Tag Archives: Uranus-Pluto

Of Uranus, Pluto and Fragile Revolutions

Dear Friend and Reader:

The developments of Arab Spring and the Uranus-Pluto square that precipitated it have taken another violent turn this week, as the Egyptian military killed more than 600 protesters and injured thousands in a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. As we go to press, many sources are reporting that the standoffs may be escalating and that there is more bloodshed expected.

The New York Times from Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. Children of the future will be curious what a newspaper looked like. Photo by Eric.

Egypt’s armed forces invaded two protest camps in Cairo early Wednesday morning, firing teargas and assault rifles into the Occupy-like villages that were created in support of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, who was forced from power in early July.

In addition, the military attacked mosques and churches, while protesters retaliated by burning down government buildings with Molotov cocktails.

Morsi became president after the Arab Spring protests of 2011 in what have been described as the first free elections in Egypt’s long history. After a year and three days in office, a combination of massive protests and military action forced Morsi from power six weeks ago in what was essentially a publicly supported military coup. That the U.S. government has been reluctant to call it that seems to involve Pres. Obama not wanting to lose what little influence he has with the Egyptian military.

As soon has he says the word “coup” he must cut aid to Egypt, which would also mean cutting off communication with its military leaders. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security advisor under Pres. Carter, said that Obama is also attempting to hedge his bets on who will get into power. He said it was more likely that the military would eventually settle down and be open to discussions than the Muslim Brotherhood would be.

Since Morsi was ousted on July 3, his supporters, organized by a political party called the Muslim Brotherhood, have held demonstrations and set up two camps in Cairo and in many other cities. The military moved against the camps across the country simultaneously. NBC News reported that the death toll was higher outside of Cairo than it was within the capital.

Egyptians walk among the burned remains of the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo, Egypt, August 15, 2013.

One reason why this is an unexpected and particularly tragic development is that the Egyptian military has, until now, shown significant restraint through many long phases of citizen protests and government transitions, and had the reputation of being on the side of the people. In many tense situations they seemed to demonstrate impeccable restraint; as Egypt has gone through its gyrations they seemed to be the most dependable and even-handed element of the equation.

But this seems to have been an illusion — the Egyptian military has long existed as a self-serving entity, out only for its own interests. For example, PBS reported from Cairo last year that, “Most analysts and retired officers here say that the military’s increasingly brutal show of force foreshadows the fact that it is not likely to give up executive power easily in large part because it seeks to hold on to its sprawling economic interests — that stretch from industry to hotels to supermarkets and huge real estate portfolios.”

Now the military has created a state of domestic warfare, and quite possibly precipitated a full-on civil war. It’s worth stating that pro-Morsi protesters were aware that sooner or later, if they did not negotiate, they would be attacked. They may have been the ones with the plan, even if the government seemed to lack one. But that would only work if the Islamic Brotherhood is offered wide-scale the public sympathy that it anticipated following the massacre.

Uranus, Pluto and Jupiter

In the background of all current world events is a long-standing aspect called the Uranus-Pluto square. This consists of Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn. Both are slow-moving planets, and their cycle lasts well over a century.

Time that the attack on protesters began, according to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times. Other sources are putting it at “first light,” which is imprecise and hours earlier. View glyph legend here.

Uranus and Pluto formed a conjunction in 1965-66, which like all aspects between these two planets has effects that fan out for a decade or more. In many ways we are still living with the effects of cultural and political events that took place during that era. Yet some of the most productive gains under a Uranus-Pluto aspect are also the most fragile. The spirit that initially supported them can be difficult or impossible to sustain for long.

Slow-moving aspects like this can lurk in the background, influencing both the historical process and our individual lives invisibly. Then when faster-moving planets enter the aspect pattern, we have clear experiences that make the effect obvious.

Currently, Jupiter in Cancer is square Uranus in Aries and opposite Pluto in Capricorn. (One way I describe this kind of pattern is to say that the planet is “moving through the Uranus-Pluto square.” I give another example in the SKY column, below. Venus has just ingressed Libra and we’re about to have a grand cross pattern involving Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto.)

Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto in the Egypt massacre chart are in what is called a T-square — planets at three points of a square. Wherever it manifests, this can represent a high-tension situation that is aching for resolution. The involvement of Jupiter in Cancer implies something that will come home. Home can be wherever an event happens, but I am concerned that there will be an emotional impact of this event that has a chilling effect on protests everywhere.

It will be interesting to see what happens as Venus in Libra completes the grand cross during the next couple of weeks. Venus, the fastest-moving planet in the mix, could become a target — or it could be a catalyst that invokes the love of justice.

Two Other Aspect Patterns

Another aspect pattern in the chart is Mars in late Cancer square Eris in late Aries. The aspect is approaching its exact alignment, which happens Friday. Applying aspects have a sensation of imminence or pressure that is seeking a point of release.

Headless quartzite statue of King Amenesse in the Hypostyle Hall in the Temple of Karnak in Luxor. Photo by Sarite Sanders.

Mars and Eris can both have violent tendencies, though Mars usually works through direct aggression and Eris through what is sometimes called ‘passive’ aggression. That really means covert operations or a sneak attack of some kind. We saw both of these at work in the attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood protest camps.

The last aspect pattern involves the ascendant and its ruler, Mercury. The chart has Virgo rising, making Mercury one of the chart rulers. Mercury is in Leo, making a square to the lunar nodes.

Anything square the nodes describes the nature of the turning point, or the tipping point. Mercury in Leo can have an adolescent or petulant quality. The government seemed, at least, to understand that unless stopped, such protests could gather momentum. Yet there were obviously more mature ways that the government could have addressed what it perceived as the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood protests.

Mercury is making contact with many planets: it’s semi-sextile Jupiter, trine Uranus, quincunx Pluto, loosely square Saturn and quincunx Chiron. And as mentioned it’s square the nodes, tying all those points into one complex pattern that is still in the process of unfolding.

A report in Thursday’s New York Times suggested that the assault on the protesters was not fully thought through by the government. I’ve been going back and forth on whether I think it was or was not. By this, I mean that I am questioning whether the effect — whatever comes next — was indeed planned and intentional. The square of Mercury to the nodes to me describes an incomplete deliberation process. It doesn’t really make sense to turn Muslims into martyrs, particularly if there are a lot of them around.

Yet there are other elements in the chart that suggest a deep degree of secrecy or conspiracy, and hint at a story that we will not know the truth of for at least one year (that’s my reading of the Sun, Vesta and Ceres in Leo and in the 12th house). There is a lot happening that we cannot see, and that 12th in many ways seems to contain the true motive of the action.

Pyramid of Khafre, on the Giza Plateau on the edge of Cairo, with the Sphinx in the foreground. Photo by Sarite Sanders.

Chiron in Pisces for its part is right on the descendant. It’s setting — that is, on the 7th house cusp — exactly at the moment of the incident. I am having some difficulty putting this into words, but Chiron in Pisces is such a bold statement of empathy and compassion, a reminder that this whole scenario was not necessary.

Chiron in Pisces is also one of the most vivid illustrations of the interconnectedness of all things. It is suggesting that in true quantum style, every factor influences every other factor. Chiron in Pisces is a picture of holographic reality — and it boldly stands out in this chart. As I’ve mentioned before, Chiron was in Pisces through the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the mid-1960s, and I believe that’s what provided the populist, inclusive, peace-and-love vibe of the era.

We need it now more than ever, given that the Uranus-Pluto square is in the cardinal signs Aries and Capricorn, which are considerably more assertive than where the Sixties conjunction took place — in Virgo.

As we continue to move through the Uranus-Pluto square, we need to wake up and remember this fact. We need to remember that all effects have causes and all actions have consequences, many of them ‘unexpected’ but still predictable if we pause and reflect for a moment.

Having studied the Uranus-Pluto cycle with some respect, I also know that whatever good emerges — the awakenings, the revolutions (whether of politics or of awareness) — it is all extremely fragile. They will need continual love and focus long after this aspect has passed, if we want to make any progress at all — if there’s to be any potential to rise up out of the darkness that is threatening to swallow the world.

Lovingly,

Venus in Libra: Where I Belong I’m Right

The Beatles song “Fixing a Hole” comes to mind with this weekend’s astrology.

As you may know, we’re in the era of a world transit — the Uranus-Pluto square. That’s a long-term event, with effects that will span from 2010 to 2020 plus or minus a few years: a big one. Uranus is in Aries; Pluto is in Capricorn.

Grand cross in the cardinal signs, which comes into full focus on Aug. 24. View a chart with all the planets. View glyph legend here.

This year, Jupiter joined the mix. It’s in Cancer, square Uranus and opposite Pluto. That’s a pattern called a T-square: three legs of a square are filled, in this case along the all-powerful cardinal cross — the signs that start the seasons. The cardinal signs represent dauntless initiative and connect with the “personal is political” Aries Point.

Yet this setup has had an empty spot, in Libra. This has felt like something was missing or out of balance. Especially with Libra being the missing leg of the cross, the whole theme of balance itself can describe the missing element.

That is, until now. Venus arrives in Libra on Friday, Aug. 16 at 11:37 am. Not only will there be the presence in Libra of a major planet, it’s also the ruling planet of the sign. Just the mention of the words “Venus in Libra” is enough to make any astrologer’s heart sing. It’s a beautiful placement, but a powerful one too, which is a good thing. Venus will need that strength to stand up to the many tasks ahead.

It starts its journey with an opposition to the Aries Point. That alone is news, and it could really be news — any time a particularly strong planet makes contact with the Aries Point we might see a distinct effect in the world, and I am sure some astrologers are speculating that the demise of New York City’s absurd “stop and frisk” policy sounds rather perfectly Venus in Libra.

But this story lasts a while. And I haven’t said what it’s a story about — except that it involves multifaceted Venus (affection, attraction, love, sex, creativity, attraction of pleasure and wealth) and a series of encounters with deep planets. Venus is in formidable company on the cardinal cross, and it will be making aspects to each of the planets already there. Venus is passing through the Uranus-Pluto square with the presence of Jupiter, which is also passing through the Uranus-Pluto square.

Here’s why that’s notable: The Uranus-Pluto square has a way of staying in the background, coloring the whole experience of existing within society in these years of our lives. Like all environments, it can be difficult to discern (ref: Marshall McLuhan: the environment is invisible, including what he called the media environment).

When another planet comes along and enters the aspect structure, as Jupiter has been doing, or as Venus is about to do, we can feel the background pattern more palpably because there is some contrast. In the case of Venus, there is an emotionally grounded, visceral, sensory presence that is calling attention to the slower-moving pattern.

Moss grows on Lot 1 of the Grandmother Land. Photo by Eric.

Venus is one of the most useful planets, perhaps second only to Chiron. It bestows gifts, talents and practical abilities on every level; next to Chiron it’s probably the most multifaceted planet, and unlike Chiron it doesn’t come with an edgy feeling.

Venus is giving us an opportunity to engage fully with the Uranus-Pluto square on every level. If you know your chart, consider where Libra is, and that will give you a clue about the most accessible ways for this to manifest. Said another way, Venus is giving us an opportunity to live and fully participate in these times in which we’re alive.

We need no thought of the future or the past right now: we’ve arrived at the destination, at the crossroads, and at one of the most interesting parts of the journey all at the same time.

In terms of specific details, in case you’re curious, here is the schedule of Venus aspects, which represent hotspots in the cycle. Remember, though, that this ride begins the moment that Venus ingresses Libra.

Venus ingresses Libra; opposite Aries Point on Aug. 16

Venus quincunx Neptune on Aug. 19

Venus square Pluto on Aug. 24

Venus opposite Uranus and quincunx Chiron on Aug. 26

Venus square Jupiter on Aug. 27

Venus ingresses Scorpio on Sept. 11

Venus (in Scorpio) square Mars (in Leo) on Sept. 28

Federal Judge Blocks Stop and Frisk as Racist

Monday’s decision by federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin on the New York City Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy was a major blow to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has made it a cornerstone of his crime-fighting policy over the past decade. [Note, Eric covers this in detail in the current edition of Planet Waves FM.]

Judge Scheindlin said the NYPD resorted to a “policy of indirect racial profiling” as it increased the number of stops in minority communities.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, center, walks with demonstrators June 17, 2012, during a silent march to end the “stop-and-frisk” program in New York City. Photo by Seth Wenig / Associated Press.

In her 195-page decision, she concluded that the stops, which soared to almost 200,000 per quarter in 2011 and began to decline last year, violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, as well as the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

In a new poll by The New York Times, New Yorkers are divided about whether the stop-and-frisk practice is acceptable or excessive. But as the judge said, the only issue before her is whether the policy was legal — not whether it was considered an effective police tool. And she pointed out that the resentment in the communities where it was practiced most was evidence that it was an intrusion on constitutional rights.

Yet the ruling rings true to many men of color, as expressed in this reader comment that appeared in response to a New York Times article:

I cried reading Scheindlin’s decision.

It is the first time in a long time I have read anything so officious that so clearly validates my experience, born and raised as a Black male living in New York City.

The affect that being watched due to my skin color has had upon me can barely be described. It is so deleterious, so pernicious, so violating, so omnipresent.

It is no wonder more Black men do not go mad from the constant surveillance and suspicion — the presumption that, since you exist, you are a criminal.

Sometimes the profiling is by the police. Other examples are as well known: the white woman who shirks when all I am about to do is nod hello; the cab driver speeding past my hail; the store owner’s omnipresent stare.

On some days, the weight of it all forces me to a place where I WANT to become Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” for it seems I am forever noticed, for the wrong reason. Today is not one of those days.

I wish I could go to Judge Scheindlin and in earnest embrace her. Not just for me, but for some I know who never made it. The history of injustices never reversed forced tears to well inside me when I read her decision that made visible my pain.

I am not to be profiled by the police, or anyone, as so much scum to be washed down the drain. I am Black, male and, today, unbowed by the caricature of a hooligan too often hoisted upon me.

Today, I am nothing more than, nothing less, than human. With rights.

Thank you, Judge Scheindlin.

— Tony Glover, New York

New Law Boosts Potential for Voter Suppression

In a move that has sparked lawsuits from civil rights activists, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed a bill Monday requiring photo identification at the polls, along with gutting measures that would ensure minorities and others have a fair chance to vote.

Participants in an NAACP-led march in Raleigh, North Carolina, earlier this year weighed in against voter suppression. Photo by Sue Sturgis and used by the Institute for Southern Studies in their index of North Carolina voter statistics.

The bill will require voters to show photo identification — a driver’s license, passport, veteran’s ID, tribal card — beginning in the 2016 elections. The bill reduces early voting by one week, eliminates same-day registration, ends pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds and a student civics program, kills an annual state-sponsored voter registration drive and lessens the amount of public reporting required for so-called dark money groups, also known as 501(c)(4)s, according to an article in the Huffington Post.

The ACLU of North Carolina and a coalition of other groups filed a lawsuit against the bill, charging that it violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The North Carolina NAACP and Advancement Project followed shortly after, filing another lawsuit.

The bill has the potential to reduce turnout for key Democratic constituencies — minorities, the elderly and students. It’s the latest in a string of conservative legislation signed into law in the state, such as new restrictions for abortion clinics (attached to a motorcycle safety bill), which Planet Waves reported on here.

Seed Law Reform Sows Controversy in Argentina

A heated debate is brewing in Argentina over reform of the country’s seed laws, which pit those concerned about native seed and land preservation against the onslaught of Monsanto’s monoculture and GMO technology.

More than a year ago, the agriculture ministry said it would present a bill to overhaul a 1973 law on seeds that has been modified several times since the 1990s to accommodate the expansion of monoculture and genetically modified seeds. Two drafts have been drawn up, but a bill has not been introduced.

A protester standing outside the Monsanto headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, telling Monsanto to get out of Latin America during this year’s March Against Monsanto protests on May 25. Photo: Martin Zabala/Xinhua/Global Times.

The proposed reform is criticized by social and rural organizations and scientists that see it as an attempt to restrict farmers from saving or selling their own seeds for further planting.

In Argentina, the world’s third-largest producer of soy, around 98 percent of the crop is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy, which is resistant to the company’s own glyphosate herbicide. GM soy is now Argentina’s chief export.

In addition, 80 percent of the maize grown in Argentina is transgenic.

Monsanto plans to build a new plant to produce GM maize seed in the central Argentine province of Cordoba in 2014, which will produce 60,000 tons of seed a year. Protests erupted in Cordoba last May during the March on Monsanto against this plant and the company’s presence in the province. An Argentinian survey revealed that 58 percent of the population does not want Monsanto in their area.

Carlos Carballo, professor of food sovereignty in the Agronomy Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires, said the expansion of GM seeds threatens the diversity of native seeds that are adapted to the soil and climate conditions of each region.

“Seeds aren’t merchandise; they are part of humanity’s heritage,” Carballo said.

BP Sues U.S. Government for New Contracts After Gulf Oil Spill

BP, one of the companies that in 2010 was responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill — among the greatest environmental disasters in U.S. history — and that pled guilty to manslaughter

in the deaths of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, believes it should be allowed to bid on new federal government contracts.

BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion in 2010 killed 11 workers and caused the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history, the ecological effects of which are ongoing. Photo: Reuters.

The company on Monday sought an injunction that would lift the November 2012 order by the Environmental Protection Agency suspending the company from such contracts.

The Houston Chronicle reported that BP said in court papers filed in Houston federal court that the EPA’s decision to suspend the company from such contracts and its continued enforcement of that order is arbitrary, capricious and “an abuse of discretion.”

BP in November 2012 also pled guilty for lying to Congress about the size of the spill from its broken well, which spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the water and onto the shores of Gulf states. A New Orleans federal judge in January accepted BP’s guilty plea, which also included the company paying a record $4 billion in penalties.

In a related case, Halliburton Energy Services, BP’s cement contractor on the Macondo well at the Deepwater Horizon rig, is set to plead guilty at a federal hearing on Sept. 19 to one count of destroying evidence after the oil spill in a deal with the Justice Department.

Halliburton also has agreed to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000, to be on probation for
three years and to cooperate with the government’s criminal investigation. It will not face criminal charges.

Snowden: Reporters and Sources Must Use Encrypted Email

In a portrait of documentary film maker Laura Poitras this week in the The New York Times, Peter Maass included his recent, encrypted interview with Edward Snowden, for whom Poitras served as intermediary. An award-winning filmmaker in the process of creating a trilogy about post-9/11 U.S. policy, it was Poitras who filmed the now famous interview between her collaborator, Glenn Greenwald, and Snowden in Hong Kong, last spring.

Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in Berlin. Photo by Olaf Blecker for The New York Times.

Snowden initially reached out to Greenwald, but Poitras, herself a long time target of surveillance and expert in utilizing the encryption tools Snowden insisted upon, first established communication with him, after Greenwald did not respond to Snowden’s request and instructions for encrypted correspondence. Here is a sample of the interview:

“Peter Maass: Why did you seek out Laura and Glenn, rather than journalists from major American news outlets (N.Y.T., W.P., W.S.J. etc.)? In particular, why Laura, a documentary filmmaker?

Edward Snowden: After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power — the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government — for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism. From a business perspective, this was the obvious strategy, but what benefited the institutions ended up costing the public dearly. The major outlets are still only beginning to recover from this cold period.

Laura and Glenn are among the few who reported fearlessly on controversial topics throughout this period, even in the face of withering personal criticism, and resulted in Laura specifically becoming targeted by the very programs involved in the recent disclosures. She had demonstrated the courage, personal experience and skill needed to handle what is probably the most dangerous assignment any journalist can be given — reporting on the secret misdeeds of the most powerful government in the world — making her an obvious choice.”

At one point during Maass’ interview, Snowden said he was “surprised to realize that there were people in news organizations who didn’t recognize any unencrypted message sent over the Internet is being delivered to every intelligence service in the world. In the wake of this year’s disclosures, it should be clear that unencrypted journalist-source communication is unforgivably reckless.”

Canadian musician and “ukulele-based motivational speaker” James Hill teasing the audience with a few recognizable bars of hip hop on the “chronically underestimated” ukulele.

When is a ukulele not a ukulele? When it is played with chopsticks by James Hill — in which case, it becomes an amazing hip hop sound machine. Hill, who has performed around the world (including with the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra in New Zealand this past March), is a bit of a ukulele ambassador. Hill’s website is full of dates for performances and workshops, including his roving ukulele teacher certification program (most recently in Taipei and coming to Thailand next year). He’s a quirky yet impressive testament to the power of elementary school music programs.

Talking About Jealousy — Mercury Opposite Juno

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I take off on the themes associated with Mercury in Leo opposite Juno in Aquarius — in particular, questioning our presumptions about relationships, jealousy and possessiveness.

Jeff Bujak and Jen Dulong.

Juno in Aquarius represents intense social pressures to conform to cultural relationship norms. Aquarius can be as oppressive as it is freedom-seeking; with Juno that quality can be more dominant. Mercury in Leo represents the childlike desire to be an alive individual with your own ideas — coming right up against the past.

I also take a look at the Stop-and-Frisk decision. Our musical guest is Bujak, the ensemble created by Jeff Bujak featuring Jen Dulong.

Blue Studio Sessions:

How to Talk about Sex

The Planet Waves FM Blue Studio Sessions are back. Begun last autumn, this series of recordings is about the honest discussion of sex.

In tonight’s edition, Diva Carla Sanders and I talk about how to have conversations about sex, whether about pregnancy, STIs, or figuring out what kind of sex is appropriate to the relationship or encounter that you’re having. We talk about all the reasons not to have the conversation, how awkward it can be, and how to make it easier. This is the first conversation in a series. I believe it’s suitable and indeed essential material for young adults trying to make sense out of the sexual and relational landscape.

I make reference to several sex education webpages that you may find helpful. One is Scarleteen. Another is Everyday Feminism, which is not about sex ed per se but includes some good articles. I also recommend Solotouch because reading reader stories will give you a clue how diverse sexual experience and fantasy are. Read Solo for a while and you’ll figure out that you’re right in range of perfectly normal, no matter how weird you may think you are.

Older editions of Blue Studio Sessions are located here.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The extended monthly horoscopes for August were published Friday, July 26. Inner Space for August was published Friday, Aug. 2. On Tuesday, July 16, we published the Moonshine horoscopes for the Aquarius Full Moon. We published the Moonshine horoscopes for the Leo New Moon on Tuesday, Aug. 6. We will publish the Moonshine horoscopes for the Aquarius Full Moon Tuesday Aug. 20. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscopes on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Aug. 16, 2013, #962 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You are not as insecure as you think. But the question lately seems to be how to stop rattling your own cage, then reacting as if someone else is doing it. There is a friendly influence in your life at the moment, someone genuinely attracted to you and also sensitive to who you are. I suggest you treat this situation gently, with a spirit of appreciation and curiosity. It would be easy to look at these charts and advise you to tone yourself down — I am not saying that, however. What I am saying is pay attention to who this person is, how they feel and how they arrived where they are today. There’s part of your story being told by whoever this is, which is one reason why I suggest you listen carefully. The other reason is that opening your ears is the easiest way to open your heart, and if your heart is open, the people around you will feel more welcome, which is good for everyone.

Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You seem to be leaning on a mountain, hoping it will move. You are the one who needs to move or allow yourself to be moved, though it may seem as if everything will come unraveled if you do. Actually, this is an excellent time for you to address certain emotional subject matter you’ve avoided or forgotten about. The current conditions of the sky make this an ideal time to take some bold initiative on your healing process, particularly involving two vital subject areas: one is relationships. You seem ready to confront some dark idea you have in the approximate area of ‘need’ — being needy, others being needy, or so on (that one word being one of the worst contemporary insults). Second is work. It’s time for you to confront one particular fear associated with your talent in any form, and demonstrate that the fear or insecurity you experience points directly to a source of energy that you must take over and make your own.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The topic you’re avoiding may be easier to write about. I was reminded of this in a conversation with a mom about how her daughter prefers to text to her about certain subject matter she would never speak out loud. There are certain circumstances when a face-to-face conversation is imperative. Writing allows a certain emotional distance, the ability to revise your ideas and to get your thoughts in order. It’s possible to take yourself through the evolution of your ideas as you go through a revision process. That in turn could make it easier to speak about something when the time comes. Now, here is the problem with writing: Unlike the spoken word, it lasts a while. It’s there for others to see. It might outlive you. It’s the record of what you think and know at a given time. As such, it serves as a form of your conscience. You might change your mind, but there would be less denying where you came from on the way to where you’re going. You might find this quality helpful right now, since these things matter.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Mars in your sign is acting like an irritant leading you to get a thicker skin and develop some resistance to the insults and injuries doled out so generously by the world. One potential problem with Mars in your sign (Cancer, in particular) — as you’ve no doubt noticed — is that it can come with a measure of defensiveness. Yet you can learn a lot from studying your responses to people and situations. These include what happens when you encounter authority, be it your own or that of someone else. You’re also in an extended moment of working out the specifics of whether and how you trust women. But there’s a bigger theme. To me, your charts look like a story of getting repeated shocks into understanding that your use of power must not be self-serving. It’s necessary to look after your own interests sufficiently to do what you have to do — but that’s different. Now more than ever, your credo must be: Serving the greatest good for all concerned.

Leo readers: your birthday report is ready! You can read a little more about your 2013-2014 birthday reading here — or go straight to this page to order instant access. That’s an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric Francis for only $29.95.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — What is the secret you’re clinging to that you don’t want to reveal? It’s not as bad as you think. It may not even be your material that’s troubling you — it could be that of a relative who influenced you (such as with their ideas about marriage or the rules you supposedly have to follow in relationships). Those rules, guidelines or expectations have reached a practical limit. That limit can be a building block as effectively as it can be a limit. So the choice is yours, though clearly, some of the responsibility resides with a partner as well. One thing you may be coming up against is that person’s history of abuse. For a long time (since around 2005) they’ve been on a path of working that into a more evolved place, and it’s at the point where a spiritual solution is on the verge of possible. Still, there is one level of programming that seems to be taking its sweet time, and there are days you may have the feeling that it’s intractable. That, too, is not as bad as you think.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — It may seem impossible for you to describe your situation, though you’ll have clues coming in the form of your physical and mental health. The feelings, symptoms and conditions you may be experiencing relate directly to the material you’re trying to process. You do look a bit like the boa constrictor trying to digest an elephant. I would offer that whatever psychic material you’re working through is not entirely your own, or not yours at all. I don’t say this as a means of absolving your responsibility for dealing with it in some way. Rather, I offer this idea because it might provide you with the incentive to come up with a new strategy for how to do so, with this additional information. The fact that you’re the one facing the scenario gives you the choice for how to do so. You have figured out at least once, probably at least three times, that denial is not the answer — though it remains an appealing temptation. Events of the next few days will demonstrate clearly that there are much better options.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — There are challenges that come with being oneself. While many influences tell us how wonderful it is to be authentic and in your integrity and all of that, few reveal what a pain in the ass it can be. If you’re ever wondering why authenticity is not more popular, that’s my theory — it’s not easy, and it comes at a cost. It is, however, considerably more convenient to be open and clear with the world voluntarily than it is to be so under some form of duress. I suggest you practice, which is to say, make a practice of full disclosure, and willingness to have the whole conversation. To do this, you’ll have to be willing to give up some aspect of your image, or self-image; the grit of reality and the polish of public relations do not mix well. The practice will serve you well. Over the next few weeks you will find yourself in situations compelling you to be increasingly real, with yourself and with others. It would be excellent if you were to emphasize that point as a matter of choice before you have to.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — There is no pre-existing belief system that just fits a person. Even if someone claims there is, it’s likely that they are making custom modifications, additions and/or granting themselves exceptions to the rules. This doesn’t mean that the world is ruled by anarchy, though it’s a common phobia that “without all these rigid laws and policies (most of them grounded in religion) the world would descend into chaos.” Actually, we could use a little more chaos rather than a little less. Most of the pain the world is in right now is due to an excess of order rather than of flexibility. You can afford to be less dogmatic and more creative about the ideas you depend on to run your life. The more pressure you put yourself under to believe something, or to comply with the beliefs of others, the more chaos you will create. I would remind you that ideas about sex and religion are a dangerous blend, and both have a way of being invisible. I suggest you open your eyes.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — If your desire nature or ability for exchanging love with others keeps getting caught in your security issues, you now have a welcome moment of relief. But you won’t be able to experience it until you dare to say or do something that you could not bring yourself to do in the past. What I’m suggesting is that you return to the scene of a boundary that you could not cross and see how it feels to be there and to consider going over it. This is better than being picked up and carried, or met at the gate by someone willing to hold your hand. The difference is that you get to be the one making the decisions, and you get to have the satisfaction of taking the risk successfully. This is a good time to question what you’re so worried about. I would propose that you’re more irked by the possibility of good things happening than you are about bad things.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Shadows may keep arising in your relationships — the feelings and perceptions you don’t want to be there but that somehow persist. This may be the thing that’s driving you to try to get control over that which ultimately cannot be controlled. As this goes on, you might discover that it gets harder to have a grip on your emotions or the feelings of others. I suggest that you engage directly with whatever you think is the thing you want to avoid the most. You may fear that you’re smaller than whatever it is you’re worried about, but you won’t know until you meet it in a conscious way. This doesn’t need to be a confrontation; it would be wise of you to approach from the edges and work your way into the subject matter gently but with some resolve. Remember that shadow is not a thing in itself; it’s the absence of light. The strongest light in the universe is that of awareness.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may feel like someone is trying to reveal the deepest flaws in your fears or sense of betrayal. Part of this sensation is an internal phenomenon. Something inside you, some set of conditions or the results of past experiences, is becoming undeniable, and you may feel like everyone else can see and feel your thoughts. This, in turn, could have you feeling a bit paranoid or edgy. When someone actually can perceive your situation clearly, that is likely to arrive with a sensation of strength, being willing to rise to a challenge, or as noticing someone is an example that you want to take on. You still may feel a bit nervous at the prospect. Yet that’s a different experience than the paranoia that your weaknesses will be revealed and taken advantage of. At this stage of your life, I would propose that you be honest about the issues you’re addressing, as well as their histories. You will feel better and safer for being known than for trying to conceal your reality.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Given the choice between focusing your energy on healing or pleasure, I suggest you opt for pleasure. It’s just as healing as anything else, especially now. Given the choice between taking on more responsibility or expressing yourself creatively, I suggest you go for passion rather than duty. Given the choice between taking care of yourself or others, take care of yourself first. Your sense of passion is, at least at the moment, closely tuned to or synchronized with the deeper levels of necessity than what you will encounter in the work-a-day world. You may need to guide yourself into that frame of reference, however, making a series of choices until you find an easy opening. This may take some gentle persistence but it’s easier than solving the Rubik’s Cube with your eyes open. In fact you are incredibly perceptive at the moment, and if you look through both your normal sense and your Piscean ‘extra’ senses, and have a good idea of what you want, you are very likely to find whatever that is.

Mars Meets the Uranus-Pluto Square

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Dear Friend and Reader:

When I was first studying astrology, one of my teachers pointed me to a study of the 1960s, one of the most interesting astrological eras besides the one we’re currently in. The legends, fables and turmoil of that era are described by the slow-moving Uranus-Pluto conjunction, which was in effect from about 1962 through about 1972. Outer-planet events describe long phases of time, and once again we’re in one involving Uranus and Pluto: the square.

Photo by Ambar Garcia.

This is an aspect that began to take effect in 2008 and that came into focus in 2011. There were signs of change: Obama getting elected, Arab Spring, the Wisconsin protests and the Occupy movement.

Effects of this aspect have developed into the Bradley Manning trial, Edward Snowden blowing the whistle on the NSA and conservative activism designed to prevent women from having autonomy over their bodies. The Supreme Court affirming the right of same-sex couples to marry definitely counts. That will have many implications.

While all this stuff is happening in the news, the same aspects are influencing our lives on more intimate levels. The beauty of astrology is that the same planets are involved in the biggest developments of society as are involved in the movements in our personal lives. Sometimes this is particularly true, especially when planets concentrate in the cardinal signs. And that describes the micro-phase of astrology that we’re in right now. Let’s consider how that is unfolding.

When a faster-moving inner planet (such as Mars) moves into a position where it’s making contact with a slow-moving generational aspect (the Uranus-Pluto square), we get a special effect. That is exactly what happens through the end of the month.

Mars in Cancer is now in the planetary spotlight. Mars ingressed Cancer July 13, putting it on course for three major aspects: a conjunction to Jupiter in Cancer (that happened July 22), an opposition to Pluto in Capricorn (that happens July 27) and a square to Uranus in Aries (that happens July 31).

Think of the Uranus-Pluto square as lurking in the background. It influences the tone of existence, sets big themes, wraps the world around its finger and then kind of disappears into the haze of day-to-day existence. When an inner planet comes along and makes contact with the square, that brings it out to the forefront. And that’s what is about to happen.

Mars is a tangible, sensory and accessible energy. We all know what it means to be motivated, to be assertive, to be angry or to be combative. Mars-Jupiter, still in effect, runs the spectrum from self-righteous to protective and loving. No matter what, it’s passionate, and it’s possible to make contact with a spiritual line of energy.

Next up is Mars opposite Pluto on Saturday, July 27 and in effect now. That aspect runs the range from determination and persistence to being needlessly (or ‘unconsciously’) engaged in power struggles. The moral of this aspect is: choose your battles. You might find it necessary to cut your losses and get out of the discussion. If you are going for the win, plan for a longterm approach.

Photo by Ambar Garcia.

It would be better if you chose no battles, but that’s not always possible — sometimes you have to engage someone to prevent future hassles. Just try to avoid going blow for blow. In any setup the person who is less passionate is the one likely to win, since this is a moment when your own passion can be used against you. This is described by Pluto in Capricorn, which Mars in Cancer is opposing. Mars in Cancer may provoke Pluto in Capricorn, but the cooler, calmer, more deeply rooted party to the equation will probably prevail in any disagreement.

Last in this sequence is Mars square Uranus in Aries (July 31). This is the keep-your-cool, drive-like-a-professional, when-you-see-an-asshole-coming-walk-the-other-way kind of astrology. It’s also decidedly individualistic. I suggest you do that in music and art rather than trying to impress the world with how radical you are. Said another way, this is a rebellious aspect, and it’s better if you have a good reason to rebel and do it in a smart way.

This aspect could pit individuals against groups. Therefore, mind your politics and your manners and think for the future. Remember what you’re really doing in the long run; remember that the game has nine innings. Pace yourself consciously. Some opportunities are there for a moment; some are there for a while — note the differences.

Speaking of politics, the coming Leo New Moon chart (for Aug. 6) is a beauty. I’ll focus exclusively on that chart next week — but one of its themes is understanding how to work this territory of complex human interaction and power-sharing. Humans, most of whom lack basic respect for their fellows, for Spirit and for actual intelligence, have no choice but to engage in politics. On the best level, it’s the art of getting things done.

On the worst level, it’s the art of corruption. But the energy right now is demanding enlightenment, which is applied awareness. It’s demanding integrity, which is flexible strength. Our moment is calling for an equal blend of evolution and revolution — attention to the inner world and its outer expression.

Lovingly,

Note to Readers: This week’s news sections, below, are by Amanda Painter and Susan Scheck with additional research by Carol van Strum and myself. –efc

Helen Thomas, First Woman to Cover the White House, Dies at 92

Helen Thomas, the first woman to serve on the White House press corps with a news service, died Saturday at age 92. She served through 10 presidencies, from Kennedy through Obama. She worked most of her career for United Press International (UPI) until that was purchased by the Unification Church (the Moonies) in 2001, then took an assignment for Hearst Newspapers.

Thomas made it possible for women to be taken seriously as news journalists. Until she arrived at the White House and indeed long after, journalism was a profession dominated by men. How did she do this?

Pres. Obama presents Helen Thomas with cupcakes on their shared birthday in 2009. Photo by Pete Souza / White House.

Thomas has her Sun in Leo and her Moon in Aries (what I call the dauntless Moon). She had Venus and Jupiter in Leo, describing excellent self-esteem.

Fire signs help women to be competitive in male-dominated environments. Her Moon is conjunct Chiron, which gives a palpable physical intensity and charisma.

Both Chiron and Aries are warrior archetypes, and Thomas certainly had the strength to fight and the intelligence to fight smart. This setup would count for a prominent Chiron, which can be the astrological way to say ‘systems buster’. Notably, at the time of her Chiron return in the 1970s, Chiron in Aries was the driving force behind what is now known as Second Wave Feminism.

But it was her water placements that helped her penetrate the boundaries of the boy’s club. Her Sun is conjunct Neptune and square Mars, what I would describe as a ‘walk through walls’ setup that would provide tools for any news reporter. In any writer, Mercury deserves a close look. Thomas had a spectacular, strange Mercury: it was retrograde, in the very last degree of Cancer. So much for Mercury retrograde, or watery Mercury, being bad for writers and writing. This illustrates how she stood out, did her own thing and as is often said of retrograde Mercury, followed the beat of her own drummer.

Throughout the administration of George W. Bush, Thomas asked some of the most critical questions in the White House news room, in an era when it seemed most journalists were content to stay quiet — complicity that made it possible for the U.S. to engage in two lengthy wars.

Noon chart for Helen Thomas.

She openly questioned the motives for Pres. Bush starting the Iraq war and its staggering civilian toll, the push to attack Iran, the refusal to sign a cluster bomb treaty, continued killings of Afghanistan civilians, and the Bush administration’s support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

She kept it up during the first years of Obama’s administration, commenting in July of 2009 on its extreme control of the press despite the administration’s talk of transparency and openness.

Thomas retired in 2010 after making controversial anti-Israeli comments about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Asked by Rabbi David Nesenoff of RabbiLive.com for comments on Israel, Thomas replied in part, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.”

When asked where Israeli Jews should go, she said they could “go home” to Poland or Germany or “America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries?”

Her thoughts were a response to a lifetime of covering conflicts in the Middle East, and reflected suspicion on the part of many as to why the United States constantly genuflects to Israeli prerogatives.

Thomas apologized the following week on her website, expressing that her comments did not reflect her true desire to see peace in the Middle East through “mutual respect and tolerance.”

Her blunt outspokenness was world famous, prompting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to quip once that the difference between democracy in Cuba versus in the U.S. was that, “I don’t have to answer questions from Helen Thomas.”

EU Breaks Out of Monsanto’s GM Grip — Maybe

In a move hinted at last May, Monsanto announced officially last week it would withdraw current applications for new genetically engineered seeds in the European Union, according to the environmental group Greenpeace.

“While welcoming the announcement, Greenpeace notes that the company will seek to continue sales of its controversial MON810 maize, the last remaining GM crop grown in Europe.”

Anti GM-corn protesters in France. Photo: Robert Pratta/Reuters.

Authorization for the cultivation of MON810 is expiring at the end of a ten-year period and the safety of the crop is due to be reassessed, until which time Monsanto is permitted to sell it.

Spain continues to depend heavily on MON810 maize and uses it more than any EU member. The generically altered crop accounts for 30% of the Spanish crop.

Agrimoney.com says that growers in the Catalan region of Spain planted a greater proportion of their crop with genetically modified seed than farmers in U.S. Corn Belt states including Illinois and Indiana, key markets for biotechnology giants.

Portugal is also increasing its use of MON810 significantly, currently accounting for 6.6% of that country’s corn yield.

A recent poll by the European Commission shows that 95% of EU citizens agree that “the right thing to do” is to use products that are respectful of the environment. This pull-out signals that not even Monsanto can stand against an engaged and passionate people, willing to back their values with real actions, such as protesting and refusing to buy GM food.

Yet with Monsanto, it’s always essential to watch for the double ending. What they may lack in public support they may be able to make up for with a treaty that supersedes international boundaries.

Something called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may obviate the need for countries to approve certain crops, under the guise of “free trade.” Obama has said that including Europe in the TPP was a priority for him this year.

Here is an article that covers the territory — we’ll tell you more as we learn more.

First Official Challenge to an Ag-gag Law

A group of animal rights activists and journalists have brought the first-ever lawsuit against an ‘ag-gag’ law in the U.S. The so-called ag-gag laws, enacted by individual states, prohibit photographing or video-recording animals on farms without the farmer’s consent.

Some are fighting a Utah law requiring a model release to photograph a farm animal.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are challenging Utah’s 2012 law, which imposes up to one year in jail for filming or recording farm animals without permission. The law is designed to make life difficult for animal rights activists and journalists who take on agricultural issues.

Utah was the first state to attempt prosecuting someone under an ag-gag law; the state later dropped its charges against a woman who had filmed a slaughterhouse from a public street.

“Utah’s law, and others like it, directly place both me and my sources at risk,” wrote Will Potter, an independent journalist and one of the plaintiffs in the current suit. “There’s a long history of investigative journalism in this country based on exactly the type of research and whistleblowing that these laws criminalize.”

Activists and journalists rely on undercover work at farms and slaughterhouses to uncover abuse to animals. Secretly made videos have led to prosecutions, closures, recalls and vows from offenders to change their practices — including in one 2008 undercover investigation by the Humane Society in California that led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history.

Mark Bittman coined the term for these anti-whistleblowing laws in an April 2011 New York Times column. Concern is growing that some proposed ag-gag laws, such as the one pending in Pennsylvania, could also be used against anti-fracking activists.

Uber-Restrictive North Dakota Abortion Ban Blocked

A federal judge in North Dakota on Monday blocked what the country’s strictest anti-abortion ban, beginning Aug. 1.

How long before we do? Photo by Debra Sweet/World Can’t Wait/Flickr under Creative Commons.

The law would have banned abortion once a fetal or embryonic heartbeat can be detected, which happens at about six weeks of pregnancy when many women do not realize they are pregnant. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of the state’s only remaining abortion clinic, which is in Fargo.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland called the North Dakota ban “a blatant violation of the constitutional guarantees afforded to all women.” The Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 allows abortion until a fetus reaches viability. That is now considered about 24 weeks into a pregnancy. [We covered the 40th anniversary and the astrology of this decision in the article A Fine Line: Roe v. Wade at 40.]

North Dakota joins several other states that have tried to establish restrictive anti-abortion laws or shut down abortion clinics this year, including Texas and Arkansas. In Texas the law was initially blocked by Texas state senator Wendy Davis’ now historic filibuster, only to be passed in a subsequent special session and signed into law by Governor Rick Perry on July 18. Opponents such as Planned Parenthood have vowed to challenge it in court, citing the law as unconstitutional.

An Arkansas anti-abortion law was blocked by another federal judge in May, that would have blocked abortions after 12 weeks.

In a country where our constitutional rights erode with each passing year, anyone who cares about a woman’s right to choose must also choose wisely whom they vote into office. It makes a difference.

A Delicate Matter: Sex and Dementia

What happens when you’re elderly and suffering from some form of dementia, but still crave and respond to intimate physical contact and sex? It could vary widely.

Regulations vary by state and facility. Training on the subject of sex among elderly residents (particularly those with compromised mental faculties) is virtually nonexistent, leaving individual staff members to rely on their personal beliefs and religious biases. A 2012 study by Kansas State University researchers found sex among nursing home residents is frequently viewed “as a behavior problem rather than an indication of an unmet need.”

Still from the film Amour, in which an elderly couple struggle with illness and loss of memory as they try to stay in their home.

Yet some facilities acknowledge that residents with dementia can consent to sex, and may even have a written policy on sexual expression.

“The whole area of geriatric sexuality is an area we need to learn a lot more about,” said Robert Bender, a Des Moines, Iowa, geriatrician, in an interview with Bloomberg.com. “I don’t think we should be pointing blame when people are expressing themselves in natural ways.”

The Bloomberg.com article details a particular incident of apparently consensual sex between two residents of an Iowa nursing home that resulted in persisting questions, among other unfortunate consequences. Who gets to decide what is ‘consensual’ between people with dementia? Does it matter if elderly lovers mistake each other for their spouses, as long as they are safely meeting physical and emotional needs that might not otherwise be met? Where is the line between ‘protecting from harm’ and ‘interfering with personal decisions’?

With Baby Boomers beginning to age, questions of how to handle sexuality in a growing elderly population may come to the fore.

A 2007 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said 53 percent of people 65-74 years old and 26 percent of those 75-85 reported being sexually active — engaging in contact such as kissing, fondling or intercourse. Half of those active in the older group reported having sex two to three times a month.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than five million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. That number is expected to grow, and touch is often the last sense to deteriorate in people with Alzheimer’s — making it a great comfort to those whose family and friends they may no longer recognize.

Two of the “generative portraits” made by Sergio Albiac, using Hubble Telescope images. Even if you always close your eyes when people take your picture, you’ll look other-worldly in one of these creations.

Your Chance to Become a Star

“An artist has the potential to create infinite artworks but only some of them will see the light due to the constraint of time,” artist Sergio Albiac muses on his website. “What if we use technology to outsource the creation of art so more of these potential artworks are finally created?”

Albiac answers his own question with his project, “Stardust,” merging personal photographic snapshots with images of the cosmos captured by the Hubble Space Telescope using an automated software program. He calls these works generative portraits, and is inviting the public to submit their photos. He will return three free, and presumably starry-eyed, portraits within a few days, and place your portrait in a Flickr gallery (you may opt out if you wish).

Holistic Sexuality :: Eric Francis at the Queer Astrology Conference

Sunday, July 21 I gave a presentation on Holistic Sexuality at the first Queer Astrology Conference. The presentation is an introduction to basic sex education and then is an overview of sex in modern society, looking at the topic from the viewpoint of each of the 12 astrological houses. The talk is about 1 hour and 40 minutes. If you like this kind of programming, you can encourage and facilitate our work by becoming a member of Planet Waves FM.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The extended monthly horoscopes for July were published Friday, June 21. I recommend reviewing the previous month’s horoscopes at the end of the month. The extended monthly horoscopes for August are published below in this issue. We published Inner Space for July on Friday, June 28. We published the Moonshine horoscopes for the Cancer New Moon Tuesday, July 2. On Tuesday, July 15, we published the Moonshine horoscopes for the Aquarius Full Moon. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscopes on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday.

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for August 2013 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — If you understood how much of your insecurity was about trying to please others, you might find yourself getting angry. And if you do find yourself getting angry, consider that it’s about trying to make sure that everyone approves of everything from your plans to your state of mind before you allow yourself to make a move. I suggest you try this month to seek nobody’s approval for anything. Make up your own mind about everything. Even in matters involving family or household, you’re entitled to your own opinion, which means an opinion that others might not agree with. As you start to do this, you might notice that you’re sloughing off layer after layer of submission, conciliation, people-pleasing and what you believed was give-and-take. All of that is the opposite of taking authority. And taking authority is what you’re about to do. This will require some actual courage, and I believe you’ve got that available. You will need to follow what both your instincts and intuition tell you. The information is coming into your awareness from a deep place. You know what is true for you. Now what you must do is count that as relevant — and make a decision that the emotional dramas of others are irrelevant to you living your life in the way that is right for you.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You’ll have more fun when you can take a risk without obsessing over everything from trivial concerns to your worst fears. This may come in the form of thinking through every single possible contingency, which is good for some things in life and not so helpful for others. It’s good for things like marketing campaigns and investigative reporting. Love, friendship, art and music require far less cerebral strategizing. The problem is that once your particular mind gets hold of something, it doesn’t like to let go — and this is especially true when there is some chance to be taken, or even some relatively minor unpredictable factor. You could tidy up this situation by considering the theme of emotional boundaries. Whatever the source of your anxiety or concern, you’ll feel better and be stronger if you define some space and time wherein you’re free to be yourself. That’s the space where anything can happen, and it’s okay — you can go with the flow of your creativity. Then I suggest you do the same thing with selected friends. Choose the people around whom you can ‘risk’ being yourself, which means fully present with your ideas, your passion, your creativity and your sexuality. You may not find many people you can experiment with, though you’ll find a few, the most significant one being yourself. With dropping inhibitions, practice goes a long way.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You’re about to begin a new chapter of the season, based on a recent discovery that has helped you get your priorities in order. Said another way, you seem to have figured out what you want and don’t want. This has come at a cost, such as being dragged through a bath of uncertainty and self-doubt, though at least it’s served a purpose — mainly to teach you what is not true. Now all you need to do is shift your emphasis to what is true. This can be a little tricky; there are negativity traps everywhere, and it takes some discipline to emphasize the positive. It’s clear from your chart that if you do, you will get a lot more of it. Any way you look at your life, this is an abundant moment; the variable is what abundance you get. It takes us humans a while to figure out that what we focus on multiplies. Therefore, focus on what you know is true; on what is important to you. Pay attention to the people you want to go deeper with, and focus on what you want to create for them. Regarding money, I would translate “make money doing what you love” to “seek your fortunes doing what’s actually meaningful to you and you will be successful.” Meaning is a form of love, and if you remember that, you’ll have a lot of room to maneuver.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — If you’re finally tired of not really living the life you want, now is your chance to step out. To some degree we are all pushed into a state of compromise between our potential and actually expressing it. Some of that is about circumstances. Some is about how difficult it is to connect with the wild creative core that you contain, and so many pressures that exist against doing so. It’s challenging on Earth with all its complications and obstacles to hold the frequency of one’s original intentions for coming here. Now all of these factors are changing simultaneously. You’re in a position to take advantage of favorable environmental factors and stretch what seemed like your physical and emotional limits. At the same time you’re coming into contact with your deeper confidence, perhaps for the first time. Though this may seem like emotional movement, it’s more like certain challenges you’ve confronted are putting you into contact with your spiritual strength. It would be helpful to recognize the difference, so that you can work on the much larger scale that you’re being called to. That seems to be the central message of the astrology: moving onto an entirely new level. It may look to others like your ship coming in. In reality what’s happening is an internal phenomenon based on your devoted contact with the truth of who you are.

Leo readers: you can read a little more about your 2013-2014 birthday reading here — or go straight to this page to take advantage of the $19.95 pre-order price. That’s a savings of $10 on an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric Francis.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — There is astonishing strength that comes from devoting your life to service. I don’t mean servitude, codependency, or subjugation. I mean devotion to something in yourself that connects to the world around you in a profound way. It’s helpful to get the order of things correct: devotion is an inner phenomenon, not a commitment to something outside you. But the inner aspect is not a “this is for me” thing; it’s not really about you, it’s about something you contain for the purpose of expressing. There’s a useful image from across the wheel in Aquarius, where your counterpart there has an urn of water that she fills up for the purpose of giving away. You can think of yourself as being the guardian of the sacred hearth. You tend this hearth because it’s the thing to do, then it provides heat, light and energy for everyone around you. I suggest you get used to the idea that this is a 24-7/365 kind of commitment, though that mostly pertains to the inner relationship involved. Then, you offer your time and energy when called upon and when appropriate. The planet involved is Vesta, and there’s always some element of ‘doing without’ where this goddess is concerned. I would look at that as an exchange. If you get rid of everything that is trivial, gossipy and designed for appearances only, you will have abundant time and energy.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Note the presence of a different kind of intelligence — the kind that does not run in circles or work against itself. It’s off the plane of mental cognition and accesses the level of direct knowledge. This kind of intelligence knows something is true, then figures out how it works in practical terms. As you get a feeling for this experience, you’ll shift your relationship to yourself, and could discover that you have access to something deeper, something that transcends the usual boundaries of what you think of as your mind. Your mind is indeed part of something larger. It’s only the idea that it’s not that prevents you from experiencing this directly. It’s therefore essential that you do the one thing with your mind that is eminently possible for anyone who wants to do so: keep it open. Then I suggest you observe the ways in which information comes in from modalities other than what you might normally consider to be thought. Actual creative thought is not bound by anything physical; it needs no grounding in experience or learned knowledge. It’s a truly generative experience. Yet to get there, you need to think of yourself differently, which first means noticing your prior limits and being willing to go beyond them. Limits serve the purpose of creating a comfort zone — one that you no longer need, and that I doubt you want.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — If you recognized that you don’t have to go it alone, you would feel a lot better, and your life would be easier. This transformation would happen without much fuss, and the results would be easy to see. It’s true that you are subject to forces outside your ability to control them, and lately you’ve really been feeling this. You may also be questioning whether there is any solid ground to stand on. Then the sensation that you have to do it all yourself, endure everything and live in a world where people don’t understand you, just feeds on itself. Shift the dynamic by taking the initiative and gathering people to whom you relate. Take that one risk. Reach out to others who you’ve noticed have some similar values or ideas, or who reach you with their positive ideas. As you do this, you’ll begin to realize how influential you are. You don’t want power; you want the ability to connect with others in ways that are meaningful, to share ideas and experience the pleasure of common ground. You may feel like you’re miles away from such a space, when in truth you’re much closer than you think. All you need to do is stop waiting for something positive to happen and recognize that you’re the attracting force. You’re the one who will set into motion the changes you want to see and experience.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You are being handed an opportunity to think of your career a whole new way, to redefine your idea of achievement and to embrace a notion of success that has the power to change your life. There is something in the chart — something strong and beautiful — about doing what you do for its own sake, rather than for some other common motive (money, prestige, recognition, etc.). Yet it looks like you’ll be doing whatever you’re doing in an unusually visible way — and it’s up to you not to become distracted by this, and to keep your focus where it belongs. Your charts for August have a profound theme of service. This is a concept that gets a lot more talk than it needs and less action than it deserves. It would be helpful if you would deflect any and all recognition that you get back into the basic service that you are providing to the world. It would help even more if you take the time to refine your ideas about what that service is, and concentrate on how you can become the point of contact between what you do and who benefits from it. The more it seems that other people benefit, the better you’re doing. What you get needs to be secondary, because it only distracts from what you’re offering.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Speaking at the recent Queer Astrology Conference, I started my talk by reminding everyone that sex leads to existence, and that people who don’t like or don’t approve of sex are likely to have some deep misgivings about being on the planet. Your charts are reminding you of the connection. Because religion has gone so far out of its way to build its fortunes on shaming sex, we take for granted that it must be inherently unspiritual. This is straight out of the Toxic Sludge Is Good For You school of public relations: tell a lie often enough and it seems to be true. Your chart is issuing a bold reminder that there is nothing more spiritual than sex. If you know this, then let it inform your whole life. If you’re struggling with it, if you have some moral aspersions around the topic, and they are irritating you, I suggest you check out the whole ‘relationship to existence’ angle. If you belong here, then how you got here is a good thing. If you don’t belong here, then you might have an issue with the way you got here. Consider this long enough and it’ll start to make more sense — to you. You might not be able to do much with or for others who are still waging war against themselves. Thankfully, they’re not the only people on Earth.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — As you make your way through life, pay attention to who notices you, who makes eye contact, who returns your smile, who offers you emotional resonance. Notice who laughs at your jokes and who cares when you talk about a topic or issue that’s important to you. You may have become so accustomed to the feeling of intimidating others that you expect people to respond to you that way. It would help if you could set aside that expectation, because it has a way of perpetuating itself. It’s true that people are generally intimated, timid and self-centered. You don’t need to light up the whole room — you merely need to notice the one or two people nearby who have some light in their eyes. And they are likely to be the ones who notice you. One thing remains constant through the whole extended phase of Pluto in Capricorn: that is insisting that you maintain inner focus, which is to say, your inner awareness. You may notice that some people enhance that focus no matter what you’re doing together (and some distract you from it). They’re the ones to cultivate relationships with, because they support your relationship with yourself and vice versa. Codependency is a great reason to avoid certain kinds of relationships. Fortunately, there is an alternative.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Your charts suggest that this is an interesting, even cosmic, moment in your relationships. Yet the same astrology is also cautioning that you may feel like everyone but you is getting what they need. There’s an illustration of you in the role of healer, facilitator, or the one who holds space for others. You may feel like you’re the last stop before people find the thing they’re looking for; you may feel like you’re the one safe place where others open up, but then somehow get overlooked as the one to make contact with. Usually when I see this kind of astrology, it’s clear that someone is playing what you might call a karmic role, something they’re accustomed to and are good at. But the planet involved, Vesta, often leaves people yearning for personal experience that they can imbibe for their own pleasure. I suggest you take the step and cross that threshold yourself. Make choices that bring you closer to getting what you want. When you find yourself with the option to offer yourself in service to someone, make the decision carefully whether you want to offer yourself. It’s a different role than the person with the human need for play and creature comforts, and at this stage in your life, either option really is a matter of choice.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Your charts say you have everything going for you, all at the same time. These are rare moments and thanks to astrology you can have some confirmation that this particular one is real. The highlight of your astrology is not just equal emphasis on both creativity and work, but the removal of the dividing wall between the art studio and the office. Similarly, there is emphasis on passion and on healing, on self-focused experience and absolute devotion to service. There is equal emphasis on what you do in private spaces and how this radiates out into the culture around you. If there’s a problem with this astrology, here it is: most humans I’ve met or heard about struggle with recognizing their capacity to be so much at once. Said another way, we struggle with our human potential; with our potential to be fully human. In my experience on the planet, that’s the biggest risk that a person can take. It calls for courage, and for setting aside the fear of consequences that in so many lifetimes has proved to be worth heeding. Sooner or later we all must get over the pain and sense of limitation that we’ve accumulated from past experiences, and for you this is an excellent time to do just that.

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Beyond the Comfort Zone

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Dear Friend and Reader:

This was one of those weeks when it takes a team to keep up with the news. Ours has been in high-focus mode. In our prior edition, we left off right before last week’s one-two solstice-Capricorn Full Moon. Then this past Tuesday, Jupiter entered Cancer for the first time since July 12, 2001. Mercury stationed retrograde Wednesday morning, about 12 hours later. It will be retrograde till July 20.

Last weekend’s Capricorn Full Moon rises over New York Harbor. Photo by Julio Cortez / AP.

Much of our current astrology involves the eminently personal sign Cancer, where energy has been concentrated around the Aries Point and, consequently, many personal transitions and upheavals over the past few days.

Cancer is a comfort zone and quite a bit of astrology has been shaking up that little refuge. Yet Jupiter’s ingress indicates some significant improvements and a stabilizing factor, which will be more noticeable after the waters of transition settle down a bit.

The public realm has been a kaleidoscope of issues, a full-on example of the 2012-era phenomenon of everything, all at once. It’s too much for most people to handle, though the events make interesting patterns. It’s one of those moments when it’s hard to tell if the world is getting better, worse, both or all three at once.

This is a dramatization of the Uranus-Pluto square — the 2012-era aspect, now at a peak of energy.

In Texas this week, Republicans continued their assault on women’s reproductive rights, attempting to close nearly all women’s health clinics and in practical terms, all but ban abortion. Under the moral leadership of Gov. Rick Perry, who was a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, they have mounted a new offensive against women. And while Perry has led the charge to “respect life” and is speaking today at the Right to Life convention, on Wednesday evening Texas executed Kimberly McCarthy, its 500th prisoner since 1976 and its 261st on Rick Perry’s 13-year watch as governor.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the Texas senate tried to scam passage of the proposed law SB5, claiming the vote was concluded Tuesday before the midnight deadline rather than Wednesday after midnight. They were blocked by an actual 11-hour filibuster by Sen. Wendy Davis, then busted for trying to alter state documents, in part thanks to citizen reporters who live-tweeted the whole thing.

It was the perfect Mercury retrograde moment, happening about six hours before Mercury changed directions. The New York Times originally reported on its front page that the law “appeared” to pass, then the story disappeared. Perry, who says he’ll be back for another round, has among other things succeeded at reviving a comatose Democratic Party in Texas. He accused Sen. Davis of “hijacking the democratic process.”

And in comments late this week, he added: “Even the woman who filibustered in the senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances,” Perry said. “It’s just unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters.”

Just hours before Mercury stationed retrograde, The New York Times published this story on its front page — then the story disappeared and was rewritten.

The implication was, she should be glad she was not aborted as a fetus. [Watch the full video here.]

China is about to dump tons of chlorofluorocarbons into the air — the stuff that damages the Earth’s protective ozone layer (please see ECO). Pres. Obama, in a big speech, finally warned the nation about global warming and promised to do something about it, nearly five years into his term.

As far as we know, NSA leaker Edward Snowden is probably still in a Moscow airport after leaving Hong Kong last week, and is awaiting a decision on political asylum that he has sought in Ecuador. WikiLeaks got itself involved, and is providing him with legal resources, assistance securing safe passage and apparently contacts in Ecuador. That put WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange back into the news; he is still living in Ecuador’s London embassy.

In Florida, the murder trial of George Zimmerman is underway. He is the Neighborhood Watch guy who stalked teenager Trayvon Martin, then shot him at point blank range, claiming self-defense.

The list goes on and on — and includes four landmark decisions issued by the Supreme Court that came out this week, all of them on the general theme of ‘equality’. They all have their roots in the events of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s, to which we are energetically connected by the Uranus-Pluto square of our own era.

One of this week’s rulings involved the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which came at the end of what’s known as Jim Crow — a century-long era of institutionalized racism that persisted after slavery ended. We are still to this day working out the legacy of the global human trafficking industry, the slave trade from Africa.

In the summer of 1964, Freedom Summer to be exact, three civil rights volunteers — Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney — were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by local Klansmen, cops and a sheriff. There were many, many other schemes to block or intimidate poor southerners from voting, from “literacy tests” to “poll taxes,” and the murders were set in that context; they were a warning.

Pres. Lyndon Johnson and Congress responded by passing the Voting Rights Act, part of which required certain states with a history of racial issues to subject any proposed changes to voting laws to pre-approval by the federal Department of Justice.

Pres. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This actually worked pretty well, but the Supreme Court this week voided that provision after 48 years, claiming that Congress didn’t really know what it was doing when it reauthorized the act in 2007, that times had changed, that racism isn’t so bad now, and so on.

The court, in one of its usual (of late) swing-vote-decided 5-4 rulings, now allows states with a history of racism to proceed with their voter discrimination projects unchecked.

This change comes after many recent election cycles where one of the top issues has been the attempt to block minorities from voting through various schemes such as voter ID laws, disallowing voting on Sundays and others.

To me it seems like the law needed to be expanded in scope (to places like Ohio and Pennsylvania) rather than be eliminated.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who dissented from the majority, accused the court of “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

In another decision, the court revised the way colleges and universities may organize their affirmative action programs, allowing the concept of diversity but saying that it had to be done in a race-neutral way. Since I no longer edit the New York Education Law Report and you’re probably not an admissions dean, I will spare you the details.

Beyond One Man and One Woman

The most celebrated decisions of the week involved same-sex marriage. As you’ve probably heard, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the first federal law to address marriage, and one that openly disparaged lesbian and gay people.

Passed during the reign of serial infidels Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, the law forbade the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage. DOMA defined marriage as exclusively between “one man and one woman.” In 1996 when DOMA was passed, same-sex marriage was not legal in any jurisdiction. This was merely a prophylactic measure.

It’s the height of irony that Gingrich and Clinton created the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. Both are infamous for multiple affairs, and Gingrich for serial polygamy. Photo by Ruth Fremson.

DOMA’s proponents were trying to foreclose in advance on same-sex marriage, but they also took the initiative on polyamorous (also called plural) marriage. I’ve always thought that required some foresight, though as we will read in a moment, DOMA advocates had considerably more vision than many polyamorous people.

The DOMA case that made it to the Supreme Court was actually an IRS action: a lesbian whose partner of 40 years had died was forced to pay $350,000 in federal estate taxes that she would not have paid had her marriage been recognized by the federal government.

That is to say, she was taxed $350,000 for allegedly being single. But the real equal protection issue seems to be why people get paid that much money to be married, no matter to whom. Single people pay substantially more in taxes than married people, which seems to be a direct form of discrimination, affirms the business transaction aspect of marriage, and provides a false incentive to get married.

Minutes after the DOMA ruling, the Supreme Court also ruled on California’s Proposition 8 initiative, which in 2008 banned same-sex marriage in California. This initiative was funded and supported with considerable personnel by the Mormon Church.

The situation goes back to another public initiative from 2000, called Proposition 22, which also banned same-sex marriage, but was held to violate the California state constitution. So the Mormons came back eight years later with a proposition to amend the state constitution — that was Prop 8. [The super curious and judicial freaks may find a nice timeline here.]

The story of the litigation is so complex it would take me about 1,500 words to get it right — I will skip most of it. But I will sum it up.

Wedding photo of Edith Schlain Windsor and Thea Clara Spyer.

Because of Proposition 8, Kristin Perry was denied a marriage license to marry her partner Sandra Stier. So they sued then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to challenge the provision. But neither he nor anyone else in the state government was willing to defend such a ridiculous constitutional amendment.

The court system allowed the Mormon front-group inventors of Proposition 8 — Dennis Hollingsworth, the leader of ProjectMarriage.com, and a rival group, Campaign for California Families — to intervene on behalf of the state as the defendants.

After a trial, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker, in a truly brilliant decision, struck down Proposition 8 on Aug. 4, 2010 for being “unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause because no compelling state interest justifies denying same-sex couples the fundamental right to marry.”

What was interesting is that lawyers from both the conservative and liberal sides of the fence joined together to fight Prop 8. Lead co-counsel were Ted Olson, former solicitor general under George W. Bush, and “superlawyer” David Boies. In the famous Bush v. Gore case, Olson represented Bush and Boyes represented Gore.

The trial court decision was appealed, and the 9th Circuit appellate panel affirmed the trial court’s decision, holding that Proposition 8 served no purpose “but to impose on gays and lesbians, through the public law, a majority’s private disapproval of them and their relationships.”

Vaughn Walker served as a federal judge in Northern California from 1989-2011 (retiring as chief judge).

This week the Supreme Court agreed, and then it threw out the whole case on the basis that the pro-marriage groups who were acting on behalf of state officials lacked standing to be involved — and told them never to come back.

While this ruling does not make it mandatory for states to approve same-sex marriage, Conservative Philosopher King Senior Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who is no friend to gay people, gay rights or gay anything, said in a dissent that in effect, this ruling opens the way to same-sex marriage throughout the United States.

He even gave a simple legal formula that will help the proponents of gay marriage colonize even states that don’t recognize same-sex marriages.
Scalia, who angrily dissented from the majority, was in true form for this case. If you want to read some of the best quotes from his dissent, here’s a link from Mother Jones. Notably, when the court struck down sodomy laws in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas case, Scalia predicted that it would lead to same-sex marriage.

Beyond the Nuclear Family

At a family gathering sometime in the early 2000s, I joked that same-sex marriage was great, but we would really be making progress when I was allowed to marry a man and a woman. This was part social satire and part coming out — and fortunately most of my family appreciates both aspects of who I am.

The “one man, one woman” part of the same-sex marriage ban has always struck me as funny.

The language seems to come from DOMA (though it may originate earlier, this seems to be the first time it appears in legislation). I’ve always thought that was proactive of the defenders of marriage, who must have heard of polyamory or at least polygamy. It’s even funnier that the Mormons are the ones who were so busy defending traditional marriage when everyone associates them with polygamy.

The Schumard family, circa 1955 — an image of the American nuclear family, which replaced the extended family, which replaced the tribe. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Why not extend marriage to three women, two women and a man, two men and a woman or three men and a baby?

I think that DOMA and Proposition 8 both falling flat is an invitation to anyone who supports nontraditional relationships to claim a victory — and to claim some territory in public consciousness. It’s inevitable that the polyamory issue will come to the surface sooner or later, and that the gay rights movement paved the road on which it will drive, built the rest stops, wrote the driving manual and packed a picnic lunch.

I think that polyamorous is the new queer. If that is true, it’s on the way to being the new (or old) normal.

I asked my fellow thinkers in the poly movement for their impressions of how this week’s cases impacted polyamorous people.

“I feel overturning DOMA is a step in the right direction and I am thrilled for the many same-sex couples that will be positively affected by this decision,” said Robyn Trask, executive director of Loving More, an organization that advocates for alternative relationships.

“Is it a step toward plural marriage? I am skeptical as it is a complicated issue and begs the question: should marriage be regulated at all? I know many polyamorists would choose to marry more than one if it were legal and that, by the laws of some states, many are violating the law since co-habitation is in some states considered common law marriage,” she said, adding, “I think individuals should have the choice of who they love, how they commit and to how many.”

Trask believes that the matter is larger than same-sex marriage; it extends into the concept of what a family is — and that concept is changing.

“The right to family of choice is really what is at stake and that some legal protections should extend to people in multi-partnered marriage. Unfortunately too many of us in the polyamory community have been afraid to even bring up the subject, we are still afraid of job discrimination and other issues like child custody,” she said.

Loving More magazine cover focusing on children in polyamorous situations — one of the main topics discussed by the poly community.

“Many people are in the closet and most are not willing to support an effort to demand equality and recognition of polyamory as an orientation and a viable choice in relationships and families. We as a movement are in our infancy with nothing acting as a catalyst to bring us together in a cohesive way. Too many of us simply stick our head in the sand and are not willing to take the risks needed to gain acceptance and recognition. We can’t even agree on the definition of polyamory and throw fits when someone dares to define it as loving relationships” as opposed to sex for its own sake.

I also heard back from Jessica Karels, the co-founder of Modern Poly, a polyamory advocacy and education organization.

“Historically marriage has been a financial transaction that secured alliances among families, in which a woman’s ability to produce legitimate heirs was among the items traded,” Karels said.

“Only in the past few centuries have people intentionally married for love, but it was only in the past century that women have started to ascend from property to partner in a marriage.”

“By keeping the nuclear family as the norm, we place the obligation of raising children on the biological parents rather than on the community that they will later benefit. Our culture enforces this model by limiting financial resources to mothers, especially single mothers.

“The United States is especially guilty of this, as we are the only first-world country that does not make paid maternity leave mandatory. Legislation to restrict women’s access to reproductive health care further enforces this system by forcing fertile women into motherhood lacking community support, or into a partnership based on financial need rather than wholly on love and commitment.”

Karels sees a potential evolution from same-sex marriage to a wider concept of family because it rearranges gender roles and outside help is required if the same-sex couple wants to have a biological child.

“Recent steps towards marriage equality could have a larger cultural impact than we can imagine. Same-sex marriage, by its very nature, denies the traditional gender roles that are a part of the nuclear family model — the very same gender roles that have justified the oppression of women throughout history.

“A same-sex couple requires outside assistance in order to become parents — be it a surrogate mother, a sperm donor, or a mother giving up her child for adoption. In some instances, the adult who provided ‘biological aid’ becomes a member of the family of sorts and helps with caring for and raising the child. This triple-parenting based on need can lead to multiple-adult parenting based on choice and love — an evolution of family from nuclear to community.”

I will let Jessica have the last word.

Lovingly,

Note to Readers — I have done a detailed reading of NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s natal chart on The Mountain Astrologer’s blog. It’s open to everyone. The comments are interesting, too.

Another Note to Readers — We will be on a holiday schedule next week. The Friday issue will be a horoscope only. I plan to do a reading of the U.S. chart on Planet Waves FM.

Another Other Note to Readers — Briefs below are written by Amanda Painter, Susan Scheck and Eric Francis with research by Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and others. Cam Hassard contributed a brief on this week’s wild politics in Australia that I will publish as soon as possible.

Uranus-Pluto Square Going Strong; So is Everything Else

Over the next few days, the Sun passes through the Uranus-Pluto square. By that I mean that Monday, July 1 at 8:05 pm EDT the Sun in Cancer makes an opposition to Pluto in Capricorn, and then Thursday, July 4 the Sun makes a square to Uranus in Aries. These aspects have manifestations now.

The Uranus-Pluto square can seem to lurk in the background (but never that far in the background), then when other planets make aspects to it — as is happening generously these days — it takes more tangible, pronounced forms and emerges into the foreground. We will feel a wave of this when both the Sun and the Moon are mixed up with the square this weekend — when the Moon reaches last quarter phase in Aries on Sunday.

Last quarter Moon on June 30. Link to full size chart here and our handy dandy glyph legend here. It’s not as complicated as it looks.

This is some deep, focused energy coming through the cosmos right now thanks to Sun-Pluto, culminating with a burst of ‘revolutionary’ astrology on July 4 — the Sun-Uranus square. Revolutionary also means restless, inventive, surprising and exciting — do something a little odd; if you have a choice of the posh party or the one where the artists and musicians are hanging out, hang out with the weirdos. You’ll have a lot more fun.

Mercury is retrograde as of earlier this week, and Jupiter is now in Cancer through next summer. Both are making lots of aspects. As I describe in detail in my Cancer birthday reading, Jupiter (currently activating the Aries Point) will be making aspects to nearly every major planet in the solar system in the next couple of months, starting immediately.

Mercury for its part will retrograde into a square with Eris today. That should be good for some fun.

Venus has entered Leo, and is working its way toward a conjunction with Ceres later in the week. Ceres, the first asteroid ever discovered and now the first ‘dwarf planet’, is a complex archetype that goes way beyond the usual ‘grain and grief’ reading that most astrologers ascribe to it.

At the least, we can say that Ceres is a manifestation of the goddess, the oldest of the Roman pantheon. While there is often a leap between the role of a deity and the delineation of an asteroid, it’s usually worth knowing the role that the figure played in culture.

The Roman goddess Ceres. She is more complicated than she looks.

Ceres may be the oldest written Roman reference to divinity; involved with fecundity in all forms (grain, reproduction), initiation rituals, rituals upon returning to society after some form of absence or exile (presumably for initiation purposes, will find out more when I get to that chapter), working-class people of all sorts (plebes), upper class women and political propaganda. She ‘supervised’ a group of 17 other gods and goddesses. (I am learning this from the book The Roman Goddess Ceres by Barbette Spaeth, still in print.)

Ceres is not simple, she’s something truly special. One thing that planet spotters can do is watch for manifestations of this complexity when there’s something so spectacular as a Venus-Ceres conjunction in Leo, which is exact Sunday (and in effect for several days on either side of that).

Eros enters Gemini Friday — try that on for kinky love letters, erotic fiction and any form of sex where ‘twinning’ is the hot thing to do. (Can you spell 69? Can you recite the alphabet?)

Mars in Gemini is beginning to oppose the late Sagittarius centaurs, with Ixion and Pholus first on Friday. That could release a lot of energy — the phrase ‘drunk with power’ comes to mind, so watch out for those people and if necessary, leave work early, especially if you work for the Texas state government. Speaking of government, Pallas conjoins Chaos in Gemini Friday.

As for the Moon: currently in Pisces, trine Mercury and Vesta, on Saturday the Moon enters Aries at 9:06 am EDT — making contact with the Aries Point, squaring Jupiter, Black Moon Lilith and the Sun (all in Cancer). The last quarter Moon is exact at 12:53 am EDT Sunday, June 30.

And that is the current sky.

Note to Readers — We will be on a holiday schedule next week. The Friday issue will be a horoscope only. I plan to do a reading of the U.S. chart on Planet Waves FM.

Monsanto GMOs: A Totally Toxic Soup

Recent scientific studies are coming down harder than ever on Monsanto’s standing claim that its herbicide and pesticide products are safe, naming both active and inert ingredients as deadly to public health.

Yet the Environmental Protection Agency is playing into Monsanto’s hands once again, by issuing a new rule raising the acceptable residue limits of the company’s glyphosate herbicide on food. Glyphosate is the herbicide in the company’s Roundup pesticide, linked to serious health effects in recent scientific studies.

Parody of the Death card from the Tarot de Marseille, Monsanto-styled.

The herbicide has been shown to be an endocrine disruptor even at low doses and can have long-term effects on reproductive health, according to the National Institutes of Health. A June 2013 study said that glyphosate “exerted proliferative effects in human hormone-dependent breast cancer.” An April 2013 study by MIT scientists said the herbicide’s “negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.”

The EPA is taking public comments on raising the glyphosate level until Monday, July 1. You can add your comment here. For the required field “Organization Name,” please enter “Citizen.”

New information is coming out about another pesticide ingredient. A study at University of Brasilia recently found that red blood cells suffer due to a bacterium commonly used as a pesticide in Monsanto’s crops, called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

The number of red blood cells in rats exposed to Bt bacterium was not only lowered through the destruction of the cells themselves, but the toxins also disrupted blood clotting and caused organ degeneration and tissue damage. Levels of hemoglobin for oxygen were also significantly reduced.

“While Bt toxin does appear naturally in the environment, it does not normally occur in conjunction with soil, insects and plant surfaces, so the spreading of this bacterium through GMO is quite possibly going to create yet another super bug that can cause additional human deaths,” said an article in Natural Society.

Furthermore, inert ingredients in Roundup — which by definition are supposed to be harmless — have been found to amplify the toxic effect on human cells, even at concentrations much more diluted than those used on farms and lawns.

“This clearly confirms that the [inert ingredients] in Roundup formulations are not inert,” wrote the study authors from France’s University of Caen. “Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death [at the] residual levels” found on Roundup-treated crops, such as soybeans, alfalfa and corn, or lawns and gardens.

China Warned Over Huge Release of Refrigerant Greenhouse Gas

In what is being called a “climate bomb,” 19 factories — 11 of them in China — are set to stop incinerations of the HFC-23 gas used in refrigerants, because of a ban on trading of climate credits. The release of those gases through 2020 would be 15,000 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.

The view near a chemical plant in Quzhou, China, shows how severe pollution has become. Photo by Quilai Shen for a New York Times article about the UN’s CDM.

The factories have been receiving climate credits under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for installing and operating incinerators to burn HFC-23 that is created during the manufacturing process, instead of venting it into the atmosphere. If the trading credits disappear, the manufacturers say it would no longer be economically viable for them to incinerate the gas.

A warning by the EIA in a report to be released on Monday will raise the pressure on China to ban such gases and end economic incentives for their production in multilateral talks.

The EIA said an investigation had shown that most of China’s non-CDM facilities were emitting HFC-23 already. “If all of these facilities [under the CDM] join China’s non-CDM and vent their HFC-23, they will set off a climate bomb emitting more than 2bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions by 2020,” it said.

Releasing HFC-23 gases into the atmosphere is not illegal, despite the threat to the environment.

Practice of FGM Grows in the United States

An eye-opening study claims that up to 200,000 American girls and women are at risk of female genital cutting, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM) and female circumcision, a procedure that many Americans perceive as an international issue.

The study by the nonprofit group Sanctuary for Families says that American girls and women undergo FGM here or through what is known as “vacation cutting,” in which young women in the U.S. are sent abroad or travel with parents or grandparents to their native countries.

FGM survivors and advocates at a press conference held by Sanctuary for Families on International Women’s Day in March.

In January of this year the U.S. passed a law making it illegal to send young women out of the country for “vacation cutting,” but enforcement is difficult and prosecutions are rare even for FGM practiced domestically.

“People in the United States think that FGM only happens to people outside of the United States, but in all actuality, people here all over the country have been through FGM. Kids that were born in this country are taken back home every summer and undergo this procedure,” a 23-year-old woman from Gambia stated in the report.

Traditional practitioners are often secretly brought to the U.S. from other countries, and an entire group of girls may be cut in an afternoon. Pressure from families in the ancestral land and from community leaders here are largely responsible for continuing the practice on new American generations of women, according to Claudia De Palma of Sanctuary for Families.

First Amendment versus Second Amendment?

In Louisiana, you can get a permit to carry a concealed weapon — but if you’re a journalist, you can get slapped with a $10,000 fine and six months in jail if you publish the name of anyone who does so. It’s the latest in what seems like a country-wide push to criminalize journalism.

All those blue states issue permits to carry concealed weapons (some restrictions on use), along with the green states (no restrictions) and the yellow states (more restrictions). Only one state does not. As recently as the mid-90s most states did not allow or strongly restricted concealed weapons. Clearly the Second Amendment is in grave danger… Right?

On June 19, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill setting these penalties for anyone who publishes “any information regarding the identity of any person who applied for or received a concealed handgun permit” — unless that person has been charged with a felony involving a handgun.

Supporters of the bill were reacting in part to a New York newspaper that published a Google map featuring the names and addresses of local handgun permit holders this winter, citing that as evidence that a law was needed. In most states, including Louisiana, such information is confidential; Alabama is the only other state in which publication of concealed-carry permit holders’ names is illegal.

Carl Redman, the executive editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate and chairman of the Louisiana Press Association’s Freedom of Information Committee, commented that it’s “very ironic that the very people who screamed the loudest about attempts to limit their Second Amendment rights are here eager to limit my First Amendment rights.”

SCOTUS Rulings on Work Relationships

This week the Supreme Court of the U.S. also ruled on cases related to sexual harassment, discrimination and whether a discharged serviceman convicted of sexual assault would have to register as a civilian sex offender.

In Vance v. Ball State University, the Court “narrowly defined a worker’s ‘supervisor’ as someone who can change a person’s employment status, thus limiting legal protections for those harassed by superiors who lack such direct control,” according to Democracy Now!

Courtroom sketch of Justice Ginsburg reading from her dissent in another case this week about racial discrimination, Fisher v. U. of Texas. Courtroom sketch by Art Lien/SCOTUSblog.

Justice Ginsburg, joined by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan, dissented vigorously, writing that the majority decision “ignores the conditions under which members of the work force labor, and disserves the objective of Title VII to prevent discrimination from infecting the Nation’s workplaces.” Title VII is part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

A separate ruling saw the Court backing tighter standards for workers trying to prove they have been the victims of retaliation after complaining about discrimination. In University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, the majority decision was that Title VII only covers claims of discrimination (such as for employment on the basis of sex, religion or race, for example) not retaliation.

Again, Justice Ginsburg, joined by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan, strongly dissented, calling on Congress to overturn both decisions.

Finally, in the context of the stunning revelations this spring of massive-scale sexual assaults in the military, including charges of sexual assault by officers serving on military sexual assault task forces, it seems like a no-brainer that anyone convicted of sexual assault in the military should also have to register as a sex offender as a civilian. The Supreme Court did in fact decide that a former member of the Air Force must do so, even though he has completed his military sentence for the crime.

On one level United States v. Kebodeaux is a narrow and unremarkable case. However Justice Roberts, even though he concurred with the decision, argued against the “generalized police power” that the ruling’s language points toward. Steven Schwinn on SCOTUSblog writes that, “… Kebodeaux, like Comstock before it, represents potentially vast congressional authority.”

In the grand scheme of relational justice in this post 9-11 world, that is something to keep an eye on as Uranus and Pluto keep shaking things up.

“Dance because you’re drunk at a big dance party with your friends and Michael Jackson is playing, not because ‘no one is watching.’ Everyone is watching. We’re at a fucking party. That’s how parties work.” Some timely weekend advice to go with the top section of the Inspirational Photo BINGO card.

Maxed Out on Inspirational Photos? Try BINGO!

Sharing inspirational quotes and lists and articles and images online is great… until you realize it’s making you crazy, since you’re a regular person who can barely keep your floors clean, let alone make time for regular chakra-clearing. The author of the blog “I Am Begging My Mother Not To Read This Blog” has created a great game for blowing off steam when you start to feel like you’ll implode with frustration from reading one more set of “25 things happy/peaceful/successful/healthy people do.”

It’s called Inspirational Photo BINGO, and it goes with her blog post titled, “Twelve Habits of Happy, Healthy People Who Don’t Give a Shit About Your Inner Peace.” You play by seeing how quickly you can fill the card by spotting saccharinely cliched images while reading ‘inspirational’ articles. Honestly, how often do you get to do pro-level yoga poses on a mountain overlooking a deserted tropical beach at sunset (which sounds great, but out of reach for most people)? And how many other ways can you think of to be authentic and happy and engaged with the world?

Jupiter in Cancer, Mercury Retrograde, Edward Snowden — and Introducing the Phila-based Band Grandchildren

[Link to Edition] What’s not happening right now? Not much! This is a classic moment of everything, all at once — the spirit of 2012 — the imprint of the Aries Point, Jupiter changing signs, Mercury stationing retrograde, the Sun about to pass through the Uranus-Pluto square, Jupiter about to do so as well, and much else.

The band Grandchildren.

The Supreme Court is issuing decisions on the most personal matters of our lives, the U.S. government is going nuts trying to get its hands onto Edward Snowden, Texas is trying to ban abortions and lots else.

I look at the current astrology, walk you through current events in an engaging way and follow the journey and chart of Edward Snowden as they both develop.

Here’s my current post on The Mountain Astrologer‘s blog, about Edward Snowden’s chart with a lively conversation brewing among people you don’t know from Planet Waves.

I also introduce the amazing Philadelphia-based band Grandchildren. The New Philadelphia magazine once described them as “full of amazing vigor, but also kind of detached in a way that’s hard to put your finger on. They don’t really seem to play their music as much as transmit it from some distant alien host, like a band possessed.”

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The June monthly extended horoscopes were published Friday, May 24. Inner Space horoscopes for June were published Friday, May 31. I recommend reviewing the previous month’s horoscope at the end of the month; you can see May’s monthly horoscope here. We published the Moonshine horoscopes for the Capricorn Full Moon on Tuesday, June 18. Moonshine horoscopes for the Cancer New Moon will publish Tuesday, July 2.

Note to Readers — We will be on a holiday schedule next week. The Friday issue will be a horoscope only. I plan to do a reading of the U.S. chart on Planet Waves FM.

Inner Space Monthly Horoscope for July 2013, #956 | By Eric Francis

We’re now under the influence of all three water signs. Jupiter ingressed Cancer on June 25, joining Saturn in Scorpio and Chiron and Neptune in Pisces. Mercury is retrograde in Cancer. That began June 26 and ends July 20. If you’re making plans or initiating a project, make sure you leave a few days’ margin after the retrograde ends to allow Mercury to come back up to speed and focus your thoughts. The Cancer New Moon is July 8. Mars enters Cancer July 13. Venus enters Virgo July 21, and the Aquarius Full Moon is July 22. That’s the same day that the Sun ingresses Leo.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You seem to be going back and forth on an issue that’s calling for a firm decision. The more decisive you try to be, the more it seems like there are two irreconcilable sides of the story, each with its own seemingly valid point of view. The more you try to please everyone, the more obvious it becomes that you’ll never be able to do that. I suggest you not burn yourself out doing this. You probably already know the reality of the situation, not from rationalizing or arguing one side of the case over the other, but because you simply know. What you’re really waiting for is the courage to take action, whether that means declaring an end to something, or committing to it more fully.

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) — It’s time to set boundaries with your family, which really means organizing your life the way you want. I suggest you identify the center of your life: the element about which you’re the most passionate, or the place where you most dependably tend the fires. Then ask yourself how you feel when you imagine your family — be it parents, spouse, partner or children — knowing that’s the thing you care about so deeply. Do you perceive support or reticence? Do you feel better about yourself, or do questions come up? How you think that others feel about you is a good picture of how you feel about yourself. It’s more complex than you may think, though you do seem determined to get to the heart of the matter.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You’re at the most important juncture of the year when it comes to sorting your financial priorities, and getting clear about how to be more financially successful. I suggest that the first thing you do is recognize your potential. Your earning capacity has expanded significantly in recent weeks, and you need to be clear about that so you can take advantage of it. Yet there’s another ingredient that will help unlock your potential, which is sorting through everything you were taught about money as a child: whether it’s a good or bad thing, whether you deserve any and for what activities, the impressions that adult relatives made on you, and so on. This may be ancient history but it’s information that is useful and indeed essential to work with now.

The Cancer reading is now ready! Order for instant access.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Jupiter has returned to your sign for the first time in nearly 12 years, and I trust you’ve already started to notice some of the pressure coming off, and your world expanding just a bit. Jupiter is providing you with a kind of cushion that will create some open space around you and deflect random objects, and give you access to additional resources. Now that you know this, I suggest you relax a little and see what happens. Try doing that Cancerian thing and eat real food, take care of the plants and get enough sleep every night. There has been a frenetic quality to your life the past few months, as if you’ve been driven by some kind of invisible psychic force. Take some time and notice how much you’ve accomplished. That’ll give you a clue of what’s to come. Note — I’ve just finished a fantastic Cancer birthday reading which looks in detail at Jupiter in your sign.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) –Match your actions to your innermost thoughts. From our earliest days we are trained to split our personalities: to say one thing and do another; to feel a certain way and act against our feelings; to violate our intelligence or intuition; and many other examples. One beautiful thing about the astrology of July is the close relationship between your deepest sentiments and your choices and actions. It would seem you have no interest in hypocrisy — only in acting from your values with the utmost sincerity. This is the course of action that will feel the best because it’s a reflection of who you actually are. All those options about choosing anything to the contrary are vastly overrated.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You have no control over how you’re perceived. You have some influence, but in truth, people believe what they believe and they often see based on their beliefs. Meanwhile, you’re a person on a mission — and from what I can tell, you’re entirely sincere. Part of taking up anything larger than yourself, or acting in ways that benefit others, can be the perception that you have some other motive. I could go over all the rationales behind this, but you probably know them. I suggest that you not let anyone’s opinion of you, or their perceived opinion, influence your dedication. Persist for just a little while and soon enough the simple reality of the situation will be obvious to everyone.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You tend to leave an impression on others that is more austere and conservative than you may think. There’s a certain reserve around your sign, a reticence to reveal too much, and your astrology is illustrating just such an inner discussion now. You seem to have some compelling reasons to stay silent — and some even more compelling reasons to reveal something specific about yourself. Which is the correct impulse? Well, which haven’t you tried? What are your concerns about consequences? Are they just fears, or are they realistic? One of the main qualifications for leadership is sincerity. Were you to choose that path, what would you want to reveal? Not be compelled to reveal out of some moral dictate, but want to reveal because you will feel better and stronger for doing so?

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may be spending too much time pleading your case or arguing for your cause than is necessary. That would include negotiation or studying various points of view. People in your life are more likely to do what’s right based on the fact that it’s actually so rather than based on any rationales that you may present to them. I would propose that if you accept and believe what you know to be true — especially what you know to be true for you — that others will be much more inclined to do so. If you find yourself debating anything, ask yourself whether you really believe it, and what basis you have for doing so. Be bold about questioning yourself — and about responding.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You may find it easier to clear the hot air out of the room now that Jupiter is in Cancer — a sign that’s cooler, more inwardly seeking and oriented on feelings. You’ve learned a lot about yourself with Jupiter moving through your opposite sign. Its new placement is less about what is said and more about what is done. People demonstrate their feelings, their caring, their sincerity through their actions. Words can deceive easily and often do so; it’s more difficult to deceive with actions. Now you need to tell the difference, both in terms of what you do and what others do. Let your actions and the actions of others do all the talking.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — It’s been a long time since you were cut a break. You’ve been so driven and so restless in recent years, you might count it a miracle if anyone could keep up with you, or understand you, or feel the kinds of pressures and enforced changes that you’ve been going through on a fairly regular basis. Your relationships can now consciously provide a cushion of safety for you. Yet whether you see and feel this will depend largely on your emotional orientation. I suggest you relax a little. Give people the benefit of the doubt about whether they understand you or are capable of seeing your point of view. You don’t need to push yourself or others so hard. Get the feeling of being at home wherever you are, and you will feel like that a little more every day.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Yours is the sign of the water bearer, and that water has to come from someplace. Some of the sage descriptions of your sign encourage you to fill up your urn so that you have something to give to others when called upon to do so. Jupiter joining many other planets in the water signs is a reminder to pause, fill up and strengthen yourself. To do this, however, you will need to make a conscious choice to trust, and to question your many reasons not to trust. This time in your life only seems to be about the authority you have over your own life and to some extent your responsibility for others. It’s about relaxing into an exchange, and having the faith to receive what you need when it’s offered to you.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — It takes a lot to let go of control on this planet right now, whether it’s actual control or the illusion thereof. You have compelling reasons to do that, most significantly your peace of mind. But in order for this to be sincere, you need to replace control with something else. The one-word description of that ‘something else’ is faith — though that too may be challenging for you at times, and it’s nothing that you can contrive. What I suggest you replace it with is an experiment in how far your creativity can get you. If you see a problem, a puzzle or a conflict, try having faith that your creativity can turn it to something positive for everyone, then give it a try. Your results will speak for themselves.

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The Queer Frontier

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Dear Friend and Reader:

I had a great time listening to the arguments surrounding both same-sex marriage and the Defense of Marriage Act (or DOMA) last week before the U.S. Supreme Court. It was like the “personal is political” World Series, hearing some of the most intimate human topics being debated in what is arguably the most powerful court in the world.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio / New York.

I loved hearing some of the justices make truly illuminating points and hearing others squirm around having to discuss something they wished they didn’t have to deal with. You might say that was sex, or the idea of gay sex — or you might say that was progress.

They’re all closely related. The essence of the discussion was: is sex actually a moral issue? We’re told it is so often, and we’re so thoroughly conditioned to treat it like it is, that I think many people would rather discover their kid playing with explosives than walk in on them playing doctor.

Treating sex as a moral issue has a long history, though looked at another way, it is the story of history. This has its origins in religion, which predates our modern concept of law or government. Yet the two are closely related. The purpose of both is less about an orderly society, a trustworthy economy or meeting the needs of the people, and more about social control.

There was that stunning moment during the DOMA arguments when Justice Elena Kagan quoted the House of Representatives report on why it passed the law. In that report, we discover that Congress, under the stewardship of serial polygamist Newt Gingrich, felt that marriage needed to be defended in order to “honor a collective moral judgment” reflecting “moral disapproval of homosexuality.”

Rep. Henry Hyde, then chairman of the House Judiciary Committee where DOMA was brewed and fermented, said at the time that “most people do not approve of homosexual conduct … and they express their disapprobation through the law.” And now that law, or rather the whole tendency to place moral judgment on normal social behavior, is up for question.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio / New York.

We don’t know what the Supreme Court is going to do with these cases, though we know that there is a discussion happening on the highest level of government. For many reasons, that’s truly encouraging. What was once deeply hidden, denied and treated with disgust and rage is now household conversation, in a sense, sanctified by the blessing of the court.

Yet that could only happen were there some movement on the deepest level of the psyche. Which brings me to the astrology involved.

We’re in the midst of a generational event — the Uranus-Pluto square. This is the latest step in a cycle that turned over in the mid-1960s; that was the Uranus-Pluto conjunction. To some extent we all utter the words “The Sixties” with some reverence — it was a profound, tragic, sometimes beautiful, often wrenching time in history. A force for change had been let loose, and that was described by the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

Now we are at the first quarter phase of that cycle — the square. The force of evolution and that of revolution are meeting at a 90-degree angle, which technically spans from 2012-2015, but which in retrospect will have a story arc that goes from around 2008 through around 2020. We’re now in the peak of the astrology.

But with the exceptions of some uprisings in 2011 — prior to the exact square, and which either did not persist, or which ended badly — we’re not seeing demonstrations in the streets, or a social uprising. But what we are seeing are these developments in our concept of relationship; and that is a development in our concept of what a person is. Plenty of that concept is related to sex.

Many, many centuries of “disapprobation” directed at homosexuality in particular have left a compounded injury in our collective and individual psyches. One way that manifests is as homophobia, by which I mean anything from subtle annoyance to deep, abiding disgust. When you combine that with the natural primate tendency toward same-sex relating, the result can be a lot of chaos and pain, or a society that often seems to be unraveling.

Looked at one way the Uranus-Pluto square is about some kind of upheaval, change or progress in society. Looked at another way, it’s an introspective process that each person is experiencing individually. That, I believe, is where the real progress is happening.

I would offer a perspective on the spiritual significance of embracing the whole notion of ‘homosexual’. Primal sex is sex with oneself. Very nearly everyone masturbates, which I’ve observed is a kind of core level of sexuality. It’s not about reproduction. It’s about the pleasure of existence or perhaps the mere fact of it, it involves feelings related to the self, from the self, in a reflexive way — and it’s true blue homo.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio / New York.

The sex we have with ourselves is a form of gay sex; it is a same-sex experience. That, I believe, is one reason for the fuss over masturbation that has persisted more than 400 years (it can actually be historically traced to the early 1700s). There are other reasons; one is that sex alone with oneself has a way of opening up the full potential of fantasy, which does not always follow the fantasy that starts with a bridal shower.

I used to think that a sexual revolution would happen after AIDS was cured. It’s not really cured but it’s not what it used to be. Yet as time and my writing portfolio have collected, I’ve reconsidered. In my view, we don’t need a sexual revolution. We need conscious sexual evolution, which means many people individuating and living lives of authenticity, transparency and awareness (the opposite of hypocrisy). Sexual evolution is about being real.

The core of sexual evolution is that you are an independent person and so is everyone else. Then you do what you want to do in an ethical way. Part of that ethical way involves honoring independence and sexual choices, and understanding that nearly all of us exist on a continuum with each of our lovers, as they do with us — there are (for nearly everyone) those who ‘came before’ and those who will ‘come after’.

That leaves plenty of room for deep exchange, safe containers for family, and longterm or even lifelong commitment.

Now that monogamous lesbians and male homosexuals and the things they do are on the way to acceptance in society, it’s time to open the discussion that sexuality exists on a three-dimensional continuum (not the Kinsey scale), and that every person has a different sexual orientation with every different person we encounter. I guess that makes us a different kind of queer with everyone and anyone.

My sense is that Uranus-Pluto has nudged us out to the Queer Frontier. Yes, many pioneers have been here for a while; I am talking about the preponderance of momentum in our society, social movement that has the ability to carry many with it.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio / New York.

Here are some ideas about who deserves full inclusion in our ongoing conversation of what is possible rather than what is moral.

People who are open and positive about sex. There are many; those who are willing to speak up are a rare breed. They’re the people who admit the whole thing, stating who they are, who they like and what they do. They are the people who can carry on a conversation and create the spaces where nothing is taboo.

Self-sexuals, which includes everyone part of the time, and many people much of the time. Many people otherwise engaged sexually have their best sex with themselves. This includes people who choose to be sexual exclusively with themselves; if we were to hear from them we would find out there are a lot more than we thought.

My sense is that this is where the real change — claiming pleasure and releasing guilt and shame — will start or may have already started. I understand conscious self-sexuality to be an easily accessible, pleasurable, socially interesting path to sexual healing.

I have noticed that many people are reluctant to speak up and claim this. I am doing my best to set a different trend. (I may hold the World Internet Record for mentions of masturbation in my articles, as of today, I get 6,060 Google returns on the topic). I know there are a LOT more people who have something to say — who I have yet to hear from (happily anticipating your emails).

People who choose themselves as a sex partner, whether ‘one on one’ or in the context of other sexual relationships, have the right to not feel shame about this, and we need to educate one another how to do this.

I took a little surf of my 6,060 Google hits a few minutes ago and found this quote, apropos of self-sexuality that I wrote a few years back:

“I would propose that masturbation is about a lot more than masturbation — and that’s the reason it’s still considered so taboo by many people, and in many places. First, I would say that masturbation holds the key to all sexuality. It’s a kind of proto-sexuality, the core of the matter of what it means to be sexual. I mean this in an existential sense. Masturbation is the most elemental form of sexuality, requiring only awareness and a body. Whatever we experience when we go there is what we bring into our sexual encounters with others — whether we recognize it or not. Many factors contribute to obscuring this simple fact.”

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio / New York.

Polyamory and nontraditional forms of relationships, which includes most people some of the time and nearly all people at some point. The awareness that some people actually admit to this is starting to increase, though at the moment polyamory seems to be wanting for idea-based leadership and coordination, in the midst of its biggest PR boon ever. The press has never been better and we’re not really taking the opportunity to build on it. I would remind polyamorous leaders that it was two sci-fi writers who got your movement going; you might want to give out book lists at your mixers, and have writing workshops at your conferences.

Single people. Not poly. Not mono. Not cheating. Not ‘asexual’. Single — those whose primary partner is ‘perself’ to use a Marge Piercy word (from Woman on the Edge of Time) for ‘him or herself’. Many people are single because that’s what’s available, and a good few are because they want to be that way.

Single people are discriminated against structurally by everything from the tax code to the dentist office application to you name it. The tax break for married couples is stunningly discriminatory, literally paying some people to have one specific kind of relationship. Single people are often considered a threat to the sanctity of coupled people. I could go on and on. Check out a blog called Onely.org for more info. Note, I would recommend to the Single’s Rights Movement that it could help matters by being more open and honest about masturbation.

Bisexuals and gender fluid people whose identity is not fixed and committed like registering with a political party. The official queer movements still have a hard time with this, no matter how many letters they add to their collection. I am speaking about people in harmony with their diversity of potentials, desires, choices and options for how they can feel and express themselves. When we look carefully at this and at ourselves we will find out that many, many more people fit this description than the previously existing political parties ‘allow’. Gender and sexual orientation are indeed fluid. The sex organs secrete liquid, which is designed to mix with others, in case we need a biological metaphor.

Asexual and non-practicing (apparently there is such a thing as asexual, with 1% of the population reporting this). Having no sexual feelings or not wanting to act on them is as queer as anything else in a world where sex is considered normal. From what I have read in my inbox, they feel left out when the conversation turns to sex and relating. They would do well to find one another and talk about who they are and what they do. There are many reasons for this choice, and we need to consider it as valid as any other.

That is the whole point. We all have a right to choose who we are and what we want. The ability to do this, I believe, needs to be about ability and volition rather than about privilege. The core idea is consent: the freedom to say yes or no, to yourself and to others; the freedom to decide who you are today.

Lovingly,

Invocation of Spring: Your 2013 spring sex and love astrology reading is now available for purchase. The eclipses approaching this season are on the sensual, passionate Taurus-Scorpio axis. Beltane (the Pagan holiday celebrating fertility and sexual union in early May, at the peak of spring) is right around the corner.

Your 12-sign reading includes an introduction plus a 40-minute audio reading for each sign. Listen to your Sun, Moon and rising sign for added depth as you start tuning up your sex and love vibrations. Consider these audio readings a kind of a road map for your relationships — and some inspiration. Order instant access for $24.95 here.

Quite the Aries New Moon

The sky is currently building toward the Aries New Moon. Astrologers don’t usually describe the New Moon as a building process — usually it’s more like closure, resolution and completion. Yet this is an unusual New Moon, with the sensation of something building to a point of release, much more like a Full Moon.

Chart section showing planets in Aries at the New Moon April 10, plus Mercury at the top in Pisces, safely out of its echo phase. Uranus is in early Aries; the Sun and Moon are conjunct at 20+ Aries, with Eris, Mars and Venus nearby within about three degrees. Glyph legend.

It’s exact at 5:35 am EDT on Wednesday, April 10. Several smaller but meaningful events lead up to this, though it’s worth noting that we have this landmark on the immediate horizon. It’s actually a grand conjunction involving five planets, which are the Moon and Sun (as with any New Moon), the new planet Eris, and then Venus and Mars.

Additionally, Uranus is a longterm visitor in Aries, and while it’s slightly off to the side of this New Moon, it’s close enough to add energy, a creative factor and a hint that there’s a lack of predictability involved in the events that develop.

Yet that is also described by the presence of Eris in the middle of the five-planet alignment. Eris, a Pluto-like planet with a much longer orbit than Pluto, is serving as a kind of threshold — between the familiar and the unfamiliar. That can include your familiar concept of yourself and the one you don’t know so well; it can include your familiar concept of relationships and the one that perhaps you are being drawn into as if by gravity.

Between what I’m calling the ‘familiar state’ and the ‘unfamiliar state’ is a kind of threshold. You might say that threshold is a direct encounter with the unknown, and the fact that there even is an unknown. (One of the first things denial denies is the fact that there’s anything else.)

While you take the ride of this New Moon, remember that on the deepest level it’s about an encounter with your evolving self, and your relationship to that self — which sets the tone of every other relationship. Eris can add the element of chaos. I would note that there are two kinds: toxic and fertile. I suggest a bit of meditating on the difference between them. Toxic chaos is self-serving. Fertile chaos inspires creativity, and can be a release from the entanglements of the past.

Between now and Wednesday, several other things happen. One is that on Saturday, the Mercury shadow phase ends; the Mercury retrograde we experienced in February and March is fully resolved at this point. Mercury enters new territory for the first time in many weeks, and is getting ready to enter Aries on April 13.

The next day (this Sunday) is the exact Venus-Mars conjunction in Aries. This is an interesting conjunction because we have Venus and Mars in a sign that is ruled by Mars. That seems like a competitive situation of some kind — those are usually pointless. Who is competing for what? That’s the question to ask, if things ever get testy. The more competitive person is most likely to lose the game that THEY are playing, so if you want to win the game you’re playing, I suggest you avoid competitive people and find the cooperative ones.

They are most likely to be the ones who know what to do with a mystery, with the unknown, and who are comfortable making changes.

Gun Control Progress: State by State

Congress may have failed to move forward Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban a couple of weeks ago, but lawmakers in individual states are proving better able to make progress in the face of the NRA’s big-money lobbying. Connecticut — where the horrific Newtown school massacre occurred this winter — is the latest state with one of the strictest gun-control laws in the U.S.

The measure, which Gov. Dannel Malloy was expected to sign into law Thursday, requires universal background checks for all gun sales, increases gun registration, expands the state’s ban on assault weapons, and bans any new sales of magazines with more than 10 bullets.

A little further south, Maryland is likely to follow suit. That state’s House of Delegates approved a bill on Wednesday that includes the fingerprinting of gun buyers and banning assault weapons and magazines with more than 10 bullets. The measure now returns to the state Senate, which passed a similar version of the bill last month.

In related news, the Center for American Progress has released a new report showing that states with the nation’s most lax gun laws also suffer the nation’s worst rates of gun violence. Eight of the states with the most gun violence were among the 25 with the weakest gun laws. Indicators included gun homicides and suicides, gun deaths of children, and fatal shootings of law enforcement officers.

Colorado, another state that has recently passed stricter gun regulations in the aftermath of gun violence, hosted President Obama this week.

“I believe there doesn’t have to be a conflict in reconciling these realities,” said Obama on Wednesday, as part of his efforts to get a gun control law passed in Washington. “There doesn’t have to be a conflict between protecting our citizens and protecting our Second Amendment rights. Aurora is very much a purple city. It’s got a majority Republican city council; a majority of its state legislators are Democrat. But they came together understanding that out of this tragedy there had to be something that made sense.”

It sounds great — but Obama still needs to confront members of his own party standing in the way. That leaves it up to individual states, although Connecticut has a lot to lose if it pisses off the gun industry.

At least three major gun manufacturers call Connecticut home, and they’re threatening to leave. The small New England state can’t afford to lose the thousands of jobs represented by those companies. Yet it seems leaders there have chosen that possibility over losing more children to gun violence.

Arkansas State Attorney General to Investigate ExxonMobil Oil Spill

In the aftermath of last week’s spill of up to 5,000 barrels of crude oil in Mayflower, Arkansas, state attorney general Dustin McDaniel announced he will look into the causes and impacts of the spill from the ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline.

The pipeline spewed oil onto lawns, roadways and wildlife, and almost into nearby Lake Conway. No one was hurt, but the spill led authorities to evacuate more than 20 homes.

A river of tar sands crude flows through a Mayflower, Arkansas, subdivision. Photo by evacuated Mayflower resident Warren Andrews via the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

“There are many questions and concerns remaining as to the long-term impacts, environmental or otherwise, from this spill,” McDaniel wrote to ExxonMobil executives Tuesday. He asked ExxonMobil to preserve records pending his investigation.

Also on Tuesday, federal pipeline safety officials issued a corrective action order to ExxonMobil. The cause of the rupture is still unknown, but the corrective order states ExxonMobil reversed the system flow of the pipeline in 2006, and that a change in direction of flow can affect the hydraulic and stress demands on the pipeline.

The company cannot restart the failed segment of the pipeline until officials are satisfied that it is safe.
A longstanding cause for concern has been that the Pegasus pipeline is located in an area that drains into the main source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of customers. A Central Arkansas Water official said the water system plans to formally request that ExxonMobil move it out of that region.

The spill in Arkansas comes as the Obama administration prepares to issue a decision on whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. That controversial project would expand the transport of Canadian tar sands oil on a massive scale; the Pegasus pipeline was carrying western Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak.

“It’s almost as if nature was trying to send a message that it might be best to just leave this stuff underground in Canada, where it’s been safely for the last few million years, instead of trucking it, piping it, training it hither and yon across the countryside,” said Bill McKibben, co-founder and director of 350.org, on Democracy Now! this week.

Who’s Responsible for the Monsanto Protection Act Anyway?

Food activists are looking askance at the White House, after Obama last week signed the “Monsanto Protection Act” into law, as it rode on the back of the larger spending bill that is keeping the federal government in business. The rider says the government must allow the planting of genetically modified crops even if courts rule they pose health risks.

Because it was passed as a rider and not as its own legislation, it expires in six months, and the food justice movement is already gearing up for a fight if it comes up again.

One mystery is who introduced the bill in the first place. Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, Monsanto’s home state, was one of its biggest supporters. Blunt reportedly crafted the bill’s language with Monsanto’s help, according to Democracy Now!

Democrat Jon Tester of Montana, the Senate’s only active farmer (and an organic farmer, at that), would sure like to find out. He opposed the rider, saying the provision would undermine judicial oversight and hurt family farmers. Tester said last month in Senate hearings that the source of the bill is unknown.

“I don’t know who authored this provision,” he said. “Maybe someone in Washington knows, but no one is willing to put their name to it. And that’s a shame.”

He’s not the only one who wants to hold someone accountable. One activist group, Peaceteam, is “demanding a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee to determine who is responsible for putting it in there, and to demand their immediate resignation, regardless of party affiliation, so that this kind of anonymous graft can never happen again,” it said in an email.

You can add your voice by visiting the Monsanto Reckless Release Action page here.

Nuclear Saber Rattling on the Korean Peninsula

North Korea and the United States have once again traded escalating rhetoric and tactics in the past few weeks in the wake of a vote on tighter UN sanctions on North Korea and joint war games by the U.S and South Korea. While most of the language and tactics are similar to years past, there is always the possibility that the smoke here could turn to fire.

The latest round of bravado seems rooted in a UN Security Council vote for stricter sanctions on South Korea after a third nuclear detonation in February. This was the first such test conducted under new leader Kim Jong-un and in direct defiance of China, South Korea’s biggest backer. China responded in March by joining the other 14 Security Council voting nations in these tighter economic sanctions.

North Korea then threatened to end the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War and has since threatened nuclear attack on South Korea, Japan and United States territories and mainland. The expression of threats has so far escalated up to late Wednesday night with North Korea stating that they were cleared to engage in an attack on the U.S. using “lighter and diversified nuclear” weapons.

This all happens amidst the backdrop of joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea. The U.S. has flown stealth bombers plus B-2 and B-52 bombers over the Korean Peninsula, and has deployed war ships to the region.

While many experts and analysts agree that a nuclear attack from the north is unlikely, there are tactical moves on the part of both nations that could easily escalate the crisis. So far though, South Korea and the U.S. have been following a typical, although volatile, script.

Ready or not, someone may be coming out

Are National Football League players and their fans ready for an openly gay player? Quite a few vocal supporters think so and appear to be preparing for just that. The bigger question may be, will this be harder for the players or fans?

A CBS News report followed by an announcement from the players union indicates that a player is preparing to come out in the next few months with the intention of continuing his football career. This would be a landmark event in the world of professional sports. It’s one of the remaining popular national institutions that has remained on the sidelines of sexual orientation / gender identification equality issues.

NFL Players Association president Domonique Foxworth explained that the union, in conjunction with outside organizations, has had meetings to educate players for the “inevitability” and “unavoidable” circumstances of a player coming out. He believes that the time is ripe for a player to take this step and that there are more gay players in the league, so if one comes out, others may follow.

Meanwhile, CBS News sports correspondent Mike Freeman indicated that despite negative, homophobic comments made by two current NFL players (Chris Culliver and Chris Clemons, both in response to questions about having a gay teammate in the locker room), the player in question is more concerned with the reactions of fans than of his teammates.

Minnesota Viking punter Chris Kluwe, ambassador for the group Athlete Ally that works to end homophobia in sports, agrees with that assertion. Kluwe suggests that the fundamental principles of “don’t be a distraction” and “team first,” drilled into NFL players’ psyches, may become a source of strength for the openly gay player and the team. The enormous amount of media scrutiny and fan attention is what could keep the issue contentious.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: Truthers Are Nuts, Too

In Wednesday night’s edition of Hardball on MSNBC, Chris Matthews gave a rundown of paranoid political theories circulating among the American population, including how many people think that Barack Obama is the antichrist, how many people think that the country is run by reptilians (evil ETs disguised as humans), how many are sure that Obama wasn’t born in the United States and so on. Most of these are right-wing conspiracies.

Then he said that there are some loonies on the left as well — such as the people who believe that George W. Bush took down the World Trade Center “with a plunger” (meaning a detonation device). He described these people as fringe elements, despite the fact that a 2006 Zogby poll revealed that “less than half of the American public trusts the official 9/11 story or believes the attacks were adequately investigated.”

Larry Silverstein, owner of WTC 7, said in a PBS interview that he told the Fire Department that, ‘”The smartest thing to do is pull it.” Screen shot from PBS.

That means more than half of American adults do not trust the official story — now that the fog of war in Afghanistan and Iraq is starting to clear. Matthews asked incredulously what motive Bush and Co. might have had to knock the buildings down and make it look like the work of terrorists, answering his own question — hypothetically, to start those wars — but pretending that was a ridiculous theory.

Besides being prejudiced, the problem with Matthews’s objections is that they are ignorant of many basic facts.

After 11 years of dissecting how exactly two massive towers could crumble from airplane strikes without the help of explosives, attention has focused on the building that crumbled without being hit by an airplane — WTC 7 or the Salomon Brothers Building. I covered this in the Planet Waves article History, Turning on a Phrase. This article covers the astrology, the science and the psychology of the event.

Oddly not investigated in the official 9/11 report, WTC 7 collapsed onto its footprint at near free-fall speed at 5:20 pm on Sept. 11, 2001. There were numerous reports of a police radio countdown, witness testimony reveals the area was evacuated prior to the collapse, and the building had sustained only minor damage.

Office fires are cited as the usual reason that WTC 7 collapsed, despite the landlord, Larry Silverstein, admitting on PBS that he told the Fire Department that “the smartest thing to do is pull it.” That phrase is a term from the demolition industry, which “pulls” buildings (formerly with a crane, now with explosives).

Yet the real issue with Matthews’s characterization of the 9/11 issue is science. How can a skyscraper collapse at anything near free-fall speed with all that mass between the top of the building and the ground? Maybe he doesn’t know that 1,500 professional engineers and architects have agreed that from a scientific standpoint, the official explanation is impossible. There is evidence of explosives. That’s not their opinion; it’s based on the calculations of the engineers who design this kind of skyscraper, and whose job it is to make sure it stands up. You can visit the website and explore a diversity of videos there.

Of course, paraphrasing Einstein, proving that WTC 7’s spontaneous collapse violated the laws of physics would require the calculations of only one engineer, though just in case, we have a few more.

“The piglet squid would seem to suggest that evolution’s medications are working. Possibly a little too well.” And if you think this critter is weird, you should see what evolution comes up with when it’s having a really bad day. (There are lots of things science doesn’t fully understand about squid, including why their eyes are so complex.) Photo: Sierraclub.org via WTF, evolution?

Um, Are You Sure About That One, Evolution?

If you think you have a hard time staying motivated, upbeat and creatively juiced on the job, imagine trying to do so for 3.8 billion years! Chances are, you’d have as many ‘misses’ as ‘hits’ on your project resume. Maybe you’d occasionally confuse a really weird idea for pure genius. Perhaps spite and self-pity might get the better of you, after eons of being made fun of for some of your more experimental work. Sometimes the solutions you come up with to ‘fix’ your ‘mistakes’ might strike others as, um, less than obvious or logical. And let’s face it: almost everyone has done something stupid while drunk at least once in their lives.

This seems to be the basic idea behind the hilarious nature blog, WTF, evolution? Created by Mara Grunbaum, an editor for Scholastic Science World and a science writer for other publications, the blog imagines evolution as a sentient being who just seems to be winging it sometimes. The conversations with evolution are the best — revealing a rather sensitive soul whose feelings are easily hurt when people laugh at its favorite creations.

It’s okay, evolution — we know how you feel. Surely somebody out there appreciates you.

Aries New Moon, North Korea, Elisa Novick on Tour

Thank you to my listeners for participating in our spring membership drive. As promised, I’ll leave the $49 for one year membership offer available through the end of the week for those who have not yet signed up.

In this week’s edition, I cover the current astrology: last quarter Moon, Jupiter square Chiron, Mercury conjunct Borasisi (here is the article I reference, With Love from Borasisi). I also speak for a few moments about Elisa Novick’s European tour — here is that itinerary, which takes her through London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam over the next few weeks.

In the second half of the program, I check out the situation in North Korea, and take a new look at a chart called The Nuclear Axis. North Korea shows up as a wannabe nuclear country, though it may have a significant role in how we resolve the nuclear dilemma. Here is the best chart we have for this elusive country.

I reference my earlier interview with Karl Grossman, who gives a detailed history of nuclear power and nuclear bombs. Here is the link to that interview, which is in two parts, and is worth listening to (and worth playing for students of any age, who will benefit from knowing this history).

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The April monthly extended horoscopes were published Friday, March 22. Inner Space for March was published Tuesday, Feb. 26; there will be no Inner Space for April due to scheduling issues. We published the Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon on Tuesday, March 26. Moonshine for the Aries New Moon will publish on Tuesday, April 9. 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 generally emailed on the following Tuesday.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 5, 2013 #944 | By Genevieve Hathaway

This week, Genevieve is standing in for the weekly horoscope. I will be back next Friday with your weekly horoscopes. — Eric Francis.)

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You’ve spent the past month doing a lot of work behind the scenes and below the layers of your psyche, shifting and moving material out of the way that no longer serves you. This process of de-cluttering the corners of your mental and emotional space has clarified who you are. Sharing this side of yourself may feel deeply personal — that’s a good indicator that you are showing the authentic you. As you share with others the ‘you’ no one knows, remember that how people react is independent of your inherent value. Presenting yourself unfiltered will challenge those around you to do the same. Some people may find this difficult to match, but enough people will follow your lead and answer with their own authenticity. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Attention all Aries: Your 2013 Birthday Reading is ready — just in time for the Aries New Moon on April 10. Your sign is loaded with planets right now, making this New Moon the ultimate in cosmic reset buttons for you to get your solar year started Aries-style. If you have already ordered, you may now access using the login and password you received when you placed your order. If you have not yet ordered, what are you waiting for? You’re an Aries — the zodiac’s initiator! This birthday reading includes two 40-minute segments of astrology, plus a tarot spread using the Voyager Tarot by James Wanless. You may purchase instant access to this affordably priced reading here.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You are working through a question regarding desire. More specifically, what do you want and what desires bring a sense of deeper meaning for you? This may come with the feeling of an expansiveness that makes the answer hard to pinpoint, like trying to determine where a voice came from as the sound echoes through a large cavern. The discernment you are looking for is available to make some decisions regarding what you want. It involves a slight stretch in belief: that you can create in your life what it is that you want. I suggest trusting your intuition as you follow a feeling that is pointing you toward some important answers. You will make contact both with a greater sense of focus regarding what you want, and the large amount of resources at your disposal to bring what you want into your life. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You are reworking an idea around ‘relationship’ and what it means to you. At the moment, you have a strong drive to be fully authentic and present in all you do. This energy can come with the feeling of pushing a round peg into a square hole. I suggest you first get clear on what a relationship that supports you as an individual would look like, then carefully and thoughtfully convey this idea to a close partner. For relationship structures to fit you, they need to give you room to be you — with all your idiosyncrasies, beliefs, dreams and curiosity — as you give the same to close partners. As you express your desire to make changes to a relationship, hold space open for a close partner to do the same. In reworking relationship dynamics, I propose you consider applying two things you know well: your curiosity and an open sense of experimentation. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Your astrology highlights a busy career angle, with a number of seemingly rapid changes lately. A door you thought would open has seemed a bit stuck. I suggest you view change less as a derailment of where you want to go, and more as an opportunity to pause and examine what you want and what that would look like manifested in your life. Desire is the starting place of any path — it informs how you move, the intention you apply, and the actions taken. How that desire manifests can often come down to your vision. You have quite a few options available at the moment, and as you work through whether you want to try the previous path or create a new one, I suggest working with the attitude that it’s always a good thing to have options. At your disposal are the resources to re-open an old door or begin a new path; the key is to proceed with a vision that is aligned with your authentic self. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — A recent financial investment is challenging an old concept around resources, particularly financial resources. What you are discovering is that money is not just useful in making more money or sitting in a bank account. How you use your resources has a distinctly service-oriented component. It’s not just about writing a check, but rather knowing what your investment is creating — as well as who is impacted by it. Think of this approach as a socially aware allocation of your resources. I’m not referring to giving away all your financial wealth. Instead, notice the power your financial investments and donations have in making a difference in your community. You’re in a position to make a big impact in many lives; it will take less of an investment than you may think — though it will take targeting the right groups and people for the greatest results. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — A current agreement requires something you know well — attention to the details. I suggest taking extra care to shape, craft and fine-tune an agreement before acting on the contract or arrangement. The energy at the moment is pushing for action; in this climate you could move too quickly and miss an important piece of information. Slowing down the process enough to notice the intricacies will give you a chance to fully understand the entire landscape you are working in. Take it slowly enough to collect all the details, then double check those details and facts. You possess enough creativity and ingenuity to come up with an arrangement that is beneficial to all involved. Trust that you are able to make a good decision involving a particularly tricky part of the negotiation. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You are negotiating your way through a somewhat complex relationship situation. This may feel like navigating a maze blindfolded. I suggest using your intuition to feel your way through the situation. As you would use your hands to feel along the walls of the maze and build a mental image of what’s around you, tap into your intuitive body to collect information that can move you through partnership dynamics. What you are making contact with has more to do with material you’re working through internally than an actual relationship problem or difficulty. As you work through this material I suggest you not project your internal state and struggles on a partnership; instead, involve the person in an open dialogue about what you are working through. Holding the space open for yourself to heal and another person to walk this journey with you will also strengthen an existing partnership. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Your work life is in a moment of rapid change that may come with the sensation of someone hitting the fast-forward button on the scene changeover in a theatrical production. One structure has rapidly replaced another. Events are occurring quickly, which may make you feel off kilter. I suggest you not get distracted by any seeming disorientation around your work routine and its evolving structure. You tend to like to maintain control in all aspects of your life, but at the moment you are being called to move with the changes rather than trying to steer them. A creative opportunity is presenting itself, allowing you to work with these changes in a way that lets you expand farther into your workspace. It’s about creating a work structure that facilitates your creativity flourishing. Start with an openness to try new structures and then allow inspiration to guide you.
— by Genevieve Hathaway

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — For you, a healthy component of emotional and spiritual balance is enjoying sexual fantasies. They allow you to explore many of your sexual needs that may be logistically challenging to experience directly in day-to-day life. Currently your fantasies are quite vibrant, being stoked by some hot and passionate astrology. Your core essence of self and your energetic sexual self are merging and mixing, stirring up a particularly rich fantasy life that is spilling over into your physical sexual experiences. Take the time to mentally and emotionally explore these fantasies. As you do this you will make contact with an important aspect of yourself, learning more about what makes you unique — and also tapping your well of creativity. The more sexually honest you are, the deeper you will be able to push into yourself, bringing you a stronger sense of feeling good about who you are as a whole being. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — A home is not only about the house, yard, trees, grass, shrubs and neighborhood where you live; it’s also about a sense of grounded security coming from it being ‘yours’. You can think of this as the place where you can be fully yourself, expanding into a space that is all your own. At the moment, you are working with a calling to redecorate or make changes to your home, which in essence help you further claim this space as yours. An opportunity will arise to make a few important changes to your surroundings, going a long way in helping to make the living space and surrounding environment resonate within you on a deeper level. As you consider the adjustments you make to your home, I propose you approach your living space as an extension of your inner world by focusing on increasing the nurturing nature of the space. This may be as simple as rearranging the furniture or sweeping — or as involved as taking out a wall.
— by Genevieve Hathaway

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — We tend to think of our thought processes as part of our conscious self; something we have control over. Yet, how often does a thought enter your mind and then you mentally correct yourself or have an internal debate with yourself over that thought? How often does this internal dialogue seem to go on for far too long, reaching surprising levels of complexity? Lately many of your mental processes are coming up for review — these are the thoughts you seem to have before you have a chance to think them. These mental patterns contain many of the themes you inherited from your parents, which have been passed down for many generations. You have the tool of perspective at your disposal to see the patterns for what they are and make changes. You can see your thought patterns laid out, not only their structure, but also where in your family they came from. As you work to restructure how you think, I suggest requiring that all mental patterns must support your sense of feeling good about your existence. — by Genevieve Hathaway

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You’ve recently been through some potent and meaningful astrology in your sign, bringing you into contact with both the complexity of who you are and any blockages to your ability to exist fully as your whole self. You’ve been learning what you can and cannot do, and who you can and cannot be. During Mercury’s recent retrograde in Pisces, important information came out that is now up for examination. Think of this process as being like washing clothes on an old-fashioned washing board. You lather, scrub, rinse and repeat. Through each scrub against the washing board a new layer of denial is peeled away. As you hang up each freshly scrubbed concept about who you are, you’ll be able to inspect it thoroughly without layers of issues getting in the way. In this process of examination, notice the connection between these concepts of ‘you’ and your sense of self-worth. The first step to reconciling these ideas is drawing a line between the two. — by Genevieve Hathaway

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A Fire in Aries; Be Cool, Don’t Just Act Cool

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Dear Friend and Reader:

With the recent equinox, the sky continues tipping from water sign Pisces into fire sign Aries. The spring season began in the Northern Hemisphere Wednesday, with the Sun joining Mars and Uranus in Aries. This is the beginning of the astrological year — the metaphorical clock resets to midnight.

Nautilus stairway at the old 59 Rivoli artists’ squat, in downtown Paris. Photo by Eric Francis.

This is being followed close on its heels by an unusual Full Moon on Wednesday, March 27 at 5:27 am EDT. The Full Moon is a Moon-Sun opposition stretched across Aries and Libra. The Moon is on its own in Libra, though it’s meeting the Sun, which is conjunct Venus, Mars and Uranus.

This setup is a reminder not to let yourself get knocked off balance by your environment, or by people you perceive as overpowering you in some way. Your environment (which means people and circumstances) is offering you options, and to a real extent it’s showing you a reflection of yourself (illustrated by the Full Moon reflecting all those planets).

It’s worth recapping that Mercury stationed direct last Sunday afternoon (March 17), ending a three-week retrograde phase. That retrograde is still working itself out, and it will be for about two more weeks as Mercury re-traces the degrees where it was just retrograde (this is sometimes called the second shadow phase, or second echo phase).

Some people are more sensitive to these Mercury retrogrades than others, whether psychologically, emotionally or through experiencing those odd events like computer crashes, lost keys and missing envelopes. There were a lot of planets in Pisces during this retrograde; that gives some people the feeling of emotional resonance and others the feeling that they’re drowning. Mercury will remain in Pisces until April 13, when it joins the rapidly developing Aries grouping.

Speaking of: Venus was the most recent planet to move from Pisces to Aries. Venus is happy in Pisces (the two have a natural affinity) and it needs more love than it’s often willing to offer in Aries (the sign of Mars, so there can be some tension). It’s a prickly spot for Venus, but with the promise of a conjunction with Mars in early April, there may be some fiery action in the sex department at that time. Do your best to find the balance between going after what (or rather who) you want, receiving what is offered by a partner (or someone who is not one yet, but whom you’re interested in), and remembering to be extra-conscious of the other person’s experience (known as empathy) — and what you can offer them in return.

We are entering a phase with a lot of Aries happening, and empathy really is the name of the game.

Now, as for why the planets in Aries are big news. As you may know, there is currently a generational aspect happening — Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn. These are two slow-moving points that are meeting in a major aspect for the first time since 1965-66. What we think of as the Sixties was mainly the combination of three major factors: a conjunction of Uranus and Pluto; Chiron in Pisces; and Neptune in Scorpio.

Brooklyn’s beloved Cyclone roller coaster, the oldest, meanest, fastest (and safest) wood and steel contraption in the business. It occupies one city block in Coney Island. Photo by Eric Francis.

We now have the first Uranus-Pluto (major) aspect happening since the Sixties. Chiron is back in Pisces. And Neptune is in a water sign. Let’s stick to Uranus and Pluto. They are early in cardinal signs — Aries and Capricorn. Their square aspect is a five-year (or more) project, of which we’re now in the middle. These longterm aspects heat up when other planets get involved, and now a lot of other planets are about to jump into the mix.

Friday, Mars makes a conjunction to Uranus. Soon after on March 26, it’ll make a square to Pluto. That’s going to add a lot of energy to what is already a high-potency alignment, which is lurking just below the surface, waiting for something to come along and do just that. This tells a story in natal charts. In my old series Born in the Sixties, I describe how aspect patterns of certain birth charts emphasize the astrology of that era, and certain ones play it down. Anyone born under the current astrology is going to have Uranus-Pluto emphasized for their whole lives because there are so many planets involved, just as certain people born in the 1960s do.

At the same time, the Sun will move through Aries, form a conjunction to Uranus on March 28 and a square to Pluto on March 31. Venus will do the same thing (on the same days as the Sun — the Sun and Venus are moving in tandem right now), and then Mercury will do the same next month (April 20 and 21). So, over and over again, inner planets — the ones we feel and see — will be making conjunctions to Uranus and squares to Pluto.

This is a series of events that can change the world, and can also wake us up to how much the world has changed before our eyes in just a few years. The thing is, we may see what seems like a ew years’ worth of changes in a matter of weeks. It’s impossible to predict what this will bring, though there is likely to be some ‘personal is political’ effect in the world. When astrology like this heats up, many people get the urge to participate.

Fire spinning in Krakow, Poland. Photo by Eric Francis.

For some, it’s like you spent four years studying in the library, then the spring of your senior year, protests break out on campus and you want to participate — and you may feel like it’s too late. If you experience something like this, remember that social movements are not a thing, they are about people. So go outside, and meet the people who are involved. Do your part to make what you’re witnessing into something that is personal and immediate. In many ways this is the story of our our whole era in history. We have the opportunity to take chances on what is happening now — or to let the era slip by.

And while the Uranus-Pluto square, the defining aspect of our time in history, seems to last for a while, it will go by faster than you think. Now is your moment to dare; now is your moment to make a difference, in your own life and that of the larger culture.

As for the personal being personal: do your best to stay cool and keep your head through this astrology. This is the time to be cool, not just act cool or ‘play it cool’. Cool means reflective, aware and clear. It means being aware of time and timing, and knowing when you’re ready to make your move. There will be moments when passion is called for — you will know them when you’re in them. Even then, make sure you’re aware of your emotional temperature at all times.

Mars and Uranus, which are conjunct today, describe a clash between personal and community interests — therefore, orient yourself on cooperation and don’t try too hard to stand out. Be real, be yourself, and notice (and feel) what’s going on around you. Do your best to be part of what you say you belong to. Offer yourself a little more generously than you think you need to, or are being asked to.

Everyone will feel better.

Lovingly,

This is a 12-sign audio report about relationships and sex. Each of the signs gets half an hour of attention — half the length of a long podcast. You can listen to your Sun, Moon or rising sign, and those of people you care about. Visit this link to pre-order.

Lunations of April Rock the World

New and Full Moons this April are potent astrological events that will continue the fiery theme that has been brewing through late March. One by one, planets have been transitioning from Pisces to Aries, tipping the feeling and experience of the astrology from water to fire. The New and Full Moons of April also bring us into the first of two eclipse seasons in 2013.

Let’s start with the Aries New Moon. That takes place April 10. For this event, there are six planets in Aries, five of them concentrated into a narrow band of sky with the new planet Eris at the center. You could call this the Eris New Moon. We’ll have a ‘proving moment’ for Eris (discovered in 2005, named in 2006), when we get another example of how this planet works. Sometimes a New Moon close to a newly discovered planet will bring a revelation about what that planet is here to show us.

Aries New Moon conjunct Eris

Let’s run through what’s in Aries as of the New Moon on the 10th. Uranus is in there, about to make its third of seven squares to Pluto (that happens on May 20).

See glyph legend here.

Then, we have that grouping of five planets right around Eris — the Sun and Moon to one side, and Venus and Mars to the other side.

Eris is the sensation of ‘all chaos, all the time’. It’s the times we live in. I trace this back to the Sixties, though it’s been ramping up exponentially year by year since then. Eris describes a state of global chaos as well as a personal sense of being overwhelmed. It’s also about the persistent question ‘who am I?’ Yet one is fortunate to be in a position to ask that; typically, it’s experienced as confusion. And there is plenty of that going around lately.

Young people in particular have little in the way of structure they can hold onto, and if they do, they are also witnesses to a world that seems to be falling apart day by day.

The twin conjunctions on either side of Eris seem to represent two possible states of relating. To one side is the Sun and the Moon — an image of mother and father, or a traditional concept of relationship. To the other side is a conjunction of Venus and Mars, which is at least a meeting between two peers. However, in this equation Venus is in Mars’s sign — it’s out of character. And while Mars rules Aries, it’s not always feeling so confident there.

This describes many modern relationships where men and women are out of character, or where people of the same sex are sorting out gender roles. So it’s a little of the old and the new, side by side — with a kind of chaos membrane between them. In reality, human relationships have more in common than social activists would like us to think. We are all people, alive at the same time, participating in the same society, doing our best to meet our emotional needs and offer what we can to others.

Scorpio Full Moon – Partial Eclipse

The Aries New Moon is followed by the Scorpio Full Moon of April 25. The Sun ingresses Taurus on April 19, and soon after is followed by the Full Moon. Planets will be ingressing Taurus through the month, and by the time of the Full Moon, Mars, the Sun, Pallas Athene, Venus and the South Node will be collected there.

See glyph legend here.

The Scorpio Full Moon has two different feeling tones. One is indicated by the concentration of personal planets in Taurus — including Venus and Mars. That has a passionate feeling to it; a desire for physicality and connection.

The Sun is conjunct Mars, which lends passion and drive, as well as a need to express energy physically. I think this will be meaningful to honor, despite the possible distractions. That is the whole point of focusing passion — to be able to keep your focus sufficiently to power through the noise, static and obstructions of the world.

Taurus also has a mental quality that evades the very physicality that it represents. It can be lost in fantasy or lost in an idea of how things should be, or should have been. The mental quality of this event is hinted at by Venus conjunct asteroid Pallas Athene. Pallas was the goddess born directly from her daddy’s head, in a full suit of armor, ready for action. That seems to color her whole delineation — the notion of nonsexual birth, from dad, seemingly as the product of his mind. Just imagine her bursting out with her helmet and spear.

Pallas therefore has a distinctly mental quality. We have an image of getting lost in one’s head, doing too much to plot strategy or striving to impress others with one’s intelligence. Pallas has a theme of daddy-pleasing, something we do more of than we think. In many ways the world is a story of daddy worship, from fussing over the pope to thinking the president runs the country to adherence by nearly everyone to patriarchal ways of organizing society — even though we know there are alternatives.

For this event, Mars is opposite the Moon. And the Moon is conjunct Saturn. These two aspects lend a reflective, heavy and at times frustrating quality. Fortunately this chart is an eclipse, and that’s suggesting a theme of letting go of that which is frustrating. It may be necessary to take things from the mental level to the emotional level in order to work this out. It’s not always obvious when your mind is tied up that your real situation is emotional in nature, which could imply physical — emotions tend to be closer to the body than is the mind.

This eclipse is the first of three. It’s followed two weeks later by an annular eclipse of the Sun in Taurus. That happens May 9, in the season of Beltane. And then May 24-25, there is another lunar eclipse on the Sagittraius-Gemini axis. I’ll have more about those charts a little closer to the events.

House of Representatives Needs Better Drugs

The House of Representatives Thursday approved a group of measures that would keep the government running through September, but which preserved the ‘sequestration’ of federal money designed to starve all the programs that Republicans don’t like. That is not a partisan statement — this was the third version of the Paul Ryan budget, the same Paul Ryan who lost the election last November.

I beg you, please. Michele Bachmann pleads for the repeal ofObamacare. Screen shot from C-Span.

The bill “underfunds key elements of the president’s health care law, as the administration builds up health insurance purchasing exchanges. And it makes permanent four formerly temporary gun-rights provisions just as Senate Democrats prepare a final push on gun control legislation,” the New York Times reported Thursday.

[Meanwhile, the Senate this week failed to pass a ban on assault weapons; Democratic leadership withdrew the measure, saying it didn’t have the votes to carry.]

The Republican budget law passed by the House Thursday is supposedly designed to balance the budget, but Ryan himself two weeks ago admitted that his budget was more of a philosophical statement. Still, that didn’t stop the House from approving it. It has not gone to the Senate, and it would never pass there, so the House vote is a kind of token gesture.

“We want to balance the budget. They don’t,” Ryan said Thursday. “We want to restrain spending. They want to spend more. We offer modernization, reform, growth and opportunity,” he continued. “They want to cling to the status quo, more taxing, more spending, more borrowing.”

What you have here is a longterm issue — the national debt — being treated like an immediate problem. It would be like waking up one day realizing that you’re $150,000 in debt and need to pay it off all at once, rather than just paying your mortgage on time.

Ryan’s proposal depends on repealing the Affordable Care Act to balance the budget,
which this week the Republicans tried to do for the 34th time. Michele Bachmann, the wannabe presidential candidate, introduced yet another law to repeal the ACA, saying, “That’s why we’re here because we’re saying let’s repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens. Let’s not do that. Let’s love people, let’s care about people. Let’s repeal it now while we can.”

Don’t miss the video of Bachmann’s diatribe on the House floor Thursday. It’s really worth 33 seconds of your time.

Assault Weapons: Losses and Wins

Unsurprisingly, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein’s proposed ban on assault weapons was too tough a sell for NRA-cowed Democrats in the U.S. Congress. Had it already been part of the gun-control package moving forward (which is undefined at this time, but could include universal background checks), it would have taken 60 votes to remove it.

At least, that was Feinstein’s argument; that voting it out of a package would be harder to do than passing the entire package in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut massacre late last year. Senate majority leader Harry Reid saw things differently, explaining to reporters that the necessary votes just weren’t there.

“I’ve worked 40 years on these issues — guns. I’ve seen so much violence,” a shaken and frustrated Feinstein told reporters Tuesday. In 1978, while working as the San Francisco County supervisor, Feinstein found the body of Harvey Milk after he and Mayor George Moscone were shot by Dan White. In 1994, following a mass shooting at a San Francisco high-rise, she successfully pushed for the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. That ban expired in 2004.

Meanwhile in Colorado, home of last summer’s movie theater shooting rampage in Aurora, there is more gun-related success and sadness. Earlier this week, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed legislation enacting gun control laws with some actual teeth. Ammunition magazines will be limited to 15 rounds (not exactly paltry); background checks will be expanded; domestic abusers must surrender their guns; and online concealed-carry permits will be banned.

Almost as if to prove some kind of point, on the eve of the gun law signing ceremony an unknown assailant shot and killed Tom Clements, the head of Colorado’s prison system. Clements had answered the doorbell; police there do not believe the shooting was random. No shit.

UPDATE: Monsanto Protection Act Moves to Obama’s Desk

Food Democracy Now! announced late Thursday that Congress passed the Continuing Resolution spending bill, HR 933, that contains the dangerous Monsanto Protection Act (Section 735) we reported on last Friday. Section 735 strips the important concept of “judicial review” from our courts and allows GMO crops to be planted while appeals to stop them are still being heard.

The bill now moves to President Obama for his signature. If you want to stop the bill from becoming law, here’s a petition to the president.

Grocers Say No to GMO Frankensalmon

Retail grocers representing some 2,000 individual stores and food chains, today said they would not carry AquaBounty Technologies’ GMO salmon, regardless of the FDA’s future decision on its approval. This is the first organized grocer boycott of the genetically engineered [GE or GMO] salmon.

What kind of salmon is this, real or Frankensalmon? We can’t tell from the outside but it makes a big difference. Photo: Wikipedia.

Retail chains including Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Whole Foods and regional chains Marsh Supermarkets (with stores in Indiana and Ohio) and PCC Natural Markets in Washington state, plus co-ops in Minnesota, New York, California, and Kansas have joined the “Campaign for Genetically Engineered (GE)- Free Seafood.”

“GE fish only advances if there is a market to buy it. Today’s announcement of a huge number of seafood retailers stating their refusal to buy the fish shows that FDA approval won’t be the last word on this important debate about what consumers want their future fish to be,” said George Leonard, a scientist with Ocean Conservancy who testified before Congress on the GMO salmon.

Concerns include whether the salmon is safe to eat and potential escapes from the farms where they are raised. The offspring of wild salmon that crossbreed with them could be exposed to unknown genetic consequences, harming the species and contaminating them as a food supply.

The Campaign for Genetically Engineered-Free Seafood is being led by consumer and environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, and Consumers Union.

No other genetically engineered fish is on the market, but according to the Center for Food Safety “at least 35 other species of GE fish are currently being developed around the world, including trout, catfish, tilapia, striped bass, flounder, and many species of salmon.”

War on Iran Delayed Til 2014

In a rather ambiguous announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that it will probably take Iran about a year to manufacture a nuclear weapon, if they decide to do so. President Obama — making his first trip to Israel as president of the United States — seemed to concur that this was enough time to wait before taking military action against Iran, saying:

“We prefer to resolve this diplomatically. And there’s still time to do so. Iran’s leaders must understand, however, that they have to meet their international obligations. And meanwhile, the international community will continue to increase the pressure on the Iranian government. The United States will continue to consult closely with Israel on next steps. And I will repeat: All options are on the table.”

It’s a nice little mitzvah for Israel right before Passover, what with Obama citing an “unbreakable bond” with the country and vowing to extend billions of dollars in annual U.S. aid. The two men displayed a friendly, avuncular joking relationship during the press conference, and Chuck Todd of MSNBC got in four questions when he’s only allowed one. Clearly these world leaders were feeling pleased with themselves.

But if you read between the lines, it sounds rather like Netanyahu and Obama have agreed to delay war on Iran until at least 2014. And, glaringly, Obama has made no mention of the illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Obama is now touring the West Bank for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. We’ll see if he notices the new tent camp aimed at stopping the expansion of West Bank settlement that a group of activists erected ahead of his visit. Said Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi, “It is [Obama’s] duty to see the Israeli apartheid system and the system of segregation that his ancestors suffered from.”

It remains to be seen whether Israeli forces will raid the camp now, or after Obama leaves.

Small Cause, Big Effect?

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Wednesday it believed a rat was the cause of an extended blackout that disabled the plant’s cooling system this week — a disturbing reminder of how very little it can take to bring on catastrophe.

Tokyo Electric Power Company’s engineers found the charred body of a rat inside a faulty switchboard. They believed it had short-circuited the switchboard, perhaps by chewing on the wires.

The power failure began Monday, cutting off the flow of cooling water to four pools used to store more than 8,800 nuclear fuel rods. All of the affected pools were expected to be cooled by Wednesday, according to a New York Times article.

Last week Fukushima and the people of Japan (indeed, people around the world) marked the two-year anniversary of a triple meltdown at the plant in March 2011 after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems.

“The spent fuel pools have been a particular source of concern because they contain far more radioactive material than the three reactor cores that melted down two years ago, forcing the evacuation of 160,000 people,” the article said.

Part of “Modern Movement,” the latest installment in museum security guard Todd Balthazor’s comic strip, “It Is What It Is.” Todd is a security guard at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

When Life Imitates Art Imitating Life…

A recent New York Times feature on the secret lives of museum security guards introduced one Todd Balthazor to the world beyond Minneapolis: art school grad, cartoonist, on-the-job yoga practitioner and cultural satirist.

“I’m stretching all the time,” said Balthazor. “You have to do that, or else you are going to stiffen up. We have some elderly workers, and they just walk like trees.”

He also keeps his sense of humor and his drawing skills limber by drawing the cartoon It Is What It Is, based on his encounters working at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Walker features the strip on its blog about twice per month. Hopefully that’s more often than Balthazor has to resort to memorizing museum visitors’ outfits and holding his breath to stay mentally sharp, surrounded by people ‘photo bombing’ major artworks for their hipster Facebook profiles.

Equinox, Iraq War and the Founder of Monsanto

In this week’s edition, I cover the chart for the Aries equinox and the forthcoming aspect Mars conjunct Uranus in Aries. Then I look at two anniversary charts — the beginning of the Iraq war 10 years ago today, and the death of John F. Queeny, the founder of Monsanto, 80 years ago Tuesday.

In the Iraq war discussion, I mention how this scam grew out of a bigger fraud, which was the Sept. 11, 2001 incident; here’s a recent article from the member archives studying that event.

I also mention an International Astrology Day celebration hosted by Kepler College, the only college in the U.S. devoted to astrology.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

The March monthly extended horoscopes were published Friday, Feb. 22. Inner Space for March was published Tuesday, Feb. 26. We published the Moonshine Horoscope for the Pisces New Moon on Tuesday, March 5th. 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. The Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon will be published Tuesday, March 26. Your April Monthly Horoscope is below in this issue.

Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for April 2013 by Eric Francis
(standing in for weekly horoscope #943)

Early Aries Birthdays (and Early Aries Rising)

You have more change in your chart than a bootblack has coins in his pocket, but what will it take to make lasting progress? Remember that change comes from you, not from anyone else and not as a magical factor of any relationship. The planets hold incredible promise at the same time they make it difficult to know what you want. Current aspects suggest it would be good for you to pause and decide what is right for you, before you make any spontaneous decisions. True, that’s not very Aries, whose motto is often leap before you look, think or know you’re leaping. Sometimes that works for you — but you have so much energy and leverage right now, it would be wise to use your considerable human intelligence. Set an agenda for yourself, which you take one step at a time. No matter what, the planets are promising you an exciting year ahead, with many surprises. You don’t need to invent excitement — it’s coming your way. Note to Aries readers: your birthday reading will be ready next week. Please check your email for an announcement when it’s available.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — I suggest that you not get ahead of yourself. You may feel that there’s nothing you cannot accomplish, but certain recent events may also demonstrate that there’s no guarantee that impulsive decisions actually work out to your benefit. When life is moving unusually fast, and when there are so many unpredictable factors that it seems impossible to use logic and scheduling to solve your problems, you may be tempted to throw all organization to the wind. This is the time to pause and ask yourself what it really is that you’re doing, and why. Have you thought this through? Well, it’s not too late, though you may have to slow down and take the pulse on a relationship or partnership that seems to have taken on a life of its own. The astrology is suggesting that the most challenging thing is listening. That includes you listening to others, and them listening to you. Yes, it seems elementary that such a basic level of exchange could be missing in a situation so significant in your life, though I suggest you check this carefully and make sure that you and those close to you are truly willing to hear one another out. Doing so will not threaten anyone’s existence, importance or role. What a sincere (and extra-length) exchange of feelings or ideas will do is to re-incorporate the human element into this endeavor, before you encounter challenges that depend entirely on that one very thing. In a word, that would be trust.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You may want to put on a logical face and take a reasonable approach, though it seems to be passion that’s driving you and direct physical experience that you’re seeking. It’s as if there is a storm blowing inside of you, and the wind, thunder and rain want to escape from you any way they can. You don’t have to let this out all at once; it would be helpful if you could actually tune into what you’re feeling, and consider what some of its possible sources are. Astrologically, here is how it looks: It’s as if you’ve been living a fictional version of your identity, and the real thing is starting to rise up in rebellion against the facade. This involves the roles you’ve been given, or assigned to yourself, such as with your family and in your relationships. By one reading of the chart, there’s a lot to say about the ways in which you’ve tried to impress your father with what a good person you are. The real you has no such political motives. Your relationships don’t need to be based on any kind of a purity standard, but rather on what is mutually good for those involved. If you find yourself seeking someone’s approval, that’s the time to go to a new level of maturity. You would be wise to consider the influence and impact of your relationships on the community that surrounds you. If you’re inclined to say, “what relationships?” or “what community?” then please look more closely.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Focus on getting along with people — especially if you want things to go smoothly at work, and especially if you want to accomplish the great things that you feel destined to do. I would interject with a question: do you consider yourself to be in a position of leadership? Is it possible that you are, but are in denial about that fact? Leadership has formal manifestations, such as they call you the ‘team leader’ or the CEO. And it has informal manifestations (such as being the one who does the dishes in the break room, facilitates communication among those who might not ordinarily get along, or sets a good example in other ways). Now, your leadership role may lean toward the informal, which would actually be easier. You are in a position to blend your concept of rebellious with everyone else’s concept of what works. Said another way, you’re the one who may have the kind of weird idea that turns out to be the perfect solution to the riddle everyone has been staring cross-eyed at for six months. You are in the perfect position to reconcile both sides of the equation (such as practicality and innovation; doing what is legal and understanding what the law does not cover; getting the right result for the money that’s available). From the look of your chart, I would describe you as the master of resolving the unsolvable paradox. Just remember — many people love to be stuck. Know who they are and don’t waste any time banging your head against them.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Get clear on what you want to accomplish. Your goals may have changed recently, and they’ve certainly changed since you last made big changes in your life. By big I mean really big — the kind you thought you could never make. At this stage in your life, you’re likely to have a whole new vision, though you may be living under the results of the prior vision. The difference now is that you have something to lose, and some of that is worthwhile and serves you well. Keep your mind on the continuity factor, at the same time ensuring that you’re not a slave to the past. Be sensitive to what works and what does not work in your life. Be aware of what you want and what you do not want. One thing is clear: this is a time in your life when you’re ready to have more responsibility than you’ve ever had, and when you’re ready for it. Part of the benefit of living with a sense of duty is that it’s compelling you to assert yourself. That, in turn, is compelling you to know yourself well enough to take authority and get the results that need to be gotten. Remember, we live in a world where few people want to take responsibility for anything outside what immediately impacts them. That’s why the planet is in the state it’s in. You have a different path in life. It may be more challenging, but it’s a lot more meaningful.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The age-old traditions of superficial, self-centered and boring won’t work for you this month. They never did, but they are currently at an all-time low ebb. Therefore, you can plan on events that take you deeper, that involve you with others, and that are genuinely interesting. As you do, you may encounter the temptation to distract yourself with appearances, glamor and the desire to ‘be known’ for something. I suggest you succumb to nothing of the kind. Do what you do for its inherent value, rather than some secondary result. This leaves you plenty of room to focus on excellence, and to remember that a meaningful attribute of your karma is to focus groups of people into conscious coordination. As you do this, one thing to be aware of is anyone who does not want things to work. Some people on the planet have a not-so-funny way of reacting negatively when energy starts to focus in their proximity. They can be jealous when people succeed, seemingly not needing them. The first thing to do with anyone exhibiting this kind of attitude is to notice, and notice soon. There are a few ways to handle this kind of value; one is to include the person and keep him or her busy. Help them feel needed. Or, you can find a constructive use for their competitive spirit. Ask everyone involved what they need and what their expectations are. When you get your answer, set goals and make adjustments.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You have learned a lot about how other people perceive you, and you’ve learned just as much about how you perceive them. Have you got the message that it’s all just perception? One thing that’s clear is that being able to perceive from multiple viewpoints is better than perceiving from just one. A moving point of view is at least a reminder how tenuous the senses and one’s opinions can be. Yet you’re always better at least paying attention, and being sensitive to the perspectives of people close to you. You’re likely to have many occasions this month to use what you’ve learned all through this year. You’re also likely to forget what you learned, so I suggest you pause and think carefully if a relationship situation, financial deal or some matter involving any form of shared resources heats up. You’re likely to perceive those involved as being impetuous and self-centered, and you may be right. But to get past that, you will need the information that you’ve learned and the strength that it gives you. True, it’s a subtle form of strength, but knowledge is indeed power. If someone is asserting their will on you, or playing a kind of hardball competitive game, you’ve really got two choices. One is to go blow for blow. The other is to use your mind, study and understand the situation in a whole way, and begin negotiating. You have the ability to turn the whole scenario not just in your favor but also into a situation where everyone comes out ahead.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — What can you do to place yourself onto some solid emotional ground? You have to live with the situation you’re in, at least for a while; this is not one you can easily evade, run from, or redesign to suit your fancy. And why would you want to? There are so many ways you’re benefiting, and you both understand and want the power of commitment. It would be healthy to account for the ways that you contribute to any emotional situation in your life. Indeed, I suggest you list yourself as a direct co-creator in any and all of your relationships. I know that there’s a way they seem to be thrust at you. I know you don’t understand how or why some things happen. However, taking a passive approach is only going to accentuate that feeling. The more you step up, the more you will feel like you’re able to influence your various life situations. I am not suggesting that you try to take control. I am not suggesting (as you may be tempted to do) that tit-for-tat or “an eye for an eye” is an appropriate response, even when you’re treated unfairly. I am saying claim your space, stand in your responsibility and be true to yourself and to those with whom you’re journeying. That might include asking for what you need, expressing gratitude to those who have helped you or having a dialog about how to improve circumstances for everyone.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Recent events may have left you feeling heavy or uncertain about existence. I often wonder how anyone manages to be optimistic or positive, given the prevailing state of the world. Still, your chart is urging you to make sure that others know you care about them. Having faith in your ability to help will strengthen your faith in humanity. The other thing I suggest you do is remember that your creative spirit is alive and flourishing. By this I mean you are feeling passionate about your desire to engage fully with life, and whatever has been happening has had the effect of guiding you to do so with greater strength. I suggest that you make your choices for how to invest your mind, your senses and your hands based on what you want now — not what you wanted in the past. Be aware of a tendency to live in your memories, or to gravitate toward the feeling of nostalgia. A little of that may serve you, but not much more. There is so much that the present moment is offering you that it never has offered before. If you can look beyond your ‘latent past impressions’ of everything around you, you’ll see that this is a perfectly unique moment of existence for which you are ready and, I suspect, willing. Many people on this planet struggle with one thing only, which is letting go of the past. With a little courage, there’s no need to fight.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — As a Sagittarius, you have a reputation for being one of the most daring signs of the zodiac. I would say from my experience as an astrologer, that’s more packaging than product — except for now. By now, I mean in recent years, and I especially mean now as in this month. Every possible factor is encouraging you to be bold and do what you would not normally dare to do. Start with what you want to do the most, and which is available to you. Could this be as simple as calling up someone you like and letting them know that? Could it be taking up someone’s offer for an adventure, romantic or otherwise? Going down the list of possible reasons you might hesitate, one of them shows up as ‘something in your past’ that you’re afraid might come out. This feeling might be so subtle you haven’t given it a name, though if you’re feeling like you cannot bring yourself to do something and you don’t know why, you will benefit from investigating invisible influences. For example, do you feel like you have a commitment to someone (from the past) which is preventing you from being fully in the present? Is there some lingering unresolved matter, potentially involving a sexual relationship, that is weighing on your conscience? You may think that this is some kind of permanent installation in your psyche; I assure you that if you want to be free in the moment, you actually can resolve it and move on.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You may not know where to focus your energy, or where the main issue is. Your perception of what you’re working on may keep changing, evading your understanding. Yet you know there has to be an energy source when you’re feeling so much, and to such extremes. First off, I suggest you investigate your environment for any factor that aggravates or even annoys you. This may be a challenge if you feel like someone has coated every surface in your house with hot pepper oil, or like there’s a high-voltage quantum wave machine down in your basement. There will however be certain factors that you can identify and address. I also suggest you experiment with removing two or three foods that are not serving you (or anyone). To give one example, high fructose corn syrup is an irritant, a toxin and it burns too hot for your current constitution (which at the moment is dominated by fire sign Aries). Your chart suggests that food or some ingredient in what you eat may be related to anything that currently troubles you. Deeper in, however, I would propose that there’s some kind of emotional matter that’s influencing your self-image. Are you feeling like you’re getting old? Do you feel like others don’t take life as seriously as you do? Is the memory of some authority figure weighing on your spirit? Self-image is a complicated issue to work on. In the end, how you see yourself comes down to a choice.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You seem to be struggling with some persistent doubt about yourself, which may work out to be a positive thing. I say that because if you’re grappling with an issue, you’re less likely to be in denial about it — and denial was very likely how you addressed it in the past. Now you have another challenge: framing any issue in a way that actually has the potential for progress. If you’ve described something the same way for a while and you’re not getting results, I suggest you take a different approach. For example, if you’re asking ‘how do I solve this problem’ and that’s not working, maybe ask, ‘why do I need this problem?’ Then once you address the need, the situation will change. Speaking of needs, this would be a great time to learn how to express yours. That may involve finding language; it may involve deciding it’s OK to speak up; it may involve facing the fear of rejection from someone close to you if you dare to write yourself into the story. Actually this has a lot to do with relationships, and what you were told your role was supposed to be. That relates to what you expect (and were told to expect) others would do for you, and be for you. Reality is always different from theory, especially where the BS that we’re fed about relationships is concerned.
Commitment does not mean commitment to another person, but rather a shared devotion to a higher principle than oneself.

Hello Pisces! So many planets in Pisces means this is a brilliant moment for you, and your 2013 birthday reading looks at this astrology carefully. Chiron, the planet of healing, Neptune, planet of inspiration, and Mercury retrograde are all included. You now have the ability to develop a gift for business and financial success, if you focus your creative talents and work cooperatively with others — and I explain how to do that effectively. This reading is two 40-minute sessions of astrology, a tarot reading and an extended written description of your astrological sign. I’ve also included access to last year’s reading so you can review the past 12 months and check my accuracy. Here is a link to that affordably priced reading — which is like an extended, personal meditation on your life. You will love it — promise.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — It’s not all about money, though you don’t need someone to tell you that. What you do need is someone to remind you that money is a legitimate pursuit, if connected to what you consider to be a worthwhile goal. I suggest you work with that equation, and make sure that your values about money and how it is attained are clear. You have what you need to break new ground in this area of your life; you no longer need any form of the idea that money is somehow unspiritual, uncreative or evil. It is a form of highly versatile energy that can be converted into anything. Yet confidence around money has many precursors, one of which is your sense of your own presence in the world. That is likely to be running strong right now, though you may also feel unstable if you focus too much on that sensation. This is a kind of paradox that many people face on the way to tapping their strength — there’s a lot of vulnerability involved; there is a risk involved; there is the possibility of failure. You might get to a point where you’re absolutely confident of what is important to you, and then that’s scrambled by one thing you learn, or one experience.
Yet you may notice that one thing is consistent beneath the surface, which I would describe as initiative. You have a pioneering spirit, and there are few times in your life, if any, when it’s been stronger than it is today. Lead on.

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Stars of October: You Go On

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October / And Kingdoms rise
And Kingdoms fall / But you go on…and on…
— Bono

Dear Friend and Reader:

This is a clip-and-save edition of Planet Waves, containing vital information that will influence your life between now and mid-December. This is a time when astrology matters. Please mark important dates in your calendar. Saturday is the Full Moon, which I’ve covered already (in Tuesday’s edition). This is a big Full Moon — the full expression of the 2012 aspect, and a planetary setup to handle with awareness and a measure of caution.

Star sculpture on playa floor at Burning Man 2012, with the just-past-full Moon in the background. Photo by Amanda Painter.

As you’ve no doubt read, we are in the middle of an historic aspect, Uranus square Pluto. When the more immediate astrology highlights something big (but which is usually in the background), energy, events and ideas previously lurking behind the scenes can emerge into the foreground. The Sun and Moon make the Uranus-Pluto square into a personal event.

Taken in the highest possible light, it’s about creative breakthroughs, awakenings and moving along (or even resolving) situations that have seemed stuck — even for years. Yet many people will be experiencing this event as destabilizing, unpredictable and even a bit frantic. All the usual Full Moon recommendations apply, but redouble the ‘think before you act’ part. Expect the unexpected and remember that awareness and flexibility are your best friends.

Developments of October

The world is watching these last weeks of the presidential election in the United States. Our globe is now global; events that happen in one country can and do influence developments in many other parts of the world. October will be an interesting, somewhat strange month in the ‘international’ department, though each and every development has personal implications. In the event you’re considering international travel in October or November, I suggest you plan carefully and check in with an experienced, qualified astrologer before making your plans.

This is one of those months that begins one way and ends another. You can make all of these changes work for you, as long as you’re aware of the energies involved, and you’re ready to adapt. We all have things in our lives that we want to change — know what that means for you. Look for your opportunities, and if you don’t see them, create them.

On Oct. 5, Saturn changes signs from Libra to Scorpio. The Saturn in Libra phase goes back an unusual three years, to October 2009 (Saturn took its time transitioning out of Virgo). Saturn is now leaving a sign where it’s well suited (Libra, where it is exalted), and entering a sign that it has little in common with — Scorpio. Yet there are many other planets in the water signs right now, and I think that while Saturn may be challenging, it will offer some stability, and it emphasizes the theme of emotional maturity that all of the water signs are resonating with.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Mars also changes signs, from Scorpio to Sagittarius, just as Saturn changes signs. So this is a significant shift in the climate, involving two planets that people tend to have the most difficulty with — the one about expressing desire and energy (Mars) and the one about handling authority (Saturn). I also recommend being cautious and alert in all matters involving international travel and international business while Mars is in Sagittarius. It’s not strictly a red light but definitely a yellow light.

One thing about Mars is that in entering Sagittarius, it immediately squares Neptune in Pisces. Aspects from Mars to Neptune (especially the conjunction, square and opposition) require temperance, mindfulness, moderation and most of all, keeping self-destructive and also escapist tendencies under control. Monitor your consumption of alcohol and any drugs that change your mind. Keep them far away from important decisions, negotiations and discussions about emotional and sexual matters.

The problem is that most people tend to open up under the influence of alcohol. That would be fine, except for the ways in which it bends judgment and distorts emotions. Mars square Neptune is not naturally given to integrity and honesty — it’s one of those things that you have to work for, under that influence.

Mercury Retrograde: Real Span is Oct. 18-Dec. 14.

Finally, we are approaching a Mercury retrograde. This one starts in Sagittarius on Nov. 6 (which is Election Day in the United States, covered in this article).

However, its influence reaches into mid-October and extends out to mid-December, so I’m mentioning it now. That will be good for an adventure or two; I suggest you plan around this one, and know in advance that it’s a good idea to put off major purchases, signing contracts and new commitments of any kind under this astrology. Yes, this is astrology 101 but you would be surprised how much grief I have saved my clients by helping them steer clear of the standing wave, undertow and shifting wind known as Mercury retrograde.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

The retrograde process begins when Mercury enters shadow phase on Oct. 18. This is Mercury entering the degrees where it will be retrograde in just a short while.

Mercury stations retrograde in early Sagittarius on Nov. 6. Mercury stations direct in mid-Scorpio on Nov. 26. Mercury then crawls along through the end of Scorpio, ingresses Sagittarius again and then leaves shadow phase on Dec. 14. That is your ‘all clear’ signal. If you’re feeling rushed about anything during this process, the chances are it can wait.

Mercury will make three squares to Neptune in the midst of all of this (Oct. 29, Nov. 13 and Dec. 11) and this aspect can be challenging to get a handle on. It will require extra discernment, focusing your mind, and striving for honesty. Factor in the interests of everyone concerned, even if you plan to make a decision that only benefits yourself; Mercury square Neptune is a reminder to consider whether there even is such a thing as ‘separate interests’.

Many other aspects say essentially the same thing — so please take this one to heart.

Lovingly,

Note to Libra and Libra rising readers — your birthday reading for 2012-2013 is ready. Please check this link for more information.

Voter Rights Watch 2012: Targeting Latinos

Through this year, one of the most prominent election stories has been the restriction of voter rights to tip the election. Twenty-three states have passed laws that could restrict or deny the right to vote to 10 million Latinos — a number that could affect the outcome of the entire election — according to The Advancement Project, a civil rights organization.

Don’t miss The Onion’s special feature on the 600-levered, steam powered voting machine that sums up the voting issues in the election of 2012.

The wave of restrictive new voting laws threatens to crash on voters in 16 states that have adopted or are considering voter purges. Most of these target people suspected of not being citizens, plus nine states have new voter ID laws (and two more are considering them). The laws stipulate documentation procedures many people lack the time and/or money to carry out; many are equivalent to poll taxes — that is, making people pay to vote.

Federal protections against noncitizens registering to vote, already in place for ages now, have generally rendered extra measures unnecessary — hence the prevailing view that these new laws aim to disembowel democracy, not encourage involvement.

Democracy Now! reports that in swing states Nevada, Colorado and Florida, where Obama receives tremendously more support from Latinos over Romney, the undertow from these laws could mean sinking rather than swimming for Pres. Obama — and indicates yet another area where Mercury stationing retrograde on Election Day could cloud the waters.

We’ve been warning that Mercury stations retrograde on Election Day. This might have the effect of many seemingly smaller issues coming together and making a large problem. We’ll be following this story.

Monsanto’s GMO Corn? Nyet!

The French study linking Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GMO corn to increased rates of cancer and organ failure in rats (covered by Planet Waves last week) has prompted Russia to ban the stuff outright. The news broke just as Ceres, named for the goddess of agriculture, entered the sign Cancer, associated with agriculture, the digestive system and its connection to the emotions — thereby engaging the political/personal power of the Aries Point.

Photo by Achim Raschka/Wikimedia.

Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer rights watchdog group, has said the country’s Institute of Nutrition has been asked to assess the validity of the study.

In addition, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has ordered its own review of the research, which is noted for following rats for their entire two-year lifespan, rather than the 90 days common in industry studies. GMO corn is not available for human consumption in Europe, but is used for animal feed.

Monsanto is confident the French study will not impede its take-over of European agriculture; however a number of independent scientists are praising its extensiveness, even though its results must be replicated and confirmed.

“The results are significant,” said Mustafa Djamgoz, the Professor of Cancer Biology at Imperial College, London, who describes himself as a neutral on GMO. “The experiments are, more or less, the best of their kind to date.”

It remains to be seen whether other countries follow Russia’s lead, which might cause an actual dent in sales and international credibility for Monsanto. Meanwhile, France says it will continue to uphold its own ban on GMO crops, and a group in New York City is holding a fundraiser Oct. 1 to help support California’s Proposition 37, which is seeking to label GMO foods in supermarkets. The initiative is up against heavy spending by several corporations, including Monsanto. If you’re in New York, you can get more info and buy a ticket here for the event.

“Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.”

When Cindy Gallop, a chic, British-born 52-year-old ad exec (now Web entrepreneur) living in Manhattan decided to test the online dating website her firm was pitching, she had no idea it would change her life — or that it would put her in a position to become a sex educator. Of sorts.

At the time, nearly a decade ago, she was delighted to find young men attracted to her — but not so delighted to find many of their moves were taken straight from the scripted, often-bizarre and highly one-sided world of hardcore pornography.

In 2009 she left her TED talk audience all a-twitter, revealing that abstinence-only sex ‘education’ meant easy-to-access Internet porn was the only source of information for many young people, resulting in insecurities, unrealistic expectations and disappointments; stunting sexual communication; and cutting a whole generation off from fulfilling, loving and genuinely hot sex (whether kinky or vanilla).

Gallop’s solution? To establish the website MakeLoveNotPorn.com, which attempts to compare the “porn world” with the “real world” of sex. (The testimonials from 20-somethings on the “About” page are poignant in their gratitude for Gallop’s mission.)

“The issue I’m tackling is not porn,” she explains. “It’s the complete lack of open, healthy dialogue around porn and sex.”

Now, Gallop is taking it to video. Still in an invitation-only beta testing phase (you can sign up to be invited!), the premise of MakeLoveNotPorn.tv is that real people send in videos of themselves having real sex with a $5 submission fee. Then viewers pay $5 to ‘rent’ a video for three weeks of unlimited viewing, with up to half that fee going back to the person who submitted the video. It’s part sex ed and part sex toy, using social media and a cheeky, DIY-style business attitude to make the world a happier, sexier, more authentic place.

“It’s not about performing for the camera,” Gallop adds. “We’re looking for the comical, the messy, the ridiculous. We’re looking for the real.”

She has made the personal political in a positive way. With much of the Aries Point action lately having to do with trying to suppress women and sex, astrologically this is like finally finding a partner who understands foreplay. And likes it.

An iPhone a Day Keeps the Riots Away?

About 2,000 Chinese employees at a factory in Taiyuan that makes iPhones rioted early Monday, resulting in 40 taken to the hospital and a number arrested after 5,000 police were sent to end the brawl. Occurring just three days after Apple finally made its highly anticipated iPhone 5 available for purchase, Foxconn Technology Group, the plant’s Taiwanese owner, called the violence a personal disagreement fueled by regional tensions in a dormitory.

Contrary to the official story, employees and their friends have posted messages online that suggest the fighting was spurred by security guards beating a worker nearly to death.

“Clearly there is deep-seated frustration and anger among the employees and no outlet, apart from violence, for that frustration to be released,” Geoff Crothall, communication director at China Labour Bulletin, a labor rights group in Hong Kong, said in a statement. “There is no dialogue and no means of resolving disputes, no matter how minor. So it is not surprising when such disputes escalate into violence.”

This is not the first time that Foxconn, which also makes components for other electronics companies, has been cited for poor working conditions and mistreatment, though reportedly they have been working to improve conditions and wages. Whether or not this takes the shine off the ‘Apple’ for salivating consumers remains to be seen.

Spout ‘Inspirations’, Earn Flags, Become President!

Certain members of the Planet Waves editorial staff were barely able to stop laughing long enough to actually post this item in today’s issue. The Gregory Brothers have created a mash-up of the acceptance speeches delivered by Obama and Romney at their respective recent national conventions, complete with 80s-era Atari graphics and music. Published online by The New York Times, you’ll never look at talking points quite the same way.

Planet Waves FM :: Jesse Ventura on 9/11; Patric Walker

This week’s edition of Planet Waves FM looks at the Sun in Libra and Saturday’s Aries Full Moon. This is a potent Full Moon, which lights up the 2012 aspect — the Uranus-Pluto square. I covered this in Monday’s daily edition as well as Tuesday’s subscriber edition. I begin with a discussion of the Sun in Libra aspecting Uranus and Pluto, and what this says about the state of our relationships.

Patric Walker.

My musical guest is American composer and performer Diane Cluck, who has recently ventured into being a full-time professional musician and has offered to share her work with us. I play three of her songs — “Sara,” “Red August” and “Why Feel Alone.”

In the second segment, I look at Jesse Ventura blowing the whistle on the Sept 11 incident, live on the Piers Morgan show on CNN. This is an astonishing moment in TV history, which happened while Mercury was transiting through the Uranus-Pluto square.

I also fact-check Jesse — he gets a few things wrong but in essence he has the right idea — and becomes the first person to challenge the official story, in a vocal, obvious way, in the American media.

Finally, I look at the life and work of British horoscope master Patric Walker (1931-1995), who would have been 81 years old Tuesday. I read some of Patric’s horoscopes, describe some of his techniques, tell some stories and then do a short reading of his natal chart, focusing on his Mercury-Moon opposition — the perfect blend of intellect and intuition. This is a rare look at the life of Walker, who is remembered by his fans from back in the day and unknown to many contemporary astrology readers.

Note to Readers — If you have old Patric Walker columns in your files and would like to add to my collection, please get in touch. Thank you!

Planet Waves monthly horoscopes provide a broader perspective that surveys the themes of the coming month and often, the weeks that follow. The September Monthly horoscope was published Friday, Aug. 24. Inner Space for September was published Tuesday, August 28. The September Moonshine Horoscope was published Tuesday, Sept. 18. Please note that the longer monthly horoscope is being incorporated into the Friday issue after the Sun has entered a new sign (the October monthly is below in this issue); Inner Space still publishes on Tuesdays. Last week’s weekly horoscope (#918) covered the Libra equinox in detail.

Monthly horoscope for October 2012 standing in for Weekly Horoscope #919

Libra Birthdays This Week (Applies to All Libras!)

If you have a birthday in the neighborhood, this year is a doorway into a new life for you. The current astrology is about breaking free from any deadlocks and opening up blocked energy. It’s true that you’ve been under many influences that are encouraging you to turn the page, yet there are just as many that are leading you to obsess over the past (and perhaps even the distant past). Yet potent forces are provoking you to face the future with a sense of adventure. Which will win the day, and your year? Well, time marches on, wherever your mind may be — and you continue to make your presence known on the planet. You continue to live every day, as consciously as you want. The key to you thriving is about not taking the outside world, particularly your intimate relationships, too seriously. That is, they are not the ultimate goal, nor the bellwether, of your life. Every outer event or encounter has an inner correspondence that is far more important than the particular circumstances that are surrounding you. Let everything you experience point you deeper into yourself. If you can follow this philosophy for a while, you will get a sense of what it’s like to feel your presence in the world much more tangibly. Meanwhile, Saturn ingressing your solar 2nd house (Scorpio) says that your number one project for the coming few years is working out every possible dimension of your self-esteem questions. While in the past you might have told yourself that you can live with compromised self-respect, that is no longer true — Saturn won’t stand for it, and neither will you.

Note to Libra Sun and rising readers: I have just finished recording your birthday reading, which includes more than an hour of astrology (in two sections) and a tarot reading. The reading develops these and other themes. Check this link for more information.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — The time has arrived to carefully consider the role of religion in your life, in society, and in the place where the two meet — which is where you make your most personal choices within the context of society. Your charts tell the story of someone who goes from making their decisions more or less autonomously, to then suddenly making them in the context of numerous outside influences that vie for which of them will run your life. One of those seemingly outside forces is religion, as if you have some kind of stunning awakening, conversion experience or revival of belief. This could be productive, and who knows, it might be, though your charts describe a scenario of both getting high on power and also of restricting your emotional and erotic freedom in the name of purity. I suggest you start with the notion that there is no such thing; even under laboratory conditions, actual purity is rarely attainable. Within the psyche, there is so much churning around and such a mix of elements that denial would be a more suitable word. I suggest you save yourself a lot of conflict and remember that you’re human. As such, you have both sexual impulses and also the impulse to a relationship with the mysteries. We’re basically forced to convert ‘the mysteries’ to some notion of God or higher power, who invariably wants you to be a better person. It’s time to question whether any of this is really true.

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

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Saturn enters your opposite sign Scorpio this month, and that’s a dependable cue that you’re entering an extended phase of housekeeping in your relationships. As with many things Saturn, this is a study in boundaries, which is another way of saying agreements. Part of this experience will be practical: who in your life belongs there? With whom do you have wholesome and healthy connections, and with whom do you have unhealthy or destructive attachments? What are you going to do about them? You may notice that you’re attracting older, ‘more serious’ people who you may recognize have something to teach you about yourself and about life. They will hold up a mirror to the aging process, through which you will be invited to make some decisions about how you want to grow older. Another aspect is conceptual, and even philosophical. What does commitment mean to you? What is bonding? What is the nature of attachment? What does jealousy have to do with any of this? Perhaps most significantly, what role do you allow others to have in your life? One of the most beneficial things you’ll gain from the experience of Saturn in your opposite sign is that of learning how not to give away your power. You may feel like the universe is taking some extreme measures to keep you in alignment with yourself, though remember how challenging it is for you to change in response to any factor besides your own will — and even that can take a miracle.

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) — One role that Jupiter plays within our solar system is to absorb stray asteroids and comets, and as a result there are fewer that might strike the Earth. Currently Jupiter is in your sign — and there’s boundless energy coming at you from your opposite sign, Sagittarius. You’re subject to these incoming influences, which will arrive in a diversity of forms, and what they have in common is high energy. Some will be obvious and bold; others will be subtle, and change you in ways that you would never have predicted. As for the obvious, this may come in a diversity of offers to play, to engage with different beliefs and to wage a social crusade or two. As for the less obvious: pay attention when others are inviting or enticing you to compromise your ethics or to rearrange your moral structure. Such may come in the form of “well, now that I’ve had you do this [against your ethics], you may as well do this [even more against your ethics].” Remember that you become like the people you have sex with (this is based on a direct transfer of energy), so if you’re wondering why you’re becoming the way you are, pay attention to who you’re waking up with. The thing to remember is that for the next two months, you’re going to be deeply susceptible to influences that come from outside yourself. The key to managing this is choosing which of these influences to accept, and which to reject — at the first possible opportunity.

Hello Gemini — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Have you listened to your birthday reading? Click here for an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Heed early warnings, especially where sexual boundaries are concerned. This isn’t about saying no; it’s more like saying maybe, until you understand your environment and everyone’s involvement in your life. Then, do what’s appropriate based on your understanding of your situation. At first this may seem like you’re having a limit placed on your fun. Actually two other things are happening. One is a limit being placed on the new karma you incur based on choices you make. Whatever you encounter is sufficient for a moment of reflection, and to put you on notice where you need to be more vigilant. Second is that you are about to discover ways to channel your vital force in a more structured way. In a sense, you have to get organized about what you want, and make sure you are also aware of what you don’t want — then make your choices using this as your guide. The thing to bear in mind all the time is that whatever theory of relationships we may subscribe to, sex leads to something deeper. That depth could be love, and it could be a diversity of other means of human bonding, connection or entanglement. Saturn is the lord of time, and it’s essential that you use time to your benefit, in order to save time. Taking a little while to test the true nature of your relationship to another person, before you dive in, would be well advised in this moment and for the next couple of years.

Hello Cancer — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). To hear your birthday reading for the year ahead, please visit this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Saturn’s ingress this month into Scorpio, your solar 4th house (security, home base, family) is about the use of space, and its relationship to your emotional grounding. Scorpio is a somewhat strange energy to have on your house of security, since it’s all about plunging into the deep dark waters of the psyche, and coming out a different person (something you do fairly regularly, and you’re safe knowing that you can). Seen another way, it’s the image of living with a swamp in the basement of your house, wondering if you’re going to get swallowed, or if the whole house is going to sink — and calling that shelter. Saturn making its way through this region of your chart for the next 10 seasons is about getting onto dry ground. It’s about shoring up your foundations and clearing out inner space. As part of this journey, you’re going to stabilize emotionally, which will be good for you and the people you care about. As part of this emotional stability, you will be doing an inventory of family influences from your early childhood, and making sure that you have them contained and confined to your own inner space — this way, you won’t pass them on to anyone younger than you are. One of the over-arching themes of this transit is learning how to feel safe. The combination of Saturn and Scorpio may conspire to do this in strange ways — but if you work with these influences, you will get the job done.

Hello Leo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Did you miss your birthday reading? Click here to order an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — From time to time, you’re subject to bouts of what feels like emotional chaos, insecurity and deep questioning. This can compromise your happiness, and at worst, limit your ability to function in the world. In truth, these episodes are about your inner spiritual life, which means it’s deeper than you may think. If the issues were just emotional, it would be a lot easier to address them. Yet you can count yourself lucky when you have any real insight into your situation, or meet anyone who has an actual grasp on what you’re going through (rather than speculating or guessing). Your sign is said to be earthy, intellectual and focused on rationality, though the truth is that you have your vital roots in the world of spirit, a dimension that most of the world denies the existence of. My sense is that you’ve been processing the issues using your intellectual capacity as best you can. However, to effectively learn from, grow from and actually cope with what emerges over the next few weeks, you will need to go directly into the deepest available level of your psyche: your core spiritual identity, or what you might think of as soul level. There’s a lot of competition for what that really means, though I can say at least this: soul level embraces everything and does not deny anything. Therefore, any feeling or memory that comes up for you is normal. Soul level is oriented on the greatest good for all concerned. And there are no problems that don’t come with solutions — as long as you state the problem in a way that makes sense.

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

Hello Libra and Libra rising readers. I’ve just finished your 2012-2013 birthday reading. Check this link to listen to your hour-long astrology reading plus tarot. If you’re a Virgo and you missed your birthday report, it’s still available at this link. All other signs, please check our audio store for your birthday reading.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — There’s always a difference between theory and reality, and you’re about to find out what it is — in reality and not in theory. Through most of the month, your ruling planet Venus is trekking across Virgo, where you do lots of contemplating, ruminating and a very precise kind of fantasizing. Toward the end of the month, Venus emerges into your sign, where it starts making aspects to planets that have already been stirring a revolution in your life. You’re likely to see how little a real-time experiment has in common with all of your (admittedly) fascinating concepts and plans. You can expect the pace of events to pick up rapidly. You can expect to go deeper into questions that have been nagging you, though about which you have only skimmed the surface. And there is something about allowing your relationships to change you. I suspect this may be a sticking point for you, as one of your goals is stability and change happening only in a controlled environment, and only with your consent. That’s more for the laboratory, and you’ll be there for a little while longer; then comes an extended field experience. As you’re going through all of this, a new theme emerges in your life, which is: understanding the reasons you do and do not respect yourself. Most people know there is something called self-esteem, but what exactly is it made of? How does it express itself, in its positive and negative manifestations? In the long run, everything hinges on this — and I do mean everything.

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) — You are approaching one of the boldest ‘get serious’ moments of your life, a process spanning nearly three years. When you get to the other side, you’ll have acquired additional self-knowledge, privileges and responsibilities of adulthood. This is about Saturn in your sign, which arrives on Oct. 5 and departs in early 2015. I’ve described Saturn in your Sun sign (or in your rising sign) as an extended phase of coming to terms with yourself. Said another way, this transit is about becoming your own inner authority, something that few people ever do — and which is much likelier with Saturn in your neighborhood. One sad story of our society is people refusing to grow up; other people continue to have authority over their choices and even their opinions. Saturn in your sign can feel like authority figures or seemingly more powerful people imposing themselves on you. This is a reminder to take authority over all of those aspects of your life, and many more where you anticipate this kind of involvement by others. There are structured and organized ways to do this. Many people have described therapy as a kind of ‘re-parenting’ process, at the end of which you’ve taken over the role previously delegated to them. This is what I’m talking about, in whatever form works for you. You have to answer to some authority — whether you provide it, or whether someone or something outside yourself shows up and imposes it on you. The choice is yours.

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) — Know when you’re coming from belief, and when you’re coming from knowledge. Somewhere in the high 90th percentile of people live like they have no idea what I am talking about, though you cannot afford the luxury of ignorance. I say this because you run the risk of being driven by belief, at the expense of what is true and verifiable. It’s not any excuse that many believe “there is no such thing as the truth.” That’s a good assignment for students to discuss in postmodernist philosophy class. I mean verifying in the most practical ways what you believe against facts that you can identify. I mean reading the fine print, reading between the lines, and remembering what people say to you. I also mean belief in the biggest sense — for example, your relationship to your cosmology. I’ve only heard about five hundred people tell me they weren’t influenced by religion, while they spend their lives acting out the irrationality, guilt and obsessive conduct that can have few other sources. Therefore, reconcile your ideas about life with the actual facts about how you treat people and how you want to be treated. One thing about beliefs is that they tend to be fixed like epoxy, or change every 10 minutes. I suggest you be suspicious in either case, and engage yourself in a reasoning process of evolving your ideas consciously as new information becomes available. Don’t just move on and forget; remember where you’ve been, because before long, it will become significant.

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) — This is the time to be responsible not to your own ambitions, but to your community. I know that this idea is pissing into the wind of the privatization, privation and exclusion that is all the political rage now. Greed worshippers can keep their lies; not only don’t they influence you, you must stand up to this false philosophy, both in yourself and in society. Establish a commons in your life: hold the space for an authentic, equitable exchange of resources. This is leadership in action; there are goals and results involved. There are competing interests involved. There are those who will immediately take advantage of any fair system, and you will have to address that factor as well. Note that there are aspects of this that will happen in your ‘official’ capacity (such as your professional role) and outside of any official capacity, and perhaps even out of sight of others. Another way to describe the aspects that are developing in your chart is that you are shifting your concept of self-interest into a full embrace of the conditions of the world around you. Your role is to use your power, your knowledge and your experience to uphold the personal values you have stated many times are precious to you. Acting on those values requires taking a chance, not the least of which is wondering what all those greedy people will think of you when you insist on fairness and integrity. What they think of you is their issue; what you do is yours.

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) — Saturn finally changes signs this month, ingressing Scorpio, where it will be into 2015. This is your 10th solar house, the one associated with your highest ambitions, your reputation and your true professional calling. Saturn through the 10th is sometimes associated with having the golden touch of King Midas; however for you there may be some extra challenges involved. As you hear and heed your calling, expect some adversity. Expect a tempering process, where you refine your goals. Imagine that your life is a theater production, where you do the performance, listen to the director’s notes, rewrite, rehearse and do the show again the next night — over and over again, with no intention of just ‘settling in’ to a routine. Bear in mind that the world does not owe you success: not because you’re a good person, not because you’re talented and not because you choose to develop any useful skill. Success is the product of all of these factors, and something else: your determination, and a commitment to be true to your values. This is the kind of success that doesn’t happen overnight, and to which you must dedicate yourself for much longer than you might think. Most of the early progress will be invisible, and you may be convinced you’re in the midst of a setback. It’s nothing of the kind — though you may see it that way unless one of your top priorities is to use anything and everything that you experience as a resource.

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) — Sexuality has always been your portal into your spiritual side — or rather, sex and the cosmic questions that it evokes, and the inner mysteries to which they grant you access. Yet this organic approach to existence is denied and resisted by many forces in society, including those that would control sex to promote religion, those that use sex for commercial gain, and anyone whose approach to natural human feelings is moralistic (controlling rather than exploratory). Even as adults, we can be constantly entangled in the control dramas and moralizing of others, which include scandal and jealousy. It’s fair to say that unless we intervene, for all our lives, someone else seems to be in charge of our sexuality, and this extends into our creative power, our perspective on life, death and relationships. The time has arrived to live your way of life with full commitment. That means taking charge, and deciding what is right or wrong for you. If you don’t step in and take over yourself, it’s likely that someone else will. This is the Saturn principle in operation: where you lack discipline, boundaries and structure, these things will be imposed on you. If you have discipline, and take a realistic, honest, longterm (and, notably, not a hedonistic) approach to your sexuality, you will have done something that few humans ever accomplish. What would that be? To be the master of your vital force, your creativity and your emotional drives, rather than their slave.

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

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About that Metalogue — and the Revolution

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Dear Friend and Reader:

I began my comments about this week’s astrology in my Daily Astrology post overnight Sunday, where I proposed we were about to experience a metalogue of some kind. That’s not a word that’s used a lot; think of it as a meta-level conversation, a conversation about what’s being talked about, while that topic is formulating. Or you could say it’s another word for “actual conversation.”

Screen shot of video published by Mother Jones magazine, wherein Romney spills the beans. View the full video here.

I learned the word early in my astrological studies; it was going around the Psychological Astrology crowd in England in the 1990s, and we thought of it as meaning “that which is being discussed is also arising.” I got this idea because Mercury — the planet of mind and communication — had ingressed Libra on Saturday, putting it where it would be making many aspects.

Among other things, that put Mercury into contact with the Aries Point (an exact opposition, from the first degree of Libra to the first degree of Aries). I knew that would translate to some kind of big news with a personal feeling, and a conversation happening (both in the news, and amongst folks) about whatever that thing was. As Laurie Anderson said in one of her songs, “Oh boy! Right again!”

Sure enough, the ball was in play and we had an extremely interesting discussion this week about those 47% of Americans, all of whom allegedly voted for Obama, who suck off of the government, who have no sense of personal responsibility and who pay no taxes. We think we’re entitled to food, water, health care and a dry roof to sleep under, even if we never want to get out of bed.

This was a rare moment of transparency in politics, and I think that most people actually recognized it for what it was. Everyone who believed that Mitt Romney stands for nothing had a rude awakening. In a secret recording made (apparently by one of the servers) at a $50K per plate fundraiser in Florida earlier this year, we found out that he doesn’t think he’s supposed to actually be president of those 47%, many of whom are Republicans, who collect retirement benefits from Social Security, or veterans on disability. They’re not his concern, he told us. He actually said it; that’s the incredible thing. Think of what else you’re missing.

From an ethical standpoint, he has a lot of nerve, but then, you may not realize how much contempt your supposed representatives have for you — and how many millionaires pay reduced tax rates, or none at all. From a political standpoint, the problem is that many people who are too poor to pay federal income tax vote Republican, which is a topic unto itself; though their choice of candidates is inherent evidence that such voters may lack the analytical skills to figure out that Romney was actually talking about them, not someone else. But then, everything is about someone else, till it’s not.

According to Mitt Romney, none of these people paid income tax. And according to Barack Obama, they could even be terrorists. Isn’t that one guy wearing a hoodie? Photo by Eric Francis.

In his usual hapless way, Romney punted the ball of Mercury right into personal is political territory — and it mysteriously surfaced this very week when Mercury engaged with the Aries Point. (If you somehow missed that story, you can refer to the original at Mother Jones and you can hear my rendition on Planet Waves FM.)

And then Mercury, moving through Libra, came into contact with Uranus in Aries (an opposition) and Pluto in Capricorn (a square) — which it’s doing as I write on Thursday afternoon, when the big news is that candidates for lower office are abandoning Romney, and even big funders like Rove are investing in ad buys for Senate races rather than going against Obama. Said another way, Mercury is talking to, and listening to, the Uranus-Pluto square — the 2012 aspect that has been shaking the world since 2011 (Arab Spring, Occupy, Fukushima, etc.). Among the events this week was an uprising against the United States, including protests at numerous embassies across the Middle East and North Africa, where there are many, many unemployed, angry men with nothing to lose.

There are hints in the astrology that these protests could be coming home any time now. I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Of note, the Uranus-Pluto square made its second exact contact on Wednesday. This is a slow-moving aspect, part of a cycle that began in 1965, which always comes with a blast of revolution. Because Uranus and Pluto move so slowly, and these planets go retrograde (due to the Earth’s movement), the square will happen seven times between mid-2012 and early 2015. (By contrast, the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of 1965-1966 happened just three times.)

The first exact square was in late June, and the second was Wednesday. So when Mercury made its aspect to Uranus-Pluto this week, the alignment was so perfect you could use it to tune an oboe.

My take is that the conversation that is happening — the many conversations — is infused with all of that charged-up, let’s-move-the-game-along, Uranus-Pluto energy, and anything that happens this week will have added impact as a result; we are in a seed moment, when an agenda is being established. There are many important topics that need to come up, but this discussion of what happens to the resources of society is a meaningful one.

We are told a lot of outrageous lies in politics. It was nice to see a pushback against one of them. It was even more satisfying to see the facade of compassionate conservatism tumble down with a thump. Along with Mitt’s comments about the 47%, we learned that he really doesn’t think the Palestinians can handle their own country, and he gave direct instructions for how a terrorist organization can blackmail the United States by threatening to use a dirty bomb, say for example, in Chicago.

Most impressive was Romney’s stupidity, a fact alone that disqualifies him from holding public office, particularly the presidency. In this moment of history, nearly every person who can write his or her name is carrying a video camera. There are more video cameras in people’s pockets than there are guns, and heck, they’re a lot more dangerous. If Second Amendment advocates fancy themselves a menace to the government, they might want to switch amendments to the First, and feel what it’s like to really have some power you can use every day — not just think about using.

NDAA Litigation Against Obama

While this cyclone was brewing, a far more significant story got far less attention. At the end of 2011 (that’s to say, on New Year’s Eve), Pres. Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a law with the primary purpose of funding the military. In this particular version of the law was a provision that allows the president to arrest any American citizen deemed to be aiding our enemy in the War on Terror, detain them indefinitely, keep them in offshore penal colonies and to have the military serve as a domestic police force — something that violates the traditions and explicit provisions of American law.

Six people, including Chris Hedges (Pulitzer Prize-winning author), Noam Chomsky (linguist and Papa Smurf of the American left) and Daniel Ellsberg (who helped end the Vietnam War by smuggling the Pentagon Papers home from work), sued Pres. Obama in federal court, seeking to block that provision of the law. Late last week, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Forrest in New York ruled that the law was unconstitutional and issued an order blocking it, saying that the issue touched the heart of civil liberties.

If anything vibrates with Uranus (the planet of revolution) and Pluto (the planet of evolution) working together, it’s activism on this level — taking on the King directly.

Obama’s lawyers, representing the federal government, appealed that decision, waging “an all-out campaign to block and overturn an order of a federal judge,” in the words of the lawsuit’s co-lead counsel, Bruce Afran.

“As Judge Forrest noted in her opinion, nothing is more fundamental in American law than the possibility that journalists, activists and citizens could lose their liberty, potentially forever, and the Obama administration has now lined up squarely with the most conservative elements of the Republican Party to undermine Americans’ civil liberties.”

Hedges, in his column this week, wrote that, “The decision to vigorously fight Forrest’s ruling is a further example of the Obama White House’s steady and relentless assault against civil liberties, an assault that is more severe than that carried out by George W. Bush.” (A lot of people who study government are saying this, though if you listen to FOX News, you will never hear Obama criticized for doing the same things as Bush.)

Author Chris Hedges. Photo: Wikipedia.

Obama won the next round — early this week, a single judge on the appeals court placed a stay on Judge Forrest’s order. One question Hedges and his lawyers raised is why Obama went to court to fight for the same provision of NDAA that he said he had problems with, when he signed it into law.

Hedges wrote, “The request by the government to keep the law on the books during the appeal process raises a disturbing question. If the administration is this anxious to restore this section of the NDAA, is it because the Obama government has already used it? Or does it have plans to use the section in the immediate future?”

Afran, his attorney, proposed an answer. “A Department of Homeland Security bulletin was issued Friday [Sept. 14] claiming that the riots [in the Middle East] are likely to come to the U.S. and saying that DHS is looking for the Islamic leaders of these likely riots.”

“It is my view that this is why the government wants to reopen the NDAA — so it has a tool to round up would-be Islamic protesters before they can launch any protest, violent or otherwise. Right now there are no legal tools to arrest would-be protesters. The NDAA would give the government such power. Since the request to vacate the injunction only comes about on the day of the riots, and following the DHS bulletin, it seems to me that the two are connected. The government wants to reopen the NDAA injunction so that they can use it to block protests.”

Speaking of protests — I spent a lot of the weekend and week studying the chart for the 2012 election, and writing a special report that you’ll read in this space shortly. The weeks leading up to the election look like the scene of a protest, including violent incidents, and a mess internationally, including acts of war.

Cloaked in darkness and operating in the stealth of a Saturday, a holiday and hiding out in Hawaii, Obama signs NDAA in Honolulu on Dec. 31, 2011, at about 10:03 am local time. Photo: Forbes.

Since I’m not the White House astrologer, I cannot tell you if the government is aware of this astrology — but it sure is impressive, and it squares (pardon the pun) with a plan to suppress the very protests that look inevitable.

It’s interesting that if you packaged up this whole NDAA business — deporting of citizens, anything and everything (including political speech and even peaceful protests) subject to being called terrorism, and a government giving itself license to round up its people and put them in military camps — and said it was happening in another country, many Americans would be indignant. It’s the kind of thing used as propaganda to get us to go to war against evil-doers who have no respect for freedom. But if you point out the law that says it could happen here, well, that gets the ostrich effect. “I am not a terrorist. Thankfully, it will be used against someone else — someone who probably deserves it.” Right?

Hedges added, “In the last 220 years there have been only about 135 judicial rulings that have struck down an act of Congress. Most of the cases involved abortion or pornography. Very few dealt with wartime powers and the separation of powers, or what Forrest in her opinion called ‘a question of defining an individual’s core liberties’.”

And This Week, Even Sex is Political

Did you catch that Naomi Wolf, an American author and political consultant, has a new book out, about sex? It’s called Vagina: A New Biography. I commend Wolf for figuring out that there is a sexual-social-political connection, and taking advantage of it.

Naomi Wolf, author, political consultant and fashion icon. Photo: Wikipedia.

Toni Bentley, who reviewed the book for The New York Times, summed it up this way: “The female counterpart to your penis is not (spoiler alert) our vagina, and calling a book about the female sex ‘Vagina’ is like calling a book about the male sex ‘Scrotum’. Talk about a near miss.” I kept thinking the same thing. Did this woman get her entire sex education at The Vagina Monologues?

“The clitoris is the diva at our party, and she sports the most sensitive millimeters of flesh — male or female — in human existence. Her 8,000 nerve endings — let me repeat that: 8,000 — outnumber those on your circumcised penis by a mere 100 percent,” Bentley wrote in her review. But the clitoris, well, hardly anyone talks about that in polite company, while science is still trying to deduce what it’s for. (Implication: its evolutionary purpose cannot be female orgasm. It has to be about something else, perhaps related to women’s role in hunting-gathering).

Wolf has been something of a sensation this week, as the latest heterosexual woman to come out of the closet (right on the heels of Sandra Fluke). There is so much sexual tension in the air that the world has a spontaneous orgasm any time a woman even mentions sex publicly. Whatever it takes.

This week Wolf wrote an opinion piece for CNN, and I would like to offer my analysis of some of her thoughts. She asks: “Who decides when and how breasts might be exposed; who decides who can say vagina and where; who decides who is a slut; and who must be punished with hard labor for asserting their right to define their own sexual and artistic identities.” [She forgot the question mark, which insinuates that she was making statements, not actually asking questions.]

“The sexual revolution came and went, and yet women are still not as truly sexually free as they deserve to be — here or around the world. They are not yet, as these struggles show, fully free to define the meanings of their bodies and their desire, to assert their sexual wishes without punishment — including punishment by the state. And they are not yet fully free to claim the right to sexual pleasure and autonomy without enduring public shaming.”

Let’s start with the sexual revolution, assuming there even was one. What exactly was it a revolution against? Well, presumably against sexual oppression. Most of what we think of as sexual oppression is created with guilt and shame. Yes, there are plenty of efforts to make sex illegal, but they’re not really efficient. As for who deserves to be free: with an emotionally based self image issue like this one, those who deserve to be free are those who do the personal work that it takes to be free.

Sexual revolution is specifically revolution against shame. That’s because nearly any ‘outer’ source of oppression requires shame of the individual as its power source. Photo by Eric Francis.

The way oppressive forces control sex is to shame people. You can, therefore, be pretty sure that when anyone speaks up for sexual freedom, someone is going to try to shame them. That shame, which has as its power source our natural instincts, is used to turn us against ourselves. To be free, the first thing we have to deal with is the shame itself.

As long as that shame exists — as a public function or as a private one — there is a need for sexual revolution. Or perhaps the concept we’re looking for is healing. While it might seem that we need to stand up for our rights to abortion and birth control and to be queer and for that matter to be ‘straight’, I would propose that most of what we need to stand up to are our own toxic emotions. Those are what hold us back; those are the tools that are most readily used against us by anyone else.

To have sexual freedom for oneself, it’s not necessary to enter public discourse. In fact, it’s better to shut up about what you’re doing. You just figure out how to have a good time, and the chances are you’ll be left alone. Maybe you might come out to your friends, and your mom and dad, so you don’t feel so lonely, and even when you do that, the thing you’re up against is indeed shame.

It’s only when we want to take the step into advocating liberation on a larger scale that it’s necessary to engage with the larger public realm, and stand in that mysterious ‘personal as political’ Aries Point magnifier — where Mercury has been all week, sparking these kinds of conversations. Then one invariably gets an earful of what society is made of, and what judgments and emotions are contained in the humans who populate it.

We can only blame advertising for so long. If she’s ashamed of her body or her sexuality, or if she thinks she’s fat or ugly, eventually she has to work that out, and it’s unlikely to happen at a protest — though you never know. Photo by Eric Francis.

Though Wolf seems to long for a world where it’s safe to speak up without being shamed, she is missing the very point of what we need to do right now — which is to confront precisely that shame as the oppressive force. The problem is that things considered shameful are presumed to be that way because they’re also presumed to be ‘wrong’.

Therefore, to speak up is to stand up and to do exactly the thing that everyone else seems to be judging in the first place — being open about your sexuality. This is territory that’s taken back, and you can expect a few people to throw tomatoes. Said another way, if you’re going to confront resistance, you can reasonably expect a little. If you’re going to stand up for anything besides alleged Biblical monogamy, you’re very likely to piss off a good few people.

Wolf concludes her article, “Until that real freedom arrives, we can honor the pioneers such as Lisa Brown, Pussy Riot and the young women of Tahrir Square — and keep up the fight to be free to name our bodies and ourselves.”

Until that real freedom arrives? Does she think that freedom pulls into the station like a train, steps onto the platform, stops for a cappuccino and takes a taxi to the hotel? This reminds me of the people who want the fruits of the land without plunging in their pitchfork and turning over the soil. We want fire, but we’re not willing to split the wood. We want food, but we’re not willing to cook. Wait — where are we? I just checked my GPS and it’s flashing the words WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

The state of the sexual discussion is so dismal at the moment that Wolf’s ideas may have value if we bother to consider and question them — though I don’t think she understands the nature of the problem and therefore cannot speak about the solution.

Mercury is still on the move, and the Sun is about to ingress Libra, where it too will pass through the Uranus-Pluto square, and stir the pot. May the metalogue continue.

Lovingly,

Libra Equinox: Evolution in the Air

Saturday is the [Northern Hemisphere] autumn equinox, when the Sun enters Libra and the new season begins. The Moon is in Sagittarius for this event, conjunct the Galactic Core. I’ll come back to all of that in a moment. First, though, a few additional words about the rather interesting week we’ve just experienced (in nutshell form).

This chart is set up with the Aries Point rising. Notice Pallas and Uranus on the left. Opposite them is the Sun, to the right — with Mercury close by. On top of the chart is Pluto. The Sun will move into alignment with Pallas, Uranus and Pluto over the next few days, which will activate the aspect, resulting in events that make it visible, expressive and obvious that something unusual is happening.

You may have read in this space that we’re in the middle of a major, generational-scale aspect. It’s called Uranus square Pluto. The aspect spans from mid-2012 to early 2015, with a long warmup on the front end and a cool-down on the back end. We saw many effects of this in 2011, between Arab Spring, the Wisconsin protests and the Occupy movement. There is a gradually rising tide of increasing social and political consciousness, and it’s associated with this longterm aspect.

There are seven exact events; the second one was Wednesday, Sept. 19 — and we are now seeing another peak of protests (mostly in the Middle East, against the United States). These are not just associated with political events; the square indicates that we’re all under considerable pressure to change and to grow. Yet we humans have this tense relationship with the concept of change, and many put lots of energy into resisting it.

Outer planet aspects have many effects that can influence the feeling of a phase of time lasting years. An aspect in 2001-02, for example (Saturn opposite Pluto), was associated with the 9/11 incident and shaped consciousness for the next decade. It was associated with an outer event, and a lot of people feeling a lot of fear — and all of that fear was harvested and used to manipulate us. So, the last time we experienced big change, it came in the form of trauma, and subconsciously (or fully consciously) this is what most people expect.

We are in a similar moment now — though it’s more chaotic and less predictable. It’s oriented on liberation rather than on fear, contraction and oppression. Unlike the 2001-02 aspect, which was all about confronting externals (an opposition), the 2012 aspect is about making, and acting upon, a deeply personal commitment to change and grow in the ways you know are necessary.

This is what we can see of the Galactic Center, the core of our Milky Way galaxy, located 24,000 light years away. The Moon will be conjunct the core for the equinox on Saturday, infusing the energy of this point into our bodies.

It extends from Aries to Capricorn — describing the meeting place between an individual (Aries) and the institutions that influence and often seem to control our lives (Capricorn). There is tension between the liberationist energy of Uranus in Aries, and the experience of power over us evoked by Pluto in Capricorn. And last, there is tension between the glitz and glam of appearance, excitement and technology, and deep (and deeply concealed) issues, psychological scarring and fear of change.

On Saturday, the Sun enters Libra, which is a power point in the year because it’s a change of seasons, and because the Sun aspects something called the Aries Point — the first degree of Aries. During the following week (next week, that is), the Sun will also oppose Uranus and square Pluto, moving the center of consciousness and the core of the solar system through this aspect structure. This is more than change on the level of words and ideas. Get ready for a direct experience of your own growth, your own adventure. It’s going to be a big week, as the Earth and the Sun align with Uranus, Pluto and other points in that aspect structure.

Here’s the catch: this is an inwardly focused aspect, but it’s not all about you. Rather, it’s about you and what you have in common with many other people, addressing topics that are much easier to address together. As for that Sagittarius Moon conjunct the Galactic Core — to me that’s a reminder that our spiritual quest is a need and not an option.

The Galactic Core is a homing signal toward greater spiritual depth. The Moon on the GC suggests this will be a palpable, physical sensation, coming through our bodies and the collective body known as ‘the public’. It’s a good use of the Moon, a great use of the body and the perfect use of this elusive thing known as the public.

Uranus-Pluto Takes a Walk(er)

Last Friday, five days before the second exact contact of the Uranus-Pluto square, a Wisconsin judge struck down much of the 2011 state law championed by Governor Scott Walker that strips collective bargaining rights from most public workers, declaring it unconstitutional. This is the law that triggered several weeks of protests in Wisconsin’s capitol last February and prompted all 14 of the state’s Democratic senators to flee to Illinois in an effort to stop the law’s passage. Though more than 930,000 signatures were collected to force a June 2012 recall vote of Walker, which happened about three weeks before the first exact contact of Uranus-Pluto, he survived. Walker vows to appeal.

GMO Corn, Roundup and You: Not Exactly “The Secret of NIMH”

Do you eat corn chips? Is your neighborhood patrolled by chemical-spraying weed-police? A study released this week, as the Virgo Sun has been squaring Ceres in Gemini, shows that rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company’s ubiquitous Roundup herbicide developed tumors and suffered severe organ damage, reported Truthout and other publications.

Gilles-Eric Seralini, a professor and Roundup in his lab. Photo: Charente Libre. Note — that mask he’s wearing is absolutely useless. It won’t keep that stuff out of his lungs.

Scientists fed the rats either Monsanto’s patented NK603 corn alone, corn treated with agricultural levels of Roundup, or water treated with levels of Roundup commonly found in contaminated U.S. water used for drinking and irrigating crops. Rats developed mammary tumors (breast cancer) and severe liver and kidney damage. There were two or three more deaths in each group than in control groups, and in one group, they died sooner.

“This is around the level [that] the American population may eat, where, unfortunately GMOs are not labeled,” said Gilles-Eric Séralini, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen who lead the research team. “In Europe, we have this labeling, and it helps us to avoid these compounds if necessary and promote personal choices.”

The news is disturbing, yet may strengthen Proposition 37 in California, a ballot initiative that would require groceries containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled accordingly. Biotech chemical companies and food manufacturers such as Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer and Nestle have spent millions of dollars so far in efforts to defeat Proposition 37. Before Californians get to vote on it, however, the Sun, in the sign of the goddess of the harvest, will move on from its illuminative square to Ceres — the goddess of agriculture. It will take her message to the Aries Point via the early degrees of Libra (justice) and into the heart of the Uranus-Pluto square. Your personal health is political, in the sense that its importance is shared by all of us. And this study is not about rats.

Tit for Tat or Much Ado?

Are Kate’s Royal Tits that much more sacred than Harry’s Royal Balls? Last week, photographs of the Duchess’ breasts were released by French tabloid Closer, to the chagrin of the Royal Family. This is the second time in less than a month that photos of royal parts were made public, after Harry was photographed naked in Las Vegas playing strip billiards. Reactions to the two royal exposures (ahem) have been different, however.

“Their Royal Highnesses have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner,” began the statement released by St. James’ Palace, seat of the Royal Court.

Since that statement, The Royal Family has won an injunction prohibiting further publication of Kate’s photos by Closer; no such lawsuit was brought on Harry’s behalf. Reactions to both incidents by bloggers, commenters and media pundits have run the gamut: applauding the freedom of both young Royals; chastising media and paparazzi; trying to shame Harry and Kate for being immodest in the first place.

Both the palace and the public have invoked the tragic death of Princess Diana as a reason Kate’s photos are off limits. Yet, the virgin/whore mentality combined with the good girl/bad boy trope has its fingerprints all over this.

Articles warning of the dangers of nakedness and photography, with the implied vilification of our bodies, are wearing thin. The dangerous combination of sexual repression and hypocrisy is far more compelling — no matter how cute the Royal Tits.

Astrology note by Eric: I just checked the asteroid Photographica, which is dependably about photos and their impact. It’s in Capricorn, square Eris and opposite Varuna. That’s a lot of energy, though the square to Eris implies the search for identity and the sense of chaos; the opposition to Varuna is about equalization — in this case, through photos. Paraphrasing Bob Dylan, sometimes the prince and princess must stand naked.

NASA: Vesta Probably Had Some Water

Vesta, from a NASA video.

NASA on Thursday announced that studies of imagery and geologic data captured by its unmanned Dawn spacecraft of the large asteroid Vesta, located 117 million miles from Earth, likely contained hydrated minerals, or minerals that released water.

To be clear, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft didn’t detect any water on the asteroid itself, but rather signatures of hydrogen, bound up in minerals on the asteroid’s surface in the form of hydroxyl.

NASA states in two new papers that the hydroxyl likely came when “high-speed collisions with asteroid belt rocks released water … thought to have explosively degassed into space, leaving behind pothole-like depressions as it escaped.”

— by Carl Franzen, TPM

Artist’s rendition of Numenor, J.R.R. Tolkien’s version of Atlantis.

The Sixty-Fifteenth Anniversary of The Lord of the Rings

This year marks the 75th anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien beginning writing The Lord of the Rings and the 1937 publication of The Hobbit. An epic fantasy tale whose themes provide social commentary as relevant now as during World War II, if you haven’t read it lately (or ever), consider wandering for a while through a world where the small and humble accomplish feats for the greater good of all, simply because they must be done. As Tolkien noted, not all those who wander are lost — and we could use more adventuresome hobbits these days. In celebration of Tolkien’s vision, here is a recording of Martin Shaw reading Akallabeth, the fourth part of The Silmarillion — Tolkien’s companion work to LOTR and its prequel. If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, being familiar with what’s in The Silmarillion and Akallabeth make it a lot more interesting — and the best way to take those works in is on audio, due to all the Elvish pronounciations and exotic names.

Planet Waves FM :: Uranus Pluto Square & Libra Equinox

Here’s Planet Waves FM. My musical guest is New Paltz, NY-based recording artist Seth Davis. In this edition, I do an audio presentation on three of the topics in the lead article — the equinox and the Uranus-Pluto square, Mitt Romney declaring half of us deadbeats, and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Planet Waves monthly horoscopes provide a broader perspective that surveys the themes of the coming month and often, the weeks that follow. The September Monthly horoscope was published Friday, Aug. 24. Inner Space for September was published Tuesday, August 28. The September Moonshine Horoscope was published Tuesday, Sept. 18. Please note that the longer monthly horoscope is being incorporated into the Friday issue after the Sun has entered a new sign (the October monthly will publish Sept. 28); Inner Space still publishes on Tuesdays.

Friday, September 21, 2012. Weekly Horoscope #918 | Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Libra Birthdays This Week

In my 2012 annual edition, I promised that 2012 would be “the most important year of your life.” That’s still true, though the next four seasons also promise to be the most interesting year of your life. I suggest you avoid having expectations about anything, mainly for the reason that those expectations will often have you aiming too low. I suggest you do everything you can to consider the highest, most creative potentials — which might feel like aiming for the stars. But you’ll be doing no such thing — what you accomplish and what adventures you embark upon will take place on Earth, among people, in an environment of experimentation rather than false certainty. There are a lot of people who wish they could be as open to the possibilities as you are, and as willing to let go of the dreaded habit of clinging to what is known. I assure you that what you don’t know, and what you’re about to discover, is a heck of a lot more interesting than what you think you know. Note to Libras: I plan to have your 2012-2013 birthday reading completed next week.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Whether a relationship or partnership holds any promise as a long-term involvement remains to be seen — though events certainly seem to be moving quickly at the moment. The speed of developments is not a fair indicator of how things might work out in the future, though how you and whoever else is involved move through the sequence of changes certainly is a valid indicator. This is a real-time experiment, under field conditions; this is not about speculation or theory. You’re actually in the territory you want to be covering, and this experience will come with excitement, sense of risk, the emotional exchange and being turned back on yourself to process the experience, basically all at once. Pay attention to how events develop, how you feel about them, and what you notice about the dynamics of the relationship. Notice whether you feel the truth is being told, pay attention to how responsive others are and how you feel at the end of the day. I suggest you take notes, because there are too many details to remember them all. This is one situation where the end really is written in the beginning.

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

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Beware of emotional pitfalls, particularly ones that have been a big problem in the past. It’s your destiny to outgrow and resolve these issues, not to be bound by them. Here is what the aspect structure is describing. You are in close proximity to a spot in your emotional body that feels like an injury to your self-respect. Whatever it was, it has roots in (Northern Hemisphere) summers of 1999 and 2001, though you may not connect those two dates. You may fear that you’re in the same place, or still carrying some residual tendencies — though I suggest you note that feeling and keep going forward. There is something else going on, and it involves your relationship to this elusive thing called ‘maleness’. Much has been said about the alleged differences between male and female desire, though at least for you right now, there is something of a role reversal going on. You can regard any experiences you have of men over the next few days as a form of inner exploration. You’ve skipped over this territory before; I suggest that this time around, you go in deep.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — In order to understand the nature of a problem, you will need to take a chance. That may mean considering possibilities that seem risky, or point to potentials that you don’t want to consider. When it comes to understanding psychological and emotional dynamics, many people will avoid an idea because they don’t like what it implies. I suggest you treat anything like this that you encounter as opportunities, and even as low-hanging fruit. Meanwhile, I suggest you ditch the notion of a ‘happy childhood’, if such a thing influences you. Childhood is extremely complicated, we tend to forget most of it, and in truth, it’s never easy. Embrace the complexity of what you went through, and the contradictions involved, and recognize the fact that there are parts of you that are still aching from some of what happened. You’re also very likely to be carrying the pain of your parents, and at the moment, what your mother passed along to you is high on the agenda to be looked at, understood and resolved. Said another way: you are ready.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You’re ready for some deep nourishment — which is different from your average, everyday kind of nourishment. The best way to have this need fulfilled is to admit you have it, and remain open and aware, rather than in a state of frustration. I know there’s a taboo against admitting need — whether we (as in we humans in Western society) fear being perceived as that dreaded thing ‘needy’, or whether we fear some compromise of our image as being fully satisfied. Forget your outer image, and I suggest you be mindful of the interplay of you and your self-image. It’s time, I believe, for you to acknowledge directly what you want, and what you know will nourish you, first to yourself and then to someone with whom you may share something so intimate. If you enter territory where there is shame, embarrassment or guilt, you know you’re in the right place. These things are almost always veils thrown over what is the most meaningful, what is the very hottest and ultimately, over who you know you are inside.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Keep going and you’re bound to get results. You may be experiencing mixed feelings about that idea, since you know that you’re exerting more energy than you need to. You may also be stalked by the feeling that ‘everything has to change, all at once’. While that’s going on, you may have the feeling that you’re mired in something that’s consuming your energy unnecessarily, though you don’t necessarily know what it is. You might feel at the same time like you’re pushing against an obstacle that seems like it’s outside you, but which is really part of your own emotional makeup. Yes, there is a lot going on at once. But it’s all one experience, and I suggest you step back and see your current circumstances for what they are. You’re in a truly adventurous dynamic with your environment. You’re changing it, and it’s changing you. You’re currently the one in the situation whose ideas can have the most positive influence. Therefore, stay on that level — of being open, and of respecting what comes through your mind and hopefully ends up being jotted down for reference and elaboration in the immediate future.

Hello Virgo and Virgo rising readers. I’ve just finished your 2012-2013 birthday reading. Check this link to listen to your hour-long astrology reading plus Tarot.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — I was about to write that it’s not possible to devote too much energy to self-esteem, though if you are, I suggest you ask yourself why that is. I’ve said many times that in terms of personal psychology, the self-esteem deficit is one of the most serious problems we face as individuals and as a society. You’re in exactly the position you need to be in to make some bold progress on this seemingly intractable issue — but to do so, you need to be unusually honest with yourself. I suggest you start by questioning and even stopping the things you typically do to make yourself ‘feel better about yourself’. This might range from any form of self-improvement technique to the designer handbag. You might also include accounting for the influences of medication, on the chance that might be involved. Treat these things as cover-ups for both the real problem and the real solution. They interfere on two levels: one is a physical obstruction, and the other is a matter of where you invest your faith. You don’t want to feel good about who you are; rather, I would propose that what you want is to have faith in yourself.

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) — What do you identify with, within yourself? Your personal assets? Your problems? What you’ve accomplished? Your relationships? You’re bigger than all of these things combined. This can be a challenging lesson to learn, since one at a time these different elements of experience tend to take over consciousness and our sense of identity. Yet none of them are really you. Yes, they all give you clues, and those clues point to something deeper, bigger, vastly more significant than any transient experience. You can, however, use these experiences in interesting ways. One is to notice what they all have in common. Look for the underlying motive, need or desire that connects the many seemingly different experiences of your existence. Trust that there is a common thread, use your imagination and see if you can figure out what it is. You can also experiment with the sensation that everything is a mirror, or that consciousness itself is a reflection — and if that is true, what, exactly, is being reflected? You may wear a thousand masks, but someone is behind them all.

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) — Your charts describe the way in which you’re striving to be, or at least to experience, the opposite of what you are now. This looks like a healthy expression of your creative imagination. It’s also a viable way to explore the tension that you’re feeling, which is a kind of inner standoff between two different emotional realities. It’s as if you feel entirely like one of them in one moment, and entirely like the other in the next moment. Which is really you? How can they both feel so vividly true? Consider the possibility that you contain parallel realities. They can coexist like separate dimensions, each of which is valid when you’re in it. Rather than trying to reconcile them against one another, be fully in each of them as you experience it. This will feel a lot better than trying to compel yourself to reconcile them. Both are valid, even if one seems to exclude the other. Be fully where you are and what you’re feeling in every moment and understanding will come.

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) — You’re in the process of figuring out how much fun you can have, if you get this pesky thing known as attachment out of the way. I know, most people cling to their attachments, even beyond being attached to them. This is similar to being in love with being in love, only it’s less fun. You of all people have the ability to slip right into the space of nonattachment, which is not about giving things up one at a time. Rather, it’s about making contact with your cosmic origins as a direct emotional and psychic experience. While few of us know with certainty the full nature of our journey through the universe, you have the ability to feel the essence of that journey and to embrace it, even if you only do this occasionally. Feel the essence of everything, particularly yourself, as being in motion. Everything is transient within time, though the planets are aligned such that you can feel that transience, and experience both the freedom it contains, and your ability to make contact with others in the midst of the kaleidoscope of your life.

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) — There is an imperative on emotional maturity right now; consider this a kind of professionalism in the face of change, uncertainty and the demand for leadership — that is to say, your leadership. You have a unique, and well-seasoned, perspective on the unsettled quality of the moment, though you are also in full contact with the potential that’s lurking beyond the chaos. In times such as these, people who can offer a steady example and have a vision are the ones who have the opportunity to shine, while everyone else is scrambling around. Now, as for the maturity piece: this is a learned skill. It’s learned from experience and by following examples, and you have both. The pace of events is about to pick up; you must slow down, long enough to confer with certain people you trust (most likely older than you) and to make reasoned decisions that you don’t have to reconsider. Take things one step at a time — that number is one, not two. And if you find yourself positioned high up, use that as a means of gaining perspective, rather than demanding respect.

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) — Do you have to be powerful to be successful? It depends on your concept of power — and of success. If you view power as something that a king has, which is basically that of a ruler over people, success would be measured in how much authority you have. If you view success as the ability to get a job done well, power is more like the gift of being able to muster up cooperation, support and enthusiasm toward a goal. Under this model, power is also about any ability you have to move creative energy and resources in the direction you deem necessary, fun or useful. Under this second definition, you are just getting a taste of what is possible. Once Saturn crosses the success angle of your chart early next month, you will be taking a step up in the world — though initially that means an increase in your responsibilities, and the beginning of doing the work to establish and solidify your reputation. I don’t mean your image or the theory of success that you’re using — I do mean your actual reputation for achievement, which is very much a work in progress.

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) — The art of the deal — it’s not usually your thing, though I suggest you make it your thing for the next few weeks. One thing about your chart, and about life, is that everything is negotiable. Most people don’t believe that, and don’t have the chutzpah to put that idea to work, though I suggest you keep it in mind. Consider everything flexible, everything subject to the principle of fairness, and remember that life is a social and relational affair above all else (rather than being a bureaucratic function or a game). Therefore, stick to the human level in everything you do. Grease the wheels that make your community turn, look for the leverage points to get action and remember what you want at all times — both individually (for you) and collectively (what serves others). Ideally you will engage only in situations where you feel confident that the outcome will be the greatest good for all concerned. And remember you have more influence making that happen than you might think at the moment — though I suspect you’ve got a clue.

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

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Dark Knight of the Uranus-Pluto Square

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Dear Friend and Reader:

It’s been a trying week.

Both the Moon and Mars moved through the Uranus-Pluto square, forming a grand cross on Wednesday shortly before the Cancer New Moon. With much of the United States engulfed in stultifying heat and humidity and many other places in drought, the weather as well as the astrology was wearing on the spirit.

Scene outside movie theater in Aurora, CO early Friday morning after the shooting and gas attack. Photo by Karl Gehring / The Denver Post.

As I wrote in Tuesday’s edition, the astrology had an emotional and potentially violent tone to it. Mars in Libra formed a square to Pluto in Capricorn (an aspect known for violent tendencies and emotional outbursts). Nearly simultaneously, it formed an opposition to Uranus (known for erratic behavior, shocking events and accidents).

The three planets formed a T, known as a T-square. The Moon then passed through this, completing a grand cross in the cardinal signs as the Moon approached its conjunction to the Sun (the Cancer New Moon) overnight Wednesday to Thursday. That New Moon began a new cycle — though the question is, a new cycle of what? This week there were three notable incidents of terrorism, one of which happened Friday morning.

For those of you in the United States who woke up and turned on your TV or the Internet, you were welcomed into the day by the news of an attack in Aurora, Colorado. This took place during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises, a hit movie based on the DC Comics character Batman that premiered earlier in the week. At the late-night show, a 24-year-old gunman released a canister of toxic gas into the dark theater, then opened fire on the crowd. He killed 14 people and injured another 50 — and was taken into custody after the attack.

The chart has Taurus rising, which points straight to Venus in Gemini (That’s because Venus rules the Taurus ascendant, wherever it may be placed in the chart. The ascendant ruler describes the issue in question.) Looking at Venus is a reminder that overnight Thursday to Friday in US time zones, Venus passed by the exact degree and minute where it made its transit of the Sun in June, bringing out some of the energy latent in that event.

There may be more trouble to come. Venus is about to make aspects to three slow-moving points. Over the next day or so, Venus will make a conjunction to outer planet Chaos, and oppositions to Pholus (release of energy) and Ixion (amoral conduct; anyone is capable of anything) in Sagittarius. Once again we have centaur Pholus prominent in the chart of a mass shooting event (recalling the Tucson shootings of early 2011).

The perpetrator was clearly mentally ill, though like many of these people, seemed to be venting collective rage, as well as frustrated egotism. The most immediate aspect following the event was the Moon making a conjunction to retrograde Mercury in Leo. In our obsession with superheroes, what we actually create are anti-heroes (also known as terrorists).

Damascus Bombing Wednesday: An Inside Job

Earlier in the week, a bomb was detonated inside a meeting of Syria’s top military officials, shattering the government and weakening the military’s hold on the government there. The country has been engulfed in a domestic war for 16 months, though many outside forces are involved.

Map showing the locations of Syria (to the left, south of Turkey), Iraq and Iran (to the far right). Get out your magnifying glass and you can see Israel, toward the left, west of Jordan.

This bombing was the rebels (called the Free Syria Army) making their move to oust the Syrian government, which is lead by Bashar al-Assad. However, the incident took place inside the official government’s military headquarters, so it was by definition an inside job. The astrology suggests that the identity of the perpetrator is obvious and carried out the attack under the cover of broad daylight.

The next day, Iraqi officials confirmed the Free Syria Army had taken control of many of the Iraq border crossings, including the Abu Kamal border crossing on the Damascus-Baghdad highway, one of the most important trade routes in the Middle East. For the first time the government-controlled Syrian army tanks rolled into Damascus in response to the bombing and simultaneous fact of rebel forces moving closer to the government’s headquarters.

Then at one of the border crossings, Syrian rebels executed 22 Syrian soldiers as Iraqi soldiers watched. The message of this seemed to be, don’t even bother trying to stop us.

To understand the significance of Syria, take a look at the map. It’s located to one side of Iraq and Iran is located to the other. Iran and Syria are allies, and Iran and Iraq have long been enemies.

Chart for the Syria bombing has a full 9th house (note the planets highest up), suggesting that the attack was religiously motivated — and that it could have an international influence. Eris, the red oval with the arrow, is in the 8th house, indicating death and disruption for their own sake. The two blue planets are Pallas and Uranus, suggesting a political disruption.

(Recall the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, for which the United States provided weapons to both sides: Iraq was officially our friend, and received weapons above boards; Iran was our enemy but received weapons secretly from Reagan and Bush, in what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.)

It took several of us a while to find the time of Wednesday’s bombing. I finally obtained a close time by calling the AP foreign desk, which provided a close approximate time, confirmed by other news reports which characterized the time as “mid morning.”

The chart, which you can see here, has the feeling of kicking through wet cardboard. All of the angles (for example, the ascendant and the midheaven) go into mutable signs, which says they have nothing solid to grab hold of. As is being reported elsewhere, it confirms that the Syrian government is extremely unstable and could easily collapse. The chart also has a full 9th house, pointing to the religious obsession that seems to characterize every act of violence in our era of history.

It seems that most people don’t have the common sense to understand that God doesn’t blow people up, though admittedly I stopped reading The Bible because it was too violent.

The Independent’s Middle-East correspondent Robert Fisk has suggested that the Syrian government will not fall as fast as some people expect, and the astrology suggests he may be right. While the mutable signs can lack solidity, they can also represent slow processes. In other words, this could be a stalemate situation for a while.

What we need to watch is the stability of the whole region, which appears to be under siege. Many interests seem to be pushing for a war against Iran. If that happens, the problem here is, at what point does everything go out of control? Said less politely, how willing are these battling forces to risk nuclear war?

Israelis Killed in Bulgarian Suicide Bombing

Speaking of Iran — there was one other act of terrorism this week. A suicide bomber set off a bomb on a bus filled with Israeli youth outside a Bulgarian resort, killing six and injuring at last 32 others. And it seems like this event is being used to create a war against Iran.

The Associated Press reported that, “Israel suspects archrival Iran of being behind several of those assaults. The two nations have long been in dispute over the nature of Iran’s nuclear program. Israel has warned it will use military force to curb Iran’s program if it must because it believes Tehran wants atomic weapons — a charge Iranian officials deny.”

The Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that once again, “all signs point to Iran,” adding, “This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading across the world.” Netanyahu also added a direct threat: “Israel will react strongly to Iran’s terror.”

One problem with the theory that Iran was behind the bombing is that he presented no evidence for his statement; and the suicide bomber had an allegedly fake Michigan driver’s license. There’s some dark humor in that, but it’s not really so funny. Not this week, anyway.

Lovingly,

Sun Enters Leo — Conjunct Dionysus

But first, through the weekend, the late Cancer Sun squares 1992 QB1 in Aries. This is the planet without a name, the first planet discovered orbiting our Sun further out than Pluto. I’ve been tracking this one since Robert von Heeren handed me an ephemeris one day in the spring of 1998, when I met with him several times in Munich, studying the new discoveries. QB1 is rarely ever mentioned by astrologers, much less written about; few astrologers have ever heard of it.

Second century AD statue of Dionysus, kept in the Louvre in Paris.

The first thing to know about QB1 is that it opened up the realm of space beyond Pluto. Long before Eris was discovered in 1995, astronomy had demonstrated that there were indeed other planets in what is now called the Kuiper Belt. Beyond Pluto to me says life and consciousness beyond our limited notion of death. Planets beyond Pluto point the way past what I call the ‘death works’ phase of history — you know, the one where those so inclined can get whatever they want by threatening to kill.

QB1 has a life-affirming quality, and I associate it with various shades of healing the fear of death, sexual trauma, panic over change and the strange alienation we often feel from ourselves (as a result of these and other factors of life). I think of QB1 as relating to a kind of healer that so far exists mostly in my own mind.

Back in April when the Sun was conjunct this point, I covered 1992 QB1 in an audio edition, about which I wrote: “I associate this planet with people who help others cross thresholds — birth, death and orgasm. I describe the concept of what I call a thresholder, which I am describing in my fiction, though I’m sharing the idea here today since the Sun is conjunct 1992 QB1.”

Alternately, you can think of 1992 QB1 as representing a deeper presence of self within yourself, the one who exists beyond everything to which you’ve been subjected in this life. QB1 is about getting to know this inner self, as if you’re gazing into a psychic mirror within you that only you can see. I describe this in greater detail in the Cancer birthday write-up below.

On Sunday, the Sun ingresses Leo. When it gets there, it makes a conjunction to the asteroid Dionysus. This is a reminder that humans need to transcend ordinary consciousness. Indeed, that may be the thing that makes us human — the ability to see beyond the obvious, to conceive of and experience the cosmic realms, and to feel the divine within ourselves. There are a lot of ways to get there, though the use of a substance of some kind, whether wine or psychedelic mushrooms, has followed humanity for millennia. Terrence McKenna has suggested that early humans’ encounters with mushrooms are what gave rise to consciousness that we are human.

In any event, this is part of the human story, and Sun-Dionysus, plus other factors, calls for consciousness and a sense of balance about anything related to this subject.

Meanwhile, Mercury is retrograde in Leo. That reaches its peak Saturday, July 28 with the Sun-Mercury interior conjunction.

That aspect is a turning point and also the midpoint of the Mercury retrograde experience. At the moment Mercury is conjunct Achilles, an asteroid that’s about false lack of confidence. I don’t mean false confidence — we all know about that or, well, some of us do. I mean not owning up to what you know, what talents you have, or the experience that should have earned you your own self-respect.

And Mars is still close enough to the Uranus-Pluto square to be sending a cautionary note about being reactionary. Mars in Libra is close to asteroids Astraea (justice) and Athene (law), suggesting that it’s essential to maintain a sense of fairness and balance.

The Karmic Fire of George Zimmerman

Earlier this week, a female relative of George Zimmerman — the Florida resident who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in a high-profile incident in February of this year — accused Zimmerman of having sexually molested her over a 10-year period.

George Zimmerman.

She had originally come to officials early in their investigation of Martin’s shooting to testify that Zimmerman and his family were known to make racist statements when she was growing up.

In newly-released police recordings, the female relative states, “growing up, him and his family have always made statements that they don’t like black people if they don’t act like white people.” Her current accusations are that Zimmerman began molesting her when she was six and he was eight, and that the sexual abuse lasted until she was 16.

I missed it at the time; there seemed to be no possible sexual angle on the shooting of an unarmed teenager by a neighborhood watch captain — but sad to say, this is all over the chart for that event, which appears in this Planet Waves edition. The 12th house retrograde Mars suggests he was hiding more than his gun — and that packed 8th house is about a lot more than shooting someone.

Olafur Rides Again (or Iceland Gets Serious)

Iceland, whose economy suffered a near-total collapse as a result of banking fraud, has hired a bounty hunter to go after banksters. Special prosecutor Ólafur Þór Hauksson is a former local police lieutenant appointed by the Iceland government to track down those likely to have been instrumental in tanking the country’s financial infrastructure — and bring them back alive.

Hauksson: The posse rides at dawn.

This process begins with Mercury retrograde in Leo — which is suitable astrology for finding the thieves (ruled by Mercury) who took the gold (Leo) in the recent past (Mercury recently turned retrograde). And it’s a revolutionary kind of venture, apropos of Mars spurring off the Uranus-Pluto square this past week.

Hauksson’s job description includes investigating “all suspicion of fraud and offences committed before 2009,” and then to “bring the lawsuits against the suspects to court ourselves.” This is a totally new method which allows the investigators to follow the case carefully, in order to compete with well-funded and well-prepared defense attorneys.

Hauksson oversees a crew of 100 or so researchers who cross international borders with full cooperation from the respective governments. By comparison, the American way of dealing with bankers who contributed to the recession looks more like the gang who couldn’t shoot straight, or rather, leaving the foxes in charge of the hens.

Obama calls Romney ‘Outsourcer-in-Chief’

At least President Obama is having fun with this: The Boston Globe has revealed that Mitt Romney continued as the head of Bain Capital for three years after he has been claiming he’d resigned. His name appeared on SEC filings in those years, leading him to claim this week that he had “resigned retroactively.”

These three years, 1999-2002, coincide with a phase in time when Bain was apparently sending many of the jobs in companies it had bought (and in some cases, whole corporations) overseas, boosting up profits for the job creators. In prior statements, Romney has claimed to have worked at Bain for 25 years, which would have to include 1999-2002 since his starting point is not in disupte.

Like many of Romney’s stances on issues, his story about this period has evolved over time. Christopher Rowland, Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe, said in an interview on Democracy Now! that Romney’s departure “was really billed as a part-time leave of absence in 1999. He left suddenly to go to Salt Lake and run the Olympics.” Toward the end of his run for governor in 2002, he was confronted about Bain’s outsourcing policies, which is when he said, “Hey, I wasn’t there. I left in 1999.”

Mayer to Birth a New Yahoo? Just Google It.

On the same day that Yahoo announced it had hired Google executive Marissa Mayer to be its next CEO, Mayer herself announced that she and her husband are expecting their first baby in the fall. A Gemini (quick-witted multitasker) with an Aquarius Moon (technology oriented, and thinks of the world as one big family), Mayer made waves in Silicon Valley as Google’s first female executive. She is said to be responsible for that search engine’s simple, white home page (though she was just 24 when that page was introduced, so it probably wasn’t her).

Marissa Mayer.

Given that only 20 Fortune 500 companies have female chief executives, and out of those, only three are still in their childbearing years, many are seeing this move as a coup for women everywhere who interview for jobs while pregnant. “We finally have reached a point where a woman could be pregnant and stepping into that kind of big job,” said Sharon Vosmek, chief executive of Astia, a nonprofit group that advises female entrepreneurs.

“Her age makes it exciting, not just because she’s quite youthful but because she’s also in this prime stage of life when so many women feel they have to step out or step back.”

Powering Mayer’s ascent through the Google ranks has been her natal Mars-Pluto opposition (from Aries to Libra). That aspect also spells radical collaboration: people who can stand up to her power get to work with her.

Others in the business world see Mayer’s pregnancy as irrelevant to the question of whether or not she can turn Yahoo around in its struggle against Google’s supremacy. This is her first child; most first-time mothers in our post-extended-family era have no clue what this is like, though she’s in a position to hire a team of nannies to do all of the staying up all night for her. But money can’t buy the love new parents feel for their children, nor bribe away the guilt of having to leave a new baby to go back to work. Hopefully Mayer can use her Gemini and Libra placements to keep it all in balance.

Planet Waves monthly horoscopes provide a broader perspective that surveys the themes of the coming month and often, the weeks that follow. The revised version of the Planet Waves July monthly horoscope (originally published Friday, June 22) was published Saturday June 23. Inner Space for July was published on Tuesday, June 26. The most recent Moonshine horoscope by Genevieve Hathaway (for July) was published on July 3. Please note a change in the publishing pattern. For a few months we were publishing the monthly horoscope on Wednesday evenings, but that was proving to be too confusing. We have shifted the monthly to be incorporated into the Friday issue after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space still publishes on Tuesdays. — efc

Planet Waves FM: Cancer New Moon + Elisa Novick part two

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I cover the New Moon and the cardinal grand cross. We take a song break, offered up by an English recording artist named Pasco Tom who is a magnificent guitarist and plays a rather special instrument.

Elisa during Tree Love: The Heart of the Forest. Photo by Eric.

Then, you can listen to part two of my conversation with Elisa Novick. By the way I have a habit of pronouncing her name with an E like in grEEn when it’s more like elle-lisa. Speaking of, you may contact her via her website — Thriving Planet.

Elisa happens to need a Word Press maven to help her answer questions about things like style sheets. Any volunteers out there? Please contact me directly — at dreams@planetwaves.net.

Note — the recording is in stereo. If you can only hear one of us, turn on your other speaker or put your system into mono mode.
Oh — and you can listen to part one of our conversation here. And here is the discussion from October 2011. One last, in case the tree thing gets you going, here’s our article from Beltane wherein Elisa opens up that topic. Note the PDF that’s associated with the article — you’ll love it.

Here is your current edition in the Old Player (an antique Flash player that works better for some people) and remember, you can find us on iTunes.

Planet Waves

Friday, July 20, 2012. Weekly Horoscope #911 | Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Late Cancer Birthdays

As the Sun makes its way across the last degrees of your sign, it makes a powerful aspect to a planet that hardly ever gets mentioned, and which doesn’t even have a name — 1992 QB1. For those born in the last days of Cancer (approximately July 19 through 22), this point is square your Sun, and the message is one of making contact with the deepest layers of who you are. I call the process of 1992 QB1 “coupling” — not in the sense of getting married or hooking up, but of encountering who you are deep within yourself, and bonding with your inner being. This encounter might feel like meeting yourself for the first time. Potentially this will emerge from a sense of struggle, like you’re backed into a corner — then you get to pass through a kind of bridge within yourself and have that inner meeting. One theme is sexual: to some degree we’re all alienated from ourselves, particularly as concerns our sexuality. One of the most pronounced, and unique, themes of QB1 is healing that alienation, which is another way of saying seeing ourselves and making peace with who we are, deep beneath any layers of guilt, shame or scarring. Feel for that healing impulse, and spend some time naked looking in a mirror.

Early Leo Birthdays

The Sun’s ingress into your sign Sunday comes with a reminder to be aware of three themes in your life, however they may manifest: alcohol, avoidance and devotion. Run through each of these themes and note the progress you’ve made since your last birthday. Personally I am of the belief that intoxicating substances (as they are often called) play a vital role in human consciousness. While many opt for strict rules or, alternately, overindulgence, I advocate cultivating a sense of fully conscious appropriateness. Terrence McKenna has suggested that it was psychedelic mushrooms that spurred pre-historic humanoids into divine or cosmic consciousness. We have all noticed that people have a desire to transcend, though what often happens is that this healthy tendency is captured by the impulse to avoid. Now that we live in a culture where everything is a drug (and usually, a crude one, designed as a numbing influence), we have a hard time locating the boundaries, and adjusting them as necessary. Perhaps the bigger question, then, is what gets you to transcend your ideas about who you are? What do you do that liberates you from your known mental and emotional tendencies, and shifts your perception into a new vision of yourself and the world? For all Leos, though particularly for those born in late July, this will be a central theme of your coming solar year.

Note — I plan to have your 2012 solar return report done early next week.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You have the gift of healing, though you may not think of it that way. Yet an unusual event or development in your life may help you understand how this works. All healing involves release from the past. Often it happens when we reach a point where there seem to be no viable options — and then suddenly one manifests. You could say that the process begins with refusing to admit that something is a ‘no win’ situation. The sense of a trap is an illusion, and it’s the one that you have to see through — though it’s also a hint that you’re close to the solution. Then, ask for help from your higher power. Another thing to remember is that healing comes from within. If the healing situation is about you, then that connection would be from within you. If you’re assisting someone else, the connection that resolves the situation comes from within them, and that’s where you need to look for it. In other words, remember to focus on an inner relationship no matter who is involved.

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

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You may be feeling the desire to cut loose — to do all the things you might not ordinarily do, because your boundaries are too firm (or said less politely, because you’re wound a bit too tight to try). Remember that this is an emotional impulse rather than, say, an intellectual one. Tapping into it will require that you let go of one of your ideas about what it means to be safe — or rather, one of your false ideas. People make up a lot of ritualistic notions about what protects them, ranging from their lucky T-shirt to not having sex before the third date. Try to be mindful of when you’re leaning on something like this. There’s also something about the fear of consequences based on a past situation that seemed similar. Yet does it really apply? And were the consequences that bad? Anyway — all of this may end up being academic, as you follow an impulse to set yourself free. Remember to keep some condoms and the number of a taxicab company in your pocket.

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) — You seem to be brooding over something when, by all rights, your life should be going pretty well. The central issue seems to be a struggle over something that’s shaken your confidence in yourself. I would ask, however, whether it was your actual confidence that was shaken — or your false confidence. I know that it’s not typical to think, Wow, that sequence of events really took a toll on my false confidence, but if you ask me, that’s the basic scenario. One aspect of this is doubting how smart you are, or how useful your knowledge really is. You would go a long way through clarifying those questions. You will go further by developing and deepening your mind. By this I mean reading and writing. Modern society’s concept of intellectual nutrition is the equivalent of high fructose corn syrup. This isn’t good for anyone, but you in particular need more — and you need it now. You need to read, you need to write, and I suggest you do so daily: not about yourself, but about the worldly subjects that interest you the most. Then, you’ll figure out how smart you really are.

Hello Gemini — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Your Gemini birthday reading is ready! Click here for an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Recent events have served to level the playing field of your life, giving you a more accurate perception of who has what power, and why. One result is that you’ve figured out you’re more influential than you think, which is a good thing because we’re talking about your existence. This would be a good time to consider any additional encumbrances that you have. It no longer serves you to be carrying around all of the unfinished business of the past — or to live with the feeling that you are. While you may not be able to resolve everything, all at once, there are one or two core issues that bind together nearly everything that troubles you. Over the next few days you will be able to recognize what these issues are and how they influence everything else. By focusing on what’s most important, you’ll be able to unravel what has seemed like a knot with no beginning or end. One clue I can offer is that this involves your sexual confidence. This question holds the key to your self-esteem, and your ability to see others at eye level.

Hello Cancer — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Your Cancer birthday reading is ready! It includes more than hour of astrology plus a tarot reading, and has been wildly popular (also great for Cancer rising people). Use this link to order.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — What is the role of jealousy in your life? The question comes up right around when the Sun enters your birth sign this weekend. There seem to be two competing forces at work: the desire to include as many people as possible, and the desire to exclude whoever you don’t really like. Said another way, one energy source is guiding you to be open, loving and experimental and another energy source is saying, take control. These are incompatible, and you may be having some trouble figuring out which is the trustworthy one. If you set aside the subject matter and just sniff the energy, it will be a lot more obvious what to choose. Also, notice that you may be dealing with a prejudice about someone or something, rooted in a recent past experience. If you let that judgment go, you will find this situation a lot easier to understand. As for jealousy, how would you live if you and the people close to you were immune? Tell yourself the truth — what would you do?

Hello Leo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Note — Eric plans to have your 2012 solar return report done early next week.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — I know it’s the peak of summer where most of my readers are, and that’s not exactly good for motivation — though you’re in a point in your life when it’s time to make serious progress on your professional development. You may be doubting this very thing, or be caught in some kind of paradoxical thought-loop about what you want to do, what you don’t want to do, and what you need to do. I have mentioned before that you tend to have a kind of double life where your career is concerned; that fact alone leads you to waste time wondering what to do. I suggest you set aside that mostly intellectual debate and start making some progress toward one actual goal. If you cannot decide what is the most important thing, work on one thing that you know is meaningful toward you, and stay focused on it till your birthday — then re-evaluate. The thing you choose to pursue may be a new inspiration that emerges from owning up to a fear lurking in the back of your mind. Pay attention — this could set you going in a very interesting direction.

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) — There is a difference between justice and revenge, and now is the time to sort that out. You seem to be angry at something or someone — perhaps a situation where a partner is playing it so cool that you can see your breath even in the afternoon heat. It’s important that you keep expressing your feelings, to someone you trust who is willing to listen and give honest feedback. You’re running the risk of your anger building up over the next few weeks, then bursting out suddenly — all in all, an unhealthy scenario. This isn’t necessary, if you can stay in contact with your feelings. Look for opportunities to vent pressure before you find yourself in a spot so tight you don’t know what to do with yourself. ‘Venting’ would include creative expression, sexual expression, some form of physical activity and — probably more important than anything — sharing how you feel in a safe place with someone you trust is objective and has no agenda for you.

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) — Your current situation is presenting you with a test of your leadership abilities. That translates to putting to work a skill set that includes communication, negotiation and psychology. The first step is going to be sorting out the motives of everyone involved (including your own). Then you need to go one level deeper and understand the insecurities of everyone involved (including yours). Basically, there’s a risk of those insecurities taking over the situation, unless someone can see through that and sort things out. That would be you. Now, you won’t be any good at understanding the motives and the insecurities of others unless you understand your own, so that’s the place to start. You also need to be the one who holds the overall goal clearly in mind. One last thing — for the foreseeable future, beware of the involvement of alcohol in the workplace, and among anyone in the company after work. Pay attention to this. Clarity is not optional.

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) — A partner or friend may be exceptionally reactive over the next few days, and I suggest you avoid doing what aggravates them. I am not suggesting you walk on eggshells — only avoid doing what you know will work against everyone. That said, you cannot control anyone else and you may simply need to back away and allow them to have whatever kind of reaction or response they are going to have. In that case, your patience and willingness to make space for them will be helpful. For whatever reason you seem to present some difficult challenges for this person. You put them in contact with some of the things they fear in themselves the most — though if they can get past that layer, their experience of you will be an actual experience of spiritual growth. Be patient — and practice the very flexibility and open-mindedness that you keep insisting they show to you.

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) — Make sure that fairness is on top of your list of things to aspire to over the next week or so. You want to be fair, and also give the impression of being so. Do not seem arbitrary. Include as many people in your decisions as you can. It’s a fact of your situation that you must take charge, though there are several ways to do that. Particularly in the business world, we live in a time of power exercised for its own sake — and you now have the power to replace that with something better. I suggest you apply your political skills and think for the future. Know who your best allies are, and put them to work for you. You’re approaching a point where you will need to make a decision where you may not have the flexibility to be as open as you do now, and the goodwill and trust that you build over the next few weeks will help you significantly when this time comes.

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) — There’s a strong emphasis on getting clear in your relationships, and this will come into focus starting Sunday when the Sun enters your opposite sign Leo. Until then, I suggest you focus your energies on getting clear with yourself, while you have the time and space to do so — or rather, the inclination. You’re aware of needing to work through something deep that’s about you and nobody else — and stepping into taking action. It’s too easy to project this inner situation into a relationship, then lose track of what’s really going on with you. There’s something in your chart that suggests you’re moving beyond treating your relationships like a drug, or a kind of religious cult experience where you are the devotee. This is a matter of power — or you could say it’s about owning your power. It’s essential to maintain awareness of the difference between the idea and the reality. If you’re trying to manage your feelings (or those of someone else) with avoidance of any kind, that is not the reality.

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) — The Sun’s annual trek through Leo is your invitation to focus on two things — your healing needs, and getting your work in order. Both are so fundamental to your wellbeing that you have the ability to set the tone for the rest of your solar year by focusing yourself on these two basic goals. Here’s a short sketch of some goals indicated by the astrology: First, I suggest you do a review of the role of any drugs or substances in your life, from tobacco to drugs to alcohol to prescription meds. Assess the degree to which they harm or help you. Second, there’s a question about balancing work and recreational time. Pisces is not only a productive powerhouse sign — you draw a good amount of self-esteem from getting the job done well. Yet you can take this a bit too far sometimes, and now is the time to balance that out. Finally, there is a question of balance in your relationships. The scales of give and take don’t seem to be level. The time to correct these situations is sooner rather than later.

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