Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

By Amanda Moreno

Two topics are competing for my attention this week as I glance at the world stage at the same time as I retreat into a much-needed 12-day staycation. The first is that of hierarchy and the process of ‘othering’ that I see going on around me at all levels. The second is that of simple reflection as we reach the mid-point of the year. And what a year it has been.

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

I glanced at my journal to see what I had written at the winter solstice. Not much is there, but my column that week clues me in a bit.

Themes of prioritizing inner work have definitely — always! — remained front and center, even as I decided to take a break from regression and soul retrieval work to try to spend some time integrating. Truth be told, it turns out I no longer need the container of retreats and regression work to dive deep — this year has seen so many plummets to the depths that it is no wonder I am giddily grateful for the grace of having a stretch of time off right now. It feels life saving.

I’m also amused that one of the few things I did write down at the winter solstice was something that recognized an increasing focus on the process of coming into my body. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m someone who avoids being in her body, but several years ago I began to somaticize everything. Stress would show its first symptoms in tension, and for a while there, sickness.

Regression work taught me how to track — or shall I say, feel — the way emotions are held in my body and how to release them. I’d honestly hoped that the whole ‘I somaticize everything’ trend was just an unfortunate side effect of grueling graduate work, but three years after graduation the trend has continued. So here I am — coming into my body.

2015 has not been my favorite year. I type that and then realize that there is a pretty high probability that when I look back on it from some far-off place in the future, I’ll likely recognize it as one of the most profoundly transformative times in my life, and we all know I love transformation. In fact, when I mentally list the events that have taken place, including a slew of really intense consecutive New Moon rituals that activated specific points in my chart within a degree, I am in awe of the ways it does seem the universe is conspiring to help. Even if it makes me want to throw a temper tantrum sometimes.

Talk about grueling, though. 2015 has opened me up as a healer and as a human in ways I’d only conceptualized, has made me question my entire path, and has broken my heart. Perhaps I should own all of that a bit more — the year itself has not done those things, I have.

Of course, when a person who somaticizes to the extent that I can uses phrases like “it has broken my heart,” some prudence is probably needed. In the past few months, my body has registered all of the shock waves and depth, bringing on a whole new slew of fears for me to face. For the first time in my life, I am struggling with the cost of health care. Because, you see, the legal right to affordable health care is one of the arenas where I am very much an ‘other’.

This is not where I’d intended on leading into the ‘othering’ portion of our journey today. The murders in South Carolina or the acceptance of gay marriage under the guise of marriage ‘equality’ (there are still many of us who do not wish to be monogamously married) seemed more appropriate for that topic. But here we are. Our drive to be different can clash so harshly with our drive to be the same as. I’m fascinated by the ways in which we can be so desperate to belong and feel connected that we tend to exercise power over the other or emphasize our differences in order to achieve that goal, or rush head-first into the structures that were once used to oppress us.

I am an individual who is incredibly grateful for her life, who tries to be aware of the gobs of privilege I was born into and that I maintain to this day. I am also aware that I am part of a demographic that tends to be ignored — you know: the 30-something who has opted out of marriage, traditional relationships and bearing children; who is a [clearly selfish] non-white, fat female who has never been in a cohabitating relationship; who is also trying to make a living outside of an office job and pays careful attention to how she makes that work.

I tend to self-select ‘other’ on demographic forms as much as possible because categories rarely feel appropriate or accurate. I chose not to claim my Hispanic heritage on early college scholarship forms because I felt like there was always someone who would need that assistance more than I — and besides, what about the Lebanese and Swedish running equally strongly through my veins?

In the case of health care, I’m part of a demographic that is essentially being asked to foot the bill for everyone else’s insurance. I am someone who has always made check-ups and follow-ups and self-care a priority through buying into health care co-ops with low monthly fees and staying on top of preventative care.

Now that it is mandated that I get health insurance, I find myself left with high-price options with high deductibles that have essentially left me facing a legal mandate to pay an insurance company so that I can pay out of pocket for my health care. My monthly premium takes up what used to be spent on bodywork. I pay out of pocket for the therapist that I want because he is an astrologer too, and the container we’ve created is invaluable to me. That’s a choice I deal with.

It is incredibly frustrating to feel like I can no longer afford health care, even as I recognize the ‘greater good’ of the Affordable Care Act, which I am well aware has helped millions. However, the Vitamin D test that I used to pay $30 out of pocket for costs almost $300 when billed through insurance, and my insurance only pays for part of it.

My twice-yearly rounds of STD testing are not covered through the ACA. It has been deemed appropriate that insurance pay only for once-yearly HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia testing, never for HSV and rarely for HPV. Instead of spending $100 per year on testing now, I am looking at twice that, at least — unless, of course, I grow up and realize that what I really want is a monogamous relationship, or to just keep my legs closed like a good adult. Or even better yet, to just forgo testing all together.

Before I trigger any more alarm bells, I should say — the body symptoms that have been pressing on me and stressing me out have lifted almost entirely in the past week. A mix of Western medicine, dietary change, acupuncture, energy work, and reconciliation with an important person in my life seem to have done the trick. There’s also that lovely Venus-Jupiter conjunction, smack-dab on my ascendant, to thank for some much needed levity and brightness.

The July 4th weekend will be spent in a relative land o’ hippies as I gather with friends to live-stream the ‘last’ Grateful Dead shows for three nights in a row, and I could not be more ridiculously excited about it. I need some good ol’ fashioned free-lovin’. I mean, at least the kind that doesn’t lead to more STD tests, because those are just expensive.

But seriously — the heartbreak of the South Carolina murders has very much combined with my feelings about the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage (Which are, in summary: Yay! And also, it’s not marriage equality, it is monogamous marriage equality!), and with my own frustration with health insurance, to churn up a whole lot of wondering about where, when and how we can all just be seen and treated as worthwhile, precious humans.

Why is it that we go through these periods of increasing witch-hunts? When do we get to move past categories and labels and recognize the inherent interconnection of our Earth and the wider universe? Why is it that your relationship is valid and worthy of legal recognition and benefits and mine are not? Why can’t we work together to figure out how each and every human can be cared for?

These are huge frickin’ questions, I know. Social conditioning exists, at least partially, to make our infrastructures more effective and orderly, and changing that is a process many would rather avoid. I’m not the avoidant type, however. So I suppose I say to myself, and to all of you, too, congratulations on navigating the first half of a weird, time-warpy, challenging and mind-bending year. Astro-land says that perhaps the second half will be ‘easier’. Here’s to not equating ease with complacency — and also to boogie-ing down this weekend.

*******

Dear readers,
It’s still membership drive time here at Planet Waves. Every time I read an article on this website, listen to a broadcast, or just tune in to the incredible community that responds on these pages I’m inspired to do what I can to keep the container going. If you haven’t invested in a core community membership or a reading, please consider doing so now. Your support is what keeps this place alive.

Thanks,
Amanda Moreno

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Planet Waves — the Art of Service. Digital Illustration by Lizanne Webb.

By Sarah Taylor

What happens when the Sun and the Moon come together?

Illumination.

The High Priestess, The Sun, Six of Swords from The Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.

Illumination is the name of the game with this week’s reading of (from left to right) The High Priestess, The Sun, and the Six of Swords. From reflected light, to radiating light, to a moment of en-lighten-ment and the a-lighting after travel from one place to another.

Contrary to what many assume, The Moon in tarot does not correspond to its namesake, but rather to Pisces. It is The High Priestess who is the tarot representative of our Moon, and for good reason: she reflects the light of consciousness, much like the Moon reflects the light of the Sun. She is the feminine lunar to the masculine solar.

This can be seen practically in the role of The High Priestess, which is to experience Spirit. She then ‘translates’ her experience — non-verbal as it is — to those who cannot experience it directly. She is an intermediary, much like her partner The Magus, who, as Mercury, is the messenger between the divine and the human realms. But whereas Mercury is active, The High Priestess is receptive. She is not so much interested in outer communication as she is in inner communion.

The High Priestess also works alone. So this card, representing as it does the near past and foundation to your present circumstances, speaks to a time where it was necessary to take a step back and to listen. What you were listening for was the wisdom that was able to move through you when you were still enough to be its container.

How still were you? How clearly did you hear it? How true to its words were your own?

Because the challenge with The High Priestess is that the truth you received may have been an inconvenient one — for you, or for those around you. Or both. It’s one thing knowing for yourself a particular truth; it is quite another fully admitting it to yourself and communicating it to those for whom it is meant. Frequently, The High Priestess will know, but she or others will not want to. Sometimes, The High Priestess is in the painfully privileged position of holding an answer that will remain unacknowledged. More than that: she may be punished for it.

However, The High Priestess’s power is not in the message: it is in her ability to connect in the first place. Anything that comes from that is secondary. Her power is personal, private, often silent and seldom recognised — and cannot be diminished for its lack of voice or recognition.

You may have gone unacknowledged, what you held inside undiscovered — maybe even ridiculed. Take heart in your ability itself, and not in its results.

It is this ability that has connected you with the current illumination that is hitting your world full-on. What you knew, can now be seen first-hand. What you felt as truth has, in some way or another, come out into the open. Under the light of The Sun, everything is revealed. There can be no secrets and no hiding; there is instead an opening to consciousness and the rays of awareness that blaze into every corner, nook and cranny.

The work is done. Well, this particular aspect of the work anyway. In one fell swoop, we have spanned nearly the entire major arcana, and walked the path of the Moon and into the Sun. Night to day. In the relative blink of an eye.

The Sun is an interesting card to me because frequently it is seen as an entirely positive one. I see it differently. It is positive, but objectively so: it is not limited to joy or happiness but encompasses the myriad ways that something can come ‘to light’. It is neither good nor bad. It shines. And in that way, we are freed from the secrets we have kept.

It reminds me of a conversation between the two main characters, Sue and Mick, in the movie Crocodile Dundee. Sue is trying to explain the concept of therapy to Mick, but it is Mick’s wisdom that throws things into a different light:

Sue: I suppose you don’t have any shrinks at Walkabout Creek.

Mick: No. Back there if you got a problem you tell Wally. And he tells everyone in town, brings it out in the open, no more problem.

That’s The Sun. Out into the open; no more problem. Not unless you want to make more of a problem out of it. But why would you want to? This is a shift into a new state, and one that brings you into the company of others: when there’s more light, you also get to see who’s around you.

And there is more ‘shift’ to come in the final card, which hints at what is moving over the horizon — perhaps even literally. The Six of Swords — or Science — describes the voyage from one place to another — often metaphorically, but sometimes geographically too.

What had remained unclear in the painful skirmish of the previous card that is implied by the Six’s presence — the Five of Swords — has now had the light of consciousness trained on to it. This consciousness is fearless; it simply wants to see. There is currently in you a willingness to see what The High Priestess knew all along. You are at a point of admitting to yourself and others what you had sensed, and in a way that sets everyone free. This light generates forward movement, the solution to what seemed like an insoluble problem, the ironing out of a wrinkle or two — or three — of misperception.

There is the understanding of something at hand. A “light-bulb” connection is made. New shores beckon.

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Planet Waves is currently running a membership drive entitled the Art of Service — pretty fitting with a tarot reading this week that has illumination as its core focus. I spoke a little about my own experience of Planet Waves last week, and how I found it at a time when its support made an appreciable difference in my life. I know that I’m not the only one.

We can all do our bit to keep Planet Waves shining. You can do this by simply spreading the word, donating, or joining our community if you haven’t already done so.

Visit the link here to become a Core Community member. Let’s keep this light shining brightly.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: The High Priestess (Moon), The Sun (Sun), Six of Swords (Mercury in Aquarius)

If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Dear Reader: It’s Independence Day in the U.S., the day celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the revolution that led to the founding of a new country out of a handful of British colonies. But we experience revolutions of all kinds on a regular basis — from the Arab Spring revolutions that woke us up to the building Uranus-Pluto square, to the small yet momentous inner revolutions we wage to free our minds, bodies and souls from less tangible forms of psychic, karmic and cultural colonization.

As a hat tip to the latter variety, here’s a classic by Eric (first published in 1998) about the revolution that follows when we liberate our sexual pleasure. Sometimes the Art of Service is a downright revolutionary act, when it serves inner freedom. — Amanda

By Eric Francis

If you want a revolution, liberating sexual pleasure is the place to start. And if all you want out of life is to be authentic, open-minded, creative and loving, opening up your sexual life-force is the heart of the matter. How do you do this? If you really want to be free, start with self-love. Learn to give yourself deep and satisfying orgasms, release your guilt and shame, and then watch what happens.

Lucille at Burning Man, in the Erodome at Poly Paradise. Photo by Eric Francis.

Guilt about sex is guilt about life. Guilt about your own sexuality and shame around your pleasure mean that you are struggling for life. Give up the struggle. Just come into yourself and be alive. In this article, I will give some suggestions for how you can practice doing this in some really fun ways.

I recognize that many of us are in some kind of crisis, living in a state of overload or feeling out of control; many of us are looking for direction, and in response, we’re seeking some form of spiritual enlightenment.

Virtually all enlightenment programs teach that love is the answer to everything, and many speak about loving yourself as the essential ingredient to this state of mind. The Golden Rule is to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” but notice that nowhere is there mention of physical self-love and self-pleasuring. Of course, if religion let on that giving yourself great orgasms was the easiest way to find God, love and freedom, you would probably have reasons for knocking on your neighbor’s door other than borrowing a cup of sugar.

And you’d have more creative things to do on a lovely Sunday morning than sit in a dark building hearing about what a bad person you are.

Continue reading here.

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“… the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are?”

— Chief Justice John Roberts

As we contemplate the Art of Service to one another, we define what is important in our lives. When we are in service to something larger than ourselves, our lives expand with opportunity and growth. We have seen what happens when we serve only our own needs and desires, contracting into a kind of littleness that does not serve anyone. When Edgar Cayce told us that here, on planet Terra, we “serve or suffer,” I suspect he meant exactly that.

Here at Planet Waves, we hope you will grow with us by supporting the work we do, if you are able. You will find several ways to contribute to our mutual well-being here and we thank you for all you do.

This was the week that Chris Christy decided we needed another belligerent presidential candidate besides The Donald, whose annual Miss America/Miss Universe beefcake presentation was canceled by Hispanic channel Univision after he called illegal Mexican immigrants rapists.  NBC decided to turn the “You’re Fired” meme around on him, no longer supporting him as host for Celebrity Apprentice, and Macy’s will no longer carry his menswear line. Appropriately, New York Mayor de Blazio is “reviewing his contracts with the city.” Trump being Trump, he will sue (everyone, apparently).

As fallout, the ineffectual responses to Trump’s racist allegations by candidates have moved the Hispanic community farther away from the GOP than ever, as has the Pope’s encyclical, which has galvanized Hispanic youth in support of sound environmental practice and acceptance of climate change. If you have concerns about the young ones, read America Ferrera’s take down of Trump and soothe yourself. Unless the Republican leopard can change its spots, the likelihood of their capturing the national flag anytime soon is slim.

Christy, meanwhile, has pledged not to sugarcoat any issues, not that we expected him to — he’s a Jersey boy, after all. Obama mentioned that if this funneling of candidates into the Pub locker room keeps up, they will soon have enough contenders for their own version of the Hunger Games. A chilling thought, eh?

This was also the week that the media noticed that Bernie Sanders isn’t just a scruffy old socialist curmudgeon but a viable contender for the crown. Everywhere Bernie goes, his staff has to upgrade the facility to hold more warm and enthusiastic bodies. The message is the medium here, and the medium is a grassroots populist movement that has raised over $15 million dollars of support since April, with no big donors. This deems him legit, making his race against Hillary’s well-funded war chest suddenly ‘do-able.’

Pity the Pub who still wants to demonize the word ‘socialist’ when it no longer plays with those who hear Bernie’s populist message: citizens who think fair is fair and government is meant to benefit them, not pound them into silly putty. Starting out virtually unknown, Sanders is now just 8 points behind Hillary in New Hampshire and within 19 points nationally, according to a recent poll. He has consistently drawn the largest crowds on the stump, proven by no less than 10,000 people flocking to hear him speak in Madison, Wisconsin this week. The Elizabeth Warren wing of the Dem party is alive and well and it’s got legs.

A fifth Dem, Southern centrist Jim Webb, has thrown his hat in the ring and brings a bit of gravitas with him. As a senator from Virginia, Webb voted against Shock ‘n Awe, disapproves of the war on drugs, and has populist appeal. But he also voted against women in combat (or even admitting them to our service academies) and against strict carbon emissions standards, and he has continually — and recently — defended the Confederate flag, none of which will play with the Dem base. At minimum, we now have a mix of left-leaners, almost all of them left of Ms. Clinton.

A year and a half from the next presidential election, we’re well begun in terms of defining what we want to come next. Although it seems tedious to follow the election hijinks so far in advance of the event, it feels somehow appropriate to me — at this juncture, to again quote Poppy Bush — to recognize that re-definition is exactly what we’re up to, now that so much of our national persona is bent and broken and drowned in the Republican bathtub. With all the Sturm und Drang of attempting to move us backwards into what was, a very clear assessment of what is would serve us well.

In the decision to allow same-sex marriage, each of the four conservative judges — Alito, Thomas, Scalia and Roberts — wrote his own dissent. Each followed the philosophical thread we’ve come to expect from the right, which amounts to fear and loathing of change = instability = chaos. Out of all the nonsense sputtered by Scalia (watch this excellent little Fiori ‘toon to get a sense of the lyrical word salad he mixed with these two lost decisions), the tone-deaf meanderings of Thomas, and the harsh pronouncements of Alito that remind me of Cotton Mather pounding his podium, it’s a phrase from John Roberts that grabs my attention: “Just who do we think we are?”

This was a finger pointed at the apparent hubris of attempting to change the social order that has kept the marriage bed sacred for the propagation of the species. Essentially, Roberts considers the ruling unconstitutional, although — to give him his due — his dissent seemed the most secular. And clearly, to Roberts’ thinking, messing with that ‘natural order’ brings up too many questions to juggle in one little ruling, fiddles with the old paradigm notion of a husband in ownership of both wife and child, opens the possibility of polygamy, and worse. Most dreadful of all, now anyone loathe to tolerate same-sex marriage will no doubt be vilified and called bigot!

Amazing how hypocritical this seems, flipping the zeitgeist. Now it’s the Christians who are bigots, much as it’s the racists who defend their flag without a hint of remorse for the cruelty that inspired it. Looking in that mirror isn’t for sissies, my dears — it takes a big sack, as Stephen Colbert would say, and some of us just aren’t up to it. Smell the fear?

Indeed, the gay marriage decision made Scalia so verklempt he called it “The end of democracy,” and scorched his own seat at the table by calling SCOTUS “a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine.” I don’t recall him saying that when he ruled on Citizens United, which DID turn the democratic process on it’s head. I can’t help but think of the historical holes in their dissent, obvious enough to twist an ankle should we be unwise enough to step in one.

If we are to hold to the societal absolutes of the period in which the Constitution was brought forth, Justice Clarence Thomas would be standing at the door to the court, helping the white gentlemen with their coats. The Aztecs frequently broke open the chests of their slaves and enemies in order to raise their still-beating hearts to the crowd, a triumphant public offering and sacrifice to their cruel gods. As for marriage between one man and one woman, that is a complete cheat. The early Biblical law that later distilled itself into a one-on-one began with a plurality of wives under the same tent. We forget what is inconvenient to remember.

Still, with all the hot air wasted on this marriage argument, now encoded into law, Roberts’ question of who we are — meant as a chiding reprimand — is the most important question of the season, especially as we contemplate the snarled mess we’ve made of our Republic on this 239th national birthday weekend.

We, the People, have a very imperfect union right now. That doesn’t discount the extraordinary potential of the documents upon which our government was formed. The founders themselves were flawed humans, not holding to their own declarations. Feet of clay is the way of these things, historically. Best not to confuse the message with the messenger. Our childish mythologies about who these people were — mostly hard-nosed businessmen — must take on some reality if we’re to put a flawed past behind us, and this would be a good time to invite them off their (elitist) pedestals.

We have much to be concerned about and much to remedy, going forward, but we’re not lost yet. We still haven’t decided whether we should enter a hologram to take us back to those Good Old Days of colonialism and vigilante justice, or we’re to pitch in, each of us, to rebuild this nation with an egalitarian platform that supports a diverse and creative population. That’s up to us. That’s the assessment we must make.

That’s the question that’s finally posed itself, made clear by an embarrassment of riches in candidates like The Donald, the captain of crony capitalism and ego-speak, or Rick Perry, a delusional type who has assured the African-American population that they’re much better off voting the GOP. And even Hillary — who has more political experience than most of the others and would surely make history as the first woman president — is too busy courting Israel, to whom she promises to be a better friend than Obama, and dodging positions on the trade deal, for instance, to do more than offer lip-service to the progressive ticket.

In a perfect world there would be voices like Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein and old friend Dennis Kucinich heard loud and clear, bypassing the muck and mire of establishment politics and big money to propose answers to that profound question at hand. Yet in this imperfect world, amazingly, we do have one like them in Sanders. The miracle of the moment is that he’s no longer considered a long shot and his message can’t be missed.

In fact, if you like the idea of a populist reformation ticket, Bernie is putting together a “series of conversations about how we can organize an unprecedented grassroots movement that takes on the greed of Wall Street and the billionaire class.” If you want to host or attend an organizational meeting at the end of this month, you can contact his campaign here.

With the election still far off, promising allegiance to any particular candidate seems premature, but sharpening our skills at grassroots organization sounds pretty productive. As for Bernie, I haven’t heard any other candidate say “They have the money, but we have the people, and if we stand together, there’s nothing we cannot accomplish.” Until any of the remaining four do — and until they convince the people of this nation (as has Bernie) that they’re just one of them, lucky to be born an American and committed to making her that place the founders hoped for — he’s my pick.

The revolution that started this nation so long ago is not dead, just resting, as they say. There’s energy stirring from the bottom up to take on the greed and avarice at the heart of our social and political problems. On a joyful occasion like the Fourth of July, with fireworks and barbeques and family gatherings all around, it would be a fine thing if our nationalism was used not to mark or defend who we were, but to celebrate and define who we will become, because that IS the question, isn’t it?

Marianne Williamson tells us we didn’t come here to play it small. Neale Donald Walsch urges us to become the best version of ourselves we can conjure. Just who DO we think we are, this Independence Day? That decision holds the design of our future.

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

The United States of America has another birthday coming up on Saturday. Although nations do not come into the world as people do, there are some countries that can mark their beginning from a specific date. The U.S. is one of them. Yes, one could fairly say that many dates and events could be construed to represent the beginning of America as it now is, but one day stands out.

That day, of course, is July 4, 1776. A day documented with parchment (or paper) and ink by the astonishingly audacious and historically unprecedented Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence defied what Keith Olberman has referred to as “the alchemy of precedent.” It was a miracle, really, that a nation should seek to initiate its existence in service to principle.

Among the principles cited by the signatories of the Declaration of Independence as they set forth to create a new nation was the notion that “all men” were created equal, providentially endowed with “inalienable rights,” which included “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In spite of its karmically and pathologically disturbing disparagement of the American First Nations, and also in spite of its male supremacist language, the founding document of the U.S. still inspires absolute awe.

Since its creation, the U.S. has been on a long journey to determine whether it could in reality serve its lofty definition of self. For most of that trip the results have been less than stellar. It was downright ignominious, for example, that a nation made by lofty rhetoric should then set forth to practice overt genocide on the original inhabitants of America, all but exterminating some of the most Earth-friendly people and cultures ever to exist on Earth.

Then there is the undeniable fact that the so-called founding fathers conveniently skated around the issue of slavery, mocking their own principles in actual practice until The People would have it no more. One must also confront the specter of war made intentionally for purposes of profit behind facade after contrived facade of disingenuous righteousness.

Yes, one might fairly say that the U.S. has always been, and with time has more become, a mockery of its ideals. Yet, every once in a while, America defies the priests of precedent and sets forth anew to live up to its principles. Still living and breathing are enough Americans who actually believe that the historically improbable can yet be made possible. As always, however, one would be loathe to predict the outcome.

Hence, looking at the solar return (birthday) chart for the USA this year is enough to remind any thoughtful astrologer that the highest principle astrology might serve is not to predict, but to inspire. Taken that way, the solar return chart for the U.S. this year (whether cast for Philadelphia, where it all began, or Washington D.C., where America’s uneasy empire resides now), is notable.

For reasonable purpose, and based on abundantly resonant correlations, the “birth” chart used here on Planet Waves is the famous Sibly chart. That chart is set for 5:10 pm local time in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

The 2015 solar return chart for the USA has Virgo rising, celebrating the grounded yet resilient nature of American citizens who continue to insist that their nation manifest its founding principles. Virgo, one is compelled to remember, is the only sign where its planetary ruler (Mercury) is also exalted.

Thus, one is also compelled to look for where Mercury is in the chart — a chart that features the Sun in the exact same degree as it was for the date recorded on the Declaration of Independence. Encouragingly, it is the most elevated planet.

For astrologers, the symbolism of the most elevated planet on any chart founded upon a date, time and place cannot be underestimated. The so-called mid-heaven represents (among other things) both the self-conscious image and any observable discrepancies as regards to that image for the party whose birth is being observed.

But this is not just any Mercury presiding over the birthday of the United States this year. There is more than correspondence with, and thoughtful understanding of, how the U.S. often sees itself one way, and other nations often see it another way. There is also Mercury’s placement and timing.

This is a Mercury recently freed from the thin, confining slice of the zodiac in which it recently paced back and forth in retrograde. This is also a Mercury in late Gemini opposed to (which for astrologers means “reflected by”) the core of our galaxy in the latter degrees of Sagittarius.

For astronomers, any galactic core represents the highest example of a center and an axis. Once you go out into intergalactic space, there are no longer any such reference points in a universe hastening to only expand in all directions. For astrologers, the core of our galaxy has a similar correspondence.

As Eric has put it so many times here on Planet Waves, our Galactic Core represents a “homing signal.” Combine that with the United States’ natal Sun (emblematic of consciousness) and Mercury’s correlation to mind and its means of expression, and you get the picture.

It is a picture of a nation newly conscious and mindful of the homing signal of its founding principles. It is the image of a country that has gone grievously off course, but which is not yet finally lost, thanks to those who serve its most elevated ideals.

As such, Planet Waves asks you to join us as you are able in observing the ideals of a life inspired (not predicted) by astrology. As best as you are able, we invite you to participate in our Art of Service, which includes being liberated from the constant assault of corporate advertising. That liberation is made possible by those of you who become supporting members. Finally, let there be no doubt that all of us at Planet Waves pursue (and find) our own happiness through our practice of service to you.

You might also consider it worth your while to safely and respectfully observe the birthday of what comedian Bill Murray might affectionately call a “knuckle head” country, which may yet keep its promise to posterity.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.