Editor’s Note: I was looking for an article by Eric featuring Sedna, since the Sun makes its annual conjunction to that complex minor planet on Sunday, when I found this delightful trio of essays/letters by Eric and astronomer Mike Brown. Brown is part of the Caltech team that recently determined the existence of Planet Nine. The pieces below first published in the Feb. 1, 2008 members’ edition. — Amanda P.

Dear Friend and Reader:

MIKE BROWN is one of the great astronomers of our day. I say this because he and his team have made some of the most significant discoveries in recent astronomical history — in particular, Eris and Sedna. Yet what is more, he has a gift for giving planets names that are bold, original and astutely call attention to crucial world issues. Read those links on Eris and Sedna and you’ll see what I mean.

Photo: Mike Brown poses with Uranus, the first planet discovered by science. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

His team’s 2005 discovery of Eris turned the world of planetary astronomy upside down the next year, when the International Astronomical Union (the IAU, the scientists who officially control names and categories of planets) defined the word “planet” for the first time. This was the meeting in Prague that we made such a fuss about (here is a link to one article, and another to refresh your memory, and here is the Wall Street Journal’s coverage featuring yours truly).

In Small World Stories, I joked that Kirsti Melto (a minor planet astrologer you read regularly on these pages) and I feel that Mike is an astrologer but doesn’t know it yet. I say this because he is connected to the archetypal world through his work as a scientist, and that work involves planets and mythological figures. He is in tune with the times — the first job of an astrologer.

I knew he loved astrologers. As we noted in the dedication to The Spiral Door, he looked at his watch the moment he discovered Eris, because he knew astrologers would ask the time.

He even told this to The New York Times! It is difficult to overstate what a bold thing that is to say. At the very least, it reveals he’s a maverick with a great sense of humor. At best, he reveals himself as someone who, in Gemini fashion, is open to both sides of the story and thus has an actual interest in the truth.

Then last weekend, he came out with the article you’re about to read below. It is extraordinary because, unlike most of his colleagues, he does not immediately assume that astrologers are all a bunch of scammers. This is an unfortunate prejudice that I’ve encountered too often, but then astrology does its part to earn this reputation — a topic for another article.

Mike has an interesting concept of how astrology works. He describes it as a kind of story that we follow, which he regards as a form of fiction. This s precisely how I describe it in the Planet Waves terms of service — personally applicable mythical fiction. He prefaces his comments by saying he does not accept that the planets have “control” over our lives. In this sense, he’s in accord with the majority of honest Western astrologers, whose work emphasizes choice and not fate.

He sees the common ground we share. He has an open mind, and is open to a dialog. This is rare, and if you believe in history, it is historic. Here’s his essay, with my reply published below. May his words not only ring through the centuries, but also open a door to a discussion that we, as in astrologers and astronomers, need to have right now.

Three pictures that shook the solar system. Discovery images of the dwarf planet Eris, which led astronomers to reorganize their concept of the solar system in the summer of 2006. The three images were taken 1-1/2 hours apart on the night of Oct. 21, 2003. Eris can be seen very slowly moving across the sky over the course of three hours. Photos by Mike Brown.

I (Heart) Astrologers

By MIKE BROWN
Professor of Planetary Astronomy
Caltech University

PLEASE DON’T tell any of my fellow astronomers, but I love astrologers. Really I do.

Don’t get me wrong. I have absolutely no belief whatsoever in the proposition that the positions of planets or stars or moons or anything else that is moving across the sky has or ever has had any sort of control over your life, your actions, or your choices. Zero. Really.

So if I don’t believe in what I must assume would have to be considered a central precept of astrology, how can I possibly claim to love the practitioners? Let me count the ways.

Astrologers care about the sky and the positions of the stars and the moon. I care about the sky and the positions of the stars and the moon. Astrologers try to understand patterns in the orbits and motions of the planets and determine their meaning. I try to understand patterns in the orbits and motions of the planets and determine their meaning. In a broad sense, we do many of the same things; it’s just that our methods are different.

Astrology and astronomy are brothers with roots deeper than just the first five letters. Until perhaps the Enlightenment they were inseparable. Copernicus, who made one of the greatest conceptual leaps in human history, pulling the earth out of the center of the universe and replacing it with the sun, was a dedicated astrologer, calculating astrological charts with as much fervor as trying to understand the paths of the planets. It’s not hard to understand why he would feel that some connection should be there. I don’ t think anyone can watch the rhythms and pulses of the movements of the planets and sun and moon and not somehow get a gut feeling that there is somehow meaning in all of that beauty, precision, and symmetry.

But from their common upbringing, the brothers split in adulthood. They each retained their common interest in the sky, but with thoroughly different ways of looking at it. Astronomy moved to the purely objective realm of descriptive and predictive reality. It moved to science. And a wondrous science it is. I can go outside tonight and look up to see the bright glowing star Betelgeuse, the red orb in the upper corner of constellation Orion, and then I can tell you a pretty good version of the entire story of its birth in a cloud of gas and dust, its long existence as a smaller and cooler star with hydrogen atoms fusing together in the deep interior, and its recent expansion to form ball of gas the size of the orbit of Mars. That we have been able to determine this story at all, simply from looking at the feeble light from these little points in the sky, is as improbable as it is incredible. When I see Betelgeuse at night and stop to think these thoughts I am left in awe.

Artists concept of the view from Eris with Dysnomia in the background, looking back towards the distant Sun. Credit: Robert Hurt (IPAC).

So what can astrology offer that can even come close to matching? It can’t tell me anything, I don’t think, about my history or my future or my personality or my pitfalls. Or about anyone else’s. Isn’t it therefore worthless, or even potentially dangerous? I don’t think so. Astrology is the brother who kept the fascination with the sky but rather than growing an interest in science kept its interest in humanity. Scientific astronomy, for all of its awe-inspiring, mind expanding, and just simply amazing discoveries, leaves people and their consciousness out of the picture. Astronomy involves people looking up at the heavens, but the heavens are never looking back. Astrology, in contrast, never removed that connection between the sky and the people.

But but but, you protest, there is no connection between the sky and the people. The heavens do not, in fact, look back. And, while you are scientifically correct, you are culturally incorrect. You are thinking literally, but you need to think literarily. Good astrology can be like good literature. Good literature builds a world that is not the real world but teaches us more about ourselves than we would ever learn by simply staring in the mirror. No real King Lear ever had a trio of daughters to split his kingdom amongst, nor wandered insane on the heath, but do we disdain Shakespeare for writing about it? No, we read, and we think about children and parents, we think about truth and loyalty, and scheming, and we learn more about ourselves and our world. We’re left enriched by stories that are not true.

Again, I have to plead: don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly not saying that all astrology is equivalent to Shakespeare, but neither is all of the rest of the fiction writing out there. The in-flight magazine that I currently have in front of me has both a short story and an astrology page. I would rate them equal quality examples of their genres.

Here’s a snippet of my in-flight horoscope (I’m a Gemini, perhaps explaining my ability to accept the dual nature of astronomy/astrology) for the month of January:

As your attention is consumed by an array of projects, you may spread yourself too thin. Remember to stop and take a breath, if for no other reason than to garner some perspective.

OK. I don’t need an astrologer to tell me that, but it’s hard not to read it and, why, yes, stop and take a breath and garner a little perspective. It’s not such a bad idea.

A quick perusal of the short story, a few pages earlier, gives a remarkably similar take home message, spread out, instead, over about three pages. After reading both of these I am now convinced: I think I will stop and garner some perspective, at least if I can finish a few of these other projects first.

So where are the Shakespeares of astrology? I will admit to not knowing if they exist at all. My astrological reading is only passive; occasionally someone will send me something and in a spare moment I will pick it up and I just might find it a bit intriguing. Here, for example, are some thoughts about Eris by Henry Seltzer, writing in The Mountain Astrologer:

The astrology of Eris seems to be related to the no-holds-barred fight for continued existence that is fundamental in all natural processes, and to taking a stand for what one believes, even if violence is involved. As the sister of Mars, the God of War, Eris willingly sought the battle. There is a side of nature that is quite harsh, a struggle for survival; this struggle is an essential part of the human condition as well, for we are still half animal. Nature can be viewed in a rosy light, as it was in the hippie era of the Sixties, Bambi innocently drinking from a little stream. But underlying this beauty is the possibility of sudden death at any moment, since all of nature’s children need to eat. Eris is related to this principle of violence as a natural component of existence and to the concept of the female warrior that embodies it, especially the feminist struggle for rights in a patriarchal society.

As a general discussion of the national psyche circa late 2007 this passage is not at all bad. It covers the war in Iraq, global warming, and the Hillary Clinton candidacy all in the discussion of one name. It certainly does not require literal belief that the naming of an object in the sky is the actual cause of any of the things discussed.

But what is the point of astrology if you chose to read it figuratively rather than literally? Again, you could ask the same question of King Lear. You could ask the same question of the Bible. And you wouldn’t. To ask it is to miss the point entirely.

Here’s a question you should ask though: why tolerate the existence of astrology, with the danger that people might actually take it literally, with the danger that it might confuse and distort science, with the fear that real cause and effect will become confused, when real literature abounds? Why read pithy but relatively generic snippets of advice and pretend they are somehow connected to a particular constellation along the zodiac? Why read more extended essays purporting to be an in-depth analysis of how a recently discovered ball of rock and ice far from the earth affects all of humanity? The answer? There is no reason. I personally prefer my literature to be of higher quality, to make me think and feel more. Feel free to follow my lead. But if you do chose to read it, read it for the reason that I can’t help but love it. Astrology is not just figurative literature about humanity. Astrology cares about the sky. The astrologers who occasionally correspond with me love to hear about new solar system discoveries, figure out orbital relationships and patterns, and speculate about what else might be out there and how everything fits together. I do all of these things, too. I then take these thoughts and move on to think literally about their scientific implications. The astrologers take these thoughts and move on to think figuratively about what these mean for humans. But we, astronomers and astrologers, start in the same spot, with an intense interest in the sky. To me, that matters.

Astronomy and astrology are brothers. Brothers don’t always do the same things or make the same choices. But when they maintain their initial ties to where they came from, their connection cannot help but stay strong. What is not to love?

My Reply to Mike Brown

Sunday morning Jan. 27, Mike wrote to me and asked if I liked his essay. I initially wrote a response in 10 minutes before an early-morning photo session. Here is my refined response, which I have edited a bit for detail, clarity and point of view.

Mir or rather Mr. Mike Brown!

Kirsti Melto sent your essay to me last night, as excited as a little kid. First of all, I am moved that you took up the subject. You admit astrology exists and that you have heard of it, etc. :-))

I love your essay — for many reasons, including the fact that (like Phaedrus, in the Dialogs of Socrates) you get the discussion going.

Constellation Pisces image created with XEphem Software.

Is it not ridiculous that science does not at least credit astrologers with providing continuity, and with beginning the search in the days LOOONGGG before the existence of science? Science was born of the Enlightenment, just a few hundred years ago. Astrology is thousands of years old. Many names used by science were bestowed in ancient days by astrology. Let’s be friends!

I had planned a reply, at least in concept. Here is a sketch.

Both astronomy and astrology are intellectual maps of consciousness. It matters not that most astrologers skip the telescope and the science of it (minor planet astrologers though tend to know as much about the science as many astronomers, I have noticed).

The GESTALT of it all is that we are both responding to the times in which we are alive. We agree on one thing in exactly the same language: that to astrologers, the planets and their symbols (whether the name or the orbital elements) METAPHORS. They are not usually viewed as a “cause” — certainly not with something like Quaoar. In our official definition of astrology, Planet Waves describes it as a kind of personally applicable mythical fiction.

What we have in common is the search for truth and meaning — and the sky.

Vis a vis the quality of astrological literature — that depends entirely on the writer, Mike. I regret that there are not too many good astrology writers, which tends to inform the world that we are all typing rather than typing, to borrow from Truman Capote. The astrology you get is as good as the astrologer you get. It is not easy to convey the complexity of an astrological chart into clear writing. It takes dedication. Because many so-called astrologers are bottom trawlers feeding on human misery, not the quest for knowledge, it’s not really necessary to go too deep into the ideas in order to get the attention necessary to maintain a business.

The search for meaning extends through recorded history. The sky — the greatest mystery we can actually look at and see with our eyes — is going to be the first place most people with any sensitivity begin that search. And there, astrologers and astronomers are not brothers, but twins. Or, as one of your readers posted to your website, “Instead of looking at the two as brothers, I prefer to see astrology as the very old mother that gave birth to scientific astronomy only two or three hundred years ago.”

For my part, I wish that astrology would pay more attention to what you and your colleagues are doing (it’s still lagging terribly), and fall in love with the science and history of these planets. I for one am deeply moved to be alive, and to be an astrologer, in this incredible time of discovery.

The dance along the artery
The circulation of the lymph
Are figured in the drift of stars
Ascend to summer in the tree
We move above the moving tree
In light upon the figured leaf
And hear upon the sodden floor
Below, the boarhound and the boar
Pursue their pattern as before
But reconciled among the stars.

— T. S. Eliot
Burnt Norton from Four Quartets

Yours & truly

P.S. I was up in Woodstock the other night talking to some guys, herbalists and scholar types, young and fiery, and one of them said — this whole thing of looking at the stars so carefully was started for navigational purposes, by mariners. Woooosh! I felt like I understood all at once, and I can’t believe I forgot that bit of history/lore! It was a practical thing. They had to get from place to place, and the stars were there, and they noticed the planets drifting among them like actors on the cosmic stage.

Then, with time on their hands and because everyone loves a good story, they started seeing dramas in the stars, and the myths of the zodiac were born…as facets of human consciousness, within the pool of psychic and intellectual creation. This is one of the gifts we inherit from antiquity.

Science came a long thousands of years later and “made sense” of what they were seeing, deconstructing it in the process. To our discussion, science brings the rational meaning, the facts, and theories; and astrology brings, or starts the discussion off, with the philosophy, the story, the process of getting from one place to another, in our ships or in our minds.

By Amanda Painter

Throughout the ongoing U.S. primary race there’s been increasing commentary, speculation and frustration with the co-called “superdelegates” in the Democratic Party. On Saturday, the Maine Democratic Party convention became the first state convention to vote to abolish superdelegates.

Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, speaks on May 7 about a successful amendment she introduced forcing Maine’s superdelegates to vote in proportion to the results of the caucuses at the Maine Democratic Convention in Portland. Photo by Troy R. Bennett | BDN

With the rule change, superdelegates’ votes will be allocated proportionally according to the overall popular vote. The amendment is non-binding for this year and will take effect in 2020.

But before I go any further, what is a superdelegte, anyway?

It’s a little confusing; and technically the Republican Party does not have “superdelegates” in the way the Democratic Party has them (see Wikipedia here). People filling the role of Democratic “superdelegate” include distinguished party leaders and elected officials, including all Democratic members of the House and Senate and sitting Democratic governors. They automatically get seats at the Democratic National Convention, and are free to support any candidate they choose for the nomination; that is, their votes for the nomination do not have to reflect how their state voted during the primary season.

This means superdelegates can potentially swing the nomination vote at the national convention to a candidate who did not receive the majority of primary votes. It’s for this reason that many people see the system as “rigged” and not actually representative of a truly democratic process.

It seems the Democratic Party has long swung back and forth on how much or how little influence party leaders should have at the convention. If I understand correctly, after the 1968 convention, changes were implemented to make the composition of the convention less controlled by established party leaders.

But those changes took part of the blame for “weakening” the democratic tickets of George McGovern and Jimmy Carter. So in 1982, the superdelegate system was devised (with adjustments in ensuing years) to bring back more influence by party leaders. Superdelegates tend to prefer candidates with more Washington experience.

On Feb. 12, 2016, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper, “What do you tell voters who are new to the process who say this makes them feel like it’s all rigged?”

Schultz’s response was:

Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grass-roots activists. We, as a Democratic Party, really highlight and emphasize inclusiveness and diversity at our convention, and so we want to give every opportunity to grass-roots activists and diverse committed Democrats to be able to participate, attend and be a delegate at the convention. And so we separate out those unpledged delegates to make sure that there isn’t competition between them.

This sounds great — who on the Left doesn’t love inclusivity and activists? But does it really work that way?

It would seem that fewer and fewer people buy that story — and certainly not Millennial voters.

Maine representative Diane Russell (D-Portland), who introduced the amendment, noted that a number of county delegates wanted to preserve the superdelegate system, but she said their opinion “was not well-received by the convention.”

“Their arguments were basically ‘respect your elders’ and ‘remember McGovern,’” Russell said. “But if the party wants to engage and bring in younger people, they can’t turn around and tell them to wait their turn.”

The Spring Reading is now published. You may order all 12 signs here or choose your individual signs here for immediate access. You may listen to a free audio introduction here now.

According to U.S. Uncut, the amendment also stipulates that the Maine Democratic Party will now petition its Democratic National Committee members to move to get rid of the superdelegate system altogether, at the national level.

“I hope people will stop focusing on the superdelegates themselves and instead focus on the system,” Russell said. “But that’s really something that has to happen at the national level.”

Russell is not the only person to voice those senteiments. In a Planet Waves email conversation, Len Wallick called superdelegates “a form of institutionalized oppression designed to keep We The People of the United States of America from bringing the USA’s plutocracy to
heel. Superdelegates are a hypocrisy for any party which calls itself democratic.”

Once upon a time, people were fond of saying, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” It does not always hold true, nor should it (cough…Gov. Paul LePage). Given that Mercury is retrograde in the sign of values — and the Maine Democratic convention passed the amendment just two days before Mercury transited the Sun today — it remains to be seen whether this sparks a trending return to more authentically democratic values in concrete ways.

Note: Today’s archive selection, from June 11, 2004, highlights the first of a pair of Venus transits of the Sun — we had one in 2004 and one in 2012 — which bear similarities to today’s Mercury transit of the Sun.

Consciousness.

I feel for myself and detect only awareness of my senses: the bright, sweet late afternoon light, the unfamiliar air of the English countryside, the fresh sheets that cocoon my body as I awaken. My senses feel penetrated, soaking in the experience. I reach for memory, and my life preceding this moment echoes like a vague dream from which I have awakened on another planet in another time.

2004 Transit of Venus.

I think of the recent places I have called home: Seattle, Vashon Island, even London the previous morning, and it’s like they don’t exist now and barely existed in the past.

They are gone and I am helpless about it, but I don’t care. My senses spread into the unfamiliar room. I see something I recognise: my Tarot cards on the table near the clock, and I realise I’ve been sleeping about 90 minutes.

I draw a card, feel deeply reassured, but now I don’t remember what it was. It is 6 p.m. the day of the Venus transit, June 8, 2004.

Even that feels like it never happened, or happened long ago.

But it was only hours ago, though now the experience seems to be covered in a protective cloak. That is how ritual spaces can feel: like a little dimension that opens up where things that somehow seem normal occur; then the space closes and it’s like the experience stays within that space, or mostly so. Impressions and distorted memories remain.

Continue reading →

Planet Waves’ contributor and godmother of research Carol Van Strum reminded us Thursday that Sunday’s Mother’s Day holiday in the U.S. was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Julia Ward Howe in Boston crafted a Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870 that’s just as urgent and timely now as it was then. If the up-swelling of the Divine Feminine is truly upon us, perhaps we will finally heed Howe’s call:

Julia Ward Howe.

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

Editor’s Note: This classic Eric Francis piece about Mercury retrograde originally published Aug. 21, 2009. You can see that full members’ issue here. Note: Monday’s transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun might signal a brief reprieve from most Mercury Rx shenanigans, but stay alert and focused nonetheless. — Amanda P.

Dear Friend and Client:

Here is the question everyone has asked at least once: how exactly do you not get your ass kicked by Mercury retrograde?

Cloud to ground lightning over Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia. Photo: Wikipedia.

Here’s a better question: how do we use these phases, which come dependably three times a year, to spark our creativity, solve problems and improve communication with the people around us? In other words, having the benefit of honoring astrology, how do we get it to work for us??

The answer, if you can call it an answer, requires us to do what nearly every message in our society is telling us to avoid: slow down, use your senses, be more thoughtful, and put an emphasis on completing things rather than beginning them. Switch to decaf at 3.

If Mercury is the planet that speaks, Mercury retrograde is the planet that listens, and invites us to listen. If Mercury is the god who can fly, turning that retrograde is inviting us to come in for a landing.

Every Mercury retrograde is different; the one that’s coming up is impressively so, with Mercury passing through the long-standing Saturn-Uranus opposition, as well as making a series of aspects to Pluto in early Capricorn. The Aries Point is involved, which is an alert to pay attention to big news that affects us personally, and personal news that feels a tad bigger than life.

The coming retrograde is going to shift things, and shift them a lot. More than Mercury is involved in the process this time around. If we think of the experience as a dialog between Mercury and the other planets, we have a conversation with some of the biggest players of all: the gods of change. Mercury will also be dancing back and forth between Virgo and Libra, which tells us that the two most significant things we can be changing are our minds and our perceptions — particularly our perceptions of ourselves and our relationships.

Most people would say this is the most difficult thing of all you can try to do. People spend years in therapy attempting to make changes of this kind. They rarely work; but most people don’t stick with the process and most therapists have a lot to learn that few others seem to be teaching. Maybe this is why so many people find Mercury retrograde so difficult. It’s little wonder that we need it three times a year to make any progress at all.

What Actually Happens…

Mercury’s surface looks similar to our Moon’s. Each is heavily cratered and made of rock. Photo: APOD.

Astrology is based on astronomy. To start with, when Mercury is retrograde, a planet, namely Mercury (the one closest to the Sun), passes between the Earth and the Sun. Mercury’s orbit is shorter than the Earth’s — 88 days as opposed to 365-1/4 days. So three times a year, Mercury comes blowing by. Mercury is an enormous magnet, mostly composed of a huge iron core, so we get a surge of magnetic energy blowing by.

Though this has, to my knowledge, never been established by science, a huge magnet going by is going to affect the Earth’s magnetic field. Nothing has no effect. We’re not talking about nothing here. And it’s going to affect the magnetic field of a human being as well as a planet.

Magnetism and electricity are directly related; they are so close as to be the same thing. The human nervous system works on electrical impulses; literally, on electricity. Therefore, this is going to influence us, just like the Moon affects the Earth’s tides. Think of this as the electrical tide, which influences our thoughts, feelings, perception and memory — and all of these gadgets we take into our aura, from iPhones to regular phones to our computers and cars and, well, other people.

To my knowledge, never in the history of civilization have we lived immersed in so many electrical fields, covered by an electrical grid and soaked in radio waves, microwaves and light pollution. So there are really three players in this equation: us, gadget/radiation haze that surrounds us, and a hefty magnet that people thousands of years ago figured out was associated with communication.

The Echo Phase into the Turnaround Phase

Like nearly all things in astrology and in our lives, Mercury goes through a series of phases on the way into and out of being retrograde. The phases represent subtle or not so subtle shifts in awareness, circumstances or information coming to the surface. Usually they are obvious enough that you can actually feel them happen, and associated specific conditions with the aspects as they change. As of Monday, Aug. 17, we began what’s called the echo phase (sometimes referred to as shadow phase). Technically, this is when Mercury enters the part of the zodiac where it will be retrograde in a matter of weeks. This is the warm-up, when we need to be making preparations for what will inevitably (and somewhat unpredictably) follow.

Photo: Wikipedia.

The echo phase is the time to mend your fishing nets, back up your disk drives, maintain your equipment and work out disagreements with people before they blow out of proportion. To that end, make sure there’s a fresh battery in your Pocket Rocket. Virgo is the sign that rules doubt. Therefore, use the opportunity of Mercury in its home sign to uncover and resolve your doubts, or at least a few of the nagging ones. (And as Mercury moves into Libra in a few days, we will be able to translate them into relational terms more easily.)

The beginning of the echo phase coincided with a Mercury-Saturn conjunction in Virgo. And Mercury is about to oppose Uranus in Pisces. In other words, Mercury is passing through the slow-moving Saturn-Uranus opposition that we’ve covered extensively on Planet Waves. There will be two more of these passes, around Sept. 22 (during the retrograde) and again on Oct. 8 (on the way out). We might not notice the monumental changes associated with Saturn-Uranus if not for the planet of the mind getting right in there and telling us what’s going on.
The next phase is the turnaround, which is also called the storm phase. This is in effect between approximately Sept. 3 and Sept 10 — a week during which Mercury (from our viewpoint on Earth) slows down, stops, changes directions and picks up speed retrograde. Note, the turnaround (or station-retrograde) happens in Libra. It’s about finding balance in the midst of change — which is the story of our lives.

The Retrograde Phase

The actual retrograde spans from Sept. 7 through Sept 29. Those are the actual days that Mercury appears to be moving backwards. Treat this phase as if it’s a world apart; a bubble in the deeps of time. In a sense, what happens there stays there. That’s why you don’t want to initiate projects during this phase; it’s the time to complete things that you want to be settled and resolved.

From much experience, I can tell you that you can safely slow way down spending money, making commitments or starting projects. It is possible; obviously plenty of things begun during Mercury retrograde still exist. Yet there is plenty of frustration and failure in the world, and we often wonder why that is so.

Mercury takes a cup from Venus, a dance performance. Photo by 0xDE.

Consider the retrograde a review. This is going to be a pretty comprehensive review, given how many other planets Mercury makes contact with: again, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto and others. Mars is also in the mix.

Virgo doesn’t just see the details, it sees them in a critical way. And often that critical really means self-critical. We have a lot to learn about how to be self-critical in an effective way, not the obsessive, nitpicky verging-in-psychiatric way that we tend to do it.

With any retrograde, we emphasize the past, and issues and conversations that relate to Mercury’s current placement or indeed anything can come up; we need to work them out as gently as we humanly can.

Retrogrades emphasize introspection. This is about getting to know yourself. The Libra piece is about getting to know yourself in relationships. There is the relationship and there is how you respond to it; the circumstance. Astrology is less about circumstances. It’s more about self-knowledge. That comes along with circumstances; but the circumstances are secondary.

During this retrograde, Mercury is warming up the Virgo-Libra cusp where Saturn will soon arrive (on Oct. 29). Mercury is running vanguard for his great friend Saturn, helping us make some changes in our minds, and scope out the more permanent changes that will arrive in the next season.
Involved in this is Pluto. Mercury makes three squares from Libra to Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto together with Mercury is all about understanding your motives. There is something deeply psychological here. Pluto always is, and now we are adding the energy of consciousness. The relationship is a square, which is an internal question that precipitates outer events; it’s preparation for when Saturn shows up in the same spot in about two months from now and squares Pluto — the first Saturn to Pluto quadrature aspect (90-degree based) since the rather eventful summer of 2001.

The Retrograde Works Out

After the retrograde, Mercury covers in forward motion the same ground that it covered in reverse during the past 23 days. Note that when something happens three times in relationship to Mercury retrograde, it happens once during the first echo, once during the retrograde and again during the second echo. This is Mercury covering the same degrees of the zodiac three times. All planets do this when they’re retrograde, but to my knowledge none covers as many degrees as Mercury, and none changes speed as quickly as Mercury.

Element mercury (Hg), liquid form. The element Mercury is associated with things that are difficult to grasp, fast, slippery, or have odd properties (such as being a liquid metal). Photo: Wikipedia.

Just as Mercury reaches the end of the retrograde, it slows down, stops and turns around. This is another special moment of its own, the second ‘storm’ phase. These turnaround or storm phases surround the station direct or retrograde, and they are clearly the most sensitive times to watch; the times to be on high Mercury alert. Particularly during the storm phases, don’t make assumptions. If someone does not answer an email, don’t assume they hate you; write to them again, or pick up the phone. Relationships lived by text message can be stressful and there is a wide margin of error.

Once the station-direct happens on Sept. 29, we are in the second echo phase until Oct. 14, when Mercury enters new territory for the first time since the first echo phase began. This is like a third chance to work out the same issues, address the same themes and explore the same ideas. It’s like the last layer in the process; perhaps the bottom layer, perhaps the top layer.

A Few Ideas to Remember

We are in a moment before the precipitation of fast events. During the retrograde, the Libra ingress of the Sun happens (that is, the equinox, or beginning of Northern Hemisphere autumn), and it makes a square to Pluto. Saturn is getting ready to change signs and change Pluto. Many other events can be described as precipitating or causing a cascade. It’s important to keep your thought process positive.

If you set aside the future and focus on the healing process, you will make a lot more progress than if you push an agenda.

Work for closure, in small things and big ones.

Part of this process is about untangling the difficulties in advance of the big transits that come in October and November.

It’s crucial to understand the difference between sensitive versus obsessive. One way or the other — Pluto versus Mercury. With this kind of astrology, it’s necessary or at least very helpful to cultivate patience with yourself and with others.

This is happening in a time when everything else is happening really quickly, that is to say, when we are surrounded and confronted by constant change. The question is, what exactly is happening? What exactly is changing??

Yours & truly,

Dear Friend and Reader:

When I was first studying A Course in Miracles in 1986, someone told me about another channeled work called The Starseed Transmissions. That was my friend Ginger, and more than tell me about it, she read it to me on the phone from Buffalo while I was living in Brooklyn.

She has in her possession a tattered copy that looked like it had been passed from hand to hand 100 times. Unlike the Course, with its formal and somewhat authoritative language, Starseed came across in simple, friendly language similar to a news report from the future.

It had been delivered to its scribe, who went by the name Raphael, during a spell of flu or fever that turned into an 11-day enchantment.

In that dreamlike state, a vibration took over the whole forest where he lived, came pouring into his room, and was loosely translated into the words that became the book.

Starseed describes the process by which a new age would gradually take hold. As these developments unfolded, they would provide opportunities for people to lift themselves above the pain and madness of the world. It describes a “psychological process” that each individual needs to go through to be set free from their own hooks into negativity and attachment to conflict.

A Course in Miracles felt exactly like such a process; it was abundantly clear that was the kind of thing being described. Where I was living, a place called Miracle Manor, was a kind of learning tank for this very process.

One of the later chapters in Starseed described how society would gradually begin to organize itself into little pockets where the new teachings would be lived and practiced. “As you reorient toward the new way of being in the world, you will be drawn to centers where the vibrational atmosphere is more conducive to a healthy state of function. These centers will represent the focal points around which the organs of Planetary Being will form. They will be, in a sense, islands of the future in a sea of the past.”

To me this felt like a lot more than a description. It felt like a kind of instruction set designed to help me orient myself. I was 22 years old, vaguely aware of my talent, and truly eager to serve and to participate. Ginger and I knew without any doubt that this book was intended for us, among other people who would hear the calling.

The chapter goes on to give some specific information that I took personally.

“Your communications systems have been waiting for this day. They were created for this moment. Do not shun the technology that is available. Though it has been abused in the past, in loving hands it is capable of transforming the consciousness more quickly and efficiently than would otherwise be possible.”

Planet Waves has been published from many islands: above is Maury Island, WA, where we founded Planet Waves, Inc. (and home of the famous pre-Roswell UFO sighting). The first website was published in 1998 on an island of the Saddle River. We’ve also published from Vashon Island, WA; Ile Saint-Louis, Paris; and the island known as Great Britain.

Note that at this time, there was no Internet, no thought of a global communications network, not even a notion that ordinary folk could set up a video seminar with hundreds or thousands of people. No notion of moving documents around the world at the speed of light. The term “desktop publishing” was still new and novel.

It went on: “These are tools for the hand of the Lord. Do not fear them, but love them and use them to spread the message of love to all who have not learned to tune to other, more direct channels themselves.”

That felt like more direct instruction. Ginger and I were already onto it though. We had done many media projects together, all of them involving printing presses and all with the intention of cultivating and building creative community.

All of this contributed to my understanding of the work that I do today: to the sense of mission that lights my world and that I offer to you. I think of Planet Waves as an island of the future. You have likely detected that there is something just a little different about what we do here, perhaps not easy to describe, and something different about the people who gather here.

In some way you already know that, or you would not even be reading these words. You have an opportunity to take part, on many levels: as a creative contributor, as one who actively learns, as one who shares what you learn, and one who supports what we do. In truth everyone who takes part is a member of our community: a resident on our mobile city of light.

What we have for you here are ideas you’re unlikely to find other places. We use astrology in a way that focuses your power rather than takes it away. You get many viewpoints and options for how to engage: live dialog, by reading, through long-format radio and several formats of video. This is so that you can find the appropriate way to get the information that you need.

We provide diverse content to serve greater needs: beginning with intelligent, spiritually aware astrology, and following up with material about relationships; we cover science and spirituality; we are the first place many people turn for news coverage.

Ile Saint-Louis in Paris — a distinct community within the city, where time seemed to slow down — where Planet Waves was published in the summer and autumn of 2004.

As part of our commitment to creating something new, we do not rent your time or mental bandwidth to outside advertisers.

This allows us to be more daring and more honest than is possible in the “sea of the past,” where nearly everything you see, hear and read is filtered through some allegiance other than to what is true, loving or helpful. I am not entirely comfortable offering my work for sale, though it’s a reality that we participate in the economy as a responsible corporate citizen and as an organization that does its best to take care of our people.

In this spirit I invite you to share some of your resources with Planet Waves, and sign up for one of our subscriptions. There are many benefits, which I won’t go into here — the real benefit is knowing that you are helping make the work that we do happen. In truth, money is the least of what we run on, which is how we are able to turn so little into so much that we offer so freely.

Here are your options. If money is an issue — we never want it to be one, for us or for you — please write to us and we will work something out with you.

I for one am dedicated to bringing all of my energy, creativity and vision to what I do at Planet Waves, and there are many here with me who do the same. As you can tell from our work, we love doing what we do, and we have faith that we are making a difference.

Thank you for doing the same.

With love,

PS — What we now call “Reader Level” is about to become “Horoscope Level,” meaning that you will get all of our horoscopes in addition to other benefits. Core Community level includes a beautiful embossed journal (my more creative alternative to the mug or tee shirt) and Backstage Pass includes a hand-painted, one-of-a-kind sketchbook or journal in a wide diversity of sizes. You can see more here.

Editor’s Note: Sometimes good things come in small packages; such is the case with Eric’s piece on Beltane from May 3, 2013. You can read that full issue here. — Amanda P.

Dear Friend and Reader:

A few times I got to hang out with one of my now-departed neighbors in the Hudson Valley, legendary music agent Alfred Schweitzman. His client list reads like the roster of our most beloved crop of Ulster County rock stars (including The Band and Todd Rundgren) among many others. He used to give the best New Year’s Eve parties and we once smoked the peace pipe in his cherry-paneled office.

Fae on the Grandmother Land. Photo by Eric Francis.

“All wealth comes from the Earth,” he would say. He was very wealthy and he liked to say it often, as if making the point made the idea stronger in his consciousness. When I first met him I was pretty new at astrology, though I knew enough to know how much sense this idea makes. It’s something I’ve considered many times and that’s the theme of this time of year — the season of Beltane.

The structure of the old religion, the calendar, made sense — without a lot of religiosity packed around what people did at different times of year. There was a time for every purpose, a concept we’ve nearly forgotten exists. For example, Samhain (pronounced sah-wen) establishes a relationship with death and the ancestors, and this tends to run through many cultures as a conscious focus around the time of Halloween, the final harvest.

Nature and its cycles are the basis of what we think of as organic, and in the spring, the world is coming back to life after the long winter. The festival to celebrate that is Beltane, traditionally celebrated May 1.

There is some debate about whether this is really the peak of spring or the start of summer (in the social rather than technical sense). The first week of May is the halfway point between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere).

The word Beltane originates from an old language called Lowland Scottish (the culture from which the holiday seems to originate), and earlier, from Gaelic, with a probable literal meaning of “blazing fire” or “to shine, flash, burn.” And that is exactly what the planets are doing right now.

For most purposes, I count Beltane as May 5, the day the Sun passes over the midpoint between equinox and solstice, though I give it a wide berth. The Sun reaches the Taurus midpoint this year at 4:18 am EDT on Sunday, May 5. Taurus is a passionate sign, and at the moment it’s on fire, and it’s gleaming. Present in Taurus are Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Sun, the South Node, and asteroid Pallas Athene. That’s quite a collection of energies. The Moon will be in Pisces at that time, in harmony with Venus-ruled Taurus.

Photo by Eric Francis.

To emphasize the point, Beltane is followed up by an eclipse of the Sun on May 9, and surrounded by two lunar eclipses — this is a moment of change and potentially beautiful progress. Eclipses are points of no return. Aim your mind and your intentions and you can be transported closer to your desires.

That all said, here’s my metaphysical summary of Beltane. All wealth comes from the Earth, and the Earth is our Goddess. Beltane is the time to honor the Earth and to love the Goddess, and one happy way to do this is through sexual exchange that’s consciously a celebration of life. I know that all sex is in theory a celebration of life, but for many people it doesn’t feel that way, and this idea might be something new. Indeed, the corruption of sex is inextricable from our corruption of the planet and our obsession with money.

Beltane is the time to make love in a conscious way, experiencing the pleasure of existence and honoring the planet we live on, and honoring women. This in turn is a way of expressing gratitude for the abundance that comes from the Earth (all the resources we need for physical life are generously provided by Gaia) and women (who are the vehicle through which physical life is gestated). If possible, make love outside, close to the Earth or on the Earth, for that extra experience of direct contact.

However you choose to celebrate this moment, whether by yourself or with others, allow yourself to be the vehicle through which the Goddess expresses herself. This can work no matter what your gender or sexual orientation.

Whatever you do, this is a great time of year to offer a big THANK YOU to the planet and the cycles of nature that gestate, birth and support our lives.

Lovingly,

By Amanda Painter

I don’t remember exactly when I started listening to Democracy Now! I’m pretty sure it happened sometime during my first year of living alone in 2006; working evenings, and without a TV in my home, my local community radio station became the soundtrack of my life during the day and at night after work.

Father Daniel Berrigan handcuffed, circa 1968.

That radio station was (and is) WMPG. It broadcasts out of the USM campus in Portland, Maine. Its 24-7 programming is almost 100% locally produced, with the shining exception of Democracy Now!, which airs at noon Monday through Friday. Somewhere along the line I got in the habit of listening regularly to this news program that seemed to cover stories the flashy TV stations would never touch, and with a depth and humanity that corporate-owned media rarely attempt.

On a regular basis I’ve been outraged, inspired, awestruck, saddened and intrigued. Democracy Now! has moved me into action, and it has moved me to tears. One such memorable day featured a story about sexual assault in the U.S. military; in particular, a few U.S. servicewomen stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan had actually died from dehydration while serving their country, because they’d gotten in the habit of not drinking water after a certain time of day.

The reason? Going to the bathroom at night meant they’d likely get raped by their own platoon-mates. I vividly remember pacing back and forth in my living room, tears of anger and empathy streaming down my face as I listened.

I’ve also listened to Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez and their colleagues reporting on good news: thousands turning out for peaceful marches; wrongfully convicted prisoners finally released; interviews with brilliant, compassionate activists and scholars offering perspectives and information on complex issues in ways that can be understood and acted upon; profiles in tribute to people who have dedicated their lives to making the world more just, more humane, more beautiful.

For example, along with the usual headlines about bombings and political insanity, today’s broadcast included the news that Puerto Rico’s governor has declared a moratorium on a more than $400 million payment due today:

“We have asked Congress over and over again to approve the measures so that we can restructure our debts. We don’t want a bailout, and we have not been offered a bailout. What we want is a restructuring process that will not cost the United States anything. We simply need the legal tools that will allow us to confront this crisis and assure that Puerto Rico will have a viable future.”

Having visited Puerto Rico twice, I find myself concerned about its limbo status: it is neither its own country, nor a full-fledged U.S. state with voting rights. One misguided senator from Oklahoma has suggested re-opening the PR island of Vieques as a Navy bombing range to counter Puerto Rico’s debt — as though its natural resources have no greater value or significance beyond providing a target for war games. To me, the U.S. basically has Puerto Rico in a hostage situation; something I’m pretty sure the Constitution does not provide for.

Or consider Democracy Now’s several segments today in tribute to Father Daniel Berrigan, who died on Saturday, just short of his 95th birthday. A poet, pacifist, educator, social activist, playwright and lifelong resister to what he called “American military imperialism,” Berrigan — along with his brother Phil, a fellow Jesuit priest — played an instrumental role in inspiring the antiwar and anti-draft movement during the late 1960s, as well as the movement against nuclear weapons.

The first priest to end up on the FBI’s most wanted list, Berrigan’s activist resume includes: traveling to North Vietnam with historian Howard Zinn to bring home three U.S. prisoners of war; taking 378 draft files from the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, with his brother and seven others and then setting them on fire with homemade napalm to protest the Vietnam War; and breaking into the General Electric nuclear missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, with his brother and six others, to vandalize nuclear warheads and files in an act that began the Plowshares Movement.

I was not familiar with Father Berrigan’s story before he died. But hearing about him today, I was struck by how perfectly he embodied the Sixties. He was “Be the change you wish to see in the world” personified, and he turned the Catholic Church on its head in the process.

Father Daniel Berrigan shared my birthday; I can only aspire to share his conviction-in-action, the way he lived the political as a personal mission. And I’m grateful to Democracy Now! for dedicating an entire program to his remarkable life.

“We have chosen to be powerless criminals in a time of criminal power. We have chosen to be branded as peace criminals by war criminals.” — Father Daniel Berrigan

The Spring Reading is now published. Order all 12 signs here or choose your individual signs here for immediate access. You may listen to a free audio introduction here.