Tag Archives: Cardinal Grand Cross

Believe it or Not: Scorpio Full Moon

By Amanda Painter

On Saturday, we have the Scorpio Full Moon tucked into a busy chart. Yet it’s happening as Mars makes contact with some potent, society-defining slow movers elsewhere in the sky. There’s a lot of energy zinging around currently — some of it may feel quite personal or internal; some of it might be coming through to you the way the noises of next-door demolition and construction come through a window, even if it’s closed. You may be experiencing a challenging combination of both.

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Cardinal Grand Cross: To the Edge and Beyond

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Beginning Tuesday and into Wednesday, Mars in Libra retrogrades into a square to Jupiter, an opposition to Uranus and a square to Pluto. This is the perfection of the cardinal grand cross, four planets in an exact X with the Earth in the middle.

As the cardinal grand cross takes shape, Russia and Ukraine are on the brink of war. Developments Thursday may signify that Russia is willing to de-escalate, but we have a lot of astrology about to happen. Video still from The Guardian shows a protest from December, when the grand cross — a highly stressful aspect — was within a few degrees.

That, in turn, is one of the big moments in the Uranus-Pluto square — our era-defining aspect, the one that spans from 2012 through 2015 with several years tacked onto either side. Fast-moving, personality-driven planets like Mars getting mixed up with slow movers such as Uranus and Pluto can bring otherwise hidden events associated with the main aspect out to the front of awareness.

Additionally, the grand cross aligns exactly with the United States Sun, which is at 13+ Cancer. In some way the karma of the United States is involved in this event. The U.S. Sun is in its 8th house, so there is some material around commitments, shared resources and sex that is involved. Thankfully it’s Jupiter that’s conjunct the U.S. Sun rather than Mars, Uranus or Pluto, though one effect of Jupiter is to magnify things.

We are in a big moment, even counted on a scale of decades. The two most potent aspects I remember before this were the Saturn-Pluto opposition of 2001, and the fixed grand cross and total solar eclipse of 1999.

Speaking of eclipses, next week’s astrology is amplified by the fact of a solar eclipse. That happens Tuesday, April 29. So the grand cross and whatever it signifies is vibrating between the lunar eclipse of earlier in the week and the solar eclipse at the New Moon a week from Tuesday. The New Moon event suggests that this time between the eclipses is a seed moment, not just for setting intentions but also for focusing your mind on accomplishing them.

Said yet another way: the planets are aligning in a get-serious pattern. The combination of squares, oppositions, a generational event and a series of eclipses is describing the urgency of our moment and also how much influence we can have if we want it.

The discovery of Chiron was the first time that a natal chart for a planet was taken seriously by astrologers. This chart has many amazing features, including the Galactic Core rising to the degree (left side of chart, 26+ Sagittarius). Chiron is positioned near the edge of the 5th house; it’s the orange key with the number 3 next to it. That position is 3 Taurus and 9 arc minutes. Now check the Sun in the next chart.

Getting serious, however, is usually the thing we like to do the very least, here in our la-la land of adventure films, foamy sugar, iPods and iPhones and where even ‘progressive’ programs consist of one-third television commercials that verge on psychotic fantasies. Americans live in a country where adults are fed dietary fiber in gumdrops and 4.5 million guns are purchased every year.

In the United States there are 90 guns for every 100 people and no obvious connection between that and the more than 11,400 Americans killed by people using guns including homicide, suicide and accidental death in the first year after Newtown that were reported by the media. The actual number of people killed by guns was 33,173.

I’ve said a few times that one of the most serious problems of Western civilization is our seeming inability to connect cause and effect. Cause and effect is the Law of Karma, and the failure to make the connection can breed karma rapidly. And that is exactly — exactly, precisely — what our society does. We breed karma faster than it’s possible to get out of it, by any normal means not requiring a profound spiritual connection or help from friendly extraterrestrials good at cleaning up nuclear waste.

Meanwhile, many people want to wake up, and try to do so diligently. Yet the first thing anyone on a path of awakening is likely to discover is just how twisted their society is, and how driven by dark motives. That fact is not exactly encouragement for becoming conscious. Anyone with a shred of intelligence knows that to approach any aspect of the global crisis, more is demanded than their personal purity; we have to do more than what we deem to be ‘our part’.

Solving problems, whether personal or on a scale larger than one’s own immediate situation, involves becoming aware of the nature of the issue. This alone seems to be an obstacle — many global problems are extremely complex, or they seem that way. Meanwhile, one’s personal circumstances can be more than enough to bear. For anyone sensitive who feels the pull toward considering what we must solve to protect future generations, the pressure can be overwhelming.

It’s 2014 and people are still debating whether global warming is real. We might want to pay attention to who’s paying them. Photo by Ray Strange.

Even trying to approach or resolve a relatively simple problem within a community can lead to total frustration. This is often connected to the personalities who are invested in the dysfunction, the underlying politics or encountering those who are committed to things staying the way they are — often for reasons that are entirely opaque.

On a larger scale, a 10-minute discussion of an actual global problem or the motives driving it can be enough to have someone sobbing. For many, denial seems to be an essential survival tool. But denial doesn’t do anything and its effectiveness as a hedge wears off quickly.

Considering the pressure of this astrology, the world seems to be in a fairly ordinary state. Sometimes precision of aspects can lend itself to solutions. I believe they can be used that way; if we are going to get astrology working in our service, it’s necessary to use it as a map to connecting with collective energy and understanding trends that might otherwise defy understanding.

The astrology we’re experiencing looks like it could push anyone to the edge. That might be a psychological or emotional edge; a limit on tolerance of a situation. This could also represent a trip to the edge
of one’s intelligence — that is often productive, because the edge is where you can go beyond what you knew or thought of before. It’s the place to take the leap.

Yet everything about the current astrology says this must be done with precision.

The Sun in the Chiron Discovery Degree

Speaking of precision, there is an unusual feature of the April 23 grand cross, which has not eluded the perception of Chiron-spotters in the audience. Chiron is a small planet orbiting our Sun that was discovered in 1977. My impression after watching the world go by is that Chiron has been the most influential planet in shaping the ethos of modern professional astrology.

Chart for the grand cross of April 23, tuned with the Sun in the discovery degree and minute of Chiron. That is, in this chart the Sun is in the exact position that Chiron was in when it was discovered in 1977, 3 degrees of Taurus and 9 arc minutes. You can trace the grand cross by following the planets with the number 13 next to them.

At the moment of the alignment, the Sun is in the degree where Chiron was discovered. In fact, Mars square Pluto happens in a near-perfect synchronicity with the Sun conjunct the degree and minute where Chiron was discovered — 3 Taurus and 9 minutes of arc.

This is one of those connections that’s so strange and interesting and vibrating with meaning that I keep looking at it wondering how it’s even possible. We could translate this into, “Whatever the grand cross is about, it has something to do with the discovery of Chiron.”

Chiron is the planet that represents holistic consciousness. One of the first modern holistic healers, D. D. Palmer, discovered ‘chiropractic’ and did the first adjustment in 1895, the year that the first photograph was (unwittingly) taken of Chiron. Called a pre-discovery photo, it sat in the files till astronomers dug it out in 1977 to confirm the orbit of the new object; its discoverer, Charles Kowal, named it Chiron after the famous healer of Greek mythology. Most astronomers don’t believe in astrology but those who discover and name planets are often very good at it. Kowal gave Chirion its first keyword, maverick — one who stands away from the crowd.

Chiron, the first centaur, was a half-man, half-horse, and was abandoned as a child and raised by the god Apollo, who taught him medicine and surgery. Chiron then passed his skills to Asclepius, who became the god of medicine. Chiron is a healer but also a teacher of those on the stature of a god; he was also mentor to a generation of Greek heroes, including Heracles, Jason and Achilles.

So with Chiron, we get the theme of holistic consciousness, healing and also the vital theme of mentorship. There are many ways to learn things: books, classes, seminars and YouTube videos among them. But for serious, grounded and careful learning, there may be no better way than mentorship.

Chiron itself is prominent in the grand cross chart, part of a grouping of objects in Pisces that includes Neptune, Venus and two other useful minor planets, Nessus (another centaur) and Borasisi (similar to Pluto but a bit further from the Sun). None of these are asteroids; later in Pisces there is a rather phenomenal grouping of those.

Yet Chiron’s discovery degree, 3+ Taurus, can function in many ways like Chiron itself. It is a reminder that relates directly to the moment of discovery, and the era of discovery, when the new planet manifested.

Achilles and the Centaur Chiron painted by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (1708-1787). Chiron was mentor to many of the most revered Greek heroes, teaching them archery and other battle skills, battlefield medicine, ethics and in this illustration, music.

The 1970s were an exciting time, a dawning of the era of hands-on healing, the early acceptance of naturopathic medicine, awareness of the mind-body connection and when actual therapy as opposed to meds was something that had respect.

Notably, chiropractors were entering the struggle for their existence, and did battle with the official medical establishment, which was trying to destroy their profession.

In 1976, a year before Chiron’s discovery, a chiropractor named Dr. Chester Wilk brought a federal antitrust lawsuit against the American Medical Association (AMA) and numerous other allopathic medical organizations. The federal court ruled that doctors had waged a “lengthy, systematic, successful and unlawful boycott” designed to restrict cooperation between chiropractors and MDs, all in an effort to eliminate the chiropractic profession as a competitor in the United States healthcare system.

More interesting, though they had repeatedly attacked chiropractic medicine through something called the “Committee on Quackery,” testimony at the trial demonstrated that medical doctors leading the attack did not even know what chiropractic was or how it worked. After 14 years, Wilk and his attorney Mick Andrews won a substantial settlement that included direct admission of wrongdoing by the AMA and other organizations.

Who could persist this long against such injustice? Someone with Chiron on the midheaven, as Wilk has. The 10th is the house of professional achievement and reputation, as well as one’s relationship to the established power structure. Chiron in that position describes a person who is fearless, and who will go up against the whole system if necessary.

Today we take for granted that chiropractic, massage therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy and naturopathy are legal, legitimate and available in nearly any city and many smaller towns. It is true that the AMA and the drug companies attempt to crush anything that might compete with them, but it’s worth noticing that they have not succeeded.

Dr. Chester Wilk, a chiropractor, led a federal antitrust lawsuit against the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Illinois Medical Society and other allopathic organizations who he proved were conspiring to destroy chiropractic medicine. It took him 14 years, but he beat them. Dr. Wilk has Chiron on the midheaven, the most elevated planet in his chart. Photo from video interview.

It was not long ago that the word ‘massage’ meant going to a prostitute, and that people bandied around the term ‘psychosomatic illness’ as an insult, translating loosely to ‘it’s all in your head’.

The time of Chiron’s discovery was a time of the roots of the holistic movement reaching deep into the culture. We might lament that the medical establishment and GMO foods and big pharma have way too much power — but imagine a world with no alternatives, with no options.

Let’s consider the relationship of the Sun conjunct the discovery degree. The Sun is the astrological equivalent of the healthy ego. You can describe it as the place people want to shine in life, and seek success and glory. It’s one of the most powerful identity factors in astrology — often, the seat of the idea ‘I am’.

But the Sun can be a baby, seeking attention and wanting something for nothing. Other factors in the chart will describe how the person is willing to work or not work for their success (and potentially, glory); the person’s ability to actually be an adult.

In this chart, the Sun is making contact with the emergence of Chiron as an idea and as a reality. It’s as if the Sun has found its mentor, or connected to a source of higher knowledge.

The Chiron discovery degree shows up interesting places. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died this week, has the discovery degree rising (see the 3 Taurus 47 on the lower left of the diagram). This comes up when his chart is cast according to his officially recorded birth time (the degree rising advances every four minutes).

To me this placement is symbolic of the kind of growing up that we will need to embark upon in order to participate in solving the global crisis. The first step in that is individuals paying attention to their own personal healing, working with role models and becoming functioning adults. We have seen, in the past, many problems with immature people ending up in positions of power — we see the kinds of power games for which the world is so famous.

Grounded, healthy leadership requires individuals who are aware of themselves and of their relationship to their environment. It also requires people who have an actual spiritual connection, that is, whose perception does not end on the physical plane but who have the capacity to think and be sensitive on several layers of consciousness.

Yet this goes beyond the concept of ‘self help’ or being a better person. It goes entirely beyond the notion of what is self-serving, and beyond the idea of doing one’s bit. Inherent in Chiron is the drive for service, a passion and devotion to humanity that you really can’t fake.

There is one other thing. Chiron represents processing some of the darkest emotions and experiences that humans are capable of. Everyone has a little piece of this, and some people have quite a lot. On one level I’m talking about normal emotions but which can, if ignored, get blown out of proportion or acted out in extremely toxic ways. The denial of shadow material — emotions associated with fear, shame, guilt, abandonment and aggression — has led to more war and mayhem than perhaps any other factor, including greed (which is fed by all of the above). The holistic process described by Chiron demands honest awareness of these aspects of consciousness, if only so they can be brought to the light of healing.

Without the Sun in the Chiron discovery degree, this would be a frightening chart, indicative of all kinds of mayhem and violence with no way out. With a bold reminder of Chiron and what it represents, the scenario makes a lot more sense. We have a chart that reveals the problem, and it reveals the way to many potential solutions.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinnelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Elizabeth Michaud, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Sun Enters Taurus, Meets 1992 QB1

When the Sun enters Taurus on Saturday at 11:55 pm EDT, it immediately makes a conjunction to a minor planet called 1992 QB1, which (after 22 years in Aries) is now in the first degree of Taurus. Well, a minor planet but not so minor. QB1 was the first object ever discovered orbiting our Sun beyond Pluto. As such, it counts as the discovery of the Kuiper Belt. [See related article here.]

Illustration of the Kuiper Belt by Don Dixon, which originally appeared in Scientific American in 2000. The outermost inner ring is the orbit of Neptune. The inclined orbit would be something like Pluto, though with a much longer orbit than Pluto actually has; in 2000 it would represent a possible discovery, though the shape and inclination are evocative of Eris. The Kuiper Belt is the cloud of small objects that surround the solar system. © by Don Dixon, all rights reserved.

I associate QB1 with the art of thresholding — the conscious process of helping others get across mental and emotional barriers, including those associated with sex, emotional contact, self-awareness, death and dying, the birthing process and inaugurating new eras of their lives. In Taurus, we have an image of dissolving old patterns and personal customs as well as rigid and limiting self-concepts; there is an image of changing what seems impossible to change.

For more than 60 years, Pluto, a planet named for the Roman lord of death and the underworld, held the position of official furthest planet from the Sun. The furthest planet out sets a conceptual boundary, a kind of limit on what is considered possible. It seems to work as a container for existence that most people are not able to get beyond. [I explore this concept in an article called The Foggy New Edge of Neptune, written at the time that Eris was named.]

The discovery of QB1 initiated a time when we could, at least in theory, get beyond the “death works” school of thought — that is, a psychological hangup wherein the threat of death or industrial-scale murder were the most impressive things going. As Dr. Wilhelm Reich pointed out, psychiatry and psychology became obsessed with death around this time, leaving behind their prior theory that sexuality was the core of human consciousness. Why did they do that? According to Reich, they were afraid that the Nazis would kill them. I believe this closed off a vast area of human potential.

The six decades after Pluto’s discovery arrived with World War II, the bomb being dropped on Japan, the nuclear arms race, the Korean War, the Southeast Asian wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, genocide in East Timor, wars throughout Central America, a 10-year war between Iran and Iraq with both sides sponsored by the United States, then an outright massacre in Iraq initiated by the United States. In other words, it was one continuous, perpetual war from shortly after Pluto’s discovery in 1930 until the discovery of QB1 in 1992.

Dr. Wilhelm Reich, a psychiatrist, was not afraid to challenge the prevailing view that death was a more important force in the psyche than sex.

During these same six decades, the chemical industry contaminated the entire planet with DDT, PCBs and dioxins, all of them hormonal toxins. The real problem is that all of this became so pervasive it seemed normal. Attempting to adapt to life in this kind of society, many people have the motto, “Well, something’s gotta kill you.”

Astrology desperately needed a concept beyond Pluto, so it could describe something beyond all of this agony. The problem is that astrologers didn’t notice that one had been discovered. Yet after QB1 was noted and recorded by science, there followed a flood of other discoveries in what became known as the Kuiper Belt, some of which have been noticed by a few astrologers. Yet QB1 may be the least-often used scientifically significant planet in astrology, even by minor planet specialists.

That may be because the discoverers have chosen not to give it a name. Therefore it lacks an ego identity and mythological baggage. One thing it does not lack is meaning. The Sun’s ingress into Taurus and conjunction to this point all weekend may be a time when the themes of QB1 will come to the surface — if you’re curious, pay attention.

Events Surrounding the Grand Cross

Mars retrograde in Libra makes first contact with the grand cross on Tuesday, making a square to Jupiter at 3:27 pm EDT. Mars opposes Uranus Wednesday at 3:08 am EDT.

Mercury ingresses Taurus at 5:16 am EDT Wednesday, making a conjunction to 1992 QB1 shortly after. Mars then squares Pluto at 9:38 am EDT, which I consider to be the peak of energy. I would note that any one of these aspects would be significant — Mars square Jupiter (in mundane astrology, the potential for believing what is not true, exaggeration, false wisdom), Mars opposite Uranus (aggression, accidents, conflicts, potential breakthroughs, potential violence), and Mars square Pluto (inner conflict, inner movement, coming up against an inner limit; this is a potentially violent aspect as well).

Together, however, they represent one thought, one idea that I suggest be considered and taken as a whole, even if you don’t have words for it.

Detail of minor planets at the time of Mars square Pluto (or very close to it). Note that the only other planet exactly on the cross is Okyrhoe, a centaur planet with the shortest orbit of all the planets in its class. Discovered in 1998, it orbits our Sun in just over 24 years.

There’s one centaur planet on the grand cross, called Okyrhoe, named for the child of Chiron and Chariklo. Okyrhoe is in an exact conjunction to Pluto at 13+ Capricorn. Mars makes a square to Okyrhoe Thursday, April 14 at 1:22 am EDT. It is interesting that (using my set of about 120 points) there are no other minor planets besides this one exactly on the cross — no asteroids, no Kuiper objects, no other centaurs — just four planets and Okyrhoe, who in mythology was known for her gift of prophesy. Given the retrograde status of Mars, this is one reason why I’ve been cautious of (and cautioning against) making predictions associated with this whole grand cross scenario.

Once it retrogrades past the exact degrees of the grand cross, the next thing Mars does is make an exact conjunction to Hybris. This is the root of the word hubris. Martha Lang-Wescott delineates Hybris: “Expectation, glass-ceilings, limits — what one future-paces as their fate, their slot in life.” That is, in astrology, it can translate into one’s conditioned limitations.

Mars retrograde in Libra conjunct Hybris could take this whole discussion right into the realm of intimate relationships and our concepts of limitations that are associated with them (such as, “I cannot do this because I’m in a relationship” or “I cannot talk to you because I’m in a relationship,” etc.).

With Mars conjunct Hybris, I would add that there’s the obvious caution about good old-fashioned hubris as Shakespeare applied the concept (the tragic flaw, which is a form of unbridled ambition) and a more strict definition of the concept.

In other words, though the planets may be full of astrological testosterone, I suggest that the best approach is to be cool. Not pretend — actually be cool.

And How Does All of This Astrology Affect Me?

I never thought you would ask!

Earlier this month, after many months of research and prior writing (with The Mars Effect as my main warm-up), I recorded the 2014 Spring Reading, which looks at how the grand cross pattern influences your sign and rising sign. The package contains all 12 readings, which are 40 to 45 minutes each.

Photo by Jeff Bisti.

These readings are relevant now, but they will serve you for years. They will be helpful today. I predict that you will listen more than once and take notes. Play them in six months or in 2017 and they will still be relevant.

Each reading vibrates with a different message, looking at both the grand cross and then the specific astrology within your sign. For example (not including all the signs here), I cover Uranus in Aries for Aries, the eclipse in Taurus for Taurus, Jupiter in Cancer for Cancer, Mars retrograde in Libra for Libra, Saturn in Scorpio for Scorpio, Chiron and Neptune in Pisces for Pisces, and so on.

The readings are then cross-referenced — I recommend what other signs will be helpful for you to listen to. This is an awesome astrology product.

These readings are easy to follow, spoken in plain English. They are passionate, alive, motivational and a fantastic use of astrology. In terms of my recorded readings, I believe this is my best work, so far.

If you’re curious, there are three short recordings you can listen to for an idea of what I cover and the tone of the readings. You can listen to three samples from the readings as well as my welcome message to the project. You can also listen to my preview of the readings (recorded before I started). Those pages have other fun resources.

The full set of readings is $59. That is about what you will pay for many database-created reports on other websites. For that, you get 12 personal, friendly, extremely useful readings by me, which you can share with your household. Here is the link to purchase.

Please let me know how you like these readings. Thank you for doing your metaphysical shopping at Planet Waves.

Lovingly,

Taking time to smell the proverbial roses in one of Vyacheslav Mishchenko’s photos from his snail series.

Life at a Snail’s Pace

Is the speed of life these days getting you down? Is the time-warp feeling of these weeks between eclipses, combined with all the energy ramping up for the cardinal grand cross, feeling a little overwhelming?

Luckily the Sun ingresses Taurus Saturday, taking on that sign’s more languid approach to time and a renewed contact with the earth to balance all the fire and air in the sky. But when it comes to slowing down, even bulls got nothing on snails — a favorite subject of Ukrainian photographer Vyacheslav Mishchenko.

Mishchenko specializes in macro photography; that is, taking pictures with the camera very close to the subject, which is often very small. Some of his images are obviously staged (snails floating on cherries?) but that doesn’t diminish their otherworldliness, whimsy and beauty, or his clear appreciation for nature’s critters. Including those moving at a Taurean pace.

Lunar Eclipse in Libra: Polarity to the Max, and Back Again

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I welcomed the total lunar eclipse in Libra. This was the most listened-to edition of Planet Waves FM, with more than 7,099 unique visits to the website beween April 14 and 17. I start the program with the Mercury-Uranus-Pluto aspect, then look closely at the two sides of the eclipse, Aries and Libra. You get detailed information about how all eclipses work, and especially this one. For additional resources, please see the full post. If you are using an iOS device, please use this link. We’ve just published the Spring Reading! Order all twelve signs for $59.95.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Dan and Eric Have Plenty to Say About Chords

In this week’s edition of Dan and Eric’s Music Appreciation Hour, we review scales. Then we talk about harmonies, intervals and counterpoint (the elements of chords). Then we go into major chords, minor chords, suspended chords, and power chords (and then after a digression about Nirvana and power chords) we get into sixths, sevenths and other fancier (and slightly more dissonant) stuff. If you are using an iOS device, please use this link. We’ve just published! Order all twelve signs for $59.95.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for March Friday, Feb. 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Aries New Moon published Tuesday, March 25. Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon were published Tuesday, April 8. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Reader Feedback on my Recorded Readings

This is an excerpt of a letter that floated into my inbox this morning. It’s from someone who just experienced The Mars Effect annual readings, and apparently a few others. The Aries birthday reading is available now.

“I’m highly grateful for the work you do. All of the readings I have gotten from you have touched my Soul the Core of its very essence. I just ordered a Gemini Reading for my Other Half, aka Soul Mate. We both listened to the reading together this morning and it had such a profound effect in more ways than one; with this knowledge we become closer in knowing that we have the power to create a life of abundance and purpose. I’m thankful to you for sharing your gifts with Hue Manity and yes I did say Hue Manity.”

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 18, 2014, #995 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — In every area of your life, you must proceed with caution, especially where your relationships are concerned. Caution does not mean fear. Rather, it means awareness and proceeding with a commitment to having accurate information. Where human relationships are concerned, there are three sources of information: yourself, the person you’re communicating with, and your environment. Because you must direct your own life based on your feelings, you are the most significant source of intelligence. Given that your primary mission in life is to define who you are on your own terms, that means it’s crucial that you actually listen to yourself. Yet others will give you vital feedback, especially about what they want and what they intend to do, though you may need to ask directly. I suggest you be bold and direct about that. As for your environment, observe whether it’s supporting you or not. What are the complexities and wrinkles in the situation? Who else is involved or influencing the flow of events? Where are you, and do you feel like you belong there? The more sincere your inquiries, the more sincere the answers will be.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Pre-order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $59.95 if you order before the readings publish — a significant value! Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — In order to think outside a container, it’s necessary to know its shape and its dimensions. Then it will be clear when you’re within a previously defined boundary, and when you’re outside. Once you’re in a larger space, you have the challenge of defining something that is essentially infinite. At that point, constraints can seem appealing, but you also know you’ve outgrown the ones you’ve lived in for so long. But you don’t need constraints; you need workable definitions and approaches to living, one of which would include flexibility. All of this starts with your mind and your imagination. You are accustomed to working not only with rigid concepts but also with limits on what you think is possible, what you’re capable of and what you’re willing to believe. If you start with the premise that anything is possible and some things are preferable, you will go light years toward accessing your deeper talent and sense of purpose. The intelligence source that you are currently tapping into (or that you can if you want) might feel like something ‘other than yourself’. That’s not really true, but if you have that feeling, you’re accessing a source of vital information that you can trust.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You currently have the ability to see around corners and deep into yourself, though I suggest you turn your head and look in all directions. Travel home by a different route than you went someplace. Make conscious decisions to alter your routines and to keep your perspective moving. If you can, go to a high place like a hilltop or a tall building and look down on your neighborhood or community. Extraordinary astrology in your 10th solar house, Pisces, is encouraging you to re-evaluate your goals and allow yourself to do so in a radical way. It’s easy to consider what you want based on what you think is the right thing, or what you planned on doing in the past. Your astrology is describing a scenario where you take the chance of considering what you really want to accomplish. That would obviously involve a risk of some kind, engaging with the unknown and unpredictable. When you see the potential to fail as well as to succeed, you know you’re in the right place.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — So many factors now are working in your favor, it would be difficult to list them all — but they include an abundance of creativity, of passion and of curiosity. What you need to keep a handle on is your emotions. The challenge there is that your feelings may deceive you. So your first priority is sidestepping conflict, which is another way of saying recognizing what does not matter, and removing all emphasis from it. Others may try to engage you on that level; your job is to move on. Recognize what actually does mean something to you and place your emphasis there. It will help if you prioritize, especially on some basis other than what you were attached to in the past. That’s one reason I’m suggesting that your own preference and immediate significance are vital to you now. They always were, but one fact of civilization involves all the efforts at conning people out of their true needs and desires. One other thing: Focus on quality work. In this world, you can do just about anything you want, as long as you do it well.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You seem to be facing the ongoing challenge of mental clarity and organizing what may feel like an overwhelming workload. The key to simplifying your scenario is systems design. There are always simpler, more efficient and more effective ways to do things. Success often involves accomplishing more, so the methods you used when you were less successful (or had more modest plans) need rethinking and revision. Begin with a blank template and make an inventory of all you want to get done, all that’s demanded of you by your situation and the resources you have to work with. You can include assets that you would like to be working with but don’t have available yet; one of the most important concepts of the new design is flexibility, and another is the prerogative — clearly stated and kept right in the front of your mind — of creating options. If a system is to be flexible, it has to be designed as such from the beginning. Perceived limits need to be accounted for, and addressed directly as variables — not as mandates. You’re accustomed to being the most flexible aspect of any scenario. Now the time has come to bring everyone and everything else up to that same standard.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — The question, “What next?” is second only in importance to “What now?” One depends on the other. You get to the next place from where you are now. So start by evaluating your exact location and status at this moment. Then figure out how you got here. I suggest you use logical tools such as a chronology, a list of your prior goals, a list of your current goals, and who you are trying to please. It will be extremely helpful if you do an analysis of your financial situation, and study your assets and your liabilities. Note exactly where your money comes from and where it goes. Figure out what you could or would do if you had more money or less debt. I can give you a little vignette that may help make the point. When people say to me, “I would go to therapy but I can’t afford it,” I suggest that they go to the first session and say they want to work on why they don’t have enough money for the things they need. If this moment in your life comes with one turning point, it’s about taking a no-bullshit approach to your finances.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Confidence is the issue. On Earth it’s always the issue, but for now, it’s really, truly, the issue. Keep that in mind every moment, and ask what you would do, if only you had the confidence. Meanwhile, you need to keep in mind when you are reacting, when you’re responding and when you’re provoking. The difference may be sly and subtle; for example, you may be reacting to someone a certain way in order to provoke a response. You may resort to manipulation. In order to be confident, you have to know what you’re doing. You must understand the politics of any given situation, including the most intimate, and proceed appropriately. Chances are that will involve a blend of being real and choosing your words carefully. Doing both will compel you to know your own mind, and to practice stating your desires and your intentions to others. Said simply, you have to stop bullshitting people about who you are and what you want. Withholding your true feelings is not getting you anywhere, and you know personally how many setbacks it’s been responsible for. It’s time to be real and only real.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may feel lost or powerless when the exact opposite is true. What you’re experiencing now is a perfect example of the distinction between perception and reality. Of course, if you feel lost, you’re likely to act that way, and that will be real to you. The main challenge you face is twofold. One is that you have an overwhelming sense of responsibility, to someone or something — I suggest you direct it toward yourself. The other is denial. It’s easy for you to pretend that what is, is not (in a diversity of forms.) Over the next 10 days, you will have a number of orientation points that will help you determine where you stand with yourself. Some of these may emerge in moments of conflict. If you are in a situation where you are triggered or where you strongly disagree with someone, that is a point of orientation. You will be able to see clearly what your opinion about anyone or anything really is — and that is the very thing you want to navigate by. This means that all emotions, negative and positive and seemingly neutral, will be useful — in truth, everything you feel and learn must go to productive use. That is the nature of your moment.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — This is not the time to make or break contracts — you’re under too much pressure, there are variables you don’t know about, and it’s essential that you figure out what you want before you commit to anything new. I suggest you hold to your current course as the grand cross and solar eclipse do their work, though obviously if you encounter something interesting to do, do it if you want, as long as you don’t sign away any portion of your future longer than an evening or weekend adventure. The very most significant thing you can do is to see your options. This really is one of the great challenges facing humanity, even in this time of so many alleged choices. Most of the usual options don’t apply to you; they are too trivial. Your astrology suggests this is a time of authentic, deep decisions for you, and to make such decisions you need some idea of what is available. Your fiery nature usually likes to jump into things headlong without considering what might develop. Your current astrology is saying you need to be a clear thinker, an analyst and a visionary to make the most out of your options, many of which you don’t yet know exist.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You know who you are and where you’re going. You know — but I don’t suggest you say a word to anyone else. Rather, begin to slip into the life you’re embarking on like a hand gently wiggling into a well-fitted glove. As I’ve suggested before, your astrology seems, on one level, to be pushing you into making radical decisions, particularly where your career or business is concerned. I am suggesting that you make subtle decisions, choices smaller than you may think matter. Most of them involve people and how you relate to them. In terms of your business life, everything you do right now comes down to the most intricate fabric of your human contacts, and the conscious cultivation of trust. Yet at the same time there is also a matter of appearance involved. You must be careful about ever using appearance to deceive. Rather, use the magic and power of presentation to convey the underlying truth of who you are. Present your real talents in the most elegant way, coming right from your soul. Most success is not built on this — yours will be.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You can feel everything that’s happening, and it’s essential that you do. Those who are close to you may have no idea the extent of your sensitivity or how tuned into your personal world or the larger world around you, you are. The information that’s coming to you, and that will continue to come to you, is entering your awareness for a reason. I suggest you stay out of the fray; that you not leap into the center of the action, or involve yourself in anything that is only peripheral to your life — it would be way too easy to get distracted. Part of the deeper purpose of what you’re observing and — by direct extension, learning — involves an ongoing project in leadership training. One key to leadership is knowing when to get involved in a situation and when to back off. In this case, discretion is definitely the better part of valor. You seem to be in a grooming process for a very specific purpose, one that calls on you to have solid knowledge and many contacts, and that will make itself known when the time is right. Pay attention because the timing will be significant.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Remember, Chiron is in your sign. Given all the astrology that is surrounding us, if I had to tell you one thing, in one short sentence, I would say: Chiron is in your sign. Therefore, embody the healer. Be the place of sanctuary, the mind that is open to wisdom, the one who participates in the eternal chain of knowledge passed from teacher to student, one generation to the next. Tune your mind to the interconnectedness of all things. As you notice the connections, do your best to have patience with those who don’t see them, or who seem committed to not noticing. Remember that you have not chosen the path of sacrifice. There may be certain circumstances and things that you must renounce, but that is for the purpose of being open and available to that which is exponentially better. Remember, finally, in any situation you may encounter, to ‘seek not outside yourself’. Seek within for what you need — be it knowledge, resources, strength or awareness. You are not the source, but at this time in your life, a deep connection within you is opening up to the source. Ask sincerely and be willing to receive.

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Somewhere In Between

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Friday into Saturday arrives with a series of astrological moments that combine into a gem, focused on Pisces. Today Mercury stations direct, Saturday Mars stations retrograde and overnight between them is the Pisces New Moon. The Moon-Sun conjunction (that is, the New Moon) happens in the midst of two personal planets making stations, barely moving in the sky.

Saturday’s Pisces New Moon is conjunct Chiron and Neptune, and exactly trine Jupiter. Photo by Cassini Space Probe team. See full image here.

That’s a sync in time; then there is one in space. The New Moon happens close to the midpoint of Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, accessing the best that those two planets have to offer. And almost miraculously, the Moon and Sun are trine Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces, exact to about 10 minutes of arc or one-sixth of a degree (that is, less than 1/2000th of the zodiac).

Today’s horoscope section for your Sun sign and rising sign below is an extended edition that covers this confluence of events.

Meanwhile, I have some house announcements. As part of my 50th birthday/Chiron return festivities planned for next weekend, I will be taking a couple of weeks off from most of my Planet Waves writing. Issues will continue Tuesdays and Fridays during that time; I will have less of a presence and return in full force on Friday, March 21, with the April monthly forecasts.

Meanwhile, I won’t be writing the full horoscopes for all the signs but I will be writing for Pisces. On Fridays, we’ll have something else for the rest of the signs — some good ideas are brewing. I plan to finish the Aquarius and Pisces birthday readings within a couple of days (they are still available at pre-order price and include two audio chapters of astrology and a tarot reading, plus an extended written description of your sign).

I will be doing a new Planet Waves FM and Music Hour with Dan Sternstein this week, and probably the week after. This is not exactly a vacation, but you should see the list of what I won’t be doing.

By the way, if you haven’t ventured over to Planet Waves FM, I suggest you do. When I came up with the current Planet Waves business plan in 2007, nudged along by a commodities trader willing to invest $500K into Planet Waves, one of my top priorities was an Internet radio station. We declined the investment money but kept the business plan. Planet Waves FM is one of its most brilliant features. Have a look — it’s a beautiful thing.

Mercury Stationing Direct — Nobody is Complaining

Every Mercury retrograde is weird. Some are weirder than others. Astrologically the one that’s ending today gets bonus points because Mars stations retrograde the next day, accented by the Pisces New Moon. The starry dynamo of the night is churning out some interesting chaos patterns.

In the midst of this Mercury retrograde, there was a series of blizzards that on several occasions scrambled air and ground traffic along the entire East Coast. The city of Kingston, N.Y., where I live, went on a snow ordinance towing spree and has had to dismiss many of the tickets and refund many towing and storage fees charted by its corrupt contractors.

North Pole of Mercury. Photo by MESSENGER team.

Meanwhile one friend had her bank account closed (she missed a security confirmation email that probably looked like spam). Another is dealing with a stalker who will probably go unconscious the moment Mercury changes directions and wake up having forgotten everything.

Oh yeah, the Winter Olympics came and went without incident — just a huge fuss brewing in Ukraine next door.

The news of the world is once again rushing by so fast it’s difficult to figure out what to focus on — if you care to notice at all. Let’s take a fast survey. Here is my favorite headline of the entire Mercury retrograde: “Swiss teacher accidentally shows X-rated amputee porn on overhead projector.”

Article summary: “While students at KV Zurich Business School studied, an educator tried to secretly watch his fetish porn — one problem, he forgot to turn off the overhead projector.” Imagine the responses from students. [Note, I had never heard of amputee porn. So I Googled it, but none of the images are appropriate to use here.]

In New Jersey, Mercury retrograde has manifested as the former bridge tollgate blocking scandal (what I call Tollgategate) becoming a “the whole government” scandal. The station-direct has arrived with a raft of previously released documents being made available without redactions, adding lots of color and detail to the bridge piece of the story. The larger issue is the revelation of how government is bought and sold in that state, which is starting to look a lot like Tammany Hall — the totally corrupt, pre-Civil Service government of New York City.

Meanwhile, in other news, protests in Ukraine led to the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych. Protesters armed with sticks, rocks and coke bottles full of gasoline stood up to a paramilitary force shooting at them with live ammo and forced the guy to flee Kiev. Under his orders, police killed some 80 protesters before Parliament took over the government and kicked him out of office. It is true that some of the protesters raided an armory and had real weapons, but that is hardly leveling the playing field against a government-organized army.

Are we heading back to the USSR? I hope not. Photo, from viral wallpaper, actually seems to be of East Berlin, but don’t quote me on that.

Yanukovych split from town, abandoned his palace to protesters, and then headed south to the Crimean Peninsula, where his airplanes were blocked from taking off. He is now reportedly in Moscow, where he will give a news conference Friday just as Mercury stations direct. I love Russian news conferences.

Meanwhile, there are reportedly Russian flags flying over the Crimean capital at the moment, and there were news reports Thursday of Putin amassing 150,000 troops along the Ukrainian border as part of a war game exercise that Russia claims is unrelated to the recent unrest.

When I titled an article “Back in the USSR” a few weeks ago, I did not mean to imply that Putin would be trying to bring back the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but that seems to be his intent.

All of the charts I’ve seen for Ukraine have planets aligned with the cardinal grand cross (including the Uranus-Pluto square) that has been taking shape for years and which will reach a full peak on April 23. This is also true for Yanukovych, who has a volatile mix of planets in mid-Libra (Mars conjunct Neptune) and Cancer (Mercury, Sun and Uranus conjunct).

In Venezuela, mass protests there finally started to get some attention in the U.S. media after Pres. Nicolas Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez after he died last year, tried to throw CNN out of the country. There’s no better way to focus the media than to pick on it. I would say that someone should write an article explaining this to petty tyrants, but it’s probably better if they have to figure it out through trial and error.

The protests erupted in Caracas in January after actress and former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear was killed during a roadside robbery with her five-year-old daughter in the car. The protests are focusing on the crime problem (70 murders a day) and inflation (above 50% a year) and little problems, like the fact that it’s considered a crime to mention the inflation rate in a newspaper.

Since Feb. 13, as the death toll mounted, more than 2,000 stories from Venezuela have been uploaded to iReport, CNN’s user-generated platform. They describe many ugly scenes, such as police going door to door terrorizing people, along with the usual crackdowns in the street.

Interesting colors adorn a recent protest in Venezuela. Photo by Juan Reyes/iReport.

Top Venezuelan officials have accused the United States of trying to destabilize the government, which is probably true. This week Venezuela gave three U.S. diplomats 48 hours to leave the country, accusing them of conspiring to bring down the government. At a rally Tuesday, Maduro shouted, “Yankee, go home” from the stage.

Venezuela’s 1811 independence chart features the Capricorn Full Moon going right across the mid-cardinal signs, directly in alignment with the cardinal grand cross (including the Uranus-Pluto square).

And protests came to a peak in Thailand this week as citizens called for the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who they allege is a puppet of her billionaire brother, the deposed, exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. There were deadly clashes between police and protesters as police began attempts to clear sites occupied by protesters for months. The Thailand chart has the Sun in mid-Aries, aligned with the cardinal grand cross.

Syria is still a mess, warlords are vying for political office in Afghanistan, and the U.S. and Mexico busted Joaquin Guzman, one of the most infamous drug lords in the world. The chart is a piece of work — very similar to the chart for the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych some hours earlier, featuring a slippery alignment of the Moon, the Sun, Chiron and the ascendant.

But the real kicker in the Guzman bust chart is how the United States Sibly chart shows up — the two charts align to the degree. I predict that Guzman will be extradited to the U.S. and offered a plea deal where he becomes vice president of a major American pharmaceutical company. Either that or he will escape again, since he seems to have more firepower than Mexico itself.

Mars Retrogrades Toward an American Spring

If you’re seeing a pattern here, that all the countries where protests and unrest are erupting have planets aligned with the cardinal grand cross, it might not shock you to learn that the U.S. fits this pattern — only even more precisely than the other charts.

By that, I mean very, very precisely. The grand cross that’s now forming involves Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto aligning at 13+ degrees of the cardinal signs (in order of the planets listed, Libra, Cancer, Aries and Capricorn). This is not chicken shit. Mars is bringing the Uranus-Pluto square to a peak, and Jupiter is there to magnify things and provide a bit of protection and a reminder that this is all an opportunity.

This is a stripped-down version of the Sibly chart, the most commonly used chart for the United States, set for July 4, 1776. Note the Sun on the middle right with the number 13 next to it — that is 13+ Cancer. Now look at the next chart to see what is about to align with that 13+ degree Sun. The other planets are: Saturn on top at 14+ Libra, then anticlockwise, Eris at 6+ Capricorn and Chiron at 20+ Aries.

The U.S. Sun is at 13+ Cancer (this is from the Sibly chart, the most commonly used chart for July 4, 1776). It is exactly aligned with the cardinal grand cross. Said another way, the U.S. Sun will be taking a simultaneous square from Mars, a square from Uranus, an opposition from Pluto and a conjunction from Jupiter. That’s a lot of transits for one day, one month or one year.

Mars is about to station retrograde in late Libra, and will backtrack into alignment with the other planets, arriving exactly on April 23. If you ask me, we are about to experience an American Spring.

April is often a weird and eventful month in American history. Come April we’ll have an article telling you just how weird and eventful, going all the way back to the battles of Lexington and Concord. I don’t know if the U.S. Sun has ever taken more significant transits than it’s about to take but I would be stretched to invent something more intense than what is brewing. We are talking about the Uranus-Pluto square here, and we are talking about doing the one thing that tends to bring Uranus-Pluto aspects right to the forefront — add the energy of personal planets (such as Mars) or transpersonal planets (such as Jupiter).

While the U.S. ignores most of its most important problems (poverty, crumbling infrastructure, a bloating oligarchy leaching the resources out of the people, an economy that seems to be running on fumes) there is some progress being made on social issues. Same-sex marriage prohibition and cannabis prohibition seem to be crumbling under some simultaneous influence. While both issues have long histories, I reckon that influence is the Uranus-Pluto square and Chiron and Neptune in Pisces. Society is never the same after these kinds of aspects go by.

This is the cardinal grand cross (or grand square — really it is both) pattern that happens on April 23. I am reading it as a stand-alone and as transits to the Sibly chart. Notice the planets aligned exactly at 13+ cardinal — including of course 13+ Cancer, the USA Sun. There’s one other weird thing. This chart is cast for Washington, DC. Notice the horizontal line — the ascendant axis. This axis moves so fast that one degree (such as the 12 next to the wheel on the left) changes every three to five minutes. It aligns directly with the USA chart to the degree — pretty impressive. Chart is timed for the exact moment of Mars square Pluto.

Now, you didn’t ask, but I’ll give you my theory as to why pot has been illegal for so long. Well, it’s not purely my theory — Betty Dodson figured this one out. Or maybe she read about it in the 1968 book Soul on Ice by Eldridge Clever, who according to Len Wallick also suggests this theory.

It may have been one of those things that everyone just knew up until the Sixties, then it was forgotten, along with a bunch of other useful information.

Yes, I agree that cannabis competes with tobacco, alcohol, the chemical industry and many, many pharmaceuticals; the hemp plant and resulting cannabis variety are about as all-purpose as you can get, good for making everything from clothing to paper to medicine.

However, smoking pot has a way of gently reducing sexual inhibitions, opening the door to about the two-drink level, but then you get to go through the door instead of getting fall-down drunk. Then it does something extra — it stokes sexual curiosity, physical and emotional sensitivity and psychic vulnerability. That can lead to some very, very pleasant and interesting sex. It can also get you into water a little deeper than you planned to swim out into, so I suggest getting some experience before experimenting with partners.

Cannabis is the libation of the Jazz Age (recall from that era the term “jass me baby” meaning “do me!”). Homeopathic guru Rajan Sankaran describes its sensation as the most pleasant of all substances in the materica medica. Homeopathic doctor, author and teacher Frans Vermeulen speculates that it’s one of the plants that led to the invention of agriculture.

Friend of sailors, cancer and MS patients, people who want to unwind after a long day, teenagers and old people, spiritual seekers and music lovers, philosophers and artists, it remains a true fact. Cannabis quite often makes people horny, and frees them from their inhibitions without making them blotto or feel so good they want to puke.

Cannabis is cultivated by depriving female plants of male pollen. The plants secrete THC-containing resin in order to catch the one stray grain of pollen that might be in the environment, but there is none. So they build and build sexual energy, get all wet and sticky with resin, which contains the THC, and that is what the human brain responds to. Basically, cannabis is sex in a plant — a desperately horny female plant. So this is not mere theorizing; the doctrine of signatures (similar energy impressions up and down the chain of ideas and substances) works pretty well.

Hi girls! This is space kush, but it looks more like space aliens. But then imagine how weird we must look to them. It’s a kind of cannabis that is indica (rather than sativa) dominant; that is, it’s a physical sensation rather than a soaring ‘high’. Photo from Everything About Marijuana.

The common thread of gay marriage and cannabis legalization, besides leaving people alone for doing what does not harm others, is a growing openness to “whatever gets you going.” With cannabis they may also be getting tired of spending money investigating and prosecuting it, along with the cost and burden of putting people into jail for more money than it would take to send them to university on full scholarship. All of this, when they could be making money collecting taxes.

Colorado is apparently doing very well in that regard. If you want to perform a scientific experiment, you can draw a bath, light a candle, take one hit of good weed and, you know, just relax for a little while and see what happens.

So I count this as progress. Progress, that is, set amidst a lot of other problems. Like wealthy leach despots sucking all the wealth out of the population, exactly like a banana republic.

I will leave you with what in my opinion was the most interesting domestic news story of the week. This issue describes just what Americans have to be angry about and how paranoid the government is that anything but it will have any power at all.

Glenn Greenwald, the writer for The Guardian who broke the Edward Snowden story, has started a new indie journalism project called The Intercept. In an article this week, he described how American intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.

Greenwald published documents that detail how intelligence agencies pump out disinformation designed to sway public discourse. This is an old story; even horoscope columns have been used by intelligence agencies as propaganda (in particular during WW II, when it seems that ‘anything goes’ became fashionable), and the CIA has at times had many, many major media outlets and local newspapers at its disposal to make something into a story or make sure it does not become one.

The program includes tactics for making various false claims that are designed to destroy people’s trust and standing in the community. This happens, for example, with fake blog posts and social media updates that portray someone as an attacker of some kind (known as fake victim blog posts).

“Honey traps” — that is, sexual lures — are used to compromise people. It goes on and on.

Charming — how to discredit a target. This is a sample of the NSA document on how to lie. Just remember the 4 Ds — Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, Deceive. See the full document and Glenn’s article here.

But I ask you: why? What is all of this about? Besides of course being part of the great American tradition of COINTELPRO.

Why would they go to all this trouble? There is a reason. They are worried about something. I suggest we take note of this. The something they are worried about is little old you and me and our friends, one day waking up and deciding we care, and that we have had enough. These programs are like a self-preservation immune response of the government-corporate structure, but more like metastasis.

As Mars moves into position and completes the grand cross, a heck of a lot of people may decide they care — and it really does not take that many to shake things up or knock them over.

We, the American people and anyone influenced by the actions of the U.S., have a lot to be concerned about and angry about. And if that sentiment catches on, it could really get going. To me it looks like something this spring does exactly that.

Remember, though — astrology works from the inside out. Changes sweep through society because individuals awaken. It may seem like we see something outside ourselves and wake up, but I don’t think that’s the way it works. Nearly everyone has some significant point in their chart aligned with the Uranus-Pluto square and the corresponding grand cross.

Many people I read for have concentrations around these points. So you, too, may feel the awakening and the call to grow and change, and you may very well feel the resulting ripple effect.

I wish you a very happy Pisces New Moon.

Lovingly,

Section Writing and Editing Credits: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Susan Starr, Chad Woodward and Carol van Strum. Coordinating Editor: Elizabeth Michaud. Page assembled and coded by Anatoly Ryzhenko. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Pisces New Moon, Suspended in Time

Over the next couple days, we will experience a cluster of three events, none of which is special on its own, but which combined offer us a moment with many interesting opportunities.

Sound board at BSP. Photo by Eric Francis.

Today (Friday), Mercury stations direct after a three-week retrograde. Then overnight Friday to Saturday we have the Pisces New Moon. Then Saturday we have Mars stationing retrograde. This is not the time to be a bull in a Chinese restaurant. Take it slow, study the menu and make choices that actually make sense for you.

The retrograde began in Pisces, with Mercury very close to Neptune. Mercury has backtracked into Aquarius. The imagery reminds me of the water-bearer dipping her cask into Pisces and bringing back some of that nourishing water to share with others, which is the essence of Aquarius at its best.

This has, however, been a challenging Mercury retrograde for many people, between snowstorms, travel delays, tickets and car impounds and the usual diversity of financial issues and technical madness. I’ve heard of someone getting their bank account shut down after they didn’t respond to an email; someone else having the IRS come after a tax refund, claiming Social Security payments made to their family when the person was a kid; and other scenarios of this kind.

I’ve mentioned that we live in a kind of Mercury age, where nearly everything about us comes under the rulership of this meaningful, little planet. The other thing that gives Mercury retrogrades more impact is how tightly wound everything is, how compact our schedules and commitments are, and how many people are running their lives with next to no excess cash. So when something goes wrong, it can have a house of cards effect.

Simplified chart section for the Pisces New Moon conjunct Neptune and Chiron, with newly direct Mercury in Aquarius. See full chart here.

Saturday, Mars stations retrograde, adding to the delicacy of the situation. Mars will be retrograde in Libra, which will be an extended study in relationships, how we have them, what we do with them and how we keep our lives in balance in the context of them. Mars retrograde will last through May 19. During this time, we’ll experience the peak of the Uranus-Pluto square. But mostly we’re about to discover how important relationships are, and what it means to have a relationship to oneself.

In between these two events, the Pisces New Moon happens. Pisces, floating in water, drifting in the imagination, not fully in this world, can have a weightless quality. We give Pisces its form and substance through experimenting with creativity.

Not only is the Pisces New Moon situated close to the midpoint (in time) of two planetary events, it’s positioned (in space) close to the midpoint of two planets in Pisces — Neptune and Chiron. It happens as Mercury and Mars are barely moving at all. Situated between Chiron and Neptune, it evokes a hybrid of intuition and information; of creativity and practical application; of healing as a conscious practice and spiritual inflow as a natural birthright. And it’s happening almost as we speak.

Venezuela: Ban the Media to Get Extra Coverage

A ban on CNN? Sounds like a great idea, right? It is if you want to get the attention of the American media, when before you had next to none.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the successor to Hugo Chavez, accused the American network of inciting civil war in his country, and revoked their press credentials. In a live television broadcast Maduro warned, “Enough war propaganda, I won’t accept war propaganda against Venezuela. If they don’t rectify themselves, out of Venezuela, CNN, out.”

A Venezuelan student protests peacefully in Caracas Feb. 17, 2014. Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters

Obviously the more important story — the Uranus-Pluto factor — is about how the government was and continues to suppress opposition to its policies on crime, the economy and other issues with deadly force. This has included door-to-door raids on people’s homes, and at least 11 protesters have been killed in recent weeks.

The Mercury retrograde factor in this equation is that Pres. Marduro’s intent in revoking CNN’s press credentials was to get less news coverage. He may not have realized there was close to a media blackout in the U.S. until he started to mess with CNN, and then suddenly there was a story that everyone wanted to cover. You might call this the ‘pissing into the wind’ factor of Mercury retrograde. The Aquarius factor is that Mercury is stationing direct today in an exact conjunction to Mars in the Venezuela constitution chart. This is exposing and bringing an underlying hostility by the government toward its people.

Astrology for the Soul

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Astrology for the Soul

Dear Friend and Reader:

As you know, I am passionate about news astrology, and using it as a way to illustrate the personal impact of current events on our private lives.

Sagittarius glyph for The Mars Effect by Lizanne Webb. Here samples of written Mars Effect readings, and a few audio samples.

I’m equally passionate about personal astrology — the kind that helps us figure out where we’re at in life and how to consider our current circumstances. The astrology that helps reveal our life plan, purpose, talents and resources. The astrology that can really, truly help with career, relationships and business.

Even within our wild era, 2014 is no ordinary year — it’s unusual even on the scale of the past 50. We’re now in the peak of the Uranus-Pluto square, a time that will be remembered for its many changes and developments.

Astrology changes the world, influences every personal chart, and touches the experience of every person. How are you handling being on the planet right now? How are you keeping up with the constant need to adapt, to rethink, to confront the unknown? How are you handling the lack of certainty?

I have information that can help you — the results of four months of work, and the latest edition of a 15-year tradition of Planet Waves annual editions.

Our cresting moment is indicated by the presence of Mars within the slow-moving Uranus-Pluto aspect. Mars will soon be retrograde and will make a series of aspects to powerful forces, bringing many things to the front of consciousness. This is what I’m calling The Mars Effect. That term is also a reference to a scientific study that established a connection between someone having a strong Mars and being a star athlete — one of the most helpful scientific studies of astrology ever.

Mars is here to provide energy, to provoke action and to pose deeper questions. Mars is here as a tool for making your potential real. It’s going to be retrograde in Libra, the sign of relationships, which influence every facet of our lives.

In April, there will be an unusual grand cross (Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto in an exact X around the Earth) followed one week later by an eclipse of the Sun in Taurus. Many other events cascade later into the year, including nearly simultaneous Mars-Saturn and Venus-Jupiter conjunctions.

The Mars Effect glyph for Taurus by Lizanne Webb. Here samples of written Mars Effect readings, and here are a few audio samples.

It would be easy for astrologers to make dire predictions about some of these scenarios (those will show up on the Internet in early April or so). This aspect pattern has some shadowy elements, and to be sure, it will present unusual challenges and opportunities.

I have viewed my job as getting underneath the surface level, and to apply the astrology on the most creative dimension, relating it to each of us as individuals.

Since late August, I’ve been exploring the 12 signs and rising signs for 2014, working from the most intimate and personal perspective, using a diversity of astrological tools: classical and modern planets, asteroids, centaurs, Kuiper objects (Pluto, Varuna and others) and some points that are way beyond them — such as Eris and Sedna.

I’ve been boiling my research down to two recorded readings per sign and rising sign, plus an extended written reading for each of the signs and rising signs. The result is a comprehensive work of applied astrology: The Mars Effect annual edition.

Astrology reveals itself in layers. I’ve learned to do the audio first, working the wheel in the conventional direction — Aries to Pisces. I started with gathering a chart file for each sign, added in the minor planets (with the help of Serennu.com). Then I opened my intuition and recorded the spoken-word portions, two segments per sign.

Then I took a pause — an actual holiday break — did additional research, and wrote the signs in reverse, starting with Aries and heading backwards to Taurus. In the school of astrology taught by Alice A. Bailey, the reverse wheel method gets you closer to the soul level.

Sketch of 2014 astrology for the sign Virgo. Each sign gets a chart, a sketch, two audio readings and one extended written reading. I use many extra points, including Chiron and other centaurs, asteroids, Sedna, Varuna and Eris.

The written interpretations go to another depth, focusing on specific, high-energy, challenging or especially unique facets of your astrology.

I view my role as someone that is here to help ease your way, point out opportunities, explain where challenges might arise and help you use them to your benefit. I have set out to inform and motivate you to make the most out of your time and energy.

Reading your rising sign will provide you with two distinct points of view. If your rising sign and Sun sign are the same, then study your opposite sign. My readings also work for Moon signs and they are (I am told) helpful for unintrusively sussing out where your partner is coming from.

Each of these readings has an investment of at least 10 hours of preparation, recording and writing. These readings work within the rarely entered borderland between a good prepared report and a personal consultation.

They are also a study in modern astrology — how to apply and explain the classical and modern factors, and come out with a reading that not only works but that you will refer to all year.

So that is what I’ve been up to. And you have the benefits! As a Planet Waves subscriber, you can access all 12 signs for $79.

Individual signs are currently $29.95. Many people who get one end up getting more — a reason to go for the all-12 option.

If you want to upgrade to the All Access Pass, please call Chelsea at (206) 567-4455.

We anticipate the project being released on Monday night.

Thank you for your trust in me as your astrologer, for your business and for being part of Planet Waves.

Lovingly,

PS — The horoscopes in this edition were selected by The Oracle, from past horoscopes. I personally worked the program and requested the reading for each sign. I would love to have written a new horoscope but that would have delayed the annual by another day. Please let me know how these horoscopes work. I will cover early Aquarius in next week’s edition. –efc

PPS — Here are some samples of the written Mars Effect readings, and here are a few audio samples.

Section Writing and Editing Credits: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Susan Scheck, Chad Woodward and Carol van Strum. Page assembled and coded by Anatoly Ryzhenko. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Approaching Aquarius

We’re in the last couple days of Capricorn; the Sun ingresses Aquarius, the fixed air sign in the middle of the season, on Sunday at 10:51 pm EST. Aquarius is often associated with forward-thinking technological breakthroughs, but they’re the kind that stick — so if you’re feeling as though you need to get clear on something in your life or take a particular step in just the right way, you may be sensing this impending shift in energy.

The constellation Aquarius on a vintage map of the heavens, doing ‘the Bump’ with Capricorn.

Then again, the sky this week has been loaded with the kind of astrology that puts the pressure on, especially regarding relationships and how you sort them out internally.

Wednesday night was the Cancer Full Moon at 11:52 pm EST. Any interpersonal situations in your life that felt like they were coming to a head this week or had gotten stuck in gridlock (especially if you can trace them back in a meaningful way to Jan. 1) should begin finding some resolution today and tomorrow. Particularly consider anything that involved an authority figure or internalized authority, or how well you acknowledge your ability to create and destroy.

Also, Venus (still retrograde in Capricorn) and Mars in Libra have been building to a square that was exact Thursday at 12:13 pm. This aspect relates to noticing the conditioning forces and gender roles that have been trying to get you to feel or act a certain way, and what you decide to do about it. And how do you do it? Do you get diplomatic or assert your passion? Do you get passive-aggressive and stingy, or receptive and expressive?

All of this — the tension of Wednesday’s Full Moon and that of Thursday’s Venus-Mars square — is providing the on-ramp into the weekend, as we make our transition from the initiator energy of Capricorn into the related, but different, energy of Aquarius.

The last day or so that the Sun is in a sign can feel a little edgy, as though we can sense that one flavor of energy is loosening its hold and just want to get on with it. Today, however, you still might not feel completely clear on what exactly it is you’re itching to move on to. That’s ok.

The waning Moon moves into Virgo Saturday evening, making Sunday the perfect time to organize and clear out your physical space, giving any urges for precision a tangible, constructive application. As you clear and order your surroundings, you’re priming your consciousness for the Sun’s move into Aquarius Sunday night.

Full chart for the Sun’s ingress to Aquarius. Glyph legend here.

What exactly does the Sun in Aquarius mean? We can start with its ruling planets for clues.

Saturn is the traditional ruler, which Aquarius shares with Capricorn. Along with Aquarius’ status as a “fixed” sign (as opposed to cardinal or mutable), Saturn is part of what gives people born under this sign their tendency to crystallize their beliefs and ideas, and it gives innovations made under a strong Aquarius signature their staying power.

A prime example is the Internet, which grew from academic novelty to household necessity during the time that Uranus was in Aquarius – and Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius.

Uranus is the spark, the experiment, the “Hey, what if…?” Uranus is also part of what gives Aquarius its stamp of individuality even though it’s the sign of groups. After all, a group is really made up of individuals — although modern society often makes that hard to discern, favoring herd mentality and conformity over true interchange between fully individuated people.

To quote Eric, “Aquarius people are the discriminating embracers of innovation that works.” That’s great as far as getting things moving in the right direction; but after a certain point, what was once an innovation can become fixed, static, institutionalized — and resistant to change. Such is the case of such fixed systems as political structures and religion; once entrenched, they can be hard to get rid of. The same goes for marketing which, like politics and religion, seeks to co-opt individual identity for the sake of group conformity.

Even so, Eric has also written that, “In its highest state, Aquarius is about a meeting of individuals who recognize themselves as such. It is driven by social responsibility and a devotion to service. Aquarius has a natural sense of humanity and as such is deeply humanitarian.”

That is the ideal you can hold as your template for the next month, beginning Monday. Over the weekend, see if you can orient yourself in that direction.

By Amanda Painter.

Appellate Court Rules Against Net Neutrality

In a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C. circuit Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was slapped down in its attempt to make sure Internet service providers cannot slow down or block websites with competing services, or favor sites that pay extra fees for faster service. Known as ‘Net neutrality’ (as in, ‘Network’), this idea of an ‘open Internet’ led to a set of rules approved by the FCC in 2010; big cable and telecommunications companies brought the lawsuit to court.

But for how long? Not long at all if we don’t ride our Representatives’ asses and get vocal.

Although the government oversees the utilities we depend on, such as telephone service and electricity, the court said that the Internet doesn’t count. At least, not under current law. This is the type of controversy that can pop up at the cusp of an age or era — which is where we are.

The thing is, even compared to just 12 years ago when the FCC reclassified cable modem services as “information services” rather than “telecommunications services” (thus leaving Net neutrality vulnerable), the Internet is a crucial utility. Entire businesses, including Planet Waves, operate almost exclusively online. Even medical records are now entirely digital in most places, allowing medical facilities to share them with doctors elsewhere without the need for a courier service.

Telecommunications companies keep swearing they’re just trying to give better service to all customers, but if you believe that, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in, too. It’s common sense that if Netflix gets charged more for all the bandwidth it eats up, you’ll be the one footing the bill as you stream their movies.

The FCC has suggested it will appeal the ruling, but it needs to find some teeth — and those cannot be found currently within the FCC or Congress, both of which have been left by the court to revise Net neutrality.

“The only course is for public pressure to overcome industry pressure,” wrote Michael Hiltzik for the Los Angeles Times Tuesday. “That’s a tough road, but there’s no alternative. Do you want your Internet to look like your cable TV service, where you have no control over what comes into your house or what you pay for it? Then stay silent. If not, start writing letters and emails to your elected representatives and the FCC now. It’s the only hope to save the free, open Internet.”

Trade Pact Endangers Environment

WikiLeaks this week released the text from a proposed “free trade” agreement that would enable countries to subvert their own domestic laws and regulations. Called the Trans Pacific Partnership or (TPP), the document includes a chapter on environmental protection that makes it easier to pollute and destroy the environment.

One of the flyers you can download from the Stop TPP website.

WikiLeaks, founded by director Julian Assange in 2006, is an online organization that publicly releases confidential documents from anonymous sources, most famous of which is the 2007 video of a U.S. Army helicopter attack on civilians. “Today’s WikiLeaks release shows that the public sweetener in the TPP is just media sugar water,” said Assange. “The fabled TPP environmental chapter turns out to be a toothless public relations exercise with no enforcement mechanism.”

“This draft chapter falls flat on every single one of our issues — oceans, fish, wildlife, and forest protections — and in fact, rolls back on the progress made in past free trade pacts,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune in a statement.

In a joint analysis, environmental defenders point out weak language like “make best efforts.” Critics say the draft represents a step backward from protections established in 2007, weakening nations’ obligations to enforce multilateral environmental agreements, replacing a definitive dispute resolution process with one far more meaningless, and failing to protect fisheries, forest products and other key natural resources.

The TPP would establish a trade zone akin to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), heralded by Bill Clinton as an important step forward when it was signed in 1994. According to a report by Public Citizen, problems of income inequality have worsened instead of improving — and critics say the impact of the TPP could be far worse.

Obama and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are pushing for Congressional authorization for a “fast track” approval procedure. Margaret Flowers, an organizer of the Flush the TPP! Campaign orchestrated by popularresistance.org, says opponents are having some success.

“They originally wanted the fast track bill in place by the end of 2012 — every time they set a deadline, it gets pushed back,” she said. “The pressure is working, but we need more — past trade agreements have been bad, but this one is worse. This establishes a tribunal where corporations can sue local governments for loss of potential profits — ‘We were going to frack in your town and make eleven million dollars, but you won’t let us, so you owe us eleven million.'”

Fast track authority is expected to come up for a vote sometime in February. “As activists we hope to keep pushing that out farther,” said Flowers. “The house leadership is saying that if Obama can’t get 50 house Democrats to sign on they won’t bring it up for a vote. So far, they’ve only got Republicans.”

To keep the pressure on, organizers plan ten days of “Stop TPP” actions for the end of the month, with an intercontinental Day of Action on Jan. 31.

This is Only a Test

Scientists from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) plan to conduct a controlled nuclear meltdown in an effort to improve their ability to handle another disaster. According to a Japan Today report, the test will take place later this year in a facility in Ibaraki, north of Tokyo.

Controlled nuclear runaway test reaction in the Idaho desert in 1954. Photo: U.S. Government.

A spokesperson for the Agency explained to local news that the data from the experiment will help them deal with an accident like Fukushima in the future. The scientists will create a small-scale nuclear runaway reaction induced by a rapid fission process within tiny test fuel rods placed inside a stainless steel capsule.

Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of a particle into smaller parts. When nuclear fuels like uranium and plutonium are involved, fission occurs in a self-sustained chain reaction, which is the basis for nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Reactors need a constant source of cooling water in order to contain the speed of the fission process. When the reactor core of a nuclear power plant is breached, whether by human error, mechanical failure, or act of nature, the explosive reaction is impossible to control.

Prof. Karl Grossman, environmental journalist and nuclear expert, describes the inherent danger of nuclear fission in his book, Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power. Grossman explains that the chain reaction “involves an extremely rapid and intense rise in the fission level within the nuclear core — a thousand times beyond normal — simultaneous with sudden overheating, melting of the core, and an instant steam explosion with the power of thousands of pounds of TNT, easily blowing apart the concrete ‘containment’ of a nuclear plant and letting what’s inside out.”

Grossman gives two examples of similar nuclear runaway ‘tests’; the first in the Idaho desert in 1954, with a miniaturized reactor on a scale of 1:500, which demolished a piece of equipment weighing a ton. The second, an unplanned test, was the SL-1 accident of 1961 in Idaho Falls, when the huge explosion of a nuclear reactor killed three employees.

The JAEA specifically wants to record at what temperature the fuel rods start to melt, which sets off the rapid fission process. Edwin Lyman, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, assured VOA News that “there is little risk associated with this experiment to the public.”

We All Live Downstream from Freedom Industries

One week after 300,000 West Virginia residents were told not to use their tap water for any reason after a major chemical spill in the Elk River, about half of those in affected communities have been told it is safe to turn their taps on. As the water ban has been lifted in stages, the lack of data on the toxicity of the chemical in question — along with other revelations about the severe lack of oversight and regulation for West Virginia’s chemical industry — is raising more questions than it is answering.

The Elk River in West Virginia, now spreading contaminated water to states downstream. Photo: Tyler Evert/AP.

If you don’t live in or near West Virginia, you might think this is terrible, but not about you. The question is, do you actually know what industry is doing in your community? Do you know what is upstream from you, or what condition facilities are in, or what regulations are being followed to protect you (if any)?

West Virginia only requires inspections for chemical production facilities, not chemical storage facilities. This partly explains why the Freedom Industries site where the leak occurred in Charleston — about one mile upriver from the West Virginia American Water treatment plant — had not been inspected since 1991.

The rest of the explanation lies in states and communities giving dangerous industries a pass on regulation in favor of ‘jobs’, leaving entire populations at risk of considerable harm — including death and adverse health effects that can span generations. This is far more common than we like to think; and since asking questions and pushing for safer practices can be overwhelming, many of us don’t think about it at all — until it lands on our doorstep.

According to Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council speaking to The New York Times, “West Virginia has a pattern of resisting federal oversight and what they consider E.P.A. interference,” pushed hard by the coal and chemical industries on which the state’s economy relies.

Compounding the situation in West Virginia is the astounding lack of information about 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM), the chemical in question. Classified as an alcohol, it is a colorless oil with a licorice-like odor, and is used to clean coal.

“This is your community and your rights and your water”; consumer activist Erin Brockovich, holding a town hall meeting in Charleston, West Virginia, Monday night. Photo: Kenny Kemp/The Charleston Gazette.

Writing for The Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward, Jr. and David Gutman reported Thursday that there are no regulatory standards for MCHM under federal or state rules. In fact, the current safety standard used by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of 1 part per million of MCHM in tap water “comes from two private studies from the 1990s that were done on animals.”

Dr. Vikas Kapil, chief medical officer for the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, relayed that information when he was finally made available for an interview with Gazette reporters Thursday morning. Kapil explained that the CDC was working with the National Library of Medicine and other federal agencies to summarize a report of the work in those private studies.

Maranda Demuth, a spokeswoman for Eastman Chemical Co., which manufactured the MCHM, told The Gazette that the studies were not published in scientific journals, and therefore were not peer-reviewed. Downplaying the lack of review, Demuth added, “The studies, however, were conducted under Good Laboratory Practices, and according to OECD guidelines, at a reputable laboratory where rigorous internal review processes were performed.”

That’s nice; but it doesn’t prove that MCHM should not be better regulated, or that it’s ‘safe’ for the environment. The fact that the studies were bought and paid for by the manufacturer is a huge red flag, practically begging for investigation. More heartening is the active approach citizens of the affected area have taken in posting new information via social media in an effort to organize and get answers, as described by environmental activist Erin Brockovich on Democracy Now! during her visit to Charleston this week.

Using “an abundance of caution” and “the most conservative estimates,” according to Kapil, the CDC has recommended that pregnant women continue to avoid drinking tap water, although they say washing and bathing in it should be fine. But no one really knows yet, given the limited, non-peer-reviewed data on MCHM.

In related news, the chemicals have reached Cincinnati, Ohio’s, water supply, where the city had shut down its water valves and used stored water since the spill was first reported. And one of the founding owners of Freedom Industries (who reportedly left the company “years ago”) is a convicted felon — tax evasion and “willful failure to pay employees’ withholdings to the government” — who also was arrested years ago on cocaine charges. More than the water smells bad in West Virginia this week; and now that polluted water is no longer local.

On National and World Stage, a Tangled Web Promotes Chaos

With violence and humanitarian emergencies raging in a long list of countries in the Middle East including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, revelations this week point to extreme dysfunction within the United States’ military, political and diplomatic establishments. Security failures prior to the Benghazi embassy attack, widespread cheating by the Air Force officers tasked with overseeing the country’s nuclear arsenal, and Israeli-backed warmongering that threatens to destroy any real hope for the diplomatic talks intended to bring Iran back into the community of nations are just three of the focal points.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at a U.N. Security Council meeting in September, when nuclear talks with Iran were more optimistic. Photo: Jason DeCrow/AP.

A report on Benghazi released by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence indicates that warnings from the intelligence community went unheeded, and failure to increase security or position military assets to protect the embassy were contributing factors in the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, that left four Americans dead and has become a major talking point for the right wing. The report makes several recommendations, among them the suggestion that the intelligence community pay more heed to “extremist-affiliated social media.”

At the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, where the U.S. nuclear arsenal is kept, 34 ranking Air Force officers have been suspended in the wake of allegations of widespread cheating on monthly recertification tests. Two of those same officers are among 11 who are under investigation for possession and use of recreational drugs. Officials insist that the safety of the nuclear weapons was in no way compromised. According to reporting by The New York Times, morale at the base has deteriorated since the end of the Cold War left personnel feeling that their mission was no longer valued.

The six-month temporary agreement to freeze Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for some relief from sanctions that have been crippling the country’s economy since the fall of the U.S.-backed Shah in 1979 was signed on Jan. 12, and is set to take effect next week. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani boasted on Twitter that “world powers surrendered to Iranian nation’s will,” inflaming still further the opposition to the deal among those in Washington who are pushing for Congress to increase sanctions — mainly Republicans and pro-Israel lobbying groups. Many believe a sanctions increase would destroy the embryonic peace process.

As usual, the right-wing squawk machine is insisting on every point that Obama’s leadership abilities are the problem. But it’s hard to see how any single human being can be blamed, or indeed, how any single leader could make sense of the tangled mess. Meanwhile, the folks simply trying to live their lives among the artificially redrawn borders and sectarian disputes are dying in droves.

Monsanto Defeats Organic Farmers in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday signaled the end of the road for organic farmers seeking to protect themselves against Monsanto’s predatory litigation. The court refused to hear the plaintiffs’ case challenging the company’s claims of patent infringement of their GM seeds. The suit also aimed to curb Monsanto from suing anyone whose field is contaminated by such seeds.

Monsanto may control the legal game, but not which way the wind blows on farmers’ fields. Photo: Darren Hauck/Reuters.

In dismissing the case, the court upheld a 2013 federal appeals court decision that threw out a 2011 lawsuit from the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association and more than 80 other plaintiffs. These parties were seeking to block the company from suing them over planting its GMO seeds without their permission. Yet the plaintiffs did not buy seed from Monsanto, instead claiming contamination from windblown seed from nearby fields.

Monsanto has filed more than 140 lawsuits against farmers for planting the company’s GM seeds without permission, while settling around 700 other cases without suing. The plaintiffs wanted more in the way of legal protection than Monsanto’s ‘binding assurances’ that they would not sue, upon which the appeals court decision was based.

Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association President Jim Gerritsen expressed disappointment, and Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, said in a statement: “If Monsanto can patent seeds for financial gain, they should be forced to pay for contaminating a farmer’s field, not be allowed to sue them.”

Planet Waves previously reported on the case, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, et al., v. Monsanto Company, et al., on March 2, 2012 and June 14, 2013.

Goodbye Groovy Gary — and Thank You

Gary Grimshaw, creator of iconic rock posters from the late 1960s until recently, died Monday, Jan. 13, in Detroit, Michigan, after several strokes and a long illness. He was the co-creator of a psychedelic design style that has been imitated many times.

Born in Detroit, where he was friends with members of the rock group MC5, the soft-spoken Grimshaw had a Pisces Sun.

With Venus and Mercury also loosely conjunct each other in Pisces, he was primed with creative, dreamy, groovy expressive energy; Venus and Mercury ensured that the art he created would be beautiful, visionary and speak for a generation of music lovers.

With his Moon in spiritual, justice-oriented, freedom-loving Sagittarius — and that Moon’s ruler, Jupiter, in justice- and beauty-loving Libra — it’s no surprise that Grimshaw’s art and activism went beyond music.

After a voluntary stint in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War (to avoid being drafted into the Army) that introduced him to psychedelic art while his ship was docked in San Francisco, Grimshaw became active in the anti-war movement and the White Panther Party.

True to the spirit of the 1960s and his Jupiter in Libra, he also beat out obscenity charges and marijuana charges between 1968 and 1970. Grimshaw worked as art director at Creem Magazine from 1976 to 1984; you can see a gallery of some of his posters here.

Cancer Full Moon, Return to Fukushima and Musical Guests Gary Lucas and (the late) Jeff Buckley

Wednesday’s unusual Cancer Full Moon conjunct the Black Moon Lilith is the topic of today’s edition, as well as a look at the aftermath of Fukushima and why nobody can say that there is no risk. Our musical guests are Gary Lucas and his late bandmate and collaborator Jeff Buckley. For additional resources please see the full post.

Have you pre-ordered your 2014 readings by Eric Francis yet? The Mars Effect (our 16th annual edition!) will be out this month, and will include in-depth audio and written readings for your Sun, Moon and rising signs. We always receive a flood of positive feedback for these readings, and it shows just how meaningful they are. One customer wrote, “I’m so grateful to you for the illumination and the reassurance this reading has bestowed.” We’re offering you a special package price of $79 for all twelve signs, available only to current Planet Waves members. Or you may purchase individual signs for $29.95.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscopes for January on Friday, Jan. 3. The Moonshine horoscopes for the Capricorn New Moon were published Tuesday, Dec. 31. We published Moonshine horoscopes for the Cancer Full Moon Tuesday, Jan. 14. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, #983 | By Eric Francis

This is an Oracle edition of the horoscope. Sign readings this week were selected by the Oracle program, which I personally queried. These are the responses I got. — efc

Aries (March 20-April 19) — I suggest you respond with awareness to the subtle change of direction that’s come over your life in recent weeks. It may not seem like you’re being dragged toward any specific destination, but neither are you drifting, nor are you stuck. It’s not necessary to make elaborate plans to get where you want to go, and I suggest you notice the worthwhile opportunities and extraordinary resources all located within arm’s reach and a one-hour trip of where you are now situated. Not only isn’t it too late; you’d be right on time.

Looking for an in-depth reading for the coming year? Pre-order THE MARS EFFECT, your 2014 annual readings, for a special rate of $79 for all twelve signs. It’s a great package of audio and written readings (plus bonus articles) that gives you access to your Sun, rising and Moon signs (and those of your loved ones). You may also pre-order individual signs for $29.95 here.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You sense something big is coming on — a revelation in the true sense; a creative burst; the opportunity to have an experience you’ve wanted for a long time. That moment has not quite arrived, but it’s inevitable. Meanwhile, this would be an excellent moment to reflect on how restless you’ve been for how long. You’ve spent much of your energy in recent years adapting to your own emotional instability, and that constant adaptation has eaten up a lot of energy. You’ve been encountering a series of stabilizing forces that have given you a chance to relax and put some of your resources into more creative endeavors, and I suggest you keep up with that process. You face a risk that you can head off early on, which is the potential to respond defensively to an opportunity from which you will only benefit.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — It’s clear that the past couple of months have presented certain difficulties communicating about a sensitive matter or whole subject area that you really need to get out into the open. Actually, the person or people you need to get an exchange going with have been working their way onto the same page, though they have not necessarily been saying much about it. Once the conversation begins, it has the potential to go some interesting places, and into some deep places. There may be some role reversal involved. There will be some transposing of words into actions and actions back into words. Be bold, and please allow yourself the space to allow any idea to become a potential reality.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — During the course of the past year, an energetic condition or state emerged in your life that seemed to pick you up and carry you. The truth is, it took you by storm, making it difficult to track the decisions you were making as you made them; and made it more difficult to assess your motives. The more recent news is that what was once an onslaught of progress is more understandable in its constituent parts. Everything is composed of elements. The ones that are influencing you are in the process of distinguishing themselves from one another, but only so that they can re-form again in new ways. In fact there are so many possible combinations that it will be very helpful to work from the goal backwards to the process of getting there. This will save time and energy and maximize the results that you want.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — My friend Greg, a Gemini moonboy, had a most interesting experience recently. Quite by surprise, his own reflection called to him from a mirror, and a kind of dimension shift happened. After a while, his reflection started speaking to him, representing the mind beyond his normal waking consciousness — what some call the higher self or superconscious: “I don’t understand you any better than you understand me,” is what it said. And then: “You are one of the more interesting ones.” And finally, the promise that his self-beyond-self would always be there with him, no matter how close he got to the edge, watching and protecting him through his journey in this strange world.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — The continuing adventure of your life is about to chill a bit, but before that happens you’ll likely start to feel like you have more energy to meet the many challenges you face. But the greatest virtue you could hope for now is just simply patience because it’s going to take a little while for things to work out. You would do well to disconnect from what seems like the state of perpetual flux of one particular person or situation. Remember that no one can enter into a clear agreement unless they know where they stand and that, if it’s not obvious, is the root of the problem. But meanwhile don’t be surprised if your own position starts to squirm. Everything will squirm around right eventually.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Surviving is a gift you were bestowed with long ago and have proven over and over again that you can make use of. Yet is human life about survival? It may be, in sub-Saharan Africa. It may be, when an earthquake hits China. But as people living in an advanced culture with many creative and economic opportunities, we need to do better, and you need to do better. I suggest you go on a hunt for where your ideas about life came from. I would propose that most of them are not really ideas — they are really emotions that pass for ideas, or emotions that you try to explain or deal with rationally. Please, stop explaining and start feeling. If you can do that for a while, you will start to feel like one person instead of one person cut into many parts.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Your relationships may have taken a serious turn lately but I suggest keeping things a little lighter. Make sure you can always see yourself in others. And remember to focus on options rather than seeing one dubious choice staring you in the face. You have at this point in your life a responsibility not only to fulfill your commitments; you have a responsibility to shed commitments that no longer work for you. This may seem contrary to what everyone is saying and what everything is pointing to but I assure you it is true.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — By the time you convince yourself that it’s okay to really get involved in a rapidly developing situation, the action may have subsided. I understand that your commitment is a precious thing, though this preciousness also provides a cover story for a kind of annoying reticence that you’ve long had to contend with. What you’re really committing to is having an opinion or idea that you’re willing to state openly rather than merely contemplate. You may be concerned that if you say anything directly, you won’t be allowed to change your mind. That’s not true, but you’ll just need to say that’s what you’re doing. Closer to home is why you wonder so much what people might think about what you think. Once you call back the projection, you’ll see that this is nothing other than self-doubt. And the only thing you can do about that is take a chance on your own intelligence.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — I’m concerned that the pressure you’re feeling will translate to a hasty or premature decision on a financial matter. Let me be the first person to remind you that you have time to bide, and that there are certain key facts of which you are not aware. You will know when you’re working with enough information to make a key decision; it will be obvious. The fact that you’ve noticed that certain people are far from agreement does not count. You’re the person who holds the key to what everyone has in common, and that ‘what’ may be a who, in the form of yourself. But you haven’t figured out how powerful your bargaining position really is. Just be patient, like a spider in her web.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — It would seem you’re not getting a particular message because you’re either not believing something that’s true, or because people don’t seem to believe you. In any event, credibility is at stake at a time when you’re feeling very strongly about your values and your ideals. And whether you have all of what you want, or what you need, or not, there is a critical element of truth that’s coming into your life. Part of that truth binds you to your reality, and part of that truth leaves you free to grow into your purpose. Speaking of truth: while you’re obviously in a very excited state of sexual desire, you also seem to be a bit guarded and in an odd way, curiously asexual. Work that out and you’ll feel better.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Normally astrology would caution against being overly ambitious; understatement is a key aspect of writing horoscopes. It’s been a while, but to tell this story we would really need to go back to around autumn 1995, when Pluto moved into Sagittarius. This marked a time of transition from what you could call the seeking phase of your life to the actional phase. You made a commitment, or understood what was always in your heart. In the process, you’ve actually started to question what you thought was your tragic flaw, discovering that it’s different than you thought. Keep asking. There are answers.

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At the Still Point of the Turning World

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Most years, the change of the civil calendar is more like a blur than a point of demarcation. We might count down the New Year, watch the ball come down on TV and toast to health, love and wealth — but the astrology is not usually sensitive to the civil calendar.

Times Square during the 1947 blizzard. Photographer unknown.

There are actually numerous ‘new year’ events in different cultures, spanning from autumn to mid-winter, and most of them have some connection to planetary movements. This year, the civil calendar we use coincided with a major event on New Year’s Day — the Capricorn New Moon.

This would be significant on its own, though what we got was a New Moon conjunct two planets, Mercury and Pluto, as well as square two planets, Mars and Uranus, and then opposite Jupiter. I’ve left numerous smaller planets out of this description (of which there were plenty) and just covered the better-known influences. The seemingly minor influences tell an interesting story, such as how this is really a struggle about narcissism and self-interest coming up against the necessity to think collectively.

What we had was a New Moon in the midst of the Uranus-Pluto square; which is now a grand square, because Mars and Jupiter are involved. Think of this as a setup with the Earth in the middle of a crosshairs. I don’t recall a grand square (sometimes called a grand cross) this powerful since the one on Aug. 11, 1999, for which I wrote the article Thinking of You on Judgment Day.

In case you have not happened upon any of my other explanations of this aspect, I’ll take another try at explaining it. We are in the midst of a generational aspect — the Uranus-Pluto square. This spans from 2012 through 2015, but with a several-year warmup starting around 2008 and a cool down that will extend to the end of the decade.

Not a blizzard on Halloween — rather, Fifth Avenue under snow, New York City, c. 1905. Photographer unknown.

2014 is the peak of this astrology; here is why. These generational aspects can fade into the background and drive along ‘life as normal’ even if the new normal is really weird. Then every now and then during one of these eras, there is a planetary alignment grouped around the generational aspect that brings it to the forefront. Suddenly it’s really obvious what is happening. It’s like you wake up one day and figure out who you are, where you are, and what is happening around you.

Often this happens because something personal enters your consciousness. You might be someone who doesn’t pay attention to politics or the news, someone who tries to ignore technology as much as you can, and just live your life. Yet then the wide-ranging astrology can reach into your personal world. You have to make a decision; you figure out that it’s time for a change; you’re confronted with a situation; your own restlessness catches up with you.

We do a lot of stuffing down of our feelings in our society, and it’s not been until recently that I’ve noticed this trend starting to slow down or reverse. There’s only so much room to stuff down your love, your anger, your desire, your creative impulses. At a certain point you must do something that you regard as more meaningful. Even if you live from day to day, on some level you recognize that time, or your time in this body, doesn’t last forever, and therefore you must start exercising your options.

You may find yourself making decisions that you’ve put off for years or for decades. Try to do that compassionately. It’s natural to feel some anger or resentment at having delayed for so long, and yet at a certain point you will have to let that go in order to fully enter the moment. I suggest you do that all as a fully conscious process.

In the blizzard of 1888, the streets disappeared and the snow came down almost horizontally. Imagine being trapped at work, several miles from your home. This was the plight experienced by thousands of New Yorkers (and others throughout the northeast) that Monday.

The New Year’s Day New Moon alignment comes with a message that 2014 will be a year with its own distinct character, one that will be unlike anything we’ve experienced before. The grand cross repeats in a more focused, more potent form on April 23, and will be immediately followed by a solar eclipse in Taurus. The April 23 version of the grand cross aligns exactly with the Sun in the main chart for the United States, so you might say that this is the year the astrology comes home.

I’ve been researching this for months with my writing team and we have some special coverage planned for you, taking the story of April 2014 all the way back to the early days of American history. I believe that April 2014 will fit that pattern, which means that the months surrounding it will be especially unusual as well. It’s fair to say: you can think of yourself as living in a different country, a different phase of history, a different quality of space and time, than you were one week ago.

In light of all of this, I am now completing the THE MARS EFFECT, your 2014 annual readings. I have about two weeks’ more work till these are done, and they are coming out beautifully. The audio — about 70 minutes per sign, in two readings, is finished and posted; the articles are coming in; and my sign readings are moving along. Watch my Facebook page for previews as I go through the interpretations, and watch Planet Waves FM for free audio previews (and many great new podcasts) as well.

In this edition of Planet Waves, our news team has gone wild catching you up on the main events that transpired over the holidays, while we were on break. I’ve written an astrology interpretation of 2014 in the SKY section, and we have the January monthly horoscope for you as well.

I have often wondered what it would have been like to cover the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in realtime during the 1960s; I’ve wondered if astrologers were getting the message, and how they might have conveyed it to others, without the benefit of the Internet.

In any event, we are here for you now, with in-the-moment coverage of the peak of the Uranus-Pluto square, broadcasting on every channel with the hottest news team in astrology.

With love,

PS — Today would be the 122nd birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien. I know many people are going to see that derivative film from The Hobbit. If I may recommend something authentic — here is some of Tolkien’s writing on the subject of Atlantis, read by British actor Martin Shaw.

Section Writing and Editing Credits: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Hillary Conary, Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Susan Scheck, Chad Woodward and Carol van Strum. Page assembled and coded by Anatoly Ryzhenko. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Know Yourself: 2014 Astrology

The spiritual path is sometimes described as a quest for one’s true identity, one’s true self. Some consider this an inner meeting with what Quakers call ‘inner light’ — the connection to one’s god-source that doesn’t depend on external circumstances or personal history. It’s a kind of birthright that we all possess, connecting to a source that speaks as loudly as you’re willing to listen.

Venus will not transit the Sun as it did in 2012, shown here in a composite photo; but its current retrograde should be no less instructive astrologically. Image: NASA/Solar Dynamic Observatory.

Yet along the way to finding that light or tangible connection, most people must move through, explore and seek to understand a lot of inner material — the remnants of personal and collective history, damage that has been done, incomplete situations and relationships we don’t understand. I think that most discover along the way to their spiritual destination that it’s necessary to explore what it means to be human. That’s what we get through much of 2014, in a rather dramatic way.

A series of astrology events distinct to 2014 describe how that translates to exploring and rearranging your relationship to your gender role and identity, how you think about relationships to other individuals and perhaps most of all, how you relate to your family and corporate institutions.

First, it’s worth stating that what happens in 2014 is unprecedented, at least going back 50 years or so. We are in the midst of experiencing astrology reminiscent of the mid-1960s, which is now about to come to its peak. As far as anything in recent memory, I would say that what we’re about to experience is as influential as the 1999 to 2002 phase, only condensed within one calendar year.

The long-standing Uranus-Pluto square spans from Aries to Capricorn. Uranus is in Aries, making a square to Pluto in Capricorn. I’ve been calling this the 2012-era aspect. The exact contacts began in mid-2012 and go through early 2015. This aspect has the world feeling like a less stable place than usual, closer to the edge, and many people are feeling the shockwaves.

In 2014 this slow-moving aspect pattern reaches a peak. Part of what’s spurring this along are the respective retrogrades of Venus and Mars.

Venus is currently retrograde in Capricorn. This began the same day as the Capricorn solstice and ends on Jan. 31. Venus is retrograde least of all the planets, just over 7% of the time. This is a deeply personal transit, set within a sign that, among other topics, covers family structure, government and corporations.

Mars is looking prettier already in beauty-loving Libra. Actually, this Hubble Space Telescope photo dates to 2007. Photo: NASA/UPI/Landov.

Venus retrograde is one of those conditions that tends to evoke the past — as does the sign Capricorn. Old lovers and friends can reappear from the mists of time, or you might find yourself visiting old places or remembering things that you have not thought about since you experienced them. In Capricorn this can feel nostalgic, or like family karma is being stirred up (and it may be, especially with Pluto in the neighborhood).

Yet there is also a search for the inner feminine with this retrograde. What does it mean to be a woman, and to be female? What were you told you had to feel, or be, by your family? What were you told a woman is, and what roles were you told women should be assigned? If you find yourself questioning conventional wisdom, you have some astrological guidance.

Mars will also be retrograde, starting in March and ending in May — though the process is already well begun, because Mars has entered the degree range where the retrograde will take place. This will be happening in Libra. To me it looks like Mars retrograde will stir the pot on personal relationships. The message is, come out of the role you play, and be the person you are. In this way, your relationships can become a forum for self-knowledge.

Mars retrograde will confront many people with the syndrome of a relationship being a way to hide from the world. All the usual balances will need to be rearranged; Mars will leave little that can be taken for granted. Those who emerge from the shell of a security-based relationship are likely to find themselves in a wild world, wanting some genuine adventure.

On the way to that point, you may find yourself figuring out what you mean when you say the word ‘secure’, and you may notice that the world around you is far more uncertain than you imagined. That uncertainty is your friend and ally on the way to self-knowledge. You cannot learn about yourself while you’re too certain of anything. A space of not knowing has to open up so that there is a space for the new knowledge to go.

In this regard you might say that the prerequisite of gaining knowledge is not knowing. The prerequisite of feeling safe and grounded is feeling insecure. And sometimes, what comes before love is recognizing what love is not.

Fukushima: What You Have Not Read About Yet

News out of Fukushima has been difficult to come by. After the spent fuel removal supposedly began in Unit 4 in November, the media went even more silent than usual. That in turn has been fomenting all kinds of speculation, some of which turns out to have a factual basis.

The Internet has been abuzz over speculations that a meltdown is occurring in the spent fuel pool of
Reactor 3. TEPCO, the utility that owns the plant, officially reported on four separate days in December that steam was seen rising from the wreckage of the Reactor building.

An article published by Turner Radio Network began circulating, warning residents of the West Coast of the United States to begin preparation for the possible arrival of a radioactive plume. The article suggested immediately purchasing respirators, self-adhesive weather stripping and duct tape for windows, and to avoid outdoor exposure for several days.

The Reactor 3 nuclear core went into meltdown on March 13, 2011, after an explosion caused by a hydrogen buildup. The exact status of the melted core is unknown and it is speculated to have melted entirely through the containment vessel. Following the 2011 explosion, a large plume of radiation was emitted, and was carried to the U.S. on wind currents at that time.

TEPCO has not been clear about what’s causing the rising steam. Extremely high and lethal levels of radiation in the building prevent anyone from getting close enough to find out. Remote-controlled cranes and equipment are being used to remove debris and rubble from the damaged Reactor building, a process that began, unbeknownst to the public, on Dec. 17, 2013. (This is not the same as the removal of fuel from Reactor 4, which Planet Waves covered here.)

According to TEPCO, the steam is being emitted from the fifth floor of the building. Currently, 566 used and unused fuel assemblies sit in the spent fuel pool of Reactor 3. Some reports claim the Reactor 3 storage pool also contains highly dangerous MOX fuel, which consists of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide; however, there is conflicting data about whether there is MOX fuel in the pool or not. According to the TRN article, experts warn that the rising steam “could be the beginning of a spent fuel pool criticality,” meaning that there could be an atomic reaction starting in the spent fuel pool, where it cannot be contained.

This Article is Continued on its Own Page

Poverty Winning the War on Poverty

For some Americans, the Great Recession was over by the end of 2013. Wall Street was breaking records, manufacturing output had grown for seven straight months, construction spending was up six percent from last November till this one, and the housing market was up in a number of places, even battered Detroit.

Demonstrators, including one in a giant Grinch costume, outside a McDonald’s in Chicago last month campaigning for $15 per hour for fast food and retail workers. Photo: Paul Beaty/AP.

But those numbers, and the falling unemployment numbers, don’t begin to tell the whole story. Some 50 million Americans — about one in six — still live in poverty, 50 years after President Lyndon Johnson declared “war” on it. A 2011 report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicates there’s been a steady growth in inequality for several decades: the wealthiest 1% had a 275% increase in income since 1975, while the poorest 20% saw an increase of only 18%.

The non-partisan CBO identified one of the causes as less redistribution of wealth by the government, and another as wage gaps. In 2012 a Fortune 500 CEO took home 354 times as much as the average worker, as compared to a 24-to-1 ratio that existed in 1965.

The game is rigged, and powerful Republicans have aligned themselves with the wealthy in attempting to stomp on the losers, without much pushback from Democrats. Supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) benefits dropped in November, and there are more cuts coming in the farm bill expected to pass in mid-January. Extended federal unemployment benefits for 1.3 million people were allowed to expire on Dec. 28, although Congress is expected to discuss reinstating those when it reconvenes Jan. 6. There are still 2.9 seekers for every available job.

And many of the available jobs don’t pay anywhere near a living wage. Fast food and retail employees make so little that they are eligible for food stamps and Medicaid. Efforts to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 have gone nowhere fast, although 13 states have taken the initiative to do so on their own.

Impairing the political will to change this mess is the insistent drone of agitprop from the far right, well-funded think tanks that serve the 1% by preaching Blame the Poor sermons daily. Congressman Paul Ryan told a Heritage Foundation forum that poverty can only be cured “eye to eye, and soul to soul. Spiritual redemption — that’s what saves people.”

Spiritual redemption may be what would help Ryan and his ilk, but what actually helps poor people is — surprise! — money.

Passengers Rescued from Stranded Ship

A rescue helicopter from the Chinese ship Xue Long (“Snow Dragon”) has succeeded in airlifting 52 travelers from the immobilized ship where they’d spent the past nine days, flying them to the Aurora Australis, an Australian icebreaker that will take them back to port.

Passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy stomp flat an area of ice for the helicopter evacuation. Photo by Laurence Topham, video producer for The Guardian, who was stuck on the ship.

The trip was intended to commemorate history, and it did so rather more perfectly than intended. Things didn’t go smoothly in 1913, when Sir Douglas Mawson made his most famous explorations of Antartica. He lost two of his companions on a mission into the interior; he and his crew of scientists and naturalists got back to Australia a year late.

The voyage of the Akademik Shokalskiy, a Russian-owned research ship that sailed from New Zealand in early December, turned out rather epic in its own right. On Christmas Eve, the Antarctic ice commemorated its untamed self when the ship got thoroughly stuck. Expedition leader Chris Turney, 51 other passengers — mostly scientists and researchers, with a handful of tourists — and 22 crewmembers spent the holidays trapped in such thick ice that three rescue attempts failed.

In contrast to the experience on the stranded Carnival cruise ship last year, passengers and crew never seemed to lose their spirit of adventure, tweeting Christmas greetings to the world and saying they were pretty much fine. The crewmembers have remained with the ship, said to be well stocked, and will wait for navigable seas.

Fox Business host Stuart Varney has suggested that a ship becoming stuck in Antarctic ice definitively disproves global warming — ignoring the fact that the ship was pinned to the shore by old ice that had broken free and had been pushed by strong winds.

Is ‘Smart Farming’ Really a Smart Choice for Farmers?

Someone’s collecting enormous amounts of data about life down on the farm — climate conditions, crop growth, even how farm equipment is steered. It isn’t the NSA, but close enough. Monsanto, John Deere and DuPont Pioneer are all buying or investing in data collection companies that analyze trends and transmit directions automatically to the farm. Real-time farming decisions that used to depend on farmers’ good judgment and years of experience are being replaced by corporate ‘predictions’ — and some farmers don’t like that at all.

Data collection and analysis has come a long way since the Farmer’s Almanac (which is still published) first began offering long-term weather predictions to farmers.

Last October, Monsanto purchased Climate Corp., a climate data acquisition firm, for almost $1 billion. Climate Corp. models weather data — the most critical information for farmers — and makes recommendations, such as planting on certain dates. This data is available to farmers by purchasing ‘prescription services’ from Monsanto.

Monsanto and industry analysts believe this kind of ‘smart farming’ has its benefits, allowing farmers to control crop yield with greater precision. Farmers’ groups such as the Grower Information Services Cooperative (GISC) are alarmed over the potential loss of operational and economic control.

The big questions are: who will own this data; who will profit from it; and ultimately, who will control business decisions on the farm?

In the 1990s, farmers began collecting field data and uploading it manually to their computers. Now, using ‘smart’ devices, the data can be uploaded directly to a corporation, sometimes without the farmer’s knowledge, if they subscribe to its services. Then the question is: does that information become proprietary, and when? And can the farmer access it in a non-proprietary form?

The prescription services combine vast amounts of data on soil fertility and crop yields from thousands of farms — yet much of this information is considered confidential by individual farmers. Once accessed by Monsanto, what is to stop it from discovering what makes a particular farm competitive?

“If you inadvertently teach Monsanto what it is that makes you a better farmer than your neighbor, it can sell that information to your neighbor,” said John McGuire, an agriculture technology consultant. And if the corporation gathers enough information, “it opens the door for Monsanto to say, ‘We know how to farm in your area better than you do,'” he said.

Monsanto estimates prescription services to be a $20 billion market, but success depends on whether and how many farmers buy their services, and whether it can deliver profitable farming and business strategies. Whether Monsanto’s bet will pay off is “tough to validate,” said Paul Massoud, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus.

Instead of partnering with Monsanto, GISC is urging farmers to organize and place their data in its central repository, thereby retaining legal and technical ownership of it.

“Growers need to be proactive in how their information is managed,” said Mark Cox, controller and communications director for GISC. “Otherwise all that economic power will consolidate to these corporations and the grower will be at even more of a disadvantage. We don’t want the grower to become a tenant on his own farm.”

In the end — as with everything else Monsanto — it’s not about the farmers’ wellbeing or efficiency; it’s about its own bottom line.

“Monsanto’s scheme does not really represent farmers embracing data analytics, but Monsanto embracing it to better sell the seeds it wants to sell with a pseudo-scientific rationale,” said Bill Freese, an expert on agricultural biotech and a science policy analyst with Center for Food Safety.

Traditionally, creators of these ornate balls would tuck a handwritten note of good wishes for the recipient into the center, which would remain secret. Sometimes a noisemaker, such as bells or some rice, would be placed inside for more fun when the balls are played with. Curious to give it a try? You can find step-by-step instructions here and here. Photo: NanaAkua.

Hoping You Have a Ball in 2014!

Originating in China and introduced to Japan in the 7th century A.D., temari are handcrafted, highly prized and cherished embroidered balls made from scraps of old kimonos, given by parents to their children on New Year’s Day. They symbolize the wish that the recipient enjoy good fortune and happiness, and often represent a pledge of deep friendship and loyalty between giver and recipient.

The 92-year-old grandmother of NanaAkua, a graphic designer from Japan who photographed the balls above, learned the demanding craft — which requires specific training and testing — in her sixties. She now has more than 500 unique designs to her credit. You can see a few more of them here, or an entire gallery of 486 photos here.

Many New Updates to Planet Waves FM

I’ve posted a number of new updates to Planet Waves FM, including the finale edition for 2013 that covers the Capricorn New Moon in detail, as well as audio previews for The Mars Effect (two are up; more are coming) and a series of New Year’s interviews conducted on the street in Kingston, New York.

Have you pre-ordered your 2014 readings by Eric Francis yet? The Mars Effect (our 16th annual edition!) will be out in January, and will include in-depth audio and written readings for your Sun, Moon and rising signs. We always receive a flood of positive feedback for these readings, and it shows just how meaningful they are. One customer wrote, “I’m so grateful to you for the illumination and the reassurance this reading has bestowed.” We’re offering you a special package price of $79 for all twelve signs, available only to current Planet Waves members. Or you may purchase individual signs for $29.95.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for January are published below in this issue. We published Moonshine for the Gemini Full Moon Tuesday, Dec. 10. The Moonshine horoscopes for the Capricorn New Moon were published Tuesday, Dec. 31. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday.

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope — January 2014, #981 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You’re figuring out that you’re capable of great things. Yet none of it will be possible without fostering cooperation. There is, of course, the danger of giving away your power to others by depending on them for the completion of your goals, so you need to know about that potential pitfall and remain in full alignment with yourself. That means being the primary authority in your life. Cooperation is a peer-to-peer enterprise, a consultative role, an exchange of ideas, but without the competition or authority stuff that we’re so accustomed to in nearly every facet of existence. This is a seed moment for you, particularly where your work and your contribution to society are concerned. If you’ve been having ideas that you believed could change the world (and it looks like that’s been true for years) this is the time to act on them. The gift of the present moment is twofold: one facet is the birth of a new kind of confidence, despite whatever confusion you may be feeling. You are starting to trust that you can have an actual impact. Another is discovering evidence that you were on the right path all along. You have already learned most of what you need to know, and what you gained in the past is one of your greatest resources today.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Faith is your rock, or said another way, the axis around which your world turns. Yes, you may have your doubts. They will come and go. But they are part of the ‘turning world’ rather than the beam of faith around which it spins. Despite many challenges and the demand to call yourself fully present for everything you do, you’ve maintained a steady course of growth, of achievement and living in the moment rather than being lost in ancient history. Your chart suggests that you’ve been burrowing your own path through the remnants left to you by many ancestors whose combined influence has added up to little more than a reason to pretend you don’t have the strength to do what you came to the world to do. Once you admit that you possess actual faith in yourself, you will see your doubts in perspective, and they will be far less meaningful. The one element that is calling for a special focus is the exchange of resources angle of your chart — the zone where you share a field of influence with another person, often in intimate situations. You seem to come up against one circumstance after the next where there is a question — though as you’re probably learning, the solution is always spiritual. Love, forgiveness and understanding will light your way.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The edgy quality of your charts may be a reminder of the fragile, transient nature of existence, and this is summoning you into unfamiliar territory. That alone would be a value — the waste of time that the world withstands is a terrible loss, and most of it involves denial about beginnings and endings. You seem to be fully aware that time is transient and that relationships are experiences that exist only in the moment we notice them. With the world moving so fast, there is precious little time to waste. Many factors in your astrology have drawn you out to a region where you will feel better addressing people about what actually matters than you will engaging in any form of diversion or games. While superficiality is smothering consciousness, you are being confronted with facts about yourself that are calling you to engage fully with reality. This translates directly to having a respectful relationship with the unknown, and that which you don’t understand. It no longer serves you to do anything else — there are great rewards possible when you focus only on what is true. You may think this requires more courage than you have; courage is an option you can choose, and is almost always helpful. Meanwhile, I suggest you use curiosity and persistence as your main assets on this quest.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — It’s time to reclaim the young person you are inside — or be aware that little kid is claiming you. Recent years of your life have come with a maturity campaign, which has been a necessary part of your growth and have contributed significantly to your wellbeing. Yet at the same time, your chart illustrates a moment when you’re on a dare to make an impression on the world, to define your own terms and to be free from needless authority. One of the ways you render external authority as pointless is to take over the process yourself, which accounts for the value of your drive to be a mature adult. Without some discipline, you cannot get very much done. Yet the child in you wants to come out. There are a few ways that can happen — remembering what gives you the most pleasure in life, and doing those things, are among them. There is also a relationship encounter that will open the door to the playful, loving child that you are. This experience will call for a blend of maturity and thirst for freedom. The door is opening into a realm where all your relationships can deepen, as if you’ve mysteriously walked into common ground you didn’t know existed. It always has — you are opening up to it in a new way.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Focus on your health, which will mainly require managing your work responsibilities and your stress level differently than you currently do. You need to make some structural changes, including to your schedule and possibly to your physical work space. This is a quality-of-life issue, and you have the focusing power and determination to make real, lasting changes that help you and will improve your efficiency. If you’re facing puzzles or questions, most of the solutions or answers seem to be hiding in plain sight. One thing that may not be so obvious is addressing certain issues that are still hanging out in your life from early childhood. This may include insecurities that you’ve never quite been able to get a handle on, as well as the residual conditioning of being burdened with more than was appropriate for a child. These matters have a way of hanging on and sometimes become more challenging to address as time goes on, though the astrology of this time in your life is centered on making a clean sweep emotionally, as well as making sure your physical space is up to the task of supporting your life. It would be simpler to say take a holistic approach, where every aspect of your life, and every person in your life, is supportive of all the others.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — There is no question that relationships remain the focal point of your life this year, though the theme brings a deeper focus on sexuality. I would describe this as seeking a purpose rather than treating it as something that’s just there, or that can be taken for granted. Most people don’t consider the notion of existing with a sexual purpose, though they also don’t consider how disorienting the lack of one can be, and how it leads directly to giving away one’s power. You will begin to make discoveries the moment you make the commitment to doing so, and harness your creativity and life-force energy as you make contact with how real and how vital these themes are for you. The connection point to your relational experiences may seem intuitive or obvious, though it’s worth stating. What is healing and empowering to you will either strengthen the people in your life, or have a way of repelling them. You’ve needed to overcome the fear of that particular effect for a while; now you’ve reached the point where you must be in harmony with the people with whom you’re intimate, because you are now capable of embracing them more deeply than ever. To do this safely and honestly, having a sense of purpose, and sharing it openly, is essential.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Let this be the year you succeed at not making the same mistakes as in the past. Mistakes are excellent learning laboratories, though for that purpose, usually one or two tries is sufficient. This is your time to learn from past errors in judgment or less-than-careful decisions, whether they happened recently or in the distant past. Mars in your sign for most of the year will give you plenty of opportunities to review; so too will the retrograde of Venus that began recently. So much historical data may be bubbling to the surface that you may be overwhelmed. But it’s all going to boil down to one thing, which is how you make decisions. I am familiar with the special struggle that many born under your sign personally describe. It’s not that you don’t make up your mind; it’s about how you hesitate before doing so. That hesitation is different than considering the factors involved in a particular choice. These days, you’re likely to be pushed in some direction by circumstances or by someone close to you if you don’t choose a direction of your own. Though this may temporarily relieve the burden of making the decision, it doesn’t take away responsibility for the consequences. You know what is right for you. You always have and you always will. Trust that.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may be feeling like you’re under some strange pressure, which on one level feels like the necessity to get control of your life. On another level you’re being pushed to cut loose, and to dive into your passions, your fears and the desire that you’ve spent so much time denying. So what do you do, hold fast or let go? Saturn in your sign is providing a boundary. Though it may feel like you have to make necessary changes, Saturn’s real message is about getting to know yourself. Meanwhile, Mars, your ruling planet, will be spending much of the year in the zone of your chart where you conceal your deepest feelings, needs and anxieties. Unless you follow Mars into that mysterious realm, you may feel like you’ve ‘gone missing’. If that happens, take it as a message to look within rather than obsessing over circumstances, other people or external responsibilities. You will get your work done; you will keep your promises. The time has come to keep a promise to yourself, which is to clarify your inner relationship as your top priority. Though many would think this idea as comprehensible as Mandarin, you know this already. The calling to absolute self-honesty has been nagging you very nearly forever, and it’s high time you answer.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Your life is not as complicated as it seems. It’s true that your sign is currently hosting one of the most impressive collections of planets I’ve ever seen (all of them ‘minor’ planets, but no less potent). You are indeed facing many deep spiritual issues, and it will help you to see them that way rather than as psychological. The prevailing theme of the next few seasons is about how you invest your life into the lives of others. It’s necessary to learn a mode of sharing with others that is not a general partnership/total surrender but rather a limited partnership on certain topics or themes. I don’t mean to imply being partially committed. I mean being wholly committed in specific ways, such that you are able to reserve enough of your time, space and vital force to create your own existence the way you want it. As you may know, it’s also time to get serious about money. It may seem like some great mystery how to acquire or concentrate the stuff, but it’s actually a practical matter based on specific skills. Make a point of acquiring those skills at the same time you do something more fundamental, which is make sure you don’t violate your own values or principles. There is no conflict here — they are really the same thing.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You know that you cannot be content with anything superficial or make believe, so you may as well not lose any more sleep over that. You’re discovering that you have something to say, and you may be wondering if anyone wants to listen. You can set that one aside too; your charts say that it’s time to get the word in before you get the word out. As you invest your energy in self-knowledge, and making the changes you have wanted to make for so long, you will become your message. Part of what you’re seeking in this process is an understanding of how things got to be the way they are. This applies to your life, and to any aspect of the world that you are seeking to influence, change, develop or in some way correct. The story of the world the way you perceive it corresponds directly to the story of your life. The changes you are going through connect to the urgent need for progress in the world. You are a kind of personal intersection between the two, but in order not to have that become a burden, I suggest you focus on your life and your learning process, and take action only when you feel profoundly moved to do so. Less is more — and when the time comes, that will be plenty.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may be feeling like you have too much responsibility and not enough in the way of personal resources to support what you have to do. This can include money, though I am really talking about inner resources of the emotional and spiritual kind. I can see why you would feel that way; yet I can also see that you have many hidden resources that you may not have discovered yet. These might manifest as energy, ideas or strength that you can access if you want. The key thing to remember is that they are there waiting for you. To find them, you must go underneath your outer circumstances and make contact with the underlying nature of your situation. This should not be hard — the dimension where this information and energy reside are bursting with life, wanting your attention, if only you would turn it there. You may have the sensation that you would evoke chaos or tap into something that you don’t really want to know about, though I assure you that this is life-giving information. If there is chaos, that’s the thing that provides the fuel for your strength and creativity. Think of it this way: you face no situation for which you lack resources. It’s a matter of having some faith, making contact and making use of what you discover.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Old friends will get you far this year, and they will be happy to hear from you. I suggest you look up everyone in your life whom you consider to have been a positive influence, and even a few people whom you think were a little dodgy, and see where they are at today. This will provide a point of grounding and orientation in what promises to be a truly extraordinary time in your life, especially where your mission is concerned. You are someone with a mission, and you are imaginative enough to dream it into reality. At the moment, your dream machine is running at full strength. You’ve never been someone who has done things just for business. You always act with a creative, social or spiritual purpose, which you then extend into your professional affairs. Some call this ‘right livelihood’. I would call it being aligned with your purpose, and then extending that into your personal relationships, your community and the world. It just happens that business is an excellent vehicle to conduct this kind of energy, and conditions are favorable to get the vibes rippling out into the world. You’re about to find out how much you have done right, how much you have left to accomplish, and that you possess the determination and talent to make it happen in high style.

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The Mars Effect

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View of the first Kingston New Year’s Eve street party, moments before the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, 2012, as seen from the window of Blue Studio on North Front Street. Photo by Eric Francis.

Note to Readers: This article will soon appear in Chronogram, a regional magazine where I live. Rather than cut the local color and doing a different version, I decided to leave it in. If you happen to be in Kingston for this event, and you’re looking for me, check in at the counter at Dominick’s Cafe or at the bar at BSP Lounge. — efc

Dear Friend and Reader:

When the lighted ball drops over Uptown Kingston on New Year’s Eve, the astrology of 2014 will be in place and waiting for the first standout astrological feature of the new year: the Capricorn New Moon on Jan. 1.

Let’s start with the party and then go to the astrology. This will be the second annual New Year’s street festival held in Uptown. The first time out was a beautiful event, a true success, not needing to make any allowances for being the first time out. Between the efforts of local entrepreneur Maria Phillipis (owner of Boitsen’s restaurant, who organized the outside party), Teri Rosin and her brilliant crew at Backstage Studio Productions (a/k/a BSP Lounge, which handled entertainment) and many business owners who helped out, the festivities came off flawlessly. Okay well, most of the bars ran out of liquor by about 1 am, but I think that problem has been solved.

Photo by Eric Francis.

This year the theme will be an old-time formal soiree. Whether you come in full dress or come as you are, you will see many of your friends and neighbors dressed in their very finest, most creative outfits, designed once again to evoke an early 20th-century aesthetic. I am not especially into fashion, though I thought this was a lot of fun.

The shoes to the right were one my more vivid memories of the evening, aided by having a photograph of them and their lovely model.

Cafes, bars, some restaurants and BSP will all be open extra late. There will be parking in the lower municipal lot off of Schwenk Drive, though you might want to make a reservation for dinner someplace and come out a little early. Please designate a driver and plan a safe route home, off the beaten path if you can, in advance. Please pay attention to the weather and don’t forget to monitor the plans of any teenagers for whom you are responsible.

From what I can reckon, this is an outdoor New Year’s Eve party that’s exactly opposite what you would get at Times Square in Manhattan. You will know people, the crowd is a modest size (measured in the hundreds, not the tens of thousands), there will be places (with bathrooms, even) to hang out indoors and you will be close to home. You can enjoy the festivities and even sit down if you want to.

The Capricorn New Moon — and the Cross

Unlike most years, the astrology of the next year of our lives begins exactly on Jan. 1. It’s unusual for the civil calendar to align exactly with the astrological ephemeris, though this alignment is a message for us about 2014.

Beth Bagner and Josie Coppolino. Photo by Eric Francis.

On New Year’s Day is the Capricorn New Moon. This event is a hologram containing the story of the next few seasons, because it aligns with the long-standing 2012-era aspect, the Uranus-Pluto square. This is generational astrology that is influencing very nearly everything, ranging from global events to the most intimate affairs of your private life.

The New Moon is part of a grand cross in the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. These may be the four highest-energy signs.

The Uranus-Pluto square (which I’ve been writing about in Chronogram at least since May 2009, to give you an idea of its significance) involves two slow-moving planets, and most of the time it disappears into the environment. A square is two planets arranged in a 90-degree meeting — one of the highest-tension aspects there is. We get it as the sensation of ‘everything, all at once’, in the form of weeks so concentrated they feel like a month of activity happened; months that go by so fast they feel like eight or nine days; and the sensation that there is simply no way to get control.

Those who are not fully on the ride may feel like life is blowing by them, like they are left on the shore as a rushing stream of events goes by. Those who are on the ride may be feeling like they’ve never participated so fully in so much experience. Those who are hesitating may have no concept how to get involved, or how to have an impact, or how even to make contact with those who are doing so. Pay attention and you will find your opening. Don’t judge your role — just live it out.

Uranus and Pluto together are like a mix of revolution and evolution. They can spur incredible upheavals. Yet they can also be subtle, dropping back from awareness and acting more like an invisible part of the environment, but influencing everything nonetheless. They have a long arc of influence, arriving in standout phases of history that most people don’t notice until they’re over.

Eileen. Photo by Eric Francis.

Remember that Uranus and Pluto can only be seen with special equipment, such as telescopes or space probes. In a sense we have to go to them. Astrologically, that property means they represent a non-ordinary state of consciousness.

When other planets come into the alignment — especially the more visceral bodies closer to the Earth — they tend to bring the Uranus-Pluto aspect into the foreground, as if they’re giving the aspect some tangible substance to work with. The ordinary and the non-ordinary fuse together and create something new: original ideas; previously unseen points of view; experiences that shape and change our lives; events that transform our culture.

There is always a mix of creative and destructive in these aspects; and there is often a choice what side of that equation to choose.

All of this shows up in the Capricorn New Moon chart, and that particular astrological pattern develops through the first week of the year, gradually ramping up the energy, preparing us for the coming four seasons. The New Moon is symbolic of new beginnings and is the turnover of the basic heartbeat of both nature and astrology. On New Year’s Day this is a clue that we’re actually about to encounter something different.

The New Moon pattern consists of the Moon and the Sun in Capricorn closely conjunct Mercury and Pluto. This has a touch of the ominous, and has the power to call awareness to a profound depth — the kind of thing that most humans usually avoid. Of itself, the Capricorn group is a call to question the nature of the familial, corporate and governmental structures that strive to control our lives and our every thought.

Mercury combined with Pluto is so penetrating that it holds the potential to go deeper into this issue than ever before. It’s not enough to challenge corporate entities by staging protests. It’s necessary to address their internalized, miniature versions that inhabit our families, our intimate relationships and our inner lives.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Opposite the Capricorn New Moon group is Jupiter in Cancer. The largest planet and its 67 natural satellites are holding emotional ground and providing a kind of counterweight, facilitating some stability while these questions come up. Jupiter places an emphasis on home and awareness of how important it is, something that many tend to forget. Practice being grateful for your dry roof every time you notice it’s there.

Jupiter in its position in this chart also feels like it’s gathering emotional intelligence, which will be a point of orientation through whatever changes these aspects represent, and which will emerge in a new way later in the year when Jupiter makes its way into Leo in July. That transit has the feeling of bold expression, be it musical, artistic, dramatic or the sensation that the party has begun.

While Jupiter will be retrograde (through March 6) it will mostly be in learning mode, opening up inwardly and serving as a bold reminder that while it’s sometimes okay to keep your feelings to yourself, it’s necessary to have feelings, to notice them (which means to notice yourself) and to use your experiences to help you expand inwardly.

With Jupiter in Cancer there is also the sense that some collective opinion is brewing, a kind of wide consensus on so many issues that seem to be ignored in day-to-day conversation — something that will not begin to express itself directly till late winter (when Jupiter stations direct).

Uranus, part of the Uranus-Pluto square, is in Aries. This is an exceptionally restless placement that can feel like you’re searching for identity, bursting with erratic creativity that is calling for some containment and focus, and going through potentially violent feelings. There is a drive for freedom in this placement that could be expressed through pointless, violent militancy; or it could be expressed as the kind of art created by someone truly self-inventive.

That could be a challenge to find; my take is that Uranus in Aries has most people caught in the thrall of glamour, technology and the fascination of narcissism. Emerging from that into a free space will be a revolutionary act.

Mars Retrograde in Libra: The Prime Mover

There is one sign and one extended event remaining to describe on the cardinal cross, and that is Libra. Libra will be occupied by Mars beginning Dec. 7. Mars will be retrograde between March 1 and May 19, and then finally leaves Libra and enters Scorpio on July 25. Mars spends nearly eight months of its current two-year orbit in Libra, about 11 weeks of that time retrograde.

Oh, Dang. Photo by Eric Francis.

Mars retrograde seems to contain an inherent contradiction, in that Mars is action-oriented; retrograde motion is a kind of retreat, though it’s also inwardly seeking in a way that Mars generally is not.

Libra, where this will happen, is a sign ruled by Venus. So there’s another seeming contradiction here; Mars will be way out of his home territory, with a couple of compromises placed on him. Though this might be challenging if taken unconsciously, it could be helpful as well.

We will have Mars in a field of experience where Venus is much more comfortable. This could be some form of gender or gender role questioning, a role reversal, or the immersion in an experience that provides a different point of view where sex and relationships are concerned. You could see this as men being put into the roles of women and having to find their way.

We are talking about Mars, the planet of desire and the energy of ‘go get it’, and Libra, the primary sign associated with relationships. Mars (which on one level representsan individual) will be in an unusual position, which you could view several ways. One is that whatever Mars represents will be put in a position to be in a more conscious relationship to itself. The inward-seeking property of the retrograde emphasizes the point.

You could also look at this as an inquiry. “What do you want from your relationships?” is an obvious image. “Are you in the right relationship?” is another.

We humans tend to make a lot of assumptions when we relate to one another, and we tend not to ask so many questions. This transit is about asking the questions that will penetrate those assumptions.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Mars retrograde in Libra goes to the level of what happens to our society, not just to us as individuals. For the Capricorn New Moon on Jan. 1, all the planets I’ve mentioned in this article so far will be in aspect to Mars — it’ll be opposed by Uranus; to one side squared by Jupiter; and to the other side squared by the Moon, Mercury, the Sun and Pluto.

These aspects are all connection points to much larger nodes, events or pre-existing patterns of change. We may see some shocking, massive events in society associated with Mars passing through the Uranus-Pluto square.

Because of the direct-retrograde-direct pattern of motion, Mars will make three sweeps through the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto configuration: one centered in late December and the first week of January, one centered on the last week of April (with a focus on April 24, the most powerful chart of the year) and then a third the last two weeks of June. Whatever this astrology represents lasts through the first half of the year and, for a number of reasons, well beyond.

The emphasis on personal relationships rises to the level of understanding how society works — that the vastest public experiences stem from our most intimate connections with one another. The ways in which society is out of balance are reflections of the ways in which we struggle in our partnerships.

This is an invitation to do your part. Get clear about the meaning of the people in your life. Don’t take them for granted. Don’t take your relationships for granted. Listen to the people you care about, and speak in a way that encourages them to listen to you.

We need balance, though nobody is going to hand it to us. We must find it with one another. It will not be enough to pray for peace. We will need to work it out with one another, with kindness, fairness and devotion.

Lovingly,

I’ve recorded a half-hour presentation (available to everyone) about the astrology of 2014 and introducing The Mars Effect, your 2014 annual readings. This discussion, featuring music by Gary Lucas, covers the peak astrology of the 2012 era — the grand cross that is forming around the Uranus-Pluto square and that will spin the world on its finger. The grand cross is exact for the first time with the Capricorn New Moon on New Year’s Day, and for the second time April 23-24. Planet Waves members may still pre-order all 12 signs for a very friendly discount — we have extended the $69 rate through the end of today. NOTE — On Saturday, the all-12 price goes up to $79, and eventually the signs will only be sold individually. The Mars Effect, my 16th annual readings, will be delivered in January and include both written and audio interpretations for each of the signs and rising signs. My introductory audio will orient you on just how big, and how interesting, 2014 astrology is.

Writing and Editing Credits: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Amanda Painter, Susan Scheck and Carol van Strum. Page assembled and coded by Anatoly Ryzhenko. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

That’s Not Tofurky: Sagittarius New Moon

The Sun is now in Sagittarius, heading for two of the most potent deep-space points in the sky — the Great Attractor and the Galactic Core.

In Northern Hemisphere summertime, you can see the galaxy make its streak across the night sky — during the summer, we face inward toward the Galactic Core. In the winter, the night sky has its back to the Galactic Core. Part of the chilly, isolated feeling of this season is that we face outward into intergalactic space at night.

Bonfire on the Grandmother Land in High Falls, Ulster County, New York, November 2013. Photo by Eric Francis.

There’s another deep-space point, one located many thousands of light years beyond our galaxy, called the Great Attractor. That is in mid-Sagittarius. These two points give Sagittarius most of its flavor: emphasis on the spiritual, on the exotic, on the unknown, on long-distance travel and for individuals, the sensation of needing a lot of space around them.

Monday’s Sagittarius New Moon is close to the Great Attractor (it’s just four degrees away). The sensation of planets within range of the Great Attractor is polarization. Viewpoints can seem to differ wildly; both can seem right, or are arguably right. People with planets conjunct or in other strong aspects to the GA can have a polarizing effect on others. (That might be you if you’re born in mid Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces, or have one of those signs rising.)

Others can have unusually strong feelings about these people and not understand why (and I do mean unusually strong). They may seem to walk around with a storm of controversy surrounding them — which often can be meaningless and serve no practical purpose. Therefore, if you find yourself in controversies, any time from now into early next week (when the New Moon happens) and into midweek, I suggest you not feed them. Just stand back and trust that you cannot be harmed by the opinions of others.

The Sagittarius New Moon has two points around it that may clarify the issue. It’s square Pallas in Virgo, and Chiron in Pisces. Both of these minor planets are about focusing the mind. They are doing this from different points of view.

Pallas in Virgo is calling for focus on the most precise details (supported by Mars in Virgo). These Virgo placements are asking for careful planning and making sure that your data is correct. Use power tools with full consciousness; make sure you know what you’re doing.

Chiron in Pisces is a reminder to distill the ‘big picture’ into a meaningful presentation — one way to look at that is spiritual ideas focused into a practical approach to life. The information comes not from the data (as in Virgo) but from a cosmic source, something a bit beyond the world, though for that to work, there must be action points.

Then the data side of the equation and the cosmic side of the equation need to be integrated. That may be tricky with the Great Attractor pointing out all the seeming differences, though the differences will be less meaningful (or more useful) as time goes on.

Night of the Comet — ISON Emerges from Behind the Sun

For those following Comet ISON (or C/2012-S1, named for the ISON Observatory in Russia, where it was discovered, also called Comet Nevski–Novichonok after the comrades who first spotted it), ISON reached perihelion Thursday, disappearing behind the Sun for a few hours.

Its proximity to the Sun was so close — about 12% of the Earth-Sun distance — that astronomers were writing its obituary yesterday when a fragment of the object emerged from behind the Sun several hours later, seeming to be significantly smaller with a bunch of it having been cooked off.

Comet ISON photographed from the ESO small-body observatory in northern Chile on Nov. 15. Read more about the photo here.

ISON was discovered more than a year ago, on Sept. 21, 2012. But it remained a fairly uneventful discovery till it started having outbursts of gas and other material on Nov. 1 and then again on Nov. 13, making it much more visible.

Many people ask about the astrology of comets, which is a speciality of its own — one that hardly anybody practices, since comets are so rare, and most people cannot remember what they had for breakfast. With comets we are in the region of ‘signs and omens’ rather than standard interpretations.

Their orbits are typically so weird (off the ecliptic, parabolic or hyperbolic), and so difficult to plot exactly, that we don’t usually have a longitude position for them and hence cannot declare them to be a creature of some zodiac sign or another.

I think of them as demarcation points in history — manifestations that say ‘this moment is meaningful now, for reasons that will be obvious now, if you look’. Notably, it was discovered in the very last days of the Mayan 13th baktun. The Western astrology chart for the discovery is somewhat unremarkable, though I have not been able to identify a discovery time, which might help clarify things.

However, there is a T-square in the chart between Venus in Leo, Mars in Scorpio and Nessus in Aquarius — a little reminder of all the Venus and Mars stuff (emotional, sexual) that underlies all of our society’s woes, including things like school shootings (and our response to them). The closest aspect in the chart is Venus in Leo trine Pholus in Sagittarius. That, actually, is really interesting, and I will let you know what it means when my astrology muses clue me in.

The comet’s discovery, its presumed loss and then its reemergence suggests that it’s a good idea to keep developing and transforming good ideas, even when all hope seems lost — they may emerge on the other side of the orbit in a new form.

The Little Health Care System That Could

Despite the massive propaganda blitz designed to convince Americans that the Affordable Care Act is unworkable and disastrous, the latest poll results indicate that a majority are willing to give the federal government a chance to work the bugs out and see what develops. And it turns out that at least some of the opposition expressed to the law is not because people fear socialized medicine, but because they feel the ACA does not go far enough in that direction.

“The ACA has this many new enrollees!” Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifying Nov. 6 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Photo: AP.

The right wing is struggling to maintain its characterization of the rollout as a massive disaster, trotting out story after story about problems with the law and striving to maintain its narrative of angry physicians, crumbling hospital programs and bereft citizens — stories which have repeatedly unraveled under scrutiny.

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says she anticipates that many of the website glitches will be much improved by the administration’s self-imposed deadline of Nov. 30, and that improvements already in place have resulted in a slow but steady increase in enrollments. Currently, about 200,000 people have purchased new private coverage through the healthcare.gov site and state networks, and some 370,000 have enrolled in expanded Medicaid provided under the law.

Proponents of a single-payer health care system have pointed out that such a plan would have undoubtedly been simpler in its implementation, while opponents have gone so far as to suggest that the glitches that have occurred are part of an underlying conspiracy aimed at adding the United States to the lengthy list of countries where health care is considered a right.

Iranian Peace Process: Baby Steps and Backlash

An interim agreement reached last Sunday between Iran, the five permanent members of the UN security council, Germany and the European Union keeps many of the economic sanctions against the Iranian regime in place, while allowing Iran to continue its nuclear enrichment program within certain limits. About $7 billion in sanctions will be lifted, and Iran will stop enriching uranium to 20% purity.

Participants before the start of three days of closed-door nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013. Photo: Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone/AP.

The interim agreement will be in force for six months, during which time talks will continue in hopes of further progress. It’s the first time any negotiations have taken place, much less succeeded, between the U.S. and Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, in which the Western-backed Shah was deposed — unless one counts the surreptitious doings of the Reagan-era Iran/Contra affair.

The agreement has been subjected to intense criticism from Israeli and Saudi Arabian leaders as well as from conservatives in the U.S. and hard-liners in Iran. And in a somewhat cryptic statement released on Tuesday, the Iranian foreign ministry took issuewith what it sees as Washington’s spin on the agreement. As has often been said, a successful negotiation almost never results in either side getting everything they want — and it seems unlikely that the more hawkish elements on the planet will ever be satisfied by anything less than continued saber-rattling.

The Artsy-Crafty Attack on Contraceptives and Women’s Rights

For years, the conservative movement has been trying to undermine the 1965 Supreme Court ruling that blocks states from making contraceptives illegal. Before that time, states could arrest even married couples for using contraceptives. But in a famous ruling, the case Griswold v. Connecticut put a stop to that.

As SCOTUS decides whether Hobby Lobby, Inc. is a person, will Roe v. Wade and Griswold v. Connecticut be undermined any further? AP photos.

In 1973, the Supreme Court built on that precedent when it issued the Roe v. Wade ruling that bans states from making abortion illegal, so naturally for those wanting to ban abortion, it would make sense to undermine Roe by reversing Griswold. [Read Planet Waves’ excellent coverage of Roe v. Wade here.]

This week the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases brought by parties objecting to being mandated under the Affordable Care Act to provide health coverage for certain women’s reproductive procedures in their employee health insurance packages. Both parties — one being the Hobby Lobby chain and the other being a wood products company owned by a Mennonite family — object to having to cover women’s fertility procedures, including contraception.

In the Hobby Lobby case, a federal appellate court ruled that the corporation is a “person” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and that its religious beliefs were being compromised. This has a chilling similarity to the Citizens’ United case of 2010, the latest in a series of rulings that grant personhood rights to corporations. One of the earliest and most troubling of these was the 1886 decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, which was granted corporate personhood not by the justices in the actual decision, but by Bancroft Davis, the court reporter at the time that the decision printed. Davis was a former railway executive and made sure he added a little something extra to the printed decision — and it stuck.

For chart spotters, here is the chart for the Griswold ruling, which banned states from making birth control illegal. This chart came under tremendous stress from around 2000 through 2005 and it’s amazing the ruling held up — but then the anti-choice forces had not quite figured out that it was their target yet.

In agreeing to hear Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the court will be considering another aspect of the concept of corporate “personhood” further entrenched in the Citizens’ United decision — whether corporations have freedom of religion. Yes, seriously.

The case revolves around whether Hobby Lobby may refuse to cover abortion and certain contraceptives that they believe are the equivalent of abortion in its employee health care plans.

Churches and nonprofit religious organizations are already exempt from the mandate, and the Obama administration has expressed confidence that the court will rule that for-profit corporations must abide by it. Anti-choice forces, meanwhile, are encouraged by the court’s agreeing to hear the case.

Lower courts have varied in their opinions of whether corporations are “persons” for the purposes of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibited government from burdening the free exercise of religion unless some compelling interest was at stake.

It remains to be seen what implications a ruling would have in other areas where religious principles may be in conflict with federal law, such as hiring discrimination. The contraceptive mandate has been struck down by three federal appeals courts and upheld by two others. Oral arguments are set for March, and a decision is anticipated in June.

Walmart Shoppers May Encounter Picket Lines on Friday

Nationwide, there are 1,500 strikes planned at Walmarts across the country on Friday, Nov. 29, as labor advocates Organizations United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) strive to make the most of a swelling tide of public opinion in their favor.

A 2012 ‘Black Thanksgiving’ Walmart strike sign in West Allis, Wisconsin, protesting the opening of stores on the holiday. Photo: Making Change at Walmart.

Walmart’s labor practices have come under increasing scrutiny as the holiday shopping season approaches. The revelation that most Walmart employees make so little that they are eligible for food stamps, along with the company’s decision to open stores on Thanksgiving, made a striking backdrop for the widely circulated story of one Walmart holding a food drive for its own needy “associates,” with donations presumably coming from other needy associates.

Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board just found that the company violated the rights of striking workers, and a study released this week demonstrates that Walmart could raise wages to $15 an hour without affecting prices. Presumably, the effect on the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the heirs to the Walton fortune would also be minimal.

Smaller labor actions have been taking place leading up to the Black Friday event, with one in Los Angeles earlier this month resulting in 54 arrests. Meanwhile, corporate apologists are attempting to spin the whole thing as contrived, pointing to low participation numbers from actual Walmart employees — an argument that fails to factor in the well-documented retaliation Walmart dishes out to activist employees.

Reverend Billy and The Golden Toads take over a Chase Bank, singing their message of saving the planet’s diverse inhabitants from global warming at the hands of big banks and the fossil fuel industry. Photo by John Quilty / The Church of Stop Shopping.

Holiday Sing-Along With the Choir of Stop Shopping

Just in time for Black Friday, some news about New York performance activist Reverend Billy and his Choir of Stop Shopping. Reverend Billy and his group usually greet the staggering crush of shoppers seeking bargains at Macy’s department store the day after Thanksgiving, singing out their ‘gospel’ of renouncing mindless consumerism.

But Reverend Billy and Neremiah Luckett, his choir director, were arrested in September after the group’s performance in a JP Morgan Chase bank in Manhattan. In recent years the Church of Stop Shopping — a “post religious church” and “radical performance community” — have focused their attention on global warming and the big banks that finance our planet’s destruction. To bring attention to the injustice, choir members don hat-like masks of the Golden Toad, a Central American species that went extinct in the 1980s.

The Reverend and Luckett face a possible year in jail but were released on their own recognizance until the Dec. 9 trial — which falls in the middle of a string of performances at Joe’s Pub in New York. As Reverend Billy told Amy Goodman this week, “… one thing [Jesus] did teach us is, if you can’t afford a press person, get arrested quickly.”

Can I get an Earthellujah?

Sun in Sagittarius, 2014 Astrology and Nuke Deal with Iran

Link to program.

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, we meet the Sagittarius Sun, and get an up-close look at 2014 astrology. I also cover the astrology of Iran and the recent development of a nuclear deal endorsed that Pres. Obama has brokered. My musical guest is Jessica Montague, of the band Jake.

We are happy to offer once again one of our most popular products: the Planet Waves All-Access Pass for 2014. The All-Access Pass is for members who want access to everything we offer in a calendar year. In recent years our product line has grown considerably, and the response from our All-Access subscribers has been overwhelmingly positive. You can read about everything that’s included with an All-Access pass here. For those who can’t get enough Planet Waves astrology, it’s an unbeatable value. Plus, if you order now, we’ll include the rest of the readings that come out in 2013, and you’ll save $100.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The extended monthly horoscope for December is published below in this issue. Inner Space for November was published Friday, Nov. 1. We published Moonshine for the Taurus Full Moon Tuesday, Nov. 12. Moonshine for the Sagittarius New Moon was published Tuesday, Nov. 26. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday.

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscopes — December 2013, #977 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — We live in a time when everything comes down to power. Every question, action taken, or choice made becomes a question of power over others, or whether an individual has the strength to stand up to it. It would be one thing if this were just the king and his men. It’s now every major corporation and countless events that unfold on the individual and intimate levels of existence. Sex becomes a question of rape. Food becomes a matter of mass poisoning. Rule One is: you do it if you can. This comes at a price, which is self-mastery. As long as the name of society’s game is domination of others, we will overlook that the essential mission of arriving on Earth in a body is to be the master of your consciousness, your choices and to the greatest extent possible, your destiny. That theme comes into focus now, and as your ruling planet Mars moves into Libra and then into aspect with the historic Uranus-Pluto square, this theme will remain in focus for the foreseeable future. It is true that many forces in your personality are leading you to feel less than stable, though that is precisely what you must learn to harvest and focus with discipline and a true commitment to self-reinvention, clarity and the ability to direct your will.

Looking for an in-depth reading for the coming year? Pre-order THE MARS EFFECT, your 2014 annual readings, for a special rate of $69 for all twelve signs. It’s a great package of audio and written readings (plus bonus articles) that gives you access to your Sun, rising and Moon signs (and those of your loved ones).

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You are right in that zone where self-respect and respect for authority merge into the same thing. You have wanted and indeed needed to level the playing field of life for a long time; to experience some sense of your own presence with other talented people on a peer-to-peer level. What you are learning is that the human property that facilitates that experience comes from you. It’s your recognition of your own gifts and your own potential that allows you to recognize the talent and leadership of others as something inherently human rather than mythical or supernatural. If you perceive authority as a leadership quality, as aptitude and as a hard-won achievement, you will be more inclined to be its student and to crave cultivating those same qualities in yourself. What you’re about to experience is an opportunity to dismantle and understand the familial experiences that led you in the other direction — to mystify those who seemed powerful; to distance yourself from them; to feel anything but equal. As you identify and discard various internalized structures, especially the authority structures of your family, you will free up energy, time and space. That will come in handy as you discover not only talents but also a profound desire to make your contribution to society.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — It is time for you to think bigger, which means with a long-range vision and focusing your sense of mission. This is setting a high standard in a world where 140-character messages by rank idiots make world news, but so be it. Over the next few weeks, information is likely to come through that has nothing to do with your work-a-day world, your circle of friends or any of your usual patterns of conversation. You will be getting big-picture information at the same time you experience a kind of earthquake around the values that guide your life. Go deeper, not for an hour or for a special occasion, but rather take your whole existence into the realm of active meaning. When you recognize that something you feel or think is true, or when you have an experience that changes you, start making decisions — immediately — based on what you have learned or discovered. Stop yourself from making excuses not to. It would be helpful if you were to take notes, by which I mean carry a notebook and use it, because there are some observations you will make that will evade memory. These are things you will want to remember, indeed, things for which you may have searched a lifetime.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You may notice that certain people you are intimate with are willing to go places you never imagined they would. That’s a cosmic signal that you are ready to go places that you never dreamed of, both in intimate situations and ordinary life. This is not a passing trend. You are embarking on one of the most significant phases of your life, when it comes to your ability to deepen your intimacy, your capacity for empathy and most of all, for experiencing some emotional balance in your relationships with others. While it may not be possible to insist that others know where you’re coming from at all times, you can understand yourself in the context of another person’s life, which is almost as good. A perceptive ability is opening up that is allowing you to see how others see you and to sense who you are to them. Before long you will be able to time travel with this experience, and look back over the course of your life and benefit from the awareness of how others experienced you, even when you were a child. This depth of understanding will help you adjust your emotional reality, and experience the feeling of actually belonging in the world. That you do is a true fact. To feel that way is a privilege.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may feel like you’ve got an unusual amount of work piled on you, however the way to think of this is as approaching a truly significant achievement. There may be something you’ve wanted to accomplish for years, and you now have that potential. It will help if you get busywork out of the way, avoid running around on errands or doing everyone else’s job. That is to say, keep yourself on a routine of constantly prioritizing and reassessing your priority scheme. The point of this, if it’s not obvious, is to eliminate as many unnecessary activities as possible and direct your energy to what you know matters. If you are uncertain, knock it down the priority list and focus on what you are confident you want to do or know you must accomplish. One thing I can tell you is that by thinking things through and letting your mind do most of the work, you can spare yourself a lot of pointless effort and wasted time. I don’t mean worrying, which you’re better at than you let on. I mean thinking of your goals, desires and the circumstances of your life as puzzles you want to solve, and getting your thoughts together before you take action. A sketch on the back of an envelope may be enough.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Authentic creativity requires meltdowns, breakdowns, risks taken, the collapse of the known order and, sooner or later, total submission to the creative process. Well, not the creative process, but your process of birthing yourself into a new stage of your existence, which happens in tandem with what you create. As you go through this, you may have the sensation of betraying authority. That, in turn, could lead to the insidious feeling of guilt, intermingled with the pleasure of creation, liberation or sex, as if what you are doing is ‘so right but so wrong’. Here is a clue: It cannot be both. The right and the wrong you perceive are servants of different masters. So you need to ask yourself, who is the inner voice expressing disapproval (in the form of guilt or fear) and what is the source of the feeling that you really are expressing or exploring something meaningful? All the art in the world leads to this one theme: who has authority for the creation of your life and the expression of your life force? If it is ‘someone else’ then it would make perfect sense for you to feel bad about it. If it’s you, then it makes perfect sense for you to feel beautiful, perhaps a little shaken up, vulnerable and rather unusual.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Events of this month can serve either as a hologram or miniature model for what you can do with yourself during the coming year or, alternately, as an example of what you do not want. There’s likely to be some mix of the two, though I am inclined to think that you are about to discover the benefits of actually asserting yourself. I suggest you do this in your own style (well, that’s always what you do) but don’t let the concept of style include any form of passivity, compromise before the conversation, or getting snagged up in your contemplation/indecision thing. The idea here is to be bold and take a chance. This is where what I will call the reverb factor comes in. When you assert yourself, you’re likely to get a little echo back, in the form of some disapproval from someone. This verges on being a universal phenomenon, and it’s a potential stumbling point for those at a new phase of experimenting with their will and influence. The problem is that it’s enough to keep most people in their shell, silencing their opinions or otherwise refusing to ruffle feathers. Yet overcoming this seems to be the whole point of your astrology this month, and the phenomenon lasts well into next summer. Start the ruffling now and you’ll get some valuable practice.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — If you over-focus on the concept of sex in one relationship, you may miss the point of the whole human sexual experiment. That point (the little arrow on the Scorpio symbol) is how every aspect of life is fundamentally creative; how creativity always requires some transformation or movement of resources (which could be called ‘destructive’ to the form that existed before); and that any form of sex, or art, or expression will unquestionably offend someone, somewhere. Therefore, that someone may be offended by some aspect of your personal expression cannot be a valid criterion for determining the appropriateness of something. Once you catch that little riff, you will become a revolutionary, particularly where the stuffy, rigid thought forms of your parents or other caregivers are concerned. Those shadow figures are unlikely ever to give you direct permission to exist. So I suggest you open your aperture, open your mind and allow experience to happen. Daring to express yourself passionately, against the rules, is the one dependable thing that will crack all the stifling patterns that have you doing the box step — not waiting for permission or approval from anyone. As Ginsberg suggested, Art recalls the memory / of [your] true existence / to whoever has forgotten / that Being is the one thing / all the universe shouts.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The more you retreat, the more you’re putting yourself into position for maximum contact and action. It may seem like a paradox; however, we both know you’re determined to experience those very things, despite what appears to be a certain emotional hesitancy. When the spark meets the fuel, however, your specific frame of mind will not make a difference, except for how much fun you have when the time comes. So whatever you are doing with your emotional energy, however you feel about putting yourself forward and embracing your feelings and those of others, I suggest you count yourself as moving in the direction of what you know you want the most, whether you think you’re doing it or not. You are in a rare, beautiful position to learn the nature of trust where intimate exchanges are concerned. Part of that trust involves understanding that you have the power to opt in and also to opt out. This state of being often exists for you only in potential; only right now that potential is more like low-hanging fruit. I recognize that you don’t necessarily want to get overly caught up in someone else’s world, and in that you have options. You know that every relationship involves taking a chance. What is not said often enough is that not daring also involves a risk as well.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You are rapidly moving toward a breakthrough. Since this is something you have initiated but cannot control, I suggest focusing on aligning your intentions with your actions, every single time you make a move. It is debatable whether control even exists. What you can be certain exists is the potential to guide your existence and your creative power one step at a time, one decision at a time, in a series of conscious steps. This is a little like rock climbing or rafting or any other noncompetitive sport. You know your goal, you have your basic approach, and then you deal with the questions and challenges of the moment in the moment you are living them. This is the most efficient — and fun — way to get to your destination. It’s also the best way, at the moment, to align your life with what you want. I am suggesting this as an alternate to control dramas, resistance, power struggles and other huge wastes of energy and focusing power. Your chart is set up for incremental progress that all of a sudden manifests as a kind of crest that feels like you suddenly overcame some huge obstacle; really, all you can ever do is look forward and take one step at a time.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Rather than project your values onto a ’cause’ or going overboard to express your devotion to a relationship, I suggest you take an even bolder step: embody what matters to you the most. We all know the human tendency to have high ideals in some abstract dimension — and those born under your sign are especially susceptible. You can apply this to any desire to become a better person, or the notion that you will accomplish something great in the future. I suggest you skip the whole ‘becoming’ thing and go right into being. This may seem like a leap, but really, it’s a kind of un-leap. Try gathering your existence, your values, your desires into the present moment and noticing how you feel, and where you are. I know you may be experiencing a powerful need to lead by example, which implies demonstrating a level of certainty. I would propose that certainty is the last thing you want now, and the last thing that’s in the stars. You are however in a moment of dancing with some rich, fertile uncertainty, which will do more to nourish you than any goal-setting or devotion to anything outside yourself. Stay with the feeling and have faith what it will give birth to, in each moment as you live it.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Remind yourself at all times, whenever you need to, that you are the one who directs the shape and flow of your life. More significantly, you provide the shape and color to the vital force that comes through you. The more you honor these ideas, the more influence you will have over your life. Yet they will not be real to you until you put them into practice, and get some experience doing so. This will necessitate a change of orientation from focusing primarily on the activity and relationships in your life, to your actual existence. Your core relationship is to yourself, though I assure you that this violates every rule of our society — this, despite the prevalence of narcissism and self-obsession, which has nothing to do with the concept of a core relationship. Narcissism is a mockery, and in truth it’s always about someone else. One of the biggest and best favors you can do for yourself this month and for the coming year is to focus your vision. Have some concept of what you want to be doing, and then refine it regularly as you process additional experiences and information. This is not merely a psychological exercise; it’s working with a manifestation principle. You can be a passive recipient of your experience, or you can vision yourself into existence.

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