Friday, January 27, 2012

Honor Marie Warren: Tick, Talk, She Doesn't Stop!

In an interview with Extra, Jessica Alba told Mario Lopez that Honor is "talking up a storm and telling us everything and having tons of opinions."

You don't say?! Honor has a Gemini Sun, with Mercury, the planet of communication and Gemini's ruler, right on top of it in a conjunction. This statement from mom reveals plenty about how Honor is growing into her Gemini! Let's check out the average Gemini checklist.

GeminiHonor's activities
Enjoys language and words. Word games, tongue-twisters, word puzzles, and clever one-liners are a favorite pastime"Talking up a storm"
Enjoys observing the world around them, communicating and reporting on the wonder of everything they see. They often muse aloud"Telling everything"
Passing knowledge along is enjoyable, but not half as enjoyable as processing it and adding one's own two cents!"Having tons of opinions"


With that detailed Virgo Ascendant to add to the mix, nothing will get past Honor!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Bryce Dallas Howard Welcomes Baby "Aunt B"

Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard) and her husband Seth Gabel welcomed baby number two on Thursday, Beatrice Jean! Grandpa Ron "Opie" Howard was so excited, he made the announcement on Twitter:
"Beatrice Jean Howard-Gabel Born Jan 19 2012
8lbs 6oz Bryce & Baby B are spectacular
Daddy Seth & brother Theo are beaming ear to ear :-)"
Beatrice was born near the tail end of the Sun's journey through Capricorn. It's also an extra special event for mom Bryce: Beatrice was born during her mom's Venus return in romantic Pisces. Venus returns to the point it was at the time of one's birth about once a year and stereotypically, it's a good time to "fall in love!"


Beatrice has a lighthearted Sagittarius Moon, full of promise and playfulness, but she's got lots to help her keep her feet on the ground. Her Sun in patient Capricorn is in a supportive trine relationship with active Mars in the hard-working and practical sign of Virgo. With the Sun in a tight, stressful relationship with Saturn, she'll need to grow into her adulthood a little more than most, but eventually, her earthy wisdom will have no rival!

Perhaps she's a real life incarnation of Opie's Great Aunt Bee?

Image of Bryce Dallas Howard is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. credit: gdcgraphics

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Aquarius Signature Star Child: Leo Bardem




Leo, son of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, is our featured Aquarius "Star Child."
Link

The Kiddiegram reports are the heart and soul of Kiddiegram, because they were created out of a desire to help you understand and nurture your precious one. A Kiddiegram is truly a "user's manual for parents.

In part, Leo's life will be about developing personal strength, individuality, and self-confidence. With his Sun in Aquarius, he is learning to appreciate himself for who he is, not who others wish he would be or even who he tries to be. Not just individuality, but also a strong self-appreciation is important for Leo. With Mars, the planet of power, will, and life force, so closely aligned with his Sun (identity and sense of self), acts of courage will build his confidence and self-appreciation.


It will be especially important for him to feel free to be himself, not just to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, but also to have a sense that the world is a wide place to discover. His Jupiter (growth, potential) in adventurous Aries will reveal to him how much he can grow when he trusts his instincts and lets it all go!

With the Moon in Virgo, that may be a bit of a challenge. A Virgo Moon child really wants be helpful, to succeed, and feel they are doing things right but an Aquarius Sun, he will need to learn that "right" is defined by himself, and therefore his "success" can only be judged by himself.

More about Leo's Virgo Moon from his Kiddiegram:

Moon in Virgo:
Leo is frequently rather hard on himself demanding perfection of himself and feeling guilty if he does not live up to his own high standards. He tends to be his own worst critic, and sometimes he will not even attempt to do something that he has never attempted before, for fear that his efforts will just not be good enough. Frequent assurances that mistakes and failures are okay, a natural part of the learning process, can help him overcome this tendency.




*Leo's birth time is not publicly known, so information which would be based on an accurate birth time has not been included.
Image of Penelope Cruz is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Georges BiardImage of Javier Bardem is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: David Torcivia

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Lola & Sami: The Best Big Sisters

According to mom Denise Richards, daughters Sami and Lola are the "best big sisters" to new baby Eloise:
"There wasn't an adjustment period with baby Eloise, we can't imagine what life was like before she was born. Sami and Lola are the best big sisters. They love to make faces and do dances for her and she has this big belly laugh watching them. She loves them so much."
Sister Sami, 7, is a Pisces, so she can easily access qualities of gentleness and sensitivity. She also has a great deal of Scorpio (moon, Ascendant, and south node), which can sometimes be quite possessive, but it can also be put to great use with it's tremendous loyalty. As the eldest, she'll no doubt keep a close, protective watch over both her younger sisters!

Lola, 6, is the middle sister, and a Gemini. Gemini loves playing games and being silly! With an Aries moon, she may be get a little feisty if she ever feels like she's lost in the middle and left out, but with Capricorn Rising, she wants to do the right thing and be responsible. She'll probably enjoy helping with the baby and feeling grown up when she does.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Astrology Basics: The Square and Harlow Winter

A natal chart shows the placements of the planets in the sky at the time of someone’s birth. To the average person, it may just look like a lot of dots in a circle, but to an astrologer, it reveals the patterns and tendencies in that person’s behavior and needs. The planets, while very far apart in our sky, look closer together when placed in the natal wheel, and connections between them can be seen by tracing certain mathematical angles between the planets, such as the 90 degree* angle, called a square, which is featured in Harlow's chart below. The connections between planets are called aspects.


Birthday girl Harlow, daughter of Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, just turned 4 this week. She has a square aspect in her chart between the planets Venus (middle right) and Uranus (top middle). Venus is the planet of relationship. It's connected through the square to the planet Uranus, which is a planet that drives us toward freedom and individuality.

Venus is how we establish connection with others, but Uranus, valuing freedom, tends to avoid anything that will tie it down. Harlow's special challenge with Venus squaring Uranus is to get her needs met for connection without sacrificing her need for freedom and individuality. The feeling of planets squaring each other usually feels tense and uncomfortable, but it's that tension and discomfort that continues to get our attention, and pushes us to work toward finding a way to make our conflicting needs work! As she forms friendships, she will be working out this challenge of collecting friends, but feeling tense or cramped when they expect too much of her or want to latch on too tightly. But she'll get the hang of it as she grows and will learn how to be independent but not alone.



*A degree is a unit of measurement. They are marked by the degree symbol following the numbers by each planet in a natal chart. There are 360 degrees in a circle. Each sign is divided into 30 degrees, so counting restarts at 0 when entering a new sign. To find an opposition, locate any planet in a natal chart and note its degree number. Then count 6 signs from there in either direction and see if another planet lands in the same degree (give or take a few degrees) in the new sign. That’s an opposition! If you’re not sure, or you don’t have a copy of your natal chart, you can calculate one for free instantly online at Kiddiegram.com!

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Beyoncé and Her Bouncing Baby Blue

Hollywood has welcomed a few new members over the last little while, including Keri Russell's Willa Lou, and Rebecca Gayheart's Georgia Geraldine, and many happy fans are excited about Beyoncé and Jay-Z's new baby who arrived yesterday (Saturday) evening,* January 7th: Blue Ivy.


No birth time has been publicly announced yet (in fact, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are still 'mum'), but Beyoncé's sister Solange and several others tweeted their congratulations, and a local paper disclosed that, according to a "close source:"
"Beyoncé has given birth to a girl early this evening in
New York ... Baby and mom are doing fine."

Looks like Blue has some lovely cooperative trines in her chart, such as Venus in Aquarius trine Saturn in Libra, lending some common sense to creative and love choices, and Mars in Virgo trine the Sun in Capricorn, indicating a willingness to work hard for her goals. The moon lies in Cancer, but if Blue was born earlier than 6:00, the moon would have been in Gemini, so la belle lune is shrouded in mystery until Mlle. Kiddie gets a birth time!




Image of Beyoncé and Jay-Z is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Attribution: idrewuk

*Mlle. Kiddie has cast the natal chart for 6 pm, as a rough estimate for "early evening," but has not offered interpretation on the parts of the chart that may be incorrect when hopefully an exact birth time is given later.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Parenting with Astrology: Coping with Change

Amy Herring has been a professional astrologer for 15 years and a proud mother for 6 of those years. She has joyfully accepted Mlle. Kiddie’s gracious offer to share her thoughts once a month here at Kiddie Star Signs. To find out more about Amy and her personal readings for parents and children, visit her website at http://heavenlytruth.com.

Money and fame don’t solve every problem. Celebrity moms have their hopes and worries for their children too. However, Mlle. Kiddie would like to offer ‘everyday’ moms a chance to see astrology put into action to answer their parenting questions. After all, famous or not, you’re the world to your kids! If you’ve got a question about your child that you’d like Amy to answer, send your questions any time to amy@heavenlytruth.com.

Melanie writes:
Ellie just turned 2. She is extremely intelligent and verbal, and WILLFUL. What is the best method for us to transition her to new ways of being, changes such as potty training from diapers or from a nanny to daycare? Even though Ellie has a LOT of language, when we attempt to explain what will be happening/changing in order to prepare her, she simply says NOOOOO or worse, throws a tantrum.

Amy answers:

This is one of those not-uncommon occurrences in astrology where the basic elements in a chart don't seem to jive with what behavior we expect to see. We might look at Ellie's chart, and see that she has Sagittarius Rising, for example, and expect that she would greet the world with an adventurous attitude, welcoming the new experiences through change that the mutable signs seem to be comfortable with.

Until, that is, we look more deeply at the south node of the moon. The south node represents feelings, orientations, and behaviors that we might call our spiritual and emotional comfort zone. It can be looked at as the foundation, the baseline of the chart, and the rest of the chart (the planets in the signs and houses) are overlaid on that foundation as the tools we are developing and learning to work with. As we grow, we grow into our charts and learn to use it more effectively by integrating all it represents into a cohesive and complex personality. But in youth, especially in the very young, we are more likely to see the urges and habits of the south node play out in a pure and immediate, even impulsive way.

Ellie's south node is in the sign of Cancer, a sign that places a high premium on emotional security. Security can come from predictability, or shelter from a loved one, for example. In the 8th house, it emphasizes this need, especially a need to feel protected by others as a dependent.

Mars lies close to her south node and adds its own agenda to the story. You couldn't have said it better when you called Ellie willful, which is the epitome of a strong Mars. Mars is simultaneously our desire to pursue what we want and defend against what we don't want. In order to defend against what makes her feel insecure, she'll push it away, or in Leo fashion, demand the offensive suggestion be removed, and a very young child often expresses anger through the very direct method of The Tantrum.

Cancer is an emotionally based sign - it follows its instincts based on what it feels, not only on what does or doesn't make sense, so logical appeals are not likely to be compelling until she's a little older and has more experiences under her belt where change hasn't turned out to be the end of her world. By the time she is 5 or so, she will probably be more adept at learning to delay the immediate reaction of her Mars defense mechanism and access more of her Libra energy, which can be reasoned with in a more intellectual sense.

One technique that may work in the near future is to focus on the exciting experiences she'll have with each change, to get her Sagittarius Moon and Rising sign engaged, but she may be too young yet for that to easily work, or to work all the time. For the time being, as simple as it may sound, it may be useful for all involved to accept that her fist, second, and maybe even third reaction to change will be no, so allow her to have that and go through the response that erupts from inside her (not allowing her to hit or disrespect others, but allowing her to 'have her say' so to speak) whenever you can. Obviously there are situations where change is spontaneous, and you may have to do the toddler wrestle, but allowing the storm to blow over and continuing to be constant in reinforcing the change can be the best way through. Looking for situations where you can, after the fact, show her how the change worked for her, in an excited way rather than a "see, I told you so" way can continue to lay the groundwork for future flexibility.

She may also respond to the idea of something being in it for her, whatever the proposed change is. I'm not suggesting you bribe her (although obviously a reward system can be beneficial for children) as much as engage her cooperation by showing her what she may have to gain, if it can be identified in a particular situation. It will have to be something clear and immediate though, given her age. Trying something more abstract, like attempting to generate excitement about her 'being a big girl' for example, may backfire right now. While she will grow to be eager to try things, she doesn't want to be a big girl who is responsible for herself, exactly. She wants to be sheltered, to continue to be the baby who is provided for. She'll need life experiences to learn that being a big girl has its perks, too.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that change can make her feel unsafe, and while she will be learning compromise as she grows into her Libra planets, she can be rather egocentric in demanding what she wants, when she wants it with Mars' influence. I realize it's an obvious statement to call a toddler egocentric! But hopefully a recognition of that underlying source of wanting to avoid feeling unsafe can help you find ways to help her feel safe through transitions, and to wait out the Leo firestorm of the tantrums.

Thanks for your question, and I hope the answer is helpful!


Would you like some input on how to understand and nurture your child in the most effective way for their unique needs? Amy offers readings for parents and children; find out more at her website. If you would like to submit a question for her monthly blog here, email her anytime!

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Coco Arquette Wants to Act

Courtney Cox says she's allowing 7-year-old daughter Coco to engage in her parent's profession, even though she's not "nuts" about it (dad is Courtney's ex-husband, David Arquette). Of Coco, Courtney says:
"She does like to perform. She does great accents. The other day she called up David and left a message pretending to be Kym Johnson, who was his dancing partner on 'Dancing With the Stars' and is from Australia. She said, 'Allo Dye-vid, it's Kym'. I can't do accents myself but she does them really well."
In a previous post, Mlle. Kiddie revealed that Coco's Scorpio south node may have something to do with the dramatic streak that mom says she has. So immersing herself in the often emotional process of acting may be quite appealing for Coco. She also has three planets in the versatile sign of Gemini: Venus, Mercury, and the Sun. The creativity with Venus and Mercury fused together in Gemini will allow Coco to think well on her feet and handle situations where she needs to improvise quite well. Mlle. Kiddie has also mentioned Coco's trine from this trio to Neptune, allowing her to draw easily on inspiration.

The planet Jupiter was in the sign of Virgo when Coco was born, and it forms a challenging square to the Gemini planetary trio. Jupiter is a planet that is about the desire to reach our potential and risk, but in Virgo, it's easy to get bogged down in the details of doing everything perfectly, and overthinking things, so the think-on-your-feet quality of Gemini may have Coco bogging herself down with questions or uncertainty. Encouragement and practice will help build her confidence if she chooses this challenging craft.



Image of Courtney Cox is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Felicia C. Sullivan
*Coco's birth time is not publicly known, so a noon chart has been cast.