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Cardinal Grand Cross: A Matter of Trust

Dear Friend and Reader:

April 2014 is the month of the long-anticipated cardinal grand cross — what I have called the peak astrology of the 2012 era. The aspect pattern that’s exact on April 23 has been forming for many decades, a hologram swirling in the seemingly random movements of the cosmos awaiting its moment of emergence. That is about to arrive with both deeply personal themes and vast global ones.

Simplified astrology chart for April 23, 2014. (Detailed chart here.) I suggest you print this chart and keep it next to you while you read the article, so you can follow along. The chart is for Mars square Pluto on April 23, 2014, illustrating the grand cross (the red square) and the grand trine (the green triangle). Note that Jupiter, the orange planet to the lower right of the chart, is the one common planet of both the square and the trine.

They share a common thread, and that is trust.

I know it’s not easy for non-astrologers to take too much technical explanation of a chart, but the meaning, beauty and outstanding quality of this alignment would lose much of its impact if you didn’t really have a sense of what it actually is. Plus, if you know, you can then explain it to others. I’ve included a custom illustration and I will do my best to explain it so that anyone can follow. I’ve placed a chart in the middle of the page and I’ll put the instructions for where to look in the chart [in bold and in brackets].

With just a little focus and patience, I think that the chart image will emerge. I suggest you print the simplified chart so that you can refer to it and take some notes as you read.

A grand cross (sometimes called a grand square) consists of planets at four equidistant points of the zodiac, which locates the Earth at the center as if in a crosshairs. The Earth is not shown in an astrological chart; it’s presumed to be in the middle of the wheel. Such patterns lose or gain astrological importance, power or influence (as you prefer) based on what planets are involved, how quickly or slowly they move, where the cross is aligned within the zodiac — plus any unusual factors that might be involved. By all of those measures, this grand cross gets high scores.

The four points of the cross fall in the cardinal signs (hence, a cardinal grand cross) and close to the cardinal points (the first degrees of those signs), those associated with the “four directions.” The four points involved all have the bold number 13 next to them, which is their degree location within their respective signs. Planets with the same degree number are said to be “in aspect.” This aspect is a giant square. [The square is easy to see by following the red lines in the middle of the chart. Note that the red lines all lead to planets that have a 13 next to them.]

The cardinal points are associated with peaks and balancing moments of the Sun’s energy as the seasons change (the equinoxes and the solstices). This grants extra emphasis — anything in the cardinal signs, or close to the cardinal points, picks up on the energy of the Aries Point, which is like a cosmic amplifier.

Moss and pine needles trapped in thick ice, late winter on the Grandmother Land in High Falls, New York. Photo by Eric Francis.

Two of the planets involved consist of an aspect I’ve been writing about here for years, called the Uranus-Pluto square. That is a 90-degreee meeting of two very slow-moving planets whose current cycle began with the conjunction of 1965-1966, rippling out for years on either side — the whole business we refer to as The Sixties. That particular era was an extraordinary and extraordinarily complex time in history, in many ways similar to the times we’re living through today — with one difference: the optimism and passion of the Sixties has been replaced by a diversity of other emotions today, ranging from cynicism to hope to a kind of helpless bewilderment. Much of the idealism that does exist is either invested in ‘faith in technology’ — or it is ungrounded. This is, I believe, something we need to get a handle on.

First let’s look at the Uranus-Pluto square. Uranus is now in Aries [a blue H-like thing, toward the left, below the horizontal line]. When you think of Uranus in Aries, think of radical individualism that can express itself creatively, or get lost in the glamour of technology. Think revolution that can set people free or get caught up in self-aggrandizement. Think scientific innovation that can serve negative or positive interests for the community. Consider the ways that our culture is becoming the product of its own technology — which means that the technology is out of our control.

The second part of the Uranus-Pluto square is Pluto. Pluto is now in Capricorn [depicted as a red golf tee, to the upper left of the chart]. When you think of Pluto in Cap, think of systems breakdowns and the collapse of over-large, too-old institutions. Think of the banking crisis. Think of struggles for and obsession with power, doing it “because you can,” and the constant sensation that this all may be crashing down.

With Pluto in Capricorn, the evolutionary drive of Pluto is being applied to “the system” itself. This has been a long time coming. “The system” may seem indomitable but it’s much more fragile than you may think. On a really good day, various system collapses could get dysfunctional stuff out of the way, and give us an opportunity to build something new and positive in the cleared space. But those are two very different things — the destruction and the rebuilding. They call upon two very different kinds of commitments.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Because these two planets move so slowly, they hold their exact 90-degree angle for about four years, which began in spring 2012 and which ends in spring 2015 (with a wide time orb on either side). This aspect comes with the sensation of the turmoil we’re witnessing in the world, the sense of living on the edge or over the edge, and the sensation of everything happening at once.

It also offers another quality that many other tumultuous aspects don’t necessarily have much of — the quest for liberation, and the potential to create it. Pluto drives growth and progress. Uranus drives sudden change. The two working together, combined with human awareness and creativity, can have beautiful results. They can also combine into something that is dangerous and unpredictable, such as revolutions that give rise to even worse regimes than before; activist movements that start off strong and end in apathy and defeatism.

The third point of the cardinal cross is Jupiter in Cancer [an orange glyph similar to a 4 to the lower right side of the chart]. Jupiter bestows protection (including, literally, protecting the Earth from impact with asteroids and comets), it magnifies anything it comes into contact with, and it can bring an exotic quality (such as foreign, otherworldly or mystical) into the scenario. Jupiter is a classical planet and it is exalted in Cancer — it’s the most strongly placed planet in the whole alignment. The other planets have significant impact; Jupiter is strong in its sign by the classical rules, and comes with the message, “This is home. Let’s make the most of it.”

Note, the United States’ Sun is at 13+ Cancer. That is to say, where Jupiter is now, the Sun was on July 4, 1776. For Americans, that Jupiter is a double reminder of what it means to be home, and to take care of home. There is also the implication that the United States will be involved in an unusual event this April.

Jupiter also has another role — a link from the grand cross to the grand water trine that also currently exists. Yes, we are in the midst of both a cross in the heavens, and a trine. The grand water trine means there are planets in aspect in all three water signs. [Those are illustrated by the green triangle in the middle of the wheel.] The other water signs are Scorpio, covered by Saturn, and Pisces, covered by Neptune, Chiron and Venus. The one point that the two patterns share, the cross and the square, is Jupiter.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Notice how both red and green lines converge on Jupiter. Jupiter has access to all of the other planets in both patterns. It’s not exactly the hub of the wheel; it’s more like a command center set off to the side. A grand water trine means that it’s easy to get caught in one’s emotions, and for the whole society to get caught in an emotional “Bermuda triangle” and not be able to escape. We need to watch carefully for this kind of experience. It’s also easy for individuals to get caught in an emotional pattern and have the same basic effect. Think of Jupiter as home base, that is, the reminder that we are at home, and that we can use that to our advantage.

What makes April 23 the peak of the grand cross is that Uranus, Pluto, Jupiter and lastly Mars will be aligned to within one degree, at 13+ degrees of their respective signs [The degrees are indicated by bold numbers, and fractions of a degree in smaller numbers closer to the center of the wheel.] This is a remarkably close alignment, given that all four placements split a single degree. And it’s astonishing that this aligns with the U.S. Sun to the very degree.

Okay, now for the last element — Mars, the one that to me illustrates the matter of trust; and the point that applies the burst of energy to the pattern that makes it such a strong factor right now. [Mars is to the right, above the horizontal line, in red, looking just like you might expect it to.] When fast-moving inner planets like Mars get involved in slow-moving patterns, they tend to activate the pattern, push it to the forefront and make it personal.

Mars is a close-by world, often called a “personal planet” by astrologers since the feelings and qualities it represents are so accessible to all people (anger, motivation, sex drive, competitiveness and violent urges among them). Mars can be assertive, aggressive, lusty, driven, angry or violent, depending on the circumstances. It is the nearest, fastest-moving and most mentally accessible planet of the four that are involved in the cross.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Mars is in Libra, the sign of beauty and balance,
of relationships and of the kind of sex we experience as elegant and beautiful. Libra is a sign associated with Venus. Mars seems out of place in this sign opposite its own (Aries); it is taking a long retrograde through a feminine environment, and appears to be compensating for this by switching its polarity (retrograde movement).

This is the very image of what some call “passive” aggression. There really is no such thing. The passive part of passive aggressive really means concealed or disguised. It is more like a sly attack, or the lurking fear of one. This is a slippery placement and it’s not easy to readily identify what it represents; one must really focus and do an inner investigation.

Mars retrograde in Libra illustrates the festering anger that is resident in many relationships, along with the resentment and hostility. Sometimes this is veiled and sometimes it’s blatantly overt. In any case many people live with anger as a seeming fact of life in their relationships. There is no easy way out of their situations, people seem to have power over them, and the nearly universal human quality of passivity leads people to feel they lack even the most basic influence over their lives.

This is the “yes means no” Mars; it’s also an image of ambivalence that is driven by a deeper underlying doubt.

Many of us also live with anger in other forms: at ourselves, at our parents, at the world situation, at God. Yet our culture lacks a vent for this anger, or for productive ways to process it, much less to turn it into another form of energy. What it tends to do is to erode trust. We might think we live in a cold and unloving world, but imagine how that would change if people trusted one another more readily.

Memory of Winter. Photo by Eric Francis.

Part of what we specifically lack trust in is justice and fairness, two themes covered by the sign Libra. This runs in at least two directions — how you are treated, and how you treat others. Notice the cynicism that has pervaded our society in these years; but no matter how “well founded,” cynicism can never lead to trust. And trust is the one thing we need to work together.

Most of what we’re missing, I believe, is trust in ourselves. Self-trust is the foundation of all other kinds of trust because all of them come back to you trusting your decision to have faith in a situation. This has been injured so many times that it seems like trust is either impossible, or it is always going to be betrayed. Neither of these is true, but it will seem true if it’s the only option we have.

Mars retrograde is pushing these issues to the forefront. We stand at a point of decision. And in a few weeks that may seem deeply urgent. If you’re looking at the world, at your relationship or at yourself and wondering what to do, I would ask: what would it take for you to trust? What would you need, or need to do?

If I may make a suggestion, one of the things that characterizes our time in history is an extreme sense of seeking what we can get out of any situation. It’s true that nearly everything is connected to a monthly bill and we live with the sensation of being constantly exploited. There is another side to that, which is a society that sometimes feels like yellow jacket wasps in late autumn trying to extract nourishment from a brightly colored potato chip package.

I believe that trust is cultivated by exactly the opposite property: understanding what we can give to any situation. Trust and love are closely related; we tend to love what we nurture, whether it’s a child, a friend, a puppy or a home. One skill here is learning to properly nourish yourself, which will definitely help — but replacing this chilly quality of “what can I withhold?” with “what can I offer?” is going to help many ways, including proving that you really do have something to offer; something truly worthwhile — and that may answer one of your most nagging doubts.

Lovingly,

ABOUT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS COVERAGE

After much thought, I’ve decided to spin off our environmental coverage, including Monsanto Watch and ECO, into their own free publication that will be distributed Friday afternoons. This will allow us to focus this coverage for readers who are truly interested, and to make it available to non-subscribers. We also anticipate having more interaction with the audience, who I presume follows much more of this news and seems to include some people working directly on the issues. To sign up for these free mailings, please use this link. You may also share it with anyone you want. If you want to reach the editors with an idea, local breaking news story, correction or other feedback, please write to eco@planetwaves.net.

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. Coordinating Editor: Elizabeth Michaud. 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.

Taking a Ride on the Aries Point

The Sun ingressed Aries Thursday at 1:58:59 pm EDT — that would be the equivalent of high noon standard time, with the Sun high in the sky. The Aries Point is the first degree of the tropical zodiac, that is, the orientation point from which all of Western astrology is reckoned. We are about to take a ride on the Aries Point for the next six or seven weeks, as the Sun passes through the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto configuration, and Mars gets ready to join the action (see article above).

My annotated chart for the spring equinox yesterday.

The Aries Point also has the property of an intersection between the collective realm and the individual; it covers all of the topics where matters that would seemingly be the abstract business of legislators show up in your living room, your kitchen or your bedroom. The truly interesting thing about “the news” is just how many events have called our attention to precisely this factor.

The Sun reaches the first point on the cardinal cross with the Sun square Jupiter on April 1. Then personal and world events really pick up and we will be treated to one of the most amazing, strange and perhaps tumultuous trips through the kaleidoscope. I believe there will be some scary moments as world leaders, many of them drunk on power and lacking common sense, pick up on the energy.

Personally, I foresee a time for big decisions and engaging with issues that have long been omitted from the discussion. I am especially intrigued by the placement of Mars in the sign Libra — the one opposite its home sign Aries. This looks like an intriguing therapy project of unraveling this annoying thing called projection. But for that to work it will be necessary to tread lightly on yourself, on others and on the Earth.

Before the Sun reaches the grand cross, however, it makes a series of aspects to a cluster of minor planets that are grouped around the early degrees of the cardinal signs. I go through these in some detail in Thursday night’s edition of Planet Waves FM, right at the top of the program.

I will go over a few selected highlights, however. One is Terpsichore opposite Apollo in early Aries/Libra. The Sun will pass through this today and over the weekend. Terpsichore is the muse of dance, the dance of life and with life and “dancing your way to God” and dancing between the raindrops.

Apollo is the one with the story about making the same errors over and over. So with this aspect we have the theme of how we dance with our own mistakes, and how we might find a way to dance our way out of them. I think everyone has experienced the frustration of Apollo at some time or another, many of us on a fairly regular basis. In the blend with Terpsichore is a clever way to say that life is not about perfection, it’s about movement and flow.

Ophelia, illustrated in a photograph by Gregory Crewdson.

There’s one more grouping that I think is really interesting — Ophelia at 5+ Aries, Eros at 5+ Capricorn and Hidalgo at 8+ Capricorn. The Sun will pass through this configuration early next week, though there’s plenty of heat and light shining on it right now.

Ophelia, named for a character in Hamlet, is a point of overreaction based on the sensation of not being valued. Usually when this kind of sensation starts to cascade, it’s coming from a space of deep insecurity that is being projected into a relationship. The glyph for Ophelia is similar to that of Psyche and I believe there is a resonance. My take on Psyche is the sensation of an emotional injury that cannot be healed — not the reality, the sensation.

Eros pumps a lot of heart energy through this, and it can become distorted — especially when you run Eros through the “commitment is everything” filter of Capricorn. Yes, we are pulverized into thinking commitment is everything, but I would ask: commitment to whom and to what?

The last point is Hidalgo, one of my favorite asteroids. Hidalgo cautions against rebellion for its own sake. But mostly, Hidalgo cautions against going along with ridiculous social customs just because they are there. This would include mindlessly accepting, in any way, any pressure to be something or someone, or to do something, or to go along with something, that is not really about you; that you have not fully thought through.

With the way the planets are developing, you will most surely want to think, to feel and to reflect — take the time while you have it.

Video still from “Years” by Bartholomaus Traubeck; the knot to the left side of the wooden disk sounds about as dark and gnarly as it looks. A digital album of seven different tree-slice recordings is available for download at Traubeck’s Bandcamp site.

Singing Rings for Spring

For everyone anywhere on Earth, the Aries equinox is one of the two times at which the hours of day and night are equal (the other being the Libra equinox). If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, this means the first day of spring (even if the weather hasn’t gotten the message yet) and the promise of a new cycle of growth.

Trees happen to document their growth cycles in the rings visible when a cross-section is cut from a log — a record of each year’s rainfall and other factors that looks, well, like a record. Artist Bartholomaus Traubeck has fitted a turntable with a PlayStation Eye Camera that ‘reads’ the rings in cross-sections of trees and transmits the data to a computer, where a software program translates the data into piano sounds.

The recordings resulting from the project, which is titled “Years,” are both haunting and inspiring; what might the music sound like if we could translate each year of our own growth into sound?

Moss, pine needles and leaves from the forest floor trapped in thick ice, late winter on the Grandmother Land in High Falls, New York. Photo by Eric Francis.

Spring Equinox and How Not to Give Away Your Power

In this week’s program of Planet Waves FM, I look at the chart for the Spring Equinox, and consider the planets gathered around the Aries Point. In the second half of the the program, I offer some additional thoughts on the charts for Flight 370. Finally, I share my ideas about how not to give your power away to healers, teachers and those in a position of authority.

Have you ordered your 2014 readings by Eric Francis yet? The Mars Effect (our 16th annual edition!) has just published, and includes in-depth audio and written readings for your Sun, Moon and rising signs. We always receive a flood of positive feedback for these readings, and it shows just how meaningful they are. One customer wrote, “Every minute of Eric’s reading is worth gold.” We’re offering you a special package price of $79 for all twelve signs, available only to current Planet Waves members. Or you may purchase individual signs for $29.95.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for April are published below in this issue. 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.

Planet Waves Monthly for April 2014, #991 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You may be feeling confident, brassy and ambitious, though I suggest you monitor the world for your own reflection every time you turn around. You need feedback in realtime, and you need it from multiple sources. You have Uranus in your sign, which may be leading you to feel unstoppable. Jupiter in Cancer is offering a sense of safety while Pluto in Capricorn is suggesting that the sky is the limit. But your ruling planet Mars is in your opposite sign Libra. This suggests a more fragile and less easy-to-read situation than you may imagine, particularly as the energy heats up mid-month. Therefore, it’s essential that you tune into your navigation and feedback systems as soon as you can, so that you begin to notice the ways that the echo of your environment comes back to you. You may not think, or want to think, that this is somehow an expression of your own energy. The purpose of this feedback is not to judge it but rather to evaluate it. So before getting caught in your own opinion, notice the ways that shifting your approach to people and circumstances and altering your energetic posture actually gets a result. The nice thing here is while there may be some subtlety to what you’re perceiving and how you have to adapt, the feedback and the results should come quickly.

Looking for an in-depth astrology reading? Order THE MARS EFFECT, your 2014 annual readings, for a special rate of $79 for all twelve signs. It’s a great package of audio and written readings that gives you access to your Sun, rising and Moon signs (and those of your loved ones). You may also order individual signs for $29.95 here.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You are well-placed to experience this month’s grand cross event in a supporting role, as an observer and voluntary participant. Your ruling planet Venus is in Pisces, happy, resourceful and a safe distance from the fireworks. Yet there is another dimension to this month’s activity, which involves a solar eclipse in your birth sign on April 29. Eclipses in your sign are ‘before and after’ events, demarcation points that shift the way you think about yourself. The theme of this eclipse is your identity as a relationship partner. Among the reasons that might be challenging is that it’s not easy for you to shift any facet of your identity; you tend to camp out in what you know. Yet most of what we know about ‘being a partner’ comes from two sources: our parents, most of whom struggled to have a single clue about this, and the rest from social conditioning such as fairy tales, movies, television and then a whole heap of peer pressure. The beauty of an eclipse is that it’s a wildcard. Circumstances may seem to be operating outside of your control, yet in truth you have the full power of choice. Give yourself a break, observe what is right for you, and remember most people around you will be so invested in other matters they are unlikely to notice, much less judge, your conclusions.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You must keep your wits about you at all times, and be realistic at every turn. That means making no assumptions, which is a miracle in a world where so few people even know when they are doing so. Therefore, the first step is being aware when your perceptions are supported by actual data rather than by something you would like to be true, or by something that someone is trying to convince you is true. We are about to enter one of those ‘all is fair in love and war’ phases of social history where for a while it may seem like all bets are off and none of yesterday’s rules apply. As Graham Nash said, you who are on the road must have a code that you can live by. You need your own personal code, your way of life, that is distinct from anything that was ever imposed on you, and which depends on what you have learned from all your travels. Most of all your guide to living must be informed by the outcomes that you want, measured not so much in material things but rather in the form of ethics, cooperation, the value you place on your relationships and most of all, the value you place on the future. These are things that count, and the things I suggest you keep right at the front of your mind, every step you take.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Your sign has a unique position amongst the many unusual developments of this month. The two main events are a cardinal grand cross (see related article) and a water grand trine. Yours is the only cardinal water sign — that is, the only sign directly involved in both configurations. The planet involved is Jupiter, currently in Cancer and very happy there. Jupiter indicates that you have plenty of resources to apply to what may feel like an increasingly demanding or complicated situation. You may be in a helping role — this may or may not be directly about your personal existence (in other words, it may reach far beyond). Yet despite your state of abundance, you will need to allocate your resources thoughtfully. You’ll need to take care of yourself before you take any responsibility for the many people who may be making demands on you. Be on the lookout for overreactions by others; stay away from drama queens and those who seem to exist without purpose. Focus on those who are being true to themselves and who are connected to the greater whole. Notice who is being self-serving, who is taking advantage of others and who is just taking up space. Notice, that is, so you can also identify who is in a supporting role. Help those who are making a difference.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — It is time to step up and take leadership whether or not you think you are ready. For this to work, your idea of leadership needs to evolve. It’s not a supporting or coordinating role; those are the people that leaders need around them, and I suggest you get a few supporters and coordinators onto your team. Leadership is making sure the right thing happens at the right time. That will take cooperation, and so right up top of the concepts of leadership is the one who focuses a group effort. I know this is a quality more typically assigned to Aquarius, and I have noticed that many Leos have a heck of a time with the whole recruiting and delegating thing. However, putting that skill to work will be necessary if you want to use this extraordinary moment and achieve at least a few truly unusual things, even as the world seems to go mad. I recognize the extent to which this type of leadership may seem to involve a profound shift of orientation for you. Maybe it will seem more within reach if you think of it like how you want your family to run — as a fully cooperative entity. Teach young people all the time. Shift your emphasis from doing things personally to making sure that others do them as well as, or better than, you.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Events of this month may seem like a huge spectacle, something that you’re destined to witness rather than participate in. It’s also possible that what you see will seem so close to home that you will fail to notice what is happening outside your immediate environment. I suggest you go beyond what seems to be directly personal and reach with your awareness into wider circles. Make contact with those who have a global perspective, those who are not caught in their own little reality bubble — that will help take you beyond the limits of your own perception. You may be feeling a bit boxed into your reality, as if you’re reluctant to change your mind about something. Yet everything you’re seeing, hearing and experiencing is howling and cheering for you to do precisely that, to get in tune with the moment. If you are feeling like “I don’t want to change my own mind; I would rather have it changed for me,” that is what will happen, but it won’t be the most pleasant or creative way to experience the current astrology. The more creative approach will include allowing others to gently lead you beyond what is familiar. Some of those experiences will come through your relationships and some will come as a result of them. Still, the idea is the same — embrace others who are willing to take you beyond yourself.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Mars retrograde in your sign is about to take center stage. Mars represents a process that started long ago and over which you have little control; it seems to represent something that you must go through and experience at full intensity. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that would be the best course of action. Yet several factors describe the way you might be inclined to take this experience in an unconscious way, acting out the past, or that of your ancestors. For you, there are two keys to this astrology. One is to remain fully present in your experience of what is happening. Find people who are willing to help you stay grounded and give you honest feedback, and moreover, who are able to provide a sense of context. The other is to maintain your compassion at all times. The theme of Mars retrograde in Libra is a dangerously slippery form of inwardly directed anger. Venus, the actual planet that represents you, is placed in Pisces, where you are being invited to see your life from a whole other perspective. The time has arrived to devote yourself to healing as a full-time occupation. If you want to do your part in helping resolve the global crisis and guiding humanity through its raging adolescence, your own healing process is the place to begin — and now is the time.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — It would be easier to deal with fear if we could recognize it when we see it. Yet the problem with fear, and its first cousins guilt and anger, is that most of the time, we don’t recognize them when we see them, or feel them. They take so many forms, come wrapped in so many packages and dressed in so many disguises, we could be dealing with them all day and still not know it. And that is precisely what we do. Your job is to know when you’re dealing with these emotions, and when they are driving you. It is only this awareness that will protect you from being manipulated and manipulating others. Only this awareness will allow you to connect with more loving motives. At the moment, it seems like the entire ‘outer’ world we are witnessing is being driven by dark emotions and self-serving motives. At the same time many things seem wrapped in a blend of ambivalence and ignorance that could lead otherwise intelligent people to support the cause of (for example) fracking or genetically modified foods. Yet neither your most wholesome survival instincts nor your most sublime creative guidance will be apparent when you’re caught in the deceptive, slippery haze of fear, or guilt, or anger. And that is what you must now focus every skill and grain of wit into transcending. If there is a road to truth, it is surely the same one away from lies.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You seem to be central to many events and activities around you. Actually, this appears to be so true that the most significant thing you can avoid is losing yourself in the midst of all the excitement, the drama and the goings-on. Whether you recognize it or not, the resources that are being drawn on are your emotional resources. You might think it’s your creative talent, your money or your ideas; you might have those moments when you think it’s your sexual energy (and you would be getting closer). The thing you have, that which others want and think they need or are just drawn to without understanding at all, is your emotional pool. You might be saying, “The Only Astrology Book You Ever Need said Sagittarians aren’t so emotional,” though astrology books don’t really point to this quality about you. Yet it’s as real as you are, and it’s present right now, and I suggest you insulate yourself a bit and keep a meter on what you share with others, so that you have sufficient reserves of your own. In addition, it’s imperative that you set your own course in life without being distracted by those with whom you’re sexually involved or with whom you may share a bank account. This is a time when you must be absolutely free to make your own decisions, and make them without hesitation.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Of the many messages I could deliver at the time of the grand cross, at the top of the list is to protect your reputation. Like a bookstore, reputations take years to build and can burn in minutes. There is no indication in your chart that this will happen, but many factors conspire to raise the probability level. Therefore I suggest you temper your ambitions for the moment and focus on maintaining what you’ve currently got going on. You have plenty of responsibility, and some of what you’re being required to do is sufficiently ambiguous as to require considerable thought. One potential risk is ending up taking responsibility for the actions of someone else, so I suggest you refrain, for the moment, from doing anyone else’s bidding, no matter how politically expedient it may be. There are also likely to be a few matters from the past that are coming up for closure, especially involving your professional activities. Take care of them. The planets in their courses are, as you know, holding out a vision of success, yet it’s vital that you allow this to unfold in due time, and that you skip no steps on the way to getting there. Soon enough, once you’ve passed unscathed through your current adventure thanks to your persistent vigilance, you will once again be able to throw caution to the four winds.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Despite the considerable fuss and turmoil of the world, you seem intent on grounding yourself in your home, with your partner, with your family or in your community (these, in some combination). That looks like the right idea at the right time. You are in a position to build your life from the center outward, similar to how a tree grows. You would have to be pretty tuned into nature to look at a tree and say, “Gee, I see it growing right now.” (Such is possible.) But you would have to be pretty out of it to look at the tree year after year and not notice that it’s filling out and becoming taller and stronger. Your professional activities are in a similar pattern of nearly imperceptible growth, but increasingly solid rooting. Your ruling planet Saturn is in your solar 10th house — perhaps its most functional place. The work of the 10th house is the slow building of one’s professional purpose, identity and image. Keep that process slow, and continue to make sure that your reputation is built on absolutely solid ground, making sure that every career-oriented contact you make has an actual emotional — that is to say, human — basis to the relationship. Take the time to slowly and meticulously orient around the goals that you hold the most dear to your heart. Then, work that blend of ‘make it happen’ and ‘let it happen’.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Whatever may be going on around you, the waters deep within the Pisces sea can be clear and calm. They will be, if you remember to leave any trouble and turmoil at the surface. The spiritual reservoir of your sign is full right now, in part because the water trine that’s holding out a veil of protection over the world involves all three of the planets associated with your sign — Venus, Jupiter and Neptune. Yet this is also hinting that you will be in a vital supporting role to certain people around you, maybe to many people. It’s essential that you keep yourself nourished, rested and organized. Take the ‘self sacrificing’ thing about Pisces and set it aside — whoever invented that did a service to nobody. Your charts are about the pleasure you can experience, the creative expansion, the art and the music that you can experience, even amidst any strange and chaotic developments of the world. The thing to remember is that you don’t owe anyone anything, and that your life is a gift to yourself. If you live sincerely and in balance, you will be available to support others in unusual ways that sidestep many of the typical notions of what community or world service is about. The direct and rather bold message of your chart is that what serves you will serve others — a happy state of affairs.

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Somewhere In Between

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Friday into Saturday arrives with a series of astrological moments that combine into a gem, focused on Pisces. Today Mercury stations direct, Saturday Mars stations retrograde and overnight between them is the Pisces New Moon. The Moon-Sun conjunction (that is, the New Moon) happens in the midst of two personal planets making stations, barely moving in the sky.

Saturday’s Pisces New Moon is conjunct Chiron and Neptune, and exactly trine Jupiter. Photo by Cassini Space Probe team. See full image here.

That’s a sync in time; then there is one in space. The New Moon happens close to the midpoint of Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, accessing the best that those two planets have to offer. And almost miraculously, the Moon and Sun are trine Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces, exact to about 10 minutes of arc or one-sixth of a degree (that is, less than 1/2000th of the zodiac).

Today’s horoscope section for your Sun sign and rising sign below is an extended edition that covers this confluence of events.

Meanwhile, I have some house announcements. As part of my 50th birthday/Chiron return festivities planned for next weekend, I will be taking a couple of weeks off from most of my Planet Waves writing. Issues will continue Tuesdays and Fridays during that time; I will have less of a presence and return in full force on Friday, March 21, with the April monthly forecasts.

Meanwhile, I won’t be writing the full horoscopes for all the signs but I will be writing for Pisces. On Fridays, we’ll have something else for the rest of the signs — some good ideas are brewing. I plan to finish the Aquarius and Pisces birthday readings within a couple of days (they are still available at pre-order price and include two audio chapters of astrology and a tarot reading, plus an extended written description of your sign).

I will be doing a new Planet Waves FM and Music Hour with Dan Sternstein this week, and probably the week after. This is not exactly a vacation, but you should see the list of what I won’t be doing.

By the way, if you haven’t ventured over to Planet Waves FM, I suggest you do. When I came up with the current Planet Waves business plan in 2007, nudged along by a commodities trader willing to invest $500K into Planet Waves, one of my top priorities was an Internet radio station. We declined the investment money but kept the business plan. Planet Waves FM is one of its most brilliant features. Have a look — it’s a beautiful thing.

Mercury Stationing Direct — Nobody is Complaining

Every Mercury retrograde is weird. Some are weirder than others. Astrologically the one that’s ending today gets bonus points because Mars stations retrograde the next day, accented by the Pisces New Moon. The starry dynamo of the night is churning out some interesting chaos patterns.

In the midst of this Mercury retrograde, there was a series of blizzards that on several occasions scrambled air and ground traffic along the entire East Coast. The city of Kingston, N.Y., where I live, went on a snow ordinance towing spree and has had to dismiss many of the tickets and refund many towing and storage fees charted by its corrupt contractors.

North Pole of Mercury. Photo by MESSENGER team.

Meanwhile one friend had her bank account closed (she missed a security confirmation email that probably looked like spam). Another is dealing with a stalker who will probably go unconscious the moment Mercury changes directions and wake up having forgotten everything.

Oh yeah, the Winter Olympics came and went without incident — just a huge fuss brewing in Ukraine next door.

The news of the world is once again rushing by so fast it’s difficult to figure out what to focus on — if you care to notice at all. Let’s take a fast survey. Here is my favorite headline of the entire Mercury retrograde: “Swiss teacher accidentally shows X-rated amputee porn on overhead projector.”

Article summary: “While students at KV Zurich Business School studied, an educator tried to secretly watch his fetish porn — one problem, he forgot to turn off the overhead projector.” Imagine the responses from students. [Note, I had never heard of amputee porn. So I Googled it, but none of the images are appropriate to use here.]

In New Jersey, Mercury retrograde has manifested as the former bridge tollgate blocking scandal (what I call Tollgategate) becoming a “the whole government” scandal. The station-direct has arrived with a raft of previously released documents being made available without redactions, adding lots of color and detail to the bridge piece of the story. The larger issue is the revelation of how government is bought and sold in that state, which is starting to look a lot like Tammany Hall — the totally corrupt, pre-Civil Service government of New York City.

Meanwhile, in other news, protests in Ukraine led to the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych. Protesters armed with sticks, rocks and coke bottles full of gasoline stood up to a paramilitary force shooting at them with live ammo and forced the guy to flee Kiev. Under his orders, police killed some 80 protesters before Parliament took over the government and kicked him out of office. It is true that some of the protesters raided an armory and had real weapons, but that is hardly leveling the playing field against a government-organized army.

Are we heading back to the USSR? I hope not. Photo, from viral wallpaper, actually seems to be of East Berlin, but don’t quote me on that.

Yanukovych split from town, abandoned his palace to protesters, and then headed south to the Crimean Peninsula, where his airplanes were blocked from taking off. He is now reportedly in Moscow, where he will give a news conference Friday just as Mercury stations direct. I love Russian news conferences.

Meanwhile, there are reportedly Russian flags flying over the Crimean capital at the moment, and there were news reports Thursday of Putin amassing 150,000 troops along the Ukrainian border as part of a war game exercise that Russia claims is unrelated to the recent unrest.

When I titled an article “Back in the USSR” a few weeks ago, I did not mean to imply that Putin would be trying to bring back the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but that seems to be his intent.

All of the charts I’ve seen for Ukraine have planets aligned with the cardinal grand cross (including the Uranus-Pluto square) that has been taking shape for years and which will reach a full peak on April 23. This is also true for Yanukovych, who has a volatile mix of planets in mid-Libra (Mars conjunct Neptune) and Cancer (Mercury, Sun and Uranus conjunct).

In Venezuela, mass protests there finally started to get some attention in the U.S. media after Pres. Nicolas Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez after he died last year, tried to throw CNN out of the country. There’s no better way to focus the media than to pick on it. I would say that someone should write an article explaining this to petty tyrants, but it’s probably better if they have to figure it out through trial and error.

The protests erupted in Caracas in January after actress and former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear was killed during a roadside robbery with her five-year-old daughter in the car. The protests are focusing on the crime problem (70 murders a day) and inflation (above 50% a year) and little problems, like the fact that it’s considered a crime to mention the inflation rate in a newspaper.

Since Feb. 13, as the death toll mounted, more than 2,000 stories from Venezuela have been uploaded to iReport, CNN’s user-generated platform. They describe many ugly scenes, such as police going door to door terrorizing people, along with the usual crackdowns in the street.

Interesting colors adorn a recent protest in Venezuela. Photo by Juan Reyes/iReport.

Top Venezuelan officials have accused the United States of trying to destabilize the government, which is probably true. This week Venezuela gave three U.S. diplomats 48 hours to leave the country, accusing them of conspiring to bring down the government. At a rally Tuesday, Maduro shouted, “Yankee, go home” from the stage.

Venezuela’s 1811 independence chart features the Capricorn Full Moon going right across the mid-cardinal signs, directly in alignment with the cardinal grand cross (including the Uranus-Pluto square).

And protests came to a peak in Thailand this week as citizens called for the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who they allege is a puppet of her billionaire brother, the deposed, exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. There were deadly clashes between police and protesters as police began attempts to clear sites occupied by protesters for months. The Thailand chart has the Sun in mid-Aries, aligned with the cardinal grand cross.

Syria is still a mess, warlords are vying for political office in Afghanistan, and the U.S. and Mexico busted Joaquin Guzman, one of the most infamous drug lords in the world. The chart is a piece of work — very similar to the chart for the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych some hours earlier, featuring a slippery alignment of the Moon, the Sun, Chiron and the ascendant.

But the real kicker in the Guzman bust chart is how the United States Sibly chart shows up — the two charts align to the degree. I predict that Guzman will be extradited to the U.S. and offered a plea deal where he becomes vice president of a major American pharmaceutical company. Either that or he will escape again, since he seems to have more firepower than Mexico itself.

Mars Retrogrades Toward an American Spring

If you’re seeing a pattern here, that all the countries where protests and unrest are erupting have planets aligned with the cardinal grand cross, it might not shock you to learn that the U.S. fits this pattern — only even more precisely than the other charts.

By that, I mean very, very precisely. The grand cross that’s now forming involves Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto aligning at 13+ degrees of the cardinal signs (in order of the planets listed, Libra, Cancer, Aries and Capricorn). This is not chicken shit. Mars is bringing the Uranus-Pluto square to a peak, and Jupiter is there to magnify things and provide a bit of protection and a reminder that this is all an opportunity.

This is a stripped-down version of the Sibly chart, the most commonly used chart for the United States, set for July 4, 1776. Note the Sun on the middle right with the number 13 next to it — that is 13+ Cancer. Now look at the next chart to see what is about to align with that 13+ degree Sun. The other planets are: Saturn on top at 14+ Libra, then anticlockwise, Eris at 6+ Capricorn and Chiron at 20+ Aries.

The U.S. Sun is at 13+ Cancer (this is from the Sibly chart, the most commonly used chart for July 4, 1776). It is exactly aligned with the cardinal grand cross. Said another way, the U.S. Sun will be taking a simultaneous square from Mars, a square from Uranus, an opposition from Pluto and a conjunction from Jupiter. That’s a lot of transits for one day, one month or one year.

Mars is about to station retrograde in late Libra, and will backtrack into alignment with the other planets, arriving exactly on April 23. If you ask me, we are about to experience an American Spring.

April is often a weird and eventful month in American history. Come April we’ll have an article telling you just how weird and eventful, going all the way back to the battles of Lexington and Concord. I don’t know if the U.S. Sun has ever taken more significant transits than it’s about to take but I would be stretched to invent something more intense than what is brewing. We are talking about the Uranus-Pluto square here, and we are talking about doing the one thing that tends to bring Uranus-Pluto aspects right to the forefront — add the energy of personal planets (such as Mars) or transpersonal planets (such as Jupiter).

While the U.S. ignores most of its most important problems (poverty, crumbling infrastructure, a bloating oligarchy leaching the resources out of the people, an economy that seems to be running on fumes) there is some progress being made on social issues. Same-sex marriage prohibition and cannabis prohibition seem to be crumbling under some simultaneous influence. While both issues have long histories, I reckon that influence is the Uranus-Pluto square and Chiron and Neptune in Pisces. Society is never the same after these kinds of aspects go by.

This is the cardinal grand cross (or grand square — really it is both) pattern that happens on April 23. I am reading it as a stand-alone and as transits to the Sibly chart. Notice the planets aligned exactly at 13+ cardinal — including of course 13+ Cancer, the USA Sun. There’s one other weird thing. This chart is cast for Washington, DC. Notice the horizontal line — the ascendant axis. This axis moves so fast that one degree (such as the 12 next to the wheel on the left) changes every three to five minutes. It aligns directly with the USA chart to the degree — pretty impressive. Chart is timed for the exact moment of Mars square Pluto.

Now, you didn’t ask, but I’ll give you my theory as to why pot has been illegal for so long. Well, it’s not purely my theory — Betty Dodson figured this one out. Or maybe she read about it in the 1968 book Soul on Ice by Eldridge Clever, who according to Len Wallick also suggests this theory.

It may have been one of those things that everyone just knew up until the Sixties, then it was forgotten, along with a bunch of other useful information.

Yes, I agree that cannabis competes with tobacco, alcohol, the chemical industry and many, many pharmaceuticals; the hemp plant and resulting cannabis variety are about as all-purpose as you can get, good for making everything from clothing to paper to medicine.

However, smoking pot has a way of gently reducing sexual inhibitions, opening the door to about the two-drink level, but then you get to go through the door instead of getting fall-down drunk. Then it does something extra — it stokes sexual curiosity, physical and emotional sensitivity and psychic vulnerability. That can lead to some very, very pleasant and interesting sex. It can also get you into water a little deeper than you planned to swim out into, so I suggest getting some experience before experimenting with partners.

Cannabis is the libation of the Jazz Age (recall from that era the term “jass me baby” meaning “do me!”). Homeopathic guru Rajan Sankaran describes its sensation as the most pleasant of all substances in the materica medica. Homeopathic doctor, author and teacher Frans Vermeulen speculates that it’s one of the plants that led to the invention of agriculture.

Friend of sailors, cancer and MS patients, people who want to unwind after a long day, teenagers and old people, spiritual seekers and music lovers, philosophers and artists, it remains a true fact. Cannabis quite often makes people horny, and frees them from their inhibitions without making them blotto or feel so good they want to puke.

Cannabis is cultivated by depriving female plants of male pollen. The plants secrete THC-containing resin in order to catch the one stray grain of pollen that might be in the environment, but there is none. So they build and build sexual energy, get all wet and sticky with resin, which contains the THC, and that is what the human brain responds to. Basically, cannabis is sex in a plant — a desperately horny female plant. So this is not mere theorizing; the doctrine of signatures (similar energy impressions up and down the chain of ideas and substances) works pretty well.

Hi girls! This is space kush, but it looks more like space aliens. But then imagine how weird we must look to them. It’s a kind of cannabis that is indica (rather than sativa) dominant; that is, it’s a physical sensation rather than a soaring ‘high’. Photo from Everything About Marijuana.

The common thread of gay marriage and cannabis legalization, besides leaving people alone for doing what does not harm others, is a growing openness to “whatever gets you going.” With cannabis they may also be getting tired of spending money investigating and prosecuting it, along with the cost and burden of putting people into jail for more money than it would take to send them to university on full scholarship. All of this, when they could be making money collecting taxes.

Colorado is apparently doing very well in that regard. If you want to perform a scientific experiment, you can draw a bath, light a candle, take one hit of good weed and, you know, just relax for a little while and see what happens.

So I count this as progress. Progress, that is, set amidst a lot of other problems. Like wealthy leach despots sucking all the wealth out of the population, exactly like a banana republic.

I will leave you with what in my opinion was the most interesting domestic news story of the week. This issue describes just what Americans have to be angry about and how paranoid the government is that anything but it will have any power at all.

Glenn Greenwald, the writer for The Guardian who broke the Edward Snowden story, has started a new indie journalism project called The Intercept. In an article this week, he described how American intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.

Greenwald published documents that detail how intelligence agencies pump out disinformation designed to sway public discourse. This is an old story; even horoscope columns have been used by intelligence agencies as propaganda (in particular during WW II, when it seems that ‘anything goes’ became fashionable), and the CIA has at times had many, many major media outlets and local newspapers at its disposal to make something into a story or make sure it does not become one.

The program includes tactics for making various false claims that are designed to destroy people’s trust and standing in the community. This happens, for example, with fake blog posts and social media updates that portray someone as an attacker of some kind (known as fake victim blog posts).

“Honey traps” — that is, sexual lures — are used to compromise people. It goes on and on.

Charming — how to discredit a target. This is a sample of the NSA document on how to lie. Just remember the 4 Ds — Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, Deceive. See the full document and Glenn’s article here.

But I ask you: why? What is all of this about? Besides of course being part of the great American tradition of COINTELPRO.

Why would they go to all this trouble? There is a reason. They are worried about something. I suggest we take note of this. The something they are worried about is little old you and me and our friends, one day waking up and deciding we care, and that we have had enough. These programs are like a self-preservation immune response of the government-corporate structure, but more like metastasis.

As Mars moves into position and completes the grand cross, a heck of a lot of people may decide they care — and it really does not take that many to shake things up or knock them over.

We, the American people and anyone influenced by the actions of the U.S., have a lot to be concerned about and angry about. And if that sentiment catches on, it could really get going. To me it looks like something this spring does exactly that.

Remember, though — astrology works from the inside out. Changes sweep through society because individuals awaken. It may seem like we see something outside ourselves and wake up, but I don’t think that’s the way it works. Nearly everyone has some significant point in their chart aligned with the Uranus-Pluto square and the corresponding grand cross.

Many people I read for have concentrations around these points. So you, too, may feel the awakening and the call to grow and change, and you may very well feel the resulting ripple effect.

I wish you a very happy Pisces New Moon.

Lovingly,

Section Writing and Editing Credits: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Susan Starr, Chad Woodward and Carol van Strum. Coordinating Editor: Elizabeth Michaud. 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.

Pisces New Moon, Suspended in Time

Over the next couple days, we will experience a cluster of three events, none of which is special on its own, but which combined offer us a moment with many interesting opportunities.

Sound board at BSP. Photo by Eric Francis.

Today (Friday), Mercury stations direct after a three-week retrograde. Then overnight Friday to Saturday we have the Pisces New Moon. Then Saturday we have Mars stationing retrograde. This is not the time to be a bull in a Chinese restaurant. Take it slow, study the menu and make choices that actually make sense for you.

The retrograde began in Pisces, with Mercury very close to Neptune. Mercury has backtracked into Aquarius. The imagery reminds me of the water-bearer dipping her cask into Pisces and bringing back some of that nourishing water to share with others, which is the essence of Aquarius at its best.

This has, however, been a challenging Mercury retrograde for many people, between snowstorms, travel delays, tickets and car impounds and the usual diversity of financial issues and technical madness. I’ve heard of someone getting their bank account shut down after they didn’t respond to an email; someone else having the IRS come after a tax refund, claiming Social Security payments made to their family when the person was a kid; and other scenarios of this kind.

I’ve mentioned that we live in a kind of Mercury age, where nearly everything about us comes under the rulership of this meaningful, little planet. The other thing that gives Mercury retrogrades more impact is how tightly wound everything is, how compact our schedules and commitments are, and how many people are running their lives with next to no excess cash. So when something goes wrong, it can have a house of cards effect.

Simplified chart section for the Pisces New Moon conjunct Neptune and Chiron, with newly direct Mercury in Aquarius. See full chart here.

Saturday, Mars stations retrograde, adding to the delicacy of the situation. Mars will be retrograde in Libra, which will be an extended study in relationships, how we have them, what we do with them and how we keep our lives in balance in the context of them. Mars retrograde will last through May 19. During this time, we’ll experience the peak of the Uranus-Pluto square. But mostly we’re about to discover how important relationships are, and what it means to have a relationship to oneself.

In between these two events, the Pisces New Moon happens. Pisces, floating in water, drifting in the imagination, not fully in this world, can have a weightless quality. We give Pisces its form and substance through experimenting with creativity.

Not only is the Pisces New Moon situated close to the midpoint (in time) of two planetary events, it’s positioned (in space) close to the midpoint of two planets in Pisces — Neptune and Chiron. It happens as Mercury and Mars are barely moving at all. Situated between Chiron and Neptune, it evokes a hybrid of intuition and information; of creativity and practical application; of healing as a conscious practice and spiritual inflow as a natural birthright. And it’s happening almost as we speak.

Venezuela: Ban the Media to Get Extra Coverage

A ban on CNN? Sounds like a great idea, right? It is if you want to get the attention of the American media, when before you had next to none.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the successor to Hugo Chavez, accused the American network of inciting civil war in his country, and revoked their press credentials. In a live television broadcast Maduro warned, “Enough war propaganda, I won’t accept war propaganda against Venezuela. If they don’t rectify themselves, out of Venezuela, CNN, out.”

A Venezuelan student protests peacefully in Caracas Feb. 17, 2014. Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters

Obviously the more important story — the Uranus-Pluto factor — is about how the government was and continues to suppress opposition to its policies on crime, the economy and other issues with deadly force. This has included door-to-door raids on people’s homes, and at least 11 protesters have been killed in recent weeks.

The Mercury retrograde factor in this equation is that Pres. Marduro’s intent in revoking CNN’s press credentials was to get less news coverage. He may not have realized there was close to a media blackout in the U.S. until he started to mess with CNN, and then suddenly there was a story that everyone wanted to cover. You might call this the ‘pissing into the wind’ factor of Mercury retrograde. The Aquarius factor is that Mercury is stationing direct today in an exact conjunction to Mars in the Venezuela constitution chart. This is exposing and bringing an underlying hostility by the government toward its people.

Journey Through Space

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Lots of astrology happens in March 2014, and that happens to be the month that includes my 50th birthday. It’s also my 20th anniversary as an astrologer. It was on my 30th birthday in 1994 that I walked into Esoterica Books in New Paltz and purchased my first astrological ephemeris, the book that tells you where to find the planets on any given day, making astrology possible.

My mother Camille pregnant with me in March 1964, about a week before my birth. On the far left is my godfather and great grandfather Mario Cacciatore, then my father Joe Coppolino, and to the right, my aunt Joan Mazza. Not sure who took this photo, but it’s in my grandparents’ house in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn; probably my grandfather Jimmy (Vincent M.) Cacciatore.

In this edition of Planet Waves I want to tell you what led up to that moment and share some of what I’ve learned in those 20 years, but first an announcement.

At 7 pm on Saturday, March 8, I will be hosting an event called Journey Through Space, co-sponsored by Chronogram, at BSP in Uptown Kingston (323 Wall Street near North Front Street). This is my birthday event as well as my anniversary as an astrologer. We’ll have music by Blue O’Connell, my astrology teacher (and improv pianist) David Arner and the electronica ensemble Home Body.

I am planning this as an initiation ceremony in the fashion of a concert at my favorite music venue.

I’ll be playing my first gig as a guitarist, in a duet with David and then later in the evening with my music teacher Daniel Sternstein and the BSP house band (Dan Votke on bass and Mark Ferraro on drums). By some odd coincidence, all of my astrology teachers are not just musicians but composers as well, so I thought a musical event would bring that full circle, or more accurately, full ellipse. (The similarities between music and astrology are a fun discussion; you may be hearing more about that soon, especially on the Music Appreciation Hour program.)

I can barely believe I’m turning 50 (everyone must say that) but it feels even more unusual to look back on two decades as an astrologer. I do mean 20 solid years, plus an approximately seven year warm-up. Barely a day has gone by when I have not done some serious research, chart casting, reading or writing on some astrological topic. If I have missed any days at all, there have not been many. I have a restless, curious, relentless mind. Astrology is always interesting, always new, always offering something useful and alive.

One day old, looking skeptical about being on the planet.

Early in my career as an astrologer, I became aware of Chiron, a planet discovered by astronomer Charles Kowal in 1977. It was the discovery of Chiron that helped guide astrology from its murky occultist days into the modern era as a healing art. Though many astrologers don’t use Chiron, all astrologers have felt its influence.

Chiron has a 50-year orbit, so when one turns 50, that is their Chiron return. When I was new to this work and its many challenges, both intellectual and human, I always kept a collection of people over 50 around me, that is, a number of Chiron return graduates.

I considered 50 to be one’s coming of age as a community elder, and over the years I have initiated many people into that status at the time of their Chiron return. Now by my own definition, I am about to become a community elder.

Mentorship is a primary theme of Chiron, as is conscious healing process, growing into self-awareness and the integration of diverse talents and gifts. When you think of Chiron, think “holistic” and “whole-system thinking.” Chiron is the point of integration; the junction where microcosm meets macrocosm, especially when it’s in Pisces.

I’ve taken two main approaches to astrology — the healing and personal growth angle, and an integration of astrology with writing about world events.

The spiritual and psychological dimension you’re familiar with in my horoscopes, and in my essays about relationships, therapy and ethical issues. Sometimes this involves the direct use of astrology; the rest of the time the discussion is informed by astrology, which is always working in the background.

My desk in New Paltz, New York, during the PCB and dioxin investigation era, before taking up work as an astrologer. The cards from Monte Farber’s Karma Cards are the Sun in Cancer in the 11th house, a perfect reading of my journalism career. The guy peeking out is Peter Shipley, my old friend and fellow rabble-rouser.

I believe I’ve made a contribution to my field in this area of the work, especially in developing the use of newly discovered planets that tell the story of the human condition we face today.

However, I’ve gone a lot further with something else — the integration of the personal dimension with world events, and describing the spiritual implications of what we call the news. This has a long history.

When I got my first journalism job in January 1987, I was hired by a newspaper in central New Jersey called the Echoes-Sentinel. The editor, Florence Higgins, was an astrologer. I mentioned her last month — the lady who could shock the staff of all seven newspapers in the chain with rumors of Mercury retrograde.

The day I was hired, I was given the one available desk in the office, which had an astrology calendar hanging over it. This began for me what would become a permanent association between newspapers, news reporting and astrology.

The three writers at the paper would cover town boards, planning and zoning boards, land use and development. As we did that, all day long, we would be given updates by Flo about the condition of the planets. I would study the astrology calendar, trying to make some sense out of it. None of this got into print, but nobody left the Echoes-Sentinel without learning the basics of astrology.

Self-portrait n Flagstaff, Arizona, spring 2007.

I was also studying A Course in Miracles during this time, which is advanced training in spiritual psychology and healing. Flo read my chart, sold me my first tarot deck and my first set of runes, and basically got me started on the path I am on now. Nearly all of this took place in a newspaper office.

For the next seven years, I learned journalism working as a reporter and editor. I covered American Medical Association conventions, federal agencies like ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), liquor and beer marketing, education law, the nurse shortage and many facets of business reporting. My second boss at a pro journalism job, Joel Whitaker, had been on the editorial staff of The Wall Street Journal. From him I learned how to write a solid business story; one breakthrough moment was covering the acquisition of Tropicana by Seagrams.

In 1989 I came to New Paltz to do news reporting and poetry, and started a news service that covered the SUNY and CUNY systems and the goings-on in Albany that affected public higher education. All that time I continued with my spiritual and mystical studies, doing my best to reconcile these two seemingly different realities.

Then in late 1991, the PCB accident at SUNY New Paltz happened, and for the next three years I covered the cleanup and the cover-up, and expanded my investigation into Monsanto, Westinghouse and GE, the companies that created the mess. The Las Vegas Sun, the Village Voice, Sierra magazine, The Ecologist and many other magazines carried my articles. I developed a specialty in chlorine-based compounds and the history of PCBs and dioxins, and built a considerable portfolio covering scientific fraud.

Astrologer in the house of politics: in the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, 2006, with presidential-level press credentials. In Europe, Planet Waves is recognized as an official press agency. Photo by the personal photographer traveling with the Aga Khan IV, a descendent of Mohammed treated as a head of state.

To sum up that message, at the time that I started studying astrology, I did not revere science as a god, nor as a valid religion. It’s not that I inherently distrusted any scientist; all I needed was a good answer to the question, “Where’s your data?” That question is the single most important tool anyone needs when confronted by a scientist with an opinion about something, especially if that something kinda sounds deadly.

At some point in this era, someone suggested that I check out the horoscope in The New York Post. I wish I knew who that was, so I can thank her. I am sure she lived in the Hudson Valley and may be reading.

So I started picking up the Post and reading the horoscope — and I was amazed, day after day, without exception. The writer, Patric Walker, clearly had unusual gifts for both astrology and for writing. His daily entries were maybe 50 words per sign, but he could convey with detail the nuances of my inner thoughts, my environment, and advised me how to handle them.

Patric demonstrated to me that astrology was real. After about two years I could not stand it anymore. I had to know how he created these readings. By any rational logic, what he was doing was impossible. There was no way he could be able to say the things he was saying with such impeccable relevance and wisdom, in a horoscope column. Yet he was actually doing it.

With Paloma Todd, Paris, 2007. Photo by Dani Voirin.

On my birthday in 1994, I had my deposition taken by the state Attorney General’s trial division. I was in the process of suing SUNY New Paltz in federal court.

I am not sure what they were thinking when they declared me persona non grata for my reporting on their PCB and dioxin problem — maybe that I would suddenly abandon my search for truth and justice for the students who were defrauded into living in those dorms.

What they got was a federal summons and complaint, and a year of litigation that ended with an apology that my civil rights had been violated, and a significant cash payout to me — something that the state does not do. The lawsuit received national press coverage in The New York Times.

Still wearing my suit from the deposition, I walked into the bookstore with my then-girlfriend and collaborator Hilary Lanner-Smith, and bought the Rosicrucian Ephemeris of the 20th Century, purchased The New York Post and that evening started studying astrology. Yes, in the ancient astrology text known as The New York Post.

After my 20-year world tour covering astrology and teaching at conferences, teaching engagements at places like Omega Institute and mentorship with many noted astrologers, studying Patric Walker remains the single most valuable learning experience I’ve had as an astrology student. And I got that information from a tabloid newspaper, for twenty-five cents a day.

New Paltz, New York, 2007, back to working on the PCB story with a few horoscopes mixed in. Photo by Dani Voirin.

One year later I began writing the Planet Waves horoscope. When I took up astrology, still deeply immersed in my environmental reporting, I did so consciously bringing in a world-wise ethos. I was accustomed to documenting the veracity of my words with thick binders full of research. I put that same depth of inquiry into astrology, digging into its history, tradition and modern practice.

I used my journalistic skill of seeking out knowledgeable people and put that to work, making contact with those who I considered to be the brightest astrologers in the world.

As for my writing, astrology gave me the chance to be personal; to relate to people about human concerns in a very basic way. I learned the most important thing of all from Patric Walker: speak to one reader, not to a group of them. To write a meaningful horoscope, use the same tone as a letter to a trusted friend. It was exactly this kind of personal contact I was looking for when I changed tracks from investigative reporting to astrology.

Almost immediately, I began applying astrology to world events — that is, the charts of news events, people in the news and trends of all kinds — particularly social trends and the cycles of history.

This has been done before, but I have often found it confusing, too technical and lacking in a compelling narrative. So, I set out to tell a relevant story that anyone could understand. I am not sure I succeeded (the first use of the word “conjunction” can scare some people away) but I have done my best.

Integrating astrology into the news provides several benefits, the main one being context. Astrology allows one to see the connections between events, and to follow a contemporary event along a story-arc into the past and the future.

Using astrology, no single incident stands alone; it’s connected to everything and everyone around it. Astrology reveals the web of life, and the karma that underlies situations. If you know where to look, astrology points to how we can personally take action.

I consider this a model for how to make the news relevant to people, and a new approach to community-based journalism. What we think of as the news has a really serious problem: it’s alienating and usually irrelevant. I challenge you to read any newspaper article in something like The Wall Street Journal, or watch cable news for an hour, and tell he how most of what you read or see is actually meaningful.

Interconnection and context allow the inclusion of the reader into the scenario, whether it be an understanding of the emotional impact, of the cultural changes implied by a development or how an individual can adapt to the opportunities and the demands of the present moment.

Looking at the charts for spring 2014, I think that news astrology is going to have its moment. There is going to be a lot of news — and a lot of astrology lurking underneath it. The process begins to take shape with the Mars retrograde that starts on March 1 (Mars chose the first day of its own month to station retrograde). And it comes to a peak in late April with a grand cross and a potent solar eclipse a few days later. Look for coverage of that in the April Chronogram and check in with Chronogram’s 8-Day Week or PlanetWaves.net for immediate updates.

And if you happen to be in the neighborhood or feel like making the trip, I look forward to meeting you at 7 pm on Saturday, March 8, at BSP in Kingston.

Lovingly,

Pisces Sun: Encountering Neptune at the Zodiac’s Headwaters

The Sun ingressed Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac, on Tuesday. As a water sign, Pisces is the delta that refuses no river or stream, and is the spiritual headwaters of the psyche, from which all creative potential flows.

Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces, is a long-term visitor in its home sign. Neptune is providing a fresh inflow of watery energy into Pisces.

Sun and Neptune; Pine Point, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

The Sun will make a conjunction to Neptune this Sunday at 1:11 pm EST, though we’re definitely feeling its effect now. This pairing can feel emotionally and psychically sensitive, wide open and creative. It can also express itself in darker ways as depressive, or given to denial or overindulgence.

With strong Neptune events — and this is one of the most influential — it’s necessary to stay alert and watch for less-than-wholesome influences.

This strong Pisces influence may heighten your sense of empathy or influence you to become more concerned with the welfare of others than with your own. The world could use more of that. If your work focuses on helping others, Sun-Neptune will strengthen this ability.

But for anyone who is already very sensitive — especially psychically — and who struggles with being wide open to the energy, emotion and unspoken agendas of others, Sun-Neptune might feel overwhelming. Being highly intuitive and empathic can be exhausting, especially if your inner/subconscious boundaries are not strong (Neptune tends to dissolve things like boundaries, hence the increase in psychic sensitivity).

If you’re in that boat, consider taking some time for yourself this weekend to meditate or simply gather yourself away from social overstimulation. The urge to escape will be stronger for everyone — including escaping into things like movies, daydreams, fantasy (sexual or otherwise) and artistic play. Neptune rules alcohol and drugs, too, and our culture happens to prize those forms of escape more highly than, say, meditation.

From top: retrograde Mercury and Nessus in Aquarius; Sun conjunct Neptune, plus Chiron and Juno in Pisces. See glyph legend here.

There’s a real potential to overdo mind-altering substances this weekend; notice whether you’re trying to numb yourself. There are other ways to handle feeling sensitive or ‘too open’ (such as a mini-retreat out in nature), but they’re not as socially popular as getting blitzed. It can take a little gumption to break from the crowd.

Finally, pay attention to your inner honesty meter. Neptune’s negative incarnations include delusion, denial and dishonesty. When the Sun, representing our consciousness, interacts with Neptune (especially via conjunction), sorting out illusions from logic gets challenging. We tend to be more impressionable and subject to both our own wishful thinking and self-delusion, and to that of others.

With Mercury still retrograde for another week, you’ll want to track your thoughts carefully. Notice when you stray from verifiable facts into the realm of wishes or fears. Let daydreams fuel your next screenplay or painting, not your obsessions.

By Amanda Painter and Eric Francis

Ukraine Government Backs Down from Attacks on Protesters

For several weeks there have been escalating, violent protests in Ukraine. By Thursday night, some estimates said that up to 75 people had been killed — though the number keeps rising and is impossible to calculate accurately. Government forces cracked down on protesters who have been pressuring political leaders to shift Ukraine’s allegiance from Moscow to the European Union.

During mellower times, anti-government protesters hung out by a campfire in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), where most of the bloodshed has taken place. Photo by AP.

Images of Kiev in flames have been dominating U.S. news reports every night, which is unsettling for everyone — especially the people in the pictures. I think that any time protests abroad are plastered across the U.S. media, it’s a message with an intentional shock effect, and stirs up fear of civil unrest in the U.S. They also seem to be covering over what’s going on down in Venezuela — we will have coverage of that soon, unfortunately not today.

The current wave of protests goes back to November, and of course Ukraine has been in chaos many times in the past 20 years. But November 2013 stands out as the midpoint of the Uranus-Pluto square — the revolutionary aspect of our time in history. There are countless manifestations of this aspect, though some of the more memorable include the Occupy movement, Arab spring, the protests in Madison, WI and an obvious state of unrest that is in the air these days.

November was the fourth of seven events between 2012 and 2015, and also the one exact contact of Uranus and Pluto using heliocentric astrology (that is, a chart cast with the Sun at the center rather than the Earth). So this is a kind of global tipping point. If you want some background on the Uranus-Pluto square, read my recent article about The Beatles.

The Uranus-Pluto square seems to manifest in waves, popping up in different parts of the world at different times and in different ways. Sometimes it feels like the different locales become proxies for what is a global struggle. Currently this is being fought in the streets of Kiev, Caracas and Bangkok.

But here is the thing to remember: whatever it may represent in the outer world, it’s really about all of us going through some deep inner changes. Astrology starts inside human beings and extends into the world. That is why it can be associated with such profound personal changes and with global changes at the same time.

Riot police officers take cover behind shields during clashes with pro-European protesters in Kiev, on Jan. 22. Photo by Maks Levin.

In Ukraine, a temporary truce between the government and the protesters fell apart Thursday during the day. Then Thursday night as Russian figure skater Adelina Sotnikova took the gold medal, the Ukrainian parliament, called the Verkhovna Rada, adopted a law that banned military action against the protesters.

Even before president Victor Yanukovych signed it Friday, police were seen backing off from their positions in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), where most of the bloodshed has taken place.

Yanukovych, who has taken the pro-Moscow side in this fight, agreed to stop using lethal violence against the protesters, and also agreed to early elections and a reduction in presidential powers. But Moscow has declined to endorse the accord, and many protesters will not back down until the fantastically corrupt Yanukovych is out of power.

Yesterday, several Planet Waves reporters dug into the issue for hours on end, trying to make some sense out of what’s going on. The story kept changing every 15 minutes, and going back further and deeper into European history. In essence, Ukraine gets described as one country when it’s really several smaller ones. The split is mainly along an east-west divide, with the east speaking Russian and being more loyal to Moscow, and the west speaking Ukrainian and being more loyal to the rest of Europe.

Meanwhile, complicating matters was a leaked phone call between two top U.S. diplomats that seems to indicate the United States is expressing sympathy for the protesters but then manipulating the situation behind the scenes. It’s not clear who bugged the call or who released it, but in the age of the NSA, it’s not shocking that it got out. The intent of leaking the call was to embarrass U.S. operators working behind the scenes.

Boys, you don’t have to fight like this! A woman addresses Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops who formed a battle line during the clashes. Photo by Gleb Garanich for Reuters via Al Jazeera.

American politicians such as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-CT) have visited Ukraine to show they stand with the people, but the leaked phone call indicates that diplomats are trying to plot carefully who gets into power, and to get the U.N involved. This gets extremely complicated; you can read about it here.

Now, in investigating the astrology, we went through a number of charts — including two for Ukraine, and then a turning-point moment in its history, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. All of the charts have one common thread: they have major points aligned with the Uranus-Pluto grand cross that happens in April. There really is enough here to write a juicy book chapter, but the bottom line is that when all of the major charts for a country take a simultaneous shock, you will get a result. In fact it takes far less.

Let’s take a quick look at the chart for the act of Parliament last night. We have good timing on this from our Ukraine bureau (our web developer, Anatoly, lives near Kiev). In reading a chart like this, the first thing you check is the rising sign and surrounding degrees, the planet that rules the ascendant, the 7th house (the western horizon) and the condition of the Moon.

The chart has Mars rising. You might not expect to see that in a chart about making peace, but this at least is Mars in Libra. Mars is especially influential because it’s rising; it’s in detriment in Libra, which is supposed to be a debility or weakening factor, but which can also make Mars stand out; and it’s about to station retrograde. In sum, this is no ordinary Mars. It does not seem very aggressive. It also does not seem very stable, but it’s holding steady.

Chart for final vote of Ukrainian parliament Thursday night, unilaterally withdrawing military force against protesters. The measure was signed by Victor Yanukovych on Friday. Notice that Mars is rising in the east, on the left side of the chart. One shaky point in the scenario is the Sun, which rules the 10th and thus the government, about to make a conjunction to Neptune. Somebody, as in everybody high up, is not telling the truth.

As for Venus, which rules the Libra ascendant — that we find in Capricorn, in direct motion, about to make a square to Eris. This argues that the whole thing could come unraveled. Or it might just feel that way. Eris can be a chaotic or destabilizing influence. It happens to be prominent in the charts for Chernobyl in 1986 and Ukraine’s independence in 1991 — right in line with the Uranus-Pluto square as it develops.

Now as for the Moon: this is the potentially encouraging part of the chart. We find that in early Scorpio. When checking the Moon, check the very next aspects and then the last aspect that it makes in its current sign. That story goes: Moon trine Jupiter in Cancer; Moon trine Chiron in Pisces; Moon conjunct Saturn in Scorpio — lots of water sign energy here.

This chart looks like people are getting sick of fighting and want some mellower times. But really, to me it looks like this is all getting to be too damned expensive to persist. Saturn is in Scorpio and the 2nd house. There is no better way to say “cheap” than that. But none of this is cheap — it’s costing lives, money, time, fragile alliances are at stake, and while war is good for those associated with the war racket, it’s not good for any other business.

Even if this situation begins to ratchet down, it will be on the brink of flaring back up again for the next two years at least. Meanwhile, I thought it was encouraging to see Parliament act, to see the president back down a little, to see the paramilitary police backing away from protesters and hey — Putin feels a little better now that 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova took the gold in women’s figure skating in a surprise upset for Russia.

— Tons of additional research by Hillary Connary-Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud and Amanda Painter, with reporting by Anatoly Ryzhenko in Ukraine.

Monsanto Watch Feature Going To its Own List

For fans of Monsanto Watch (our obsessive coverage of Monsanto) and those concerned with GMOs and food safety, we will be putting this feature onto its own list, which will be distributed each Friday afternoon. Here is a link to opt-in for that list.

We will also include on this list news about nuclear power, Fukushima and other environmental concerns. Occasionally these items will appear in the member edition but we thought it would be a good idea to give them their own home. You may share this subscribe link with anyone you want.

Readers who want to take part in science and environment coverage can join our assiduous team. If you’re interested, please send us an email here.

Detail from the right-hand panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s medieval acid-trip of a painting The Garden of Earthly Delights, clearly showing musical notation on a naked, damned derriere.

Sun, Neptune, Pisces… and Butt Music

The Sun’s ingress to Pisces and conjunction to Neptune is energizing our creative juices, especially in the realms of music, fantasy and eroticism. So it should not surprise you that some Butt Music from Hell is taking the Interwebs by storm.

You may be familiar with The Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych painting created sometime around 1500 by the famous medieval artist Hieronymus Bosch. Held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain, this Early Netherlandish work is notable for its intricately surreal depictions of Adam and Eve in the left panel, damnation in the right panel, and a fantastical panorama of nude humans, curious creatures and hybrid objects in the center panel.

But have you ever noticed the Butt Music and wondered what it might sound like?

A blogger named Amelia, a music and information systems double major at Oklahoma Christian University, noticed one night with her friend Luke the musical notes Bosch had painted on one particular posterior in Hell, and decided to try her hand at transcribing and recording it based on what she knows of Gregorian-era chant. Inspired by Amelia, the blogger at wellmanicuredman.com worked out a full choral arrangement with improvised lyrics (you can hear both versions here) — and Amelia is working with her college’s music department to improve the accuracy of the transcription.

The two recordings might not seem like the perfect soundtrack for a hot night of art making or a quiet meditation retreat, but then chances are you won’t be spending your weekend lying beneath a giant lute, either — unless, of course, you get into some of the more mind-altering pursuits associated with Neptune.

Sun in Pisces and ‘What is a Transit?’

The Sun entered Pisces Tuesday, and I offer my comments on what that is about. Then I respond to a reader inquiry: What is a Pluto transit? In order to answer that I have to break down the differences between natal planets and transiting ones. Then I put the two together, using the chart of a reader named Claire. My musical guest is Shana Flana, a local psychedelic rocker. For additional resources and the chart, please see the full post.

Why You Absolutely Want to Take a Class with Geoffrey Cornelius

When I was first studying astrology, someone recommended that I read a book called The Moment of Astrology by Geoffrey Cornelius. It’s a book about horary astrology (pronounced hor-erry), the astrology you do when a client asks you a specific question.

Geoffrey Cornelius.

It’s usually based on the chart for the time that the astrologer becomes aware of the issue. It’s a weird form of astrology because it’s not based on the ‘birth’ of anything, or anything much happening; it’s the intersection of thought with the cosmos, and then, by some miracle, the chart that’s produced can often be read following a set of guidelines that are more strict than the rules of baseball, but which point to some useful information.

Geoffrey sought to explain horary as the exception that proves the rule — that is, as the basis of all astrology. In doing so, he wrote a book that debunked the pseudoscientists who would debunk astrology as pseudoscience. He unravels the ideas of people who would try to prove astrology’s validity with science. Along the way, he did a fine job of showing the weaknesses in the scientific method. The only thing that survives his analysis is astrology itself, though he makes it clear why most astrologers don’t understand what they do or why it works.

He demonstrates that astrology is a divinatory system that works at the intersection of time, space, symbols, consciousness and some spiritual force that’s not quite possible to define. You get chapters like “When the Wrong Chart Works” (a study in the two birth times of Diana, Princess of Wales) and a reading of a random chart stuck in with an article attacking astrology that’s not supposed to mean anything — but it reads as legibly as a clear photograph.

This is not just one of my favorite astrology books; it’s one of my favorite books that I’ve ever read, as in ever, standing up to The Second Sex, Dubliners, The Grapes of Wrath and even The Lord of the Rings. When I open up this book and start reading, my response is always, holy shit, I cannot believe anyone has written something this good.

As far as astrology is concerned, I consider Geoff Cornelius the smartest guy in the room. (He didn’t quite get why I had to walk up to him and spontaneously hug him when I met him at UAC 2008, but now I think he does.)

Jonah Kelly Francis uses the Moment of Astrology as a pillow.

And I am completely thrilled that I will get to spend a few days in his class at Nightlight Astrology in New York City from March 28-30, an awesome, donation-based astrology school where I teach. The class will be held at the ARE Edgar Cayce Center in Manhattan (241 W. 30th St). Planet Waves is a co-sponsor of the event, mostly in the form of my telling my readers about it, which I plan to do a few more times. And I get to introduce Geoff to the class as a kind of warmup act. I will try to stay mostly calm.

If you care about astrology or have the vaguest aspiration to being an astrologer, or if you’re curious about the nature of reality, get to this class. Pull together the $250 tuition (sliding scale, cheaper if you need), go through your contacts and find someplace to stay in New York City (or Nightlight Astrology will help you connect), clear your calendar and show up with your notebook.

Then March 31-April 4, there is an astrology, yoga and herbalism retreat with Geoff and Maggie Hyde in the hills of upstate New York (in West Fulton, about 90 minutes from Kingston). This will be a mellower, more diverse presentation, in-residence for a few days. That is also covered on the Nightlight event page about Geoff coming to the U.S.

I am looking forward to seeing you there.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for March are published below in this issue. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for February on Friday, Jan. 24. Moonshine horoscopes for the Aquarius New Moon published Tuesday, Jan. 28. We published Moonshine horoscopes for the Leo Full Moon Tuesday, Feb. 11. 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 March 2014, #988 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You seem to be holding onto a lot of energy that you absolutely must express. I don’t mean a modest amount of energy; I mean on a volcanic scale. Energy always finds a way into manifestation. Given what you’re working with you must take up the power of directing it in a constructive way. That’s not a given, and there are no guarantees. The closest you can come is a commitment to yourself to be aware from moment to moment where you focus your mind, particularly in your intimate relationships. You may need some time away from a partner, or space to experiment in entirely new ways. Any relationship is likely to either feel the stress or come along for the journey, though I suggest you not try to push or drag anyone into what is inherently about you alone. If you value the relationship, be honest about what you’re experiencing and negotiate the space you need. At the heart of the matter seems to be an experiment in emotional independence for the purpose of exploring and experiencing life in ways you may have long dreamed of. This will not be a predictable process, and once you admit that it’s happening, you will be on a journey with a life of its own. Or rather, a journey of discovering, perhaps once again, that you have a life of your own.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You may feel like you’re trying to fit your ideas about yourself through a tiny opening — as if it’s impossible to have enough context to make a real decision about who you are or what you want. The tight space you’re going through will help you prioritize and focus. Think of what you’re doing as making micro-decisions, and consider any choice or adjustment a microcosm of the whole. It’s not merely that small choices add up to larger direction. Rather, each stems from a larger idea of what you want. There is tremendous power contained in reckoning these details and seeing their relationship to who you are. It’s easy to think that our lives hinge on the huge decisions we make. Yet even the most monumental changes of direction require many small adjustments to make them real. Therefore, you can think of each little observation or maneuver as an affirmation of who you are and what you want. This can involve the details of what you eat, how you spend money, how you spend your time (especially that) and where you invest your emotional energy. Your charts suggest you’re at a major crossroads that may not come across as such. You may have no specific validation — yet. Therefore, live well and live consciously, and trust that you’re coming around one of the most significant turns in many years.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Situations that were puzzling or seemed impossible will start to make more sense — in direct proportion to how weird they seemed before. In particular the last few days of February into the first few days of March may have that sensation of walking on the ceiling, playing music backwards looking for the secret messages or waking up being able to perform magic tricks that you don’t remember learning. Or, alternately, if you find yourself in a crunch point where you feel like you have no clue how to handle yourself, pay attention to how quickly your environment is changing. Then, adapt from moment to moment. That’s your specialty anyway, but usually you do this in autopilot mode. The challenge of the moment is doing everything manually, taking each breath consciously, and noticing the unusual openings that may come in the most mundane transactions. Many of those will be interior. The adventure of Mars retrograde in your 5th house makes possible a creative and sexual self-discovery experience like nothing you’ve ever felt. Your ability to experience life from both sides of the coin, your curiosity about the dynamics of desire and power, and a rare moment when you will allow yourself to say anything, well, it will all add up to a bold few months — as bold as you want. In fact, you may open doors that you’ll never want to close.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — With all the activity now unfolding in Aries and Libra, you may feel like your life is hanging in the balance. Yet you have plenty of influence over which way things go, you are protected by forces that may seem too large to see, and best of all, you are opening up to the people close to you. One theme that stands out in your charts is making peace with women, and if you are a woman, you may include making peace with yourself. There appears to be a trust issue that has been pushed beyond the point where you can ignore it, or live peacefully with the question unresolved. Part of this involves trusting yourself. Part is about trusting people to be transparent about their agendas and true to their own values. Bear in mind that the chaos and confusion so many people are in is not of their own making. It was imposed on them. Yet as a person comes of age and attains both adult power and responsibility, the option to step out of that pain and turbulence opens up. If your life is in the balance, it’s over the question of whether you can admit your deepest truth to yourself. That is, you may cycle through a diversity of desires, ideas and feelings which may at times seem to conflict. Actually each is a different facet of the same truth of who you are.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Your most intimate relationships are in transition, which means you’re being called upon to be especially flexible and resilient. One particular idea comes under the microscope — that of ‘the perfect marriage’. I believe there is such a thing, indeed I have evidence that there is. The perfection comes not from the static quality of the relationship but rather from its ability to grow, to change and to transform with the people involved. There must be a mutual commitment to healing; mutual respect for each person’s physical and psychic integrity. With that includes recognition of free choice in all matters, especially relating to the partnership itself. I recognize this violates most of the commonplace definitions and concepts of marriage, which seem to be focused around rigid concepts and presumption of ownership. That model is not going to survive the onslaught of the 21st century, and your life is too full and too rich to be constrained by any factor not of your choosing. Here is the challenge: when established structures change, there needs to be a new set of ideas and guidelines to replace them. Those are best if driven by what the people involved agree to as their bottom-line, most essential values. Any relationship between two people will either be based on a dominant-submissive model, or based on consensus. Consensus is based on mutual values. That is the starting point and that is the destination.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You must focus on the question of what is real and what is not. This will not be as obvious as it seems. I suggest you not assume you have this one right, no matter how confident you feel. Indeed I suggest you not assume anything, and make careful note of the facts of the situation. Opinions can be deceiving, and it’s essential to recognize them when you experience them. Facts are statements that can be documented and proven true or false. They are not about an emotional rationale or persuasive feeling; whether a fact stands up comes down to the data that supports it, preferably collected over time. The first area of your life to go over carefully is your relationships with loved ones, friends and partners. Do you have any outstanding commitments to them? Is there anything that got lost in the shuffle of the past couple of busy months? Is there anything you need to clear up? If you have made yourself invisible or have gone below the radar, if you’ve left facts out of the story or are avoiding anyone, now is the time to engage with them in a meaningful way. As you do this review, I suggest you consider the way in which your self-esteem may be influencing you. Consider how you act toward others when you’re feeling good about yourself and when you’re not. Your observations may surprise you.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Mars is about to station retrograde in your sign. That spans from March 1 to May 19. The retrograde process actually reaches back to early December, when Mars first entered Libra. So if you notice any shifts, changes or shakeups in the coming week or two, take the story back to late last year. The theme of this retrograde is profound self-discovery, though it may seem at first that others are the forum for what you learn, and you are the forum for their learning. That will work for a while, as you explore your inner dynamics within the context of a relationship. Yet as the retrograde progresses, you may feel the need to have certain experiences on your own. The forces involved are too powerful to cling to anyone or anything. If you feel a need, desire or obligation to maintain a connection or commitment, make sure you proceed in a way that is open and honest, and most of all, that works for you. If your personal needs require you to shift the pattern of relating, do so in a way that preserves trust and your options in the future. Said another way, you can live your life without burning your bridges — something you would come to regret. Your emotional involvement with someone may be intricate and delicate, and that calls for special handling, high awareness and always — always — remembering who you are.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Fear is a fact of life on Earth, the planet of eat or be eaten. How you handle your fear is not a given; you have many options. How you exercise them will make a difference. Let’s start with the basics: fear is a form of energy and it points to a deeper energy source. If you treat it that way, and seek understanding of what is not immediately obvious, you will learn that fear does not need to be debilitating, and that in fact it can be empowering. The first thing to do is let your fear speak. Get the message of what it’s saying. Translate it into terms that are clear, and that lend themselves to decisions. You’re likely to feel the most panicky when you feel like you lack the power to choose. Therefore, information that leads to a state where you can make decisions is what you want and need to have. Indeed, we could call this the theme of the entire Mars retrograde. This is a set of transits intimately linked to you because both of your ruling planets — Mars and Pluto — are so directly involved. When this fully takes shape in late April, you are likely to feel some serious pressure to make progress on many things you have set aside or left for the future. The thing to remember is to get the information you need in order to make an informed decision, and then another.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Don’t worry if you think people don’t like you, or if you’re having some difficulty managing your social relationships. I suggest you take the events of the next few months as an extended opportunity to learn where you really stand with people, and also to learn how to build your overall standing in the community. I don’t mean your popularity — I mean real things like trust, dependability, loyalty and the willingness to stand up for what you believe in, even if it’s going to piss off some people. Though you have it in you to be the supreme diplomat, you are also a Sagittarius, and your sign is equipped with a sharp edge. Still, it may be necessary to err on the side of asserting yourself. Do that firmly, directly and with understatement. Be a keen observer for passive-aggressive tendencies in yourself or in others. The ‘passive’ part is just a ruse for the ‘aggressive’ part, so get underneath that if necessary and suss out the source of that energy. Meanwhile, any relationship or encounter can lead to contact with anyone. That’s a good incentive to say friendly things about people, and a reminder that in your life, the usual seven degrees of separation between you and any other person is about to be reduced to one or two degrees of separation. The world is small, and it’s getting smaller.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You will be summoned to leadership in the coming months, perhaps immediately. Events and your own desire for integrity and achievement will give you the opportunity to exceed your current abilities and expectations of yourself. What you must be cautious of is any moment when you’re doing something that cannot be reversed. This could be applied to many different situations, but I really mean decisions from which there is no going back. Despite that, you will need to be bold, and I suggest you assert that by listening to people you respect and taking what they say under advisement. That does not mean ‘take all advice’, it means consider what people say. This is basic politics and it’s also common sense. Speaking of politics — know who your allies are, and put them to work for you. Seek their assistance, and make sure they know how much you appreciate their contribution. Leadership is not all about the leader — it’s all about the people who surround and interrelate with that person. You want one or two people who are not afraid to disagree with you, assuming you have determined they are intelligent and respectful. When life is coming at you from all corners, make sure you have those corners covered. At the same time, you will command respect by standing on your own and never shrinking from a decision.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — There are those moments when you’re sure it’s the dark night of the soul — when you have no sense of direction, and when you doubt whether you have the strength to go on. But lately, you are experiencing these junctures as something more like a nearly impossible alchemy of transformation. This process goes as deep into you as anything ever has. No matter how challenging your inner life may seem (speaking of the next three months or so), or how isolated you may feel from time to time, you have a truly amazing phase of your life approaching when you can change everything by changing yourself. Or rather, you will be given all you need to make deep inner changes, which will manifest in your seemingly outer life. You may feel like you’re making only slow progress on your journey to self-knowledge and personal healing. Yet with these things, what you have is less important than what you do with them. If you use the self-knowledge you have gained, you will inevitably build on it. If you trust the process of your healing and allow that commitment to guide you in all of the decisions you make, you will advance your healing dependably. As you move through this territory, I have one suggestion. Be bold, and keep no secrets from others. Then be even more daring and keep no secrets from yourself.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — This monthly column marks my 20th anniversary as an astrologer and my 50th anniversary being on the planet. I’m happy to have made it half a century, though I am equally grateful to have devoted two decades of my life to daily study of, writing about and teaching astrology. I’m especially grateful to be a Pisces astrologer, because to me that means I have an understanding of all the rivers (that is, the signs) that flow into the ocean. The Sun is now in Pisces, and is making conjunctions to Neptune and Chiron in our birth sign. That means the waters are flowing freely at the moment, and it happens to be the season of your birthday. This setup means that you have equal access to intellect and intuition; to creativity and healing ability; to your expressive gift and your ability to receive and to listen. Make sure you put all these factors consciously into the mix of your life. Don’t leave anything out. You know you’re on a mission, and I suggest you give this everything you have, and make sure you collect the rewards of your efforts as you go. You are the specialist at long-range planning and deferred gratification. I suggest you adjust that slightly, focus on bringing what you’ve worked on forever to fruition, allow it to feed you and continue to learn whatever you can from anyone who is successful.

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The Mercury Retrograde Blizzard Olympics

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Mercury storm and retrograde have arrived on the East Coast with what seems like the new version of the Winter Olympics — how many winter storms can you cram into two weeks?

Condition normal at Newark International Airport. It’s amazing there’s enough de-icing chemical to go around. Photo by Ted S. Warren.

While it’s normal to have weather events during the winter, this has been a little strange, and it’s been disruptive. A combination of blizzards and ice storms have frosted the eastern seaboard from Georgia to Maine, resulting in disruptions to every facet of life since the Mercury storm phase began about two weeks ago.

This has been complicated by poor judgment calls in at least two cities, one in Atlanta during an event on Jan. 28, resulting in a civil disaster. Thousands of people were stranded on highways for up to 18 hours. Many abandoned their cars and walked miles home in a scene that rivaled something from a Stephen King novel.

Then on Thursday, New York City’s decision to leave public schools open in the face of an approaching blizzard created a wave of chaos when the city closed schools midday, forcing many parents to leave work in the middle of the storm and retrieve their kids. This was likely the result of the city’s new and inexperienced mayor, Bill DeBlasio, not quite knowing how to handle things.

NBC’s meteorologist Al Roker caused a fuss when he tweeted, “I knew this am @NYCMayorsOffice @NYCSchools would close schools. Talk about a bad prediction. Long range DiBlasio forecast: 1 term,” managing to spell the mayor’s name wrong. The mayor responded on TV by saying being a weather forecaster is not exactly running New York City; Roker responded on Twitter and this story became a focal point of the day.

Now as the temperature creeps up above freezing throughout the region, many areas will face flooding.

Cleaning up NYC on Thursday night. Photo by Andrew Kelly.

Meanwhile, thousands of flights have been canceled, a situation that ripples out across the entire air travel system as equipment is stranded in snowed-in cities and arriving flights have to be diverted elsewhere.

While it may be difficult to make a causal connection between Mercury retrograde and these events, they are happening at the same time.

That is astrology — it’s always about a combination of celestial factors and mundane ones, and their results — in this case, disruptions to transportation and commerce, two Mercury-ruled areas of life.

Meanwhile, the West Coast of the United States is still facing a serious drought. This goes back at least to last July and is just starting to be acknowledged outside the region in a meaningful way. Many cities are on water rationing and it’s unclear how the Central Valley of California is going to keep producing so much of the food that the country depends on, if these conditions persist.

There were some rainstorms in Northern California earlier this month, but not enough to make a difference. This is all part of a pattern of extreme weather events that are happening in many parts of the world, which technology has little power to solve.

Metaphors of the Aquarius Age

Tonight is the Leo Full Moon, and I have some thoughts about that. But first, while the Sun is still in Aquarius, a comment on the Age of Aquarius.

No two astrologers will agree on when this begins (or began). But we are definitely at the cusp of the (prior) Pisces age and the (forthcoming) Aquarius age. Evidence of the Pisces age still having its effects is that belief trumps reason. Denial is still considered a viable way of life. If someone mentions the cost of this perspective, more denial is the supposed answer.

Illustration by Lizanne Webb.

Evidence of the Aquarius age involves patterns. Once a pattern is established, it’s very difficult to get out of it. Pattern makers such as advertisers and people who create political memes know this. Notice how everyone with some power interest tries to crystallize a pattern. That is the main virtue of Aquarius and also its most serious problem.

More evidence is that technology is creating our society faster than we create it, and faster than we can create ourselves. That too is a pattern. Apropos of Aquarius, this is reaching into our personal relationships and group dynamics. Whole generations of people are being raised who would rather text than talk, and who are too intimidated by other people to have a real conversation.

One reason we have to watch this pattern-crystallization thing is that it can create situations that don’t work, where the only solution is a collapse of some kind.

This is why there’s always talk of systems breakdown. The systems we create are generally not flexible enough to accommodate much change, so we naturally assume that they will build momentum and energy and collapse under their own weight.

This includes mental systems — thought patterns, habits and so on. And with the Full Moon in Leo opposing a cluster of planets in late Aquarius, many people are feeling this in some form now. It might be manifesting as the need to change; or as the sensation of imminent change; it might feel like a fear that you must change, but there’s nothing you can do about it.

Or you might have the feeling that if you change one thing, you will have to change everything else (that, by the way, is a vast culture-wide theme).

Mercury, Sun, Nessus in Aquarius

Mercury is retrograde. That started one week ago in early Pisces. Mercury has now retrograded back into Aquarius, where it’s about to make a triple conjunction, with the Sun and with a centaur planet called Nessus.

Nessus has been in Aquarius since 2005, and this is the year when it begins its transition into Pisces. For this Full Moon, however, we have Mercury and the Sun conjunct Nessus, opposed by the Moon.

Illustration by Lizanne Webb.

Think of the combination of factors in Aquarius as some strange sequence of events putting stress on a complex system.

Once only dealt with by electrical engineers and science fiction authors, we are now all basically supervising complex systems, to the point where we require sophisticated computers to keep up with our correspondence and maintain our schedules.

And many people experience lives so complex, they seem to be on the brink of a system collapse at any moment. Do you have that sensation of waiting for the one thing that will push the whole system too far?

One thing about Nessus is that it addresses the theme of consequences. Nessus can be a study of causes and effects. In Aquarius, we have the theme of group dynamics. Nessus plus Aquarius can seem cold and impersonal — and then all of a sudden, Mercury and the Moon get into the act.

The message here — if you are feeling overwhelmed, pause and examine your options. Get a sense of your time constraints (an Aquarius factor, accentuated by a square to Saturn) and work within them.

Notice the ways in which you may be locked into thought patterns. If you’re experiencing fear, then start to uncouple your thoughts from one another, break the issues down and take them one at a time.

You want to get synergy on your side. That’s the principle of “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” But sometimes you have to take the parts one by one and see what they’re really about before you can see the whole scenario for what it is.

And if you find yourself up in the middle of the night, do something creative with your technology.

Lovingly,

Remembering Three Pioneers Who Changed the World

The world lost three remarkable pioneers this week: Stuart Hall, 82; Shirley Temple Black, 85; and Sid Caesar, 91. Each made an indelible mark on our culture and will remain icons in their own individual ways.

Stuart Hall. Photo by Dawoud Bey, 1998.

Born in Jamaica on Feb. 3, 1932, Stuart Hall grew up in the colonial West Indies, where the society’s racial inequality profoundly affected him. This influenced his groundbreaking career in cultural studies and sociology after attending Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship.

Hall was one of the founders of the New Left, a term used to describe the activists and theorists of the 1960s and 1970s who demanded reform on social and class roles. His studies examined the links between cultural identity, race and ethnicity.

Hall said in an interview, “We always supposed, really, something would give us a definition of who we really were; our class position, or our national position, or our geographic origins, or where our grandparents came from. And I don’t think any one thing, any longer, will tell us who we are.”

Hall’s Aquarius Sun is in exact conjunction with Mars, symbolizing a philosophical warrior fighting for equal rights. Aquarius is an intellectual air sign strongly attuned with individual freedom of expression. With his Sun and Mars working together for these strongly held values, he was a powerful figure for the ideals of democracy: brotherhood, fraternity and liberty.

Yesterday and Today

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Dear Friend and Reader:

When The Beatles landed at the newly named John F. Kennedy Airport on Feb. 7, 1964, it was just 78 days after one of the most profound collective griefs in decades, one that unlike many before it was amplified by the power of television. The young president had been struck down in broad daylight in an American city, sending the Western world into shock.

The Beatles, moments after stepping off their Pan Am flight on Feb. 7, 1964. Photo: Library of Congress.

The Beatles did not merely arrive; they stepped into a gaping void, a psychic and emotional cavern that had been violently ripped open like the president’s skull. With JFK’s death, the nation had lost it’s father and was still reeling with disorientation. Even people who detested him cried. The loss is palpable till this day.

The death of the president also meant there was a vacuum of male presence and leadership. Then a group of young men in their early 20s had unwittingly stepped up to the task, though I am sure this was not recognized for what it was at the time.

We cannot say what would have happened with The Beatles had JFK lived, whether they would have had the same impact or been received so passionately. We only know what actually happened.

When you consider the morbid scenes from that prior November, the presidential motorcade passing through Dealey Plaza, the unshakable Walter Cronkite crying on the air, Jackie Kennedy with her dress stained in her dead husband’s blood, Lyndon Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force 1, the ambulance taking the president’s body to the morgue, the funeral procession with its riderless horse — it seems like a different universe from the screaming girls and clever lads taking questions from the press.

People huddled around their televisions watching Kennedy’s casket go by morphed into families clinging to their TVs as screaming teenagers stampeded through airport corridors and Ed Sullivan introduced The Beatles that Sunday night.

John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Indeed it was a different universe. Sometime during those 78 days, the Sixties had begun. That contrast of a collective wound and something to fill the void, or some element of healing, set a pattern and would repeat many times in this era.

Though the Sixties aspect, the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, would not make its first exact contact until October 1965, encounters between these two slow-moving, world-changing planets have a long warmup during which the most notable effects can be felt in advance.

If you want to understand the influence of this aspect, consider that The Beatles went from “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to “I Am the Walrus” in a few short years.

The Sixties were a rough time in history. For many, it was an exciting time; for many others, painfully controversial, as many facets of the old order were stripped away and something else began to take their place. Many more people struggled to hold onto the familiar as everything seemed to change around them — not recognizing that the changes were within them as well.

The nascent Civil Rights movement, which had begun to make progress in the Fifties, had some successes and also came under ongoing violent attack, surveillance and infiltration.

At the same time, there were numerous artistic and technological breakthroughs, and many horrid political tragedies. It’s difficult to sum up an era that included the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Vietnam War, the election of Richard Nixon, Woodstock, the Moon landing, protests on campuses across the nation and students murdered at Kent State.

From the Conjunction to the Square

Fifty years after The Beatles arrived, we are now at the next major meeting of Uranus and Pluto — the square. These two planets move so slowly that it’s taken them nearly half a century to go from their conjunction, the equivalent of the New Moon phase, to the square, the equivalent of their first quarter phase.

The Beatles with Ed Sullivan during a rehearsal for their Feb. 9 performance on the program in New York City. Photo by AP.

The first quarter is a major turning point in any planetary cycle, and also a time of structural change. It’s a time of re-evaluating events since the beginning of the cycle, though usually history moves so fast at the time of Uranus-Pluto events that you can have the feeling that there’s no time to think. What the Sixties and our era have in common is how easy it is to feel overwhelmed.

The square can have many properties similar to the conjunction, though of course it happens in a different historical context. The square also lasts longer. The conjunction had three exact contacts in 1965 and 1966. The square has seven exact contacts from spring 2012 through winter 2015. Both have a wide margin on either side.

We saw the early influence of the square with the Arab Spring movement, the public union protests in Wisconsin and then the global Occupy movement, all of which began and peaked in 2011. Those protests were suppressed by governments pretty effectively, and also by various chilling effect measures like discovering that the NSA is databasing everyone’s phone records, email and other communications.

Laws that define participation in the environmental movement as a form of terrorism are going to deter some people. So will mass arrests, pepper spray and the prospect of lifelong surveillance. It all adds up.

Though there are some similarities, I think there is one significant difference between the Sixties and today. In the Sixties, many people believed that change was possible, and moreover, that their personal actions could lead to progress — not merely to personal or corporate profit. There was widespread idealism in the air, despite the many terrible events that took place.

There was the sense that anything is possible. The craving for freedom first described in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road had become a sweeping social movement.

Recycling is not enough. All plastic ends up in the ocean, in one form or another. Much of it collects in gyres, or places where currents converge and the material cannot escape.

There was the feeling that if we don’t do something about this — that is, about whatever problem society is facing — nobody will. That value may not have saturated the culture, but there were plenty of people who felt that way, and they got a lot done. Out of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction era were born many movements that are still active today — anti-war, environmental, women’s liberation, gay rights, black power and others.

Today, cynicism has replaced idealism. The sensation that ‘we’re goin’ down’ has replaced ‘we can change the world’. I am aware that there are activists in our time working earnestly for change. What I object to is how little help they have, and how easy it is to dismiss their efforts as futile.

That so many people are overwhelmed is, I believe, the result of many factors. We know more than we did then — for example, about how serious the environmental situation is. What can anyone do, or think they can do, about a radioactive plume spilling out of a nuclear power plant in Japan, encompassing the north Pacific Ocean and spreading into all of its currents? What can we do about the tons and tons of plastic collecting in ocean gyres? Imagine trying to live without using plastic, no matter how much you want to.

What can we do about the rate at which fossil fuels are being extracted from the ground and injected into the atmosphere, trapping heat on the planet? What about all the methane being released from frozen reservoirs as the Arctic ice cap melts, doing far more damage than carbon?

How about politicians wasting time and resources trying to ban birth control and take away food stamps when the world is headed for a diversity of different brinks?

Every individual problem is overwhelming on its own, with 100 more like it right behind: GMO foods, the banks that get away with anything, billionaires by the million, chaos reigning in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria and many, many other countries, an economy that is vacuuming wealth to the top faster than the Fed can print cash, people in massive debt from educations that are now worthless for getting a job, the cancer pandemic…and it goes on and on.

It’s amazing that anyone has the gumption to be able to confront the future at all, much less envision some great improvement that might happen. Many people are reduced to getting through the day. Many are reduced to doing whatever it takes to get by.

Actual scene from Chrysler ad on the Super Bowl featuring Bob Dylan, in which he claims that people in sweatshops assemble cell phones out of cultural pride. We’ve come a long way since his calling attention to the plight of workers collecting 30 cents a day.

In this environment, you could describe cynicism as the more appropriate response than idealism, or hope, or faith. It’s hard to have faith when greed has gone from being a problem that some people had to the religion of the masses.

At the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, Bob Dylan came up to The Beatles’ hotel suite and encouraged them to do something relevant with their platform; to recognize that they could deliver a message.

They listened. Dylan may have been the single biggest moral and artistic influence on The Beatles.

It was Dylan, the visionary, who warned of “guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children” before anyone outside of Rand Corporation, the White House or the Foreign Relations Committee had heard of the Vietnam War.

Now at the Uranus-Pluto square, we have Bob Dylan doing a Chrysler advertisement on the Super Bowl. No doubt he rationalizes it on the basis of American pride, the theme of the ad. Would that be the same patriotism that was drummed up to start the past 10 wars?

This one-time passionate advocate for blacks and the poor, who has decried slave labor in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan working for 30 cents a day, personally encouraged tens of millions of Americans watching the ad to “let Asia assemble your phone” — because they do it out of pride in their work.

Ask people why Dylan did the ad and they will probably say “he needed the money,” as if that’s a good reason for someone who has put out 35 studio albums and a heap of boxed sets. He can only top this one by going onto FOX News and encouraging us all to support the bombing of Iran.

The Common Ground of Pisces

Besides top-shelf Uranus-Pluto aspects, the astrology of our era has something else in common with the Sixties, which is Chiron in Pisces. This placement is a profound spiritual longing, which has many potential answers.

It is interesting that throughout the entire Uranus conjunct Pluto era of the Sixties and the current Uranus square Pluto era, Chiron is simultaneously in Pisces. The astronomical synchronicity involves Chiron’s 50-year cycle and the nearly 50 years it’s taken Uranus and Pluto to go from conjunction to square (0 degree relationship to 90-degree relationship).

The Tsonga people of South Africa. All, as in all, humans are tribal. We need one another. When that need is replaced by alienation, the human condition becomes toxic. Photo from Kwekudee Blog.

Pisces, particularly with such a strong influence as Chiron, can be activated as a vast common ground, where people can discover how much they have in common, how much they can share and how much they can accomplish together.

I consider Chiron in Pisces The Beatles factor of the Sixties — the loving and spiritual element without which there would have been very little grounding or sense of purpose. It was not just The Beatles, but they personified it effectively, in a way that millions of people could relate to.

This can be expressed as well as related to or identified with — for example as art, music, community, intimacy and sex — among a million other friendly activities.

Yet Chiron in Pisces can also evoke a mystical longing that can be answered in toxic ways as well. The mystical longing is usually evoked by suppressing healthy expressions of emotion, passion, desire and creativity. People need to be people, which means we need to be together, feel together, do tribal things together and have collective experiences. When that natural instinct is suppressed, it expresses itself in many toxic ways.

One of them is rallying around the flag — a poisonous abstraction of the tribe. Another is worshipping a charismatic leader, which Dr. Wilhelm Reich identified as one of the key ingredients of a fascist takeover. Get people so desperate for sex and closeness, they will flock to a dangerous substitute, one that can destroy a society or a culture.

In our era, we are seeing the corporate form of this. It seems that every last thing is sponsored by a multinational or “nonprofit” corporation. Capitalism and greed are revered with religious fervor, and violating them can get someone branded a heretic or infidel. This common ground is becoming so crowded by corporate culture, I am surprised there aren’t Nike ads in yoga studios.

Spasija Aleksoska’s extended family was taken in Trebenista, near Ohrid (in Macedonia), during Easter celebrations in 1959. The extended family was alive and well in the United States until the end of World War II. After the nuclear bomb, the nuclear family.

Oh wait — there already are, on yoga mats, garments and bags. Next we will have advertisements telepathically broadcast into meditation.

What corporate authority can interfere with but not completely suppress is the authentic inner spiritual and creative calling. No matter how much the Merlins of advertising and branding and finance may strive to do so, they cannot entirely vanquish your humanity. That’s why they have to spend so much money trying to do so.

They can come close. You can be anesthetized into thinking you’re not who you are, for a while. You can be lured away from your humanity, conditioned what to think, distracted from your soul or consume alcohol and fast food until you’re semi-blotto — but you’re still human, because you possess the Inner Light, the inner connection to the same intelligence that orchestrates your DNA. You are, even if you forget. So you may as well remember.

Yes, remembering your humanity can be painful in such dehumanized times. One of the paradoxes of awakening is the encounter with how many other beings are struggling. As you improve your life, you have to figure out what to do with any potential guilt that you have it good and others do not.

If you pay attention, you will find some people who have their ideals intact. Be kind to them and keep them in your life. There is very little you can accomplish alone, though you are personally the starting point for everything that happens to you. You are the one thing that all your relations have in common.

Remember that, as the world seems to grow darker than we ever dreamed it could.

Lovingly,

Belief meets destiny on the set of the Ed Sullivan Show, Sunday, Feb. 9, 1964.

Five Astrologers and an Entertainment Lawyer Comment on The Beatles

Sara Victoria

Belief met destiny on the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theatre, and the chart Eric cast for that performance makes the karmic scale of The Beatles’ relationship with the United States strikingly clear.

When the show began, the Moon in Capricorn was conjunct the South Node in the 4th house. This represents a deep, emotional, soul-level ambition that is fostered by discipline and karmic in nature — part of the destiny path of the event. Its placement in the 4th house indicates that this ambition has not yet reached fruition; it is still within, underground, unseen. The South and North Nodes are calculated points that describe ‘evolutionary intention’; the South Node evolves into what is represented by the North Node.

The Beatles appear on the The Ed Sullivan Show. The Capricorn Moon on the South Node suggests that something is not just happening — it’s happening again. Are The Beatles a reincarnation phenomenon? If so, I would nominated Gilbert & Sullivan as their last go-around.

The ‘karmic destiny’ of The Beatles’ performance that night is written in the symbolism of the North Node in Cancer, in the 10th house of public profile. The evolutionary purpose of the event was for their emotionally charged ambition to spring forth from its hidden root and flower upon a world stage.

The staggering impact of the Ed Sullivan performance on The Beatles’ destiny path is seen in the conjunction of the North Node with the natal Sun of the United States. The U.S. and The Beatles were introduced by a cosmic matchmaker that night. The achievement of their karmic intent was inextricably joined with the collective identity of the United States. An astrologer could not have planned a more auspicious time for their American debut.

Dale O’Brien

Fifty years corresponds approximately to when Chiron returns to the exact place it was that many years ago. Since mythological Chiron was the wisest of all beings, god or human, the Chiron return is an opportunity to begin to live a wiser life based on one’s life experience.

Chiron is now in Pisces, as it was starting within hours of JFK’s presidential inauguration. Aug. 16, 1962 was the beginning of The Beatles as John, Paul, George and Ringo. Chiron in Pisces was exactly conjunct Jupiter in Pisces, with both trine Neptune in Scorpio. Chiron and Jupiter were also both opposed to Pluto and Mercury.

The Beatles were even more than just a huge financial success (Jupiter-Pluto). They were even more than a profoundly popular musical group with a sense of fun and humor (Jupiter-Neptune). Despite their youth, they were looked to as wisdom figures, and retained their popularity and credibility even when pursuing the wisdom (and to some extent the music) of India.

The Beatles arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The official stated time of touchdown is 1:20 pm, which gives you the very, very, very end of Gemini rising. Add just two seconds to the time (less time than the plane rolling down a little bit of runway) and you come up with the Aries Point in hearts and spades — 00 Cancer 00 rising — and that tells the story, of the impact of the event, of its lasting influence and how many people the event reached. It’s called the ‘Aries Point’ because the first degree of Cancer is square the first degree of Aries; Libra and Capricorn work too because they are opposite and square the Aries Point.

As we celebrate The Beatles now, Chiron in Pisces tells us to remember, in part, that we are all one; that music enchants and heals.

Debbie Keil-Leavitt

The Beatles’ arrival in New York on the afternoon of Feb. 7, 1964, was a profound moment in the healing of a reeling nation. It was no cosmic mistake that The Beatles were first interviewed for American television on Nov. 22, 1963, only to have the broadcast delayed by the assassination of President Kennedy that same day.

Joy, pride and youth had all been lost to that murder, exposing America’s shadow, and the nation was in desperate need of a change of mood. The chart of The Beatles’ arrival has the important characteristic of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction on the 4th house cusp (angular; therefore, potent). This signature of the birth of worldwide transformation was in full force in the 1960s. The chart indicates a pivotal moment with Uranus-Pluto opposing the Teacher/Healer Chiron. The universe was handing us guidance to create a new cultural reality.

Chrissie Blaze

One may not immediately think of hard-hitting, rebellious John Lennon as a typical Libra because it is known that one major characteristic of this Sun sign is a desire for acceptance and to ‘fit in’. Those of us who knew and loved John in the 1960s and 1970s would find it hard to believe this was true of him. However, what we see about a person is not always what they feel inside. In John’s own bitingly honest words:

“I always was a rebel…but on the other hand, I wanted to be loved and accepted…and not just be a loudmouth, lunatic, poet, musician.”

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that Venus-ruled Libra is indecisive and concerned only with love, romance and relationships. Once this intelligent, passionate Sun sign does espouse a cause worthy of their time and energy few can surpass their noble efforts to literally change the world.

T. C. Gardstein

The songwriting team of Lennon-McCartney was a formidable force. John Lennon’s Sun was in Libra, Paul’s in Gemini; the trine between the two musicians’ Suns manifested in mutual inspiration and what Beatles producer George Martin deemed “a healthy competition.” John and Paul rarely wrote songs together — but they often wrote in each other’s presence, sought out each other’s feedback, and helped each other with lyrics.

The chart of a true and whole-hearted pervert! John Lennon has Chiron, Transpluto, Pluto, Vesta and Juno in the 5th house of flirty, risky sex — but Juno’s presence means he likes to do it with his wife, unless of course someone interesting comes along.

The finest Lennon-McCartney composition, “A Day in the Life,” was the result of two separate, unfinished songs grafted together into pure genius. This song also perfectly symbolizes the opposition between their Moons: John, the explosive “teddy boy” and drug-oriented, intellectual iconoclast, had an Aquarius Moon; Paul, the magnanimous, regal, pop-oriented showman, had a Leo Moon. This lunar opposition magnetized John and Paul to each other from the day they met and formed the duo’s backbone.

George Harrison was in his own private corner, as one might expect from a Pisces Sun and Scorpio Moon.

In 1965, during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, George first came across the sitar. Through his subsequent study of this difficult instrument and Eastern philosophy, George was responsible for bringing the East to the attention of the “new world” (hip Sixties Western culture). He continued to support the Maharishi even after his band mates became disenchanted with the yogi. Apropos of his Scorpio Moon, George was also the first Beatle to explicitly reference sex in a song: on Revolver‘s “Love You To” (1966). Yet George’s water-sign vision, which ranged from sarcastic (“Taxman”; “Piggies”) to mystical to just plain beautiful(“Something”), was overshadowed by the Lennon-McCartney duo.

Michael B. Ackerman, entertainment and IP attorney

As for The Beatles’ impact on music, I think you know my answer: it’s like Jesus, there’s before The Beatles and after The Beatles; and after The Beatles everything changed.

Seriously, The Beatles‘ arrival is probably the biggest pop culture impact event in the 20th century. Only Elvis’ arrival comes close and even then it’s not as multilayered. Someone once explained Elvis’ importance to me and I’ve never forgotten it: “Before Elvis boys grew up wanting to be their father, Elvis presented an alternative.” So on that level Elvis’ arrival is very culturally significant, also, Elvis added value to hillbilly status. Elvis was neutered pretty quickly by his induction into the Army. Then he did the movies, which made him meaningless in a pop culture context. The 1968 comeback special was good and a stunning return to form but he was never again the cultural force he was from 1956-1958.

The chart of the mystic artist — another 5th house chart, this time with Pisces Sun there. If there is a chart about art for art’s sake, or communicating because that’s what you feel, this is the one.

But The Beatles brought long hair, Brits, upward class mobility for England and others (and the disarming of the slagging of the lower class and lower class accents), mass hysteria as a cultural phenomenon, complete dominance of pop music for a time, and major dominance thereafter (every new Beatles record or TV appearance was an event, which always drew ratings and piqued curiosity). Furthermore, a band who wrote their own songs? Elvis put his name on those songs but he didn’t write them.

Not to mention the other stuff — the introspective songs, the psychedelic stuff, the drugs, the fashions, the controversial remarks, or the pioneering approach to making music in the studio. Heck, even their films are quite good (notably A Hard Day’s Night), and I’d say the films and The Beatles‘ flippant style in press conferences were a big influence on later comedy.

I say this not just as a fan, but The Beatles are the Big Bang of the 20th Century. The only other event that comes close is the Moon landing, which had ripple effects in terms of technology (Velcro, satellite communication which enabled cell phones, microwave technology which gave us the microwave oven, and many other developments came directly from the Moon missions).

Think about this: in the 50 years since The Beatles have come along, and with the rise in the standard of living and with the vast expansion of television as a phenomenon (most households at the time of The Beatles’ debut had one television, if they had a television at all), there are very few television shows that had more viewers than The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and you know all of them: the finale of MASH, the finale of Seinfeld, the OJ ‘chase’, the finale of Cheers, the finale of The Fugitive, the finale of Dallas.

Seriously a half dozen shows (and I do consider the OJ chase a show — it wasn’t a chase, it was a parade) have topped or equaled the Beatles’ ratings on Ed Sullivan in 50 years despite the proliferation of the television set. As more television sets entered homes, viewing habits segmented and those communal events were fewer and further between. Some would say that’s the reason there aren’t more. I’d be one of them.

— Section editor: Elizabeth Michaud

Back in the USSR

What a great idea — start the Winter Olympics in Mother Russia just as Mercury stationed retrograde in Pisces.

Yes, that Russia — the same one that we were told was the reason why we were hiding under our school desks and out of the way of flying glass; the very Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the bastards with all those missiles pointed at us and spies in trash cans and cameras in cigarette lighters who have taken over Hollywood and are seducing our youth with sex and vodka.

Nikita Kruschev and some Cuban guy are very excited about the Winter Olympics being in Russia.

The Russia of “I hope the Russians love their children too” fame.

Well, all is forgiven — unless of course something goes horribly wrong during the next 17 days. As of press time Friday morning, hours before the opening ceremony, we were seeing a lot of information about the condition of bathrooms and water in Sochi hotels. We also learned that the United States had again banned liquids and gels on all flights into Russia based on purported information about explosives concealed in toothpaste tubes.

Meanwhile Vladimir Putin, who has an interest in keeping things cool because he wants everyone to think he’s cool, and he’s definitely been on a roll since Pussy Riot’s appearance on The Colbert Report this week [see part one and part two, sorry about the insulting credit card ads], has reportedly been watching over potential “black widow” suicide bombers — women who are not necessarily widows but rather female operatives.

“What is interesting about Russia’s terrorism problem is the number of women who carry out attacks is greater than any other country in the world,” writes Stuart Ramsay, the chief Russian correspondent for Sky News.

We see this specter hanging out on the western horizon of the opening ceremony chart, as asteroid Juno. She’s right there, occupying the relationship angle (the 7th house cusp), right out in the open where everyone can see her. I will admit, it’s a little ominous having her there. I’ve been looking at this chart for a couple of weeks wondering what this is about.

Chart for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

Juno has several incarnations, though two main ones. In the first instance, it’s the emotionally disaffected person, generally a woman since her character is that of the jilted wife. But Juno’s problems emerge less from the fact of her being jilted and more from her inability to state her needs. She can represent all kinds of relational insecurity, fear of infidelity and the “maintenance of one’s position with the other,” as my colleague Martha Lang Wescott puts it.

The second incarnation of Juno is that of the guardian of justice and good causes. This is a slightly weird delineation given the other one, but I’ve seen it work sufficiently to trust this theme.

Everyone knows the problem. It’s easy to mess things up. It’s difficult to keep them in order. All it takes is one little freelance terrorist or cell to ruin the whole party. Given that, we might ask why things go so smoothly nearly all the time; whatever that turns out to be is what will protect everyone here.

While Juno can be the jealous bitch or the powerful guardian, the 7th has a similar property — it’s the house of partners and also of open enemies. So we have some ambiguity here. Checking 120 extra points, we discover that today Juno in this chart is in an exact conjunction to Aphrodite, an asteroid named for the Greek counterpart of Venus.

The chart has two other significant points of ambiguity. The first involves the Moon, which is void of course in Taurus when the ceremony begins. Void of course Moon means that the Moon is done making major aspects to major planets in its current sign. It can have a slippery feeling, noncommittal or uncertain.

Again checking 120 extra points, we find the Moon’s one applying aspect while it’s in Taurus is an opposition to asteroid Siva. I’m going to give you Martha’s whole delineation of that point, at least this one version: “Episodic, catabolic (breakdown/through) process that precedes insight; destruction of density/fixated beliefs (relative to aspects); crisis of death (stagnation) or regeneration; The Far East (including Vietnam, India, China, Malaysia, Japan;) periodic occurrence; ascetic; attention to sound.”

Juno and Aphrodite on the western horizon? Well, close enough — it’s Pussy Riot on Stephen Colbert.

Personally I’ve always taken the “attention to sound” bit with Siva to heart — I use it as one indicator to LISTEN. However, this Moon looks like it’s about confronting the fear of change and instability; appropriate enough under the circumstances. There is no certainty in this situation.

Second ambiguous thing involves Mercury, which just stationed retrograde on Thursday. Mercury is a powerful element in the Winter Olympics chart — the chart has Virgo rising (ruled by Mercury) and Gemini on the midheaven (ruled by Mercury). And Mercury occupies Pisces, the 7th sign from the ascendant; hence it’s angular, i.e., near the horizon and more influential.

Plus Mercury does something called ‘fall’ in Pisces, a negative dignity which means that it’s slightly uncomfortable there but has to do some extra work to get its point across, then it can become significantly influential. And it’s also retrograde, which is another supposed negative, but Mercury just loves to be retrograde. So what we get is this weird Mercury that rules the 1st and 10th houses and is swimming upstream in Pisces.

If there was ever a chart that said, “You can’t really tell from this chart what the heck is going on, but it really doesn’t look that bad,” this is the one. Plus it has a lot to say about water, which is what has been dominating news reports from old Mother Russia.

Now I will say this, and I intend it as a warning.

Stacy St. Clair of the Chicago Tribune tweeted: “My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, ‘do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous’.” Then after water was restored with this pee-colored blend, she tweeted, “I just washed my face with Evian, like I’m a Kardashian or something.”

Every time I hear one of these news reports about signs in Sochi bathrooms that say “don’t wash your face with this water,” I think that if Americans are not careful, we are all next. Water contamination is currently a big story in the U.S., the drought on the West Coast should be bigger news and fracking away all of our remaining fresh water should be even bigger news.

Anyway, back to the Olympics: journalists have been on the water beat from their water closets in their hotel rooms. Reports of group toilets and contaminated water have been bouncing around for days.

Here is my personal fave, out of The Wall Street Journal:

“Dmitry Kozak, a Russian deputy prime minister in charge of preparations for the Olympics, mistakenly revealed during a press conference that at least some hotel guests are under video surveillance in their own bathrooms. ‘We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day’.”

Wow! “Security” cameras in bathrooms! What fun! I’ve just checked asteroid Photographica in today’s chart and I predict that cell phone photos will provide some of the most entertaining moments from Winter Olympics XXII.

The Chris Christie Prediction that Came True

In the Jan. 10 edition of Planet Waves I said that the Chris Christie scandal would take a big turn once Venus stationed direct on Jan. 31, which is exactly what happened.

Here is what I said:

Leo, the sign that represents the president or the king, is on the cusp of the 12th. That indicates that the governor presided over the whole matter. The Sun, ruler of Leo, is also found in the 12th. He’s right in the mix, fully aware and sharing responsibility for the whole thing. To sum that up, the planets that rule the official government and its leadership, as well as the sign associated with the king, and its ruler, are all crammed into the 12th house.

This is your classic 20 pounds of shit in a 10-pound bag kind of scandal. And it wasn’t staying in the bag. The fact that the email got out, making it clear that the traffic jam was payback, that he fired a member of his team and accused her of lying, and that his appointee at the Port Authority said he wanted immunity from the feds, New York and New Jersey tells you that there was criminal activity involved. I think that will come out around the time that Venus stations direct on Jan. 31.

Here is what The New York Times said happened that day, among other things:

In Wildstein’s letter to Darrell Buchbinder, the general counsel at Port Authority, he claims the decision was “the Christie’s administration’s order.” (Apparently the letter was sent as part of a dispute over Wildstein’s legal fees — the Port Authority does not want to pay his legal fees related to the investigations into the lane closings.)

“It has also come to light that a person within the Christie administration communicated the Christie administration’s order that certain lanes on the George Washington Bridge were to be closed, and evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference he gave immediately before Mr. Wildstein was scheduled to appear before the Transportation Committee. Mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the Governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some,” the letter said.

Use Your Head

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Dear Friend and Reader:

In our society, we’re often faced with the question of what to do when something wildly popular and profitable turns out to be toxic, dangerous or unethical. In many ways it’s the story of our culture — the wonder drug that causes birth defects, the allegedly healthy new food additive that causes heart attacks, the all-purpose chemical that turns into dioxin.

Sports Illustrated from Aug. 14, 1978, about the crisis of violence in football. Tarot card readers will note the homoerotic connotations, such as the tender embrace and one player with his hand on the crotch of the other.

The dangerous effects of many things we take for granted are simultaneously known and denied for decades. One current example is the denial of the well-known effects of radiation from cell phones and cell towers. How many people know, much less wonder, why the iPhone’s instructions warn you to keep the thing eight centimeters away from your head?

This is also the story of American football, now the most lucrative sport in the United States. College and professional games are the most popular spectator sport, and it’s often played as a contact sport by children in full gear. For many people, football is inseparable from their experience of high school.

Football is at the center of a $9 billion per year industry, the largest sports franchise in the United States. The NFL, the largest remaining professional league in the U.S., has an annual operating budget of about a quarter-billon dollars. Though I don’t think anyone can explain why, it’s registered as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit association exempt from federal income taxes.

Association with the NFL is big business for everyone involved. Pepsi alone spends $228 million every year marketing and promoting NFL deals.
Today, according to Forbes, the average player salary is $2 million a year, and football clubs are worth well more than $1 billion each.

And, as it turns out, the game causes serious brain trauma in many players, and to some degree in all players. More than 4,000 NFL alumni are involved in a class-action lawsuit focused on the connection between repeated concussions sustained during the game and long-term degenerative brain injury. The results of these brain injuries are dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions, depression and a disturbing frequency of suicide among ex-players.

The issue first rose to public awareness in 2002 after Mike Webster, long-time center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, died of a heart attack at age 50 after deteriorating from years of mental illness. After his death he was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease that can only be identified by studying brain tissue in an autopsy.

Through his career, Webster endured an estimated 25,000 violent collisions, each the equivalent of a car accident or a sledgehammer to the head. “Despite this, Webster was never treated by team doctors for a concussion, according to medical records submitted in the case,” ESPN reported.

The First Brain Trauma Lawsuit

Webster’s wife Pamela sued the NFL and was awarded $1.6 million in disability payments by a federal court. As the cases have multiplied, so too has the game’s profitability, and with that, denials of the dangers. This has been documented copiously by ESPN writers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru in their 2013 book League of Denial.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell presides over an industry worth $9 billion annually and is paid $30 mil. a year. Photo by Jerry Lai.

“The game is more popular and safer than ever,” said Roger Goodell, the NFL’s commissioner, who earns more than $30 million a year. “I don’t walk in here thinking we’re in a crisis by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t say that in an arrogant way.”

In late 2013, the NFL and ex-players reached a settlement agreement that called for the NFL to pay $765 million into a medical fund that would cover exams, concussion-related compensation, medical research and litigation expenses.

But in January, a federal judge refused to approve the settlement, saying she didn’t think it was enough money to cover all the necessary expenses, which can exceed $150,000 per year in the case of a serious brain injury or neurodegenerative disease. Such settlements must include funds set aside for members of the affected class who have not yet come forward.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Pres. Obama said that he believed NFL players “know what they’re doing” and understood the impact that concussions could have on their long-term health. He said he would not allow his son to play football, if he had one.

“At this point, there’s a little bit of caveat emptor,” Obama said. “These guys, they know what they’re doing. They know what they’re buying into. It is no longer a secret. It’s sort of the feeling I have about smokers, you know?”

But every lawyer knows the notion of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) is obviated by fraud. Whether the NFL is liable for players’ injuries has a lot to do with what they told those players, or how they reassured them not to trust information that was in public circulation.

So just how long has the secret about brain trauma been out? Practically since the dawn of time. In 1933, the NCAA (the National Collegiate Athletic Association) distributed a medical handbook to its member schools, according to Deadspin.com, a football website owned by Gawker.

A normal brain compared with a shrunken, malformed brain afflicted with advanced CTE. Image provided by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.

The handbook warned that concussions are treated too lightly, recommended that concussed players receive rest and constant supervision, and not be allowed to play or practice until symptoms have been gone for 48 hours.

For symptoms lasting longer than 48 hours, it recommended that players “not be permitted to compete for 21 days or longer, if at all.”

In October 1952, a doctor named Augustus Thorndike published in The New England Journal of Medicine the results of a study that urged players who suffer three concussions to leave football permanently, for their own protection. Around the same time, more information was coming out about repeated head trauma suffered by boxers.

Then in 1973, something called Second Impact Syndrome (SIS) was identified. That’s what happens when someone receives a concussion while still suffering the effects of a previous one. SIS has a 90 percent mortality rate, according to Dr. Michael Turner, whose study of a dead high school student was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Running Interference: The Mild Trauma Committee

The NFL, aware of all of this, did not respond until 1994, when it created the now-infamous Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. This was the first time that the NFL admitted there was an issue with players and brain injury, though the committee’s role seemed to be running interference on those raising the issue.

New England Patriots player Bam Childress about to land on his cervical spine. Many forms of routine football injuries add up to degenerative neurological disease.

MTBIC, like many official committees supposedly designed to investigate things, spent a decade denying the connection between concussions and long-term brain injury. All of the lawsuits say that the NFL engaged in a disinformation campaign intended to convince players that the game was safe.

Deadspin.com reported that the committee was co-chaired by Elliot Pellman, a rheumatologist who claimed to have a degree from SUNY Stony Brook, a respected medical school. (He didn’t, Deadspin notes. He attended medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico.) Pellman was the New York Jets’ team doctor. Coincidentally, he was also commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s personal doctor.

The league is still in denial, a fact that has been covered in numerous books, articles and documentaries. Jeff Miller, the NFL’s senior vice president of health and safety policy, recently described the league as a “leader in addressing the issue of head injuries in a serious way,” adding, “by any standard, the NFL has made a profound commitment to the health and safety of its players that can be seen in every aspect of the game, and the results have been both meaningful and measurable.”

An article published this week by the professional medical journal MedPage Today pointed out the conflict of interest between team doctors who evaluate injured players, and the players who need an objective evaluation of their situation.

“Today a player with a suspected concussion not only can’t go back in the game, but he has to be evaluated according to a concussion protocol by the team’s medical staff and also by an independent medical consultant,” the journal wrote.

“But that isn’t enough, said Tanzid Shams, MD, director of sports neurology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. ‘In an ideal setting, the clinicians on the field should have no financial relationship with the teams. Instead, they should function as independent observers similar to referees. This model would take out the conflict of interest’.”

Mars and Aries: The Astrology of Football

Ok, so much for the historical background. We now know enough to appreciate the astrology. It turns out that the timeline of football has been recorded back to the first football game ever played, between two college teams — Princeton University and Rutgers University.

I’ve also looked at the charts for the founding of the NFL, the first Super Bowl and this coming Sunday’s Super Bowl, plus a few other charts of people and events along the way.

Believe it or not, there is a chart for the first football game. Somebody wrote down the date that Rutgers played Princeton and, according to one Princeton coach I spoke with this morning, Rutgers won. I don’t know the time so I used noon. The game was played on the Rutgers campus. The second game was played the following week at Princeton, and the home team again won that game (by a wider margin, according to the coach I talked to). Football, the sport, is a Scorpio with the Moon in Sagittarius. Note the Mars-Saturn conjunction to the top left side of the chart. Mars is within one degree of Saturn and both are conjunct the Great Attractor a polarized, controversial fuss.

The common theme these charts have is a prominent Mars, and in nearly every case, prominent expression of the sign Aries. Football is a martial sport, meaning that it has a violent and militarist quality (that word being derived from Mars, the Roman god of war). These placements are also significant in that both Mars and Aries are associated with the head, as well as with injuries to the head.

For example, the first football game was played with Mars conjunct Saturn. Both are conjunct a galactic point called the Great Attractor, implying that something controversial and polarizing is happening. It’s interesting that all of these points are in Sagittarius, the sign of higher education.

Another example is in the chart for the founding of the NFL. This chart is one of the most interesting corporate charts I’ve ever seen (it rivals that of the NRA, which I promise to write about soon).

The NFL chart has Chiron conjunct Nessus in Aries. Chiron often indicates where there is an injury, or a persistent point of re-injury. In the chart of an individual, it can also show a point of growth and awareness, though that seems not to be the case with the NFL — they are working on the shadow side of Chiron.

Nessus can also indicate an injury — with the added theme of a breach of trust or some kind of subversive activity. Nessus often points to sexual injuries and traumas; it’s within reason to describe all of football as the acting-out of repressed male homosexuality. What Nessus almost always indicates is that there will be consequences involved. Nessus can point to who is responsible or who will end up taking responsibility.

In the chart for the first Super Bowl, Mars makes aspects to 10 different planets, including the Sun, Mercury and centaur Pholus.

“Football is a dangerous sport, and based on the charts for the founding of the NFL, and for the first Super Bowl, it is precisely that danger which has added to the league’s success. This is exactly what these charts proclaim,” said Lee Lehman, a leader in the field of classical astrology, and a pioneer in the development of asteroids as astrological tools.

Based on the position of Mars in these charts, she said, “We have literally the story of the gladiators, who are just as compelling crumpled up on a heap on the playing field as making a spectacular catch. That is what the arena is for: the winners triumph, and the losers are carried out on a stretcher.” [You can read Lee Lehman’s full comments here.]

Let’s look more closely at the two richest charts — the founding of the NFL and the first Super Bowl.

The NFL Founding Chart

The NFL was founded as the American Professional Football Conference on Aug. 20, 1920. The meeting, held at a car showroom in Canton, Ohio, was intended to “raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules,” according to a local newspaper article published at the time.

The chart is made of numerous two-planet conjunctions, many of which talk to one another. Conjunctions concentrate power and get unusual or dissimilar energies working in cooperation. The Scorpio Moon is conjunct Mars, for example, again highlighting that planet and revealing the underlying anger and sexual tension inherent in the game.

Chart for the founding of the predecessor organization of the NFL. This astonishing chart has many conjunctions, which focus its drive and intensity. One of the obvious ones is the Moon conjunct Mars — hot, horny and pissed off. But the jewel of this chart is a grand trine between Chiron-Nessus in Aries (brain injuries), Mercury-Neptune in Leo (delusion, denial and water on the brain, plus a hint of narcotics) and Pholus in Sagittarius (on steroids). See annotated chart.

Venus is conjunct Saturn in Virgo, suppressing feminine energy, subordinating it to a corporate structure.

As I mentioned before, we have Chiron conjunct Nessus in Aries. That is trine Mercury conjunct Neptune in Leo — which can be read several ways: delusional pride, denial, or water on the brain. It also hints at the steroid use that seems essential to being a successful player. Through these charts, there are clear hints at how steroid use has ramped up the number and the intensity of injuries. One is that centaur Pholus (which can represent substance abuse) in Sagittarius is trine both conjunctions, making a grand trine.

Then we have the Sun conjunct Jupiter in Leo. Can you say big, big, big (men, egos, money, scale)? Or rather, big and getting bigger. The size of the players, the weight of the gear and the urgency of competition have made this an increasingly violent sport, to the point where it could be described as a blood sport.

Sun-Jupiter in Leo, high in the chart at midday, illustrates how the game became so big so fast. Sun-Jupiter in Leo also looks a little like that $9 billion industry, which the current NFL leadership says it is intent on tripling in the coming 15 years or so.

This fantastically macho aspect masks over the delusions inherent in the Chiron-Nessus conjunction (the head injuries and their consequences) exactly trine the central delusion in the chart, Mercury conjunct Neptune. This is one of those trines that says “if you lie, I will swear to it.” (Not all trines say that, but it’s worth checking all of them for that factor, especially when something evil manifests.)

One last note on this chart: the Mercury-Neptune conjunction is square the lunar nodes. That is the karmic test; the factor on which the chart hinges. I’ve called this the central delusion — if the parties involved can wake up to that, they can get their bearings. It is, however, powerful anesthesia.

The First Super Bowl

This is another chart in the “too rich for words” category. The first Super Bowl happened at the peak of the 1960s astrology — the Uranus-Pluto conjunction is a prominent feature in the chart. Now that we are at the Uranus-Pluto square 48 years later, it’s logical enough that the issues inherent in the game are coming to the surface.

There were many breakthroughs in this time of history — indeed, nearly anything that succeeded made some lasting impact on society.

You can see the Uranus-Pluto conjunction at the bottom of the chart. That aspect can represent a clash of cultures, an upheaval in society or — in the 5th house — it represents a really rough game. That led Lee Lehman to comment, “Despite many denials, this player destruction truly is part of the entertainment. Let the carnage begin — but we’ll applaud when they are carried off the field.”

Chart for Super Bowl I. This chart has a time, which was printed on the ticket — which at the time cost between $6 and $12. Note Venus on top of the wheel, and then note the massive aspect pattern in the 20-degree range, explained in the article. See annotated chart.

One of the most prominent features in the chart involves the rising sign, Taurus, and the placement of Venus, the ruling planet of Taurus, at the top of the chart. That is called accidental dignity.

Venus has no special dignity in Aquarius, but it gets props for being both the ascendant ruler and the most elevated planet. It illustrates the crowd-pleasing nature of the game (Aquarius), the corporate involvement (10th house) and the fantastic image and monetary value that the game somehow still has.

Jupiter is back in Leo, where it was when the NFL was founded. So for the NFL’s Jupiter return it got the Super Bowl.

But the most interesting structure in the chart can be read from left to right. Start with the triple conjunction in Pisces, on the top left. That is the Moon, squished between Chiron and Saturn. It would be a challenge to find an aspect that more eloquently said “emotional pain” than this one. The Moon represents the public, caught between a centaur and a hard place. It looks like the crowd is trying to work out its emotional pain by watching this game. One of my colleagues aptly described it as a blind spot, something that should be obvious but which is invisible.

Next, look at Mercury conjunct the Sun — in the 9th house of religion, in Capricorn, the sign of corporations. This looks like a megachurch or a cult.

Mercury is exactly sextile the Moon, and in a close sextile to Chiron and Saturn. It’s the image of something that works very well. Then there is Neptune late in the 6th on the cusp of the 7th — there is your drug/delusion/denial factor — and in Scorpio, another image of sexual fantasy.

Mars gets into the picture, taking squares from the Sun and Mercury (this combination of Mars and the squares having the potential for anger or rage). Mars makes aspects to all of the planets in the low 20-degree range. Which brings me to the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the 5th house. This chart represents a revolution, a sign of the times, happening a few months before the release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.

It was also the height of the Vietnam War. So we have an image of the opposite of the peace and love concept of the Sixties — the return of the gladiators.

This whole aspect structure is all the more powerful because the Moon is directly involved. One of the co-rulers of the Taurus ascendant (the Moon is exalted in Taurus) and in deeply sensitive Pisces, the public is caught in a huge drama the like of which it does not understand. This scenario is far from benign, and beyond the medical implications for the players, there are ethical implications for everyone.

The Cult of Steroids, Violence, Advertising and Brain Trauma

Throughout the football charts, there are recurring images of sex, steroids and violence. Described by Neptune, we have images of television and denial. Super Bowl advertising is the most expensive in existence. All of this funds a game in which the players are getting their brains crushed. Looking at Neptune and other factors, it’s clear that steroids play a role in the injuries — ever larger players, on drugs that make them oblivious to pain, crashing into one another as a way of life.

Steelers hardworking and genius center Mike Webster led his team to four Super Bowl victories in six years.

This is distributed with high glamour into a society that has issues around violence and sex, taking the form of a mass religion. This is co-mingled into a multibillion dollar industry that is a backbone of the advertising business — the central cult of capitalism.

And now we know that among other things, this is the cult of brain damage and degenerative neurological diseases that have destroyed the lives of many great athletes.

As Pam Webster, the widow of football legend Mike Webster put it in a Frontline interview, “He was incredibly smart. And to see his brain declining years later was such a sad thing, because he was incredibly smart, and what I’ve said — the boys have this gift that they see detail that no one else picks up on, and Mike had that gift.”

She described their motive to bring a lawsuit against the NFL, which was filed after his death: ” I don’t think it was a battle just to, like a lawsuit or a disability lawsuit to just win money. It was to get the NFL to admit that they had something to do with it, that whether it be a cover-up or the knowledge or the fault, he wanted to speak for thousands like him.”

“I think on some level he knew things were wrong,” she added. “He couldn’t hold a sentence. One thing he wrote was getting thoughts across were like trying to talk — he compared it to tangled fishing wire. When fishing wire gets tangled you can’t untangle it — not even like a necklace, but fishing wire. It’s clear and it’s all tangled up. And that’s how his thought process was.”

That’s a good description of the whole problem, as things stand today.

Lovingly,

Research by Hillary Conary. Additional research: Hal Cohen, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Len Wallick and Martha Lang-Wescott.

Pete Seeger with his 12-string guitar at the Clearwater Revival in 2007. Seeger helped found the organization named after the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. The organization has been active on the issue of PCBs put into the Hudson by General Electric. Photo by Anthony Pepitone.

Pete Seeger: Voice of the Generations

The world said goodbye to the one and only Pete Seeger, who died this week at age 94. Famous for his songwriting formula of “three chords and the truth,” Seeger influenced numerous generations of musicians, lyricists and activists during his long life.

“Pete Seeger wasn’t one of those legendary performers who made the world a better place with music. He was the original. He was inimitable and unique and indomitable in his mission to bring light to the dark places,” Peter Scheer of Truthdig wrote this week [visit that link for the awesome video].

An enduring influence for change, for getting people together and for solving the world’s problems — and making music — Seeger was born with the Sun in Taurus and his Moon in Gemini.

Pete Seeger, chart time rectified by Larry Ely and Eric Francis.

With this blend we get the enduring, deeply rooted power of Taurus expressing itself through the clever, verbally focused and multi-faceted personality structure of Gemini.

Yet that Gemini Moon is opposite the core of our galaxy, giving it a transcendent quality, as if he was channeling the supreme intelligence of the universe, translating it into language that everyone, even critters, can understand.

His Taurus Sun illustrates how he was driven by his deepest values, with passion stoked by Mars. Seeger truly lived in the “blacksmith shop of the soul” as Alice Bailey once described Taurus. Mars and the Sun together in Taurus say peaceful warrior like few things can.

His Gemini Moon lightened that presentation, gave him truly excellent verbal gifts, and a love of making contact with anyone and everyone. The Gemini Moon also afforded him many means of expression. I’ve also noticed that musicians with strong Gemini tend to be multi-instrumentalists (think Paul McCartney).

“He was an inveterate journalist and pamphleteer at Harvard, involved in a host of extracurricular activities, all of which took him off his studies, so he left in April of his freshman year. All through his life he was a student of music genres, origins, and of musicology,” said astrologer Larry Ely during our discussion of Seeger’s birth time.

Seeger had a potent alignment in the sign Aries (Mercury, Chiron, Nessus), which gave him sufficient personality struggle to seed an authentic quest for his true being; this is what he was able to express in his words (Mercury) as empathy for the human condition. In other words, this is not the chart of someone who has an ‘easy’ personality to live inside of, but he was tempered by the decades and he did the most important thing you can do if you want to grow and self-actualize, which is to express yourself.

He also had Jupiter and Pluto in Cancer, which you can think of as the golden thread weaving together all world religions. It is the aspect of “many shores, one lake” that is the basis of authentic spirituality.

Mainly, he was not afraid to use folk music as a spiritual tool, but he had the finesse to do it in a way that came across effectively. He was so effective that he was called to testify before the McCarthy hearings as a suspected communist during the 1950s.

Pete Seeger’s banjo, inscribed with the words “this machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” Photo: Jim, the Photographer (CC-BY).

One of our editors, Carol van Strum, recalled: “During the Vietnam war, I think it was, Pete Seeger was on some major network show with big wigs arguing about the war, pro and con. He didn’t say a word, just sat there while the talk got more and more heated. Then softly he just started strumming “This Land Is Your Land.” At first no one noticed, and then the arguing politicos’ voices dwindled, leaving just the banjo. It was a truly spontaneous, glorious moment.”

Seeger had a strong connection to the Hudson Valley of New York, where much of Planet Waves is written. He co-founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an organization that has done much to call attention to General Electric’s PCBs contaminating the Hudson river, and which has hosted the Clearwater Revival for decades.

One of Pete’s last performances was at Brook Farm in New Paltz, New York, where he came to support young farmers whose land was being taken away by a corporate “environmental” organization [see Planet Waves coverage here].

The suit-and-tie environmentalists twice tried to persuade Seeger not to play that day, but he was undeterred. Even at age 94, he came out in the pouring down rain and held a house concert for a small group of people at the farming co-op.

“I have not seen my father so pleased with an afternoon of music in a long time,” his daughter Tinya Seeger wrote to Brook Farm Project’s leadership. “The afternoon was such a relief for him. He loved seeing so many local singing young people and is enthusiastically in support of all of you.”

So dust off your old banjo, tune up your guitar or tap on an old coffee can — and tell it like it is.

Now they took Pete Seeger before the law,
put him on the witness stand,
but he stood right up to tyranny
with a banjo in his hand.

Such a righteous banjo picker
watching out for me and you,
that was just a man that wouldn’t back down
on three chords and the truth

Three chords and the truth
three chords and the truth,
the only crime Pete Seeger done
was three chords and the truth.

He sang his freedom songs real good,
he’s still getting his message through,
you better check out old Pete Seeger on
three chords and the truth.
— from “Three Chords and the Truth,” by Ry Cooder

Up, Down, Turn Around

Are you feeling the sense of impending change and rapid transition in the air? If so, I am not surprised — that is what’s happening. Get ready to make some fast changes in direction over the next few days and few weeks.

Thursday was the Aquarius New Moon and Friday, Venus stations direct. Let’s take those one at a time. The Aquarius New Moon — the conjunction of the Moon and the Sun in Aquarius — was yesterday (Thursday) afternoon at 4:39 pm.

Chart for the Aquarius New Moon, which was Thursday afternoon. Venus stations direct today. Mercury has entered Pisces, where it’s about to station retrograde.

New Moons begin a cycle — and this one is especially significant, as it’s the Lunar New Year, celebrated by several Asian cultures. This friendly event with a “let’s get together” theme is still unfolding and will come to a peak with the Leo Full Moon on Feb. 14. The Moon-Sun conjunction is supported by many other planets, most notably Uranus in Aries. This is a beautiful chart for participation in any kind of group or collective experience while expressing your individuality.

Normally we think of groups of any kind (the posse you hang with, the company you work for, the Rotary Club) as having only limited capacity to embrace individuality. If that’s the case, it’s not really a group; it’s mass consciousness.

You’re unlikely to be invited to step out, however — you will need to push the issue and see what happens. If you cannot be yourself, you don’t belong there — wherever ‘there’ is.

Then today (Friday), Venus stations direct in Capricorn at 3:49 pm EST. Venus retrogrades are subtle, and they are interesting. This one has potentially been a review of family history, and a probing into the question of emotional obligation.

Venus has been retrograde since Dec. 21, the first day of Northern Hemisphere winter. This was a rare Venus retrograde, entirely in Capricorn; the last time that happened was the winter of 1802-1803. This event feels like a release and a reminder to keep your mind focused on the present, with the people who are among you.

If a chart ever said, “love the one you’re with,” this is it.

Less than one week from now, on Feb. 6, Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces. It will be retrograde for three weeks, ending on Feb. 28.

Once Mercury is done being retrograde on Feb. 28, Mars stations retrograde for the next 10 weeks. That is the central event of 2014, and the main focus of this year’s annual readings, called The Mars Effect.

The Chinese Year of the Wood Horse

Clean your house so that luck and prosperity have room to enter in, but hide the brooms and dustpans so that it cannot be swept away again! Yesterday was the first New Moon after the first Full Moon after the Northern Hemisphere winter solstice, making today the first day of the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year — kicking off the Year of the Wood Horse (last year was a Water Snake year).

This illuminated decoration is from previous Year of the Horse celebrations in Belmore Park, Sydney, Australia. Photo: J Bar/Wikimedia Commons.

Celebrated in numerous Asian countries in addition to China, and by Asian expats living the world over, the festival actually lasts 16 days including the eve before the first day. Each day of the festival, which marks the time from this New Moon to its corresponding Full Moon, has its own particular focus and traditional activities associated with it, culminating with the Lantern Festival.

The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 animals. In the form of it that we know, the animal signs each relate to an entire year of the Chinese calendar (in addition to each of the months, although Westerners tend to be aware only of the correspondence of animals with each year). They also correspond to hours of the day, which determines the ascendant. For example, Horse rising is from 11 am to 1 pm, when the Sun is high in the sky. That tells you something about the year of the Horse — it calls on us to shine like the Sun at noon.

Each sign also cycles through five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and alternates between having a Yin quality (female, receptive) or a Yang quality (masculine, assertive).

This Wood Horse year is also a Yang year. According to JB writing for The Feng Shui Society of the UK, “The previous Horse year was a Water Horse in 2002. The previous Wood Horse year was in 1954, sixty years ago.”

This means that if you are turning 60 this year, you have lived a full cycle of all sixty animal-element combinations (Congratulations!).

What is a Yang Wood Horse year likely to bring?

Dragon in the Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown, New York City, in 2012. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Apparently the Horse is already the most Yang of the 12 animals — fast and fiery (though grounded by some earth and its four hooves), with passions that run high. Romance and excitement may heat up, but so too could anger or conflict. The Wood element is about reaching upwards, planning the future and furthering your ideas in the world; the trick is to stay in the driver’s (or rider’s) seat.

Wild swings of emotion have the potential to tap into the Fire underlying Wood, causing plans to go up in smoke. Have a backup plan for important changes and decisions.

At the same time, when you let your passion sit idly, opportunities can be missed and momentum on projects stalls. There is a balance to be struck between giving a horse free rein so it can carry you swiftly to your destination, and keeping a firm hand so you can guide it without losing your seat.

Feng shui practitioner Raymond Lo told Reuters: “The upcoming Horse year is also a ‘Yang Wood’ year, when people will stick more to their principles and stand firm. So it is hard to negotiate or compromise as there are more tendencies for people to fight for their ideals.”

It’s important to identify when you can loosen your stand to allow progress for the benefit of all to continue.

If your business involves wood or fire, you should do well. If your personal Chinese zodiac sign is the Horse, you may encounter some tension and pressure in your life, as Horse meeting Horse throws off the Yin-Yang balance, according to some Chinese astrologers. Others, however, say this time of meeting your own sign can be rich for self-reflection. That’s a Horse worth putting some money on.

Snowden Nominated for Nobel; Angry Birds Tattling on You

While the war-and-spying-obsessed U.S. government will not be awarding NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden any prizes anytime soon, not everyone is buying the attempt to cast him as a traitor. In the same week that new revelations about NSA data collection from mobile phone games emerged, and the Obama administration announced it will allow Internet companies to speak more specifically about when they are required by the government to turn over customer data, two Norwegian politicians nominated Snowden for a Nobel Peace Prize Wednesday.

Edward Snowden; screen capture from his interview with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras on June 6, 2013.

Politicians from Norway’s Socialist Left party — Baard Vegar Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen — remarked that “the public debate and policy changes in the wake of Snowden’s whistleblowing had ‘contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order’,” according to The Guardian.

Snowden might not be the most likely winner among the scores of nominations, yet this acknowledgment speaks volumes about how citizens of nations other than the United States view the information Snowden leaked — information that is still emerging.

Take, for example, the latest revelations that the NSA has been collecting huge amounts of personal data from games such as the ridiculously popular Angry Birds and other ‘leaky apps’ — so called because as they are used, personal information ranging from where the user has been to their smartphone identification codes travels along the data pipelines and can be intercepted.

According to documents provided by Snowden, the NSA was working with its British counterpart on the collection and storage of leaked data from smartphone apps as early as 2007.

“Since then, the agencies have traded recipes for grabbing location and planning data when a target uses Google Maps, and for vacuuming up address books, buddy lists, telephone logs and the geographic data embedded in photographs when someone sends a post to the mobile versions of Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and other Internet services,” reported The New York Times, based on documents shared by The Times, The Guardian and ProPublica.

As Planet Waves has reported before, even just a person’s record of calls can outline their entire life pattern for the NSA; the agency has more than just ‘patterns’ to work with now.

You think you’re just hurling angry red birds at green pigs; really, all your personal data is leaking through the Interwebs to the NSA, possibly through this server aisle at Google’s data center in Oklahoma. Photo: Connie Zhou/Google.

User profiles created by online ad agencies offer government spies incredibly sensitive data — such as political affiliation and sexual preference. A secret British intelligence document from 2012 states that phones can be “scrubbed” for this info. In case you need it spelled out for you, this is the kind of information dictators and police states use to persecute and torture activists and ‘enemies’, whether real or imagined, to keep them scared, quiet and out of the way.

In light of these recent revelations, the Justice Department’s announcement this week that customers of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook will now have a slightly better idea of when the government asks these companies for customer data seems barely worth noting. The legal dispute began last year following Snowden’s initial revelations about the heavy use of Internet and social-networking data by the NSA and FBI.

The Obama Administration also announced Thursday that Admiral Michael S. Rogers, a cryptologist, has been tapped as the new director of the NSA, replacing General Keith Alexander. Rogers will also command the new Pentagon unit directing the country’s offensive cyberoperations.

From here, it all sounds ‘offensive’.

A Ray of Light for Sick Sailors

Several members of Congress have requested an inquiry by the Department of Defense into the ongoing medical problems plaguing U.S. Navy sailors who were exposed to high doses of radiation near Fukushima Daiichi. The Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Hal Rogers of Kentucky, submitted the order in the 2014 fiscal bill on January 15.

U.S. Navy first responders who were exposed to Fukushima fallout may soon get some relief, but not all health effects from radiation can be reversed. Photo: Nicholas A. Groesch/U.S. Navy.

Crew members onboard the USS Ronald Reagan rushed to the east coast of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, on a humanitarian mission to supply aid to the ravaged area. (Read Planet Waves coverage here.) The first responders were not warned of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, which released a radioactive plume heading straight for them.

Lawmakers from the House have asked Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson to gather data on the medical issues that resulted from this radiation exposure, such as leukemia, thyroid problems, gynecological problems, polyps and tumors. The bill directs the Secretary to “take all necessary steps to ensure that any health effects resulting from this humanitarian mission are fully addressed.” If the bill is passed into law, Dr. Woodson’s report will be due back in Congress by April 15.

The afflicted sailors have joined together in a lawsuit against TEPCO, the power plant’s operating company, seeking compensation for punitive damages. Paul Garner, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told Stars and Stripes that the request by Congress is a positive step in the ongoing battle; “It feels like maybe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. But we shall see.”

Farm Bill Passes House, Aggravates Many

After two years of bickering, the least productive Congress in United States history passed a farm bill this Wednesday. Some of what’s in it has been praised by specific constituencies — Christmas tree growers are pleased with a provision that will allow them to collect a fee of 15 cents per tree for promotion of their industry — but the list of the dissatisfied is far longer.

A cartoon by the Food and Water Watch website.

The first farm bill was passed in 1933, to support struggling farmers and stabilize crop prices during the Depression. The bill governs all spending by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), including farm-related policies and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.

Republicans wanted SNAP funding cut by $40 billion; this version cuts $8.5 billion, meaning about 850,000 households will see benefits cut by $90 per month. The USDA’s Economic Research Service predicts that food prices will continue to rise by about 2.5% to 3.5% over 2014.

Corporate welfare fared better. “The farm bill would plow most of the savings from ending widely discredited ‘direct’ payments — subsidies paid regardless of whether a landowner grows a crop — into other subsidy programs,” said Sara Sciammacco, communications director for the watchdog Environmental Working Group. “It is a bait-and-switch. The new subsidies will further tilt the playing field in favor of the largest farmers, increase the cost of farm subsidies to taxpayers, and create new incentives for farmers to plow up even more wetlands and prairies.”

Republican senator Mitch McConnell, facing election-year challenges in both primary and general elections, advocated an amendment that will establish test plots for cultivating industrial hemp.

The bill is more than 900 pages long and is expected to pass the Senate shortly, after which it lands on Obama’s desk.

State of the Union: God Help Us, All Agree

President Obama stuck to his familiar rhetorical style for Tuesday’s State of the Union address, using anecdotes to illustrate his points and highlighting the ways in which he believes he is succeeding. Acknowledging the partisan struggles that have kept Washington mired in gridlock, he said he would use the power of executive order to bypass legislators if necessary, and used the word “together” twelve times.

One thing everyone agrees on: Thank God it’s over.

Progressives were displeased with his praising fossil fuels and urging “bipartisan trade promotion authority,” which is interpreted as “fast track the (very controversial) Trans Pacific Partnership.” Assertions of the reality of global warming, support for the peace process with Iran, and a reminder that he still wants Guantanamo Bay closed may have helped somewhat.

Then came the response…and the response…and the response. The opposing party preparing a scripted rebuttal to the SOTU became a tradition in American politics in 1982, when Democrats felt it would serve them to reply to Ronald Reagan’s rhetoric. But there’s never been a year quite like this.

The official GOP response came from Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), who used the example of her own ascension from apple picking to Congress to illustrate the America the GOP wants to create, which sounds like the one Obama spoke of, although the word “together” was not used. Both speeches ended by asking the Almighty’s blessing.

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) responded on behalf of the Tea Party faction, blaming “government-driven inequality” for failing schools, abortion rights, gay marriage rights and environmental regulation. He used the word “together” four times, and also ended by invoking the Deity.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) took to YouTube to deliver his very own response. He invoked “the democracy of the marketplace.” He too asked that God bless America.

All of the speeches claimed the solution to income inequality, which two-thirds of Americans identified as a problem. Lee’s reference to corporate welfare probably played about as well with the corporate Tea Party backers as Obama’s adherence to his ‘all of the above’ energy policy did with environmentalists.

Takeaway, perhaps: The state of the union? Fractured in several places, especially within the Republican ranks. But hey, you knew that before Tuesday.

Keystone XL Only Part of Pipeline Problem

Crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands began flowing this month from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast through the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline, while debate continues to rage over whether Obama should approve the northern leg, the Keystone XL. Advocates for fossil fuels say that the repeated spills and derailments of trains carrying crude (see last week’s Planet Waves story on “bomb trains”) are a good reason to allow the XL, which would have double the carrying capacity.

Protestors outside the White House make their voices heard: pipelines carrying tar sands oil are bad news for the environment. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters.

What they don’t want to talk about, besides the fact that many environmental advocates believe tar sands extraction to be a bad idea in the first place, is the record of environmentally devastating leaks in oil pipelines. Just this month, an Enbridge Energy pipeline called Line 67 spilled about 125 barrels in Saskatchewan, Canada. Enbridge is working to double Line 67’s capacity, increasing the chances of a repeat of 2010’s major spill that spewed about a million gallons into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

Since then, 251 spills of various sizes have been recorded — including one in North Dakota last September that leaked 20,000 barrels. A study by the Wall Street Journal found that the industry’s leak detection alarms and software only catch about one in five leaks; the rest are discovered by employees and neighbors, often after they’ve been leaking for a while.

Every Sperm Is Sacred — But Is It Legal?

Two stories about legal proceedings involving sperm donors have been making headlines recently. In one, a man who agreed to provide semen to a lesbian couple so they could conceive is being sued by the state of Kansas — not the women involved — for owed child support; in the other, a family who used a fertility clinic more than 20 years ago in Utah has learned that a clinic employee switched his semen with the specimen provided by the father, and he might have done it to others.

“Artificial Insemination,” tongue-in-cheek C-print featuring tadpoles, dinner plate and black T-shirt, 1998. Photo by Nina Katchadourian.

William Marotta, 47, of Topeka, Kansas, answered a Craigslist ad in 2009 placed by two women who had “gotten the cold shoulder from a physician.” He provided his sperm so they could perform the insemination themselves. The three signed a contract that he would not in any way act as the father of any resulting child.

The State of Kansas is now seeking to recoup $4,000 in state assistance it has given to the biological mother, plus child support. A judge ruled in favor of the state late last week; Marotta and his lawyer plan to appeal as soon as possible.

According to a provision of the Kansas Parentage Act, “The donor of semen provided to a licensed physician for use in artificial insemination of a woman other than the donor’s wife is treated in the law as if he were not the birth father of a child thereby conceived, unless agreed to in writing by the donor and the woman.”

The Kansas Department for Children and Families, in a prepared statement to ABCNews.com, maintains that the provision as worded makes it clear that “individuals [donating sperm] must go through a licensed physician in order to avoid the financial responsibilities associated with parenthood.”

Marotta’s lawyer, Ben Swinnen, has argued that the intention of the law when it was written in 1973 was to protect heterosexual couples using sperm donation from later interference from the biological father. Swinnen also maintains the lawsuit is “politically motivated” in a state with a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage. Gee, you think?

Meanwhile, in Salt Lake City, Utah, an investigation has been launched by the University of Utah into whether or not a man named Thomas Lippert, who was employed by both the now-defunct Reproductive Medical Technologies, Inc. (RMTI) and the former University of Utah Community Laboratory (also closed) may have substituted his semen for the semen of scores of other donors — without any knowledge of the women seeking to get pregnant.

Photo given by Thomas Lippert to his mother of an unidentified child he claimed to have fathered via regular sperm donation.

The issue came to light when a mother and the daughter she had conceived using artificial insemination, presumably with her husband’s sperm, decided to do DNA testing through 23andME just for fun. Through a series of surprising discoveries detailed by genetic genealogist and television consultant Ce Ce Moore, the family found that the daughter’s DNA did not match her father’s, and kept investigating.

The trail led to Thomas Lippert: a former law professor who once kidnapped a college student and held her captive in a dark room, applying electroshock treatments to her in a bizarre experiment to make her fall in love with him. Lippert served a grand total of two years out of a six-year sentence, and inexplicably landed a job in a fertility clinic despite his criminal record. He has since passed away, as has the founder of RMTI, complicating the investigation.

The family — Pam, John and Annie Branum — have gone public with their story so that other families who used the clinics in question during the late 1980s and early 1990s can find out whether they received the right semen, setting up an informational blog.

The University of Utah has also set up a website detailing the steps they are taking to investigate, complete with their official statement, FAQ and telephone hotline.

Citizens Halt Monsanto Maize Treatment Plant — For Now

Monsanto has lost round one to residents of Malvinas Argentinas, the Argentine town where the company has started the construction site for the world’s biggest maize seed treatment plant.

A protest sign posted outside Monsanto’s seed production plant in Argentina reads, “Stop looting and contaminating! Monsanto out of Cordoba and Argentina” Photo: Natacha Pisarenko/AP.

Malvinas Assembly Fighting for Life and other organizations in the town began to protest outside the site on Sept. 18, and brought a lawsuit to halt construction. A provincial labor court ruling on Jan. 8 upheld the activists’ cause.

The court ruled that the municipal ordinance authorizing construction of the plant was unconstitutional. It ordered a halt to construction work and banned the Malvinas Argentinas government from authorizing the construction until Monsanto carries out an environmental impact assessment and a public hearing is held. The company stated that it had already conducted an environmental assessment, which is currently under review by the provincial Secretary of the Environment.

Monsanto is planning an appeal to have the decision overturned by the provincial High Court. The Jan. 8 ruling cannot prevent the installation of the plant, which is scheduled to become operational this year, but if the environmental impact assessment is unfavorable to the company, Monsanto will not be able to build the plant in Malvinas Argentinas, said Federico Macciocchi, the lawyer representing the residents.

The company is planning to build more than 200 maize silos and to use agrochemical products to treat the seeds. Scientific studies have shown negative effects on health from both seed transportation and handling of and exposure to different agrochemical products, and this casts reasonable doubt on the safety of the plant, said Victor Mazzalay, a social researcher funded by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council at the University of Cordoba, and a resident of Malvinas Argentinas.

“When there is a health risk related to environmental issues, reasonable doubt should bring the precautionary principle into play; that is, an activity should not be developed until it has definitely been proved to be harmless,” he said.

Venus Direct, Aquarius New Moon and Trippy Electronica

In the first edition of Planet Waves FM after completing your 2014 readings, Eric’s theme is “the weather” versus “the climate” in astrology. He looks at the Aquarius New Moon and Venus direct, as well as the series of Mars-Eris oppositions — and how they fit into the Uranus-Pluto square. For additional resources please see the full post.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 31, 2014, #985 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Count on a friend or partner who is ready to step up to the challenge. You can be sure that a recent close call in this person’s life reminded them what really matters; it was truly a lesson learned. Meanwhile, this situation or one related to it taught you that you must refine your political skills. This is not just a matter of being able to play the game, though that counts for a lot — or rather, doing so without losing your soul. It’s also important to say thank you and please, to leave no email unanswered, let people know where you stand on commitments to them, and be honest about your values. It’s important to treat allies like allies. Put on hold — for good — any impulse to be aloof, a bitch or needlessly cocky. Success is a human skill, always fostered by the good graces of your fellow humans.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — This may be one of the great moments in many years for knowing and understanding who you are. This has not been an easy aspect of life for you, though suddenly you are making actual progress — and you feel it. You may have discovered that where self-knowledge is concerned, the answers you get are only as helpful as the questions you ask are meaningful. To ask meaningful questions requires some knowledge. At the very least, you’ve come this far. In this, you seem to have discovered the secret to having faith in yourself. That’s the one about how much better it is to make a significant discovery by yourself, on your own terms. That will come in handy when someone you care about embarks on their own inner journey. Those close to you have learned something from your inner quest, and you have a feel for the appropriate space to hold when someone else is there.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You are getting some clues about a career move, which is more like a re-envisioning of your life. This is not the kind of thing you do all at once, though there are indeed flashes of brilliance and illumination that can happen. Be aware that you don’t need to be in a place of love and light for that to be true, though you will feel better if you are. Either way, this is a moment when you can actually feel that your potential is real. Work with that. Get your idea into some tangible form, not just merely an inner picture or notion. Sketch it, put it on paper, write it down, come back to it the next day, revise, invent, reinvent. Keep all your notes. Keep going. Try one version where you describe what you would do in a perfect world with any opportunity. If you notice yourself declaring anything impossible, don’t believe it.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Were I writing this horoscope in 1930, I would look at your solar chart and say, “Expect a letter from overseas.” But it’s 2014 and you’ve probably already had 20 pieces of spam from Kazakhstan today. However, you can still expect a meaningful communication from a friend in another country — and before that happens, use your astrology consciously and reach out across the water. For those whose work involves any form of writing and publishing, this is a glorious moment. Notice your own thoughts going by. You seem aligned to receive the idea of a lifetime. Remember that the best ideas are not merely concepts; they are like archetypes that you develop a relationship to over time. Some of the most beautiful encounters begin in a subtle way, and develop in an individual way. Therefore, set aside your prejudices and look at the world through your wide-angle lens.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The recent New Moon in your relationship house opens up the potential for a previously closed or strained connection to be re-opened. Check whether people close to you are suddenly more in the mood to negotiate and exchange — though never underestimate the value of your own willingness to have a real conversation. Use that resolve wisely; many others do not possess it in the abundance that you do. Start the conversation. When in doubt, listen for a while. Let the ideas that people express turn over in your mind until you have a grasp of where they’re coming from. That is likely to feel like a breakthrough. The more taboo the subject, the better. This is the time to say what was impossible before. Yes, this involves a risk and yes, these exchanges will change you and shape you and also your relationship. That’s the whole idea; that is what it means to relate in an open way.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You currently have some of the most interesting sex transits I’ve seen in a while. Here’s how it looks to me: The hot-spot is self-focus — that of you or whomever you’re interested in. Many experience this but few will say much about it. Part of our culture’s obsession with relationship is a way of making narcissism acceptable and cool. It’s culturally acceptable to express it through another person. In reality we are all in relationship to one another’s self-love (or less savory feelings directed toward oneself). How the partners feel about themselves, rather than about one another, sets the tone of the relationship more than anything, in my view. And this is what you are free to explore, in an unusually delightful way. This would go from the dark to the light, not just the feelings you say are ‘good’. Another way to read this chart is as the bold message to indulge in guilty pleasures. And I’m not talking about Fettuccine Alfredo.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You’re not a child anymore — be glad of that. You are also larger than the maze of feelings that have dominated you for so long. It would be worth asking why you had to make the mistakes so often, so that you don’t have to make them again. Yet there really was only one error in judgment, which was doubting your right to exist as the person you are — not who anyone else would have you be. There is always another opportunity to make that mistake — or to choose differently. The new form it could take is reluctance to do what is right for you; or as reluctance to act on your feelings. You might assign that to an emotional obligation, however if you feel any sense of obligation or guilt, you are probably dealing with a hangover from someone who was determined to teach you that you were not really free. Any such teaching would be false, because such a thing cannot be determined by anyone but you.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — A loved one or close partner may influence you to change your mind about something you have believed — or misbelieved — for a long time. Don’t worry if it feels strange that you’re being influenced by someone else; if there is trust, that is the bottom line. Coming around on an issue or giving up an old position is a necessary skill. The world has a lot of this that it needs to do, in order to get out of its current circumstances, which specifically come down to being stuck in the past. Yet there is a deeper lesson about you needing, and wanting, to be more mentally flexible, and more open to new ideas. Nothing has validity merely on the basis of “that’s how it was done before.” Value must re-affirm itself in every moment. It’s often said that there is nothing like an idea whose time has come — I would add there’s nothing like an idea whose time is done.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You are reaching the point where, if you don’t make a conscious move, you know something is going to come ‘out of nowhere’ and make the move for you. This is a way of life for some — wait long enough, something happens, a decision is made for them. In their minds, they are ‘saved’ from the responsibility of having to choose. That however subverts the single most important power we possess — the power of decision. I suggest you remove the elements of chance and self-coercion from your decision-making process. Stay as far as you can from that zone where you feel like you will be forced to choose. You don’t need to experience life on this level. The pleasure of the moment is about acting in a way that is wholly voluntary and in full accord with what you know, what you want and how you feel.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Venus is about to return to direct motion in your sign after a six-week retrograde. Whatever has happened to you in these weeks, I suggest you make a conscious choice to remember what you learned, and put it to work on a daily basis. Remember what you discovered about yourself, and don’t forget that it’s really about you, here and now, not some alternate version of yourself somewhere else. You may be wondering why it was necessary to put up so much resistance to something so obvious. You don’t owe anything your emotional loyalty, and the sensation of owing is what would render any affection worthless anyway. That you still may struggle with guilt is the product of what was done to you — not what you did to others. You can heal almost any relationship with your sincerity. What you may appreciate is that’s exactly how you heal yourself.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — This is the year when you’re going to figure out money. Yes, money. The great mystery. The endless source of worry. The eternally useful. The font of evil. The ever-elusive. You may be discovering that you have to be more realistic about this topic. You like to take a spiritual approach — which you always will — but I would propose that it’s more about practicality than it is about purity or idealism. In your particular case, there is a deep element of healing, which bears a strong resemblance to acting on what you know to be true. Any overly-idealistic notions you have about money are likely to obscure this fact. Any purity-based approach is likely to obscure this fact, such as the desire not to seem materialistic or to have ‘clean hands’. Practical starts with honoring your values. If you don’t like gambling, you don’t go to the track. If you feel any activity for which you are paid is out of accord with your values, choose what is in accord. There is little or no gray area here.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Continue to take an organizational approach to your life and your work. Whatever you’re doing, you’re not in it alone. You are accompanied by those who have similar values as you do, and those who have similar respect for existence. You know that you’re alive in a moment of profound change, and you’re very likely to be feeling a calling to contribute. That is the theme on which to relate to others around you. Refuse to honor apathy or incompetence as values. Take the lead on focusing the mission of your community. Do this through constant communication with others, and with the determination to gently build consensus. You’re likely to feel like there is some missing element, lack of contact or a blind spot that you have to deal with; don’t take that so seriously. You’re on precisely the right path to get to the destination you want. Developments over the next week or so may not prove that point, though within a month or so I think you’ll be absolutely confident. Till then, have faith.

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An Expert’s Guide to Mercury Retrograde

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Three or four times a year, everyone who knows something about astrology goes through a ritual called Mercury retrograde. Everyone who doesn’t know about astrology gets to have the experience, not sure what it is though perhaps suspecting that something weird is going on.

The Path of My Soul. Illustration by Nina Gabriel.

We are now approaching the first of four Mercury retrogrades spanning between early February 2014 and early February 2015. The upcoming retrograde begins Feb. 6 with Mercury in Pisces and ends on Feb. 28 with Mercury in Aquarius. What I call the echo phase and what other astrologers call the shadow phase began Jan. 22. The after-retrograde echo phase begins when Mercury stations direct and runs through March 20.

Typically the retrograde itself lasts three weeks, but the whole process — wherein Mercury is dancing around approximately the same 15 degrees of the zodiac, lasts for two months. Hence, while Mercury is retrograde just 19% of the time, the retrograde effect can be felt about half the time. It’s the most concentrated around the days when Mercury changes direction. These are called the stationary points, or stations retrograde and direct.

Associated with lost keys, late or lost payments, disk drive failures and communication mishaps, Mercury retrograde does not have a very good reputation. Yet some people love it — if you’re the creative type, or if you have a slightly tweaky mind, if you like the feeling of swimming against the current, you might be one of the people who looks forward to Mercury retrograde happening. If you’re very sensitive to it for whatever reason, you might take a more cautious approach. Other people seem impervious to it, like it’s not even happening or has no effects. By now you probably know where you stand with this.

Every Mercury retrograde has its own unique pattern, and little clusters of three retrograde events tend to have similar themes as well. Each will influence your personal chart in a distinctive way. In 2014, all of the retrogrades start early in water signs, then track back into air signs. That describes scenarios of having some kind of emotional or aesthetic response (the water sign) that is then understood or analyzed (the air sign).

Mind, Body and Soul. Illustration by Nina Gabriel.

Thanks to the Internet, more people than ever know about Mercury retrograde. The idea is now lodged in popular consciousness as what’s likely the most familiar technical astrological concept. I just searched Google and got 405,000 results for Mercury retrograde (with the term in quotation marks).

Personally, I didn’t hear about it online. In my first journalism job, I worked for The Echoes-Sentinel, a gritty weekly newspaper in New Jersey. Flo Higgins, my first editor as a professional writer, happened to be an astrologer. She was about 65 years old, with long white hair and a fiery point of view, who had probably read the chart of everyone for 100 miles around.

The paper was part of a newspaper chain, the Recorder Publishing Co. Nobody believed in astrology, but we knew better when it came to Mercury retrograde.

Flo could, and regularly did, terrify the entire company with this one, sending the vibrations throughout the central New Jersey countryside, even getting the stunned attention of nerdy newspaper reporters trained not to believe anything. Nothing ever got into print, of course. The newspapers were too serious for astrology.

Mercury retrograde meant everything was about to go wrong. Flo was so convincing that even Jim, who ran the production facility and could take apart and reassemble a printing press blindfolded, had a paragraph taped to his office door, copied from Debbi Kempton-Smith’s infamous Secret’s From a Stargazer’s Notebook, warning everyone who visited:

Don’t Sign, Don’t Buy: Mercury is Retrograde.
This was my introduction to astrology. That was the first paragraph of an astrology book I ever read. Soon, newcomers to Echoland took it for granted that the Full Moon had something to do with how the mayor was acting, and when the production facility smelled like electrical smoke, it was clearly because Mercury was retrograde.

“Don’t sign, don’t buy” is the usual advice for the retrograde of Mercury. I’ll explain in a moment why that makes sense. It’s also associated with things getting lost, electronic devices going wonky, and being dissatisfied with what you purchase. Communication often comes under strain when Mercury is retrograde. For someone with a scientific or logical mind, the question is: what do all these things have in common?

Birds of Paradise. Illustration by Nina Gabriel.

Yet there are more humanistic approaches to the topic. “While delays and misunderstandings do seem to happen, I’ve noticed a magical trend — that people and ideas return, for integration, resolution and more,” writes Molly Hall on About.com.

People returning to our lives out of the mists of time is one potential effect of any inner planet retrograde, one of their more mysterious qualities.

But what is this event really about? And how might it work?

Let’s start with Mercury, the planet. This fleeting little world, the one closest to the Sun, is associated with the mind, with ideas and with communication. Mercury is the messenger of the gods, and also the trickster. It’s associated with, as in it’s the traditional ruler of, Gemini and Virgo, two mutable signs (mentally oriented, flexible, a bit nervous). Both of those signs have signs opposite them that are ruled by Jupiter (Sagittarius and Pisces).

In modern astrology, Mercury picks up many of its ancient associations — for example, the messenger function translates to mail and telegraph. It’s associated with communication of all kinds, communication devices, computing devices, commerce and the flow of money (rather than acquiring wealth — that seems to be more about Mars). Surrounded as we are by all of these devices, and nonstop messaging, and by financial instruments (such as debit cards) that are morphed with communication devices (such as the World Wide Web), we have given Mercury a lot of power in our lives.

Hence, Mercury retrograde is probably more powerful in our lives than it ever was. We swim in an ocean of things ruled by Mercury. Our consciousness is fully immersed in them; in many ways so is our identity. With the advent of handheld devices that go on the Internet, this seems to transcend economic barriers now more than ever.

In English the word mercurial means “sprightly, volatile, quick,” associated with the speed with which the planet Mercury moves, and how fast and how frequently it seems to change directions (that is the retrograde). It can have a sharp wit and seem smarter than you — Bob Dylan has been described as mercurial and he’s also a Gemini, one sign that Mercury rules.

Fire & Water. Illustration by Nina Gabriel.

Mercury is the Roman incarnation of the Greek god Hermes, and these figures show up throughout Western mythology.

In Norse mythology, he gets the role as presiding officer of the gods rather than as messenger — though of course that supposed role as messenger is a disguise for a much more significant function.

In Egyptian mythology he is the mighty Thoth, who was nobody’s messenger, or fool; he was responsible for the development of writing and science, maintaining the state of the universe and assisting with the judgment of the dead. Picking up on the ambivalence theme, Thoth was a mediator between good and evil, making sure that neither had a decisive victory in an ongoing struggle that continues to this day.

There’s also an association to the element mercury, or quicksilver, the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature. Mercury’s androgynous and liquid quality hints at a certain ambivalence. The old astrology books describe the planet’s nature as neither male nor female. Between metrosexuality and the LGBTQ movement, we have some clues that gender roles and relationships are coming under the increasing influence of Mercury.

It’s interesting that mercury the metal is a persistent environmental contaminant, and one that is known to interact with and disrupt the normal action of sex hormones. The element mercury is known to artificially induce androgyny.

Iron, Not Quicksilver: From Astronomy to Psychology

Mercury retrograde happens when the planet Mercury passes between the Earth and the Sun. Because Mercury’s orbit is about 84 days, this happens three times a year. While the retrogrades typically last about 22 days, there is a margin on either side of two to three weeks where the influences can be felt.

Mercury is not made of mercury. It has a huge core with a very high density, leading astronomers to believe that it’s made mostly of iron. In fact Mercury is believed to have the highest iron content of any planet in the Solar System.

Over the Rainbow. Illustration by Nina Gabriel.

This is all another way of saying Mercury retrograde means a huge magnet passes between the Earth and the Sun, making its closest pass to our planet at the same time. This may explain why devices act weird, but I think that it also helps explain why the mind gets wonky, such as the tendency to lose things, or to perceive problems as being worse than they are — the nervous system runs on electricity. The mind is a device that is, at least on the physical plane, rooted in electricity and magnetism.

In my view, the effects of the retrograde are evenly distributed between a perceptual event and one in the world outside the mind. The combined interaction is powerful, the more so for not being easily discernible as a reality or as an effect of the mind. A purely mental phenomenon seems to be associated with a Mercury retrograde effect, so notice how your mind is handling problems or puzzles when they arrive. I have observed that the approach to a problem really does suggest whether and how that problem will be solved.

With the space remaining I will pass along, in summary form, some of what I have learned about Mercury retrograde. I don’t mean what I have learned from books — I mean what I have observed tracking, experimenting with and doing consulting about every Mercury retrograde since 1994, and some going back to 1987.

I agree with “don’t sign, don’t buy.” That is, when you can avoid doing so. I have experimented with making purchases during or near Mercury retrogrades. Most of the time it turns out I don’t need or don’t use what I purchased. Sometimes it does not work, works strangely or does not do what I intended it to do. So I divide my life into times when I buy things and times when I
don’t.

I will usually (as in 99% of the time) make major purchases only with Mercury direct and out of echo phase. There are rare exceptions, but not so many. If you buy something during a retrograde, try not to be too attached to it, or expect a break-in period, while you work out the bugs. Sometimes things work out just fine. Really, most things can wait a week or two or three. If they cannot wait, be extra conscious of all the factors involved in the sale, don’t rush the process, keep your paperwork and make sure there is a good return policy. Choose carefully and get a good one, whatever it is.

The Way of Mother Nature. Illustration by Nina Gabriel.

As for contracts, it’s not always possible to determine when you sign your lease or make the deposit, but I have been known to make landlords wait for weeks before even leaving a deposit. (Hi Stefan!)

Plan ahead and use what flexibility you have. It’s worth finagling this to your advantage when you can. The operative events are the first payment and the signature on the contract.

The problem if you sign with Mercury retrograde, or about to retrograde, is that something is likely to reverse itself — an elementary illustration of what it could mean that Mercury changes directions. Or, you will learn something you wish you had known sooner. Which leads to my second point.

There are legitimate questions of what to do when you have a house closing scheduled for during Mercury retrograde, if you have to start a new job, or you get the bug to have that new car. I plan to write more about this; there are some basic approaches that can be applied, one of which is to understand exactly what is in the contract or commitment and not make any promise that you cannot keep.

If the situation involves significant amounts of money, a real commitment or the potential for a real inconvenience, it might be a good idea to talk to an astrologer who truly knows what they are doing with Mercury retrograde. [I can usually handle this kind of consultation in-and-out much of the year.]

The truth comes out when Mercury stations, either retrograde or direct. Mercury has a way of shaking out information, especially right as it stations. You can count on this. If you’re working on a mystery, or a riddle, or an investigation, or research, or trying to solve any mental puzzle, keep it going till the next Mercury station retrograde. Just to be sure, wait for the second batch of information just as Mercury stations direct. This is one reason you want to wait before signing or buying.

If an item of communication is missed, don’t assume you’re being ignored. Many people shoot off one email and expect a reply. With spam filters, busy people processing hundreds of emails a day and odd errors like emails not arriving, it’s better to give people the benefit of the doubt. Give people a day or two to respond, and if they don’t, send over a friendly one-liner to the effect of, “Hey I emailed you, just want to make sure you saw it.”

The Music of My Soul. Illustration by Nina Gabriel.

If communication gets dicey, pick up the phone. We are getting better at communicating online, but still, it can be difficult to relay feelings or basic concepts, especially with Mercury retrograde. The moment things get weird, such as if there is a misunderstanding, pick up the phone and clarify — before things get out of control or real misunderstandings happen. It’s better not to conduct arguments by email. It has all the sensitivity of sniper fire. Err on the side of being human.

Resolve the past, plan the future. I have found that the best use for Mercury retrograde is to tidy up what you’ve left unresolved in the past. Clean your desk, organize your stuff, contact old friends, go through your email and see if you missed anything important. While you’re at it, collect your ideas and figure out what you’re going to do next. Plot and scheme. Use the various qualities of the retrograde to refine your plan over time, then plan a launch sometime after the station direct.

If it may not be broke — don’t fix it so fast. One phenomenon I’ve noticed during Mercury retrograde is that things seem broken or like they are malfunctioning but are not really. Or, the problem is one thing but you think it’s another. Or, the problem is not as bad as you think. Therefore, before tearing everything apart, or spending a lot of money, or sending anything back to the factory, troubleshoot carefully and try simple solutions. Break out pure logic and apply that as a tool. Look for temporary workarounds and see if the issue resolves on its own. I’m suggesting you avoid solving a problem that doesn’t exist, or worse, making a bigger problem than you thought you had.

Always remember that Mercury is the trickster.

That means he, she or it can be tricky, and you need to use your mind — not have your mind be tricked. Mercury is a kind of a game. Be a good sportsman and keep your sense of humor.

Lovingly,

About the Artist: Nina Gabriel is an artist, poet and writer working from her home-based studio in Los Angeles, CA. She says: “To produce art is the most satisfying experience for me and the results of my work I would like to share with as many people as possible thus spreading my spirit far and wide. It is my sincere wish that my art and poetry bring peace, happiness and joy to anyone that appreciates it. I also hope that it will bring forth many positive feelings such as love, faith, confidence and truly all the good that life has to offer.” Visit her blog here.

Section Writing and Editing Credits: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Susan Starr, Chad Woodward and Carol van Strum. 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.

Inner Planet Retrogrades, One After the Next

We’re approaching the end of Venus retrograde in Capricorn, which happens in one week, on Jan. 31. Venus stationed retrograde just shortly after the southern solstice on Dec. 21, beginning the first Venus retrograde exclusively in Capricorn since the winter of 1802-1803.

Mercury looks over his home planet. Image from Crystalinks.

Venus will move about one more degree retrograde from where it is today, coming about one degree from Pluto in Capricorn. Venus stations at 13 degrees and 33 minutes — a degree position that will remain sensitive for a while.

Thirteen-plus Capricorn and the themes of the Venus retrograde will come into focus as Pluto moves into that spot over the next few weeks, where it will be for the exact grand cross of April 23. This gives Venus an honorary seat at the table for that event, kind of like Elijah at a Passover seder.

No sooner does Venus station direct than Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces Feb. 6, which will last through Feb. 28. Then the next day, Mars stations retrograde in Libra.

This close sequence of inner planet retrogrades will call for careful planning, having contingency plans for important projects, being mindful of communication in relationships, and careful focus on financial matters.

The Sun is in Aquarius

Meanwhile, the Sun is now in Aquarius, the sign of groups. The smallest group is that of two people, which is challenging because we are a society that believes in ‘majority rules’. In a couple it’s easy to have a split vote. Therefore, some form of consensus needs to be used, which emerges as a theme of the coming week.

The potential to clarify and heal some relationship issues is coming to the fore this weekend, and a simultaneous aspect may grant either the mental stamina to make real progress, or else the pitfall of stuck thinking. The astrology involves asteroid Juno (emotional needs, jealousy, desire for justice) conjoining centaur Chiron (awareness, individuality, healing) in Pisces.

This happens at the same time Mercury in Aquarius squares Saturn in Scorpio. Both aspects are exact Saturday. So we get a potentially complex emotional situation at the same time there is a stressful aspect influencing communications.

Chart for Juno conjunct Chiron, concurrent with Mercury square Saturn. Notice that the Moon is conjunct Saturn, which could add the feeling of emotional complexity to a situation that is already seeking the level ground of trust. Remember, trust is emotional, not mental.

Juno conjoining Chiron in Pisces suggests a possible rebellion in marriage — perhaps stepping out of your past relationship patterns and the emotional patterns that ground them.

It might also manifest as a healing crisis in the realm of the vision you hold for your intimate partnerships. If so, it might be that you’re recognizing that the old ideas you were given about relationships and marriage, starting from Cinderella forward, are no longer relevant to your existence.

In any kind of interpersonal relating, it’s one thing to hold out a creative, positive vision toward which to aspire. It’s another thing to proceed as if that vision is your current reality, if doing so ignores the ways in which one is still clinging to outmoded or self-sabotaging behavior models and tactics. Those attachments to what is not working anymore need to be seen and addressed in tangible ways.

The asteroid Pallas in Virgo is in the equation; it’s currently opposite Juno-Chiron, representing a kind of standoff. Pallas speaks to the strategy angle of the equation. Pallas is political in nature, and could represent taking a legalistic or warrior approach when such is unnecessary. Don’t overthink your situation, and be careful who you deem an adversary; what you want is a dialog that includes a balance of thought and feeling, and gently working through any obstructions you may encounter.

Mercury square Saturn, which occurs on Saturday in the midst of these aspects, speaks to the theme of trust, particularly trusting oneself. If you reach a block of some kind (an impasse, a mental obstruction, a sense of being emotionally jammed, or a block to communication), pause and take up the question of trust. You can only trust someone else when you trust yourself. That is the place to start.

It’s not possible to have a relationship that is actually loving, without actual trust. I don’t know how this gets left out of the talk about the birds and the bees, but it’s never too late to figure out.

— Eric Francis, with additional writing by Amanda Painter.

No More Uncle Sugar to the Rescue

Mike Huckabee unofficially announced his presidential candidacy yesterday when he revived the reproductive rights issue in a speech before the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting.

In his speech, at the “Lunch with Mike Huckabee” event, he described women desperately seeking out their next birth control fix, wanting the government subsidies given to them by “Uncle Sugar” Democrats.

Planets from left to right are: Chiron, Juno, Nessus, Venus, Pluto, Ceres, the Moon and Pallas Athene. Not shown is Taurus rising.

Here’s what would-be Pres. Huckabee said to his fellow Republicans, in a meeting that was open to the press, revealing just how much he knows about birth control and women’s reproduction. Get ready.

“Our party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women,” Huckabee told his audience at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in downtown Washington. “That’s not a war on them. It’s a war for them. And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it.”

No, The Onion did not write that. It almost seems like they did. It’s just as funny. But I don’t think the humor was intentional — unless there is a subversive on the speech writing team. Which is starting to seem like a possibility.

Not like there is anything else important happening in the world, for example Fukushima leaking plutonium into the Pacific, inflation rivaling the Lira, the planet heating up despite a chilly winter, genetically modified corn leaping out of your cereal bowl, chemical spills, ‘bomb train’ wrecks and political corruption from the ground to the top floor? No worries about wars and famine and the oil running out? No mention of banksters and Wall Street? Why bother with those criminals when you can go after women?

Huckabee’s presentation was scheduled for 12:30 pm Thursday. A few minutes ago, I gave up chasing employees of the Renaissance Hotel (where the presentation happened) to get the time he started, and went with the stated time. It’s a very interesting chart. Here is the relevant portion.

Note that the ascendant is in Taurus, 27+ rising. Centaur Nessus, which often reveals the theme of sexual and emotional abuse, is exactly square the ascendant (which is the horizon). Nessus is directly overhead when the event starts. Making matters more interesting, the Moon, significator for all things feminine, is conjunct Ceres, the planet of mothers and daughters, and it’s exactly trine Nessus.

Video image of Huckabee’s remarks. Full video here. Sorry about the 30-second advertisement. Whatever it is, you don’t need it.

So the combination is Taurus rising, Moon, Ceres and Nessus — all aligned to within one degree. It looks like this chart was cast by an astrologer for a good fee. Said another way, it reveals the Republicans’ disdain for women and total lack of empathy for the female human condition on the planet.

He simply does not get it. I am loathe to deny consciousness, but if he does get it, who is this message supposed to reach, except for a bunch of men who also don’t get it? Or a bunch of women jealous that some other woman might want to use birth control (i.e., be sexually active)?

The presence of Nessus is evidence of intent — and a hint that this is going to come back to him, as events involving Nessus almost always do.

There is one other aspect pattern in the chart — the Juno-Chiron-Pallas pattern mentioned above in the SKY section. Pallas, which addresses politics, is inserting itself into the deeply personal Juno-Chiron conjunction — intimate matters of relationship and marriage. Also in the same pattern is Venus, which rules the chart, about to station direct close to Pluto.

Do most women get it? Almost. This chart says: not all the way. It still seems like legitimate political discourse. Over time, and not much time, that seems poised to take a step in public consciousness. One last political note: the political argument against birth control is that Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court decision that guarantees the right to contraception, is the precedent for Roe v. Wade, the decision that guarantees the right to abortion on demand.

There is a political strategy at work here.

As I Live and Breathe: Water Vapor Detected on Ceres

Scientists have observed Ceres, the largest asteroid (classified as a dwarf planet), giving off puffs of water vapor every once in a while — conveniently giving the Dawn spacecraft another item to study when it stops by Ceres next year around this time.

Ceres is almost round like Earth, suggesting it may have a rocky inner core, a thick water-ice mantle, and a thin, dusty outer crust. Image: NASA/ESA/A. Feild (STScI).

Although the amount of water vapor being released is very small, it hangs around just long enough to create a modest atmosphere around Ceres — but only part of the time. Seems perfectly fitting for the planet named after the goddess of agriculture (among other things), in whose mythology we find the creation of the seasons.

The presence of water on Ceres has been suspected since 1978, when certain observations combined with the planet’s strikingly round size suggested that an icy exterior formed after the core softened and separated into layers eons ago.

According to Sky and Telescope, the team at the European Space Agency’s Herschel observatory, led by Michael Küppers, hypothesizes two possible mechanisms explaining the watery exhalations:
“The interior of Ceres could still be warm enough to drive a little bit of water outward through deep fractures. Or maybe the surface occasionally warms enough for a little ice to sublimate and escape, carrying away loose dust and exposing fresh material.”

Dawn will have two different instruments at its disposal when it reaches Ceres, fresh from studying the asteroid Vesta. The goddesses should be pleased.

Dirty Deeds: This Week in Corruption

While the far right wrings its collective hands over marriage equality and marijuana legalization, examples abound that an aspect of morality some may consider a bit more, uh, fundamental is being routinely ignored — that pesky bit about greed and hypocrisy. Profiteers are hoping we’ll all keep paying attention to Justin Bieber’s latest misstep while they quietly line their pockets. Here, for your outrage and entertainment, are some of this week’s examples:

As the Midwestern and Northeastern parts of the United States struggle through the roughest winter in recent memory, you might think it good news that propane production is at an historic high — even though the increase is partly a byproduct of fracking for natural gas, at least people will be able to keep warm inexpensively, right?

Video still from The Daily Show gets the point across, with a nod to the movies — but you just can’t make up some of this stuff.

Nope. Home users are struggling with short supplies and record high prices, largely because oil companies can make more exporting to other countries. Gotta love that Invisible Hand of the Free Market, especially when it’s pulling the blankets off you on a frigid night.

But systemic corruption is not just an American illness, or even just a capitalist problem. The Guardian reports this week that Chinese fat cats are equally busy plundering the populace and stashing the proceeds in offshore accounts. Meanwhile, 300 million Chinese survive on less than two dollars a day.

Systems, of course, are built and used by individuals. Cases of individual corruption tend to look stupid and mean-spirited in the light of day, as witness the indictment of Virginia’s former First Couple, Bob and Maureen McDonnell. The McDonnells are accused of promoting iffy health products peddled by a good buddy who happened to give them a lot of fancy presents.

At stake for ‘regular folk’ would be a million-dollar fine and decades of lost freedom — unlikely here. Although the indictment may sink McDonnell’s chances for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, as Dana Liebelson and Tim Murphy point out in Mother Jones, “If recent history is an indication, he’ll probably get a reality show.”

To end on a slightly lighter, or at least more ridiculous, note, Toronto’s conservo-fabulous and insanely libertine (how do you even be that?) Mayor Rob Ford slipped and fell back into the headlines this week. He was caught on video ranting drunkenly about his troubles; seems it’s everyone else’s fault. His reality show got canceled after the first episode this fall. Shocked?

And that, dear friends, is how they operate.

Time Takes Its Toll at Fukushima and Beyond

Fukushima Daiichi is not the only nuclear power plant dealing with problems. In addition to a new leak discovered at Fukushima, two operating plants in the U.S. have announced issues with faulty equipment in the past week.

News of a water leak in Unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has surfaced, less than a month after the plant’s operator (TEPCO) reported steam seen rising from the same building. Unit 3 experienced a total core meltdown of used fuel containing plutonium.

Radioactive waste will last a lot longer than the nuclear plants that produce it, as depicted in this viral image.

Highly radioactive water has been seen pouring into a drain inside of the Unit 3 building on the first floor of the destroyed reactor, the utility said. The water flow was recorded by a camera installed on a remote-controlled robot that was being used to clean up rubble from the damaged reactor building on Saturday. The water is flowing toward the basement, where there is already a large accumulation of radioactive water.

A video of the water flow was released by TEPCO and posted on its website. As of Tuesday, the company released a statement stating that it thinks the water flow has reduced, and has posted an updated video.

In the U.S., two nuclear power plants are now dealing with their own problems. The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant in Wake County, North Carolina, went offline last Saturday morning when smoke was detected coming from a transformer that powered the turbine. Duke Energy Progress, the operating company, said in press reports that no flames were seen and there was no threat to public safety.

This same plant was shut down twice last year by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees nuclear power. It was shut down once in May due to signs of corrosion, and then again last month because of a crack in the containment vessel that is supposed to hold in radiation.

Monday, the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio, alongside Lake Erie, reported that radioactive material had been found in the water from a leaking steam pipe. The plant says tritium was detected in a groundwater monitoring station, and they are working on repairing the leak.

This is the second leak of radioactive steam from this plant since the first was discovered in June 2013. FirstEnergy Corporation, the plant’s operator, says that none of the contaminated water ever left the plant and, of course, there was never any risk to the public.

Equipment malfunctions will continue to be a problem for the nuclear industry as power plants deteriorate with age. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average age of nuclear reactors is 33 years. A study done by the University of Munich reports that half of the 104 nuclear plants in the U.S. have been operating for more than 30 years.

As we know that radiation dispersed by nuclear power plants has deleterious effects on all biological life forms, it may be taking its toll equally on the buildings that keep its contaminants at bay. As old and outdated nuclear power plant facilities approach their decommissioning phase, a whole new set of risks and challenges emerge, proving just how dangerous and unsustainable nuclear power truly is.

‘Bomb Trains’: Crude Oil Transportation a Deadly Roulette Game

In the wake of the most recent major derailment of a train carrying oil from the Bakken shale, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and its Canadian equivalent have issued a joint call for stronger safety standards.

A firefighter walks past a burning train on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, where most of downtown was incinerated. Philly got lucky. Photo: Mathieu Belanger/Reuters.

The latest derailment occurred at 1:00 am on Jan. 20 in Philadelphia. A 101-car CSX train was crossing the Schuylkill Arsenal Bridge when seven cars derailed, six of them loaded with crude oil. The bridge crosses both a river and a heavily trafficked expressway and runs through a densely populated area with two university campuses and a children’s hospital.

No one was injured and no oil was spilled — this time. But the same cannot be said of other recent derailments involving what crews have taken to calling “bomb trains.” A December 2013 derailment near Casselton, North Dakota, caused an explosion and intense fires. A 20-car derailment in early November sent flames shooting 300 feet into the sky over rural western Alabama. And what happens when derailed cars explode in populated areas was made horribly clear last July, when a derailment in Lac Megantic, Quebec, killed 47 people and destroyed 30 buildings.

Even without immediate fatalities, spills are environmentally devastating. Bakken crude is loaded with volatile toxic chemicals, and the railroad industry plans to start handling it like toxic waste. Meanwhile, early data indicates there were 400,000 rail cars full of the stuff rolling in 2013 and 137 “releases,” compared to just one in 2009.

The railway industry estimates that retrofitting the problematic DOT-111 freight cars often used for crude will take about 10 years. New safety requirements are expected to be published sometime next year.

Improved GMO Detection Test Released; Anti-GMO Law Challenged

By combining two existing tests for GMO identification, a Chinese research team has developed a comprehensive test that they claim is 97% accurate for “known commercialized modification” of crops developed up to 2012. They claim this test is twice as accurate as any other, and that it is expandable to include future genetic modification.

Kauai resident Monica Arnett protests controversial GMO bill in front of County Building. Photo: Leo Azambuja.

Welcome news to farmers owning conventional fields, who face the constant menace of crop contamination from windborne GMO seeds landing them in legal and economic difficulty, through no fault of their own and without much recourse.

“Despite strict regulations, unauthorized GMOs have been occasionally released into the market. There is thus an urgent need for high-capacity monitoring of GMOs,” wrote the research team, led by Li-Tao Yang from Jiao Tong University, China.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, the residents of Kauai might be wishing for this method of “high-capacity monitoring” to prove their points in court. Dupont, Syngenta and Agrigentics Inc. have filed a federal lawsuit, claiming that the island of Kauai’s anti-GMO law is unconstitutional. The three companies collectively lease 11,500 acres on Kauai for test farms and research facilities. They grow a mix of biotech seed crops, including corn, soybeans, canola and rice.

The anti-GMO law requires large agricultural companies to disclose pesticide use, report genetically engineered crops, and create buffer zones between pesticide-sprayed fields and public areas like schools, hospitals and homes. Planet Waves last reported on the bill on Oct. 11, 2013; it was subsequently passed in November and is set to take effect in August.

Councilman Gary Hooser, who co-introduced the bill, said the lawsuit is an attempt to bully the residents of Kauai and maintain secrecy around what pesticides they are using.

“These companies do not want our county to set a precedent that other communities are going to follow,” he said.

Video still from “Limitless,” showing the mural “Open season” by Fintan Magee in Brisbane, Australia.

Limitless

What do Mercury in Aquarius and graffiti art have in common? For one thing, both have to do with the eruption of some new, sudden expression of individuality in the midst of what has become solid, concrete and seemingly unchanging; yet those unexpected outbursts of thought and communication themselves crystallize into permanence as the paint dries. At least, until the next street artist comes along with a new idea and some fresh spray cans.

In “Limitless,” a time-lapse video shot and cut by Selina Miles and produced as part of a film series by spraypaint-maker Ironlak, four graffiti artists (going by the handles Sofles, Fintan Magee, Treas and Quench) are let loose in a massive, abandoned warehouse with astonishing amounts of paint.

Mercury may slow down as it nears its retrograde and direct stations, but the rest of the time it’s moving in fast-forward — just like this video, brought to you by the oh-so-Aquarian Internet.

The Mars Effect: Audio Previews and Featured Articles

This week’s broadcast of Planet Waves FM features an audio overview of the entire the Mars Effect project, in addition to previews of individual signs. Please give it a listen — especially if you have never purchased one of my annuals; the richness indicated in the previews is only the tip of the iceberg compared to the full readings. By the way, the featured articles in The Mars Effect, which have been written by about a dozen colleagues of mine on various themes related to the upcoming Mars retrograde in Libra, are free to anyone to read. Please check them out and let us know what you think.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for February are published below in this issue. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for January on Friday, Jan. 3. The Moonshine horoscopes for the Capricorn New Moon were published Tuesday, Dec. 31. We published Moonshine horoscopes for the Cancer Full Moon Tuesday, Jan. 14. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday.

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes for February 2014, #984 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Give partners and loved ones extra time and wiggle room to hesitate. Give them extra space to be self-centered. While you’re at it, give yourself that space as well; once you figure out you need these things, you’ll be more understanding of why others do as well. Over the next few weeks, you will gain a better understanding of where both you and partners are coming from. Remember that a partner or loved one’s lack of confidence may be associated with a memory that long predates your association. People will often allow their own past impressions to influence or even dictate what happens in a present-time situation. Ideally we would not do this, however, it’s more likely that the first step is learning to notice when it’s happening. This is the theme of the year for you — to know and understand the nature of projection, perhaps the most common psychological phenomenon. Projection is when you see something about yourself existing exclusively outside of yourself. As a clever writer recently pointed out, projection can only happen in the dark. So the first step is to gradually turn up the lights so you can see what is happening. The second step is to keep asking yourself what belongs to you and what belongs to someone else, and not to be satisfied with an answer till you have several points of documentation.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Venus will soon complete a rare retrograde (nothing of its kind has happened since 1803), which has taught you many things about the social conditioning that helped shape your character. One theme is the extent to which people who influenced you as a child were serving their own interests but tried to make it seem like they were doing you a favor. While this helped make you into the gritty and self-reliant person that you are, it’s taken a cost — and you seem determined to reclaim what you’ve given up. When the retrograde ends on Jan. 31, you may be left with the feeling that you’ve come close to some profound truth but could not break through to the core idea. The barrier between how far you’ve gone and what you actually want to possess is thin enough to push your hand through. It may not look that way, but it will feel that way if you use your tactile senses. In practical terms, when you encounter a belief about yourself or about the world, notice how you feel. Anything involving guilt can be considered suspect. Same for obligation you feel that does not have something productive in it for everyone, or where you come out on the short end of the deal. Question any form of any equation that includes, “You should dislike yourself because…”

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Current aspects may have you rethinking a career or business plan. That’s actually a great idea. You seem to have a good idea, though what you need to do is balance your idealistic concept of what is possible against a diversity of practical concerns. Give yourself time for this — you seem to be involved in a thought process that will take about six weeks. My first question is not ‘is this thing too idealistic’ but rather, are you reaching for what you know would be the very best goal? However, before you get there, I suggest you strip your plan down to its most basic elements — what you want and why, what you need and why, what you want to accomplish. Consider how you manage your reputation. To what extent is your strategy defensive (laying low, protecting your supposed image) and to what extent is your strategy proactive (carefully cultivating the reputation you want, and deserve, for what you’ve accomplished)? Gradually, your logical mind will take over, and I suggest you run all your ideas through this particular mental filter. Keep reducing your idea till you’ve arrived at the bare essence, and understand every element of your plan or idea. Then toward the end of the month, you’re likely to rethink it yet again, only this time with greater clarity. At that point you will find the missing piece, the creative gem, the love in the dream.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — I suggest you concern yourself less about how you are perceived by others and use that energy to focus on the substance of your goals. We live in a time when appearances are dangerously overtaking reality, and when glamour as a metric is prevailing over the quality of someone’s character. You could say this has been going on since the first motion picture was released, yet in truth it’s something that is happening from moment to moment. You continually get the choice which to feed, appearance or reality. Meanwhile, in a similar vein, you seem ready to question a belief that until now you’ve taken for granted. This belief is influencing a relationship. It’s not showing up as definitively helpful or unhelpful, but rather as something that you need to understand thoroughly. The belief is influencing the way you make your agreements with others, in a sense, biasing you. It will indeed be helpful if you know what that bias is, and you will soon have the clarity and mental tools to do so. This is a matter calling for careful analysis, of your own thought patterns as well as the specific elements of your commitments. What do you expect of others and what do they expect of you? How realistic are those expectations and what are they grounded in? You will have happier relationships for knowing these things.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You seem to be seeking a compromise on a matter involving shared finances, or perhaps more accurately, a question about sexual values in an intimate relationship. The scenario seems to be going in the direction of someone’s fantasy of how things can be, though leaving out some of the more obvious practicalities. This is definitely a scenario that deserves to have logic, data or some form of science prevail, rather than any form of make-believe or let’s see what happens. And logic will indeed prevail, so I suggest you hold the line and be patient while the planets shuffle around in a pattern that describes the renegotiation of the relationship in a more holistic way. In other words, the discussion is likely to start on one topic, and then expand into other topics that are related on the level of shared values. This comes down to understanding the values you have in common, and those that you do not. I would remind you here that you’re in a somewhat vulnerable position when it comes to others overpowering you. It will not work so well to resist forcefully, so instead, I suggest you use persistence. Time is on your side. What is obvious to you will become obvious to others as the discussion moves along, and the result will be a new understanding of your relationship, built on level ground.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — If you’re hesitating about a relationship commitment, I would remind you that there is no rush. You may sense that you’re heading for deep water, or like you’re gradually being drawn into a situation that you don’t fully understand. When you are ready, this may be fully appropriate. Yet if you’re uncertain of yourself, slow down and observe your environment. The first thing to listen to is your intuition. If you suspect that you’re not being given full information, or if you have a hunch that you’re in any way being deceived, then pause and begin to look more deeply into the facts. You don’t need to do this in an accusatory way, but rather in a way that seeks grounding in objective information. Consciously seek the truth, and make sure that you actually understand what you learn. Address any denial factor that may be present; be mindful of what you ‘don’t want to know’ or ‘refuse to believe’. This process will take a bit of scrupulous honesty with yourself, though there may be clues that get you closer to the heart of the matter. I suggest you investigate with extra care any situation involving alcohol, or the influence of mood-altering drugs, be they prescription or otherwise. The question to ask is: how is this influencing your relationship to reality? How is it influencing intimacy? You want to know.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — The past five weeks of Venus retrograde seem to have been designed to help you understand the impact of your family history, and your complex emotions. The two are related; partly why your emotions are so complex is because you filter them through so many past impressions and memories. Yet many of those are not your own; they are habits and values you picked up from various people who influenced you. Take the time to sort out what belongs to you and what does not. Once you claim what is your own and let go of what belongs to others, you will feel a lot less lost, and be able to call yourself more fully present. This does not necessarily involve severing ties to anyone, though at times that is necessary. But it will help you immensely to know when someone else’s emotions became a point of orientation for you more important than your own feelings, and to see the distortion that created. That may go in two directions at once — being overly self-centered at times, and not being able to find your center at others. Understanding why you are the way you are is a theme that persists through most of the year. You’re likely to continue your review of the past, which is for the sole purpose of helping you know yourself better. That, in turn, will help you have clearer, more trusting relationships.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — It’s essential for your wellbeing to sort out what influences in your life are nourishing and which are depleting. This is not as easy as it seems in a society where it’s considered normal for people to eat unhealthy food for the sake of ating, to have relationships for the sake of relationships and to purchase many things that they don’t need and barely even want. Since that is the cultural standard, it’s necessary to take the time to figure out whether something you take in — be it food, entertainment, information, family influences or emotional contact — actually sustains you. It would be worthwhile to consider this question in the context of any sexual influence as well. I think the concept of ‘addiction’ is overused and misunderstood, but it begins to have meaning when there is the quality of some influence potentially controlling your life. If during the next few weeks you find yourself at a full stop, or feel like you can no longer effectively negotiate with yourself, that’s the time to take some time and inquire about the issue of control. There is often an associated question about whether you want the responsibility implied by self-determination. The most common reason I’ve seen people abandon their power is because it seems to offer liberation from the consequences of their own mistakes. That’s one form of liberation that will never serve you.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You could have things be a lot easier than they currently are; you seem to have figured out that allowing yourself to be involved in complex situations is a way of learning about yourself. You seem to be in a scenario where your connection to someone else is like a personal development laboratory, or where you’re seeking self-actualization in the context of a relationship. You may have also figured out that such a thing does not work for you, and are resisting being so immersed in someone else, or anyone, with every cell in your being. There does seem to be a question lurking behind all of this, which is the extent to which you allow yourself to feel your feelings, and whether you need the assistance of someone else who resonates with you. This is a good question, with many implications — though the main theme is that of emotional independence. You would do well to ask, especially under your current astrology, whether that is possible, and if it is, what it means. At one extreme of the spectrum is the loner, with no emotional investments. At the other is someone codependent, whose emotional state is totally invested in what others think. The balancing point is healthy interdependence. That is built of mutual respect, self-reflection, communication and honoring for yourself and for everyone else what measure of freedom we have here on Earth.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Something seems to have happened to you over the past couple of months, involving coming into deeper contact with your creative gifts and your sexuality. You probably know or can guess that I consider these elements of humanity to be closely related, stemming right from the same source. To develop one, it’s essential to develop the other. Venus retrograde in your sign beginning at the solstice, spanning through the end of January, has done something magnificent for you: you have embodied something that was previously abstract or that existed in potential. You have taken steps to reclaim gifts that may have previously made you nervous, that you took for granted or considered something that only had relevance when you were younger. Here is the ongoing challenge: Devotion to artistry and the arts of erotic love requires self-focus. Even in our narcissistic culture, that can be considered suspect, and it can certainly be an irritant (or threatening) to people who have never considered any such quest. You need courage to persist on this mission, and you need to be willing to wrap your whole life around what will seem like a form of over-focus. Yet the idea is not to get lost in yourself — in order for your work or your discovery to have relevance, it’s necessary to find yourself. You are well on the way. Keep going.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Something is shifting for you on a deep inward level, which may feel like the healing of a kind of isolation or loneliness that has followed you around for a while. This has taken you a step closer to your soul, just when you were wondering if such a thing was even possible. Pay attention and you’ll notice that this keeps happening, with a slightly different feeling each time, though each time feeling like you’ve seated yourself in your own existence a little more firmly. It helps to make peace with the solitary nature of existence, or at least the compelling sensation of that effect. It’s the feeling of being alone in the universe that is a step in the awakening of every spiritually conscious person. That sensation of isolation does two things — it can come with the choice to give up looking outside yourself for what you can only find within; and it’s what opens the space to have the awakening of how alone you are not. That awakening is the dawn of authentic selflove. Nearly everyone who arrives there has earned it. They have faced their own darkness, to some real extent, and the mystery of their own existence. You are not done, but if your charts mean anything, you’re working with many more resources than you had just a few short months ago.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You may feel like you’re dancing around the choice to immerse yourself totally in who you are — as if you’re playing a game of approach-avoid. Let’s assume that is true for a moment. When you feel any kind of approach-avoid, the first thing to check for is guilt. Fully soaking in your own reality implies that you will be yourself, and express yourself, without any reservations. Approach-avoid might show up as hesitancy with people knowing who you actually are, as if hiding it from yourself could in some way prevent them from finding out. That almost never works. People already recognize you and most are grateful for the example you provide. Some don’t seem that way, it’s true; you make some people nervous. I suggest, however, that you not underestimate the influence you have even on their lives. That said, it does not matter what anyone else thinks. Rather than avoiding anything, you actually seem to have come close to a discovery that you want to investigate, or have made an observation about yourself that you want to verify with some additional inner questing. I believe you’re about to discover how much sense you make; that is, that your seemingly most unworldly dreams, when subjected to logical analysis, actually make perfect sense. My saying this matters little, though — when you figure it out, it’ll rock your world and boost your confidence.

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Astrology for the Soul

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Astrology for the Soul

Dear Friend and Reader:

As you know, I am passionate about news astrology, and using it as a way to illustrate the personal impact of current events on our private lives.

Sagittarius glyph for The Mars Effect by Lizanne Webb. Here samples of written Mars Effect readings, and a few audio samples.

I’m equally passionate about personal astrology — the kind that helps us figure out where we’re at in life and how to consider our current circumstances. The astrology that helps reveal our life plan, purpose, talents and resources. The astrology that can really, truly help with career, relationships and business.

Even within our wild era, 2014 is no ordinary year — it’s unusual even on the scale of the past 50. We’re now in the peak of the Uranus-Pluto square, a time that will be remembered for its many changes and developments.

Astrology changes the world, influences every personal chart, and touches the experience of every person. How are you handling being on the planet right now? How are you keeping up with the constant need to adapt, to rethink, to confront the unknown? How are you handling the lack of certainty?

I have information that can help you — the results of four months of work, and the latest edition of a 15-year tradition of Planet Waves annual editions.

Our cresting moment is indicated by the presence of Mars within the slow-moving Uranus-Pluto aspect. Mars will soon be retrograde and will make a series of aspects to powerful forces, bringing many things to the front of consciousness. This is what I’m calling The Mars Effect. That term is also a reference to a scientific study that established a connection between someone having a strong Mars and being a star athlete — one of the most helpful scientific studies of astrology ever.

Mars is here to provide energy, to provoke action and to pose deeper questions. Mars is here as a tool for making your potential real. It’s going to be retrograde in Libra, the sign of relationships, which influence every facet of our lives.

In April, there will be an unusual grand cross (Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto in an exact X around the Earth) followed one week later by an eclipse of the Sun in Taurus. Many other events cascade later into the year, including nearly simultaneous Mars-Saturn and Venus-Jupiter conjunctions.

The Mars Effect glyph for Taurus by Lizanne Webb. Here samples of written Mars Effect readings, and here are a few audio samples.

It would be easy for astrologers to make dire predictions about some of these scenarios (those will show up on the Internet in early April or so). This aspect pattern has some shadowy elements, and to be sure, it will present unusual challenges and opportunities.

I have viewed my job as getting underneath the surface level, and to apply the astrology on the most creative dimension, relating it to each of us as individuals.

Since late August, I’ve been exploring the 12 signs and rising signs for 2014, working from the most intimate and personal perspective, using a diversity of astrological tools: classical and modern planets, asteroids, centaurs, Kuiper objects (Pluto, Varuna and others) and some points that are way beyond them — such as Eris and Sedna.

I’ve been boiling my research down to two recorded readings per sign and rising sign, plus an extended written reading for each of the signs and rising signs. The result is a comprehensive work of applied astrology: The Mars Effect annual edition.

Astrology reveals itself in layers. I’ve learned to do the audio first, working the wheel in the conventional direction — Aries to Pisces. I started with gathering a chart file for each sign, added in the minor planets (with the help of Serennu.com). Then I opened my intuition and recorded the spoken-word portions, two segments per sign.

Then I took a pause — an actual holiday break — did additional research, and wrote the signs in reverse, starting with Aries and heading backwards to Taurus. In the school of astrology taught by Alice A. Bailey, the reverse wheel method gets you closer to the soul level.

Sketch of 2014 astrology for the sign Virgo. Each sign gets a chart, a sketch, two audio readings and one extended written reading. I use many extra points, including Chiron and other centaurs, asteroids, Sedna, Varuna and Eris.

The written interpretations go to another depth, focusing on specific, high-energy, challenging or especially unique facets of your astrology.

I view my role as someone that is here to help ease your way, point out opportunities, explain where challenges might arise and help you use them to your benefit. I have set out to inform and motivate you to make the most out of your time and energy.

Reading your rising sign will provide you with two distinct points of view. If your rising sign and Sun sign are the same, then study your opposite sign. My readings also work for Moon signs and they are (I am told) helpful for unintrusively sussing out where your partner is coming from.

Each of these readings has an investment of at least 10 hours of preparation, recording and writing. These readings work within the rarely entered borderland between a good prepared report and a personal consultation.

They are also a study in modern astrology — how to apply and explain the classical and modern factors, and come out with a reading that not only works but that you will refer to all year.

So that is what I’ve been up to. And you have the benefits! As a Planet Waves subscriber, you can access all 12 signs for $79.

Individual signs are currently $29.95. Many people who get one end up getting more — a reason to go for the all-12 option.

If you want to upgrade to the All Access Pass, please call Chelsea at (206) 567-4455.

We anticipate the project being released on Monday night.

Thank you for your trust in me as your astrologer, for your business and for being part of Planet Waves.

Lovingly,

PS — The horoscopes in this edition were selected by The Oracle, from past horoscopes. I personally worked the program and requested the reading for each sign. I would love to have written a new horoscope but that would have delayed the annual by another day. Please let me know how these horoscopes work. I will cover early Aquarius in next week’s edition. –efc

PPS — Here are some samples of the written Mars Effect readings, and here are a few audio samples.

Section Writing and Editing Credits: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Susan Scheck, Chad Woodward and Carol van Strum. 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.

Approaching Aquarius

We’re in the last couple days of Capricorn; the Sun ingresses Aquarius, the fixed air sign in the middle of the season, on Sunday at 10:51 pm EST. Aquarius is often associated with forward-thinking technological breakthroughs, but they’re the kind that stick — so if you’re feeling as though you need to get clear on something in your life or take a particular step in just the right way, you may be sensing this impending shift in energy.

The constellation Aquarius on a vintage map of the heavens, doing ‘the Bump’ with Capricorn.

Then again, the sky this week has been loaded with the kind of astrology that puts the pressure on, especially regarding relationships and how you sort them out internally.

Wednesday night was the Cancer Full Moon at 11:52 pm EST. Any interpersonal situations in your life that felt like they were coming to a head this week or had gotten stuck in gridlock (especially if you can trace them back in a meaningful way to Jan. 1) should begin finding some resolution today and tomorrow. Particularly consider anything that involved an authority figure or internalized authority, or how well you acknowledge your ability to create and destroy.

Also, Venus (still retrograde in Capricorn) and Mars in Libra have been building to a square that was exact Thursday at 12:13 pm. This aspect relates to noticing the conditioning forces and gender roles that have been trying to get you to feel or act a certain way, and what you decide to do about it. And how do you do it? Do you get diplomatic or assert your passion? Do you get passive-aggressive and stingy, or receptive and expressive?

All of this — the tension of Wednesday’s Full Moon and that of Thursday’s Venus-Mars square — is providing the on-ramp into the weekend, as we make our transition from the initiator energy of Capricorn into the related, but different, energy of Aquarius.

The last day or so that the Sun is in a sign can feel a little edgy, as though we can sense that one flavor of energy is loosening its hold and just want to get on with it. Today, however, you still might not feel completely clear on what exactly it is you’re itching to move on to. That’s ok.

The waning Moon moves into Virgo Saturday evening, making Sunday the perfect time to organize and clear out your physical space, giving any urges for precision a tangible, constructive application. As you clear and order your surroundings, you’re priming your consciousness for the Sun’s move into Aquarius Sunday night.

Full chart for the Sun’s ingress to Aquarius. Glyph legend here.

What exactly does the Sun in Aquarius mean? We can start with its ruling planets for clues.

Saturn is the traditional ruler, which Aquarius shares with Capricorn. Along with Aquarius’ status as a “fixed” sign (as opposed to cardinal or mutable), Saturn is part of what gives people born under this sign their tendency to crystallize their beliefs and ideas, and it gives innovations made under a strong Aquarius signature their staying power.

A prime example is the Internet, which grew from academic novelty to household necessity during the time that Uranus was in Aquarius – and Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius.

Uranus is the spark, the experiment, the “Hey, what if…?” Uranus is also part of what gives Aquarius its stamp of individuality even though it’s the sign of groups. After all, a group is really made up of individuals — although modern society often makes that hard to discern, favoring herd mentality and conformity over true interchange between fully individuated people.

To quote Eric, “Aquarius people are the discriminating embracers of innovation that works.” That’s great as far as getting things moving in the right direction; but after a certain point, what was once an innovation can become fixed, static, institutionalized — and resistant to change. Such is the case of such fixed systems as political structures and religion; once entrenched, they can be hard to get rid of. The same goes for marketing which, like politics and religion, seeks to co-opt individual identity for the sake of group conformity.

Even so, Eric has also written that, “In its highest state, Aquarius is about a meeting of individuals who recognize themselves as such. It is driven by social responsibility and a devotion to service. Aquarius has a natural sense of humanity and as such is deeply humanitarian.”

That is the ideal you can hold as your template for the next month, beginning Monday. Over the weekend, see if you can orient yourself in that direction.

By Amanda Painter.

Appellate Court Rules Against Net Neutrality

In a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C. circuit Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was slapped down in its attempt to make sure Internet service providers cannot slow down or block websites with competing services, or favor sites that pay extra fees for faster service. Known as ‘Net neutrality’ (as in, ‘Network’), this idea of an ‘open Internet’ led to a set of rules approved by the FCC in 2010; big cable and telecommunications companies brought the lawsuit to court.

But for how long? Not long at all if we don’t ride our Representatives’ asses and get vocal.

Although the government oversees the utilities we depend on, such as telephone service and electricity, the court said that the Internet doesn’t count. At least, not under current law. This is the type of controversy that can pop up at the cusp of an age or era — which is where we are.

The thing is, even compared to just 12 years ago when the FCC reclassified cable modem services as “information services” rather than “telecommunications services” (thus leaving Net neutrality vulnerable), the Internet is a crucial utility. Entire businesses, including Planet Waves, operate almost exclusively online. Even medical records are now entirely digital in most places, allowing medical facilities to share them with doctors elsewhere without the need for a courier service.

Telecommunications companies keep swearing they’re just trying to give better service to all customers, but if you believe that, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in, too. It’s common sense that if Netflix gets charged more for all the bandwidth it eats up, you’ll be the one footing the bill as you stream their movies.

The FCC has suggested it will appeal the ruling, but it needs to find some teeth — and those cannot be found currently within the FCC or Congress, both of which have been left by the court to revise Net neutrality.

“The only course is for public pressure to overcome industry pressure,” wrote Michael Hiltzik for the Los Angeles Times Tuesday. “That’s a tough road, but there’s no alternative. Do you want your Internet to look like your cable TV service, where you have no control over what comes into your house or what you pay for it? Then stay silent. If not, start writing letters and emails to your elected representatives and the FCC now. It’s the only hope to save the free, open Internet.”

Trade Pact Endangers Environment

WikiLeaks this week released the text from a proposed “free trade” agreement that would enable countries to subvert their own domestic laws and regulations. Called the Trans Pacific Partnership or (TPP), the document includes a chapter on environmental protection that makes it easier to pollute and destroy the environment.

One of the flyers you can download from the Stop TPP website.

WikiLeaks, founded by director Julian Assange in 2006, is an online organization that publicly releases confidential documents from anonymous sources, most famous of which is the 2007 video of a U.S. Army helicopter attack on civilians. “Today’s WikiLeaks release shows that the public sweetener in the TPP is just media sugar water,” said Assange. “The fabled TPP environmental chapter turns out to be a toothless public relations exercise with no enforcement mechanism.”

“This draft chapter falls flat on every single one of our issues — oceans, fish, wildlife, and forest protections — and in fact, rolls back on the progress made in past free trade pacts,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune in a statement.

In a joint analysis, environmental defenders point out weak language like “make best efforts.” Critics say the draft represents a step backward from protections established in 2007, weakening nations’ obligations to enforce multilateral environmental agreements, replacing a definitive dispute resolution process with one far more meaningless, and failing to protect fisheries, forest products and other key natural resources.

The TPP would establish a trade zone akin to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), heralded by Bill Clinton as an important step forward when it was signed in 1994. According to a report by Public Citizen, problems of income inequality have worsened instead of improving — and critics say the impact of the TPP could be far worse.

Obama and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are pushing for Congressional authorization for a “fast track” approval procedure. Margaret Flowers, an organizer of the Flush the TPP! Campaign orchestrated by popularresistance.org, says opponents are having some success.

“They originally wanted the fast track bill in place by the end of 2012 — every time they set a deadline, it gets pushed back,” she said. “The pressure is working, but we need more — past trade agreements have been bad, but this one is worse. This establishes a tribunal where corporations can sue local governments for loss of potential profits — ‘We were going to frack in your town and make eleven million dollars, but you won’t let us, so you owe us eleven million.'”

Fast track authority is expected to come up for a vote sometime in February. “As activists we hope to keep pushing that out farther,” said Flowers. “The house leadership is saying that if Obama can’t get 50 house Democrats to sign on they won’t bring it up for a vote. So far, they’ve only got Republicans.”

To keep the pressure on, organizers plan ten days of “Stop TPP” actions for the end of the month, with an intercontinental Day of Action on Jan. 31.

This is Only a Test

Scientists from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) plan to conduct a controlled nuclear meltdown in an effort to improve their ability to handle another disaster. According to a Japan Today report, the test will take place later this year in a facility in Ibaraki, north of Tokyo.

Controlled nuclear runaway test reaction in the Idaho desert in 1954. Photo: U.S. Government.

A spokesperson for the Agency explained to local news that the data from the experiment will help them deal with an accident like Fukushima in the future. The scientists will create a small-scale nuclear runaway reaction induced by a rapid fission process within tiny test fuel rods placed inside a stainless steel capsule.

Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of a particle into smaller parts. When nuclear fuels like uranium and plutonium are involved, fission occurs in a self-sustained chain reaction, which is the basis for nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Reactors need a constant source of cooling water in order to contain the speed of the fission process. When the reactor core of a nuclear power plant is breached, whether by human error, mechanical failure, or act of nature, the explosive reaction is impossible to control.

Prof. Karl Grossman, environmental journalist and nuclear expert, describes the inherent danger of nuclear fission in his book, Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power. Grossman explains that the chain reaction “involves an extremely rapid and intense rise in the fission level within the nuclear core — a thousand times beyond normal — simultaneous with sudden overheating, melting of the core, and an instant steam explosion with the power of thousands of pounds of TNT, easily blowing apart the concrete ‘containment’ of a nuclear plant and letting what’s inside out.”

Grossman gives two examples of similar nuclear runaway ‘tests’; the first in the Idaho desert in 1954, with a miniaturized reactor on a scale of 1:500, which demolished a piece of equipment weighing a ton. The second, an unplanned test, was the SL-1 accident of 1961 in Idaho Falls, when the huge explosion of a nuclear reactor killed three employees.

The JAEA specifically wants to record at what temperature the fuel rods start to melt, which sets off the rapid fission process. Edwin Lyman, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, assured VOA News that “there is little risk associated with this experiment to the public.”

We All Live Downstream from Freedom Industries

One week after 300,000 West Virginia residents were told not to use their tap water for any reason after a major chemical spill in the Elk River, about half of those in affected communities have been told it is safe to turn their taps on. As the water ban has been lifted in stages, the lack of data on the toxicity of the chemical in question — along with other revelations about the severe lack of oversight and regulation for West Virginia’s chemical industry — is raising more questions than it is answering.

The Elk River in West Virginia, now spreading contaminated water to states downstream. Photo: Tyler Evert/AP.

If you don’t live in or near West Virginia, you might think this is terrible, but not about you. The question is, do you actually know what industry is doing in your community? Do you know what is upstream from you, or what condition facilities are in, or what regulations are being followed to protect you (if any)?

West Virginia only requires inspections for chemical production facilities, not chemical storage facilities. This partly explains why the Freedom Industries site where the leak occurred in Charleston — about one mile upriver from the West Virginia American Water treatment plant — had not been inspected since 1991.

The rest of the explanation lies in states and communities giving dangerous industries a pass on regulation in favor of ‘jobs’, leaving entire populations at risk of considerable harm — including death and adverse health effects that can span generations. This is far more common than we like to think; and since asking questions and pushing for safer practices can be overwhelming, many of us don’t think about it at all — until it lands on our doorstep.

According to Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council speaking to The New York Times, “West Virginia has a pattern of resisting federal oversight and what they consider E.P.A. interference,” pushed hard by the coal and chemical industries on which the state’s economy relies.

Compounding the situation in West Virginia is the astounding lack of information about 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM), the chemical in question. Classified as an alcohol, it is a colorless oil with a licorice-like odor, and is used to clean coal.

“This is your community and your rights and your water”; consumer activist Erin Brockovich, holding a town hall meeting in Charleston, West Virginia, Monday night. Photo: Kenny Kemp/The Charleston Gazette.

Writing for The Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward, Jr. and David Gutman reported Thursday that there are no regulatory standards for MCHM under federal or state rules. In fact, the current safety standard used by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of 1 part per million of MCHM in tap water “comes from two private studies from the 1990s that were done on animals.”

Dr. Vikas Kapil, chief medical officer for the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, relayed that information when he was finally made available for an interview with Gazette reporters Thursday morning. Kapil explained that the CDC was working with the National Library of Medicine and other federal agencies to summarize a report of the work in those private studies.

Maranda Demuth, a spokeswoman for Eastman Chemical Co., which manufactured the MCHM, told The Gazette that the studies were not published in scientific journals, and therefore were not peer-reviewed. Downplaying the lack of review, Demuth added, “The studies, however, were conducted under Good Laboratory Practices, and according to OECD guidelines, at a reputable laboratory where rigorous internal review processes were performed.”

That’s nice; but it doesn’t prove that MCHM should not be better regulated, or that it’s ‘safe’ for the environment. The fact that the studies were bought and paid for by the manufacturer is a huge red flag, practically begging for investigation. More heartening is the active approach citizens of the affected area have taken in posting new information via social media in an effort to organize and get answers, as described by environmental activist Erin Brockovich on Democracy Now! during her visit to Charleston this week.

Using “an abundance of caution” and “the most conservative estimates,” according to Kapil, the CDC has recommended that pregnant women continue to avoid drinking tap water, although they say washing and bathing in it should be fine. But no one really knows yet, given the limited, non-peer-reviewed data on MCHM.

In related news, the chemicals have reached Cincinnati, Ohio’s, water supply, where the city had shut down its water valves and used stored water since the spill was first reported. And one of the founding owners of Freedom Industries (who reportedly left the company “years ago”) is a convicted felon — tax evasion and “willful failure to pay employees’ withholdings to the government” — who also was arrested years ago on cocaine charges. More than the water smells bad in West Virginia this week; and now that polluted water is no longer local.

On National and World Stage, a Tangled Web Promotes Chaos

With violence and humanitarian emergencies raging in a long list of countries in the Middle East including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, revelations this week point to extreme dysfunction within the United States’ military, political and diplomatic establishments. Security failures prior to the Benghazi embassy attack, widespread cheating by the Air Force officers tasked with overseeing the country’s nuclear arsenal, and Israeli-backed warmongering that threatens to destroy any real hope for the diplomatic talks intended to bring Iran back into the community of nations are just three of the focal points.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at a U.N. Security Council meeting in September, when nuclear talks with Iran were more optimistic. Photo: Jason DeCrow/AP.

A report on Benghazi released by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence indicates that warnings from the intelligence community went unheeded, and failure to increase security or position military assets to protect the embassy were contributing factors in the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, that left four Americans dead and has become a major talking point for the right wing. The report makes several recommendations, among them the suggestion that the intelligence community pay more heed to “extremist-affiliated social media.”

At the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, where the U.S. nuclear arsenal is kept, 34 ranking Air Force officers have been suspended in the wake of allegations of widespread cheating on monthly recertification tests. Two of those same officers are among 11 who are under investigation for possession and use of recreational drugs. Officials insist that the safety of the nuclear weapons was in no way compromised. According to reporting by The New York Times, morale at the base has deteriorated since the end of the Cold War left personnel feeling that their mission was no longer valued.

The six-month temporary agreement to freeze Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for some relief from sanctions that have been crippling the country’s economy since the fall of the U.S.-backed Shah in 1979 was signed on Jan. 12, and is set to take effect next week. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani boasted on Twitter that “world powers surrendered to Iranian nation’s will,” inflaming still further the opposition to the deal among those in Washington who are pushing for Congress to increase sanctions — mainly Republicans and pro-Israel lobbying groups. Many believe a sanctions increase would destroy the embryonic peace process.

As usual, the right-wing squawk machine is insisting on every point that Obama’s leadership abilities are the problem. But it’s hard to see how any single human being can be blamed, or indeed, how any single leader could make sense of the tangled mess. Meanwhile, the folks simply trying to live their lives among the artificially redrawn borders and sectarian disputes are dying in droves.

Monsanto Defeats Organic Farmers in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday signaled the end of the road for organic farmers seeking to protect themselves against Monsanto’s predatory litigation. The court refused to hear the plaintiffs’ case challenging the company’s claims of patent infringement of their GM seeds. The suit also aimed to curb Monsanto from suing anyone whose field is contaminated by such seeds.

Monsanto may control the legal game, but not which way the wind blows on farmers’ fields. Photo: Darren Hauck/Reuters.

In dismissing the case, the court upheld a 2013 federal appeals court decision that threw out a 2011 lawsuit from the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association and more than 80 other plaintiffs. These parties were seeking to block the company from suing them over planting its GMO seeds without their permission. Yet the plaintiffs did not buy seed from Monsanto, instead claiming contamination from windblown seed from nearby fields.

Monsanto has filed more than 140 lawsuits against farmers for planting the company’s GM seeds without permission, while settling around 700 other cases without suing. The plaintiffs wanted more in the way of legal protection than Monsanto’s ‘binding assurances’ that they would not sue, upon which the appeals court decision was based.

Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association President Jim Gerritsen expressed disappointment, and Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, said in a statement: “If Monsanto can patent seeds for financial gain, they should be forced to pay for contaminating a farmer’s field, not be allowed to sue them.”

Planet Waves previously reported on the case, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, et al., v. Monsanto Company, et al., on March 2, 2012 and June 14, 2013.

Goodbye Groovy Gary — and Thank You

Gary Grimshaw, creator of iconic rock posters from the late 1960s until recently, died Monday, Jan. 13, in Detroit, Michigan, after several strokes and a long illness. He was the co-creator of a psychedelic design style that has been imitated many times.

Born in Detroit, where he was friends with members of the rock group MC5, the soft-spoken Grimshaw had a Pisces Sun.

With Venus and Mercury also loosely conjunct each other in Pisces, he was primed with creative, dreamy, groovy expressive energy; Venus and Mercury ensured that the art he created would be beautiful, visionary and speak for a generation of music lovers.

With his Moon in spiritual, justice-oriented, freedom-loving Sagittarius — and that Moon’s ruler, Jupiter, in justice- and beauty-loving Libra — it’s no surprise that Grimshaw’s art and activism went beyond music.

After a voluntary stint in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War (to avoid being drafted into the Army) that introduced him to psychedelic art while his ship was docked in San Francisco, Grimshaw became active in the anti-war movement and the White Panther Party.

True to the spirit of the 1960s and his Jupiter in Libra, he also beat out obscenity charges and marijuana charges between 1968 and 1970. Grimshaw worked as art director at Creem Magazine from 1976 to 1984; you can see a gallery of some of his posters here.

Cancer Full Moon, Return to Fukushima and Musical Guests Gary Lucas and (the late) Jeff Buckley

Wednesday’s unusual Cancer Full Moon conjunct the Black Moon Lilith is the topic of today’s edition, as well as a look at the aftermath of Fukushima and why nobody can say that there is no risk. Our musical guests are Gary Lucas and his late bandmate and collaborator Jeff Buckley. For additional resources please see the full post.

Have you pre-ordered your 2014 readings by Eric Francis yet? The Mars Effect (our 16th annual edition!) will be out this month, and will include in-depth audio and written readings for your Sun, Moon and rising signs. We always receive a flood of positive feedback for these readings, and it shows just how meaningful they are. One customer wrote, “I’m so grateful to you for the illumination and the reassurance this reading has bestowed.” We’re offering you a special package price of $79 for all twelve signs, available only to current Planet Waves members. Or you may purchase individual signs for $29.95.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscopes for January on Friday, Jan. 3. The Moonshine horoscopes for the Capricorn New Moon were published Tuesday, Dec. 31. We published Moonshine horoscopes for the Cancer Full Moon Tuesday, Jan. 14. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, #983 | By Eric Francis

This is an Oracle edition of the horoscope. Sign readings this week were selected by the Oracle program, which I personally queried. These are the responses I got. — efc

Aries (March 20-April 19) — I suggest you respond with awareness to the subtle change of direction that’s come over your life in recent weeks. It may not seem like you’re being dragged toward any specific destination, but neither are you drifting, nor are you stuck. It’s not necessary to make elaborate plans to get where you want to go, and I suggest you notice the worthwhile opportunities and extraordinary resources all located within arm’s reach and a one-hour trip of where you are now situated. Not only isn’t it too late; you’d be right on time.

Looking for an in-depth reading for the coming year? Pre-order THE MARS EFFECT, your 2014 annual readings, for a special rate of $79 for all twelve signs. It’s a great package of audio and written readings (plus bonus articles) that gives you access to your Sun, rising and Moon signs (and those of your loved ones). You may also pre-order individual signs for $29.95 here.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You sense something big is coming on — a revelation in the true sense; a creative burst; the opportunity to have an experience you’ve wanted for a long time. That moment has not quite arrived, but it’s inevitable. Meanwhile, this would be an excellent moment to reflect on how restless you’ve been for how long. You’ve spent much of your energy in recent years adapting to your own emotional instability, and that constant adaptation has eaten up a lot of energy. You’ve been encountering a series of stabilizing forces that have given you a chance to relax and put some of your resources into more creative endeavors, and I suggest you keep up with that process. You face a risk that you can head off early on, which is the potential to respond defensively to an opportunity from which you will only benefit.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — It’s clear that the past couple of months have presented certain difficulties communicating about a sensitive matter or whole subject area that you really need to get out into the open. Actually, the person or people you need to get an exchange going with have been working their way onto the same page, though they have not necessarily been saying much about it. Once the conversation begins, it has the potential to go some interesting places, and into some deep places. There may be some role reversal involved. There will be some transposing of words into actions and actions back into words. Be bold, and please allow yourself the space to allow any idea to become a potential reality.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — During the course of the past year, an energetic condition or state emerged in your life that seemed to pick you up and carry you. The truth is, it took you by storm, making it difficult to track the decisions you were making as you made them; and made it more difficult to assess your motives. The more recent news is that what was once an onslaught of progress is more understandable in its constituent parts. Everything is composed of elements. The ones that are influencing you are in the process of distinguishing themselves from one another, but only so that they can re-form again in new ways. In fact there are so many possible combinations that it will be very helpful to work from the goal backwards to the process of getting there. This will save time and energy and maximize the results that you want.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — My friend Greg, a Gemini moonboy, had a most interesting experience recently. Quite by surprise, his own reflection called to him from a mirror, and a kind of dimension shift happened. After a while, his reflection started speaking to him, representing the mind beyond his normal waking consciousness — what some call the higher self or superconscious: “I don’t understand you any better than you understand me,” is what it said. And then: “You are one of the more interesting ones.” And finally, the promise that his self-beyond-self would always be there with him, no matter how close he got to the edge, watching and protecting him through his journey in this strange world.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — The continuing adventure of your life is about to chill a bit, but before that happens you’ll likely start to feel like you have more energy to meet the many challenges you face. But the greatest virtue you could hope for now is just simply patience because it’s going to take a little while for things to work out. You would do well to disconnect from what seems like the state of perpetual flux of one particular person or situation. Remember that no one can enter into a clear agreement unless they know where they stand and that, if it’s not obvious, is the root of the problem. But meanwhile don’t be surprised if your own position starts to squirm. Everything will squirm around right eventually.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Surviving is a gift you were bestowed with long ago and have proven over and over again that you can make use of. Yet is human life about survival? It may be, in sub-Saharan Africa. It may be, when an earthquake hits China. But as people living in an advanced culture with many creative and economic opportunities, we need to do better, and you need to do better. I suggest you go on a hunt for where your ideas about life came from. I would propose that most of them are not really ideas — they are really emotions that pass for ideas, or emotions that you try to explain or deal with rationally. Please, stop explaining and start feeling. If you can do that for a while, you will start to feel like one person instead of one person cut into many parts.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Your relationships may have taken a serious turn lately but I suggest keeping things a little lighter. Make sure you can always see yourself in others. And remember to focus on options rather than seeing one dubious choice staring you in the face. You have at this point in your life a responsibility not only to fulfill your commitments; you have a responsibility to shed commitments that no longer work for you. This may seem contrary to what everyone is saying and what everything is pointing to but I assure you it is true.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — By the time you convince yourself that it’s okay to really get involved in a rapidly developing situation, the action may have subsided. I understand that your commitment is a precious thing, though this preciousness also provides a cover story for a kind of annoying reticence that you’ve long had to contend with. What you’re really committing to is having an opinion or idea that you’re willing to state openly rather than merely contemplate. You may be concerned that if you say anything directly, you won’t be allowed to change your mind. That’s not true, but you’ll just need to say that’s what you’re doing. Closer to home is why you wonder so much what people might think about what you think. Once you call back the projection, you’ll see that this is nothing other than self-doubt. And the only thing you can do about that is take a chance on your own intelligence.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — I’m concerned that the pressure you’re feeling will translate to a hasty or premature decision on a financial matter. Let me be the first person to remind you that you have time to bide, and that there are certain key facts of which you are not aware. You will know when you’re working with enough information to make a key decision; it will be obvious. The fact that you’ve noticed that certain people are far from agreement does not count. You’re the person who holds the key to what everyone has in common, and that ‘what’ may be a who, in the form of yourself. But you haven’t figured out how powerful your bargaining position really is. Just be patient, like a spider in her web.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — It would seem you’re not getting a particular message because you’re either not believing something that’s true, or because people don’t seem to believe you. In any event, credibility is at stake at a time when you’re feeling very strongly about your values and your ideals. And whether you have all of what you want, or what you need, or not, there is a critical element of truth that’s coming into your life. Part of that truth binds you to your reality, and part of that truth leaves you free to grow into your purpose. Speaking of truth: while you’re obviously in a very excited state of sexual desire, you also seem to be a bit guarded and in an odd way, curiously asexual. Work that out and you’ll feel better.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Normally astrology would caution against being overly ambitious; understatement is a key aspect of writing horoscopes. It’s been a while, but to tell this story we would really need to go back to around autumn 1995, when Pluto moved into Sagittarius. This marked a time of transition from what you could call the seeking phase of your life to the actional phase. You made a commitment, or understood what was always in your heart. In the process, you’ve actually started to question what you thought was your tragic flaw, discovering that it’s different than you thought. Keep asking. There are answers.

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