By Sarah Taylor

You know last week when the Five of Swords appeared to the right of the Two of Swords as one of the options you were poised between (the other being the Ace of Swords)? This week takes a look at what’s happening and what’s available if you did, indeed, feel the sting of those five swords in your world.

Seven of Stones, Five of Swords, The Emperor from the Haindl Tarot deck, created by Hermann Haindl. Click on the image for a larger version.

To recap, I wrote that the Five of Swords “is not the under-handed, stealth-driven sabotage of the Seven of Swords, nor the existential anguish of the Nine of Swords, but it is a moment of “ouch!” where someone’s peace of mind is sacrificed on the altar of conflict. Blood is spilled in a battle of wills — a skirmish where there is a clear winner and a clear loser, but either way the victory is one that has its costs. It is accompanied with fiery fury and rage; emotions run very high; despair follows, even though it might be short-lived.”

A skirmish. A war of words. A battle of wills. Sometimes a legal matter where the verdict comes without apology or much deliberation — and there is a cost involved. It may feel like the winner has taken no prisoners, that there is little compassion. It may simply be the bitter sting of defeat, no matter how things stand objectively. There is no objectivity to be had here. You, or someone else, is hurting.

The background to this skirmish has unfolded through the lens of the Seven of Stones (Pentacles in the Rider-Waite Smith deck). There is a sense of events leading up to the Five as foretelling the Five’s outcome. Not enough material resources, perhaps? Or not as much support from others as you would have wanted.

But most of all, the Seven is a moment of spiritual crisis. Why am I doing this? What is this all for? It has an existential quality to it — which stands in stark contrast to the physicality of the suit itself. An existential crisis in a material world. It is a time of taking stock and finding out what really matters to you. It is a moment of seeing where the path of true commitment lies.

This Defeat that you face may simply be another signpost pointing you back on the path of your true commitment. It may be the final battle of a straggling idea that’s had its day. You may be seeing the vestiges of a past belief getting cut away; the sting is the sting of your identification with it — as if it’s a part of you getting cut away with it, when in fact it is not. The truth of who you are still stands. You can still apply the Ace of Swords here (the one that appeared last week). You still have the capacity for insight, which can lead you to a deeper compassion and understanding of the circumstances.

There is a wisdom to what has been taking place, if you do not identify with what your mind might be telling you about who’s ‘winning’ and who’s ‘losing’, and if you can shift towards the change that this is pointing you to.

Bear in mind a skirmish is not the whole battle — it is an outpost, a moment of volatility. And it may be that it is you on both sides of the battle lines: one part of you clinging to what’s changing, the other part standing there on the right.

The Emperor.

You have lost nothing. You are simply in a moment of finding your balance again, your true path, your sovereignty.

From the bare rock and rusted foliage of the Seven and the Five, we move to the truth that lies at the heart of the matter. A tree stands behind The Emperor, a natural depiction of the grounded, rooted vibrancy of an archetype who holds personal authority, yet who is also aligned with the world around him. There is a natural order to things. There is no sign of the forcing of his will over others; his simply being there is a statement of where he stands and what he stands for.

The Emperor’s sceptre — the masculine symbol of his authority, topped with what looks like a head of wheat — is held up towards the Five of Swords, as if he is warding off its influence with that small gesture. It is enough to leave it all behind. The globe he holds to the right, in his left hand — the feminine symbol of fertility, potential, (re)birth — feels like an offering in this reading. An offering to you.

There is a time for conflict and the feelings and experiences that come with it. There is a time to seek balance again and restore yourself to the throne that was always yours to begin with. This is not a battle; this is simply an acknowledgement of what already is. There is no-one to fight over what can only be yours: your will, your dignity, your place in your world.

All else falls away into insignificance in the face of this knowing.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Seven of Disks (Saturn in Taurus), Five of Swords (Venus in Aquarius), The Emperor (Aries)

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.

By Rob Moore

If I told you there is an important reason you want what you want, would you agree? Even if what you want seems to be almost totally about sex? What if I said any seemingly impenetrable force field of guilt is akin to a frightened bully? And that it poofs into nothingness as soon we merely decide to walk through it?

“Eclipsed Heart” by Rob Moore.

On March 8 or 9 (depending on your whereabouts), we experience a total solar eclipse in Pisces, which Eric examined from numerous angles earlier this week. Among the key themes at play is that of considering patterns and ideologies we’ve outgrown.

What comes to mind for me is a very dramatic but freeing season of eclipses many years back wherein new sexual vistas versus expired promises was strongly in focus. Dang. If only I could have seen it that clearly when I was in the thick of it — the heartache that would have been spared.

But what I wanted so deeply just seemed so unreasonable… unloving, even. And the more I doubted this inner pull, the faster the external nightmare added layers of crap. Until that fateful day when my very being said, “No. More. Crap.”

In my early adult years, I was rebound guy. All the time. Ever bouncing from one extreme sort of relationship to another. This time, I had bounded off a controlling jerk into the arms of a warm-hearted, sensitive soul. I mean, he wound up controlling me, too; it’s just he was really, really warm-hearted about it.

It was that warm heart and kind sensitivity that reigned supreme in the bedroom. Lots of cuddling. Lots of endearing hugs. Lots of smooches.

Lots of anything that wasn’t sex.

Oh, sure, sex happened, but not lots of it. And when it did, Bill either acted like a juvenile — something that was the exact opposite of arousing for me — or he solely used his hand to take care of business before rushing to see what was on TV. If not during.

Nevertheless, our relationship managed to put down some roots. We talked about everything: philosophy, religion, self-acceptance, what the neighbors were doing… everything. Well, everything except sex. And how it was basically non-existent for us.

The rest of our scenario is one you’ve no doubt witnessed many times. It may even be one you’re living yourself to some degree; a gorgeous place on the hill with breathtaking views, well respected in our careers, and an ever growing mutual friendship base. Invested enmeshment in lavish and expanding circumstances.

Before I even entered this relationship I was undergoing deep-seated changes. We’re talking core, foundational stuff. It was like one of those animated drawings that slowly and randomly draws lines here, there and yon. Only after sticking with it for a while can you begin to piece together what’s being rendered. From what I could tell, Bill did look for a great while to be part of that drawing.

Residing in a straight-laced suburb up north, I used to pick up these free weekly rags that came out of Hollywood. Kinda smutty, kinda not. But at least half the time some deep fetish fantasy scene was displayed on the cover. At first these scenes just seemed stupid to me. But the more glimpses I got into this world, the harder it became to deny that it was calling out to me.

Adding to this was a steady stream of tempting offers to engage sexually outside this relationship. Some cheating proposals, others pleas for me to leave my current situation. Young and not getting the sex I wanted, it was sickening to even think about turning down these offers. Oh well, I was sickened nonetheless. I had given my commitment to this relationship. Even then I was a man who kept my commitments. Difference back then was I often kept them only because it was ‘the right thing to do’.

But if the game of ‘right’ is to be true to ourselves and to others, then how could this be the right thing? Such questions my brain could not find a way to let in. Yet.

During these years I had added perhaps the greatest catalyst for my change: A Course in Miracles, which is the topic of Eric’s weekly Miracle Hour program. At a very deep level several key ideas were beginning to form in me:

1) Nothing means what I think it means.

2) Maybe there’s a different way of seeing what I deem ‘right’.

3) Maybe there’s a different way of seeing what I deem ‘wrong’.

4) Only what is loving is true.

But before any this could take root firmly, my partner became gravely and dramatically ill. He had to be driven to doctor appointments and rehabilitation sessions. Someone had to cook for him and tend to his needs and be strong in the face of his increasingly fearful outlook.

That someone was me. So I drove. And cooked. And tended. And held my office job. And knew to the depths of my soul that this was not a life I could live for long. Plus the pull toward that sexual freedom and exploration had only grown stronger. Thanks to that rag mag, I now knew all sorts of places in L.A. to find exactly what I sought.

Enter a pair of eclipses at this point in my saga. My experience of eclipse energy is like suddenly realizing, feeling and understanding what it’s like outside of a certain box. Sure, we have the technical choice to crawl back in but now that we see what we see, that becomes a ridiculous proposition. So our very being picks up and heads toward the only place that makes sense.

On what appeared to be a day like any other, I came home from work to make my ailing partner lunch. My insides pulsing with the desire to be in L.A., and it becoming gut-wrenchingly clear that obligation had taken the place of love here, I dropped the mayonnaise knife to the floor and then dropped to my knees right alongside it. I sobbed uncontrollably and trembled in powerlessness.

Bill was so rattled he pulled himself off the couch, came over, and asked what was wrong. Through what I’m sure was the ugliest of cries, I somehow managed to get out the words, “I’m so sorry but I have to go.”

Any guesses as to what his reply was?

“Well, sure, of course you do.”

The conversation wasn’t over quite that quickly and the rest of the afternoon involved lots more ugly cries. Plus, additional unspoken truths were yet to be revealed. Still, though, the big shift had occurred.

I’m not sure if the Moon was eclipsing the Sun that very day or not but basically — poof! — doorways opened. Changes began to take shape. That very week I was asked to accompany my boss to the main L.A. office for a day. I had an instant rapport with the staff. I expressed my interest in relocating. One conversation led to the next until I was offered a position.

The tale I bring you today is about moving past old ways of being to claim what is ours to have. Breakups are not necessarily part of that process. If you missed it, please take a look at my first article a couple of weeks back about demonstrating your desires to your partner. It’s all about getting what you need from the very one you’re with right now.

But I’d like to shed some light onto the gravity of my pull to explore the fetish world back then. Among the processes I was undergoing at the start of that relationship was accessing visual perception of answers during meditation. Inquiries about my greatest teaching and learning (a la this past week’s Miracle Hour) repeatedly indicated shadowy, even sinister-looking characters in leather, rubber and various fetish gear.

At first I thought this was merely wishful thinking. Glorified fantasizing. But as the images and characters persisted for months during my meditative states, I eventually stopped poo-pooing my perceptions — and therefore me. And therefore them. And therefore an already powerful connection.

Join Eric and Planet Waves in the beautiful world that is Vision Quest. Here are samples of your incredible written and audio readings.

Among the truths revealed between Bill and me later on — we’re talking years later — was that Bill began wanting to be released from our situation about halfway into it. This was like a terrible tragedy to me when I learned of it, for him and for me.

To think that we both sat there not doing what we wanted when the truth was, it was all anybody wanted. It was from here that I began putting my truth on the table for all concerned no matter what. I now saw any upheaval as irrelevant to gaining mutual freedom.

As it has turned out, the fetish folk I have encountered through the years have effectively demonstrated the idea that nothing means what I think it means. Truly, all that garb and gear is meaningless — just different shapes and colors adorning some unexpectedly wise and tenderhearted individuals. Well, unexpected before. These days, it’s all I really see.

So what’s calling out to you? Meditative visions not required. You already know. You already feel it. Maybe you’ve even tried to push it away a few times yourself. I would love it if you would take it from someone who wasted years discounting what persisted: If it persists, there is a reason. A good one. One you want to find out about. And enjoy finding out about. It doesn’t require a total solar eclipse to at last take such bold steps like these. But it just might help all the right doors swing open a bit easier.

Both the written and audio readings for the beautiful 2016 annual edition, Vision Quest, are now immediately available. Order all 12 signs at a great value or choose your individual signs. You may access written and audio excerpts from the Vision Quest main page.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

From everything we’re reading these days, it appears that it’s crunch time for the human race.  Yes, it’s true — the headlines are screaming! They found a heretofore unexamined knife at OJ’s old Bel Air estate. We’ve stumbled upon a visceral reminder of that moment when reality lost all meaning, when the shiny and the salacious lured our sensibilities like the Sirens, sucking our brains into first contact with national obsession and reality television. Frankly, my dears, it’s been downhill since.

It seems clear — at least in the reality community — that either we get on to ourselves at last, take responsibility for one another and our endangered planet, or slip on the great cosmic banana peel to dissolve into a mere footnote of galactic history. Watching what passes for political debate these days certainly encourages that fear, but let’s not lose our minds just yet. These junctures don’t sneak up on us as much as we pretend they do. So let’s not turn our heads this time, let’s look this demon squarely in the eye. We can’t lick it until we do.

The debates are pathetic. Dick jokes and preening, childish taunts, lies and misrepresentation of facts, simplistic rhetoric that drives the nail of denial into the American hide, all serve to turn the conversation even more bitter and divisive, and surely less rational in a time of crisis. Back in 2011, I wrote that I was tired of dick jokes in a piece titled “Guns And Penises” (Anthony Weiner commentary) and sadly, not much has changed since. We were already in No Man’s Land then, looking out across the lawn at Russia through Sister Palin’s eyes. Another of those iconic stumbles the right embraced in order to feel better about its diminished world view and lack of education.

We deserve our current political drubbing, thanks to the technology that has given so many of us the right of opinion along with anonymity. We’ve become accustomed to shotgunning cruelty, bigotry, and crudity without so much as a gasp of self-disgust. Every time we refuse to confront this vicious behavior, we inadvertently approve it with our lethargy. Worse, entrepreneurs keep thinking of ways to improve on its callousness, improving profits and ensuring new forms of cultural obedience.

Former ABC News Anchor Ted Koppel recently chided Bill O’Reilly on his ineffectual interviewing of the Donald, and defined our current ‘fair and balanced’ journalism — rightly, in my opinion — as a black hole of misinformation. O’Reilly told Koppel that Donald was not an easy interview and asked how Koppel would do it, which got this response:

“You and I have talked about this general subject many times over the years. It’s irrelevant how I would do it,” Koppel replied. “You know who made it irrelevant? You did. You have changed the television landscape over the past 20 years — you took it from being objective and dull to subjective and entertaining. And in this current climate, it doesn’t matter what the interviewer asks him; Mr. Trump is gonna say whatever he wants to say, as outrageous as it may be.”

As we’ve noted in regard to the astrological imperatives, there’s real business for the nation to deal with, but it’s desperately trying to come in second to entertainment value. The press has abdicated its responsibility to inform the electorate, trading ethics for ratings. CBS’s CEO, Les Moonves, is gleeful about how Trump has pumped up profits, never mind how he’s dumbed down American sensibilities, saying, “Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now?…The money’s rolling in and this is fun. I’ve never seen anything like this, and this is going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”

So the distractions keep coming, turning us away from actual issues that are important, like water in Flint and nuclear poisoning and genocide and dark karmic purge. Only you and I can insist that what is truly imperative on the planet take center stage. If not us, my dears, then who?

As I write, I’m listening to Cruz trash Trump today as someone supporting the liberal corruptions that have turned Washington into a cesspool of special interests [sic] calculated to wound and victimize the poor disenfranchised (Christian) white man, who is the natural, rightful leader of all superior civilization. Who on CNN is questioning the racism at the heart of that statement? No one.

While infamous Klan chief David Duke might not agree with such a Trump assessment, Donald probably doesn’t care what Ted has to say, since his numbers are so ‘yuge,’ and besides, his rhetoric is always just part of the initial negotiation. His plan is to rule the nation much as he did his reality show. We’ve seen it before, and we gave it a thumbs up.

Oh sure, it will eventually come apart at the seams, but this was successfully worked out decades before by OJ’s Judge Ito, giving him eight months of daily headlines and face time, mugging to a camera he allowed in the courtroom for the first time in 1994. Similarly, Donald’s patented declaration — “You’re fired” — is all he finds necessary to assert his authority as supreme leader, and that’s how he sees himself. He reiterates it when he explains how the military would break international law if he directed them to torture and kill family members of American enemies. “If I say do it, they’re gonna do it. That’s what leadership is all about.”

No, Donald, that’s what private ownership is all about. You get to bully and demean your employees who are desperate for your approval, but not the national citizens who consider you only as viable as the result you produce. Donald Trump is no politician, has no respect for constitutional legality, and — SURPRISE! — that’s evidently exactly what some of us are looking for. It’s easy enough to figure out why. The government that the right wing was assured would fail them has done so, and the Koch brothers are laughing all the way to the Caymans. We knew the pitchforks would show up eventually. What part of our political history in these last few decades made us think they’d have the presence of mind to point them at those who did the actual damage?

If the Pubs have lost control of their party, it’s simply because they’ve sunk into the dark mire of their own deepest fears and tweaked psychology. When FOX News teemed up with the evangelical movement to tell us that the answer to America’s moral decay (as evidenced by the stain on Lewinsky’s blue dress and Bill’s cigar) was to be found in a C minus student — someone with little intellect, no curiosity, and the barest understanding of political science — the rubes all cheered at the thought of a guy just like them one-upping the arrogant leftist [sic] elite.

They canonized the dimwit who wanted to rule by gut instinct, a man with a consciousness so adolescent that he readily handed out derisive nicknames to people he disliked, even finding humor in calling his Machiavellian political adviser, Karl Rove, “Turd Blossom,” while smirking, chimp-like. The right all celebrated Dubya as a real “he man” president — one who spent over a year’s vacation time in a hot patch of Texas whacking brush in photo ops because he was afraid to run cattle — while refusing to count the cost of his failed war, the financial meltdown that is still driving the angst of glaring inequity, or the rise of ISIS as a direct result of American hubris.

Yes, Donald deserves a tad of credit for calling him on it, but not when his national security plan is just more of the same. Are we a nation of self-pitying drama queens, that we determine that what we need is more of THAT? More self-interest, more strong man bullyism and might-makes-right? More stern daddy tyranny that can allow us to pretend safety, to sink back into a long-gone comfort zone that won’t threaten us with the sharp reality of scientific fact and existential threat not covered in the Bible and ultimately solved by Jesus arriving from the clouds?

Frankly, of all the politicos on the right, Trump is one of the least unstable (I include Kasich, but he’s as deluded as the rest when you get down to cultural issues). Trump’s just a plutocrat, born and bred, nothing else worth noting and as arrogantly tyrannical as the big boss can get. There IS no Republican candidate who is not a radical capitalist (and only one Democrat, for that matter).

Cruz can’t knock back the rise of white supremacy; he’s crazier than Trump, and the Donald’s followers aren’t interested in theocracy. Rubio can’t take him because he still thinks inside the box of his party affiliation, too eager to get his big boy pants on and gain conservative legitimacy. Romney can’t stop him because Romney is every bit as much a snake oil salesman on his own turf — ruthless, misogynistic and authoritarian, as ordained by his priesthood and the morphing of his socialist religious underpinnings, now replaced by the zero-sum game of ‘prosperity theology’ and financial winners and losers.

Which is not to say that the Donald is ready to step into the Oval Office or even win a national contest. Don’t let your fears get the best of you. He has no coherent policies, his opinions are written on the wind, his financial record is just beginning to surface for a thorough vetting, and his blatant racism leaves no room for the necessary votes of anyone brown, black, or in between to support such a national leader.

As with OJ, we’re still just avid wrestling fans and reality TV watchers, spun up in the theatrics of the bloody glove and gory spectacle — as Cuba Gooding, Jr., has suggested following his performance in the OJ made-for-TV movie — that repeated football injuries rendered the likely suspect brain compromised. Just as OJ thought he was above race in 1992, Donald thinks he’s above charges of corruption — or perhaps that’s just the inherent narcissism of the Drumph moniker.

Donald is a joke. The monster — as Koppel suggested — is our fear and loathing of losing some imaginary power base over people and things that go boo in the night. The monster is our eagerness to capitalize on someone’s fear for short-term profit and self-interest. The monster is a profound lack of faith in our own ability to live life as decent neighbors and citizens of the world’s most visible democracy, and now we must work tirelessly to remediate that failure because we dare not look away.

We have a choice to hide or cower, to hate or demonize, to pick the strong man (who will ultimately fail us) or to cope on a different level. If you’re not one of those people who find this side show provocative and terrifying, addictive and near-apoplectic, then how to make it through a day of high camp and hysteria from your fellow humans, lost in what Eckhart Tolle calls “unconsciousness?” If I’m describing you, then it’s your job — if you accept — to practice consciousness.

You’re the ballast, you’re the steadying presence at the center of the hub, you’re the witness to the events swirling around you, but you’re not their victim. You’re aware, which is “enough” to change the energy of this spiritual experiment, and the more you trust your ability to hold the center, the more it holds.

Tolle recently put out a little clip about what those in the East call the “ego-gi”: the instructive appeal of the most egomaniacal among us who have risen in power to make their unconsciousness painful for both themselves and for us, and largely inescapable. Not a stretch to think of Trump on this one, but not just him — all things that seek to minimize us with thoughts of dread and littleness that steal juice from our authentic selves and create doubt. The Old Paradigm depended upon it.

The unconscious ones are the teachers, the gurus. They’re big and loud, worrisome psychic vampires, taking our energy of fear and rage, until we realize that that is exactly what they’re doing. That only happens as we catch a glimpse of our own behavior in them, the mirror into our own dysfunction and pain. The learning curve of our lives can be tracked back to those who confound us.

Yes, something’s changed in these last months, we’ve come to a tipping point, but this is no time to lose heart! Over and over again these last few weeks, I’ve found that there is only one path forward for all that seems to be overwhelming me, and causing angst to those around me. Stand up to it. Say no. Refuse to cooperate with what you know is wrong. Anything other than that will steal your power, take your peace, and rob you of your confidence, which Tolle calls “faith.”

Tolle tells us that faith is not belief. It has no story that requires reinvigorating or defending, it requires no rationale or reinforcement. It is simply an internal ‘knowingness’ that there is a right place deep within us, a place where there is no fear. We know from within that internal space when something is in alignment, we FEEL when something is as it should be, and it is, essentially, a part of our beingness. It is our authentic soul power, uncompromised. We must practice that presence, develop it as the Light unfolding within us, in order for it to grow stronger.

We must stand in the power of our center and refuse what is no longer of service to us all. When we practice the Presence, our own world comes to balance and we assist those around us to find theirs. This is not news to you, you would not have read this far if it was. You know what you have to do, even though you didn’t think it would look quite like this when you agreed to come help lift this age. If the center is to hold, my dears, it will be because we did not lose our faith to make it happen.

Your life is now engaging with the meat of the astrology Eric worked so long to address in his Vision Quest readings for 2016. In addition to availing yourself of those readings, you can put today’s Capricorn Moon to use by considering both the creator and some of the content of a vision manifested nearly 80 years ago.

It was on the Capricorn Solstice of 1937 that Walt Disney Studios premiered the first full-length animated feature film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 

It was a success in every sense of the word, but you might not have thought so during the four years between Disney’s announcement of his vision and its final realization. First off, like all of us, Walt Disney had his flaws. Some of his imperfections resonate in the motion picture industry to this day. Any one of Disney’s personality defects could also have resulted in the failure of his vision to elevate cartoons into movies.

Perhaps the one single thing that brought Walt Disney’s vision to a successful result was that he believed in it even when others did not. Disney’s closest relationships (his wife and brother) didn’t believe. Neither did prospective financial supporters. Disney had to mortgage his home to make the film. Of course, his competitors in the motion picture industry had a field day mocking him. For some reason we may never understand, however, this visionary persisted in what nearly everybody else thought was a fool’s quest.

Whatever visions you now entertain for your life, you might take some inspiration from Walt Disney, and not just his personal example. Whether intentionally or not, a group of characters in his first, grand, realized vision can provide you with some inspiration as well. 

Featured prominently in Snow White were seven apparently foolish characters: the dwarfs. It is perhaps significant that each one of those dwarf characters separately — and all of them in combination — represent some important personality attributes that you might consider emulating when you face the challenge of making your visions real.

You can begin with the two ostensible leaders: Doc and Grumpy. Doc’s mind moved faster than he could form the words to express his thoughts. Nevertheless, Doc was the type of thoughtful personality you need to be to prevail in a world where so many are so utterly thoughtless. Grumpy, for his part, was more a healthy skeptic than a grouch. That skepticism grounded him and provided the discernment represented by his squinty eye; another trait you will need to to discern fact from fantasy, if you wish to to nurture and achieve what you believe.

Sleepy knew the value of chilling out and getting what rest he could when he could — a valuable asset as regards to keeping yourself from feeling overwhelmed or coming down sick as you pursue your visions. Happy provided evidence of how a personal relationship with joy can make a big difference for you in a world that can easily be perceived as a dark and discouraging place. Bashful, for his part, demonstrated the importance of how humility can keep you both tolerant and tolerable when the brash wear out their welcome. Sneezy knew the value of expelling that which is potentially toxic before it can cause a problem.

Last but not least, there is Dopey, who was mysteriously mute but definitely not dumb. Dopey was the only dwarf without a beard, evincing the value of embracing the timeless potential of youth within (which, like a baby, can express without speaking), while bringing up the rear without umbrage.

As a cohesive whole, the seven dwarfs demonstrated a daily commitment to the consistent industriousness Walt Disney and his collaborators employed to mine their vision and extract tangible value from it. In addition, the doughty dwarfs showed the abundant courage necessary to defend that which they valued and overcome the most nightmarish scenario.

Finally, each of the seven dwarfs had a soft and faithful heart. They did not have the heart to bury Snow White even when all seemed lost and anybody else would have resigned to grim reality. In the end, it was the collective preservation of tenderness and love inside that made it possible for the return of the same in the world on the outside.

Join Eric and Planet Waves in the beautiful world that is Vision Quest. Here are samples of your incredible written and audio readings.

So can it be for you. In spite of how a well-known bully derides being soft as a liability, you know better.

Your body is not made of iron. Your mind is not computer hardware. Your softness is not just unavoidable, it is your greatest strength. As with water and rocks, the softest things endure and prevail over the hardest things in this world’s final realities.

A vision is a very soft and vulnerable thing, just as your love and your heart are. The jewels Eric spent so much time last year mining are available for you here to help you prevail. But none of what Eric wrote in Vision Quest can help you unless you can bring to his astrological guidance both your vision and the qualities that Walt Disney and his dwarfs exemplified. You have all that (and probably more) within you. It would do the rest of us a lot of good if you could show it.

Offered In Service   

By Amanda Painter

The big astrological event on the near horizon is a total solar eclipse (visible mainly over the Pacific Ocean and parts of Asia) in Pisces on March 8, which is also the Pisces New Moon. Eric commented to me that as we near that event this weekend, the idea is to “point the canoe straight down the river, and avoid the rocks.”

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Which is a great guiding image. But what if you’re not sure you can see the river clearly? And what if you do encounter some seemingly unavoidable rocks? I think there’s a relatively simple way to navigate those circumstances, too.

First, a little about the eclipse. Eric has covered it in great detail in this week’s broadcast of Planet Waves FM, but the basics are that the New Moon is exact at 8:54 pm EST on Tuesday (1:54 UTC Wednesday). At that time, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun at 19 Pisces (near the middle of the sign), blocking it out. Joining the Sun and Moon in Pisces are a slew of major and minor planets, points and other objects (including Mercury, Nessus, Neptune, Ceres, Borasisi, Chiron and the lunar South Node, among others).

Together, those objects put a huge emphasis on all things Piscean: emotions, creativity, erotic energy, passion, vision, dreams, psychic sensitivity, beliefs, escapism, humanitarianism and so on. Add the eclipse, and there’s a sense of releasing something to make room for something fresh; that also might mean remembering something you once understood long ago, and which suddenly feels new.

Some of the basic advice for eclipses in modern Western astrology involves staying open to unexpected opportunities and shifts, which might appear like a doorway opening where you’d previously seen a wall. It can be helpful in identifying opportunities if you have a clear vision of some goal, dream or desire that you’re working toward.

But what if you don’t? In fact, what if you feel conflicted between what you want and what you think you should want? What if you’ve been carrying beliefs about what is or is not okay to dream for yourself, or you’ve gotten so stuck in the material reality of ‘what is’ that you’re having trouble imagining anything beyond that sense of fixity?

My sense of the current astrology is that, with so much emphasis on Pisces, one solution is to focus on the feeling-tone you’d like to enjoy, if envisioning a specific reality is too overwhelming or vague. For example, you may want to feel more heart-centered and loving, or more at home in your skin and immediate environment; maybe you’d like to feel more creative and passionate (including erotic). Perhaps you’d like to aim your canoe toward feeling generous, or having better boundaries; or feeling more balanced, or more intuitive.

Setting one of those intentions (or similar) will not be like waving a magic wand. Rather, I’m suggesting that instead of getting caught up in second-guessing yourself, or hung up on the details of how to get from point A to point B, you might be able to take a more Piscean approach that opens your intention-setting out of the mental plane and into a more fluid realm.

This could be especially helpful given what might be cropping up as some astrological ‘rocks’ as we head into the weekend stream: Mercury square Mars, exact Saturday at 12:43 am EST (5:43 UTC); and the Sun square Saturn, exact Sunday at 1:03 am EST (6:03 UTC).

The Pisces Sun square Saturn in Sagittarius speaks of issues around authority, specifically your authority over your own life and your beliefs about it. If you feel some tension there, see if it points you toward the ways you can participate more actively in decisions about your responsibilities, or toward constructive ways of making your dreams real. That these planets are in mutable signs ruled by Jupiter suggests you can find some flexibility here if you broaden your perspective.

Mercury in Aquarius square Mars in Scorpio might ask for even more of your awareness. Partly because these planets will be in the last degree of their respective signs (a potentially edgy place to be), and those signs are both ‘fixed’ in quality.

If you’ve noticed in yourself (or possibly in someone close to you) an inclination to dig into some position, belief or desire — especially if fear is involved, or if you feel like you need to defend something about yourself at all costs — that would be one of those metaphorical rocks in the stream. Given that we’re in the midst of presidential primary season and it seems to be the most chaotic one in recent memory, the urge to defend your beliefs or your candidate with all your might could be strong.

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But is it life or death? Is your existence truly being threatened, or just your ego?

Collectively I would say that a lot is indeed at stake with these presidential candidates, in terms of the future of the US. Yet, superimposing those stakes on each individual conversation you have with your friends, family and work colleagues looks less than helpful. Defending your position as though you’re both gladiators in the Coliseum does not put people into a receptive mood.

If you don’t feel the pull of politics, this dynamic can still occur in other personal situations where you might feel yourself taking a defensive position. What is that fear, really?

Again, I’m going to point to the idea of envisioning the feeling-tone you’d like to enjoy. Would ‘winning’ an argument really put your heart at ease? Or can you set your sights on something gentler, something that feels joyful, loving and grounded — and that opens the way for all the dreaming, co-creating and passion you’d like to experience in your life?

The brilliance of this approach is that it shifts your focus away from what you might have to ‘give up’ to make space for the new thing you’d like to invite into your life (i.e., ‘change’). Instead, it puts the emphasis on receiving — if, of course, you’re willing to allow it.