“Only the small child and the artist have that immediacy of approach that permits perception of the environmental. The artist provides us with anti-environments that enable us to see the environment.”

— Marshall McLuhan, 1965

Dear Friend and Reader:

My (so far) four-year swan dive into advanced media studies began with a single comment I made one night on Planet Waves FM: The environment is invisible.

Students at the Rijksmuseum study Rembrandt’s “Night Watchman” on their phones. These devices are now so pervasive, they are part of the background environment. We hardly even notice them — but we need to, and to observe them, and ourselves. Photo by Gijsbert van der Wal.

I learned this from my father, Joe Coppolino, who was doing his Ph.D. in communications in the late 1960s and early 1970s when I was a kid. This was at New York University, where the same program was also called “media ecology” — the study of the media environment.

He learned it from reading Marshall McLuhan as part of his course work, which percolated to the dinner table or drives around New York City in his Ford Maverick (in case you’re wondering how I turned out this way).

Today, based on my studies, I would state it slightly differently: the environments that surround us tend to be imperceptible. We don’t tend to notice them, unless someone points something out to us, or there is a problem. Yet the environment is what drives everything we experience as reality, and conditions how we feel and perceive existence.

For example, the electrical environment that surrounds us is more noticeable when there is a blackout. Normally you don’t think of the electrons flowing into your freezer, until you’re sitting in the dark in 90-degree heat concerned that all your food will melt. Remember that metaphor. It applies to many things, including (and especially) what I do with astrology.

When you study the environment, you figure out what’s happening. For example, let’s say you have a fish tank, and the fish seem unwell. You don’t cut one open to see what’s going on. Rather, you check the temperature. You study the chemistry of the water, and measure things like pH, ammonia and nitrates. In this way, we need to understand our environment rather than the fish. Yet people are obsessed by the figure dancing on the stage, the person holding the press conference, or striding into the room with “Hail to the Chief” playing. There is little to no information available there.

In the fish tank example, the fish are the figure. The water is the background or environment. The best information comes from the background; the conducting medium. This is what Marshall meant by the medium is the message.

Later in this article, I will offer some information about our current astrology. It too offers a metaphor, in the form of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that happens on Jan. 12. This is a rare, less-than-generational event, part of the same cycle that brought us 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and earlier, the Reagan Revolution. There’s a new monthly horoscope below as well, which I’ve been writing the past few days.

First, some thoughts about environments.

Collusion, Delusion, Insomnia and Stress

The world has problems now, and as far as I can tell, most people are struggling emotionally and spiritually. So most are (it would seem) unavailable to work on the collective issues. We are seeing a lot of things go wrong, and are, silently, poised for The Big One. What’s it gonna be? Another banking crash? A food supply collapse due to climate change? A “nuclear error”? Four more years of No Collusion, No Obstruction, and Russian ownership of our elections? A pandemic of some kind (as if there are not enough of them already)?

Yet the problems and the personal struggles are so pervasive they disappear into the environment. We “don’t notice.” They’re just “the way things are,” so we tend to either not see, or gloss over them without much thought. Any new element added to mounting chaos just disappears into the already-existing mess.

This is where the cable system comes into my apartment. One device is a phone modem, which broadcasts two wifi networks; the black devices to the left are wireless phones. My bedroom is right on the other side of the wall. I sleep much better in the guest bedroom, which is further away. All wireless devices broadcast invisible light, which is like sleeping with the room lights on. This eats melatonin — we all need to supplement.

Yet the pain, stress, confusion and insomnia gradually mount. The water is getting warmer half a degree at a time, so nobody knows when to scream. Yet quite a few people need to.

Our planet is a mess in ways that are depressing to even think about, many of them horrifying, which is part of why the problems seem to disappear from view: nobody wants to think about them, and it takes special focus to do so. And they seem unsolvable. Do you cringe every time you throw another piece of single-use plastic into the trash?

At the moment (as of this writing in late July 2019), about a third of the population is cheering, “Yay! No impeachment!” And Robert Mueller warned us on Wednesday that the Russians are hacking the 2020 election “as we sit here.” Yet nobody seems capable of pushing back. Individual people have no idea what to do except maybe vote, wondering whether it really helps. The remedy to this whole cluster of problems begins with being more social, in person, devices put away, in a no-money-exchanged environment.

The Democrat Party (as it’s now derisively known) has a prettier image, and yet is equally complicit in the massive corporate Ponzi scheme in which we are all trapped, like being locked into a Las Vegas hotel and casino where the air conditioning has failed and the chips are running low. And everyone is stuffing their face at the buffet while bombs go off outside.

Yet when we take the matter as an internal thing, as part of the human condition, we can see where the struggle is really coming from. It seems to be coming from us, but we are products of our environments. And there are three factors that I think are driving the mess and making it very, very difficult to respond, because those factors are nearly impossible to perceive.

Digital Technology, AI, Robotics

A number of times in Planet Waves, I’ve published a quotation, and I beseech thee to pause for a moment and think about it, or cut it out, enlarge it, print it and post it all over your home and office. It’s from Marshall McLuhan’s son Eric, the late father of my friend Andrew McLuhan. Sayeth he:

“The body is everywhere assaulted by all of our new media, a state which has resulted in deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world. In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.”

Siri is a robot, and so are all of her cousins — such as every voice phone system you talk into. We think of robots as contraptions like on “Lost in Space” or the thing that vacuums the floor while the cat rides around on it. The truth is more insidious. And robots condition us to be like them; we adapt to their quirks, not the other way round.

By new media, he means everything from the telegraph forward, but he’s also talking about digital. Digital means artificial intelligence, which is actually robotics. To truly consider this paragraph, it helps to read it like a poem, and interpret the words line by line. Try reading it out loud, slowly.

The body is everywhere assaulted

by all of our new media,

a state which has resulted

in deep disorientation of intellect

and destabilization of culture

throughout the world.

In the age of disembodied communication,

the meaning and significance

and experience of the body

is utterly transformed

and distorted.

Thing One is that digital technology has pushed us out of our bodies, creating confusion and destabilization from the most local level out to the global. Print technology focused us inward; digital technology does two things: it explodes us, or turns us inside out. And it turns us into tribal beings. This is why there is no longer any privacy, and unique means being exactly like everyone else.

As a result, we’re turning into a bunch of confused, hungry ghosts, like a newly deceased person lost on the bardo plane, unaware he or she is dead. The result of this is bewilderment, detachment and panic, which, since it’s environmental — that is, part of the environment of our lives — seems normal. With this comes a whole new form of stupidity, and increased tendency to violence in all forms. (If you don’t know who you are, violence is the easiest way to find out, if you’re not into art and sex.)

We become like our tools; we become like our environment. We are immersed in robots, and being turned into robots. When you’re treated badly, pause and consider: are you being treated like a person, or an automaton? Is the person acting human or like a machine?

Electric technology also turns us from individuals into tribal beings. Tribal means people who refuse to think for themselves, and where individuality is not tolerated. This is mass consciousness, not group consciousness. Groups are made of individuals; masses are mindless mobs. If you’re wondering why people cannot get organized and push back, or even have much of an opinion, think on these things.

Global Warming and Pollution

How do you feel when you read that there’s Prozac in the drinking water, or bits of microscopic plastic in your organic salmon?

While it does not directly affect most people physically, every last person on the planet is aware of the species-level threat of global warming. The more I look into this, the more aware I become that it’s worse than we’re being told.

Microplastics sample collected in a plankton net trawl in the North Pacific subtropical gyre. They are turning up in everything. Photo by Robert C. Seamans.

Methane levels are out of control, and this is worse for trapping heat than carbon dioxide. As the ice caps melt, fossilized methane is released and enters the atmosphere, speeding the problem. The methane breaks down to CO2, so it’s two problems in one. The cycle accelerates, ice melts, sea levels rise, seas warm up — and so on.

Oceans are the immune system of the planet, and they are supported by coral reefs, which are rapidly dying off. Part of that problem is warming, and part is nitrogen from sewage being dumped into the sea. Along with global warming, we are experiencing many kinds of contamination: plastics, drugs, glyphosate (Roundup), dioxin, PCBs.

These all seem out of control (this is my journalism field — they are out of control), but the big daddy is that the whole planet is heating up. Whether one believes this is caused by human activity, space aliens or is “just happening,” the threat is the same. Humans are not capable of much forethought.

And while everyone is not directly affected in terms of floods or fires, there are many secondary problems, for example, insects that thrive on warmer weather, and then there is a psychic effect. Part of what is feeding the panic people feel is this species-level threat. It’s not that everyone is sitting up at night wondering whether and when human civilization will be totally disrupted (though some people are); rather, this is pressure coming from the environment that is fueling fear, agitation and a creeping sense of futility. These emotions slip and slither into every facet of life; into every relationship.

Working as an environmental investigative reporter, there was a moment when I went from reading how every bite of food and breath of air was contaminated with dioxin, to realizing this is actually true. Everyone knows this, to some extent; we console ourselves by saying “something has to kill ya.” But that is cold comfort.

The Third Factor: Sexual Suppression

Nobody wants to talk about this one; please, hang onto your rotten tomatoes for a moment. Once upon a time, there was a philosopher named Wilhelm Reich. He was a medical doctor and colleague of Freud in the 1930s. In a book called The Function of the Orgasm, he explained how authoritarian government structures take over.

Trump supporter expresses her unmitigated transcendent ecstasy at actually meeting the candidate. He is answering her mystic longing. Photo by Brian Snyder.

The reason is that ultimately, we want them to. But that wanting is not natural. It’s caused by the suppression of sexual and loving feelings. These held-down, bottled-up feelings are converted into a kind of cosmic longing, which he called the “mystic longing,” and that calling is begging for response and attention.

It is answered, he said, in the charismatic leader. In other words, the bossy authoritarian harvests repressed sexual energy from the population, and propels his campaign and consolidation of power
with it.

This is easier to show than to tell. The two photos in this section will help you see the facial expressions that illustrate sexual repression and pain, and which in turn are converted into the craving for some fascist savior to rescue us.

Most authoritarian government structures start off with suppressing sexuality. One Saturn-Pluto cycle ago, Ronald Reagan took office and implemented abstinence-only indoctrination in schools throughout the United States, and then began pushing it on foreign governments as a condition of receiving U.S. funding. Around the same time, HIV and AIDS (which, conveniently for him, he ignored for years) spread a sex panic, and did their part to hold down natural feelings.

This creates emotional, psychic and ultimately social chaos. Sex is not just sex. When the sexual environment is relaxed, people are naturally more social. We feel more free, and open to easy expression. Hold down sex and people get paranoid about one another (this is why I say that scandals always damage healthy modes of relating).

This is what sexual pain looks like. Do we really think he’s that pumped on a presidential candidate? Did he even vote? The energy is coming from inside him. Photo by Mike Sagar.

But it gets worse. The more repression, the more we crave tyranny. It is the opposite reaction to letting go. To feel free, you have to feel safe. When you feel unfree and unsafe, you will want someone to come and protect you.

In one of his most famous quotes, Reich tells us: “The formation of the authoritarian structure takes place through the anchoring of sexual inhibition and anxiety.”

Let’s edit this for simplicity. When sexual inhibition and anxiety are forcefully attached to one another during childhood, grafted together as one feeling, the result is authoritarian mental and emotional programming.

And he tells us: “In brief, the goal of sexual suppression is that of producing an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation.
Initially, the child has to submit to the structure of the authoritarian miniature state, the family, which process makes it capable of later subordination to the general authoritarian system.”

Notice that people who have a lot of good orgasms give the impression that they cannot be controlled, and have no interest in control. It’s possible to go directly there, and save yourself years of discussion. People freaked out about sex are freaked out about everything else. There is a threat around every corner. Relax about sex, and the world feels safer.

You must be bold, and endure the attention of being lit up from the inside (which is what sex does). In other words, by loosening up sexually, and staying turned on, in the current environment, you will attract attention, and you will have to know how to handle it (practice makes perfect). You will also feel a lot better about yourself. It helps to steer clear of petty tyrants who refuse to let go emotionally.

The Resulting Total Environment

Does this help make it clear why people are so stressed? We can include personal economic woes, debt and the relationship crisis that can come from these different facets of our environment. I think people are deeply worried, cannot talk about it, and feel like nobody would care if they did. In this weakened state, solutions are difficult to even think about.

Together, these three factors (which are all related) are taking us on a wild ride into our dystopian future. The question is, what can we do about it? I think that collectively, there is very little. On the individual level, we can respond, mainly by noticing the impacts. Being aware of the environment is the first step toward dealing with it, though for now, this will mostly be personal.

And this is not about hiding in one’s cocoon. We need to be more social, not less. We need to slow down and be kinder and more patient with one another. We must ensure that we are not neglecting what is helpful in our lives, and that we’re not feeding what is toxic.

The Saturn-Pluto-Eris Pattern: 2019-2022

We are living through astrology that describes this scenario perfectly. There is a lot more to say here than I can say in a short passage, but let’s sketch it out. Saturn and Pluto are headed for their less than once per generation conjunction on Jan. 12. In Capricorn, that feels like a structure about to explode. It is the perfect earthquake astrology. Or rather, feeling like there’s going to be one.

Pluto never looked like this before; it used to just be a yellow blob. Now, we can see it’s one of the most interesting planetary systems ever discovered. Photo by New Horizons.

It describes perfectly the panicky sense of the future that is driving society, and describes facts that people are aggressively avoiding.

It could apply to anything and, in truth, the conjunction applies to everything. This aspect does not mean “the shit’s gonna come down.” However, it feels like it already is.

Saturn and Pluto make their conjunction in a square to ultra-slow-mover Eris. Remember that Eris is the one that up-ended the conceptual order of the solar system, and resulted in Pluto’s demotion. Eris is a certain kind of chaos, and in Aries, it reminds me of Eric McLuhan’s idea that, “the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.” There have been many such transformations under the influence of Eris, particularly when it is transiting through Aries, a sign associated with “I am.”

Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn are transforming and distorting society’s institutions, politics, structure and sense of history. It’s like a black hole is in the vicinity, threatening to swallow everything.

Saturn and Pluto hang close together through all of 2020, in late Capricorn. After Saturn moves into Aquarius, Pluto and Eris remain in their square out to the end of 2021, and these two tectonic forces continue to collide: the individual crisis of Eris in Aries, and the cultural crisis of Pluto in Capricorn.

Let’s put it this way. By even the most reserved, conservative reading of this aspect, we are in for a wild ride. But please remember that you’re not a robot, nor are you “safer” as one. You are human, with human needs, and your humanity to offer.

With love,

P.S. Over the next week I’ll be working on the 2019-20 Leo Astrology Studio, and our 2019 Midyear Reading, titled In These Times. Your Monday Morning and next Thursday’s weekly horoscopes will be covered by Victoria Emory.

Solar Winds — the 2019-2020 Leo Astrology Studio reading — will help you re-align yourself after two years of nonstop eclipses along the Leo axis, and guide you into the future. This includes placing a special focus on the influence of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in your 6th house of work, wellbeing and sense of purpose.

We offer the best price for those who purchase early. The complete package — Solar Winds, a segment focusing on Saturn-Pluto, and the tarot reading — will be available for $44, until the reading publishes. Then it will go up to $55.

Lighting Up Solar Leo

By Amanda Painter

Traditionally, Leo was the sign of kings and of ruling by divine right. That’s not really a thing anymore in this world. True, there may be pockets of the world where this kind of thinking still holds sway, but it’s not the widespread norm the way it once was; the delegated leadership of governments and corporations — the domain of Capricorn — tends to be where we look for ‘who’s in charge’.

Sunlit peony petal; photo by Amanda Painter.

In light of those ideas, it’s interesting to me as I write this on Wednesday, with the Sun still only in the second degree of Leo, that two major leadership-related events are unfolding.

One is Boris Johnson accepting the position of Prime Minister of the Brexit-bound United Kingdom; the other is Robert Mueller III finally addressing Congress in hearings about his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and its role in Trump’s campaign.

The charts for the two events are remarkably similar, as they have very close timing. I don’t feel I’m in a position to offer analysis of either, beyond the Aries Moon almost being void of course in both charts; meaning that it was in the midst of its final aspect to a major planet before running out of aspects to make prior to leaving Aries. That aspect happens to be a very tight square to retrograde Mercury in Cancer — with that retrograde status seeming to raise more questions than it answers; primarily about the strength of the aspect, and the potential for it to indicate a reversal of some kind.

Like I said, I don’t have a firm take on the charts for these two events. But I wanted to mention them as things to watch; a possible point of orientation at a time when a great deal feels confusing, up in the air, and subject to sudden changes at someone else’s whim.

Almost like the whims of the monarchs of old — which, from what I can see, are echoed disturbingly by the whims of fascist, dictatorial leaders near and far. They may not believe the myths of divine right in any overt religious sense, yet their entitlement and tactics speak of a close affinity to the idea and sensation. The shadow expression of Leo — arrogance and bombast, the ego enthroned where he Higher Self should be, to paraphrase Isabel Hickey — roars loudly in such cases.

There is, of course, the more evolved side to Leo: faith and loyalty, living from the heart, dignity, courage, self-respect and integrity; an ability to shine for all those around them, not just for themselves. To embody those qualities appears to be one lesson of solar Leo each year, though it can easily be lost in the busy-ness of the season (particularly for those of us in the more temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, who’ve waited through many months of dark and cold to get here).

Continue reading…

Queen of the Inner Child

By Amanda Painter

Curiously, the sign Leo is associated not only with kings and courage (and ego), but also with children. That appears to relate mainly to Leo being the 5th sign: the 5th house in any chart relates to playful creativity and risk-taking. (Yet as one of my colleagues pointed out, the Sun also has an association with a childlike state, the optimism and enthusiasm of childhood; and of course, children are fairly ruled by their egos until taught other ways of being and perceiving.)

Just as we all contain an inner ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’, so too do we possess an inner child. Not everyone stays in touch with this facet of psyche, and some people seem never to grow up. But also along the spectrum we find those people who are fully functioning mature adults, yet have integrated into that a sense of childlike wonder, play and a creative way of seeing themselves and the world. Such would seem to describe 90-year-old Japanese photographer Kimiko Nishimoto.

Her whimsical self-portraits may have crossed your path a couple years ago, in which case you’ll be happy to know she’s still going strong — now with an Instagram account and a blog, where she also features gem-toned still-life images. But it’s the self-portraits, aided by photo manipulation programs, where she pokes fun at herself, modern life, relationships, age and mishaps with transportation — and occasionally shows up in an animal costume — that have captured people’s attention and hearts.

Nishimoto, who first picked up a camera at age 72, shows no signs of slowing down — or of ‘acting her age’. Whatever that even means.

Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

We’ve published your extended monthly horoscope for August below in this issue. Your extended monthly horoscope for July was published on Thursday, June 27. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Next week your Monday Morning and Thursday weekly horoscopes will be covered by Victoria Emory.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You’re still wrestling with your insecurity rather than burning it as fuel. The root of your hesitation is that you think if you speak up or express yourself, you would really shake things up. Well, if true, that would be fortunate, because a shakeup means that people care. The ultimate purpose of this astrology, in any event, is not to shake up anything but yourself. Any concern you may have about how someone else might respond is secondary. Challenge yourself to say what you need to say, for the sake of saying it: to overcome that phobia or inner resistance. Here is a clue: the way you know you’re really touching on “empowerment” — you experience fear, and you confront it. That particular word is overused to the point of verging on meaningless, but it’s worth one last thought before it’s relegated to the dustbin. Power is not about swagger or brashness or bravado. It’s not what you see at campaign rallies or on television commercials. You’re touching on your power when you have some sense of dread, or the sensation of standing at the edge of a cliff, wondering if you can fly. It’s really not all that bad, though you might be wondering. Anyway, in this situation, the risk is less than you may think, though it’s just enough to put you in a conscious relationship with your own aversion. Which will be just enough to teach you about thinking and speaking more freely.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — To be vulnerable, or not to be vulnerable? That is the question. The opportunity you have to open up to someone may feel like a life-or-death situation. Really, you are faced with the choice to be asleep, or to be awake. The whole world is teetering on this brink, though there are many reasons — and many ways — to stay asleep. One prevailing sensation of our time is a little like sitting at your desk feeling drowsy, wondering whether you want to lie down and take a nap, but not wanting to, but not quite able to be fully alert and present. Yet sitting there is torturous. You have to go one way or another. Another theme that may teeter in the balance is “to be partnered, or not to be partnered.” This may come up if you get into that zone where you think it may be time to take the relationship to another level, i.e., to move in together. That’s actually a good time to consider the scenario, before the moving in actually happens, though don’t let it already having happened stop you from thinking about it. It’s never too late to think about something; and it’s never too early. The more you provoke yourself into any form of original thought, the more you will contribute to your process of casting off orthodoxy, purism or any form of pretentious holiness. You are indeed holy, in the real sense, which means your desires, your needs and your confusion are all evidence of the fact that you belong on Earth and in the universe, right here and right now.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — To some extent, everyone assesses their personal value in terms of what others think of them. Then, in the end, we have to come around to our own evaluation, which will be more or less honest, and more or less based in actual events. Or, looked at another way, more or less based in the desire to be social. Or better said, the need to be social; humans are gregarious and we tend to need one another, though we are not always real with ourselves about this. And, at other times, we put this necessity above all else, to the detriment of integrity, independence and honor. That said, events early in the month will leave you with few options other than to say exactly what you mean, or what you feel, and you might not be so diplomatic or sensitive about it. You might push some buttons, and risk the social status you have. If you dare, you will discover what it means to express some fundamental truth of who you are, which you might otherwise have concealed; in fact, which you are entirely likely to have concealed. Yet the discovery you are making is not something you can conceal, least not from your self, and not from the people close to you, the ones you care about. And in this process, you will find out who your friends are. They are the ones who stick with you when you are in your truth. Be not afraid of alienating anyone else.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) —
You need to shake things up where your professional aspirations are concerned. By that, I don’t mean take an exciting trip through the pages of Monster.com or Zip Recruiter. You are having an idea, or about to have one. This is signified by Mercury stationing direct in your birth sign, square Eris in your professional angle (Aries). This is, actually, more than an idea; it’s akin to a mental revolution, and it may grab you passionately, or seek to dismantle some aspect of your world, or seem to upset the known order of your thoughts. Note that, depending on your relationship to your own awareness, this might be annoying, disruptive or downright freaky. That part is subjective; there is something genuine at the core, at your core. Connect with that experience for as long as you can, and learn as much as you can while the aspect is hot, which is approximately through the first week of August; the peak is Aug. 3. From there, you will need to persist every day, under your own power, and develop whatever it is that showed up for you, or burst forth from you, or tweaked you. There will be days when that goes well, days when it’s boring, days when you don’t seem productive, but show up each day and allow. Take the approach of one great writer: write at least one word a day; or of a great artist: draw a circle, if nothing else. Just keep coming back to yourself, and gently, steadily, persist.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Keeping secrets from yourself is known as denial, and there is one particular matter for which this will no longer work. While you don’t have to put your inner life on display for the world, you must be real with yourself, and sooner rather than later, with people you’re the most intimate with. By all outer indications, you are a tower of strength at the moment. There is a New Moon in your sign on July 31, accompanied by both Venus and Mars. Jupiter is offering support from fire sign Sagittarius. Yet it is your inner life that is calling for your attention, and calling loudly. Be aware that in our time of history, though, the “inner life” is a concept that is, for most people, nonexistent, of little interest, or something they have never made contact with. Even older people, from the pre-internet era, may have difficulty dialing in their inner reality, which digital consciousness has turned inside-out to the degree where you cannot call it internal. Still, you must find your way in, and make contact with the thing you’re thinking, feeling and discovering. It may frighten you; it may irritate you; you may be exuberant once you make contact with it. Your response matters less than your need to actually probe, meditate, and notice your thoughts, and in particular, how you respond to them. There is plenty going on in the outer world that may distract you, and there are many opportunities on offer. Yet without sustained contact with your inner being, they will be of little use.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — It’s vital that you remain loyal to those who have helped you, and who consider you a friend. There is an aspect to your personality that can exclude people or turn them off like a switch. In the past, you’ve given yourself permission to do this on the pretext of self-preservation, though those days are gone. Anyway, that was never really true. What you were, and still are, confronted with are your feelings about yourself, which have a way of being divided. There is no way to turn on someone else without turning on yourself, and this is what I suggest you question. Pause and consider any rebellious feelings you may direct at friends or your community. Honor the fact that you may change your mind or make a new decision, and that you can do this in a direct and honest way. You can also mitigate any fallout that may cascade onto others, if you want to. The thing to be most wary of is feeling right and righteous, no matter who it’s directed to: whether friend or ‘enemy’ or someone about whom you may have seemingly neutral feelings. There is an opportunity here, which is about connecting elements of your psyche that may be alienated, cast off or veiled in shadows. Be cautious of any notion of revenge or comeuppance. Be helpful and keep your promises, or at least gently bow out of them. It’s true that you’re learning to be generous with yourself, though for that to work, it does not imply a lack or loss for anyone else.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Proceed with care where your professional activities are concerned, especially when handing confidential or sensitive information. I am rarely one to encourage distrust, though I will say that you must pay attention to the agendas of people you’re working with, and to whom you give your confidence. For the foreseeable future, treat the whole world on a need to know basis. Keep your plans to yourself, and maintain boundaries around your personal and professional business. Your thought process is still in motion on many important issues, and you’re still involved in a renovation/rebuilding on the deepest level of your security, both emotional and financial. The most helpful thing you can do for yourself is spend time among people, and listen to them. Get them talking and evaluate where they’re coming from. Notice what people say unprompted. Notice how they answer simple questions. Pay attention to who and what they advocate for; you’re likely to hear quite a bit of this going on, and you want to know who is taking what position. This may not be easy to discern in the days surrounding Mercury direct, with the shifting and changing effect going well into the first week of the month. This pattern is associated with a “truth revealed” kind of effect, so I suggest you not only listen to others, but read carefully, and connect the dots. Part of this is a conscious act; part of it will require you to take in the world within and without in a relaxed, neutral stance. Then make the connections.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Be cautious when advocating for your own cause. You must be subtle about it, and let partners, friends and allies take up that role when possible. Be impeccable about following public relations guidelines: stay within the four corners of the truth at all times. Ensure statements that will be read by others, whether going out to Instagram, Twitter or over the AP international wire, are impeccable and understated. You are visible now, which means you’re under scrutiny whether you realize it or not. The Sun and several other planets are passing through Leo, your solar 10th house. The late Debbi Kempton-Smith said of this condition that life is good as long as you don’t mind the feeling of being followed around by a television crew. That is how you must live: as if you are seen, and your words are being recorded and evaluated. To some extent this is true for nearly everyone, and many people live like it’s not true at all; like we haven’t all been thrust into the town square. One theme that may not be obvious though may surely be relevant is to be sensitive where spiritual matters are concerned: your own and those of others, including religion. Whatever your faith or beliefs, avoid proselytizing or evangelizing in any form. Be modest about what is most important to you, and respectful of what others feel. Please, don’t claim any special powers (being a shaman, the ability to heal others, and anything related). Rather, carefully, quietly, do what you can, when you can.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Your ruling planet Jupiter stations direct in your sign on the 11th, which may come with the feeling of some relief from pressure you didn’t know you were under. Yet it won’t be until the equinox that you get a sense of what you did not know you did not know. That is when Jupiter completes its last of three squares to Neptune. Any aspect square Neptune is slippery, and comes wrapped in fog and haze. There is an X-factor involved on several different levels, and you will have to be patient enough to see what that is. For now, I suggest you proceed with the awareness that there is missing information, potentially about something of significant importance to you. The current movement will offer you some hints as to what that might be about; Mercury changing directions on July 31 may come with a partner or adversary revealing facts or making an admission they may not be aware they’re making. Jupiter’s change of direction on Aug. 11 will help you tune in to your own self-awareness in a deeper way, though the relevant information will be easy to dismiss or overlook unless you are alert to its possible existence. It’s the interval between Aug. 11 and the equinox on Sept. 23 when you must proceed with special care, because your own impatience may get the best of you. Remind yourself you want to make all decisions with full information available, or with an understanding of what might not be currently visible to you, even though it may be right nearby.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Be aware that you are under considerable pressure due to the imminent Saturn-Pluto conjunction in your sign. While both planets will remain retrograde through August, beginning in late September, Saturn begins approaching Pluto for the final approach to their meeting on Jan. 12. This will be one of the most formative times in your life. Yes, it may be stressful, and you may feel like you are under some highly unusual form of pressure you’ve never felt before. Yet it’s essential that you not squander this opportunity with any kind of palliative self-care. Do not place feeling better over getting your inner work done. Americans in particular and Westerners in general are all about trying to smooth things over in the present. That is often at the expense of changes they know they need to make, and have needed for a long time. I suggest that as the next four months develop, you go directly into confronting all that you need to re-evaluate in your life, and make the decisions you know you have to make. The alternative will be the feeling, or the reality, of having them made for you. Your sign is famous for its attachments to the past, though you cannot say “those days are gone” until you’ve done your part to resolve the karma and actually part ways with what you are finished with. Therefore, use this very rare opportunity — better said, this once in a lifetime opportunity — to assess, to resolve and to conclude as consciously and as willingly as you possibly can.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — This is no ordinary time in your life. You may feel like you’re dealing with forces out of your control, yet ultimately, what you’re feeling are movements deep within you. Since you contain them, it’s not quite correct to say that you don’t control them, though the ‘power’ issue comes down to one of awareness, and in particular, self-awareness. This is not easy at the moment, as so much seems to be going on inside of a blind spot (known in astrology as the 12th house). If you want to take the message of this transit, the thing to do is get your home, and your mind, in order. That means clean closets and drawers. It means tackle the storage unit or the basement. And it means focus on the subject matter (sometimes called ‘issues’) that trouble you the most with someone who you both trust and consider wise. Do not take that particular assessment for granted. People claim to have all kinds of powers they don’t possess. Most of all, you want someone who can handle sexual subject matter with humor, grace and depth. The 12th, at its essence, contains our most intimate sexual secrets. They are the ones that seem to arise from the fire and disappear like smoke; the ones that get masked over the next morning; the ones you may not like to think about, or have avoided for years. There is no proof of anything in this house; yet the closest you will come is the sensation of stifling pressure coming off you, working through pain instead of being bogged down in it, and the gradual release of passion. The question is, in today’s world, do you feel safe being vulnerable and alive?

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — There is an art to not caring what others think, or think about you. And though you may excel at several other arts, this one is not your strong suit. Yet I suggest you go beneath surface appearances, opinions and perceptions, and figure out where you are in time, in space and in your understanding of your existence. True, there is always more ice cream. There is always another margarita. Makeovers are cheap and most people are well practiced in putting on a mask and hiding behind it. And it is rare for anyone to investigate the nature of their life, which always involves confronting the unknown. Even when you do this well, which means gently, and with a sense of honoring the mystery of your existence, you will not pin down the ‘meaning’ on a definitive or factual level. What you can do is enter a relationship with your doubts. You can be aware of what you know, what you don’t know, and what you believe. Leave yourself room for correction; room to be ‘wrong’ and happy to be corrected. Over the next two months, beginning in mid-August, you will encounter a series of turning points that help you gradually shift the direction of your life from what may feel like you’re suspended in midair to actually being carried forward. Most of that will not come from your internal propulsion, though some will. Rather, as it happens, you will feel at times like you’re being carried by air, or by an ocean current. Those are alien elements to earthbound humans. Remember that.