Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscopes, the Create feature, and more.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today there’s a New Moon in Libra that’s just loaded with energy. Chances are you’ve already been feeling it this week. Despite the fact that a Moon waning to its new phase tends to be lower-energy, this one is plugged into a high-voltage outlet.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

That outlet’s name is “Uranus”: the planet of revolution, surprise and invention. Uranus is in late Aries. And at 3:12 pm EDT today (19:12 UTC), the Sun and Moon will make a conjunction to each other (the New Moon) exactly opposite Uranus.

Depending on where Libra is located in your personal chart, you might have already felt some unexpected disruptions in recent days as the Sun has been moving into position. And you may not have felt like you’ve had the energy to deal well with everything that’s coming your way — thanks in part to the Moon winding down its current cycle.

If that’s been the case, consider cutting yourself some slack. Give yourself a hug (real or metaphorical), take a few breaths, and remember that being a conscious, caring human being in our current world takes a lot of energy, awareness and flexibility. Sometimes, due to a confluence of circumstances, our emotional resources run thin; and that makes it incredibly difficult to roll with unexpected disruptions, curveballs and the needs of loved ones.

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This unusual view of Jupiter was created using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which was laying down at the time. Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today I’ve got some news for you about Jupiter in Scorpio, a one-year transit that began this week. But first, I have a call to action.

The world is in crisis. We are seeing the effects of global warming manifest before our eyes: as successive hurricanes pounding coastlines and inland areas; as rising sea levels; as droughts followed by massive fires that are brought on by complex groups of conditions that all come back to the planet heating up.

Teaching and learning at Esalen Institute.

There is political crisis from the top to the bottom of society, most of it rooted in greed and lying; there’s a sexual crisis that has belched into the news, and once again, only because it’s happening in the entertainment industry and we recognize the names involved.

News outlets that could be helpful are too busy selling us drugs and luxury cars to care very much.

There’s a spiritual crisis — of meaning, of the value of human life or any life, and of the value of existence itself. There’s a mental health crisis — also related to meaning, and many factors that are driving people insane. There is economic crisis, health crisis, social crisis: it’s all the same thing with many different names.

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Here is feast of solitude
A fiddler grim and tall
Plays to dancing kings and wives
Assembled in the hall
— R.H.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Once again, we’re being confronted with a mass casualty incident involving firearms. This is on the heels of every other kind of disaster, or the threat of one, in rapid sequence since the Aug. 21 eclipse. By now every American has heard the story: someone set up a position on the 32nd floor of a resort hotel in Las Vegas, and opened fire on a country music festival across the street. According to the police, and press reports, there were more than 500 casualties, including 59 dead.

Security checkpoint set up outside a Chanel store in Las Vegas after Sunday’s shooting. Now all hotels and casinos on the strip are screening everyone on the way in. This is the wave of the future. Security checkpoints, including sophisticated X-ray scans, will soon go from being many places to being everyplace. This will be a massive boon for the national security state and everyone in that business, dwarfing the expansion after 9/11. Photo by Melja Nanucci for Planet Waves.

Remember that nearly all of us are experiencing this through the internet, and at the same time, few are considering the impact of the internet on events and our perception of them. The internet influences the speed that the news travels, as well as its impact. The internet also means that videos of the crime and the crime scene were available almost instantly.

Straight away, as always happens these days, the “false flag” theories have come up: that is, ideas about how actual events fail to match up with the official story that’s being repeated with absolute unanimity by all media from Fox to The New York Times to MSNBC to Democracy Now!

They are all taking different positions on the gun issue itself, and perhaps asking different questions, though the core narrative is remarkably consistent no matter what the position of the outlet: a lone shooter, with no known motive, did this all by himself. (To be fair, Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC had one guest for about five minutes Monday night, who was present at the scene and who described his perception of multiple shooters.)

For anyone spreading fear, Las Vegas was the perfect setting for such an incident: it’s one of the unofficial capitals of the United States. Almost everyone has been there, and even if you hate the place you love the place. Everyone can relate. It’s pure Americana, as is country music. Between the internet and Las Vegas, it’s easy to write yourself into the story.

Ultimately, the idea of any false flag theory is that the government did it. There are many plausible versions of this. But we don’t need any theory or potential false flag operation to see that: this is about the true flag, the stars and stripes of the United States government. Our government allows, and encourages, people to possess weapons of war, where those weapons are used routinely on the people.

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscopes, the Create feature, and more.

Dear Friend and Reader:

We’ve been experiencing a week of highly charged, transformational astrology. And whether you’ve been experiencing it in acutely personal, direct ways or mainly watching it play out on the nightly news in frightening and heartbreaking events, chances are you’ve noticed the universe inviting you to pay attention and investigate with your full awareness.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

But first things first: take a deep, slow breath; and another one. Take one more. There. I don’t know about you, but it’s been that kind of week for me.

Looking at the (hopefully) more manageable personal level of astrology, two main events catch my eye as we head toward the weekend. Both speak in one way or another about relationships and the act of relating.

The first is an opposition between Venus in Virgo and Neptune in Pisces, which is exact Friday but has been in effect for a while. This is just the latest in a series of oppositions to Neptune since about mid-August (Vesta, the Sun, Mercury, Mars and now Venus) that have perhaps contributed to peaks of confusion or uncertainty.

In the case of Venus-Neptune, that confusion plays out in the realm of relationships — particularly those involving ‘romantic’ love or sexual energy (or both, of course). This is the ‘beware of rose-colored glasses’ aspect. Neptune can make it incredibly difficult to see the object of your desire clearly — and that can contribute to setting expectations the other person cannot hope to fulfill (and likely are oblivious to).

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An astonishing photo of three simultaneous cyclones: Hurricane Katia making landfall over Mexico, Hurricane Irma approaching Cuba, and Hurricane Jose reaching peak intensity on September 8, 2017.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Astrology may be the most objective means of studying the world, since it’s inherently meaningless. Every experiment needs a control of some kind, and astrology, removed as it is from any known law of cause and effect, provides the perfect null value.

The charts and other tools used by astrologers provide information about the timing of celestial events, but no information whatsoever about their relevance to mundane life, with the exception of information about the seasons changing (good for farming) and the lunar phases (good for hunting and for farming).

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscopes, the Create feature, and more.

Dear Friend and Reader:

With each new natural disaster that has swept through the news recently (hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes…) it feels as though the planet is trying to get our attention: no matter how much technological ‘progress’ we make, it won’t matter until we face the damage we do to the Earth, commit to changing harmful behavior patterns, and act to heal the environment — our home. By healing the environment we can heal ourselves; and the process can also work in reverse.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Interestingly, the astrology now and through the weekend speaks to this dynamic.

And although it may seem to be speaking on an entirely personal level, extrapolating the message to the macro level and applying it to the planet (both environmentally and socially) makes sense. But let’s start with the personal.

Tomorrow (Friday), Mercury in Virgo opposes the centaur planet Nessus in Pisces. I wrote this week on Planet Waves that this aspect “looks like a reminder: no matter how logical and rational you think you are, emotionally dysfunctional patterns from the past (including those you’ve inherited from your parents or grandparents) need to be faced and seen for what they are, and for what they to do to you. Once you can see them, you can begin addressing and disarming them.”

It’s worth noting that just yesterday, on Wednesday, Mars in Virgo made its own opposition to Nessus. And on Saturday, Mercury and Mars form a conjunction. So this Mercury-Nessus conjunction also has the firepower of Mars behind it.

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscopes, the Create feature, and more.

Dear Friend and Reader:

By now, whatever emotional energy peak you may have experienced with the Full Moon should be dissipating. And while you still might feel a little foggy or unsure about certain situations (thanks to Neptune’s lingering influence), at least the mental shenanigans of Mercury are slowly beginning to sort themselves out. ‘Easy does it’ is still the mantra du jour, though.

Photo by Amanda Painter

That might even go double for any unexpected pieces of information that came to you as Mercury stationed direct Tuesday morning.

As Mercury traces its way back through the degrees of the zodiac where it was just retrograde, see if you can follow the trail of breadcrumbs back from whatever you’ve been reflecting on or reviewing. Even though Mercury is returning to the same slice of zodiac where it was on Aug. 12, all of the other planets have shifted (whether slightly or dramatically). Don’t be surprised if, as you follow your breadcrumb trail back, you find yourself in a slightly different place, with slightly — or dramatically — different self-understanding or insight.

Saturday, Sept. 9, Mercury re-enters Virgo at 10:52 pm EDT (2:52 UTC Sunday), in direct motion. Waiting for it just inside the doorstep are the hypothetical point Transpluto at 2 degrees Virgo, and Mars at 4 degrees Virgo.

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Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by, by and by
— Jackson Browne

Dear Friend and Reader:

This is a good week to appreciate the dry roof over your head and the food in your refrigerator. Now is the perfect time to appreciate, truly appreciate, that you have a home to come home to: that you have a dry bed, and that your people and pets are close to you. Be grateful for the toilet that flushes, the electricity coming out of the wall, and the privilege of having a toaster and some bread to put in it.

Joe Garcia carried his dog, Heidi, from his flooded home in Spring, Tex., on Monday. Photo by David J. Phillip/Associated Press.

Estimates that 30,000 people will be displaced by Hurricane Harvey are woefully understated. The scale of this crisis is far wider, and as yet, unknown.

Flood damage is insidious. Unlike a fire, where all the damage is up front, a flood is a continuously unfolding disaster that gets worse with time. Damage, loss and injuries continue for months.

The mold grows and grows, until it’s stopped. The extent of renovation required after a building is submerged in water is more than most people can afford, if the home or business is even salvageable.

I know this from personal experience. The first-ever Planet Waves office, in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, was destroyed by Hurricane Floyd weeks after the previous famous total solar eclipse in Leo, the Aug. 11, 1999, grand cross event. This featured mandatory evacuation and rescue by the Fire Department with a guide rope across the front yard, which was turned into a brisk river.

Before I move on to the week’s news and astrology, which has deep personal and transpersonal impact, please take note of our listing of animal rescue groups serving the Houston area. We received all of these references from Planet Waves readers. Please donate as generously as you can. Animals always pay for the failings and shortcomings of people, and they’re our best friends. We’ve just added one rescue group devoted to horses.

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