Today is 10/10/10. But what does it mean?

Today is October 10, 2010....or 10/10/10!

When all three numbers in the date are the same I interpret it as a lucky day.  Studies show that marriages increase on days like this.  On September 9, 2009 (9/9/09) hundreds of thousands of people got married worldwide.  In China, more than 10,000 couples registered their marriages in Beijing and 6,000 more couples tied the knot in Shanghai. The Stratosphere, in Las Vegas offered a quickie wedding package. It was angling to marry off 99 couples at 9:09 p.m. for -- what else -- $99.09.

A mass marriage celebration in China

So this got me wondering is there any significance behind today's date?

As far as the biblical interpretation, focus could be put on the 10 commandments and the 10 plagues.  Both of these could point to rules or judgments.

In astrology, the number 10  represents completion - it signifies the end of one cycle and the readiness to begin something new. I found this interesting.  Especially in lieu of my personal quest to expand my horizons, try something new, and get outside of my comfort zones (FIND OUT WHAT SCARES ME).  I also thought this was interesting considering I'm in the middle of my Return of Saturn (READ ABOUT SATURN'S RETURN HERE). In the Tarot, the tenth card is the Wheel of Fortune: the knowledge that life brings unexpected occurrences over which we have no control. And supposedly the number 10 is connected with Capricorn, the tenth sign of the zodiac, and represents mastery and achievement.
October 10, 2010 does fall within the opening days of the Venus retrograde, and retrogrades are known to be symbolic!  Often issues of the past return for completion, and this becomes a great opportunity to grow and be in control of our own destiny! With Venus in retrograde one can expect that this time will be focused on relationships, perhaps on a personal level, but it could mean a global level as well.

So "the stars" tell me that today could mean mastery, achievement and controlling my destiny. And with the retrograde of Venus I can expect to focus on my relationships?  Ironically enough this all couldn't be more true for me at this time.  I don't know about accomplishing all of this in ONE DAY but these "factors" are are certainly things I'm dealing with in my daily life. Between my new job and being in the home-stretch of finishing my degree I am without a doubt starting to feel a sense of mastery, achievement, and controlling my destiny.  And the focus on relationships?  CHECK.  Totally doing that! Although this is for sure a different blog topic, I am in the midst of re-evaluating and re-focusing on many of my relationships in my life (friends, romance, family, and professional). 

What can I do to make today a day of fortune and grace, rather than unfinished business staring me in the face? An article on CNBC has a few suggestions.  Here were a few of my favorites.  I left a few of them off because they were totally MATH related and not only did they not interest me, it was like reading a foreign language (TO READ FULL ARTICLE, CLICK HERE) :

10. Kiss your iPhone. 10/10/10 is a binary number (all ones and zeroes) and without binary code, none of your digital dreams would come true.

9. Count your digital blessings. A website has dubbed 10/10/10 "Digital Day," a day for you to share your pre-digital, “Back in my day” stories via blog post, tweet, photo or YouTube video. CHECK OUT THE PAGE HERE

6. Get married. If you tie the knot on 10/10/10, that’ll knock one battle off your “Future Fights” list — because you’ll always remember your anniversary.

5. Throw a global warming party. The site www.350.org is urging people to attend or throw environmental-awareness parties on 10/10/10. If green felt old and busted before, doing it on 10/10/10 gives it a fresh spin.

4. Submit a Top 10 List to Letterman. Dude, you’re so much funnier than those lists! It’s about time you were recognized for your comedic abilities.

2. Throw out 10 things. Seriously, what are you waiting for — to wind up on one of those clutter shows where they have to intervene before you’re buried alive? Say it with me, "I will NOT need this someday ..." Ah, ah, ah! Say it with me ...

1. Make a list of 10 things to do — and do ONE. Lists are helpful but they can also be overwhelming if they’re too long. Make your list, but just do one. Spend the rest of the day doing a victory lap.

So...what should I do to make the most of my 10/10/10?  Kiss my iPhone?  DONE!  Don't think getting married is in my plans.  But evaluating my relationships?  OK! I like the idea of a global warming party, but that's just not going to happen today.  I also like the idea of a Letterman Top 10 List (maybe I'll work on that one later).  I REALLY LIKE #2 and #1 though.  Throw out 10 things....I'm totally going to do this.  And I'm not talking stuff like garbage.  I'm thinking of removing 10 items from my closet and throwing them away (GASP...is it possible?).  And the to-do list?  LOVE THIS!  Although I'm going to be ambitious and try to tackle all ten items. 

Now that I have my day planned out.  How are you going to spend your 10/10/10? 

It's in the Stars...

How often do you read your horoscope?  Have you had your palm read?

I used to be the type of person who read my horoscope everyday.  Now, I read it when I remember to.  I prefer reading my horoscope at the end of the day to see if it was correct.  I find horoscopes, palm reading, fortune telling, and the patterns of the sun/moon/stars interesting.  I just don't change my life or have my life revolve around a prediction made by a woman who thinks she's psychic.

With that said, I think it's interesting how very accurate predictions can be or how it seems like the phrase "it was in the stars" is true beyond words. 

My best friends "aunt" (it's easier to describe her as that, as opposed to saying my best friend's mom's best friend) reads palms.  Every time we go down to Vegas and stay with her she looks at how things have changed.  The things she's "seen" in my hands have been dead on:

• I like the finer things in life (not meaning so much that I'm a "brand whore" but more so I'm the type of girl who would prefer a weekend at a spa over a weekend roughing it in the wilderness)
• I worry about the well-being of others before I put myself first
• I enjoy traveling/I am WORLDLY
• I'm in a profession where I'm surrounded by kids

There are more things that she has seen in my hand, but I will leave it at that for the moment.  One thing that is interesting is she was the first one to point out that my life-line "forks" about halfway up my hand.  It's kind of like I have this oval "Lake Tahoe" looking split in the middle of my right hand.  Then the lines converge back together.  She couldn't remember what that meant, and it left me wondering.

A few months ago, my mom asked if I wanted to join her at a psychic convention that was in town.  I thought it would be an interesting experience (it was) but it also put be smack-dab in wack-a-doo central.  Crystals everywhere.  People having their aura's cleansed by a didgeridoo looking thing.  Some guy chanting and dancing in weird, strange tongues. 

There were also people doing Tarot Card and Palm Readings. Still curious by my BFF's aunt's discovery in my life-line I went for the palm reading option.  He did a little pre-interview but I was very vague.  I didn't want to give him any information that he could then use to try to "trick" me into a prediction.  Again, he was oddly accurate.  Through reading my palm he told me:

• I enjoy helping others, and I do this as a career (he guessed that I worked in Social Services...CORRECT)
• I pass knowledge on to others (correct again, I have taught classes to youth in the community for years)
• I often forget to take care of myself because I am busy taking care of others
• I am destined for great things (WELL OF COURSE)

Again, he talked about many other things (I sat with him for an hour) but I won't bore you with that now.  I did ask him about my life-line split, and what that meant.  Interestingly enough he said that it could mean one of two things:

• THE POSITIVE OUTLOOK: That everyone assumes or sees me taking one path in life.  However I am going to do the complete opposite and surprise everyone.  And this ties into the whole "destined for great things" part.  For example, if everyone saw me as a simple teacher, I would in fact, go on to be a teacher-of-teachers.  Or something like that?  Again, I'm not up on all this palm-reading lingo!!! 
• THE NEGATIVE OUTLOOK: That things are going to go REALLY BAD sometime...possibly soon.  My world is going to be rocked, turned upside down, inside out, hit by a train, etc.  This experience will help me grow, make me stronger, and refocus me.  I will make it through "it" triumphant and more successful, and a happier, healthier person.

I remember thinking, "WOW...all that from my hand?"
Again, let me stress that I find this stuff interesting but I will never change my life because some guy with a ponytail told me that things may go to shit.  I just put it on the back-burner in my brain in case I may need that information later.

In addition to having my palm read and internalizing the prospect of my own personal "fall of Rome", several people over the last few months have mentioned the phenomenon of "Saturn Cycles" or the "Return of Saturn".

Return of Saturn?  Real or BS?

Basically (without weighing you down with all sorts of mumbo-jumbo) the "Saturn Return" is an astrological phenomenon that occurs at the ages of 27-30, 58-60, 86-88, etc., coinciding with the time it takes the planet Saturn to make one orbit around the sun.

It is believed by astrologers that as Saturn "returns" to the degree in which it occupied at the time of birth—approximately every 29.5 years—a person crosses over a major threshold and into the next stage of life.

• With the first Saturn Return, a person leaves youth behind and enters adulthood.
• With the second Return, maturity.
• And the third and usually final Return, a person enters wise old age.

The first Saturn Return is famous because it represents the first test of character and the structures a person has built their life upon. Apparently if these structures are unsound, or if a person is living out of touch with his or her true values, the Saturn Return will be a time of upheaval and limitations as Saturn forces an individual to reevaluate their life and make changes. It is not uncommon for relationships and jobs to end during this time of life restructuring and reevaluation.

But the Saturn Return is not all about painful endings. It has been noted that during this time people tend to gain a better vision of where they are going in their life.  Many major life milestones seem to happen around the ages of 29 and 30. This is why astrologers believe that the thirtieth birthday is such a major rite of passage because it marks the true beginning of adulthood, self-evaluation, independence, ambition, and self-actualization.

My mom said she has entered her second Saturn Cycle.  From her 30s to late 50s she was a mother, a wife, and a full-time employee.  Then things changed around her 60th birthday. Yes she's still a mom, but my brother and I don't live with her or need her on a daily basis (LOVE YOU MOM). My mom is now retired.  And my mom is single (my parents divorced a few years back).  There was a tough period for her, but now she has a new release on life.  She seems happier, more confident, and more independent.

So knowing all of this, I can't help but wonder if I've gone through my Saturn Cycle?  I am on the tail-end of my 27th year on this earth.  That puts me smack-dab in the middle of the Return of Saturn.  I have had some really rough (low) moments this year, but at the same time I've had some really fantastic ones too.  For example, I lost my job, but I found a FABULOUS one in return. 

But for some unexplained reason, I'm hesitant to say that my Saturn Cycle is complete. I've always been an optimistic, glass-half-full kind of girl but for some reason I feel like there is more shit to come.  There is still  time until Saturn's return and I wonder what other havoc is going to ensue. 

I also can't help but wonder if this whole "Return of Saturn" thing has anything to do with the split in my life-line.  One would think that there would be a direct correlation?  But then again, I'm not a palm reader, an astrologist, or psychic. 

So what am I going to do with all of this.  Honestly?  Not a damn thing.  I will continue to live my life to the best of my ability each day.  I won't live my life on regrets.  I WILL put myself first.  Because by taking care of myself, I will be more able to do what I love (taking care of others).  But if (and when) things get bad....and then get REALLY GOOD, I will blame it all on SATURN!!!