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Dear Friend and Reader:

Just when you thought you’d finally gotten used to Mercury hanging out in water signs for long stretches, the planet representing our minds and how we think will finally leave Scorpio and enter Sagittarius at 9:42 pm EST Wednesday. Mercury can be a little impatient here, but it tends to be honest — and what our minds may miss in terms of details will likely be made up for with a greater long-range focus.

Stars of frost formed around grasses in the icy Mill Pond, Casco, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

In Planet Waves FM tonight, Eric will look at Monday’s Sagittarius New Moon, check in with Mars in Libra and the 2014 astrology, do a wild rant on Obamacare, and describe the chart of the Metro North train wreck.

Mercury’s ingress to Sagittarius brings it into a square with Neptune, compromising its honesty. Combined with the Sun’s conjunction to the Great Attractor, this week’s themes include the potential for self-deception, chasing ‘cosmic’ truths, false controversy and a reminder to notice the facts and details along the way — all covered in today’s Daily Astrology.

Yesterday’s Sagittarius New Moon was the focus of Monday’s Daily Astrology — including its aspects to the Great Attractor, the asteroid Pallas and centaur object Chiron. While the Moon has moved on, the Sun is still in aspect to all three points, meaning that focusing the mind from two different points of view and steering clear of controversies continue to be on the agenda through this week.

Len Wallick adds his voice to the conversation at noon today, when his column — on Mercury’s ingress into Sagittarius and its potential to ignite your inspiration — posts to the Planet Waves blog.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. If you have a Sagittarius Sun, Moon or rising sign — or know someone who does — be sure to pre-order the 2013-2014 Sagittarius birthday reading now to get the best price ($19.95). It can be tough having a birthday in the midst of focus-grabbing holidays; show a Sag some extra love this year with more than an hour of Eric’s in-depth astrology and tarot interpretation. Note: This reading will be ready soon, and once it is the price will increase to $29.95. Pre-order now for the discounted rate!

Dear Friend and Reader:

First a quick reminder that as we wind down this year, your 2014 annual readings, called The Mars Effect, are available for pre-order. We offer the best price on these best-selling readings early, and right now you can pre-order all 12 signs for $69 — an incredible value that gives you access to your Sun, Moon and rising signs (and those of loved ones). After Thanksgiving (Nov. 28 this year) we’ll be increasing the price to $79.

John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, July 11, 1963. White House photo by Cecil Stoughton.

Currently we’re in the last days of Scorpio — and what a Scorpio season it’s been, winding down with flair thanks to Sunday’s Taurus Full Moon. The astrology this week is perfect for further exploration into any kind of sexual healing process you may have embarked on in the last few weeks, and then the Sun moves into cosmic Sagittarius on Thursday.

Today’s edition of Planet Waves FM will look at the charts of John F. Kennedy and his assassination. The program will focus on how the question of who killed him and why is a different question from what it was 50 years ago. Eric will consider the festering wound of the unsolved murder, and how this has thrown American society into nearly nonstop chaos and leadership crisis.

In today’s Daily Astrology column, the emphasis is on healing communication — and communication as healing. With minor planet Eros in the Uranus-Pluto square, this is a true “get it off your chest” moment when it comes to those erotic ideas you’ve never managed to speak out loud before.

Monday’s Daily Astrology column offers an overview of the week’s astrology, in particular the potential for Mars in Virgo to get obsessed with ‘getting it right’ at the expense of others (or yourself). Jupiter in Cancer offers a way out by asking you, “What feels good and is nourishing?”

Today Chiron stations direct in Pisces, on the anniversary of its similar station direct in Pisces 150 years ago as Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous address at Gettysburg. Len Wallick’s column today on the Planet Waves blog asks us each to take up the unfinished business of Chiron’s holistic, healing work in our own lives. That column posts at noon.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

Dear Friend and Reader:

We’ve just come though one heck of an eclipse season mixed with a Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. Approaching Mercury’s station direct on Nov. 10 (and just after), there can be an increase in retrograde-y snafus (Mercury’s ‘storm’ phase), calling for awareness and attention — especially with communication, electronics, money and travel. Noticing when your mind is not fully on a task can save you the time and effort of fixing mistakes, and frees you to work with the rest of this week’s astrology.

View from Lembert Dome, elevation 9,450 feet, Yosemite National Park. Photo by Amanda Painter.

In tonight’s Planet Waves FM, Eric looks at the combined influence of Sun conjunct Saturn and Mercury stationing direct in Scorpio — the truth comes out, the setting of boundaries and the clarification of agreements. This includes what to do with the concept of ‘limited time’.

On that theme, he introduces the rather dangerous situation at Fukushima Unit 4, which we will be covering in the Planet Waves Friday edition. And he devotes the second half of the program to his sexual awareness advocacy riff that he’s been on for the past few weeks.

Eric’s musical guest is the magnificent, incomparable Monogold, who performed at Backstage Studio Productions last week. Planet Waves FM usually publishes to the website by 8 pm, often much earlier.

In today’s Daily Astrology column, we take a look at Venus in Capricorn square Ceres in Libra and ask: What happens when a “fear of giving too much of oneself” bumps up against the imperative to make sure that all of us, in all our relationships, are fully nourished?

Monday’s Daily Astrology introduced this week’s astrological highlights, plus the main themes invoked by the Sun-Saturn conjunction. It’s an aspect that can manifest as reserve or restraint, but can just as easily provide the strength and discipline to get things done. In Scorpio, that could spell some deep inner transformative work that builds on Sunday’s eclipse.

Len Wallick also investigates Venus in Capricorn in his column today, which posts to the blog at noon. He suggests a simple, sustainable dance beginning with your feet on solid ground each day.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

Dear Friend and Reader:

This week the sky deepens its shift toward Scorpio, as tomorrow the Sun ingresses this fixed water sign that ‘fixes’ the season begun last month. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, that means autumn; for all readers, it means a season marked by the themes of secrets, sex, deep transformation and taboos.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Eric will take up these themes and more in his broadcast of Planet Waves FM tonight, which will post by 8 pm EDT. He will add some extra commentary on the theme of codependency, alcohol and substance abuse, covered by Amanda in today’s Daily Astrology — see below.

Eric began the week in Monday’s Daily Astrology column by inviting readers to see and challenge the many ways we carry denial about ourselves. Mercury stationed retrograde in Scorpio Monday, initiating us into a three-week period designed to cut though any games of ‘pretend’ we’re playing with ourselves. An upcoming solar eclipse in Scorpio should give us a boost in that.

In today’s Daily Astrology column, we’ve noticed that the current astrology calls to mind “the Karpman triangle” — a configuration that shows how the abuser-victim-enabler relationship of co-dependency can become a self-perpetuating system. A square between Vesta in Virgo and Pholus and Ixion in Sagittarius brings in the way that alcohol and a sense of detachment can be used to justify immoral or toxic behavior.

Later today Len Wallick describes how, once the Sun enters Scorpio tomorrow, its aspect to Neptune in Pisces offers an opportunity for you to understand more consciously that elusive yet pervasive planet. Len’s column posts to the blog at about noon.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter