Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscope by Amy Elliott, Create; and Eric’s Planet Waves FM program.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Are you looking around this week wondering if you can believe what you’re seeing? I know, I know: for many, this has become the expectation, not the surprise. Yet as we wind down toward the Virgo New Moon on Sunday, your perception of the environment — and how that influences your direct interactions and immediate relationships — could use some attention and discretion.

Protesters with the group Demand Justice, dressed in The Handmaid’s Tale costumes, send a silent message on Tuesday above the entrance to the Senate room where Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing is taking place. Photo by Win McNamee.

I say that because one of the most important aspects between now and the weekend (and even beyond) is the Sun in Virgo making its yearly opposition to Neptune (which itself is taking a leisurely stroll through Pisces).

This is an aspect of slippery perception: one that warns us to be wary of deception, both intentional and the accidental kind that comes with being distracted by surface impressions and glamour.

This week’s social media brouhaha over Nike’s choice to feature Colin Kaepernick as the face of its latest “Just Do It” ad campaign is one example. Kaepernick, you may recall, is the NFL quarterback who began the trend in 2016 of kneeling during the national anthem as a silent racial justice protest.

Now, on one side of the Nike ‘controversy’, there are people posting images of themselves burning their Nike gear or cutting the logo from it to protest Nike and Kaepernick on ‘patriotic’ grounds — seemingly oblivious to the fact that Nike already has their money. On the other side are people proclaiming their admiration and support for Nike (and Kaepernick, by extension) for their allegedly ‘courageous’ stand on racial justice and free speech.

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring the Create segment; Planet Waves FM is still on hiatus; there is no weekly horoscope in this issue.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Now that Mars is finally direct as of Monday, what have you been able to put in motion? Is there anything you actually feel more uncertain about or stymied by than you did last week? Hopefully you’re enjoying a sense of energy freeing up for use, though it’s possible that this week’s aspects are raising some new questions.

Handfuls of school supplies; photo by Nick Amoscato under CC 2.0.

I’m not going to try to recap all of the week’s news. However, there is one story that caught my attention as having some resonance with certain facets of the astrology and themes I describe below. That would be almost the full caucus of U.S. House Democrats calling for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to state unequivocally that federal funds may not be used to arm teachers in the name of ‘protecting’ students.

As reported by The Hill, at issue is a federal grant program, created by the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, which provides funding “for states and local education departments with the broad goal of improving ‘school conditions for student learning.'” At least two states, Texas and Oklahoma, have requested permission to use these grants — which are focused on promoting “digital literacy” and “technology readiness” in low-income schools — to arm and train school employees as a line of defense against school shootings. (Unsurprisingly, the NRA has long supported such initiatives, as does Pres. Trump.)

“Based on the program’s authorizing statute, recent Congressional action, and precedent, you have the authority to deny such use of funds,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to DeVos on Tuesday. “Therefore, we urge you to swiftly exercise your authority to clarify to State and Local Education Agencies that [the funding provided under the law] may not be used to arm teachers and other school staff.”

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscope by Amy Elliott, and Create; Planet Waves FM is on a brief hiatus.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today the Sun entered Virgo, the last sign of the season, at 12:08 am EDT (4:08:27 UTC). It does so as we approach a Full Moon in Pisces (on Sunday) and Mars stationing direct in Capricorn (on Monday). If you’re feeling a little bit in flux, or like you’re not quite sure if you’re coming or going, or like your impulses keep switching, these combined events might describe that.

With no cell phones or other devices allowed in the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, for Paul Manafort’s trial verdict Tuesday, journalists had to take notes the old-fashioned way, and then race to file their copy. The result was a truly amusing spectacle. Is breaking news really that urgent? Photo by Chip Somodevilla.

Think about it: right now we have a combination of energy loosening (the season winding down), energy peaking (the Full Moon), and energy that’s waiting in potential, like a charged battery (Mars stationary).

We also seem to be seeing this mix of energetic dynamics in the news. Topping the list of items are the conviction of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on eight (out of eighteen) criminal charges on Tuesday, including tax evasion, bank fraud and failure to disclose a foreign bank account; and Trump’s former personal attorney and ‘fixer’, Michael Cohen, pleading guilty on Wednesday to eight criminal charges — including two campaign finance violations that appear to implicate Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator (for arranging illegally to pay out affair hush-money to two women during the 2016 election).

These latest developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election certainly describe a loosening or unraveling (of Trump’s previous claims and denials), and yet there’s also a sense of energy gathering. It feels like a peak in the process — yet still not ‘the’ peak.

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