Dear Friend and Reader:

Maybe it was the rare-to-find Orange Toastees, or maybe it was the world-famous date nut bread. Howard Johnson’s in Arlington, Virginia, might have seemed like an odd place for a conclave of the captains of industry and the stewards of government, though that’s where it happened.

From the transcript alone, you would probably never know the apocalyptic, species-threatening nature of the meeting, nor from the location, or the tone of the conversation. From the stenographic word-for-word account that somehow emerged, it seems as if spoken in whispers.

It’s a panel discussion, with microphones at the dais, presumably in a motel’s conference room, away from government property. No reporters were present; none know about it, or they surely would have been there.

Participants include government environmental regulators from the US and Canada whose names we know, along with their clearly identified lawyers and consultants.

Then there are a bunch of anonymous chemical industry representatives, all of whom manufacture pesticides and herbicides. They are each referred to as “A Voice.” Their names are lost, assuming they were ever recorded.

It was a tight bunch; it’s probable that anyone at the meeting could have recited the names of all the others. These are people who knew one another well and who did business together all the time, like the neighborhood business association of supertoxins manufacturers.

Someone in the room, whose role is unclear, was named Diane, an echo of the mystery secretary in Twin Peaks. We may assume the only other woman present was the stenographer, Elizabeth Ann Tipton.

A Monday Almost Like Any Other

The time was a Monday morning in late 1978, the day of a solar eclipse. Why these people are meeting is to address how the entire universe of industrial and agricultural chemical safety testing — decades of allegedly scientific studies claiming that poisons such as pesticides are suitable to be sprayed on your food — had exploded in revelations of fraud and incompetence.

Two years earlier, someone intelligent at the FDA — Dr. Adrian Gross, a staff scientist there — figured out there was a problem, after actually looking at the data behind one of the studies and noticing that it seemed like fiction.

William Ruckelshaus is sworn in as administrator of the new Environmental Protection Agency as President Richard Nixon looks on at the White House on Dec. 4, 1970. Nixon designed the EPA to be a buffer between government and environmental activists. Its other role was to be an industry advocate, as is demonstrated in the IBT-HoJo Transcript. Photo by Charles Tasnadi / AP.

One testing lab was implicated, then the scandal spread to about 80 others. Newspapers and independent journalists were onto the story.

It would become the subject of Senate hearings called by Ted Kennedy. In 1983 there would be one of the longest criminal trials in American history, for fraud, involving the lab’s top executives, conducted at the federal courthouse in Chicago.

The 130-page IBT-HoJo Transcript is part of The Gemstone File, a digital library of historic documents that chronicle the chemical industry and its supposed government regulators from about 1930 forward. The library will be made available for free to the public sometime in the next week.

Mostly emerging from a barn in Oregon and a storage unit in rural New York State, its documents cover numerous agricultural compounds, industrial chemicals and ingredients of household products, all of which are still on the market. In other words, even though the health and safety studies were voided, the products remained in production. Many products currently in your home could be involved.

Its depositions, memos and scientific records contain many examples of regulatory failure, fraud and deception of the public: proof that what passes for science often is nothing of the kind.

It’s a mine of missing information and details on compounds including Agent Orange, DDT, dioxins, furans, glyphosate, PCBs and other chemicals in your food, under your sink and in your bathroom. This resource will serve environmental activists, scholars and contamination survivors for generations, particularly as many of the same companies are now involved with genetically modified agriculture.

The Decryption Key

You might say that the IBT-HoJo Transcript is the key to understanding the whole sprawling Gemstone File. By key, I mean a mental decryption key, a bare exposition of the central pattern of every chemical scandal that ever was or is.

The Gemstone File recently looked a lot like this — stacks of documents on paper, most of which were collected by Carol van Strum, author of A Bitter Fog. She is a Planet Waves editor. Photo by Risa Scott.

IBT stands for Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories, or IBT Labs, which was the name of a company and also the name of the whole affair, even though numerous other testing labs were found to have been involved in fraudulent or incompetent testing in the same era.

The IBT-HoJo Transcript starts slowly, like a Russian novel. At first, the only thing that keeps it interesting is if you know the context, which is impossible to overstate: all of the most commonly used pesticides and herbicides have been revealed as having fake toxicology studies backing up their use.

The goal of the meeting is ostensibly to address how to sort out all the data and make sense of it, and reconstruct something acceptable to public scrutiny. Then it becomes clear that’s simply not possible, so you get a step-by-step demonstration of how to fudge over a canyon of missing data and make it seem plausible.

Then even that wears thin and it’s apparent they’re devising a plan to convince the public and the press that business should go on as usual: “to get on with the normal marketing of pesticides,” as one participant put it.

There’s no reconstructing anything. They’re dealing with two decades of chaotic, make-believe, incomplete or missing data; practices like replacing dead test animals with live ones, but counting it as the same animal; and no integrity whatsoever in the most important kind of studies: those involving long-term exposure. The problems of the long-term studies are so endemic that the whole category is deemed unreliable, not even subject to audit. One problem IBT faced was that the situation in the lab was such a disaster, they could not keep most of the test animals alive for the whole study.

At first, you may hear someone say something that seems credible, such as “we are not proceeding” with evaluating the status of a chemical “until we have had a chance to examine all the studies.”

‘It’s That Kind of Situation’

Then you might read, “We would proceed regardless of whether it was IBT data or not with the assumption that there is a certain market for the pesticide.”

Then you might read, “As you are all aware, the cancellation and suspension actions talk about unreasonable adverse effects, and lack of a data base is unreasonable but it’s not an adverse effect by itself.”

Or, “We are going to be very flexible. We’ve got to. It’s that kind of situation.”

Alder Hill Farm in Tidewater, Oregon, where the collection lived and grew for about 50 years. Photo by Risa Scott.

Then, soon, your mind is swimming in statements like, “raised extremely serious questions for the pesticide regulation process” or “there are 4,500 tests in our files from IBT, all of which are subject to some scrutiny” or “not in EPA’s, public’s, and registrants’ interest to require registrants to replace all IBT data.”

You read that there’s “no reasonable way the Agency can proceed, either in re-registration efforts or in making regulatory decisions on the safety of the compound” or “would tie us up for years and also tie up the re-registration process” or even “very few long term tests followed original protocols.”

Then you read that the EPA expects “validation to be completely accurate…and certainly not falsified in any respect.” We learn that 80% of the studies were invalid for one reason or another. But it will all be completely accurate.

At one point, the top EPA official in the room says, “That is precisely the reason that we didn’t suggest that everyone go to the level of examining the pathology material because, unless you first do the review of which animals you can describe the tests on, there is no sense attempting to check pathology.”

Once You Know IBT, Nothing’s Shocking

We also know from the IBT-HoJo transcript that IBT conducted 4,500 studies in total. Yet the final report prepared by EPA and Health Welfare Canada five years later claims that IBT conducted only 800 studies. So what happened to the other 3,800 studies?

Once you understand what happened at IBT, you understand the method and see an extreme example of what’s possible. Nothing really seems shocking by comparison, though it all rightfully is. And that is The Gemstone File, consisting of approximately 20,000 individual documents, on about 200,000 sheets of paper, weighing in at three tons, all of which was scanned the past 18 months.

Chicago Tribune article from April 10, 1984, reporting that three IBT scientists had been sentenced to prison after being found guilty of fraud.

The effort was headed by Peter von Stackelberg. Most documents came from the collection of Carol van Strum in Tidewater, Oregon. About 75,000 pages came from the files of Chiron Return, the nonprofit organization that publishes Planet Waves FM, of which I am executive director.

An Ominous Eclipse: Charting the IBT-HoJo Meeting

Because a court stenographer, paid for by IBT Labs, was present at the Howard Johnson’s meeting, we have an exact time that the proceedings began: 9:45 am on Monday, Oct. 2, 1978, in Arlington, VA. [View the full chart here.]

I’ve said before: there are some charts that tell you about an event, and others that teach you astrology from scratch. This chart works both ways. It contains so many interesting patterns it would take a full-length article to describe them all. If you’re an astrology student, print the chart, then read the transcript, and get the best astrology lesson of your life.

However, several patterns stand out; and what really blazes out is that the meeting happens just hours after an eclipse of the Sun in Libra. The eclipse is like an epicenter, rippling out in all directions. Depending on your viewpoint, the eclipse either magnifies the effect of the meeting, or describes something with far-reaching consequences.

In astrology, nothing says “ominous” quite like an eclipse the morning of some huge event; so first, let’s look at the aspect pattern surrounding the eclipse. That’s in the chart right below this section.

What I’m calling the eclipse is four points to the upper left side of the chart: The Sun in yellow, Mercury in green, the Moon in gray and Pluto in red. They function as one entity, and together make up one corner of the grand square aspect. You can see that outlined in orange.

Adding Pluto to an eclipse illustrates the depth and impact of the situation, and Mercury says that it’s about messaging. In the IBT-HoJo chart, the eclipse has moved into the 11th house of groups, on the cusp of the 12th house, representing the whole population — everyone is affected. Note, because Scorpio is rising, using whole sign houses, the whole cluster of Libra planets can be counted as being in the 12th — veiled from view, which is accurate, and affecting everyone. It’s so wide, you can’t get around it; so high, you can’t get over it.

Other Points in the Grand Cross

Now let’s consider the other points that are connected to the eclipse in the grand square (also called a grand cross) pattern. There are three: Nessus, Ceres and Eris. Let’s take them one at a time. Remember, they are all acting upon one another, and part of the same story.

Ceres represents agriculture, and is the root of the word cereal. She is all about grain, though has many other sublime implications, often describing the grief we experience here on Earth, particularly around our children. Ceres is the Roman evolution of the Greek goddess Demeter; she is Earth Mother or Gaia.

Simplified chart for the IBT Labs crisis meeting at Howard Johnson’s, Oct. 2, 1978. The eclipse group of planets is to the upper left, consisting of the Moon, Mercury, the Sun and Pluto. Note that Pluto is opposite Eris (long, historic aspect), which functions as a chaos factor in the 6th house of laboratories. Below and to the left is Ceres, the goddess of grain. Above and to the right is Nessus, which addresses karmic chain reactions and systemic poisons delivered at the bidding of others. The partial solar eclipse happened about eight hours earlier that day. Full chart here.

The conversation is mostly about agricultural chemicals that are being sprayed on grain. Ceres is in Capricorn, rooted into the Earth. She’s in the 3rd house, meaning all of this is ultimately a local affair. It comes home to your village, and your local grocery store.

Next is Eris, in the 6th house, which you might think of as the laboratory or work space. Eris can represent sheer chaos, and in this chart, that’s what it’s about. This chart presents Eris in her most destructive form.

The eclipse was in an opposition to Eris, and the incident is unfolding at the time of a rare, major, outer-planet aspect: Pluto in Libra, opposite Eris in Aries. (We are now experiencing Pluto in Capricorn, square Eris in Aries.)

Finally, the last leg of the square is Nessus, a centaur planet related to Chiron. The story of Nessus involves a systemic poison that is delivered at the bidding of someone else. Nessus also represents a sequence of events that unfold in a karmic chain reaction, sometimes coming back to the person who first set things in motion.

Note how close the Libra Moon is to the rest of the grand cross. The Moon is at 12+ degrees, about to knock on Ceres, then the Eris-Nessus square, immediately. Reading charts like this, always study what the Moon just did, what it does next, and what it does last before changing signs.

We pretty much have the whole story summed up in just the eclipse pattern. Now, let’s look at a second version of the chart: one with even fewer planets, highlighting the ascendant and the descendant.

Mars Rising, Opposite Chiron Setting

Another aspect pattern that highlights the urgency and the intensity of the situation is Mars opposite Chiron. Mars is in red to the left, Chiron is in orange, to the right. The opposition is exact to a small fraction of a degree. In fact, it’s the closest aspect in the chart, and despite much other interesting stuff, the real distinction of this horoscope.

Mars rising has a violent feel. Mars rising in Scorpio takes things to the hormonal level. Note that Mars is joined by Venus; and both are conjunct Uranus — another planet that can represent chaos and disruption.

Simplified chart for the IBT crisis meeting, showing three planets in the Scorpio ascendant: Venus, Mars and Uranus, illustrating the ascendancy of hormone chaos described by the chemicals at the meeting. To the right side is Chiron in Taurus, exactly opposite Mars, demanding that this crisis be faced honestly and in reality. Full chart here.

With Venus, Mars and Uranus all rising in Scorpio, what we get is a picture of the hormonal chaos that these chemicals are inflicting on the planet. The astrological reference is that Scorpio represents the biological basis of sex, which is hormonal and genetic. Many of these compounds’ worst effects, including cancer, have their roots in causing hormone mayhem. This was not understood at the time; that will take another decade or more.

There are clues available, though the idea of an endocrine disruptor is not focused at the time of this meeting. Rather, the term “endocrine disruptor” was introduced at the historic Wingspread Conference in Wisconsin, in 1991.

All of the pesticides and herbicides being discussed in the IBT-HoJo meeting — though we don’t know their chemical names — will eventually be categorized as endocrine disruptors, a fact which is somewhat shockingly predicted by the ascendant of this chart.

Mars in Scorpio is opposite Chiron in Taurus. Chiron, discovered only 11 months before the date of this meeting, is setting on the western horizon. It’s as prominent as the Sun at sunset. You cannot miss it; it speaks for the whole environment, the whole scenario. Chiron is a healing factor, but it can also represent a healing crisis. The thing that must happen to tap into Chiron is that one must raise awareness: gain knowledge, understand the situation, and see one’s options.

Chiron’s story, as well, includes the same systemic poison that’s in the Nessus myth. You might say that “something is going around.” That includes toxins, and it also includes a growing awareness of the holistic principle: that all life is related to all other life. With Chiron, we either get the crisis on its own — a dense reaction — or we get the healing crisis and associated awareness.

If you’re even vaguely interested in this issue, the document to start with is an eloquent book called Silent Spring [read Planet Waves’ review here]. This is a book that’s on everyone’s reading list. Forget your list and read this book, so you understand these issues, their early history and why this matters so much.

There’s just one last thing. In the 2nd house of this chart — the one representing money — there’s a nifty little conjunction. That is between Neptune, the planet of dreams, delusions and deception, and Pallas Athene, the asteroid of law and government. This meeting is about money, and government collusion with industry to make sure the cash keeps flowing: getting back to marketing pesticides as usual, as the man said.

That’s the driving force. It’s not about people and their health.

We are the ones who must make it so. And we can.

The Gemstone File will soon be available to everyone.

With love,

— Additional reporting by Peter von Stackelberg

Please help us spread the word about The Gemstone File. Your contribution is fully tax-deductible.

Eric Francis. Photo by Jeff Bisti.

You can support our special fundraising initiative — to fund The Gemstone File project — by contributing to Chiron Return. We are planning an international press release next week, in six languages, to North America and Western Europe.

We also have another 25,000 pages to scan (we’ve already scanned and posted 153,000 document sets, so that’s not so many), though some of what we have is the best of the collection.

Our intention is to make The Gemstone File available to reporters, environmental activists and organizations, attorneys representing poisoning victims, and citizens who want to learn or do investigative reporting from the kitchen table.

Your contribution will support our class by that name — Investigative Reporting from the Kitchen Table — which we are planning to offer free in late August, just after the total solar eclipse.

Keep an eye on Planet Waves FM — our internet community radio station — for more information over the next week.

Thank you for your generosity! Let’s do something amazing.

Eric Francis Coppolino
Chiron Return

Just in time for the Great American Eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, you’ll have access to a helpful, excellent video astrology reading. These will be done by sign and rising sign; each reading is about half an hour. You can pre-order now for the best price: $66 for all 12 signs. The price for all 12 will gradually increase in $11 increments over the next few weeks, capping out at $111 once we publish.

I’ve been a devoted student of eclipses since beginning astrology. Here’s some of my earlier writing, published before the grand cross and total solar eclipse of Aug. 11, 1999. These few paragraphs below will give you a feeling for just how significant eclipses are. This one is one of the most important in American history, which I’ve covered here.

Eclipses are astrology we can’t deny. If there is a conjunction between Saturn and Uranus, it’s invisible, and while many people may experience changes, only astrologers and their merry bands of readers and students know what’s happening. Yet when the Sun vanishes, you can be sure that normal activity will come to a stop.

Our busy world will pause, and everyone, from herbicide activists nestled in the hills of Oregon to rock stars in Nashville, will stand in the silent shadow of the cosmic order with the astonishment of small children coursing in their hearts.

This doesn’t happen often, and you can imagine the awesome power of so many people embraced in a kind of simultaneous, captive meditation as everything around them momentarily ceases to be normal. Call it a reality lapse, only it’s one into which the real reality can flow very easily.

In terms of their astrological meaning, eclipses of the Sun follow this image of collective awareness and radical break of continuity. Whether you can see the eclipse does not matter; part of the miracle of astrology is it works anyway. As many of us are discovering personally, eclipses are expanded moments of often uncontrollable, unpredictable change. They also bring the civilization and its communities together, usually through important collective events and the media.

Eclipses are evolutionary gateways, which is another way of saying that when they show up, we do a lot of growing in a short time. Delays are compensated. Old accounts can be wiped clean. While each is unique, eclipses often feel like being shot through a funnel of space-time, and we emerge somewhere different than where we entered. The key to making the best use of them is to move with the energy, not cling to anything or anyone too tightly, and to stay open.

Literally, breathe, communicate, feel, love, observe and receive. Remember your intentions. The sense of panic that sometimes accompanies them yields nicely to awareness and revelation, mental conditions that are more natural than we often realize.

Leo New Moon: Bridge to the Eclipse

By Amanda Painter

The sky is illustrating an interesting dynamic currently. On the one hand, the Moon is waning toward a New Moon in Leo on Sunday; waning Moon phases tend to feel lower-energy. On the other hand, accompanying aspects and planetary sign changes suggest an increase of energy. You might be experiencing this as tension or as feeling a little out of balance in some way.

Looking across the Two Cent Bridge over the Kennebec River at Waterville, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

All of it relates to how you express yourself. And it all feeds directly into the Great American Eclipse on Aug. 21.

How conscious are you of the ways that you express yourself? That is to say, not only the words you use and the actions you take, but also how much energy is beaming through you at any given time, even when you’re not doing or saying anything? I’m referring to a variety of interrelated types of energy: emotional, mental, physical and sexual, as well as ‘subtler’ forms (such as what you might tune into during meditation, reiki or t’ai chi, for example).

As Planet Waves reader Sue Edwards mentioned this week, even when you’re not speaking, some people are going to be quite sensitive to how you’re expressing yourself energetically. Think of it like the Sun itself: sometimes the Sun releases large amounts of plasma and electromagnetic radiation in the form of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME); these events create direct and measurable disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere. Yet we don’t need that dramatic display to experience and notice the Sun’s expression of energy: it is constantly lighting and warming the Earth, both fostering life and (if we’re not careful) burning us.

People are kind of like that, too. And we’re not always aware of how strong our ‘everyday’ beams of energy are — let alone the impact of the equivalent of an ’emotional CME’.

Continue reading →

Swimming in Presence

By Amanda Painter

We’re in the final days of solar Cancer, a water sign; and about to enter solar Leo, a fire sign and the heart of the current season. If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, that means summer: the height of the swimming season. Yet if it’s currently winter where you are, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t still swim.

Artist Natasha Brooks filmed, produced and swims in her short film BlueHue — in all weather, including when there’s snow on the ground. Shot in and around the cold mountain lakes of Snowdonia, North Wales (in the U.K.), Brooks speaks of how essential it is for her to experience the complete sensory presence this practice offers her. She always swims nude, and revels in the focusing power of the direct sensations on her skin:

“The sensation of that cold, on every part of your body, eclipses all thoughts. You leave everything behind. And it offers you the space to truly appreciate the moment.”

When the astrology and life get especially busy, having the space to become entirely present in the moment is a gift. Sometimes we need a reminder to give that gift to ourselves, however we find it, and no matter the weather — literal or astrological.

This week on Planet Waves FM
Introducing The Gemstone File

Dear Friend and Listener:

This week’s is an unusual edition of Planet Waves FM [play episode here], mostly covering something called The Gemstone File. This is a soon-to-be-released collection of documents, dating from about 1930 to 2017, related to scientific fraud. The documents come out of the files of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), product safety testing labs, and corporations who make pesticides, herbicides and GMO foods.

Investigative reporter Peter von Stackelberg ran the scanning operation, converting three tons of documents, often wrinkled, stained, moth-infested, rodent-gnawed, or partly decomposed, into digital format. Photo by Risa Scott.

I begin with a short overview, take a song break, and cover the Leo New Moon, which happens Sunday. This is the one-month mark before the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse.

The third segment is a short introduction to The Gemstone File, wherein I set the context. I read from a document called the Howard Johnson’s IBT Labs Transcript.

IBT Labs was at the center of a scandal in the late 1970s that revealed that all chemical safety testing for products used in the U.S. and Canada (and elsewhere) was fraudulent. As in incomplete, improperly done, manipulated, made up, whatever you like — total BS.

At this meeting, which takes place in a HoJo restaurant in Arlington, Virginia [view chart here], several powerful officials of the EPA, one of their counterparts at Health and Welfare of Canada, and several other officials, consultants and lawyers, are trying to figure out what to do. They are surrounded by various chemical manufacturers whose products are threatened by the collapse of the testing labs. They all knew that they were dealing with a total failure of the regularity system (which happened on their watch), and they had to put a happy face on it.

What you get is a set of instructions for how to create fake science: essentially, how to fudge over a canyon of fraud. If you read the document you must be patient, and recognize its context: it’s set in the midst of an incomprehensibly massive scientific scandal. It would be the equivalent of church officials dealing with the revelation that Jesus never lived and they were making the whole thing up.

Remember that this discussion is about the additives, pesticides and herbicides that are in your food, the chemicals in your makeup, soap, cleaning supplies, lawn-care products, and products from paint to caulking to bug repellent.

Many authors and investigative reporters live inside their document collection. Such was true for the past 50 years for Carol van Strum. Now these documents are all in digital format and about to be made public. Photo by Risa Scott.

ALL, as in ALL, of the studies were fraudulent or defective, none were redone, and no registrations were pulled. It was just business as usual. The whole regulatory process was revealed to be a scam. After all, what can you say to a tidal wave?

Please help us with a special fundraising initiative. We are about to release this whole collection, consisting of three tons of scanned documents. Everyone and anyone will have access: the press, lawyers, the government — and you.

Using a dependable company called PR Wire, the fee for publishing a press release for the U.S. and Europe is $3,000. This covers all print, broadcast and trade media, and it covers translation into five languages other than English.

Some of my listeners can afford that whole amount; others might be able to pitch in $1 or $10. Please do what you can. We intend to publish within the next five to 10 days. There is already international press working with us on the piece, though we want to get this out as far and wide as possible.

Your donations are fully tax-deductible; we are an official charity — and this is the biggest investigative reporting benefit concert in history.

This collection will be used as the basis of our forthcoming class, Investigative Reporting at the Kitchen Table. More on that another time.

This is a long program, but it moves quickly. The shorter sections, covering astrology, are at the front of the program; the environmental stuff starts at 45 minutes into the program and is in three segments: one introduction, and then interviews with Peter first, then Carol (see photos above).

Our musical accompaniment is The Beatles, mostly George Harrison.

With love,

Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscopes for July on Thursday, June 22. Your extended monthly horoscopes for June were published on Thursday, May 25. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Thursday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — This week will be full of surprises, with Mars starting off the festivities by making a square to Uranus. I’m ethically obliged to give the accident warning associated with this aspect: if you’re doing something like climbing a ladder, make sure someone spots you. If you’re chopping vegetables, stay off the phone. That said, take any sudden alteration of plans as an opportunity. Shorn of your previous intentions or attachment to outcome, pause and ask yourself, OK, what do I really want? Where can I go from here? Then choose what would be most fun, most productive, or both. Where professional activities are concerned, your leadership role will be highlighted by your ability to think on your feet. Just make sure you do a quick once-over of your plans (taking from 15 seconds to 15 minutes) to check for unintended consequences. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Give close partners or loved ones plenty of room to be themselves. It’s possible to take pleasure in this gesture of supporting the individuality of others. Rather than feeling like you have to compromise, be negotiable and take the opportunity to do your thing if someone else is unavailable, whether mentally, physically or emotionally. Soon enough they’ll circle around back your way. Meanwhile, your solar chart is full of aspiration and intrigue: you’ll likely cross paths with people who have important roles. When you meet them, keep the conversation friendly and light. Being respectful as a matter of daily practice opens up a special door: you can trust yourself speaking to anyone, treating them as a person rather than personage, and exchange ideas. You might use the cocktail party rule: keep the conversations short, and keep circulating. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Normally astrologers look to Mercury for the story of your sign, but this week we’re looking at Venus, currently traveling through Gemini. It’s making some interesting moves, too: first Venus will make a square to Neptune, then a trine to Jupiter. Translation? As my old tripping partner Scott Grace used to say, “Confusion is the state before enlightenment.” Therefore, welcome any state of not knowing, not understanding or uncertainty about your feelings. Rather than trying to make yourself sure, let the boat of your mind drift for a day or so, and you’ll find yourself in an entirely new place. Just remember that essential spiritual move of holding open your space of not knowing, with some reverence for this as the prerequisite of learning. When you discover something that’s true, you’ll feel it in your mind and your body. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Stay in contact with your desire. Try to go to the most sincere level you can; that is, not influenced by advertising, trends or what your friends are up to. Connect with what you actually want, however you may feel about it, whether or not you think it’s appropriate. This will be a sweet spot of aligning with yourself. Particularly if you’re judging what you want, whether you think it’s too expensive or like someone might judge you, stick with yourself. You have a discovery ahead of you; a mystery will unravel. Be patient, and allow yourself to be instructed by your circumstances rather than by opinions or supposedly spiritual values. This process will likely include a point of contact in the sexual realm; you know intuitively and from much experience that the truth contains a wholesome streak of erotic feeling. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Leo Birthdays 2017:
How Will You Shine This Year?

“Thanks for reassuring this Leo, who is having a year ‘for the books’! You get to the core of things.”

— Barbara Peaslee, on a previous Leo reading

Dear Friend and Reader:

One day after the Sun enters your sign, there will be a special New Moon in Leo on July 23 — special, because you get another one in a month. And that second Leo New Moon will be even more special: the highly anticipated Aug. 21 total solar eclipse (in between is a partial lunar eclipse in your ‘relationship sign’, Aquarius).

Eclipses are unique and powerful pattern-shifting events.

Or, at least, they can be — especially if you can get clear on what you want, set your intentions, and then get the ball rolling in your desired direction.

Working with this kind of energy is one of Eric’s specialties.

And he’ll be giving you the benefit of his expertise in your 2017 Leo Birthday Reading — suitable for anyone with a Leo Sun, Leo rising or a Leo Moon.
Even better, Eric will look ahead to some of the other major astrology of the year, so you’ll be better able to develop whatever happens with this eclipse for months to come.

Whether you need clarity with your intimate relationships, career, self-esteem or identity, creativity, spiritual healing or family issues, you’ll find ideas, encouragement, new perspectives and reassurance in this reading.

“Your work has always offered me food for thought, options to consider and clarity when needed. Thank you very much for what you do and how you present it.”

— Victoria Bouet

I hope you’ll pre-order your 2017 Leo Birthday Reading soon, while it’s still available for the lowest price we’re offering: $33.

Eric will record the two 30-minute astrology segments first; and then a little later, you’ll receive your tarot reading for the year, using the vibrant Voyager Tarot by James Wanless. As these segments are completed, the price of the reading will increase.

Welcome to a year like no other, Leo. I hope you’ll be in touch to tell us what you learn over the next month or so.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. If you know and love a Leo, why not send them a birthday gift that will keep giving all year? You can give the 2017 Leo Birthday Reading here.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Over the next few days, Mars and the Sun will enter your sign, followed by the Leo New Moon Sunday, July 23. This is good news many times over, initially coming as relief from anxiety, followed up by an energy surge. I would suggest, however, letting yourself get a slow start on your new plans — particularly if they involve self-improvement. Mars is going to be pushing you to “do it now,” though the New Moon is saying, “begin gently and gradually build momentum.” There’s power in solid beginnings; that is, ones marked not just by a statement of intention but rather with concentrated action. Before that phase, you may find that odd things happen to existing plans, which will offer opportunities to clear the deck of priorities that are no longer valid or that no longer serve you. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Where professional matters are concerned, take things one step at a time this week. Be certain you trust the person you’re speaking to — not merely based on your intuition, but rather based on a track record. If you don’t have experience with someone, I would urge you not to trust them with sensitive information, ideas or your professional plans. The thing is, you may be inclined to make misjudgments about this very thing, particularly early in the week. I suggest you make a firm policy of sharing information on a need-to-know basis, if at all. That said, you’re in full-on creative mode where this area of life is concerned. Let yourself dream of the abundant possibilities. Look at your current situation and imagine how you would develop it to its maximum potential. That, however, will call for leadership. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You have a guardian angel with you, though you won’t know unless you ask for its help. Try this, on matters that seem to be small, or that seem to be great; on personal subject matter and that of people you care about. Make direct requests, whether for protection, an outcome, or wisdom. You’re also in a position to stand up for people, whether you know them well or not. You are a natural-born advocate, and with Jupiter in your sign — beautifully aspected by your ruling planet Venus all week — you have some persuasive ability in your hands. So your advocacy can be gentle, but make sure you’re clear about your views on right and wrong. The world needs moral guidance right now, from people capable of some mental and intellectual balance. You have a good bit more than that going for you. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Conserve your energy this week, as Mars and the Sun prepare to cross the most visible angle of your solar chart — Leo, the mighty 10th house of your solar chart. A series of events between now and next Sunday will place you in a position of authority, which I would suggest you handle gently and collaboratively. Rather than being the boss, be the coordinator. Ask others to help you supervise whatever situation you’ve got on your hands. Rather than setting goals unilaterally, get as many opinions as you can and make sure that everyone has an investment stake. If you have to take charge, then do it. Till then, key planets, including your ruling planet Mars, remain in water signs, heightening your emotional sensitivity. Get some rest, eat well and get ready for an adventure. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Go light on emotionally charged discussions. Even if you have concerns, considerations or issues, take a circumspect view of yourself and of others. You may feel like you’re really, really right, only to get it all off your chest and wonder what the heck you were thinking (or feeling). Rather than assume you know how someone feels, listen for clues, and ask questions that draw them out. Over the next few days, planets will begin to move into fire sign Leo, which will lift your spirits, and reveal all these seemingly complex emotional situations as being much less meaningful than they have seemed. Yet don’t fall for any traps late in the week or into the weekend, as you may be feeling the pressure. How would you do that? Don’t blame anything on a relationship. Just feel what you feel. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Consider yourself the equal of the people around you. I don’t mean this in theory, and it doesn’t just apply to those younger, less knowledgeable, or less accomplished. It also applies to those you think of as superior in any way. Now, this must be done subtly. Here’s how I mean it: If you’re a guitar player and you meet Mark Knopfler, you can greet him as your fellow guitarist. If you’re a photographer and you meet Annie Leibovitz, honor her as your sister photographer. Not better, not worse, neither above nor beneath, but as someone you share something with. This would go for the younger and less experienced ones you may meet: recognize their potential, honor their intention to succeed, and be available to them. If equality exists, it’s subtle, and it lives surrounded by terms and conditions. Keep it simple. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Toss any notion that money is related to the meaning of life, or somehow related to success. The latter might be true in some sense, but not the kind of success you are seeking as a humanitarian-leaning Aquarian. Money is a tool, a resource and in some ways a reward. There are many more meaningful factors that will determine whether and how you find your way in the world, the most significant of which is self-respect. Though this is in short supply in the world, it’s abundantly available for you. You will know you’re there based on how you feel. The positive emotions associated with respecting yourself come from below, and from within. It’s not a cerebral thing. As planets enter your relationship sign Leo, love and admiration will enter your life — though only if you feel worthy. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — This week wraps up a long phase of high-energy points — the Sun and Mars, to name two — moving through the most creative, passionate angle of your solar chart. As they make aspects to deep and soulful Chiron in your sign, you’re likely to find new outlets for your talent and your capacity to love and appreciate life. These may come by surprise, or they may open up as an easy flow; a combination of influences may be present. Leave yourself open; leave yourself time, space and bandwidth to explore what you want. Even more significantly, bring a spirit of curiosity and expression into everything you do, no matter how seemingly boring it may appear at first. Your astrology is such that you can make anything interesting, and anything that’s already alive can morph into something brilliant. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You have the power to free yourself from an emotional entanglement that has seemed persistent and difficult to define. The moment you figure out what it’s about, you’ll be liberated, and you’ll know what additional steps you’ll need to take in order to heal yourself and be shorn of the past.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You will be evaluated on the quality of your speech and of your writing. As informal as the world may seem, those with any power or influence are concerned with the words that people use, and their ability to be sincere. Come from your heart, and present yourself consciously and carefully.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You’re working with information that you didn’t expect to have. This puts you at a distinct advantage, but only if you’re careful about using what you know. Mostly, you’ve got the opportunity to follow the trail and learn even more. Proceed carefully, take one step at a time, and keep mum.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You have access to wisdom that’s coming from an unusual place; one could say that you’ve tapped a spiritual source. Yet this is subtle, and it will be easy to overlook, and equally easy to forget, even if you hear it. So you will need to listen carefully, and filter out negative inputs.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — There are those times when something seems to be missing, like a nutrient in one’s diet. This is why it’s important to follow your cravings, and to get the messages of your dreams. Your body is telling you that you need something. With a little reflection, you’ll figure out what it is.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Take the opportunity to advocate for someone who needs help or support. You might help them directly, or you might take up their cause in some way. This could include introducing them to someone you know who you’re confident can and will help. Spread the positive vibes. Weave your community.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Your true profession involves being directly supportive of people, whatever the task at hand. This counts if you’re CEO of a car company, if you install cable TV, or if you teach sanitation workers how to do their jobs in south Brooklyn. Whatever you may do, offer the world your total support.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You have a brilliant idea brewing, though you haven’t quite put it into words yet. Feel the beauty of a concept about to be born. Trust that your mind is creative and that it’s leading you in the right direction. Have confidence that what you want for yourself is also good for the world.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You don’t need to cling to anyone, nor they to you. Yet you’ll benefit immensely from taking the approach that relationships are for nourishment, so let’s get the food on the stove. And for that matter, change the sheets and get ready to have some fun. Life is for living, not worrying about what’s next.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — When a relationship is right, it will feel good. There won’t be a sense of strain or urgency. You will feel a sense of ease from the first moments of your encounter, a feeling of exchange and a sense of humor. Ask yourself which circumstances in your life match this description, and which do not.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Sometimes all of your effort put into one direction gets a result entirely different from what you were expecting. And sometimes that’s just the right thing. It would seem that you were working for one result though what actually manifests will teach you to set your sights even higher next time.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Too often, healing is associated with a massage table, an operating table or a therapy chair. For you right now, healing is about letting your ideas and your love flow through you and into your work. Your charts are calling to your artistic, musical, poetic and erotic nature. Carpe diem.