Kenneth Ryerson: Channel to the Stars
Zip Dobyns
Ryerson’s birth data comes from Lois Rodden’s data letter. He was born on July 28, 1951 at 2:24 A.M. EST in Sandusky, OH. He is reported to be the main psychic channel for Shirley MacLaine and has become almost as famous as his patron.
Ryerson’s horoscope has many interesting features, including progressed (P) Chiron on the Descendant with both on the Galactic Center at 26 degrees of Sagittarius. Theoretically, planets or angles on the Galactic Center indicate the potential for fame and/or power. I interpret Chiron as similar to Jupiter, so the combination fits Ryerson’s role of teacher-counselor-guru to the world. His rising Uranus widely conjunct Mars fits a strong sense of personal uniqueness and independence though their placement in Cancer plus the Sun and Pluto in Leo and the strong fourth and fifth houses all point to a desire for home and family.
Mercury and Moon, the rulers of the signs in the first house and therefore keys to basic identity (self-will in action), are square each other in mutable signs and houses and octile the first house Mars. Such conflict aspects between different keys to identity point to some kind of “self against self” issue. Individual reactions can range from the extreme self-blocking which produces illness to overdoing personal self-expression or self-assertion in an effort to handle the inner conflict, to gain a sense of self-reassurance. A Gemini-Virgo square can be integrated by doing one or two things well and keeping a light touch for the rest of the multiple interests. The square between the 3rd and the 12th houses is more challenging, calling for integration between the external world around us and the internal world of our faith, dreams and visions. The nodes across Pisces and Virgo point to the same issue. One common form of the struggle between the outer world of things, people, and personal action versus the inner world of our ideals, is the tendency to be frustrated a lot because the outer world never measures up to our ideals. This form of the conflict can be handled with relative ease by remembering to enjoy the journey toward the ideals rather than kicking oneself (or the world) until we arrive.
A more difficult form of the mutable challenge can be confusion or uncertainty over what is “real” (part of the “objective” Gemini-Virgo world around us) and what is our personal fantasy creation. This is a constant issue when we deal with the psychic area. It is difficult to judge how much of what comes out of the unconscious is a personal creation. Also, the whole topic takes us into very challenging metaphysical questions. In the end, all experience is subjective and strongly shaped by our beliefs, many of them never consciously formulated. The “boundary” between what is “more” objective versus what is “more” subjective is at least fuzzy if it is not completely non-existent. There is certainly a continuum and ultimately we grade into what Jung called the “collective unconscious” where there is no separation. Plus, some of us believe that the so-called outer world is a mirror of our inner one, that we are drawn where we “fit” into the world. But when our inner conflicts draw us to a world full of outer conflicts, there is always the temptation to mentally create a more satisfying inner world and to spend more time there. The more people we can persuade to accept our version of the world, the more we validate our own authenticity and actually create the envisioned world. The power of collective thought forms, especially when they carry an emotional charge, is horrifyingly visible in religious fanaticism and mob actions. So a career as a professional psychic can be rewarding in a variety of ways if we are able to respond helpfully to basic human needs.
Yet genuine psychic ability is unquestioningly a human (and animal) potential. Aspects involving air and water planets, houses and signs show the ability to bring unconscious knowledge into consciousness, from the level where Mind is One and shared meaning is connected without regard to time and space. Where water is connected to earth or to fire, the individual may carry psychic information directly into action without conscious awareness. Ryerson’s Moon-Mercury aspect has been mentioned and both factors are also in aspect to Neptune with an octile and a trioctile. Neptune is also sextile to Pluto and it squares Uranus, the other air planet, more widely. Vesta, Juno, and Ceres form a wide grand trine in water signs and earth houses, supporting the potential for using the psychic talent to make a living in the physical world. Additional air-water mixtures are present with Pallas in Aquarius in the Scorpio house trining Moon and East Point in Gemini in the Pisces house. P Saturn has moved into Libra to form a lasting trine to natal Moon for additional emphasis on air and water. Such mixtures of the two elements which represent the conscious and unconscious sides of the mind are common in psychics and in psychotherapists who also use consciousness to explore the unconscious.
The fourth house Virgo found in Ryerson’s chart is often an indication of a person who learns to work early in life. It also fits work in the home or for the public. With both the lesson factors in the same sign and house, Ryerson has something to learn and something to give through dependency and/or nurturing, or in his job, his ability to deal effectively with the physical world which is the “most” objective element in our world. (Despite earth being “more” objective, our experience of it remains subjective). Saturn’s square to the Gemini Ascendant and to Chiron in Sagittarius may be a need to make room for personal interests, home, mate (the three houses involved) and work (Virgo). The combination could also mark a repetition of the need to stay grounded rather than to go off into personal mental creations. The Jupiter opposition to Neptune with a close octile-trioctile to the MC may be another statement of the same principle. Jupiter and Neptune mark what we believe, trust, value, etc. while the MC is like Saturn, the physical world and its laws. Jupiter and Neptune are also widely square Vesta, another earth factor, pointing again to the need to integrate beliefs and creative imagination with the physical world.
In general, the chart certainly fits the potential to be psychically open, but it also fits the potential of living so much in his own psyche that he may have trouble distinguishing his inner creations from the material world which we all have to handle if we are to survive in it. I would be cautious about “believing” what Ryerson channels. I would want some additional evidence. But his faith and emotional warmth may provide comfort to his followers. If character creates destiny, our choice of guru certainly plays an important role in shaping our long-range goals and actual destination.