Today is Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016
Hebrew date is 17 Tishrei 5777
Islamic date is 17 Muharram 1438
Mayan Tzolk’in Day is 11 Etz’nab’
Mayan Long Count is 13.0.3.15.18
Julian Day is 2457681
Today’s Birthdays: Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Marguerite Perey (1909-1975), Michael Gambon (1940), John Lithgow (1945), Evander Holyfield (1962), Amy Carter (1967), Trey Parker (1969), Colton Dixon (1991).
“Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.”
— John Lithgow
Moon Phase: Moon is in Full phase and enters waning gibbous (Disseminating) phase today at 1:49 am PDT / 4:49 am EDT (08:48:57 UTC).
Next New Moon is in Scorpio on Oct. 30 at 10:38 am PDT / 1:38 pm EDT (17:38:08 UTC).
Corresponding Full Moon is in Taurus on Nov. 14 at 5:52 am PST / 8:52 am EST (13:51:59 UTC).
Moon Sign: Moon is in Gemini and enters Cancer on Oct. 20 at 8:28 am PDT / 11:28 am EDT (15:28:14 UTC).
Sun Degree: 27-28 Libra.
Special Comment: The Third Debate
We’re finally getting to the end of certain things associated with the U.S. presidential election. Tonight is the end of the debate season. The last face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton takes place the day of the Mars-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn. If there is a better way to say “dark politics” using astrology, I don’t know it. On the same day, Venus is approaching a square to Nessus. Whether we’re talking about Donald Trump’s absurd and agonizing sexism and tendency to grope women, and his abuse of the corporate system, or Hillary Clinton’s enabling personal behavior, and her tendency to make war in the Middle East, we are looking at two severely injured people. They are examples of what we do not want to be. If nothing else, we can thank them for that.
Planetary Stations and Sign Changes
Vesta enters Leo at 5:00 pm / 8:00 pm EDT (01:00:01 10/20 UTC). Vesta makes a conjunction with Varuna, one of the historic discoveries beyond Pluto, which recently moved into Leo (and will be there for many years).
Interesting Selected Aspects | Data from Serennu
— Mars conjunct Pluto at 4:22 am PDT / 7:22 am EDT (11:22:22 UTC).
— Mercury square Cyllarus at 9:09 am PDT / 12:09 EDT (16:09:14 UTC).
— Sun conjunct Rhadamanthus at 2:38 pm PDT / 5:38 pm EDT (21:37:44 UTC).
— Sun sextile Galactic Core at 5:21 pm / 8:21 pm EDT (01:20:31 10/20 UTC).
If Your Birthday is Oct. 19
(The Day of the Projector) | Get Your Birthday Reading
Emotional independence is something that few people attain. It’s questionable whether people even want it — though most want other things (such as happiness) that require that very independence. Here’s a question: How attached to your pain are you? Once you decide you don’t want it, releasing yourself from the past, and from the bondage of your family, are the next obvious steps.
The Book of Your Life is Being Written Now
Eric is already underway writing your 2017 annual readings, telling the story of the year ahead, and weaving it into the past and the future. This year’s annual is called The Book of Your Life (or What the Astrologer Said), and you can read all about it in this letter here. As with all Planet Waves readings, you can pre-order it for the lowest price early on (like, today!); the first price increase is due to take effect on Oct. 23.
Written in the Planets
Venus in Sagittarius is one of that planet’s most interesting placements. She seems like the woman from the future, or the woman from some exotic galaxy who is showing us how a woman can be a person rather than a social construction. As such she may not feel very female; that, however, is a matter of conditioning. Your average modern woman of today would not have seemed very female to someone 100 years ago. Yet when we consider the plight of women today, and society’s seeming obsession with making women into slaves, we have some distance to cover. Here is the thing that’s non-negotiable, for anyone who wants to make progress toward being a person: cultivating self-esteem. And this must be done despite the worst conditions, or under the most favorable ones. It matters not. Self-esteem is internally mediated, no matter what is going on in your environment. Your relationship to yourself comes first. It may not seem that way — though the “discovery” of self-esteem often happens in the seemingly worst places, times and situations.
So, what is “missing” in our society that we feel the need…to “make” slaves? It’s not only the movement to make women slaves, as you mentioned Eric, that’s occurring in our society right now, it’s also an energy dynamic of making workers/employees, into slaves…
Post 2008 crash, employers are playing less, requiring more, reducing benefits, etc. The availability of over-qualified workers when jobs were the most scarce has allowed employers to require everything from professional skills to cleaning up the office…in the same job description! Meanwhile business owners and corporations pay less and less, via both wages and benefits…not to protect the company, but to hoard the profits.
All the while Congress puts forward dozens and dozens of pieces of legislation each year to limit the well-being and freedom of women.
So, what is happening in our society, what is “missing,” or what is it that we need…that has us “seek to make slaves?”
Kelly Grace Smith
Interesting question, Kelly Grace Smith. I was thinking maybe the answer was “power,” until I remembered that the people “enslaving” others (or attempting to) clearly have or are being handed a certain amount of power to do so.
So is it some kind of disconnect with a sense of inner *creative* power/energy/identity?
Is a sense of abundance missing?
A connection to a “higher power”/source that obviates the need to have power over other human beings?
Some form of love that is greater than their fear?
All of the above? Or something else?