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

This has been quite a week, starting off with Obama getting his Fast Track and ending with a double whammy of Supreme Court decisions favoring people over politics. This is also the week my computer died, so I’m pecking this out with one finger on my little tablet, a severe strain to my patience and good humor, but I didn’t want to miss sharing this moment of celebration and gratitude with my Planet Waves family.

As we explore the Art of Service in our lives and this online community, it’s clear that the ability to gather together in like mind and heartfelt, authentic communication serves not just ourselves, but all of humanity. Nothing illustrates that so well as does the sea change in marriage equality which could simply no longer be denied.

Planet Waves is one of those spots on the cyber-map that is truly egalitarian regarding sexual, religious and political practice, so long as it is not harmful. If you can’t find a comfortable place at this table it would only be because you can’t open your arms wide enough. And even discomfort serves — some would say especially discomfort — so all of the cousins are invited to this picnic.

While some might say we lean far to the left in our worldview, Eric once wrote a marvelous piece regarding our shared conservatism and intent to protect and conserve history and science, environmental resources and species, Constitutional guarantees and civic protections as well as freedoms of speech and dissent. We are more like than we will admit.

And if liberty and justice for all is our national template, then we can’t rest until it is true for every citizen. Which is why, today — with some 6 + million fellow citizens still guaranteed healthcare coverage and our LGBT brothers and sisters free to enjoy the legal protections of marriage in all fifty states — we can pat one another on the back and hug everyone we see (at least the ones with a smile on their face) knowing that we’ve added our bit of conviction and intent to a game-changing progressive human victory. With so many saying it couldn’t be done, Hundredth Monkey won the day.

Over the years, I’ve assured friends and readers that marriage equality was coming soon and –although I’m no longer a big fan of the institution — I’m delighted my intuition proved sound. I’ve also signed off many Planet Waves articles with the meme of the day, love wins, and it’s reassuring to hear it echo across the nation, although my reference was more to the full-spectrum of ‘agape’ love as all-inclusive and unconditional.

That is such a HUGE concept, so empowering and Light-filled, I find that the continuing challenges we face as a nation and a planet take on a slightly different feel, at least for the moment. Our winning tactic for facing these restrictive challenges must continue to be our ability To keep on keeping on, always believing that what must be will be, so long as love leads the way.

And so, fingers cramping and battery running low, I invite you to bask in that feeling of overcoming great odds, and ‘bookmark’ it so you can return whenever you need a lift. Nothing builds enthusiasm and determination like success.

To my loved ones whose marriages are now legal everywhere, to my friends who now have dependable medical coverage for the first time and to my Planet Waves family, with whom I share the pleasure of this moment, allow me to sign off one more time, united with each of you in service to one another and a waiting world: LOVE WINS! Amen and amen!

By Amanda Painter

Did you know that self-care is sexy, healthy, genuinely loving, and can actually enhance your relationships? Yes, there are certain circumstances in which self-sacrifice is ‘the right thing to do’ and serves the highest good for all involved. But it’s easy to romanticize self-sacrifice to the point of self-harm — and ultimately, that isn’t good for you or your relationships.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Note that ‘self-sacrifice’ is not the idea behind true service. It does not serve humanity to turn yourself inside out, caring for everyone else but not for yourself.

The Art of Service is a conscious exchange; one in which an individual or organization offers something to assist others (and humanity as a whole) on their path — but not to their own detriment. As you know, Planet Waves has been built in service of the healing and growth of all who visit here.

To complete the exchange of energy, wherein we offer materials to assist you in your self-care, I am asking you to consider becoming a Core Community member of Planet Waves through one of the options here.

Our members take the place of advertisers; without members, we could not provide the service of this website and all that you read and listen to here. When you become a subscribing member or purchase a birthday reading or the annual, you ensure that Planet Waves can continue to run a website with free content.

In terms of the question of sacrifice or care in your own life, this weekend’s astrology says you have a choice. You have chance to reset the balance in this equation if it’s gone askew in your life.

Here’s the scene: the Sun in Cancer (with Mars nearby) is entering into a T-square with the Moon’s South Node (in Aries) and North Node (in Libra). This T-square is exact Saturday. Without getting too technical, the Moon’s nodes are hypothetical points related to its orbit; they also indicate eclipses when a Full Moon and New Moon happen near them.

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Dear Madame,

I’m a Libra with a Taurus Moon, trying to decide what to do about a relationship with a guy I’ve been seeing for a while now. This morning I did a one-card tarot draw and pulled the Five of Cups, which pretty well describes my circumstances.

Can you tell me anything else about this Venus in Leo stuff I’ve been reading about lately? I know Leo is a sign my Moon is sup-posed to conflict with. Should I just cut my losses now? Or is it worth hanging on until the Venus thing is done in the fall? Help!

— Lovelorn (sigh) Libra

Dear Lovey,

The Five of Cups is what I call the ‘don’t cry over spilt milk’ card. Or what others (less charitably) call the Get Over It card. What’s not clear is whether you’ve come down on the side of the stand-ing two cups, or the fallen three.

I dunno. It seems to me that you’ve got genuine options. But I’m not a tarot reader, so I’ll give you the astrology.

If you’ve a Libra Sun and a Taurus Moon, you are indeed twice-ruled by this Venus ‘thing’. So, yes, you may feel the pull of Ve-nus a bit more than others during the transit and retrograde through the sign of Leo. Knowing that, it’s worth looking at your Venus tendencies first.

Even though Venus works overtime in your life, through your Sun and Moon, these two sides of you aren’t likely to see each other’s point of view. This is because the two Venii (Venuses?) work in different modes. One side, your Moon, must fe-e-el the love. For real.

Why give up the guy when you just bought 500-thread count or-ganic cotton sheets, which could only improve with the smooth touch of hard muscle against your side? Yum, yum, yum.

And your Sun? Well, it’s not tactile treasures but cerebral charm that turns you on. Nothing’s sexier than a responsive partner, who knows the meaning of social intelligence and gives good word in the sack.

You see, it’s easier for SuperVenusian You to see the big ‘V’ and think it’s an incomplete heart just waiting for Pedro Perfecto to arrive, with a great meal and rapport, to round out the top bit. But heaping too much of those expectations on Venus is not really good for her — or you.

Why not think about the bigger picture Venus inhabits? You know, the other ‘V’: V for Values. Without a sense of what you really stand for, how will you know what or who fits your stan-dards?

Now here’s a lil’ secret for you: your Venus wants to be a passive participant in attraction. When it comes to relationships, she likes things handed to her. But in the sign of Leo, Venus gets a bit bold, and heads out on the prowl. Lights a fire under your tushie! This is likely a problem for your SuperVenusian tastes, because you prefer the easy, softer, cashmere-lined approach. Why hustle for it when you can bat your long, luscious lashes and get it handed to you?

But perhaps you need that fire. Accuse me of laying on the Love-lorn Libran stereotypes too thick here, but you have left me 37 blanks to fill in — and I’m doing it. The point is, you like what you like; now know why you like it. You have options, but most folks reach for the easiest ones.

For SuperVenusian you, the easy approach appeals most: you’re always waiting for others to respond, take the lead, and make you feel comfortable. At its worst, this is akin to making yourself into a Mad Libs type fill-in-the-blank game. Except it’s not funny. If your note’s anything like your life, leaving yourself so unde-fined will let others describe who you are, and you may not like what they write in your empty spots.

You may feel discomfort, but don’t resent Venus’ charge through Leo this summer. If you use it well, you’ll learn better to define yourself. Let Leo light that fire under your tush: don’t wait for the world to respond to you — get out and do. Write in your own ad-jectives, dear.

And that’s the message of the cups. Cut bait and go home? Or keep fishing? You won’t really know until you take up your own worksheet, fill out some blanks, and decide if what’s there suits what’s left in the cups. If so, drink up!

Vale Venusita,

— Madame Z

Dearest Reader,
Each of my written offerings here at Planet Waves has, from the very first, signed off with my personal declaration, “Offered In Service.” Yet, that same signature (whether explicit or not) also distinguishes every person who participates to bring this subscriber-supported, advertisement-free, one-of-a-kind phenomenon of informed awareness and empowerment to you. Please consider this statement my request that you serve in turn at Planet Waves by becoming a financially supportive member in our community through one of these three membership options:

A 12-month Core Community Pass membership, on a sliding scale

A 6-month Core Community Pass membership, on a sliding scale

A regular-price Core Community Pass membership, through recurring monthly billing

Please take a moment to consider the optimum level of your own participation, and also to recommend membership in the Planet Waves community to others you care about and wish to serve in turn (or give them a membership as a gift).
With Sincere Gratitude,

— Len

*******

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
— Rabindranath Tagore

It’s interesting how astrology always seems to know. Just as Planet Waves initiates a membership drive inspired by the art of service, Mars is about to ingress Cancer. Additionally, less than two hours after Mars enters Cancer shortly before 9:33 am EDT (13:32:52 UTC) tomorrow, asteroid 4 Vesta will align with the Moon and its nodes in a manner probably unprecedented.

Mars so closely following the Sun’s entrance into Cancer to precipitate a new season represents (as Eric has already noted) a second stage of this year’s June solstice, but also something more.

Upon entering Cancer, Mars will also be opposed to the sign of its exaltation — Capricorn. The ancient tradition of astrology considers any planet opposed to the sign of its exaltation to be ‘in fall’, and somehow debilitated.

Yet, if the ancients (and more recent astrologers who brought us ancient tradition, such as William Lilly) were alive to speak, it is reasonable to think that they would encourage us to see their doctrines as guidelines rather than gospel. After all, what responsible astrologer would arbitrarily write off anybody born with Mars in Cancer as somehow a less viable manifestation of Martian energetics than anybody else?

Astrology is not destiny. Everybody is born with Mars somewhere in the sky, and how it elaborates through you is a function of awareness and choice, not fate. It would be absurd and pernicious, for example, to say that anybody born with Mars in Cancer has no chance of becoming a great athlete. Regardless of the position of Mars in your personal astrology, it can be made to serve, and its principal service is to life.

For, as the outstanding contemporary astrologer Robert Hand has written of Mars, “…in fact its energies are a vital part of life.” Hence, Mars in Cancer can be made to serve in your life just as surely as fire (one of the manifestations of Mars on Earth) can be made to serve, rather than endanger life.

Indeed, as a member of the species that has discovered the utility as well as the danger of fire, you should be able to intuitively apply this year’s tenure of Mars in Cancer (until Aug. 8) to the principle of service as a human prerogative. Fire (as represented by Mars) and water (a distinguishing characteristic of Cancer’s unique identity) are not necessarily in conflict. Fire and water can, in your hands, be complementary.

Yes, fire can be extinguished by water, but that is not an inevitability. Fire can instead serve to warm and/or boil water in service of bathing, cooking and other life-sustaining purposes.

Interestingly, the principle of service, the purpose of sustenance and the subject of fire are contained in a single asteroid, 4 Vesta. Meaningfully on multiple levels, Vesta conjoins with the lunar south node in Aries shortly after 11:44 am (15:44:28 UTC) tomorrow, in precise opposition to Cancer’s ruling planet — the Moon. By that time, the Moon will have moved from Virgo (where it is today) to a Libra conjunction, to the degree, with the lunar north node.

An opposition aspect consisting of two conjunctions on opposite sides of the sky and zodiac is admittedly complex. Too complex to plumb to exhaustion here. But this particular opposition of two conjunctions clearly reinforces the message that Mars in Cancer represents the potential of service, and that the form it takes is a choice rather than an inevitability. 

Vesta’s name is reminiscent of the vestal virgins in ancient Rome who served to sustain an eternal flame, which in turn was thought to sustain the civilization itself. For as brutal and unconscionable as the political and military conduct of the Roman empire was, the Roman civilization served to sustain literacy, architecture and astrology among other worthy human pursuits. Hence, modern astrology’s glyph representing Vesta as a votive flame, and the implicit interpretation of Vesta as representing (among other things) the art of service.

In opposition to the Moon tomorrow, Vesta will serve (among other things) to remind us that, like the relationship between fire and water, opposition aspects do not represent a conflict by default.

Rather, just as with the perpetually opposing lunar nodes, the implicit emphasis of all opposition aspects is complementary. Hence, Vesta’s conjunction with the lunar south node (which represents, among other things, the past) in opposition to the Libra Moon’s merger with the lunar north node (representing what the future might be), supports and reinforces the potential of what service may yet come while Mars traverses Cancer.

Indeed, how could a holistic interpretation of tomorrow’s astrology serve any other purpose than to support this as a time to practice the art of service, when you consider how unlikely the combination really is? Mars tours Cancer for only about two months out of every two years. Vesta takes more than three years to move through all 12 signs, spending only a handful of days in conjunction with either of the lunar nodes during each circuit. The Moon, for its part, spends only a handful of hours each month in conjunction with the nodal points where it intersects with Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

Hence, it’s reasonable to say that the sum of what Mars, Vesta, the Moon and its nodes are combining in precision to represent tomorrow has never been seen before. If that is not an occasion for you to serve as you have not done before, what is?  

Reinforced by the occasion is the fact that brutality need not be served. Reiterated by the whole of tomorrow’s astrology is the notion that service to civilization’s highest principles may yet bring harmony between people and with the Earth itself. But only if you free yourself from all forms of doctrine as gospel, and bring your conscience to the table set by the solar system.

For while we may dream of life as joy, it is not that way by default. You must serve to make life joy for it to be so. Just as surely, you must serve the solar system of which you are a part by making astrology actually happen to its highest potential here on Earth. So, what are you going to do?

Offered In Service    

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