Dear Friend and Reader:

Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States. I only know one person who not only believed it was possible, but said it would happen. Many are looking and listening in astonishment. How was this even possible?

Warped railroad tracks beneath shifting ground, following the 2011 quake in Christchurch, New Zealand. Photo via The Daily Telegraph.

It’s now worth asking: could he become president? Lots of seemingly educated, ‘well meaning’ people are supporting him, a reminder about how the road to hell got paved.

Meanwhile, it looks like Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee, even as the FBI is investigating what crimes may have been committed with her choice to use a private email server located in her home bathroom, rather than an official government system. We might ask, why exactly did she do that? Any investigative or even municipal reporter knows the answer: to keep the data secret, and as far from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as possible.

Bernie Sanders, for his part, made it further than just about anyone imagined. It’s annoying to some people that he refuses to drop out of the race; they cannot imagine why he’s staying in. The obvious reason is, when you’re running a close second place, you keep going.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Vesta is now in Gemini. Amidst much other astrology, this is a reminder to be mindful of what’s happening in our consciousness, with the words we speak and the digital information we take in.

A fire goddess from Roman mythology, Vesta in astrology represents devotion (tending the flame that cannot go out), and a central organizing principle (the hearth is the center of the home).

Gemini is the first sign that addresses the theme of mind and communications. It is an air sign, which rapidly conducts energy and information. It’s a dualistic sign (represented by twin humans), suggesting that there are two or more sides to everything.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

On the day that Jonathan Cainer died, this horoscope appeared in the Daily Mail and newspapers around the world:

SAGITTARIUS (November 23 – December 21) — We aren’t here for long. We should make the most of every moment. We all understand this yet don’t we forget it, many times? We get caught up in missions, battles and desires. We imagine that we have forever and a day. In one way, we may be right – for are we not eternal spirits, temporarily residing in finite physical form? An elevated perspective is essential to a meaningful existence.

Jonathan Cainer in his downtown London apartment.

Jonathan, who left us unexpectedly Monday morning at age 58, was of course a Sagittarius (and Sagg rising, and Saturn). This was an unusually philosophical horoscope even for him, though that was his role: to be a kind of public philosopher and spiritual psychologist.

To some extent this is the role of every newspaper astrologer. It’s an unusual and distinct voice to take up in the world, where agendas are not usually themed on self-awareness, inner peace or meaningful existence.

In fact, nearly all of what we see and hear in this thing we call the media is designed to either foment conflict, provoke fear or sell us something we don’t need. Newspapers in particular run on fear, and drum up sales by frightening people (and propagating wars that they then report on; this is also the formula of most Internet news).

It’s worth pointing out how unusual it is to see a message like this in a daily newspaper, or anywhere for that matter — but especially on the pages of a British scandal sheet like the Daily Mail. It’s the work of newspaper and magazine astrologers to bring a breath of spirit into the madness and chaos of what we call the news, and Jonathan did it boldly and elegantly.

His optimistic, insightful forecasts ran in the British press since the mid-1980s. He took up that role with a fresh voice, and he did so brilliantly, cultivating a worldwide following that included publications in Britain, Australia, Europe and into Asia. When the Internet became popular, he gathered a following in the United States through his own site and venues such as People.com.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, The Onion dropped a spoof newscast into the discussion. The headline: “No-Values Voters Looking to Support Most Evil Candidate.” [See video here.]

No-values voters demand meaner candidates. Sadly, this is one of those jokes that’s funny because it’s true. Graphic from The Onion.

For no-values voters, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain was acceptable to citizens “who believe in a complete lack of morals and are committed to carrying out unspeakable acts of evil.”

In the video, ordinary voters spoke up about their needs. “The tenor of the political debate seems focused on helping people and making positive change, and that’s very alienating for people like us,” said John Gerrity, a fictional no-values voter.

“We want to be able to look at a candidate and truly believe they have no soul,” said another.

The spokesman for a Political Action Committee called Citizens for a Bleaker America said, “We don’t want just pandering. We want the streets to run red with rivers of blood.”

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“My definition of learning is discovering that something is possible.”
— Fritz Perls

Dear Friend and Reader:

Our planet begins its passage between Mars and the Sun this weekend, which astrologers call Mars retrograde.

We inherit Mars from its Roman origins as the god of war. In contemporary astrology, Mars is the planet of desire, drive and aspiration, and potentially of violence and domination. Without whatever Mars symbolically represents in the psyche, nothing would go anywhere.

Art (Trump XIV) from the Crowley-Harris tarot. This is the card that represents Sagittarius, often shown as the synthesis of opposites. Its corollary card is The Lovers.

With healthy Mars, one is motivated, and connected to one’s motives, and acts on them, more or less appropriately (and concepts of appropriateness constitute a central problem with the expression of Mars). When Mars is working, it’s about expressing the power of decision more than anything else. Mars can also represent curiosity, which is the intellect asserting itself into the environment (of self, or of the world around us).

There are two other possibilities. One is that Mars is allowed to run wrangle, trampling over people and things. This might come as aggression, greed or transgression, which we see plenty of in the world today. Toxic Mars can be found lots of places, especially here in the age of the suicide bomber, stop-and-frisk and the pre-emptive strike.

Another possibility is that Mars is turned against itself. An example of this is when a person has been pruned or transgressed (what we call ‘abused’ in current parlance) and, naturally, they resent having been treated this way. Then, unable to push back, they turn that resentment onto themselves. This is really a form of self-directed attack, which usually manifests as guilt or depression.

The way I see it, one’s experience of Mars falls into one of three main camps: a conscious, mediated response to desire; attacking others; or attacking oneself. I would propose that most people fall into the third category, living lives of guilty pleasures, self-criticism and restraint that blocks the ability to express creativity or desire.

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