Dear Friend and Leader:

Lately I am hearing the discussion about 2012 happen just about every day. The concept of this being an important year was introduced to popular culture by Jose Arguelles at the time of the Harmonic Convergence in 1987. His work is inspired by Mayan astrology, and in that system we experience a turnover in the calendar, which — so far as I have been able to discern, from the best source I have — reaches the date 13.0.0.0.0 on Dec. 21. 2012.

Part of Chichen Itza ruin complex in the Yucatan part of Mexico at the height of the Mayan civilization some 1500 years ago. Photo by Michel Mintaka.

That 13 at the front tells us that on the winter solstice of 2012, the 13th baktun will have ended. A baktun is 5,125 years and five of them represent a “great cycle” — the precessional cycle of about 26,000 years. (Our scientists still cannot calculate an exact length of one precessional cycle.) This is one full wobble of the Earth’s axis, which makes the backdrop of the cosmos seem to slide along and which causes the astrological ages to change.

When you hear about the “Age of Aquarius” that is a reference to precessional movement. There are no exact dates when the astrological ages begin and end (though it’s pretty clear from the early Christian iconography that we were in the Age of Pisces at the time of the presumed birth of Jesus/Joshua). Generally when people talk about an astrological age, they are making reference to the position of the Sun on the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This will come about one day earlier every 70 years. However, a Mayan scholar and philosopher named John Major Jenkins has proposed that what we need to be looking at if we want to understand the Mayan system is not the first day of spring but rather the first day of winter — the position of the Sun at the Winter Solstice. That would be the position of the Sun on the first day of Capricorn, which incidentally is where Pluto is hanging out lately.

When you look at that, you find that it aligns closely with the center of our galaxy, and this, he says, is where we need to be getting our information. Because of the Earth’s wobble, that position is retrograding towards the Galactic Center and in particular the dark band at the center of the galaxy, which is known to some modern-day Mayan thinkers as the Road to Xibalba. It is the mythical opening to another dimension, the Mayan underworld; and the symbolism is distinctly yonic in nature. Cave systems in Belize and Guatemala have also been referred to as the entrance to Xibalba, though one physical expression referred to by K’iche’ peoples is the dark rift which is visible in the Milky Way.

Jose Arguelles – Closing the Cycle Seminary, Rome – Italy. Photo by Frank DaSilva.

Let’s set aside the Mayan symbolism for now and consider the Western astrology on the road to 2012. As of June 1, 2009 we are exactly 1,300 days from the winter solstice of 2012. During that time we experience many significant changes. For example, Uranus, Neptune and Chiron all change signs. We recently experienced the sign change of Pluto, which transited from Sagittarius to Capricorn (where it will remain until about 2023). As the other outer planets follow suit, our perception of the world will shift again and again with each of the transits.

Then there exist a wide diversity of aspects that tell the story. The most significant of which is occurring right now, as you read this: Chiron conjunct Neptune in Aquarius. Jupiter also happens to be in the mix and even through June these planets are within one degree. Through the month of June they remain in an exact conjunction. My sense is that this is astrology that will shape our time in history. More to the point, it is helping open up a new dimension of reality wherein we have increased creative authority over our lives. And we can, together, create a space where we can meet in psychic space and physical space and restructure our patterns of social interaction.

When we talk about the need for humanity to get free of its current moribund spiral descent into fear and self-repression, materialism and darkness, opening up such a living space, and recreating our relational patterns, is essential.

Aquarius, where this conjunction is taking place, is the sign of both mental and social patterns. Neptune, which has been there for a decade, has melted away the structure of our old patterns, though for many introducing a layer of pure fantasy, media haze and drug haze that makes it impossible to see reality. Chiron focuses Neptune energy, at once applying it precisely and providing an antidote, if necessary. Chiron is like a utility that helps us work with the energy of the outer planets.

Its conjunction to Neptune draws in and clarifies Neptune energy like a laser, which can be applied to awareness, to healing and to creative endeavors. Jupiter adds a wisdom factor, the quality of expansion and a global theme.

A group taking part in the “Harmonic Convergence” perform their sacred dance in the grounds of the ruined 14th century Chapel of St Michael. Credit: Topham Picturepoint.

This aspect is big, and it is rare that we actually get to live through astrology consciously as it shapes our generation. Such is one of the powers granted by the Internet, and I am certain that the Net is one of the most important platforms for the changes we are witnessing. Yet what I am really describing is an entirely natural network in consciousness that is opening up and that we can access. I described this recently as a phenomenon of 6th dimensional morphogenetic fields in my weekly magazine.

This aspect holds well into 2010 and is a threshold to what follows next, leading to the first full-on 2012 astrology, which occurs in June 2012: the Venus transit of the Sun, and Uranus square Pluto. The Venus event is a precise conjunction to the disk of the Sun, a rare event the Mayans revered. Uranus square Pluto is astrology that says liberation and revolution like nothing we have seen since the mid-1960s.

While there is a lot of noteworthy astrology on the way to 2012, that is the year that the really interesting movement begins. However, I can assure those who wish to participate in the strange, the new and the unworldly will find plenty of intrigue and growth opportunities as these aspects unfold on the road to Xibalba.

All in all, what we need to give up is our attachment to our fears, our defenses and inert fantasies. We don’t need to give these things up all at once — the place to start is with our commitment to them. What I am saying here is that the reason we tend to have so much negativity in our lives is because we’re attached to it. That doesn’t mean we want it, but it does mean we tend to cling to it like it was some precious thing to be proud of, rather than something to let go of and embrace the framework of the next phase of reality.

One other crucial quality we must embrace is the feminine side of our brains, meaning our body and our consciousness. I don’t mean gender bending, but rather a true encounter and integration with the biophilic (sensitive to all of life) quality that is distinctly female. I would propose that this is something essential particularly for women; through this process they can bring in their natural healing gifts and allow them to flourish.

The following is an abbreviated list of events between now and 2012. More examples are available at PlanetWaves.net.

Chariklo square Chiron (2009-2012).

These are two very small, meaningful planets orbiting our Sun in the relatively new centaur class. They are currently in a square (90-degree) aspect. This aspect repeats in seven separate events between now and 2012, and as such is a constant companion along the way. The square is currently from Scorpio to Aquarius. It will gradually shift to an aspect between Sagittarius to Pisces.

The Milky Way near Cygnus showing the lane of the Dark Rift which the Maya called the Xibalba be or Black Road.

In mythology, Chiron and Chariklo were consorts; she was a nymph and the wife of the famous surgeon, healer and mentor. Their story contains none of the philandering, mockery and hubris that is so common to the Greek myths. Yet they endure the many pains of the world and endure the flaws of both humanity and the gods. Chiron is about healing processes that benefit from or demand the raising of awareness and a humble approach to life, as tempered by awareness of both mortality and immortality.

In a square aspect, they are here to help us work out a dynamic in our relationships that is held internally. Our issues with fear, abandonment, psychic pain, physical sickness, inferiority and jealousy are all internally mediated. Chariklo’s presence is calling us to be present for our own healing process. She is holding devoted space for us to make peace with our dualistic human/animal nature, and to gradually integrate the two without judgment.

Saturn square Pluto (2009-2010)

An antiwar movement is emerging in Afghanistan. Photo by Shah Marai.

In November, Saturn transits from Virgo to Libra. Once there, it will begin a series of three squares to Pluto in Capricorn. This will take place in aspect to the Aries Point, that is, the first degree of Aries, which magnifies the connection between the personal and the political. When Saturn and Pluto get together, the results can range from violence to a conservative backlash against our inherent freedom as humans.

In 2001, we experienced the opposition of Saturn and Pluto and we all saw the results, which lasted for the ensuing decade and created damage we are still dealing with. Indeed, we will for a long time. We now have an opportunity to see how our own obsession with fear and suppressing our life force contributed to the catastrophic aftermath of the Sept. 11 incident.

People who fancy themselves ‘conservative’ will have a chance to see the fear that is at the core of that ideology. Those who fancy themselves ‘liberal’ will have an opportunity to apply structure and discipline to their lives in the way that is essential to existing in an actual state of freedom. Through this aspect we will all have a significant opportunity to assess our relationship to fear. We will get to bear personal witness to the idea that trust is the key to love.

Chiron and Neptune enter Pisces (2010-2012).

Photo by Frank Verro.

Both planets are now at the end of long passages through Aquarius, in a conjunction. As this conjunction separates, Chiron will lead the way into Pisces, beginning in 2010. Neptune will follow over the next two years (slow planets take a while to go into a new sign, usually retrograding back into the prior sign once.) In effect this is one transit and represents the full activation of Pisces energy.

We are accustomed to all the toxic forms of Pisces, from violent films to television advertising to wanton consumption of alcohol to every mood-altering pharmaceutical to spill out of corporate laboratories by the train carload. We obsess with status, fashion, appearance, glamour and living fantasy lives. Then to this we try to add a little sprinkling of ‘spiritual’ as if that would magically open the way to God.

Neptune is the modern ruler of Pisces. Its presence there will refresh the spiritual waters, flooding through both society and consciousness with revitalizing life. Chiron will make us aware of how toxic our ways of living and thinking are, and introduce — often poignantly — awareness of how we need to feel our emotions, our bodies and our souls.

Uranus enters Aries (2010-2011).

The mighty liberator Uranus, the planet of foresight, technological advance, innovation and revolution, will personally cross the Aries Point three times starting in 2010, ending up in Aries to stay for seven years in 2011. If we are looking for a tipping point where the signs of change are inevitable, and this odd thing known as ‘the public’ actually wakes up, this is the event. On the personal level, this aspect says we have to think of ourselves differently. The real evolution is not a news event but an awakening of who we think we are. But we don’t need to wait around — this awakening is happening right now, just when we least expect it.

Yours & truly,

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

I’ve been thinking about thinking. Motivational speaker James Allen tells us, “You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” In times of upheaval, it’s a sure bet that thoughts are zooming around in the ethers like birds startled out of their nest, flapping and dodging and making a din. Errant thoughts, most likely — unpoliced, let loose in panic. I could wish we’d be more deliberate with our thought process, but, as Henry Ford put it, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it.”

Thinking. Photo by Andrew Tansj.

This business of taking back our lives, making them work in collaboration and harmlessness while discovering and replacing the old patterns that held us in servitude (if not paralysis) will take generations to accomplish. We’ve made a few good steps this last week, overlaying a new template on some of what is outworn; and we’ve had a few sharp reminders of the mindless, emotional thought process we must rise above if we are to regain our national sanity.

Under the umbrella of the Chiron/Neptune/Jupiter mix, we saw a ‘pro-life’ zealot walk into a church and murder a doctor who provided late-term abortion for often desperate families. In the unenlightened soul, Jupiter has the capacity to puff us up in self-righteousness and God-delusion, fuel our confidence; Neptune provides the fantasy and Chiron the wounded disgruntlement. Given the limited consciousness of some Americans, the eventuality of this kind of incident was all but fated, driven by this combination of energies; only a matter of when and where. The where turned out to be a church vestibule on a Sunday morning in Wichita, Kansas.

Another example of this overblown energy came at the announcement of a new Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor appears, at first blush, to be the epitome of the prototype necessary to balance out a male-dominated court and a growingly diverse American population. She is a she, for starters, and a Latina, raised by her widowed mother in a South Bronx housing project. One would think that her early accomplishments — high school valedictorian, graduating summa cum laude from Princeton University to become an editor of the Law Journal at Yale Law School; then on to become a judge, as well as work in public and private practice — would be heralded by the Republicans who are constantly berating the little guys for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, which Sonia obviously did.

Coming Up in Daily Astrology and Adventure

Artist’s rendition of the view from a hypothetical airless planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Picture from the Wikimedia Commons.

Somewhere out there in the galaxy is another planet suitable for human habitation. And two sets of scientists are racing to see if that planet might be found in the nearby Alpha Centauri system.

Writing for The Washington Post, reporter Joel Achenbach describes the efforts of the two groups — one American, one European — to be the first to confirm the existence, long suspected, of a planet in that system.

The American team is making 100,000 observations of the Centauri system and analyzing them to try and find a planet. Their European counterparts apparently have more sophisticated equipment, the article states. Both have their electronic eyes focused on our nearest stellar neighbor, a binary star system that is practically next door to our sun.

Of course, astronomically speaking, the distance to something “right next door” is still, well, astronomical. In the case of Alpha Centauri, more than four years of travel at the speed of light, if that ever proves possible. Or, as Achenbach puts it poignantly in his article: “The venerable robotic probe Voyager I, which has traveled farther from Earth than any manmade spacecraft, is racing away at nearly 11 miles per second and has already traveled 10 billion miles. It would need on the order of 80,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri were it traveling in that direction.”

That, naturally, makes any manned mission (much less colonization) little more than water cooler talk for a long while yet. However, the scientific community is looking at new options for exploratory spacecraft. Among those is the idea to go small. As Achenbach relates in his article, the first vessels to cruise the reaches of interstellar space might be less Starship Enterprise than “Cellphone Enterprise: a small, speedy spacecraft, crammed with nanotechnology and capable of beaming snapshots back home.”

And from the Trivial Coincidences Dept., in the mid-1990s science fiction show Babylon 5, when humans took to the stars the first society they encountered was the Centauri Republic. But those folks didn’t live in the Alpha Centauri system, it turns out; the name was just a “translation error,” it seems.
 

Front row, Commander Mark Polansky (right) and Pilot Doug Hurley. Back row (left to right), astronauts Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Canadian Space Agency’s Julie Payette, Tom Marshburn and Tim Kopra, all mission specialists. Kopra is scheduled to join Expedition 20 as flight engineer after launching to the International Space Station with the STS-127 crew. Image credit: NASA.

A week from this Saturday, NASA will launch the Space Shuttle Endeavor with a seven-person crew on a mission to the International Space Station.

This follows hot on the heels of a tremendously successful mission last month to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. (Speaking of that trip, have you seen this great photo by Floridian George Fetter at SpaceWeather.com?)

On tap for this trip by Endeavor is construction and installation of the Kibo laboratory, built by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which PhysOrg.com reports will “allow experiments to be exposed to space.”

Kibo is the Japanese word for “hope.” According to Wikipedia, the lab will be the largest single module on the International Space Station; the first two parts were delivered by earlier shuttle missions, and next week’s launch includes the final section. Kibo has its own robot arm for moving experiments between the pressurized portion of the module and the exposed facility or “Terrace.”

NASA has slated 16 days for this mission, which will include five space walks.
 

Wheel slippage during attempts to extricate NASA’s Mars Rover Spirit from a patch of soft ground during the preceding two weeks had partially buried the wheels by the 1,899th Martian day, or sol, of the Spirit’s mission on Mars (May 6, 2009). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

When you’re stuck in a rut, that’s usually a good time for some introspection.

That’s exactly what NASA had its Mars Rover Spirit do this week. The six-wheeled robot ran into soft soil back on May 1 and got stuck. The space agency has been trying to figure out a way to get it moving again since then, and this week they had an epiphany: Use Spirit’s microscopic imaging camera to take pictures of its underside, so engineers can better see what they’re working against.

The result is a patchwork of images stitched together into a panoramic view. It’s a little fuzzy — that camera is designed to take pictures from only about 2.4 inches away — but “the mosaic is still very useful for helping to assess the rover’s state,” according to the website for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Frankly, few would blame NASA if it decided to let Spirit rest where it lies. The robotic explorer has exponentially exceeded expectations. Designed to operate for 90 sols, or Martian days, after landing on the red planet January 4, 2004, Spirit has now seen more than 1,800 sols of duty. However, NASA is still looking for a way to free Spirit from the sandy soil in the region now known as “Troy” so it can continue its mission.

So far, Spirit has encountered evidence of water ice on Mars, but no signs of life — and certainly nothing like the mission’s mascot.

By Eric Francis of Little Rock, AK

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 5, 2009, #769 – BY PRIYA KALE

Today Priya Kale is standing in for Eric Francis on the weekly horoscope. For more daily astrology, horoscopes and information on consultations please visit www.cosmicdiaries.com

Aries (March 20-April 19)
The heavens seem to be opening up their wisdom to you now and I suggest you do all you can to be receptive and listen to the messages coming through. There is an idea which can open your mind to a whole new world of very real possibilities. You’ve been perhaps disillusioned in the past and although painful this has only brought a priceless awakening to reality through the fog. The rewards for your courage are beginning to come through in spades and if you haven’t seen tangible proof yet you won’t have to wait too much longer. But whether love or success, remember it is quality and quantity that you are after. You are a person of impeccable taste, so why settle for anything less than pure gold?

Read your 2008 annual for Aries. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aries and Aries rising here.

Taurus (April 19- May 20)
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly…” Your life right now is truly an embodiment of this phrase. After recent life-and-death battles, you are now in a phase of resurrection and coming into your own. As you dare to venture out into this world, you may feel divided within yourself, but there is a truth staring you in the face regarding a deeply personal or financial situation that you would do well not to deny. Recent events may have brought you a deeper understanding of where your wounds lie, healing and releasing you from their grip. Be proud of who you are and what you have to offer. This is the story of your becoming — but who you are and what you are made of may even surprise you, if you can let go of old beliefs that dare to limit your success.

Read your 2008 annual for Taurus. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Taurus and Taurus rising here.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)
Events this week bring you a moment of truth asking you to be honest with yourself how you feel about an important business or personal relationship. But more importantly this is asking you to be honest about who you truly are and what you identify with on the deepest, most core subconscious level. You are recognizing deeper desires that you haven’t dared acknowledge before, but what is awakening now within you is so real that it is impossible to deny. It may be scary to let go of your inhibitions to the extent of having to deal with heavy emotions when your natural tendency is to keep things light. But I suggest now the deeper you are willing to go, the higher the peak [of ecstasy or success] you are likely to reach. Be true to yourself and all else will be revealed in the light of that.

Read your 2008 annual for Gemini. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Gemini and Gemini rising here.

Cancer (June 21- July 22)
You’ve been spending more time undercover and discovering there is another side to you that you often don’t reveal to yourself, let alone others. But events now are asking you to come back out into the light of day to see how this affects your daily life and relationships. You’ve been searching for something to stabilize you but this will only come when you are ready to be honest with yourself above all of your deepest, sometimes divided, desires. You may fear that the truth is too much to handle but truly this is about letting go of the darker fears that control you and threaten to have you living a double life. Be willing to be honest within an important conversation without allowing yourself to feel judged. Your ability to confront your fears head on is more likely to bring you solid proof of what is real, and that this is nothing to be afraid of.

Read your 2008 annual for Cancer. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Cancer and Cancer rising here.

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
Whether you realize it or not you are making a huge shift this week, turning a corner toward recognizing the true depth of your worth. But this will only come when you can resolve your own criticism of yourself that stands a tall wall in between you and the dream in your heart. You may be trying to be rational about this, but don’t forget every great dream that has ever manifested began with a leap of faith. If you can acknowledge your desire to be bold and take a chance on something you feel passionately about you are more than likely to see a way this can become a reality. You are entering a phase when the world is catching on to your gifts and what you have to offer. Perhaps it’s time you woke up to this too.

Read your 2008 annual for Leo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Leo and Leo rising here.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
Your professional life seems to be in focus right now and there may be an issue you feel deeply divided about. But I suggest you recognize your deeper need for emotional fulfillment to be recognized for being exactly who you are — no pretenses. This will prevent any misplaced feelings of resentment or emotional anxiety that can arise for not having your needs met. If you can acknowledge your own insecurities you can move past them, releasing any feeing of being stuck regarding a difficult choice. You have more power than you give yourself credit for. But your true strength lies in your wisdom and ability to stay true to a greater selfless dream you’ve been working patiently to manifest. The rewards are not too far over the horizon as you will soon see.

Read your 2008 annual for Virgo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Virgo and Virgo rising here.

Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
After months of learning yourself in the light of your relationships, you are being called upon to take a bold move into the unknown. Surprisingly or not so surprisingly this is actually about to show you just how much you have allowed past demons to control your current reality, which is nowhere near as shaky as you may feel. As scary as it seems, if you can let go of your emotional fear and be honest with yourself about a great hope you carry, you can gain the higher perspective you need regarding a deeply intimate or financial partnership. Recognize your core values and be willing to use your imagination. A partner is leading the way but if you can trust, this is leading to a meeting place of equals in the most real sense of the word.

Read your 2008 annual for Libra. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Libra and Libra rising here.

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
You’ve dared venture to the ‘other’ side and may feel torn about whether you are making the right choice, but ask yourself how much of these are your own worst fears. You are more grounded in reality than you’ve been in the recent past and stand on solid ground. A partner is coming into their own after a deep phase of introspection and is willing to offer you the stability you’ve been looking for. Indeed you may have to get over your own sense of mistrust in the situation and more importantly recognize your own infinite potential in the light of a deeply intimate or financial situation. In all conversations and communication speak from the heart and be willing to let go of old mental patterns. There is a divine truth revealing itself to you and what you have to offer. This is more real than any demons of past fears you could conjure up.

Read your 2008 annual for Scorpio. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Scorpio and Scorpio rising here.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
With a Full Moon in your sign, it seems you are learning an important truth about yourself in the light of a relationship. You may be feeling fairly disillusioned at this point that things could ever move forward within a partnership situation. But what you are learning is the need to stay true to yourself even in the face of changing reality. You have always been a step ahead of the rest when it comes to your vision, but please realize just how much your mind tends to play tricks on you, bringing you more pain than pleasure in the long run. Stay in the present and stay with what is real. If you can let go of your desire to control the outcome of a situation, it is more than likely to bring you more of the real harmony and pleasure you seek as a part of your daily life. Everything you do, be it work or play, if you do it with love — the action itself will be your reward.

Read your 2008 annual for Sagittarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
You’ve been working hard lately toward a long-time personal goal or ambition, but I suggest you find some quiet time now to pay attention to a deeper, wiser message coming through. If you feel like a slave to your routine, recognize these are usually your own high expectations rather than anyone else’s judgement of you. Find a balance now within your daily life to accommodate your need for a sense of accomplishment as well as the need to follow your soul passion. Something has the potential to touch your heart deeply this week, but for that you may first have to take a leap of faith and live your truth wholly. You can be your own worst critic — and you know what they say about all work and no play…

Read your 2008 annual for Capricorn. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Capricorn and Capricorn rising here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
A creative or sexual partnership reaches a crucial turning point this week. You may feel two ways about a situation that seems risky to begin with, without the added pressure of someone else’s critical thinking, so don’t fall into that trap. But remember you are known as the revolutionary of the zodiac because you have the rare combination of optimism and luck that allows you to take a risk on a dream and have it pay off. In an important conversation surrounding your security and your inner well-being, be honest and bold. You have not yet reached the bottom of the barrel and you are about to find out its real depth is as limitless as your soul. There is more comfort and security making its way to you if you are willing to speak up for what you know is true in your heart.

Read your 2008 annual for Aquarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aquarius and Aquarius rising here.

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)
It may have felt like you’re talking around in circles in an endless debate and now you may feel like you’ve reached a fork in the road. But you turn a corner this week within a close personal situation. Partners have been slow to come around to recognizing your deep vision, but your honesty and truth has not gone unnoticed or unheard as you will soon see. Your imagination is your greatest gift. You are a visionary, who has the magical ability to manifest thought and word into tangible creations of untold value — but this is because your dreams are rarely selfish. Wishful thinking may be a phrase for some; for you it is a very real way of life. Use your powers now and use them wisely…

Read your 2008 annual for Pisces. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Pisces and Pisces rising here.

Dear Friend and Leader:

A couple of weeks ago, I got a suggestion from my inner guide to stop interpreting the Aquarius conjunction. I follow this voice carefully in my astrology writing. It’s given me plenty of information but never before suggested that I shut up. “You’ve been working on this for 14 years. Stop explaining the energy and focus on working with it,” is the message I got, basically verbatim. Fourteen years? All my roads lead here; to this desk; all words to this very sentence.

Aquarius. Photo by Eric Francis.

It was time for a break anyway, so I started canceling things (like editions of Planet Waves Radio), farming writing assignments out to my colleagues and doing other things (visiting friends, photographing new people and places, writing fiction, and so on). Finally I slept through the Gemini New Moon and realized that I had indeed disengaged myself. With the first peak of the Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune conjunction upon us, and with Mercury stationing direct on Saturday, I am here with a few additional notes.

Mercury will station direct in late Taurus, square the alignment in late Aquarius, so the two events are intimately related.

It will take Mercury about 11 days from now, slowly walking forward in Taurus, to align at precisely 90 degrees with the triple conjunction (this will be the third pass of this square, and the most precise). Mercury is the planet of mind, and vibrates closely with Aquarius all the time; Taurus is the sign of the body. The message is that we are trying to embody an idea. That is to say, it’s time to get it out of our heads, out of the abstract realm, and into the physical, sensory dimension where we can work tangibly with the changes we are making.

I have described the Aquarius alignment as one of the most meaningful conjunctions of our lifetimes. I am speaking collectively and individually. This is a big statement, particularly since (at the moment) there seems to be nothing special going on in the world unless you’re really impressed by Korea’s nuclear test or GM fleeing to China; and yes we have a Supreme Court nominee (see article below) and that is pretty important; but nothing overt (such as on TV) that would lead someone to say, “Gee whiz, what a superb moment of human evolution. What a great time to be on the planet.” Unless of course you’re looking carefully, and unless your perception sees the particular wavelengths that would resolve something so subtle. Because this aspect involves Neptune, and is in a sextile to the Galactic Core in Sagittarius, I am pretty sure it’s invisible to most people. Both Neptune and the Core have the property of disappearing into the background. But so do most big aspects — unless something horrid happens (such as Sept. 11) or unless the planets turn up the dial on sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll (the 1960s, 2012).

If we look with the long view, it’s fairly easy to see what it all adds up to, but it’s difficult to see the astrology in its moment, and that is one of the true challenges of paying attention to astrology at all. Also, one’s personal transits can send us into crisis, and I’m hearing a fair bit of that now, but we need to understand the nature of the crisis. To me this is speaking clearly about getting to a lighter density level than the one we’re conditioned to hang out on. This involves adjusting our relationship to matter/mater/mother.

Spiral Fantasy by Alfred Laing. This is a fractal-generated image; it’s a mathematical equation. A fractal is a still portrait of Chaos Theory in motion. When you hear someone say that “there are patterns in the chaos,” this is an example – and so are you.

We also need to shift our relationship to what was formerly called ‘chaos’ or ‘information overload’. One message that astrology is sending us is about embracing apparent complexity. In recent years, more than 200,000 planets have been discovered orbiting our Sun (most of them since Pholus and QB1 showed up in 1992) — so many that most don’t have names and probably never will. If astrology is a model of consciousness, this is evidence of a change in the model and what it represents, which would be you and me.

As humanity struggles to keep up with the haze of technological development, climate changes and economic changes, there is another struggle, one usually going on beneath the surface of consciousness, which is about needing our spiritual progress to keep pace with all the options we’re given. By spiritual progress I mean ethics, and I also mean awareness of, and a relationship with, a thinly veiled dimension of reality that provides us with better information than we get most other places; and by that I mean living information that will help us heal our lives and do what we came here to do.

That bit! Tell me: would it be fair to say you were born to do what you are doing today? You were born to do something, and to find out what that is it’s necessary to get beneath the appearances of life, below the surface and away from the expectations of others and pay attention to something closer to the core; and by pay attention I don’t mean a fleeting glance or a whim; I don’t mean a workshop.

The problem — and it’s a big one — with this dimension of consciousness is that it denies something called the ego. By ego I don’t just mean the arrogant guy in a suit and aviator sunglasses who thinks a movie should be made about him, despite how boring his life really is. I mean the complex of fear-based concepts that creates a notion of ‘self’ which wants to run the universe on its own frightening terms. This is an identity that is usually experienced as some combination of competitive, jealous, controlling, negative and unwilling to yield to collective needs, or for that matter, authentic personal needs.

The ego eats fear to thrive, and creates fear as waste; it’s a kind of breeder-reactor. Television news is one of its favorite foods. It occupies itself with games, such as “How much does it cost?” or “Look what I can get away with,” or “I’m only trying to help you.” (Google Transactional Analysis for more info. Or get one of the best books ever written, Games People Play.)

Or how about, “I’m not going to be with anyone till I’ve healed all of my issues and I find the perfect partner.”

The original title for Woodstock was “Aquarian Exposition.” That is indeed Jerry Garcia on the left; Jimi to the right; Janis below; Grace lower right.

Then there is the community game. I am starting to cringe every time I hear an expression like “LGBT community” or “Facebook community.” There are a lot of imaginary groups that exist in the midst of Neptune in Aquarius, such as the Fair Trade coffee drinking community. And there is a profound need to get together; to align our vision and our ideals in a way that is not as simple as getting on an Internet group. Part of why so many people are so lonely right now (a Neptune function) is that most of us don’t know how to get together any more; how to share a goal or an idea and work toward it.

Something else is possible; many other things are. When we’re introduced to a perspective on the world that offers us not only freedom from these patterns but also the gift of abundance; an opportunity to participate; and an unusual level of awareness, this fear-based pattern can (and usually does) go into revolt mode (illness, addiction, rage, guilt, self-sabotage). Or it can try to put the biocomputer into sleep mode (unavailable, wandering, lost, delayed, bored, depressed, frustrated). One very common reaction is simply fear, with nothing special to back it up; just ongoing fear of the unknown or unfamiliar.

And yes, self-aggrandizement and arrogance are some of its most fun toys. More lately, dwelling on integrity is one of the most popular games we play, which can almost always be identified by the inability to laugh at oneself. Too much integrity is not healthy. The Golden Gate Bridge sways in the breeze.

Sex, for its part, has profound power both as a tool for awakening and for going deeper into sleep. But there is a paradox, which is that it’s very difficult to awaken without tangible sexual awareness; applied awareness. The reason sex is such a powerful ally for either seeming side in this struggle is that it’s so deeply connected to one’s biocomputer, existing in a constant dialog with our DNA and wanting to express one of humanity’s prime directives: creativity.

The Elusive and the Theoretical

Speaking of DNA, let’s pretend that Chiron hadn’t been discovered and all we knew about right now was the conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune. Jupiter expands and Neptune both envisions and dissolves. In Aquarius, this would be about idealism and ideas, involving some social phenomenon. We might be thinking of things like progress, a social vision, and so on, all of which was directed by ‘God’ showing up in the form of Jupiter and Neptune, two very divine kinds of planets. Near the last Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Aquarius, in 1843, in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, John L. O’Sullivan wrote of “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence.” That is, expansion of the United States westward. In order to do this we had to have a vision and slaughter a lot of Native Americans and Buffalo, and I do mean a lot. Under this conjunction in Aquarius there was an expedition to explore the Rocky Mountains, and a large migration of humanity westward across Turtle Island.

Last week, scientists found this crude computing device, believed to be about 12.000 years old, in the back of the Lascaux Cave in southern France.

The problem with a conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune (particularly in Aquarius) is that it can be delusional and in denial of the future consequences of the very future it seeks to colonize. For our part, we are still blazing into our technological future. I am absolutely impressed by cell phone addiction. People, er, young women come to my studio and their cell phones get more calls than Jonathan Cainer gets. (I’ve had to enact a remove the battery rule, and if that doesn’t work I will leave a bucket of water near the door.) I am astonished how many 14-year-olds have iPhones, which give one access to the global library known as the Internet. And if you tell someone under age 30 that George Washington and Abe Lincoln were great friends, they are likely to believe you.

Speaking on the individual level, this conjunction is the culmination of the “I’m very nearly perfect because I do yoga” phase of social history, a close cousin of, “I’m going to be the best me I can be.” This high horse is finally starting to be seen as the merry-go-round that it is; being spiritual in the theoretical sense offers little in the way of practical advantage unless you get along with your neighbors, including the ones that want to get your clothes off. Despite years of spiritual practice, a vast ocean of people feel like they have nothing to offer the world; no clue what they want to do; and are at war with themselves, their partners and their whole concept of relationship. Sexual attraction still sends a significant portion of the population in to panic mode. It ain’t the freakin’ Sixties any more.

This crisis exists in thought only, having nothing to do with who we are or what is possible.

I could see Jupiter-Neptune in Aquarius, on one level, being about a notion of where we think we’re supposed to be that we are not: how much progress we’re supposed to have made, what we wanted to do that never happened, and so on. There is the sense of how the future is supposed to be happening now, but we can’t quite dial it in, largely because Jupiter and Neptune can be so elusive and Aquarius can be so theoretical. The whole thing has this feeling of how spiritual it’s supposed to be, if only I could catch it in my butterfly net.

Apropos of Aquarius, let’s consider one last idea before we move onto Chiron’s involvement here. This is one of the most contradictory signs of the lot; it’s about freedom, innovation and individuality on one side of the calculus, and it’s about conformity and rigid, boxy thinking on the other. The mental patterns of Aquarius are not easily seen or addressed, partly because they are so intimately involved in awareness itself. Meanwhile, Neptune in this sign has been working to dissolve those patterns. Part of what we have experienced is a pattern involved with Neptune itself, in its lower vibrations: much of our society’s activity manifesting as a socially acceptable (Aquarius) psychoactive substance (Neptune). You can probably name ten of them without even trying too hard. Some are digital; some are other things.

I really wonder how many train carloads of mood stabilizers have been manufactured since 1998 — you know, how many miles it would stretch. But I don’t wonder why we think we need them: if we were really to keep pace with all this progress, we wouldn’t be the same person two days in a row, and that pressure can certainly be painful. Looked at one way, the world gives us plenty to be depressed, anxious and uptight about. Whether it’s true, and how you respond, are another story.

Chiron: Grounding in Experience and Reality

There have been 12 conjunctions of Jupiter and Neptune since 1843, just before the discovery of Neptune (see article below). That conjunction, as mentioned, was in Aquarius. So the current conjunction references the discovery of Uranus in 1846; we just experienced the Neptune return of Neptune’s discovery. Out of all these Jupiter-Neptune conjunctions, Chiron was present for just one of them, the one in 1945, in Libra, weeks after World War II ended. The success of the Western world and Japan in the postwar years offers both encouragement and a warning.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Chiron’s presence in this conjunction changes everything. For those who are trying to grasp what Chiron is and how it works, think of it as a utility that 1) helps us raise awareness, and therefore facilitates healing; and 2) makes the energy of the outer planets available to us in a tangible form.

This second property, worth its own article, was sketched out briefly by Barbara Hand Clow. It’s easy to understand in a conjunction with either Jupiter or Neptune. Jupiter (not really an outer planet, but still obscure enough to get partial credit) is like a vast database of ideas and possibilities, usually associated with world culture, knowledge, spirituality, or religion. Chiron contacting Jupiter helps us dial in specific ideas and apply them. Chiron is almost always about going from the general to the specific; from the theory to the experience. Therefore Chiron to Jupiter is about the application of an idea to your life or to the world. It’s about direct participation in society, especially in Aquarius. And it’s about the crisis of what we don’t know. You could say that the conjunction of Chiron to Jupiter translates to know want you don’t know, then find out if you can — and do something about it.

Looked at another way, Chiron conjunct Jupiter is the perfect expression of think globally (Jupiter) and act locally (Chiron).

As for Neptune, this is an extremely complex energy at this time in our history. It is often summed up incompletely and somewhat uselessly as the higher octave of Venus. Yes, Neptune should be about spiritual love as opposed to special love; but our obsession with fear turns Neptune famously toxic. If Venus is ‘love’ and Neptune is ‘in love’, the reality of love can and often is substituted with the illusion of in love; indeed, the obsession with being in love as opposed to simply loving. Neptune is about an aura of glamour as opposed to the earthy beauty of Venus. And it’s about the psychotic fantasy that God’s love is more important than human love, because as we know from reading the Bible, ‘God’ is a jealous SOB.

Neptune, due to the predominance of fear on our planet at this time, is associated with a lot of D words: delusion, denial, drink, drugs and deception. It’s also associated with dreams, which for too many people are more about the fearful or irrational kind than they are about holding a vision for our lives. Neptune would indeed be part of that vision, and it is, when we find it; it can represent the numinous, the miraculous, and the impossible. Geoff Cornelius calls it the daemon; the “genius or spirit” (in the words of Lilly) that is working behind the face of astrology and what we are seeking from astrology.

Neptune is also about sensing the need to go beyond fear; to embrace a dimension of awareness that is invisible to the senses. This dimension is not really documentable by normal means. It’s more of the ‘paranormal’. Neptune’s energy is usually too vague or nebulous to directly access. Chiron serves as a focusing device, like a lens, or a funnel. It gathers the energy of Neptune and puts it to some direct use. It will also shock us out of the denial represented by Neptune, calling our attention to what matters and to what it’s been more convenient to overlook.

With Jupiter and Neptune together, focused by crystal Chiron, we have a lot of power on our hands: to raise awareness, to heal, and to apply the concepts we have been learning for so long. Theoretical knowledge and self-improvement are useless unless we put them to use. What we need to be reminded of is that the goal is not perfection; there is no such thing on this plane of reality. Often our attachment is to being perfect or doing something perfectly rather than being real. In fact with Chiron one of the things we often need to deal with is the fact of incompletion or imperfection, and to proceed despite it. Chiron is about solving problems, which is always a work in progress — and which suggests that there exist problems to solve in the first place, so many that life will work a lot better if we resolve to have fun doing it.

We live in a moment of the most incredible potential. We carry technology in our pockets that would have made the Apollo mission engineers envious. We have access to information about ourselves that can help us grow, change and shape our lives. We have visions for ourselves, and we have truly incredible creative potential that we could indeed realize — if not for these annoying mental blocks; except for all this irritating, boring fear. And — if you think astrology has anything to add to the conversation, or for that matter even if you don’t — we have a brilliant alternative.

Yours & truly,

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, taken on V-J Day, 1945.

In 1843, there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius, close to our current conjunction, which predated and in a sense predicted the 1846 discovery of Neptune (see article below). (This is also to say that Neptune recently had the Neptune return of its own discovery position.) Then the next conjunctions were as follows: 1856 in Pisces (the first technologically ‘modern’ conflict, the Crimean War, ends); 1869 in Aries (Wyoming becomes the first place in the world to give women the right to vote); 1881 in Taurus, with Saturn right there (the Sioux end the American/Indian conflict with surrender, Kansas jump starts prohibition); 1894 in Gemini (a new form of communication, moving pictures, are invented); 1907 in Cancer (American financial disaster is stopped by financiers fronting the bill); 1919-1920 in Leo (Germany was not happy, and would be back); 1932 in Virgo (as the ‘Great’ Depression was taking hold); 1945 in Libra, conjunct Chiron (just as World War II ended, appropriately enough); 1958 in Scorpio (Beat Generation, predicting a bit of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll to come); 1971 in Sagittarius (dawn of the modern New Age); 1984 in Capricorn (that form of spirituality known as Paranoid Fundamentalist Neoconservatism); 1997 in Capricorn (more of the same); and finally 2009 in Aquarius — notably, the first in Aquarius since the discovery of Neptune in Aquarius.

— Eric Francis / Melanie Andrews

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

The emotional rollercoaster we’re riding in these last weeks continues to spin us up and over, taking us higher, dropping us lower and then plunging ahead non-stop; and, white-knuckled passengers on this thrill-ride, everything’s moving too fast to get more than an impression of where we are and what we’re doing. On a purely mundane level, the chaos and confusion keeps us in perpetual motion and disorientation; on a psychic level, we’re taking a trip deep into the bowels of the human condition. Our own.

Emotional Landscape. Photo by F. Alejandra.

If the channelers are right about this time period — one in which there is purging of old, anachronistic thought, the acceptance of responsibility for dark deeds of the past and rebalancing of energies in order to move into renewed awareness of our planet and ourselves — then it seems to me we’re right in the ‘zone,’ looking at all of it spread before us like a banquet of inequities and cruelties and mishaps both intentional and un. It’s all right here to examine. These rare opportunities to snap awake and leap forward come in times of extremes; we have a choice, now, whether to look or turn our heads. I urge you to stand in your growing humanity and your bright possibilities, and look carefully. It’s required, if we are to release the pain and renew our spirit.

We are assessing not only our own personal karmic load, born into families and tribes that define us, but our national mythology as well. In the long view, it seems to me that’s what we’ve been doing since the ball dropped in Times Square to announce the birth of this new century. Our behavior has become ever more transparent, more obvious and, in some cases, disturbingly predictable than we could have imagined; for some of us, we’re seeing it for the first time.

This is what the spiritual traditions call the ‘observer’ position, and unless we are willing to witness ourselves and our activity — hopefully without judgment, taking in information with non-attachment — we remain bit players in the script of our own lives. The more perilous life becomes the more we seek to answer the age-old question: who the hell AM I? Perhaps that’s what our personal play has always been about, anyway; surely millions of American plays, rewritten, have the capacity to rewrite the collective national script.

 

By Steve Bergstein | Psychsound

When Barack Obama was elected President last November, the first thing I thought about was the Supreme Court, the one branch of government that has final say on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws. It is the Supreme Court that breathes life into the First Amendment, religious freedoms, protection against police abuses. Without a Supreme Court that cares about these values, this would be a very different country.

President Barack Obama has tapped federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. AP Photo.

I don’t have any real expectation that President Obama is going to stop the war in Iraq or maintain a foreign policy that respects democracy or human rights. None of the other presidents gave a damn about these things, and the system is too corrupt for an independent president to chart a different path. But I knew that Obama would make a difference in his judicial appointments; any choices by Obama would be an improvement over George W. Bush’s Supreme Court picks.

We forget that the Constitution and federal laws can be interpreted in different ways. Two highly intelligent judges can see things differently, and even men and women of good faith can find themselves on opposite ends of the most profound legal issues of the day. This is why many Supreme Court cases are decided by a 5-4 or 6-3 vote. Few decisions are unanimous. When you consider that every case that reaches the Supreme Court originated in the lower federal and state courts, the same issue may have been chewed over two or three times by different judges as the case made its way to the Supreme Court. The law is so malleable.

Coming Up in Daily Astrology and Adventure

 


Say somebody wanted to ram a giant hunk of metal into your front yard, just to see what happened afterward. Not a very enticing proposal, is it?

LCROSS will accompany the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to the Moon. Credit: NASA.

Well, that’s exactly what two space missions — NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and Japan’s Kaguya/Selene project — will be doing in coming years.

According to an article in Astrobiology Magazine, the LCROSS mission is set to launch June 17 and when it reaches the moon, it will hurl the spent second stage of its Atlas rocket booster into a lunar crater. Scientists expect the resulting debris plume to reach six miles in height, and various instruments (possibly including the Hubble Space Telescope) will scan it for the presence of water (in the form of ice crystals) and mineralogical information.

A companion mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), will launch at the same time and place a satellite in orbit around the moon. Its instruments will be used to identify potential safe landing areas for future manned moon missions. For thumbnail sketches of upcoming NASA missions to the moon and other objects, visit this website.

The first shot at the moon’s surface, however, will be made by the Kaguya explorer of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The craft has been orbiting the moon since February 1, providing information to JAXA scientists, and is scheduled to impact on the surface on June 10. The debris plume will likewise be monitored and analyzed for information about the makeup of the lunar surface.

Images from JAXA’s Kaguya project, including HD video, can be found at the Selene (SELenological and Engineering Explorer) website.

Charles F. Bolden Jr., a retired Marine Corps general who has been to space four times, including once as commander of a 1986 shuttle mission, has been named by President Barack Obama as his choice to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Major General Charles F. Bolden, Jr. Credit & Copyright: NASA.

According to an article in The New York Times, Bolden was Obama’s advisor on space policy during his transition into the presidency. He also has ties to the aerospace industry, the article reported, noting Bolden’s work “as a lobbyist for ATK, which manufactures the solid rocket boosters for the space shuttle” and having served “on the board of Gencorp Inc., whose Aerojet subsidiary has a contract to build engines for the planned astronaut capsule.” And according to The Washington Post, he “is currently the chief executive officer of JackandPanther, a Houston-based military and aerospace consulting firm.”

Times have been tough for the space agency. With the astronomical costs of space flight, the agency has struggled to justify its mission even before the recent financial crisis. However, as reported at the Huffington Post, Bolden is seen as “calming” and “well liked” at the agency, with one friend quoted as saying he will bring “balance” to the agency and help foster cooperative efforts with other nations.

It won’t hurt that he’s spent time in leadership positions at NASA; Bolden has been an assistant deputy administrator there. If confirmed, Bolden would become the agency’s first African American administrator. He would also be only the second astronaut to head up NASA since it was established 50 years ago.

Obama also named Lori Glover, who was formerly associate administrator at NASA, to be deputy administrator, second in command to Bolden.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down safely in California on Sunday after weather cancelled the original plan to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida. But while the mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope was considered a smashing success on all fronts, it has also led to debate about NASA’s long-range mission.

A Smithsonian Institution image details the future Orion spacecraft, which won’t have the space shuttle’s versatility. Photo by Eric Long.

The Washington Post reports that the senior project scientist for Hubble is raising objections over the Constellation initiative — the next generation of spacecraft that will succeed the Space Shuttle program when it is retired next year. The new craft will lack the cargo bay and robot arm of the shuttles, said David Leckrone, and that means it will be harder to service Hubble or other orbital equipment. Leckrone is to retire in October, according to the article.

That criticism was rebuffed by other officials at the space agency. The article quoted Edward Weiler, head of space science at NASA, who noted that “there’s nothing up there that’s serviceable.” He also pointed out the extreme expense of the Hubble program — some $10 billion.

Voices have emerged on both sides of the debate at NASA in the wake of Leckrone’s original comments, which were on the NASA website.

The Constellation program is designed to get men back on the moon and, eventually, to Mars. It will not feature an airplane-like design reminiscent of the familiar shuttles, but will have capsules launched by rockets, more along the lines of the Apollo and other early space programs.

By Eric Francis of Little Rock, AK

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 29, 2009, #768 – BY PRIYA KALE

Today Priya Kale is standing in for Eric Francis on the weekly horoscope. Eric Francis returns to the weekly horoscope next week.

Aries (March 20-April 19)
You’re feeling pressure like you haven’t in a while to make something happen. Something’s gotta give and you know it. Only you may fear that things will get worse rather than better. You’ve been deeply re-evaluating your involvement in a situation, you know what you want now and you know the only way to get it is to ask for it. In an important conversation this week — I would suggest you be determined yet gentle; driven but focused and speak as well as listen. You are learning an important truth which could be your ticket to wield a powerful situation to your advantage. You can have more of what you want, in terms of tangible rewards and success, once you recognize the value of what you have to offer. You don’t have to push, just plant a few seeds in the right minds and watch it all come to life.

Read your 2008 annual for Aries. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aries and Aries rising here.

Taurus (April 19- May 20)
With astrology the way it has been in your chart, you may have felt like watching the action play out from behind the curtain rather than in the audience or being the star of the show. You’ve been in a phase of deep soul discovery which has had you keeping a low profile, reticent to say much. But the time is coming to verbalize all you’ve learned and act on the passion stirring within you. There is a great force about to sweep through your life, sure to change your beliefs of what you thought was possible. Especially when it concerns an important partnership, you are due to discover greater depth and potential which you may not have dared acknowledge before. It will take less effort than you think, just a firm resolution to be honest with yourself and speak from a place of deep awareness. Your time in the spotlight is near, think of this as a time when your entourage gathers around to celebrate your arrival.

Read your 2008 annual for Taurus. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Taurus and Taurus rising here.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)
You’ve been dealing with deep personal doubts, a feeling of groping in the dark and perhaps fear that you are going to be stuck in a situation longer than you like. But you are awakening now to a profound truth that may come as a solid hunch suggesting the ground beneath your feet is laden with more potential than you first realized. This is true. But you may need to resolve the importance of one partnership or financial situation that has its hold over you. There is a painful past you need to let go of but recognize that can only come when you confront it. It may take a while to all come together but something deep within your soul is coming to life — be patient as you nurture this dream. If you can trust your own instincts regarding the worth of something, it is more than likely to open up a chest of treasures rather than Pandora’s box, revealing to you the gold mine you are standing in.

Read your 2008 annual for Gemini. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Gemini and Gemini rising here.

Cancer (June 21- July 22)
A conversation you have with a friend or close partner this week is likely to reveal to you an important truth or piece of information that you may have felt you lacked. You know things cannot go on the way they have been when it comes to an important situation. You’ve been asserting your power and may be revved up to solidify something. You’ve also been learning dark truths about your relationships and the need to keep a check on manipulative tendencies within yourself and another. Be aware of these but less critical and more focused on rewriting the rules in favor of the greater stability, honesty and trust. There is a practical way forward from here if you are willing to let go of the past and listen to solid advice when you hear it — it could be your ticket to freedom.

Read your 2008 annual for Cancer. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Cancer and Cancer rising here.

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
You may have been deeply contemplating a career situation, while trying to keep your passion alive for your highest ambitions. You may feel deeply divided at the moment but your willingness to look at both sides of a situation is giving you the upper hand right now. If you can be patient and think win-win, you can rework a professional situation to your advantage and bring it to life. Recognize your own power within a situation now, to reach for your highest potential and have it manifest in tangible rewards and recognition for your efforts. You may not need to use as much force as you think, just have a willingness to rewrite a few rules in your day-to-day existence. Power is something that you either use or lose. But the truly powerful know they never need to flaunt it. Use yours and use it wisely.

Read your 2008 annual for Leo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Leo and Leo rising here.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
You’ve been patiently surveying your options and events have been pulling you out of your comfort zone to explore hidden potential. You may have been questioning yourself at this time, wondering if there is any truth to your perception of how things could be. Your persistence in going deeper in your quest for truth is soon to be rewarded. A deeply intimate or financial situation that you’ve been caught up in is soon to reveal its true worth to you. It may mean you have a change of heart or simply decide to let go of old rules that do nothing more than cage your passion in fear. Trust your highest judgement and find your voice to speak from a place of wisdom when it concerns an important situation. This is about you being true to your desires and your heart, if anything, and only what is real and solid will do.

Read your 2008 annual for Virgo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Virgo and Virgo rising here.

Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
A deeply personal or business partnership has held your attention for a while. You’ve been right to think there is something you don’t yet know. No one likes the feeling of being kept in the dark, but as the truth surfaces this week listen closely to what is being said. What you learn has the potential to change everything. A partner seems ready to go deeper and offer you the security you’ve been looking for, but on your part there is likely a darker past you need to let go of. You are rebuilding foundations and any rules based on past interactions need to be turned in favor of new ones. Emotionally and financially, the rewards for your patience, hope and clarity are about to start becoming a reality.

Read your 2008 annual for Libra. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Libra and Libra rising here.

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
You’re filled with fire and you know something that needs to give in a situation that has you feeling stuck. But the way through this seems to be an old debate that just won’t go away until you give it the attention it deserves. In an important conversation be willing to listen with an open mind to what someone is trying to say. If you do, you can bridge an important gap and come to a richer understanding of where someone is coming from and more importantly, what they mean to you. You may have to let go of the darker thoughts that threaten to control your mind, but the rewards seem to far outweigh any sacrifices you would have to make in this situation. It’s time to get real, and remember actions speak louder than words.

Read your 2008 annual for Scorpio. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Scorpio and Scorpio rising here.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
It’s taken courage to follow your heart boldly, but it may feel like you’ve hit a wall with important negotiations. Although partners have been reticent to speak up, they have been processing information and someone breaks their silence this week. This should be a flood of relief in the right direction, showing you that you aren’t indeed crazy for the ideas you’ve been having. There have been painful realizations you’ve had to wake up to — but indeed this is a reality that opened your mind to transcendental levels of awareness. If you can pay attention to the message coming, you will see there is a way forward for you to have more of the sexual and creative satisfaction as part of your daily life. Who says you have to sacrifice personal pleasure for work? Everything you do now, let it be a conscious act of love and creation and that is what will manifest as your tangible reality.

Read your 2008 annual for Sagittarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
You may have been deeply perplexed about a situation close to your heart. It may have had you in two minds about a risk you’ve been contemplating, but feel like you don’t have enough information about. But this week brings you to a moment of truth, gearing you with enough forward momentum to take that leap. You’ve been deeply soul searching and there is more depth to you than even you realized. Be honest above all with yourself now about a reality that you can no longer deny. You can be happy and successful doing the things you love and which bring you joy, but you may have to give yourself permission first. This has always been your challenge. Right now it may feel like you are jumping off a cliff, but if you can have faith in yourself as you follow your heart you are more than likely to land in the lap of sensual pleasure and sexual, creative passion rather than any abyss you may fear.

Read your 2008 annual for Capricorn. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Capricorn and Capricorn rising here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
You’ve seen yourself mirrored and distorted in the eyes of the people around you so much lately, that it has been absolutely essential to keep clear of projections and an awareness of who you are at all times. You could NEVER just be one of the crowd. But truth is the crowd does not really want to be one of the crowd either. Your ability to keep sight of your soul even when other people are being indecisive is what keeps you ahead of the game. If you’ve been concerned regarding an important matter surrounding your home, family or security, there is important news surfacing which is likely to prove to be reassuring and bring a flood of relief. It will though require you to get over the darker fears that control you and actually take that step towards allowing yourself to feel comfortable in your own skin.

Read your 2008 annual for Aquarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aquarius and Aquarius rising here.

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)
Your awareness of yourself and a core transcendental reality of humanity has grown in leaps and bounds. But in one partnership situation it may feel as if you’ve hit a wall. Partners have been reticent to speak and it may have been hard to get a word out of them. You may fear that you are not being heard. But even if you have felt invisible, trust on a deeper level there has been a process of feeling stuff out. A partner has been listening and processing what you’ve been saying and this week you learn an important truth. In an important conversation be honest and willing to listen, there is valuable information surfacing. If you can use your imagination and put your money where your mouth is — there is a lucrative idea you have now, which could be the stepping stone to the greater vision you’ve been trying to manifest as your gift to the world.

Read your 2008 annual for Pisces. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Pisces and Pisces rising here.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

I’m a sucker for commencement speeches. I suppose that’s because I have a life-long love affair with words, with ideas; with the light bulbs of inspiration that click in our brains and run their bright light through our hearts to produce enthusiasm and hopefulness. My prime directive seems to be an innate instinct, like a heat-seeking missile, targeting the profound; I used to think that was big, earth-shaking stuff — now I know it’s any moment that puts time on freeze-frame for just a nanosecond and makes me aware of how blissfully, awesomely alive I am.

IUPUI’s 2008 Commencement Ceremonies. Photo by IUPUI Alumni Relations.

As with Mama Gump’s box of chocolates, we never know who will give a great speech as opposed to just a good one; the same way only time will tell if the seeds of inspiration planted will grow and bloom or fall on unprepared ground. At any graduation, there is a complex set of variables that cloud the mind’s ability to take in the moment: exhaustion, euphoria, anxiety, yadda. Graduations — indeed, the conclusion of any hard-earned goal and release into new energy and possibility — are emotional affairs that provide us pageantry that runs the gamut from the boring adult/authority wah-wah oration in a Peanuts voiceover, to the big fun of Dr. Patch Adams’ (who’s still clowning around, by the way) retreating bare bum.

So tell me — if you were going to stand up in front of a faceless crowd of eager souls, raring to stampede out the gate and conquer the world, what would you say? You have twenty minutes or so to impart the secret of life to your audience. What sage advice would you offer a group of people who are poised at a threshold, years of preparation behind, all thinking, That’s done. What now?

Coming Up in Daily Astrology and Adventure

 


Earth’s eye in the sky — well, its most famous one, at any rate — is back in business after a lengthy, complicated and daring mission by astronauts in the Space Shuttle Atlantis over the past week, as recapped by The New York Times.

Dressed for space, (from right to left) Scott Altman, Gregory Johnson, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel, John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino and Michael Good got on the bus headed to the launching pad on May 11. Photo by Bruce Weaver/Agence France-Presse.

The Hubble Space Telescope has now been outfitted with new batteries, new gyroscopes and new instruments, starting with the new Wide Field Camera 3 that will continue to provide the kind of stunning, deep-space images we’ve become used to seeing from Hubble. This was the trickiest repair, and when a balky bolt seemed unwilling to release its grip on the old camera there was concern it couldn’t be completed. However, astronaut Andrew Feustel (who used to restore old Jaguars) persevered and, bypassing the torque limit on the ratchet he was using, managed to free the old device.

Those new images won’t be available right away, however. According to the Times article, NASA officials say calibrating the two new and two repaired instruments will take until late summer, at which point the data will begin flowing once again.

With the Hubble repairs wrapped up by Tuesday, the astronauts had a few days left in orbit to complete some other tasks. Those included a live press conference held Wednesday, and testifying for the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science on Thursday. They also performed a visual inspection of the heat shield on Atlantis, finding no problems that would jeopardize their scheduled return to planetside today.

This was the final scheduled maintenance for Hubble, and should carry it through to about 2014, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is due to be launched.

If you’re one of those lucky enough to live at latitudes where the aurora borealis — the Northern Lights — are visible, the folks over at SpaceWeather.com have a handy service for you.

Northern Lights, taken near Glenallen, Alaska, on a late-night drive. The orange glow on the horizon is the approaching dawn. Photo by David Cartier.

By subscribing to the newly announced SpaceWeather Phone, you’ll get a reminder the next time the Northern Lights are going to be glowing over your town.

“But wait,” as the late-night TV infomercials like to say, “there’s more!”

“When the space station is about to fly over your backyard, your phone will ring,” the SpaceWeather Phone site explains. “When planets align … you get the idea. The voice you hear will be Dr. Tony Phillips telling you what to look for and when.”

The cost is either $4.95 or $6.95 per month, depending on the notices you want to receive. The phone call is backed up by an email, just to make sure you don’t miss anything. To hear a sample call, visit the SpaceWeather Phone site.

Our friend the architectural blogger sent us a note recently about a little cinematic faux pas.

Skyrose Chapel Rose Hills, Whittier, California. Photo by Maurice Jennings.

You might remember that back in March, she had reported that a scene in the new Star Trek movie, now summer’s first blockbuster, had been filmed at Thorncrown Chapel in Northern Arkansas.

Well … no.

According to our friend, the building in the background was, indeed, designed by the late E. Fay Jones, one of America’s most highly regarded architects. The chapel, however, wasn’t Thorncrown, she now says with some chagrin. It was another Jones project — done in partnership with architect Maurice Jennings — called Skyrose Chapel and located in Whittier, California. It does share some design similarities with the older Thorncrown.

Her information comes from that bastion of movie knowledge, the Internet Movie Database, which has a section on movie locations.

She’s sorry about the case of mistaken identity, and so are we.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 22, 2009, #767 – BY PRIYA KALE

Today Priya Kale is standing in for Eric Francis on the weekly horoscope. For more daily astrology, horoscopes and information on consultations please visit www.cosmicdiaries.com

Aries (March 20-April 19)
If you’ve ever doubted your capabilities to say the word and make it happen, now would be the time to put your abilities to the test. You’ve always known you were born for greater things; your ability to dream the impossible and dare to meet your soul’s longing, is your gift to the world. What ensues from your actions this week should be nothing short of miraculous, if you can resolve emotional or financial insecurities that hold you back when it comes to reaching for your dreams. You are now channeling a higher wisdom that allows you to see beyond the horizon and divine possibilities everywhere you look. What matters then is what you choose. Choose based on your deepest values, grandest vision and that which fills you with a sense of purpose. If you can dream, you can do.

Read your 2008 annual for Aries. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aries and Aries rising here.

Taurus (April 19- May 20)
With the astrology peaking the way it is right now, although you may personally feel invisible be assured your awareness and gifts are anything but. Your humility has always been your greatest strength. I am not suggesting you change that, but although you’ve never hankered after success there is no reason to shy away from it either. You now have twice as much to offer than you may have thought you did and you are worth twice as much too. This is as true in your personal life as it is in your professional life. It may seem like magic, but yours has been a long, soulful journey of self-awareness which has led you to your calling. Accept this as you stand at the threshold of being who you were born to be, doing what you do best — being yourself. This is a rare, elusive quality that sustains and brings a message of hope to a larger world, that they can get by in this world doing just that — being true to themselves. You are living proof of it.

Read your 2008 annual for Taurus. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Taurus and Taurus rising here.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)
A great, expansive dream or aspiration is luring you forward with a message of hope and you’ve come a long way in acknowledging “doubts” that say you’ll never get there. This has also helped you find the inner strength and access to resources you tend to forget you possess. But most importantly what is putting you in the path of achieving the seemingly impossible, is your ability and desire to be true to yourself above all. Ask yourself now, when you envision the future or your success story, what does it look like? The more you can clarify and answer that, the greater your chances of recognizing the opportunities to make it a reality. Reach for the stars knowing at worst you may land on the moon. And you know well now, no matter what you will always have the ground beneath your feet.

Read your 2008 annual for Gemini. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Gemini and Gemini rising here.

Cancer (June 21- July 22)
You stand at a crucial turning point asking you to identify yourself in the sea of people whose lives are submerged with yours. You’ve learned now (perhaps painfully) the need to be clear about whose values you take on as your own. As you gain your sense of perspective, this week brings clarity regarding a deeply intimate or financial situation. There may be another way to get the freedom, autonomy and resources you need. When presented with an opportunity to make your mark on the world, let your imagination and infinite vision guide you forward. Resolve your own feelings of vulnerability and then recognize you would not be in this position, if it wasn’t to reflect to you your inherent power. You are the captain of your ship — until you give over the reins to someone else. This is not about anyone else but daring to trust your own inner wisdom; knowing that those that love and believe in you will be there, overflowing in their support of your success.

Read your 2008 annual for Cancer. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Cancer and Cancer rising here.

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
You are being called now to explore your most vivid imagination and boldly paint the sky with your colorful ambitions. You may feel unsure about this, but deep in your soul you know this is a risk you dare not pass up. It may indeed be scary but you are learning now just how deeply your destiny is entwined with the others in your life — gifts, wounds and all. Your freedom has always been important to you, but this is not about alienation or detachment. There is a powerful sublime truth floating into your world if you are willing to listen. A relationship you share has the potential to touch your soul deeply, expand your world and show you new heights of divine passion all at once. Healing is always a two-way street, but you can’t expect others to be open if you lead with your defenses. There is a dual hope you carry and there may be no need for you to choose between personal pleasure and an altruistic vision you share.

Read your 2008 annual for Leo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Leo and Leo rising here.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
As you regain your perspective on an important financial or intimate situation in your life, suddenly things begin to light up in a way that you did not think possible. All the while you’ve been tending to intense life-and-death dramas, there’s been a soulful dream awakening you to your greater mission on this earth. But that is the nature of passion, it has a way of coloring every small encounter in your day with sublime and grand hope. An ethereal connection you share has the potential to awaken you to the fire in your soul. In your professional as well as most intimate relationships, allow yourself to be moved by a desire to create a better world for all whose lives you touch. Do all you do with love and awareness and that is what will float back into your life in the small and definitely not so small ways.

Read your 2008 annual for Virgo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Virgo and Virgo rising here.

Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
You’ve been through a phase of review within your relationships, which has taken you into the depths of yourself, your own wounds, needs for independence, reassurance and fears of alienation. There has been an element of holding a crystal vision even through the dense fog and an important truth about a partnership reveals itself to you this week. They say the truth will set you free and it will this week if you listen to what someone is trying to say. Trust your heart above all and the great hope of freedom, adventure and passion you dream of. You may still have your doubts, but at least when it comes to a professional opportunity you can do anything but take what looks like a promising risk. Personally, you seek someone who sets your soul on fire — when you find that, will you shy away or will you get that great, big leap of faith toward happiness?

Read your 2008 annual for Libra. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Libra and Libra rising here.

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
You’ve been on a quest for that elusive sense of belonging; a sense of feeling loved, appreciated and accepted for who you are and an ability to be comfortable in your own skin. But ultimately no one can do this for you but yourself. The question for you now is what or who it is that makes you feel at home. Is it the four walls you live in? The bed you sleep in? Your pets? Is it having the financial resources you need so you don’t need to look at your bank balance? There are people who have all of these things and yet are plagued with restlessness. I suggest you go deeper in your quest for an answer. If you do, there is likely to be a huge revelation welling within your soul, flooding your life with deep warmth and hope for the future. You are already home, it may just mean you look within and around you to recognize that.

Read your 2008 annual for Scorpio. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Scorpio and Scorpio rising here.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
As a Sagittarian you have always been a crusader of truth, be it in your sense of humor or your ability to speak the unthinkable. But right now your powers of communication border on the divine and surreal. If you’ve ever doubted your psychic or intuitive abilities, events this week should go a long way in changing that opinion. There is something or someone igniting flames of creative or sexual passion within you like you may not have experienced in a while. A partner, although present, may have their own doubts about a situation, but you now have a gift that allows you to see the rainbows where others can only see rain clouds. The only thing that matters now is that you be true to yourself; your soul is older than you and your childlike innocence is wiser than you imagine. Trust this if nothing else and be the blazing voice of truth for the world.

Read your 2008 annual for Sagittarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
Your values are deeply coming into question and you are being reflected your own inner depth that you at times fail to recognize. Financial instability is never really the concern when you are a Capricorn; more than likely you live a life that other people envy. But there is a danger in getting caught up in other people’s desires versus your own. As the fog lifts you are learning what drives you is not just your financial security but connections that make you feel warm, safe and loved. Be honest now with yourself and the people closest to you about your dreams, hopes and wishes. A partner is not only listening but is open to the depth of your message in a way that may even surprise you. You don’t need to lead a double life to have what you want more of daily. Be true to yourself and all else will almost magically flow from that.

Read your 2008 annual for Capricorn. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Capricorn and Capricorn rising here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
Your self-awareness reaches an expansive peak this week, which may be overwhelming. Awareness, although a gift, can be a painful thing. Be bold, imaginative, honest and speak from the soul this week. There is a conversation or creative vision you share that has the potential to bring you deep clarity where there may have previously been a sense of fog. You may worry that if you are honest you will rock the boat with one delicate situation surrounding work or an aspect of your daily life. But truthfully you know that every risk has its downside — and the higher the stakes the greater the rewards. An idea or truth may be too hot to handle, but pushing boundaries has always been your thing and you know better than anyone — only the truth can set you free.

Read your 2008 annual for Aquarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aquarius and Aquarius rising here.

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)
You’ve been an unstoppable force lately, filled with more passion and desire than your usually soft and gentle demeanor. This is because your awareness of life and its frailty has grown at surreal levels, driving you to seize opportunities as they come. You are also recognizing the delicate webs that bind us with those that we love and the dynamic energy that sustains life itself. You can now manifest in your life a great hope you’ve been working toward, bringing you the emotional and financial independence you crave. But far from being a selfish desire, your ability to be bold and dive into yourself has the ability to flood not just your life but the lives of those you love with healing, hope and comfort immeasurable in its value — in both tangible and sublime, ethereal gifts.

Read your 2008 annual for Pisces. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Pisces and Pisces rising here.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today’s bonus edition of Planet Waves will be a live webcast tonight, Tuesday, at 10 pm ET on Blog Talk Radio. To get to the program, click that link and navigate to the “listen” area.

We will cover the triple conjunction of Chirion, Jupiter and Neptune that is happening now, sorting out this momentous alignment.

The conjunction is the culmination of astrology dating well before 1998, and arrives with a wave of awakening that, Chiron styled, can be experienced as crisis, progress, change or a sense of the miraculous in the air. This is a once-in-a-lifetime conjunction lasting about one year that is reaching its first peak in these very weeks.

You can listen to the program even if you’re in your car or will be away from the computer by calling into the program. That number is (347) 202-0840, which will also get you onto the air if you would like to add a comment or question.

See you at 10 pm ET!

Yours & truly,

PS, In a little while we will be sending a web edition bonus, one of our readers’ favorite articles from 2008.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Tonight, a much-acclaimed television special on Farrah Fawcett’s battle with cancer will air on NBC. In what appears to be a kind of reality show, the program will consist of up-close footage of Fawcett’s sickness, treatment and subsequent decline reportedly from anal cancer. The program in effect turns her from sex symbol to death symbol. Heart-rending previews of her praying and pleading for her life have been used to sell the program to viewers, and newscasts have been promising the most raw, up-front self-exposés ever of a famous person’s struggle with illness.

GE’s PCB plant at Ford Edward, New York, which polluted the Hudson River, New York Harbor, the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, ruining the fishing industries in those areas. Uncredited photo published under Fair Use.

The story — we are told — will bring awareness to the urgency surrounding cancer. Instead, it threatens to make death into a spectator sport and obscure the real issue: why exactly so many people (close to half of Western society, if you believe the statistics) will get cancer.

Clearly there are people who will find this docudrama empowering, vindicating or a kind of release. We have all gone through this with someone in our lives, or perhaps several people, and seeing a scenario reflected in the ethers of television can help us acknowledge that something is real. Yet there is another reality beneath the surface, one that is rarely allowed a single minute of television airtime.

With her Sun and many other planets in the 8th house, which addresses themes of sex, death, crisis and transformation, this role is almost as natural for her as experiencing the erotic adulation of millions of men and boys. Yet cancer is big business, even for the companies whose toxins are known to create it.

To demonstrate this fact, we need look no further than the network that is airing the special — NBC. The network is a subsidiary of one of the most notorious purveyors of Cancer, Inc.: General Electric. Of the many ways this company has spread carcinogens in its employees and the public, few are more notorious than PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. These chemicals were used heavily by the electrical industry between 1929 and 1979, and much of the equipment manufactured during that time is still in place, ticking like time bombs that can and do go off randomly — just like we think of cancer itself.

The World’s Leading Cancer Manufacturer

PCBs are some of the most carcinogenic chemicals known, and they are often contaminated with dioxins, the most potent cancer promoter known. Widely used in industry between 1929 and the late 1970s, they managed to spread throughout the Earth’s entire environment; literally, from the cities to the rain forests to the polar caps. PCBs are now found in every animal product we consume, particularly seafood. To give one example how they got there, consider that GE single-handedly contaminated the entire Hudson River system with PCBs that were illegally dumped for many decades from its facilities in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, New York. Many, many employees died in the process of manufacturing electrical capacitors. The company then blew up a dam near the plants that was holding many of the toxins upriver, dumping them into New York Harbor and contaminating the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.

Toxic aftermath of a PCB transformer explosion at SUNY New Paltz. Thousands of these units have exploded, spewing dioxins. The one that went off in this situation was manufactured by Westinghouse; together, GE and Westinghouse were two of the largest users of PCB fluids. Photo by Eric Francis.

GE did not passively and unknowingly spread its toxins. My reporting work covering this company in the 1990s brought me into contact with former employees who were in constant contact with PCBs and were reassured on a daily basis that the chemicals were harmless. One was a man named Ed Bates, who was manager of the transformer test division of GE’s Pittsfield, Massachusetts plant. He told me he attended the funerals of more than 100 of his employees, who had died of what he called “head cancer and lung cancer.”

GE’s conduct is documented in writing. A 1950 GE instruction manual for PCB transformers assured electrical utilities (who used the products) that “transformer Pyranol [GE’s trade name for PCBs] may be handled in the same manner as mineral oil.” Yet by 1956 GE’s own files contained a bibliography of 43 references on the health dangers and possible lethality of PCBs and PCB component chemicals. This dated back to a German study conducted in 1899. The company perpetuated this deception on an ongoing basis; in 1993, Jack Batty, the top GE spokesman, told me that, “Public perception about the health risks of PCBs and the scientific facts are in conflict. Most scientists agree that PCBs are not the hazard to human health that was feared in the 1970s.”

Though it may seem improper to use the phrase “blatant lie” in an article, there is no more accurate way to say it. By the early 1990s, a special project of the Environmental Protection Agency, designed to reassess the dangers of dioxins and related chemicals, compiled copious evidence that due to its hormone-disrupting power, PCBs and other dioxin-like compounds were dangerous at far lower levels than ever suspected.

GE’s Warm, Caring Impression

Another employee, Steve Sandberg, worked in a GE facility that processed exploded, burned and worn-out transformers, and was only provided with a respirator or gloves on the few days that government officials were coming to visit.

General Electric.

Eighteen months into his career at GE, Sandberg started to show signs of systemic poisoning, beginning with severe chloracne (a disgusting form of skin pustules induced by exposure to chlorinated chemicals). A quarter-inch-thick coating of dead skin covered the bottoms of his feet. One day, Sandberg found a fat folder on his boss’s desk containing numerous documents on the dangers and health impacts of PCBs. He confronted his boss, who assured him that PCBs were essentially harmless to humans. It wasn’t until several months later, when he read in Business Week about lawsuits containing allegations of badly exposed PCB workers at a Westinghouse capacitor-manufacturing plant in Bloomington, Indiana that he finally began to warn his co-workers of the danger.

General Electric was also spurred to action. An October 28, 1991, memo from GE attorney Bill Thornton outlines a plan for dealing with Sandberg, who, he wrote, “seems to be escalating the situation day by day.” General Electric established a public-relations team and called an all-employee meeting at which medical experts flown in from around the country presented GE’s side of the story. One such expert was Marie Johnson, an industrial-hygiene nurse from GE’s plant at Hudson Falls, New York — best known for its massive PCB discharges into the Hudson River. Johnson is described in the memo as someone who “is very knowledgeable and gives a warm, caring impression.”

When I talked to him last week, he said he’s been treated for cancer about 50 separate times since winning his lawsuit against GE in the 1990s.

Today, GE not only is one of the biggest players in the PCB cleanup industry, it also runs a medical division called GE Healthcare, which provides services in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and other enterprises.

So I ask, not rhetorically: how many of Farrah Fawcett’s medical images, including the ones we will see tonight, were created on GE machinery? To what extent was her cancer caused by exposure to PCBs and dioxins, which were spread into air, water and food by the millions of pounds during her lifetime? And will anyone else make the connection between GE as a carcinogen and GE’s NBC as the broadcaster of her personal cancer story?

I have also seen documents which state that General Electric knew that silicone surgical implants it manufactured were contaminated with PCBs, one of which was copied to a then-vice president by the name of Jack Welsh. How many patients were sickened right in the hospital by supposedly pure, sterile products containing one of the most toxic known chemicals?

Farrah’s Chart

Farrah is an Aquarius — and she has her Sun in the 8th house. The 8th is where we exchange resources and karma. She feels like she belongs to everyone and we all feel a little piece of her as well. I can think of no better chart for the woman whose face and other assets appeared on 12 million copies of the famous red bathing suit poster, something that was designed to be hung over the bed or from the ceiling. Her big smile was designed to signal, “Take me, I’m yours.”

Click on image to enlarge.

We cannot overlook the 8th house + Aquarius + big planets = group sexual encounter. I truly bow to Farrah as not only a sex symbol but a unique expression of erotic reality. This is not a woman who was hung up, or more accurately to the extent that she was, she turned her threads of resistance into deep, inquisitive and moreover, relational pleasure. Bright light often casts long shadows, and we find these in the chart as well; her placements suggest a significant and compelling inner struggle with her sexuality, one which made her a kind of erotic empath.

I would suggest that she considered the experiences of the people who saw her and yearned for her, most of whom she did not actually meet, as relationships. For this and many other reasons, I think she was an absolutely willing subject of sexual fantasy for which her name is basically synonymous. Check out this commercial she did early in her career, for Noxema. Or how about, this one, suggesting that you “let Noxema cream your face.”

Her abundant curiosity is affirmed by Chiron in Scorpio in the 5th house. Chiron in the 5th house will often result in burning erotic curiosity no matter what sign is involved; Scorpio would come through in all the shades you would expect of that sign. While Aquarius on the 8th will arrive with lots of ideas about sexuality, the 5th house wants nothing to do with theory: it wants experience, and to explore that experience until it is fully satisfied and moves onto the next experience.

Notice how Chiron (orange key, lower right) is part of an aspect structure. It is square Pluto and Saturn in the 2nd house (red golf tee and yellow lowercase H on the lower left); and an odd point called Transpluto, which is about focus, narrowness and restriction. All of these are in Leo. This is a person with self-esteem issues so deep they absolutely have to work them out. This grouping in turn is squared by Nessus in Taurus (light blue thing toward the top right).

Nessus is a planet that is about power dynamics, the circular nature of karma, and potentially inappropriate sexual contact. In Taurus in the 11th house, she expected to be judged harshly for who she was, and I feel that she responded by being exactly, precisely who she was. As she rose to fame and probably long before, she was conscious of the fact that nearly everyone who saw her thought about sex. This took on cosmic dimensions. She has Venus in Sagittarius directly on the Galactic Core. She felt like God’s personal erotic priestess, sent to the world to help people set themselves free.

To perfect this configuration, we have Mars in Aquarius in the 8th house, close to Pallas and the Sun. In all we get a grand cross aspect that includes Mars in the 8th, a Sun-Pluto opposition, and Chiron in Scorpio in the 5th house. This is a very, very kinky girl. She is so charming, sweet and innocent you could take her home to your grandmother or your spinster aunt and they would be just charmed.

However, there are very few people with this kind of Aquarius power who are not extremely intelligent. Aquarians are idea people, every one of them; and this woman has Mercury there, as well as an asteroid associated with strategy, law and politics. As mentioned, this whole Aquarius configuration is in the 8th house. She does not feel like she is her own property; what she has is up for grabs, or so she feels.

Her chart points clearly to the potential that she was sexually abused in a way that had unusual impact, and that she worked it out, or did her best to work it out sexually. In light of this, her medical diagnosis is not surprising, but I do believe that it was preventable. There is one last facet to this, which will lead us into the discussion her transition from sex symbol to death symbol.

Born at Moonrise

Look at her ascendant, the dark, horizontal line that ends on the left side with the Moon. The Moon looks just like you think it should. It is in the 12th house, right above the ascendant, in the sign Cancer. We see someone who identifies as someone who must nourish others. In the 12th house, she will nourish others through their fantasies of her. The image of her in that red bathing suit is about mother. Her nipples are displayed. Many years ago I had a client come in with the Moon in Cancer rising. She arrived in a black Jaguar, sat down in my consulting room, and the first thing I asked her is, “Do you lactate?” and she said, “All the time.” She had never had a child.

The most famous photo of Farrah, which adorned the walls and ceilings of many teenage boys in the 1970s. The suit is valued at between $200,000 and $300,000. The photo is by Bruce McBroom, who is rarely credited with the work. It sold 12 million copies and is likely about to sell a few more.

The 12th house grants us larger-than-life status; and a resonance with pre-birth and after-death states. It has the feeling of a fantasy that is everywhere. If the Moon is there, we have to take a careful look at her relationship to her mother. I don’t know her biography but there was something partially absent about her mother. This prompted her to reach for being the mother for everyone, granted what is known in the adult website business as a MILF.

Her 12th house Moon in Cancer is about to take an opposition from Pluto in Capricorn, and this is a kind of death knell. It does not surprise me that the cancer manifested in her digestive tract, which (along with breasts) is often associated with the sign Cancer. And the presence of Pluto is suggestive that the millions — many viewers who will see her tonight — will participate vicariously in her death just like they did in her sexuality. There is a certain beauty to this, and I have no doubt she feels this will make it easier for her to die.

Here is the problem: this plays right into the hands of polluters and of the purveyors of cures for cancer.

This kind of spectacle diverts our attention from the causes of the death that’s being portrayed, whether those causes be poverty, war, ignorance, or sheer greed, especially the latter. Cancer is a prime example: though it’s existed for a very long time, in truth it is a modern-day disease that has metastasized throughout the globe along with industrialization, caused primarily by the products and wastes of industrialization.

Profit being both the purpose and the driver of industry, distracting its victims from its carcinogenic effects is an economic imperative; after all, the same company that profits from cancer-causing materials often profits further by making the drugs, pain-killers, and machinery used to treat the cancers it caused, and in tonight’s case, a television program about the issue. Preventing cancer would thus be doubly damaging to profits. For this very reason, billions of dollars are devoted to research and development of cancer treatments, but nearly zero dollars are devoted to prevention of this eminently preventable disease. For this reason, the real tragedy behind the story, the entire nation/world will be lured into weeping over a single individual’s detailed and gory sufferings, to distract them from the causes of that painful, preventable death that many of us in fact will face and to some extent that all of us fear.

Yours and truly,

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

We live in a time of immense social and political distortion. The ‘greed is good’ culture of the 90s gave way to a lash-back from politicians making hay from Clinton’s blow job and Christocrats filling collection plates from those who longed for the simpler, and more socially-repressed, days of yore. Begs the question: what’s morality? A good number of Americans believe morality has to do with sexuality, drugs, laws and belief systems. Another large number is more interested in attitudes, intentions and bottom lines — that would include me.

Distorted reality. Photo by Deirdre Tanton.

Take Miss California’s breasts, for instance. Carrie Prejean is Barbie-beautiful and seems quite poised; she proved that when she confidently gave her opinion on gay marriage at the Miss USA Pageant, one that coincided with her religious convictions. Prejean is evidently an evangelical Christian; Satan tried to tempt her with the politics of that question but she kept the faith, or at least that’s what she told Religious Righty, James Dobson. More controversy hit Miss Prejean when it became apparent that she’d shared her abundant, semi-clad charms with the camera of a professional photographer prior to the contest.

The Donald, he of the laughable comb-overs and glitzy real estate deals, owns the pageant franchise and made the decision that, despite surfaced photos that Carrie had sworn didn’t exist, she could continue to hold her title. As a little California newspaper put it, “Once again, our weary and deeply conflicted nation turned to Donald Trump for moral guidance on Tuesday, and once again, the wise old sage reached deep into his soul and delivered this proclamation: She’s blonde, she’s hot, she stays.” This prompted satirist Andy Borowitz to write a piece entitled, Miss California Vows to Use Her Naked Breasts for Good.

Coming Up in Daily Astrology and Adventure

Editor’s Note: These briefs are written each week by a guy named Eric Francis of Little Rock, AK. I found him googling my own name, discovered he was a journalist, and he came on board as our news writer. I was hooked from the first line of his bio, “I am a newspaper man.” Kid, you’re hired. — EFC

It is the world’s eye on the universe, responsible for the most magnificent images created in the history of astronomy.

The Hubble Space Telescope is in orbit beyond Earth’s atmosphere to allow for observations not distorted by atmospheric seeing. In this way the images can be diffraction limited, and used for coverage in the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared. Photo: NASA.

But the Hubble Space Telescope is pushing 20 years old and gradually wearing down. So on Monday, May 11 (in perfect form, with Mercury retrograde), NASA launched the Space Shuttle Atlantis for the 11th and final mission to provide maintenance and upgrades for this cosmic workhorse. It’s a job that will be incredibly complex, according to The Washington Post, because it involves replacing or repairing some mechanisms that were never designed to be replaced or repaired.

These missions are also becoming increasingly dangerous. Hubble’s orbit is 347 miles above the Earth’s surface, an area rife with debris from previous missions and satellite accidents. So the shuttle’s crew — who were profiled by The New York Times before Monday’s launch — will have to exercise extreme care. While the telescope will be anchored in the shuttle’s cargo bay for the mission, Atlantis crew members will do much of the work during space walks.

Because of the presence of so much debris — a four-inch-wide piece passed within two miles of the shuttle, NASA reported Thursday — the Space Shuttle Endeavor is standing ready on a launch pad to perform a rescue mission if Atlantis is damaged while in orbit. This is the first time NASA has taken that step during a mission. It is nearly unheard of to have one shuttle fully prepared at the time of another shuttle mission, as preparation takes many months.

As for Hubble, foremost in importance is replacement of the key component — the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which is more than 15 years old; that was being done in a spacewalk Thursday morning. Its replacement, the Wide Field Camera 3, was which was built by a team of government, industrial and academic professionals under coordination of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

In addition to the coverage of the launch and the mission’s progress, The Washington Post’s technology blogger Joel Achenbach wrote Monday about some of the equipment that goes into a mission like this.

And for something you don’t usually see, Spacewriter.com has linked to a NASA video showing the external fuel tank soaring through the upper atmosphere during its descent to Earth after separation from Atlantis.




For almost 80 years, Venetia (nee Burney) Phair could claim a singular honor: She had named a planet that she didn’t personally discover — Pluto. Not a bad accomplishment for a girl of 11, but then many truths have come from the mouths of babes. Phair, who lived in Banstead, Surrey, England, died on April 30 at the age of 90, according to an obituary in The New York Times.

Venetia Phair at Sir Patrick Moore’s Observatory in Selsey, West Sussex, England. Photo by John R Fletcher.

The year was 1930 and Pluto had just been discovered. Young Venetia suggested the name to her grandfather, who had been librarian at the Bodelian Library at Oxford University. He brought the suggestion to the attention of an Oxford astronomy professor, who passed it on to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, which had confirmed the planet’s existence. Eventually, despite many other suggestions (including Minerva, Atlas, Zeus, and Persephone), Pluto won unanimous approval from the Lowell staff.

Burney had Pluto in early Cancer. She lived long enough to come close to experiencing her Pluto opposition, as Pluto is now in early Capricorn. And her natal Pluto was heavily aspected: it was square Mars (an aspect that repeats in the Pluto discovery chart), as well as square Chiron and Nessus.

Her chart also features Mercury conjunct Neptune — an aspect that is associated with remarkable intuition. And Vesta conjunct the South Node says “reincarnated high priestess” like few things possible in a chart.

Phair’s naming of the orbiting body (now classified as a dwarf planet) had long-reaching impact. It was Walt Disney’s inspiration for naming a funny, happy dog owned by Mickey Mouse. The element plutonium was named in its honor. In 1987, Phair’s maiden name was attached to an asteroid in her honor, which NASA’s 2006 New Horizons mission to Pluto included a device that measures dust that was named after her.

A documentary, Naming Pluto, that featured an interview with Phair had been released in April.

Have you visited SpaceWeather.com lately? This nifty site not only has a bunch of interesting news about our solar system, it offers a great feature that allows backyard astronomers to show off their chops.

The SpaceWeather Sightings page features photos posted by astronomers from, quite literally, all over the world. Anyone with a telescope or camera (or both) pointed at the heavens who captures an interesting image can submit it to SpaceWeather. The Sightings page features a map of the world with a pin in it at each astronomer’s location; mouse over the pin to see a small image, and click on the image to get a larger one.

Currently, the Sightings page has images from the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Many of them are time-lapse photos of the Space Station Freedom taken from people’s yards, although one Paco Bellido from Cordoba, Spain, used high-power equipment to capture a (comparatively) up-close image of the station in orbit.

The Moon and the Sun are also popular subjects on the Sightings page. If you have an image or three you’d like to share with other astronomy buffs, you can use the form SpaceWeather has posted on this page.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 15, 2009, #766 – BY PRIYA KALE

Today Priya Kale is standing in for Eric Francis on the weekly horoscope. For more daily astrology, horoscopes and information on consultations please visit www.cosmicdiaries.com

Aries (March 20-April 19)
Pay attention to your conversations in the coming days and weeks; a friend or connection has an important message that may feel like it gently leads you toward your destiny. Your recent journey has taken you on a quest for a life with more meaning. Now as you get ready to make this shift be aware of both what makes you feel warm and fulfilled and that which you fear and pains you. Dig deeper when asking yourself what you want; you may discover a dream is more important to you than you’ve been willing to admit. If you are willing to go back and review an old idea — it has more juice in it than you first imagined. Understand that abundance and generosity go hand in hand, and what you share ultimately will find its way back to your world ten-fold. You have more to give and offer than most and this is what allows you to envision a dream of a great hope, not just for you but for a greater world.

Read your 2008 annual for Aries. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aries and Aries rising here.

Taurus (April 19- May 20)
Your ruling planet Venus has taken you through the depths of your soul in a way that you haven’t dared venture in a while. Although you aren’t completely out of the shadows yet, you’ve past a turning point and something in your heart is sure now. Hopefully you’ve recognized the depth of your own power and its potential to affect a greater world with its message of hope and awareness. This has never been about your ego, but simply about what you have to offer. Sometime towards the end of this week you seem to have an encounter with an an event that was predicted in the cards. Don’t be afraid to communicate clearly and ask for what you want and more importantly for what you KNOW you are worth. As long as you keep awareness of your noblest aspirations and deepest values you can’t go wrong.

Read your 2008 annual for Taurus. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Taurus and Taurus rising here.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)
Your journey has taken you through a tour of digging through your doubts. But you’ve triumphed over insecurities that kept you chained to a past that no longer belongs to you. You reach a moment of deep clarity this week, bringing you an important realization of what needs to happen and a taste of your destiny. Be brave in reaching for an aspiration or dream looming large and tantalizingly on the horizon. Something may have seemed too out of reach in the past, but be willing to dig deeper; there is more here than you first imagined. It may even concern an important partnership you have with someone. If you can keep an open dialogue without projecting your fears, a situation has the potential to open you up to your own hidden strength pointing the way to your destiny.

Read your 2008 annual for Gemini. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Gemini and Gemini rising here.

Cancer (June 21- July 22)
Something has the potential to light a fire in your heart this week, bringing you an awareness of your own passionate desires regarding a professional or personal ambition. When it comes to a deeply personal or financial situation be willing to listen to the voice of reason over fear. There is a conversation or idea that you may have dismissed in the past too quickly that is asking you to re-investigate it more closely. There is another side of the story that you had first missed which holds a deep, intuitive message for your destiny with regards to a partnership situation. This is likely to take you on an introspective journey over the coming weeks, which will require you to confront your fears as well as your ability to say one thing and be thinking another. You can have the freedom you seek to do more of what you want, but you need to be courageous and honest in asking for it.

Read your 2008 annual for Cancer. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Cancer and Cancer rising here.

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
You’ve turned a corner within an important career or relationship situation and you have a date with destiny this week. A connection you share with someone is pulling you towards the future you’ve dreamed of, but this will require opening up to new levels of trust which can only come through honesty and communication. If you recognize you feel two ways about something or someone, you will be less inclined to project it. An idea or conversation you’ve had in the recent past is now asking you to go deeper within it. You know now what you have to offer and what you have to say is worth more than you give yourself credit for. More often than not it is your own doubts that keep you from voicing your truth to the world and the many in your life that thirst for its solid awareness. If you can let go of your own fears of rejection — you’ll see there are emotional, spiritual and tangible treasures waiting to rush in to your world not too far ahead in the future.

Read your 2008 annual for Leo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Leo and Leo rising here.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
You make a crucial discovery this week which may bring you to an instinctive awareness of the value of something you’d failed to recognize before. If you can be wise and patient, a conversation you have now within a partnership is likely to reveal a greater depth of connection you share with someone and its message of healing. Be grateful if what you learn this week has the potential to take you to new professional heights as you begin to find your true place in the world. There is more to you than even you thought or give yourself credit for, and there may come a moment this week that feels like a date with destiny. But far from being a thing of ego — this is your gift to the world that you give from your soul deeply and daily. And these are the rewards of your integrity, dedication and humility.

Read your 2008 annual for Virgo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Virgo and Virgo rising here.

Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
You may feel like you are going soft all of a sudden, just when what you thought you needed was to be firm and detached. You’ve made bold moves towards freedom and now suddenly you may be having second thoughts. Acknowledge these but be willing to look a little closer when it comes to your doubts regarding a deep partnership. You may not entirely be willing to trust what is being told, but you can’t deny what you feel. If you are willing to let go of old hurts and perceptions, you may gain a deeper awareness of what someone is trying to say to you. Trust now the events unfolding have a deep message for your heart and are taking you towards your destiny, with more hope for your future if you are willing to envision it.

Read your 2008 annual for Libra. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Libra and Libra rising here.

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
You’re not one to usually commit to something easily. This is not necessarily because of your lack of trust, but your own awareness of what lies deeper beneath the surface and your awareness of the ‘other’ side to every story. I’m not suggesting you start getting paranoid, rather be willing now to open up to the deeper truth about the value of someone or something in your life. If you keep awareness of your own wounds, you will be less likely to project your suspicions onto someone else and allow it to cloud your judgment with fear. A deeply sexually intimate or business partnership situation is now asking for an amount of surrender, but if you stay with the process it seems to be awakening you to your greater destiny, calling you ‘home.’

Read your 2008 annual for Scorpio. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Scorpio and Scorpio rising here.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
You are learning of the dangers of your own illusions and how any denial of your own awareness causes more pain in the long run. ‘Belief’ can be a powerful force but ultimately often a perilous one — what you seek is truth. Be willing to voice your doubts without projecting fears even if they are painful to speak up for, and listen to what someone is trying to say. The more you are willing to accept another’s reality the more they are likely to open up to understanding yours. Remember there are always two sides to every story and there is room for everyone’s truth. An extremely important conversation you have with a partner in the coming days has a profound message for your future together. Consider what follows to be a reward for your selfless devotion, which should put to rest any worries you’ve had about your reputation. Your integrity has not gone unrecognized and your sublime vision is a liberating force in this world — trust that.

Read your 2008 annual for Sagittarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
You’ve been seeking more love, warmth and security which may have made you nostalgic for a past when you were young and free to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Your awareness and ability to be honest with yourself above all is what will bring you closer to what you want. Dare to be bold, transparent and speak from the heart when it comes to an important matter concerning your emotional or financial needs. A partner is willing to offer you more security if you can overcome your doubts and ask for it. You have a profound gift to offer this world and your dedication to a long-held ambition has not gone unnoticed. But above all, recognize where your deepest values lie and allow them to be the guiding force of your life when things threaten to get cloudy. It is only when you can be in awareness of both your gifts and wounds, that you can attract in your life that which your soul deeply seeks — healing.

Read your 2008 annual for Capricorn. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Capricorn and Capricorn rising here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
More than anything right now hopefully you’ve been able to keep a deep awareness of who you are — at all times. With the triple conjunction of Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune you are more than susceptible to the influences of people in your life, which if you aren’t careful right now could make you doubt your own sanity; so “Know thyself.” Acknowledge your wounds and inner doubts, without projecting fear or letting ghosts of the past haunt you. There is more depth to you than you give yourself credit for, and you can have the security you want if you are willing to be bold enough and ask for it. Have faith in your ability to feel and think in bold, passionate colors and recognize please, in reality you are the keeper of a greater vision guiding forward a greater collective. A partner seems ready to take a risk and what you need now is faith in yourself above all.

Read your 2008 annual for Aquarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aquarius and Aquarius rising here.

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)
You are at a time in your life like few others, experiencing waves of awareness that tell the story of not just you but humanity at large. I say experiencing because you are too intuitive, sensitive and aware to know that ‘knowledge’ means little in comparison to what is coming through to your consciousness. As your awareness grows, your relationships grow in the light of it — but there is an element of the astrology highlighting the space between fact and fiction. Encourage honesty and transparency in all your conversations this week; there is a deeper truth waiting to be uncovered which could be worth its weight in gold. This could be the turning point you seek within a partnership towards a deeper understanding and greater security you’ve been dreaming of.

Read your 2008 annual for Pisces. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Pisces and Pisces rising here.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

Now that the swine flu is proving to be something of a pig in a poke, surely to be revisited in the Fall flu season, we will need another emergency to keep the networks in the race for May ratings. I suspect that the situation in Pakistan will provide one, and we’ll find our TV news alerts accompanied by martial music and dire projections. FOX News will likely posture that we must go Rambo on the Taliban, which is not only predictable but ironic since it plays to the very religious authoritarianism for which the Taliban is infamous.

Growing into the God-ness. Photo by Farida Batool.

FOX represents the school of thought that seldom, if ever, examines the ‘mote in its own eye.’ It sees no problem with American soldiers charged with fighting for Christian converts in the Mideast; it does not recognize its own Christianist fatwas. It defends the vengeful God of the Old Testament, extends hate speech as political punditry and gives the Right a place where — as a blogger recently said of ex-evangelical bigwig, Frank Schaeffer’s post on hate mail from the Religious Right — Christianity isn’t safe for Jesus.

And now, keeping the religious wars amped up, Justice David Souter’s resignation from the Supreme Court has given the GOP culture-sweats, and the networks a partisan extravaganza to hype with months of coverage. In the conservative view, the Constitution is not an adaptable document and must be protected from ‘activists’ that ‘legislate from the bench.’ That would be any progressive you could name, mind you; Republicans have already launched an attack on Obama’s pick, without having a name to attach it to.

While the country itself has moved Left by steady increments over the last several generations, the Court has continued to move further Right; Bush accomplished very little for his party in eight years, but he did give them two radical ideologues in Roberts and Alito, and salted the lower courts with similar. Due to the lifetime tenure of the Supreme judges, this will be the first Democratic placement on the court in almost 15 years.

Souter was a pick of George H. W. Bush and disappointed the Right by staying true to principled Conservatism. In that regard, he eventually joined those on the Left as a moderate; leaving an Obama replacement unable to change the ideological makeup of the High Court but perhaps to lay the groundwork for further appointments. Only Scalia, on the Right, is of an age to speculate about; Roberts, Alito and Thomas are relatively young men. It will be Obama’s pleasure, I expect, to attempt to bring the court back toward center.

By Tracy Delaney w/Eric Francis

At today’s Scorpio Full Moon, the Sun, Moon and several centaur planets form a fixed grand cross, i.e., a cross made up of two oppositions and four squares. This takes place in the fixed signs Taurus (the Sun), Leo (Elatus), Scorpio (the Moon and Chariklo) and Aquarius (Nessus). That’s six ‘hard’ or 90-degree-based aspects working together in formation, and the main thing they have in common is that they are all in fixed signs. These are the signs that the Sun transits in the middle of a season, when we get near one of the cross-quarter days (such as Beltane). They have the stable energy of continuing what we’ve started. It’s the energy of keep going rather than initiate something new, or quit while you’re ahead.

Full Moon brightened by God. Photo by Deepu.

A grand cross can feel like being caught in a crosshairs; like there is something significant to address in every direction. They can also be stabilizing factors, but what is often focused on is the process of change and growth itself.

Although Pluto, modern ruler of fixed sign Scorpio (now a dwarf planet, and having some similarities to centaurs in terms of his elongated orbit and high declination to the ecliptic) seems to deal with the change/stability paradox quite nicely by being fixed in his determination to bring about change. This is not change for its own sake, but rather renewing dedication and commitment to evolution and growth.

Another factor in this chart that supports this idea is the Aries Point. The cross-quarters (the midpoints of the fixed signs) are related to the Aries Point because they aspect it by 45 or 135 degrees — relatives to the square aspect. So all of the planets in the grand fixed cross are aspecting all of the cardinal points — the first degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. This makes the chart an enormous intersection between the public and private spheres of existence.

Last year at this time, we experienced a New Moon precisely on Beltane. If you recall, at that time there was no serious public talk of an economic crisis — though this rates among the many times astrologers ‘should have noticed’ something was up, mainly due to the Aries Point involvement of the Taurus midpoint.

At any Full Moon, the Sun is exactly opposite the Moon, with the Earth suspended in between. So from our point of view on Earth it can feel like an intense opposition/tension between the two major parts of the psyche represented by the Sun and Moon, a split between spirit and soul, or the body and the psyche. In any event there is tension between the two prominent aspects of what we consider a ‘self’.

The Sun is spirit, the life force, the universal Source itself. It can also represent the expressive, glory-seeking aspect of self, and in Transactional Analysis, the adult self.

The Moon represents our feelings and emotions, which feel as if they come from our very own personal inner spirit — the soul. For many people it is the dominant aspect of the personality, whether expressed through sensitivity or through being a perpetual child (in Transactional Analysis, the Moon is the child self. Saturn is the parental self.) Often the Moon feels like ‘who we really are inside’, which many would equate with soul energy.

Absorbing the Moonlight. Photo by Danielle Voirin.

Whether you ultimately believe in separate souls or not, soul energy is accessible to everyone if we tune in. At the Full Moon we can feel quite separated from/opposed by the Whole, while frustrated by knowing deep down that it simply cannot/should not be so. Is all this tension necessary? Or is it the main thing holding up consciousness?

The Sun and Moon can also symbolise Father and Mother, and that sums up the Full Moon feeling — when Sun and Moon oppose each other one can feel like a young child torn in two emotionally as Mum and Dad fight, or otherwise relate to one another with us ‘in the middle’.

But the Moon has no light of her own and merely reflects the light of the Source/Sun. She is only “full” because the Sun is facing her head on and illuminating all of her sensitive self at once. Hence the feeling of emotional overload, which the planetary setup could imply is something of a passing illusion, literally a trick of the light. We know this for ourselves once the Full Moon has passed, as things begin to settle down again and we wonder what all the fuss was about. So the Full Moon is a crescendo worth approaching consciously.

This weekend’s Full Moon is at 18+ Scorpio, exact at 4:01 a.m. UT on Saturday. That’s 5:01 a.m. on Saturday in the U.K., one minute past midnight Saturday in New York, 9:01 p.m. Friday on the West Coast of the U.S., and all other time zones are shown here.

The Scorpio Moon can experience feelings as intense, deep and transformative, perhaps sexual, perhaps secret, and through Full Moon probably ultimately deeply cathartic. This plunge into the depths of the psyche is facilitated by the light of the elegant, earthy sensuality of the body-grounded Taurus Sun. This in effect grounds the process; all oppositions are across two signs that have something in common, but which they approach very differently, two sides of a certain coin.

This lunation is conjunct Chariklo in Scorpio, square Nessus in Aquarius and also square Elatus in Leo. These are all centaur planets. Centaurs in astrology could be said to relate to Scorpio in the sense that they are all about processes of transformation and integration. All the centaurs die, one way or another; how they die expresses the type of transformation involved.

Illustration from Chariklo article, Small World Stories. Photo by Danielle Voirin.

Chariklo was the wife of Chiron, and like the mother who quite brutally rejected him, she was a nymph, and she was foster-mother to Chiron’s protégés. We know very little about Chariklo from mythology, as she was barely mentioned, but from the few facts we have we can infer a compassionate woman who was blessed with undying patience and the ability to appreciate the plight of mortals.

The interesting oppositions involving Ceres and Black Moon Lilith in her discovery chart, and her lack of concrete myth, both imply to me that she is all about projection — of the image of the mother we never had, the love we never had, any desperately needed missing experience she is ethereal enough to appear to accommodate. She’s what we think we need, and we love her for it. People with strong Chariklo placements seem to receive and obligingly live up to our projected needs and are known as “charismatic” (charis = grace). They seem to do this with loving intent, they can be very healing, conversely the potential problems are obvious.

Barack Obama has Chariklo close to his ascendant, and the USA Solte (Scorpionic America) chart has it exactly rising, both in Aquarius. The ideal adoptive mother theme seems to come out in charts, e.g., Angelina Jolie has Chariklo conjunct Moon in the 9th house (overseas matters).

Nessus, coincidentally exactly on Barack Obama’s ascendant in Aquarius right now, is about power dynamics, the balance of power in any given relationship, and its use and abuse. It can signify any position on the victim-persecutor scale, and in its most negative form can be about abuse, sexual or otherwise. Nessus’s orbit starting in near Saturn and then crossing way over Neptune’s (most centaurs only skim Neptune if that), looks like a symbol of a big fat boundary issue, which abuse is often about, it’s often very unconscious and deluded (Neptune) and is a case of not knowing or caring where the line is — because someone has enough power not to have to care.

Nessus enlevant Deianira. Photo by Yvan Lemeur.

A positive expression of Nessus would be using power reasonably or judiciously (Saturn) for the highest good of all (Neptune), even though you could easily get away with not doing so. Nessus in Aquarius could be viewed as the power we hold as a collective and what we choose to do with it, and what we are collectively in denial about thus causing conveniently unconscious abuse e.g., how Western lifestyles impact the rest of the world.

Nessus square both the Sun and the Moon speaks of how we treat ourselves. The square aspect always asks for an internal check-in before looking at the world, and the implication is that right now we have genuine opportunities to use our power to help or harm ourselves.

Elatus is often said to relate in some way to elegant self-expression or the lack thereof. In one version of Chiron’s myth, Elatus was the guy Heracles was aiming for when Chiron received his infamous accidental wound from the poison arrow, which first passed through Elatus’s arm and killed him. Elatus was one of many who had run to Chiron for protection. So the arrow passed through him and transformed (killed) him without him ever knowing the role he had played in such an important story; the best expressions are those that we allow to come through us, with the ego out of the way, and can have effects that we will never be aware of.

The Taurus/Scorpio angle is all about attachment and releasing attachment. Here, we see the many factors affecting that process, the most meaningful being the choice of whether to use our power to help our own cause or to get in our own way; to be our own friend, or give that job to someone else; and whether we can stand aside and allow this thing called the ego to take its relatively minor role and let the more creative aspects of the psyche do their work.

Tracy Delaney has plotted, schemed and collaborated astrologically with Eric since around 2001. She is the programmer of Serennu.com, the best centaur and minor planet ephemeris and resource on the Net. She is a Pisces who lives in Wales.

Coming Up in Daily Astrology and Adventure

Editor’s Note: These briefs are written each week by a guy named Eric Francis of Little Rock, AK. I found him googling my own name, discovered he was a journalist, and he came on board as our news writer. I was hooked from the first line of his bio, “I am a newspaper man.” Kid, you’re hired. — EFC

Born May 4, 1906, just after the dawn of powered flight, Dr. Eileen Marie Galloway may never have ridden a rocket into space, but she still became one of the most important contributors to the American space program.

Eileen Galloway relaxes at home earlier this year. Credit: NASA.

Her work began just after Russia launched its Sputnik satellite. From a small office in the Library of Congress Annex, she undertook the duty assigned her by President Lyndon B. Johnson as staff consultant for hearings on space technology and its military implications. Galloway became an expert in space law and policy, and an ardent opponent of the militarization of space. She was also instrumental in the creation of the legislation that established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.

Galloway died on May 2 of cancer, two days short of her 103rd birhtday.

According to the Washington Post obituary, she described her job this way in a 1958 interview: “I translate the world of scholarly research” into a form in which “it can be understood in the world of practical politics.”

On the memorial page at NASA’s website, she was hailed as “the grand dame of space” and credited her with helping write the legislation establishing the agency, particularly language “emphasizing international cooperation and peaceful exploration.”

It also showed Galloway’s sense of humor, quoting her as saying her reaction to her appointment by Johnson was, “The only thing I knew about outer space at that time was that the cow had jumped over the Moon.”

The NASA site also includes a link to a 2006 video interview with Galloway.

Galloway, who had lived in Washington, D.C., was preceded in death by her husband George Barnes Galloway and a son, David Barnes Galloway. She is survived by a son, Jonathan Fuller Galloway, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

We’ve discussed before the threat that orbital debris — the bits and pieces left over from launches, collisions, and parts just falling off satellites — poses to everything from commercial satellite launches to the International Space Station.

Space debris populations. Credit: NASA.

Now, officials in the United States military announce that they will share more of the information they have on exactly what’s in orbit where, be it functioning satellites or wayward debris, according to a May 1 report by Peter B. de Selding at Space News.

The goal of this initiative (dubbed the Commercial and Foreign Entities program, or CFE) is to prevent the creation of even more dangerous orbital junk by letting commercial and government entities know what’s potentially in the way of their next launch.

The system is experimental right now. It will work by allowing “open access to basic data on most satellites’ locations through the space-track.org Web site,” reports Space News.

Good news for anybody who’s about to launch a new telecommunications satellite — or teenagers with unusually ambitious high school science projects — but there’s a catch of sorts, notes the Space News article. That’s because “the CFE data is considered far too imprecise to be used to avoid in-orbit collisions in low Earth orbit such as the February incident involving an operational Iridium mobile communications satellite, which collided with a retired Russian Cosmos spacecraft,” the article reported.

That bust-up put 870 bits of debris into orbit that can actually be tracked from the ground, and “likely thousands of smaller pieces our sensors can’t track,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Larry James, commander of U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space, said in the article.

Not all debris in orbit gets there by accident, and not all debris is created equal. Sometimes nations — the United States and China, to name two — create it intentionally, according to the article. According to Joseph Rouge, director of the National Security Space Office at the Pentagon, America tested an anti-satellite system in 1985, and China tested one in 2007.

“Our 1985 test created debris with a 15-year life,” Rouge told Space News. By contrast, the Chinese missile destruction of a Chinese satellite created debris that will remain in orbit for more than 1,000 years.

Who says government agencies can’t have a sense of humor?

NASA is preparing to send what is probably history’s most expensive treadmill to the International Space Station, and it will carry with it one of popular culture’s most popular names: COLBERT, as in Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report.

For You America! Stephen Colbert Wins NASA Station Naming Contest.

Cobert, whose political satire show often skewers taxpayer-funded programs like NASA, urged his viewers to submit his name to the space agency’s poll on what to name the Node 3 module that will be added to the station next. As a result, “Colbert” was the top vote-getter.

Recognizing that such popular adulation should be acknowledged (and, likely, that it wasn’t good to name part of a major international space presence after a sharp-tongued comedian), NASA christened the treadmill, under development for two years, the COLBERT. That stands for Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. A step up from its old name, the terribly banal T-2.

“I think it’s great for NASA that Mr. Colbert got his audience interested in the space station,” said Curt Wiederhoeft of Wyle in the article on NASA’s news site. He is the project manager for the treadmill under the bioastronautics contract. “Comedy Central attracts a lot of younger viewers, and the space program’s going to need the next generation’s support and interest.”

Wiederhoeft further noted the treadmill should last as long as the space station does. Designed to handle 150,000 miles of use, he speculated it would probably see just 38,000 miles of use by station personnel.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 8, 2009, #765 – By ERIC FRANCIS

Aries (March 20-April 19)
You are a different person than you were two weeks ago, and you’re in a dimension beyond where you were late last year. I suggest you account for the ways. Look at simple matters first: how you feel about yourself; the ways in which you’re comfortable with your life, and the process of adjustment you are in; and the quality of communication in your relationships. You seem more willing than ever to think the ideas that are meaningful to you rather than those that will garner you the approval of people close to you. In fact, it would seem that at some point recently you arrived at a place in yourself where your own feelings were actually more important to you than those of other people. This may seem like an odd thing to say to an Aries, given your famous reputation for being self-centered; but we both know what is behind that particular veil.

Read your 2008 annual for Aries. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aries and Aries rising here.

Taurus (April 19- May 20)
Over the next several days, you are poised to break free of one particular deadlock, only to be drawn into a new depth of confrontation with yourself. The radical lesson (in the true sense of the word radical — meaning at your roots) lesson that you are learning is about how to relate to others in a way that is not oppressive, wrought with expectation or coming with a control agenda. This specifically includes a self-control agenda, which can be one of the most crippling things in a relationship, and one of the most difficult to admit. It’s easier to run a control drama on someone else than it is to let on you’re doing it to yourself; and it will come as a true relief when you decide you’re determined to do neither. Hint: the opposite of control is communication.

Read your 2008 annual for Taurus. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Taurus and Taurus rising here.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)
Mercury recently stationing retrograde in your sign may be sending subtle shockwaves through you, or the sense that you’re losing control of your agenda in life. I would propose that you’re letting go of a false agenda in search of a real one. You will probably need to proceed in that order; and I assure you that you can live for a little while without a plan, a purpose or a sense of intention. Have you ever had the feeling that so many people fill their appointment calendars weeks or months in advance just so they don’t have to actually consider what they want to do, when the time comes? Life proceeds on a program, and while it’s not perfect, it seems to be good enough. What I’m getting at here is that it’s actually not good enough, and you are well on your way to better.

Read your 2008 annual for Gemini. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Gemini and Gemini rising here.

Cancer (June 21- July 22)
This week’s Full Moon in your cousin water sign Scorpio is your invitation to plunge into a new world of your sexuality. It is time for a change, and that most likely means some form of adventure, of daring and mostly of depth. If you’re wondering who, or what, or when, make your own opportunity. You have more attractive power going for you than you think, and the current atmosphere of confusion, chaos and the constant verge of fear will work for you, as long as you present an alternative. To encourage or allow others to step out of their fear, you need to be willing to take a risk with your heart-center open. The moment this is true, it will be plainly obvious.

Read your 2008 annual for Cancer. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Cancer and Cancer rising here.

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
We are almost always our own worst enemy, and you’re passing through some psychic territory where the lessons are focused on how not to do that. You need to figure out what else you can be, and you need to go beyond being an ally to yourself: you need to actually be your own friend, mentor, spiritual advisor and life coach. It is true, you have plenty of input right now. There are likely to be people who are willing to help, and some are the sort you’ve never encountered before. There seems to be no limit to what is coming in from the world around you, and you’re learning to discern what is true from what is not. No matter how you do this, you’re going to be checking against internal reference points, so the truth always comes down to you.

Read your 2008 annual for Leo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Leo and Leo rising here.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
The odd paradox of the moment is about how much more you want to do than you feel free to do. You might be noticing this one wherever you look. It’s being enhanced by your rapidly growing sense of your own potential, which is providing the intensity of the contrast. In other words, your limitations are casting a shadow that seems deeper than it is, based on the intensity of the light of what you feel is possible and more to the point, what you know you must do. Here is a little game you can play with the world. Imagine that every goal you have, you will meet in a way other than the one you are planning, or the way that you expect will work. Don’t worry about how you’re going to get there; just let it be different than what you’re expecting.

Read your 2008 annual for Virgo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Virgo and Virgo rising here.

Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
There is something, well, bisexual about your charts at the moment. This is a long-developing story. We will never know the real extent of bisexuality in the human race, for two reasons: the conditioning to mandatory heterosexuality gets stronger by the day; and most of us find a gender orientation and then camp out there like George Washington’s army at Valley Forge. Now is the time to loosen things up. You have options for how you identify who you are, and I suggest that if you find yourself taking one viewpoint and refusing to let it go, consider that you’re doing something other than acting on a preference. There is beauty everywhere, in everyone, and it’s your privilege not just to observe, but to explore.

Read your 2008 annual for Libra. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Libra and Libra rising here.

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
A Full Moon in your own sign is about getting to know yourself, your emotional tendencies and personally experiencing the way that others see you. The Sun often represents how we see ourselves; the Moon is the intuitive response that others have to us. This is an extremely useful phenomenon, given the reputation of Scorpio as so often being something other than it is; that reputation being perpetuated because you tend to veil the sweet side of your nature and emphasize the determined, focused, power-centered side, even when you show up with wine and roses. I think you’ll get a clue how to seem good-natured even in the midst of being good-natured. If you find one or two subtle points where you can be friendlier, this week it’s triple word score.

Read your 2008 annual for Scorpio. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Scorpio and Scorpio rising here.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
You may be nervous about setting things in motion, things you cannot reverse. This would seem on one level to be the perfect excuse to do nothing, since you have this lurking sense that your life could run out of control. I’m not saying that it will; but what I am saying is that holding back on doing something that might potentially have a real effect is just about the best way to hold up all progress. One bellwether you can be alert to is your curiosity level, and your corresponding response to act on that curiosity. Watch both simultaneously. Be mindful of moments when you try to convince yourself not to act on your curiosity because you’re afraid that something might happen. By that I mean that something you want to happen might happen, even if it will have unexpected consequences. Everything does.

Read your 2008 annual for Sagittarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
Saturn, your personal planet and one of my favorite planets, continues to retrograde in over-cautious, over-critical Virgo; this is how it feels to be a young girl controlled by her mother. If you’re someone who has ideas but they’re never good enough or big enough, you may finally crack open the situation now. Saturn is now square something called the Great Attractor, and this is bigger than any negative opinion you may have and it’s bigger than the fear that’s regularly instilled in us that we are constantly being spied on by a God who doesn’t really answer when we pray. Right now if you focus your intentions and make a conscious effort to recognize the value of your ideas, you definitely stand a prayer of a chance of making the changes you want so badly.

Read your 2008 annual for Capricorn. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Capricorn and Capricorn rising here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
You’ve been working on yourself longer than you think — a lot longer, and you’ve accomplished more than you think. You need to claim your progress and give yourself credit for what you’ve accomplished; and that credit translates to the courage to make the choices you need to make. I have often quoted A Course in Miracles’ idea that every decision you make stems from what you think you are. I suggest you plug in this concept now, since what you think you are and what you become are quite closely related at the moment. You are also in an odd and high-amperage relationship with what other people think you are and you need to watch this one carefully. The same astrology that is helping you define yourself is also making you susceptible to the views of others, and you need to discern what is coming from you, and what is most assuredly not.

Read your 2008 annual for Aquarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aquarius and Aquarius rising here.

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)
If you encounter resistance, quickly move on. In other words, the last thing you want to do right now is to get caught in the negativity or hesitancy of others. They have good reasons to be confident in you, but not as good as the ones you have. It is impossible to convince a skeptic, mainly because skepticism is a game that would better be called Convince Me if You Can. At the same time, when you see signs of cooperation or others expressing their trust and willingness, propagate the relationship. Now is the time when what you build, you build big; what you think and feel manifests in ways that will help direct the course of your future. Or rather, help you create the course of your future. You have enough doubt of your own, and you’re finally learning to put it in its place. I think you’ll prefer confidence a good bit more. It comes from you.

Read your 2008 annual for Pisces. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Pisces and Pisces rising here.

Dear Friend and Reader:

What a strange, beautiful mix of energies we’re in right now. When I was in the spiritual boot camp known as Miracle Manor, we often tossed around an expression: love brings up everything unlike itself. The only thing unlike love is fear, so if we can be prepared for that, and willing to meet it (though not on its own terms), life can be more productive. It’s one reason why it helps if people in relationship share some of the same spiritual or metaphysical language; then for example the love/fear paradigm can be used as a tool rather than as something we get caught in unwittingly.

Pan and a nymph. A fragment of a relief.

I’m guessing you noticed that the ‘swine’ flu media panic is occurring just as spring is taking hold — and in the prime of Beltane season. Beltane is the month of May or the first week of May or Taurus time or the Taurus solar midpoint, depending on how you reckon. I’ll choose all of the above (once you grok Beltane you really cannot get enough), though the astrological focal point is when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus (which happens around each year May 5). There, it’s in a dialog with the four cardinal points (the beginnings of the seasons) and the three other cross-quarter days, which take place when the Sun is at the midpoint of one of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius).

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, where the flu story is primarily occurring, the surge of panic is arriving in the time of Pan, that is, the spring. Pan is the namesake of panic, which is mass terror. This of course reflects a strong Christian bias against one of the great gods of nature and primal male energy: the god with horns on his head, who shows up as the antagonist in their myths as ‘the devil’. Based on both American Heritage and the Oxford English Dictionary, it would appear that the word pandemic has different etymology (from Late Latin, the prefix pan means all or all encompassing) but the pun is difficult to miss, and I suspect they are connected.

So here we are in the time of Pan having a panic over an alleged pandemic. I can think of better ways to spend a spring afternoon.

Let’s not forget, however, that if this is the season of Beltane and Taurus, there is an implication of Scorpio and Sahwen (usually spelled samhain, the forerunner of Halloween), that is, the Days of the Dead. We are approaching the Scorpio Full Moon, when the Taurus/Scorpio axis is illuminated at once. That is coming up May 9. This is really the deepest mix of energies in the physical cosmos, because along Taurus and Scorpio, the whole life cycle is implied in one gesture. Beltane and Sahwen correspond with the pulse of birth/death/rebirth. The connection between sex and death, between the physical body and letting the body go, are part of that rhythm. The moral of the story is to enjoy your life.

Photo from Beltane 2008 at the Center for Symbolic Studies. Photo by Eric Francis.

I understand the challenges implied here, mainly because I’ve experienced plenty of them. I can assure you that despite this being considered one of the most stressful times in history (some of my 19-year-old models seem to be busier than I am, which is impressive), we are devoid of most of the truly horrendous stresses of recent centuries. The chances are you’ll live past 30 and survive childbirth and see your kids grow up and not die of the plague. We have a lot of demands on us and just as many options to take care of ourselves.

Our society just as this little problem of spiritual emptiness. Whenever I get onto this topic, I am reminded of the scene from the film Contact, one of my top-three favorite movies of the 20th century*, when Palmer Joss (played my Matthew McConaughey) is being interviewed on Larry King. Remember that one? He’s calmly asking if all this stuff and technology and entertainment are actually making us happy. And as his words echo into the night, Dr. Ellie Arroway and her crew at the Very Large Array telescope pick up the first ever signal from an intelligent extraterrestrial source.

LARRY KING: Are you anti-science, anti-technology?

PALMER JOSS: Not at all. The question I’m asking is, are we happier, as a human race? Is the world fundamentally a better place because of science and technology? We shop at home, we surf the web. At the same time, we feel emptier. We feel lonelier and more cut off from each other than at any other time in history. We’ve become a synthesized society…I think it’s because we’re looking for the meaning. Well what is the meaning? We have mindless jobs, we take frantic vacations, deficit finance trips to the mall to buy more things that we think are going to fill these holes in our lives. I mean is it any wonder that we’ve lost our sense of direction?

Beltane Bonfire. Photo by Stuart Barrett.

Part of how we regain our sense of direction is by paying attention to natural cycles, and then slowly integrating our lives with them. At the moment, we’re in the time of renewal but we’re seeing the shadow of death, or rather having it blown into our faces like a big digital sneeze. It’s appropriate on one level, but this is coming in parody form, as paranoia rather than as a true honoring of the in-breath and out-breath of the cosmos.

What we’re seeing is fear of nonexistence as a kind of temptation, rather than as a sign of actual respect for existence. I think it’s useful in the sense that it’s a reminder how frail we feel, behind the false confidence of our high-tech lives. Though I do think that much of what we’ve been experiencing is a manipulated, fabricated product of government, corporate culture and media, the fact that we are susceptible to the terror scare of the week is potentially useful information.

Part of what it may point to is precisely that emptiness that Palmer Joss was talking about. It is a clear sign of emptiness that the media (at whomever’s behest) thinks it can throw society into spasms over a disease that does not appear to be making anyone in the United States seriously ill; without explaining, or even asking, why some patients have died, but with one exception, only in Mexico.

The brilliant part of the moment is that so many people are asking questions; many people see this for what it most likely is — a big commercial for fear and flu shots. That so many people can see through this haze is suggestive of Chiron-Neptune, which is clarifying the vision of those who seek specifically that.

All Wealth Comes from the Earth

I had a few occasions to hang out with a man named Alfred Schweitzman, and his favorite thing to say was, “All wealth comes from the Earth.” Since he was pretty wealthy, it had some credibility. I think that part of honoring the source of wealth is finding some way in our lives besides recycling to consciously honor nature, the seasons and the life of our planet. You may have already noticed this has many benefits.

Beltane Red Charge. Photo by Miguel Arredondo.

So, how exactly would we go about offering some tribute back to the pulse of life, and the moment we are in? Besides tuning into your senses, the traditional way is with ritual — which is a tool for tuning in. There are a lot of ways to do rituals, and what makes them real is that they’re creative, sincere and apropos of the moment. On the simplest, most direct level, a ritual is a celebration. There are lots of ways to get that going; but I don’t mean a party: I mean a conscious honoring of existence, which can certainly happen as a social gathering.

Beltane, associated with Venus, is about honoring the Goddess. God is often presented by religious leaders as a vague, abstract concept (this is a distortion). The Goddess is tangible, able to be depicted and described, connected to the Earth, and is in essence female. So celebrate and indulge the beauty of femaleness in any form you like. Invite her to be there as an equal collaborator. One thing about the Goddess that I’ve noticed is that when you call on her with love and passion in your heart and for that matter your pelvis, she shows up.

At Beltane the time-honored theme is sex. It is literally the celebration of the joining of yin and yang. I describe that in this article about the ancient Druid site Avebury Henge, someplace to get yourself to if you’re ever in London — it’s only about a one-hour trip. Ritual is organic, though if you were raised Christian you may encounter some negativity (fear, guilt) if you experiment with it. There is a lot of negative programming from Christian patriarchy, and I suspect it’s in all of our DNA; but that, we can reprogram. So don’t let it stop you.

What would differentiate ritual sex from any other sex? Well, depending on your preference, it would be intention, awareness or both. Intention is a useful thing to bring to any ritual. At Beltane, the ritual is about consciously raising erotic energy that would manifest in your life as abundance.

The idea is, find someone who is willing and willing to share the idea, and share a conscious erotic exchange to call up the power of the Earth and our love for the Earth. Tell me, do you really love the planet you live on? I mean the planet itself, the thing your house or apartment sits on? Lovely as it sounds, celebrating erotic energy is one way to do this because we are celebrating the core nature of creation, on our planet. If you give it an honest try, I would take a guess that you can find someone willing to do this, though of course you would have to take a little chance and ask. One of the themes of Beltane is sex with people you’re not officially coupled to; or with whom you are not necessarily that familiar. Your partner, if you have one, will suit fine; but if not, remember that the point is not to have a celebration of lifelong specialness, but rather to honor your inherent biology, humanity and the polarities of nature; of honoring the Earth and the Goddess that support our existence.

Green Man Rebirth by Julia Gomez.

There are other Beltane traditions, like dancing the Maypole. This dance is about weaving a pattern of life in the community. I don’t think they sell Maypoles at Wal-Mart, but you can apply this in some fashion. Dressing up trees in ribbons is another fun tradition, described vividly in the Loreena McKennitt song The Mummer’s Dance. This one is fabulous to put you in the mood for Beltane. Here is another very nice version, apparently the official video with sequences of some positively stunning miming (mummers) and visuals of some ecstatic musicians at work. Actually, I’ve got tears running down my face watching this one.

While we’re on a roll, here is a live version not to miss.

If solo is your preference or your only option, that will work just fine, though I suggest you focus with extraordinary sincerity. Set the space and time consciously. Reward yourself for consciously choosing to improve your life in an organic way. Figure out a way to explore the dualism of yin and yang, of male and female, within yourself. The celebration is about honoring how life on Earth, biological life, is supported by this dualism like the poles of a battery. What we’re doing in any form of this ritual is recharging the energy between the poles. Basically, however you go about it, the idea is that holding and celebrating an erotic charge is the power that we use to manifest our survival, our happiness and a certain ease of existence.

This is not a convenience we can buy. It’s something we need to celebrate with our hearts, our souls and most of all, our bodies. Raise the energy. Don’t fall for the fear. Give it a voice, but remember it’s just one voice. Set aside the aches, pains and gripes your body may be creaking about, and dip into the feelings of the Earth and the waters of life.

Peace & passion,

*PS, my other two favorite movies of my lifetime so far are Waking Life directed by Richard Linklater; and Wag the Dog, directed by Barry Levinson. Waking Life was one of the few movies to ever change my life like a book. Wag the Dog is the most vivid explanation of political and media sociology that I’ve ever encountered.
 

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

One hundred days into the Obama presidency, it’s clear that his promise of change is not only here but moving forward, with or without us. For those who wish Obama was less pragmatic and more progressive, I think it worthwhile to count our blessings that we have someone in charge who is willing to flex, risk and think long-term. Change did not come from him — the need grew organically, encouraged by the energies that drive us forward toward a new paradigm and nurtured in the hearts of many who intuited the decay of a dying age. We are seeking liberation from the old ways and entry into a new century; Obama appears to be seeking the same.

President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting at Fox Senior High School in Arnold, Mo., Wednesday, April 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert).

Before the election, I warned that the promises made by a candidate might or might not be achieved; we’ve seen that happen often enough. Campaign promises are generally not a promissory note but a happy-face projection and think-tank dream; give Obama credit for never tossing his into the round file. He is proving to be a man of his word, and no matter how dire the obstacles thrown in his path, he has continued to focus on his early pledges. His own hundredth day commentary indicated that we are continuing to “… pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and work at rebuilding America.” Indeed. Imagine, if you will, what a Bush or McCain might have done in this first hundred. These first few months were a period of jumping tougher hurdles than many of us can remember for an incoming president, and Obama managed to do that while keeping the nation calm; his poll numbers remain high and the nation feels it is moving in the right direction. The obstacles, dire indeed, vary from an economy in chaos, international challenges that include North Korean hostility, escalating violence in both war theatres and pirates in Somalia; and, insult to injury, now a new strain of flu that has some of us as startled as a deer in the headlights. The next hundred will probably be as difficult in terms of the expected, and as full of shocks and surprises as the last.

Coming Up in Daily Astrology and Adventure

It measures 55,000 light years across and is nearly 13 billion light years away from Earth. But the most interesting bit about this recently discovered blob of matter is its birth date: Just 800 million years after the Big Bang. Or the presumed Big Bang, anyway — which is the best current theory about the creation of the universe we live in. That’s estimated at about 13.7 billion years ago, give or take a few million years; so it’s a blob from way back at the beginning.

This image of the Himiko object is a composite and in false color. Credit: M. Ouchi.

The object was discovered by Japanese researchers at the Subaru telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii and announced recently by the Carnegie Institute for Science. It is what’s known as an extended Lyman-Alpha blob, a mass of gasses that may be an early stage in galaxy formation. And it’s a rather big deal, because it can reveal something about the early composition of the cosmos.

“I am very surprised by this discovery,” lead author Masami Ouchi said in the Carnegie Institute’s announcement. “I have never imagined that such a large object could exist at this early stage of the universe’s history. According to the concordance model of Big Bang cosmology, small objects form first and then merge to produce larger systems. This blob had a size of typical present-day galaxies when the age of the universe was about 800 million years old, only 6% of the age of today’s universe!”

Ouchi, a Fellow at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution, was at the head of a team of Japanese, American and British astronomers who made the discovery.

The object was also given a name by the discovering team: Himiko, a reference to an ancient and possibly mythological shaman queen from third-century Japan.
 

If April 22 is Earth Day, there’s a case to be made for declaring April 28 Galaxy Day. That was the date in 2003 when NASA launched its Galaxy Evolution Explorer. In the six years since then, this space-based, ultraviolet telescope has cataloged more than 500 million objects, some of them nearly 10 billion years old — not that long after the Big Bang.

Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Image Credit: NASA/JPL.

What does it show us? Details on the shape and size, brightness and distance of galaxies like M33, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory website. In astronomical terms, M33 is a near neighbor, only 2.9 million light years away. Located in the constellation Triangulum, it is part of the Local Group of galaxies, though it’s small compared to its neighbor, Andromeda.

Not every one of those half-billion objects sighted is a galaxy, of course. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex, for short) has also sighted huge numbers of other space phenomena, including some striking nebulae. A downloadable image of NGC3242, a nebula commonly called Jupiter’s Ghost, is available at the Galex web site, along with many other beautiful space images.

As it so happens, you don’t need an orbiting ultraviolet-spectrum telescope to see NGC3242; it’s one of the more easily visible objects in space for home telescopes, according to the Skyhound website.

Coincidentally, there is also an Internet-based science fiction show called “Jupiter’s Ghost” that, according to its Facebook page, is about “a group of seven scientists and military personnel who are sent to discover the source of a mysterious, deep-space transmission.”
 

Therambil Ramakrishnan, the former speaker of the Legislative Assembly in India’s state of Kerala, urged astrologers to ensure the ancient science “was understandable and transparent to common man” during an address to the 37th state annual day celebrations of the Kerala Jyothisha Parishath, an institute of astrological studies, the news site ExpressBuzz.com reported.

Nedumudi Venu.

The article cited Ramakrishnan as stressing on Sunday, April 26, that “the scientific side of astrology is not yet clearly elaborated to the common man. He said further clarification of this ancient science is essential for making it more popular and useful to common man.”

He was joined by actor Nedumudi Venu, who urged listeners to “protect astrology from undue commercialization.”

According to ExpressBuzz.com, Venu said “astrology has become a money spinner at present with the entry of persons without proper knowledge in the subject with a view to making money and exploiting people.”

In the West, astrology is practically traded as a commodity. There are differing views of whether it’s ethical to charge for astrological services. For example, the Rosicrucians say that all astrology should be free, so that astrologers can help struggling humanity. This is not always practical, given that it takes well over a decade of study and practice to become a seasoned astrologer and be able to work the finer details of the art.
 

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 1, 2009, #764 – By ERIC FRANCIS

Aries (March 20-April 19)
Burn your confidence efficiently. Too hot and you will run out mid-flight. Not hot enough and you will not get this phase of your life off the ground. It may be the emotional state of someone close to you that is currently having a chilling effect on your boldness; I suggest you offer a measure of empathy to a partner or loved one who is going through a transition similar to what you went through about a week ago. The emphasis of your life is gradually being taken off of one-on-one partnering and is being placed within a much wider context. Group dynamics are at play in your life, within which you are being invited to participate as a creator and not just a player. The rules have changed since you were young. You may not be able to put them into words, but at least they are easier to understand now.

Read your 2008 annual for Aries. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aries and Aries rising here.

Taurus (April 19- May 20)
It can be sickening how much of what we call life is a game of appearances; of people striving to establish their identity and supremacy for their own sake. You don’t seem to be up to this; your consciousness has been and remains internally fixated, as if you’re trying to establish your existence within the context of your own awareness. Don’t work so hard at it. Venus remains in Aries, which is something of a blind spot for you. She is making a square to Pluto, which will draw you into yourself in a somewhat obsessive way. The result might feel like needing to search inwardly for something that is right there but which is not quite visible or available to your emotional senses. Be gentle to yourself. The mystery of who you are is less like a riddle and more like a painting in progress: one stroke at a time.

Read your 2008 annual for Taurus. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Taurus and Taurus rising here.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)
Mercury is about to make a brief visit to your sign, turn retrograde and disappear back into Taurus. This is perfect space weather for reconciling the ongoing challenge of how you feel inside versus how you present yourself to the world. Once we figure out that these two environments are different, the first and generally most daunting project is learning how not to feel like a phony. I am beginning to notice that a good portion of the population struggles with this feeling often enough that it warrants special care. You have the opportunity to connect to something about yourself that is inherently, unquestionably real. The catch is that when we arrive there, we tend to see everything that we thought we were as a kind of charade. The gift is what we gain by gently giving up that perception.

Read your 2008 annual for Gemini. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Gemini and Gemini rising here.

Cancer (June 21- July 22)
The cards in the deck keep getting shuffled, but it’s not a random affair. Each time you disengage from an agreement, you have the opportunity to make a more conscious one. You can see how many assumptions you’re making about what you think and what other people think. Raising awareness and making conscious agreements are the bass and treble lines of this particular song. I would strongly suggest not going on a campaign of solving every interpersonal communications glitch or off-balance agreement that you discover. A solution is on its way that will shift the level of the discussion; problems you did not know existed will resolve themselves, and the ones you were the most concerned about will yield to the simpler equations of a higher level of thought. For now, focus on the agreements you make in the present.

Read your 2008 annual for Cancer. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Cancer and Cancer rising here.

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
Sometimes when we take leadership in a situation, something dark and shadowy bubbles to the surface. You know those moments when you get home and obsess over something you said at a party — something that it’s doubtful that anyone will remember, but which makes you feel like a total ass to think about? What you may be feeling goes deeper than this: you are indeed in a position where you must assert yourself, and this may stir up some pretty deep doubts about how you relate to others. I suggest you let them flow through you, and watch how easily they can disappear if you don’t fight with them. The people in your environment are extremely grateful that you’re as bold as you are. You remain your own harshest critic. For more accurate information, consult the people around you.

Read your 2008 annual for Leo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Leo and Leo rising here.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
The Taurus Sun is doing more to lift your spirits than nearly any transit this year; you have been so focused on necessities that you have not had time to think of the possibilities. However, you may find the greatest potential in doing that which is most necessary. You will have, in the next week or so, a few clues about how you can make this work for you and for everyone else. What happens is only a sample, example or a test run, though you will learn enough to remove some flaws from your thought process and the delivery of your idea in a professional context. If things seem to backslide, nothing is being taken away; rather, you are getting a chance to refine and reconsider. Therefore pay careful attention during this experimental phase, because by next month the data will be crucial.

Read your 2008 annual for Virgo. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Virgo and Virgo rising here.

Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
Few forces rival that of human emotion; hurricanes come near. Therefore, I suggest that you respect the power of nature and allow the elements to do their work. The planets suggest that you need grounding in a relationship, and grounding translates to aligning certain practical realities with certain other spiritual realities. The situation has deep roots and there would appear to be a struggle over what guides the way to the future: past patterns, or the quest to reinvent and evolve those patterns. Someone close to you is feeling a quality of inner movement that is more natural for you. I suggest you do your part to keep the conversation going. Someone close to you may lack words where clearly you do not. The thing you might be lacking is the drive to speak up for what you need, feel or believe.

Read your 2008 annual for Libra. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Libra and Libra rising here.

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
You’re approaching a project with new enthusiasm. I suggest you remember that in pursuing any goal you need a balance of work and play; of art and craft; of balancing your own needs against those of the situation. You are in an interesting point of growth where you’re finally learning to do things the easy way rather than choosing one of several other possibilities. If you encounter resistance, bear in mind that it might be inner in nature rather than a struggle with someone around you. You may also be inclined to blame someone for backing out of a situation, dragging their feet or pretending to be thick headed, when everyone knows full well what the basic facts are and what is going on. If you listen and give their ideas sufficient time to reveal themselves, an important point of truth will emerge when you least expected it — and this information will facilitate matters significantly.

Read your 2008 annual for Scorpio. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Scorpio and Scorpio rising here.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
Freedom may be a word for nothing left to lose. Yet there does seem to be plenty at stake, and you are hungry for your independence. Be honest with yourself that there is a price to pay for originality. The more you are willing to give up in order to have your freedom of mind, the less you will have to give up. The more willing you are to stand in your ideas like they are your home, the more others will take your example and be reminded that it is possible for them to do the same thing. It would be healthy for everyone around you to embrace the possibility that we are not trapped in the past. Once that thought occurs to anyone, it becomes much more natural to embrace the potential of the future. And it has very much been occurring to you lately.

Read your 2008 annual for Sagittarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising here.

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
You have more options than you believe. Because so much is important to you, you’re experiencing a phenomenon of this leading to a narrow sense of potential; few outcomes could actually cover as many points as seem necessary. But you don’t need many possibilities, outcomes or directions of movement; you need the one that works for you. I suggest you focus on that. Part of why you have so many options is so that it’s possible to eliminate the ones that are not what you want. I would propose that each time you subtract something from your agenda that does not match up with your values, you declare a minor victory and go back to your elimination process. This is not reducing your potential for freedom; rather, it’s pointing you directly toward it.

Read your 2008 annual for Capricorn. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Capricorn and Capricorn rising here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
Focus less on the details and more on the wide vision. If your mind keeps coming up with reasons why things don’t work, persist in envisioning what would work. You can do this, but only if you get off of a clogged frequency and onto a more spacious one. Part of what you seem to be struggling with is getting a real exchange going. One way out is to focus less on circulating energy, and less on trying to draw upon the resources of others, and more on being who you are. That is a quality that is subtler than it is bold. You are exploring unfamiliar psychological territory, so one thing you may experiment with is imagining how that feels to others. As you guide yourself into a measure of authentic ease with the unknown, others who are developing the same sensibility will gradually be drawn to you.

Read your 2008 annual for Aquarius. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Aquarius and Aquarius rising here.

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)
Once again I would remind you how much is developing out of sight, and in a sense, out of mind. Meanwhile, look for seemingly small signs of what is invisible as it manifests in your awareness. Explore the idea that all that exists is what you allow into your consciousness; this will encourage you to be open minded and, more to the point, cultivate the energy of continuing to open rather than thinking you are already open enough. If you get stuck, I suggest you look for anything you are seeking in the world within yourself: success or the feeling of success; love or someone to love; a man; a woman; something to say; a feeling; an idea; a place to be. What becomes real in you becomes real to you.

Read your 2008 annual for Pisces. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Pisces and Pisces rising here.