Tag Archives: Roe v. Wade

Supreme Court Rules: No Sex for Fun

Planet Waves

Feisty young women protesting for “religious freedom” today (albeit based on a complete misunderstanding of the concept) have no idea what their mothers and grandmothers went through to get the modest rights that women currently have, such as the right to own property or work without the consent of their husbands. In the 1970s a woman could be turned down for a bank loan for being of child-bearing age — with no other disqualifications present. I have been analyzing this photo all week and keep noticing the hashtag #womenincontrol — as if sexuality is associated with being out of control, rather than reproductive rights being associated with the right of women to control their own bodies. Photo by Doug Mills for The New York Times.

Dear Friend and Reader:

On one level, people get it.

If the Supreme Court can rule that a for-profit corporation can ignore a federal mandate to provide health insurance that includes birth control coverage to women based on an ethical objection, then the government must respect everyone’s ethical values.

This is called Equal Protection Under the Law. American law, by its own mandate, applies to everyone equally, that is, to all persons similarly situated. Therefore, the court has affirmed everyone’s rights to freedom of religion, the core idea of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993 that it affirmed in Monday’s ruling in the infamous Hobby Lobby case. RFRA is one of those Clinton/Gingrich-era laws, similar to the now-defunct Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), laws that were designed to kiss up to right-wing voters.

Planet Waves
Internet meme by comedian Ron Beau.

It warmed my Quaker heart to see memes go around the Internet linking the court’s ruling to someone who refuses to pay taxes out of objection to war. If the Ten Commandments are clear about one thing, it is “thou shalt not kill.” And if war is not moral, it’s no more ethical to pay someone (using my tax dollars) to go in my place.

On another level, people get how hypocritical it is for five Roman Catholic men to decide that a for-profit corporation has “religious freedom” and thus the right to deny insurance coverage for birth control for women.

If their loyalty to the Pope superseded their commitment to the Constitution, they should have recused themselves from the case. Back in 1960 when John F. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic presidential candidate, people claimed to worry that his loyalty would be to the Vatican and not to his oath of office. So much for that.

Others have noted that the birth control methods in question are not forms of abortion, which is the supposed moral basis of the objection by Hobby Lobby. An IUD (intrauterine device) does not terminate a pregnancy and an unimplanted zygote is not a fetus — but who cares; while we’re denying global warming we may as well deny biology. Nobody who has gone through Abstinence Only indoctrination will care.

Now a Corporation Can Legally Have Religious Views

In Monday’s ruling in the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case, the Supreme Court did too many weird things to write about in one article, but among them was to grant the notion of a religious conscience to a profit-making corporate entity. I think I’m going to found a church called the Congregation of the Corporations, of which Planet Waves, Inc. will be the ordained minister. Our headquarters will be in Delaware and we will baptize other companies in a pool of fresh, pure money.

There is a long history of corporations gaining personhood rights (dating back to 1819, but especially to an extremely dicey 1886 case called Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad), and yet currently we are in one of its most formative moments. And throughout American history there has also been a long tradition of people objecting to laws on religious grounds, but until this time, no for-profit corporation has been granted such a right.

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Corporations cannot have a conscience; they are a “legal fiction.” So if they have a conscience, it must be fictional. Their actual role is to shield people from liability and to make a profit. That purpose often defies ethics and conscience, which is why most of the atrocities of the world are committed in the name of a corporation.

So instead of having ethics, they are supposed to follow the law. Now a corporation gets to defy the law based on its supposed religion. As if this were not absurd enough, many have noted that while it’s been busy objecting to birth control for its employees, Hobby Lobby has $75 million invested in pension funds that hold stock in companies that manufacture the very birth control methods they claim to object to the most.

So much for morality. This isn’t illegal but it’s another example of unvarnished hypocrisy, so brazen as to presume the public and the justices of the court are fools.

The social and legal issues peel off of this case in layers. Those who made the connection to the court’s ruling last week striking down the 35-foot safety perimeter around abortion clinics are getting closer to the heart of the matter. Everyone else gets a perimeter — delegates at political conventions, people attending military funerals and the Supreme Court itself — but women going for reproductive health care can now legally be accosted by protesters holding pictures of fetuses, or who can call them murderers because the protesters have “free speech” rights.

In the Hobby Lobby ruling, the court determined that a corporation could object to providing something on religious grounds — as long as that something is birth control for women. Nothing else, the court’s majority claimed, is included. We shall see how long that holds up.

It’s hard to miss the hypocrisy of this, especially since people of every religion and no religion at all work for the company. You don’t need to be a legal scholar to see that it’s not really religious freedom if you get to force your religion on others, especially with the power of a court order. If there is one thing that religious freedom is not, this is the thing.

The Rule to Which Everything Else is the Exception

Following along with the story of modern civilization, the court has just issued two rulings where sex is the rule and everything else is the exception. This is so prevalent as to be invisible.

Planet Waves
In organizing, this is called “linking the issues.”

The most normal biological function of them all, the one that leads to all the others because it sometimes leads to birth, is sex. But everywhere you go, sex (I don’t mean glam and I don’t mean sexy, I mean actual sex) is excluded from normal conversation and from inclusion in everyday life.

You can illustrate anything you want on the Internet, but you would be amazed what arduous rules one must follow to publish photos of sex, including hiring a full-time employee to sit next to the proof-of-age file, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, just in case someone in the government wants to see it.

We have free speech — but not about sex, because with sex, for some reason that few people question and even fewer people understand, the rules are different. We are supposed to be honest, which is part of being in integrity. Yet in any discussion involving sex, many or most people believe they are automatically exempt from telling the truth, so that they can appear to be in integrity. Often this is done based on supposedly religious grounds.

Sex education used to be considered common sense; now in many places basic biological information is excluded, and supplanted with attempted brainwashing about abstinence, which almost always backfires.

But there’s another layer to this that may not be so obvious. In its lawsuit, Hobby Lobby’s lawyers argued, the government would be making them commit a sin by allowing women employees access to birth control. In a scathing dissent or minority opinion, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, “Any decision to use contraceptives made by a woman covered under Hobby Lobby’s or Conestoga’s plan will not be propelled by the Government, it will be the woman’s autonomous choice, informed by the physician she consults.” This may be the first dissenting opinion to go viral.

Birth Control Started the Sexual Revolution

I know you probably know this already, but someone else may not, so I will do my usual thing that I do with sex, which is translate into plain talk.

Someone who uses a birth control device of some kind wants to have sex purely for fun. Hobby Lobby can stand on its head and spin like a break dancer claiming they object to birth control, but what they object to is sex for fun, especially if it’s women who are having the fun. (From what I have read, their insurance plans cover vasectomies and Viagra.)

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They could never say that out loud. It would be too ridiculous. So instead, they dressed up the argument in morality and pseudo-science, took up the flag and the cross, and marched into court espousing their unbending principles.

Women who use birth control devices want to be more sexually free. If there was one thing that sparked the sexual revolution of the Sixties, it was the introduction of the birth control pill in 1960.

Women are often left with the responsibility for children created by sex, and the pill was the first development that gave them an option not to conceive a child, and thus opened up the potential for sexual freedom.

Nobody could rationally object to a natural biological act on purely scientific or ethical grounds. There is no compelling governmental or corporate interest that could be openly argued. The objection would have to be based in some form of religious moralism. That is exactly what we just saw happen. Ultimately, any anti-sex value is hypocritical for a wide variety of reasons, but usually because such a value is defied by the actions or desires of the person who holds it. It’s usually a defensive position designed to cover what someone believes is their own sin. We have no idea, really, what the Hobby Lobbyists do in bed. If they want to seem more honest, they should give us a detailed account, if anyone would be interested in hearing about it.

When religious moralism is taken to the level of a government fiat, that is called theocracy, or rule by religion. The reason that the U.S. Constitution includes not just one but two distinct prohibitions on merging religion and government is that religion is not rational.

In religion, God created the world in seven days. People walk on water and turn loaves into fishes and prescribe the death penalty for homosexuality and for eating lobster in the same paragraph. In religion there are four horsemen and seven seals and fire wheels burning in the sky. God manifests as the emperor, as an angel impregnating a young girl, as a carpenter, as a chariot driver, as an old man in the sky who kills people or puts them through arduous, senseless tests to prove how much they love God for putting them through all that misery because he loves them so much.

The United States as a Theocracy

This is all symbolically rich and it’s excellent fodder for literature class and metaphysical study — but you cannot use it to run a society, especially one that consists of hundreds of millions of people of many different faiths, including atheists, skeptics and the Church of the Subgenius. It’s not possible to run an advanced society on religious law. If we want a test run, look at the ongoing centuries-long battles between the Shia and the Sunnis, or the battle between Catholics and Protestants that left 22,000 people dead in one day.

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The Hobby Lobby decision reversed an earlier decision, written by Scalia — which denied two people the right to take peyote as part of a religious ritual. (That ruling by the Supreme Court prompted Congress to pass the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.) Scalia voted in favor of Hobby Lobby, going against one of his own prior rulings.

However, there is an American political movement that thinks it is — the Dominionists. They have a vision for the United States of America. If you’re wondering about all of the verging-on-psychotic pronouncements of Republican candidates during the past several federal election cycles; or the prayer meeting in a Texas football stadium, hosted by a presidential candidate, purportedly to heal the United States; or inserting into a presidential election dialog the idea that homosexuality can be cured, that is Dominionism.

If you’re wondering why Republican (and later President) George H.W. and Barbara Bush could sing the praises of Planned Parenthood, but now every Republican candidate must be vehemently against abortion (and often, against birth control), that is Dominionism.

If you are wondering why every Republican candidate has to act and look like a holy roller and espouse a platform of moral purity, that is Dominionism, also called Christian nationalism. The movement in its current form dates back to the Reagan campaign of 1980, when Republicans realized they had an organizing base that could utilize churches as political clubhouses.

It is similar to Tammany Hall-style politics, where one special interest takes over the whole government and tries to run society on its terms. However, it’s a special interest that involves deep and usually unquestioned beliefs. It is a special interest that has people convinced they can go to hell for all eternity. At least Tammany Hall would hold a keg party on July 4 (with beer served after many long speeches about the glory of government).

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It seems like the Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court — and it is astonishing that all five votes for Hobby Lobby were cast by men of one religion, the one that has made an issue out of birth control for decades — have picked up on another agenda, an agenda not entirely their own but which is a convenient fit.

In her 2006 book Kingdom Coming, author Michelle Goldberg explains the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States. Michael Farris is one of its founders. According to the author, he is the man who did most of the work lobbying for home schooling in all 50 states, in order to allow fundamentalist Christians to get their kids out of godless public schools. I’ve only recently become aware that this is the purpose of most home schooling.

Farris explains American politics as follows. “There are two worldviews that are very much in conflict right now, especially in Washington, DC,” he is quoted as saying, the first being Judeo-Christian. “It starts with God as the creator, but then it also protects life, it’s about traditional marriage, one man one woman. On the other side, you have secular humanism, which starts with man as the center of things. There are no absolute standards, it’s all morally relative, anything goes as long as it has to do with sex.”

What he is saying is that the main thing that Christian political activists must attack in order to concentrate their power, first and foremost, are sex-positive attitudes. This is an astonishing admission from one of the leaders of the movement — that sexual freedom is their most important political enemy and thus organizing platform. The freedom to have access to affordable birth control would certainly qualify.

And the freedom to have abortion on demand would also qualify. Abortion rights are growing thin many places, particularly in the southern United States (especially in Texas and Oklahoma), where politicians are refusing to honor an established and fundamental right.

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Someday, the Supreme Court will rule that people are people.

My take is that the conservative quintet on the Supreme Court is not going to stop with birth control. I believe that these two recent rulings are a warning that they are going to go for Roe v. Wade as well.

Many people know they would never have an abortion and do not personally endorse the practice. Because abortion itself is so upsetting, being anti-abortion is conflated with being anti-choice. However, there is an important reason to remain pro-choice and to make sure that a Democrat is elected in 2016, for the sole purpose of Supreme Court appointments. If abortion is made illegal, then every miscarriage will be a potential murder scene. And that could be you or your daughter. Please do not mistake this for protecting fetuses. It is about one thing only — controlling women.

The Chart for the Hobby Lobby Decision

Let’s do something that would utterly thrill the Dominioninsts, and take a look at the astrology of the Hobby Lobby case. We have an accurate time for the ruling, 10:16 am EDT, reported live by SCOTUSblog. This is important because many Supreme Court rulings are issued in June at about 10 am, where the ascendant is very close to the Leo-Virgo line. [For one implication of that, see my recent article on Roe v. Wade.] This chart has Virgo rising. That means we need to look at Mercury — in half a moment.

Planet Waves
Hobby Lobby decision, timed by SCOTUSblog.

Virgo rising means Pisces is on the 7th house cusp — the environment and relationship angle. There we find Nessus, Neptune, Chiron and Borasisi. You could not have a better illustration of a cloud of confusion raised around issues of sexuality, sexual abuse, morality, medication and religion. It’s all there.

The most important thing to watch is Neptune, which is cautioning that things are not what they seem. When Neptune is present, you can look right at something and all you see is your own projection into the fog.

As for the ruler of the Virgo ascendant, an essential planet in any event chart because it talks about the issue itself: that is Mercury, which is in an interesting condition in this chart. Mercury stationed direct about 22 hours after this decision came out. At the time of the ruling, it was about to reverse directions — into direct motion. This implies that there will be a backlash and that the decision may be reversed at some point. We are already starting to see the blowback — there are a lot of ways to understand why this decision is just wrong, and many of them are being discussed openly. The bald hypocrisy is impossible to miss.

Mercury is trine the North Node, suggesting that a lot of people are influenced by this decision. As the chart develops over the next two years, the trine will become more exact and influence more people.

Looking closely at Mercury’s aspects to minor planets, it is exactly opposite a cluster in late Sagittarius that we’ve talked about many times — important new minor planet discoveries that are currently grouped around the Galactic Core. The Galactic Core is shorthand for “far-reaching implications” — especially where social policy is concerned. The Galactic Core describes the scale of this decision, on issues that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. It creates an opening that can be used both to litigate and legislate the Dominionist agenda, plus anything else that might fall under the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Planet Waves
Minor planets clustered around Mercury on a 90-degree sort. You may notice many more themes than I mentioned, such as fertility themes associated with Makemake. Planets cast in Serennu.com. Click for full list.

One of those minor planets is Quaoar, a dependable significator of family issues. Half a degree away is Hylonome, which is often described as being about grief and which is also about the anguish of poor people. Mercury opposite these two points suggests there’s a lot of potential for this decision to cause significant problems — or to reflect people’s own plight back to themselves.

Looking at another basic factor, the Moon is applying in a square to Saturn. This indicates some mix of inner confrontation and reflection. There is a pause. In Leo and closely aspecting the Aries Point, there is an indication that this could get the attention of a lot of women. Yet there is an element of pride that must be confronted, described by the Leo Moon. That is likely to be the false pride of alleged moral (sexual) purity, a burden Christianity loves to dump on women.

Speaking of women, let’s consider Venus — one of the most intriguing planets in this chart. Associated with all things female, in this chart Venus happens to rule the 10th house — the government. Venus is associated with Taurus (where the 10th cusp is) but is located in Gemini.

It has significance by being the most elevated traditional planet in the chart (that is called accidental dignity). Speaking of tradition, Venus is conjunct Juno, which is about traditional (often dysfunctional) relationships. We definitely have an illustration of just that concept in the court’s decision. There is a notion that the only purpose of sex, from the female point of view, is to make babies in marriage. This concept, now visible, is asking to be questioned.

In Gemini, Venus (or any planet) is about checking both sides of the story — or alternate versions of the story. (Remember, the same thing is true of Mercury in Gemini.) With Venus so prominent in the house of government, we might ask ourselves about what happened to the Equal Rights Amendment — the one that was not ratified into the Constitution, despite having been introduced in 1923 and having passed both houses of Congress in 1972. How exactly did that go down? How could an amendment that merely said, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” not be adopted by the people?

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the author of the first Supreme Court dissenting opinion to go viral on the Internet.

Even if a small fraction of men were in favor of it (and many more than that supported it), it could have passed. But a movement was organized called Stop ERA, headed by Phyllis Schlafly, along with the National Council of Catholic Women, both of which defended traditional gender roles. This conservative organizing of women is credited with killing the ERA.

Looking closely at minor planets aspects, Venus is conjunct a planet I have not mentioned before — Altjira. This is a slow-mover (296-year orbit) named for the Aboriginal god of the dreamtime. Altjira is the shapeshifter, the one who can take many forms. So we have the image of something that changes, as if before our eyes. When shapeshifting is involved, you must question what you see, and ask what it is.

Venus is also conjunct Sisyphus. This is about doing, or perhaps enduring, something that is pointless, over and over again. (A similar theme appears as a matter of politics with Apollo square Pallas.) Gleaming out of the top of this chart, we have the image of something that represents the government, and which shapeshifts.
We don’t know whether whatever Venus represents is really female (in Gemini it could be any sex or gender). There is an illusion involved. The illusion may involve the use of women and women’s issues as political tools, ones that keep changing form, and are often used to the detriment of women.

It has not been 100 years since American women won the right to vote in 1920. Young women and girls alive today have little concept of what women of the 20th century — their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers — went through to build the modestly egalitarian world we live in today. The concept of feminism is gradually, or perhaps rapidly, being erased from culture.

Yet one thing is clear from what the current Supreme Court is doing. If women do not get their act together politically, and collectively confront the issues of fertility and sexuality, by the time the centennial celebration rolls around, the right to vote will be the only one that’s left. And by then it won’t be especially meaningful.

Lovingly,

Additional Research: Shelley Stearns.

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $99/year. Core community membership: $149/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Brendan Merritt, Amy Elliott, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Moreno, Amanda Painter, Casey Smith, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick, Lizanne Webb and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Aunt Josie Forever!

 

“A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support.”

— Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1792

“If desire causes suffering, it may be because we do not desire wisely, or that we are inexpert at obtaining what we desire. Instead of hiding our heads in a prayer cloth and building walls against temptation, why not get better at fulfilling desire? Salvation is for the feeble, that is what I think. I don’t want salvation, I want life, all of life, the miserable as well as the superb. If the gods would tax ecstasy, then I shall pay; however, I shall protest their taxes at every opportunity, and if Woden or Shiva or Buddha or that Christian fellow– what’s his name?– cannot respect that, then I’ll accept their wrath. At least I will have tasted the banquet that they have spread before me on this rich, round planet, rather than recoiling from it like a toothless bunny. I cannot believe that the most delicious things were placed here merely to test us, to tempt us, to make it more difficult for us to capture the grand prize: the safety of the void. To fashion of life such a petty game is unworthy of both men and gods.”

— Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume, 1984

 

 

Planet Waves

There are still a few Planet Waves subscribers who have not experienced The Mars Effect. Well, you have definitely experienced the astrology, but not necessarily the readings that will help you make sense of what has happened the past six months.

Since the year is about half-over, we’re making it available for half-price for all 12 signs. If you are a customer of my birthday readings (solar return readings), some differentiation might help. The Mars Effect readings are a distinctly different experience of astrology compared to the solar return readings. In a sense they are my first in-depth observations about the astrology of the signs for the year, which lay the foundation for everything else I do — the horoscopes, the articles, the birthday readings and the seasonal readings.

These readings are the deepest layers, presented in both extended written and audio format. One great thing about this package is that you can jump from your Sun sign to your rising sign to your Moon sign to partners’ signs in one setup. The audio works for any player or computer and is downloadable into iTunes. The music is by Gary Lucas, musical mentor to Jeff Buckley.

 

 

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A creative approach to Sun opposite Pluto

“If Judge Zweibel, Cyrus Vance or Michael Bloomberg set out to make an example out of me to dissuade dissent, this has had exact opposite impact. I am absolutely and further committed to fighting for rights and freedoms that I did not even realize had been eroded to the extent they had.”

— Cecily McMillan, Occupy activist released from Riker’s Island on Wednesday.

As mentioned yesterday, the Sun opposes Pluto Friday and begins a square to Uranus that is exact Tuesday, July 8. Said another way, the Sun is moving through the Uranus-Pluto square, evoking our experience of the cardinal grand cross that has been following us around for the past few seasons. While it’s necessary to look at this as one aspect, it’s also helpful to take it in parts, and Sun-Pluto is one of them. Notably, this aspect is present in the solar return (birthday) chart for the United States, covered in the current Planet Waves FM toward the end.

If you look this aspect up in astrology textbooks as a natal aspect or Pluto opposite the Sun transit, you won’t like it much. The reason it’s associated with power struggles, waged as if life or death were on the line, is that most people need to be told what to do. You can hardly blame them — it’s the only thing we’re rewarded for in school, starting in nursery school and for many people, continuing through menial jobs and extending all the way through advanced degrees where you must do the dance or not get your reward at the end. Yet really we humans crave more self-direction than that, and so a power struggle is the seemingly ‘natural’ result.

It is for this reason that Pluto transits (and transits of other potent slow-movers like Chiron) must be read along with the evolutionary condition of the person or entity involved. The upcoming Sun-Pluto opposition is asking, how autonomous are you? How self-motivated, self-organized and self-aware are you? How well are you able to respond to your environment and function in a way that is both appropriate and expressive? We’re all aware of the “tell me what to do/what to think” phenomenon. We have all seen others give away their power and then have it used against them — and most of us have experienced this directly. The Sun-Pluto contact will serve as a demonstration of where you’re at with these things. It’s also a great opportunity to discover and focus your creative power — even if some apparently outer circumstance seems to compel you to do it.

 

 

Planet Waves

Planet Waves

“If they find it, they’ll play with it.” Discovering your child playing ‘swordfight’ with your sex toys might be momentarily embarrassing, but you’ll recover quickly enough; the same can’t always be said when kids find other adult items that should be stored carefully out of harm’s way. Image: video still.

Annie, Get Your… (Ahem).

Evolve, a group dedicated to “making gun safety and responsibility just as important as the right that preceded it,” has created one of the most arrestingly funny gun safety videos around.

In a country that seems to prize gun rights above a woman’s right to sexual health, the ad is impressive both for its message and for its comic brilliance.

Evolve states on its website, “When a seemingly uncontroversial word like safety becomes politicized, it’s no wonder it feels like nothing can get done.”

We could say the same about the seemingly uncontroversial words ‘sex’, ‘sexual health’ and ‘women’s health’. Those terms have become so politicized, it often feels like nothing can be done; or worse, that we’re actually moving backwards. We’ll have to take the long view — as in, visualize exactly where the succession of recent laws and Supreme Court decisions are heading — and keep pressing forward in very active ways to make sure we don’t end up there. It may take some creativity to get the point across, just like this brilliant little public service announcement. Along with some real hands-on action.

 

 

Planet Waves

Mercury Direct, the Hobby Lobby Decision and the USA Chart

Planet Waves FM is presented without commercial interruption, sponsored exclusively by our subscribers and our Core Community members — that would be you.

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I cover Mercury direct, the Hobby Lobby decision and the United States Sibly chart. The decision came out immediately before Mercury stationing direct — about 23 hours before. This suggests that there is, at least, going to be an unexpected backlash, and that the decision might be reversed. This will certainly be an issue used to galvanize women in the coming two federal elections.

 

Planet Waves

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscopes for July on Thursday, June 26.
We published your extended monthly horoscopes for June Friday, May 23. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for July Tuesday, June 24. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

 

 

Planet Waves


Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, July 3, 2014, #1005 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19)

Aries (March 20-April 19) — If you want to tap an energy source that will get you moving, let it come from a deep place. Ideas and insights will not suffice. They are helpful and you have a lot to say these days. But that is merely the wind above the tide. The tide, the moving water, is what you want to carry you. This is not about emoting but rather about feeling your strength as inner presence, as confidence and as freedom from the usual array of security issues that are so abundant these days. Your next major decision is not the usual ‘leap without looking’ endeavor. Rather, there are additional points of grounding and of confirmation available that will confirm that you’re making the right choice. One of those is harmony between the inner and the outer environments, which can flow seamlessly into one another. If there is conflict between what you feel and your external feedback — for example, emotional resistance from others — pause and investigate what that is about.

“I thought those readings were meant just for me” is how so many MARS EFFECT customers have felt, it’s a testament to just how intimate, beautiful and uncannily personal these written and audio readings truly are. Now you can access all 12 signs for $39 (half price) — an incredible value for more than a year’s worth of insights into all facets of your life, and into the lives of those closest to you.
Taurus (April 19- May 20)

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — One definition of ‘true love’ that I would propose is the ability to love oneself in the presence of another person. Most of what we call true love is the seemingly direct transaction: I love you and you love me. There’s a more complex dynamic at play, which seems to be about how we feel about ourselves in the presence of others. I think that as we find a path out of the current dark maze that our society calls love, the self-acceptance factor is the one to look out for. It reverses the notion of love from something that is projected and introjected into something that is admitted to be an inner experience. No matter what may be going on outside you, your entire experience of life is mediated by your mind, your feelings, your perceptions. I suggest you test this logic — instead of ‘how much does he/she love me?’ consider that the question is ‘how do I feel about myself when I am with you?’

“OMG the Mars Effect — I don’t really have words yet. Finally I’ve won the Lotto!” — Planet Waves reader Gary. Your luck just got even better: the written and audio MARS EFFECT readings are available for half price ($39 for all 12 signs), making it easy to access winning insights for your Sun, Moon and rising signs (and those of loved ones) immediately.
Gemini (May 20- June 21)

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Now that Mercury has stationed direct in your sign, you can see how quickly the tide can turn. What made no sense, or was frustrating your best efforts, can suddenly run smoothly. Completely bungled communications can seem to sort themselves out. Seemingly intractable problems can unravel. You might ask how this happens. You might ask what factors of your own consciousness contribute to your perception of problems that may not even exist. There is, however, one matter that is calling for immediate focus. If the question involves sex, then the underlying matter relates to health. If everyone is healthy, there really is no issue. If the matter involves money, make sure you sort out the motives of the people involved and see whose intentions are self-serving and related to power, and whose intentions relate to taking care of others. You cannot change people but it always helps to know who they are.

Mercury has finally stationed direct in your sign, yet there’s a highly unusual grouping of planets working their way across your relationship angle, and the planet Chaos could feel like a creative stirring — or more like confusion. Focus your mind and get your bearings on your solar year with your 2014 GEMINI BIRTHDAY READING, available now for $39.95. Also included is a tarot reading, access to the recorded Q&A session with Eric, and more.
Cancer (June 21- July 22)

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — The Sun’s alignment with Pluto is giving you the confidence to meet a certain person in a direct, bold and confident way. They may seem like they have more power or influence than you, though I assure you it does not feel that way to them. You are very likely to seem the more confident person in the dynamic, and if you don’t remember that you won’t understand why someone you perceive as powerful or confident does not seem to be acting that way. In fact if you notice the things they say that hint at how invisible they feel, and take that as a clue, you will make progress on clear communication with them. Remember, though, that you may feel like they have inordinate influence over you, such as in the sexual realm, and they are unlikely to register this fact. To them you seem bolder, brighter, more visible and full of vitality. Keep that in mind and things will make a lot more sense.

Your birthday reading is now published! You may still be getting yourself turned the right way ’round now that Mercury is direct and will be returning to Cancer soon; consider your 2014 CANCER BIRTHDAY READING to be a proactive, meditative, empathic alternative to hiding in your shell or turning the mood-o-meter up to 11. Order now for $39.95, and you’ll get two segments of astrology, a tarot reading, access to a live Q&A session with Eric, and more.
Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Don’t fall for the sensation of being lost. Choose any one point of orientation and that feeling will disappear. That might be work. It might be your health. It might be your family. If you have one focused motive or intention, your other priorities will fall into their correct place. You cannot sort them all out at once, or take care of everything at once. It will be simple enough to put things in order, once you know your first priority. In reality, all of the subjects I’ve described are related; it’s really a matter of emphasis what you call it. While you’re prioritizing, I suggest you comb through the events of the past six months and notice whether you’re still responding to life in ways that may have been appropriate much earlier in the year. Many things are about to change in your life, and it will help immensely if you keep your focus on the present and the future. You may not know it yet, but the past really is gone.

Right now you can get the best-selling MARS EFFECT annual readings for half-price (only $39 for all twelve signs). These written and audio readings offer relationship and career insights throughout the year for your Sun, rising and Moon signs — and those of your loved ones. “After listening to it at least four times I always hear new aspects and I feel it helps me greatly in making sense of my very turbulent inner life” — Michelle, Planet Waves reader.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Mercury, the planet associated with your sign, has returned to direct motion in the angle of your chart associated with your professional activities and reputation. You may discover that a long series of developments that made no sense, or that seemed to work to your disadvantage, have put you in a position of distinct advantage. You need to think in a clear strategy. Your plan cannot merely be about how to achieve your goals. That would be easy enough. Rather, you need to achieve your goals and make sure that you don’t do any damage; that you work with others and build relationships for the future; that you learn and know what you are learning. What you’re experiencing is on one level a political exercise. It’s about fostering mutual cooperation. The person who brings this idea into the equation is the one who is helping pioneer a future where we go beyond winners and losers, and where the game is about everyone coming out ahead.

Looking at your life and wondering how half the year went by in such a colorful blur? “Turn the dial on the kaleidoscope of life,” as one reader put it, and clarify your view with the MARS EFFECT readings, now available for half price: $39 for all 12 signs. See how the patterns align through the interrelated facets of your life (and the lives of those your hold dear) as you co-create the rest of your year and beyond.

Libra (Sep. 22 - Oct. 23)

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You seem ready to attempt something that in the past would have had you shaking at the knees. However, you’ve come a long way since then, and you’ve come a long way the past couple of months. You can question whether you’re confident enough. You can question whether you’re ready. You can question whether you’re standing on a solid foundation. But the only way to answer those questions is through experience. Experience will require that you actually assert yourself — or rather, that you continue to do so, because Mars in your sign for the past seven months has done a lot for your initiative. Said another way, you’ve figured out that your role is not merely passive; your role is not merely to adapt. Your role is to be someone who changes your world in creative ways. And to the extent that anyone can ever give you permission to do that, you just got it.

“I thought those readings were meant just for me” is how so many MARS EFFECT customers have felt, it’s a testament to just how intimate, beautiful and uncannily personal these written and audio readings truly are. Now you can access all 12 signs for $39 (half price) — an incredible value for more than a year’s worth of insights into all facets of your life, and into the lives of those closest to you.
Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Mars retrograde is over, and the planet that traditionally rules your sign will soon be in your sign; then you can add up your various losses and gains and see where you really stand with yourself. But before that happens, you’re about to go on a kind of odyssey — an inner and outer adventure. Some of the places you go will seem oddly familiar. Others will seem entirely new. What you must be careful of, in the first instance, is your unconscious actions leading to strife among others. The core of this journey is being able to maintain your mindfulness and understand the impact of your thoughts and your actions. In other words, you are learning to pay attention. This does not mean tiptoeing around others who are easily provoked. It means engaging them directly, and recognizing the influence that you have on them and on your environment. You have substantial power in your hands. You must learn how to use it wisely — and the next three to four weeks will bring many opportunities to do so.

Right now you can get the best-selling MARS EFFECT annual readings for half-price (only $39 for all twelve signs). These written and audio readings offer relationship and career insights throughout the year for your Sun, rising and Moon signs — and those of your loved ones. “After listening to it at least four times I always hear new aspects and I feel it helps me greatly in making sense of my very turbulent inner life” — Michelle, Planet Waves reader.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — As you communicate and otherwise relate to people, be sure not to hold them to your past. It’s likely that others have moved beyond certain spiritual or emotional matters that you are still grappling with, or have no special need to address them now. Therefore, align yourself with their present, and keep your focus in that framework of reality. This will have the effect of calling you forth into your present, where you know that you can see over the limits that may have been in your life before. You have not necessarily surpassed each limit. You may still have work to do (who doesn’t?). Yet you know that this is also a matter of two points of view; two approaches to life. One is deeply engrained, indeed, it goes back generations. One points to the way that anyone goes beyond history, beyond the limits supposedly set on their success and happiness by their predecessors. Others will lead the way for you, and you will lead the way for them.

Looking at your life and wondering how half the year went by in such a colorful blur? “Turn the dial on the kaleidoscope of life,” as one reader put it, and clarify your view with the MARS EFFECT readings, now available for half price: $39 for all 12 signs. See how the patterns align through the interrelated facets of your life (and the lives of those your hold dear) as you co-create the rest of your year and beyond.

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Do not cower in the face of beauty. Stand tall and make friends with those who are talented, passionate and charismatic. Consider them an example for how you can be. You would be wise to consider them a reflection of your potential self. One other suggestion, as the Cancer Sun moves into opposition to Pluto in Capricorn. You need to understand the impact you have on others. You’re quick to assume that you make no special impression; it would seem that many times you feel invisible. If that’s your perception, you have that backwards. You often make a profound impression on others — though you almost always miss this fact. If the impression you make does not align with how you feel about yourself, that is, if you are wondering how or why you could influence someone or be so noticeable ‘cus it’s just li’l ol’ you, I suggest you study the details of life more. Engage in closer conversation with people until you get a sense of who and what they perceive when they experience you.

“I thought those readings were meant just for me” is how so many MARS EFFECT customers have felt, it’s a testament to just how intimate, beautiful and uncannily personal these written and audio readings truly are. Now you can access all 12 signs for $39 (half price) — an incredible value for more than a year’s worth of insights into all facets of your life, and into the lives of those closest to you.
Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Compared to prior times in your life, even fairly recent ones, you are relatively free of over-burden or complexity. I know that everyone’s life seems complicated, but as people grow and master their various challenges, it’s easy to forget just how mixed up things were not so long ago. This gives you flexibility, it gives you a measure of freedom and a bit of excess capacity to assist someone who may be in need. Consider who in your life could benefit from your support — it may be intellectual, it may be something you can do for them in the political arena of business, or it might be a way you can assist with a financial strategy. Someone may reach out to you, or you may have been observing them for a while. I suggest you be efficient and a bit shrewd in how you offer your assistance, and how you go about implementing it. This may be as simple as an introduction to someone else, an idea, or focusing a group effort among others perfectly capable of making something happen.

Right now you can get the best-selling MARS EFFECT annual readings for half-price (only $39 for all twelve signs). These written and audio readings offer relationship and career insights throughout the year for your Sun, rising and Moon signs — and those of your loved ones. “After listening to it at least four times I always hear new aspects and I feel it helps me greatly in making sense of my very turbulent inner life” — Michelle, Planet Waves reader.

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Stay close to who and what you love the most. I know that recent months have had you running so hard you’ve been at the point of overheating. These experiences have led to finding ways to simplify your life, and keeping close to the experiences you value the most is a reward for that. There is a point of contact approaching. It looks like a combination of sexual and creative. Looking at those words on the page, however, I am reminded how few people would use them in the same sentence, no more than they would say ‘taking a shower’ and ‘creative’ in the same sentence. Well, besides the fact that many great ideas have been born in the shower, sex and creativity are flames in the same fire. One feeds the other. Where one is strong, the other has a much greater chance of being strong. It looks like your passion and your talent are approaching a flashpoint. This is art. This is love. This is life.

“OMG the Mars Effect — I don’t really have words yet. Finally I’ve won the Lotto!” — Planet Waves reader Gary. Your luck just got even better: the written and audio MARS EFFECT readings are available for half price ($39 for all 12 signs), making it easy to access winning insights for your Sun, Moon and rising signs (and those of loved ones) immediately.

 

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A Fine Line: Roe v. Wade at 40

Dear Friend and Reader:

Tuesday, the Roe v. Wade decision of the U.S. Supreme Court has its 40th anniversary. As I imagine most people know, this was the court’s 1973 landmark ruling that defines a woman’s right to terminate an early-term pregnancy, in consultation with her doctor.

Planet Waves
Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, left, and member of her legal team Gloria Allred outside the Supreme Court after the historic 1973 ruling. McCorvey regrets her role in the case and has for many years been involved with the pro-life movement. AP photo.

Less often discussed is the extent to which the the right of a woman to choose her reproductive destiny influences every other aspect of her life. Borrowing some logic from The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, the female body is the reproductive pod, with its own set of biological instructions; the one who inhabits the body gains the distinction of person through her ability to determine the course of her own life. And for a woman, that includes deciding whether, and when, to have children.

We don’t have an Equal Rights Amendment in the United States. The ERA, had it passed, would have said (it’s very short), “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Too bad that one didn’t go through. I believe that Roe v. Wade is the closest thing we have to it, particularly if you think that on the physical plane, biology influences destiny.

Few decisions in Supreme Court history have stirred up more controversy than Roe. Yet if you read it, the decision itself is not especially controversial, except of course for its logical result. It analyzes the issues thoughtfully and weighs the interests of the parties involved: the pregnant woman, the fetus and the responsibility of the state to regulate a medical procedure in order to protect the safety of the patient.

This is prudent given that in the 20th century, as many as one in six women who had an abortion died as a result of the procedure. The decision also protects the rights of the fetus upon reaching viability, including with life support, now held by the court to begin anywhere from 24 to 28 weeks into the pregnancy. The decision also attempts to clarify the legal issue of what a “person” is, since it’s not defined in the Constitution, and decides that it does not include the unborn.

Background and the 44-Second Time Difference

Before we get into the truly fascinating astrology of the decision — my purpose for writing today — I think it’s a good idea to have some background on the decision itself, you know, a little actual information about what was at stake. Just as a preview I will say that the chart for the decision is timed such that 44 seconds changes the rising sign. This, in turn, changes key rulerships in the chart, in a rare case of a chart changing entirely with less than one minute’s difference in the time.

Planet Waves
Cover of the New York Times reporting Roe v. Wade decision the prior day. Former president Lyndon Johnson died the same day.

In Roe v. Wade, the court was reviewing the legality of an old Texas statute that made it illegal to “procure an abortion,” except with respect to “an abortion procured or attempted by medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.” Texas also allowed abortion in cases of rape and incest.

The case challenging this law was brought by Norma L. McCorvey, whose name was changed in court documents to Jane Roe. Pregnant with her third child in a state where most abortion was illegal, her friends suggested she claim to have been raped, so she could get a legal one. But she had no police report demonstrating that claim, so she then attempted to obtain an illegal abortion but found that the site had been shut down by police. She was out of options. By the time her case was litigated, she gave birth to the child and gave it up for adoption.

With the help of a legal team that was looking for a plaintiff to challenge the Texas law, McCorvey sued Texas (personified by Henry Wade, the Dallas County district attorney who also happened to be presiding at the time of the Kennedy assassination a decade earlier). She lost her case and her initial appeals, and then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court, in a 7 to 2 decision, determined that the Texas law was vague and unconstitutional, and infringed upon McCorvey’s right to procure a safe abortion, including violating her liberty, her right to privacy and her right to due process. “Due process” means that in theory, when the state takes away someone’s freedom, they do so in a judicially sound way.

In a concurring opinion affirming the majority ruling, Justice Potter Stewart wrote, “Clearly, therefore, the Court today is correct in holding that the right asserted by Jane Roe is embraced within the personal liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It is evident that the Texas abortion statute infringes that right directly.”

And he added, “Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more complete abridgment of a constitutional freedom than that worked by the inflexible criminal statute now in force in Texas.”

The court also held that the longer a pregnancy lasted, the more the state’s interest in regulating that pregnancy increased. In the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy, the decision was up to the pregnant woman and her doctor. In the second 12 weeks of pregnancy, the health of the pregnant woman becomes the focus, and in the last 12 weeks (when the fetus becomes viable), the state has the most rights and may even ban abortion.

A History of Controversy

On and off throughout history, abortion has been a source of controversy, in part because abortions were so dangerous for so long, far more dangerous than childbirth until the 1930s. Other sources of controversy seem to involve the fact that in marriage, a woman can be considered chattel property, and that historically, men have a claim to the heirs to whom women give birth.

Planet Waves
There is a relationship between abortion and the Inquisition that may be at the root of Christian mania about the issue. ‘Witches’ were often wise women and midwives who were versed in the ‘secrets’ of women’s fertility and abortion. Many of these women were burned at the stake during the Inquisition, removing their knowledge from the culture. This is an illustration of the Val Camonica, Italy’s ‘witchcraft’ executions during the early part of the 16th century.

The court was aware of the territory it was stepping into. Harry Blackmun, the author of the court’s majority opinion, framed the controversy in almost poetic terms:

“We forthwith acknowledge our awareness of the sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigorous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires. One’s philosophy, one’s experiences, one’s exposure to the raw edges of human existence, one’s religious training, one’s attitudes toward life and family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one’s thinking and conclusions about abortion.”

And he adds, in a true statement of the times: “In addition, population growth, pollution, poverty, and racial overtones tend to complicate and not to simplify the problem.”

However, the zealous intensity around the issue we are used to is a relatively new thing. In its decision, the court includes a summary of the history of abortion, acknowledging, “It perhaps is not generally appreciated that the restrictive criminal abortion laws in effect in a majority of States today are of relatively recent vintage. Those laws, generally proscribing abortion or its attempt at any time during pregnancy except when necessary to preserve the pregnant woman’s life, are not of ancient or even of common-law origin. Instead, they derive from statutory changes effected, for the most part, in the latter half of the 19th century.” Note, this is among a lot of things that we take for granted as having existed forever; the 19th century was a festering pond for very bad ideas written in very good English.

It is worth noting that abortions were an issue in what are called the burning times — the murder of alleged witches in Europe that lasted for centuries, as part of the Inquisition — because often the term “witch” really meant wise woman, midwife and herbalist who knew how to prevent conception and terminate a pregnancy.

Skipping ahead a bit, among the most vocal opponents of abortion in the 19th and into the 20th centuries was the American Medical Association (AMA), which has done more than its share of witch hunting over the years. Even as late as 1967, the AMA took a stand objecting to abortion except when the pregnancy threatened the mental or physical health of the mother or the life of the mother; cases of rape or incest; and situations where the child was expected to have a birth defect.

By 1970, the AMA was starting to change its tune. According to the text of Roe v. Wade: “[The AMA] emphasized ‘the best interests of the patient’, ‘sound clinical judgment’, and ‘informed patient consent’ in contrast to ‘mere acquiescence to the patient’s demand’. The resolutions asserted that abortion is a medical procedure that should be performed by a licensed physician in an accredited hospital only after consultation with two other physicians and in conformity with state law, and that no party to the procedure should be required to violate personally held moral principles.”

Planet Waves
Justice Harry Blackmun, who was appointed by Richard Nixon, wrote the majority ruling.

So, this is a complex issue, and the health of the mother has been a concern for much of the history of the debate. This includes the awareness that abortion will happen no matter what, and everyone, including the government, has an interest in abortion being as safe as it can be, which means that it must be regulated like all other medical procedures.

This is key to the court’s reasoning and is part of why this decision will be so difficult to reverse:
“The State has a legitimate interest in seeing to it that abortion, like any other medical procedure, is performed under circumstances that insure maximum safety for the patient. This interest obviously extends at least to the performing physician and his staff, to the facilities involved, to the availability of after-care, and to adequate provision for any complication or emergency that might arise.”

The ruling makes the issue clear: “The prevalence of high mortality rates at illegal ‘abortion mills’ strengthens, rather than weakens, the State’s interest in regulating the conditions under which abortions are performed. Moreover, the risk to the woman increases as her pregnancy continues. Thus, the State retains a definite interest in protecting the woman’s own health and safety when an abortion is proposed at a late stage of pregnancy.”

The court also admitted that the state has some interest in protecting prenatal life, ruling that:

Some of the argument for this justification rests on the theory that a new human life is present from the moment of conception. The State’s interest and general obligation to protect life then extends, it is argued, to prenatal life. Only when the life of the pregnant mother herself is at stake, balanced against the life she carries within her, should the interest of the embryo or fetus not prevail.

Logically, of course, a legitimate state interest in this area need not stand or fall on acceptance of the belief that life begins at conception or at some other point prior to live birth. In assessing the State’s interest, recognition may be given to the less rigid claim that as long as at least potential life is involved, the State may assert interests beyond the protection of the pregnant woman alone.

In the end, the court held that women have the right to make their own decisions about pregnancy, in consultation with their medical doctor, up to the point where the life of the fetus is considered viable — for three months in all cases, and then potentially for an additional three months into the pregnancy where her health is an issue.

The court described a right to privacy stemming from an earlier decision about birth control, Griswold v. Connecticut, holding: “This right of privacy… is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. The detriment that the State would impose upon the pregnant woman by denying this choice altogether is apparent.”

And Now for the Chart — or Charts

Looking at the astrology, we can get some insight into the nature of the controversy. There is actually a chart for this ruling. Data collector Lois Rodden (1928-2003), founder of Astrodatabank, states 10 am as the time, based on when the court goes into session. Rulings are then read and the text is made public. [To see the chart I’ve been working with, visit this page.]

This is one of those rare charts where 44 seconds makes all the difference in the world. If you cast the chart for 10 am, using the exact location of the Supreme Court building, you get very late Pisces rising — that is, the last quarter-degree of the zodiac is on the horizon. If you cast the chart for 10:00:44 am, you get a chart with the first degree of Aries rising — the Aries Point.

Planet Waves
This is the ascendant for the 10:00 am chart. The two planets you can see are the Chiron-Eris conjunction. Notice that the last degree of Pisces is the degree rising. It’s not just the last degree, though, it’s just 18 arc minutes or 44 seconds of clock time away from being Aries rising. I look at both charts in the sections below. If you want to see both charts side by side, they are on this page.

This is an edgy chart, on the edge. The last degree of Pisces rising describes the transitional nature of the issue. When a mutable sign is rising, there’s sometimes not a strong hold on physical reality. However, I attribute some special properties to the last degree of Pisces, as it’s the end of the entire astrological wheel. In my experience, it’s a degree where you look for ways that the situation is the exception to a rule.

When you advance the time by less than a minute, that puts the first degree of Aries rising; the Aries Point is exactly on the ascendant. As I have written many times, the Aries Point is about the intersection of private and public life; the place where the personal is political. Indeed, this particular case is as personal as the political gets.

The stated time of the court going into session is 10:00 am (late Pisces rising). But obviously, it took the justices longer than that to settle in, the chief banged the gavel, and it took a moment for the audience to hush up; there was obviously a crowd in the courtroom that day. Then the decision was announced and distributed; this was probably later in the hour.

However, by 10 am the decision was finalized and printed and for all practical purposes, already in effect. So the main chart becomes the stated time chart. This is a documented phenomenon in astrology.

This changes more than the rising sign, though that in itself is significant. In mundane astrology — that is, the astrology of world events — the planet that rules the rising sign is the significator for the issue at hand.

With Pisces rising, the question is described by Jupiter in Capricorn (Jupiter is the traditional ruler of Pisces). This basically describes the pro-choice position: reasonable public policy, described in part by Jupiter in the 11th house (of groups and aspects of the public).

Aries rising means the question is described by Mars
in Sagittarius (Mars is the traditional ruler of Aries). Located in the 9th house, this placement describes the pro-life position; Mars, the 9th and Sagittarius are the perfect image of religious fundamentalism and judicial activism.

Let’s come back to what these two charts say in a moment.

Chiron Conjunct Eris: Watershed Feminism Era

First I would like to point out one historical marker in this chart — it’s Chiron conjunct Eris. You can see this to the left, immediately below the horizontal line. Both Chiron and Eris are slow-moving points. Chiron spends nine years in Aries and Eris is spending more than a century there, so this is not an aspect that happens often — particularly in Aries. This has an influence that lasted perhaps five to seven years.

Planet Waves
This is what democracy looks like — a feminist suffrage (pro-voting rights) parade in New York City, 1912. Photo: Library of Congress.

Chiron conjunct Eris seems to be a good one for women’s rights, at least in recent eras. The immediately prior conjunction happened in Pisces between 1917 and 1918, when the American women’s suffrage movement was going strong. Women were given the vote by the 19th Amendment in 1920. Half a century later, Chiron had gone all the way around the solar system and was again conjunct Eris.

Chiron tends to bring out, intensify and focus the properties of any planet that it’s conjunct. Here we have Chiron focusing the disruptive power of Eris, specifically disrupting the known order of reality and, in Aries, of personal identity. In the early 1970s, the feminist movement was again at its peak. There were many developments associated with women’s rights at that time, among them the Roe v. Wade decision. Whether this chart has Pisces rising or Aries, that rather precise conjunction is in the 1st house; it’s a defining feature of the chart.

If anyone has their doubts that it’s really relevant, the asteroid Magdalena is within one degree of Eris. I think of Magdalena as the woman who is her own person, as well as having attributes of sexwork and sexual healing. The right to choose whether to carry a child to term is all about a woman being her own person.

Mary Magdalene is clearly illustrated at the right hand of Jesus in Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper. She is the very archetype of equal rights for women, and Magdalena’s bold presence in this chart informs our understanding of this asteroid. Its placement in this chart is one of those things that really makes an impression.

Scenario One: Pisces Rising at 10:00 am

In the chart for the stated time of the court going into session that day, the last degree of Pisces is rising. That means the ruler of the ascendant and therefore the significator of the issue is Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces; we find that in Capricorn in the 11th house.

Can you say boring? Well, maybe not boring, but not heaped on with pizazz. Better perhaps: mundane in nature. But then Jupiter is about justice. So we have an image of common sense justice holding up. The Pisces rising chart is a chart about a public policy discussion, involving what is actually a mundane matter of public health. Capricorn is government and policy; the 11th is the public focused on a special issue (all those who might need a safe abortion, and those affected by such a decision) and the court is acting in the public benefit (Jupiter).

Planet Waves
With Pisces rising, the planet that rules the question is Jupiter in Capricorn in the 11th house — common sense, pragmatic, even conservative public policy. Roe was a conservative decision because it preserves the state’s power to regulate medical practice.

Mercury is close to Jupiter. Mercury rules the 7th house — the opposition. When considered in sane, reasonable and common sense terms (Capricorn), the two sides of the issue are actually pretty close together. Everyone, for example, should be concerned about the health of patients seeking a medical procedure. Even people who oppose abortion would, presumably, not want to see women who seek one bleed to death in an illegal facility.

Capricorn is about restraint. Both sides have a common interest in there being fewer abortions. There are many other points of common ground that both sides could agree on if they wanted to.

Pisces rising has a second potential ruler, which is Venus (I am sticking to traditional rulerships in this discussion). Venus is exalted in Pisces, and has a strong resonance with that sign. We can think of Venus as a second ruler of the issue — and we find her in Capricorn in the 11th house, not far from Jupiter. Here is where we see some of the serious collective and personal pain lurking behind this issue, which is almost always lost in the blaring debate.

Venus in Capricorn makes many aspects to other planets, particularly a square to the Chiron-Eris-Magdalena conjunction in Aries. This is the image of a woman with traditional values coming up against the progress indicated by Chiron-Eris-Magdalena. Venus in Capricorn square these three points is just painful. It may lead to progress, but there is pain, chaos, confusion and an identity crisis to get through first — an accurate depiction of many women at the time this decision came out.

In the 11th house, women’s sexuality is put on display in one of its most sensitive moments: the regret or crisis of a pregnancy that would lead to the need for an abortion. There is often profound shame around unwanted pregnancy, which comes from families, the church and social norms that collectively are described well by Capricorn in the 11th house. You can still hear the stories of children born to mothers who were forced to hide in the house for the duration of their pregnancy, ostensibly to save the family the shame of the pregnant woman being seen in public.

To portray a woman as needing an abortion, in all of the potential shame, moral agony and unnecessary social pressure that comes with it, is about as unglamorous as it gets. It is a woman admitting that there is such a thing as sex for its own sake; that she does not want to be a mother at this particular time; and that she is capable of an error.

I will add that there is a lot of festering residual guilt about all of the abortions that have happened in the past, which is illustrated perfectly by the Venus-Magdalena-Chiron-Eris pattern.

To publicly acknowledge the abortion issue in the Roe v. Wade decision was to put this all on public display. It’s about the whole society admitting the existence and claiming the underside of women’s sexuality. This is a profound source of controversy as we all have some stake in what is done to women.

Scenario Two: Aries Rising at 10:01 am

If we advance the time of the chart by less than a minute, the chart has Aries rising. That makes the planet that rules the question Mars in Sagittarius. This is militant, zealous, driven by opinion and belief and obsessed with religiosity. There is no common sense, logic or thought of the public welfare in the Aries chart. It’s the chart for the over-the-top public reception of the decision, or perhaps how the losers did not take defeat so well.

Emphasizing the point, this is in the 9th house of religion and ideology. And making matters worse, Mars is conjunct the Great Attractor, a massive deep-space point that polarizes issues. Simply put, the 10:01 am chart is a bully pulpit for religious leaders to grandstand their own cause, stir up controversy and make a huge mess on supposedly moral grounds.

Planet Waves
This is the chart set for 44 seconds later, putting Aries in the ascendant. This makes Mars the planet that rules the question, which we find in Sagittarius and the 9th house, full of fire and brimstone.

Further, the 9th rules the higher courts, and with the Roe v. Wade decision, the whole issue was pushed — at least for the Pro Life side — into an exclusively judicial forum. The one and only goal surrounding abortion became making abortion illegal.

Now, everyone knows that making something illegal does not stop it. It only pushes it underground, to some extent out of sight and to a large extent outside the ability of government to regulate it. There is also the power trip involved, and it’s basically male in nature (Mars), as well as driven by religious belief which in theory will be dramatized in the courts.

Mars is opposite Saturn, which has the feeling of a hammer coming down on something. Saturn is in Gemini, emphasizing that there are two sides to the issue, but Mars in Sagittarius doesn’t care about that — except for the advantage of causing a polarized controversy. Such is great for raising money for your cause, concentrating political power and getting a years-long adrenaline rush to the thought that you’re doing something bold for the Lord.

The Pro Life camp belies its position by going out of its way to make sure there are more abortions, not fewer of them. The same movements and politicians who will fight to make abortion illegal are opposed to birth control and sex education. The past few years the Pro Life camp has gone on to state its opposition not just to Roe v. Wade but also Griswold v. Connecticut, the decision that makes birth control available to everyone.

Anyone who is really against abortion would want to have fewer unwanted pregnancies. To have fewer unwanted pregnancies, we need to have real sex eduction, widely available birth control, and a society that promotes the values associated with thoughtfulness and with the care of children. The Pro Life position seems to affirm the rights of fetuses only until they are born.

The Aries rising chart describes this as what it is, a religious crusade having no investment in the reality of the human condition. The 9th house where we find Mars is packed with planets and points — there are as many as there are in Capricorn. These include Neptune, which in religious environments can be an inspiration or an intoxicant. There is Ceres, which is about mothers and daughters, and what they go through emotionally. There is the Black Moon Lilith, which can represent the fear of women and their darker tones; and there is Juno, which is about the ‘role of the wife’ as someone who does not get her emotional needs met, and who can barely open her mouth to say what they are.

At the front of the pack is Mars, ready for a religious war at any cost. Fortunately, the United States Supreme Court intervened a moment earlier, reminding everyone that at least for that moment, we were a nation under the rule of law and not religious zealots ready with their nails and crosses.

In the end, however, matters of pregnancy, birth and raising children are about neither law nor religion, and this whole conversation needs to find a new forum if we are to take better care of ourselves and one another.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves

To purchase the signs individually please use this link.
 

Reader Feedback on LISTEN, the 2013 Annual Readings

Dear Eric,

Just got through listening to Capricorn Listen. It was remarkable and so healing to listen to! The Pluto transit can bring a lot and it’s hard to wrestle it down into words unless you’re in therapy perhaps. But you did just that and in the end gave us a focus as we pass through our personal underworld into the light. Thank you for your persistence, patience and brilliance.

– L.

Dear Eric,

I am weeping with happiness right now after reading and “listening” to your Aquarius reading. Tears are running down my face and I am sobbing. But that is a good thing.

I don’t know how to express my gratitude for your reading of Aquarius. I am thinking that you should attach happy rabbit ears to the picture of you in your hoodies. I feel understood, and APPRECIATED for who I am at this point in my life.

Love you Eric, and Thank You and All at Planet Waves.

Love,

E.

Dear Eric,

I just listened to Part 1 of the Capricorn audio; tears of joy as I absorb the truth of your interpretation as I am bathed in the bright sun coming over the golden gate bridge on the morning commute! It verifies my experience since the new millennium, celebrates all my hard work, releases me into the beauty, richness and privilege of this time. Love the music — really icing on the cake. A magnificent start into the LISTEN journey! Just a little feedback for you.

Big virtual hugs,

L.

Plus a few more random bits of feedback:

Thank you for a brilliant, just amazing reading for the next two years, though I will listen next year as well. You are very generous of spirit.

Eric, just a quick note to say I am blown away with the relevance of LISTEN. I have to listen again and am still processing before I can really comment, but so far, it’s astounding in it’s direct application to the state of my life NOW.

The accuracy of this reading and framing of concepts is brilliant.

I just finished the first half of the audio. So affirming. It’s like Eric has been living at my house these last few months.

 

Planet Waves

Sun and Mercury in Aquarius

The current big news is that Mercury and the Sun are about to enter Aquarius. But first let’s review some events of the past week — this has been a transitional moment for partnerships, including marriages and marriage-like relationships.

Planet Waves
Mercury as seen by the Mariner 10 spacecraft. Photo by NASA.

Through the past weekend and into this week, Venus, Juno, Saturn and Pluto have been dancing around in an aspect pattern. There is a gentle push for what might feel like immediate change — though really, it’s a confrontation with long-pent-up feelings about the way we are conditioned to be in relationships.

This is not just about the relationships themselves; it’s about the cultivation of a certain sense of being, or self, or existence, that makes us able to be in relationships that don’t work for us — and when we start to grow, the relationships can be strained. That’s been happening, and there has been a long discussion brewing in the planets, which peaked this week, about the nature and meaning of marriage and associated models of relating.

As for Aquarius — this is the sign of groups, and of group thinking — this is to say, the dynamics as they change when an individual meets several other people. Mercury ingresses that sign on the 19th and the Sun a bit later the same day.

Note that just before Mercury and the Sun change signs, they form a conjunction in Capricorn at 3:56 am EST on Jan. 18. This can lend itself to the ability to convey ideas to others, especially in a teaching situation. However, Mercury conjunct the Sun can also contribute to a lack of perspective, as ego-consciousness (the Sun) gets right up in the mind’s eye (Mercury). Light can blind as well as it can illuminate.

If you’ve found yourself in a situation where tempers and egos are getting in the way of clear perception and thinking, consider taking a step or two back away from the immediate action. Things could cool off as Mercury and the Sun enter Aquarius, allowing for some damage control — and an open, airy space for new ideas.

Planet Waves
Simplified chart showing the Sun at its moment of ingress to Aquarius, with Mercury (green critter with horns) just ahead of it. At the top are Venus (blue ‘female’ symbol), Juno (purple asterisk) and Pluto (red golf tee) in Capricorn. Mars (red ‘male’ symbol) is approaching a conjunction to Nessus (aqua glyph), a centaur planet in late Aquarius.

Mars is already in Aquarius, and it’s going to be making an aspect to a slow-moving point currently there, which could trigger some emotional material in group environments. The upshot of all of this is to pay attention when you’re in a group of three or more people. Make sure you preserve your individuality. I don’t mean by being an annoyance or antagonizing anyone, but by being true to yourself and what you believe. Being true to yourself means not giving up your power to others, for approval or acceptance or any other reason.

And what about the Moon? It leaves Aries for Taurus at 8:36 pm EST on Friday, Jan. 18. Taurus Moons highlight our sensual and material natures, bringing questions about value (including the quality of our sensory experiences) and resources to the forefront. As the Moon opposes Saturn in Scorpio the next day, notice whether you feel any sense of limitation in these areas — especially if it seems to be coming from another.

That Taurus Moon will be making favorable aspects to the Venus-Juno-Pluto grouping mentioned in Capricorn. It may feel easier this weekend to sense how any insights you’ve had recently about relationships, marriage, jealousy and love can allow you to act in better alignment with your overall values. A Moon-Mars square in the fixed signs Taurus and Aquarius could give a stubborn edge to any emotional flare-ups in groups this weekend.

On Monday the Moon moves into Gemini at 9:04 am EST. Those working on Monday can look forward to a mentally focused (or perhaps distracted) and communicative day.

 

Planet Waves

Planet Waves

Capital Building during Obama’s first inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009.

Obama’s Second Term Begins Sunday

Pres. Obama’s second term begins Sunday. The president, under regularly scheduled conditions, takes office at noon on Jan. 20 after an election. In modern times this produces a chart with Taurus rising, Aquarius Sun and Capricorn on the midheaven for every presidential term. We can study these charts long into the future, but let’s look at Sunday’s chart.

Note that there will be two inaugurations this year — a private one Sunday and a public one on Monday, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Obama was also sworn in twice the last time around. After flubbing the oath of office, Chief Justice John Roberts came over to the White House later that night and swore in Obama a second time. Obama will be tied for the record number of times a president has taken the oath of office, second only to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served four terms.

Planet Waves
Chart for the beginning of Obama’s second term Sunday.

The Aquarius Sun and Mercury are high up in the chart, presenting the image of friendly populism. However, Capricorn actually rules the midheaven, so it’s really more problematic than that. There are two presidencies — the friendly Aquarian one that we see as its public face, and then the real agenda going on behind the scenes, indicated by Capricorn.

With Capricorn on the midheaven — that is, the 10th house, which is about the presidency — the ruler of the issue is Saturn in Scorpio. Saturn is placed on the relationship angle; this looks like more obstruction. As usual in these years of our history, the issue seems to be religious, with Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn in one another’s signs. There remains a titanic struggle between government bureaucrats and the American Taliban.

The Moon is rising in this chart — the ceremony begins about 20 minutes before moonrise. The Moon is square Mars, which is angry and, moreover, given to camping out in its position. The ‘camping out’ factor — stuck in an emotion — is accentuated by the Moon being close to its own South Node. Also the Moon has special dignity in Taurus because it’s exalted in that sign.

The word ‘intractable’ comes to mind: old values, religious values, and festering anger. It is old anger, which we know because the South Node is there. The interesting thing is that it seems to be directed at or have some contact with whatever is represented by Mars in Aquarius — there seems to be considerable public anger as well. It’s like values on two different levels of reality are clashing — the private interests of the Taurus Moon contrasted with the collective interests of Mars in Aquarius. However, Mars in Aquarius could also be the few, the proud and the pissed off (over their issues).

The Moon, co-ruler of the Taurus ascendant, runs into that rage pretty quickly after this event. The anger might be racial and it might be about the inevitable trend toward gun control that will be emerging this year.

This whole issue of old values informed by old religion comes up again with Venus, the ruler of the ascendant, showing up in Capricorn in the 9th house. This is a chart more appropriate for the coronation of a pope than for the beginning of a presidential term in a supposed democracy.

Now, where are the openings? I think that anger might be one of them — if people are angry about the right things. There is power in anger; it needs to be focused into something productive, however.

The wider public is ruled by Pisces, which is on the 11th house cusp — Neptune and Chiron are there. This is a kind of mix of idealism (Neptune) and the sense that we have to do something about all of these problems (Chiron). It’s not going to happen until we get our priorities in order. What exactly is the big attachment to the past? What is the fear of the future, or of our potential?

This sounds like a good question for therapy, which would probably be time better spent than getting involved in the federal level of politics, at least at the moment.

 

Planet Waves

Nessus, the Nodes and an International Tipping Point

In the last few weeks two particularly horrific instances of gang rape in India (and one in the U.S) have been getting a lot of attention. Astrologically, there is a strong indication of why: centaur planet Nessus, representative of deep shadow material often linked to multigenerational patterns of abuse and potentially inappropriate sexual contact, is square the lunar nodes — a pair of points linked to the ideas of ‘karma’ and ‘dharma’.

The South Node is currently in late Taurus; the North Node is exactly opposite in Scorpio. The Taurus-Scorpio axis is known for themes of sex, possessiveness and deep exchange, among others.

Planet Waves
Indian men attending a rally against sexual violence in Bangalore this past weekend donned skirts to point out that simply wearing a skirt — or any clothing choice — is not an invitation to rape.

Having Nessus square these points is indicating a potential turning point or tipping point on the issue of the global conflation of violence and sex. At least the issue is coming up.

In one high-profile incident in late December, a 17-year-old Indian girl committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers. News of her death came amidst growing public outrage over a rash of gang rapes in India.

Another incident in particular — the brutal rape of a 23-year-old pre-med student who was traveling by bus with a male companion — has sparked unprecedented ongoing protests for the last several weeks in India. The young woman was recently named by activists in a gesture of honoring that she was a real person who suffered, despite the Indian media’s refusal to name her.

Her name is Jyoti Singh Pandey, and she died as a result of her injuries after nearly two weeks in the hospital last month.

Activists are calling for redefining rape in Indian law in addition to greater sensitivity to survivors and a need to get to the roots of such widespread violence against women (it is estimated that a woman in India is raped every 20 minutes).

This is a significant change in attitude and surge in activism in a country where rapes are largely considered to be the fault of the woman (and a disgrace to her family).

Secrets and lies masquerading as ‘honor’, violence appropriating sex to perpetuate power and possession: these are the patterns at the tipping point. Which direction the Nessus-nodes square tips is up to us.

 

Planet Waves

Idle No More Heats Up

Across Canada, the union of human rights and environmental stewardship has evolved into the Idle No More campaign — an activist movement gaining momentum and global attention. Following a series of 130 events in Canada and worldwide in solidarity last Friday, the group has called for another global day of action on Jan. 28.

Idle No More began as a series of protests against a controversial government budget bill last year, and has since expanded into a nationwide movement for political transformation. Aboriginal and environmental activists are calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to honor treaties with First Nation tribes, open dialogue with environmentalists, and reject tar sands pipelines that would infiltrate First Nation territories.

“Something that Canadians don’t often realize is that First Nations are the last best hope that they have of protecting lands for food and clean water for the future, not just for our people, but for Canadians, as well, because we have constitutionally protected aboriginal and treaty rights that they don’t have,” said Pamela Palmeter to Democracy Now‘s Amy Goodman. Palmeter is the chair in indigenous governance at Ryerson University and spokeswoman for the Idle No More movement.

Theresa Spence, chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation, has been on a liquid-only hunger strike since early December as part of the movement. She was due to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other First Nations leaders, but pulled out of the meeting over the exclusion of Canada’s governor general and in solidarity with Friday’s protests.

The environment — specifically climate change — is actually a key human rights issue. (Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, explains this in a recent interview with The Boston Phoenix.) That interconnectedness is now heating up the Canadian winter by taking tangible strides to demand action.

 

Planet Waves

Planet Waves

The Road Map to Harmony.

What Harmony Can Look Like

The website awesome.good.is has created a “Road Map to Harmony.” Their introduction explains, “In the complex web of our world, each part of the system affects all of the others.” Many areas need improvement, and many organizations, businesses and individuals are working toward greater balance. It’s a well-known idea, but this site takes our understanding of how energy, education, sustenance, health, earth, flora & fauna, connectivity, exchange and coexistence interrelate, and translates it all into a clear, visual interactive project — complete with actions you can take to help guide us all to a sustainable future.

 

Planet Waves

Here is an audio introduction to LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition, which includes readings for the 12 Sun and rising signs. Each reading is about 3300 to 4000 words in length, plus two 40-minute audio readings. This half-hour audio explains how I did the work, and what is included with your purchase.

In the LISTEN readings, I cover a diversity of personal growth issues, relationships, money and professional development. Different signs have different emphasis; the written and audio readings are completely different, though there may be occasional overlap. The audio was all completed on Dec. 20 and the written was completed Monday.

Subscribers can get all 12 signs for the price of three. Individual signs are $19.95, which includes access to the associated articles and resources that are part of LISTEN. If you are not a subscriber, you can get a free trial subscription and still be eligible for the subscriber price.

Use this link to purchase the signs individually.

 

Planet Waves

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The January monthly horoscope was published Friday, Dec. 21. Inner Space for January was published Friday, Dec. 28. The December Moonshine Horoscope was published Tuesday, Dec. 18; we will be publishing the January Moonshine on Tuesday, Jan. 22. I recommend reviewing the monthly horoscope at the end of the month. Please note that the longer monthly horoscope is being incorporated into the Friday issue after the Sun has entered a new sign; a new Inner Space is still emailed on the following Tuesday.

 

Planet Waves

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Jan. 18, 2013 #934 | By Eric Francis

Late Capricorn Birthdays

You may have gone through an unexpected, rather thorough revolution in your values over the past few weeks, casting off ideas that have not served you, embracing other ideas that feel right and most of all, bringing yourself firmly into the present moment. That is the place to stay; that’s the place to find your true purpose and your authentic pleasure. Venus in your sign is suggesting that you understand that your ideas about love are changing. Your ideas about commitment are going through a kind of modernization process. And you are developing an ability to see your insecurities for what they are. I suggest you stay close to your fear this year instead of running from it. Pay attention to what it’s saying and see if you can figure out where it’s coming from. In so doing, you can gradually cultivate your freedom. Note to Capricorns: I plan to have your birthday reading in one week. I also invite you to check out your LISTEN annual reading. They will be significantly different products.

Early Aquarius Birthdays

This is a visionary time in your life. That means it’s a time for you to open your eyes and see who and what you are, and embrace who and what you can be. I suggest an actual, immediate and informed process of considering your potential. This would include any evidence (in the past or present) of your talents, any desires to accomplish something unusual that you may have kept to yourself or abandoned, and accounting for how you feel about the fact that you’re alive and have a life to live. Most people look at their life as if gazing down the wrong end of a telescope. I have been there myself. What is near looks distant; what is large looks small; what is beautiful lacks detail or context. I suggest you turn the telescope around and consider where you may go. I suggest you use a wide-angle lens and see your life in context — the widest possible context of you in a world that may be going through some chaos, but also one where anything is possible. Note to Aquarians: I plan to have your birthday reading in one week. I also invite you to check out your LISTEN annual reading. They will be significantly different products.

Aries (March 20-April 19)

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Be conscious of group dynamics. That means knowing what group dynamics are: it’s the peculiar way that people change when they get together with a few other people. It’s not always pretty. Groups in many ways seem like an invitation for things to get weird, and for people to surrender their individuality. You’re not likely to do that, but I want to suggest that you take a special advantage here, and become the facilitator. The thing is, you need to do this in a slightly subtle way; as subtle as you can muster up for an Aries, which means using your political skills. Get to know everyone and their point of view before you state your own. Take the temperature of the people around you, and figure out which way things are headed organically. You may need to do nothing more than to guide things in that direction; you may need to intervene. Proceed gently, slowly and carefully and avoid, at all costs, being argumentative, aggressive or even overly assertive.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Taurus (April 19- May 20)

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You have been through some kind of ‘test of faith’, which has changed you in some way. It may have changed your point of view on a relationship or on relationships in general. The thing about faith is, we don’t usually know we have it until it’s tested in some way. There’s another way to look at it, which is as an experience designed to bring you into the present moment. You have your share of old, quaint ideas that don’t work for you. And that not working is no longer working. You need, and you are searching for, something new. I suggest you begin your search with an understanding of the purpose you want to serve. Discovering your purpose will suggest specific goals, philosophies and an approach to life. Much of this will involve the purpose of your relationships, which are an extension of the purpose of your life. So, the most basic question is: are these two things in harmony?

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Gemini (May 20- June 21)

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You are in a phase of working things out on the idea level, including figuring out who are the right people to have in your life. You also seem to be experimenting with concepts for what you might do in the future. I suggest that you focus this process, and be prepared to put your ideas into action. There is a short timetable on some rapidly approaching opportunities. The timing involves Mars, which is currently in Aquarius and which crosses the sensitive 10th house of your solar chart when it enters Pisces on Feb. 1. This is a point of decision, action or opportunity — and you will need to recognize it when you see it. You will also need to be prepared for a few challenges early on, which will give you the chance to prove your dedication to what you’re doing and what you believe. This opportunity may be subtler or more humble than what we see glorified in the world around us, and it’s of no less importance to you for being so. It’s what you make of it that counts.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Cancer (June 21- July 22)

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — If we need an ethic for the next age of humanity, it’s ‘the greatest good for all concerned’. When you think of the shift in thinking and orientation that would be required to use that idea, it seems like a lot. But it starts with something simple, which is being able to see past self-interest. I believe it’s necessary to take care of yourself so you can participate in taking care of others, but that’s another way of seeing beyond your own life as the cosmic be-all. Now, in your life, it may be, and this is the thing that I’m suggesting you stretch: that you stop and before making any decision, consider the influence on everyone who is involved. Then consider your self-interest. You are making progress when you’re able to keep both in your mind at the same time, and consider the facts until you get some pieces to a solution set that works for everyone. Such a thing actually exists — though it will help if you believe that first.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The Sun and Mercury enter your opposite sign Aquarius this weekend, which places an emphasis on your relationships and in particular your relationship to groups. You’ve already been on this page for a few weeks, and I would remind you that you’ve already worked out most of the challenging issues, the bumps, the grinds and the potential points of contention. Therefore, the Sun and Mercury coming along are a likely point of empathy, cooperation and progress — I suggest you run with this opportunity, and set about doing all the things you know you cannot do alone. You understand the personalities involved, and you have a good sense of what you want to happen. Here is the key — creative leadership. Initiate the ideas that focus the goals. Set the goals that actually constitute progress. Count on your intelligence, that of the people around you and be the one who openly has faith in everyone else. It’s a great role to have on the planet, and you happen to be the one who has this assignment.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 


Planet Waves


To purchase the signs individually please use this link.


 

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You are certainly managing to stay busy. The key is staying healthy. To this end, I suggest you note the close connection between your mental state and your state of health. You are the living incarnation of psychosomatic: the mind influences the body. This is associated with having Aquarius on your 6th house, the house of health and work. Mars is now moving through this region of your chart, and that’s an indicator to take care of your mind, which means to observe your mental state and to back down from your efforts when you start to overheat. You may want to do this preemptively and focus on certain points of conflict that have come up the past few weeks, and work them out while they are obvious and are still motivating you. Over the next few days, you may get the feeling that you were missing something obvious. And if you get that feeling and get that something obvious into focus, then I suggest you do what you know you need to do about it.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Libra (Sep. 22 - Oct. 23)

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Controlling tendencies have a root, which is usually some form of insecurity. Right now, any such tendencies that you have are being challenged by circumstances that are offering you the opportunity to see that you don’t have control, but you do have a significant influence. I suggest you assert that influence, which involves asserting your creative authority. I am saying it this way to give you extra faith that your ideas are good enough to be authoritative; you can afford to be confident in them. That means putting them into words and maybe pictures, and presenting them to whomever you think needs to see them. Trust your creativity. Trust your ideas. They may need some revision, true of any idea really, but they are strong enough to stand up to a review and you are strong enough to participate. Make sure that you stay with the process of anything being implemented through to completion. Assert yourself at every stage. This could be big.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — If you’ve been feeling insecure lately, or struggling with family members or housemates, you should see a turn for the better this weekend as Mercury and the Sun ingress the sensitive ‘home’ angle of your chart. The key to success with those you live with and among is communication. You happen to be extra sensitive to what I will call the tribal level of reality, though if someone can find that reference in an astrology textbook in the Scorpio chapter I will be impressed; it gets overlooked, maybe even by you. When you don’t get along with people, or when you feel like an outcast (even a little like one) it tends to color your whole life; you really feel it. You can now make up for some lost time by both expressing how you feel in a gentle way, as well as hearing from others how they feel and not being threatened by what they think, feel or believe. You really do live in a safe world, and it’s essential that you keep remembering that.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You are in possession of an idea that could change your life, and could even change the world. To be fair, these things pop up all the time, and plenty gets in the way of their development or manifestation. The first thing, however, is lack of respect for one’s own thoughts; the second thing is lack of discipline and the third is usually difficulty communicating the idea to others. So I suggest you work on these one at a time, beginning with honoring your thought process, focusing your discipline to develop whatever it is you’ve been thinking about, and finally, learning to communicate what you’re doing
and why it’s a useful thing. This equation may be the direction that your whole thought process needs to go in order for you to be successful. They’re not such difficult steps, but they require actual self-respect; they can be equally good at helping you create it. That is the master theme of your astrology in these years of your life — take advantage of it.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Pluto in your sign has been seeing a lot of action these days. You may feel like you keep getting dragged into emotional dramas, or like people come running up to you and pounding their fists on your chest. As it turns out, you are the force to be reckoned with. You don’t even have to do much and the mere fact of your existence is leading others to rethink their ideas and re-feel their emotions. One theme coming up is the nature of commitment, which is getting a total overhaul. You have seen, and gone through, some truly remarkable transitions over the past week or so, and I suggest you make sure you are seeing the world in the present moment, and meeting people where they are right now. It’s likely to be a truly different place from what it was
a year ago, a month ago or even a few days ago. What is happening in your life is evidence that both people and circumstances change. That means that you change, and you can count on this happening now.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — With the Sun and Mercury about to enter your sign, you may be feeling a mix of apprehension and excitement. What you may actually experience is a sense of grounding, and the ability to catch up with where some of your desires have been going. It’s true that they’ve been running ahead of what you think you’re ready for; that’s another way to say that you’re making progress and are oriented on forward motion. Over the past few weeks you’ve been through some kind of inner odyssey. Remember what you’ve been through; commemorate it in some way, preferably in a way that preserves a few of the details that may not seem important now but which will be significant reference points as the weeks and months of this year unfold. Always remember your inner reality, even as you make your way in the world. Always remember that you’re part of a community even in your most deeply introspective or solitary moments.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — One gift of the next few weeks is going to be the opportunity to understand your fears, particularly the ones that get chalked up to being ‘unconscious’. You want to know about this dimension of yourself because when the energy ramps up, as it will certainly do over the next two or three weeks, all of your emotions will be amplified — and you don’t want any hangups to get in the way of the fun, the opportunities and the potential that are waiting for you. You’re about to become a magnet for human contact, and that will give you choices in the matter of who you associate with. I have a suggestion: stick with people who have a healthy opinion of themselves and their capabilities, rather than those who are overly self-critical or hung up. Resist every urge to ‘fix’ these people and instead, focus on what feels right for you. If you have something to say to someone who experiences struggles that don’t turn you on, be direct, clear and gentle, and maybe remember when you were held down by a similar affliction; then get back to doing what you’ve wanted to do for so long.

Order your 2013 reading from Eric Francis now, in LISTEN, the 2013 annual edition of Planet Waves. As a subscriber you can still get all 12 signs for the price of three. This is a detailed written and audio reading that you will love. You can also purchase signs one at a time (including audio and written, prior to our splitting those two products).

 

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Transit of Venus: Embracing the Solar Feminine

Planet Waves
Photos of the 2004 Venus transit of the Sun by Anthony Ayiomamitis.

Dear Friend and Reader:

“As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
— Sulamitis, from the Song of Solomon

On June 5 (June 6 in some time zones) Venus and the Sun form a precise conjunction, called a transit of Venus. Venus and the Sun align about once a year — though this one is different due to the fact that Venus will not pass above or below the Sun but rather directly cross its path. This is called a transit of Venus. Considered one of the most rare predictable astronomical events, transits of Venus arrive in pairs separated by eight years; the pairs themselves are divided by more than a century.

Events in astrology gain influence by being unusual — though this one will also be spectacular. If you can see the Sun during the event and use a special viewing filter, you will be able to watch Venus cross the disk of the Sun. (Beginning at 6:04 pm EDT, viewers in New York can watch until sunset.) We most recently experienced a transit of Venus in 2004. The June 5 event may be related to something that you experienced or a phase of your life that began eight years ago.

Planet Waves
Melissa by Eric Francis — Book of Blue, New York.

The world will not experience another transit of Venus until 2117, 105 years from now. It’s a bit ominous that, barring some life-extending genetic therapy, nobody who sees this one will be alive to see the next one.

Speaking of omens, this kind of rare event indicates a check-in point with the state of humanity. It’s the single most distinct astrology element of 2012, a year that may break the record for how much prophecy has hung on its back. Yet we do stand in a moment when one logical use of celestial divination would be trying to figure out what’s going to happen to civilization on our planet.

By any objective measure, we are in trouble. It’s not that our national and global problems don’t have solutions. It’s not that there are insufficient resources. The crisis involves lack of leadership and ethics. Anyone trying for a solution must outsmart what amounts to a cabal of heavily armed thieves who are holding the planet hostage.

We face numerous hotly polarized situations of ‘us and them’, many of which come from a prevailing condition of inner division that has a grip on the human psyche. Which brings me to why it’s so excellent that this event is happening in Gemini. I believe that the political mess we face is a reflection of the deeper elements of our consciousness. Many of these are based on what I will broadly term gender issues.

In recent years, the political machinery has been using gender and sexual orientation — and sex in general — as some of its most effective wedges. Yet with the atmosphere heating up, with fracking consuming the United States and headed to Europe, with the economy in an extremely fragile state and our genetic code under assault from supertoxins-for-profit, worrying about who has the right to marry seems like a distraction.

Trying to blast reproductive rights back to the 1950s (as evidenced by the movement to repeal not just Roe v. Wade, which preserves the right to abortion, and also Griswold v. Connecticut, which preserves the right to contraception) is often described as throwing red meat to the conservative base. It’s typically analyzed as a political ploy that skews the discussion away from real problems and also preserves the jobs of politicians.

We all know there’s a severe imbalance on the planet, and there are many spiritual theories going around as to why that might be. Instead of treating the sex and gender issue as a symptom, I would propose that it might be a lot closer to the cause. People in political leadership are not known for their powers of deep introspection or their sexual integrity. Often they are in conflict and project that conflict outward as attack, attempted control and manipulation of people’s private sexual lives. People not in positions of public trust drive one another insane with this stuff as well.

Planet Waves
Not a pinhole camera — gear used by Anthony Ayiomamitis to photograph the 2004 Venus transit of the Sun. Those images are shown at the top of the page. Many prior transit events were recorded only by illustration. Some examples of those drawings are below. Photo provided by Anthony.

This inner turmoil manifests many other ways, including lack of sensitivity for the Earth (the consequence of which is often accurately described as rape). Nearly all of the most potent toxins of industry attack the female reproductive system first, though we’re all soaking in an ocean of hormone-disruptive chemicals and all feeling the effects to some degree.

The transit of Venus presents us with a compelling metaphor and also a palpable moment of transition. It’s a junction (literally, a conjunction) where we can make a conscious choice. Think of this as starting within, where most (some would say all) of our conflict originates. Think of it as an inner reunion between the masculine and feminine elements of ourselves, appropriately happening in the sign of the interplay of opposites — Gemini.

Venus is a feminine symbol and the Sun a masculine one. When Venus intersects with the disk of the Sun, it’s a little like the Sun is being penetrated by potent feminine energy. Both will change in the process. My astrology colleague Adam Gainsburg (Soulsign.com) has been describing this as the emergence of what he calls the solar feminine.

“Despite the dominance of solar gods at the root of western civilization, the metaphor of light is actually more akin to the feminine principle than to the masculine. Light shines, radiates, illuminates. But from our viewpoint on Earth, the Sun also sets and takes the light with it each evening. This ebb and flow of light is precisely what the feminine is: the flow, the dance, the ever-changing pattern of light into dark and back again.”

With the transit of Venus, he said, “What becomes illuminated is how your feminine aspect self-radiates into the world — what you uniquely have to give to the improvement of our planet.” He adds, “The solar feminine is, literally, our ‘light body’. She’s the one inside each of us who leaves nothing uncovered, nothing unfelt. We experience the full range of our actual feelings as her body.” Yet the Sun is expressive, so this is about being moved to take creative action.

“The Solar feminine is a confrontational idea for many religions because her very existence fundamentally challenges the fragmentary, long-held assumption of masculine spiritual superiority. By re-acknowledging her, we begin to re-empower her. The solar feminine shines not just through the success and expression of women, but through the power of a man’s emotions received in his heart.”

I think what Adam may be describing is a process of men becoming more receptive and women becoming more expressive. That would help balance things out — and at least it gives us a clear idea of what to reach for. While there’s been plenty of ways in which our culture has slipped backwards in gender relations (especially when you factor in politicians), I believe there is a gradual balancing out of masculine and feminine energies within many individuals and in many relationships. With this eclipse-like event, we have an opportunity to deepen and accelerate that process.

Planet Waves
Illustration of the 1874 transit of Venus at the point of ingress, seen at Sydney, New South Wales, and drawn by H. C. Russells.

The story of transits of Venus over the past few centuries gives us another metaphor to work with. Last year a book was published, called Transit of Venus: 1631 to the Present, by Nick Lomb (The Experiment, paperback, $24.95). Lomb describes the progression of how each successive event was seen by human eyes — and some of the implications. The following history is drawn from Lomb’s research.

No one is known to have seen the 1631 Venus transit — it was night in Europe. Johannes Kepler, who figured out the 1631 event, missed that there would be a second transit of Venus eight years later. Two people are known to have seen the 1639 transit: Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend William Crabtree, viewing separately from England. Amazingly, Horrocks figured out there would likely be a second Venus transit that century only about one month before it occurred. He began observing the day before his prediction indicated, just in case he had made an error in his calculations.

Edmond Halley (of Halley’s Comet fame) expected a Venus transit in 1761. He urged astronomers who would be alive at the time to observe the event. His calculations were off, but other astronomers worked out the correct timing. This was the first global scientific event, with 176 astronomers watching from 117 far-flung locations.

Eight years later, in 1769, there was another transit — the second of that pair. Up to 400 different calculations were presented to the Royal Society in London and similar elite European scholarly societies for the 1769 transit. The desirability of observing the transit in the South Pacific led to the founding of New South Wales, in what is now Australia; the British crown saw the need for calculations from the South Pacific as the perfect political cover story for its mission of seeking islands to expand to. In other words, modern Australia owes its existence to a celestial event. This adds the geopolitical expansion to the process.

More people observed the 1874 transit than any other previous one, reflecting the expansion of technology, science, education, industry, trade and population. It was also the first one documented in photographs.

Planet Waves
Drawings of the 1769 transit by Capt. James Cook and Charles Green.

The corresponding transit eight years later in 1882 was widely observed and better documented in photos. The U.S. sent out eight teams, including to South Africa and San Antonio, TX. They made 1,380 measurable photographic plates (four times as many as in 1874).

The 1882 transit was visible throughout the U.S. for almost the whole event. Amateur astronomers set up telescopes in parks and on sidewalks of New York City, collecting dimes from those who wished to look. In Meriden, Conn., a fire alarm bell was rung when it started, and people went to a local man’s house where he’d set up seven telescopes so people could look. Some 6,000 people observed the transit form that yard.

That takes us up to the 2004 transit, the most recent one. For the first time, we were able to observe the transit from space, with much vaster knowledge of Venus and the solar system. Not only could the general public observe, but hundreds of amateur astronomers could produce their own stunning photographs (three from the 2004 transit, taken by Anthony Ayiomamitis, appear at the top of this article).

For the 2012 event, many more people will be aware of what is happening, and due to that knowledge, and the availability of inexpensive viewing equipment and the proliferation of information on the Internet, this will be the most-viewed Venus transit of the Sun in history. Nearly everyone in the world will be able to see live video or photos minutes after it happens.

There is something in this rare event that’s about the exponential expansion of awareness. If (at least from an astrological viewpoint) we understand that awareness to involve the balancing of male and female energies, we can cooperate by spreading that energy in an exponential way.

There is one other beautiful message from this event that I picked up while researching the chart for the Venus transit. I cast the cart with 1,000 asteroids and newly discovered bodies, and noticed there is a minor planet precisely conjunct both Venus and the Sun when the transit happens. It won’t be visible — but it will be there. The planet, really an asteroid, is called Sulamitis. It’s a fast-mover (less than four-year orbit) so its presence is something to take note of.

I did a little research and discovered that Sulamitis is the female character in the Song of Solomon, a book from the Bible that stands out in that it’s not about laying down the law or describing the anguish of some tribe. Rather, it’s a passionate love poem presented as a dialog between a man and a woman.

The story has many twists and turns, but ultimately its theme is devotion and what it means to be in love, with a comment on how authentic balance between male and female energy feels. With this event happening in Gemini, the first place to seek and find that balance is inside ourselves. I could not think of a more beautiful visitor to stand guard over this rare event, at this vital opportunity for rebalancing our hearts, souls and our relationship to the Earth.

Lovingly,

Eric Francis

Planet Waves

UAC Coverage Begins This Week

Greetings!

I’ve arrived in New Orleans and the United Astrology Conference (UAC) is getting under way. I taught my class on Astrology Storytelling earlier today and as I write I’m recording Donna Woodwell’s class on Weaving the Web. These are the first projects that we will produce.

If you’re looking for coverage of the conference, I suggest you check in Thursday afternoon. Coverage will be two places — it will be on the main Planet Waves blog, Daily Astrology & Adventure, located near the top of page. It will also appear
on Planet Waves FM. There will be clear instructions for how to access the coverage, most of which will be in radio format.

If you’re at the conference, please stop by the Planet Waves table.

Lovingly,

Eric Francis

Weekly Horoscopes, Monthly Horoscopes, Astrology News, Daily Astrology Blog, Birthday Reports

 

Planet Waves

Monthly Horoscope for June 2012 | Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19)

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Within the context of the rare, beautiful astrological events of this month, your job is to devote yourself to the quality of your work. You may feel a drive to innovation, leadership, invention or otherwise stirring the pot — though what your chart suggests is that you work calmly and steadily on specific, focused projects. Said another way, ground yourself in your goals, processes and methods. Focus on the details. You will have the occasion to work through certain blockages or obstacles, which may seem to be in your environment. I recognize that I’m not describing a glorious role, despite the fact that all eyes will be on the Sun, an object closely related to your sign. Your influence will come from your awareness and your ability to remain calm and go deep. That is the kind of leadership that you’re being called to. It’s the kind that involves intelligence, persistence, tenacity and foresight. There is a measure of self-direction that you’re being called to initiate, and you may be the one who gets to solve a problem that is too annoying or seemingly intractable for anyone else to work out. You’re doing this all the better if you feel invisible through the experience. The point is that this is not about you. You have a role, and by all indications it’s an integral one. Yet you can only accomplish this properly if you drop back and work with the full presence of your mind with no interference from your ego.

Hello Aries — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). We will have the Gemini birthday reading for you as soon as possible! Please check this space, and look in your email from us.

Taurus (April 19- May 20)

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Has there ever been a time when the human psyche was more fragmented? Have we ever been pulled in more directions, injected with competing self-images or struggled with conflicting values systems? These conflicts and struggles used to be called neurosis (a term now abandoned by modern psychology) — including confusion, compromised sense of self-worth, obsession, perfectionism, habitual fantasizing and many other seemingly small problems that eat human bandwidth. Meanwhile, many external factors are competing for your attention — be they advertising, social opportunities or the demands of work. You’re aware of this situation, both within you and around you. You may be waking up to the desire to bring your whole consciousness together and to focus your mind. Events this month offer a special opportunity for healing, which is likely to arrive as unusual clarity around what your priorities are, and an opportunity to focus on a clear agenda. Consider how much of your past struggle has involved deciding what you ‘should’ be doing versus what you really love, and how to balance this out. Your astrology suggests you may get a taste of what life is like without this tension. Yet if that feeling vanishes, you may not recognize it as the presence of something else. Indeed, you could overlook it just because you feel good. Therefore, pay attention. Feel the inner alignment that allows you to make the decisions based on what works for you. Once you open that space, you will be able to return dependably — as long as you remember that it exists.

Hello Taurus — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed) If you would like to hear your Taurus birthday reading, please visit this link.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The whole is not only greater than the sum of the parts — it’s a lot more fun, and useful, and interesting. Yet there’s another level to this — what you actually do with all this potential. A car is greater than a garage full of parts, but then — where do you go? This month’s precise Sun-Venus conjunction in your sign is a clear demarcation point between the past and the future. Wherever you are going, it’s somewhere other than you’ve been, and I reckon, other than where you expected to go. This will require you to summon flexibility that’s unusual even for you, and to facilitate that you are about to release many old tendencies that have kept you stuck in certain patterns and at a certain depth within yourself. Or rather, your relationship to yourself. It’s true that you relate to yourself in a way that many people you know do not — consciously, aware of your ‘inner other’. Over the next few weeks, it looks as if you discover that your inner other is actually your soulmate. You don’t need anyone else to play this role for you; your friends, lovers and companions have different roles to play. Your experience of them, and of anything seemingly outside yourself, is rooted in your experience with yourself — and your relationship to yourself. If the planets in their courses say anything about you right now, it’s that you are recognizing that your relationship to yourself is something to honor and treasure every day.

Hello Gemini — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Cancer (June 21- July 22)

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — This month’s transit of Venus is about healing seeming divisions and splits within the psyche. For you, there is a special theme — resolving something you’ve been unable to observe closely or give a name to, perhaps until recently. You’ve lived with the effects all of your life, which may have manifested in what I call the ‘hemisphere effect’ — the potential to experience yourself, or anything, two entirely different ways. They may have nothing in common and one point of view may be entirely exclusive of the other. I would consider this as a potential source of misgivings about yourself, as well as an ambivalence that has followed you through some of your most important relationships. Consider that at some of the most challenging points in your life, you’ve been experiencing the effects of something inside you projected outward. It’s difficult to see the actual process because you’ve only been seeing the outer manifestation — like studying the projection on a screen rather than considering the film or the projector. The coming weeks contain a moment of profound alchemy, wherein the mirage of an inner split resolves itself seemingly spontaneously — and then you notice a corresponding change in your relationships. You will not be able to predict what happens; challenges or unresolved situations you’re currently involved with may work themselves out any number of ways. From the strength and integrity of the current astrology, you can trust that what develops will serve your growth and your longterm happiness beautifully.

Hello Cancer — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — I suggest you take a bold step beyond considering your image or your appearance and fully immerse yourself into your relationship with the world. By that, I mean the world as you think of it: the constellation of everyone and everything in your life. You may be familiar with the Lakota prayer Mitakuye Oyasin, which translates loosely to “all are related.” It is an expression of the idea that all people and all things are interconnected. They may be related by being part of our sphere of consciousness, or looking a bit deeper, by the truth that we are part of something larger than ourselves. This of course violates Western concepts of separateness, division and privacy, ideas that lead to quite a bit of chaos and conflict — which are all based on a violation of natural law. The extraordinary astrology that is now unfolding is a reminder that you are part of holistic existence. Everything you do, and everything you think, influences the totality of your environment. This isn’t a theory but rather a property of existence that may boldly reveal itself to you during the next few weeks. Such an experience would shift how you experience yourself in the midst of your reality. Imagine if you could live that interconnectedness all the time. What would change? What would come into your life? What conflict would disappear into the deeper truth that you are related to everything from earth to sky to all members of the human family? Imagine.

Hello Leo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

 


Spring Checkpoint: Individual Signs Now Available

We will soon figure out that it’s actually 2012. The recent retrogrades of Mars and Mercury seemed to create a delay, but really this winter and early spring has been a phase of gestation. Over the next four weeks, the energy starts to pick up pace dramatically, and we will discover where we are and that something unusual, and beautiful, is happening.

Even as we approach the truly beautiful potential of the astrology that’s developing, many people are struggling with their day-to-day lives. There are more questions than answers; the economic and political situations seem hopeless; the pace of existence is going so fast that there seems to be nowhere to get in a little meaning, or seek some peace of mind.

Planet Waves

Here is where astrology can help. Astrology looks at the longer cycles, and the deeper themes — and can help you see your life in context of the present moment, no matter how chaotic it may be. Context means a sense of where you fit in that will help you see your potential and make better choices.

For years, I’ve been helping my clients prepare for making the most of the astrology of the 2012 era. Based on this experience, and many years of study, I’ve prepared a set of readings for all 12 signs (and rising signs, and Moon signs) that guides you through this astrology, step by step. I cover the most challenging and energized developments of this spring, which includes eclipses, Venus retrograde, the Venus transit of the Sun, and then a few days after the Sun ingresses Cancer, the Uranus-Pluto square.

Each sign gets a half-hour discussion. These came through loud and clear, with strength and meaning. I spent a week designing and recording them, and I am grateful to be able to offer them to you as a tool to help you guide your decisions, as you seek deeper meaning along your journey.

Spring 2012 is a kind of checkpoint along the way to wherever you are going. But really it’s a calling into the adventure of existence, a bold invitation to go beyond your past limits and explore something truly new about yourself.

Signs are now available individually for an amazingly low price, cheaper than the paper shopping bag costs at Jimmy Choo — order your reading here. The report is getting rave reviews from people who are currently working with it, including these words from a customer named Donna: “OMG — thank you thank you thank you — just spent this morning listening to my [Spring Report] info, and am so blown away by the accuracy (and relief!) in this experience. Thanks so very much for your part in supporting this work and for showing up in the way that you do!”. Here is the link to order.

Please drop us a note if you have any questions.

Lovingly,

Eric Francis


 

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — During your long search for a purpose, a mission, a calling, have you noticed how many others are on a similar quest? This search for meaning and purpose influences far more people than those who seem to have not accomplished much. Many brilliantly successful people are seeking contact with this feeling, having not found it in the midst of all of their achievement. You seem to face another kind of issue. It’s sometimes framed itself as the question, which of your two greatest talents is the one to pursue as your true path? What about how they seem to compete with one another, for time, attention and resources? Here is the message from your astrology: First, your purpose goes beyond any specific activity, job or role. Each face of what you do is an expression of something deeper, and this is one moment in your life when you make contact with that inherent quality. When you feel this, you’ll know because the sensation will shift your perspective. Second, your diversity of skills, and your choice to develop multiple gifts, has only strengthened you, widened your vision and given you the opportunity to cross-reference from several fields of knowledge. Finally, I suggest you cultivate a special reverence for language, and the language skills you possess. They will always serve you, the more so for investing in them and using them regularly. This is called being an integrated human being. You have always been well on the way — you’re about to go to a whole new level.

Hello Virgo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Libra (Sep. 22 - Oct. 23)

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Balancing fear with love does not work. It only turns love into a defense, which reinforces fear. It may work to bring some light into the darkness, though for true healing to happen, all that is dark, existing beneath the surface or cloaked by denial must be brought to the light. If you work with these basic principles, you will be able not only to solve any problem, you will unfold a new vision for your life. The Venus transit of the Sun involves the planet associated with your sign and this takes place in one of the most visionary houses — the 9th. This rare event culminates with an opening for you to let go of an outdated vision of yourself. You would be amazed how such things can block new energy and ideas from entering your life. You will soon reach the point where the past is, in fact and in your experience, over. Many ideas you’ve had about the future up until this point will melt away. What is approaching is more exciting and beautiful than nearly anything you’ve conceived of before. You may need to go back over the things you were thinking in childhood to find certain sticking points, romantic ideals, and most of all, concepts about God that were inflicted on you. Consider these things carefully, and without sentimental attachment. Be willing to let go of everything you were told, or that you believed, was wrong, and in doing so open up space for the truth about yourself.

Hello Libra — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Scorpio (Oct. 23- Nov. 22)

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Every story in your life right now seems to be about commitment. And, despite being associated with attachment and bonding, one of the places you seem to hold the most self-doubt involves commitment to others. That is where to draw the line: it’s easy for you to confuse your investment in a relationship with an investment in your own life. Yes, there is a fine line, though the people who care about you the most understand that they provide a forum for you to self-actualize. Look carefully at the relationships in your life and make sure that you know which ones fit this description; that you understand who exists in your world for the purpose of consciously (as in willingly) holding space for you to get to know yourself. I recognize that this may seem ‘one sided’, though I would offer the idea that when your deepest relationships have this as their primary element, you are more available to others, not less. So, far from being self-centered for its own sake, I am talking about being self-aware and fully involved with your own growth, so that you are able to participate with greater depth and involvement in your relationships. You only run into trouble when you make some kind of significant compromise of your personal truth, which means you can only be half-present — and that’s as useful as not being present at all. Forget the fact that some people insist that’s what you do. There are others who want you uncompromised and at full strength.

Hello Scorpio — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — It’s not a relationship that’s changing — it’s your whole orientation on relationships. You’re enough of a philosopher to know what I mean when I say that everything is a relationship. In truth, what is coming to life is a new contact point with existence. You might glimpse something that hints to you that something is possible — remember that you’re seeing what’s possible all the time. Experiences you never dreamed could happen are right within your reach. All you have to do is take that step and go toward people you like rather than having them come to you. This is a significant shift in orientation for you, though it’s long overdue. Your independence will not be compromised; part of your reorientation is understanding how to share space with others in a way that leaves space for you. In doing this, you’re on the leading edge of a revolution that many people are eagerly awaiting, and you get to be there mainly because of your courage. As this unfolds, notice who you are attracted to and who is attracted to you. Be sensitive to the energy you share. For sure, your existing relationships are going through a transformation of some kind, and you may get the feeling that this is outside of your control. That’s true, to a point. You have the option to notice what is actually working and what is not. You have the option to suspend any efforts to fix things — and then size up what is so, and respond appropriately.

Hello Sagittarius — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Pay attention to the speed and grace with which thoughts progress into concept and then into full manifestation. Though there are many steps to the process, the most significant is the one where you change and embrace the new pattern of your life. That feels like yielding to a force more powerful than yourself, though it usually has a pleasant sensation of release and embrace rather than the sensation of being pushed. In truth that force is within you, and it’s been building for a long time. You know that you’ve consciously initiated many deep changes the past few years of your life, and you’ve been wondering when some of them are finally going to bear fruit in the form of actual progress. That time has arrived. One of the key lessons in all of this is that of confidence. The world is a profoundly different place for those who proceed with confidence, which means with faith in themselves, and those who are ruled by their insecurities. You have no time to waste on such folly, and you’ve experienced many moments recently when you know you’ve found your true center. Yet you’re also being challenged to be certain of who you are in a time when that has never seemed to change faster. Consider yourself a being in motion, a work in progress, and define your sense of ‘self’ based on that sense of movement and development. Invest your trust there and you will have handsome rewards.

Hello Capricorn — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — What is the difference between a creative person and an ‘uncreative’ one? There definitely seems to be a distinction — and by early adulthood most of us have typecast ourselves as one or the other. It may not be possible to teach creativity, but what interferes with the process can be identified and moved out of the way. What would that be? I can name two things offhand: rigid patterns and fear. Those things that move creative energy can be encouraged, such as curiosity and the spirit that the whole world, and everyone in it, is there to feed your process. I would say the distinction that a ‘creative’ person has is guts — they are willing to dare. That alone does not bestow talent, but it sure can help you get there. By daring I don’t mean the bungee-jumping or gamble-a-lot-of-money kind of daring; I mean the willingness of a child to experiment with what turns you on, coupled with the adult commitment to follow through once you get the energy going. For you, the risk factor includes exploring the very ideas you think are the most dangerous, taboo or unacceptable. It means daring to speak the message that you know is true but that you’re afraid others will find to be somehow offensive. This is the spot where nearly all good ideas either fizzle out before they go anywhere, or the spot where they go past and emerge into consciousness as something fun and maybe beautiful.

Hello Aquarius — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).

Pisces (Feb. 19- March 20)

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — I am sure you’ve read lots of those annoying little statements in self-help books and ‘sacred’ texts that inform you that when you change yourself from within, the world around you responds. That’s exactly what’s happening to you right now. Your psychic, psychological and emotional innards (all part of the same spectrum) are coming into alignment. It’s as if you’re settling into yourself, and as you do, the world is becoming a different place. If you’re feeling any inner divisions, that will soon yield to the palpable sensation of those fissures closing and healing. Much of what has troubled you in the past goes back a long way; in a sense it was built into your childhood, and it has roots into your genetic lineage. That’s one reason why it’s been so persistent. Another reason is because it’s often difficult to accurately perceive our relationship to our environment — and we’re taught that manipulating the outer world works better than working to nourish and strengthen ourselves in the spirit of healing. What happens over the next few weeks will help you finish the repairs to your foundation that you have likely already begun. What seemed like irreversible damage from the past will reveal itself as being subject to healing and growth. You are not the only one who will benefit; the repairs will extend back through the generations. Observe the changes in your perspective as you experience being united with yourself and your environment. There is a word for this — integrity.

Hello Pisces — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).