Category Archives: Full Planet Waves Edition

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A Glass-Bottomed Boat Reveals Undersea Wonders

Dear Friend and Client:

In her 1951 cult classic Esoteric Astrology, Alice A. Bailey describes Gemini as one of the most important signs of the zodiac. If you took a survey, most people would probably not say this. It’s not Aquarius, of Age of Aquarius fame. It’s not Aries, of Aries Point fame. It’s not the ever-infamous Scorpio, and it’s not Capricorn, the Moon sign that Augustus Caesar proudly revealed about himself to assert how powerful he was, had stamped into coins, then tried to hide.

Not The Star, not The Sun, not The Lovers, not The Brothers, rather, two versions of The World card from the tarot decks of Jean-Pierre Payen (left) and Jean Dodal (right). Dodal’s card dates from sometime between 1701 and 1715; Payen’s from 1713. What is interesting is that the symbol of the twins appears many times in the history of the Tarot, visiting several different cards over the centuries. The tarot is a living document that changes over time as it is reinterpreted.

I think that AAB knew what she was talking about, and that it’s more relevant now than ever.

The astrological year begins at equinox, when the Sun enters Aries, represented by a ram. Aries is a high-initiative fire sign, which is a good way to get things started. Aries, ruled by Mars, describes the competitive nature of humanity, seemingly a necessity of survival.

The story continues when the Sun enters Taurus, represented by a cow or bull, which implies resources. Not so long ago, if you had a cow, you had an assured supply of food: you had milk and you could plow the fields. Taurus, ruled by Venus, also emphasizes the human obsession with beauty.

Then comes Gemini. It’s taken 60 days traveling through the zodiac before anything human shows up. And when it does, there’s not one person but two of them. They are not adults; they are kids. This is symbolism so rich I can barely write another word, but I will try.

The mythology of a civilization from which we’re descended says that the twins represent Castor and Pollux — the mortal son of Leda and the immortal son, respectively. Both were the brothers of Helen of Troy. Castor was the son of the king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus (who seduced Leda in the famous scenario where he manifested as a swan). These represent the (perhaps constructed, perhaps organic) notion that in each person, there is an ego with a transient life and there is a soul with an eternal life — or that all humans have a part of them that is immortal or divine.

Gemini, ruled by Mercury in traditional astrology, is the first sign associated with thought. I would propose that the first human image or concept in the zodiac is presented in a pair because it represents self-awareness. It is the human consciousness aware of itself as the other. If you talk to yourself, who is doing the talking and who is doing the listening? When you have the feeling of observing yourself, who exactly is doing that observing, if it’s you? There is a quality of reflexivity to the human mind, and that is Gemini.

Castor and Pollux, also called the Dioscuri or twin gods. In Greek mythology they were brothers of Helen of Troy, the ‘face that launched a thousand ships.’ They brought forth favorable winds for those who made sacrifice to them. In astrology, Gemini is an air sign.

It can manifest as self-consciousness, self-awareness, self-criticism and any number of other facets of relationship to oneself, including in modern terms the self and its shadow partner. Twin consciousness can also be a symbol of sentience.

But usually this quality is projected outward (for example, seeking validation of our existence from others). That outward projection is known as dualism — something that contains two essential parts, in this case ‘self’ and ‘other’.

We live with a lot of dualism in our dimension of existence. Just about everything we see bifurcates, or splits in two. The most significant splits are probably the divide between all that is human vs. all that is not human, and within humanity, male and female.

Yet these twins of Gemini are brothers. They’re both male. On one level, this is a reference to Castor and Pollux, who appear in the early versions of Trump VI of the tarot, which used to be called The Brothers.

According to Aleister Crowley, later occultists revised that card to The Lovers, depicting male and female humans, the pair-bonded couple and the most overt symbol of dualism. In most versions of The Lovers, there is a third and fourth party involved, usually cupid or an archangel, and a minister who is marrying them.
There are a number of ways to read this, including the idea that relationships don’t exist in a vacuum. As ‘sacred’ as many people want to make the ‘space’ of a relationship, it’s often a mob scene. Each lover or twin has a double; notably, one is ‘divine’ (the angel) and one is ‘mundane’ (the minister), echoing the theme of the mortal and immortal twins.

There is the usually denied potential for dyadic relationships to form a threesome (with Cupid, the angel or the minister — or someone having another lover; or with the birth of a child). There is the presence of ‘the relationship’ as a fictional third entity; the notion of the relationship being blessed (or cursed) by some non-physical entity; the idea that the church and God must somehow get involved in human intimacy (which looks like either advertising or more likely, a sly commentary); and a variety of other possibilities. Notably, those are from tarot representations, which are thousands of years newer than the much simpler zodiac representation of Gemini.

The essence of Gemini is dualism, and this property has a way of finding its way around. If the mind is dualistic, everything will seem that way. One thing that AAB notes is that many signs of the zodiac depict dualism. There are the two horns of the ram in Aries, the horns of the bull in Taurus (which doubles as the crescent Moon, the Moon being exalted in Taurus), there are the twins of Gemini, and the apparent yin-yang of Cancer. There are the scales of Libra, the double wavy lines of Aquarius and the two fish of Pisces.

The Lovers, from the Camoin-Jodorowsky tarot. This is a 1997 rendering of the 1761 Nicolas Conver deck, also called the Tarot de Marseilles. Though The Lovers corresponds to the sign Gemini, the twins, there are often four entities depicted in the card.

What she is suggesting is that at our time in history, the concept of Gemini is underlying all of these seemingly different forms or expressions of dualism.

If you study Esoteric Astrology, you quickly discover that a core idea of the philosophy is that all of astrology is about the resolution of seeming opposites. I am reluctant to call anything associated with astrology new, but I have not come across this idea in any version of ancient astrology that I’ve seen.

In classical astrology, the signs are generally considered independent working parts of the wheel, and the system is taken as a whole [note the existence of the Thema Mundi].

The signs are grouped in batches of three and four — triplicity being element (three each of fire, earth, air and water signs) or quadruplicity being type of sign (four each of cardinal, fixed or mutable signs). There are divisions like male and female signs. There are things that describe night and day emphasis (Saturn is associated with Capricorn at night, and Aquarius during the day).

But as far as I know (and I am open to being corrected on this), the first book where the idea that opposite signs contain one another appears is Esoteric Astrology. Said another way, opposite signs are not really opposite. They are part of the same idea or energy system; they contain one another. For this reason Patric Walker could quip, “Scratch a Pisces and you find a Virgo under their skin.”

The seemingly twin souls, or two people, or two aspects of humanity of Gemini seek resolution in Sagittarius, which is the sign of alchemical bonding. But in this, the cosmos has given us a little joke, or a clue. Sagittarius is the sign of the centaur, which is the morph of half-man, half-horse. Here we have an indication that the relationship of those twins is the animal aspect and the human aspect of who and what a person is.

Whatever the inner split may be, it’s a crucial part of the story of humanity, and we see it illustrated in Gemini. I have found that on a number of levels, the question to ask when strong Gemini is present is, do the twins get along? What is their relationship? Are they aware of one another? Does each of those hemispheres of consciousness know that the other one exists?

The Lovers from the Thoth Tarot, by Lady Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley, drawn between 1938 and 1943, and finally published in 1969. The card is directly associated with Gemini and depicts a same-sex couple getting married or blessed; nearly every symbol appears with a counterpart. Including two women was both prescient and a throwback to The Brothers (the same sex parties of the older card).

In anyone with a strong Gemini element to their chart, be aware that they are likely to present one side to the world at a time, then the other. This depends, in part, on how integrated the personality of this person is. In situations where the personality is not that integrated, there may be a degree of unawareness of what one twin or the other has in some way presented to the world, say, for example, the night before.

So we have another image from Gemini — that of personality integration (or lack thereof). It’s been observed before that the human mind seems to have many people residing within it. There are many levels and facets of the psyche that are constantly seeking expression and are also in the process of integrating into one another.

Incidentally, that process is expanded upon and illustrated in Virgo, the other Mercury-ruled sign, and another sign on the mutable cross. [For those curious about the the Thema Mundi, note that when using this chart, the signs and houses shift by 90 degrees, creating an overlay between Gemini and Virgo. They are very closely related, and can function as aspects of one another.]

The Glossary of Idiosyncrasies

One of my favorite concepts out of Gemini is the idioglossia. This is the phenomenon of the secret language of twins. Not all twins do this, but many do — they develop an entire miniature language that only they understand.

If you’re trying to suss out the word idioglossia, think of it as an idiosyncratic glossary. I have read that they usually outgrow this at a certain point, like many things in childhood, but from the standpoint of symbolism and the occult, it’s magnificently rich.

It has to be pretty inspiriting to any linguists who are paying attention. For one thing, this points to the innate human capacity for language, a factor that is part of the story of Gemini, perhaps the chattiest of signs, and one of the funniest and most clever. The 3rd house, which in some astrology systems corresponds to Gemini, is the house of brethren, and as such, local matters, gossip, rumors and basic communications.

With the idioglossia, we have an image of the secret language of any two people — be they twins, sisters, brothers, lovers, co-conspirators, co-authors, co-inventors or any two people who are intimate.
This opens up space for a whole range of intimately shared observations, inside jokes and many, many adventures and facts of life known only to close siblings or twins — or people who emulate them. I love the line from the U2 song The Fly — “They say a secret is something you tell one other person.” But since Gemini is the sign of gossip, that telling one other person can spread pretty fast.

The Mercury Retrograde Phenomenon

Gemini is ruled by the planet Mercury, a planet that does something that no other planet does — goes retrograde three times a year. That means Mercury switches directions six times a year (three times retrograde, three times direct).

Chateau de Avenieres Tarot mosaic at Cruseilles in France.

This is the essence of the Gemini quality of mutability, or changeability. Not only does Mercury change directions, it often changes signs when it goes retrograde and direct.

In this sense, Gemini can be a chameleon, constantly absorbing the energy of different signs, accentuated by the fact that it stops and changes direction many different places along the zodiac. Indeed, sometimes six signs per year are involved, as they are this year.

Having Mercury as the ruling planet makes being or hanging out with a Gemini an adventure. It’s impossible to be bored. Intrigued, entertained, puzzled or frustrated — but never bored. There is always some change on the horizon.

And that change can happen quickly. One of the interesting things about Mercury, as opposed to any other planet, is how quickly it comes back up to a fast daily motion once it’s stationed retrograde or direct. It stops and changes directions often, but it never takes long.

As regards mutability, one of the older definitions of that property is that a mutable sign can act like a cardinal sign (for example, Cancer) or a fixed sign (such as Taurus). So this is another way that Gemini and its associated planet can embody many different feeling tones in the zodiac.

In the upcoming Mercury retrograde (from June 7 through July 1), the process starts in Cancer, then retreats back into Gemini. When Mercury goes direct, it will then re-enter Cancer.

All three Mercury retrograde cycles this year bridge a water sign and an air sign in a similar way, indicating an integration process between emotions and thoughts, or between feelings and ideas.

That Glass-Bottomed Boat

There is a set of symbols, described in various books, that assign an image to each degree of the zodiac. The symbols were channeled in the 1920s by Elsie Wheeler and the Rev. Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, one of the founders of modern astrology. The original is charming, though my favorite version of the symbols is the revision published in 1973, written by Dane Rudhyar, called An Astrological Mandala.

The Lovers from the 1986 Voyager Tarot by Dr. James Wanless. This is the deck that I use in my tarot readings associated with the birthday reports. Gemini — this means you!

The symbols were channeled randomly. In other words, Wheeler, the clairvoyant, had no idea what sign or degree she was channeling for. Jones wrote the degree and sign of each of the 360 degrees onto an index card, shuffled them, and then without revealing the card, Wheeler would come up with an image.

The result is one of the most fun and intriguing developments of modern astrology, and the first borrowing from contemporary symbols.

I pay attention to the first and last degrees of any sign. The first degree of Gemini is “A glass-bottomed boat reveals undersea wonders.” Rudhyar explains the symbol in the context of psychology, saying it’s about “the revelation of unconscious energies submerged in psychic structures.”

He describes how the conscious mind, so often opaque, has become translucent, or really, transparent; one can see what is going on below the surface, even if one cannot yet make direct contact with it. Yet he suggests that a “new dimension of reality is perceived by the earnest inquirer.”

The last symbol of Gemini is “A parade of bathing beauties before large beach crowds.” It’s as if the symbol of inward gazing has gone the whole distance and been projected outward. The inner quest is being projected as an external drama. The bathing beauties have an intuitive connection to Gemini through the sister of Castor and Pollux, Helen of Troy, and that infamous beauty pageant that started the Trojan War.

Rudhyar comments that this is about the setting of social standards through personal excellence and competition. While in many ways the human story is an inward one, mostly it seems to be about exploring the world, and that is a fact that we need to address. The inward split in humanity is resulting in a state of nearly constant strife. The split in the mind, unrecognized for what it is, results in projected differences that go so far as to lead to war.

In a somewhat ominous comment on this last degree of the zodiac before the [Northern Hemisphere] summer solstice, Rudhyar says, “The show is over. Now comes the hour of decision.”

Lovingly,

Additional research: Amanda Painter. Tarot cards researched by Hillary Ghee and Elizabeth Michaud.

Note from Planet Waves FM to Musicians and Recording Artists

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $99/year. Core community membership: $149/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions.

Introduction to Reading a Natal Chart with Eric Francis

Using our newly discovered (and amazing) audio conferencing technology, I will be hosting a class introducing how to read a natal chart. In this two-hour, limited-enrollment class, I will take you through the basics of how to actually read your chart, or anyone’s chart. The class will be from 10 am to noon EDT on Saturday, May 31, 2014.

Photo by Danielle Voirin from Small World Stories.

The cost is $100 for the two-hour live program, including access to the archived recording. (Note, this is an introductory price for Planet Waves members; future classes may cost more.) You may call in via telephone or Skype, or listen and interact via live stream on the Web. Voice contact is preferable.

Once you have the basics as I will present them, it’s relatively easy to get useful information from a natal chart. I will cover a few of the core ancient rules you need to know, provide you with two essential tools, then move on to modern interpretation techniques using two example charts.

Students should, at least, be versed in the most basic level of astrology — for example, knowing the astrological glyphs and most elementary meanings of the major planets. In other words, this class is good for beginners but you will also benefit if you’re an intermediate or even advanced astrologer.

I have been teaching astrology internationally since 1998, including at major conferences and at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. I am excellent at conveying useful, memorable information that you can put to use immediately, without reading any additional books. In fact you will wonder why books make it seem so complicated.

Space is limited — please sign up here if you’re interested. I look forward to working with you.

Sun square Neptune: Dream Big, Check Your Work

Through the weekend and into the Gemini New Moon on Wednesday, May 28, the Sun is applying in a square to Neptune. Any Neptune aspects call for clarity, even the most impeccable trine. Yet when the Sun is applying in a square to Neptune, that’s an invitation to be honest with yourself — especially when the signs involved are Gemini and Pisces.

A long way from The Brothers — renderings of The Lovers from two editions of The Alchemical Tarot by Robert M. Place, a first edition of which is reputed to have sold for $2,000.

That’s because these are the two most dualistic signs of the zodiac, having two distinctly different sides. Toss Neptune into the mix and we can have a hot mess of denial. Of course, denial is useful. Nobody could eat a hamburger or chicken wings without it.

But denial of oneself, one’s true thoughts and of one’s understanding of ethics — that can be a problem, the more so if alcohol or substances are clouding one’s perception; fogging the mirror, as it were.

Yet the Sun leaning into Neptune, about to be met by the Moon in a perfect 90-degree right angle Moon-Sun aspect to Neptune on May 28, is saying dream big.

Give yourself a push, and visualize what you want to do; literally see a vision for yourself. This isn’t easy with all the advertisements in the way, and the priorities of others that you might be trying to live up to.

The Gemini factor here is about mental clarity. The Pisces factor is abundant creativity. The mutable factor of both signs says that the combinations are exponential. Take nothing for granted. Check every fact. Focus your awareness and make sure you really consult yourself. Keep cleaning the glass.

Translate your ideas into words, again and again, until you get them tuned to the point that you actually understand what you’re saying to yourself, or to others. It’s possible to have clarity under a Neptune square, though it takes the conscious choice to focus your mind.

While this is happening, Jupiter will make an exact trine to Saturn on Saturday, May 24. This is the last of the Jupiter-Saturn water trines, and the last stage of the grand water trine that protected us during the cardinal grand cross between January and April. The three main elements of the grand water trine — Jupiter, Saturn and Chiron — are within one degree, focusing the visioning power of Pisces with the passion of the other water signs.

The Sun is currently applying in a conjunction (the most powerful aspect) to a centaur called Asbolus — and that is one image of focus, in particular of intuition, in a way much more specific than Neptune. This is rare and exciting astrology, as long as you keep your ears on and your mind’s eye in focus.

A selfie — one of those ubiquitous photos people take of themselves with their phones and then post to social media — re-taken and re-contextualized by Lindsay Bottos, with anonymous criticism. Part of the series “Anonymous.” Photo by Lindsay Bottos.

Looking into that Gemini Mirror and Reshaping the Dialogue

The sign Gemini is famous for its use of words, as well as the idea of mirroring that its symbol, the twins, suggests. Lindsay Bottos, a photography major with a minor in gender studies who graduated this month from the Maryland Institute College of Art, has used one modern-day digital version of the mirror — the selfie — to create art with a message.

Detail from “Girl Work” By Lindsay Bottos.

After receiving hundreds of cruel, anonymous messages about her art and her selfies on her Tumblr account, she decided this winter to re-take several of the photos and paste one of the hateful comments over each one as part of a work-in-progress titled “Anonymous.”

Bottos says on her Tumblr site, “Some new stuff I’m working on, I get tons of anonymous messages like this every day and while this isn’t unique to women, the content of the messages and the frequency in which I get them are definitely related to my gender. I almost exclusively get them after I post selfies. The authority people feel they have to share their opinion on my appearance is something myself and many other girls online deal with daily.”

Responding to the suggestion that selfies are just a narcissistic cry for attention, she adds, “The act of women taking selfies is inherently feminist, especially in a society that tries so hard to tell women that our bodies are projects to be worked on and a society that profits off of the insecurities that it perpetuates. Selfies are like a ‘fuck you’ to all of that, they declare that ‘hey I look awesome today and I want to share that with everyone’ and that’s pretty revolutionary.”

Whether selfies are inherently feminist or revolutionary is debatable; what isapparently revolutionary is to look honestly into one’s own mirror, rather than projecting one’s insecurities through anonymous online bullying.

Mars Direct, Sun Enters Gemini, an Interview with Relationship Coach Blair Glaser and Hip-Hop Artist Upgrade

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I go over Mars stationing direct, the Sun ingressing Gemini and making a conjunction to Asbolus, and a square to Nessus — a very unusual entry of the Sun into Gemini (explained in greater detail in the Gemini reading preview above).

Relationship and organizational coach Blair Glaser.

I cover the Sun’s passage through these minor planets, leading up to the Gemini New Moon square Neptune on May 28.

Then I have an excellent in-studio guest — relationship and organizational coach Blair Glaser. We talk about the theme of leadership and relationships, that is, how it’s necessary to cultivate and apply leadership skills in your intimate partnerships.

One of the themes we cover is how relationships must be given a purpose, whether it’s growth, pleasure, creativity, professional expression — something that provides them with a focus so that neurotic tendencies have less space to slip in.

My musical guest is Upgrade, whose new CD, called Chemical Imbalance, came out this past Friday.

I think that some of the most socially conscious music is happening in hip-hop, and Upgrade excels at this, telling the story of his struggle with mental illness and how music saved his life.

I am honored to have his work on Planet Waves FM, and he’s agreed to be a guest on the program in the near future. Please visit his website, order his amazing CD and give him a shout-out from Planet Waves.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for June are published below in this issue. We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. Moonshine horoscopes for the Scorpio Full Moon published Tuesday, May 13. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for June 2014, #999 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — It’s time to update your files on a relationship. All year long you’ve been in a phase of review or reconsideration of an important partnership. The question phase is over, and it’s time to apply the things you’ve learned. The core question that it’s time to answer is, what are you doing in this involvement? You may decide that it’s productive; you may decide it’s not working for you at all; you may decide that the situation is workable and that you’re still committed to it. However, you need to know where you stand, and anyone else involved must know that too. This meeting must be on level ground, with all parties agreeing that the situation is fair and mutually beneficial. This is likely to require some ongoing, careful thought on your part. For example, if you decide that the situation is not perfect but is workable, then the details have to be worked out. If you decide that it’s not worth going forward, then an exit strategy must be negotiated. And if you feel strongly about moving ahead with the relationship, you still have to do some careful review of the history of your involvement so that you don’t repeat any mistakes going forward. Whatever you do, it’s clear that you need to proceed with full information and a solid commitment. There are significant challenges ahead, and you have the ability to turn them all to your advantage.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Your relationships seem to throw you one opportunity after the next to rise above your own nature. The world is constantly demanding a higher level of maturity, attention and commitment. Such is the nature of Saturn in your opposite sign Scorpio. This transit won’t last forever, it’s indeed challenging and I promise you one thing: you will miss it when it’s over. Saturn presents challenges, and it also offers the circumstances that you need to meet them. In that sense, Saturn is eminently even-handed, though you may not see it that way. Speaking in the more immediate sense, but also related to Saturn, the theme of this month is a focus on money. It’s vital that you rethink some recent decisions, not waste your resources and make the most of the situations where you are compensated for your work. It’s essential that you find the meeting place between what you’re good at and its value to others, and maximize that relationship. Make sure you focus your efforts on what really matters to the person or organization that is paying you. Remember that you’re part of something larger than yourself, and that your role is to contribute energy and ideas. Reach for a whole-system approach — also known as a plus-plus symbiosis, or the greatest good for all concerned. That’s not the way of the world, but soon we’ll have no other choice.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — This month’s astrology illustrates an idea that’s dear to my heart: that self-esteem and one’s financial situation are closely related. I know that money supply is often blamed on the economy, and one’s place in life seems to be about how many credentials or connections one has. I think it’s much more obviously an emotional connection to feeling good about who you are, good enough to assert yourself to others and to excel at your work. This is one of the most basic measures of self-esteem — whether you feel you have a role in society. It also works the other way: the more you cultivate your talent and assert yourself as a gifted person, the more likely you are to develop those qualities. There are always ups and downs along the way, and dealing with them in a mature way is a significant part of personal growth. One aspect of this is being passionate about your talents, which means enough to take a risk on them. Then there’s one more bit. You may need to give up something in order to move forward doing what you’re best at. That might be your time, it might be some other interest, it might be a financial involvement or it might be an attachment to not succeeding. This is not really a sacrifice — in time, you’ll figure out that it was an exchange.

Hello Gemini! Your birthday reading will be ready Monday and is still available at the pre-order price of $24.95. Your reading now includes a live one-hour question and reply session with me, which is a chance to ask about your astrology. It also includes a tarot reading and access to last year’s reading as well, so you can check back and evaluate my work. On Monday the price goes up to $39.95. — efc

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Use a series of rare aspects this month to work out conflicts in your motives, the ‘mixed signal’ phenomenon and other unresolved material that will come to your awareness. You will be able to get underneath the surface of subject matter you’ve long puzzled over, and psychic material you’ve had a vague sense of but could never put your finger on. This will key directly into healing modalities that become available, plus mentors or practitioners you encounter, who actually understand something about the nature of what you’re experiencing, and can actually help. Perhaps the most significant thing you should know about your astrology, and that is not visible on the level of the ordinary planets, is what a profound time of healing and learning this is for you. On some level you suspect this intuitively, though I want to confirm it for you as an astrologer. And I want to let you know how big this really is. I’m not just talking about healing; I am talking about you tuning up your entire system to be able to receive rare and highly specific teachings, information and what you might think of as galactic data. I know this is a bit more New Agey than I usually get, though that is what the charts say. And the next four to six weeks will be a time of focusing your learning patterns and opening up to possibilities you never imagined.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You play a unique role in the culture, and this month your charts are describing that as a publicist for something weird, intriguing or that goes against the normal grain of society. It could be your project, it could involve someone close to you and it might also be that you’re going to be taken on a tour of all that dances to the tune of its own drummer. You’re likely to make some big scores or turn up a few gems in your process of exploring and experimenting with some aspect of culture. But you may not know what they are, so the idea is to be very observant and to treat everything as a potential gem. Doing this involves being more than a consumer or passive participant in the world around you. Think of yourself more as a cosmic talent scout, someone surveying new artistic or business territory, or going to unusual places and finding the most creative people. In these weeks you have the potential to cultivate or discover ways to increase your income, but there are two caveats. One is that you must be following your true calling. The second is that you need to be flexible enough to adjust and adapt to a continually changing environment. As it turns out, this aspect of life is one of your most adaptable, and where you have the most natural curiosity.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Examine carefully your values as they relate to the spiritual and financial aspects of your life. They’re not really separate; indeed, they are inseparable except for an idea, and that is the idea I’m suggesting you look at. This is not an easy idea to translate out of the charts, but here’s my best throw. It’s not necessary to give up success to have some form of spiritual growth, or not in the way that you think. Western religion is all over the map on this one — some say that wealth is a reward from God, some say that one must give it all up to get any respect from God. But what does God have to do with it? Who is this mysterious authority figure making bold, sweeping and seemingly contradictory statements about what must be so? And why do they apply to you? I suggest you examine carefully the concept of sacrifice — that which you must give up in order to make something sacred, or to win the favor of God. Your charts in my reading reveal a passionate drive for something that includes devotion, creative passion, a visionary quality and the potential for monetary success. There are, as you well know, two ways to read nearly anything; of the two this is the creative, life-affirming one, the one where you come out the winner, in harmony with existence.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Yours is known to be one of the most laid-back signs, but you know this is an act. In fact you are one of the most driven and determined individuals you know, once you make up your mind what you want — and as long as you don’t simmer in resentment and regret, uncertain whether you deserve something. Now, you always have the option to hook into that, but it’s old, and it’s the very thing you’re trying to let go of — so I suggest you cut your losses, give back what is not yours, and move on with a clear conscience. If you have to make amends to anyone, do so sincerely and move on. If you need to apologize to anyone, do so and get on with your life. And one other thing: if you have to forgive anyone, including yourself, then integrate that into everything else you’re doing as part of the move-on process. Forgiveness is not stuffing something, or forgetting something, or demanding that someone take the blame. It’s the opposite of all these things, and though nobody can really explain the process, it does exist and it seems to be easier if you ask for help in whatever spiritual language you speak. The most important thing nearly everyone agrees on about forgiveness is that in truth, it’s not about anyone but yourself.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — In most of my recent Scorpio commentaries, I’ve explored the concept of fear, and the way your charts are describing how you’re working it out. The sum total of this topic is that the most poignant, threatening subject of fear is oneself. This manifests many ways, including as fear associated with dropping the charade and being oneself. It’s always fear that keeps the game of being ‘someone else’ going. It manifests as fear of one’s potential. Or it can express itself as the quality of needing to hide behind a barricade, concerned what will happen if you come out. And one of the most common, and for you debilitating, ways it can manifest is fear of your sexuality. All of the pseudo-conservatism we are seeing in our current era of history, and false modesty and intentional ignorance of biology, are all expressions of fear of sex and sexuality. This is especially distressing and debilitating for you because your sign is all about sex: the sign that in ancient astrology rules the sex organs, and in modern astrology one’s hormones, desire and the nuances of attraction. Because life emerges from sex, the fear of sex, in any form, is fear of life. You who want to be alive need to align with your desire and your erotic power, as if it were the cosmic gift that it actually is.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Much that you could not talk about, or find anyone willing to discuss, is about to become a household topic. It will be up to you to make them a household topic, though you know it’s time for you and the people around you to speak in an open way about what is obvious. You can initiate the discussion gently, and you may be surprised to see that people respond. Seen one way, they are reflecting you and responding to your commitment to truth. Seen another way, they are tapping the underside of their own nature, and that particular aspect has more in common with who you are than it does with who they usually are, or think they are. Therefore, I would encourage you to have all the unusual, irreverent or taboo discussions that you’ve ever wanted to have. Get good at it. Find out how easy it is to lure people into revealing the truth of who they are, and use that information wisely. In one sense you will be looking into a mirror — but a mirror so clear, it will be entirely convincing that what you see is not a reflection. You don’t need to believe it’s a reflection — you can merely ask yourself how you would respond if what you were seeing reveal itself in others was, hypothetically, some aspect of yourself.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — This is your take-charge moment, though for the next few weeks as Mercury treks backwards through Gemini, I suggest you keep this fact concealed. Rather, work with people on their familiar level of the game, of the company or of society. Learn everything you can, about them and about what they do. There is a style of leadership (such as onboard a ship) where the captain must have mastered every single station, task and routine that any of his or her sailors must do. This is the approach that I suggest you take. As you do so, establish relationships with everyone you know who is doing those tasks and make sure they know you appreciate them. Once Mercury stations direct, you will then step into a coordinating role. Again, this will not be the ordinary kind of top-down leadership that our society seems to worship, leading to the $25 million CEO who cannot actually do anything. As time goes on, and you demonstrate your competence and skill by passing through a series of initiations or tests, you will earn the respect of those around you. Along the way, I suggest you think of everyone as your potential benefactor and supporter rather than as a competitor. This will be a refreshing change, and who knows, maybe other people around you will start to pick up on the idea.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You seem to be having doubts about your power or your influence, and at the same time you seem to be tamping yourself down intentionally. This may be the best approach for the next few weeks as you work out some ethical issues that seem to be bothering you. This may be stuff that has been hanging around for a while, but which you’ve just been able to focus into a coherent thought. The question relates to one or both of your parents, which is why you can go for so long working something out that you don’t even know exists; it showed up before you were born, and you thought it belonged there. This would be a good moment to question everything you’ve taken for granted, any words of self-defeating ‘wisdom’ that any parent, teacher, caregiver or other authority figure ever delivered to you. One way to find such material if it’s buried is to consider any self-defeating thoughts you have and ask yourself where you learned them. They came from somewhere, but they will have little influence without your support and willingness to play along. It will then be up to you to teach yourself what is right, and to follow that teaching and see how it works. It will help if you gather others around you who affirm what you both know is true. There’s strength in numbers, especially for an Aquarius.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — This is a rare and beautiful moment in your life — especially if you remember that the best thing you can do for yourself is to believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities and your goals. Know that you have the talent and the strength to accomplish what you set out to do. Trust that you have more than just enough; you have more than enough to make whatever happen. All you need is faith, and that is indeed a sign of strength. If you can’t muster that, then even the most basic modicum of trust in yourself will suffice. Tune into this on an emotional level, not just a mental one. Connect with the feeling of competence. If there are two sides to the argument, listen to both and choose carefully which one you believe. Most of all, allow yourself to feel desire and hunger for accomplishment. What you cannot do yourself you are capable of finding others who are loyal to you to do; be bold and ask for what you need. People will respond to your confidence, and this will create a cycle that feeds on itself. Your astrology portrays a time in your life when you possess unusual gifts, yet ones that are distinctly human. That is all you need to be, though I would add that most descriptions of what human means fall woefully short of what is possible — though the difference is almost always crossed by that distinctly human quality of faith in oneself.

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The Radical Notion that Men Are People

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Mars stations direct in Libra on Monday, after being retrograde since March 1. In modern astrology, Mars is the planet of desire, motivation, drive, impetus, volition and aggression, named for the Roman god of war.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Our society has Mars issues. We have too many wars. We spend too much money on wars, on police and on imprisoning people. We also don’t know the difference between need and want. We tend to want what hurts us and not want what helps us.

Mars is also about men. We train our men to be warriors, then seem surprised when they act like them.

The Mars retrograde journey has stirred up many questions, rocked the boat of relationships and shaken up the life orientation of many people I’ve heard from. Mars retrograde at its best is a study in desire: in getting clear about what you want and why you want it.

Certain events in astrology sum up an entire era, and Mars stationing direct is like the distilled essence of everything that’s happened all year. Think of this as Mars holding a message or secret of some sort, and it’s about to choose its moment and reveal it. That message will reveal something about what we’ve been through these unusually intense and strange months. I have a sense that something deeply introspective, some long-silent inner voice, will reveal its truth as Mars shifts polarities.

Yet because this particular Mars retrograde involved the Uranus-Pluto square, an aspect that describes the culmination point of an entire generation, there’s information on tap that reveals something about our current phase of history. The Uranus-Pluto square is the second great turning point of our century, the first being the Saturn-Pluto opposition of 2001-2002 that arrived with 9/11 and two of the longest wars in U.S. history. One thing we have with Uranus-Pluto is the opportunity to reverse much that went wrong during Saturn-Pluto.

Because Mars is now in the spotlight, I think this would be a good time to comment on men and maleness. Back in April, Amanda Painter quipped that Mars running retrograde in Libra, the sign ruled by Venus, would delve so far into Libra that it would produce the first fully transgender planet. She gave language to something I’d been trying to put into words for months: this is a transformation experience for Mars and all things martian and male.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

During my coverage of Mars retrograde and related gender studies issues, several women have asked me what I have to say to men. But first I have something to say to everyone: men are people.

I say this because men are currently blamed for all of the world’s problems. This is so prevalent that it’s seemingly an unquestionable truth, perceived to be a fact of nature. Everything bad that happens is allegedly a man’s fault. I don’t deny the existence of the patriarchy, but it consists of a far more complex set of dynamics than most descriptions you will see.

The shape-shifting Archetypal Bad Man morphs from oil company CEO into the misogynist frat boy to the serial rapist into the emotional or sexual abuser to the womanizer to the psychological infant to the terrorist/active shooter to the deadbeat dad to the guy who will stick it anywhere to the state governor shutting down women’s reproductive health services to the human trafficker to the hypocritical preacher, politician or warmonger.

Let’s not forget the generic asshole, the jerk of a boss, the drunk, the guy who never puts the toilet seat up (or down), the dude who loves his car more than his girlfriend or children and your everyday inhabitant of the fragile male ego.

The presence of the Archetypal Bad Man, the one whose values and conduct are so base he’s not worth bothering with or acknowledging, or worse, not considered human, is looming everywhere. As a result, everyone with a penis is at least a little suspect.

Not everyone feels this way. But enough people do, including many men, that it’s time we take notice of the prejudice, and notice that it’s not helping anything. It’s not making the world a better place nor is it helping anyone be more enlightened.

These men all exist somewhere. They all have their female counterparts. It seems to be that society’s problems are a human thing rather than a male thing. Yet the open and casual derision with which men are spoken of in our era is impressive, if one is able to notice. There’s not a commonly-known word for this. Who has seen the word ‘misandry’ in print or heard it in school? Who could define it without a dictionary? Does it have anywhere near the connotation of ‘misogyny’?

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

If you are a man, you may find it extremely difficult not to take on some of this projection. However, I suggest you make a conscious choice of not taking responsibility for what you didn’t do, that which is not yours or for who you are not. You don’t have to accept the projections of others, especially those that would in any way deprive you of your humanity.

Yet at the same time you, like any other human, must evaluate yourself, and determine what is in fact yours — and not because someone said so. You will only know what is yours if you search your soul. That is the essence of personhood. Personhood is not a destination. It’s a process, and a lifelong journey.

Being a man has special demands in our society; being a man is a slight twist on being a person, as is being a woman.

I have some other suggestions for men and those people becoming men, which I would offer for all humans in search of their personhood. I offer these as ideas for your consideration, not as necessities or requirements. As ideas, they are focused on facilitating development into what you might describe as a self-actualized state. [Here is a discussion forum for this article.]

Get to know yourself. I know, this seems obvious — but it’s necessary to say in a society that is so committed to depriving people of self-knowledge, and where there are so many opportunities to forget. There exists a taboo against knowing who you are. Self-knowledge is considered a dangerous thing. Among those who lack self-knowledge, it certainly is. It’s also an essential ingredient in freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. Knowing yourself is the ever-ripening fruit of a relationship with yourself.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Focus on your growth. Growth isn’t just for little kids, puppies and kittens. Psychologically and emotionally, I would propose that growth has three basic elements: maturity, confidence and self-esteem. These are different things, they are all closely related and they are all related to honesty. There’s a severe shortage of these things in our society. They are equally meaningful, though I would say that of the three, the self-esteem crisis is one of the most serious issues facing our culture. Part of the problem is it’s not easy to notice one’s own lack of self-esteem. You may have to deduce it from your confidence and maturity levels (which are easier to see), or by noticing how you let others treat you. You can also see it in the value that you place upon yourself in your interactions with others. Once you notice your actual self-esteem level, it’s easier to address in some constructive way. It’s very unlikely to just “fix itself.” It’s something that you have to focus on.

Know what you don’t know. If you are clueless, that will make this fact all the more challenging to ascertain. Figuring out how little you know is one of the most liberating experiences of life. Ignorance, which has as its root the word “ignore” — an intentional, even forceful act — is not an excuse for anything. Its vast popularity is no excuse, either. That is different from lack of knowledge. To address that, you have to figure out what you don’t know. This takes special sensitivity, because you need to notice your voids of knowledge without judging yourself. When you know you don’t know something, and you can admit that fact, then you can find out what you need to know. This is called intelligence. The more intelligent you are, the less prejudiced you will be. Prejudice is the result of not knowing when you don’t know (whatever).

Learn to look after yourself. By this I mean acquiring basic life skills that are quickly being forgotten in our “service-oriented” society. Learn how to shop for food, how to prepare meals and how to establish and take care of your home. Learn how to wash your clothes and keep your house at least vaguely orderly. Learn how to take care of your body. Many men believe that it’s a woman’s role to do all of this for them. You’re not learning this for their sake, however, you’re learning it for your own sake. If you’re terrible at cleaning or can’t stand doing it, then learn to make enough money to hire a professional; that counts as self-care. Speaking of money, learn to organize yours, and to have a healthy relationship with it. Your money is your power. It’s not your only power but it’s one of the most important kinds. Know how much you have at all times, and look after it and measure every purchase on its investment value. In our society, functionality with money is one of the most essential ingredients in looking after yourself and one of the most obvious failings of people who might otherwise be successful and productive.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Focus and master your talents. Pursue what you are good at, what is useful and what gives you pleasure. Note that some skills are to some people less “fun” but are also essential to a good life. You might not like filing taxes, but if you’re good at it you have a distinct advantage. Our society has gone through a profound deskilling in recent decades. Most of your friends will spend most of their free time entertaining themselves. Obviously some amusement is necessary. However, humans stop growing when they stop learning. I suggest you spend a significant portion of your time building your skills and accumulating knowledge, and putting them to use. This will make you a more well-rounded, self-reliant and overall useful and productive person.

Take care of your health. This is a key aspect of looking after yourself — indeed, the most important. All the things you know can hurt you actually do. If you work with chemicals, know what they are and what they do — don’t believe any claims of innocence by your company or by your boss. If you smoke, you are contaminating every cell in your body with every single drag of every cigarette — smoking is that efficient. The cigarettes you smoke are also deadly to the people you come into contact with (second-hand smoke) and the people they come into contact with (third-hand smoke). To quit, you may need to figure out why you smoke in the first place. If you drink alcohol habitually, there’s a reason for that too. You’re literally consuming and expending the resources of your liver, of which you have but one. Note, if you want to preserve or improve your health, and have a good quality of life, you have to eat real food, which means knowing how to shop and prepare food. Additional note: I suggest you discover the extreme virtues of dental floss.

Beware of doctors and hospitals. The medical profession can do some excellent work and has made many strides in recent decades — and it also needs to be approached with extreme caution. Many people leave hospitals sicker than they went in. (I suggest you look up the word nosocomial.) On all medical matters affecting you or your loved ones, I suggest you get two opinions on things that seem minor and at least three on things that seem more important. Most significantly, use your intuition. Doctors will want to prescribe or inject you with drugs they may not have fully researched. (Please look up the word iatrogenic.) It is up to you to understand what is being put into your body. Don’t be afraid to stop the show and seek additional information the moment you don’t understand something. It’s worth mentioning that there exist many forms of complimentary or alternative care, often disavowed by the medical profession for reasons of competition. A good homeopath can help you resolve an issue that most medical doctors cannot diagnose. However, you must do your homework choosing an approach and a practitioner.

Learn to take care of women’s bodies. If you’re a man who has physical relationships with women, it’s essential that you actually understand something about what a female body is and why it needs special care. Women’s bodies are resilient, amazingly strong and do all kinds of fun and biologically fantastic things that men’s bodies don’t do. They’re also more sensitive and more challenging to maintain. Rise above any ignorance and squeamishness you may have, or any sense that the woman’s body is some alien “other.” Get yourself a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves and read it carefully. Ask the women in your life about the special care that their particular bodies need. You would be amazed at the subtlety, the detail and most of all at how much you did not know before.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Learn to negotiate sexual consent. That means having an authentic conversation in a sober state about what both partners want and whether sex is appropriate for you both at that particular time. This includes being real about your sexual history. Sex is negotiated on a per-event basis, not as a standing contract — even with your fiancee or wife. We are rapidly heading back into the time when there is no such thing as clear yes or clear no, but you don’t need to go there. There’s a lot more sex available without the integrity of a clear yes or clear no, but I don’t suggest it’s the kind of sex you want, and you can get in serious trouble without clarity. I would propose that you want to relate to people who are excited about you, for whom yes is clear, honest and real. That puts a filter up — one made of respect and self-respect.

Keep it covered. Presume that all sex will include a condom, unless you specifically plan to create a child. You are responsible for the destiny of every single sperm cell your body produces. You are responsible for any pregnancy that you co-create. It does not matter if a woman says she is using birth control. Everyone needs to bring their own birth control to the table, and not put it off on anyone else. That means you, in the first instance. You are also responsible for any sexually transmitted infections that you pass along, or that you get. Condom negotiation with you should take a grand total of no seconds, though this is not the norm. Bring your own condoms and note that many women are sensitive to latex. Ask your partner about this. While you’re keeping it covered, keep your private parts — all of them — clean. Good hygiene is essential to healthy, friendly sexual relationships.

If you’re gay, accept that fact. If you’re questioning, that’s OK too. Despite all the positive PR about being gay in recent years, many gay men still pretend to be ungay. If you’re biologically and emotionally attracted to men and are not so attracted to women (or not attracted at all), then you’re probably gay. There’s no point being in denial, even if you don’t understand why you are gay.

Bisexuality is normal. Having attractions to and fantasies about both men and women is normal, in the statistical sense — it’s part of the norm. Many people of both sexes experience this (far more than you might imagine), and it does not make you gay. Along the way you will meet women who have attractions to both men and women — I suggest you treat this with the utmost respect. It’s not your sex toy, and if you’re ever invited into the sanctum of female-female sex, consider yourself fortunate indeed.

Deal with your homophobia. Your homophobia is not about that other guy — it’s about you. Usually homophobia has a power source, an engine of some kind running it. It’s up to you to figure out what that is.

Deal with your jealousy. The partners in your life are going to have attractions to others and others are going to have attractions to them. You are going to have attractions to people other than your partner. Make room in your relationships for the simple truth of this fact. The first way to do this is for you to deal with your own jealousy, which is at its essence a control drama and death trip. Note, just because you address your jealousy does not mean that other people will address theirs. It’s up to you to select enlightened partners who share your values.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Your sexual desire is your property and your responsibility. It’s not up to anyone else to provide you with sexual gratification. It’s not the responsibility of women, no matter what anyone may say, think or put into a music video. Your most available consensual sexual outlet is masturbation. It’s more than about getting off; masturbation is an expression of your relationship to yourself. If you treat it that way, all forms of sex will become more relational and more about communication.

Your partners are not your property. You are not theirs. There is much confusion about this. Our society’s whole relationship model is based on the presumed ownership of other people, which is so prevalent as to be taken for granted. The concept is inherent in everything from marriage to rape. This is the source of so much misery it’s impossible to measure. Both sexes are trained to do this to other people. The only solution is to be your own person and to treat others as their own person. This takes bravery, enlightenment and risking people thinking you’re weird. In fact it may require some authentic stubbornness and a revolutionary spirit. So be it.

Learn to be friends with women. By that I mean learn to have friendships with women where you treat them as equals and feel respected as their equal. I don’t mean ‘just friends’ mode; I mean friendship with a real commitment. This may necessitate keeping the sexual and romantic aspects of the relationship off to the side. I am not suggesting you deny your feelings but rather that you express them in a way appropriate for that particular situation. Friendship makes a solid foundation for other forms of relationship, and tends to be what endures the longest. Note that it’s also taboo in many social circles. This is a good taboo to break.

Learn to be friends, not competitors, with other men. Despite the incorrect notion that all men always stick together, men are often viciously competitive with one another, to everyone’s detriment. If you don’t want to live that way, you’ll need to choose male friends who don’t take that approach. Cooperation gets more accomplished, and is the only thing that can build a sane and productive culture. Cooperation means getting beyond the idea that there are absolute winners and losers, not seeing your interests as separate from those of others and being a more generous person. You will feel better about yourself and about existence.

Love those who respect you. In the course of your life, you may fall in love with others who do not seem to love you back. You may put considerable energy into these seeming relationships. Unrequited love is a popular item on the menu of human diversions. This is worth looking at as early in life as possible. Who you love is your choice, and who loves you is their choice. I don’t think it’s possible to persuade someone to change their feelings. I suggest you cultivate a life policy of loving those who, at the very least, offer you respect, kindness and attention; and those who voluntarily offer you nourishment in some form. I have found that we tend to love who and what we take care of. This is a profound gift of human psychology, and I suggest you be open to it working in all directions.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Go to therapy. Everyone in our society needs therapy. We all have childhood damage and neglect to work through, no matter how wonderful and attentive our parents were. Those injuries get in the way of happiness, success and intimacy. However, therapy is not just about dredging up the past or delving into one’s unconscious motives. It’s about learning to speak about one’s reality and how to put one’s experience up to a more objective mirror. Many men in particular feel, for some strange reason, that this is a sign of weakness, something I’ve never understood and which I suggest you not fall for. It’s unhealthy to let things build up, and one potential reason we may see so much violence coming from men. The skills you learn from a good therapist will benefit you the rest of your life, and enhance your ability to help others in need.

Cultivate mentors. Therapy is a form of mentorship, though there are other kinds that are essential. Mentors are generally older people from whom you learn life skills, and learn about yourself. They are not ordinary friendships but rather associations with people you respect, and to whom you’re willing to listen. They are relationships wherein you gain clarity and receive the gifts of someone’s perspective and long experience. You get a chance to see how far you have to go, and you can get some reassurance that it’s possible to actually make the journey. It’s been said that a wise person is able to learn from the mistakes of others — another reason it helps to have mentors. Along these lines, I suggest that whenever possible, you hang out with some people you suspect or are certain are much smarter than you.

Your anger is your responsibility. Anger is a natural emotion, particularly in a world with many aggravating and frustrating factors. As a matter of discipline, you can remove as many of those factors as possible, along the way to actually dealing with your anger. If you’re someone who sulks, you’re probably angry at your mother. Remember that in our society, men are trained to be warriors, and often have all kinds of warriors as heroes. They have superpowers, kill people with impunity and are able to act out their drive for justice or revenge. You are human and that places certain limits on you, which can be frustrating. You’ll need to create healthy means to personal justice and ways to channel your warrior energy.

You don’t need a gun. Guns provide a false sense of security. They also cast an eclipse over every other common sense form of avoiding or dealing with danger, from street smarts to staying away from where you don’t belong to learning martial arts. If you ever have to use your gun, your life will be changed irrevocably, and unlikely for the better. If you carry large amounts of cash or jewelry as part of your work, you can probably afford to hire a security detail.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

You are not your father. You don’t need to live up to any of his supposed expectations, and even if you do, he may not acknowledge you. Your life is your life; you are you and not anyone else. If you want the potential for a solid relationship with your father, be your own person and meet him on level ground.

You must come up with your own answers. There are many in the business of dictating right or wrong, telling you who to hate, what is moral and what rights you’re supposed to have. Whether it’s some relative, FOX News, a politician or a preacher, you don’t need anyone telling you what to think or do. You do need to decide what to think and do, and that will take some conscious reflection and exposing yourself to a wide diversity of viewpoints.

Don’t let anyone cheat you out of your passion. There are plenty who would say that to do what you want is wrong, that your sexual desire is incorrect or evil, and that what you know in the depths of your heart somehow goes against nature. Ultimately you are the only one who can give up your passion, your awareness and your freedom to choose, and these things are your birthright.

You will not live forever. Get used to that fact. Make your days, your seasons and your years count. Notice the passage of time. There are some who say you’re not really alive until you have a conscious relationship with death. This relationship will help you value your time more consciously, and calculate the risks you want to take.

I have three book suggestions. These are the three books that helped me understand being and becoming a man, and understand women, more than any others. They are: Iron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man by Susan Faludi. They are all worth their weight in pure gold.

Lovingly,

Here is a discussion forum for this article.

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual subscription rate: $99/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions.

Charlie Lemay: About the Artist

I consider Charlie Lemay one of the great contemporary artists, and it’s a privilege to have his work illustrate my writing. We met when he arrived one day many years ago as my astrology client, and I’ve since taken him on as one of my photography and philosophy of art (and living) mentors.

He is both a photographer in the classical style, often using black and white film, and a digital artist, morphing his studio work into elaborate montages and triptychs that emerged one day as a nearly fully-formed deck of tarot cards.

His book, Seeing: Insights and Images, will be available shortly. I will let you know when that’s ready. There are some excellent galleries on his website.

In an email this morning, Charlie wrote to me:

When I was asked in 1996 by Karen Smith to write what I thought the job of the artist was, for the digital show I was participating in, I said, “to wake up the artist, and then for the artist to wake up others.”

I stand by that still, and it seems to be indicated by the neuroscience. In the sequence of events, impulse, command, action, and rationalization, all our jobs might be to do our best to not interfere with impulse, to allow it to flow through us and be made as whole in the physical world as each of us is capable of. That may be what “getting it” is really all about. The secret of our existence might be to simply be and allow this physical manifestation of the spiritual to manifest. Our insistence on the rationalization as the reality may be the cause of all our problems.
He added: All critics, like our thoughts, are late to the party and have nothing whatsoever to do with the initiating impulse. Like our conscious minds, they may actually inhibit the flow when they become the arbiters of this process. This includes our self-critic especially.
Mars Stations Direct: Planet Waves Community Forum

You are invited to a first-of-its-kind event — a Planet Waves open forum, presented as a call-in radio program. It’ll take place at 8 pm EDT on Sunday, May 18, 2014. This will be an opportunity for Planet Waves readers all over the world to hear from one another and participate in a live conversation. The focus of the discussion will be Mars stationing direct, which happens one day later. The event is free, though you’ll need to preregister.

You’ll be able to participate via telephone, Skype or by listening to a live stream. Internet listeners will be able to participate via a chat feature; I’ll read some of those comments on the air.

We are planning to develop these events into a number of formats, including live question-and-reply sessions associated with each of the birthday readings and 12-sign reading products, and a series of astrology classes.

Subscribers who participate in Sunday’s event will be offered an upgrade path, available the first year with discounted early renewal, that will enhance their Planet Waves experience. This will include opt-ins for a daily mailing and astrology update text message service, and teleconferences on special topics open only to Planet Waves core community members (our subscribers).

I am looking forward to seeing you there. Once again, here is your link for pre-registration.

w/love,

At Long Last, Mars Stations Direct

As Mars stations direct over the next few days (exact Monday, May 19, at 9:31 pm EDT), see if you can feel the subtle shift of energy. This has not been an ordinary Mars retrograde, owing to the fact that Mars has now passed twice through alignments with the Uranus-Pluto square — the aspect that is helping define this moment of our lives, individually and together.

This is a brain schedule, but it’s similar to a train schedule. The word LONG, above, is short for longitude. You can see the daily positions of Mars and for contrast, a far-away planet, Pluto. Notice that for about four days, Mars moves slower than Pluto. Note that this lists the retrograde as ending on May 20 because it’s set for midnight Greenwich Mean Time, four hours ahead of New York time.

I’ve been referring to this as the cardinal grand cross. You can review my description of that aspect in this article, called A Matter of Trust.

These next few days as Mars stations are a sensitive moment. Mars in Libra seems to be hanging in the balance, about to make a decision about who it is.

There may be a subtle edginess in the air, an apprehension about what direction to take, and the sensation of many things unexpressed.

Easy does it. I describe this in greater detail in today’s edition of Daily Astrology.

Mars has been retrograde in Libra, the sign opposite Aries, which it rules. So we’ve had many questions arise relating to role reversal, sex and gender, relationship, and matters of desire and consent. This has raised many questions related to sex roles and sexual identity, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways they influence relationships.

When Mars is retrograde, what’s really happening is that the Earth has passed between Mars and the Sun. When that’s happening there’s a visual illusion that Mars has changed directions. Now that the Earth has moved out of that alignment, Mars will soon appear to move direct.

Yet before this happens, there is what’s called a station — Mars appears to be standing still in the sky, and in the ephemeris. For a few glorious days, Mars seems to be moving as slowly as an outer planet. In the table above, I’ve compared its daily position to that of Pluto. Note that the only column where either have any progress indicated is arc minutes, or sixtieths of a degree.

Sample of my latest chart for Mars stationing direct. In my handwriting are included the points Typhon, Logos, Atropos, Child, Vulcanus, Cyllarus, Kronos, Requiem and Amor. Full chart here.

There are many ways to think of this. One is a kind of pregnant pause. Another is a delicate balancing point. Given that Mars is the planet of action and Libra is the sign of balance, there may be a decision, or many decisions, involved. There may be questions of commitment. You can scan through the different factors in your life and notice where the metaphors apply.

Mars emphasizes the matter of desire, in particular, focusing the question of what you want. So as Mars pauses in the sky, this is a good time to consider that. One of the factors is likely to be the impact of the “what you want” concept on a relationship — that is, how you feel someone else would respond, or how they do respond.

This takes us to the identity theme in the chart: to what extent do you submit your whole identity to a relationship that you’re in? For many people, their identity is dependent upon a relationship,
and without one, they don’t feel like a complete person. This setup is suggesting it’s time to look at that issue. You may indeed be formulating your need for independence, or discovering who you really are in the context of a relationship.

Once you have that going, then you get to experiment with “being yourself,” which might mean “asserting your individual will,” and seeing how that influences things. Because this whole arrangement involves Mars and Libra, there may be a specific focus on sexual desire, and on sexual or gender orientation.

While this is happening, Mercury is moving into a square aspect with Chiron. Mercury — the original planet synonymous with mental — is in Gemini. On one level that is the very symbol of smartness, though since Mercury is approaching a square to Chiron (exact Saturday), there are some poignant questions appearing in the chart. [Link to an introduction to Chiron.]

Somewhat simplified chart for Mars stationing direct. Note that Mars is high in the sky across the eastern United States, and it will be visible from many other points west. If skies are clear, you can be looking at Mars while this happens. It’s interesting that the Aquarius Moon is making an exact trine to Mars at the moment it stations, an image of mind-body integration that is also inherent in Mars in Libra as well.

The first is described by Mercury approaching the depth and full-spectrum sensation of Chiron in Pisces, and involves recognizing how superficial most communication is. Yet the mind that may be caught in that superficiality has a deeper question, which is about its own capacity for emotional intelligence.

Who hasn’t had the notion, “I’m not smart enough for that”? Yet with Mercury-Chiron aspects this can be a debilitating obsession. This aspect seems capable of bringing lurking doubts to the surface. The opposite of this is another prevailing state, that of being cocksure, absolutely certain of something with no basis in fact or experience.

I would describe Mercury square Chiron as the aspect of “know when you don’t know.” My first words of training for young journalists, knowing when one does not know is the first step to finding out. It is the essence of intelligence. Yet in this illustration, with Chiron in Pisces, the superficial mind, the one that might be entertained by TV commercials, is encountering something on a different order of reality.

So this is not really about facts or ideas; the encounter is more along the lines of one of those spiritual awakenings when someone one day realizes that everything they know is wrong. That would be a real point of beginning.

Why plants move around in circles as they grow has “been a mystery since way back.” Plants may be stationary but they’re rarely still, says biologist Roger Hangarter. They’re simply coming up with engineering solutions on their own time. Photo: Science Friday video still.

The Mystery of the Spiraling Cucumber Tendril

People born under a Taurus Sun often seem to live in a separate temporal universe, moving along at their own pace until provoked to get moving — mirroring the often-slow emergence of Northern Hemisphere spring. Likewise, J.R.R. Tolkien once noted that while plants and animals share the same physical universe, plants seem to inhabit their own temporal universe — but it has taken time-lapse photography for humans to get a clearer view of how that operates.

Flora Lichtman, producer of the Science Friday video series, notes that the reason behind why plants move around in circles as they grow has been a mystery since way back. Lichtman has featured the time-lapse movies of biologist Roger Hangarter, creator of the website Plants in Motion, as well as the work of physicist Sharon Gerbode and biologist Joshua Puzey, to create an entertaining explanation of how cucumber tendrils twist — and of the broader engineering implications of the discovery.

“If you do enough time-lapse, you see that there aren’t too many parts of a plant that don’t move,” explains Hangarter. The branches move around, the leaves wiggle around.”

If you can slow your own perception down enough the next time you’re with your favorite Taurus, you just might notice the same thing.

Scorpio Full Moon, Games People Play, Millennial Generation Astrology

This week’s extended edition of Planet Waves FM covers three topics. I begin with an overview of the current astrology including the Scorpio Full Moon (which was exact Wednesday), Venus passing through the grand cross and Mercury square Chiron.

Eric Berne, from the book jacket of Games People Play, first edition.

In the second section, I look at the work and the astrology of Dr. Eric Berne, innovator of transactional analysis. This is the 50th anniversary of the book Games People Play, and Dr. Berne’s 114th birth anniversary was this past weekend on May 10.

Dr. Berne was one of the great contributors to modern psychology, and one of the most practical. His work has largely been left behind as “pop psychology” but its source was an idea he developed while training young psychiatrists, and it managed to break into popular culture. I consider his work and take a look at his chart as well.

In the third section, I look at the astrology of the millennial generation, in particular people born between 1983 and 1999. I cover a series of events that shaped the lives and thinking of this generation, and which helped define the concept “millennial.”

You will learn something about the chart for Pluto entering Scorpio in 1983, the Saturn-Uranus conjunction of 1988, the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 1993-1994, Pluto entering Sagittarius in 1995 and the Chiron-Pluto conjunction of Dec. 30, 1999 (the Y2K aspect). Note, this is just the beginning of my Astrology of the Millennials coverage. I will be back soon with more.
An Astrology Reading from Someone Who Really Understands Gemini

To My Gemini Readers:

Soon after the Sun enters your sign, I’ll have an extended reading for you. My readings are highly practical sources of information, inspiration and motivation. I speak directly to you in plain language. They are divided into three sections — two astrology segments of about half an hour each, and a section of astrology afterthoughts and a tarot reading.

These readings morph the best of my work as a Sun-sign astrologer and a professional counseling astrologer. When I developed this method, I thought it might work pretty well, but I’ve been amazed at the response I’ve had.

Astrologically, I will cover the unusual Mercury retrograde that happens in Gemini, the highly unusual grouping of planets that’s working its way across your relationship angle, and what it could possibly mean to have the planet Chaos in your sign.

I’ll also go over the influence of the grand cross, and focus on Uranus square Pluto and the impressive influence of Chiron and Neptune on your career.

The reading is accessible and playable on any kind of computer or mobile device (smartphone, iPad, etc.). It includes a live question and reply forum that will be held right around the New Moon (archived for those who cannot make it), as well as access to last year’s reading, so that you can review and check my accuracy. Plus you get an extended written description of your birth sign. And there will be some fantastic original theme music composed by Daniel Sternstein.

It’ll make an awesome gift for you if you have Gemini Sun, Moon or rising, or for the Gemini in your life, and is now available to subscribers for the pre-order price of $19.95.

Lovingly,

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. Moonshine horoscopes for the Scorpio Full Moon published Tuesday, May 13. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 16, 2014, #998 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — When Mars stations direct next week, the mystery revealed is less likely to be how someone feels about you, but rather how you feel about a relationship situation. When that moment arrives, remember how much thought you’ve put into this situation. So when you finally get that information, I suggest you trust it. The chart describes a scenario where you’ve wondered what to call something, whether you’re stuck there, what you want and what your environment is telling you — all of which are stylizations of the core idea of how you really feel. The only reason such a simple thing could be made so complicated is because it has so many other seeming manifestations, which all seem to move the central reality of the situation away from you. It never was outside yourself and it never will be. That counts for many other situations you may be wondering about.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The past will stalk you to the extent that you let it. Note that the past is not a thing, but rather a set of perceptions, expectations and beliefs that were more appropriate for another time in your life. It may also extend to the results of choices you made in the past that still have some manifestation today, but not usually. If so, most of the time they are obvious and easy to address by making decisions. But the decisions might indeed be clouded by those perceptions, expectations and beliefs. You may not be the only one who needs to address these elements of history; someone close to you may be struggling to have a clear, tangible and useful opinion about the way things are versus how they were supposed to be. I would suggest here that these seemingly complicated, even convoluted, questions come down to, “Who am I now, and what do I want to do?”

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You may be feeling edgy and uncertain as the Sun makes its way across the very last degrees before entering your birth sign. When it does, I think you will feel new determination that may seem, on one level, to be driven by your desire to survive or endure. Yet there’s much more going on, in particular, a surge of creative and sexual energy
that you’ve been holding back for some reason — perhaps out of an abundance of caution, or because your life seemed too complex to give yourself the space to take any chances. However, that seems to be the very thing you now must do, if you want to get anywhere. Taking chances sometimes means risking everything, but more often it means allowing yourself to do something that you previously hesitated over. As of today you may think you’ll never have the courage or the confidence to do that. I think you might feel a lot differently in a week.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You have learned a lot the past few months, by some measures more than you’ve ever learned (and resolved) in such a short timeframe. I would sum this up in a few words as “leadership comes from within.” You must take over your own life and your living space, and get into alignment with the people around you before you can be effective in any other aspect of your life. This is not true for everyone; many people can be grossly out of whack with their environment and still get a lot done. You cannot be. Remember that every waking moment — what you do is every bit as important as where you’re doing it. Your energy level and overall performance will be entirely influenced by where you’re doing whatever you’re doing. How you feel will be your best barometer. That includes how you feel about the people who surround you. For all of the above, choose carefully.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The Sun’s entry into Gemini will make it easier for you to catch up with all the changes that have been going on around you. You haven’t exactly been left in the dust, but progress does seem to be moving a little faster than you prefer to go. Your solar chart suggests that the most meaningful thing you can do is be available and visible. Take every opportunity to engage and converse with others well beyond your home office, your cubicle or the cafe where you usually work. You’re the one who must bring the initiative and reach out to others. Make the call, send the email, start the conversation. Gemini is the 11th house of your solar chart — the house that brings the greatest benefit, the income rewards of your work. Gemini says this will happen through human contact, and the Sun says that starts with visibility. So freshen up and take every opportunity to be seen and heard.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Mars stations direct in your money house (Libra) just as the Sun enters your career house (Gemini). This is a great combination. Mars is the money planet — making money takes motivation. The Sun is a fine indicator of work and reputation. Put the two together and you can allow success and financial motivation to drive your desire to succeed, and allow success to drive your financial goals. This may all seem too worldly and not so spiritual, though I would define ‘spiritual’ as being responsive to the conditions of your environment and your current stage of growth. The past six months have come and gone with all kinds of questions about money, and the best direction you want to be taking. It looks like the next week will provide you with significant information, though I think your deepest discovery will be about who or what is the most important to you, and what you want to do about that fact.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You are approaching a moment of truth. It could be about any aspect of your life, though it’s likely that an intimate situation is involved. Your charts tell a story about your having gone through a series of initiations over the past six months, which has put you in a place where you could hardly have expected to be. You may, as a result, have outgrown a relationship. Rather, it looks like you’ve become the thing that you’ve always sought in other people. That means that you no longer need them to provide it; this in turn will save you loads of time and energy pursuing something outside yourself. Yet at the same time, you want to relate to others, and this is suggesting that your contacts with others will benefit from a new purpose. I don’t know what that will be, but I would propose that it’s more about being a whole person than it is about being half of a relationship.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may have dreamed many dreams about what you would do, if only you were less afraid. You may have even tried, and succeeded, to go beyond your own inhibitions. The journey of Mars through your 12th solar house has been a study in these hesitations, which has served to remind you how much time you’ve spent wondering if you were doing the right thing, or what might have happened if only things were some other way. It’s time to leave your regrets behind you and confront the moment in which you stand, edgy though it may be. You’re not really standing at the edge of a cliff; you’re standing right on the edge of your relationship to yourself. There really is no point hesitating about that. If you were fully committed to your relationship with yourself, many factors in your life would seem far more confident than they often do. And that moment of full commitment is about to arrive.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You may think you’ve been struggling to fit into the world someplace, when you’ve actually been succeeding at doing just that. I know it may not feel that way, but there’s a discovery or two you have yet to make about what the changes of the past few months have really been about. One thing I can tell you is that determining the direction of your life is not merely a process of elimination. It’s true that eliminating non-viable options is critical, and you’ve done some of that, but that’s not all you have to do. I suggest you take an inventory of what is working in accordance with your stated life plans. Notice what is already happening in some form or fashion the way you say you want your life to be. Notice where your gifts are already recognized. Notice who tells you, or in some way demonstrates, “you belong here,” and notice how that feels. Use that information to make any further choices.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Everything you’ve been doing the past few months has been mere preparation for the Take Leadership position you’re about to adopt. Since that was preparation, it’s worth remembering everything you’ve learned since early December, especially about your professional relationships. It is clear that you either want or are destined to dominate a certain situation, though you may realize you cannot do this in an obvious way. You must do it in an artful way. That involves an emphasis on beauty, any time you get the chance, but mainly it involves finesse in your relationships. Even if you’ve rubbed certain people the wrong way, you have the chance to make amends and align your mutual goals. One thing you can trust is that you have something of worth in the relationship, be it power, influence, talent, a vision or charisma. Remember that, and notice how well the skills of others compliment your own. That is a good position to be in.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You can take things more lightly than you have lately, and you’ll probably feel just that inclination. You might even call the feeling ‘spiritual contact’. However, one reason I try (not so successfully) to avoid the concept ‘spiritual’ is that it’s an abstraction of what you already contain and who you already are. So, an aspect that suggests that you’re growing on the dimension of faith suggests that you have more faith in yourself. An aspect that describes ‘messages from the gods’ can be interpreted as you getting into deeper contact with who you are and fulfilling your reason for living. An aspect that describes ‘lessons’ is also about your willingness to learn. All of these images relate to your chart, and therefore to your existence — suggesting a moment of enlightenment, which is to say, becoming lighter; a moment of contact, which means improved communication with yourself and, if you want, with others around you.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Looking at your solar chart I would take an educated guess that you wish things were simpler in your professional life. Many of the more meaningful small planets are clustered in your 10th house, and it has a churning feeling — the sensation of relentless developments, transformations and revisions. Yet this truly unusual set of conditions is the very thing that is helping you create or achieve what you are doing. For example, the presence of many seemingly smaller goals rather than one pointed objective is compelling you to be fully adaptable and to reassess what you’re doing on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. Your mind is organized such that you can handle this much change. But there’s something more significant at work. You have the ability to observe the order in the chaos; to see a vision rise up out of the mists. And that’s exactly what you’re doing.

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The Rites of Spring

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Since Mars stationed retrograde on March 1, there’s been a run of truly strange and outrageous news stories, beginning with the disappearance of a commercial jetliner without a trace. Events reached a series of peaks with the lunar eclipse, the grand cross and the solar eclipse earlier this week, and closer to the station direct on May 19, I’ll do some kind of recap.

Photo by Christine Marsh.

Among them all, two events this week stand out, among many associated with Tuesday’s solar eclipse.

On Sunday, Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, canonized two of his predecessors, Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) and Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II). That is, they are now allegedly saints, declared such in a mass ritual, internationally televised, with the grand cross still in tight alignment and two days before the annular solar eclipse in Taurus.

Though Bergoglio has been a popular figure and has captivated the public imagination with his charm and seemingly liberal views, I have refused to invest any spiritual energy into him. There’s been something I have not trusted, apart from the fact that he’s head of one of the most corrupt institutions on Earth. Everything about his presentation has seemed like corporate public relations.

Now he’s sainted two men who presided over the church’s child sex trafficking scandal, in effect, completing the cover-up. [I covered the events and astrology surrounding the former pope Ratzinger’s resignation and Bergoglio’s election at the time they happened.]

The church did not invent hypocrisy, but it may as well get the credit since it’s perfected the concept so artfully. The church has been involved in a nearly 16-century cover-up of its priests having sexually abused children.
The Vatican’s files include incriminating documents dating to the 4th century, according to the documentary Mea Maxima Culpa, which exposed the molestation of deaf children by Catholic clergy, and the subsequent cover-up. All the while, the church has preached sexual purity and in the process done what it could to regulate and crush human love, empathy and contact, selling for money its version of spirituality — and notably, also selling indulgences or sex licenses for a fee.

Every pope since then has been involved in the child sex abuse cover-up, though it was Wojtyla who presided at the most critical times — as most of the lawsuits were being brought by survivors and then settled before trial, costing the church more than $3 billion. Roncalli for his part was uniquely situated to do something about it; apparently the reforms of Vatican Council II, which modernized the church during a rare moment of opening in society (the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s) did not involve considering the actual ethics of priests.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Naming two of his predecessors saint was more than Pope Bergoglio’s “Ford Pardons Nixon” moment. The church has again buried one of the most horrendous atrocities of our time, and now tens of thousands of people a day will visit the saintly relics of men who took many of its worst secrets to their crypts.

Many years ago I had an astrology client whose mother grew up in a remote part of Greece. She advised her son to never, ever trust the church, and she told him a story to demonstrate why.
When she was a child, she lived in a town with a convent, and one day workers came to dig up the dirt road in front of the place, and pave it. When they did, they discovered an infant mass grave right outside where all the nuns lived.

Not only were the supposedly celibate nuns either sexually active or subject to sexual abuse, someone involved was killing and burying the resulting babies in the yard. In this light, combined with what we know about child sex abuse worldwide, every bit of church dogma and doctrine on the topic of sex deserves to be presumed fraudulent, and there is plenty going around.

It is not limited to the Catholics. In her 2006 book Kingdom Coming, author Michelle Goldberg explains the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States.

Michael Farris is one of its founders. According to the author, he is the man who did most of the work lobbying for home schooling in all 50 states, in order to allow fundamentalist Christians to get their kids out of godless public schools. I’ve only recently become aware that this is the purpose of most home schooling.

Farris explains American politics as follows. “There are two worldviews that are very much in conflict right now, especially in Washington, DC,” he is quoted as saying, the first being Judeo-Christian. “It starts with God as the creator, but then it also protects life, it’s about traditional marriage, one man one woman. On the other side, you have secular humanism, which starts with man as the center of things. There are no absolute standards, it’s all morally relative, anything goes as long as it has to do with sex.”

What he is saying is that the main thing that Christian political activists must attack in order to concentrate their power, first and foremost, are sexpositive attitudes. This is only news because he is so influential and put it into such vivid language.

A Human Sacrifice Ritual

Next, two days after the sainting of the two former popes, just hours after the annular eclipse, the state of Oklahoma attempted to execute a man named Clayton Lockett. Lockett had been convicted of participating in a particularly heinous rape and murder, and sentenced to death. This week Oklahoma decided move ahead with his execution despite a significant controversy.

Photo by Eric Francis.

There is a shortage of the drugs normally used to conduct lethal injections. Oklahoma has killed so many people that it has run out.

European drug companies refuse to provide the drugs to the United States; all of Europe has banned the death penalty. American drug companies will only sell the substances to governments anonymously, afraid of political backlash. They are obviously aware that sooner or later, someone within the company will tweet about it.

So the states are using an alternative blend of drugs, ones not actually studied or approved for human executions. Aware of this, “The Oklahoma Supreme Court tried to stop it last week, concerned that the state refused to reveal the origin of the deadly cocktail. But several lawmakers threatened to impeach the justices, and Gov. Mary Fallin blindly ignored the warning signs and ordered the execution to proceed,” The New York Times said in an editorial Wednesday.

The attempted execution proceeded; all three drugs had been injected into him, including one to stop his heart and another to dull
the pain of that drug. He was declared unconscious. Then according to press reports, about 16 minutes into the procedure, observers said that Lockett began twitching and convulsing. He raised his head and shoulders and said, “Man” and “I’m not.” Prison officials closed the curtain, blocking official observers from seeing anything else.

After a series of phone calls, the execution was stopped by order of the director of the Department of Corrections, who was present at the scene. By one account, prison officials considered taking him to the hospital. He died of a heart attack about 45 minutes after the execution began.

I consider it an atrocity and a blight on our national conscience that we still have state-sponsored murder in the United States. Murder is the only crime for which the state sets an example of committing the same offense on the convict, in effect endorsing killing. Were the government to rape rapists or burn down the homes of arsonists, the public would be outraged.

It is well established that the death penalty does not deter crime, and that it may have a brutalizing effect (that is, lead to more violence in the days following a widely-publicized execution).

Then there is the exculpation problem — people who have been tried and convicted and exhausted all their appeals, who are then found to be innocent and set free. Many other people go to their deaths declaring their innocence. Many are guilty of what they’ve been convicted of.

Photo by Eric Francis.

You can be sure that some are innocent of any crime. [Also see Planet Waves coverage of Troy Anthony Davis.] Anyone who thinks it’s okay to continue executing people even if a bunch of innocent people are put to death needs to meditate on their concept of ethics.

Then there is the cost — 20 years ago, capital trials and executions cost four times the expense of life imprisonment. Today that number is eight times the cost of life imprisonment.

We are left with one reason for the death penalty, which is blood lust. With Vesta rising to the degree, the chart for Clayton Lockett’s botched execution says that his killing was a
human sacrifice. This is my theory of why capital punishment persists: it’s a remnant of a very old and dark ritual, perpetuated by those intent on maintaining power. The message of the executioner is that he has the power to kill us.

Year by year, state by state, the balance gradually tips against capital punishment. Oklahoma has been particularly stubborn (about the death penalty and many other things — currently, it’s the most reactionary state). The Clayton Lockett incident will focus some attention on death penalty states and the problem they have. Gradually the legal system is waking up. Much of the population still seems to be confused, with many people cheering and wanting to see prisoners fried till they glow, confusing retribution with justice.

In the United States of America, we are not supposed to be governed by the Code of Hammurabi. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and capital punishment turns us all into killers. If you want to align your energy and take a moral or ethical stance in relation to anything the power structure is up to — war or other forms of injustice — then it helps to have made up your mind about what you feel in your heart is right and what is wrong, and why. Participation in any death cult is optional.

Mid-Spring Holiday: Beltane

Next up in our procession of many interesting astrological developments, we arrive at Beltane, an annual event — the celebration of rebirth, of love and of abundance. This is our background contrast to what you’ve read about above. Beltane is when the Sun reaches the midpoint of the Aries equinox and the Cancer solstice. It is a balancing point and an energy center of the solar year. Because the Sun is between two of the quarter days (equinox and solstice), it is in aspect to the Aries Point, which funnels energy and emphasis into the current zone of the zodiac.

The dark themes we’ve been seeing with this year’s Beltane are not just the result of the current astrology. In November, at Samhain (pronounced sah-wen) and Days of the Dead, we experienced an unusual solar eclipse conjunct Saturn in Scorpio.

Eclipses intersecting Taurus and Scorpio place an emphasis on the relationship that these two ancient festivals are designed to remind us of, the cycle of nature that involves death/surrender/transformation and sex/rebirth/union of male and female polarities.

Photo by Eric Francis.

It is not surprising that we are seeing and feeling reverberations of last November’s eclipse in our present moment. Even without eclipses to add gravitas to both seasons, they offer a deeply influential polarity that is being given extra emphasis and momentum by exact Sun-Moon alignments.

This may make it challenging to bring yourself into the present and focus on the current season, but then again it can also fill you with determination to be here now.

Beltane is a way of thanking the Goddess for the truth that all wealth comes from the Earth. Far from being a theoretical idea, I consider this a basic, well-demonstrated fact of nature.

Last week I described a diversity of sexual crises our culture is wrapped up in, particularly the notion that all sex must have a victim, and what is becoming a serious crisis around the concepts of yes, no and maybe.

I am not sure it’s occurred to anyone that the struggles our society faces around the issue of wealth and abundance (both ‘the economy’ and the issues of individuals), and our crisis of being able to express our sexuality with a clear conscience, may be aspects of the same scenario.

The energy center where they meet is Beltane — the nexus of sexual expression and acceptance of natural wealth. The ancient ritual is simple — sex outside, with the intent of gratitude. I don’t consider this sex magic. I consider it a natural way to celebrate life and the Earth, affirming something that is, if you look, plainly true: we are supported entirely by the Earth, and we are created by procreation. If not for sex, nothing made by human hands would exist, because there would not be anyone to make it. Sex and money involve the same basic gesture of opening up to the flow of existence.

If outside is not practical, then improvise. The spirit of the gesture is what counts, as is the shared intentions of the people involved — and connecting with the season. Be aware that what is called Hieros Gamos, which translates to the union of god and goddess, is one of the most potent and profound rituals there is; be respectful and go slowly. Work with the real meaning of consent, which is to feel together.

In contemporary times, another message of Beltane has emerged: that of selflove and self-given sex. Back in the 1990s, May was declared Masturbation Month by the Good Vibrations toy store, and among many sexpositive people, the idea caught on. Taurus is imbued with this message, and the combination of the Sun-Moon event, plus Juno, describes self-marriage.

If we live in times where the lines of sexual consent are blurred and where nearly all sex is perceived to have a victim, masturbation is the first form of sex we can be sure is fully consensual. It’s worth mentioning that old-timey (and many modern) opponents of masturbation describe it as self-abuse (as in self-rape) but that, I perceive, is just more fraud perpetuated by hucksters of the death cult who would seek to divide us from ourselves.

Photo by Eric Francis.

The association of May with masturbation would suggest that a new way to look at Beltane is the meeting of the male and female polarities within us. I would propose that is where sexual healing begins.

I am reluctant to present anything as a panacea, but I will go so far as to say that masturbation, by which I mean consciously seeking understanding of selfsexuality, is a workable first approach to nearly any sexual question, problem or challenge. In our era when the lines of identity between partners are often blurred, selfsex says ‘I am me, and you are you’. In our era of cultivated codependency, masturbation is a uniquely independent sexual experience. Amidst much insistence of sexual identity (and related politics), masturbation is the one thing that all sexes, genders and sexual orientations have in common.

Since most of our sexual problems involve lack of self-knowledge and self-awareness, fear of the other, the hyper-polarization of the sexes, projection of both desire and blame onto the opposite sex, and dependency on others, selfsex is a fantastic place to start the healing process. Other sexual crises we face include homophobia and paranoia about sexual diseases. Selfsex allows a reprieve from these things.

There are many young people who, if they were told about masturbation in a friendly way, and were told that it’s really OK, would not be so driven to get off on others before they’ve figured themselves out some.

One way to help a teenage girl stay focused on herself is to give her a vibrator or sex toy as a gift. The reason I say this is because most boys don’t need much in the way of supplies to masturbate, but most girls will benefit from a sex toy. In my opinion this is a fully appropriate ‘rite of passage’ gift from a mother to a teenage girl. Be creative and you can come up with something comparable for boys in your household.

Note, I am not proposing masturbation as a substitute for partnersex or for comprehensive sex education — to the contrary. It is an essential element of both. I am, in this commentary, proposing it as an option that is fully appropriate for young people who are still learning about themselves and not mature enough to handle the responsibilities of partnersex.

Photo by Eric Francis.

One mistake adults may make is assuming that young people will figure it all out on their own. Most people will feel some guilt about masturbation and need to be told it’s OK. They may have been given exactly the opposite message in Abstinence Indoctrination class in school or in church.

The best rite-of-passage gift you can give to a young person is information. The book Our Bodies, Ourselves belongs in every household, library and cafe bookshelf. Another dependable book that helped spark sexual consciousness is Sex for One. There are other essential books, including The Joy of Sex and Sexual Secrets. There is also a fantastic website called Scarleteen that I recommend.

Note, I do not recommend most books or other materials on ‘tantra’ as they conflate spirituality with sex, which I believe is confusing and can be misleading. What we need are clear, factual and open-minded materials about sex that do not include dogma or moralism of any kind.

Meanwhile, returning to the topic of masturbation, there are many older people who need a rest from constant attempts at or involvement in sexual relationship who would benefit from a phase of devoted self-exploration.

One great thing about selfsex is that it’s something you can do outside of a ‘committed relationship’, whether alone or with others. There are some friendships that will accommodate it nicely. I don’t mean touching one another, by the way — that is partnersex. I mean witnessed or shared selfsex.

Many people in partnerships (whether interesting or sexually stagnant) could light their erotic lives on fire by exploring selfsex together. It’s a great way to open up, stoke your curiosity and do that exhibitionist/voyeuristic thing that humans just love to do. Part of that ritual can involve the open sharing of fantasies, a great way to get compersion going. Before you look that up, I define the term as sexual empathy.

I have written more about this in the series It’s Not About Sex, It’s About Self, which is available free to anyone and is suitable for teens.
And there is plenty in Book of Blue (my own ongoing project), which is available by request.

In any event, ’tis the season to raise energy and praise the goddess of love and abundance — however you choose to do it. One last thing — Beltane is also known as The May. This weekend is a focal point, but the season lasts a little while. So choose your moments and have fun.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual subscription rate: $88/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Not only did Henry Hargreaves and Caitlin Levin use different types of citrus in this map of South America, but the fruit appears sliced whole, in rind form, in pulp form and so on, lending the array a mouth-watering spectrum of color, shape and texture — all while delineating boundaries clearly and unifying the image as a whole. Are you drooling yet? Photo by Henry Hargreaves.

All (Tasty) Wealth Comes From the Earth

We tend to associate Ceres with food, nourishment and agriculture, rather than Venus; but Venus rules Taurus, the sign during which ancient Pagans celebrated the abundance and renewed fertility of the Earth at the Beltane holiday. By one method of reckoning, Beltane is Monday, May 5 — the day the Sun reaches the midpoint of Taurus. And while one typical way to mark the holiday is by engaging in sex with some ritual intention, these food maps created by photographer Henry Hargreaves and food stylist Caitlin Levin also glorify the Earth’s reproductive power — albeit by way of the end-results of the seed-planting associated with this time of year.

You can watch the creative process as Hargreaves describes it in this video. Some maps are of a single country, others of an entire continent; in all cases, the duo worked to choose a representative food that was iconic (corn for the U.S., spices for India, etc.) as well as versatile, so that different parts or varieties could be featured: “Every state within a country is different; nothing is repeated,” says Hargreaves.

And it’s all delicious — just ask any Taurus.

Eclipse in Taurus, Beltane and Loreena McKennitt’s Chart

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I look at the annular solar eclipse in Taurus that happened Tuesday at 2:14 am EDT.
This includes a close look at several planets in Taurus, including Juno and Tantalus. I talk about eclipses, how they work and how to use them — and the message of this eclipse being about getting closer to yourself. Finally, I look at the chart of musician, poet and visionary Loreena McKennitt — which I’ve included on the Planet Waves FM site so you can see what it looks like.

Dan and Eric’s Music Appreciation Hour: Intro to (the Lost Art of) Rhythm and (a Little About) Lead Guitar

In this week’s edition of Emmy Award&#8482 winning Dan and Eric’s Music Appreciation Hour, we talk about the difference between rhythm and lead guitar. Eric tries to hold down a simple beat while Dan shreds a musical staff with one finger. A fun edition with lots of stuff you’ve always wondered about guitar.

Preview of Taurus Birthday Reading by Eric Francis

I’ve just finished the Taurus birthday reading (great for Taurus rising as well), and recorded a preview of what I’ve covered — it’s like a mini-reading that gives you a taste of the scope of the subject matter and the tone of the work. The reading includes two astrology sessions, a tarot session and access to last year’s reading. I’ll also be hosting a live Q & A for those who get the reading.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon were published Tuesday, April 8. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 2, 2014, #997 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You will only feel abundant if you share who you are and what you have. If your plan involves doing something other than that, I suggest you come up with a better one. You have plenty to share, and though it may sound like a contradiction, you’re more likely to feel that way if you actually extend yourself and offer yourself to others. The easiest way to unravel the challenges you face in your relationships — which all seem to involve an exchange, be it of emotions, of resources or of trust — is to take the first step. Don’t expect things to go perfectly — be grateful if you learn something about yourself, or about someone else, or about life. Learning requires more than drawing a conclusion from one event or experience. Authentic learning is about gathering information and putting it into context, seeing contrasts and making an ongoing evaluation. Remember that idea — to evaluate is to determine what is really valuable.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $59.95 or you may purchase individual signs for $19.95 each. Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Be aware that you may have a blind spot where certain personal matters are concerned. Most of the time that would be like looking directly at something and not seeing it. This blind spot is more like feeling something and not noticing you’re feeling it. Or it might be existing with a certainty of who you are, and not noticing that you may be having your doubts. You will learn more as you feel out the territory, which will happen as you rub against certain people and discover information that you did not know before. You might discover something you were not told; you may have a response that keys you in to what is appropriate and what is not; you may get a clue about an old relationship question that you’ve long puzzled over. There are moments when this feels like pure intuition at work. Yet it’s likely to be based on factual information that you are perceiving. Therefore, if you ‘sense’ something, seek the facts, ask the relevant questions, and use the information wisely.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You must mind your politics and your manners even if you have no specific reason to do so. Be impeccable with your words and be mindful what you express to others. You may be inclined to reveal secrets about yourself, and while I might normally advise transparency, for the moment I suggest you practice restraint, especially in work-related environments. In determining what to say to whom, I suggest you use the ‘need to know’ basis — do you need someone to know some particular bit of information about you? Why do you think so? If you have a solid reason, then reveal what you have on your mind. In truth, there is little that most others really need to know about you. Part of this scenario involves some discoveries you’re about to make about yourself. Anticipating those revelations, and wanting to know more, is what might incline you to reveal more than you should, or more than you need to. Therefore, I suggest you take your time, make your inner discoveries and then make statements to others only when they feel absolutely right.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You may feel like you’re under less pressure than you’ve been under all year, and if you don’t, I suggest you take steps to open up your time and lighten your burden. That may take some collaboration, but mostly it will involve taking a little space for yourself. I can imagine you feel hesitant to do that, as if you’re feeling some emotional resistance. That hesitancy would be described by Mars still moving retrograde through one of the most sensitive angles of your chart. I am using that as a timing factor. When Mars stations direct on May 19, the pace of your life will increase, along with your confidence level. That is why I am suggesting you take the opportunity to be a little more introspective, and disengage as best you can, while you can. Mars retrograde is rich with information about self-confidence, whether and why you might feel insecure at certain times, and in particular, your fears of abandonment. The knowledge will be forthcoming, though to receive it you will need to listen.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You don’t need to hold up the sky. You only need to keep your feet on the ground. If you can do that, you will know which way is up, and you will feel the Earth supporting you where you stand, and as you walk. Keeping a connection to the ground will help you keep your perception in your senses rather than in the more abstract parts of your mind. Time will slow down a little. You will be able to feel more clearly, and as a result, have clearer ideas about what to do when you feel you must take action of some kind. This weekend’s astrology is offering you a chance to gradually find your center. From there, all the swirling will seem to be going on around you rather than within you. Your own stability is central to your success; your ability to hold to a steady course, to lead by example and to be proactive on the issue of fairness. Yes, I can see that at times you may be experiencing some profound emotional insecurity, but that is what can happen when you choose to remove the past as a basis for what happens in the future.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — This is a blessed moment for you. You may not fully trust that unless you try it out, and experiment with your ideas in a way that you have not done before. This looks and feels like a continually moving impulse, a little different every day and maybe every hour. It’s essential that you stretch your vision. If you perceive a need, expand your concept of what is possible to fulfill it. If you have something to say, be bold enough to say it. Eventually you’ll reach that angle where you know it’s time to take authority over something larger than just your life. Along the way, there’s a fine line between what serves you and what serves others; ideally there is a synergy between the two, where what is profitable for you immediately expands to the benefit of those you care about the most. It’s the hot fulcrum where selflove meets love. The beauty of this kind of symbiotic (plus-plus) relationship is that there is always enough.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Rare is the moment when you can encounter your perfect match, but you may be there. It’s an ‘opposites attract’ kind of thing, but the question is, what kind of opposites? Inverse, converse, reverse or obverse? They all have one thing in common, which is the root verse, which means to turn — therefore, much will depend on which way you turn. I suggest you turn toward who you desire, and face them. Speak if you want, though what will get their attention is your magnetism. Note, it may take a little while; during that time I suggest you be patient, friendly and take care of yourself. The most significant direction you can turn toward is awareness of your own existence, and your freedom to choose. That you may have considered this perilous in the past, and that you may have your concerns now, should not stop you. The path through life is guided by decision, though too often we ascribe that power to fate.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Take your time working out an emotional issue, and remember, this is about how you feel rather than being about a relationship. It may seem for all the world and in your imagination like the subject matter is partnership or involvement with someone else. That’s a kind of mirage. Here’s a way to think about it: As in dream interpretation, every aspect of the dream is an aspect of yourself. Given that you may be in a phase of increased unusual dream activity, that’s a good thing to keep in mind. Dreams are deeply personal and situation-specific. There are no stock interpretations for dream symbols. If you remember that all aspects of the dream are facets of your own psyche, and your own state of mind, it will be much easier to discern what messages you’re receiving from yourself. The same can be said of any thoughts involving a relationship. I’m not saying that other people involved don’t have volition or intent — rather, I am saying that your experience is your experience, and that is the place to start.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — This can be a brilliantly productive time for you with work-related contracts and collaborations. You are in an unusually opportune moment, and I suggest you do two things. One is to take advantage of it in a conscious way. You have some options open, therefore you can afford to have some criteria. The most significant of them is to make sure that in any work, collaboration or contractual situation, you are treated as human, and that your human needs are recognized. Gravitate not just toward the money but also toward the places where there is food, water and a comfortable environment. The second factor involves discipline. All the talent and opportunity in the world are worthless without commitment, honoring time structure and working within the needs of the larger organization or community in which you are participating. There are really two skill-sets described in that statement: one is the discipline aspect and the other is the political aspect. Be alert, ready to grow and prepared to do your best work — right now.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You may be allowing your mood or emotional state to hang in the balance on how someone else feels. You know well how you feel, though you may not be thrilled about it all the time. It would be better to address that basic fact of your reality than to pass the issue to someone else. My impression is that there is a commitment issue on your part. Were you to fully commit to the situation, you would have to do two things — pluck up some real self-esteem, and truly offer yourself. The two are related, more closely than is usually acknowledged. One way to reality check this is to consider the ways you hold back on the excuse that you’re not really valued. Were you to not hold back, you would have to put that theory to the test. You would need to find out, in reality, how much someone cares, and how they care. Then you would have to respond to that information. At the moment you seem to be in a state of limbo, waiting for someone else to take action. Very soon it will be your move — within about three weeks.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Your chart describes a self-portrait or autobiography. As a living metaphor or ‘psychomagic act’, you might want to give that a try. I don’t mean a selfie. I mean an actual self-portrait of your mind. Meanwhile, remember that you project or insert yourself into everything you say, do, write or otherwise create. Be aware of this, and make sure you do it in a refined, conscious way, utilizing the art of understatement. If you’re doing something that is not intended to be a personal statement, such as business writing, or any professional activity, do it your own way, with some finesse, but don’t go out of your way to put your personal mark on the work. One other bit. You may be in ‘if you want a job done right, do it yourself’ mode. That may be true, but only after you seek input from everyone else, to get better ideas and to propagate a sense of involvement (and therefore investment). The larger theme of your life at this time is leadership, and this is a subtle art indeed.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You have made considerable progress in the two months since your birthday, and one of the ways you’ve done it is by taking matters into your own hands. One theme of Mars retrograde is being able to exert your will and fulfill your own intentions without relying on the motivation of others to get you going. You are learning to do things under your own steam, and learning to trust your ideas and perceptions. Your astrology indicates that if this is not going well, there’s still time to get with the program and, for example, stop waiting for anyone to act or to get out of your way, and then to decide what it’s time to do and get your ass in gear. In any event, the planets are leaning strongly in your favor through the weekend and indeed for the remainder of the season. You will maintain your momentum if you remember not to give your steam or your passion away to those who resist. At the moment, you are capable of letting go of nearly all your resistance, and there are some people around you who have the same idea.

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Mars in the Zone of Projection

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Dear Friend and Reader:

One of the core astrological ideas in the current grand cross aspect involves Mars, the planetary ruler of Aries, retrograde in its opposite sign Libra.

The Vulva on Mars — This image was created by the U.S. Geological Survey by merging Viking mission images with topographic data. It shows just a portion of Valles Marineris, a 5,000 km canyon on Mars so massive that it could swallow a few hundred Grand Canyons whole. Some scientists suspect the feature has been sculpted by flowing water.

I will say that slower. Every sign has planets associated with it. In traditional astrology, Aries, the first sign, is ‘ruled’ by the planet Mars. Mars is now retrograde in the sign that is opposite Aries, which is Libra.

Let’s use a simplified version of astrology wherein Aries is the sign of “I am” and Libra is the sign of “We are.” The ruling planet of a sign represents that sign, wherever else it may be in the zodiac. One way to think of this setup is that Mars, the representative of Aries, is being fully projected from Aries to Libra.

This describes a concept of relationship powerful enough to be on the level of an expectation or cultural mandate. Mars is the planet of maleness, but it can represent anyone, depending on the context; in our context here, it’s an expression of self-concept, so it will work for all sexes and genders. There are other contexts where Mars represents men or maleness.

In Western astrology, which is almost always psychological astrology, Mars is the planet that describes individual will power (or ‘personal power’), self-assertion, desire, sex drive and going after what one wants, as well as aggression and violent tendencies. Remember, Mars started as the Roman god of war; psychology works with its subtler shades.

Mars projected into Libra presents the image of investing one’s power into a relationship. All that I Amness of Mars looks like it’s handed over its individuality and becomes involved with the We Areness of Libra.

There’s more to the picture. Mars is currently retrograde. You can think of the retrograde as representing withheld energy. It’s also a reference to the past. In a natal chart, retrograde planets can represent personal qualities that we masked over or suppressed as a child so as not (in the child’s mind) to threaten our caregivers.

Mars is also in ‘detriment’ in Libra. That’s a way of saying that it’s potentially uncomfortable, out of sorts and, depending on the circumstances, either not performing up to its full potential or expressing itself differently than usual. There’s a persistent question of whether whatever Mars represents is really welcome in Libra; or the sensation of potentially being unwelcome.

It’s as if Mars is trying to assert itself in Libra, but ends up meeting inner psychological resistance (detriment), or keeping quiet, as if trying not to push things out of balance (retrograde). There is the sense of “I am here, but I’m not sure if I belong here” (detriment).

We’ve come a long way, baby — Transvestite in Paddy Wagon, New York City, from gelatin silver print, circa 1940, photographed by Arthur (Weegee) Fellig, a happy image of Mars retrograde in Libra.

The reference to the past might be saying, “This has been going on for a while. Maybe things have always been this way” (retrograde).

There’s also the sensation of either one’s identity lost to a relationship, or seeking identity within one. Mars so invested in Libra potentially looks like a situation with no obvious way out, a kind of entanglement. Or it looks like an experience of total submission to a relationship.

When people define themselves as aspects of one another, as is one of the more popular current relationship models, their wholeness seems to depend on the involvement, acknowledgement or approval of the other.

I’ve noticed a good few people who don’t consider themselves to be people if they are not in a relationship of some kind. These days you will meet very few people who openly admit to being single; it’s like the new form of queer that it’s not flattering to talk about.

There seems to be no concept of and exceedingly little cultural support for taking a break between relationships, to do a self-assessment and figure out something about yourself.

We all know there is plenty of cultural pressure to be in a relationship. There are places and levels of society where one will be treated as a person when one is “in a relationship” and treated as somewhat less than a person when “not in a relationship.”

In his essay Jealousy and the Abyss, William Pennell Rock explains that one of the reasons jealousy is so devastating is that people tend to project their identity into relationships with a kind of totality. The relationship becomes their reality. When there is a jealous episode, it’s not just the relationship that’s threatened — most people feel like their very existence is threatened.

Mars is a planet that’s about both desire and aggression. Often, desire is aggressive, and jealousy episodes often come with a measure of rage; many people expect this, or feel entitled to it. It’s just one example of the way that desire is conflated with aggression. There are many others — for example, all of the various presumptions of personal ownership that come along with relationships.

These presumptions have gone on so long they are invisible. But one way they have come into focus is the current discussion of what is being called rape culture. Here is how Wikipedia defines that term: “In feminism, rape culture is a concept that links rape and sexual violence to the culture of a society, and in which prevalent attitudes and practices normalize, excuse, tolerate, and even condone rape.”

I define the term differently: Rape culture is the inability to distinguish sex from rape. This troubling confusion is possessed by people throughout the social spectrum, from many teenagers and young adults to some ad executives to some feminists. If sex in its loving and violent forms has become indistinguishable to many people, maybe that has something to do with how our society extols violence as the solution to nearly every problem.

Just your average-looking kind of guy — Adrian Ernest Bayley, who raped and murdered television producer Jill Meagher in Australia on Sept. 22, 2012. He was sentenced to 35 years to life.

Before I get into the topic of rape culture, I would suggest that those who are survivors of a sexual injury or serious incident read carefully and reality-check against your own experience. As one who has worked with many survivors in my astrology practice, I would remind you that the pain you may be carrying can be healed. You do not need to live with it in an unresolved state for the rest of your life. If you remain open to the potential for healing, you will be much likelier to encounter it.

Readers sent me two articles that came out this week highlighting the issue. One was The Danger of the Monster Myth, written by a man named Tom Meagher, whose wife Jill Meagher was raped and murdered in Australia.

In his article, he explains that the image of a rapist as a monster lurking in an alleyway or the bushes is mostly inaccurate — most of the time it’s seemingly normal people who commit rape. In my counseling practice I have noticed that it’s often committed by someone the survivor describes as “a friend of a friend,” who (for example) offered them a ride home.

Meagher wrote, “While the vast majority of men abhor violence against women, those dissenting male voices are rarely heard in our public discourse, outside of the monster-rapist narrative. Indeed, the agency of male perpetrators disappears from the discussion, discouraging male involvement and even knowledge of the prevalence and diversity of male violence against women.

“Even the term ‘violence against women’ sounds like a standalone force of nature, with no subject, whereas ‘men’s violence against women’ is used far less frequently. While not attempting to broad-brush or essentialise the all too abstracted notion of ‘masculinity’, male invisibility in the language of the conversation can be compounded by masculine posturing, various ‘bro-codes’ of silence, and a belief, through the monster myth, in the intrinsic otherness of violent men.”

He has a good point here. I think there is indeed a context issue, but the context is much larger than he’s saying; much larger than male perpetrators. The context is all of sexuality and our entire society. There is no such thing as rape culture; if the concept is valid, then we are talking about our culture itself. And within our culture, rage — the intrinsic ingredient of rape — is a serious problem, and not just in men.

What he does not talk about is the problem of all men being considered potential perpetrators — a problem with significant psychological impact on many men. He does not talk about the danger or potential of false accusation, which like rape for some women is the stuff of nightmares for some men — such as the ones who would never rape a woman.

Jaime about to rape his sister-lover Cersei in front of the body of their recently murdered son. The director claims the scene was intended to depict consensual sex. This is considered family entertainment.

The other article that came to my attention was called What That Game of Thrones Rape Scene Says About Rape Culture, written for ThinkProgress by Tara Culp-Ressler. The scene was in the most recent edition of the program, which is HBO’s most-watched program since The Sopranos — getting up to 6.6 million views for a single episode.

She wrote, “In the scene, Jaime forces himself on Cersei next to their son’s dead body. They had been kissing, but she pulls away from him, apparently still repulsed by the fact that he’s missing a hand — and Jaime becomes enraged with her rejection, hissing, ‘You’re a hateful woman. Why have the gods made me love a hateful woman?’ He pushes her to the ground, holds her down, and thrusts into her despite her continued protests. After she repeatedly begs him to stop and tells him it’s not right, he responds, ‘I don’t care’.” [Note, I believe she says ‘It’s not right’ in the context of having sex in the room with their dead son.]

The director of this episode, Alex Graves, claims to have been depicting consensual sex. I guess that depends on your concept of consent.
In her ThinkProgress article, Tara Culp-Ressler makes a coherent point: the meaning of rape is diluted if many people don’t know what it is, or don’t have a concept of consent.

The way we talk about rape, the systems we have in place for investigating and punishing rape, and the way we approach rape victims, are all wrapped up in our struggle to recognize when someone’s consent has been violated, and our failure to acknowledge how serious that is. It’s perhaps no wonder we’re confused.

Kids don’t grow up learning about consent, and it’s not a concept that’s deeply ingrained in our culture, so they don’t necessarily know when those boundaries have been crossed. Without that knowledge, people … can look at the interaction between Jaime and Cersei — or a college administrator can consider a sexual assault that occurred between two students after they attended a party together — and mislabel it as “consensual.”

This is already happening among our youth. A recent study of young women who have experienced some type of sexual violence found that most of them simply assume that sex is something that’s done to them, in the way that Jaime does what he pleases to Cersei, and not something that they can be an active participant in. Other research has found that rapists don’t necessarily believe they’ve done anything wrong because they simply feel entitled to women’s bodies.

“Just because I’m dressed like this doesn’t mean I want to have sex” — is this the rare case of a meaningless symbol, or is it necessary to explain that the clothes one wears make an intentional statement about one’s values? Photo by Gordon Mccomiskie for the Sunday Telegraph, Australia.

So, if rape victims tend to be people who think that sex is something that happens to them and rapists simply feel entitled to women’s bodies, we have a much more complex situation on our hands than is obvious on its face. Or looked at another way, it’s less a ‘problem’ and more of ‘the way things are’. It’s normal in American culture that the older generations do not understand the way the younger generations negotiate sex.

We do not live in a system of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ consent. We exist in a system of ‘maybe’ and ‘no comment’. I would ask, if you are someone who believes that sex must be transacted with explicit consent, how many times and in what language have you directly said yes, in actual words, not signals?

When we get into yes and no discussion, we enter sensitive psychological territory, connected with the right to assert one’s existence. Yes is often connected to shame, and no is connected to guilt. With those as options, it’s no wonder that ‘maybe’, ‘no comment’ and various signals are a seeming way out of the maze. Nearly all the time, this happens in the context of alcohol. Sex negativity has so terrified people of sex that many require a substantial amount of alcohol in order to get over their inhibitions — yet another way of evading responsibility.

Then it’s easy to blame sex on men. There is an underlying spiritual issue here, obvious to anyone familiar with Jungian psychology. To say that all rape (and often, all sex) is the fault of men is to project all sexual shadow onto men. Whomever may be responsible for any given rape, everyone has shadow material: conflict, shame, guilt, fear, jealousy, abandonment, anger and other emotions considered dark and undesirable.

To say that one sex or the other is the sole bearer of shadow material for everyone is not only to project the shadow material onto the other — it’s to project one’s power onto the other. This situation will persist until it becomes obvious that we all must claim our shadow and our power; claim responsibility for our choices and what they lead to, including the choice to give away our power. Choosing to be passive involves an active choice.

Commentary on Abstinence Only indoctrination by the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.

Part of the context of our current version of rape culture is an anti-sex indoctrination program pushed on society by fundamentalist Christians, called Abstinence Only. This has been taught in public schools in all states but California since the early 1980s. The theory is if you tell young people to abstain from sex, and make them sign a pledge, they won’t have sex, so therefore you don’t have to tell them about it.

Because they won’t be having sex, neither do you have to tell them about consent, pregnancy prevention, condom negotiation, sexually transmitted infections, masturbation, homosexuality and the idea that sex is about pleasure rather than about power. One result of this lack of information has been the rape problem we now have.

To go with that problem, we have an equally simplistic approach to the rape problem: rape is exclusively the fault of the man, end of discussion. This seems valid, from a legal and moral point of view. Rape is most often committed by men, but not exclusively. In truth it’s a crime committed by people of all sexes and genders, against people of any sex, gender or age.

In the rape paradigm as defined by law, rape is entirely the responsibility of the rapist. It is a kind of inviolable fact of modern society that this theory cannot be questioned. If one questions it, one will invariably be accused of advocating rape, rather (for example) than advocating preventing it.

In a comment this week to the Planet Waves website, one reader said: “When a man takes advantage of a woman — especially when she is in a vulnerable position like being drunk — she is a victim and not responsible for his violent behavior whatsoever, ever! If she decided to dance naked on a table, it is no invitation to rape, and a perversion indeed if she herself was made to believe that it is.”

Really? It’s common sense that if a drunk woman dances naked on a table at a frat party, she’s going to get fucked, whether she says yes, no or Moby Dick. Maybe that’s because dancing naked on a table at a frat party is the expression of desire, seduction and consent. Should she make a disclaimer in advance? Or announce, “Now it’s OK to fuck me!” If she does not know that dancing naked (along with many other behaviors) is potentially an expression of consent, she will find out soon enough. Whether something is legal in this context is another discussion — one that will be had in court, where with any luck law rather than custom prevails.

If we teach girls and young women that rape is always the man’s fault (and leave it at that), that will eclipse the idea that everyone has a duty not to be negligent; that on our particular planet everyone has a responsibility to take care of themselves.

The SlutWalk, a rite of passage, seems to be an attempt to claim back some of the sexual power given up to rape culture. But does it succeed at claiming pleasure? Photo via Reuters.

The message translates to, don’t worry — if he rapes you, it will be his fault. A menstruating woman has a right to go swimming in an ocean where sharks live, and she risks being eaten by those sharks. Just make sure you don’t tell any girls or women who live near that particular beach — that is the current state of the sex discussion.

All of these scenarios involve the projection of power onto someone else. They all involve the notion that sex must always have a victim.
Under the current terms of the discussion, all men are potential rapists and all women are potential rape victims.

All of this is a long way from men and women seeing one another as potential lovers, or friends, or allies. It’s a long way from admitting that dancing naked on a table is a symbol of something; it is not value-neutral, and it will have different values in different situations. It is definitely a sexual symbol. Pretending it’s not does not make that disappear. The same is true of all sexual symbols.

It may seem like women are the only victims in this game, but any man who has sex with a woman under the ‘sex is something that just happens’ scenario is subject to prosecution for a felony and spending 10 years in jail, even if implied consent was given. Failure to get clear consent is a way of giving up one’s power as well.

Rape is a demonstration of a problem in its most extreme form. An honest discussion of that problem would include all of the subtler forms, including the issue of consent — but before there can be consent, there must be desire.

What I believe is lost in this whole mess is that desire itself is the controversial thing; the thing that is veiled in taboo. Saying yes to sex — the very thing that means that sex is not rape — is about admitting to one’s desire, and that is potentially controversial. Saying yes means taking full responsibility for what happens. Implying consent, or hinting at maybe, or no comment, are all ways to evade responsibility. And that’s the way things are usually done. If you are concerned about this, explain the potential perils to your children.

The word consent means to “feel together,” an experience that is not always spoken. Still and all, yes and no are only meaningful in the context of one another. If we insist on using that paradigm, the one that exists mostly in theory and in the courtroom, both yes and no must each be understood and available for the other to be at all valid.

Wayland Young, one of my favorite authors, wrote in the book Eros Denied: “In museums, we replace the solid castings which cover machines by transparent covers because we want the children to see how things work. But no greenpainted steel casing around a crank case or a gearbox, no cover or shield or lid was ever so opaque as the wrapping with which we conceal the workings of desire and pleasure from our children and ourselves.”

At the heart of the matter, the problem seems to be a mix of ignorance and shame. I would propose that both are voluntary; both are optional.

Lovingly,

Special thanks to Betty Dodson and Joseph Trusso for their help with this article.

Annular Solar Eclipse in Taurus: The Yin Side of the Grand Cross

The grand cross aspect is not over. It is still in a close alignment, and we are approaching an event that’s part of the same experience: the annular eclipse of the Sun in Taurus, which happens Tuesday, April 29. [See chart here.]

On Jan. 4, 2011, the Hinode satellite captured breathtaking images of an annular solar eclipse. An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon, slightly more distant from Earth than on average, moves directly between Earth and the Sun, thus appearing slightly smaller to observers’ eyes; the effect is a bright ring, or annulus of sunlight, around the silhouette of the Moon.

In astronomy, everything has an exact name, unless of course it hasn’t been named yet. An annular (not annual) eclipse is a total solar eclipse, but one where the Moon is so close to the Earth (close enough to apogee) that it does not cover the disk of the Sun. This does not argue for the eclipse being any less influential. Annular eclipses get results. That it happens in association with a grand cross pattern is a way of saying pay attention.

The eclipse probably will release some tension and clear the air of a good few issues that have been lingering, but remember, Mars is still retrograde. The inquiry on the topics I’ve described in the article above will persist and most likely intensify until Mars stations direct on May 19. A more helpful way to think of Tuesday’s eclipses is as an opportunity to set patterns. You have enough time between now and then to make some decisions and to open up some time.

Think of what you do between now and the eclipses as a form of commitment to what you want. I don’t mean an intellectual or mental commitment like we are accustomed to, but rather one done with your feelings and your body as well as your mind; a commitment that is demonstrated in time.

One of the reasons this is so influential is that eclipses (and the time regions that surround them) are an example of condensed time. Imagine that you’re living a day in an hour. An hour of dance or music practice would be equivalent of perhaps a day. So decide what you want, clear up some time and make the investment.

Here is some additional news. As of Friday, Juno is in late Aries. It will ingress Taurus at 10:14 am EDT Saturday, April 26. Juno in Taurus might be read as a caution about attachment and jealousy, or the concept of the relationship partner as chattel property (as in cattle, Taurus) — except for one thing. There’s an outer planet right there, right in the first degree of Taurus, which I described in last week’s edition of SKY — that being 1992 QB1, the first planet ever discovered beyond Pluto.

Instead of an experience of attachment, jealousy and control, the charts describe a transformational experience of what to do about these things. There seems to be some proof that the most toxic elements of the marriage paradigm can indeed be transformed and released. Relationships can have experiences of jealousy but do not need to be based upon jealousy per se.

An annular eclipse can create a strange double shadow effect.

With Taurus, there is the message that the most essential level of relationship involves values. Values are the place where we actually meet, where we are the most suited to collaborate in a creative way. Values are really the only motive; we will be motivated by what we value.

Friday, April 25 at 11:27 pm EDT is the Mercury-Sun conjunction. I have noticed over the years that this is an interesting, surprising and usually helpful aspect. (It always reminds me of the day that Illinois Gov. George Ryan shut down Death Row in his state, setting an example for the rest of the country.) This is an aspect of decisive thought and action, and it takes place in Taurus, sextile Neptune — let intuition guide you. Verify against the facts. The two are likely to align.

As for the Moon — as of Friday morning EDT, the Moon is in Pisces, and will make a conjunction to Venus at 4:03 pm EDT. The Moon will ingress Aries Saturday, April 26 at 6:01 pm EDT. For the next 36 hours or so, the Moon will pass through the grand cross configuration, lighting up the Uranus-Pluto square.

The Moon then ingresses Taurus Monday, April 28 at 10:23 am EDT, and the annular eclipse of the Sun in Taurus takes place Tuesday, April 29 at 2:14 am EDT. Mercury is trine Pluto and sextile Jupiter — easy does it, meaning, a sense of ease gets the job done.

Note, Planet Waves FM will update Monday evening, in advance of the annular eclipse of the Sun.

A Quiet Place To Reflect and Consider Your Life

Dear Friend and Reader:

It’s a beautiful thing when one’s best work is rewarded with success — and that has been the story of the 2014 Spring Report. Doing the project, I felt that it was my best-ever audio reading work; the copious feedback we’ve received from our clients has confirmed that. It feels good to make contact.

Among the many letters we’ve received, this one stands out.

Shure KSM 32 microphone, and Yogananda, in the Planet Waves FM studio, where I recorded your 2014 Spring Readings.

Mary LaSelva wrote, “The Spring Reports are, by far, the most insightful astrology I have heard. Your ability to apply what is happening in the heavens to understand various ways in which we may be affected, and provide objective guidance of how one may use it to wake up, grow, develop, and recognize opportunities, is truly unsurpassed. I am thoroughly impressed and grateful. Taking the time to listen to several signs, more than once, was well worth it.”

As a way of putting the readings in reach of those on a limited budget, we are now offering them individually. The readings are designed to be complete readings when listened to individually, and also designed to fit together and work as a group. So they are still available in the original all-12 package.

The readings focus on Mars retrograde, the grand cross, the lunar and solar eclipses, and Mars stationing direct on May 19. This grouping of events describes a pivotal time in our lives. When we look back in a year or in five years, that will be obvious. It may be less obvious now, as we process the rush of information coming in, the crisis points, the specific opportunities.

Yet the longterm influence of what is being shaped at this time may not be apparent now. My role as an astrologer is to weave the threads of time. My intent is to help you see your options, see the resources that you have available, and to consider our obstacles in a different way.

What you get in these readings is carefully prepared astrology, presented in clear language, with the benefit of many years of experience reading concentrated events (and in particular, Uranus-Pluto patterns, planetary retrogrades and eclipses). This is astrology that requires an experienced hand, if it’s going to be used in a productive and creative way.

The readings are recorded in studio-quality audio and are presented in formats that you can use on any computer or device. I open up a quiet, reflective space that you will want to come back to again and again.

I look forward to meeting you there.

Lovingly,

A Look Inside: Artwork by Lisa Nilsson

Tauruses are very tuned-in physically and love art, but Lisa Nilsson’s anatomical-yet-reverential works of quilling take things to a new level. Shown: A detail of Profile showing the sinuses, front teeth and tongue.

If you know anyone with a Taurus Sun, you know they tend to have a penchant for taking their time with things (often using traditional methods), as well as for beauty and anything that piques their bodily senses. Artist Lisa Nilsson’s website does not mention her birth date, so we don’t know if she’s a Taurus.

But her intricate “Tissue” series, done using an old method of rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper called quilling, certainly calls to mind several Taurean themes.

The works in “Tissue” are incredibly detailed anatomically correct cross-section views of the human body. But these are art, not medical textbook illustrations; and quilling originated with Renaissance nuns and monks, who made use of the gilded edges of worn-out bibles. Nilsson, too, uses the gilded edges of old books for the paper coils representing bones:

“I do this for aesthetic reasons as well as a means of pulling the pieces away from the world of scientific specimens and a bit more in the direction of religious reliquaries. I like to emphasize the reverential and the precious; to have a look inside is such a privilege.”

The Cardinal Grand Cross: Eric Francis as a Guest on ‘Beyond the Ordinary Show’ Hosted by John Burgos

On Wednesday, April 23, I was a guest on the Beyond the Ordinary Show, hosted by John Burgos. The interview begins with a short history of Planet Waves, and then covers how astrology fused with news reporting has created a way of telling the story of the world that is creative and life-affirming. I then talk about the April 23 grand cross, the April 29 eclipse and Mars stationing direct on May 19. I’ve given many interviews over the years — this is one of the very best.

Cardinal Grand Cross, Hypocrisy Meltdown, Projection in Rape Culture and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter

In this week’s program, I focus on the phenomenon of projection implied by Mars retrograde in its opposite sign Libra, consider this in the discussion of ‘rape culture’, and look at the hypocrisy implied in this placement — which is now coming to a crux. I propose that we have to take the discussion deeper than the legalistic or moralistic level and deal with the reality of what people do and why.

Dan and Eric’s Music Hour: The Gear Show

Are you interested in buying a guitar, or getting one as a gift for a young person in your life? We go over the basics of how to pick out a guitar (including discussion of electric, acoustic and classical guitars). We talk about the setup — how the instrument is modified once it’s purchased. Then we go over a few different effects pedals, demonstrating how they sound.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We’ve published your extended monthly horoscope for May below in this issue. Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon were published Tuesday, April 8. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Reader Feedback on my Recorded Readings

The Taurus birthday reading is available for pre-order now. I’m going to offer a live Q&A call to purchasers of this reading. This will give me an opportunity to connect directly with you and answer some questions about your astrology for the upcoming year. Here’s what a couple of our listeners have said about their readings:

“It sounded like a recording of my life. I appreciate the validation and encouragement to be confident and feel capable and safe.”

“I’m highly greatful for the work you do. All of the readings I have gotten from you have touched my Soul the Core of its very essence.”

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for May 2014, #996 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — There’s a fine line between being lost and being found. Have you ever become disoriented, then certain you knew where you were, then discovered you did not know, and then finally figured it out? That’s different from cruising along confidently, sure of where you’re going — a quality you would love your existence to have. Yet to be there, you would need to know where you stand with yourself, and where you stand with others. That is the quest of the moment. I suggest you start with where you stand with yourself. It will be tempting to consider what you would do based on another person’s feelings, or to plot out your life based on what might happen in a relationship. The order of the moment seems to be how you can live your life spontaneously as yourself, following your plan for your own existence. Yes, it’s possible that plan involves investing your whole consciousness and intent within the life of someone else. You might ask yourself how that’s worked out for you in the past, and how much of what you have wanted to accomplish you actually have accomplished. Or closer to the point, to what extent do you feel that your way of relating to others has interfered with your ability to actually live your life? Once you sort this out, it’s likely to prompt you to redefine many things you took for granted in the past.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The opening you’re trying to pass through is as narrow or as wide as your mind. Rather than push harder, I suggest you notice what you’re thinking and feel whether it’s flexible enough to stretch. In principle, thought should be the most flexible thing in existence; it’s made purely of ideas. Yet it seems that humanity has figured out how to cut through stone, mold steel and forge new elements more readily than it can change its mind, especially on a collective level. It’s challenging enough making any decisions at all, and more complex when a second person is added to the equation. Your intimate partners are on their own path at the moment, making choices entirely outside the realm where you can consciously influence them. But you have all the influence in the world over your own choices, if you can think of yourself as an individual and not as part of something larger. You might say that’s the challenge of the moment. This relates to how as a much younger person you could not make a move without some version of family approval. You may have figured out that you can, but in truth it takes most people a long, long time to get there. In order to accomplish this, you don’t need to assert your individuality to other people — you need to assert it to yourself.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — There are karmic implications to sex. If nothing else, that has been the resounding message of the lengthy Mars retrograde that draws to a close over the next few weeks. Karma is merely an analysis of cause and effect, which is a simple law that says every cause has many potential effects and any effect has many potential causes. But the heart of the matter is that there is a relationship between the two sides of the equation. In our era, most of the karma around sex is created due to lies, secrets and silence. We would remove many of the implications of sex were we to open up and tell the truth — but at the same time, many relationships as we know them would crumble. People who go through this almost always emerge with a better life, a lighter conscience and a more direct way of relating. As Mars comes to a halt in Libra, your 5th solar house, you’re being invited to clear the air of anything that is lingering; of all that you have not said; to express the basic, elementary truth of your heart and soul. The risk involved is shifting, tipping or upsetting the seeming balance of your existing relationships. You might ask: is it really balance, or is it a balancing act? How do you tell the difference? Balance is easy; a balancing act is a struggle.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — When you meet someone new, something that seems likely to be happening frequently for you right now, go right to the level of values. Cut past the superficiality and niceties and do your best to identify what you actually have in common with the person. Listen for clues about what he or she counts as the most significant elements of their existence. Listen for what matters to them. You don’t have time for anything else. What matters, that is, what exists on the values level, is the foundation of the relationship. You can only build on a foundation, so if you’re looking to create something, or to have your encounters with others serve a productive purpose, establish whether that deeper layer exists. It is unlikely to be based on appearances or the fact that you might be in the same line of work, or like similar music. You must be perceptive, and take into account both first impressions and what you learn over time. Notice when you’re ‘overlooking’ things or pretending they don’t matter. I have observed that people will indeed tell you where they are coming from, and that the only thing you need to do is listen and use the information you collect. What I am talking about here is the cultivation of trust. There are rare instances when trust is intuitive, and that intuition is correct. More often, you must use your conscious mind.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — It’s time to assess your relationship to the technology that surrounds you. There are days when you love it and days when you want to throw it all in the nearest swimming pool. I believe that the ‘technology issue’ currently represents the most critical turning point of the human race, and you may be feeling this in spades right now. You are more susceptible to its influences than many other people. I suggest you investigate how your use of devices has influenced your existence. Has interconnectivity connected you or isolated you? How much more time do you spend inside versus outside as contrasted to earlier in your life? When you think back 10 or 20 years, how was your social life different, in particular your group involvements? What about your one-on-one intimacies? Do you trust people more or less? One last thought: where do you think the infiltration of humanity by technology is headed, on the largest scale you can imagine? These questions are more complex than they may seem; they are the stuff that sociologists will be looking at for many decades to come. Yet within the emotional and spiritual levels of your life, the answers are accessible to you, and they will be meaningful. If there is something you’re concerned about on your behalf or that of your children, I suggest you make adjustments now.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Managing your finances, and working your way to true prosperity, is a matter of balance. Many different elements are involved, similar to the ‘credits’ and ‘debits’ lines on a bank statement, but more complex. There is the equation where time must balance out with money; making more money often means investing more time. There is the time and energy equation; sometimes you have time, but you have to manage your energy. Perhaps the most significant one is, how do you go beyond a linear model, that is, a dollar-per-hour model of supporting yourself? That’s a way of asking, what is the value on your intelligence? In order to support yourself on your ideas, you must understand the value of your ideas to others — and then connect with those other people. These are some of the themes that are described by Mars stationing direct in a few weeks, and working them out all month long will help you set yourself on a productive path. One more thing: there is no substitute for commitment; there is no alternative to applying yourself fully to what you want to do. Often where there is a question of money or of self-support, commitment is the heart of the matter. The dedication you must offer can seem like it requires a sacrifice. Yet in truth, what you offer must be wholly voluntary.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — After nearly three months of Mars retrograde in your sign, I trust you’ve done some thinking about what you want. It looks like you’ve learned about what you don’t want. Mostly your charts suggest you’ve seen what happens when you set the whole matter of desire aside, and just ‘let things happen’ and ‘see how they work out’. One hint from your astrology is learning to experience desire without guilt. To do that, you might need to use guilt as a way of discerning the degree to which you actually want someone or something. Guilt is a toxin, but for you it also may be a sign of authenticity. How is this possible? Guilt is an indicator of having been pruned, controlled and manipulated. It’s an emotional response that clues you into being under the perceived control of someone else, whether in the distant past, the recent past, or by someone in your life now. Authentic desire is one of the most dependable methods of navigation through the physical plane. For that to work, you must take hold of the freedom, indeed, the necessity, to want what you want, and also learn the art of unraveling guilt so that you have true authority over your life. This is one of the most challenging growth lessons in existence, but it’s also one that delivers both immediate and long-term results.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — For months, Mars has been retrograde in Libra, the most sensitive angle of your solar chart. This has provoked your imagination and your anxiety, and stirred you up emotionally. Now the retrograde is about to end, though once Mars stations direct on May 19, it will take more than two months to reach your sign. This phase takes the discussion to the subject of privacy and secrecy. Two months is enough time to make decisions about what you share and what you hide in your relationships. I suggest you make a careful inventory of what you allow others to know about you and what you choose to conceal, and why. Along with that, I suggest you look at any strategies you may have to insulate yourself, such as keeping separate groups of friends for different purposes, or managing whether certain individuals do or do not get to meet certain other individuals in your life. All of these scenarios present not just a map of your concept of intimacy, but of your concept of reality. These last phases of the Mars retrograde process are likely to emphasize the fact that you must live in a transparent way if you’re going to trust existence. Every secret you keep affirms that the world is dangerous and threatening. Every time you reveal yourself, you demonstrate that it’s safe to be alive as the person you really are.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — By now you have a pretty good idea who your friends are. You seem to have learned the value of both being appreciated and of pissing people off. It’s not that being annoying is a viable way of life, but in noticing who is irritated by you and who welcomes you, you can have an accurate sense of where you belong. Your life is not about popularity — it’s about finding your strongest, most viable place in society and working from that point of advantage. Carving out your niche is usually a process of trial and error, and for that to work you need both. Creating a space for yourself on the planet can have some brilliant moments, and it will inevitably get on some people’s nerves. Being your own person requires a measure of not taking things personally. It’s just that you’ve been so sensitive to what people feel, and it has not been easy for you to have a thick skin. One thing to consider is the extreme importance of allowing others to own their feelings, which implies that you do not own or control their feelings. When you’re handed something you don’t want, you have a right to pass it right back. In this process of establishing boundaries, you will take possession of what you feel, and what you intend to accomplish. That is the crucial step.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — With Mars stationing direct in your 10th house — the one that goes ‘all the way to the top’ — remember that leadership and authority are about relationships. These are not equal or level relationships, either. They are about authority, yet they also can be fair. What’s significant is that you are the one who must define fairness, and to do that, you must have a balanced mind, which is another way of saying equanimity. This is an interesting concept. It’s about one’s inner state, which has a way of expanding and reaching into the feelings of others. The relationships you’re building must be built on trust, and where you are in a position of authority, your willingness to play your role is a fundamental element of that trust. As the month unfolds, you’re likely to have a series of opportunities to step up to new challenges. I suggest you do this incrementally, never taking on more than you can handle. The goal is not to have power; the goals, if I may suggest a few, are to explore the feeling of competence, and what it’s like to collaborate with others in a satisfying way. Emphasize the quality of what you get done rather than how much or how impressive it is. If you’re concerned what others watching you might think, clearly, this is the focus.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may have the feeling that a close personal relationship has become so narrow that it’s not working for you. You are being called into a wider experience of life; you need your personal intimacies to grow and expand with you. One consideration here is that we are conditioned to create relationships that are ‘general partnerships’ rather than ‘limited partnerships’. In a general partnership, one size theoretically has to fit all, and one relationship is supposed to meet all purposes in our lives, which is plainly not practical in most situations. It might be, if you have an extremely retreating life, few ambitions and you don’t consider yourself on a path of rapid growth — none of which apply to you. Another dimension to this is that you need intense experiences. That’s just part of your nature. To have those experiences in a relationship, you need someone who can go there with you. You do a lot of guiding people into this concept, though that’s different from engaging with bold individuals who go there because they want to. Though this represents a big step from the seemingly intractable concept of one-on-one relationships that’s expected everywhere but hookup culture, you may need specific partners for specific aspects of who you are. This requires both confidence and mastery over your own life, and associating with others who trust you and who have authentic self-esteem.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Emphasize the positive. If you do, you’ll experience less resistance, and as a result, you will have more time and energy. Enough is going well that you can get a foothold in those aspects of your life and build from there. What this will do is push the issue of whether you have faith in yourself. Everyone experiences insecurity; Pisces has its own special variety, which can be debilitating in a subtle way. Yet the other side of that is that you possess the potential for faith that can get actual results. The fact that two centaurs are in your sign — Chiron and Nessus — reveals the possibility that you are sensitive to how dark the world is right now. There is no way you can deny this, even if such an approach worked in the past. Yet both of these planets also grant an unusual power of self-healing. That is the first and most significant step toward expanding your creativity and sense of mission into a working method that has a beneficial influence on the world. At this stage of your life it’s essential that you never take your own healing process for granted, and equally vital that you not get hung up in it, as if it’s the only thing there is. Work with your collaborators, use your time well and extend your creative awareness to everyone whose life you touch.

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Cardinal Grand Cross: To the Edge and Beyond

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Beginning Tuesday and into Wednesday, Mars in Libra retrogrades into a square to Jupiter, an opposition to Uranus and a square to Pluto. This is the perfection of the cardinal grand cross, four planets in an exact X with the Earth in the middle.

As the cardinal grand cross takes shape, Russia and Ukraine are on the brink of war. Developments Thursday may signify that Russia is willing to de-escalate, but we have a lot of astrology about to happen. Video still from The Guardian shows a protest from December, when the grand cross — a highly stressful aspect — was within a few degrees.

That, in turn, is one of the big moments in the Uranus-Pluto square — our era-defining aspect, the one that spans from 2012 through 2015 with several years tacked onto either side. Fast-moving, personality-driven planets like Mars getting mixed up with slow movers such as Uranus and Pluto can bring otherwise hidden events associated with the main aspect out to the front of awareness.

Additionally, the grand cross aligns exactly with the United States Sun, which is at 13+ Cancer. In some way the karma of the United States is involved in this event. The U.S. Sun is in its 8th house, so there is some material around commitments, shared resources and sex that is involved. Thankfully it’s Jupiter that’s conjunct the U.S. Sun rather than Mars, Uranus or Pluto, though one effect of Jupiter is to magnify things.

We are in a big moment, even counted on a scale of decades. The two most potent aspects I remember before this were the Saturn-Pluto opposition of 2001, and the fixed grand cross and total solar eclipse of 1999.

Speaking of eclipses, next week’s astrology is amplified by the fact of a solar eclipse. That happens Tuesday, April 29. So the grand cross and whatever it signifies is vibrating between the lunar eclipse of earlier in the week and the solar eclipse at the New Moon a week from Tuesday. The New Moon event suggests that this time between the eclipses is a seed moment, not just for setting intentions but also for focusing your mind on accomplishing them.

Said yet another way: the planets are aligning in a get-serious pattern. The combination of squares, oppositions, a generational event and a series of eclipses is describing the urgency of our moment and also how much influence we can have if we want it.

The discovery of Chiron was the first time that a natal chart for a planet was taken seriously by astrologers. This chart has many amazing features, including the Galactic Core rising to the degree (left side of chart, 26+ Sagittarius). Chiron is positioned near the edge of the 5th house; it’s the orange key with the number 3 next to it. That position is 3 Taurus and 9 arc minutes. Now check the Sun in the next chart.

Getting serious, however, is usually the thing we like to do the very least, here in our la-la land of adventure films, foamy sugar, iPods and iPhones and where even ‘progressive’ programs consist of one-third television commercials that verge on psychotic fantasies. Americans live in a country where adults are fed dietary fiber in gumdrops and 4.5 million guns are purchased every year.

In the United States there are 90 guns for every 100 people and no obvious connection between that and the more than 11,400 Americans killed by people using guns including homicide, suicide and accidental death in the first year after Newtown that were reported by the media. The actual number of people killed by guns was 33,173.

I’ve said a few times that one of the most serious problems of Western civilization is our seeming inability to connect cause and effect. Cause and effect is the Law of Karma, and the failure to make the connection can breed karma rapidly. And that is exactly — exactly, precisely — what our society does. We breed karma faster than it’s possible to get out of it, by any normal means not requiring a profound spiritual connection or help from friendly extraterrestrials good at cleaning up nuclear waste.

Meanwhile, many people want to wake up, and try to do so diligently. Yet the first thing anyone on a path of awakening is likely to discover is just how twisted their society is, and how driven by dark motives. That fact is not exactly encouragement for becoming conscious. Anyone with a shred of intelligence knows that to approach any aspect of the global crisis, more is demanded than their personal purity; we have to do more than what we deem to be ‘our part’.

Solving problems, whether personal or on a scale larger than one’s own immediate situation, involves becoming aware of the nature of the issue. This alone seems to be an obstacle — many global problems are extremely complex, or they seem that way. Meanwhile, one’s personal circumstances can be more than enough to bear. For anyone sensitive who feels the pull toward considering what we must solve to protect future generations, the pressure can be overwhelming.

It’s 2014 and people are still debating whether global warming is real. We might want to pay attention to who’s paying them. Photo by Ray Strange.

Even trying to approach or resolve a relatively simple problem within a community can lead to total frustration. This is often connected to the personalities who are invested in the dysfunction, the underlying politics or encountering those who are committed to things staying the way they are — often for reasons that are entirely opaque.

On a larger scale, a 10-minute discussion of an actual global problem or the motives driving it can be enough to have someone sobbing. For many, denial seems to be an essential survival tool. But denial doesn’t do anything and its effectiveness as a hedge wears off quickly.

Considering the pressure of this astrology, the world seems to be in a fairly ordinary state. Sometimes precision of aspects can lend itself to solutions. I believe they can be used that way; if we are going to get astrology working in our service, it’s necessary to use it as a map to connecting with collective energy and understanding trends that might otherwise defy understanding.

The astrology we’re experiencing looks like it could push anyone to the edge. That might be a psychological or emotional edge; a limit on tolerance of a situation. This could also represent a trip to the edge
of one’s intelligence — that is often productive, because the edge is where you can go beyond what you knew or thought of before. It’s the place to take the leap.

Yet everything about the current astrology says this must be done with precision.

The Sun in the Chiron Discovery Degree

Speaking of precision, there is an unusual feature of the April 23 grand cross, which has not eluded the perception of Chiron-spotters in the audience. Chiron is a small planet orbiting our Sun that was discovered in 1977. My impression after watching the world go by is that Chiron has been the most influential planet in shaping the ethos of modern professional astrology.

Chart for the grand cross of April 23, tuned with the Sun in the discovery degree and minute of Chiron. That is, in this chart the Sun is in the exact position that Chiron was in when it was discovered in 1977, 3 degrees of Taurus and 9 arc minutes. You can trace the grand cross by following the planets with the number 13 next to them.

At the moment of the alignment, the Sun is in the degree where Chiron was discovered. In fact, Mars square Pluto happens in a near-perfect synchronicity with the Sun conjunct the degree and minute where Chiron was discovered — 3 Taurus and 9 minutes of arc.

This is one of those connections that’s so strange and interesting and vibrating with meaning that I keep looking at it wondering how it’s even possible. We could translate this into, “Whatever the grand cross is about, it has something to do with the discovery of Chiron.”

Chiron is the planet that represents holistic consciousness. One of the first modern holistic healers, D. D. Palmer, discovered ‘chiropractic’ and did the first adjustment in 1895, the year that the first photograph was (unwittingly) taken of Chiron. Called a pre-discovery photo, it sat in the files till astronomers dug it out in 1977 to confirm the orbit of the new object; its discoverer, Charles Kowal, named it Chiron after the famous healer of Greek mythology. Most astronomers don’t believe in astrology but those who discover and name planets are often very good at it. Kowal gave Chirion its first keyword, maverick — one who stands away from the crowd.

Chiron, the first centaur, was a half-man, half-horse, and was abandoned as a child and raised by the god Apollo, who taught him medicine and surgery. Chiron then passed his skills to Asclepius, who became the god of medicine. Chiron is a healer but also a teacher of those on the stature of a god; he was also mentor to a generation of Greek heroes, including Heracles, Jason and Achilles.

So with Chiron, we get the theme of holistic consciousness, healing and also the vital theme of mentorship. There are many ways to learn things: books, classes, seminars and YouTube videos among them. But for serious, grounded and careful learning, there may be no better way than mentorship.

Chiron itself is prominent in the grand cross chart, part of a grouping of objects in Pisces that includes Neptune, Venus and two other useful minor planets, Nessus (another centaur) and Borasisi (similar to Pluto but a bit further from the Sun). None of these are asteroids; later in Pisces there is a rather phenomenal grouping of those.

Yet Chiron’s discovery degree, 3+ Taurus, can function in many ways like Chiron itself. It is a reminder that relates directly to the moment of discovery, and the era of discovery, when the new planet manifested.

Achilles and the Centaur Chiron painted by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (1708-1787). Chiron was mentor to many of the most revered Greek heroes, teaching them archery and other battle skills, battlefield medicine, ethics and in this illustration, music.

The 1970s were an exciting time, a dawning of the era of hands-on healing, the early acceptance of naturopathic medicine, awareness of the mind-body connection and when actual therapy as opposed to meds was something that had respect.

Notably, chiropractors were entering the struggle for their existence, and did battle with the official medical establishment, which was trying to destroy their profession.

In 1976, a year before Chiron’s discovery, a chiropractor named Dr. Chester Wilk brought a federal antitrust lawsuit against the American Medical Association (AMA) and numerous other allopathic medical organizations. The federal court ruled that doctors had waged a “lengthy, systematic, successful and unlawful boycott” designed to restrict cooperation between chiropractors and MDs, all in an effort to eliminate the chiropractic profession as a competitor in the United States healthcare system.

More interesting, though they had repeatedly attacked chiropractic medicine through something called the “Committee on Quackery,” testimony at the trial demonstrated that medical doctors leading the attack did not even know what chiropractic was or how it worked. After 14 years, Wilk and his attorney Mick Andrews won a substantial settlement that included direct admission of wrongdoing by the AMA and other organizations.

Who could persist this long against such injustice? Someone with Chiron on the midheaven, as Wilk has. The 10th is the house of professional achievement and reputation, as well as one’s relationship to the established power structure. Chiron in that position describes a person who is fearless, and who will go up against the whole system if necessary.

Today we take for granted that chiropractic, massage therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy and naturopathy are legal, legitimate and available in nearly any city and many smaller towns. It is true that the AMA and the drug companies attempt to crush anything that might compete with them, but it’s worth noticing that they have not succeeded.

Dr. Chester Wilk, a chiropractor, led a federal antitrust lawsuit against the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Illinois Medical Society and other allopathic organizations who he proved were conspiring to destroy chiropractic medicine. It took him 14 years, but he beat them. Dr. Wilk has Chiron on the midheaven, the most elevated planet in his chart. Photo from video interview.

It was not long ago that the word ‘massage’ meant going to a prostitute, and that people bandied around the term ‘psychosomatic illness’ as an insult, translating loosely to ‘it’s all in your head’.

The time of Chiron’s discovery was a time of the roots of the holistic movement reaching deep into the culture. We might lament that the medical establishment and GMO foods and big pharma have way too much power — but imagine a world with no alternatives, with no options.

Let’s consider the relationship of the Sun conjunct the discovery degree. The Sun is the astrological equivalent of the healthy ego. You can describe it as the place people want to shine in life, and seek success and glory. It’s one of the most powerful identity factors in astrology — often, the seat of the idea ‘I am’.

But the Sun can be a baby, seeking attention and wanting something for nothing. Other factors in the chart will describe how the person is willing to work or not work for their success (and potentially, glory); the person’s ability to actually be an adult.

In this chart, the Sun is making contact with the emergence of Chiron as an idea and as a reality. It’s as if the Sun has found its mentor, or connected to a source of higher knowledge.

The Chiron discovery degree shows up interesting places. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died this week, has the discovery degree rising (see the 3 Taurus 47 on the lower left of the diagram). This comes up when his chart is cast according to his officially recorded birth time (the degree rising advances every four minutes).

To me this placement is symbolic of the kind of growing up that we will need to embark upon in order to participate in solving the global crisis. The first step in that is individuals paying attention to their own personal healing, working with role models and becoming functioning adults. We have seen, in the past, many problems with immature people ending up in positions of power — we see the kinds of power games for which the world is so famous.

Grounded, healthy leadership requires individuals who are aware of themselves and of their relationship to their environment. It also requires people who have an actual spiritual connection, that is, whose perception does not end on the physical plane but who have the capacity to think and be sensitive on several layers of consciousness.

Yet this goes beyond the concept of ‘self help’ or being a better person. It goes entirely beyond the notion of what is self-serving, and beyond the idea of doing one’s bit. Inherent in Chiron is the drive for service, a passion and devotion to humanity that you really can’t fake.

There is one other thing. Chiron represents processing some of the darkest emotions and experiences that humans are capable of. Everyone has a little piece of this, and some people have quite a lot. On one level I’m talking about normal emotions but which can, if ignored, get blown out of proportion or acted out in extremely toxic ways. The denial of shadow material — emotions associated with fear, shame, guilt, abandonment and aggression — has led to more war and mayhem than perhaps any other factor, including greed (which is fed by all of the above). The holistic process described by Chiron demands honest awareness of these aspects of consciousness, if only so they can be brought to the light of healing.

Without the Sun in the Chiron discovery degree, this would be a frightening chart, indicative of all kinds of mayhem and violence with no way out. With a bold reminder of Chiron and what it represents, the scenario makes a lot more sense. We have a chart that reveals the problem, and it reveals the way to many potential solutions.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinnelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Elizabeth Michaud, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Sun Enters Taurus, Meets 1992 QB1

When the Sun enters Taurus on Saturday at 11:55 pm EDT, it immediately makes a conjunction to a minor planet called 1992 QB1, which (after 22 years in Aries) is now in the first degree of Taurus. Well, a minor planet but not so minor. QB1 was the first object ever discovered orbiting our Sun beyond Pluto. As such, it counts as the discovery of the Kuiper Belt. [See related article here.]

Illustration of the Kuiper Belt by Don Dixon, which originally appeared in Scientific American in 2000. The outermost inner ring is the orbit of Neptune. The inclined orbit would be something like Pluto, though with a much longer orbit than Pluto actually has; in 2000 it would represent a possible discovery, though the shape and inclination are evocative of Eris. The Kuiper Belt is the cloud of small objects that surround the solar system. © by Don Dixon, all rights reserved.

I associate QB1 with the art of thresholding — the conscious process of helping others get across mental and emotional barriers, including those associated with sex, emotional contact, self-awareness, death and dying, the birthing process and inaugurating new eras of their lives. In Taurus, we have an image of dissolving old patterns and personal customs as well as rigid and limiting self-concepts; there is an image of changing what seems impossible to change.

For more than 60 years, Pluto, a planet named for the Roman lord of death and the underworld, held the position of official furthest planet from the Sun. The furthest planet out sets a conceptual boundary, a kind of limit on what is considered possible. It seems to work as a container for existence that most people are not able to get beyond. [I explore this concept in an article called The Foggy New Edge of Neptune, written at the time that Eris was named.]

The discovery of QB1 initiated a time when we could, at least in theory, get beyond the “death works” school of thought — that is, a psychological hangup wherein the threat of death or industrial-scale murder were the most impressive things going. As Dr. Wilhelm Reich pointed out, psychiatry and psychology became obsessed with death around this time, leaving behind their prior theory that sexuality was the core of human consciousness. Why did they do that? According to Reich, they were afraid that the Nazis would kill them. I believe this closed off a vast area of human potential.

The six decades after Pluto’s discovery arrived with World War II, the bomb being dropped on Japan, the nuclear arms race, the Korean War, the Southeast Asian wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, genocide in East Timor, wars throughout Central America, a 10-year war between Iran and Iraq with both sides sponsored by the United States, then an outright massacre in Iraq initiated by the United States. In other words, it was one continuous, perpetual war from shortly after Pluto’s discovery in 1930 until the discovery of QB1 in 1992.

Dr. Wilhelm Reich, a psychiatrist, was not afraid to challenge the prevailing view that death was a more important force in the psyche than sex.

During these same six decades, the chemical industry contaminated the entire planet with DDT, PCBs and dioxins, all of them hormonal toxins. The real problem is that all of this became so pervasive it seemed normal. Attempting to adapt to life in this kind of society, many people have the motto, “Well, something’s gotta kill you.”

Astrology desperately needed a concept beyond Pluto, so it could describe something beyond all of this agony. The problem is that astrologers didn’t notice that one had been discovered. Yet after QB1 was noted and recorded by science, there followed a flood of other discoveries in what became known as the Kuiper Belt, some of which have been noticed by a few astrologers. Yet QB1 may be the least-often used scientifically significant planet in astrology, even by minor planet specialists.

That may be because the discoverers have chosen not to give it a name. Therefore it lacks an ego identity and mythological baggage. One thing it does not lack is meaning. The Sun’s ingress into Taurus and conjunction to this point all weekend may be a time when the themes of QB1 will come to the surface — if you’re curious, pay attention.

Events Surrounding the Grand Cross

Mars retrograde in Libra makes first contact with the grand cross on Tuesday, making a square to Jupiter at 3:27 pm EDT. Mars opposes Uranus Wednesday at 3:08 am EDT.

Mercury ingresses Taurus at 5:16 am EDT Wednesday, making a conjunction to 1992 QB1 shortly after. Mars then squares Pluto at 9:38 am EDT, which I consider to be the peak of energy. I would note that any one of these aspects would be significant — Mars square Jupiter (in mundane astrology, the potential for believing what is not true, exaggeration, false wisdom), Mars opposite Uranus (aggression, accidents, conflicts, potential breakthroughs, potential violence), and Mars square Pluto (inner conflict, inner movement, coming up against an inner limit; this is a potentially violent aspect as well).

Together, however, they represent one thought, one idea that I suggest be considered and taken as a whole, even if you don’t have words for it.

Detail of minor planets at the time of Mars square Pluto (or very close to it). Note that the only other planet exactly on the cross is Okyrhoe, a centaur planet with the shortest orbit of all the planets in its class. Discovered in 1998, it orbits our Sun in just over 24 years.

There’s one centaur planet on the grand cross, called Okyrhoe, named for the child of Chiron and Chariklo. Okyrhoe is in an exact conjunction to Pluto at 13+ Capricorn. Mars makes a square to Okyrhoe Thursday, April 14 at 1:22 am EDT. It is interesting that (using my set of about 120 points) there are no other minor planets besides this one exactly on the cross — no asteroids, no Kuiper objects, no other centaurs — just four planets and Okyrhoe, who in mythology was known for her gift of prophesy. Given the retrograde status of Mars, this is one reason why I’ve been cautious of (and cautioning against) making predictions associated with this whole grand cross scenario.

Once it retrogrades past the exact degrees of the grand cross, the next thing Mars does is make an exact conjunction to Hybris. This is the root of the word hubris. Martha Lang-Wescott delineates Hybris: “Expectation, glass-ceilings, limits — what one future-paces as their fate, their slot in life.” That is, in astrology, it can translate into one’s conditioned limitations.

Mars retrograde in Libra conjunct Hybris could take this whole discussion right into the realm of intimate relationships and our concepts of limitations that are associated with them (such as, “I cannot do this because I’m in a relationship” or “I cannot talk to you because I’m in a relationship,” etc.).

With Mars conjunct Hybris, I would add that there’s the obvious caution about good old-fashioned hubris as Shakespeare applied the concept (the tragic flaw, which is a form of unbridled ambition) and a more strict definition of the concept.

In other words, though the planets may be full of astrological testosterone, I suggest that the best approach is to be cool. Not pretend — actually be cool.

And How Does All of This Astrology Affect Me?

I never thought you would ask!

Earlier this month, after many months of research and prior writing (with The Mars Effect as my main warm-up), I recorded the 2014 Spring Reading, which looks at how the grand cross pattern influences your sign and rising sign. The package contains all 12 readings, which are 40 to 45 minutes each.

Photo by Jeff Bisti.

These readings are relevant now, but they will serve you for years. They will be helpful today. I predict that you will listen more than once and take notes. Play them in six months or in 2017 and they will still be relevant.

Each reading vibrates with a different message, looking at both the grand cross and then the specific astrology within your sign. For example (not including all the signs here), I cover Uranus in Aries for Aries, the eclipse in Taurus for Taurus, Jupiter in Cancer for Cancer, Mars retrograde in Libra for Libra, Saturn in Scorpio for Scorpio, Chiron and Neptune in Pisces for Pisces, and so on.

The readings are then cross-referenced — I recommend what other signs will be helpful for you to listen to. This is an awesome astrology product.

These readings are easy to follow, spoken in plain English. They are passionate, alive, motivational and a fantastic use of astrology. In terms of my recorded readings, I believe this is my best work, so far.

If you’re curious, there are three short recordings you can listen to for an idea of what I cover and the tone of the readings. You can listen to three samples from the readings as well as my welcome message to the project. You can also listen to my preview of the readings (recorded before I started). Those pages have other fun resources.

The full set of readings is $59. That is about what you will pay for many database-created reports on other websites. For that, you get 12 personal, friendly, extremely useful readings by me, which you can share with your household. Here is the link to purchase.

Please let me know how you like these readings. Thank you for doing your metaphysical shopping at Planet Waves.

Lovingly,

Taking time to smell the proverbial roses in one of Vyacheslav Mishchenko’s photos from his snail series.

Life at a Snail’s Pace

Is the speed of life these days getting you down? Is the time-warp feeling of these weeks between eclipses, combined with all the energy ramping up for the cardinal grand cross, feeling a little overwhelming?

Luckily the Sun ingresses Taurus Saturday, taking on that sign’s more languid approach to time and a renewed contact with the earth to balance all the fire and air in the sky. But when it comes to slowing down, even bulls got nothing on snails — a favorite subject of Ukrainian photographer Vyacheslav Mishchenko.

Mishchenko specializes in macro photography; that is, taking pictures with the camera very close to the subject, which is often very small. Some of his images are obviously staged (snails floating on cherries?) but that doesn’t diminish their otherworldliness, whimsy and beauty, or his clear appreciation for nature’s critters. Including those moving at a Taurean pace.

Lunar Eclipse in Libra: Polarity to the Max, and Back Again

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I welcomed the total lunar eclipse in Libra. This was the most listened-to edition of Planet Waves FM, with more than 7,099 unique visits to the website beween April 14 and 17. I start the program with the Mercury-Uranus-Pluto aspect, then look closely at the two sides of the eclipse, Aries and Libra. You get detailed information about how all eclipses work, and especially this one. For additional resources, please see the full post. If you are using an iOS device, please use this link. We’ve just published the Spring Reading! Order all twelve signs for $59.95.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Dan and Eric Have Plenty to Say About Chords

In this week’s edition of Dan and Eric’s Music Appreciation Hour, we review scales. Then we talk about harmonies, intervals and counterpoint (the elements of chords). Then we go into major chords, minor chords, suspended chords, and power chords (and then after a digression about Nirvana and power chords) we get into sixths, sevenths and other fancier (and slightly more dissonant) stuff. If you are using an iOS device, please use this link. We’ve just published! Order all twelve signs for $59.95.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for March Friday, Feb. 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Aries New Moon published Tuesday, March 25. Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon were published Tuesday, April 8. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Reader Feedback on my Recorded Readings

This is an excerpt of a letter that floated into my inbox this morning. It’s from someone who just experienced The Mars Effect annual readings, and apparently a few others. The Aries birthday reading is available now.

“I’m highly grateful for the work you do. All of the readings I have gotten from you have touched my Soul the Core of its very essence. I just ordered a Gemini Reading for my Other Half, aka Soul Mate. We both listened to the reading together this morning and it had such a profound effect in more ways than one; with this knowledge we become closer in knowing that we have the power to create a life of abundance and purpose. I’m thankful to you for sharing your gifts with Hue Manity and yes I did say Hue Manity.”

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 18, 2014, #995 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — In every area of your life, you must proceed with caution, especially where your relationships are concerned. Caution does not mean fear. Rather, it means awareness and proceeding with a commitment to having accurate information. Where human relationships are concerned, there are three sources of information: yourself, the person you’re communicating with, and your environment. Because you must direct your own life based on your feelings, you are the most significant source of intelligence. Given that your primary mission in life is to define who you are on your own terms, that means it’s crucial that you actually listen to yourself. Yet others will give you vital feedback, especially about what they want and what they intend to do, though you may need to ask directly. I suggest you be bold and direct about that. As for your environment, observe whether it’s supporting you or not. What are the complexities and wrinkles in the situation? Who else is involved or influencing the flow of events? Where are you, and do you feel like you belong there? The more sincere your inquiries, the more sincere the answers will be.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $59.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — In order to think outside a container, it’s necessary to know its shape and its dimensions. Then it will be clear when you’re within a previously defined boundary, and when you’re outside. Once you’re in a larger space, you have the challenge of defining something that is essentially infinite. At that point, constraints can seem appealing, but you also know you’ve outgrown the ones you’ve lived in for so long. But you don’t need constraints; you need workable definitions and approaches to living, one of which would include flexibility. All of this starts with your mind and your imagination. You are accustomed to working not only with rigid concepts but also with limits on what you think is possible, what you’re capable of and what you’re willing to believe. If you start with the premise that anything is possible and some things are preferable, you will go light years toward accessing your deeper talent and sense of purpose. The intelligence source that you are currently tapping into (or that you can if you want) might feel like something ‘other than yourself’. That’s not really true, but if you have that feeling, you’re accessing a source of vital information that you can trust.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You currently have the ability to see around corners and deep into yourself, though I suggest you turn your head and look in all directions. Travel home by a different route than you went someplace. Make conscious decisions to alter your routines and to keep your perspective moving. If you can, go to a high place like a hilltop or a tall building and look down on your neighborhood or community. Extraordinary astrology in your 10th solar house, Pisces, is encouraging you to re-evaluate your goals and allow yourself to do so in a radical way. It’s easy to consider what you want based on what you think is the right thing, or what you planned on doing in the past. Your astrology is describing a scenario where you take the chance of considering what you really want to accomplish. That would obviously involve a risk of some kind, engaging with the unknown and unpredictable. When you see the potential to fail as well as to succeed, you know you’re in the right place.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — So many factors now are working in your favor, it would be difficult to list them all — but they include an abundance of creativity, of passion and of curiosity. What you need to keep a handle on is your emotions. The challenge there is that your feelings may deceive you. So your first priority is sidestepping conflict, which is another way of saying recognizing what does not matter, and removing all emphasis from it. Others may try to engage you on that level; your job is to move on. Recognize what actually does mean something to you and place your emphasis there. It will help if you prioritize, especially on some basis other than what you were attached to in the past. That’s one reason I’m suggesting that your own preference and immediate significance are vital to you now. They always were, but one fact of civilization involves all the efforts at conning people out of their true needs and desires. One other thing: Focus on quality work. In this world, you can do just about anything you want, as long as you do it well.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You seem to be facing the ongoing challenge of mental clarity and organizing what may feel like an overwhelming workload. The key to simplifying your scenario is systems design. There are always simpler, more efficient and more effective ways to do things. Success often involves accomplishing more, so the methods you used when you were less successful (or had more modest plans) need rethinking and revision. Begin with a blank template and make an inventory of all you want to get done, all that’s demanded of you by your situation and the resources you have to work with. You can include assets that you would like to be working with but don’t have available yet; one of the most important concepts of the new design is flexibility, and another is the prerogative — clearly stated and kept right in the front of your mind — of creating options. If a system is to be flexible, it has to be designed as such from the beginning. Perceived limits need to be accounted for, and addressed directly as variables — not as mandates. You’re accustomed to being the most flexible aspect of any scenario. Now the time has come to bring everyone and everything else up to that same standard.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — The question, “What next?” is second only in importance to “What now?” One depends on the other. You get to the next place from where you are now. So start by evaluating your exact location and status at this moment. Then figure out how you got here. I suggest you use logical tools such as a chronology, a list of your prior goals, a list of your current goals, and who you are trying to please. It will be extremely helpful if you do an analysis of your financial situation, and study your assets and your liabilities. Note exactly where your money comes from and where it goes. Figure out what you could or would do if you had more money or less debt. I can give you a little vignette that may help make the point. When people say to me, “I would go to therapy but I can’t afford it,” I suggest that they go to the first session and say they want to work on why they don’t have enough money for the things they need. If this moment in your life comes with one turning point, it’s about taking a no-bullshit approach to your finances.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Confidence is the issue. On Earth it’s always the issue, but for now, it’s really, truly, the issue. Keep that in mind every moment, and ask what you would do, if only you had the confidence. Meanwhile, you need to keep in mind when you are reacting, when you’re responding and when you’re provoking. The difference may be sly and subtle; for example, you may be reacting to someone a certain way in order to provoke a response. You may resort to manipulation. In order to be confident, you have to know what you’re doing. You must understand the politics of any given situation, including the most intimate, and proceed appropriately. Chances are that will involve a blend of being real and choosing your words carefully. Doing both will compel you to know your own mind, and to practice stating your desires and your intentions to others. Said simply, you have to stop bullshitting people about who you are and what you want. Withholding your true feelings is not getting you anywhere, and you know personally how many setbacks it’s been responsible for. It’s time to be real and only real.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may feel lost or powerless when the exact opposite is true. What you’re experiencing now is a perfect example of the distinction between perception and reality. Of course, if you feel lost, you’re likely to act that way, and that will be real to you. The main challenge you face is twofold. One is that you have an overwhelming sense of responsibility, to someone or something — I suggest you direct it toward yourself. The other is denial. It’s easy for you to pretend that what is, is not (in a diversity of forms.) Over the next 10 days, you will have a number of orientation points that will help you determine where you stand with yourself. Some of these may emerge in moments of conflict. If you are in a situation where you are triggered or where you strongly disagree with someone, that is a point of orientation. You will be able to see clearly what your opinion about anyone or anything really is — and that is the very thing you want to navigate by. This means that all emotions, negative and positive and seemingly neutral, will be useful — in truth, everything you feel and learn must go to productive use. That is the nature of your moment.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — This is not the time to make or break contracts — you’re under too much pressure, there are variables you don’t know about, and it’s essential that you figure out what you want before you commit to anything new. I suggest you hold to your current course as the grand cross and solar eclipse do their work, though obviously if you encounter something interesting to do, do it if you want, as long as you don’t sign away any portion of your future longer than an evening or weekend adventure. The very most significant thing you can do is to see your options. This really is one of the great challenges facing humanity, even in this time of so many alleged choices. Most of the usual options don’t apply to you; they are too trivial. Your astrology suggests this is a time of authentic, deep decisions for you, and to make such decisions you need some idea of what is available. Your fiery nature usually likes to jump into things headlong without considering what might develop. Your current astrology is saying you need to be a clear thinker, an analyst and a visionary to make the most out of your options, many of which you don’t yet know exist.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You know who you are and where you’re going. You know — but I don’t suggest you say a word to anyone else. Rather, begin to slip into the life you’re embarking on like a hand gently wiggling into a well-fitted glove. As I’ve suggested before, your astrology seems, on one level, to be pushing you into making radical decisions, particularly where your career or business is concerned. I am suggesting that you make subtle decisions, choices smaller than you may think matter. Most of them involve people and how you relate to them. In terms of your business life, everything you do right now comes down to the most intricate fabric of your human contacts, and the conscious cultivation of trust. Yet at the same time there is also a matter of appearance involved. You must be careful about ever using appearance to deceive. Rather, use the magic and power of presentation to convey the underlying truth of who you are. Present your real talents in the most elegant way, coming right from your soul. Most success is not built on this — yours will be.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You can feel everything that’s happening, and it’s essential that you do. Those who are close to you may have no idea the extent of your sensitivity or how tuned into your personal world or the larger world around you, you are. The information that’s coming to you, and that will continue to come to you, is entering your awareness for a reason. I suggest you stay out of the fray; that you not leap into the center of the action, or involve yourself in anything that is only peripheral to your life — it would be way too easy to get distracted. Part of the deeper purpose of what you’re observing and — by direct extension, learning — involves an ongoing project in leadership training. One key to leadership is knowing when to get involved in a situation and when to back off. In this case, discretion is definitely the better part of valor. You seem to be in a grooming process for a very specific purpose, one that calls on you to have solid knowledge and many contacts, and that will make itself known when the time is right. Pay attention because the timing will be significant.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Remember, Chiron is in your sign. Given all the astrology that is surrounding us, if I had to tell you one thing, in one short sentence, I would say: Chiron is in your sign. Therefore, embody the healer. Be the place of sanctuary, the mind that is open to wisdom, the one who participates in the eternal chain of knowledge passed from teacher to student, one generation to the next. Tune your mind to the interconnectedness of all things. As you notice the connections, do your best to have patience with those who don’t see them, or who seem committed to not noticing. Remember that you have not chosen the path of sacrifice. There may be certain circumstances and things that you must renounce, but that is for the purpose of being open and available to that which is exponentially better. Remember, finally, in any situation you may encounter, to ‘seek not outside yourself’. Seek within for what you need — be it knowledge, resources, strength or awareness. You are not the source, but at this time in your life, a deep connection within you is opening up to the source. Ask sincerely and be willing to receive.

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When Worlds Align

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Dear Friend and Reader:

This week the Earth passed directly between the Sun and Mars.
That’s called the Sun-Mars opposition, which was exact Tuesday at 5:03 pm EDT. This was the midpoint and peak moment of the Mars retrograde cycle, with the Earth, Mars and Sun forming an exact alignment across the solar system.

Still image from video of a fistfight involving about 20 men and one woman — basically a riot — in the Ukrainian parliament Tuesday.

Mars, named for the Roman god of war, is the planet of assertion, aggression and fiery energy. The Sun in Aries (another name for Mars) is the embodiment of that sign. So this aspect really was the full embodiment of Aries, in the style of an opposition, or confrontation.

One reading of that aspect is a commentary on the nature of violence. Because Mars is retrograde in Libra, that implies the potential for an indirect or sneaky approach to aggression.

Mars in Libra describes the need to get below surface appearances and the potential for a two-faced approach to a situation (that being the core meaning of the word diplomacy, which is a kind of alternative to war).

Tuesday night, the day of the exact opposition, Rachel Maddow aired a segment called Stages of Political Conflicts Short of War, which focused on a series of synchronous events the day of the Sun-Mars opposition.

Maddow covered one episode of ‘passive’ aggression and mockery, an episode of direct verbal aggression expressed openly (both involving American politics), and finally a full-on brawl that took place in the Ukrainian parliament earlier that day. To some extent the American incidents were all representative of normal politics. Our Ukraine bureau reports that the fistfight among about 20 Ukrainian legislators is “usual behavior” — there have been at least five such incidents since January of this year.

[Here is the video of Tuesday’s brawl from Ukrainian television. It’s more interesting in Russian, with the play-by-play narrated. Here is one fight from four years ago involving a member of parliament who is a former heavyweight champion — the big dude you will recognize.]

While it’s interesting that these things happened the same day, it’s more interesting that a major news anchor chose to focus the issue of the types of aggression on the exact day of the opposition.

Two children attending a vigil for the students injured in the stabbing at Franklin Senior Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Photo by Shannon Stapleton.

It’s as if the aspect symbolized a degree of awareness and reflectiveness on the theme of conflict and how it manifests. To me the symbol here is not the aggression itself but rather the choice to study it. Aggression is commonplace but reflecting on it is rare.

About 10 hours later, a student ran through the halls of a Pennsylvania high school stabbing people with two large knives. He injured 21 people, four of them critically, before being subdued by an assistant principal and another student.

This was the first American school mass stabbing incident that I recall, and it happened with the Sun within one degree of opposition to Mars. At the time of the incident, Aries was rising and Libra was setting, putting the Sun-Mars opposition onto the horizon of the chart — the area of greatest emphasis.

The lunar nodes were the closest elements to the horizon, suggesting that whatever happened was the eruption of an old story. Pluto in Capricorn is the most elevated planet and Jupiter in Cancer the furthest below the horizon, which brings in the wider story of the cardinal grand cross that is now unfolding. What happened in that school was not an isolated incident but rather something representative of a much wider reality.

My view of knife attacks is that they are more intimate, personal and gutsy than gun attacks; one must make contact with one’s target without the use of a powerful machine or a projectile. Also there is not the seemingly easy out of suicide and the attacker is almost assured to get caught.

One interesting thing is that all the descriptions I’ve heard sounded a little like this one from Reuters: “The attacker was known to be a ‘nice boy who always said hi’ and was also referred to by a fellow student as someone who kept to themselves.”

Oscar Pistorius and his sister Aimee being driven from court on Friday in Pretoria, South Africa.
Photo by Waldo Swiegers.

So we have an example of peeling back the veneer (a Libra thing) by retrograde Mars, and the person who is seemingly harmless and passive turning into a vicious aggressor. One gets the impression that the retrograde is serving to reveal, rather than conceal, the underlying aggressive nature of the person or the situation — that situation being the one our society is in, and that as a result, that we are in.

All of this happened with the backdrop of the murder trial of double amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius for the killing of Reeva Steenkamp on Feb. 14, 2013. Pistorius claims that he shot his girlfriend because he thought she was an intruder. She got out of bed, went to the bathroom, then he fired at her repeatedly with a high-powered pistol through the bathroom door, later claiming he thought she was a burglar.

This week the prosecution started to dismantle Pistorius’ absurd and insulting claim of self-defense, ruthlessly attempting to reveal that he’s a liar. He did this in a directly confrontational way that you would not likely see in an American court (for fear of offending the jury). At one point the prosecutor demanded that Pistorius take responsibility for what he did.

A video showing Pistorius’ prowess with guns and exploding a watermelon with a “zombie stopper” rifle was entered into evidence this week, along with his comment that “it’s softer than brains” and some loud, morbid laughter. So too was a photograph of Steenkamp’s shattered head.

Again the theme was peeling back the facade on violence and aggression, revealing it for what it is. As Mars retrogrades into a simultaneous opposition to Uranus and a square to Pluto that’s exact April 23, we may be seeing more of this kind of demonstration. It will be difficult to hide, as transits of Mars to Uranus and Pluto can be considerably more energetic than aspects to the Sun. That said, Pistorius himself has a close Sun-Mars square in his natal chart.

Aries Sun Aspects: More to Come

At the moment we have three nearly simultaneous aspects, two of which involve the Aries Sun and one of which involves Venus in Pisces. On the surface they would seem to be very different creatures, but I see an underlying theme.

Let’s take them in order. Friday, April 11, at 3:11 am EDT, the Sun aligned with Juno in Aries; at press time, the alignment is still exact within a quarter of a degree. Juno is the third-discovered asteroid, discovered in 1804, technically called (3) Juno.

Triple conjunction of Sun, Juno and Eris on April 12 looks like it could be a revolt against the loss of individuality that is so common to many relationships. The conjunction is on the left side of the chart, just above the horizontal line. All three planets involved have the number 22.

Named for the Roman equivalent of Hera, Juno is associated with relationship themes, but really of the more challenging kind. It’s not the picture of connubial fidelity. Rather, it tends to depict the crisis of faith in relationships: struggles with fidelity, jealousy and with simply expressing one’s needs and expectations.

There is frustration implicit in Juno. In the discovery chart of this asteroid (perhaps the most helpful tool for delineating a minor planet), Juno is in the early degrees of Aries, taking a square from Mars, a square from Chiron and an opposition from Mercury and Saturn. There is nothing but tension in this aspect pattern, and Juno itself is right in the fray.

This is a cardinal grand cross, located very close to the Aries Point; all the planets are very early in their signs. [This article from December 2012 includes a detailed discussion of the Juno discovery chart, and the chart itself.] The cardinal grand cross is similar to what we’re experiencing right now, and once again Juno is in the action.

I would note the irony of a planet associated with relationships being discovered in the first degrees of Aries, the sign of “I am.” It’s as if the relationship thing is a ruse, or as if the Gestalt therapists are right, that one must always put oneself first. You could say that Juno represents the lesson of actually being present in one’s relationships rather than slipping into the background and taking a passive approach, then boiling over with resentment later.

One could write a book about this discovery chart and its commentary on how young people are herded into a certain kind of relationship, without any real discussion of the matter, or discussion of alternatives. Relationships are all expected to have one destination. The marriage contract is a kind of lock, but rarely is there the maturity necessary either to understand the agreement or to co-exist in the situation.

Chart for the South African equivalent of a 911 call the morning that Oscar Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp. Juno is rising, to the left side of the chart right above the horizon on the left. The motive for this murder was a jealous episode. In addition, the Sun is conjunct Nessus to one-sixth of a degree. Mars is also conjunct Chiron. This is a packed chart. I plan to discuss it on the next Planet Waves FM.

You might say that Juno presents a double image: that of the expectation of the perfect relationship, embodied in marriage, and the struggle that can ensue once that is enacted. Marriage seems like an easy solution to the relationship puzzle, then there is seemingly no escape, or not at least without some huge and unreasonable consequences. Most of those consequences are based on unmet expectations, unmet needs and frustration. Then there are the ever-present financial implications of marriage and divorce.

Imagine how much easier things would be if people could actually express their needs and their expectations and negotiate on level ground. Imagine if we could take up the power to design our own relationship agreements and not have to sign up for the stock model. Most people put far more time into evaluating a one-year lease than they do the implications of the marriage contract.

And that is really ridiculous. Once you start researching marital property laws (which are state by state) you make all kinds of chilling discoveries about what happens to your assets once you tie the knot. The implications are profound.

Juno has a contemporary manifestation. In the only chart we have for Pistorius shooting Steenkamp, the telephone call to the police, Juno in Capricorn is rising one degree above the horizon. To me this indicates that the motive for this murder was a jealous episode. I think we have some work to do around everything that Juno represents and must begin to write new stories rather than trying to live out the same old ones over and over again.

Now we are getting an experience of Sun-Juno opposite retrograde Mars, Vesta and Ceres in Libra. There is a lot of information in there but one comment seems to be about how marriage does not guarantee hot sex. Marriage does not guarantee freedom from the jealousy issue; that can rear its head at any time, and it can be worse in a marriage because you have more to lose. Marriage does not guarantee anything, despite the inflexible nature of the contract. And most significantly, marriage is not the problem — the issue as I see it is people’s struggle or lack of a struggle to understand themselves and one another.

Also Friday, Venus is conjunct Neptune in Pisces. On its face this is a friendly aspect, certainly rich in potential for one’s fantasy life. Just about any astrologer would say it’s good for romance. It’s about as Pisces as it gets, with the modern ruler and one of the classical planets associated with Pisces joining together. Venus soaked with Neptune in Pisces could stand for the ideal woman, a woman’s ideals of relationship, or the ultimate fantasy woman.

Illustration of Hera, the Greek predecessor of Juno, by Soa-Lee.

The fantasy attribute of this aspect is powerful. I see it working on at least two levels. One level is idealized partnership and romanticized sex. Unless one is part of ‘sex culture’ it’s rare to think about sex in a way that does not involve romanticizing it; that is, casting it into some kind of script or drama that makes it palatable and socially acceptable. (The closer one gets to orgasm, however, the more that stricture falls apart.)

This is perfect relationship fodder — and then in the same moment, the complexity of Sun-Juno kicks in. The ideal does not usually meet reality. The reality in our society is that the individual and his or her intentions trump the relationship almost every time — eventually or right away.

We tend to be a society of takers rather than givers, and enter relationships with huge expectations, many of which are packed into our heads by movies and TV — or what we didn’t get last time that we think we deserve this time.

In another incarnation, Venus-Neptune has that self-idealized state of mind, which could be a real case of ‘I’m so wonderful, nobody is good enough for me’. This is accented in the chart by an exact square to Venus-Neptune by Niobe, an asteroid about pride and humbling experiences.

The other level of Venus-Neptune is the beauty, power and boundless nature of fantasy. Nearly everyone has a fantasy life that goes beyond the romantic level, and that is controversial. Many people of every sex and gender do in fact have fantasies that might indeed be considered socially unacceptable — whether they violate a law or custom, because they involve people outside the marriage or primary relationship, or because they’re super interesting, kinky and lots of fun.

In this respect, fantasy has the potential to be revolutionary. It also opens doors that many people prefer to keep closed, and that is why it’s generally considered a secret. To some people it’s frightening or worse, because it represents a potential for what they might do that in reality they would never do, or admit to wanting to do.

There is plenty of activity in Pisces right now, including a four-way conjunction of Hebe (codependency, enabling behavior), Arachne (interconnections, conspiracies, scandals), Pandora (everything comes out and cannot be put back in) and Chiron. That conjunction is a close neighbor of Venus-Neptune. I see it as representing the fear of what happens if the contents of one’s imagination get out. It’s almost like a fantasy scenario of its own — the paranoid kind that sometimes comes along with some really hot thought.

Eclipse of the Moon in Libra on April 15, 2014. The eclipse is to the upper right side of the chart; the Moon is the grey crescent, opposite the yellow circle, which is the Sun. Notice how the planets are arranged in a kind of barbell — follow all those purple lines in the middle of the chart. Toward the bottom is Aries and toward the top is Libra. So this eclipse is a rather impressive study in polarity.

The revolutionary nature of fantasy shows itself in the Sun conjunct Eris, which describes an assertion of independence, a subversive or dishonest approach to gaining one’s independence, and on a really good day, the intention of being a whole person. That aspect is exact Saturday, April 12, at 7:56 am EDT. It is actually a triple conjunction of the Sun, Juno and Eris that looks like a potent assertion of independence within relationships.

Given the power of this astrology, I think it’s going to take some work and some awareness for that not to be self-destructive. The starting point would be simple honesty. As a culture and as individuals, we need what Eris has to offer in its most positive expression, but that is rare to find. More often Eris asserts its energy in a subversive way rather than a direct one, which sounds like another expression of Juno.

Mercury conjunct Uranus, and passing through the cardinal grand cross on Monday, emphasizes the point of communicating, as soon as possible, what it’s necessary to say. ‘Possible’ really means ‘willing’, since anything is possible and the actual factor tends to be acting on one’s desire to be understood.

The balance between self and other, between individuality and coupledom, sorting out one’s own needs and desires versus those of the other, is highlighted again by Tuesday’s eclipse of the Moon in Libra, exact at 3:42 am EDT. The eclipse is a turning point, as all eclipses are. It’s likely to work like a catalyst that brings out many properties hidden in the recesses of this chart.

The eclipsed Moon is conjunct Ceres, which is saying that if a relationship is not nourishing, what good is it? There’s also a question of what to do with all the pain and hurt of the past. It’s a valid and necessary question, and the eclipse is likely to point to sources of information and healing if not direct answers. Yet I see Ceres as a reminder to go in the direction of nourishment.

I will say this. Given this astrology, I strongly suggest you say what you need, clearly and calmly, and ask others what they need, and listen carefully. Between you both, you can probably work out a solution to whatever puzzle this presents. If you cannot, then it’s time to consider some alternatives, which need not be earth- (or relationship-) shattering.

All of this astrology is so interesting, I’m likely to record and publish Planet Waves FM on Monday night (one day early), ahead of the eclipse, to ride that wave while this astrology is still hot.

I will see you there.

Lovingly,

Spring Reading: Astrology On Fire, Ready Later

Dear Planet Waves Client:

Your Spring Reading is nearly ready. As you’re reading this, I’ll be recording the Pisces chapter, and the full report will be out later today. [Pre-order at this link.]

The astrology is on fire, as the Mars retrograde peaks and morphs into a series of eclipses and a grand cross aspect. Then Mars stations direct on May 19 and the adventure continues.

This set of readings captures that energy and delivers it to you in a clear, useful, bold way. These plain-talk discussions, each lasting 40 minutes or so, work for your Sun, rising and Moon signs.

Then at the end of each, I cross-reference and recommend other signs to read (for relationships and career, for example). Note, I always recommend listening to your opposite sign for an additional perspective on your relationships.

I have two audio samples for you to get a sense of what I’ve been up to — a project preview recorded before I started the readings, and then samples from three readings.

The price is still at the pre-order level — $39.95. The moment it’s published we will go to the full price of $59.95. This is for all 12 readings, which you may share with your household.

Our theme music for this project is a collaboration between Daniel Sternstein and me — he is playing guitar and I am playing the much easier keyboard and synth parts.

This is a fun astrology project that you are likely to listen to again and again. It’s been a lot of fun doing it and I am sure you will love it.

Thanks for your business.

w/love

Research, Writing and Editing Credits: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Carol van Strum and Chad Woodward. Page assembled and coded by Anatoly Ryzhenko. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Dom Nader (Christiaan Van Vuuren) in the GQ spoof — complete with stockings. Search “Bondi Hipsters Miranda Kerr” in Google for side-by-side images of the real photo spread and its, um, doppelganger.

Flipping Gender Stereotypes of ‘Sexy’

With Mars still making its way retrograde through Libra (which is ruled by Venus and relates to themes such as balance and relationships) the idea of flipping gender or sexuality stereotypes makes perfect sense — though it’s hardly a new idea. Two provocative photo projects making the Internet rounds lately seem to fit the bill; but do they do so equally?

In one, Australian comedy duo Bondi Hipsters decided to spoof a recent GQ photo spread that featured Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr in several stereotypical ‘sexy poses’.

From the series “Mature.”

Christiaan Van Vuuren — who posed in character as his alter-ego Dom Nader — told The Huffington Post the spoof was a response to “the over-sexualisation of the female body in the high-fashion world. For some reason, as soon as you put a man in there … it’s an entirely different thing that we aren’t used to seeing.”

He has a point; then again, if you’ve ever seen the homoerotic ads for clothing manufacturer Abercrombie & Fitch (or the hyper-sexualized ads for most men’s colognes), it’s clear that the fashion industry will sexualize anyone it can get its hands (or lens) on. The “over-sexualisation of the female body” does, however, seem to have a stronger and historically longer presence in the media and in classical art.

Which brings us to photo project #2: Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf’s series of septuagenarian former models posing in classic pin-up scenes. The photo series, titled Mature, seems at first to strike an overdue note: that women long past their reproductive years can still be boldly sexy.

While some of the images are indeed fun and racy, friend-of-Planet-Waves and feminist sex educator/pioneer Betty Dodson pointed out why they miss the mark: by taking to high heels, lingerie and pin-up poses, these women are still catering to a stereotype of sex appeal constructed by the male gaze and male expectations.

In doing so, they come off more as a satire, and miss the mark on what would make a 70-something woman sexy: her power and her presence. This would not necessarily be about sexual power per se, but about the power of awareness, knowledge, maturity and a dominant personality, among other factors. Said another way, sexy at 23 is a different creature from sexy at 73. Never (hardly ever) the twain shall meet; check out the photos and decide for yourself.

Two Editions of Planet Waves FM: Astrology and Music

The Sun was opposite Mars Tuesday.

Sun opposite Mars in the charts and the artwork of George Carlin, Anne Rice and David Lynch

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I look at the Sun opposite Mars as it manifests in the astrology charts and the artwork of David Lynch, Anne Rice and George Carlin. I look at several different expressions of this aspect, all of them bold — in standup comedy, erotic writing and music.

NOTE TO LISTENERS — I plan to expand the Q & A section of the program, and for that, I need your questions. It will help if your questions are short and clear. Please include your full birth data, which will be kept confidential unless you say otherwise. Please send to ERIC@FRANCIS.PW.

Music Hour: Dan and Eric Appreciate Scales

Who thought scales could be so much fun? In this week’s edition of Dan and Eric’s Music Appreciation Hour, we go through the concept of a scale, the history of scales, different kinds of scales (major scales, the modes, the pentatonic scale and its modes, etc.) with our guitars plugged into the board for live demo. You will learn all kinds of interesting, enlightening and even freaky stuff, such as how scales are used to manipulate you into hating Burger King and loving McDonald’s. Program includes some fresh theme music as is our custom — a fine way to spend 53 minutes, without commercial interruption.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for March Friday, Feb. 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Aries New Moon published Tuesday, March 25. Moonshine horoscopes for the Virgo Full Moon were published Tuesday, March 11. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Reader Feedback on my Recorded Readings

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 11, 2014, #994 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You don’t need to assert your independence or pitch a fit to get what you want. You would go a long way toward your goal by having one, and by being aware of what it is. Then put it into words that you understand, and that another person can understand. Your solar chart suggests you may be inclined to take a less progressive approach such as responding to some situation with a combination of jealousy and thinly veiled aggression. If I may be so bold, you don’t have to fight to be you. If you feel like you do, you might consider the nature of that relationship and whether you belong there. All of this said, intimate partners or female relatives will be more open to what you have to say than you may imagine, so make sure you write the bit about “they won’t care” out of the script. Be fair, speak your mind and see what happens. I suggest you do this well before push comes to shove, and with as little urgency as you can offer your ideas.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Use your imagination, and at the same time notice when you’re expecting life to live up to your fantasy. I would say that one cancels the other out. Applying imagination is an active process, a sustained creative approach to living; expecting things to be the way you imagine them puts you in a passive role, that of hope and expectation. You need the active approach right now. One reason I say this is because life will offer you so much more when you take control of your creative power and put it to use for yourself. Another is because the kinds of challenges that you’ll be facing over the next week or two will be much more rewarding when you take up your role as director of the movie rather than an actor in it. Be aware that you’re under considerable pressure that you may only be dimly conscious of, and that is unlikely to have a name. Therefore I suggest you give yourself healthy vents and modes of expression that you explore as fully as you can until the Sun enters your sign on April 20. Then, plenty that was hidden will suddenly be apparent.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You look like you’re ready to play the lottery of life and take a chance that you would never usually dare. It may actually be worth it. You may not feel like you have a choice, or as if you would never forgive yourself if you didn’t take the opportunity. If so, get ready to dive in with total courage. And understand that you are opening yourself up to what looks like total change, renewal, self-reinvention or some vast experiment with your life. One thing I would suggest is that you identify and sort out your values from those of people around you. Know your own motives and know when you’re being influenced by someone else, or particularly by a group. Try to notice whether you’re acting out of fear or desire. In all, the planetary picture is complex, but that may not stop you from making a choice that seems simple and that you feel driven by some mysterious forces to make. And remember there is no predicting the outcome, which seems to be the most vibrant benefit of the experience.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You may feel like a lot is depending on you right now, and that may be true. I suggest however that you keep your attention on what you’re doing rather than what everyone else is up to. Stay oriented on the purpose you’ve defined for yourself, because if you do, you’re likely to take an enormous stride in the direction of success. You may need to give this some thought, and you may need to figure out a way to insulate yourself from a lot of activity that seems important but which is less meaningful than it appears. Make sure you have time and space to think, to consider what you’re doing, and to make all of your communication meaningful. If you find yourself stressed, slow down a little and rearrange your priorities. When you do there is likely to be one thing that stands out, and that is what to focus on. It looks like something new rather than something you’ve been at for a while, or a whole new approach to something familiar. In any event, your solar chart is vibrating with some unusual success — you just need to be clear-headed enough to notice the opportunity when it arrives.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Focus your vision. By vision, I mean your visioning process, and keeping your eyes peeled on what is the most significant factor. I know a lot is happening, and there are plenty of distractions in your environment. Think of your vision as a wide-angle lens. You’re going to come in super close and focus a macro kind of shot, yet everything else will still be visible, but blurry. This will help you see your subject in context. That is critical — that you leave what you’re observing in the framework of its environment, rather than “zooming in” on it, taking out everything that’s around it. Note that the momentum of your charts is catapulting you beyond some previous concept, idea, plan or way of doing things. You will land where you are looking, which is why you want to look right at where you’re intending to be, and to keep that set within its environment. Remember that you are part of your environment. Always see yourself in that context as well.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Observe life with the perspective of a playwright or filmmaker — see the details, see the drama, let your mind engage the beauty and the weirdness — but don’t get wrapped up in it emotionally. Everything that happens to you is creative fodder, the more so if you invite yourself to play with the world. And play is the word, the operative concept and it seems the thing you want to do the very most. Yet this is creative play, and rather than being an idle pastime, it’s the kind of play that influences you and sparks your imagination. As you get drawn in, you may find yourself having an idea that has some real influence, some actual mojo behind it. If you pursue this idea it’s likely to take you on something of a ride, by which I mean an adventure. By the way, your chart is strongly suggesting it’s also a sexual adventure of some kind, and if that is true, I just have two suggestions: have fun, and make sure you take the necessary steps to keep your options open. There will be time for experiences that create lifelong bonds, but so far as I can see, this is not one of them.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — I can only imagine what it feels like to be you right now, and when I do, my imagination goes a bit wild. Then again, I’m not a Libra and you may be feeling overwhelmed by the various surges, pulses and astonishing variety of experiences that life is offering you. One message that you may be getting is, there’s no point living like it’s 1994 or 2004 or for that matter April 2014. If your chart is pointing you overwhelmingly to one idea, it’s about the present catching up with you, all at once, in a big way. Wherever you’ve been, whatever frame of mind you’ve been trying to contain the experiences that are coming your way in, everything will be a lot easier when you experience now as if it’s now. It’s difficult to describe the incredible weight that humanity bears trying to force the present moment into its prejudices about the past (but we can see some of that pain dramatized in politics and what families put themselves through). Nobody needs that, even if they have not figured it out. You have better things to do with your time and vital force — a lot better.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Your situation is not as complicated as it seems. I know, it does seem complicated, but actually it’s your emotional state that’s the thing creating the interference. Like, what is the source of all this worry, and why are you so convinced that it’s actually an accurate response to the world? It’s true that your ruling planet Mars is stirring the pot, provoking you and agitating your anger (subtle though it may be) and possibly keeping you up at night, even though there’s unlikely to be a serious or even moderately serious issue. It’s true that Saturn is in your sign, close to your Sun, and may be weighing on you with a sense of responsibility or the weight of the world. Listen to me. Relax. Cheer up. Wake up. Get outside your house and out of your head. You live in a much bigger world than you think, and the people who live here love you more than you care to admit. Yes, this is a moment of growing up, and settling some long unresolved psychological business. It’s also potentially one of the boldest times of your life. Don’t miss it.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Remember how sensitive you are, which is another word for how vulnerable. One corner of your astrology describes this vividly — a healing process designed to address some emotional pain that you’ve wanted to let go of forever. While healing is always assured, the path is not always direct, and you now have the opportunity to actually focus on what has been difficult to resolve. Another corner of your chart has you bouncing off the walls with ideas and plans and crackling with energy. It looks like you’re ready for action. Now, without real awareness of your needs as opposed to your desires, you could find yourself in a tight spot. So I suggest that the first thing you do is honor your vulnerable side first. That may mean being a little less spontaneous than you like to be. Then once you’ve done that, you can make choices for the adventures you want that are based on (for example) who among your friends is actually sensitive to you. That is the main thing you need, in a friend, love or traveling companion of any form: someone who can feel you.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — If I have not said it lately, I suggest you set any major career plans aside. You do need to work, so work well, and focus on developing trusting relationships with your colleagues and people in positions of authority. You will in the near future be counting on that trust. That is more than enough emphasis on your career. In fact, it’s exactly the emphasis that your chart is calling for: on real people, and real situations, right now. What you need to know about these situations is that the actual content is not restricted to work but rather is deeply intertwined with your integrity as a person, which is why it’s such a productive time to hang out there. As for everything else: your charts are describing an emotional state that’s all about asserting your independence. Here is a clue — you don’t need to assert it from anyone else; you only need to refine your thinking and step out of the limited concepts of a ‘self’ that have kept you trapped in the past. One theme of this inner discussion involves not needing to be so cocooned. You don’t need to hide your real personality three layers back from the world. When you introduce yourself to someone, let them meet you, right then and there.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — I suggest you not assert your leadership or your authority until you’re absolutely clear that you have a vision to back it up. Yes this is a time in your life when you are being called upon to step up as someone who takes responsibility for something larger than yourself. Yet it’s also a time when you’re attempting to clarify your agenda and your priorities, and this is not proving to be easy. Your process of clarification seems to be intertwined with a relationship with someone you consider a little daunting or who seems to have a parental role in your life. That’s part of the psychology you’re working out. So the second phase of authority is really getting a handle on your inner parent. This seems to be a sticking point, and it comes back to the vision discussion. I’ll phrase this as a question — are you meeting any inner resistance when you expand your concept of your life? Does it feel like old resistance, and does that feel like it has someone’s personality on it? Effective leadership really does involve profound psychological clarity. It’s worth it.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Love and money — these are things that people seek out astrology for the most often, and the subjects your solar chart is speaking about the most clearly right now. Both share a common root, which is the esteem and respect that you have for yourself. True, it’s eminently possible to hate oneself to fortune and an abundance of attention, but that’s not what you want. Love says: recognize who you are, and do not doubt it. Embrace who you are and share that with the world. Make every statement in the affirmative and attract a cosmic reflection or counterpart you recognize. Money is saying something similar, though the commentary is about recognizing the illumination and inventiveness you can bring to the subject. Your solar chart is gleaming with the notion that your ideas are what is of value. Yet for that to manifest as prosperity, you must trust yourself and your ideas, and you certainly have the strength and clarity to do that. In three words, the common threads are self-respect, intelligence and trust.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

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Whose Revolution, Anyway?

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Dear Friend and Reader:

This week as the Sun passed through the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto T-square, the world moved and shook and many collective events contributed to the ongoing reshaping of society. We experienced a surge of the astrology that is shaping our time in history, defining the turning point we are coming through.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Before we go into the collective realm and consider some historic events, I have a personal thought — a suggestion for you to document where your own life is at right now, and also make a note of what you want, and what you want to change. I mean this in your own sphere of experience and what you would want to change in the world.

I’ve been describing how April 2014 represents the peak of 2012-era astrology. This will arrive as a series of events of which this week’s aspect pattern was but one. Each of these events represents a crux point that will include decisions, changes in your environment, rearrangements of relationships and potentially some forces that seem outside of your control.

Focus on your environment, your options and your power of decision. Decision, the power of choice, is the mechanism of freedom. Awareness of choice will make the difference between experiencing the developments of April’s astrology (or any astrology) as a function of fate or of free will.

The backdrop of the astrology is a T-square pattern involving Jupiter in Cancer, Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. The pattern is now aligned to about two degrees. As you’ve read over the past couple of weeks, Mars retrograde in Libra is entering the pattern and will reach an exact alignment to the other three planets, completing a grand cross on April 23.

Here is what happened over the past few days. On Tuesday, April 1, the Sun in Aries made a square (90-degree aspect) to Jupiter in Cancer. On Wednesday, April 2, the Sun made a conjunction to Uranus in Aries. Then on Thursday, April 3, the Sun made a square to Pluto in Capricorn. Each of these alone is a significant event; that they happened within hours of one another multiplies that exponentially. [See charts for Ft. Hood and Supreme Court ruling side by side.]

When I say “the Sun” I really mean “the Sun and the Earth,” since the Sun does not actually orbit or change longitude; the Earth is doing the orbiting, and yet the Sun’s longitude is what appears to change in the astrology chart. So, said another way, the Earth has passed through the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto configuration, in alignment with the Sun. (That, in turn, aligned with the United States’ natal Sun in Cancer in the chart for July 4, 1776.)

And it felt that way. News this week was dominated by a series of major earthquakes in Chile (and other notable seismic activity in the United States, including a rare quake warning issued in Los Angeles). American politics had a huge shakeup, in the form of Wednesday morning’s Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited spending by wealthy people on political campaigns.

Then later on Wednesday afternoon, as the Sun separated from Uranus and applied to Pluto, there was a second mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, killing four and injuring an additional 16 people — the latest example of The War Comes Home. The shooter was a soldier who had served in Iraq, was being treated for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and who then killed himself. If he was being treated for depression, I would like to know what mood-altering drugs he was on.

Military personnel wait for a press conference to begin at Fort Hood on April 2, 2014. Photo by Deborah Cannon.

In our age of consequences, this event is a consequence of the U.S. being at war for more than a decade and pushing many of our stressed-out, psychologically damaged veterans to extremes. A mass shooting is an example of a consequence that makes the news only because it’s so dramatic; the pain of mentally ill, homeless, unemployed, injured, sick, impoverished and anguished vets is, nearly all the time, a non-story.

From an astrological standpoint, what is interesting is that all of these events happened with the Sun within one degree of Uranus, which most astrologers would read as ‘expect the unexpected’. Earthquakes always come out of nowhere; mass shootings seem to, though we have indeed come to expect them.

Meanwhile, I had no idea the lawsuit that was decided Wednesday was even in the works. Obviously people who observe the Supreme Court more closely than I do knew about this, but I think it took most of us by surprise.

I would like to take a moment and describe some of the implications of the Supreme Court decision, on the case McCutcheon and the Republican National Committee v. the Federal Elections Commission.

In 2010, the Supreme Court determined that corporations have the same free speech rights as people, and free speech was defined as the right to spend unlimited money on elections. The court ruled that corporations, including unions, can donate unlimited amounts of money to political action committees (PACs or super PACs), which can then spend that money on advertising to influence campaigns.

As former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann explained it in this chilling special comment on Jan. 21, 2010, “In short, there are now no checks on the ability of corporations or unions or other giant aggregations of power to decide our elections. None. They can spend all the money they want, and if they can spend all the money they want, they will, sooner or later, implant the legislators of their choice from president to head of the visiting nurse service.”

Wednesday, the court ruled that based on the same principle — money as an expression of free speech rights — the Federal Elections Commission has no right to cap the total spending on political campaigns by flesh and blood individuals. There is still a per-candidate limit, but there’s a loophole big enough to drive a campaign bus through. This ruling only increases the influence of money in politics, which is causing endless problems as it is.

Keith Olbermann explaining the problems with the Citizens’ United case in his special comment of Jan. 21, 2010. This is a not-to-miss video.

Unlike Citizens’ United, which was — somewhat shockingly — decided by a bipartisan majority, McCutcheon and RNC v. FEC was decided by the usual conservative majority — Justices Roberts, Kennedy, Alito, Scalia and Thomas.

I’m finding it entertaining (in that demented way) that the fact that the Republican National Committee was a plaintiff is being left out of the discussion, not even mentioned (that I have seen yet) on TV, including by some miracle on left-leaning MSNBC. The plaintiff is usually described as “an Alabama businessman.” Yet this case could not have happened without the resources and motivation of the RNC to drive it forward. It is a Republican idea to have unlimited money in elections be the law of the land.

In writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts professed, “There is no more basic right in our democracy than to participate in the election of our political leaders.”

I would say there is no more cynical statement he could make. Notice that he did not say “no more basic right than to vote.” That’s because there is no guaranteed right to vote — it is not, for example, in the Bill of Rights. It is an implied right, subject to no guarantees, many exceptions, and with no consistency between the states (except for voting age) and under constant attack.

Every day we live, assaults on voting grow more aggressive; state legislatures have passed (and continue to adopt) countless laws requiring voter ID (equivalent of a poll tax, or pay-to-vote scheme), limiting voting hours and locations (including blocking Sunday voting, a tradition among African-American churches), purging the voter rolls and many other dirty tricks — all of them waged by Republicans who know that limiting voter turnout helps their chances of getting elected.

Justice Stephen Breyer, writing a lengthy dissent that he read from the bench, said that the court’s ruling “eviscerates our nation’s campaign finance laws, leaving a remnant incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy that those laws were intended to resolve.”

In the majority decision, Chief Justice Roberts said that the only “compelling governmental interest” in this case was preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption — which he defined narrowly as a direct quid pro quo arrangement — that is, bribery.

Shaun McCutcheon sued the Federal Elections Commission, with a little help from the Republican National Committee. His motto is “Less government and more freedom,” which reminds me of the Mafia opposing “regulation” of its activities by the FBI.

But as Justice Stephens pointed out, it’s all subtler than that. Donors dumping millions of dollars into party and candidate war chests has an effect on policy.

One last point. Chief Justice Roberts seems to salute the flag and Article One of the Bill of Rights (the First Amendment) when he says, “Money in politics may at times seem repugnant to some, but so too does much of what the First Amendment so vigorously protects.” He cites Nazi rallies and flag burning as examples.

He does not mention that protesters are routinely arrested at demonstrations for no reason, funneled into “kettles” where they will get sprayed and arrested, kept in cages known as “Free Speech Areas” outside national political events, spied on and otherwise have their right to dissent chilled to the point of being frozen.

Yes, we are a great nation because we allow flag burning and Nazi rallies, but that is a ruse if we gas protesters and violently arrest reporters who are doing their jobs. It’s a ruse if the “right” to influence elections belongs solely to the wealthy and the largest business interests.

As Keith Olbermann said of Citizens’ United in his special comment, parsing the logic of the people who won the case, the reasoning being used is, “As a function of the First Amendment, you must allow for the raping and pillaging of the First Amendment by people who can buy the First Amendment.”

Granting rich people and corporations the right to buy millions of votes is not free speech. It’s fascism, using the purest definition of the word — the merging of state and corporate interests — and it’s time we understand that.

We know from history that Uranus-Pluto aspects like we are experiencing right now are revolutionary events. But as I have asked before, whose revolution?

If we want this to be our revolution, we need to commit to that. I don’t believe we need a revolution in the streets, throwing pavement stones at riot police. The revolution needs to begin with commitment to the truth, by which I mean commitment to real understanding.

NYPD uses pepper spray on protesters already contained in a ‘kettle’ during the Occupy movement of autumn 2011. This is not exactly encouraging of free speech or the right to dissent. Rather, the message is “protest and you will be tortured.” It’s much easier to write a check.

Our society has grown rotund and had its arteries clogged on hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup and wheat gluten. We have also grown intellectually flabby, uncurious and worse, easily intimidated. Americans, as salty and gritty as they perceive themselves, have become an easy lot to con out of their common sense.

The revolution we need right now is one of passionate awareness, curiosity and the drive to gather and use knowledge. Gather and use, not just sit around all day and read and click.

There is a need for personal involvement and for leadership on the most basic community level. Even if it’s unpopular to push your friends, relatives and associates into awareness and action, that cannot stop you. When you look at the world, and at your life, and you consider the future that you want for the next generations — be they your children and grandchildren or those of your friends or those of distant posterity — ask yourself if you’re ready to give up.

And if you’re not ready to give up, that means it’s time to commit. Yes, that means embarking on many steep learning curves and setting out on an uncertain course. There is a need, particularly in American society, to go beyond the superficial, beyond appearances and to give up our precious naivete about how the world works. And that can be painful.

Part of what people struggle with, or use as an excuse, is that they care and nobody else seems to. So what can they do alone? That is obviously not true. As the old saying goes, don’t mourn, organize.

Lovingly,

Aunt Josie Forever

Today would be the 110th birthday of my godmother, Josephine Nicastro Sharp, known to everyone as Aunt Josie. She was born in Sicily on April 4, 1904. Though the place is uncertain, I received an astonishing astrological confirmation that I was in the right place when I put my feet on the ground in Piazza Armerina, Sicily, one day in 1996.

Me with Aunt Josie outside her home in Brooklyn, 1992, when she was 88 years old. Photo by Sabine Ferandou.

As an immigrant from the Old World, Aunt Josie is my most direct root into my mother country and gives me some claim to being a first-generation American.

Aunt Josie was my godmother in the true sense of the word, taking the place of my parents, particularly my mother, in various times of extended absence. She also helped raise my father, and was his mother’s sister, so she knew something of the family influences that were at work in my life.

Josie was the most interesting blend of forgiving and shrewd; faithful and worldly; loving and insisting on integrity, particularly from herself. A deeply spiritual woman, the Roman Catholic Church was her spiritual home, particularly in her relationship to Msgr. Jolly, who ran the local parish.

Before being married, Josie worked scrubbing floors and then was in the typing pool of Westinghouse. She never finished high school but was highly literate and an expert secretary. Like many of her generation, she scrimped and saved and could stretch a dollar. She was a clever stock trader and made something of her modest, handmade fortune. My father said that she insisted on having a separate stock account from her husband, my uncle Howard Sharp, because their theories of trading were so different.

Aunt Josie was something of a mystic, and we had many fun experiences of psychic contact, such as she standing by the phone waiting for it to ring the moment that I called. We talked for hours and in the process I learned much about life, and the past, from her and told her about my perspective from the viewpoint of someone 60 years younger.

That 60-year age difference made us both green dragons (element wood) in the Chinese system of astrology. We were definitely a couple of odd birds of a feather, with more in common than really seemed possible or practical for our age difference. There were a few points on which we disagreed, such as cast iron frying pans (which she didn’t think were sanitary) and chop sticks (which struck her as a bit uncivilized). We definitely agreed on chicken and rice.

Aunt Josie believed in me, in my talent and in my leadership skills. When I was working my way through the ranks of the campus publishing community at SUNY Buffalo, she would regularly send me care packages, complete with her amazing oatmeal and/or oatmeal peanut butter cookies and various treats. These were always a big hit with my staff.

After I graduated, I told her that I was not really into sweets and shared all the stuff she sent with my crew, a bunch of college students who devoured it voraciously. She said she understood the politics involved.

Estimated natal chart for Aunt Josie. Time was whispered in my ear while making breakfast this morning. She and I have many contacts between our charts — we both have Jupiter in Aries and Saturn in Aquarius. Her Mercury is exactly conjunct my Jupiter. She has several planets including Venus conjunct my Sun and Juno conjunct my Moon, exact. I would venture a guess we’ve known one another before.

Several times in my writing career, Aunt Josie intervened to make sure I could keep going. She paid for my 5th year at SUNY Buffalo. She purchased my first Macintosh, which in 1991 got her a mention in The New York Times, her favorite newspaper (on page one of the Metro section, no less).

Mike Winerip wrote: “In 1989, as a graduate student here, he founded Student Leader News Service, covering the state and city university systems. It was really just Mr. Coppolino, a computer that his Aunt Josie bought him and three buddies who worked the phones in exchange for a place to sleep. They did good journalism. Mr. Coppolino was one of the few people not on the state payroll who understood the budget.”

On several other occasions, she made it possible for me to keep going at what I was doing. After she died in 1994 at age 90, an inheritance of 333 shares of Exxon stock funded my becoming an astrologer, laying the foundation for Planet Waves. I dread to imagine what my life would be like without her consistent love, faith and her support of my work.

Astrologically, here is some information. She had the Sun, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars in Aries — an independent woman far ahead of her times. She knew who she was and nobody could shake that.

It’s unclear whether she had a Scorpio Moon or a Sagittarius Moon. Her shrewdness, psychological insight and cleverness with money argue for Scorpio; her vibrant spirit that nothing seemed to sink, and her mystical bent, all argue for Sagittarius. So let’s count her as both. She had Saturn in Aquarius and was always a fair judge, taking her time before making up her mind about anything. And she had a Venus-Nessus-Eris cluster conjunct my natal Sun.

I would say that Aunt Josie was the early influence who was never ambiguous in how she felt about me, or treated me. There was no double edge. She was straightforward and put love first. She was consistently an adult. She understood that most of the time the world offers a dirty deal, and insisted on holding the place of faith and warm welcome for me till the present day.

Research, Writing and Editing Credits: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Susan Starr, Carol van Strum and Chad Woodward. Page assembled and coded by Anatoly Ryzhenko. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Nessus Moves Into Pisces; Mars-Sun opposition

Nessus, the third-discovered centaur and one of the most interesting minor planets I’ve ever seen, has changed signs for the first time since 2005, moving from Aquarius to Pisces. I consider this big news. Nessus in Aquarius has been present in many important news charts, but moreover the feeling of this aspect has permeated society as much as any Pluto transit.

The sensation of this transit as I perceive it has been the group as bully. It’s also the experience of how several very smart, sensitive people can turn into a collective total asshole when you group them together. It’s the sensation of how an individual has to take responsibility for their actions, but a group gets to pass the buck.

Venus conjunct Nessus in Pisces.

Consider the child sexual abuse scandals of the Roman Catholic church, which rose to a peak in the past decade and resulted in the resignation of the pope (whose immediately prior job was to preside over the coverup, which was run out of the former Inquisition Dept. office).

The Sun conjunct Nessus in Aquarius was the highest aspect in the chart of the pope’s resignation. (I am looking at this chart for the first time in a year — man, what a chart.)

I am aware this could be described as a factor of the human condition going back nearly forever, but in the Nessus in Aquarius years it’s become so obvious that the only way to miss it is if you want to.

In its most positive expression, Nessus is about boldly taking responsibility; it’s about being the place where the buck stops. In Aquarius, that would represent the person within who blows the whistle on a corrupt organization. It’s the person in a family who goes to therapy and stops the cycle of abuse. Nessus at its best is the person who understands karma and why it’s necessary to acknowledge its existence.

Nessus entered Aquarius together with Chiron, the first-discovered centaur, in early 2005. Chiron was moving more slowly at the time. Both are moving further from the Sun and taking longer to move through their respective signs. Nessus will take about 20 years to move through Pisces.

Since nobody alive on the planet has lived through Nessus in Pisces (it has an orbit of 122 years, so it left Pisces about a century ago), I can only read the energy of the placement, which involves some speculation as to the themes that will emerge. I think this transit will take us deeper into the era of consequences, and serve as a compelling force to deal with the consequences of what we believe or refuse to accept.

Said another way, we have some help seeing the problems with what it means to live in an illusion with total commitment — that is, to divorce oneself from the reality-based community. I would also add that Nessus in Pisces will encourage those willing to clean up their edges, tidy their boundaries, and patrol their own borders.

I will have more to say about this placement as time goes on. In terms of the basic facts, Nessus will remain in Pisces moving direct till early June, when it stations retrograde; it will re-enter Aquarius in early August, station direct in early November and re-enter Pisces to stay (for 20 years) in early February 2015. Here is an ephemeris.

Focus on Venus and Mars

Venus will ingress Pisces this weekend (on Saturday), immediately making a conjunction to Nessus. So we may get an early clue what this transit is about. I am not sure it rises to the level of a proving moment, but we shall see. This may come with recovered memories, unusual psychic experiences and unusually deep feelings of a kind you’ve never experienced before, as Nessus has never been in Pisces in our lifetimes.

Sun opposite retrograde Mars in Libra.

Mars, for its part, is about to stretch into an opposition with the Sun. That is the midpoint in the Mars retrograde cycle. This happens April 8 at 5:03 pm. The Sun is conjunct asteroid Juno at the time of the opposition, which once again puts that point and all it represents into the spotlight.

In other words, with the Sun shining directly on it, we will get a look at what Mars retrograde is really about.

Mars is the planetary ruler of Aries, and is in its opposite sign Libra. This sounds like involvement, investment or overcommitment in a relationship or a concept of relationship.

It’s another version of the message of Mars retrograde that people need to be individuals who enter into partnership rather than “half people” who then complete one another; the idea that we’re partially human until we conjoin and fill in the missing piece.

The opposition of the Sun and Mars is still close enough to the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto pattern to count; that is, to have a resonance effect, which may feel like an eruption of the need to be independent. That will be accentuated by the Sun conjunct Eris on Saturday, April 12, an aspect that I will come back to in greater detail next week. Sun-Eris aspects are always revealing and have inspired two Planet Waves articles in the past — including Calling Home the Castaway Woman. (I cannot remember the second one, please let me know if you do. Aah here it is — Dancing With Discord.)

I also have a monograph on Eris, written just after it was named, called Facets and Fragments of Self. This is a free download.

— Eric Francis

“Because if he is, if you saw so much money, then he’s a BANK ROBBER!” John and Brett Roberts in “Salesman.” You can also see the “Kid History” videos and more at Bored Shorts TV.

Out of the Mouths of Babes… Sort of

The beauty of children’s imaginations is just how boundless they are. Narrative structure or logic? Who needs it! The laws of physics? They don’t need no stinkin’ laws! So when kids make up stories, the results can be trippy in the most awesomely innocent way.

Now, add to that adults acting out these stories, lip-syncing to the kids’ improvised dialogue, and you have some comic video gold. Enter Kid Snippets, a video series produced by Bored Shorts TV and usually featuring several of the adult siblings of the Roberts clan. In fact, it may partly be the family connection that allows the actors in these videos to capture so much of the nuance of the kids’ voices in their facial expressions and body language — that’s what makes these videos so brilliant.

This week’s Editon of Planet Waves FM is Sponsored by Geico

This week’s edition of Planet Waves FM is the April Fool’s edition. It starts with a real discussion of ethics in astrology practice, then the trickster fun begins. I interview the esteemed Rev. Dr. Roberta Hand Green de Geoffrey, who channeled the Gargamel Symbols — the latest, hottest new trend in astrology. Daniel Sternstein makes his return to the program, after rising to the top of his profession, then giving up guitar to pursue other interests.

The Gargamel Symbols shown above in the cake dish where they first appeared to the Rev. Dr. Roberta Hand Green de Geoffrey.

Well in time for the Spring 2014 grand cross (Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto) I’ll be publishing a 12-sign reading focusing on intimacy and trust. The readings will focus on the influence of Mars in the grand cross as well as the lunar and solar eclipses. All of this happens in April. Each sign will get a 20- to 30-minute reading, the signs will cross-reference (each being a special point of focus), and everyone will have access to all 12 signs.

I’ve recorded an informative and authentically interesting audio preview of the project (worth listening just to hear our original theme music). As usual we offer incentive for early purchase. The final price will be $59.95 but we are offering it through the weekend at the current pre-order price of $39.95. Get it while it’s hot!

A Boutique Item: Bali for Astrology and Yoga

Last weekend I took a seminar and then taught an astrology class with Rebecca Gordon, one of the truly soulful members of my profession, and learned that she’s arranging an astrology-yoga expedition to Bali in a few weeks (June 8-20, with Mars direct).

Astrologer Rebecca Gordon.

I recognize this is something of a boutique item, but I’m putting it out there in case you’re interested in the idea. Immersing oneself in yoga and astrology on an island paradise sounds like a fun way to spend 12 days.

Here is how Rebecca describes the trip: “Here is an opportunity to experience one of the world’s greatest treasures and enjoy a luxuriously planned trip through the lesser known and pristine landscapes of the planet. Whether an adept Yogi or having never set foot on a mat, you will have the private attention to begin a practice or go deeper into the one you already have while poised over the most compelling vistas of the south seas.”

I suggest you make direct contact with both teachers before planning to go, ask them any questions you may have and, as a first priority, make your decision based on who they are.

Once again, here is the link with full contact info and trip details.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for March Friday, Feb. 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Aries New Moon published Tuesday, March 25. Moonshine horoscopes for the Virgo Full Moon were published Tuesday, March 11. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Reader Feedback on my Recorded Readings

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 4, 2014, #993 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — If an involvement with someone you care about reaches a crux point over the next few days, the way to handle the matter is gently. The situation goes deeper than you think, and not every attribute of it directly involves your current relationship. Many tendencies going back to the earliest days of your life, and your earliest intimate relationships with lovers, are involved. You can avoid one error by imagining you will fix everything by fixing this one situation. I suggest that the most productive thing to do is observe. The planets are aligning in a way where what should be obvious will be obvious, if you’re paying attention. The core issue, as I see it, is the extent to which you invest your identity in another person when you’re in a relationship with them. As the month progresses, your desire to be independent is likely to press its way to the front of your mind. Yet the fears associated with this are likely to become obvious as well; you will need to address both.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — A maturity factor is being introduced into your life. It’s not the “act your age” kind of maturity. Rather, it’s more like “exist on the level of your true purpose, and strive every moment to fulfill that purpose.” The bottom line is being helpful all the time, and making sure that the right thing happens not just in your own life but, as best as you can facilitate, in the lives of the people around you. There is an element of submitting to the service, which is to say knowing how to be responsive to your environment. This is different from putting yourself first, even though you still have to take care of yourself. There are times when you will be called upon to put yourself second or last, and you’ll need to evaluate carefully whether that is actually appropriate. We live in a world where it’s easy to turn around and walk away, where it’s easy to take care of No. 1, and where plenty of conditioning encourages us to do so. You’re now getting information about looking right at the problem, asking for direct guidance what to do about it, and waiting for the response.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You may be feeling the need to take responsibility for your actions and your past decisions. You might be getting the message that if you don’t do so, you will be held accountable, and it’s better if you make the moves instead of someone else. The deeper issue, though, is about events set in motion long ago that are coming home now, and pressing you to own up for what has happened in the past. I believe that you will do this in time. I would also point out that the pressure you may be under now is exaggerated by your perceptions of how others might feel. Nobody ever really takes responsibility for something because someone else wants them to do it, which is why I suggest you set your intentions and then take your time. If you must invest your energy into something now, put it into listening, both to yourself and to others. Stating how you feel is less important than making sure you understand how others feel — and not feeling any special pressure to do something about it. This is not necessarily an easy position to hold, but I assure you there are a lot worse.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — If you’re feeling the urge to perform at your highest level, or to achieve something great, remember how much about this is a matter of inner focus and how little is a matter of appearance. Yes, there is some stagecraft to every dimension of success, even if you only have to keep it up for a half-hour meeting. True, there are times when you will need to dress the part. That’s not what I’m talking about, however. The world in its current form grossly overemphasizes image and false confidence and diminishes the value of what you need the most, which is the element of self-mastery. One aspect of this involves the way you relate to your talent — what you think it’s for; why you think you have it. The other aspect is emotional. They are related, because you will be limited in the use of your talent if you’re over-invested on an emotional level. Think of your talent as something that comes through you, for a purpose. Your role is to allow the flow of both talent and purpose, which usually involves getting out of your own way.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You need some new ideas, and your solar chart suggests that one place to look is old ideas that were forgotten, were not fully tested or never really given a chance. The byways of time are strewn with these abandoned concepts, well-thought-out solutions that were not applied to their corresponding problems, and lessons learned that were then set aside. If something has persisted, look for the lapses of awareness that may have led to that situation. You want to wake up before anyone else does. You want to be the one to take responsibility and solve any past issues before anyone else does, and you will need to be assertive. Meanwhile, back to my original premise of some of the best solutions having already been come up with — that is worth investigating and developing. Think of it like digging deeper in a mine to find the gold. Any time you’re confronted with a problem, before you try to solve it, ask yourself whether you’ve already solved it. When you need a new brilliant idea, ask yourself whether you’ve already come up with it.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Be mindful of the emotional reactions of others. Notice when you’re getting drawn in. This is easier said than done, particularly with the transits that your solar chart is taking right now. It’s difficult enough to maintain one’s individuality under the best circumstances in our society, when you’re confronted daily by so many forces telling you who and what you’re supposed to be. Your current charts have a potent emphasis on the emotional dimension of relationships. It’s not easy to distinguish your feelings from those of someone close to you. At the same time, there seems to be someone compelling in your environment with whom you identify closely — and that’s a temptation to ‘lose’ yourself in them. One solution to this puzzle is maintaining a high level of self-awareness and making decisions in every moment. Another potential is getting drawn all the way into the scenario, finding your way out, and evaluating what you learn. Question: how much time do you have on your hands?

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You must be honest with yourself. That is the key. It’s the key because it’s so easy to be in denial right now. That denial can come in two forms: what you want, and what you’re angry about. They are likely to be related, so closely as to be the same thing. So if you notice yourself feeling anger, no matter how subtle, ask yourself what you want. If you notice yourself wanting something, notice how you feel about that fact. You may have emotions around a delay in gratification or fulfillment, or merely the lack of having your desires acknowledged. Yet your charts are clear that you are the one who has to do most of the noticing of your own inner reality. In this process it’s essential that you not try to wrap what you want around what someone else wants. You may need to ask yourself what you would do were someone else not in your life, or not exerting an influence over you. One last clue: you may be responding to a past influence, such as what that person three partners ago said. Who you are, and what you want now, are what counts.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Note the fear factor and the healing factor, and where they meet. Most of what needs healing involves — or is specifically — fear. Yet it’s difficult to see this when so many factors are designed to inflict fear in its many forms: ads designed to provoke insecurity about your self-image, earthquake warnings, economic threats and the usual litany of health-related ‘news’. In order to exist in any kind of balance, it’s necessary to consider your responses to all of those influences. Yet there is an inner scenario that you’re unraveling, something that is distinct and personal and that cannot be accounted for by any visible influence. To a greater extent than you may recognize, your fears surround abandonment and issues of fidelity in relationships. These can take many forms, morphing and disguising themselves — that is the speciality of fear. Rather than accept this theory, I suggest you test it out, and inquire when you are feeling some deep concern whether it involves abandonment or fidelity — whomever might be responsible.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — In any given situation, there are two basic patterns you can follow. The thing you need to know is that in following one of these patterns, the other one is likely to be concealed, reduced to a faint memory or not part of your awareness at all. If you manage to come back to your center (which may happen as a result of frustration), notice that you have another way to proceed. When you take that route, the prior, more frustrating one will seem not to exist, and for a while you will be able to proceed in a more productive way. Yet the real mission described by your astrology is integrating both of these modes. One might have logic dominating and the other emotion dominating. One might be based on facts and the other on intuition. In order to work at full strength, both sides of the equation need to be balanced. Both originate from you; both are rooted in what you already know and have considerable experience with. All you need is to be mindful of that fact.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You are deep into a phase of enforced growth and changes, though you may not realize how much help you have. You seem to be feeling the pressure but not the support in your environment. True, Pluto in your sign is the original symbol of the lone wolf. Yet rather than feeling like it’s you against the world, I suggest you tune into the idea of you in cooperation with the world. If there is a disconnect, it’s emotional. Because other aspects of your astrology may have you feeling agitated and unstable, you may not notice the calmer, more consistent and friendlier influences in your surroundings. However, they are present, and willing to extend a helping hand if you would slow down and notice their presence. This will call for a change of emotional orientation on your part, which is so basic to the equation you can think of it as the whole purpose of being open to the love and kindness of others.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may feel like you’ve had a thorn taken out of your foot, though if so, I suggest you make it into a piece of jewelry and wear it around your neck as an amulet for a while. You are emerging from a long phase of your life when the theme of consequences has been predominant. There may be elements of this particular journey that you can trace back to early 2005. Looked at one way, the theme of this extended transit was ‘taking things personally’ — and in the process, learning how not to do so. You might say that events of this transit (which included Chiron and Nessus in your sign) tested the whole theory of Aquarian ‘detachment’, compelling you to see your personal investment in everything around you, and to figure out whether that investment was really appropriate. Themes of your sign usually associated with control have transformed into themes of accountability, which is of course much more productive. Now a new phase has begun, which in a sentence I would describe as understanding that your values really are the bottom line; and understanding further that to be meaningful, you must update and revise your values regularly.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You are entering a phase of your life that I would describe as the era of Put Up With Nothing. Those with Pisces dominant in their charts are easy to transgress. Pisces is a soft sign, and it follows (or prefers to follow) different motives and guidelines than the rest of the world. This theme helps explain why artists and musicians are so often and so easily taken advantage of. Pushy people have an advantage over those who would prefer neither to push nor defend. You are now at a point of your maturity where that can, and must, come to an end. The time has arrived for you to be treated with some consistency, to have your values and intentions honored, and to be treated fairly. Yet here is the catch: you are the one who has to insist upon this. You are the one who has to set the boundary. You may have known this for a while, and may have avoided what is in the end a basic fact of life. Once you set the basic rules of play, and follow them, the next step is to get everyone around you to agree to them, which to you will feel like forcing yourself on them (it is not). And the bottom line is: put up with nothing.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $39.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

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Pluto in Capricorn: Fiddler on a Roof

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Growing up an honorary Jew in New York City, my favorite musical was Fiddler on the Roof. My mom took me to see the first Broadway revival with Zero Mostel, who performed in the original 1964 production. I learned the song “Sabbath Prayer” in piano lessons. And I thought a lot about the message of the play, which involves the relationship between tradition and change.

Promotional image for the play Fiddler on the Roof.

Reb Tevye, the play’s leading man, explains why there are so many customs among orthodox Jews that must be followed exactly. “Here in Anatevka,” he says, “we have traditions for everything. How to sleep. How to eat. How to work. How to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl. This shows our constant devotion to God.”

“You may ask, how did this tradition get started? I’ll tell you. [He pauses for a moment.] I don’t know. But it’s a tradition. And because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”

And then there is the famous line: “Without tradition, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on a roof.”

And that is about where our society is today. After writing last week’s article on the cardinal grand cross and grand water trine, I got the feeling that I needed to go deeper into the Pluto in Capricorn leg of the grand cross. You can think of that as the deepest root of the whole arrangement. Pluto goes deep in any event, and in this configuration (counting both the cross and the trine) Pluto arrived in its sign first, dipping into Capricorn before Pres. Obama was elected.

Pluto then slipped back into Sagittarius for the election, and by the time Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, Pluto was in Capricorn to stay, until it first touches Aquarius in March 2023.

Capricorn is the sign of tradition. In worldly terms, it’s the sign that represents society’s institutions, such as governments, corporations, large churches and other power-wielding organizations. Those have been shaking and quaking during the Pluto in Capricorn era, starting with the banking system collapse of 2008.

Many other things have seemed to crumble; there have been scandals throughout the military command, the Secret Service (which went on a bender in Amsterdam this week) and the usual litany of malfeasance by politicians.

Topol as Tevye in the 1971 film production of Fiddlier on the Roof.

We’re also in an obsessive era of power grabs by companies, churches, political organizations and the government. Plenty of this involves seizing power over women, most of whom are oblivious to what is happening.

Other forms of power concentration involve concentrations of wealth higher up on the economic food chain, ever-larger mergers, concentration of who controls the information that flows to you (ever fewer gatekeepers), and the ways in which we are being suffocated by charges of pennies, nickels and dimes up to $50 and an interest rate hike for a late credit card payment. Basically we live in the age of “we do it because we can,” where many people and nearly all institutions do whatever they can to get over on people.

The government’s combined refusal and inability to take care of returning war veterans is one of the most disgusting emblems of the era we live in. These things, too, are all well-represented by Pluto in Capricorn.

Then of course there is the NSA, which thinks it has us surrounded and is gluttonous for unchecked power. Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and others are exposing and undermining what would otherwise be an unmitigated concentration of influence, going on behind our backs.

And looking at one example where traditions are being reshaped and reformed, the movement to include same-sex couples in the ‘institution’ of marriage is an attribute of Pluto in Capricorn.

Our Relationship to Tradition

We could go on and on with Pluto in Capricorn metaphors in the outer world, the one that surrounds us. They are identifiable because we can construct images using the combination of Pluto + Capricorn.

Yet while you may be observing these outer manifestations, there is the more significant inner level of Pluto in Capricorn. Think of Capricorn as representing the solid ground on which consciousness stands. It’s a level even deeper than our life patterns or social patterns, which are usually illustrated by Aquarius. You might say that it’s the foundations on which those life patterns are built: concepts like family, trust in society, faith that there will be an economy and a food supply, faith that there is sufficient knowledge to solve a problem, should one arise.

The catastrophic failure of Washington Mutual was one of many, many thousands of bank failures that are still unfolding today. When most of us were younger, a bank was considered something solid and stable. But your great-grandparents might not believe that.

You might think of Capricorn as representing all the ways we have faith in ‘the establishment’ and that it will be there when we need it. And needless to say, that faith is being shaken. There are external factors doing this (for example, the constant attack on various social safety nets, and some politicians who make a career out of convincing others that some people don’t deserve medical care).

Yet much closer to home, our ideas about intimacy are being shaken up. Family structure has been in a gradual decline since the end of World War II. There are still some solid families and some extended families left, but more and more we live with the feeling that we’re on our own. It is a fact that many more people are being left out in the cold, and that translates on the inner level to the fear that you may be left out in the cold. Everyone knows everyone deserves food and a safe place to sleep; to convince oneself otherwise is only weakening.

Going deeper, Pluto in Capricorn represents a shattering of or disconnect from tradition, so vital to humans. Looked at another way, it’s about a reactionary response to ground-in tradition. This is part of what is inspiring many people to be so viciously against same-sex couples getting married.

The war to defend tradition, be it heterosexuality or the subjugation of women, is motivated by a deep, inner and very personal response to the fear that there is no more tradition, or that the changes in society are running out of control.

I think that it’s essential in times like we’re living in to return to healthy experiences that you might think of as human traditions. This could take many forms, all of them cooling off our cultural obsession with the concept of ‘new’. That includes older ways of doing things, eating foods that are more closely harmonized with our ancestral heritage. Heck, eating actual food rather than junk food and processed food would feel a lot better. A few years back I wrote an article with some ideas about this called Everything Old is New Again.

When traditions change, some people resist violently. Reactionary movement is often the result of the feeling of instability that comes with change. In this photo, students are kissing in front of protesters from Westboro Baptist Church at Oberlin College, May 2000.

Actually getting together with people would help ground the feeling of inevitable and inescapable change. Honoring friendship, looking up old friends, and taking necessary time to build friendship, would all help grant a feeling of stability and belonging.

If family is changing so fast as to be disappearing in many places, making a point of collecting a family of choice would be helpful — something that many people do naturally and that others have never considered.

Pluto in Capricorn is not just about the death of old traditions; it can just as much be about their healthy revival. And as my teacher, the late Arthur Joseph Kushner, was fond of reminding me, any tradition that does not change is not alive. Tradition is not about nostalgia or doing things the way they were done in the past in the spirit of purism. Adapting old traditions to current times can be productive, healthy and fun.

What remains constant is that humans need traditions. We need to honor the passage of time. We need to experience a sense of belonging on the planet. That includes a sense of place, a relationship to the landscape around us, and a relationship to the environment that reminds us we are indeed supported by our environment.

I think that each of us, personally, needs a code to live by. In a world where both ethics and morals are becoming meaningless, it’s necessary to have an inner commitment to doing what is right. Yes, that includes doing what is right for you, but what I am talking about here is doing what is right as a member of society.

The Oso, Washington, Mountainside Collapse

When the relationship to the environment goes out of balance, the results can be catastrophic. It’s true that humans have always lived in dangerous places — on seashores subject to tsunamis, at the bases of volcanoes, in earthquake zones and other places where nature acts up.

Here is the chart for the Oso landslide. Note the green glyph on the far right — that is Pholus, the second centaur. Nessus, the first centaur, is just to the left of the diagonal dark line, right into the 10th house. This is a chart signature that reminds me of a mass shooting-type incident. Also note that the chart is Gemini rising. Mercury, the ruler of the ascendant, is about to complete a conjunction to Neptune in Pisces — the image of something subject to change (Gemini, Mercury) about to experience the effects of a lot of water. But this was not an accident.

I realized just how passionately people are devoted to where they live during a volcanic eruption in Sicily a few years ago that led to a mass evacuation. On a car window in the evacuation zone, written with someone’s finger in volcanic ash, someone wrote, “We love you Etna” — addressed to the volcano that was erupting.”

Sometimes it’s human activity that makes a place dangerous. This past Saturday, there was a massive landslide in an unincorporated area about 4 miles east of the town of Oso in Snohomish County, Wash. A portion of a hillside collapsed, sending mud and debris across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, taking many homes and their inhabitants with it. As of Thursday, there have been 25 confirmed deaths and 90 more people are reported missing and presumed dead.

When I cast the chart soon after the event, my first thought was: this looks like the chart of a mass shooting. One marker I’ve noticed for when someone seems to lose control but was really acting with intent are the centaurs Pholus and Nessus on the angles of the chart. Pholus is right on the western horizon and Nessus is on the midheaven, high overhead. (The ‘angles’ in a chart are the horizon and the meridian; the angular houses are the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th).

To me, when I see this kind of placement, whatever happened looks like an intentional act. But we’re talking about a landslide here. That’s supposed to be a natural disaster.

The chart definitely looks like what happened. One feature is the conjunction of Mercury and Neptune in Pisces. That is a lot of water; it was rainwater that precipitated the event. Another feature is Pluto in Capricorn in the 8th house, the one that tells us the nature and cause of death. As I described above, Pluto in Capricorn is about the sense of the ground moving beneath us, and in the literal sense of things, that is exactly what happened to the people of Oso.

Finally, there is an exact square between the Moon and Chiron — a very, very exact square. You might think of that as representing what happens when belief, or denial, meets reality. It also looks like something happening to people’s homes (the Moon).

Google Earth image of Oso, Wash., hillside before the land flaked off.

But the concept of intent coming from Pholus and Nessus was irking me. So, our environmental research team looked into the issue of what was known about this hillside in advance. I figured that this kind of event did not just come out of nowhere, but I was stunned at the depth and extent of prior knowledge about this very problem in this very place.

Lawyers will be sorting out exactly who knew what, when they knew it, and what they represented to others. There will be all kinds of insurance-related questions. But one thing is clear: the community and the government knew bout this issue and did nothing about it. Even as evidence of a problem mounted over the decades, development was allowed to proceed, as was the cutting of timber that only made the problem worse.

For example, after landslides in 1949 and 1951, the state commissioned a report on the situation. Maybe that’s why the place was known as Slide Hill. There was another catastrophic landslide that damaged many cabins in 1967. But still, extensive development was permitted in the area.

In an article published Monday, March 24, The Yakima Herald described a 1969 State Department of Natural Resources memorandum. The author of the memo, Gerald Torsen, wrote, “Aerial photographs taken as far back as 1932 show the river has cut at this clay bank for many years,” thereby destabilizing the hillside.

So, short of figuring out what the local Indians knew before Lewis and Clark arrived, knowledge of a potential problem goes back at least 82 years.

Image of Oso hillside after the land gave way. This was not a mudslide, as TV people are calling it. It was the collapse of a mountainside. Photo by Ted Warren.

In 1997, a geomorphologist named Daniel Miller wrote a report for the Washington Department of Ecology and the local Tulalip Tribes, describing the hill’s potential risk for landslides. He has collected memos, slides, maps, models, drawings and reports as far back as the 1950s showing the hill’s potential risk for a landslide.

Then in 1999, the Army Corps of Engineers assessed the hillside and warned of “the potential for a large catastrophic failure.” But the state allowed building to continue — and also clearcutting of forests, including into restricted areas that were holding the mountain together.

In 2006, yet another landslide occurred, plugging the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River and creating a new channel that threatened the homes on Steelhead Drive. Instead of people being evacuated from their homes, contractors were allowed to build new ones. Miller, the geomorphologist, said, “Frankly, I was shocked that the county permitted any building across from the river. We’ve known that it’s been failing.”

Even with all of this foreknowledge, developers were finishing luxury homes as late as this year — that is, in 2014.

After the landslide happened Saturday, John Pennington, who currently heads the county emergency management agency where this happened, said that the hillside “was considered very safe. This was a completely unforeseen slide. This came out of nowhere.”

Yes, just like the “grandmother quote” in just about every newspaper story about a murder — “my grandson is a very nice boy.”

Photo from Zillow listing for home at 31325 E. Steelhead Dr. in Arlington, Wash., just a few feet from the river — no doubt one of the homes that was taken by the mountainside collapse. The luxury home just sold for $179,000 less than two weeks ago.

Does all of this rise to the level of intent? I define intent not as desire for an outcome but as “knew or should have known” about a likely outcome. Clearly, a lot of people knew or should have known about this. And that, I believe, is why this chart looked like the chart of a mass shooting. There is an element of intent — apparently, a significant one.

So, this leads us to another question: what do you know, and what do you bother to find out? What do you do with what you know? Many people consciously avoid information, just so they don’t have to know.

Many others choose to ignore what they know. I for one remain shocked at the number of people who still smoke cigarettes, contaminating every cell in their bodies with carcinogens even in the midst of the cancer and cancer-phobia epidemic.

We are now in a time when we have to use what we know, because the consequences of doing so are real and present. Yes, they always were — but we know so much more than we did in the past, and it matters so much more.

One message of the astrology of spring 2014 is to pay attention. Many factors will be moving quickly, and the only thing standing between you and something you don’t want to happen may be your own awareness, and what you do with it.

Lovingly,

Aries New Moon: Beyond Obsessive Insecurity

I’ve covered the Aries New Moon (and how to read a T-square) in the current edition of Planet Waves FM.

First a comment on Mercury retrograde, the one that supposedly ended on Feb. 26 (the shadow phase of which ended last week). It seems like neither of those two things happened. The Mercury retrograde effect seems to be going strong, or by many reports, it has been till now.

It may feel like Mercury’s doing double duty or has a mischievous twin, but it’s just the lingering effect of its conjunction to Neptune. Images by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft.

Looking at the current positions of the planets, there are a few possible reasons for this. Both involve Pisces, where Mercury originally went retrograde and where it still is now. Under the rules of classical astrology, Mercury is said to be “in fall” in Pisces. That makes it imaginative and intuitive, but to harness these qualities takes more discipline than is usually available.

Complicating matters somewhat, on March 22, Mercury made an exact conjunction to Neptune in Pisces. That ramped up the watery, foggy, imaginative sensation of Mercury in this sign. Neptune has the widest orb of all the planets (that I’ve ever seen, anyway). So even with Mercury seven or so degrees past Neptune (as it is today) it will still be picking up those mystical vibes and may be symbolic of some of the confusion.

This weekend Mercury will make a conjunction to Chiron (very close now, exact Saturday at 1:08 am EDT), which will apply some focusing power and discernment. If Mercury and/or Neptune in Pisces is about belief, Mercury conjunct Chiron is about focusing on the facts and the data. Chiron cuts through the fog like a special kind of light that does not refract on the water particles. Mercury conjunct Chiron is about focusing on solutions.

Later in the weekend (Sunday morning EDT) Mercury will be conjunct an unusual point called Borasisi. I would sum this up as, “Be aware of what you believe, and why” and also, “Be aware of the power of belief.”

As for the Aries New Moon (exact Sunday at 2:45 pm EDT), this event is an extension of the vernal equinox, as the first solar-lunar event of the year. This is an anchor point into any beginnings that you are trying to ground or establish. Nothing says “beginning” like the Aries New Moon. Nothing says “endings” like the days before the New Moon.

New Moon over Sounion, Greece. Photo by Anthony Ayiomamitis

Aries at the moment is rife with the theme of identity crisis, and this is in some way influencing everyone. With Juno, Uranus and Eris in Aries, many attributes of identity are up for question or subject to some element of confusion. The chart describes a potential cause and therefore a potential solution.

The New Moon is separating in a conjunction from asteroid Ophelia, which describes a blend of emotional insecurity and reactivity. Martha Lang-Wescott delineates this point as being about “over-reaction and counterproductive reactions (linked to mistrust of one’s value to others and concern about deception).”

Sounds like life, many days. Consider though that the New Moon is separating from Ophelia — that is, whatever Ophelia represents is described as being in the past. So the question is, to what extent are you bringing past negative expectations into your present situation?

The other interesting bit is that Ophelia is in aspect to Hidalgo, which is the reminder not to engage in pointless rebellion based on your own insecurity — but the rebellion is described as stoking the insecurity.

Often insecurity is not just a factor but an obsession. Really, it’s the perfect paralyzing agent. We get a clue about this with asteroid Achilles in Libra, in the aspect pattern: notice when you may be feeling a false lack of confidence.

In the days following the New Moon, the Sun will pass through the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto configuration. This is likely to come with more “signs of the times” kinds of results in the world. Emotionally, it’s likely to be a restless week and I suggest you harness your energy and put it to work for you in constructive ways. Sun-Uranus can be erratic and that will take some discipline. A little goes a long way.

Aries New Moon, and How to Read a T-Square

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I read the chart for the Aries New Moon, look at the chart for the Washington State landslide, and talk about how to read a T-square in a chart. I also introduce my Aries birthday reading, which is available for $29.95. For additional resources please see the full post. If you are using an iOS device, please use this link.

Spring 2014 Special Report for All 12 signs and Rising Signs: Intimacy, Trust & the Cardinal Grand Cross

Here is an introduction to the Spring 2014 Special Report, which explores the grand cross, the grand trine and two eclipses that happen in April. This astrology is like a dimensional opening that will take you from one space of life to another. The theme of the charts, as I am reading them, is about intimacy and trust. The reading covers all 12 signs in audio format. For purchasing information, the resources I mention in the recording and other good stuff, please see the full post. Pricing information is now available. We offer incentives for early purchase! Once the Spring Report is published, all 12 signs will sell for $59.95. The first (and current) pre-order, however, is for half price at $29.95. This will last through the end of the day Monday, March 31, when the price goes up to $39.95. Once the report is published it will immediately go to full price at $59.95.

I’ve recorded an informative and authentically interesting audio preview of the project (worth listening just to hear our original theme music). As usual we offer incentive for early purchase. The final price will be $59.95 but we are offering it through the weekend at the first pre-order price of $29.95. Get it while it’s hot!

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for March Friday, Feb. 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Pisces New Moon published Tuesday, Feb. 25. Moonshine horoscopes for the Virgo Full Moon were published Tuesday, March 11. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, March 28, 2014, #992 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — The beauty of your astrology right now is that it allows you to see yourself in others and to feel them within you. Another perspective on the same aspects illustrates you self-actualizing through your relationships. This concept used to be understood a lot better than it is now in our era when the prevailing theory of relationships is to use people. Self-actualizing through an intimate bond is a special, subtle kind of using. It is perhaps the most humane kind there is, because the idea is about becoming increasingly aware of yourself as you interrelate with others. I would take the concept of ‘others’ and extend it to your whole environment. Consider that you are part of your environment and it is part of you. Feel how you influence your surroundings with your feelings, and how you can pick up feelings and experience influences just by being in a place or around others. The moral of the story is you are part of the world and the world is part of you.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You’re not in as tight of a corner as it may seem. In fact to the extent that you feel you’re under someone’s shadow, under their thumb or under their authority, you have the ability to focus and turn this into a productive situation. The main quality that’s being demanded of you is integrity. Such would include sincerity, the use of logic, and making sure that all of the basic minimums for which you may be responsible are covered. You can add to that consulting with those who are influenced by your movements and your choices, making sure they have a clue what to expect from you next. Take the time to enter a dialog and leave behind any reticence you may have to commit to a position by saying anything at all. You’re in a position of much greater influence than you may imagine, by which I mean the potential to effect positive change. Step out of the shadow and you will see that.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Stick to the truth and admit when you find yourself believing something that may not be true, or that is not true. Notice when you ‘believe’ something because someone in a position of authority ‘believes’ it; notice if you bend things a bit to focus your own authority. In short, your solar chart right now is a study in the power of false belief and deception for the purpose of gaining power. That could include power gained over you, which is the main reason why I suggest you be vigilant. It’s the main reason why I suggest you make no compromises about the nature of reality. The best way to handle any situation where you’re lacking knowledge is to admit at least that much. If you’re in a position where you have to conduct yourself a certain way for political purposes (such as getting ahead), admit at least that much. Do everything you can to eliminate deception from your life in any form, and happily forfeit the power of denial in place of the greater power of truth.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Leave your insecurity behind you and strive to do your best work. Your fears of inadequacy can indeed be behind you, in the past, if you want them to be. The only way you will establish that is to actually live as if it’s true. That may seem bold, but it’s not as bold as you might think. I will tell you that it’s probably a lot braver than your parents were; it’s gutsier than most of your friends or associates would likely be; it will take more courage than downloading a new app for your Droid. Those are not particularly meaningful comparisons because the standard is a lot lower than actual achievement — and lower than your actual potential. The main thing you’re likely to struggle with is your own consistency, though you have more influence over this than you might think. And even if you’re not exactly consistent, now is the time to focus your mind and reach for one particular goal, no matter how ‘impossible’ it may have seemed in the past.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — There’s no such thing as perfect faith, but there is such a thing as very powerful old-fashioned ordinary faith. And that, you have plenty of. Here is the thing: Faith might work so well that it would shock you. It might compel you to reorganize your whole belief system around what is actually possible that you didn’t think was possible. Note that you may find yourself in some kind of dialog or interchange with someone close to you about whether something is possible. The image glaring out of your chart is of you doing what is right for you no matter what anyone else believes or refuses to believe. So you don’t need to lose any sleep over that small matter, nor do you need to distract yourself with anyone else’s doubts. Nor do you need to convince anyone of anything — just act on the best intuition that you have. Then when your environment starts to provide feedback, adjust your beliefs accordingly. Then be ready to adjust them again.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — It’s necessary that you keep a handle on who you are, what you want and what you’re doing. I say this because of the vast amount of activity in your relationship angle (Aquarius, Pisces and Aries) and so little happening in your own sign. Your ruling planet Mercury is deep in the mix of your relationship stuff, which may be describing a real challenge finding yourself in the midst of lots of movement and excitement in your environment. The planets are describing no specific or direct way to do this, that I can see. The best idea I can offer you is to know what you think, despite what anyone else might think. It would be supremely easy to lose yourself in the viewpoint of others, so if you are aware of and strive to focus your own point of view, you have the easiest possible means of tracking who you are. So yes: the path to individuality starts with knowing your own opinion. (It always did.)

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You may feel like you live in the hall of mirrors. But if you look closely at what seems to be your reflection, you might notice that it doesn’t vaguely resemble who you know yourself to be. Indeed, the whole mirroring thing seems to be an illusion that is only real to the extent that you believe it. Your solar chart describes where you will find yourself — in the zone of consciousness where you’re willing to take a risk. Where you feel the potential, the calling or the need to dare, that is where you’re the most likely to find yourself, as in discover something new about yourself. You will know you’re in that space because it feels distinctly different than the mirror chamber or echo chamber that you were in before. You will know you’re there because it has the distinct sensation of something to gain and something to lose. Note that your ruling planet Venus is in Aquarius. That is a reminder to be yourself and not buckle under the pressure or low standards of any group in which you’re involved.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may be having panic attacks over some potential change in your work environment or work assignment. That kind of response is not exactly the key to success. I suggest you remove from your thinking any need to ‘feel appreciated’ and replace it with the need to focus your mind, your efforts and your intentions on what actually matters. Focus on the nature of commitments being made to you, and asked of you. Once the changes you’re going through gather actual momentum, there will be the moment where you have to give up control over the outcome. But that does not mean giving up awareness of where you are at any moment, or the words that come out of your mouth, or listening and hearing the words that are said to you. Said another way, lack of control over the outcome is a thing apart from maintaining your presence and awareness and using what you know to make moment-to-moment assessments and decisions.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — If you subtract the drama from the sex, the sex will be a lot more interesting. I know that for most people this is like decaffeinated instant coffee with Splenda and Cremora, or trying to get drunk on a Shirley Temple. There exists a kind of conditioned association between drama and sex, in particular, drama based on insecurity. I would propose that you don’t need that. I also suggest you subtract the “does he/she love me?” question from your erotic encounters, along with “what will happen to us in the future?” and “will we do this again?” Let basic trust and being turned on be enough for now. Have your experiences in the moment you’re having them, giving and receiving love in real time. The insecurity factor to me looks like a ruse. By ruse, I mean to use a polite word for bullshit. You might try treating it as such, just for an experiment. The other part of the experiment will involve not treating anyone else’s insecurity as if it’s valid for you.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — If you’re going to rebel, focus on what makes no sense, and then wage the rebellion by making sense. Rather than object to what is ridiculous, propose the alternative. The posture of rebellion I am suggesting is not waged in the negative but rather in the affirmative. That leaves a lot more room for creativity, actual innovation and sense of humor. It also disguises the rebellion as something else, such as an invention or a party or art or something that is just interesting. There are a lot of stupid customs in the world, ridiculous beliefs, pointless social rituals and absurd expectations. You seem to be aware of this now more than ever, and determined to do something about it. As the next few days unfold, that may grow to the point of having revolution in your heart. So be it — and Remember The Onion.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may be in an emotional dilemma, going back and forth about what you really believe, or what course of action is correct. This is compounded by the potential feeling that you have to do something, or make a decision, before time runs out. The problem is that each potential choice is so compelling you don’t know which is more valid. If this describes some aspect of your life, I have two ideas. One is: consider the potential that both are true at once, no matter how different they may seem (they are more closely related than they seem by the way). Then work out the math and figure out how the situation would seem in that case. Two is: consider the possibility that you’re dealing with a false dilemma. (I have a personal philosophy to consider the potential for any dilemma being a false dilemma). A false dilemma, in case you’re not familiar with the concept, is a pair of options, choices, potentials or outcomes where neither of the two is actually valid or meaningful. The solution to that is simple — come up with more possibilities.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Claim your genius with money. I mean take hold of it, take ownership and put it to work. Get your mind going, and start sketching out possibilities. Remember that your most valuable resource is what you know. In our economy, you have the options to sell your time, your labor or your knowledge, and you probably proffer a mix of these options. But the most valuable one is your knowledge. It’s also one of the most challenging to convert into actual cash value, though you can apply your knowledge to that puzzle. The only thing that stands in your way is a particular kind of self-esteem crisis that might, in the past, have left you feeling like nobody cares about you. That’s not true, but I would remind you that for this particular project, you don’t need anyone to care about you — you need to care about yourself, and you need to take advantage of the self-interest of others. Ultimately what you’re doing has nothing at all to do with self-interest; that is a means to a much larger and more meaningful goal.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $29.95 if you order by Monday. That’s half-off of the published price! Listen to the free audio preview.

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