorns are old when they’re young and young when they’re old. Serious and disciplined, they are always the adult in the room, tending to take responsibility in every situation.
With Mercury in Capricorn, we see someone whose thinking is slow, serious, thorough, deliberate, and factual. With Mercury retrograde, these qualities are even more pronounced. Another retrograde feature is that she needs to personalize everything she takes in in order to understand it. This takes time. So she will think very carefully before speaking. And when she does speak, she will mean what she says with every fiber of her being.
The painful shyness of a retrograde Mercury in Capricorn is magnified for Greta by having Saturn and the North Node in Gemini. Both Saturn and the North Node represent areas in life that we find challenging, but must develop in order to grow. Gemini is the communicator, the storyteller, the messenger. With Saturn and the Moon’s North Node in this sign, expressing one’s thoughts can seem alien, awkward, heavy. Yet this is exactly the capacity that must be developed for Greta to reach her fullest potential.
She is meant to be a messenger, and seems to be very much on that path. And as someone for whom communication is so deadly serious, she would indeed by outraged by the “empty words” and “fairy tales” of those in power.

03/07/2019

For Chiron’s position in your chart: https://astro-charts.com/

You may experience distortions in analysis and understanding of yourself and others, which can lead to hyper-self criticism, body image/dietary issues, difficulty asserting or even recognizing your own needs. You may have the gift of seeing and serving the needs of others in unusual ways; could have healing capabilities.

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Donna has been teaching and practicing astrology in the Boston area for over fifteen years. She uses a person’s birth chart—a picture of the sky at the moment and place of birth—to allow them to see all the gifts, talents, and abilities, the sparks of brilliance that they alone possess. Donna inspires people to feel better about themselves and to live more empowered and fulfilling lives. for more information see www.donnakieferastrology.com