Dear Friend and Reader:

I’m back a little early from my break with a note about a topic that I think needs to be focused and given some language.

I’m aware that a good few people are going through rough times right now, on the psychological, spiritual or emotional levels. They are all related; we each describe our experiences using our own words and ideas.

We could point to many external factors associated with these feelings — for one, the news has been over the top grievous lately, and that will cause stress for any sensitive and humane person.

It looks like we are experiencing a culture-wide moral collapse, and yet many lack the ability, strength or personal resources to respond.

It’s ugly hearing about kids kept in conditions not considered suitable for livestock, being taken from their parents, having their sleeping mats confiscated as punishment for complaining about disgusting food, and the rest of it.

We now are learning about a sitting cabinet member complicit in a child sex-trafficking scheme, potentially involving the President of the United States. It’s worse not being able to do anything about it.

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Feldstrasse in Erfurt in the former East Germany, scene of the first Nazi concentration camp.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Before I visited Buchenwald, I visited Ilvers Gehoffen.

Everyone has seen photos of concentration camps, but you would not recognize this one. It’s set in a neighborhood outside Erfurt, where the Holocaust is said to have begun. I know there are several places this is claimed to have happened, though the first government killings of anti-fascists were right there, in April 1933, within 12 weeks of when our old friend Adolf ascended to power.

When I was living in Germany, I had a guide who took me and a friend there. We had to ride a few trams to get outside the main city, and where we arrived reminded me of the desolate and crumbling Bronx. From the Google Earth photo above, it has apparently had a facelift.

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Lakshmi in the Chironian, Rosendale, NY. Photo by Eric Francis / Book of Blue.

Dear Friend and Reader:

One of the highlights of the rather eventful Northern Solstice chart (set for Friday, June 21, 2019, when the Sun enters the tropical sign Cancer) is Vesta conjunct Uranus.

Vesta was the fourth-discovered asteroid, spotted in 1807. It’s the brightest asteroid, and was named for the goddess attended by the keepers of the sacred hearth of ancient Rome — the city fires that were never supposed to go out.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

As you may be aware, we’re in the thick of Mars in Cancer making “the” aspects of the season (and of the year): oppositions to Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, which themselves are headed toward a stunning conjunction in January. We’re also building up to a Full Moon in Sagittarius on Monday that appears to carry some profound themes.

Photo by Amanda Painter

Speaking broadly, that’s a lot of energy looking for a way out, and it’s likely to find its expression in your relationships with other people. The Mars aspects indicate navigating the difference between empowered interactions and power struggles — with a layer of karma-fueled growth pointing toward new territory. The Full Moon, taking place on the ‘mental/spiritual’ spectrum, also carries its own karmic twist, which you may be able to apply to your relationships.

First, a refresher of the Mars aspects. Tomorrow (Friday), Mars makes an exact trine to Neptune in Pisces and makes its exact opposition to Saturn in Capricorn; on Wednesday, June 19, Mars opposes Pluto and heads toward Eris. All of these aspects have been in effect and growing in strength for a number of days already; you may find it useful to review Eric’s coverage of the themes from earlier in the week.

There’s potential here to experience a ‘slow burn’ kind of anger or irritation; the sort of thing that can seem easier to internalize rather than express because it’s not a clear-cut, explosive kind of reaction. Particularly with Mars in Cancer, the desire to side-step confrontation may increase, or could seem to cycle through phases of self-defeating thoughts like “it wouldn’t make a difference anyway,” and phases of determination to make your will (and feelings of frustration) known.

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Above, artifact from the Diggers Manifesto, 1967. The Diggers were a movement based in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, essentially a social activist theater troupe. According to one history, “First and foremost, the Diggers were actors (in Trip Without A Ticket, the term ‘life actors’ was used.) Their stage was the streets and parks of the Haight-Ashbury, and later the whole city of S.Francisco.”

Dear Friend and Reader:

Every day, the American political crisis and the global crisis are pounding on our doors. Every locale has a different manifestation, or many of them; though I have not written about this yet, Europe and the United Kingdom are currently divided over the Brexit issue. Some places, environmental issues are more pressing than political and social ones.

Last week, I asked Planet Waves readers around the world to describe what they feel is their role in rising to the occasion. On some level, I recognize everyone is wondering about this. Some people stay up all night trying to figure it out; some make contact with the question occasionally; some are already on the job doing what they can.

Today we have your responses for you, presented in full. We’ve only made slight edits, correcting typing style and removing text such as “have a nice day.”

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The Kiss — Onslow Gardens. 1.5 m x 1 m. Watercolour on Paper. All images © 2019 J.R. Shepherd.

Dear Friend and Reader:

The United States is famously conceived as a government of, by and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln phrased it in his address at the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery. Every American knows those words.

Another use of similar language is contained in the preamble to the Constitution written decades earlier, which begins: “We the People of the United States…” which was a radical idea, emerging from a history of pharaohs, emperors and monarchs.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Today, Mars is square Chiron. This is part of the larger grand cross I’ve been writing about the past few weeks, including our prior Thursday edition.

Santorini — a possible metaphor for Black Diamond Bay.

In this short article I want to focus on the Mars-Chiron contact, which brings in Salacia (which is conjunct Chiron in Aries).

I’ve always found this aspect interesting, from a natal chart perspective. Because of the Mars contact, it counts for “extra Chiron” (the mix of inner planets and Chiron always does, by making Chiron more palpable).

My observation of people with Mars square Chiron as a natal aspect is that they have a rigid idea of integrity, which is associated with the desire-nature of Mars. That would be a good place to start.

What I consider my favorite Bob Dylan album is called Desire, released in 1976. Every song is about people doing what they can to live out their passions, though one masterpiece on the album, “Black Diamond Bay,” describes the relationship to desire that Mars square Chiron embodies. Here are the words.

The song is about people who wait till the last minute to do the one thing they want to do. And in the universe of the song, they finally choose to give themselves what they want right before an earthquake and volcanic eruption consumes the island where they are all situated.

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This view from NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover shows part of “Marathon Valley” as seen from an overlook north of the valley. It was taken by the rover’s Pancam on March 13, 2015.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Mars entered Cancer Wednesday, beginning an adventurous mini-era of astrology lasting through July 1. I introduced the topic in the Monday Morning edition with an article and horoscope based on the Mars transit.

Mars is the planet of desire. Usually associated with maleness, every person has Mars in their chart, so everyone possesses the diversity of traits and qualities that Mars can present, including various shades of urgency, need, desire, assertiveness, anger, aggression, and motivational drive.

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