In this week’s edition, I cover the Capricorn Full Moon, Venus conjunct Jupiter and Mercury square Chiron. Planet Waves is running a membership drive. Please sign up as a Core Community member — or get a reading. We have many to choose from, unlike anything you’ve ever seen or heard on the Internet. You will love our work, and you’ll be supporting Planet Waves FM. Here is the letter I mentioned, which has many membership options: Solstice Fire and the Art of Service. Here is a catalog of our latest readings, with many excellent offerings. Great for astrological window shopping.
Lacking any context for your question, let’s assume that you actually find some astrology useful but loathe the “bullshit” remainder. In other words, you’re a friend of astrology looking for an honest answer.
To answer your question, we’ll need different buckets for this bullshit. Not all cow patties stink the same, and the turds get topical once you get used to the smell.
But here’s the big picture: most Bullshit Astrology is personality based. In an age that has practically deified narcissism, Bullshit Astrology offers a portable alter upon which you can sacrifice any ‘difficult’ or ‘hard’ feelings to the god of your self image, satisfied the whole thing’s ordained. Or reduce your enemies to one-dimensional one-liners.
And we know how easily narcissism (and simple insecurity) is exploited for cash.
I could go on all day, but I don’t have all day for this. So we’ll start with the obvious offenders, and some secrets behind the world of popular (and sometimes Bullshit) astrology.
Turd Bucket #1: General interest Sun Sign astrology books. Ever notice how Sun sign books tend to repeat the same shopworn, clichéd descriptions? Here’s why. Mainstream publishers have no interest in actual astrology. Shocking, I know. But they do love the way it sells, and you can trace this success all the way back to the 1920s and ‘30s when Sun sign astrology got cookin’ for the first time.
Many mainstream or ‘gift’ books are written by in-house staff (or ghost writers) who cut & paste the last edition, tweak the cultural references, and then ship it over to the art department, where they spiff up the front window with a new vector graphic, and — ta da! Next’s year’s “Total Aquarius Truths!” Just in time for the holiday$.
Turd Bucket #2: Horoscopes, the whipping boy of the astrology world. At one time smart, writerly, insightful astrologers usually wrote these things. Periodicals were known for their horoscope columnists, and subscribers loyally supported their favorites. The astrology wasn’t usually bullshit.
However, in a cost-cutting piqué, media producers in recent years have sacked many actual astrologers or cut horoscope columns altogether. Astrologers compete with the hundreds of horoscopes offered, gratis, on the Internet today, many of which are computer generated.
Sun sign horoscopes lived on as ‘entertainment’ for almost a century, and the logical consequence of that assumption is what’s happening now: editorial direction need not apply. If your horoscopes lack verve and intelligence — or accuracy — they’re most likely written by a junior staff member who makes them up from whole cloth. Because, entertainment. It’s all fiction, anyway. Amirite?
Turd Bucket #3: The computerized astrology report. If one report’s great, how ‘bout seven million? For many, this is the gateway drug of the serious astrology world. Yes, the best-written reports give glimpses of the true person beneath all that paper, the life buried beneath social conditioning. But sorting the shit from the shinola? They can’t.
Business savvy programmers with astro-chops and a knack for knowing the weaknesses of human behavior jumped into the Internet boat early and rowed that thing hard and straight to stardom and wealth. Answers about Love? Betrayal? Loneliness? Lottery numbers? Come and get ‘em!
Yes, they built empires that introduced millions to a strange and largely hidden art, but their creations reduced a 4,000-year-old tradition to a 40-page document, for the price of less than your dinner tonight. Talk about devaluation.
Turd Bucket #4: NewAgeism. Who knows when the New Age began (1781? 1846? 1916? 1968?) but folks are still selling the hell out of it, so the shop’s not closing anytime soon. NewAgeism is the astrological stage next for many: if you’re not gonna get laid with astrology, you might as well get engaged to an Enlightened Being, right?
Pros: spend enough time looking at the gears in this watch, and you can’t help but think that the mechanism’s much, much bigger than you. So for a moment you do step outside your ego, and discover your spiritual being — which, in itself, is a good thing.
Cons: You become a VSP (Very Spiritual Person), with astrology the filter through which you strain the gnat of quotidian materia — proof of your evolution as an enlightened being of the 5th Ray. Here’s where the marriage of astrology and NewAgeism gets unholy. Astrology is not a religion or a spiritual system. It predates Jung, Freud, Blavatsky, Rudyar and, heck, even Jesus. Astrology belongs to no one and everyone.
Unlike astrology, the current ‘new age’ movement lacks a system and historical precedent to define it. Throwing them together ends up looking like Silly Putty: you can squish it into any shape, press it against some words and made something like the original image, but never as clear. Which doth invoke much disdain, and the creation of things like the New Age Bullshit Generator.
Turd Bucket #5: Pinterest/Twitter/Facebook. Sun Sign self-absorption reductio ad absurdum. It’s everywhere, like dust mites — bad for your health and almost impossible to avoid or eliminate. “A Leo friend would never turn their back on you.” “When a Virgo says they care, it’s for real.”
Who writes this stuff?! Geniuses.
Geniuses of marketing, I mean. Why bother with the book, when you can pin it in seconds? Your Inner Goddess as click bait. But hey, your friends will you know faster. Right? Don’t mess with me: “I’m a bad-ass Scorpio.” And monetized, as well!
I’m sorry to say that, indeed, much of the popular astrology you see is probably inauthentic, narcissistic, navel-gazey bullshit. Or if you prefer, it’s as much astrology as Velveeta is cheese. Both are basically ‘products’ built for convenience and commerce. And like Velveeta, this popular astrology gets extruded through machinery meant for mass production. It’s found everywhere, is largely inoffensive and inexpensive, comforts the comfortless, and sells like gangbusters to unsophisticated palates.
However, the historical practice of astrology has been more like real cheese making. It takes time, and it takes training to get it right. The varieties of astrology run from mild to sharp, and everything in between. Beyond personality and the natal chart, did you know about the astrological art of forecasting weather? How ‘bout the astrology of stock markets, geology, politics, news, sport and health?
Nothing under the heavens has escaped its scope. Nothing. And the people who practice and study astrology have been and are equally diverse: priests, astronomers, philosophers, mathematicians, geologists, computer engineers, lawyers, professors, journalists, artists and musicians, to name a few backgrounds. Speak three languages? Sure! Polymaths? We got ‘em! Buddhists, Jungians, Jews, Catholics and Christians. Anarchists, atheists and agnostics. Witches and Gnostics, too. And every political stripe.
Diverse, we are. But we all dig the weirdness of astrology, and its wonder. Its true beauty can only be glimpsed in the best horoscope columns, books, and websites. Fortunately, they can be found (cough). You are, after all, reading this on Planet Waves — a website that champions not only the true art of astrology, but also the Art of Service.
It’s my hope you’re encouraged enough to dig for more of these gems, assured by my words that astrology is much more than a crass cash grab. And assured that those who practice astrology in a way that actually offers you food for thought, healing and growth do, in fact, deserve your support and participation in tangible ways, such as through membership. It’s so much more than bullshit in a bucket.
Today’s Oracle takes us to the Sagittarius weekly for March 18, 2005
While you may not exactly describe your life as being out of control certain recent developments have given things a push in that direction. That influence however is backing off and you’re likely to get the wild horses back into the corral with less effort than you imagined. Certain extraordinarily complex family situations that were threatening to come to a head will slowly lose their energy and people will be more likely to give you time to work things out your way in your time. They are not doing you any huge favors — it’s time and space they need as well.
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.
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame — you may be may be living in another country under another name, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
— Bob Dylan
The Capricorn Full Moon shortly before 10:20 pm EDT tomorrow (02:19:33 UTC Thursday) will be the first of two Full Moons in July. Subdivisions of the civil calendar don’t usually mean a lot to astrologers. Even so, based on its aspects and timing, the Full Moon tomorrow appears to be as just much in service to measures of civil history as to the epochs implied by astrology.
In her Planet Waves column yesterday, Fe Bongolan adroitly brought us up to date with a synopsis of your place in service to this time in civil history. Tomorrow, the Capricorn Full Moon completes the picture from astrology’s perspective.
For astrologers, tomorrow will initiate more than a civil month. Also starting with the Capricorn Full Moon will be a series of meaningful aspects from the luminaries (Sun and Moon) to what one might call planets of history: Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Unlike the so-called personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) and trans-personal planets (Jupiter and Saturn) the cycles of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto repeat over periods of time longer than the average human life expectancy. Granted, many in this day and age do indeed survive long enough to see Uranus make one full circuit of about 84 years around the Sun, and through all 12 signs of the zodiac. No human that we know of, however, lives to see Neptune (nearly 165 years) or Pluto (almost 248 years) complete even one orbit.
Nonetheless, the Cancer Sun in opposition to the Capricorn Full Moon tomorrow implicitly supports a suspicion long held by many now living. It’s the perception that you are living now to fulfill a unique place in history. It’s the idea that your choices in this life will unavoidably serve to have more influence than any who have gone before when it comes to determining the fate of our kind.
Indeed, if there is anything to astrology, both your conscious and less-than-conscious awareness of your place in service to history will have expanded considerably by the time of the Aquarius Full Moon on July 31. Appropriately, it all begins tomorrow with the Sun and Moon opposing each other in simultaneous aspects to Neptune.
Neptune is big, both literally and figuratively. From all appearances, Neptune’s symbolic influence has increased immeasurably since it first entered Pisces in April of 2011. Everywhere you look, both the upside of Neptune (which includes both inspiration and creativity, among other qualities) and its downside (which includes delusion and deception, among other liabilities), have ramped up to unprecedented and pervasive levels.
Tomorrow, the Cancer Sun will be in a precise water trine (a separation of 120 degrees) with Neptune. At the same time, the Capricorn Moon will be separated from Neptune by precisely 60 degrees, for a sextile aspect. Trines and sextiles imply amplification, emphasis and support. The trine is inferred to be both easier and potentially more dangerous than the sextile because of how it alludes to unimpeded (and therefore unregulated) flow.
Hence, the Sun (which represents waking consciousness, among other things) will be implicitly in thrall to Neptune, inferring both a trend and your part in service for at least a month. Your role is to be an intentionally conscientious governor of your own inspirations and impulses alike. It will be up to you not to get carried away.
Even if it seems like a good idea at the time, excess and extremism will almost certainly not serve the greater good. For every ounce of enthusiasm flowing through you, it will be advisable to bring an equal weight of intention and discretion. Such cautions will apply particularly to any situation where alcohol and fireworks come together this weekend. Interestingly, the Moon appears to be part of the solution.
Usually, it’s the Moon that’s associated with unconscious impulses. Given a Sun in emotional Cancer opposed by a Full Moon in Capricorn, it’s very possible the tables might be turned. Such a possibility is enhanced by the Capricorn Full Moon’s exact (to the degree) sextile to Neptune.
Sextiles, just like trines, do have a sense of reciprocation. Unlike trines, however, the flow implied by a sextile is more deliberate and conditional. Sort of like a grant or scholarship, sextiles tend to correspond with rewards based on merit, encouraging further effort (as opposed to the trine being analogous to winning a lottery).
Hence, let your own sense of whether something feels right (or wrong) inform your service in July. Also, if possible, allow things to develop at their own organic pace. The idea is that you can then be present to phases as part of a whole, rather than allowing a passing phase to be construed as conclusive and holistic.
After their concurrent reciprocal aspects to Neptune at the time of their opposition to each other, the Sun and Moon will move on to spend the first part of July moving through similarly significant aspects to Pluto and Uranus. As such, it looks to be a month when history will be served in such a way as to rival or exceed the events of June.
As part of the defining theme we call the Art of Service, Planet Waves will be there for you. We will be there with hard information. We will be there with astrological perspective. Were will be there with support for your best choices and with encouragement for your best outcomes.
What we ask in return for our conscientious practice of the Art of Service to history — and to you — is some reciprocation on your part. We pledge that, insofar as you are capable, becoming a Core Community member or giving the gift of a Planet Waves subscription to somebody you care about will go a long way to put you on the upside of history.
Even if you cannot provide financial support at this time, some encouragement and morale support for the service Planet Waves provides to the world as an advertisement-free oasis would sure be appreciated. Refer somebody else to us for a read of the wealth of materials we provide gratis — and perhaps a peek at the for-pay services that support the whole endeavor.
Given that you will implicitly have to serve somebody in July, you could do a lot worse than to devote part of your service to Planet Waves. Make July the month you make the difference you were born to make. Help us help you.
Offered In Service
Wednesday, July 1, 2015, is the Capricorn Full Moon, exact at 10:20 pm EDT (2:20 UTC Thursday, July 2). You may view the full chart here.) This is the Moon in Capricorn opposite the Sun in Cancer.
To read these horoscopes, it helps to know your Moon sign (where the Moon was at the moment of your birth), which you can find out by entering your birth data into Serennu.com. If you know your birth time, that will ensure accuracy — but often you can still be sure of its sign even if the exact degree is fuzzy. You can also read these horoscopes for your Sun and rising signs for additional insight.
By Len Wallick
Aries (March 20-April 19) — This would not be a good time to get liquored up. Nor would it be appropriate to get worked up about a conviction that you are an infallible force of nature. Count your blessings instead. Those who love you have good reason to treasure you in the depths of their hearts. Your own heart, in turn, retains a youthful vitality that defies biology. Apply your persistent vitality where you live and you will be immortal in the hearts of others. Return love where you find it and gratitude will bloom. Support others in their passions and your own desires will be received with understanding and quenched with generous approval. Give and be received.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Whether you travel or not, you are somehow bound to have many meetings of one sort or the other before the current season is concluded. Therefore, conduct yourself as though you are visiting even if you never leave home. Show the same respect to your guests that you would offer to a generous host. Assume the role of careful caretaker with all you possess. Practice the most common and trivial of courtesies with humility and sincerity. Bring light to custom and lightness to where you are accustomed. Take great care in all matters without taking too much time on any one matter. Make vulnerability a virtue.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — To better be yourself, know who you are. Find comfort in your own skin. Anytime you have a chance to take a load off, do so. Seek not to distract yourself. Rather attend to yourself. Make any routine form of self-care (such as trimming your nails) an occasion to cherish rather than something to get over with. Inasmuch as is possible, bathe surrounded by soft lighting. Whenever you can, take a break from inner dialogue to sit in the shade and listen only to what surrounds you, to better know your own place in the world. This is not about recovery, it’s about a journey of discovery into what is real, present and good about you.
Your 2015-2016 Cancer Reading To Achieve the Most, Take Care of Yourself
Dear Friend and Reader:
The sign Cancer is associated with food, emotions, nurturing and bubble baths. Yet the astrology influencing your sign is about some stunning achievement. Your focus is being drawn ever-outward into the world, and if you have not noticed it yet, you will be soon.
There is a conjunction coming — Uranus conjunct Eris. Technically it’s exact in 2016 and 2017, yet it’s influencing you now, calling you to take action and perhaps even summoning you to shake up your world. For a long time you’ve been itching to do something bigger, more significant, more bold.
It would be an understatement to say that this describes a breakthrough of some kind. Note that no astrology has happened like this in our lifetimes. The last time this aspect took place was in 1928!
This conjunction is developing in the most outgoing, dynamic house in your chart — the 10th. That’s the one associated with career, reputation and what you achieve in the world. The planets are putting you on notice that your life is developing in some bold and positive ways.
Going well beyond career, this astrology describes your overall role in the world, as a leader, as a creative force and as one contributing to solutions.
I am about to prepare your 2015-2016 birthday reading. I’ll be recording a clear, practical guide to working with your astrology over the next four seasons. In that reading, I will read this aspect that guides you to toward some unusual success.
Yet there’s a cautionary note here — about the need to keep a clear focus on your home life and your relationships. Simply put, you can accomplish great things, if you take care of yourself.
My Cancer reading will help you do just that. I will offer you a complete picture of your astrology, which looks at your life holistically. I’ll remind you of the many facets of who you are, all of which add up to the whole person that is you. The key to this astrology is drawing on every facet of your creativity, strength and intelligence.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Persistence is not a bad thing, especially if applied to finishing a task or improving yourself. You may, however, find it both efficacious and productive to let up on others. Instead of continuously confronting, consider an alternative role as a constant witness. Be present. Hold space. Notice how, one way or the other, everybody really does do their best. Let yourself be moved by emotions not your own. Allow yourself to feel what others appear to feel. Instead of pushing your passions, pull up and take time to contemplate how judgment has no place in compassion. Sometimes an insistence on being right isn’t right at all.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Imagine your life running backwards in a wondrous way. See yourself meeting everybody again as if for the first time, but possessed of all the knowledge gained from prior experience. Think about what first words you would say to somebody you know well, even though by some trick of perspective, they know you not from Adam or Eve. Ask yourself what your first actions would be, given the opportunity to flip hindsight into foresight and start over. Then, take what wisdom such contemplations bestow and carry them with you through the days and weeks to come, so as to make the most of every new acquaintance.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Be conscious of what you regularly lay your eyes on. Then do what you can to see everything anew. A new coat of paint can do wonders, as can a new slipcover or even just a cushion or quilt flipped over to reveal the other side. Think about replacing light bulbs with a different kind, or just moving a lamp. Even redirecting a track light or two can give you something of what you are looking for. Whether you know it or not, you are looking for something. Whether you believe it or not, you will know it when you find it. Most likely it’s something you need. Quite possibly it’s already in your immediate environment but somehow hidden.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — From this day until the current season draws to a close, make an effort to constantly clothe yourself in your best and most presentable underwear. Not because the all-too-common dream of attending class or work (or standing on stage) in your skivvies might actually come to pass in reality — not at all. Rather because you may soon find an occasion to share your most intimate self unexpectedly. This does not mean you should go out and engage in indiscriminate sex (although you might want to have an open mind about how to do so safely). More likely, you will simply want to prepare to make the best impression possible even if all your usual facades are suddenly stripped away.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Burning the candle at both ends can exhaust you. Playing both ends against the middle can get you burned. Even though you place a great deal of importance on being a stand-up gal or guy, you might want to allow for some self-examination. It’s remotely possible some equivocation has insinuated its way into your conduct. It’s somewhat more probable that you have allowed (or even rationalized) a contradiction in your own terms with yourself. It’s not as if your soul is in peril. This is not about right or wrong. It’s about setting patterns consciously so that the consequences of your choices align more consistently with what you know is truly for the best.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — If anybody has consistently made the best of what was available to work with, it’s you. As a matter of fact, you have been so conscientious for so long, others could easily take your due diligence for granted. Even if others fall into the trap of not appreciating your customary and admirable ethic, please don’t go there yourself. You are about to enter a phase of your life when being critical of yourself will be less than helpful. Do not sell yourself short. Indeed, consider how it may not be necessary to sell yourself at all. Instead, cultivate an image of yourself as being without price — which is to say, that you are truly priceless.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Steady as it goes. Let that be your motto. You have every reason to believe that your decision-making process has become more sound. All you need to do is look back at the decisions you were making four years ago, and compare them to relatively rock-solid choices you have recently made. Now, it’s a matter of following through faithfully. Putting a long string of good days together is no small thing, but have no doubt that you have attained a proficiency for doing so. What you have labored so long to make of yourself is about to pay off. All that remains is for you to be patient, consistent and upright in every way.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Triumph awaits so long as you do not trip yourself up. Vindication is inevitable, so long as you do not diminish yourself. It’s not that your situation is precarious; quite the opposite. It appears as though you have a win in hand. All you need is simply to refrain from any behavior that would cause you to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. To that end, remember that the best defense is feeling no need to be defensive. Additionally, while your drive is undeniable, it’s nothing compared to the way your true altruism inspires others to carry you up on their shoulders. Once you are up there, all you have to do is not let yourself down.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You owe yourself a lot, so pay it off. Begin with pleasure. Select a legal, safe, healthy, affordable pleasure to which you are not accustomed. Then, allow yourself to have it in moderation. Repeat that allowance at reasonable intervals until there is no longer even a shadow of guilt showing up to spoil your satisfaction. Once you have paid the debt of pleasure you owe to yourself, you will be ready to take on other obligations to your wellbeing. So, in between sessions of well-earned and guilt-free joy, start thinking about what burdens you owe it to yourself to relieve, and how to do it. For the time being, however, simply enjoy.
Tomorrow is the Capricorn Full Moon: this is when the Cancer Sun opposes the Moon in Capricorn. This year, the Capricorn Full Moon happens less than 24 hours after Venus and Jupiter make their first in a series of conjunctions (thanks to the upcoming Venus retrograde).
The Moon rising behind the Temple of Poseidon, Sounion, Greece, July 15, 2011. Photo by Anthony Ayiomamitis.
Essentially, that makes the Full Moon and Venus-Jupiter one event, though it is multi-layered. Planet Waves offers several ways for you to get the feel for this astrology and work with it productively, mentioned further down this letter.
We’re able to offer such a wealth of diverse material, which assists thousands of people around the world daily, thanks to our paying members; if you are reading this, you may be one, and we are grateful that your involvement allows us to serve such a wide audience.
If you have not yet signed up for Planet Waves membership, please consider joining here through one of our sliding-scale options. We take the Art of Service seriously, in all of its many forms, and I hope you do, too.
Now, as for this week’s astrology: Len Wallick has written today’s Moonshine horoscopes for the Full Moon. Len writes these horoscopes for your Moon sign (there’s a link on the horoscopes page to help you figure out yours), but you can also read them for your Sun and rising sign to see how they resonate. Continue reading →
Today’s Oracle takes us to the Aries weekly for Oct. 17, 2008
Try as we may to influence them, relationships run their own course. People make progress when they are ready, they take initiative when their insecurity goes on vacation, and generally they speak when they feel they have no other choice. Someone close to you may be dangling in the balance between feeling like a lover and a sibling. You may be uncertain what to do about this. Someone else is on the radar, with whom the energy is distinctly hotter, more boldly erotic and provoking a depth of transformation that might be making you nervous. Do you go for the familiar or the daring? You’ve recently discovered something important about what you want from your life. This is information you can use if you want. And it applies to a lot more than this situation.
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.
If you told me seven years ago I would be enjoying my morning tea with gay marriage sanctioned nationally, a George W. Bush-appointed Supreme Court Justice preserving affordable health care, an American President singing in a black church, and a multi-ethnic group of local citizens taking down the Confederate flag in The Capitol in South Carolina, I would have told you to take a hike.
But this is not a typical Monday in America. After last week, it looks like anything is possible.
On Thursday, even with more than 50 congressional votes to repeal it, the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) — aka Obamacare — is still alive and well in the US. Last week, it survived its toughest test, the Supreme Court case of King v. Burwell which, had it been successful, would have denied state subsidies. This would have hobbled and ultimately ended the ACA in 34 states.
Instead, the court broadly interpreted the ACA as it was intended — to provide health care coverage in every state with subsidies, insuring availability of ACA coverage to eight million Americans impacted by this case.
On Friday, June 26, the court ruled same-sex couples can marry across the country. By ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in Obergefell, et al., v. Hodges (naming Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky for their failure to recognize or perform same-sex marriages), the Supreme Court obviated the need for gay marriage to be approved on a state-by-state basis in one fell swoop. That long road is done.
Later that Friday, June 26, we watched President Barack Obama give his eulogy for state senator Clementa Pinckney at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Drawing upon the hymn “Amazing Grace” — written by an English sea captain upon abandoning his career of transporting Africans into slavery in America — the President defined the sending of a Dylann Roof to the church as the grace of God, laying the groundwork for incredible acts of forgiveness by the families of Roof’s nine victims.
It was grace, Obama said, moving the groundswell of support for reconsidering flying the Confederate flag throughout the South, and grace for the solidarity of Charleston’s black and white communities banding together in the face of the terrible tragedy at Emanuel Church. It was in this eulogy that the President addressed the citizens of Charleston and the country on the racially-based social and economic inequities in America; the victims of gun violence at Sandy Hook and in Aurora, Colorado; and the brutality of police treatment of African Americans in cities across the country.
As an aftershock the next day, after refusing to wait for the state legislature to “discuss” the matter of taking down the Confederate flag as promised by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a multi-racial group of community members led by Brittany “Bree” Newsome went to the Capitol and took it down themselves.
It’s not a bad day to be witnessing history in America. Especially when you remember that forty years ago being gay was a shameful secret, that the Confederate flag was hoisted on the South Carolina state Capitol building in 1965, and access to quality health care without going bankrupt was impossible, especially if you had a pre-existing condition.
I would imagine that, in the space of just 48 hours — with such a confluence of energetic and progressive change upon the country — the President and the Chief Justice might feel something more than the summer breeze lifting them to awareness of their moment and place in time last week. Something had to move, and events set in motion years before moved current history forward again.
President Obama prevailed over one of the toughest challenges to his signature legislation. He was also on the right side of history in ending ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, and refused to further defend the Defense of Marriage Act. This laid the groundwork for Obergefell, et al., v. Hodges to succeed in court.
Chief Justice Roberts upheld the Affordable Care Act in 2012 in the Court’s case of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. That verdict tenuously enshrined Obamacare into law and history under a slew of court challenges. It appeared last Thursday that in the King v. Burwell ruling he weighed his place in history as well, at the risk of eight million American lives denied healthcare. Friday, he bowed to the majority when the momentum showed the country was clearly in support of gay marriage.
Both men heard the call to be remembered for what they did when the moment presented itself.
Now, no one is perfect, especially leaders. President Obama’s legacy will still need to be weighed in light of the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as well as his foreign policy, which is mired in endless engagement in the Middle East. John Roberts has his work cut out for him, especially with his corporatist leanings after ruling in favor of the Citizen’s United case.
Both men have much work to do. But so do we in response to them. We still need to carry on the fight for economic and social equity in this country. Women’s dominion over their own bodies remains a question mark when it should be a given. The dithering over climate change in Congress is essentially playing Nero’s violin while Rome burns. The militarization of police needs to be stopped, and all gun violence must cease.
For posterity’s sake, we all still have responsibility to do our part, shaking the ground beneath the men who have the gavels and the bully pulpit of the Presidency. Because that is what it takes to move mountains. For all of us, each and every moment, every act, every decision lays down a marker in the stream of time. For posterity’s sake, we need to get off our own posteriors and get back to work, because the real work of history continues to be with us.
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 creative a positive effect on their individual and collective worlds.
