Born two days before a Solar Eclipse in Aries, Dolores Cannon, was a hypnotherapist specializing in past life regression. Her passion was the paranormal and the unusual.
Her birth chart has an A rating, but I have my doubts about the rounded time. If she was born 15 seconds earlier, her rising sign would have been Leo. Typically, I don’t use ambiguous charts, but there are too many pearls packed in this one for me to let it go. I’ll try not to refer too much to house placements and hope to demonstrate how much information we can extract from the planets alone.
“To stop learning is to die.” - Dolores Cannon
Dolores saw herself as a reporter, researcher, and investigator of lost knowledge, which certainly fits the picture Mercury is describing in her chart. Mercury in solid sign Taurus speaks to Dolores’ inquisitive personality and her ability to speak and write clearly. In her books, she open-mindedly describes the hypnotherapy sessions she conducted, without prejudice. Dolores never tried to convince anyone.
Hermes, the curious and skillful messenger of the gods is moving slowly in this chart. About to turn retrograde, Mercury displays some exceptional qualities. While Dolores had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Mercury’s boundless curiosity remains grounded in solid Earth.
Ruled by an exalted Venus, who always strives to integrate and harmonize diversity, and making a tight sextile aspect to an exalted Jupiter, Mercury is about to move into a remarkable benefic enclosure. At a time when past life regression was nearly unheard of, Dolores constantly needed to expand her mental horizon. New concepts were introduced to her by the subconscious through her hypnotherapy practice, which often challenged her belief system and forced her to expand her way of thinking. The sextile aspect between Mercury and Jupiter, both at 12°, in Taurus and Cancer respectively, clearly illustrates this pattern.
“There are no limitations, unless you create them yourselves. Anything is possible. You are only limited by your own imagination.” - Dolores Cannon
There’s more! Only four days after Dolores’ birth, Mercury stations retrograde just as the Moon, exalted in Taurus, translates the light from Jupiter to Mercury, and then to Venus. It's no wonder then, that this extraordinary Hermes has so many interesting stories to tell. Strikingly, regardless of whether Mercury would be in the 10th house or the ruler of the 10th, depending on the rising sign we go with, Mercury blesses Dolores’ reputation. She talked at length about Nostradamus and extraterrestrials without any retaliation from Wikipedia so far!
“It has been said that once the mind has been expanded by an idea or concept, it can never return to its original way of thinking.” - Dolores Cannon
The dynamic of expansion and contraction, of breaking limits and integrating new information is also described by the whole sign opposition between Jupiter and Saturn. Incremental expansion can be associated with this planetary combination, as well as a talent to come up with innovative, revolutionary methods. She and her husband Johnny got first introduced to hypnosis in the 1960s when it was commonly used to stop habits like smoking.
One day, they were asked to help a woman who was suffering from Nervous Eating disorder. Midway through the session, the woman unexpectedly began describing scenes from a past life. Surprised and fascinated, Dolores and Johnny continued working with her and were able to regress her through five different lifetimes. Thanks to this experience, they wrote their own set of rules and experimented further with enthusiastic dedication. Investigating all the minute details of what people under hypnosis were telling her, about their clothes, food, buildings, and so on, Dolores gradually became aware that the information she was receiving about past lives, different periods in time, and a variety of other topics were not actually coming from a place in the conscious mind, but rather from the subconscious mind.
“Truth, it might make you sad. But somewhere deep inside of you, you know that it is truth. If you can but open yourself up, you know when things are true and when they are not. For this is available to you.” - Dolores Cannon
Eventually, Dolores established her Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique℠ which attempts to enable direct contact with the subconscious mind of any individual for answers, thereby providing the basis for healing.
“You make yourself sick. If the mind is powerful enough to make yourself sick it's also powerful enough to heal you. First, we got to find out why. Why did you do this to yourself? What were you trying to tell yourself?” - Dolores Cannon
The concept of the subconscious which was so central in Dolores’ technique, is nicely illustrated by the pending solar eclipse in her chart. The Sun, shedding light and clarity over all things, is symbolically understood as the organ of consciousness. The pending concealment of this numinous light seems to make room for another dimension of reality, the hidden realm of the subconscious. The Balsamic or Dark Moon is considered to be a mysterious lunar phase, sometimes describing people who have easier access to psychic abilities. Much like Dolores, Dark Moon individuals are often ahead of their time or may simply feel a little out of sync.
In Dolores’ chart, the Dark Moon in Aries points to other-worldly content, expressed in a way that is appropriate to Mars. Nocturnal planet Mars has a distinct preference for physicality and functionality. Things need to make sense for Mars. How to let otherworldly things make sense? In other words, how are the mysterious contents of the Dark Moon processed in Dolores's psyche? Mars attempts to explain the Dark Moon’s unusual, ineffable experiences within a theoretical framework. The result is an impressive philosophy. Eccentric, yet following a certain logic, Dolores unified and translated her findings into a modern cosmology. The subconscious spoke to her in a Mars/Sun way. This is the kind of experiential field she’s able to tap into with other people.
Mutual receptions often play a prominent role in the natal chart, and Dolores has one between the Sun and Mars. They swapped houses. Mars is in the Sun’s temple, Leo, and the Sun is in Aries’ temple, Aries. That allows them to work well together. Strength, courage, confidence, and passion are seen as the most wonderful values through the eyes of Sol and Ares combined.
“Parting message: Don’t be afraid of shining a light. Don’t be afraid of being powerful. Don’t be afraid of being more special.” – Dolores Cannon
Thank you for reading!
Gosh this was a treasure to find this morning / I love Dolores and her chart is quite simply a beautiful piece of evidence of her gifts she shared with the world thanks Michelle x
I am a long time fan of Delores Cannon's work. Your reading of her chart was helpful in both understanding her life's work and my astrological studies. Thank you so much. Maggie NL23