Renewal of days through Earth’s rotation is an everyday miracle, as are the other cycles of life. Now that the Moon is moving towards renewed visibility in Pisces, and now that the Sun has passed the mid-point of a season once again, it’s appropriate to honor just such miracles.

Some will be celebrating this point in Earthly cycles joyously today. Others will be observing with solemnity. Perhaps the most important thing, however, is to acknowledge your part in it all.

Unless you live in a hermetically sealed space, everything you do makes a difference. Furthermore, the difference reliably shows in one way or the other, sooner or later.

For the most part, the difference you make has been for your own good, or you would not be here to read these words. There is also little doubt that you have made a crucial difference for the better in the lives of many others. In other words, you participate in keeping the cycles going. One question, however, is whether you give yourself enough credit for the good you do.

If there is anything indicated by the sum total of the astrology this week, it’s that you are a special kind of everyday miracle. Rather than just being an exhibition of the world’s reliably repeating cycles, you are something more. You have free will. With your free will you make choices. Over time those choices reliably add up to form your character. The nature of your character (and not your astrology) adds up to be the single greatest determinant of what your life is like.

No planet has as much power over your life as you do. What’s more, simply acknowledging that simple, grounded fact is probably one of the best ways you can be in the flow of the astrology this week.

The written readings for all 12 signs of Vision Quest are available for instant access, and so are the audio astrology and rune readings! Order all 12 signs here, or select individual signs here.

One aspect that symbolizes the currently appropriate nature of just such a confession of your effect in the world is the earth trine from Venus in Capricorn to retrograde Jupiter, 120 degrees away in Virgo, which will be exact tomorrow (and is functional today).

Among other things, trine aspects represent the type of flow that efficiently brings things together by almost effortlessly overcoming distance and difficulty. Since ancient times, for example, people have known that travel by water is frequently easier and faster than travel over land. 

Such manifestations of flow represent much of the attractive quality of a trine for astrologers; and there is nothing like an earth-sign trine to indicate a suitable time to be grounded in what flows from and for you, through the everyday miracle of your existence.

So here’s to you, with a sincere appreciation for what you are. Here also is an earnest wish: that you will come to realize (make real) more than ever before just how worthy, powerful and amazing you are as this week progresses. Whether greater or lesser, the lights in the sky have got nothing on you.

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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 Sarah Taylor

Okay. Something is going on somewhere in your life, whether directly to you or as an event that you’re now aware of, that is testing you. It may be edging you well beyond the line that you consider to be the outer boundary of your comfort zone. It may be far from comfortable — a haranguing and overbearing dissonance. This is the card at the centre of today’s reading: the Seven of Swords.

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

As always with tarot, however, every problem has a solution, every bitter encounter has a balancing antidote. Readings are nothing if not supremely practical.

Here, the antidote is two-fold, and comes in the form of the cards that flank the Seven of Swords: Alchemy (also known as “Temperance” or “Art”) on the left, and the Two of Stones (Pentacles) on the right. They are a complementary pairing, working less visibly than the Seven of Swords, behind the scenes.

The three cards together are a reminder that conflict-as-distraction can be a compelling and effective way of maintaining a status quo that feeds off those who feel disempowered enough not to do anything about it. Let me say that again another way: if you are feeling “uselessness,” it’s not a side-effect of what’s happening — it is the purpose for what’s happening.

This conflict may be an external one between two parties, or between you and someone or something else. Or it may very well be an act of sabotage that you are playing on yourself — it’s just that that part of you has managed to get away with it. Until now, that is. Because now you can see it, clear as day, in the card in front of you at centre. When I look at the Seven of Swords, I get a visceral feeling that can only be described as squirrelly. There is a weakening discomfort that writhes in my stomach — like iron butterflies. If you’re feeling that somewhere in your life, then perhaps this reading both offers a spotlight so that you can identify it, and points to how you extricate yourself from it.

This extrication is a subtle one. This is not a situation where you go in, sword drawn, with a loud rallying cry. (Not least because it may be you on the other side of that battle line, too.) Nope. Enough with the warring, the belligerent rhetoric, the stinging words, the judgements — all niftily concocted to keep you on the back foot. To fight is to identify with the Seven of Swords; it’s more of the same.

What you need to do is to perform an act of magic — alchemy, in fact. You do this by holding a paradox. Your task, if you want it, is to find an equilibrium between two different ideas that appear to have no resolution.

Carl Jung said that he didn’t work with people under 40. One of the reasons for this, he said, is that they did not have sufficient ego strength to look inside. The ego has to be defeated, the subject humbled, before they are able to do the great work of inner alchemy. Another reason is one connected to this: when we are younger, we want to solve paradoxes, not hold them. A younger ego doesn’t like that squirrelly feeling of non-resolution. It wants control; it wants to be in charge. It resists mystery, it resists not-knowing, it resists being unable to square that circle.

Here, you are in a position to work your magic by allowing that circle to exist alongside that square. This means not moving into the conflict in order to defeat it in the same way it’s being waged; nor is it about identifying with it so fully that you can’t step back to see that there is space around it. It is this space that you can perhaps allow to draw your interest.

It might be something that doesn’t quite sit with the fighting — a part that is not interested in joining in.

It might be that you can feel something present that is not the Seven of Swords, but which is in some way connected to it.

There may be an alliance that you can seek — a form of co-operation or a partnership with other/s — that builds something alongside the Seven of Swords. Not in reaction to it, nor to address it directly. This thing offers an alternative that doesn’t play by the same rules. I’d like to write that it’s a “game-changer,” but what you’ll be creating is more like a quantum shift: it takes it out of the game entirely. No more game.

Or, rather, no more games.

There is the possibility of harmony at a time when harmony may seem entirely impossible. Harmony is there, though. It is accessible through that alchemy, which is a state of holding the impossible while not trying to solve it, and simultaneously being receptive to what else is arising around you that feels better — far better than this old, stale story that’s taken centre stage in a part of your awareness for long enough. Magic seems to me like a far more exciting option.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Alchemy (Sagittarius), Seven of Swords (Moon in Aquarius), Two of Stones (Jupiter in Capricorn)

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.

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

It’s been a remarkable few days in election politics, unpacking the fallout from the Iowa vote — even painful, as when Jeb Bush attempted to prop up his failing campaign by bringing out his mom to tell us what a fine, wise and disciplined man he is. And it’s hard not to consider Jeb grown desperate as he welcomes his big brother, George W., to South Carolina on his behalf.

America may not have held Dubby criminally responsible for Iraq, but both sides of the political spectrum wince at his name. Some of us might even remember that moment when his tongue tangled to utter, haltingly, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

That particular Bushism should be emblazoned on every T-shirt and billboard in America, seems to me. It would be a really productive thing to reflect on, from moment to moment, on which footprints we’re going to follow along the path. To assess, as it were, if we’ve been here before. And before. And before. (Happy Groundhog Day, citizens!)

Let’s take voter disenfranchisement, for instance. Strict voter ID laws always favor the conservative party in that minorities overwhelmingly vote with the Democrats. Worries about voter fraud have been proven, again and again, to be as realistic as finding a jihadi terrorist hiding behind your trash can or beating the multi-million-to-one odds of winning the lottery, but we are not dissuaded. Much like protecting against Sharia Law taking foothold in our state capitals, we have become expert at straining out the gnats and letting through the (big, smelly) camels.

A recent study out of U.C. San Diego indicates that Democratic turnout drops by an estimated 8.8 percentage points in general elections when strict photo identification laws are in place, compared to just 3.6 percentage points for Republicans. That surely flies in the face of the ‘one [wo]man, one vote’ philosophy of which this nation boasts, but it hasn’t stopped the conservative states from making every attempt to install repressive laws that make voting difficult, especially for our elders. And only the lefties have the balls to call that racist.

Nine states, including Texas, Georgia, and Virginia, have passed stringent ID laws; and here in the Pea Patch, our Bagger majority is pushing yet again (once passed and vetoed) to disenfranchise those without access to specific photo ID. Missouri — which used to be a blue state back in the days of a unionized workforce and healthy middle class — is at this point a purple state with red overtones. It’s divided between religiously devout elders in the country and a culturally diverse population in the cities. Like many states that have wide stretches of land between big cities, there are enough rural strongholds here to mandate the numerous gerrymandered districts creating a statewide coup on all progressive policy.

Unfortunately, it shows. Radical policy has played into dumbing down this population to the point where the Dem power structure has less and less power to protect its most vulnerable citizens. Our kids aren’t getting the kind of information they need to become engaged citizens — and that’s our white kids I’m talking about. The black and Latino kids are simply marginalized by overcrowded schools and minimal funding, not to mention poor nutrition and lack of educational and cultural opportunity.

Sadly, this cluelessness of the larger picture extends to the very top of our leadership, Democratic Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill, who have declared Missouri hands-off for Bernie supporters because residents of the Heartland won’t support a socialist.

Michael Moore expertly parodies Dubya’s infamous reaction to 9/11. Photo by Brave New Films.

Poll-driven Blue Dogs and largely afraid of the evangelicals, they’ve evidently never met a socialist or they wouldn’t be throwing the word around erroneously.

I think their hero — the feisty little president from Missouri, Harry S. Truman — would be comfortable enough with the mainstream liberal polices that Bernie Sanders — a democratic socialist — proposes, given these comments.

And let me be frank — Missouri has become the most recent ground zero for institutionalized racism. Thanks to the explosion in Ferguson, this state has become the poster child for black neglect and disdain, and that comes with a cold edge. This isn’t the south, where one expects repression; where the powers that be have a long-established familiarity with the black community that, if not respectful, is at least accepting. No, we’re much worse.

Two years after the death of Michael Brown, the police force of Ferguson, Missouri, has negotiated its way through a number of Department of Justice recommendations and will now attempt to bring that to vote at the next Ferguson City Council meeting. Once passed, the agreement is court-enforceable and is a study in give and take. Here’s a bit of it:

“To that end, the agreement could provide a salary boost for officers in Ferguson, as the city would agree to work to make the Ferguson Police Department ‘among the most competitive’ of agencies of similar sizes in St. Louis County. The agreement also emphasizes support for officers and their families.

“The agreement also requires integrity from Ferguson police officers and sets up an actual disciplinary process, which never really existed. It would make failing to report misconduct an action that can result in discipline. Officers who lie would be fired.

“If implemented, the agreement would forbid Ferguson from holding anyone arrested on a municipal warrant for more than 12 hours, and any detention beyond 12 hours would require the authorization of the chief of police. Under the proposed agreement, Ferguson would be forced to repeal municipal codes that had been abused by police officers, such as “Manner of Walking Along Roadway” and “Crossing at Right Angles.”

“The agreement would force the municipal court to operate independently from Ferguson’s prosecutor (currently Stephanie Karr) in a way that “eliminates existing and potential unlawful conflicts of interest.” Ferguson’s municipal judge would also have to act like an actual judge.”

That information, incomplete as it is, should announce a clear and present danger in all it seeks to remedy. Similar outrages are happening in little bergs all over this nation, even the ones we think are well above such nonsense. And here in Missouri, any new process instituted may change the particulars but will take time to shake out in attitude, thanks to the constant drumbeat against ‘slackers’ and ‘takers,’ ‘pushers’ and ‘thugs’ spewed by generations of conservative scaremongers.

The simmering resentment of the aging white lower class citizens against those they’ve been taught to fear will not give easily. Essentially, the very politics represented in Trump’s xenophobia and white privilege narrative drive much of the political process in Missouri, and that’s just one state in the Heartland.

The debate between the Democratic candidates gets serious. Image: Democracy Now! video still

In Michigan, there can be no doubt that racism played heavily into the decision to allow tainted water to decimate Flint for generations to come. If you want more information on that scandal, Flint native Mike Moore is the go-to guy; see here and here.

Bernie has asked for the Michigan governor to step down due to his blatant disregard for these lives; Hillary would rather he attempt to fix the problem and the governor, himself, has asked for everyone to stop pointing fingers because, umm, capitalism or something, and let’s just get back to doing something, even if it’s wrong. As well, we should probably watch how this goes as legal advocate Erin Brockovich says Flint is just the tip of the old proverbial iceberg.

OK, due diligence on the racial hostility which went underground for several generations as white folks tried to establish, as did the nation’s High Court, a post-racial era in name only. Writing about racism and sexism and ageism in the United States of America is like taking the pulse of a chronic patient. We know what we’ll find, don’t we? We suffer an epidemic classism in this country that, like it or not, we did not leave behind when we crossed the pond so long ago; and it remains the elephant in the cross-hairs of our national conversation.

I’ve distanced in this offering from the Clinton/Sanders contest as a bit of a time-out, but there’s much more to say in this critical election season and that’s because the Dem race IS the only relevant contest.

As Bernie often says (and he’s the only one who asks me to do this for myself, mind you), “Think about it.” What are the actual odds that any Republican — radical to the point of nihilism, arrogantly marginalizing people of color and pledging to cut away at programs that even their own constituency refuse to do without — will win the White House in 2016?

The zeitgeist of this moment is not about the Republicans, Trump’s expected and entertaining tantrums notwithstanding. The challenge of this nation is whetherit will continue as it has for the last several decades, or begin to defy the oligarchy that has purchased the democratic process. Anything else is simply monitoring the meds of the nation’s sedation.

There are those who call Sanders followers “puritopians” — those who refuse to be moved by a policy of incremental success proposed by moderate Liberals, who include Barack Obama. Me? I was an avid John Edwards fan until he let his nether-parts get in the way of his populist message. And although I supported Obama and still believe in his essential liberalism, there was never any doubt in my mind that he was an establishment candidate.

I give him props for all he accomplished (and will) during his tenure, but I’d have preferred him to have spent all eight of his years as, suggests Rolling Stone, the “I don’t give a fuck” president he’s become in these last months.

And, as before, if Clinton takes the candidacy, she has my vote. Indeed, I once caught hell for suggesting that the ‘perfect is the enemy of good’ aphorism was a legitimate meme for supporting Obama’s less-than-progressive tendencies. I’m pragmatist enough to believe that you maximize what you’ve got, and realist enough to understand that if establishment money drives the result, then, as Chomsky said, “There will be dire consequences to a GOP victory. What they are saying is, let’s destroy the world. Is that worth voting against? Yeah.”

But more of the same is not enough. The kind of revolution we’re all dreaming of is not an incremental thing; it never was. Go back and read that Truman quote from the 1940s. Sound like much has changed since then? FDR was only able to morph American politics because he was backed by a movement of citizens who forced change. Once in place — with fears abated — his policies became not just accepted but appreciated, even loved, as the contemporary fabric of democracy.

What Sanders is suggesting isn’t even particularly revolutionary; we’ve just become so complacent and removed from our own history we think he’s radical and unelectable. Well, fool me once, establishment politics, corporate press and privatized capitalists, but not this time!

Written just about the same time that, per Eric, “Venus is about to make a conjunction to Pluto… This is passionate, lusty and defiant,” allow me to take advantage of that energy blast and channel Joan Crawford in one of her more memorable roles: “Don’t fuck with me, fellas. This ain’t my first time at the rodeo.”