CONSCIOUSNESS, IT IS always evolving, and we either allow ourselves to evolve with it or choose to remain set in old ways that are diminishing gradually and naturally. Generational and ongoing changes in human consciousness can be predicted and recorded, particularly through Design, Astrology, Numerology and other means. It is recognized that approximately every 2500 years there takes place a complete shift that affects everyone and everything as the axis of the rotating earth aligns itself in new geometry within the universe. We are presently in the midst of one of these changes as we move from what has been called the Piscean age into what can be described as the Aquarian age.

We are beginning to move out of an age that has been based on faith and belief systems and are now emerging into an age of peace and a personal alignment with truth. The growth of consciousness is becoming more and more a personal responsibility. In order to embrace this personal responsibility there is a great need for each individual to embrace them self. This means that not only do we have to recognize who we are but also accept everything about our self. Truth cannot be found by following rule systems, truth is an inside job.

Inevitably our lives are influenced by people who challenge our opinions and belief systems. Such people provoke us to consider our lives at a greater depth than we normally allow ourselves to examine. Someone who has provoked the world at large but the Western world in particular, is Madonna, the singer and performer. Born into a Catholic family, she found the rules and constraints of the belief systems hard to deal with and soon became famous for expounding some very different views of what it is to be a responsible human being in these times.

In this article, we look at the design chart of Madonna.

Madonna Ciccione was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. She was born into the incarnation of "the Revolutionary," one of the slightly rarer incarnations that determines a lifetime spent counterbalancing injustice in the world. Whoever is born with this incarnation acts to find solutions to problems that beset those whom society has left behind or forgotten. Inevitably in this age of such a dramatic shift in consciousness, there are many people who are at risk of being "left behind and forgotten."

By design, Madonna has a split definition of being partially a Generator, that is someone who has a defined Sacral (Generator) Center and also, in Madonna's case, who has a Projector aspect too. Generators interact most successfully in the world when they allow themselves to wait for an inner, gut response to whatever life offers them. Projectors can live a happy life when they find themselves being recognized for their abilities and characteristics, and invited to "join in" and use these abilities and characteristics. Generators are what are called "energy types," who once they are able to respond, provide the necessary vigor to see things through, and Projectors are generally seen as "non-energy types" who once recognized and invited can help steer the course of things for themselves and others.

The Generator
The Generator portion of Madonna's design includes the channel 2-14, the channel called " the Beat : the keeper of the keys," that connects between the Sacral Center, the Red Square Center, and the Self Center, the yellow Diamond Center. Each of these channels that connects between the Sacral and the Self centers has the quality to transmute energy; which is to say that the movement of sacral, sex, life-force energy that rises from the Sacral Center has the potential to become significantly enhanced on its arrival at the Self Center. The channel 2-14, called the Beat, has the potential to be highly mutative and extremely empowering, both for oneself and others. Gate 14 is a gate that relates to the use of power skills, particularly all things material. Gate 2 relates to our connection to our higher self and the inner guidance it determines to be right for us. Madonna was called "the material girl" for many years when people watched her debating and manipulating the whole realm of the material plane. It is curious to note that she has the 14th gate activated in the first line called "Money is not everything," implying that although it may have looked like she was doing everything with the singular intention of making money, she was, in actual fact, exploring the whole dimension of the power associated with material well-being.

Also present in Madonna's defined sacral Center is Gate 29, with the energy of saying "yes" to all things, despite realizing that one is over-committing; the Gate 59, with activations from Pluto indicating that she would experience enormous difficulties becoming pregnant, and with Mercury indicating a potential despair that she would ever find a "right" partner in life. Gate 3 and Gate 42 are both activated by a Madonna's South Node, indicating that these Gates were very foundational for her during the first 40 years of her life. Gate 3 carries with it the context of opening into new and unexplored dimensions, with an ever ready potential for being ridiculed and scorned. Madonna has the fourth line activated by her unconscious moon and unconscious Mercury, and the sixth line activated by her South Node. The fourth line gives a potential ability to be highly attuned to the learning process involved in introducing new concepts into a skeptical world. The sixth line gives the potential for a fast learning curve in recognizing that struggling does not help one while trying to get new things organized. Gate 42, also activated by the South Node destiny, relates to the potential for experiential growth, and with the fourth line of the opportunist who finds herself mediating the growth of other people who are ready to expand their senses and potentials.

The Projector Aspect
Three centers are connected together in Madonna's defined projector aspect: the Crown Center, the Center of inspiration, the Ajna, the Center of mental awareness, and the Throat Center, the Center of expression, articulation and manifestation. The channel that connects between the Crown and Ajna centers, the 63-4, is the channel of the logical mindset. This mindset regards the world with a critical perception ready to rearrange everything into logical patterns of problems with matching solutions. In Madonna's Design she has Gate 63 activated by her unconscious Mars (most likely a genetic inheritance from her paternal grandfather) in the fourth line, giving her the inclination sometimes to feel overconfident in being able to resolve all issues with her mind. Also, she has gate 4 activated by her conscious Sun in the fifth line. Gate 4 is the Gate of mental solutions that generally offer a temporal fix to a changeable problem. The fifth line in Gate 4 has a great aptitude for solving problems convincingly with a potential to sometimes disdain those who do not appreciate the cleverness of the solutions. Madonna also has the Gate 64, the Gate of diverse possibilities, activated by her conscious moon in the first line that gives her the feeling that she can never conclusively find personal mental clarity on a lasting basis. Consequently, even though Madonna is very clever with the use of her mind, she will always have the need to look elsewhere in her being to find lasting satisfaction in her life.

From the Ajna Center to the Throat Center, the channel 11-56 is defined. This channel is called "curiosity: the seeker." Throughout her life, Madonna is constrained to search constantly for meaning in her life. The search will take her on many travels and will prompt her to explore different religious backgrounds and belief systems. Very often, people who have this channel defined will engage in writing stories and/or singing songs about their experiences. In her design, Madonna has gate 11 activated by her unconscious Saturn in the second line, giving her a strong need to discipline herself to maintain a sense of peace in her private life. She also has Gate 56, the Gate of stimulation that uses outer experiences to mirror inner sensations, activated by her conscious Venus, the planet that encompasses our means of relating, and who we draw to us in relationship, in the fifth line of "attracting attention." Whether on stage or not, Madonna is always going to find herself at the center or attraction, wherever she goes and however she expresses herself!

Also activated in her defined Throat Center is Gate 33, the gate of Retreat and the need to disassociate from the world and find privacy that allows her to muse on everything that happens to her and regenerate before recommitting to anyone or anything. She also has Gate 8, the gate of contribution activated by her unconscious Sun (inherited from her father) in the first line of "honesty in her dealings with everyone." She has an inbuilt assertiveness that can thoroughly appreciate and at the same time be ruthlessly honest of the contributions that others make to her in her life.

The Undefined Centers
Remember that in Design charts, the defined (colored in) Centers are "fixed" in how they express their energies, according to the channels that are defined to them and the gate activations within them. Any Center that is colored white is not fixed in how it expresses, but rather, enjoys a great flexibility to assimilate the energies relating to those Centers through interactions with other people and also through ongoing planetary transits. In its purest form, an undefined or Open Center reflects back the world to itself in such a way that other people see qualities of themselves expressed in their defined Centers being reflected back to them by those with those same Centers undefined.

An undefined Ego-Heart-Willpower Center in Madonna’s chart with Gate 21 activated but undefined by her unconscious Venus, can reflect back to the world the whole nature of, and the issues we might have with, "control,” particularly in our relationships. Likewise, any issues we might have with our physical and material needs can be reflected back to us through Madonna’s Gate 26, activated with her conscious planet Saturn, through a whole spectrum ranging from apparent excessiveness to miserly parsimoniousness! It is nothing to do with Madonna, but rather, the reflection of ourselves that she can afford us.

Her undefined Emotional-Solar-plexus Center with the single Gate 49 activated, reflects back to the world the whole nature of principles (what we are going to stand for) and revolution (what we are going to adjust, sometimes dramatically) in our lives. The fifth line, activated with her conscious Earth, can give us a practical reflection of the means to bring change into our lives, if we so choose.

Her undefined Spleen Center with 3 activations can reflect a highly attuned sense of awareness that relates to our values (Gate 50), our need to change with the times (Gate 32) and our zest for life into the world (Gate 28). With the shift into her North Node destiny on January 31, 1999 (the time at which Uranus opposed its placement at her birth), Madonna moved into a whole new chapter in her life of offering a leadership role in providing and espousing “wholesome” values for the growth of well-being for the world at large (Gate 50, line 6). This was an expansion from first line activation from Jupiter that she has in her birth chart that caused her constantly to reassess her values as she grows in her life and the acceptance she garners through her celebrity.

Gate 32, relating to our willingness/ability to move and adjust with changing times, may well have caused Madonna some personal misgivings and fearfulness in her own life, but she has constantly remained fresh and mobile in her perspectives and expressions into the world. In these times, she has floored many critics and fans by moving to England, to the land of “gentlefolk,” to raise her family, and has delved deeply into Kaballistic mysteries to find her inner balance in a faster-changing world.

Gate 28, the fulcrum point between engaging with life as our wondrous reality or engaging with death as a preoccupation, is activated in Madonna’s chart both consciously and unconsciously in the first line of being present (or not) to life’s momentary needs, by Neptune. Neptune gives an expansive yet "not-quite-realistic" touch to our world, and thus Madonna, through her Neptunian activation, will cause us to look from our life and what we take for granted, into the possibilities of re-energizing ourselves to take greater participation in our lives.

An open Root Center, as exists in Madonna’s Design, can make her very susceptible to stress brought on by the demands and pressures of other people. Madonna is designed to move to her own “Beat” which is aligned to her own contact with her own Higher Self, (through the channel 2-14). Provided she rides through the demands of her life, being consciously detached from them, or delegates to others to handle the pressures of her life, she will prosper in all things. If she takes on the pressures of her life as something she feels a need to try and conquer, she will become more stressed than could possibly be healthy for her.

In Conclusion
There is no doubt that Madonna has caused a revolution in many people’s lives. She has called into question all sorts of so-called values that permeate the world’s attempt to restrain change. She has challenged our take on men’s and women’s roles in the world, sex, money, family, children and our essential need to celebrate if we are not to slip into a state of premature vegetation. She challenges us to be alive! (When she has her Chiron Return in 2010, she is going to wow us on a new scale altogether!)

In these times of dramatic change in Consciousness, we can all bear to review our lives and see what unconscious habits we are ready to let go, and what about ourselves we are ready to rejuvenate. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to Madonna for challenging us to wake up, celebrate and “get a life!” Sincere thanks, Madonna!