Tag Archives: weekly horoscope

About that Rapture (or, What is a Sex Scandal?)

Dear Friend and Reader:

As I write today’s issue, the Gemini Sun is moving into an exact square with Chiron, still in full effect Friday, and this has been stirring up a lot of hot air and tales of wounded men. Through today and into the weekend, the Sun then aspects Pluto (a quincunx from Gemini to Capricorn) and through the holiday weekend makes a trine to Saturn. That’s a lot of contact between the Sun and outer planets, nearly all of which are concentrated at the beginnings of astrological signs.

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain — here, in the form of a twister photographed by a NOAA storm chaser in 1973. There were 80 tornadoes in the United States Wednesday; even the Hudson Valley where I live, a mountainous region, is under a tornado watch as of Thursday night. Credit: NOAA.

While that tumultuous Saturn-Pluto square seemed to be behind us, it’s still within just five degrees of orb — just fine to have a strong effect. Saturn is getting ready to station direct, so it’s all charged up with piss and vinegar (and Libra-styled, impeccably dressed).

It’s been another week of sex scandals coming out into the open; and it’s been another week of environmental disasters. The world didn’t end last Saturday. Followers of ‘prophet’ Harold Camping, who had predicted the Rapture for 6 pm on May 21, were disappointed — but I just don’t get why. Wednesday, there were 80 tornadoes in the United States, including a massive one that came through Joplin, Missouri; 232 are missing, and the death toll is uncertain.

This comes on top of the most massive floods since the 1920s (much of the Mississippi River Valley is still underwater), which came on the heels of another week of ultra-high-powered tornadoes, including the one that ripped through Tuscaloosa, Alabama. These, by the way, are not any ordinary tornadoes that might take out part of a block or one side of the street. They are part of massive storm cells that defy comprehension, leveling entire neighborhoods. I personally doubt these are natural events. As I deduced in an article earlier this year called Here at the Edge of the World, these could well be manipulated events using nearly century-old technology created by Nikola Tesla.

There is some video going around featuring one of Wednesday’s tornadoes shredding a tractor-trailer as it speeds down the highway. To see the video you would not believe anything (such as a germ) survived, but the driver landed someplace with just a fractured shoulder and lived to tell the story, albeit a bit stoically.

As rescuers arrived in Joplin to find what one described as a “smoky, barren wasteland,” Eric Cantor, the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, said that disaster relief funds could be approved for Joplin only if another item were cut from the federal budget, so as not to add to the federal budget deficit — this, as people search the ruins for their loved ones. The same people, I might add, whose taxes pay Eric Cantor and his colleagues.

This is a little like making sure your phone bill is paid up before you dial 911 to report a fire. They never say that when they bomb somebody. “Yes, general, you can have these cruise missiles, as long as we cut from the aircraft carrier budget.” (You know how there are those people who make your cat hunch down, bristle and make that weird, low growl when they come within 100 feet? That’s how I get when I see Eric Cantor. Out of curiosity, I checked his chart the other day, and it’s every bit as pleasant as breaking glass. Perhaps I’ll do an edition titled, “Just What Exactly is an Asshole?” Aaah yes, my brother and fellow child of God.)

Meanwhile, Congress is getting ready to cut the tornado forecasting budget, which could reduce by half the accuracy of those predictions — which by the way save a lot of lives because the few minutes of warning provided by the tracking system helps many people get to a safe place before their home is splintered.

In other news, straight from the Sun square Chiron files, Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general accused of ordering the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, was arrested this week after a 16-year hunt.

And in the midst of this, we still have time for appreciating sex scandals. Let’s see, John Edwards, the charming guy who was a presidential contender in 2004 and 2008, may be facing charges for using campaign funds to bribe people to keep hush about an extramarital affair. Arnold Schwarzenegger kept a relationship and child with a household employee secret from his wife (and the American people) for 10 years. Newt Gingrich is all over the news with his $250,000 line of credit at Tiffany’s; a true man of the people. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, is free (under house arrest) on a $6 million bail package after allegedly raping a woman who came to clean his hotel suite [we have been covering this on the Planet Waves blog].

Sen. John Ensign resigned his senate seat earlier in the month after bribing people to keep quiet about one of his affairs; his case has been turned over to federal prosecutors. Ensign is the guy who said in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation.”

This all sounds very Sun square Chiron — the wounded male/father figure, whose injuries are displayed in public. Sun-Chiron contacts call to attention the plight of men. The plight of men is not understood by our culture. I say that boldly. The emotional and spiritual progress of men is also not acknowledged in our culture. And notably, we don’t generally display alleged female adulterers and ogle over them these days, only the men. We can still watch this parade of alleged nogoodniks and think that this has something to do with all men. It does not, but we at least have more fantastic reasons never to take moral advice from a politician.

In her 2000 book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, Susan Faludi describes the plight of men in the 20th century. It’s a revealing documentary of what our fathers went through, emotionally, professionally and economically. You didn’t really know; he probably never told you — or your mom.

To understand the plight of men, you either have to be observant, or read books. If you hold judgments against men or think they are at some special advantage in society, I suggest you read a book called Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man by Susan Faludi. She portrays just what happened to your father during the 20th century. And if you think you hate men, or if you think they are inherently untrustworthy, I suggest you read a book called Iron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly. Far from inherently being cocky power-mongers, we learn from these books that men deal with many of the same insults and injuries inflicted on women, sometimes much worse, with relatively little in the way of refuge offered by women. The men who do abuse power are products of the environments that not only reward but necessitate that abuse. It is a kind of conditioned last resort.

When we look at a sex scandal, though, I would remind you we’re looking at two things. One is the private life of a human being, distorted by the media; the other is our response to that private life when it’s paraded across television screens everywhere. We may get the impression that the underlying theme of all these sex scandals is how men in power abuse that power. I believe the underlying theme is that we have a morbid association with sex. Indeed, it goes far beyond that; sex scandals are about an obsession with death. That’s partly why we watch them on the same TV programs where they talk about wars and holocausts.

Understanding this deeply conditioned obsession is what you might call a spiritual step. It stems from a worldview that existence is divided into good and evil, and that sex is on the evil side. This is an idea that has its roots in Orthodox Christianity and manifests in nearly every sect of that religion; the Christians have always been particularly hateful toward sex, while fascinated by it at the same time. Yet this is an idea with a complex history that has roots in deeper (all but forgotten, but still influential) Persian religious views.

An author named Wayland Young, one of my favorites of all time, explains in Eros Denied how there are mainly four items on the list of things that perpetuate sexual repression, and by that he means the free expression of love and pleasure. It is at first painful to recognize the ways in which we assume sex to be inherently evil, wrong, sinful, dangerous and deceitful — not as an interpretation but based on what we think of as an inherent fact. It takes both an examination of history and some deep self-reflection to see this, but the result will help set you free, in case you’re interested in that. We can learn a lot from our fascination with scandal.

So, those four modes of sexual repression. They are: accident, absence, scandal and suicide — and the first three are merely substitutes for the last one. Basically, every so-called love story we read or see in a movie is infused with one or more of these obstacles to love, and from that we decide that the nature of love is morbid and that death rules over it at all times. This is an option. There are other views of love, but they are not the romantic view, that is, the one certified by the Church of Rome. Romantic love is love associated with death, death usually manifests as accident or suicide; absence manifests as death or its potential in warfare; scandal is often punished by death, or is considered a fate worse than death. Remember that scandal thrives in an environment of loneliness and repression, and is direct evidence of these things.

Young explains something we are familiar with: the church always tells us that it’s more important to love God than to love one another. Yet to most people God is entirely abstract and our fellow mortals are what are real to us. Further, Jesus and others taught that to love one another is to love God. Still, love is considered evil (that is to say, potentially scandalous) because it might lead to sex. If we love one another, we anticipate often the worst and we expect punishment or betrayal. And we don’t count the cost of these fears, much less challenge their validity. Young explains that we don’t need to follow church dogma to imbibe these views; we merely need to be entertained — in particular by romance, of which he describes European literature as “one big example.”

Dido, about to kill herself for no reason at all.

He uses as an example the story of Dido and Aeneas, a late-17th century opera by English composer Henry Purcell, based on the epic written by Roman poet Virgil in 29-19 BC. It tells the story of the Queen of Carthage and the Trojan hero, and is described authoritatively as, “A monumental work in Baroque opera, remembered as one of Purcell’s foremost theatrical works.” In the story, Aeneas leaves Dido when he goes off to found a new kingdom, and then she kills herself.

Young asks: “Now, why do we find the story noble, and why is Purcell’s chaconne [the sung finale of the opera], in its setting, so moving? On the surface, the story is ridiculous. There was nothing in heaven or earth to stop Aeneas taking Dido when he went on to follow his destiny and found Rome. Neither was married, both were young, royal and eligible; a dynastic alliance with the old state of Carthage would have been an advantage to the new state in its formation. But no; off he goes, for no reason, Dido for no reason climbs singing onto her suicidal pyre, and we are all left in tears. Why? Why not giggles?

“Simply because there is no reason. There never is.

“In the Dido and Aeneas legend, there isn’t even a pretense of one, and that is why it moves us; because of its integrity, its refusal to compromise with likelihood. It moves us in the same way it moves us to see a skeleton. Stripped of the lively and interesting flesh, the bare bones make us gasp and say: ‘So that’s what makes us stand up’. Stripped of all invention and incident and especially all excuse, Dido makes us gasp and say: ‘So that’s what makes our feelings stand up’. And mixed with our amazement, there is, as there is with skeletons, pity and a touch of ridicule. St. Augustine liked Dido. Pelagius did not.”

St. Augustine, of course, believed in Original Sin. The less familiar Pelagius, a Celtic monk and an accused heretic, did not. What Young is saying here is that romantic love is regarded as the only true love, and this is regarded as the only suitable format for sex. It is obsessed with death, and out of that obsession, we get many obstacles to love, and with which love is obsessed: and these are primarily accident, absence, scandal and suicide.

Wayland Young, author of “Eros Denied,” Grove Press, 1964. Illustration based on a photo provided by the publisher.

Just flip through the TV channels, browse a magazine rack, stroll around a bookstore or tune into the nearest opera, and this is just about all you see. We might think these things don’t influence us — but they are very nearly all that do.

Novel after novel that purports to be about love is really a story about suicide. Any story not ending in marriage (as comedies do) must be a tragedy (and then all love affairs of romantic literature are doomed). It’s as if we know no other stories; no other plot line. No wonder polyamorous people are terrified to tell people how they live. No wonder so many folks are terrified to love; we are told — and shown — over and over again that the wages of ‘sin’ is death. In essence, this morbid notion has contaminated the whole realm of human love. And a lot of us want it back.

Scandal is only a slightly milder shade of this same sickness; it’s the partially decomposed corpse of love, rather than the bare skeleton. The mere fact that we are fascinated by it, indeed, that we love it, spend money on it, expect it to happen and moreover fear it in our own lives, tells us something about our notion of love. How many people believe that sex must have a victim, and that when we make love, someone must always be betrayed? How many feel that to love is to risk ruin? It’s not that our fears lack some justification; I would question how that justification got there and what beliefs led to its existence.

And all of this — all of it — comes down to the notion of sin, which is based on the religious notion of good and evil. Then sin is always mixed up with sex and murder. We think nothing of this, and it’s so commonplace that we barely even notice; but you really do need to notice if you want to be free of it. Only through noticing can you start to wean yourself off this obsession, which includes most forms of gossip.

Next is to stop being impressed by how supposedly pure you are. Forget it; it’s not true — it’s just what the press release says. Existence is not about purity or perfection, and expecting it to be only leaves us feeling impure and imperfect. John Edwards and Arnie do not make any of us any better as people. They only make us more paranoid and mistrustful, and that does not help love at all.

It helps a lot to allow the people around you to live their truth. We can hardly blame people for keeping secrets when we don’t let them tell us about what they really want, what they really do, or who they really care about. We cannot be honest in an environment where we fear judgment. The more you allow others to live their truth, the more free you will feel to do so. This will gradually shift your environment, and your state of mind, which are closely related.

And at a certain point we must become more fascinated by life, creation and beauty than by loss and disaster. A Course in Miracles puts it succinctly: “Accept no compromise in which death plays a part.”

Oh — and about that rapture thing. It’s not the kind of belief or activity that emotionally fulfilled or creatively driven people take part in. You would have to be pretty frustrated to take that seriously, or to push it on others. Yet that frustration, even in its subtler forms, is starting to add up to something that it would really help if we understood.

Yours & truly,

Weekend Astrology: Sun and Moon On the Move

The Moon entered Aries Thursday night at 8:36 pm EDT, promptly making a conjunction to Uranus at 4:19 am EDT Friday. That conjunction will be stirring the pot all day as the Moon makes a square to Pluto at 10:46 am EDT. So this is an emotionally intense overnight and morning, and the Moon is going to be vibrating with this energy for a while. Then at 6:10 pm EDT, the Moon opposes Saturn. I know this sounds complex. Let me see if I can make it super simple. There are three planets aligned in what is called a T-square, which is behind much of the mischief and turmoil of the world right now. And in our current stretch of time, the Moon sweeps through that T-square, knocking all three of those planets like cue ball on a pool table, stirring up all kinds of deep feelings, past and present fears, insecurities and so on.

Meanwhile, as we mentioned yesterday, The Gemini Sun is making a series of aspects as well — to Uranus, Chiron and then Pluto. This is serving up a similar kind of intensity, only of a solar nature: that is, on the level of ego, expression, pride and confidence. The Sun clears that last aspect on Saturday morning. Sun-Pluto in a quincunx (150-degree aspect) is like enforced growth and maturity. It’s less abrupt and shocking than a square, but not quite the easy opening of a trine. It represents a series of situations, most of them what you might call ‘everyday’, that compel ongoing awareness of one’s evolution. So there may be the exaggerated feeling that situations mean more than they do, or that there are ‘lessons’ involved. So ease on through this sensation and take some notes on how you feel.

This is all unusual activity for the Sun. Now, there is some relief when the Sun clears Pluto and approaches a trine to Saturn. This is like a release, and though the Sun is going to be in aspect to Saturn, there’s a sense of ease; think of the Sun and Saturn resonating from one air sign to another (Gemini to Libra). That trine will be applying all weekend, and the trine is exact Wednesday, June 1 — just a few hours before a partial solar eclipse (the Gemini New Moon). I’ll have more to say about that early next week; but I suggest you keep in mind that an eclipse is approaching, and this can come with a sense of pressure. Indeed, the next three lunations are eclipses: a partial solar on June 1, a total lunar on June 15, and another partial solar on July 1. This is to say we’re taking a little ride on an accelerated sky (as if things aren’t going fast enough at the moment). This whole sequence of events may take a little breathing into (as Len Wallick suggested Thursday). I’ll have more to say about the use and experience of eclipses in Tuesday’s edition.

Planet Waves FM: Looking For Ourselves Everywhere

This week’s edition of Planet Waves FM includes a discussion of “the end of the world,” the most interesting explanation of Gemini you’ve ever heard, a long rant about advertising and a 70th-birthday shout out to Bob Dylan. Bob, you have something rare: you’re one of the most fantastic artists and chroniclers of your decades — and we all know. The first song break happens at about 29 minutes, with talent provided by Dave Harnetty. Right after that music break is potentially a good time to pause the action if you need to. Here it is in the old player.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 27, 2011, #861 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Revised and Updated! Click for Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Listen for the sound of the future calling you. I mean that literally — the information is going to come through your ears. It might be spoken, it might be music, it might be some sound in an urban landscape, or it might be the sound of a natural event — but keep your ears open. That would include the things you hear in dreams, and what is known as clairaudience, a kind of ultraviolet dimension of hearing that some consider a psychic phenomenon. In any event, listen. Listen until you understand what someone is saying, not what you think they’re saying — there is a difference, we all know there is a difference, and we often ignore it. The reason we ignore this feeling of not really knowing is halfway between being lazy and not caring. Repeat back what you’ve heard, and what you think you understand, till you’re sure that you really grasp it. I will pass along my one sentence of advice for young journalists, which is know when you don’t know.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — There is a longterm visitor to your sign named Sedna, one of the strangest known objects in our solar system. These visitors that can spend decades moving through one sign tend to color our whole experience of that sign, and Sedna has the theme of nobody is ever good enough. In our world of things, that would translate to nothing is ever good enough. I am not suggesting you settle for second best, or that you suppress the hunger that is so essential to both surviving and thriving on the hotly competitive physical plane. Rather, I am suggesting that you notice how much you have, and how good your life is, rather than making endless lists of all the ways you need to improve. Yes, there are few key areas that are calling out for improvement, and you would do well to focus on them as longterm projects. Yet especially where people are concerned, notice who is around you. Notice the fact that they are taking an interest in your life. Stay open that way.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You seem to have the impulse to rise up against something without being entirely certain what it is. When you’re going to rebel, make sure that you know what you’re rebelling against. The deeper you look, the deeper you will see. For example, you might think you need a revolution in a relationship, which could be true at the same time you’re working through an issue that involves one of your parents, particularly your father. If someone sets an impossibly low standard, you may be holding everyone else to an impossibly high standard. If you find yourself insisting that the people around you wake up and get real, the easiest solution to that is to be real yourself and notice what happens in your environment. You might discover that you’re in the wrong place, and notice somewhere better that you can be. Don’t ‘work to reform the system from within’. Figure out what you want to do, and do it.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You are starting to figure out something about your career path — and the information is arriving neither too soon nor too late; this particular FedEx is right on time. For quite some time, you’ve been under what has seemed like external pressure to change and evolve. True, there have been elements of that, but you also know that outside influences have been pushing you to make long overdue changes that you might not have made otherwise. Now, the time has come to go on the offensive. You need clear goals, and that’s going to require that you have clear boundaries, particularly involving your use of time and space. And you will need to be clear with yourself that there’s a limit to how much you can let your mood influence your efforts on any given day or week. In the immediate moment, you are getting some clear sense about the direction you want your life to take. Envision that future, and begin taking the necessary steps.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — There is about to be an eclipse in your 11th solar house, which for you is Gemini. This house is about fitting into your environment, and making the most of that environment. It’s also one of the most visionary houses of the 12. Because you have Gemini in this house, there always seem to be a lot of people involved with your future plans. They always seem to influence you, with their ideas and with their physical presence. Now, however, I suggest you let your own creativity dominate your agenda. You have the power to tune out what may even be an exceptionally loud or demanding influence of some kind. You have the ability to take risks that they might not be willing to take, for benefits that they might not be willing to see. Therefore, listen to yourself. Pay attention to what you know is right, and set the terms of your own existence. I think you will be pleased with the results.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Have you figured out that the division between religion and sex is a fraud? Now would be a good time. Most people underestimate the extent to which they’ve been influenced by religion, whether it’s the pressure to get married, the notion of sin, or the idea that you must strive for the same type of family structure that your parents tried to have (whether or not they succeeded). Looked at one way, you’re at a moment where you can break away from the influences of the past, mainly by making a single decision. The characteristics of this choice are, you know it’s right, and then when you make a move, you feel daunted, guilty or otherwise frightened. This second layer — the fear/guilt layer — is the enforcement boundary that religion has installed. It’s like one of those invisible fences that keeps dogs inside a perimeter that you no longer need to activate once the dog has had a few shocks to the neck. It’s time to take off the collar, look both ways and cross the road.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Remember that while there may be two sides to every story, there is only one version of the truth that’s going to work for you. I suggest you make that the one you know is true, rather than the one you hope is true. The one you know is true will work a lot better for you, even if you like it less; at least you have something solid you can work on and develop. One thing that may be affecting you is the expectation that something you actually recognize as the truth will turn out to be wrong, or based on deception. For a long time, it seemed, any time you took a chance on someone’s word, when it came down to practical matters of experience, facts later came out that proved you wrong. You’re now in a new phase of cultivating trust in both people and situations, but that really amounts to trust in yourself. As you learn to do that, remember to check your instincts against the available facts, and back again.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Most — and by that I mean well over half — of humans are not monogamous, but we are all expected to be, or at least pretend. So why don’t we adjust our expectations to match reality? Aaah, that is a very good question. That question has answers, and those answers point to the need for some other adjustments of our minds to reality. Your solar chart suggests you have a number of options open. Further, I see some clues that you actually like it that way. I suggest you not get down on yourself for failing to live up to some standard of the right kind of person who wants the right kind of relationship and is capable of only that. Rather, it would come as a relief if you would embrace who you are, and who you’re attracted to. It helps to know a mental construction when you see one, such as ‘you’re supposed to be this way’. While ‘society’ may send messages, ultimately we send them to ourselves, and we’re the only ones who can stop.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — We are now in the last days of Jupiter in a fire sign, Aries. Its next home will be Taurus. Both of these are passionate signs, but they have a different pattern of how both events and creative impulses unfold. Aries wants everything, right now, but of course this rarely happens. Taurus is willing to wait so long that things sometimes never happen no matter how much we may want them. But Aries has real ideas, and Taurus is a passionate energy, capable of real persistence. For the next year, your task is to combine spontaneity with passion and persistence — the best of all worlds — and proceed steadily. Don’t worry about fast or slow; focus on steady, dependable, documentable progress. Know what you want to do at the beginning of every day, and know what you accomplished at the end of every day. The two may not always match; indeed, they may rarely match — but you will have a dependable marker of progress, and there will be many happy accidents.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You may be feeling like your professional life is all work and very few rewards, and that is partly the result of the demanding and complex times we are living in. But you’re also at the end of a fairly long spell where you’ve had to handle many serious responsibilities, and this has taken an emotional toll on you. You also haven’t fully backed yourself away from the sensation that you live on the edge of a cliff, even though you’re a lot further from that edge than you were, say, three years ago. It’s true that anything can go wrong at any moment, but as Lou Reed said, you can’t count on the worst always happening. And frankly if you don’t act like you’re always expecting the worst, you will live with a sense of potential that starts to feel stronger than your sense of paranoia. Potential means living with a sense of what is possible in the best sense of the idea; that is closely connected to your creativity, which thrives on love and appreciation rather than on fear.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Some longterm plan that has been on hold for a while is now ready to start moving, maybe for the first time. Going back to around late 2008, this idea has been beset or delayed by factors outside of your control. Now that you’ve addressed them, however, you’re unlikely to have a sense of control; rather, that you need to gradually acquire. If you want to accomplish some of your bolder visions, your ability to be disciplined and focused needs to keep pace with your ability to come up with ideas. Remember that any initial idea usually needs to be grounded, developed and evolved over a period of time before it manifests. When it does, it will usually take a form different from the original. Therefore, having good ideas is not enough. You have to work those ideas like clay, see how they look in a new form, and then see if they make it through the kiln. This is the creative process, which is radically different than this abstract thing we call creativity.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You are starting to discover that you’re in financial territory different from what you’ve ever been in. You face many of the same issues as you have in the past, but something is different, and I have an idea what it is. You are beginning to see that your ingenuity and inventive nature are your best financial resources. For these to reveal their full value, you must access them, and use them, and depend on them, every day. For a while this will feel like you’re constantly reinventing yourself, which is actually true. Your sign is one of the most adaptable of them all, so this will be easier for you than it will be for nearly everyone else. The solutions you seek are not one-offs that instantly get you to a new place; rather, you get where you’re going one step at a time, only to discover that certain steps turn out to be quantum leaps. Get used to the fact that you cannot predict these in advance. Just let one moment of clarity or small accomplishment lead to the next, and the next.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

Forever Young

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Dear Friend and Reader:

If I could write one thing to Bob Dylan, it would be a thank you note. Bob turns 70 on May 24, so this seems like a perfect moment. Of course, it’s hard to imagine him being 70 years old, but I’m sure he’s saying the same thing.

Photo by Ken Regan. This photo and others by Ken will be shown at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in SoHo. The show opens May 20.

If I could thank Dylan for one thing, it would be for setting an example that it’s okay to be relevant. A rock critic once wrote that he saved the world from “terminal, irrelevant schlock,” taking up real subject matter in every song. He did so (most of the time, anyway) without conveying the feeling of what some call statement songs. Many of his older songs definitely were, though the poetic strength of his writing made that either less obvious or more exciting. In writing, it’s always better to show rather than to tell, and Bob has shown us American life in its many shades, often dark ones.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to teach a university class called Rock Music as Journalism, and I think of Dylan as being the innovator of this genre. This has some resemblance to how he perceived himself, and how he actually created those songs.

“He said he was never a spokesman for a generation,” said Rob Fraboni, who produced Dylan’s 1974 Planet Waves album. “He was just writing about what he felt was pertinent at the time.” Dylan, he said, would spend time in the New York Public Library keeping up with world events. As a writer, he paid attention to injustice, on many different scales. The basic facts in one of his most moving early songs, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” come straight out of a news clipping, though with some poetic embellishment. Int ruth, the real events of that song were a lot worse than he described.

So here, we have an artist who is not afraid to get his hands dirty with ink from newspapers. He was never above politics, or detached from it. He got Robbie Robertson to do the same thing, and from that, we get songs like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” — which was written by a Canadian who did some research. “Whether he wants to be a spokesman for a generation or not,” Fraboni added, “he has definitely brought a lot of things into the forefront.”

Bob Dylan with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Greenwood, Mississippi, 1963. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

“The other thing to consider historically is that music was about dancing before Bob Dylan. The parents of the generation born in the 1940s were into the dance bands. Then along comes Bob Dylan and he changes the whole framework. Suddenly these songs mean something. There is a message, whether you want to call it that or not.”

To me, that message is a chronicle of the half-century he’s been writing music, at least as told through the eyes of an American. Many times he has seemed to be sounding a warning. In 1962 he described “guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,” ominously describing the Vietnam War that would engulf the United States two years later. In 1983, he lamented that all his clothes were made for slave wages in places like Singapore, in the same song warning, “I can see a day coming when even your home garden is gonna be against the law.”

As the trade deficit grows and most American companies pay pennies for labor in Asia, he called one of the biggest issues of the generation ahead. And as Europe and the United States ban herbs, and the US tries to ban farmers’ markets (regulating small, local farms being the approximate equivalent of outlawing gardening), we had better listen. (If you’re wondering about the potential farmers’ market situation, Google “Food Safety Modernization Act.”)

Dylan also redefined the genre of folk music. There were obviously folk songs before Dylan; it’s just that very few people dared to write new ones, and certainly not on a regular basis. Folk music was a somewhat stodgy tradition — and he opened it up to new contributors and new ideas.

“In truth there are no modern singer-songwriters writing in any sort of American roots or folk idiom who don’t owe a debt to Dylan,” Rosanne Cash said in an email correspondence last week. “We can all trace our work — how it’s structured, where we draw inspiration, and the self-reference (which hopefully doesn’t tip over into self-absorption) back to Dylan. In the same way that there is no modern country music without the Carter Family, there are no modern singer-songwriters without Bob Dylan.”

Dylan playing in Minneapolis, 1986, with Tom Petty to the right side of the photo. Photo by Robbi Cohn, Dead Images.

He even influenced the Beatles, but he did more than turn them on to pot. He encouraged them to do something meaningful with their platform, and they did. Of the four, John Lennon took that message closest to heart.

For many, Dylan’s message was a bit too much. As David Bowie said, he “brought a few more people on and put the fear in a whole lot more.”

There was the episode when Dylan walked off the set of The Ed Sullivan Show when network censors would not let him play “Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues,” which mocks the communist threat that was taken so seriously at the time, and is now known to be about the paranoia he was pointing out. A couple of years later, he and his band were attacked — even physically — by his fans at a concert in Forest Hills because he came out with an electric guitar.

Lest you think he was ever controversial for its own sake, that is, if his body of work is not convincing enough, let’s look at his astrology. His birth data is rated as AA — the highest rating, which means birth record in hand. We can be confident of his Sagittarius ascendant: he was born with a broad and far-reaching vision. The Galactic Center (literally, the black hole at the core of our galaxy, which is located in late Sagittarius) is rising when he is born; people with a prominent GC can have a cosmic quality, and an influence that seems to lurk behind everything.

Even many people with no interest in astrology know that Dylan is a Gemini. He embodies the concept perfectly: the messenger-trickster, who is witty and articulate in a way that is distinct to that sign.

Just for emphasis, he has Mercury — the ruling planet of Gemini — gleaming right on the western horizon, where everyone can see it. When something is on the western horizon, it can work like a mirror; the chart’s native can see himself there, and he himself can also function like a mirror, closely identifying with the public and vice versa. In part owing to that Mercury, my friend astrologer Gary Caton describes Dylan as “Hermes personified.”

The extraordinary Taurus-Gemini cluster in Dylan’s natal chart. Mercury in Gemini is the highest planet, the green thing on the top right side. Below that, in order, are Venus and the Sun in Gemini; then, in order downward, Jupiter, Uranus, the Moon and Saturn in Taurus. Not mentioned in the article are Black Moon Lilith and Nessus, also in Taurus. These kinds of concentrations can bestow a person with unusual creative power. How they use it is another question, and there are no guarantees.

Dylan’s Mercury has another special distinction — it’s connected to these odd points called lunar nodes, which bind a person to public karma. And he also has Venus in Gemini, granting him a status known even to his fans as a triple Gemini. Basically, that means there are six, 12 or 24 of him; multiple planets in Gemini tend to multiply.

But that’s not the part of his chart that I find the most interesting. To me the really interesting part has always been that he also has four planets in Taurus. Gemini can have an airy quality and, by itself, can want for substance. This is where Taurus comes in. He is working from a foundation of solid values, and this is what he expresses in his music. Let’s consider how this works in his chart.

Speaking in very broad terms, there are basically two kinds of planets: the kind that move fast, and the kind that move slow. Fast movers include Mercury, Venus and the Sun, which he has grouped in Gemini. These are usually about style and personality.

Then there are the ones that move slowly. These tell the story of a generation and of society itself. Three of the slow-movers have collected for a rare conjunction in Taurus. This grouping will be present, in one form or another, in the chart of everyone born between 1939 and 1941. How the energy of a planetary alignment expresses itself varies from day to day, and person to person — and is highly dependent on the time of the chart. In Dylan’s case, that Mercury is floating like that on the horizon for a matter of minutes before it sets, changing the astrology dramatically. This is one of those clear cases where had he been born 15 minutes later, he would not be the same person.

Hobby historians: does that 1939 to 1941 date range ring a bell? The world was on the brink of many changes — especially World War II — that were propelled by the same astrology under which Dylan was born. The concentration we’ve been living through this year is similar to that (though the slow movers are different), and we are at an equally wrenching, dangerous, and potentially potent time of history.

Taurus is often mistaken for a reserved, stable earth sign. It’s earthy like a volcano, or the place where two tectonic plates meet. There can be constant tension, even if it’s deep under the ground. People with strong Taurus in their charts have a lovely presentation, but they are on fire inside. Their need to constantly reinvent themselves is belied by that smooth exterior. But Dylan has the advantage of all that Gemini. He can reinvent himself externally, as an ongoing experiment.

Dylan playing in High Gate, Vermont, 1995. Photo by Robbi Cohn, Dead Images.

His strong Gemini gives him a stomach for something that’s abhorrent to most Taureans — inconsistency. On his 1976 album Desire, there is his famous tribute to Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, who was falsely accused of a 1966 triple murder in New Jersey. Had Dylan not put that song on the album, then done a benefit concert for him at Madison Square Garden, Carter might still be in jail. He was freed from prison in 1985 after his two convictions were thrown out.

On the same album, Dylan has a tribute to Joey Gallo, a New York mobster suspected of involvement in the 1971 murder of Joe Colombo, a major New York godfather. “Joey” manages to be a combination of a dirge, an obituary and a protest song. The tribute to Gallo is every bit as sympathetic as the one to Carter. Is Dylan telling us he can see both sides of the story? Or that everyone deserves fair treatment? Is he admitting that humanity is made of sinners and saints? If you think about it, it’s a curious mix of themes, though most people don’t notice because the songs are both so compelling.

From the “two sides of the coin” files, in one biography I read the story of both the Gallo gang and members of the NYPD organized crime unit being invited to watch the the final mix of the song “Joey.” Both cars pulled up outside the recording studio at the same time and seeing the other, both left. This was attributed to Dylan’s wry sense of humor.

You need a little of that if you want to be relevant. From one journalist to another, I would like to thank Bob Dylan for giving many people permission to say something that means something, and to take an unpopular side of the issue when that’s the right thing to do. Who would have thought, at the time Dylan emerged, that the world would become one giant advertisement, selling mostly packaging, usually paid for on a credit card.

Thanks to Bob, strewn along the foggy ruins of time, we will find not only relics of what happened before us, but seeds of how to look at the world and see it clearly.

Yours & truly,

Readers may discuss this article, and ask questions about it, at this link on the Planet Waves blog. Special thanks to Ken Regan and Robbi Cohn for their generous permission to use photos of Bob Dylan.

Moments in Time: A Few Transits in Dylan’s Chart

Bob Dylan left his home in Hibbing, Minnesota, in 1960 at age 19. We know the road: Highway 61. We know he headed for Chicago, where he failed an audition for a folk festival, and Madison, WI, where he first saw Pete Seeger perform. We even know the day: Dec. 21, 1960.

What was going on in his charts that day? Let’s use a chart cast at his time of birth on the day that he left home.

Astrology can plot events as well as birth charts. This is the chart for the day that Bob Dylan left home at age 19, set for his time of birth (called a diurnal chart). There are many striking things about this chart. The first is that Uranus is rising, suggesting a radical change, revelation or development of some kind. Then we see Chiron on the 7th house, which among other things represents the ability to speak to many people in a language they understand. And the Sun is at solstice, square the Aries Point, showing his connection to the public and attunement to world events.

Here is his natal chart, which will open in a separate window, for reference. The chart to the left is the chart for the day he went on the road, inspired (as he has told us) by Jack Kerouac’s novel by the same name.

To cast this chart, I’ve used a technique I haven’t mentioned here before, called a diurnal chart. That’s the chart for any given day, set for the place the native is, and set for the time of birth. It’s a way to look at the quality of any particular day, using the consistent reference point of the birth time.

The first thing you might notice is that he left on the very day of the winter solstice. The Sun entered Capricorn that afternoon. It may have been in the last moments of Sagittarius, which has that flavor of a long adventure of some kind. You can see the Sun represented as the yellow circle, on the lower right side of the chart; the double zeros tell you that the Sun is at solstice, in the first degree of the new sign.

We have an Aries Point chart — that is, a chart with something prominent in the first degree of one of the cardinal signs. As you may recall from many prior articles, that’s the point that reminds us of the connection between the personal and the political — a principle, invented in the Sixties, that Dylan would come to embody and indeed innovate. (I happened to post the Planet Waves website on the winter solstice in 1998, and we’ve embodied the personal is political as an astrological concept.)

The really fun thing about this chart is the ascendant. Even if you can’t read a chart, take a look — it’s the dark, horizontal line to the left side. The degree of the ascendant in a diurnal chart changes at the rate of one degree per day. When a planet passes the ascendant (which every planet does annually), the person can embody that energy, and on this day, the planet Uranus is rising. Fittingly, this day we see him embodying the Uranian principle: sudden change, reinvention, liberation, boldness, revolution. In terms of how a human personality might experience this, it would be a restless sense of urgency and the need to bust free.

Bob Dylan’s birth chart, rated as AA by Astrodatabank (birth record on file). Dylan is famously a Gemini (with three planets in Gemini, the Sun, Mercury and Venus). But this alone would not get him quite as far, if he didn’t have a fuel source coming from Taurus. Gemini grants expressive gifts, but then it needs something to express, often drawn from another area of the chart. The planets and points shown in Taurus, from top to bottom, are: Jupiter Uranus, Moon, Saturn, Black Moon Lilith, and Nessus. He is Sagittarius rising. On the day he left home, Mercury in Sagittarius had crossed his ascendant.

To the other side of the diurnal chart, we see the sky loaded with Aquarius. Counting Chiron and some of the minor planets I cast into every chart, there are seven points in Aquarius, a sign connected to ideas, groups, social movements, intellectual movements, inventions and equanimity. These points include the Moon — the Aquarius Moon, which is intellectually restless and may be the most socially conscious Moon placement.

Now, these events stand alone in the diurnal chart for the day he left. Let’s consider a few transits — that is, contact between real-time planets (in the diurnal) and the ones that are standing still in his natal chart.

Here is a fun one: In the prior article, we described how prominent Mercury is in Dylan’s chart — it shows up on his descendent, or western horizon. It was also prominent as a transit on the day he left: Mercury in Sagittarius was crossing his ascendant the day he left, as if it came to pick him up. This is another image in Dylan’s life of embodying or fully taking on the energy of Mercury-Hermes.

One last: with a character like Dylan, Chiron is going to be instructive. Chiron is in late Aquarius in the chart for his heading on the road. Chiron in Aquarius is the essence of the Beat Generation of writers, and the related youth movement. I think the Beat Generation kicks off when Allen Ginsberg organizes a series of readings in a garage-gallery in autumn 1955, in San Francisco, the very month that Chiron entered Aquarius for that cycle. This included reading part of his poem Howl, which would soon be considered one of the great works of American poetry.

Fast-forward five years and Bob Dylan is leaving home at the end of this transit — just as Chiron makes a series of squares to all those late Taurus planets in his natal chart. He was really, really feeling that quest for freedom. He was being provoked by his astrology, or you could say, the time was right. The last aspect Chiron makes, and the one he’s under at the time, is a square to his natal Jupiter in Taurus. Chiron square Jupiter is about a quest of some kind, a social crusade or fighting for the underdog. Indeed.

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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 20, 2011, #860 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — With Mars (the main Aries planet) making a long trip through Taurus, you may be feeling especially lusty, indeed, driven to passion. The question is, what are you going to do with it all? Do you have the opportunity to express even half of what you’ve got going on inside? I suggest you do two things. One is, do your best to create some opportunities to share that energy, with others or by indulging yourself. The second is, while you’re doing that, notice what gets in the way. Is it your circumstances? Are there people you feel you would offend or betray? Is it your own psychology? What is the relationship between the two? The question to ask yourself is, are you in a situation where you can really be yourself, and if not, what adjustments can you make?

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — As planets collect in your sign, previously hidden material is coming to light. That includes everything from fears to unacknowledged desires; from conflict to passion; from a sense of potential to a sense of loss. The effect is like awareness gradually rising, revealing a diversity of emotions that you may not feel, in total, amount to a good thing. I don’t think you’ll have that perception for long. With feelings, it’s necessary to embrace the full spectrum, in order to be able to draw the power from the battery and put it to creative use. There’s a message behind all the seemingly diverse information you’re getting; that involves what it means to be a whole person rather than living with the sensation that you’re made of many fragments. There are aspects of your psyche that will benefit from hearing one another’s point of view, and that is what you will access as the Sun enters Gemini this weekend.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — It seems like every day that goes by, you know a little less. This is the result of being a consciously curious person who is aware of the functioning of your own mind. Curiosity is your friend right now; this is a sensation of being aware of not knowing, but enjoying the feeling as you sleuth out the elements of a situation. The situation in question is you, and it’s almost always healthy to turn your curiosity on yourself. I assure you the world would be a lot better place if we all invested more energy doing this, and fortunately you’re not shy about it. The key now is to go deeper than you usually do. What tends to repel you from that depth is that the deeper you go into yourself, the more you encounter density and stark tension rather than the fleet-footed mental process that you like so much. But just like the most valuable minerals are kept underground, so too are the most vital aspects of who you are.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — As the Sun enters the sign Gemini, I want to share an observation that I’ve cultivated over many moons as an astrologer: your sign embodies the notion of the twins just as much as the actual sign of the twins, or any of the other supposedly dualistic signs. Yet for you this happens in a way that is hidden, and that also tells us something about most of the human race. We see division in the world without necessarily understanding that it has a counterpart within us. In the weeks ahead, you can go a long way toward healing the inner splits that often cause you so much struggle. Finding inner accord is not so much about ‘middle ground’ as it is about common ground. Your different pursuits in life are not as different as you think. As time goes on, you’re likely to see that they all support one another. You can make relationship choices that are designed to facilitate your inner harmony.

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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — This is an important time to articulate your goals to yourself. You have them; you merely need to put them into some tangible form, such as on a white board or a computer file (both of which have writing in common). This is also a time to purge old goals from your repertoire, the ones you know you no longer wish to pursue, the ones you have decided are not rewarding. When you do that, you’ll notice a bunch of things that you were doing in support of those old objectives that you can now call off, and collect your energy around what you actually want. I suggest you do this sooner rather than later, since the opportunity to make some excellent progress is on its way. You will be able to make more of it if you’re better prepared, which translates to knowing what you want and having some energy available.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Your solar chart is set up for a dual career kind of life (so is everyone who has Virgo rising or Gemini on the 10th house cusp). That is to say, there are two distinct sides to your true career, or you have two distinct careers, each of which needs love and attention. What is interesting about the present moment is the way you seem to be integrating them. If you’re not actively doing this, then you have an invitation that will be opening up over the next few weeks. The solution set may be embarking on a project of some kind that utilizes all of your skills, talents and desires in a new way. When you consider them now, these different aspects of who you are may seem totally unrelated. But they have you in common — and there is something you can do or create that draws on all of who you are at once. It may be thrust on you suddenly; know what you want, and be ready to leap.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — An eclipse is approaching in the angle of your chart that describes your relationship to what some call the ‘higher self’. That same angle of your chart also brings in the themes of ethics, your sense of justice and — oddly enough — your mother’s hidden psychological legacy. Was she of two minds about something important? Did she try to split her character, being decent folk in one part of her life, and less than friendly in another? Or did she live two lives in some other way? The split has carried itself into your life, though it may not be obvious how. If you find yourself in some kind of ethical or spiritual crisis during the next few weeks, you might want to look to her life as a map, or as a source of information. If you happen to have an aunt, she would be the place to go for some useful information.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Planets are lining up in your opposite sign Taurus, including ever-important Venus and Mars. This leads me to some curiosity about the nature of a relationship in your life. To what extent is it really happening, and to what extent is it the product of your imagination? The answer is probably a mix of both, though this is a good time for a reality check. I suggest you make a timeline of the history of the relationship. With that, I suggest you make a map of all the people you’re attracted to, and those who you suspect are attracted to you. Not a list, a map. Who are they? How do they relate to one another? Look for patterns — and see if you notice what they say about you. For example, what aspects of yourself do each of these people represent? This should be pretty interesting.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — I know I’ve told the story of our old web designer Jordan, who created the astrological sign Sagittaurus. True, it was a typo (plastered all over the 2003 annual edition and later removed) but it was a good one — and over the next couple of weeks, it comes true. Your ruling planet Jupiter arrives in Taurus for more than a year, uninterrupted. This is about your wellbeing, in particular, it’s an invitation to take better care of yourself and invest more of your resources into pleasure. There’s a clue that your ideas are worth more than your labor. I will admit, this is a challenging notion for most people, who are accustomed to punching a clock. So if you’ve ever had a scheme or concept whereby you make a living from your creative work product rather than your time or your effort, now is the time to get it going. Many other factors are stacked in your favor, but you have to make the moves.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You need some diversity. If you have some other way you express yourself, that’s the thing to do now. The other side of your brain needs attention. If you usually use words, switch to pictures. If you use pictures, maybe switch to music or movement. If you speak another language, find someone else who does. In fact, if you have some particular specialized jargon you love (fashion, photography, tropical fish, the Grateful Dead), look up your best friend who also speaks that language. You will find these things entertaining as well as liberating. Part of what you’ll get is balance, and part of what you’ll experience is the sensation of not being alone, which will come as a relief. It’s not that you are alone, but if your astrology lately has you feeling like the only pea in a pod, there will at least be two.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Get ready to start making improvements to your living space, or finding a new, better, brighter one. Clear out old stuff; clean your windows; drill into corners and closets and bring the physical remnants of the past to light, so you can move through it. This is about Jupiter moving into Taurus, your solar 4th house — your physical environment, which translates to your emotional environment. While that doesn’t happen till the first week of June, I suggest you start early, while Jupiter is in a fire sign, and your house of ideas. Speaking of which: if you have been a little late in the game of initiating your ideas, go for it. Even making a small move now could lead to something significant materializing. The first step is the most meaningful one and in truth you are never too late.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — I suggest you take a low-key approach to improving your financial situation, mainly by using trusted methods of making income rather than new ones. Think of this as a time when you can collect on old or established investments or ventures rather than having to invent some. That will happen soon enough, as you convey your older methods into newer ones, which you may be considering in their formative stages. You have an excellent chart setup for turning concepts into income, but that takes three things: clear ideas, the ability to stick to them, and trust. Of the three, trust is the most important element, which is why I am suggesting you get the ball rolling on what you already have faith in, rather than what will likely challenge your sense of your own credibility. Once you taste success, you will recognize the feeling that it’s associated with.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

Of Cows, Bulls and Mars in Taurus

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Have you ever seen that Far Side cartoon where one cow is standing up on two feet in the middle of the herd, trying to get all the other cows to stampede? The thing is, they’re not interested. They just want to stand around and graze.

The Forge of Vulcan by Luca Giordano, c. 1660, located in the The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia. Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaistos.

Taurus is about values, that is to say, it represents what is important to us. There are those days when this Far Side cartoon is what it feels like to care. Do you know what I’m taking about? You have something really meaningful on your mind, but everyone else wants to eat grass. Taurus is interesting that way. It can be loaded with passion, and it can want not to get up off the couch. There are days when nobody wants to budge about something that really makes a difference, and days when everyone wants to stampede to the new flavor shake at Dairy Queen, willing to commit acts of violence to get a better spot in line.

It’s often a mystery what makes the difference, besides a good publicist.

One symbol of Taurus is a bovine critter — either a bull or a cow, depending on how you think of it, and depending on what day you inquire. The bull and/or cow are among the many symbols associated with Taurus, which also include the pentacle (or five-pointed star), Venus (which traces the pentacle in the sky) and various manifestations of the Goddess, the Moon (shown in the crescent over the circle) and others, most of which are drawn together in the mythology of Crete. That was one of the last goddess-based cultures in the Western world, if not the very last, and was probably destroyed by the eruption of a volcano on the Greek island of Santorini (properly, Thera) around 1640 BCE. There was also a big earthquake, which probably happened about 10 years earlier (archeologists know that because piles of rubble were found encrusted in volcanic ash).

The association of Taurus with an earthquake and volcanic eruption is essential to understanding this sign. Elegant and composed on the outside, Taurus is more like a blacksmith’s shop on the interior. There is heat, smoke, loud noise, and the clashing and shaping of the soul.

We are in a Taurus moment right now. The Sun will be in this sign for another week, and Mars just entered this week (where it will remain till June 21). Many other planets (still in Aries) are on the way — those would be Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. For the moment let’s focus on Mars.

Cow munching alfalfa — non-GMO, for now. Acting on one’s values can include putting one’s money where one’s mouth is.

Mars is a visitor from either the sign opposite Taurus (Scorpio) or the prior sign (Aries). In this arrangement lies a subtle point — Mars is the daytime ruler of Aries and the nighttime ruler of Scorpio. That is, it’s the warrior during the day and operates by stealth at night. Either way you look at it, Mars has an opposition energy to Venus-ruled Taurus.

Note that in astrology there are two kinds of opposing signs; one is the sign directly across the dial, and the other is typically one of the adjoining signs. The adjoining-sign kind of opposition is rarely mentioned by astrologers, but it’s significant because the sign next to any other sign will be of the opposite gender energy.

For example, while Scorpio is ruled by Mars, it’s still a feminine sign (as a water sign). Aries is ruled by Mars, but it’s a masculine sign. Taurus is a feminine sign ruled by Venus. So we have Mars in a sign ruled by Venus, and this will bring out the underlying fiery energy of Taurus. Most astrologers would say that Mars is compromised (it’s called being ‘in detriment’ because the natures of Taurus and Mars are supposedly so different), but I think that Mars is really bringing out or activating a fiery property of Taurus. You might say it’s choosing the bull version of Taurus rather than the cow.

In terms of a psychological effect, it could translate to active desire rather than hoping something comes along; that is, outward passion rather than feeling desirable, or quietly yearning. It can be about the direct expression of one’s values rather than simply ‘having’ a value. You could think of a Mars influence on Taurus as the active use of resources rather than saving them up for a rainy day.

By the traditional rules of astrology, Mars is definitely out of its element in Taurus; a bit on the defensive, with less ability to take advantage of its usual gifts. In a modern context, it is going to change the quality of Taurus and make contact with this underlying element — and like an earthquake, it can all emerge at once. So with Mars in Taurus you will want to be aware of this, and make sure you keep a handle on your temper. You need to find a way to let off the steam, especially if you have a lot of Taurus in your chart. Figure out ways to use that energy creatively.

By the way — with fiery Taurus, we’re talking about the archetype of Hephaistos, the consort of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman terms). Alice Bailey associated Taurus with the Roman god Vulcan, equivalent to Hephaistos — which is an asteroid by the way, and which happens to be in Taurus at the moment.

As I mentioned, Mars will be in Taurus till June 21 — right on the eve of solstice. (Speaking of June, Keith Olbermann returns to cable on Current TV at 8 pm on Monday, June 20).

Other planets will be moving in, meanwhile:

Mercury enters Taurus May 15. Mercury is the ruler of Gemini and Virgo. Because of the Virgo connection, it has a natural affinity for earth signs; yet in Taurus it tends to be more pensive and emotional rather than mercurial and quick-witted. Its intelligence is the more thoughtful and enduring kind. For reference, when Mercury is in Capricorn, the third of the earth signs, there’s a stronger emphasis on the past (a quality, to some extent, of all earth signs).

Venus also enters Taurus May 15. This is one of the signs of which Venus is the traditional ruler. The mix of Venus, Mercury and Mars brings quite a nice dose of erotic energy to Taurus. The three are moving into a trine with Pluto, which will give that energy some means of expression and depth, taking advantage of the psychic space that Pluto in Capricorn has been clearing out for us (whether we like that clearing out process or not).

Artifact of the Inuit creation goddess Sedna, who rules over the seas; photo from the collection of M.E Brown.

Jupiter enters Taurus June 4. It stations retrograde at 10+ Taurus on Aug. 30, and retrogrades back to the first degree of Taurus — it does not re-enter Aries for this cycle. It stays in Taurus until June 11, 2012, when it enters Gemini amidst many other world-changing events.

Sedna is also in Taurus. This is the planet with the longest known orbit — 11,400 years. It’s currently eight billion miles away from the Sun (and that is close; it’s at the near side of its orbit). It is, for us, a seemingly permanent fixture in Taurus. It’s currently at 22+ degrees of that sign. It begins its transit into Gemini in 2024. The Sun is currently conjunct Sedna, and over the next few weeks Mercury, Venus and Mars will also make conjunctions as well. The themes of Sedna take us into some of the darkest territory of the psyche, including alienation and rejection. Melanie Reinhart once described its themes as being about ‘keeping your heart open in hell’. That might mean while you’re looking at Coke Zero and Exxon-Mobil ads everywhere.

Tuesday, by the way, is the Scorpio Full Moon (Sun Taurus/Moon Scorpio). This will happen with the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars in Taurus — so we are in a moment of full activation of Taurus, with just four days of the Sun’s passage to go after that Full Moon — but thanks to the presence of many inner planets, more than a year of Jupiter and Sedna for another decade, Taurus is an energy we will be exploring for quite a while.

Because Taurus is about an investigation of what is meaningful and valuable to us, and because it relates so closely to how we feel about ourselves, I would say that’s a good thing.

Yours & truly,

The Runaway International Best Selling E-Book! As Seen on Oprah and The Onion! The One That all The Pundits Simply Cannot Stop Talking About Night And Day! A Must Read if There Ever Was One!

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 13, 2011, #859 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — The late, great Lois Rodden (the astrologer who created the system by which birth data is rated) once wrote that astrologers think Mercury is the money planet — but they have it all wrong. The money planet, she said, is Mars, the reason being that in order to make money you need drive. Mars provides motivation and energy, and it has recently entered the money sector of your chart. If you’ve ever felt complacent about your finances, you now have a phase of time where you can experiment with being more assertive, and also more persistent or maybe it’s consistent, or both. The contact point is drive, connected to action, sustained for the next five or six weeks. I assure you, you can make progress, but I would add some caution. Anything you do that is not directly connected to what you actually value is liable to backfire.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Inaction, or what is sometimes called paralysis, is usually the result of fear. The human psyche runs in a fairly typical cycle: for many, only fear is a motivating force. When fear subsides, then we can find ourselves going back into lazy mode. Mars has entered your sign, which means two things. One is that you are being relieved of significant mental pressure that has been at the root of a good bit of frantic emotion, paranoia or psychic irritation the past couple of months. Another is that you now motivate yourself directly, without having to process or dance with paranoia. There is freedom with this, but that implies movement, change and a dynamic — not predictable — relationship with existence. To make the most of this, you’ll be shaking your bones, even the lazy ones. Get in the groove now. More planets are on their way into your sign — a lot of them.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You seem to have had your mind rearranged recently, or at least your thinking. The subject is how you see yourself in the world, or how you think others see you. Need I say that the differential can be more impressive than that big canyon on Mars? How you think people perceive you has nothing to do with how they actually do. This is important to keep in mind, all the time. The potentially troubling news is that, try as you may, you have only a limited ability to influence how people think of you, or experience you; most of that influence comes from where you present yourself, and to whom — rather than how. The good news is that you have far more freedom to be who you are than you think. People tend to be distracted; they tend to be forgetful; when necessary, most can be seduced with self-interest, no matter what they may have thought yesterday.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — With planets starting to exit your career house (Aries), you may find it easier to focus on some specific goals related to advancing your work or profession. Fewer planets means less pressure, and more acting from choice and a bit less acting from compulsion. Yet while it may seem like the chaos of the past two months hasn’t helped much, or helped anything, you’ve made more progress than you think. If you don’t know what you’ve learned, I suggest that you have some data-mining to do. All these experiences you’ve been through may be things you hope you have to avoid going through twice, but every one of them has taught you something, whether you deem it a success or a failure. Let the dust settle on these recent events; you’ll see you are still in possession of an excellent idea that you have every intention of developing — and you now know enough to do it.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You can now take authority; it would be great if you did. Here’s the thing to remember: It’s easier to bring people into consensus if you start with getting them to agree on values and principles involved. Leave the exact subject matter out; stick to the underlying things that everyone can agree to. Then, once a subject is added, you have a basis for the conversation and with that it will be easier to reach an understanding. Your outer role, therefore, is not really being the boss or the authority but rather the one who establishes a framework of ethics. Let everyone around you take credit for the accomplishments that result from the progress that you guide them into making. Of course, you do have the option to declare yourself chief in some obvious way, but that is far less likely to be effective. And effective is precisely what you want.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — As planets move into your fellow earth-sign Taurus, you will have support plucking up your moral resolve and your sense of adventure. For weeks life has had the approximate overtone of a sudden-death event of some kind, where your ego was on the line every day. This may have been fun at first but it is likely to have grown tiresome. People to whom crisis is interesting make excellent paramedics and ER docs, but the rest of us thrive on some balance between crisis and placid times. One advantage to planets leaving Aries is that you and others are less likely to take so many things so personally. This will make it obvious that neither you nor others have to get defensive, and you’ll tend to see defensive responses for what they are. One thing they are not is useful. What we call ‘ego’ is a frustrating perspective from which to see the world, and yourself — fortunately, other options are on the horizon.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Saturn in your sign has provided you with a base of stability through some unusually torrid weeks and months. Well, it’s not just Saturn; it’s how well you embody the Saturn principle of flexible structure, and of stability through times of change. The theme of your life is now about negotiation, rather than confrontation or of being confronted. Yet it will help considerably if you are the one who opens the discussion. This will mean being conscious of what you want sooner rather than later; and dispensing with your usual strategy of leading from behind or ‘topping from the bottom’. You gain a significant advantage both by admitting your actual desire and taking initiative on that desire on the framework of your relationship. This is not about being aggressive; it’s about being aware and assertive.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Mars in your opposite sign presents you with a mirror. The first question is, what do you see in that mirror? What do you feel? You can tell that by the shift in perception, experience and what some call ‘energy’ both in the world around you and in your most intimate relationships. For practical purposes, assessing a transit in your opposite sign, they are basically the same thing: your environment. Notice in particular the shift of the 48 hours surrounding this moment. See if you can observe what within you has changed that is coloring your perception. Observe how what you are noting is changing how you feel about yourself. The idea is to come as close to ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ being one experience as you can. This is not intended to blur a boundary — it’s intended to reveal your influence over your own experience of life.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — One house in your chart has been lit up for months now — your 5th house, which is Aries, which is daring art, adventure, passion and sex. There has been so much going on in this house, peaking the past two weeks, that I would not be surprised if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by all of this so-called creative energy. It has been difficult to focus, difficult to gather your ideas, challenging to follow through on so many fleeting matters initiated by an impressive collection of planets. Now that most of these critters are moving into Taurus, two things happen. One is that you can tap into some persistent focus and work-related drive. The second is that your 5th house clears out except for two of the most inspirational energies, slow-moving Uranus and Eris, which will be around for years. In other words, you lose nothing in the way of inspiration, and gain plenty in the way of drive and dedication.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You could relax and loosen up a little. Your concept of existence has been so driven by a mix of responsibility and the need to grow that quite a few times you’ve forgotten to have fun. But you have not forgotten how to have fun; that’s the meaningful thing. The kind of fun you’re likely to want to have involves risk, and that risk involves daring to act in a way you might consider childish or irresponsible. I can see where you might think this, though it’s unlikely to be true. In fact, one of the greatest risks you run is to allow the pressure to have fun and indulge yourself to build up, which could lead to actually acting irresponsibly (for example, such as when you drink). A little conscious indulgence will go a long way toward helping you fulfill more ‘serious’ responsibilities, but more to the point, it is springtime and that is a natural time to frolic and play.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — As more planets — beginning with Mars — cross your sensitive 4th house cusp, you may feel restless, even unsettled and like it’s time to pick up and make changes. At the same time you may have the feeling that it’s not a good idea to act from a point of frustration. Yes, maybe that would be true at a New Age workshop or Buddhist monastery. In reality, though, the things that spur us to action are valuable, be they ‘negative’ or ‘positive’. And given the challenges that so many of us face making changes at all, I suggest you take any inspiration to improve your situation as helpful and creative. You have the option to see the humor in any situation; to not get too emotionally wound up; to merely experience any feeling as the motivation to act. Indeed, the fact that you may feel anger or frustration is likely the result of waiting.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Sometimes you’re slow on the uptake, but once you get something, you really get it. The thing about your intellect is that it’s tactile, and it’s becoming more so. You like the actual document and substantial proof over somebody’s say-so. You like to see the thing in question, or at least see a picture of it, rather than merely having a description. Mars joining the Sun in the brains/cognition/idea angle of your solar chart is inviting you to be assertive, inquisitive, curious and bold about learning what you want to learn. You’re invited to be passionate about what inspires you to creative action, and by passionate I mean feeling anywhere along the whole spectrum. Love your ideas for how they feel as much as what they say. Your mind is a kinesthetic thing; that is to say, your preference most days would be for having clay in your hands over a math problem, for going into the woods over going into the gym, and for sex over the idea of sex. In the words of old Uncle Fritz, lose your mind and come to your senses.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

Shooting the Mirror

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What are we gonna do now? / Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?
‘Cos working for the clampdown / They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we’re working for the clampdown / We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers / We will train our blue-eyed men / To be young believers
— The Clash – Clampdown

Dear Friend and Reader:

This has become a Beltane infused with death. I learned recently that some cultures (such as in the Eastern Orthodox faiths) practice Days of the Dead-type rituals right after Easter. I had no idea till someone told me a few days ago. But that is a small palliative to seeing mobs of young people dancing in the streets, celebrating a murder. In a glance, I understood why we don’t see those same young people at peace rallies.

Young people sing in the streets celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, the night of May 1, 2011. Photo by Eric Francis.

Friday morning we witnessed something a little more in the spirit of the season — the royal wedding. It is interesting that the future king of England was married within mere days of the purported slaying of our worst enemy. Are we being told that the royal house is in order, and that empire is on the rise again? Though some may see this as evidence that the military power of the West is now in capable hands, it is disturbing that Osama bin Laden was, in essence, executed without a trial. Being a democratic nation, that’s the thing that’s supposed to set us apart from all the other kinds of nations — that someone is innocent till proven guilty. I know a lot of people might think that’s just ridiculous. But I would ask why, when fair, transparent criminal procedure was part of why the American Revolution was fought?

For the sake of this article, I will set aside any possible questions about whether it was actually him; I can tell you that I don’t personally know, and the U.S. government generally does not win awards for its impeccability with truth. Either way, this is an important moment. Bin Laden’s purported death turns a chapter in the history of the Sept. 11 incident and the history of the seemingly endless War on Terror. That phrase has always irritated me. It’s possible to address terrorism with a war (though not particularly effective), but one cannot wage war on an emotion. Presumably we are supposed to be less afraid now that this has happened, though many people feel we’ve kicked a hornet’s nest.

Since we’re on the topic of Sept. 11, 2001, let’s consider some recent astrology related to that incident.

Back in October, the Libra New Moon occurred exactly in the ascendant of the main Sept. 11 chart — what I call the North Tower chart — and that, to me, said something was brewing with the issue. The chart of the world’s most famous terrorist attack was stirring back to life. At the time, I covered this in an article called History, Turning on a Phrase, in which I laid out some of the serious problems with the prevailing theory of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The ascendant of the North Tower chart contains the planet Mercury — it is rising precisely, to the degree, like the moment of the Sun coming up over the ocean, the moment that Flight 11 was crashed into the World Trade Center. Last October’s Libra New Moon was conjunct both Mercury and the ascendant of the North Tower chart. By conjunct, I mean to the exact degree, something that will not happen again for decades. Mercury in that chart describes the ‘secret enemy’, that is, a suspect for whoever was behind the attacks and the conspiracy. The ascendant or rising degree is the face of the chart — and the face became that of Osama bin Laden.

Mercury rising in the chart for the North Tower strike. Mercury is precisely in the degree of the ascendant, which happens for about four minutes out of every 24 hours. The little planet below it in Scorpio is Pholus, shorthand for, “An unstoppable flow of cash is about to come loose.” And given that the placement is in Scorpio, that would count for death as well. Full chart here. You can read about the chart in this article.

Bin Laden was sold to the global public in cinematic terms as the personification of evil, the prince of darkness, and the cryptic embodiment of every radical Islamist who ‘hates our way of life’. He was described as the sinister, insidious mastermind, living out of a cave, plotting against all we love so dearly. He was alternately portrayed as an economist, a billionaire and the iconic ‘sand nigger’, an appalling phrase that surfaced during the first Bush War in 1990-91 to describe anyone in a turban. Bin Laden’s face started showing up on bumper stickers, buttons and novelty wanted posters with crosshairs — this, despite the fact that there was never enough evidence to list the Sept. 11 attacks as among the reasons he was wanted by the FBI. Take a look: on his real wanted poster, he’s not wanted for 9/11.

There had been no investigation, no arrests and no trial — but the word was out on the streets of New York City even as office paper from the towers was still drifting in the breeze that Osama bin Laden was the guy. Hardly anyone in the public knew who he was. His name had popped up in the news from time to time, just like lots of other Arab terrorists, but his was not exactly a household word — that is, until the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Then, in an hour, he became an archetype.

The peace dividend that many had hoped would come at the end of the Cold War went up in the smoke of the World Trade Center, and so did what was left of the federal budget (or more accurately, credit card). And, we were told — and readily believed — it was all because of one bad guy, Osama bin Laden.

The peace dividend wasn’t the only thing that went up in the smoke. Raising Osama bin Laden to the level of a religious icon, the citizens of the United States bowed down to fear, allowed their privacy to be taken from them, and tacitly consented to global war, presumably without end. In her broadcast Monday night, Rachel Maddow summed up the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks beautifully:

Ten years ago, before 9/11, the U.S. defense budget was half the size that it is now. Ten years ago, before 9/11, there was no Department of Homeland Security. Had someone suggested that there ought to be one, you probably would have teased them for using a weird word like homeland.

Ten years ago before 9/11, you walked through a metal detector to get on an airplane, sure, but this was the kind of thing you’d only do maybe on a third date [visual of full body X-ray at airport security]. Sometimes on your flight, even the pilots would keep the cockpit door open and you could see them work and you could see the world fly by through their windshield if you peered down the aisle.

Rachel during Monday’s broadcast. Image courtesy of MSNBC.

Before 9/11, the U.S. had troops based in Saudi Arabia. Before 9/11, the U.S. legal history of torture was of our government prosecuting people for that. Wartime was no excuse. Before 9/11, the National Security Agency having access to everybody’s emails and phone calls and texts and bank records and everything would have been a scandal.

Before 9/11, we did not have a new militarized intelligence bureaucracy that The Washington Post described as an additional 1,271 government organizations, 1,931 private companies and an estimated 854,000 people holding top-secret security clearances.

Before 9/11, no one in politics and private life talked about Article III Courts called for under the Constitution because those were just what courts were. We didn’t have anything but Article III courts. Why would we?

Before 9/11, we didn’t drop bombs using flying robots.

Before 9/11, we had not lost 3,000 people in Lower Manhattan and at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Before 9/11, we did not have 2.2 million Americans who are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and we did not have the national promise to do right by them as a country in respecting their service. Before 9/11, we had not lost more than 6,000 of those veterans in our post-9/11 wars before U.S. forces finally found and killed Osama bin Laden.

If you were a kid when 9/11 happened, it may be hard to imagine our country without all of these things in place. If you were an adult when 9/11 happened, you probably never could have believed this is how we would have chosen to spend the decade after.

These are some serious consequences of the events that spanned a few hours in the history of a nation. The verified body count in Afghanistan and Iraq today stands at 110,000 civilian deaths; because not every death is accounted for, it is really much higher, and that does not include the many injured. Every one of those civilian deaths comes with a family that has lost a loved one. Thousands of people have been orphaned and millions have been reduced to refugees, displaced and fleeing across borders.

Site of impact where the Pentagon was allegedly struck by an airplane, an agonizing 59 minutes after the World Trade Center was hit. How is that even possible? Meanwhile, most people point out the obvious lack of an airplane or damage in the shape of one. But how did the debris go in the direction that the plane was supposedly coming from? The wall stood upright for about half an hour before it fell outward. Photo by Dept. of Defense.

Yet even Rachel Maddow, who I consider the best mainstream broadcaster in the business, possibly in the history of commercial television, never questions the orthodoxy of Osama bin Laden being the guy behind Sept. 11. She never mentions there is a problem, or even a potential problem, with the facts. I wait for her to do so in faithful anticipation. Indeed, the most left-leaning journalists in the mainstream media, and many in the alternative media (in addition to everyone else), swallow whole the notion that bin Laden did it; that the conspiracy was his alone.

There is a silent presumption; it is accepted, unquestioned, as religious orthodoxy. In what seems to be a perpetual, unshakable consensus of the working media, nobody is allowed to so much as inquire what is wrong with the official story.

That is the one thing that Jon Stewart has in common with Glenn Beck; that Barack Obama has in common with Dick Cheney; that Rachel Maddow has in common with Rush Limbaugh.

Whether you’re writing in The Washington Post or The Washington Times, or The New York Post or The New York Times, you swallow this ‘truth’ of the official 9/11 story like a Catholic swallows the host: without chewing, and without question. Even Amy Goodman refuses to give airtime to what has become known as the 9/11 Truth Movement: the people demanding to know what really happened that day. And that, I think, is amazing, given the significant questions that exist (including many raised by architects and engineers), and given how many Americans don’t trust the official story.

Among other surveys, a Scripps-Howard poll found that, “Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is ‘very likely’ or ‘somewhat likely’ that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them ‘because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East’.”

I understand the lack of trust that the public feels. We all know that a lot of people have made princely sums of money on the War on Terror, and that alone is reason to be suspect. We know that since Watergate (a far-reaching crime that has been reduced to a word), people have struggled, with good reason, to trust the government. George W. Bush ignoring the warning in the CIA’s presidential daily briefing from Aug. 6, 2001 looks a lot like complicity.

World Trade Center 7, or the Salomon Brothers building, shortly before it collapsed in its footprint at 5:21 pm on Sept. 11, 2001. Most people don’t know that a third tower of the Trade Center complex even existed, much less that it fell down that day. Photographer unknown.

I also understand the issue that journalists face. Nobody in a prominent position wants to be accused of being a conspiracy theorist, or of sympathizing with them. They don’t want to seem flaky, especially if they go out on limbs other ways (and many brave journalists do). Nobody with a decent job wants to cash in all of their credibility raising the issue, nor do they want to discover one day that their brakes failed at 70 mph.

Plus, there are no definitive answers; the story has no payoff. When you question why, for example, Tower 7 of the World Trade Center fell down on its footprint on the afternoon of Sept. 11, having been hit by no airplane, there is only a question. And that question has some very serious implications. It’s better not to open that can of worms — or not to be the one who tries. I give Michael Moore a lot of credit for raising some of the right questions in Fahrenheit 911.

Yet there is something else going on, something deeper than politics. On the most superficial level, everyone seems to be buying into the old story of good and evil. There is a game of victim consciousness — and I don’t mean the actual victims of whatever happened on Sept. 11; I mean how victimization became a cultural event. Victimization requires a perpetrator. If you have an emotional need to accept that your country is the symbol of all that is good, and you secretly know that it’s not, then you have to see that evil someplace else. Jungian analysts don’t think this is a conscious process — but we’ve all seen it and felt it, and we often know when we’re doing it. It’s just when the whole society gets into the act, it’s sometimes really hard to tell.

Mercury and Saturn, Trading Places

It’s easy to see the issues that became the 9/11 Truth Movement in the chart for the North Tower. By that, I mean in this chart we see the obvious potential for the incident being an inside job or a collaboration between the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’. It would not be the first time in history that this has happened. Treason is against the law because it exists.

There is a rule in astrology called mutual reception. Planets that occupy one another’s signs can also be viewed as swapping places. Mercury (the secret enemy) is in Libra (a sign co-ruled by Saturn), and it trades places with Saturn, the planet of government, which is in Gemini (a sign Mercury rules).

Not a bad guy inherently, but in the Sept. 11 chart, Saturn represents the shadow government (basically, the Cheney/Rove administration as opposed to the Bush administration). Photo from Cassini Mission/APOD.

Said directly, Saturn in Gemini is in reception to Mercury in Libra. The two function as one entity, cycling energy between them as one system. They are also in a perfect trine aspect — an aspect of cooperation that Martha Lang-Wescott once said (long before 9/11) translated to “you lie and I’ll swear to it.”

What does that look like in real life? We could mention that bin Laden starts his career as a CIA operative, fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Pakistan was the intermediary between him and the United States. It is no surprise that he was found living in the midst of Pakistan’s military elite, half a mile from a military academy.

Or we could remember that George H. W. Bush was sitting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel with Osama bin Laden’s brother Shafiq the morning of Sept. 11, watching the smoke rise from the Pentagon. This is not a novel; it is reality. They were part of a meeting of the Carlyle Group, the Bush family business, which is essentially an investment firm and holding company that (among other things) develops military contracting firms. Shafiq was an investor in the Carlyle Group, which profited from the wars that followed. If that’s a coincidence, it’s a really weird one.

Or we could remember that his son, George W. Bush, had a long relationship with the Taliban going back at least to when he was governor of Texas — the very government that Osama bin Laden personally financed. That relationship included an energy deal with Enron requiring the Taliban’s cooperation that was no longer forthcoming in 2001. When you research this, the connections between Enron, the Taliban and Bush are so well documented as to be horrifying.

We could also consider that when we had Osama bin Laden all but captured in December 2001, the United States let him go. To me it seemed obvious: we could not have a war without an enemy. Were he to be killed or captured, he would be useless. When alive, he gave the War on Terror brand an identity. Eliminating him would have been like McDonald’s capturing Ronald McDonald.

When you add this to all of the unaccounted-for issues of Sept. 11, starting with the blatantly ignored early warning on Aug. 6, or the fact that the U.S. government was flying NORAD exercises on that day and many federal officials did not know whether the four hijackings were part of the game, or that nobody is admitting that WTC 7 was demolished (nor did the 9/11 Commission even inquire as to how it fell down) it is clear that one guy did not mastermind 9/11.

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden.

Meanwhile, we have rarely heard much of what Osama bin Laden had to say for himself. Mostly, we know his face, which is an unusual face for a terrorist because his gaze always seems balanced, present and soulful. In his lengthy obituary Monday, The New York Times did him the service of quoting a 1997 interview he gave to CNN.

The United States, he said, wants to “occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose agents on us to rule us and then wants us to agree to all this. If we refuse to do so, it says we are terrorists. When Palestinian children throw stones against the Israeli occupation, the U.S. says they are terrorists. Whereas when Israel bombed the United Nations building in Lebanon while it was full of children and women, the U.S. stopped any plan to condemn Israel. At the same time that they condemn any Muslim who calls for his rights, they receive the top official of the Irish Republican Army at the White House as a political leader. Wherever we look, we find the U.S. as the leader of terrorism and crime in the world.”

I agree with his analysis. It is actually much worse than he’s saying. I understood that analysis (mainly from reading Noam Chomsky and long talks with my friend Steve) well before I ever heard the name Osama bin Laden. When you start listing the holocausts that the United States has sponsored, whether in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Central America, East Timor, Cambodia, or Vietnam — not to mention the universe of agony and humiliation we have loosed upon the Arab world — you understand better what he’s saying. It starts to look pretty suspicious that we personify evil in this one person, without admitting what our own nation does.

This process is psychological, it has a name, and the name is projection.

Unlike bin Laden, I don’t think the appropriate response is to fight back against these injustices with guns and bombs — that happens to violate my religious and ethical views, and I don’t think it will work. Admittedly I’m not the one getting shot at. I also oppose the death penalty under all circumstances, as do many families of murder victims. But in a world where we pay for children to play video games that involve shooting and blowing up others, and murdering prostitutes (to wit, Grand Theft Auto), and where most of our tax dollars go to bombs, you can hardly blame bin Laden for taking this approach. I am not saying it is ethical or lawful. I am saying it is logical.

What we are doing is, in essence, blaming him for our own actions. And I do mean that literally. Plenty happened on Sept. 11, 2001 that Osama bin Laden could not have done himself — at least not without a lot of help from people with keys to the World Trade Center.

The Projection of Shadow

Psychology has a way to help us past our madness, both individual and cultural. The thing is, this requires the desire to mature, awareness, the willingness to admit one’s mistakes, and some sustained effort.

Carl Gustav Jung, in 1922.

A psychologist and scholar named Carl Jung explained projection to us. Here is how he described it; his language is a bit formal. “Projection means the expulsion of a subjective content into an object; it is the opposite of introjection. Accordingly, it is a process of dissimilation, by which a subjective content becomes alienated from the subject and is, so to speak, embodied in the object. The subject gets rid of painful, incompatible contents by projecting them.”

I’ll state this again, with my elaborations on his ideas [in brackets].

“Projection means the expulsion of a subjective content [what is in one’s own mind, such as a motive] into an object [into something or someone outside oneself]; it is the opposite of introjection [absorbing the properties of something or someone external]. Accordingly, it is a process of dissimilation [making oneself different from], by which a subjective content [a thought or feeling in your mind] becomes alienated from the subject [oneself] and is, so to speak, embodied in the object [something or someone else]. The subject gets rid of painful, incompatible contents by projecting them.”

Our view of the U S of A as being this great nation that does only good deeds and always spreads democracy is not compatible with the nation that bombs villages with napalm — jellied gasoline dropped burning from airplanes that sticks to human skin, which was used widely in Vietnam. That is not acceptable behavior for our freedom-loving country, so we have to project it onto an evil-doer.

This is largely about relief, but it’s also about protecting our self-image and our pride. The dark or cruel side of our existence — all the people we have killed, starting with the American natives our young nation exterminated, the tens of millions of African slaves we imported — exists as shadow material that we put onto others.

It works on a deeply personal level with individual leaders. Jung explains, “The projection of the personal shadow generally falls on persons of the same sex. On a collective level, it gives rise to war, scapegoating and confrontations between political parties.”

Or, as an author named Paul Levy put it, “Shadow projection is itself the unmediated expression, revelation and playing out of the shadow. Shadow projection, the process in which we ‘demonize’ our enemies, entrancing ourselves into believing that ‘they’ are inhumane monsters who need to be destroyed, is the underlying psychological process which, when collectively mobilized, is the high-octane fuel which feeds the human activity of war.”

Photo by Eric Francis – Book of Blue, New York.

Levy continues, “Trying to kill our shadow as it appears in the outer world is itself the embodied reflection of our original inner act of splitting off from, projecting out and trying to destroy the dark part of ourselves, which is the impulse at the very root of shadow projection in the first place. In other words, our present-moment ‘inner’ activity of projecting the shadow ‘outside’ of ourselves is being dreamed up and played out in the seemingly ‘external’ world. The outer world is the canvas upon which our inner process embodies, or incarnates itself. We are literally acting out on the world stage our very inner process of disassociating from, projecting out, and trying to destroy our own darkness (emphasis added).”

We do this at our own peril. We not only create pain, which makes more guilt and thus more shadow to project; we are consuming our national resources in an existence of nonstop war. We burn creative energy on conflict, which subtracts it from loving and creating and building and cooperating.

Putting a bullet through Osama bin Laden’s head is just more projection. Everyone is acting as if this, too, will have no consequences.

I have a good friend who’s a truly perceptive psychologist. Her name is Christine Farber. Watching young people dancing in the streets Sunday night, I was so disturbed that I wrote to her to ask her what she thought was going on. I noticed something sexual in the vibes of these people gloating in the death of Osama bin Laden. It seemed like they finally had been given permission to show a little passion; not be so damned cool.

Christine replied:

My 20-year-old nephew is now planning to have Sunday’s date tattooed somewhere on his body; he informed me that he clapped and screamed and danced when he heard the news Sunday night. What are these responses about, at their core? You mention sex; I’m sure you’re on to something, and I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts about this on Friday.

I think about Eros and power and vulnerability and compassion and healing. I mean Eros in the sense of how we rise to meet the world, and what inspires us to do so. We rise differently if we have experienced traveling into our vulnerability — really being there — rather than fleeing from it. Your own writings, especially Book of Blue, describe this experience and the healing and compassion and empowerment that come with it.

Fleeing from vulnerability can still allow for certain expressions of power, that of power over something, which is where I think most of our world is on this issue. Many people felt vicariously powerful hearing the news of BL’s death. I received the following text from someone the next day: “Great for America. Shows the world that no matter what it takes, we’ll get ya!” I heard this same sentiment expressed over and over, and it I saw it in the faces of those chanting “USA” at ballgames, in streets, etc. It’s as though folks were waiting, perhaps desperately, for something to inspire them to rise up to meet the world with passion. Waiting for that something that could allow them to feel powerful. And waiting for something that would help them to feel connected to something larger than themselves (in this case, their country).

If, as a country, we did a little more hanging out with vulnerability — traveling downward, deeply into ourselves; being with those hidden hurts and desires and vulnerabilities — then I think the response to this event would have looked different, very different. Both individual and collective Eros would have other outlets, inspirations, and manifestations. We’d be more able to see through the illusions of violence. We could forgive.

What I find most striking is that people are craving power (which could be fulfilled through empowerment rather than power-over) and connection and inspiration. I like to believe that the jubilation comes from experiencing this — i.e., fulfillment of the more archetypal cravings underlying the experience, even if this fulfillment is short-lived, backward, skewed, and otherwise disturbing. Am I being too optimistic?

Personally, I don’t think so.

Yours & truly,

Additional Research: Mandy Hall, Eileen Mahood-Jose, Amanda Painter.

Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span by Eric Francis is the story of irrevocable change told through the lens of astrology, history and self-awareness. This is a carefully selected set of articles and essays by Eric written since 1987, which take you through the transition of the millennium into 2012. The essays are a continuing meditation on the experience of confronting global changes from long before anyone was certain they would really happen. It begins in a spiritual community in 1987 and comes to the present day, including a look at the astrology of the 2012-2015 era. Included are Eric’s best essays on sweeping world changes, relationships and maintaining some sense of one’s inner life in the midst of it all. The book, available as a printable PDF, is 174 pages and is illustrated by Carol McCloud. It’s just $14.95. It’s the perfect companion to Light Bridge, the 2011 annual edition of Planet Waves. Purchase your copy here.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 6, 2011, #858 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You now have access to parts of your psyche that are so different from who you usually consider yourself to be, that you may feel compelled to reconsider your identity from top to bottom. If your mind is alert and alive, these things happen from time to time; the current theme is how you relate to your feminine side. Until now you may not have fully taken ownership of this aspect of yourself — but then, you may have never associated it with the kind of creativity and passion that you can tap into right now. If there’s a part of you that’s feeling overwhelmed or intimidated, this might be the spot to focus on; to tap into and access some unusual ideas or strength. Even if you do nothing but observe yourself, you will notice something truly different over the next few days, and that something different points to a new source of wisdom. Here is the thing: you are an Aries and this astrology is happening in your sign. You make your awareness real by acting on it.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — What seems to be a hidden matter or cause is not so hidden at all. In fact, it’s everywhere you look. You’re not sleeping, so what transpires in your life follows the logic of the waking world and not a dream. For the conscious, denial is not an option, and besides, nothing happening in your charts suggests you have something to deny — except for one thing. You seem to be struggling to come to terms with fear. Fear comes in response to what you think of as ‘the unknown’. There seems to be so much, but I assure you, it’s not so unknown. You merely need to look at your life and collect evidence of what is so. I suggest you consider strongly what you think of as your potential, including your unexpressed talents. What is your reasoning process as regards these sources of energy, pleasure and abundance? What do you tell yourself, when it comes to your ideas about your own development and growth? Check your logic.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Think of all the times you felt excluded: too special to fit in, too ordinary to fit in, too smart to fit in. Then in some odd way you emerged as a leader. Remember all the times you felt insecure, only to discover that you were really the dependable one, in possession of some actual confidence. There is something to be said for this approach to life; it’s a way to cultivate modesty, and you’ve used it as a way to focus your objectivity. It’s also a form of camouflage. But let’s consider something else. Imagine you enter the situations you encounter without making any of those assumptions. Neither do you assume you’re better in any way; but let’s start by removing any possibility of a handicap. Let’s start assuming you have a leadership role; that you know your mind is the most creative one around; and that your intellect has a mobile quality that allows you to see above, beneath and around every situation. Use what you’ve got, kid. And don’t hide it.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — There is something about your professional aspirations, or your potential, that is truly unusual — and now is the time to put that where the whole world can see it. Stay visible; make sure people know your accomplishments. Be absolutely real, and forget all the ways you think you’ve failed, or haven’t lived up, or have taken too long to get where you’re going. Tell yourself the other side of the story. You dare. You persist, even when you have your doubts. You may need proof to believe you’re an innovator, but let me speak for your astrology. You are one, and that quality is emerging from you at its strongest (probably ever) in these very days and weeks of your life. One factor of success of any kind is thinking of yourself as that successful person. If you can identify with the notion of achievement, or of yourself as a person who is talented and accomplished, you can be that person. Give it a try.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — It’s time to set one new goal. You may have more; but pick the most important one, and pick a timeframe wherein you want to make it happen. I suggest giving yourself a little more time than you think; perhaps double what you think would be a best-case scenario, so you have space to get your work done. Then break down the steps to making it happen, and go for it — one meticulous step at a time. Remember that step one is the vision. It’s knowing what you intend or desire to create, and then putting the full focus of your mind behind it. This is partly an exercise in how it’s possible to accomplish anything at all, so remember the steps you took on the way to this particular project, because you’ll need them for the next. Now is the time to create and refine your method, because you will get to use it over and over again during the next few months.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Now is the time to consider your investments — and any debts you may have — in a new way. Debts, even small ones, can be a significant mental burden for many people, equivalent to the financial burden. It’s the idea of owing money that becomes as difficult as any other part, and that has a way of taking over one’s identity. I suggest devising a way of thinking of any money you owe as something other than who you are. On the other side of the ledger are your investments. What have you put your energy into the past few years? What commitments have you made, and what agreements are you in? Looked at rationally, are you getting a sufficient return on your investments? In what form does that return arrive? There seems to be a question, because your charts speak of both a drive to do something innovative, and a longing for freedom. As you shift your identity from what you owe to what you give, you will get a more authentic idea of who you are.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — For all you’ve been confronted with lately — and there is a lot — you know where your true loyalties are. Remember them. Your charts speak of many options open, many possibilities, new horizons and a few disruptions. While you’re in the midst of navigating all of this, you’re figuring out what means the most to you, and why. It’s excellent to have a solid feeling about at least one thing. Lest you think you should have it about everything, imagine what it would be like to have no solid ground at all, nobody you can trust, no assurance that there is someone who truly values you. There are plenty of people who have no idea what any of this feels like, or it’s been so long they’ve forgotten. Remind yourself what helps you keep your sanity and your grounding. And remember that being this person to others counts, even if it’s in subtle ways.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Please stop obsessing over your health. I know the environment and most of the food we eat are toxic. We’re all getting older. But your mental pattern is not helping — and you’re well positioned to change your mind. I suggest you start with an idea of what it means to be healthy. Create a concept of wellbeing. Make it original. I suggest you include your idea of relationships that support your presence in the world, your sense of belonging and most of all, your productivity. It’s essential that you not compromise who you are in order to be acceptable in a relationship. This should go without saying, but the world has some rather different notions of what it means to ‘be together’ so we do need to keep the topic upfront in your mind. Remember — your concept of relating to others needs to be flexible, as do the people you relate to. You’ll figure out whether that is true soon enough.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You are still in the idea phase; you’ve yet to really get down to work, though now is the time for that. Yes, it’s definitely still the time to focus on the concept of what you’re doing, and the chance you want to take on something — however, the moment is ripe to start doing the real work. That should feel like construction of some kind; a transition from paper to wood, from a sketch to clay; from entirely flexible ideas to an experiment with the materials you will use. You need to get your body into the project, and get your hands dirty. As you do this, you’ll feel the change in your thinking; there is a dimension shift involved, and once you move into 3D, that will have the effect of sculpting your thoughts and ideas. And you need to be shaped by them as much as they need to be shaped by you — though it’s only going to happen in physical reality, in real time. Perhaps even with a welding torch.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — For the past few weeks it’s like you’ve been running the triathlon. One emotional challenge after the next has surfaced; one fear after the next, compelling you to take charge of your life in what seems like a different way every day. Now that whole sequence of challenges has passed. It’s gone on so long you may still be braced for the next one. You still have body memory of every day facing a challenge different from the prior one. I suggest you take a moment and appreciate the relative calm. But do so only long enough for you to take action on what you kept wanting to do before, but which kept getting interrupted. You have much more support right now, and you’re feeling stronger. One by one, planets are about to enter your fellow earthy sign Taurus, which is going to feed you energy. Use it well, while you have the opportunity — and it is truly an opportunity.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Yes, what you’re thinking is original, yes, it’s a little weird, and yes, it’s a good idea. There are a lot of good ideas — so many in fact, it’s a little tragic. I say that because most of those ideas don’t ever get applied to the problems they were intended to solve, or manifest in the form of something useful; that’s the part that takes work. Yet it takes discernment to recognize that what you’re thinking has a value. I assure you that it does, and that it has a value beyond what you can imagine now. Now, this whole concept of value is going to be the big question over the next few years, and I strongly suggest you put your mind to this question — the value of ideas, and of your ideas. Value must be recognized and acted on; if you hesitate between the two, ask yourself why you’re doing so. Time does not last forever. Meditation is a virtue; hesitation is not.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You’re well on the way to figuring out you exist. I’m not kidding when I say that most people don’t know they exist. If they did, they would live differently than they do. And as you make the latest in your ongoing series of self-discoveries, you will choose to live differently, in ways both subtle and bold. You’re in the process of making a discovery that has not quite come into focus yet, though as it does, you will see that the way to certain decisions is open, where before it seemed blocked. One important dimension of this discovery is about your relationship between self-esteem and money. Said another way, it’s about self-respect and power. Once you respect who you are, your power ceases to be compromised. You are less vulnerable to manipulation. And success will seem less like an alien thing and more like something you do naturally every day.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

May is Self-Awareness Month

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Dear Friend and Reader:

In late 2010, one of the Planet Waves editors posted to our blog an article she found about the odd relationship options offered by Facebook (for example, the category ‘it’s complicated’ being a stand-in for everything other than something supposedly normal, without saying what). Following that article back to its source, a blog called Onely.org, I discovered the existence of a singles movement.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

A singles movement? This is about people for whom conventional relationship models do not work, or more simply put, a movement of people who want to go solo. Methods of doing this vary, but I can generalize a little. They don’t want to date in any conventional way, they don’t live with the expectation of marriage, they don’t cohabitate, and they don’t do the boyfriend-girlfriend thing. They don’t want to be half of a couple, in the immortal words of Erica Jong; they want to be a whole person, and the easiest way for them to facilitate that is to be single, our society’s ultimate form of queer.

There are a lot of possibilities here, but the main idea overall is stepping outside the box of relationship expectations in which we so often get caught, like it or not. Those who are living a solo way of life might count their friends and erotic partners as being on an equal par, on the basis that all relationships have value. One is not on a higher rung than another. From what I have read, there’s substantial questioning of how society compels many people to embrace relationship options that might not (or absolutely do not) work for them.

There is as much questioning of heteronormative conditioning as there is in any queer community. In case you haven’t heard that word, it’s a keeper: heteronormative — a concept to contain all the rules and regulations you’re supposed to follow in a world oriented primarily on heterosexual relationships, which are considered the norm — indeed, there’s still a compulsory quality. I am always intrigued every time I see a wedding band flashed in a TV commercial, particularly on a man’s hand, which is often. No matter what product they’re selling, the other product is marriage.

The idea of a singles movement immediately sounded revolutionary because much of the relationship discussion is about what form of long-term committed relationship one chooses (mono or poly, married or living together, gay or straight), rather than questioning the orthodoxy of relationship. Many people have the feeling that if they’re not ‘in a relationship’ they’re not normal. Many places having a partner or spouse is the equivalent of fully-vested citizenship. Once you have someone on your arm, you’re allowed into society. Meanwhile, if you’re not ‘in a relationship’, what about all your other relationships. Why don’t they count? Well, as for what counts, we’re almost always talking Relationship with a big R.

Over the years I’ve been an astrologer, I’ve worked with, and heard from, many people for whom the relationship game as it’s currently set up simply does not work. Who they are does not fit any known model of relationship, and they cannot seem to find partners who match their values. Many of these people are the aware and questioning types, who strive to live consciously. Many of them even want to be in a relationship that suits them, but don’t seem to find suitable situations.

So I was happy to find some information and validation that seemed to be skewed in their direction. Exploring other websites in this genre, the discussion I read was often politically astute and a bit indignant. There was a lot of discussion of why married people get such significant tax breaks. And why should the dentist be asking about your marital status? Is that vaguely relevant to getting your teeth cleaned? If they need to notify your next of kin that you have a cavity, they can call your sister.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

Out of curiosity, I started typing the word ‘masturbation’ into search engines on various singles movement sites and getting nothing back (with the exception of one derogatory reference to ‘mental masturbation’). I thought this lack of discussion was interesting and more than a bit strange. Here was a movement advocating living freely and being detached from relationship expectations as a vocal choice.

We all know that many people stay in relationships to assure a supply of sex, even if those relationships don’t always serve their other growth needs. To be free of these dysfunctional relationships, it would help (in my fantasy world) to have an idea of sexual independence we could aspire to. And one logical starting point for that would be really, truly understanding one’s inner sexuality, and doing well with being one’s own lover. But the movement advocating how you can be free of these relationships, at least that I could find that evening, had nothing to say about sex with oneself.

The movement advocating being single was the very last place I would have guessed there was a taboo on discussing solo sex. Clearly, if you’re single and want to be, that implies that sex with oneself is not a substitute for anything, and also that (assuming you have a sex drive) it’s an entirely necessary state of affairs. If being single implied having a low sex drive, Thomas Edison would have never invented the singles bar.

I wrote to the editor of one of these websites, and after a round of emails that went on for a few weeks, she basically told me that they just didn’t feel comfortable talking about self-sex. I admit to being a bit naïve, but truly, I was stunned. Okay, just a little stunned. The lack of authentic sexual conversation is normal fare in our culture. In exploring the many reasons why masturbation is still taboo, we must include that as one of them. But I think it goes deeper. It’s fair to say that considerable embarrassment surrounds the topic of masturbation. It’s private, and most people would rather keep it that way (unless you count their fantasies of getting caught).

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, Brussels.

It’s about to be May, which was officially designated Masturbation Month back in 1995 by the Good Vibrations toy stores in Berkeley and San Francisco. We now have 31 days of cultural sanction for the conversation. Speaking as an astrologer, I’ve always thought it was appropriate that the time of year when the Sun is in Taurus (the sign of self-value, associated with physical sensuality) was a great time to start the festivities. And by the end of May we have Gemini lighting up the sky, a delightfully kinky sign associated with the ‘dual self’ phenomenon — a kind of inner mirror where you can see yourself as any gender you like.

What exactly is Masturbation Month? It’s a little like Chrysanthemum Appreciation Week, only it involves masturbation and it lasts a month — and it’s a lot more radical. I don’t think Obama signed a proclamation, but we can pretend.

What would the conversation be about? 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 (such as projection and denial) contribute to obscuring this simple fact.

However, people who are comfortable with their sexuality in general are likely to be comfortable with masturbation. It also works the other way. If you want to know how someone feels about sex, ask them how they feel about masturbation and you’ll get your real answer. Self-sex is a path to self-knowledge, which is essential to mature, healthy relationships. The less mature relationships can be mazes of ignorance and codependency, and often, sexual dependency is a major ingredient in the glue that bonds these encounters together.

This, in my opinion, is why masturbation, and by that I mean conscious self-sex, is so revolutionary. It’s a bold way to be who you are, as you are, regardless of any expectations of relationship.

In contemplating the masturbation taboo, I figured out something that turns out to be a factor in the oldest literature that insists masturbation must be forbidden: it has a tendency to open up one’s fantasy life. And we all know this knows no bounds. That, in turn, can point to desire for sexual and relational options other than what one has at the moment, outside the rules. Far from being a mechanical experience of sexual maintenance that it’s often portrayed as being, self-sex helps us open up an inner world of possibilities.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

Within that world are two basic elements: what we want, and what we keep in the shadows. Where pair-bonded relationships are the norm, desire for anything other than what we have in the current relationship is often regarded as forbidden territory. If you have sex with yourself, who are you thinking about? That can grant a tremendous sense of inner freedom, something we dearly need. If revealed to anyone else, it can also open up a can of worms. If you have a partner or spouse, I ask you — can you reveal the contents of your fantasy life to him or her? Some brave couples may be able to do this with powerful results. As one of my favorite authors once wrote, only the truth is erotic. Pretend for a moment that the contents of your imagination are not private.

Consider the possibility that the people closest to you, or even those who pick up on your energy, might catch on to what’s going on in your inner world of desire. The more perceptive people in your world can see through you, and those with whom you’re sexually intimate, or attracted to, might be able to tap right in. Yet what we call the ego puts up all kinds of blocks to this awareness, and by that I mean fear expressed as shame or embarrassment.

For many people, knowing that their partner is thinking about a past or potential lover (or a current secret lover) would lead to some deep insecurities coming to the surface. So when we stash away masturbation, we’re stashing away all the secret desires held in our erotic and amorous fantasies, as well as papering over those insecurities. They will then tend to surface in our relationships in other ways, primarily as jealousy.

The term shadow material from Jungian psychoanalysis fits well here. Shadow is all this stuff we contain within ourselves, including guilt, shame, the fear of abandonment, rage, hatred and all their cousins. These are emotions we tend to project into relationships. For example, we might see them as qualities in others but not ourselves. They might become ‘issues’ in the relationship. It’s easy to understand how this works. An insecure person is much likelier to be jealous of a partner than someone who is confident in themselves and in the relationship (usually in that order). In that case, jealousy would be a projection of insecurity (and/or envy and/or the fear of abandonment).

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

Conscious masturbation, and by that I mean your inner erotic reality experienced as part of your ongoing relationship with yourself, is one way to access and process these dark feelings rather than project them outward. If you experience any embarrassment, shame or misgiving around masturbation (and most people do, at least occasionally), consider the possibility that these things obscure something deeper, that being your point of contact with yourself. You can call that self-love or self-esteem; you can call it being centered in your reality. I am talking about an authentic inner journey, the kind that usually gets categorized in the bin with the label ‘spiritual’, but which has a distinctly sexual sensation.

Given that religion as we know it (particularly as Christians, Jews or Muslims) has not only made sexuality allegedly bad, but has also built its fortune on doing so, it can take quite a bit of determination to go here. We are all influenced by religion’s misgivings and control dramas around sex. The fact that so many people experience forms of false modesty, embarrassment, shame and guilt, in many facets of life, and also where masturbation is a factor, suggests that there is a connection. And I would add that because the control games of religion are most often aimed at women, self-eroticism in any form is particularly revolutionary for them. For many women it is the first place they can step out of their chains and confront the shame of existence that is so often projected onto female sexuality. Let’s remember that there are many, many women for whom masturbation provides their only orgasms.

I’m also speaking to anyone who feels like they depend on others for their sexual pleasure and sense of self-contact a bit more than they want to, and who may live with the secret knowledge that they want to be more independent.

I will leave you with an idea that I’m developing in other venues this month, which is self-centered sexuality. I know, this is the thing we’re supposed to avoid in that we’re ‘not supposed to be selfish’. I’m not talking about selfish, I’m talking about self. Self-centered sexuality means being centered within yourself. This is different from narcissism, which translates loosely to, ‘nobody besides me exists, or matters’.

Taking this to a fully conscious level, say, as conscious as yoga practice, is something that would benefit everyone, and is a space for unpartnered people to explore their authentic sexuality. I would also propose as part of this that couples explore getting closer to one another by masturbating in one another’s presence. This is perfectly intuitive for some people and just as counter-intuitive for others. In the experience, I suggest including the full content of your mind and not just your body. In case you experience embarrassment, I would offer you the idea that the very hottest sexual experiences are just on the other side of that veil.

Photo by Eric Francis – Blue Studio, New York.

For those who consider themselves ‘not in a relationship’, this opens up many possibilities, including a great option for ‘friends with benefits’. That would be sharing masturbation, something that can be surprisingly natural and fulfilling, but absent most of the usual worries about sex (pregnancy, STIs, over-attachment). It’s a way to share sex without the baggage of thinking you have to get married or even send flowers.

You’ll also have an opportunity to encounter material that has come up in your past relationships, and (for example) explore healing your self-esteem, body issues or sexual shadow material. Imagine if you could enter your encounters with others from a confident and self-aware place, understanding who you are and what you want. That would give you a new basis for choosing a partner, or allow you to consider the idea that you might not want to be in a conventional relationship. Imagine if you could fully embrace the sexuality of everyone you meet, with open-minded curiosity rather than a sense of threat. This is what I mean by self-centered sexuality.

So, the sex toy stores may be calling this Masturbation Month. I would revise that to Self-Awareness Month.

Lovingly,

Photo selections by Sarah Bissonnette-Adler.

Was Royal Wedding Chart Planned by Astrologers?

Yesterday, I asked what royal astrologers — assuming they exist — were thinking when they planned the chart for today’s wedding of William and Kate (which began at 11 am London time, 6 am EDT). The chart has one unusual property — the Pisces Moon is void of course, meaning that it’s not making any aspects to other planets prior to entering the next sign. That’s not the kind of thing that you would expect a professional astrologer to include in a chart this important — the marriage of the future king and queen consort. To me this suggests the chart was not planned by astrologers but rather was based on a guess that worked out pretty well. One thing that seems to have been intentional enough was putting the wedding on the day of Catherine of Siena. Catherine, of course, is the long form of Kate, who is now Princess Catherine.

Chart for today’s royal wedding places the concentration of planets at the top of the chart. Venus, the blue girl, is the most elevated planet. The void of course Moon is high up slightly toward the right. At the bottom of the chart is Saturn in Libra, occupying one of the chart’s most potent angles, the IC. This tells us that no matter how modern the new couple may be, there is a deep anchor into tradition.

Let’s look at the very basic elements of traditional astrology first. The whole endeavor looks royal enough; the ascendant grants the appearance of things, and the chart has Leo rising — a sign of royalty. So there is something kingly about it; it is the marriage of the future king.

At the top of the chart (skewed a little to the right), the Aries cluster is in the 10th house — the house of the king or the president, so that is royal enough. There is a lot going on in this house; the affairs of state are definitely a key part of the subject matter of this chart. With Aries on the 10th, it’s not too cynical to say that the business of state is war. But with Venus as the most elevated planet, we see at least a pretty face being put on that agenda, and at best, the possibility for something else. On the personal level, Venus in Aries as the most elevated planet suggests that this is the chart for the coronation of not merely a princess but rather of a queen.

Yet the narrative of a chart is usually told most articulately by the Moon. And the Moon is the odd thing about this chart — it’s void of course. That is to say, the Moon is late in a sign (in this case Pisces, late in the zodiac), and it’s not going to make aspects to any other planet before it enters the new sign. It’s a little like saying there is no story. The Moon is in Pisces, but it’s void in that sign, which can subtract the energy in question rather than add it. Pisces is about empathy, going through struggles together, service and public contact (the latter point emphasized by the Moon as well).

Looked at one way, we have a story that is ‘no story’. Or at least it is not directly indicated by the chart what transpires. Yet there is a partial exception to the Moon being void, suggested by William Lilly, one of the great astrologers in English history. That exception says that if the Moon is in one of the signs that it rules (Cancer or Taurus, where it is exalted), or one of the signs ruled by Jupiter (Sagittarius or Pisces), it will do some of its work carrying the story forward, because nothing is in the way that might stop it. And yes, there are many charts where it would be great if you could get the Moon out of the way. It seems to bollix things up at least half the time.

The Moon is first associated with the sign Cancer, so to see where the Moon is ‘coming from’, we can look at this sign. In the marriage chart, Cancer is in the 12th house — and the whole sign is intercepted there. Cancer does not touch the cusp of the 1st or the 12th. It’s like Cancer is swallowed by, or locked into, a house that’s usually associated with secrets, prisons and things too weird to comprehend. This can include dead people. And from this house, the Moon emerges and shows up void in Pisces. That’s the next best thing to it not being there at all.

So this leads one to wonder — what is this really about? William is designated to be the guy who leads the kingdom and moreover protects the fortunes of the Windsors (the royal house) well into the 21st century. Few of us who are adults today will live long into that reign. Elizabeth seems to have figured out the secret to eternal life, and we may even get to endure Charles being king for a while. So William is being groomed for a phase of history that is unforeseeable now.

These are some of the minor planets gathered around the degrees of the Moon, checking just the mutable signs. Typhon, a point in the region of Pluto, is located middle of those late mutable degrees. That evokes the tornados that have whipped across the U.S. the past few days. Also, the mysterious 28+ Gemini degree, which links together so many key world events ranging from Sept. 11 to the Fukushima quake, is occupied. The point is Apophis, a near-Earth asteroid discovered in 1976, and which was briefly a source of worry about a possible collision. It’s closer to the Sun than is Earth, and its orbit potentially crosses ours. The name is of Egyptian origin.

Part of the goal of a royal marriage is to produce an heir. For information about that, we look to the 5th house — and there, we find Scorpio. Note that there are no planets in Scorpio (which I’ll come back to in a moment). What we do in any event is follow Scorpio to wherever we find Mars, and that is in Aries, in the 10th house, conjunct Jupiter. That tells us that the child produced by this marriage will very likely be king. Aries, the 10th and Jupiter are all regal enough. But Scorpio lacking any planets reminds us that we have no description of who this person will be.

The fact that Mars-Jupiter is also conjunct Eris does give some reason for concern. So, all in all, we have a pretty mysterious chart, one that suggests what we’re seeing is more like a movie than a real event.

Let’s check in with the minor planets. Using the set selected over the years by Tracy and me at Serennu.com [see minor planet ephemeris here], the asteroid closest to the ascendant is Requiem, which is associated more with songs about death than about love. This may be a reminder of Diana, Princess of Wales, whose presence still looms large in the royal house and modern history of England.

Let’s take a look at what the minor planets say about that void of course Moon. In the rules of traditional astrology, aspects to astroids or newly discovered bodies would not change that Moon from being void, but astrology is in a transitional phase, so let’s take a look and see, at least, what is described. The Moon’s closest aspect is an exact opposition to Makemake. This is a dwarf planet (like Pluto or Eris) and it’s considered an important discovery. It was named for the creator god of the indigenous folks of Easter Island; it’s also a fertility god. So we have, at least, a clue that the purpose of the marriage — creating an heir to the throne — will be fulfilled.

The Moon is also square the Galactic Core. That brings in the large, sweeping themes associated with the core, and the ‘great presence lurking behind the scenes’ effect for which the Galactic Core is famous. The Moon is summoning the energy of the core, trying to bring that quality into the more conventional ‘spirituality’ of the Earthly realm.

Looking at the little table that lists the minor planets, notice that there’s a sequence of planets in Pisces to which the Moon will indeed make conjunctions. Actually, there are four of them clustered in the last degree of Pisces (all with the number 29 next to them) — Circe, Urania, the Osculating Apogee (Black Moon Lilith) and (last but surely not least) Karma.

This Moon seems to be describing something specific, or rather, someone. That someone emerges from the spirit world of the 12th house and manifests high in the sky in the spirit world of Pisces. She has no assigned role; she is ‘out of the way’, but she’s very much a presence. Her name is being evoked every few minutes — that would be Diana, named for the goddess of the Moon.

— By Eric with additional research by Tracy Delaney

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 29, 2011, #857 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — The thing that you feel is in the way is actually your balancing point. It may be annoying for being in the way, though it’s vital as a counter-balance to the energy pouring through your life. For the moment, you have to live with this situation and, I trust, learn to turn it into an opportunity. While you may not think you have any real freedom, you have many viable options available, though they aren’t opportunities in the sense of five job offers. It’s more like you have five talents that you know it’s time to get working in harmony with one another rather than competing with one another. If you seem to be facing a limit, think of it as a container. For example, let’s say we’re talking about a job situation that you want to change. How much can you bring your talents into your current situation, despite its drawbacks? The more you can, the more you will open the way to a future where all of you is welcome.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Remember that meaning is only meaningful in context, and currently most of that involves your experience of your own mind and emotions. Typically we cannot see this because we see everything through the filter of our own mind. Yet for the moment, you have a window into a kind of blind spot in your psyche. That’s the place where so much is influencing you, but which is so difficult for you to get a grasp on. It’s the source of the pressure you’re feeling, and the volatility. You may not be able to resolve those feelings now, but you can ground yourself in productive or creative activity that will at least give you the opportunity to put your energy to use. What you’re doing may not live up to your imagination, but actually it looks like a great opportunity to bring your creativity into a project or task that will benefit from some love — and which will benefit you as well.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Mercury is still shell-shocked after its retrograde phase in Aries. The feeling reminds me a little of the Earth vibrating after a quake. Aries is a bold sign, though what it represents — our sense of identity — is a fragile thing. For you, Aries represents how you are perceived, where you fit into your social scene, and how you define yourself as a ‘public’ individual. Yet there is a deeper theme to this house, which is what you want out of life. This, you seem to be grappling with. There are days when everything seems like a fantastic possibility. Other days it seems like you have no options at all. Yet in both of those scenarios you are watching life like a movie. At this stage of your growth it’s essential that you take up the charge of visioning your own way in life. You will know the difference because a movie screen reflects some other light, and a vision gives off a light of its own.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You’ve been spun around recently, and may be struggling for some direction in your professional life. There are many things you want to do, while you’re confronted continually by one thing that you have to do. Looked at one way, this is a crisis; looked at another way, it’s a sign that your creativity exceeds your current structure or framework, particularly your mental structure. In order to work this out, I suggest you take a long-range view; think in terms of two to five years. Yes, this seems like a long time, but the years go by quickly, and most of why we seem to fall short of the progress we want involves the lack of long-term self-guidance. If I am not mistaken, there is one thing you’ve wanted to do, or accomplish, for a very, very long time. Somehow you keep missing that goal, or forgetting it. I suggest you make a series of decisions, starting now, to guide your life in that direction. Keep your focus, and don’t worry about the results.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You’ve been running an obstacle course lately. Many plans, revised plans and possibilities are flying around your head like so many airplanes at O’Hare. I trust that over the past week some of them, at least, have come in for a landing and others have flown off to different horizons. You’re now free to take some tangible action and accomplish something you’ve put off for a while. I would point out that amidst all of these different concepts for what is possible, there is something that is particularly alluring; it has a mix of daunting and inevitable. It may be the least predictable among your many objectives — or the one that causes the most disruption when you try to get it going. That is a sign that your idea contains energy, which is, in turn, a sign of its actual potential. As for the lack of predictability — you might call that the ‘god factor’ — the unknown element that leads to a truly creative outcome.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Remember that you’re still in the early phase of a long process of establishing your relationships, and your relationship to existence, on new ground. At times it may not feel like ground, any more than the floor of a canoe does as you’re coasting down a river. Yet this floating, moving surface area is providing you with a stable enough platform to stand on. At the same time, you seem to be surrounded by a diversity of people who are making various offers and demands. I strongly suggest you look for the one or two that are in close harmony with your values. By close, I mean truly, authentically connected to who you are and what is important to you. Learn to identify this point of contact when you encounter someone, and moreover, to identify when it’s not present. The key is to not be guided by prejudice; you might find this bond with those significantly different than yourself, and be absent in those you consider more similar to you.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You may be under more stress than you think. The fact that you’re able to handle a lot of push, pull and delicate balancing doesn’t change the fact that it affects you. You may not be able to tell how you actually feel until you get away from people and tune into your inner being. I suggest you do this as much as possible. At the moment you live between two worlds; one is more obvious, louder and full of commitments; the other is subtle, it’s quiet and it’s easy to distract yourself from. But both are real and vital parts of your life. It is the inner calling that is drawing your attention now; it is the source of your energy and the way to orient on your wellbeing. If you’re looking for a way in, start with silence and solitude. From there, any meditative act will take you deeper, such as drawing or music. Deep within the many swirling activities of your world is a deeper place that you are craving.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You seem to be in the place of renewing a relationship, or are feeling a new experience on the horizon. This could be truly beneficial, as you may be feeling. I suggest, however, that you make peace with two possibilities: one is how you might feel if you’re actually desired. Usually, you’re the one who does the desiring. Often, being wanted can stir up a lot of controversy, among other things, because one has the feeling of being seen and noticed. When someone, indeed, anyone wants you, you cannot feel invisible, no matter how much you want to. Second, there is the possibility that you will have to engage with a kind of conflict that you have often vowed to leave behind. You can leave it behind, if you remember (ongoing) that the shadow material that comes up in relationships relates directly to the shadow material you are carrying. Address it within yourself first, and the relationship is more likely to follow your example.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You should now be able to get a little more traction on your creative plans. Even if you’ve been beset by various delays and mix-ups, and even if this has hurt your confidence, I suggest you take a few solid steps and see where you end up. You’re not lacking for bold ideas, that’s for sure. As for confidence, you seem to live in two realities — one in which you’ve got what it takes, and another in which that can evaporate in doubt. The only way to resolve this is through action, which is to say, by daring and seeing what you’re capable of. Once you get the hang of that, and see how much you’re capable of, you may still experience doubt — but at that point it’s merely a thought that doesn’t have to take over your life in any way. In my opinion, the one and only key to freedom is experience.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — This must be an emotionally complex time for you. If so, I suggest it’s time to apply what you learned recently about your attachment to the past, and to who you thought you were in the past. I would also suggest that you ask yourself whether you’re becoming more like your parents, or less like them. This is the question. You have the power to take that process in any direction you like. You can integrate their positive attributes, and outgrow their anxieties; you can take on the worst of who they are (or were). In our time, in your generation, the choice is yours. Yet this is a bigger choice than you may imagine. Collectively, we are at a moment when we need to make a break with the past. That is not about flying cars or solar panels. It’s about how we experience fear, and what it means. It’s about how we think of ourselves; it’s about who we think we are, and what choices we make as a result.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may get a clear idea where you want to put down some new roots, be they emotional, physical or both. You may not be able to act on it right away, but you can create a strategy based on a calling or devotion that you feel. These three concepts are grouped as one idea: roots, calling and strategy. The feeling, when you tune into it, is one that comes with an unusual sense of depth. It’s something you know and feel in your body. In a sense, you’re not making a decision, it is making you. Meanwhile, your mind may have a diversity of opinions, doubts and thoughts of its own, and you can watch those go by like a movie; you don’t have to react or even respond to them. Yet the thing you’re most likely to get is confirmation of some kind that what you’re feeling is authentic and solid. What to do next will follow logically.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — I’m always impressed how messed up so many people are when it comes to money — how mystified, closed-minded and afraid. Money is tied for first place with sex on the list of things people get weird about. The weirdness seems to run in the same basic direction — a crisis over sharing, by which I mean giving and receiving, which can then culminate in withholding and being taken from. It’s as if when we shut down the voluntary process of exchange, and refuse to do what we actually want, some other system takes over. This is the time to own your money, to own your desire, and in fact to own any other resources that you consider your own. The reason to do this consciously is so that you can give and receive as you choose, with what is rightfully yours, undaunted by anyone who refuses to actively, consciously possess what is their own. Your power is your power. You can go anywhere from there.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

Me, Myself and I: Note from Aries

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Dear Friend and Reader

The Moon reaches full phase in Libra this weekend. A Full Moon dependably shakes up the emotional and psychic energy, and at the moment there is plenty shaking. With many planets in Aries, including Mercury retrograde brewing like a vat of cider, we’re likely to be feeling a bit extra shuffled with an urgently curious, confused and polarized sensation.

Photo by Eric Francis — Book of Blue.

I would remind you how much we’ve been processing all year. It’s like we’re living a month or two every week, and yet time seems to be going by so fast nobody can keep track of it. I’ve been trying to figure out this seeming contradiction for a while, to no avail yet. In practical terms, I suggest you check in for potential exhaustion/depletion and take action to address that. We have all been processing a lot.

I would remind you that we had an indication this would be a very strange year when we started seeing news about birds falling out of the sky in late December and early January. Everyone remember that?

Full Moon in Libra means the Sun is in Aries; the Moon and Sun are always in opposite signs for this phase. Aries is a yang sign — it’s all about action, what we think of as ‘male’ energy. Aries makes statements, takes territory and charges forward. Two of the hottest, most fiery planets of the lot are now in Aries — Mars and Uranus, along with Mr. Hot and Dry himself, the Sun. Jupiter is there, as are Eris and retrograde Mercury.

If Aries is the sign of the self, then all this activity is boldly declaring: who the heck am I?

There’s so much going on in Aries and it’s all so very potent, and now the Moon is going to come along and hold a mirror up to it from Libra. The currently installed mirror is Saturn, which is not so reflective, and it’s retrograde. This may have us feeling like despite all of the self-awareness stuff in Aries, a concept of a relationship seems to be holding us to who we were yesterday. Not just a relationship per se, but rather a concept of who we are supposed to be for the purpose of our relationships, such as an identity designed to meet expectations of acceptability.

Photo by Eric Francis — Book of Blue.

The Moon is silvery and glistens, and it resonates with feeling. In Libra, it will be giving us a kind of projection screen onto which we can sort out all of these feelings and ideas that spend so much time in our heads. This is a fleeting glimpse. The Moon is a fast moving object, so it never keeps one perspective for very long. What we can easily observe this weekend will be obvious only briefly.

While this is happening, Pisces is soaking us in soul juice. The most yin sign, cool and moist, Pisces is about introspective awareness, dreaming, feeling and receiving. It’s the sign of doing bong hits and then painting, making music or writing in your journal till it gets light out. Then your phone rings and it’s your old lover, the one you really dig. You meet up, go for a walk and then crawl into bed. Pisces is now home to Chiron and Neptune, increasing the presence of this sign in our lives. This may be arriving as a rising tide of inner awareness, clairvoyance or dream activity. Strong Pisces is an invitation to accept anything and everything about ourselves.

Have we considered how much better life might be if we didn’t spend so much energy convincing ourselves how pure we are? That’s a form of fear. I am not saying that radioactive rainwater isn’t starting to tumble on roofs across the United States and many other parts of the world; I am saying that we have options other than being uptight. Further, I’m suggesting that uptight is so normal we don’t even know what it is anymore. It seems to offer some proof of purity. This is not a recipe for happiness; it’s a form of torture. Self-knowledge would go a long way to helping that cause. One sure way to self-knowledge is curiosity. It works just about every time. Curiosity is the distinct feeling that you cannot control what you’re about to find out, and you like it that way. Now, turn that on yourself.

I’ve noticed something in the charts lately that I thought I would share with you. A few times before I’ve referenced a book called Esoteric Astrology by Alice A. Bailey. The most recent time was an article last spring called The Greatest Aries Point Show on Earth.

Esoteric Astrology proposes alternate sets of planetary rulers for the signs. Just about everyone knows that if you’re an Aries then your ruling planet is Mars. That’s the kind of thing that makes it into The New York Post horoscope. However, Bailey proposes that there are two other ruling planets for all of the signs. These alternate rulers work on different levels than the traditional one, and help you think of the sign a different way.

Photo by Eric Francis — Book of Blue.

Mars as the ruler of Aries drives desire. That, however, tends to become a kind of self-centered ego presence; it’s a notion of self wherein the existence of anyone else seems questionable. Mars in Aries is notoriously insecure. The ‘me’ consciousness of Aries can be so insecure that it gets lost through polarizing into relationship to someone else. In so doing, it can lose its distinct identity, disappearing into that relationship. I mean, think of how often we subvert our own desire for the sake of a relationship.

What is called the esoteric ruler, for Aries, is Mercury. We normally associate Mercury with Gemini and Virgo. Mercury in Aries is a picture of self-awareness, that is, the presence of the mind in the sign associated with self. It’s less about what the mind, or the self, can do, and more about what it perceives. Taking Aries in its Mercury expression, your awareness tells you that you’re an individual perceiving the world from your own point of view. That includes your thoughts and your ideas. On a good day, Aries is associated with originality, and I think we see this described in the Mercury association. What’s also interesting is that Mercury is androgynous, and it can be a relief to have a gender-balanced planet connected to Aries.

Bailey then proposes an additional planet for each sign, what she calls the hierarchal ruler, and for Aries this is Uranus. The quality of the hierarchal ruler is available on a level that’s usually beyond awareness. It’s like those parts of your computer that only programmers are supposed to know about. Uranus does not rule any sign in traditional astrology, though in modern astrology it’s come to be associated with Aquarius. Associated with Aries, it serves like a guiding principle that you can detect if you’re truly devoted to evolving consciousness. It’s like the version of self you get when you see behond yourself.

At times we experience Uranus as inspiration, as initiative and as the power to really stand out and achieve something original. Uranus connected to Aries can offer a sense of self that is connected to the whole rather than merely being ‘an individual’. It will offer confirmation that your presence on the planet is truly unique in the sense that everything created out of the infinite is unique.

Here is the interesting part: All three rulers of Aries are currently in that sign. Mars is trekking across for a while; Mercury is making an extended visit because it’s retrograde there; and Uranus arrived recently for a seven-year spell.

It’s also noteworthy that for the moment, the Sun is present, and in traditional astrology the Sun is the exalted planet of Aries. So we have every planet associated with Aries right in that sign.

Photo by Eric Francis — Book of Blue.

One possible interpretation: every dimension of self is available right now. We are free to access ourselves on any level we want. All our options are open.

This will take some enhanced inner awareness to notice. It helps to declare the freedom of self. It helps to crave self-knowledge.

Here are a few more thoughts:

Mars is saying it’s healthy to want what you want — and to know what that is. Desire has been so co-opted by advertising and social conventions that for many people it seems difficult to discern. Ever ask yourself that question, ‘What am I supposed to want?’ And often ‘what we really want’ or even the feeling of seeking that is corrupted by guilt. Here is a clue — if you desire something and then you feel guilt, that suggests you’ve figured out what you actually want. Address the guilt not as a sign that you should not have that, but rather that there is some interference coming from someone who has tried to control you. The presence of guilt is usually the relic of a control mechanism, not a sign of being wrong. When we’ve done something ‘wrong’, usually we respond with sadness or remorse.

Mercury is saying it’s healthy to inquire about who you are. The retrograde adds the hint that self-awareness is indeed introspective. There is a hint here that there is self-concept at work, as much as self-awareness. The key is to get beyond self-concept, and start asking questions that are framed in such a way that they yield information. The thing about self-concept is that it’s 1) often confused with self and 2) it often comes from others who project it onto us, particularly when we’re young. Mercury retrograde may be taking you on a trip through a sequence of old self-concepts, so that you can let them go and find something that is a little more useful to you now.

Finally, Uranus is asking a few different questions. One is, where do you look for inspiration? What lights you up and motivates you to do something beautiful? There’s also the question, what tribe do you identify with? I mean really identify with, in the sense that you can really be yourself when you’re among them, or at least that you’re drawn in with the desire to give it a try.

One last thing: the lunar apogee is in Aries, and it will be for a while. It’s currently conjunct Uranus. That suggests that the fears that come up, including the actions of the inner censor, will be revealing. It’s not so much that the inner censor is a bad thing, as much as it is something we will get plenty of good information from observing. What exactly gets blocked, and who does it feel like is doing the blocking? If you follow those clues in, they will inevitably lead you to the very thing they would obscure.

Lovingly,

Check this audio announcement for information about Eric’s new e-book, Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 15, 2011, #856 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — If you focus on one specific goal now, you’ll have a better chance of accomplishing much else besides. Choose what you want to do the most, the thing you want to express, initiate or complete, and pour your energy into that. It is the sensation of applying your creative power directly to an idea that will connect you to your inner source. You may not personally feel all that focused; in fact you may be getting a sense of just how multifaceted you are, and be experiencing various challenges collecting yourself in one place. Setting a seemingly external goal will allow you to access a level deeper than the confusion you may be feeling, and demonstrate that you can draw out your creative power and use it to make something happen. Yet it will help immensely if your motivation is desire, blended with a touch of obsession.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The Sun is about to enter your sign, and in these last few days before that happens you may be feeling particularly edgy. For example, I see an image in your chart of being angry but not understanding why; uncertainty about whether you’re making progress; and an exaggerated sense of your (often typical) feeling of shortcoming. I have an idea: try to not take it seriously. Watch it go by without letting it take over your mind or your identity. The whole sensation may be exaggerated, so this provides the opportunity for a useful mental exercise in detachment. There is plenty in your environment rich in scent, color and feeling. You will be surprised how quickly your mental drama evaporates when you tune into the sensory world and indulge in the rich nourishment you find there.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You may find yourself in a complicated social situation this weekend, though the complexity originates from some form of misinformation, gossip or deception. Jealousy appears to be at the root of the issue, and it is toxic. Once started, whether haplessly or by intent, the matter might threaten to run out of control. Now I have a question for you: when will the world, the people of the world, and you, get sick of this kind of nonsense? This really is a conscious choice, when it happens. That choice will often come with the simultaneous discovery that not only is something else possible, but also necessary or inevitable. One way of being shuts down creativity; the other opens it up. One way of being is about tearing apart the fragile tapestry of society. The other way is about weaving integrity and sincerity into our social interactions. The choice is yours, and people are watching your example.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Play along with how things are going for you professionally, including the various mix-ups and the contradictions. Make your moves slowly, based on available information, and as you make each decision keep the door open for the next opportunity. For example, I suggest you not make any ‘permanent’ agreements that would prevent you from making another commitment in a couple of weeks. Don’t get lost in the temptation to think that you’re not getting your message out, or that you’re not visible. Actually you’re being noticed more than you think; you’re in a blind spot where you can’t quite see that. So keep your performances sharp, check your facts and proceed at what seems to be the natural pace of things. Once things start coming to fruition after Mercury has stationed direct on the 23rd, you will be happy you did — and you’ll see the connection to doing things well these very days.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You may feel so caught up in the moment that you cannot even think of making long-term plans. Yet if you’ll notice your thought patterns, you’re actually in a reassessment of your plans, and as you determine that certain things are not working, you’re likely to discover some things that you know will work for you rather well. I suggest that you focus on removing from your agenda that which doesn’t suit you; the obvious benefit of that will be having the sensation of room to move, and a clear enough space to leave you free to include new ideas. Once this process picks up energy you will discover that there is a lot of energy behind you, and that will provide a sense of both power and freedom to make decisions that anytime sooner you might have feared would upset not only the apple cart but the whole fruit and vegetable aisle.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You may be tempted to renege on an agreement or break a commitment during the next few days. If you’d be doing this because of a sense of injured pride, or if you’re angry about something, I suggest you cool off for a while before you make a move. Once you get your mind in order and the situation sorts itself out in a week or two, you will see that you were upset over what will seem like nothing. You may decide that you gave up some excellent opportunities in the process. Making a decision from a calm place is not the same thing as selling out. Being true to your promises is not the same thing as being a slave. Being authentically who you are does not mean asserting your individuality with a tinge of rage blended in. Indeed, you don’t even need to ‘be yourself’; you already are yourself.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Check this audio announcement for information about Eric’s new e-book, Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You seem to be in an emotionally heavy or cluttered situation that you want to rid yourself of. I suggest you figure out what that’s made of. Once again I would point you to the emotional source of any seemingly physical disturbance; you are under some pressure, and you may be reacting to a new presence in your environment. The question to ask yourself is whether you consider it a helpful or toxic influence, and why you come to the conclusion that you do. You will need to make this assessment rather than pretend you don’t care, though the good part is that you have some new tools at your disposal for contemplating this kind of subtle question. One of your lifelong missions is to learn how to respond to your own feelings, and by that I mean make decisions and get some control over your environment.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — This weekend’s Full Moon has the look of an event that starts unsettling or uncomfortable and then slips into a more emotionally grounded and satisfying state. The discomfort is likely to start as a sense of pressure, but the odd part is you’re not likely to notice that pressure till it’s already started to pass; it has a ‘what was that?’ kind of feeling to it. What you may not have figured out yet is how much you have available in the way of emotional resources that were not there a few months ago and for that matter had gone missing for a long time; and now a new well has opened up. You may feel hesitant about tapping into that depth; you may not have trust that it’s there, including the fear that your imagination is going to run out on you right when you need it. Nothing of the kind, Scorpio.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — I think I may have already written the horoscope about those happy creative accidents; you know, the seeming errors that lead to the stroke of genius. Even if so, I’ll say it again, a different way: take a chance on being wrong. Try the idea that you think might not work, but which seems appealing anyway. You might reverse your position spontaneously or based on a frustrating experience; if so, go with it and see what happens. True, there are risks, but the rewards of tapping a deeper level of creative mojo make it more than worth the risk. By deeper level I mean closer to who you are. You may be figuring out that your identity is a creative process, and that your creative process is intimately about who you are. The quality to follow is that slight sense of risk, taking everything on a dare.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Your insecurities may be at an all-time high, coupled with moments of feeling like you’re on emotional steroids. They are the same thing; this is one of those ‘the brighter the light, the darker the shadows’ moments. You have a few choices, one of which is to take the manic ride, enjoy the high and then deal with the anger and guilt you might feel on the other end; or ground out (literally, sit on a big rock somewhere and make some skin contact with the thing); or work out (something aggressive, but be careful of your head and neck). You’re likely to confuse mental and emotional impulses right now. I would say focus your mind and your feelings will follow. Focus your mind on what? I suggest you write an autobiographical essay about the most troubling aspect of your childhood. Tell the story — leave out the judgments and stick to the plain facts.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — What is original? There is such a thing, but it’s not what most people think. One helpful version of original is applying an existing thing or idea to a new situation or problem. Another is seeing a longstanding problem a new way, and the shift in perspective advances your thought process in an unexpected way. Another kind is considering what the world perceives as a problem, and figuring out a way to turn it into a benefit or resource. Would any of those possibilities fit your current situation? One thing I suggest is that you’re pushing too hard against a seeming obstacle. If that is true, then a version of original that would help you quite a bit is the kind where you figure out you were looking at an easy solution all along, and you just happened to notice it was right there.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — One of the top issues of your chart at the moment seems to involve finances, but the question is really one of resources, and in truth it’s not so much a question as it is about conducting an assessment. I sometimes call this a resources inventory. The more you stoke the awareness of what is available to you, the less you will emphasize what is not available. The more you will then utilize what you have rather than strive to acquire more. That said, you do seem to be in a tight spot; however this argues well for focusing on the positive, which by the way includes people who affirm themselves and their purpose. Anyway, this whole endeavor is likely to yield some surprising results, and the discovery that the whole amounts to far more than the sum of the parts. Or to borrow another old expression, it’s not what you have; it’s what you do with it that counts.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

Check this audio announcement for information about Eric’s new e-book, Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span.

Through the Looking Glass

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Neptune entered Pisces this week. In astrology, one of the measures of significance is how rare an event is. Neptune has not been in this position since 1847, just one year after its discovery, and a good while before the Civil War ripped the United States in half. No living person has experienced this transit before. So that qualifies as news. It’s especially news given that for the past 12 years, Neptune’s presence in Aquarius has worked like a fog machine to obscure the difference between truth and lies, to the degree where many are pleasantly oblivious to any distinction at all.

Illustration of Humpty Dumpty by John Tenniel, from Through the Looking Glass, 1871.

I realize that playing games with public perception is a time-honored tradition among the rich and powerful. Even as individuals, we have PR departments that work overtime, to make sure people think we’re pure and feckless. But the tools for manipulating perception have never been more influential, and it seems like the minds of most people have never been more susceptible to corruption (unless you count the ministrations of religion, which set us up to believe anything at all).

To be fair, the world has problems more serious than most mortals have any concept of how to confront, deal with or process emotionally. One could argue that denial is a reasonable approach. Yet the background fear level, coupled with that denial, is precisely what makes people so vulnerable to psychic attack. There is a direct relationship between denial of what is going on in the world around us and denial of our own personal material. And at times, the exaggerated sense that there is ‘something wrong with us’ can send the whole mind into denial — and this now has lots of cultural sanction.

Meanwhile, during Neptune in Aquarius, tsunami has become a household word. We have seen the flooding of New Orleans and many, many other places — too many to count (some days it’s hard to tell the difference between a tornado in the Bronx from a flood that covers a swath of New Jersey; it all blends together). Ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising to the point where island nations disappear under the water before our eyes — while climate change deniers tell us it isn’t so.

We’ve witnessed the contamination of the Gulf of Mexico with crude oil, and the federal government is back to issuing deepwater drilling permits for rigs using blowout preventer technology that predates the BP platform explosion. Thursday night, Rachel Maddow had on her program Michael Bromwich, the federal official responsible for issuing those permits. He defended using the old blowout preventers on the grounds that the federal government knew all along that they don’t really work. That’s what he said! It’s supposed to be an acceptable answer! If you would like to have the awakening experience of being really pissed off, here is that video.

For the past decade-plus we have been living with water on the brain. The first major example of a world-changing event under Neptune in Aquarius was the fraudulent impeachment of Bill Clinton — you know, the president who was dealing quite well with the federal deficit. That is to say, under Neptune in Aquarius we have been experiencing a wide-scale failure of logic. Though we can see the roots of this particular thought form going back a long way, the process has accelerated exponentially in these years of Neptune in Aquarius, which are now, finally, drawing to a close. Yet the damage done by floods is insidious.

I speak as someone with a lot of both Neptune and Aquarius in my chart. I respect these influences, and I know how destructive they can be. It is challenging to get your head above water; you have to really want not to drown. In order to function, Aquarius requires intellectual discipline, and Neptune requires discernment and a bit of detachment. When you subtract these, the psychotic politicians and the directors of television commercials set the tone of consciousness. We can, and did, end up with a political system that is ruled by people under no obligation to make any sense; no obligation to have any empathy at all.

Barack Obama greets Republican mastermind Karl Rove at a White House reception for freshman senators in 2005. Photo by Doug Mills for The New York Times.

Does anyone remember this bit from The New York Times Magazine, written by Ron Suskind? It’s an interview with a presidential aide to George W. Bush, from 2004, and is to me the essence of the Neptune in Aquarius era:

The aide said that guys like me [the author, a Times writer] were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Did you get that? He said, “You, all of you.” His psychic posture is demanding the total submission of the writer and his audience, that is, the whole population, to his own hallucinations. He is saying, we set the terms of reality, we will build our empire on this, and you must surrender (your mind and your will). Do you know who the speaker was? In a recent book, he was revealed to be Karl Rove. It’s no wonder that Rove is the reputed mastermind of the plot to get rid of Julian Assange, the creator of WikiLeaks. We cannot have any leaks of reality (such as our own documents) into this fantasy empire.

Now, it’s one thing that someone says this kind of thing, though it’s more appropriate for Shakespeare or a psychiatrist’s office than you would hope it is for anyone to be saying or even thinking in the White House. It’s another thing that Rove and his colleagues were and apparently still are involved in the military, the economy, the whole world. It’s what Lewis Carroll was getting at when he wrote this passage of Through the Looking Glass:

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory’,” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!'”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”

All paranoia, all the time — Glenn Beck, live and on the air, for now. Photo from Fox PR department.

Speaking of anything meaning anything, Glenn Beck didn’t last but a few days with Neptune in Pisces before he bailed out of, or was heaved overboard from, primetime TV. The imminent end of his psychopathology hour was announced by Fox this week, though sadly, no date was given. Beck has viewers, but apparently not sponsors (besides those selling survivalist gear, and gold, which qualifies as such). As Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out, you can’t really sell cars or insurance policies or anything particularly useful when you’re also telling people the world is going to end.

The End, however, is a popular item among the populace. Expectation of the world ‘ending’ is the ultimate release from responsibility, from the drive for growth and, well, from just about everything else in our particular world and on our level of existence. In this context The End can translate to, ‘Why should I bother going for that new job, if the currency system is going to collapse?’

Because The End is near, you don’t really have to do anything. We don’t have to do anything, such as set about the challenging task of solving global problems that have amassed during the past century; why bother? Here is the thing not said often enough about the many, many people, including every single fundamentalist Christian politician, who are into The End. It’s the projection of individual mortality onto the collective. In other words, when a person is not mature enough to have a conscious relationship to death, one way out is to say that ‘the world is going to end’ and thus ‘we are all going to die’.

Suppressed orgasm — the very stock-in-trade of religion — pushes conflict around death to the level of a psychic frenzy. Everything, including every relationship, becomes a survival drama. It is a condition wherein the mind cannot let go or embrace the idea of change. If political leaders know a lot of people are simply not dealing with death or sex (matters of the 8th house), then the money aspect of the 8th house is open to being pillaged. Money becomes the symbol of survival and the symbol of power, and that in turn can be used to manipulate anything.

Proposed Shutdown of the Federal Government

At the moment we are witnessing a drama wherein the federal government may be shut down today. I guess this happens every few years (the last time was about 15 years ago), but I don’t remember any such incidents directly. As it’s being explained to us, the Tea Party movement’s new representatives in Congress are pushing the more traditional Republicans into an agenda disguised as ‘austerity measures’.

Pushed by the Tea Party movement, Speaker of the House John Boehner is trying to use the budget crisis as a way to get rid of Planned Parenthood and take regulatory power from the EPA. Wire service photo of the great man.

Congress could pass a temporary law to keep things funded as the different sides work out the issues. This has been going on for a while, and each time, the Mad Tea Party tacks on conditions: We will vote for this temporary extension if you cut this much more money and include this brilliant idea.

The latest version of such a temporary spending law was passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives yesterday, which includes 60 measures that read like the right-wingnut wish list: de-funding Planned Parenthood, taking away regulatory power from the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce clean air and water laws, stripping from ATF its ability to collect information on people who want to buy multiple weapons, and on and on. There is an agenda in operation. The problem with these wild conservative proposals is that they are unpopular with most Americans, so it’s necessary not only to sneak them in but to force them though using this kind of blackmail. Then they get on TV and talk about how they want to be fiscally responsible. In truth, the Mad Tea Party agenda includes threatening to cut funding to the troops (which means their families) and hold that as ransom in order to withhold reproductive healthcare for young women.

This is similar to how Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, has tried to bust his state’s public employee unions as a supposed austerity measure. In fact, he created Wisconsin’s budget deficit by giving huge tax credits to big companies. And the unions themselves are budget-neutral; they merely give a lot of money to Democratic candidates. This strategy is becoming standard fare for our times — create a fiscal emergency, then do everything in the name of responding to that emergency. Here we have an example of pure Shock Doctrine politics: everything is done in the name of a crisis, or of responding to an enemy, and generally in the name of fear. It still amazes me to see my fellow human beings stand in front of a TV camera and spew out lies right in front of everyone. It amazes me that we cannot look at them and recognize: these people are so messed up emotionally, how do we trust them with that much power?

Fred Rogers testifies before Congress on the importance of Public Television on May 1, 1969 when Nixon was threatening funding to the program. You can watch the video here — it is amazing.

Among the other items on this same legislative agenda are getting rid of Public Television, NPR, Medicaid and Social Security. Clearly, our nation is in the grip of an opportunistic infection of the mind, based on its weakened integrity. Under this theory, tax cuts for the rich remain the answer to all the world’s ills. I watch a lot of cable news. I keep hearing guys from the Mad Tea Party come out of the room and say, “Yeah this is gonna create jobs. Lots and lots of jobs.” Most newscasters just let this go by unquestioned, and the general public — outraged by high taxes — just swallows it whole. But they (which is to say we) don’t get the tax breaks!

I am wondering how much Americans must have taken away from them before they figure out that something is missing. How long before we wake up from our ADD around social consciousness and realize we can do something? I wonder what we think is the purpose of all these taxes we pay. If the social programs all disappear, all we’ll have are bombs and guns. For those who live in a world of pain and fear, that does make some sense.

I will add, however, that the introduction of Chiron and Neptune in Pisces is a game-changer. Like anything involving Pisces, it may take a while to get tangible results. The first thing that will change is perception. Outer planet transits always shift the whole climate and our perception of the world around us. For a while the lies will be transparent before we figure out what to do about them. There are other game-changers that are en route, particularly Uranus square Pluto. That is the action piece. I’ve said in previous articles that this presumes something against which to take action — and now we’re starting to see what that is. The next essential step is coming from a positive vision for the future, and I know that seems like a heck of a lot to ask right now.

When In Doubt, Raise the ‘Safe’ Level

Also this first week of Neptune in Pisces, Japan dumped 15,000 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Engineers managing the cleanup of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant were making room in ‘low’-level waste tanks to hold high-level water (some of it reported to be 5 million times more radioactive than the allowable levels). Thus, the ‘low’-level water had to be flushed, and the only place to flush it was the Pacific. The official line is that these persistent toxins will he harmlessly absorbed by the ocean, but one would need to have no understanding of biology to believe that. These toxins will migrate through the entire globe through a process called diffusion, while at the same time moving up the food chain in a process called bioconcentration.

Finally, a clear image of the external damage at Fukushima. This picture, taken by a small drone aircraft, shows the destroyed reactor building of Unit 4, the one with the spent fuel pond that kept bursting into flames. The photo shows the scale of the building, which has been nearly impossible to see in previous photos. Photo: Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan. More photos here.

A strong aftershock hit northeastern Japan on Thursday. Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS) reported: “Today’s earthquake (which we have seen variously reported as between 7.1 and 7.9 in magnitude) has knocked out power in some sections of northeast Japan. The single-unit Higashidori Boiling Water Reactor and the Rokkasho reprocessing plant have lost offsite power and are running on emergency diesel generators. Offsite power may also have been lost to the three-unit Onagawa nuclear complex, although there is a report that power remains for the reactors themselves, but not for the fuel pools and that those are relying upon emergency diesel generators.”

Meanwhile, as radiation continued to spread across the United States, the EPA raised the supposedly ‘safe’ level of radiation exposure — something that Japan did recently as well. According to The Tennessean, a Gannett newspaper (associated with USA Today), “The EPA is preparing to dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after ‘radiological incidents’, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.”

The newspaper reported that the rule does not require public airing before it’s decided upon. The article continued, “Drinking water, for example, would have a huge increase in allowable public exposure to radioactivity, the group says, that would include: a nearly 1000-fold increase in strontium-90, a 3000 to 100,000-fold hike for iodine-131 and an almost 25,000 rise for nickel-63.” Gee, when the going gets unsafe, redefine safe. This would not be the first time in history that the ‘safe level’ has been raised to just above the probable exposure level. That’s how it’s done with PCBs and dioxin. You clean as much as you can (or feel like paying for), and call it good.

For some reason this reminds me of Alan Hale, the state legislator in Montana who is arguing in favor of abolishing drunk driving laws. He also happens to be a bar owner. Here is some video of that. But back to nuclear power.

Physicist Michio Kaku, one of the founders of string theory, has been outspoken about the nuclear crisis in Japan. Photo: BBC World Service.

Michio Kaku, a professor of physics at City College of New York, is warning that “three raging meltdowns” are underway at Fukushima. Here is that video interview.

But probably the most distressing news of the week came in the form of speculation, though based on history and the available facts. Yoichi Shimatsu, a Hong Kong–based environmental writer and former editor of the Japan Times Weekly, has proposed that the nuclear installation at Fukushima was housing a covert nuclear weapons program. She believes that several of the reactors were functioning as enrichment devices rather than as civilian power plants.

She writes:

“The smoke and mirrors at Fukushima 1 seem to obscure a steady purpose, an iron will and a grim task unknown to outsiders. The most logical explanation: The nuclear industry and government agencies are scrambling to prevent the discovery of atomic-bomb research facilities hidden inside Japan’s civilian nuclear power plants.

“A secret nuclear weapons program is a ghost in the machine, detectable only when the system of information control momentarily lapses or breaks down. A close look must be taken at the gap between the official account and unexpected events.”

The Way Forward, Through Pisces

I recognize that none of this is pleasant to think about. But it all points to the need for something better. If we want the quality of life on our planet to get better, we need ideas, and we need ways to apply those ideas. But first we are going to need to understand our thinking, and the thinking of the people who are pushing the world into various nightmare scenarios. Or maybe we don’t need to understand them, actually — maybe we only need to understand ourselves. That might actually work.

For example, if we challenge our tendency to believe lies, that blocks the process of deception. It actually stops the pathogen of deceit in its tracks. That is about shifting our own motives toward valuing truth. Sooner or later, we will need to face this shadow that is cast over humanity, yet for now we can begin with our own hearts, minds and souls.

One of the most dysfunctional beliefs is that what we think, feel or do does not make a difference. That is to say, if you ask the question, “What does my being more informed about nuclear power do to prevent a nuclear accident?” you may get a null answer: logically, it may make no difference at all.

You may decide that, if you live within 100 miles of a nuclear power plant, you need an evacuation plan. That will help you and your family but it won’t help solve the larger problem. In fact, however we analyze it, there may not seem to be an answer to the larger problem. We can make token gestures, which make small contributions, which might add up — but that takes a good bit of self-convincing.

So what if we take the whole situation as a matter of personal integrity? What if that’s the only thing on the line? What if we make just one decision — to stop believing lies? That is by default a commitment to be more discerning. It is a decision to be better informed. It implies a decision to be more honest with ourselves, and in turn, more honest with others. Doing this would shift our relationships toward integrity. I know we don’t usually think of this as being associated with Pisces, but that’s what time it is.

Yours & truly,

Check this audio announcement for information about Eric’s
new e-book, Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span.

Aries New Moon Called Off

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Dear Friend and Reader:

In an extraordinary step, the Masters of the Universe have canceled Sunday’s Aries New Moon. “It seems like a big deal to you, but it’s pretty much nothing for us. We took a look at the front page of The New York Times and thought the better of it,” said one of the Masters, who with his colleagues has presided over the Earth for the past 6,500 years.

Artists’s impression of the Aries New Moon that almost happened Sunday, but was canceled due to danger.

“Frankly, it was a really bad idea to schedule this New Moon for right now,” the Master continued, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He said he had consulted his longtime personal astrologer, Flo Higgins of Rumson, N.J., before making the decision. He added, “We thought you would have some fun with it, but obviously not the way things are going now. What a mess.”

The potentially dangerous combination of influences involves a New Moon combined with the Jupiter-Saturn opposition, at the same time that Mars is exactly conjunct Uranus right on the Aries Point. “That’s just buggered, especially with those Japanese nuclear power plants and a few thousand tons of spent fuel still on the brink of turning to plutonium soup,” he added.

“Plus, Mercury is retrograde,” Flo Higgins said.

A spokesperson for ascended master Sanat Kumara, reached on the outskirts of Shamballa where he was recreating with the Lords of Karma, said yesterday that, “It would have been a fantastic opportunity if you guys had a faint clue how to hang loose. We’ve never seen people so freaked out, and this is the 14th time we’ve observed the evolution of humanity. I know you’re thinking, ‘the world is so messed up, how can I relax?’, but consider this. You’re not going to make any progress till you have your wits about you. Half of you don’t even know you’re alive.”

“New Moon called off. Party at my house,” tweeted Jonathan Cainer of York, England.

Sources close to the decision noted that currently there are a number of people on Earth who are trying to destroy the planet who would not have responded well to the New Moon, despite the fact that it was supposed to be conjunct Jupiter. The polarization of the Jupiter-Saturn opposition — the two largest planets opposite one another, with the Earth in the middle — plus Mars and Uranus lining up, was clearly a recipe for planetary psychosis.

Short on leads for this article, last night I went on a reporting mission to Club 55 on K Street in Washington, DC., looking for my friend Marvin, who is an energy lobbyist. The last time I was there, he gave me an earful about why we need to get rid of daylight savings time, just to waste more oil.

Majeston works at College of Uversa, a nonphysical institution located in the 7th dimension, shown here as it occasionally appears to mortals. Illustration by Tammy Russotto.

Before I could find Marvin, who I don’t really like anyway, a dancer I know named Tanya saw me as I came in through the door. She walked over and whispered in my ear, “Majeston.” Then she winked, kissed me on the cheek and strutted away, swaying her hips tantalizingly.

Of course! I knew he was a professor of astrology at the College of Uversa, a nonphysical academy that prepares souls to be astrologers as they pass through the 7th dimension. He said that during the past week he had assisted with the decision as a consultant and was familiar with the issues that were considered.

“We had to spring this on you fast, but actually, it fits with the astrology,” Majeston said. “With Mars conjunct Uranus, you know something a little different was going to happen on fairly short order. Doesn’t anybody actually read these charts?”

Majeston added that despite suspending the New Moon, normal evolutionary processes would continue at least through June 2012, when the Masters would assess whether anyone was getting the benefits of the current planetary alignments. “We thought you would all be having a lot more fun by now. We thought you would get bored of people who spend all their time trying to jerk you around with fear,” he added. “In short, we were pretty sure that by now most of you would have a clue.”

“Seems like the only place anyone knows how to have a good time is in Madison, Wisconsin — or Thailand,” he added. I took notes feverishly as Majeston went on.

This does not help. Repeat, this does not help. Staring at yourself critically does not make you more beautiful. According to Yavanna, you just need to relax and be yourself. It’s okay, you can do it.

“Obviously you don’t get it. Anxiety is boring. We had no idea humans, in their infinite adaptability, would figure out a way to make it into a fascination. Let’s put it this way. It’s possible to get a flat tire while you’re on a road trip and have that be an interesting experience. Okay, that is creativity. But who would want a flat tire every day just for the fun of it? Or spend your whole life worrying about it? That is the basic state of humanity. You guys are a piece of work.”

He suggested that I contact Olooma, one of the Ancients of Days, for additional information. “He’s got time to talk to you. He just chills out all the time,” Majeston said.

I found Olooma in his usual spot in the 9th dimension, reclining next to his fountain of light surrounded by spectral divas. “Most humans are fitted with a version of the ego that’s full of bugs,” he said. “Just about everyone is using Version 6.3. That one was a disaster. We’re now up to 10.6 and that works a lot better. You should try it out. We’ve enhanced color sensitivity and music appreciation.” He added that the newer, upgraded egos are more sensitive to solar-lunar events and can feel the presence of Jupiter as something besides alcohol.

Yavanna, Queen of the Earth and Giver of Fruits, said that humanity’s struggle involved pleasure anxiety. “It’s blocking your intelligence,” she said. “I actually mean this. It’s sad how many of you are proud of how prissy you are, but it’s not doing a thing for you, except to keep you in a mental fog.” She said she hoped that the temporary respite from the intense astrology of the past two years would give people an opportunity mellow out for a few days.

“Play some music or have sex,” she added. “Man, I just don’t get it. You people love to waste your time on nothing when you could be consummating creative bliss with every waking hour.”

Astrologers Around the World React

Tracy Delaney, programmer of the Serennu.com website, discovered that to “cancel” the New Moon, the Moon would station retrograde shortly before the planned conjunction to the Sun. In order to do that, however, the Moon would have to be declared void-of-course from August 2001 through January 2016, “which explains a lot,” she said.

Tracy Delaney this week became the first astrologer in history to calculate the Moon going retrograde.

Doing the calculations for the extremely rare lunar retrograde this week, she went through three quarts of vodka, eight pots of coffee, two laptops and a box of stress balls.

“It was ugly, and it took a while” she said, brushing her hair out of her face, “but I sodding figured it out. Actually my daughter Alys did when she made a joke about Black Moon Lilith, and that cracked the formula.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, programmers at Time Cycles Research were furious at the decision because it meant their software would be inaccurate. They responded by stripping all the asteroids out of their newest edition.

At Astrolabe, publishers of Solar Fire, frenzied telephone operators handled hundreds of panicked inquiries from confused customers, many of whom asked if this involved the new 13th sign.

Despite the obvious logic of canceling the Aries New Moon, many Earthly astrologers were confounded by the decision.

“That’s gonna be a little weird,” said Adonis Moonchild of Goddess Girl astrology in Phoenix, who is a voracious columnist for StarIQ and huge fan of Jeff Jawer. “There hasn’t been a lunar retrograde since 11 ice ages ago, but I guess they have to do what they have to do. But I don’t think it’s a good idea. It was havoc for the trilobites.”

Richard Noelle, one of the world’s most talented astrologers, said, “This goes to show that horoscope columns are pure garbage.”

Astrology Retrograde: Young astrologers group left for Mesopotamia in 2006 and has not been seen or heard from since.

Reached by satellite phone in Mesopotamia, Chris Brennan, who is bravely leading an expedition of thousands of bright young astrologers into the Dark Ages, said that he did not want to interpret the chart until he had calculated the time lords, which would take until August.

Asteroid specialist Martha Lang-Wescott, the wisest astrologer in all of Montana, said, “The gods are perverse. I told you.” She then went back to teaching her dog, Cady, how to read.

“What’s wrong with a little New Moon in Aries, opposite Saturn? It’s just gonna mess up a bunch of other stuff,” said David Roell of the Astrology Center bookstore. “Fiji, Syria, Timor, whatever. If you write a book about it we’ll be happy to stock it.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” said Michael Lutin of Park Avenue.

Psychological astrologers were debating the issue vigorously. Violating the laws of space and time, a special retroactive session was called for UAC 2008, which met in a packed room on Monday. Before an audience stuffed with students of Kepler College, the all-star discussion panel consisted of Liz Green, Melanie Reinhart, Howard Sasportas, Dane Rudhyar and Dr. Marc Edmund Jones. It was moderated by Isabel Hickey, who presided with a riding crop.

Liz Green makes a statement outside the retroactive UAC 2008 panel on Sunday’s canceled Aries New Moon.

Emerging from the meeting, Green inaudibly whispered the following statement: “There are no shortcuts to self-knowledge. Even if the New Moon is canceled, the shadow material represented by retrograde Saturn in Libra must still be addressed.”

Later that day, I found Richard Tarnas out in the lobby and asked him what he thought. “Subtracting the Aries New Moon is like the archetype of the empty self. It fits the modern zeitgeist perfectly,” he said, adding that he would cover this in his next book, which comes out in 2025. “We’re in the midst of quadrature alignment of Uranus and Pluto but it’s awfully quiet. It feels like Christmas morning but only the mice are awake,” he said.

Jose Arguelles was available for a conversation over peyote buttons spiced with cannabis indica. “From my new perspective on the Other Side, I can tell you that time has actually run out. You people have already gone over the edge, into the void. That’s why everything seems so crazy. Your fragile logic of time has fallen apart. You must step out of time and you’ll be happier.”

In Truth, Coyote Stole the Moon

Intergalactic astrologer, modern day shaman and top-secret consultant Philip Sedgwick noted that the Masters of the Universe who claim to have made this decision had only been in charge for 6,500 years, which suggested a bias toward Judeo-Christian thinking.

On a previous instance, Coyote stole fire. Tomorrow he is expected to steal the Moon. Image by Hyenacub.

“Coyote stole the New Moon,” he said in a phone interview Thursday.

“I became concerned when I went into the backyard to check my sundial on the first 90-degree day of the year, and I noticed that it was off kilter. I thought it had to do with the pole displacement due to the quakes. But it seems that time has been reset, not that the New Moon has been canceled.”

“I’m even more worried about the New Moon in Taurus a month from now when we have seven planets in Aries counting Eris, of course. According to the Northwest Indians, Raven will steal the Sun. So people will be totally in the dark, as usual.”

“That’s a good thing,” said Emma Langley, a receptionist at the local eye doctor, commenting reluctantly. “I’m a very non-controversial person. I like my life that way, no matter what the Masters of the Universe think.”

Yours & truly,

Amidst Retrogrades, Planetary Action Heats Up

April 1, 2011 Northampton, MA (AP) — Following close on the heels of recent rolling revolutions in many of Earth’s countries — thought by most astrologers to have been sparked by Uranus aspects — the next wave of the ‘Twitter revolution’ phenomenon went cosmic.

As soon as the Masters of the Universe decided to pull the April 3 New Moon, planetary tweets, including posts from planets orbiting other stars throughout the galaxy, began coming in at such high volumes that Twitter’s servers actually crashed. One source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested the white-hat hacker group Anonymous might have been responsible for the crash. However, the official word from Twitter is that since the tweets from beyond our solar system took many hundreds of thousands of light years to get to Earth’s Internet, it is likely a simple case of a non-compatibility issue caused by grossly outdated formatting.

Tweets posted before the crash, however, indicate another factor: Mercury’s latest move to retrograde motion. Now that everyone can know anyone’s whereabouts and status in a blink of an eye instead of an aeon, we’re seeing trends move faster. Even non-retrograding bodies like the Moon, suddenly released from her duties on Sunday, have decided to join initially-reluctant Mercury in the revolt against direct linear motion. What follows are some of the tweets caught before the server crash.

Mercury

Horoscope says should go #retrograde. Dunno if I feel like. Just did few months ago. Got soo wasted. OMG! Sooo not up for that again.

Luna

@Mercury: Hey, I’m going #retrograde too! MayB we can together? Go EZ this time.

Venus

@Mercury: Didn’t u go all #retrograde 4 the holidays? U crashed my #matchmaker site NYE!

@Luna: Moons can’t go #retrograde!

Luna

@Venus: Mind ur own business. I’m going. :p #Newmoon, so I’m doing something new. Get it?

Titan

@Venus: Moons can 2 #retrograde! Callisto & I do all da time.

Mercury

@Titan. Heard that about u2. Here goes! Going #retrograde! Steady…. hold on now…

Mercury

!drawkcab s’gnihtyrevE !ti did I ?anuL ,gnimoc u R

Eris

@Luna: u r such a follower!

Venus

@Eris: b nice! She just got dumped by Masters of Universe. Is confused & lonely

Eris

@Venus: whatev! I been waiting yrs for this party in #Aries. No one invites me to da others. Merc shows up, makes 1 pass, thinks he can try 2 more

@Mercury: u get as drunk as last time, I’ll deck u!

@Luna: have fun w.Merc. but don’t expect him to last long. Too quick! Then he sneaks out da back

Mercury

@Eris: ouch. Harsh! U shld chill & try #retrograde

Eris

@Mercury: not now. Sun is coming thru #Aries. Omg — hottie!

@Titan: U & Callisto swing?

Titan

@Eris: no. try Pluto & Charon. They r wild & out there!

Charon

@Titan: hey now! No rumors pls. we thought we’d try retro 2gether this time

@Luna: how’s it working 4u? I’ve never tried b4. Am nervous!

Luna:

@Mercury: .hsur-deah giB .yzzid mA !aohW

@Charon: .nuf tub drieW !ti 4 oG

Venus

@Luna: don’t close your eyes. Makes it worse!

— by Sean Springer and Amanda Painter

First ‘photos of Mercury’ in 30 years taken with Mercury retrograde

The first photos of Mercury distributed widely on the Internet were taken with Mercury retrograde, giving rise to speculation that they are really photos of somewhere else.

Dubious images are believed by the public to be Mercury. Very little about the picture actually makes sense. Photo: NASA.

“They look like just about anyplace,” said astronomer Mike Brown of Caltech, who discovered Mercury. “You cannot conclusively say that’s Mercury. It’s the probable surface of something, a planet, an asteroid, maybe even Arizona. But to say it’s Mercury is speculative.”

Neil Armstrong was emailed the image Thursday. “This looks extremely familiar,” he said from his home in California. “I could swear I’ve seen this somewhere before.”

By Thursday night, speculation that the Mercury photos were a hoax was running wild on the Internet. “Look closely and you’ll see the shadows go in all directions,” said Sophia Coppola, reached at home in Palermo. “This is worse than the crap Kubrick did for Nixon with the Moon landing thing. I can’t believe anyone is falling for this. Look, there’s a Snicker’s wrapper on the lower left.”

But NASA officials were adamant that the photo originated with the $56 billion MESSENGER program they say arrived at Mercury this week, the first spacecraft to reach the innermost planet since Mariner 10 in the mid-1970s.

“That would be nice, but the whole thing was fried by solar flares,” said Martha Alexandra, a secretary at the space agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I mean, toasted. The decals on the outside of the ship are actually scorched. You can’t tell if it’s USA or USSR.”

“The Moon was in Pisces when the photos of Mercury appeared,” said Rob Hand, who was leading a tour of the Nile Valley with his cousin Barbara Hand Clow. “Clearly, this is a work of cinema.”

Check this audio announcement for information about Eric’s

new e-book, Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, April 1, 2011, #854 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Saturday’s New Moon in your birth sign may offer you some shocking insights into who you are. You knew you were bold; did you have any idea you were this bold, or this assertive about something that might ordinarily sap your confidence or be something you might not usually express? The idea is to make the most of the breakthrough, and to consider it a doorway rather than a passing experience. I also suggest you stay grounded in your feelings. You may find that challenging, because the way the planets are set up you may have the sensation of a strong ego presence, but if you sense a bit more deeply, a kind of dry sensation. Therefore, stay wet. Drink water, take baths and don’t let all the fire and heat boil off your subtle inner presence. Your true emotions may seem to take you by storm at odd moments.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aries, please go to this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The complexity of the moment includes the sense that you are on the cusp of some huge leap, and that the story of your life has the potential to take any turn. At the same time you may find yourself seized by moments of a false lack of confidence and even panic attacks. Therefore, any time you’re feeling like you lack the guts to dare, I suggest you question that. Look directly at your fears, and figure out where they come from. If you think life is a conspiracy of some kind, remember that it can just as easily be a conspiracy that works for you as much as against you. Therefore I suggest you do what you can to foster cooperation, and as you make up the story of your life, embed plot elements about how people you may not even know are assisting you behind the scenes. As Lou Reed said, you can’t count on the worst always happening. In fact it rarely does, leaving plenty of room for everything else.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Taurus, please go to this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Episodes of confusion or mild chaos will provide you with wide openings to define yourself and understand your purpose in a new way. Therefore, when you get to the point where you don’t understand something, or where disorder seems to prevail, that is where you become the one who can apply purpose and direction. This will remind you how different from your friends you can be, and how different they can be from you, yet the result of the relationship is still productive. One of the prevailing themes of the forthcoming Mercury retrograde is remembering that who you are is not only flexible; it’s changing constantly in subtle ways. This is precisely why you can handle diversity better than many people you know; your encounters with others are a means of experimentation. There’s no requirement to commit yourself to any point of view other than awareness and responding appropriately from moment to moment.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Gemini, please go to this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — This is a time to make significant, even astounding strides in your professional life, though you may not notice the results right away. What you will notice is the feeling of something truly interesting happening. The planets suggest that this is the time to push the limits of what you thought you were capable of, as well as the limits of appropriateness. If astrology means anything at all, the implication of the current alignment is that you are so free to be whatever you imagine that you can barely describe the potential. But the potential exists and it’s fully energized now. Allow yourself those moments of taking chances with being fully authentic. Give yourself permission to do what you think of as your ‘real work’, and by that, I mean expressing your true calling and deepest mission, no matter how outrageous you might think it is.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Cancer, please go to this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The image in your chart is a crack in the sky opening up and a whole new dimension being not only available but obviously so. At the least you have an opportunity to see far into the future, and to look at the current circumstances of your life and of the world in a way that transcends all of the insanity developing in the short term. There is freedom in this, and there is the gift of being able to solve problems from a ‘higher’ level of reality, which tends to make them seem much simpler. Think of it this way. You can measure the area of a room by counting how many times you can lay down a 12″ x 12″ tile, or you can measure and do the math. Only now apply this to your perception of yourself and what role you’re playing in the rather meaningful global drama that is unfolding. You possess solutions to problems that have not even been identified yet. Don’t worry if you have no idea where they come from.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Leo, please go to this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You have some amazing new opportunities opening up, but to take advantage of them will require trust on a level that you may have experienced only at rare moments of your life. Remember that all trust is trust in yourself; the reason is that no matter where or in whom or what circumstances you may invest it, you have to trust your decision to do so. So it all comes back to you. If people are offering you opportunities that seem way outside what you have ever considered possible, you’re going to need confidence in order to make the most of them. Despite the startlingly quick turns of developments, I suggest you consider the next few weeks a test phase. You don’t need to make ‘final’ commitments about the future — only about what you’re willing to explore right now. Therefore, you can go in as deeply as you want, remembering that everything is an experiment.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Virgo, please go to this link.

Check this audio announcement for information about Eric’s

new e-book, Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — It’s a good thing you handle intensity well, though you can admit it to yourself if you’re being pushed past your limits. These would include the sensation of feeling overwhelmed, or if you’re burning out from expressing such a high level of sensitivity. It’s true that full awareness is your best friend right now, and that includes using that information to manage your environment in ways that matter. Make sure you leave enough energy and resiliency to handle the surprises that others seem to be springing on you fairly regularly — some of them are going to be worth going with. If you think this is all some kind of conspiracy to get you out of the past and into the wild world of the present moment, you’re right. If you encounter boring or staid tendencies in yourself, figure out which parent gave you that particular quality, put it in an envelope and mail it back to them.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — If you cannot accomplish something by one method, you can definitely accomplish it by another. For example, if you cannot change another person, it’s absolutely certain you can change yourself. I don’t mean to accommodate who someone else is — I mean to accommodate who you are. Said another way, if you cannot change your circumstances (which I doubt), you can change how you respond to them (and that will clue you in to where change is not only possible but inevitable). That said, for the next few days I suggest you proceed cautiously. Don’t push your health. Drive the speed limit, and particularly when traveling, do so with your mind rested and alert. Focus on basic self-care. Your best ideas and breakthroughs will manifest where you leave a clear space. In moments when you don’t feel like you’re getting anything done, do less rather than more and you will make some brilliant, efficient moves.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Your world is more lavish than you know. Your ideas are better than you ever imagined. That the circumstances around you seem reticent to change doesn’t matter. If you have this idea that the best of what you have to offer is not being accepted by the world, you can safely ignore that as some form of misinformation. You are making a place for yourself: a one- of-a-kind place for your truly unique offerings. You can afford to be patient where outer results are concerned — and as bold as you care to be on the level of your creative process. This is a truly meaningful time to experiment with your sexuality, remembering that some of the best opportunities show up unexpectedly and are not subject to planning. Make sure you attend to the basics to take care of yourself, then proceed with confidence.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — The world is inviting you to open up, yet you seem to be persisting in some kind of retreat. What are you feeling insecure about? The more you dig in, the more imposing the potential in front of you will feel. Even if you resist a little less, you will feel considerably safer. Most of what you’re experiencing is an energy differential — the world is changing fast, and this may translate to either some directly personal circumstances changing, or your sense that global events are more than you’re equipped to handle. To the extent that you experience any of this as destabilizing, it’s mostly an illusion created by a pressure buildup in your emotional body. If you let off some of that pressure, the world will seem less overwhelming. The more of that tension you hold, the more imposing events will seem. Therefore, find a way to blow off some steam and you will feel grounded and safe.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Your mind needs some room to breathe. You may feel overwhelmed, and like you have more on your plate than you can handle. The beauty of the moment is not how much you can get done (which is plenty), but how well you apply yourself to one particular idea. The key is having faith in yourself, or rather, that is what you’re learning. In order to use your mind to its best potential, create some space in there. Pause before you begin anything and ask yourself the best approach. There will be an easier, better way to go about it. Then apply the same method to the bigger puzzles that present themselves to you. In fact this is the time to contemplate solutions to your most perplexing problems and to work out your most ambitious plans. If you relax your mind just a little, nothing is impenetrable.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You have options. That’s one thing to remember — it’s the beauty of the moment. You have resources, and you’re much more self-sufficient than you think. That’s a great position to be in, and at the moment you’re free to experiment with the idea. There’s freedom in self-awareness, and that freedom includes access to your vast inner stores of initiative, energy and creativity. You have plenty to share but you’re under no obligation to do so. Yet of all the opportunities presented to you by the genuinely unique and positive astrology of the moment is the chance to take the inner territory of feeling good about your existence: that is, recognizing who you are and what you’ve accomplished. Yes, we are in a dangerous time in history. In the immortal words of Hunter Thompson, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.

Check this audio announcement for information about Eric’s

new e-book, Light Bridge: The 25-Year Span.