Confess your passion, your secret fear
Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier
— Donald Fagen

Dear Planet Waves Reader:

Normally we distribute the early-week edition on Tuesday, but there’s an intriguing astrological event that takes place starting today. This extends overnight and into tomorrow afternoon, so I’ve decided to run this edition today. It’s based on a blog post from over the weekend though please note that there are some reinterpretations of the astrology in this version. Monthly horoscopes for January will be distributed after the solstice, schedule to be announced.

Mercury stationed retrograde in Capricorn Friday morning, close to a number of other planets and points. Monday night and into Tuesday, there is an unusual triple conjunction of Mercury, Mars and Pluto, all conjunct within one arc minute (that’s 1/60th of a degree). Perhaps you have to know a little astrology to appreciate this, but imagine three moving points of this potency just happening to be aligned with the Earth at the same time, with the added spin or influence of Mercury retrograde.

In case you’re new to charts, you’re looking at the three bodies with the bold 4 next to them. That’s the degree value; the arc minutes, or fractions of a degree, are the small numbers, and look how close they are as well. Mars and Pluto are in an exact conjunction, to the arc minute. And just as that’s happening, Mercury backs over them both within a few minutes of one another. I have to say, that is laser-like precision. Just consider that these planets are millions of miles from Earth, all moving at different speeds, and there are not three bodies aligned but four of them — that precise conjunction means they align not just with one another but with the Earth.

There is a message involved; that’s the nature of Mercury. Whatever this chart is about, there is a message. In personal matters, this is a day to either stay silent or if you want to speak, to choose your words carefully. That would include listening, a skill rare enough to find. Listening would include to yourself and to others. The retrograde advises introspection, thinking before you act, and focusing on psychology and motives, especially your own. The theme of ‘motives’ comes from Pluto, the prime mover, the unstoppable force, and the scent and sensation of hormones. The ‘think carefully’ theme comes from Mercury conjunct Mars, which says thinking fast, but Mercury may not be perceiving accurately: I am not suggesting you ‘second guess’ yourself but that you not be overconfident. A little conscious humility will suffice.

Mix this up with Capricorn and, in one dimension, you get the astrological incarnation of kinky. This would be kink in the form of wordplay and power exchange. On the most basic level, it could be a moment to speak softly and slowly with intimate partners and tell the truth about sex, something we need to do if we plan to reclaim the sensation of being alive. Capricorn adds the predisposition to guilt (or an inquiry into the topic), which is a response to perceived authority. The retrograde suggests you may be able to get beyond the sensation of guilt as a restrictive force, and allow your truth to come out. Once it does, you will begin a process of working that reality through the rest of your mental field, like kneading dough.

Though it’s not shown in the chart sample above, the Moon is also in the neighborhood — by aspect. In astrology planets can be grouped by being together, or being in the same degree range. Tuesday at 2:14 am EST, the Moon enters Aries and thus crosses the Aries Point, and soon after squares its own nodes; then Tuesday at 10:57 am EST it makes a square to Mercury, then to Pluto, then to Mars in rapid succession (in about the space of one hour). This is the Moon ‘setting off’ the aspect. A square is shorthand for ‘something happens’ and there is added emphasis in that the Moon is making a 90-degree aspect to its own nodes, which are hot and vibrating in anticipation of an eclipse on the solstice. And of course we are in Aries Point country — never left, we’ve been here since Pluto first touched Capricorn in 2008, though thanks to eclipses and other planets showing up lately, we are going through a series of peaks.

While this setup has some dark shades, I suggest that there is something to be learned about the current circumstances of the world. We are seeing some unprecedented things going on, as I described last week. There are mainly two groups of people who know what is in the rest of those 250,000 cables that WikiLeaks has not yet released — the Obama administration, and the WikiLeaks crew. (So do a bunch of Bushistas.)

Has everyone heard that Anna Ardin moved to the West Bank? I got this news a bit late. It was reported by the Australian website Crikey on Thursday and republished in The Huffington Post. She was the older of the two women who claimed that something inappropriate happened between her and Assange. She has stopped cooperating with prosecutors and has headed to do missionary work in the Holy Land. That sounds like a true calling.

According to Crikey, in a recent tweet she said, “CIA agent, rabid feminist / Muslim lover, a Christian fundamentalist, frigid & fatally in love with a man, can you be all that at the same time…” Yes, this woman sounds like she knows exactly what she wants out of life. Wait — she’s admitting to being a CIA agent? She seems to be kidding, but she makes a convincing case — and disappearing to a remote corner of the world when she’s become a star in this global crisis only emphasizes the point.

That leaves the stalker/groupie in the pink jump suit. Oops, that would be jumper, a sweater in England — my fantasies were running away with me. Is she a CIA agent too? She was recently seen in a police station collaborating with one.

I just read that Assange’s first extradition hearing is scheduled for Wednesday — right in the wake of this planetary alignment. You can be sure that there will be some interesting negotiations going on during the next 48 hours.

The Swedish sex case (such as it was) is unraveling, and the Brits and Yanks are going to be falling all over one another to figure out a way to keep Assange in jail. So far, no charges have been filed by Sweden for the alleged sexual misconduct, and no charges have been filed by the United States relating to the leaked documents. The Espionage Act was considered, but apparently that didn’t work when the US government tried to prosecute Daniel Ellsberg for releasing the Pentagon Papers. Instead, Nixon went after The New York Times — and that, too, failed; the Supreme Court would have no part of banning the newspaper’s coverage of the secret Vietnam War file that Ellsberg released. Besides all of which, Assange is a direct collaborator with the news entities of the world — not the leaker with security clearance as was Ellsberg.

Minor planets, 90-degree sort, at Mercury-Mars-Pluto conjunct. Calculations by Serennu.com.

So, back to the astrology. Let’s look at some minor planets. Here is what’s called a 90-degree sort, looking only at the early cardinal signs. That’s another way of saying this is a list of planets and points that make conjunctions, squares or oppositions to the triple conjunction of Mercury, Mars and Pluto. A few stand out.

One is Hermes, an asteroid — that is right in the conjunction with Mercury, Mars and Pluto, to the degree. The Sabian symbol for this degree is: “Indians on the warpath; while some men row a well-filled canoe, others perform a war dance. Wait, didn’t this one turn up in the WikiLeaks cables?”

Hermes tossed into the mix adds a touch of the miraculous, or pertains to some secret matter. He is a rather meaningful figure in the history of astrology and other forms of magick, alchemy and science. (In the ancient astrological literature being translated by Project Hindsight, he is referred to as one of the ‘founders’ of astrology).

Across the dial in Cancer is Cyllarus. This is a centaur (Chiron-like body) that is exactly opposite the triple (quad, if you count Hermes) conjunction. One key phrase for Cyllarus is ‘out of the blue’. That is conjunct Kronos, a very slow-moving point (not a planet) that involves authority. Think of Kronos as a super-Saturn. This is not a day to cuss out a cop or to get pissed off at an IRS operator. It does seem like a great day to make some choices and take authority over your affairs.

Asteroid Amor is square the arrangement in Aries; that can represent “the conditions on unconditional love,” in the words of Martha Wescott, and this is conjunct Pelion — a centaur planet named for a mountain in Greece — but not just any old mountain. We are climbing the mountain of unconditional love. But it’s perilous, dark and shadowy. According to Ovid, Pelion is a remnant of the original creation of the world. It is prominent in the charts of Marilyn Monroe and Hitler, seeming to have a flare for drama and revenge.

Ophelia, an asteroid, is in Libra, also square the big conjunction; she is a character from Hamlet, the one who is “‘incapable of her own distress,” a reference to her being dead. With all this Mercury-Pluto going on, let’s give a big cancel-clear on that kind of message.

So what’s this all about? I don’t know really, except that we’re in the mix of it all right now; and I know that we’re likely to see the story of the ‘man from Mars’ advance this week, one way or another. We have an extremely angry, nervous political establishment in Washington, and we have a lot of banks on the brink of making a large investment in canned sardines seem sensible.

We also have a lot to learn — about knowledge, gaining knowledge and what to do with it once we have it. Mercury conjunct Hermes certainly emphasizes that point.

So, let’s keep an eye on this one. Pay attention to what you say, what you write and what you hear, and for sure, don’t text, or for that matter sext, while you’re driving. Especially in Buffalo.

Keep an eye on the Planet Waves daily blog for realtime updates, and remember to tune into my weekly podcast on Wednesday morning.

Yours & truly,