agreed and then changed the subject. “Do you have the original chart?”
“Yes, I do.” Memphis pulled out the papyrus from the folder.
He took it from her and held it as if it were a newborn. “Do you see here?” he asked, pointing at an area of the chart. “The angles of the chart and planets occupy all the water signs; Cancer in the fourth house, Scorpio in the eighth house, and Pisces in the twelfth house. This indicates great psychic ability. Have you had any such experiences?” His blue eyes bore into hers. She wanted to ask his nationality; he had such exotic features.
“No, nothing strange has really happened to me. Sometimes I know when the phone is about to ring, but that’s about it.” She laughed nervously.
He gave her a skeptical look, but continued to go over her chart. “Amazing. Pluto sits right in your eighth house; this gives you the understanding of powerful thoughts. Thoughts are actually tangible. If practiced often, one can construct a thought and make it come into being, overcoming the laws of the material world and entering the surface, changing the working machine. This is too strong a power to use for personal gain, Memphis.”
“Well, good thing I don’t have it.” She forced a smile.
He ignored her. “These powers are linked to an angular position of Neptune or Pluto occupying the first, fourth, seventh, or tenth house. You have both of them and they are linked to the Sun and the Moon. The link to the Moon is quite common, but the Sun link is not. The Sun rules personal destiny and ego.”
Memphis simply nodded.
“You also have a Leo Ascendant; this speaks of royalty.”
“Maybe I’m the long lost princess of some foreign land.”
He looked up from the paper and just stared at her. “Maybe,” he said at last, and then resumed poring over the natal chart.
“Your North Node is in Pisces and the twelfth house. Mars is in Capricorn. This means you are a determined and hard worker. The Moon rules and occupies the eighth house with Pluto attending. So, each of your occult houses is ruled by water.” He pulled out a sheet of paper from his briefcase. “I created a daily chart for you. It shows an unusual form of communication between Pluto and Neptune last week.”
“How could you have been working on my chart for two weeks? I just sent you the information yesterday.”
He looked at her for a moment before replying. “No, I just went back a week, for comparison purposes.”
“I see.” But Memphis had a funny feeling.
“Well, your daily charts look good—seven planets in your twelfth house and five planets in your eighth house. Pluto and Neptune connect to the Moon and Sun—the Moon in the eighth house and the Sun in the twelfth house. Mid-heaven is fully aligned with the fixed star Spica. This is a star of luck and fortune.”
Suddenly he grabbed her hand. “Memphis, I have something very important to explain to you. Your birthday is coming up, yes?”
“Yes, it is. Next month. Why?”
“This may take longer than you may have scheduled. Do you have time?”
Memphis didn’t bother looking at her watch to confirm. He had her hooked. “Yes, of course I do.”
“Good, then. Let’s order some coffee.”
They ordered coffee and danishes. After the waitress left with their order, Virgil went right to his lecture. It was like his show, except live, and she was his only audience member.
“The Great Polar Cycle, the Unfolding of Man-the-Whole and the division of this cycle, should be divided into seven or seventy sections because of the natural division of the poles’ path due to nutation. Nutation is a small swinging from the Earth’s north and south poles that then travels around the poles of the elliptic according to the changes of the Moon, specifically the periodic changes of the Moon’s nodes, which complete a cycle in an average of 24.1 years. There are close to fourteen hundred polar oscillations due to nutation within each Great Polar Cycle.”
“Twenty-four—that is how old I will be turning. Is that why you asked me about my birthday?”
“Yes, that is the reason for all my questions. The fact that someone with your planetary alignments is turning such a critical age at such a crucial time is very important.”
“What do you mean by crucial time?”
Their food had arrived. Virgil paused to bite into a danish. Memphis didn’t want to move her attention from her host, so she didn’t touch her own pastry.
“In astronomy, ‘precession’ refers