After a conversation I had with a new friend on Wednesday, I inquired of my mom trying to find out some specifics about my maternal line. My mom is a crackerjack genealogist and has lots of information about her family... unfortunately not much about my strictly maternal line. It seems my maternal great-great grandmother married someone her family didn't approve of, and thus was pretty much shunned from the family. Mom says my grandmother and great-aunt don't remember their grandmother ever talking about her own mother, only about her grandmother. Interesting! Here's what mom was able to tell me:

"I attempted a trace by going to the census records of SC over a period of time looking for Bertha (my maternal great-grandmother). I don't know her mother's maiden name. There was more interesting stuff about the Lees and the [Huguenots] in our line (Numina's note: Huguenots are French Catholics who came to America to escape Protestant persecution). You would do better information-wise and find it more interesting to study my father's lines than Bertha's. You would love Rev. Stephen B. He was a reformer, Oxford-educated, and was in constant trouble with the church. Actually, he was influential in the early beginnings of our American separation of church and state laws. His daughter T. married [a] Hussey, and the Husseys trace to every royal house in Europe. Our line coming from [Samuel, my maternal grandfather], is also quite an interesting line."

Okay, so the reason this is significant has to do with some KEY ITEMS I found in my natal chart:

Mars in Cancer: "Sometimes this position of Mars indicates difficulties and disagreements with your family. However, it is more likely that anything concerning your family, your family background and heritage inspires in you feelings of great loyalty."

Jupiter in Pisces: "As you get older, you will develop a strong spiritual awareness. Even if you do not actively believe in a particular religion, you will be concerned with an aspect of the universe that is higher than everyday material reality."

(Astrological info. courtesy of AstroDienst.com)

I think the Universe has sent me a Teacher, directly related to addressing these items. I've been hoping for one a long time now--about 13 years, since I first left Christianity and began studying Pagan and New Age subjects on my own. You know what they say... "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

I'm really super-excited (!!) about the nature of the opportunity that has presented itself--and I am definitely not one to show that I'm super-excited about much of anything (that Scorpio moon, I guess... keeps me from wanting to appear too much as an eager beaver!). I hope everything works out so that I can receive learning from this person. I have a few local Pagan friends and acquaintances now, and many of them are smart people on excellent paths... though I wasn't feeling that any of them were in my life as "teachers," in a more formalized sense. I tend to be rather solitary in my spiritual pursuits, when it gets down to the nitty gritty. Though with this new teacher/friend, I feel the rightness--for me--of what this person can teach me all the way down to my bones.