Category Archives: Welcome

Dear Madame Zolonga: Retreat sounds like defeat!

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Dear Madame,

Can you tell me the difference between the 9th house and the 12th house? I have three planets — Mars, Uranus and Neptune — in the 12th and one planet in the 9th, and I was told I needed to ‘get away’ during the upcoming Venus retrograde.

I’ve been looking up what this means, based on these houses, and I’m a little confused now. Retreat sounds like ‘defeat’. My 12th house planets are in Capricorn, so I don’t give up easily. Is this right?

— Attack Cap!

Dear Cap Attack,

Your 12th house challenge reminds me of the great American philosopher, George Carlin, who once described the essential problem of getting out of the Vietnam quagmire: “Pull out?! Doesn’t sound manly to me!”

As a Cap Sun, I sympathize. But you early ‘90s babies have Capricorn in spades. You all chugged in here with a cosmic directive for Building Significance. Any suggestion you should be bolting for Bali to discover your inner guru needs a practical directive, and possibly a business plan, too. Tough to embrace the spiritual ‘whim’ with this combination.

Let’s personalize this a bit. Let’s assume that ‘retreat’ isn’t a challenge to your manhood. But it might be a challenge to your personal planet, Mars.

With Mars exalted in Capricorn, that dude doesn’t give up easily. Unlike the new recruit we find in Mars in Aries, Mars in Capricorn is like a career soldier, a grizzled, cigar-chomping, low-ranking general — all guts, but rarely handy with the glory, and totally lost without a campaign. “Pull out?!” Would be the last thing on his mind.

Now. With The Little General in your native 12th house, this is a guy who never knows when the war is over. There’s always another battle to win, another ‘enemy’ behind that tree over there to investigate. Disconnected from the main action, he can be like a soldier sent deep into hostile territory, fighting on when the rest of the world’s celebrating armistice. Or confined to a hospital bed, champing at the bit to get back in the field.

Great for barking ‘motivational’ orders at your backside: “Get up! Get to work! Wars aren’t won while you snooze!” But challenging if retreat’s the directive from High Command.

You have to tell him. “Dude! Chill! Down tools!”

As for the difference between retreats, it depends on what you’re retreating from. Which is needed, a 9th house sojourn or a 12th house sabbatical? Only you know.

Retreat in the 9th house is, in it’s most essential definition, a pull away from the regular routine and daily commute. Anything that feels ‘foreign’ feels right here. You needn’t fly to Milan to get away. If you live in a large metropolis, staying at a B’n’B and exploring an area of town unfamiliar to you is all it may take to refresh your perspective.

You learn something new from people you’ve never met before. Throw a tour of religious relics and significant historical sites into that mix, or get cozy with the philosophical society at the local pub, and you get the full 9th house experience on the physical plane without even stamping your passport.

The 12 house is different. Rather that Outward Bound, it’s Inward, Yo. Sabbatical season. Time out from the madding crowd. It’s the acolyte who needs a long night of the soul away from the world, who seeks spiritual shelter. The one who longs for separation and solitude — somewhere the clanging Great Debates of civilization can’t intrude on his meditations of humanity. World weary and longing for a mental health break? That’s the 12th house, too. It’s the scene of hospitals, retreat centers, and substance abuse recovery programs.

Only you can decide what The Little General needs. If the 9th house calls, give him a specific itinerary that includes non-negotiable periods of reflection and observation. Keep him from making a martial campaign of the vacation: keep him occupied with a specific strategy for capturing higher-minded pursuits. Intelligence reconnaissance?

However, if it’s the 12th house that’s needed, why is that? Your drive and your motivation, symbolized by Mars in Capricorn, already sits in the 12th House. If the impulse to retreat doesn’t feel right, are you doing your 12th house right? Are you striving too much? What’s so scary about the word “surrender”? These are questions to ask if the 12th House calls.

Imagine: what would a low-ranking officer gain from two weeks with the Benedictines chanting, “Alma Redemptorus Mater”? Or chanting mantra for a month every morning on his back porch in the sun?

Attack Cap, if retreat’s what you need, I suggest you may be in need of a different mountain to conquer, and this is your opportunity to scope out the right one. Tell your main man, Mars, you hear him, and it’s okay. And then plan something together.

Stress less; Quest more.

xx,
Madame Z

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Planet Waves Daily Oracle for Wednesday, July 8, 2015

2 Replies

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Scorpio weekly for May 20, 2011

Planets are lining up in your opposite sign Taurus, including ever-important Venus and Mars. This leads me to some curiosity about the nature of a relationship in your life. To what extent is it really happening, and to what extent is it the product of your imagination? The answer is probably a mix of both, though this is a good time for a reality check. I suggest you make a timeline of the history of the relationship. With that, I suggest you make a map of all the people you’re attracted to, and those who you suspect are attracted to you. Not a list, a map. Who are they? How do they relate to one another? Look for patterns — and see if you notice what they say about you. For example, what aspects of yourself do each of these people represent? This should be pretty interesting.

The Daily Oracle offers a horoscope selected randomly by our Intelligent Archive Oracle program, unique to Planet Waves. It’s also a database of my horoscopes going back to the late 1990s. You can use the Intelligent Archive Oracle to answer questions and give you ideas for how to handle problems and situations you cannot see through. This feature is available to our All Access and Core Community members. See this link for more information.

Marie Claire Horoscope for July 2015

4 Replies

Hello Readers! I started writing the Marie Claire horoscope for the American edition in March. I’m now confident enough in the column to share it with you. It will be a free feature on the Planet Waves page, once we figure out where to post it. — efc

ARIES — You’re at your most romantic, and your most imaginative. That sets you apart, and you know it. Don’t let anyone get in the way of your fun. In fact I suggest you become a subversive and lure people into your idea of a good time, because it’s gonna be really good. If you’re an artist or even vaguely creative, you’re on fire this month.

American edition of Marie Claire, July 2015.

TAURUS — If you’ve been wanting to make improvements to your home, this is the month. You will astound yourself with your creativity, sense of style and your ability to economize. Having a beautiful home, a place where you’re truly comfortable, will do wonders for your confidence at work. At the moment, that’s all about how good you feel, so do what it takes to feel good.

GEMINI — You have the power of words this month — and quite a power it is. Both your speech and your writing will be eloquent, passionate and most of all, compelling. Therefore, use this tool to your advantage and that of the people you work for. You’re good at this nearly all the time but now you are a force to rival the great poets.

CANCER — You have so much to offer, and the more generous you are, the wealthier you will feel. By wealth, I mean that you have many resources available at the moment, along with some unusual earning power. This quality will serve as a magnet for good things, though you will greatly enhance your experience of life by sharing with others, beginning with your love and wisdom.

LEO — With Venus and Jupiter joining forces in your sign, you’re at the height of your charm and charisma. What are you doing to do with it? Experiment with a plan you’ve wanted to try for a while. You’ve been waiting for the right time, and now it is as good as it gets. Assert yourself and your ideas and you will make a splash.

VIRGO — It’s as if you have guardian angels working for you, but don’t tempt fate. Rather, do the right thing and know that you will be supported and your efforts will bear fruit. You may be called upon to take leadership. You may be the bearer of a message. In any event, you may need to make yourself visible — and you will shine.

LIBRA — Every now and then there’s a moment when you light up every room you enter, in some truly unusual way. You’ll have many such days this month, and you must use that gift well. Accept every invitation, though I suggest you take the initiative and host an event of your own. Make it special. Set a theme and invite the world.

SCORPIO — Take charge. I don’t mean kind-of-sort-of take charge, I mean go all the way. People see you as a mix of bold, beautiful and intelligent, and they will do what you ask them to do. Others have total confidence in you, though this seems to be for some long-awaited purpose, to get a nearly impossible result. You can and you will.

SAGITTARIUS — You may feel some pressure ease off this month. Yet at the same time, you’re being drawn more deeply into yourself than you have been in quite a while. Follow that inward direction and you will make some significant discoveries about who you are and what you want. Far from being an inconvenience, this is a rare opportunity, which if you honor it will produce equally unusual results.

CAPRICORN — You have the ability to see around corners and through walls. I am speaking metaphorically, though in fact you will be privy to information, and are likely to have some hunches that could qualify as spooky. Use that information carefully. You must seek some confirmation of your ideas by worldly means, though there may be one occasion where you will take an authentic leap of faith. Trust yourself.

AQUARIUS — You’re in a phase where you’re revisiting what you didn’t complete in the past — and I suggest you take every opportunity to tidy up whatever that might be. There’s likely to be a professional matter that you can now button up with a few weeks of focus. Do that and you’ll be able to proceed boldly into the new territory you’ve been craving for so long.

PISCES — Despite so much activity, your mind is a clear window with a view. You can see yourself and others honestly, and this will build your confidence. Continue your project of making brave moves. You want to choose the most creative path, which for you is the most practical as well. This is something that might only work for a Pisces, though it will definitely work for you.

Bang A Gong

16 Replies

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

You’re an untamed youth, that’s the truth with your cloak full of eagles…
— Marc Bolan

Mercury enters tropical Cancer in direct motion tomorrow shortly before 2:52 pm EDT (18:51:33 UTC). Normally, it is little noted nor long remembered when swift Mercury changes signs. This particular ingress, however, is bound to resonate like a gong with notable correlations given how Mercury has been in Gemini since the last day of April (or first day of May, depending on your time zone).

Hence, you would do well to serve up a little resonance yourself. More than two months is a long time for Mercury to reside in one sign, and that unusual tenure has undoubtedly corresponded with something being cooped up inside of you.

Of course, it was a retrograde that resulted in Mercury spending more than two months in Gemini, one of the two signs (along with Virgo) where it rules the roost. Nor was it just any retrograde.

More than three weeks of Mercury’s residence in Gemini was spent in laboriously slow apparent reversal over an narrow arc of less than 10 degrees. That’s a distance Mercury is now about to cover in one week, with further acceleration to follow. Hence, you can probably relate in some way to Mercury springing forth unbound from where it has been so inordinately confined (even though those confines were of home). So why not show it a little?

No matter how old you are, why not revive and express a little of your untamed and inscrutably awesome youth? No matter where you are, why not do a little dance if you feel so moved? You might even venture to sing a rollicking bit of song long forgotten. After all, those who would mind a bit of honest and overdue exuberance probably don’t matter, and any who would matter almost certainly would not mind.

As Amy Elliott inferred yesterday, it would serve nothing to “allow self-doubt to dampen your courage.” So get it on. If it means being (or getting) a little dirty, add a little sweet to make Mercury’s tour of fecund Cancer more palatable. After so long in an intellectual air sign, it’s time to think wet, and get that way.

Please keep in mind that getting wet need not require alcohol. Indeed, with Mercury about to speed through a water trine with Neptune in Pisces, you would be well advised to say “no thanks” to anything that would slow you down. Rather, quicken yourself with the nourishing refreshment pure water affords and save a little to pour on your head — just to show those who are still self-confined how to have a little fun.

Get it on. Bang a gong. Mercury is about to set itself free. You could do far worse than to do a little of the same for yourself. By way of doing the same for others, please remember that a sliding-scale gift subscription to Planet Waves provides those that matter with more than just serious journalism, photography and astrology.

In case you haven’t noticed, Planet Waves also knows that Art In Service means serving up a little fun, too. If you have a little extra scratch to spread around, share the ride and let your friends see that (in addition to being a rock of advertising-free sanity in an often crazy world) Planet Waves also serves to rock your world with refreshing exuberance.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

A Cancer Mood, and Keep Venus in Mind

3 Replies

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Believe it or not, Mercury is getting ready to leave Gemini tomorrow. Due to its recent retrograde, it has spent a little more than nine weeks in a very mentally oriented, verbal, dualistic sign; chances are you’ve gotten rather used to it.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

When it enters Cancer at 2:52 pm EDT (18:52 UTC), you can imagine it as a shift to feeling your thoughts. Traditionally, Mercury in Cancer has often been classified as a placement that’s ‘too sympathetic’ and ‘too receptive’. I suspect, however, that you might actually experience the change of expression as more like a quick, refreshing dip on a hot, dry day.

We are, after all, emotional creatures; a solid dose of empathy and heart is important to balance the tendency to get stuck in our heads. And Mercury will zip through Cancer in about two weeks, so you don’t need to worry about getting waterlogged.

Until then, Mercury is opposing the Galactic Core, the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, which lies in the direction of late Sagittarius. It might be an interesting experiment to try a little meditation or similar exercise and see if what Eric describes as ‘our cosmic homing signal’ comes through.

Speaking of Cancer, Eric has been absorbed in recording the Cancer birthday reading, which he should have ready for you later today. That means you can still snag it for the lower pre-order rate now; it makes a great gift, and is fantastic for those with Cancer rising, too.

Not everything is all about Cancer, however; with Venus moving into late Leo, it’s time to start talking about Venus retrograde. Stay tuned to the Planet Waves website and watch for your Thursday issue for more information. Eric is also planning a fantastic Midyear Reading based on the upcoming Venus retrograde.

On Planet Waves FM, Eric will look back at this weekend’s Grateful Dead 50th anniversary concerts and their place in American social history. That program should post around 5:00 pm EDT or shortly after this evening.

Amy Elliott was kind enough to stand in for Eric on the Monday Astrology Diary. Focusing on the Cancer Sun’s opposition to Pluto in Capricorn, she writes that this week is an opportunity to understand when a line has been crossed, and to begin to work out how to respond.

Venus conjunct Jupiter in Leo on July 1, viewed from Portland, Maine. They can still be seen after dusk in the western sky, though much further apart. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Fe Bongolan parses and cheers Greece’s populist stand against economic oppression (Greek citizens voted resoundingly against the bailout conditions proposed by the EU) in her latest column.

Pausing for a moment of mid-year reflection, Amanda Moreno works through some ideas about hierarchy and the process of ‘othering’ that she sees around her at all levels.

In a tarot reading that sees two major arcana cards and one from the minor arcana, Sarah Taylor explores what it means to experience illumination after a period of reflection, and how that has the potential to shift you from one state, or place, to another.

And on Saturday, Planet Waves celebrated the USA’s birthday with several offerings, including Eric’s archived article on liberating sexual pleasure, titled Coming to the Revolution; and Judith’s Gayle’s heartening take on Sen. Bernie Sanders (and others) entering the presidential race. As she notes, “There’s energy stirring from the bottom up to take on the greed and avarice at the heart of our social and political problems.”

Visit the Planet Waves website later this afternoon for Len Wallick’s column; I’ll be back there Thursday with a look at the weekend’s astrology.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

Planet Waves Daily Oracle for Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Gemini monthly for April 22, 2008

You need to leave yourself plenty of room to change your mind. I know this sounds like telling a Pisces they need to go to the beach, but it would appear that you are going to reconsider something about which you are at the moment feeling confident and committed. Please don’t let the secret desire for commitment substitute for the real thing. As you progress through these weeks, you will have access to all the information you need; when you look back at this time, you’ll be surprised by what you already knew, and how early you knew it. But in advance, you may not be assembling the pieces. Then one afternoon, a revelation arrives: but is it doubt, or is it a breakthrough? Is it hesitation and insecurity, or are you being given some authentic inspiration? These are the approximate choices you have available. In other words, when you get to the reversal point, you get to define what it is and why you are there. Consciously reach into the wisdom of insecurity. Touch that moment when you have no options at all. If you get to the place where you seem to be standing in a vacuum, remember you can fill it with anything you like.

Demokratia

34 Replies

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Last week, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras did the one thing that Angela Merkel and the EU feared: schedule a national referendum for the country to decide whether or not Greece should accept the bailout conditions proposed jointly by the European Commission (EC) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) — also known as the Troika.

Terms of the new bailout would have meant more austerity measures — higher taxes, more pay cuts and pensions held. The cash the EU promised to keep Greece afloat would have essentially crushed the country.

In other words, more of the same for Greece, only worse. As a result of Tsipras’ referendum on Sunday, 61% of the country voted “OXI” (pronounced oki), or “no,” to the proposed austerity package.

The Prime Minister and his Syriza Party, which came into power less than six months ago, encouraged the country not only to reject the Troika’s austerity package, but to use yesterday’s national mandate as leverage to re-enter negotiations with the EU to ease Greece’s debt burden, and soften the EU’s loan terms until the country can recover. Imagine that, using his country’s permission to decide whether or not they want to be financially enslaved for decades.

The referendum’s results have placed Greece on the edge of an uncertain future. Days after defaulting on a €1.6 billion loan payment to the IMF, Greece was at the brink. Upon default of the loan repayment, the ECB refused to put more cash into Greek banks, forcing the Greek government to limit ATM withdrawals to $40 a day per citizen; this forced Greece to close its banks the week before the referendum. The country was in an economic tailspin within days of Sunday’s vote.

As a result of yesterday’s vote, Greece has been threatened with expulsion from the European Union, which is something the majority of Greeks do not want. Yet, for a country that has borne three years of crushing austerity under the Troika’s terms, they had nothing left to lose. By voting ‘no’ they opened themselves to choosing a fate to be determined.

Austerity measures were imposed on Greece in 2011 to recover billions borrowed from the IMF when they first joined the EU in 2001. Through various shady deals amongst corrupt Greek government officials and certain members of the Greek 1%, that debt was never repaid. Greece was already in deep trouble in 2010-11, around the time the IMF had troubles of its own, which I wrote about here at Planet Waves.

Instead of helping, the EC’s new 2011 austerity program further crippled a country deeply in trouble. The new austerity precipitated economic conditions much worse: higher taxes, a 26% unemployment rate nationwide and the cost of pensions rising. There were not enough younger people employed to pay into the pension fund. Greece’s unemployment rate for its young adults rose to a whopping 60%.

Greece could not produce enough money to pay down its massive debt. Its economic conditions mirror our own recent past. Prior to our troubles brewing under the surface in 2007-08, the sub-prime lending industry was profiting from wild speculation on bad housing loans. People lost their shirts paying escalating interest rates on variable rate mortgages with ballooning debt payments causing the loss of homes and life savings. This ultimately lead to the economic collapse of September 2008, when Lehman Brothers — among other “too big to fail” predatory banks that made money off of derivatives deals capitalizing on bad home loans — crashed and burned.

The Greek referendum reveals a painful truth about the EU — as a union of economically disparate countries with a shared economy, it is not yet in a position to work — not with a grouping of countries of such varied industrial profiles and economic straits. Take a moment to watch this Vox video posted by Ezra Klein, which explains the problems of the EU constituency in a quick three minutes.

The difference between the U.S. collapse in 2008 and Greece’s situation with the EU is that ours was in-house. The U.S. is a union of states with various levels of economy under one country. The EU is several countries under one economic union. The U.S. has the ability to support its struggling states through a federal system of taxes, government programs and short-term stimulus packages employed across the board, with economic mobility that allows us to move to better opportunities across the country should we choose.

Greece’s economic pressures were imposed by the EU countries that have more robust economies — namely Germany. The more robust EU nations hold Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain (or PIGS) to impossibly high standards: costs are too dear to sustain, and there is no way for the people of those countries to emigrate to better opportunities across their union. Greece’s rejection of the Troika’s terms awakens the EU’s worst fear–Grexit; it has been called a contagion that would could spread to other PIGS nations. As if any country daring to declare independence from debt is a dreadful disease.

Ever since Tsipras was elected in January 2015 on his leftist Syriza party’s anti-austerity platform, the EU has been on high alert. Some Syriza party members called the Troika’s economic pressure on Greece’s new leftist government a tactic to initiate regime change. It was not about the economy. It was about control.

Earlier this year, in a Der Spiegel concern-trolling article on the success of the Syriza Party and Tsipras’ election, an average Greek citizen had this to say about their new leftist leader in the article’s comments section:

It was a tough choice voting for Alexis. I knew I really should have had more consideration for you Germans and voted more responsibly. The choice was 5 more years of the kids begging in the streets if we voted New Democracy or, with Syriza, possibly seeing them back in school again, and even my wife and I getting our old jobs back. I can understand why so many thought we would stick with the austerity that we knew! We know it is highly irresponsible for us both to want to have jobs, and pay the rent and maybe see our local hospital re-open. But that is the Greeks for you! Always choosing the selfish option!

We see it in the crowds that are thronging to Bernie Sanders’ campaign events in the U.S. Nerves are being hit in high offices and on Main Streets. People have had enough of rules imposed by an invisible oligarchy and the governments they own. We don’t have to buy into fear-inducing threats, and we certainly don’t need to cower before bullies.

We don’t believe the news, which hardly ever covers Sanders’ candidacy with any seriousness. The people have one, daring move to make: expressing their free will through a full democratic process. Greece’s “OXI,” or “No,” was the right thing for them to do.

Demokratia — the political process of rule by the people that the Greeks invented over 2000 years ago, was perfected this week through the will of the people responding to economic oppression.

Today, we are reminded of Winston Churchill’s words when he said, “Homer, today the Greeks did not fight like heroes, the heroes fought like Greeks.” Take this to heart. This will be very useful in the days ahead. Remember it. Remember it well.

*******

Stay with Planet Waves as we move through these historical events in this fascinating moment in time. Here, we keep our fingers on the pulse of current events and keep digging deeper for ways to absorb and understand what’s happening in our world. It’s one of the core ways we practice the Art of Service. We work to inspire all our readers to actively create a positive effect on their individual and collective worlds.

I hope with this and all our great writing here that you not only stay tuned, but stay connected — actively participating — through one of our simple and affordable Core Community Pass memberships.

Joining us will give you access to more information and better tools to not only cope but play in the key of life. It’s worth it! — Fe

Clearing the Way

4 Replies

Planet Waves is running a membership drive.
Read more in Solstice Fire and the Art of Service, by Eric Francis.

Summer is here, and there is a scent on the breeze that is very much like hope. The mental distillation that began with Mercury’s square to Chiron last week now culminates in the Sun opposing Pluto today; clarity has arrived, it seems, with a brass band in tow.

A clear message: Greek No voters before the referendum. Credit: Georgios Giannopoulos/Wikimedia.

This is likely to stir up an issue or controversy that may have been previously buried in a haze of politeness. Emotions are resurfacing.

That line of saturation you drew in your mind is now in vivid focus — and you can see, or possibly feel, whether it’s been crossed.

If so, if something unacceptable has taken place, now is a good time to consider how you will address it. Doing so will require honesty — especially with yourself, which means clearly understanding your feelings and intentions.

Make sure you have this safeguard firmly in place, but do not allow self-doubt to dampen your courage. There are reasons why you feel enough is enough.

You may be unsure precisely how to tackle the subject at issue. This is fine, as long as you have a safe way to vent your feelings. The astrology suggests the solution could well unfold naturally — whether or not a head-on confrontation is needed, or (more likely) something more diplomatic.

Continue reading →