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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 6, 2014

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You may want to choose your words carefully to convey an especially vital message, but find that this is just not possible. You may not have fully formed concepts for what you’re describing, and as long as the concepts are not quite coherent, there may not be words to follow them. But you can sketch, you can experiment and you can keep the focus on what you think and how you feel. I suggest that in any discussion, you set up the ground rule that what is said is subject to revision, which will acknowledge the discovery process that you and someone you’re listening to are in. You’ll need to hold the same space open for feedback. A few things will help — to speak in I-statements, to be conscious of your own frustration, and to monitor when what you are saying is actually painful or frightening. If you give yourself permission to feel, which means not judging yourself for feeling or for saying how you feel, this will be a lot easier.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Sharing is a difficult concept for many people to grasp. Sharing an intimate partner seems impossible for a good few as well. What if you consider your intimate partner(s) to be the property of existence — first of themselves, then of the world? What if your privilege of holding them was similar to visiting a national park, which is yours because it’s a collective holding rather than an individual one? It might be easier to consider yourself, rather than someone else, in this light. It would at least be worth the experiment. Our concepts of ownership of others are difficult to see, and they are damning. That’s a dangerous combination because there are implied effects of a cause that’s not easily seen, perceived or acknowledged. Yet it’s easy to feel when you’re inviting or embracing an openness to existence, one that is not based on property rights but rather rests on the gentle foundation of existence itself.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — There is a power source in your ability to embrace the fertile void. That could start with embracing uncertainty, of which there is plenty in the world, and plenty in your chart. Though this may take a little courage, it almost always comes as a relief to let go of false certainty, whatever may come next. What is likely to follow is contact with an intuitive level of knowledge, not quite instinctual but definitely centered on your body and on your feelings, that is easier to follow than the chaos of trying to sort things out again and again. Said another way, if you don’t try to ‘make things make sense’ but rather start from the position that they don’t make sense, you will feel your way to a level of perception that’s much more trustworthy than where you might otherwise be. I suggest you be highly conscious of the stories you tell yourself, and remember that is what they are. Remember that your stories are likely to become true, so that would be a good incentive to choose well.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Notice the subtle shifts in your perceptions, particularly your orientation on your inner and outer worlds. Your point of focus is shifting, which is about as much as I want to say, so that I don’t bias you but rather allow the potential for a clear experiment. What I will say is that you may soon become aware of things that you did not notice before, but which suddenly seem obvious, as if they were there all along. I suggest you not latch onto this clarity but rather keep moving with it and see where it leads you, in whatever sphere you are exploring. The one thing that might be challenging is the depth you’ll be called into, as you notice that you’re in the process of making a discovery you’ve had hints of but which may have eluded you for years. Not knowing has served a purpose. Now, knowing must serve a greater purpose, so that you will be motivated to find out, and to use what you learn.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Public discussion of private issues can be extremely distorted. Rather than avoid it outright, I suggest you observe the twists and compare them to what you know. There’s a pattern to the way sensitive matters are twisted; there is an agenda, and if you see that agenda for what it is, you will be doing yourself and the men in your life a huge favor. There is something that desperately needs to be understood for what it is. What’s complicating matters is that the issue has two distinct sides, and it’s wrapped up in some of the most taboo subject matter of our culture. You have a distinct line in on whatever this is — you can see and feel it for what it is, and can see through the apparent split or controversy over right and wrong. If there seems to be a paradox involved, you’re the person most likely to be able to see right through it. This will come as a benefit to everyone.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — In all matters requiring leadership or your relationship to authority figures, you’ll need to proceed gently, seeking clarity at every turn. I suggest however that this be emotional clarity, which is to say, tap into where people are coming from on the level of feeling first, make contact with that and then figure out where they are coming from intellectually. This order of flow is from the easier mode to the more complex one, though connecting on the emotional level will make everything easier to see. You may feel a strong temptation to do otherwise, especially since others may be expressing an argumentative tone or quibbling over facts that don’t seem to matter much; that is exactly what I suggest you not get lost in. I also suggest you sidestep any direct use of power and not give any specific instructions until you have more information than you have today. The nice thing is you can afford to be empathic, and to honor people for who they are, even if they don’t necessarily notice you.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — In order to slip into the ease of your situation, you must also slip into the unknown, which may be intimidating or feel like you would totally lose yourself in the process. You would, but it would be somewhat like losing the feeling of being tired in order to feel rested, or losing feeling stuck in order to feel like you’re free to move. The movement you seek at the moment may feel like an intellectual freedom, though in truth it’s the freedom to embrace your own process of emotional healing. Please go slowly if you’re tempted to insert ‘spiritual healing’; where I see you ready to do the deepest work is on the level of trust, which pretty much makes anything else possible. In order to trust your environment, you would have to trust yourself first, and that is what the unusual astrology of the next few days describes. Make your decisions gently and remember, you are writing or sketching in pencil, not with a tattoo pen.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Saturn in your sign is urging you to hold fast, while other factors are saying that you must dance with existence in a bold way, with the rhythm seeming to change from moment to moment. Yet you’re no longer dancing at the edge of a cliff, or under any threat to your existence. Your relationship to your fear has changed profoundly over the past six months, and this has changed your relationship to existence. Perhaps I may offer a point of clarification there. Imagine you live a life where you don’t fear that the universe or the world is a hostile place. It may not always be fully cooperative, but you know it’s not specifically hostile toward you. How would you live differently? At the moment you are being asked or feel compelled to change in some way that you know is profound, and that seems (correctly or not) like an either/or choice. How would this choice be different if you could proceed with trust in existence? Remember, fear ain’t what it used to be.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You must feel like you’re headed to a new place, or to a new place in life, with some bold determination — and you can afford to proceed with confidence.
The fact that certain other people around you may lack cohesion or direction is not a reflection on you, and I suggest you not take it on, no matter how tempting that may seem. As the Moon rapidly builds toward full phase, exact in your sign on the 13th, you will need to keep your focus, slow down and make decisions more consciously. It will be increasingly important that you not be influenced, sidetracked or distracted by others, and the potential is definitely there. At the same time, as the days go by you will have the potential to be more reactive than usual, especially if you’re under the influence of alcohol. So between now and the 14th I suggest you be conscious, even scrupulous, about this. You are at a critical juncture in your life and I suggest you avoid setbacks and make every decision count.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — It’s finally come to the point where what other people think does not matter, and it’s got less influence on you than ever. Or certainly it can, while you take care of things that are absolutely not the business of anyone but yourself. One particular issue that may have been troubling you for ages is coming into focus, and you are in a position to do something about it. But to make full contact you have to pass through a kind of nonexistent barrier, similar to what used to be called the ‘sound barrier’. There is no boundary, just the fear of chaos, and the fear that your own sense of identity could be threatened by the healing process. I suggest you sit quietly with that and let the fear speak up even as you move forward. What you are seeking is also moving toward you, and when the meeting happens you won’t have to cross the whole distance yourself.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You are in an extended experimental moment, and this is the time to keep your mind open. For you that translates to exploring different patterns of communication, different topics, and the willingness to embrace the unknown. There are many ways to express yourself, and you have a few that you don’t use often. These possibilities may feel more tumultuous than you might expect under the current astrology, since the unknown comes along with the unpredictable and unexpected and that raises the question of unprepared. Oh, and possibly being perceived as such. I am, however, talking about words and ideas expressed and shared locally, not a spontaneous Broadway performance. Yet the fact of being known for what you express is indeed a factor that might be making you nervous. Be aware of an exaggeration effect with that; but what is not an exaggeration is how much you can learn from any experience of sharing anything you’ve created that has actually involved you taking a risk.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — There’s a way to experience the astrology of the next few days as a surge of confidence. There’s another way to experience it as everything coming unraveled. It might come across as fear of all the dark forces operating in you and the world, especially on the theme of sexuality, or it can manifest as a contact point with deep self-understanding. I would remind you that this is mostly a matter of perception, and that you have a choice in the matter as long as you see your options and consciously make a decision. The key will be this: if you feel like you’re losing control, don’t take that as a sign that you in fact are. Rather, take it as an invitation to focus, muster up your confidence and make a decision about how to proceed. There’s an emotional element to everything and I suggest you keep your focus there. This would be emotional with a direct connection to creative and sexual elements of who you are, remembering that these are a way to go deep into your primal nature. You don’t have to be civilized. Aware and real will work beautifully.

Mercury, Weaving the Story of Nessus

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Those children who are beaten will in turn give beatings, those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation, and those whose souls are murdered will murder.— Alice Miller

Dear Friend and Reader:

Nessus, the third centaur planet (discovered in 1993), recently entered water sign Pisces. This is a slow-moving point that can go so far from the Sun that it extends into the Kuiper Belt, crossing Pluto’s orbit, and comes so close to the Sun that it goes inside the orbit of Saturn. Nessus is on its way there now. After spending nine years in Aquarius, it will spend 19 years in Pisces, which is pretty rad even in the context of eccentric centaur orbits.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Nessus was last in Pisces during the turn of the 20th century, from around 1893 to 1911. And it was in Pisces during the American Revolutionary era, from 1772 to 1790 — spanning from just before the Declaration of Independence was signed to right after the Constitution was ratified. More about that in our Friday, July 4 edition.

Mercury has recently entered Cancer, a water sign, and it’s doing something interesting there over the weekend — stationing retrograde in the very early degrees of that sign. In doing so, it’s spending 19 days in early Cancer, holding a long trine aspect to Nessus, making three exact contacts — on May 31, another while moving retrograde June 15 and a third while moving direct on July 13.

The retrograde will take Mercury back into Gemini for a while (between the last two contacts) and then Mercury will move forward and return to Cancer, making the last trine (on July 13). Mercury moves pretty fast most of the time, so this is an unusual phase of rapport between the planet of consciousness and communication and a minor planet associated with some of the darkest themes that humanity must address on its path of growth and healing.

Nessus moving into Pisces has shifted the story from the theoretical realm of Aquarius into the intuitive, emotional realm of a water sign. The shift also represents that between an earlier discussion among an elite group (in Aquarius) to a wider public (in Pisces). The material of Nessus is challenging to speak about, especially in Pisces, where it may be veiled or take some as-yet unrecognizable form. Speaking about it must come from a place of feeling so as to remain clear and accessible, yet not boil over into aggressive or defensive emoting. That calls for awareness and a safe space to process one’s experiences.

To help clarify the themes of this unusual extended aspect pattern, I think it would be helpful to start with the myth of Nessus and see how its themes play out in the contemporary world — and the discussion that’s currently happening in the wake of the recent murders in Isla Vista.

My tarot spread in the Grotto of Heracles, Isle of Delos, in May 2005. Read this article for more information about Delos and the spread.

Nessus is a centaur. What all the centaur myths have in common is a creature who is half-man, half-horse; and in the story, the centaur dies. On one level, all of the centaur myths are actually the stories of the death of the centaurs. In mysticism, psychology and astrology, we can use these stories as healing tools and define death as the process of change. So you might look at the death element as describing the transformation element of that particular centaur.

Notably, all of these myths were buried in the backs of libraries, most of them still in ancient Greek, until the first centaur, Chiron, was discovered in 1977. Then working together, astronomers, astrologers and translators recovered the stories and brought them into contemporary thought.

Thursday morning I picked up a 1958 book called Myths and Their Meanings, and the first thing I checked the index for was Chiron — the most famous of the centaur stories. The writer, a respected author in his field, got the lineage of Chiron wrong. His parents were Kronos and the nymph Philyra, not “a mortal named Ixion and a cloud.” (That is true of all the centaurs except Chiron and possibly Pholus, whose story may be an offshoot of the Chiron myth.)

The Nessus Myth: A Study in Revenge and Karma

Just about everyone is familiar with Heracles, the great hero of Greek mythology. He’s more commonly known in his Roman form, as Hercules. He represents the human quest in the world, often associated with the work of men. He had his 12 labors, and was constantly accomplishing them on one mission or another. In our superhero-obsessed culture, Nessus is important because his myth is the story of the death of Heracles. In other words, Heracles, the great hero of Greek mythology, who starts as Chiron’s student, meets his demise at the hands of Nessus.

Heracles shoots the centaur Nessus, painted by Jules-Elie Delaunay (1828-1891). There are certain inaccuracies in this painting; I’ve read that Nessus is described as having a much darker skin tone.

This tells us a bit about the centaur myths: clearly, they are not well known, they’re not common fables or fairy tales and not taught in school. Yet they are some of the most significant side streets of mythology, which is a map to human experience and psychology. This is exactly how the centaurs work in astrology. They are not commonly known but somehow their experiences are familiar to all of us.

Here is the story: Heracles and his wife Deianira are escaping from a bad situation — where Heracles had single-handedly killed perhaps a thousand centaurs in a full-on war. The two of them came to the river Evenus. There, Nessus was the self-appointed ferryman, who carried people across the river. Heracles threw his club and shield across and then forded the river, and Heacles negotiated a deal wherein Deianira was to be carried across the river by the centaur Nessus.
There are several versions of the story. In one version, the fee that Nessus negotiates with Heracles is the privilege of carrying his wife across the river.

Here is where the story gets blurry, so for clarity I will quote the original translation, by J. G. Frazer:
“So Hercules crossed the river by himself, but on being asked to pay the fare he entrusted Deianira to Nessus to carry over. But he, in ferrying her across, attempted to violate her.”

There is one other significant point. In one telling of the story, Heracles’ marriage to Deianira was based on an arrangement with her dead brother. It’s possible that Heracles passed Deianira to Nessus, knowing he would abduct her, thereby getting out of his marriage. I say this because we know Heracles knew all he needed to know about centaurs. In addition to having been mentored by Chiron, he had just waged war on the entire race of centaurs, and knew their reputation as rapists and murderers.

Centaurs in the Ixion line (as Nessus was) are almost all portrayed as rapists. Heracles has just left the scene of his war against the centaurs, so he knows who he is dealing with. Deianira, meanwhile, is portrayed as a hapless victim of circumstance. But we know something from her name: its etymology translates to “destroyer of men.”

Seeing Nessus “attempt to violate” Deianira, Heracles shot Nessus in the heart with an arrow. The arrow was poisoned with the blood of the Hydra, whom Heracles had killed in an earlier scenario. That poison blood is how Heracles had just killed a thousand centaurs. Its also the poison that killed Pholus, and it’s what was on the arrow that inadvertently hit Chiron. (Those scenes unfold just prior to this one; the myths of Chiron, Pholus and Nessus are intertwined and all involve Heracles.)

In his second labor, Heracles confronts the Lernean Hydra, a many-headed reptile-like monster so toxic that even its breath and tracks were deadly. Poets describe it as having more heads than any painter could draw; this one was illustrated by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898).

The Hydra’s blood was deadly, and Nessus was poisoned by the arrow. As he lay dying, the centaur gave to Deianira a vial of his toxic blood, or a mix of blood and semen (this is ambiguous in the versions and translations), and tells her that it’s a fidelity potion. He says she can use it on Heracles and it will ensure that he’ll remain faithful to her. Whatever happened between Nessus and Deianira, she trusts him enough to believe that this vial really contains a fidelity potion. In reality, he turns her into an unwitting contract murderer of her own husband — once again, hapless.

When she suspects that she might have a reason to use the potion, she spreads it on a tunic which she gives to Heracles to take to a tournament. After he had gone, some of the liquid fell on the ground and it frothed as the sunlight warmed it. Realizing it was toxic, she sent a messenger to warn Heracles, but the messenger arrived too late; the poison was taking hold.

“After killing 12 immaculate bulls as a sacrifice to celebrating the spoils of battle,” Melanie Reinhart wrote in To The Edge and Beyond, “Heracles had already donned the tunic.” As its poison ate into his flesh, he was in long agony, roaming the forest ripping trees out of the ground.

This fulfilled the prophecy of the Delphic Oracle, many years earlier, which said, “No man alive shall kill Heracles; a dead enemy shall be his downfall.” I have also heard this translated to he “will be killed by the blood of a dead enemy,” which has the flavor of one of those Delphic riddles. In this case it was two enemies — the Hydra and Nessus. Heracles, wanting a dignified death, returned to Olympus, where he asked to be burned on a funeral pyre — at which point he revealed the Delphic prophecy he had kept secret for years.

This myth raises more questions than it provides answers. Nessus would seem to be quite a conniver, but Heracles clearly should have known better than to hand his wife off to him. There are certain people who you know are just going to be trouble, and you avoid them — but he does not. In addition, Heracles was the mightiest of men, with divine powers — he could have carried his little lady across the river himself. But he did not. He passed her off — he passed the buck, as it were — to Nessus. And Nessus passes the buck right back to him — by way of his wife.

Stopping the Cycle of Abuse and Revenge

In this myth, we have a triangular situation between a man, a woman and a third entity. We have the theme of rape, and a question of whether there was a setup for that happening, or some nebulous form of consent, implied consent, payment or taking advantage of a situation. We have scenes of trusting untrustworthy people. We have a scenario where “bad blood” is passed on from one party to the next. All of these point to the theme of a cycle or chain reaction of abuse or revenge.

An illustration of the Karpman drama triangle.

There are many contemporary themes in this myth. The bad blood could be seen as karma, it could be seen as the cycle of abuse, or it could be seen as a sexually transmitted infection (they may be related).

Questions of fidelity, ensuring fidelity and revenge for infidelity are as old as civilization. So too is the notion of a woman’s body as property. Matters of consent, of taking sexual advantage of women, matters of sex as a toll, are all part of our contemporary culture.

All of this is soaking in a society that both practices and preaches ignorance around sex and seems to reward hypocrisy above all else. I would add that the use of sex in commerce, that is, turning sex into a commodity, is one of our most serious problems we face as a society — and nearly everyone buys into it.

The Nessus scenario reminds me of something called the Karpman drama triangle, which is where we get our main concept of codependency.
The idea first appeared in a 1968 article called “Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis” by Dr. Stephen Karpman in Transactional Analysis Bulletin. The article sets up the familiar concept of a triangle between the persecutor, the victim and the rescuer. As Karpman says in his article, anyone can play any role at any time, adding, “There is no drama until there is a switch in roles.”

This can happen when a victim decides not to be victimized anymore — and often becomes a persecutor. Or a rescuer is victimized, not understanding that this was part of the script. Often, Karpman says, people play multiple roles in the drama simultaneously. The drama in the Nessus myth involves many changes in roles. In the end, everyone plays out some form of persecutor, victim and rescuer. [As an aside, I must thank my 4th grade teacher at PS 207 in Brooklyn, Mrs. Ursula Fennely, for teaching our class that Greek myths are highly accurate descriptions of the psychology of our society. She knew what she was talking about.]

Where Nessus is at work as an astrological factor, you can look for a complex web of interrelation, a sequence of events where one thing leads to another but the pieces of the story don’t necessarily seem connected. You may have to connect the dots and see the pattern for yourself.

The concept of ‘victim’ is central to the thinking and structure of our society. In this advertisement, the right to have a gun is being advocated as the right not to be a victim, with the simultaneous risk of making someone a killer. Few people consider this.

Nessus has themes that feel like the return of karma that may have an extremely long trajectory, like a boomerang that takes the long way around the world. Yet actions have consequences, and causes have effects, and effects have causes.
Once you notice those relationships, you can almost always discover the source. Nessus is a helpful diagnostic tool in handling situations with these themes of betrayal, deception, murder, sexual abuse and sexual infidelity.

It works just as well to reveal something about where and how we’ve been hurt in the past, and how we’re likely to hurt others — and how we can heal that pattern and its resulting injuries. [Note, nearly all readers have Nessus in Taurus (1950s), in Gemini (1960s) or in Cancer (1970s). These dates are approximate and should be checked against an ephemeris.]

Yet in the current environment, especially the political one, Nessus seems to be reminding us of our need to stop the endless cycle of persecutor, victim and rescuer. As my Facebook correspondent Beverly Spicer put it, “Here in the West, we are stuck in the relative stagnation of unconscious behavior on a wild merry-go-round, riding first the horse of persecutor, then victim, then rescuer. But the carnival never stops. Real life begins when we say no to the ride on any of the horses.”

I think what is not exactly transparent here is that from the political standpoint, claiming the right to be the victim is the time of reckoning and revenge. One gets to be next in line for recognition, compensatory damages, protective laws, assured privileges and maybe the punishment of the persecutor. From a spiritual or psychological standpoint, the Karpman drama triangle is invoked. Victims become persecutors, rescuers become victims, and the cycle continues — creating ever more casualties and injured people ready to persecute.

There is also the well-accepted idea that victims are entitled to special rights, and another that one has the right to be a victim. In the drama triangle, the concept of ‘right’ is associated with being a persecutor.

Another of my Facebook participants, Khai Macauley, a female-to-male transsexual (FTM), still in transition, wrote on my timeline Wednesday: “This can no longer be a question of fault and blame but what is possible and what you/I/we can create. Holding someone else accountable doesn’t create anything but another hierarchy.”

There has to be some concept of accountability or ownership, a new kind, because blame makes guilt and guilt makes attack. This is because attack is the projection of guilt. One way to describe the cycle ending is the end of projection of guilt. That is possible but
it’s tricky because the people on the new frontier, newly outside the cycle they may have been caught in and weakened by, have to be really, really strong in their love and forgiveness — because there is a shit storm of guilt flying.

The most touching thing Khai wrote was, “I have been many things to my biological family, the worst of which is crazy, but crazy because I’m ‘pretending’ to be male? Too far. But this is not just a personal journey. I am finding many men feel this way. And they are contorting themselves to try to find inclusion within a culture that only holds space for them as perpetrators.”

Mercury in Cancer, Stationing Trine Nessus

Mercury is now in Cancer, the sign of family, of feelings and of natural instincts. It’s also in aspect to the Aries Point, which is like common ground shared by both the most personal and the widest collective issues. Mercury has been picking up on the themes of Nessus in Pisces, and they have been rippling out into society — in ways both helpful and grossly distorted.

Mercury has been direct through its week-plus of slow motion in Cancer, and now it’s about to station retrograde. This represents a change in polarity for Mercury and it may represent the potential for a ceasefire in the ongoing projection of guilt.
There is something deeply emotionally introspective about Mercury retrograde in Cancer, and this can manifest as honesty with oneself about personal accountability and ownership.

Photo by Danielle Voirin.

That ownership is not going to happen in a space of blame, of self or otherwise. It’s going to happen in a trusting space, where the whole truth is welcome. We have much to reckon with, and the whole revelation of truth will take time.

We live in a society that does not stop waging war on others and often wages war on its own people. The men who are forced to do this, and everyone around them, carry many injuries associated with warfare. Nearly all of us have an experience of constant psychic or emotional violence through exposure to images of war.

Today, we are “celebrating” the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the invasion of Normandy — if you turn on the TV you will see scenes of the bloodiest battle in modern history.

To some extent we are all complicit, even if only through paying taxes, by refusing to speak up, or by acting directly in support of what we know are illegal military operations. This has been going on for so many years few people remember anything else. It’s no surprise that the war has come home.

Everyone who has come through our culture has suffered pain, abuse and humiliation to some extent. Everyone carries some sense of injury — shame, guilt, fear, the sense of missing personhood and moreover, everyone has plenty to grieve. Due to gender polarization (pushed by religion, family, advertising and on-the-ground culture), injured personhood is polarized to “injured manhood” and “injured femininity,” yet in reality they are identical problems,
seemingly vindicated and then polarized by gender.

If we are going to get anywhere, we must make a safe space for everyone to feel vulnerable. That will only happen in a trusting environment. We might measure that as a common place where women don’t feel stalked and men don’t feel humiliated if they cry.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $99/year. Core community membership: $149/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Moreno, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions.

“I see this image in my mind’s eye, now in 3-D, every time I imagine how my hand moves through space-time.” Researchers have been studying Jason Padgett’s brain, and he recently published a book about his experience with Maureen Seaberg called “Struck by Genius.” Image: Quantum Hand by Jason Padgett; more of his art can be seen here.

The Geometry of the Cloud’s Silver Lining

Mercury stationing retrograde can feel as though our brains have short-circuited, but there’s often beauty and insight to be found if we’re willing to pause long enough to see it in the midst of whatever’s not working. Very rarely when a real-life short-circuiting of a person’s brain occurs via injury, they discover an unusual artistic proficiency (called acquired savant syndrome); exactly that happened to Jason Padgett in 2002.

After receiving a severe concussion when two men beat him up, a silver lining emerged along the cloud of PTSD he was grappling with: the ability to see complex mathematical patterns in everyday objects, and to grasp the physics concepts behind them intuitively — then translate what he sees into incredibly precise, complex geometrical art.

“I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life” — such as the fractals in water spiraling down a shower drain, Padgett told Live Science. “It’s just really beautiful.”

A physicist saw Padgett drawing in a mall and suggested he consider studying mathematics. A self-described jock and partier who had “always cheated” in school, he’s now pursuing a degree in number theory despite his persistent PTSD and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Even with those hurdles, Padgett says of his new gift, “It’s so good, I can’t even describe it.”

How advertising is destroying our society and our world, Mercury stationing retrograde trine Nessus, and the natal chart of performance artist Laurie Anderson

Advertising is evil. With the help of UMass Amherst

professor Sut Jhally, I set out to prove this in this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM. But first I look closely at Mercury stationing retrograde in an exact trine to centaur planet Nessus — focusing the astrology of a discussion that’s been brewing on various Planet Waves forums all week.

I also cover the Sun square Chiron, which happens the day after Mercury changes apparent directions.

Then I look at the natal chart of performance artist, storyteller, musician and inventor Laurie Anderson. The page includes Laurie’s charts and several videos.

In addition, Planet Waves is currently hosting two discussion threads that continue our community-wide inquiry into gender roles and sexual consent. I cover this astrology in detail, though I would also refer you directly to those threads, in which you are invited to participate.

Discussion Thread on Sexual Projection, Control and Insecurity

Discussion Thread on Men’s Rights and Pickup Artists

Lovingly,

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for June were published Friday, May 23. We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Moonshine horoscopes for the Scorpio Full Moon published Tuesday, May 13. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for June Tuesday, May 27. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 6, 2014, #1001 | By Eric Francis

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You are in an extended experimental moment, and this is the time to keep your mind open. For you that translates to exploring different patterns of communication, different topics, and the willingness to embrace the unknown. There are many ways to express yourself, and you have a few that you don’t use often. These possibilities may feel more tumultuous than you might expect under the current astrology, since the unknown comes along with the unpredictable and unexpected and that raises the question of unprepared. Oh, and possibly being perceived as such.
I am, however, talking about words and ideas expressed and shared locally, not a spontaneous Broadway performance. Yet the fact of being known for what you express is indeed a factor that might be making you nervous. Be aware of an exaggeration effect with that; but what is not an exaggeration is how much you can learn from any experience of sharing anything you’ve created that has actually involved you taking a risk.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — There’s a way to experience the astrology of the next few days as a surge of confidence. There’s another way to experience it as everything coming unraveled. It might come across as fear of all the dark forces operating in you and the world, especially on the theme of sexuality, or it can manifest as a contact point with deep self-understanding. I would remind you that this is mostly a matter of perception, and that you have a choice in the matter as long as you see your options and consciously make a decision. The key will be this: if you feel like you’re losing control, don’t take that as a sign that you in fact are. Rather, take it as an invitation to focus, muster up your confidence and make a decision about how to proceed. There’s an emotional element to everything and I suggest you keep your focus there. This would be emotional with a direct connection to creative and sexual elements of who you are, remembering that these are a way to go deep into your primal nature.
You don’t have to be civilized. Aware and real will work beautifully.

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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 30, 2014

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Aries (March 20-April 19) — Look carefully at what demands your relationships seem to make on you. For example, consider what you’re expected to sacrifice, or what you think you have to give up, especially if it involves an element of your identity. Consider the ways in which your affiliation with another person demands that you compromise your sense of right and wrong. Recent, subtle shifts in your astrology indicate that what is normally difficult to see is now easier to perceive. What has evolved is that you can feel your own values more clearly; you know what you hold dear, whether it’s an idea, a way of life or an approach to love. Once you have that context, it’s much easier to see the ways that what others say and do violates your sensibilities. Clinging to your values in the face of adversity is one thing; living them boldly is another — and now is the time to make, and act on, that distinction.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Venus has returned to your birth sign, another way of saying that you’re getting a boost of confidence in understanding a matter of commitment that may have been testing your endurance. Commitment is not a competition, though it’s often presented that way. Controlling another person is not a precondition of being committed to them, though that’s a narrative that we are often conned into believing. In the life of every conscious person there comes that moment when they discover they must adopt different relationship values from the ones they got from their parents, and for you this time seems to have arrived. Fortunately, you know more than your parents did, you have more options, and you’re very likely to be more self-aware. What has not changed is the ongoing influence of peer pressure to make stupid decisions. Don’t fall for it.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The recent New Moon in your birth sign has demonstrated how good it feels to act in unison with yourself — mind and body, heart and soul. Your solar charts describe mighty goals, and state that you have a vision for yourself that’s becoming clearer every day. It will take strength and focus to meet those goals, and that begins and ends with being in harmony with yourself. Most of us are taught to fight ourselves. Simone de Beauvoir in her masterpiece The Second Sex described how women are raised to spend so much time in conflict with themselves that they have little time to rise to the challenges of the world. Wilhelm Reich described the plight of the “little man,” the man who is conditioned to feel small, worthless and powerless, and is therefore weak and miserable. So it seems that everyone is in the same boat. To rise up and meet the challenges of creativity and career, you must be aligned with yourself, and get over any delusion of littleness. You would do well to have these things be your first goal, every day of the week, for every decision you make.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — If you have something to say, particularly to an intimate partner, family member or therapist, this is the time to say it. Humanity in its current state has plenty that it bottles up, and after a while, these secrets come to define us; they shape who and what a person is. For the next couple of weeks, you may have a rare perspective on how this process works for you, and you can actually do something about it. That something begins with tapping your body-knowledge, then translating that into words — no matter how imprecisely they may seem to describe your situation. You must start somewhere, and that means opening up to yourself. As you do, information will come through from your dreams, which will serve as a healing modality on its own and help you put matters into context. Then at a certain point, sooner rather than later, you will have the option to initiate conversations with one or two people with whom it’s absolutely necessary. That will open up other possibilities; one step at a time.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You need to get out more — and not just for social purposes, but also for business purposes. You can walk the line between them just fine and have fun in any event, though it’s clear that you need a wider conversation than you normally get to have. This will serve two purposes — one is that you’ll be able to consider more diverse points of view, which I suggest you instigate by engaging people in conversation. Second is that you will get to overcome certain insecurities that have become more noticeable in the past year or so. What seems to be happening is that your viewpoint is being confined to a smaller place, thus, it cannot stretch out like it might otherwise. When you do get out and among others, make sure you converse with people about anything and everything, no matter how weird, questionably appropriate or taboo. Listen to what others say about their existence and you will learn a lot about yours.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — If you have to solve the same problem repeatedly, you’re not really solving it. If you figure something out and come up with the same solution again and again, you’re probably not taking action. This week’s New Moon in your 10th house of achievement is an invitation to do things differently. That means setting new goals, and approaching them with different strategies. The upcoming Mercury retrograde is calling on you to take a more intuitive approach to what you do, rather than a logical one. I don’t mean an emotional approach, though at this point there is no denying what you’re feeling; there is no denying what you want or what you need. Intuition is gentler, quieter and contains more specific information than most other forms of inner contact. It may contain a caution but rarely contains actual fear. So if you’re feeling fear, I suggest you look into what that’s about. Your solar chart suggests you ask yourself about the fear of going deep. Since you want to go deep, you’ll have to confront that issue.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You have all kinds of plans, you’ve been unusually decisive and yet you may be wondering how much progress you’ve made the past month or so. The real marker of progress is your direction of movement, not how far you’ve come. Look for evidence that you’re more committed to what you’re doing. Look at what you’ve let go of that was not working for you. Consider the extent to which you express the value you hold for the important people and situations in your life. Notice whether you show up someplace significant, and how you feel when you do. Do you feel more confident than you have in the past? Your astrology describes you as internalizing or dialing-in personality features that are not typical to what you’ve done in the past. So this may be a tentative kind of confidence, like what you might feel when you’re in an unfamiliar place yet still know you have the experience and maturity to handle anything that might turn up.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — What happens when you get what you want is always an interesting reality check. Not everyone is happy about it. Not everyone is comfortable. Some people are thrilled and others are resentful. Some feel entitled and some feel guilty. Some want more, and some are eager to share. So, I would put the question to you — how do you feel when you get what you ask for? Next level or layer, how do you feel honestly wanting who or what you want? How do you feel when you notice or see whomever or whatever that is? Some people feel control, some feel greed, some feel desire, some feel appreciation, some feel a focusing of their intent. Your astrology calls for careful reflection on your responses to who or whatever you may desire, inquiring deeper than you might ordinarily go, noticing things subtler than you might usually observe. Pay particular attention to fear that may arise, in any of its many forms.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — For a little while, consider everything a potential message from the gods. You’re philosophical, curious and adventurous enough to do this. Listen carefully to what people say, and imagine for a moment that it’s a direct revelation of truth. Observe the visual world around you for symbols that have personal or universal meaning. This isn’t because everything you see is indeed a divine message (though the case could be made that it is, from a metaphysical standpoint). Rather, I suggest you do everything you can to keep your mind open to the cosmos. If you do, you’ll notice things that you might not have noticed had you considered everything simply to be average, ordinary stuff as most people will perceive it to be. Notice, in particular, the quest, desire or struggle for the people to orient on healing. Listen to what they say and notice the choices they make, no matter how small or meager they may seem. Notice that value taking hold anywhere around you — anywhere at all.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — If you are trying to sort out the difference between self-esteem and narcissism, I have a clue for you. I know that these two ideas are often confused or conflated, and that’s a problem. It’s necessary to center one’s life on oneself, but there are many ways to do that. One way to distinguish them is to notice whether you’re interested in other people for their sake rather than for your own. The problem with narcissism is that it really does not care — either what happens to others, or how others actually feel about them. There is a kind of chilly emotional detachment to narcissism, and that is what makes it such a problem. If you care, show that you do. Don’t play it cool; be real. Say it in words and demonstrate it in deeds. Allow yourself to be part of someone else’s existence in a real way. This calls for vulnerability, the real thing. Now, if you happen to discover that you don’t really care so much? You can start by inquiring as to how that came to be. Once again it comes back to vulnerability.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — There’s a direct relationship between insecurity that has its root in a sense of being injured, and the potential to be an equal partner to others. The two ideas mirror one another. If you have some sense of yourself as injured, then the idea that you could be someone’s equal will seem to lack any credibility. It might even be too frightening to consider. The sensation may be, if I am actually met on level ground, then this person may see through me. They may see what I’m struggling with. They may figure out how hurt I feel. Now, all of this is an idea. There is not the perfect, independent person, and anyway if you ever meet one, they would know the path that it took to get there. Part of being an equal partner involves having a healthy relationship to the plight and the quest of being human, which these days is pretty challenging. That is the level ground — it’s not about perfect people getting together to be perfect, or injured people getting together to be injured. And this level ground — well, it starts inside of you.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — When I sat down at my desk in April 1995 to write the first Planet Waves horoscope, I don’t think I could have imagined writing my 1,000th column. Yet here we are, nearly 20 years later, and I am grateful for that. Being a horoscope writer is mysterious enough perceived from the outside. From the inside, it’s the experience of getting to write to you — and that means ongoing introspection. The beauty of writing horoscopes is that to do so, I must carefully consider every aspect pattern I write about from 12 distinct points of view, and write both to and from that perspective. I would not want to be a horoscope writer were I not a Pisces, because Pisces is the ultimate sign of ‘shape shift and see things from 12 points of view’. That kind of holistic viewpoint is one essence of Pisces, and of Chiron in Pisces, and if you step fully into that perspective you will see the world in a way that few people can see. I believe that is a gift, given for a purpose, and in Pisces fashion, intended to serve the greatest good for all concerned.

Cosmic Confidential: My Life as a Horoscope Writer

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Time exposure of the ancient stadium on the acropolis of Rhodes, the Greek island where British horoscope master Patric Walker lived much of the year. According to Sally Brompton, who once got the assignment, he would send his students there to commune with the gods. Photo by Anthony Ayiomamitis.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Horoscopes are a writing form that’s close to my heart for two reasons. One is that reading the Patric Walker column in The New York Post in the early 1990s was the first demonstration to me of how relevant astrology could be. I knew astrology existed, and I knew astrologers, but I did not see the point of doing it. Patric’s daily column, nested in with Jumble on the Post’s comic page, was not merely accurate; he offered some of the most sage insights I’ve ever heard from an astrologer, to the present day.

One day in 1994 I could no longer stand the mystery of how he did it, so I ventured to figure it out. Using an ephemeris (to look up the positions of the planets) and a deck of Crowley tarot cards (to illustrate the energies), I camped out in my then-girlfriend Hilary’s bed and cracked the codes not just of writing astrology columns, but also into the top level of an industry where very few people ever get — writing horoscopes for the London tabloids.

The Chironian, an abandoned mine nice enough to live in, once part of the Norton Cement Works, where I did many rituals and spent hours communing with the deep Earth and its elemental spirits during the spring and summer of 1995. Photo by Eric Francis.

Horoscope writing in England is another world compared to the United States. Instead of syndicated columns, every major newspaper has its own horoscope writer, who becomes one of the voices of that publication.

Jonathan Cainer is one of the best-known horoscope writers in England, and many years ago he adopted me as his vacation stand-in. For four years I got a taste of the big time, even writing in some of the same newspapers where Patric Walker had appeared. It was quite a trip having millions of readers of newspapers in Australia, England and Europe, and worldwide on the Internet. It was clearly Jonathan who put me on the larger map; he has always had a thing for making sure people discovered younger astrology talent. I met Jonathan with the help of my old friend William Lilly (1602-1681), but that is another story.

Many ‘proper’ astrologers look down on newspaper horoscopes for a variety of reasons, and some go so far as to say that they are destroying the image of what is otherwise a legitimate profession. My take is that with astrology, interpretation is where the tires meet the highway, especially when it’s raining. The horoscope column is an example of just that — an interpretation designed to be relevant to a person, right then, right when they seek it out. People need astrology to offer them an idea, a strategy or some reassurance. If astrology cannot do that, what good is it?

Horoscopes are also my literary love because when I started writing them, I was looking for a way to do journalism that was more relevant than what I was doing at the time, which was investigative reporting on fraud cases involving toxins and very large corporations.

No matter how accurate or damning my investigative articles were, they did not seem to be making contact with the people who needed the information the most. It occurred to me that a well-written horoscope could be a way to make contact with the softer side of humanity, and a place to move information you might not see anywhere else, certainly not in a newspaper.

House on Binnewater Lane in Keators Corners, Rosendale, New York (on the site of the former Norton Cement Works) where I wrote my first horoscope column (upstairs on the right) in April 1995.

It was Patric, a venerated British astrologer, whose writing taught me the rudiments of astrology and set up the model I use to translate from the chart to the message I offer you. And it was from Patric that I learned that a horoscope must be written to an individual, not to a group. You don’t write to all the Geminis who are reading — you write that horoscope to the one who is reading.

That takes confidence, and an experienced writing voice, and it also builds the confidence of the reader. The horoscope is part of an ongoing relationship between a reader and an astrologer. It’s a meeting place and a space to share ideas. I intend for mine to be relevant even if a person reading does not believe in astrology. All writing, I believe, must stand on its own merits.

This week’s edition comes with Planet Waves Weekly #1000. The number on top of each Friday horoscope is a sequence number, so that we can tell the columns apart (we also identify them by the first few words of Aries). When I hired Jessica Keet to serve as my horoscope coordinator and proofreader in 2004, I made an estimate and started the sequence at #531. Arriving at 1000 is not an absolute count, but it’s close and probably an underestimate.

Since I started my column in 1995 — as The Navigator, first appearing in Free Time magazine in Poughkeepsie, New York — I’ve written in daily, weekly, twice-monthly, monthly, quarterly and numerous different annual formats. I’ve written my column in many regions of the United States, as well as in Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Sicily and Spain (and on many trains and airplanes on the way to those places).

Shortly before I started writing horoscopes, someone named Laurie Burnett (who I met through a classified ad in The Mountain Astrologer) suggested that I look into something called Chiron, a newly discovered planet. She also suggested that I spend some time with a book called Esoteric Astrology. One day she mailed me her tattered copy, minus its cover, and slowly I started to dip into its at-first strange concepts. While I was living in Germany in 1998, I got my own copy and studied it cover to cover in preparation for writing this article, about the 1999 grand cross and total solar eclipse.

Planet Waves appears in one of its many incarnations as the Destiny horoscope, in the leading British magazine “Woman.” The thought of the week is about how the Full Moon will favor psychics, night owls and cats.

As for Chiron. When I started to go deeper into my study of astrology, using a diversity of classic texts by people like Isabel Hickey, Rob Hand and the writing team of Louis Acker and Frances Sakoian, I knew that astrology was not making sense presented in textbook format. Memorizing (for example) the different values of placements like Venus through the signs was not giving me any sense of the whole.

Then I started reading about Chiron and halfway through my first book, all of astrology made sense in a new way — an integrated way. This went beyond the conceptual right to a direct connection with astrology as it works. Astrology, as anyone who has studied it knows, can be an intellectual morass. The concepts need to be sorted out and understood, but ultimately interpreting the aspects is an intuitive art, like composing music.

As I studied Chiron, I knew I was in the domain of new planet research, on the cusp of a new era. I devised a way to work with my clients — by asking them about their past Chiron transits, rather than immediately telling them what their chart supposedly meant. This revealed how transits work in the context of a person’s life, and how a person’s chart unfolds and reveals its layers through experience, over time. Then I would read the chart.

When I was living in Germany in 1998, I learned that there were a diversity of other newly discovered planets, including Pholus, Nessus and 1992 QB1, and I began looking into those. That process put me in touch with Chiron pioneer Melanie Reinhart, who I adopted as a mentor. I also met and studied with Robert von Heeren, co-author of the only book on Pholus.

From early on, I was curious about the asteroids, so I started reading books by Martha Lang-Wescott. I contacted her and adopted her as a mentor. I have a lot of Chiron in my chart, and mentorship is one of its key themes. As I identified competent astrologers, I would make contact with them and found them to be generous with their knowledge, among them Rob Hand, David Arner, David Solte, David Roell (a lot of Davids), Dale O’Brien and others. I never took a formal course of study; I just made a habit of finding people I thought had something going on and engaged them in a dialog, often lasting years.

Planet Waves appears in The Daily Mirror of May 4, 2004, standing in for British horoscope writer Jonathan Cainer. It’s really been 10 years?

The Planet Waves horoscope became a fusion of horoscope writing in the classical British style, as well as a forum to bring in what I was learning about the minor planets and from my experiences working with clients. I have incorporated everything I learned from my therapist Joseph Trusso.

Part of what makes my column distinctive is that I apply many details of what I have learned from observing my clients’ transits, as well as what I learned in therapy and in spiritual practice and training.

That most horoscopes aren’t so helpful is not the fault of the horoscope format itself. Those who write them need to have trust in what they’re doing, plus a vision and a sense of mission — otherwise the whole thing falls flat. But when it works, it works brilliantly, and I think the potential of the horoscope column is vastly underdeveloped. As I have said and will keep saying, the astrological profession needs to take this seriously, horoscope writing needs to be taught at conferences, and the very best horoscope writers need to be put forward into the most visible positions — because they are the ambassadors of astrology to the widest public available.

The Internet has made it much easier for people to start a horoscope column; all you need is a blog. If this field is brimming with talent, I have not encountered it yet and would be grateful to be introduced to those who my readers consider the better writers.

Yet thanks to the Internet, we have more space to work. The format of the Planet Waves horoscope I offer you here is not constrained by an absolute word count. A printed horoscope column of 1,200 words or 100 words per sign is considered long. In this format I take up to 180 words per sign if necessary, longer for the monthly. This gives me the space to develop more complex themes.

A Personal Form of Journalism

When I say that I consider my horoscope a form of journalism I really mean it. For one thing, it started in newspapers, so it’s journalism by default. I started in newspapers as well. I came to the work with many years of experience writing about issues that are extremely difficult to explain and even more difficult to show as relevant.

The Underground Astrologer, an early incarnation of Planet Waves, which was distributed in cafes around the Hudson Valley of New York. Even in this early form, the column has the essay plus horoscope format. This seems to be from February 1996, right before being picked up by Chronogram magazine, where I’ve been publishing continuously 17 years.

The horoscope is a space where I can apply anything I’ve learned and synthesize it with the unique, immediately occurring positions of the planets, and get the news out fast. It’s a mode of journalism that is actually relevant to the people who are reading it.

That’s a cool invention — a way to deliver up-to-the-day psychological and spiritual information, packaged as a form of inner news. I have often joked that the horoscope is the most accurate part of a newspaper. What I did was start from the horoscope and reinvent the whole concept of news.

One quality of the Planet Waves horoscope is that wherever I can arrange it, it appears with a news and astrology commentary column — that’s the bit you’re reading now. Not everyplace can accommodate this, but I negotiate it where I can. I consider the accompanying article to be an essential complement to the horoscope because it grants wider context and the ability to take subjects in-depth. It also reveals something that many people don’t know about — how astrology can be used as a way to observe, analyze and reflect on world events, on the movement of history and how we as individuals are involved in things much larger than ourselves.

The point of view of the horoscope column is distinctly personal. It must be written in a way that bypasses political prejudices and spiritual beliefs. It must address people who are having an awesome day and be sensitive enough to reach those who are having a horrible day. This is a fine line to walk, and it obviously precludes being either overly optimistic or in any way pessimistic in my horoscopes. Yet they still must convey a feeling of advocacy and demonstrate a measure of understanding. I recognize this not an easy form of writing to teach, though I believe it can be done.

The article that accompanies the horoscope is designed to take a wider scope, and to venture into controversial territory when necessary. Yet when I write about the news in this format, that too is kept to a scale where it’s personally relevant. The great failing of the news as we know it is that for the most part, it’s irrelevant. It may have impact; some events are too vast or tragic not to feel. Yet it almost always lacks actual meaning in an individual person’s life.

So with the Planet Waves column, I turn the news inside out and strive to show the connection. Astrology happens fast and news happens fast, and it’s possible to combine them in a way that’s both exciting and that teaches us all something about the world, about ourselves and about how the planets describe human affairs.

I work with the common ground that people share with major events and newsmakers — we all have the same planets in our charts. We are all in some way synchronized with the cosmos, even if that experience is rough at times. I believe that using astrology can help smooth the way, and at least can provide some meaning where it might have been lacking before.

A few years ago, an old book fell into my lap. It’s a first edition copy of The Astrology of Personality by Dane Rudhyar, published in 1936. Rudhyar, by the way, is considered the inventor of the 12-sign horoscope column. Alice A. Bailey, who would later write Esoteric Astrology, suggested that Rudhyar write the book, and for that reason he dedicated it to her. By some miracle, I was given the presentation copy that he signed to her, dedicating it to her a second time, this time in his own handwriting on the title page.

Bailey made the book her own with a large pencil signature on the front inside cover, and by affixing the Lucis Trust Lending Library plate on the front endpaper. Reading the book, I have to remind myself that the impeccably neat pencil underscores may be those of Bailey herself. The very first one, on page 7, highlights this quote:

“What the ordinary astrologer offers to our present generation is not only far from coming up to the mental level of the intelligent thinker; it is moreover, often decidedly nefarious and psychologically disintegrating. The living astrology of all times can, however, be said to have a basic keynote: integration. And we claim that any astrology which does not bring a man a message of integration is an adulteration and a perversion of true astrology.”

The last Patric Walker daily horoscope for Pisces, for Sunday, Nov. 12, 1995. I never figured out the Saturday horoscope, but Pluto changed signs overnight and his Sunday horoscope was the first with Pluto in Sagittarius to stay; he had the right idea.

Well now…way to sum up the intention I put into my life’s work. The chapter on the history of astrology closes with this passage, which I will share with you in full.

“Astrology must be reborn to perform again for our modern world, made chaotic by an unbridled and false individualism and by the sudden opening of psychological dams, the task of practical integration which has always been its own. Wherever the correlated motions of Sun, Moon, planets and stars are used to bring order into the confusion of our everyday world — there is astrology.

“The type and range of the phenomena of nature which astrology correlates, interprets and makes significant in terms of a cosmic principle of Order, change age after age. At first they were physiological and elemental. Now they are to be essentially psychological and mental. But the fundamental work of astrology remains the same. It is to reveal the ‘Harmony of the Spheres’ at whatever level man’s consciousness is centered. It is to carry the symbol of Order wherever man finds chaos. In modern terminology, it is the algebra of life.”

It’s funny, I have always thought of writing the horoscopes as calculus, solving the equation of the aspects in some life-affirming form. I look at the planetary pattern, align my chart for the reader of a particular sign, and work out the psychological mathematics in a way that I think is useful and motivating. It’s a lot of fun — and every time I write, I get to look at the world equally from 12 different points of view, the perfect game for a Pisces.

In that spirit, here’s to the next 1,000 horoscopes.

Lovingly,

Mercury trine Nessus: Listening to Humanity

Mercury has ingressed the sign Cancer, and today is forming a trine (120-degree contact) to Nessus, the third-discovered centaur planet, newly arrived in Pisces. Nessus describes the cyclical unfolding of events, and of making personal choices to intervene in what seems like karma.

Said simply (borrowing from Melanie Reinhart), Nessus is about how the buck stops here — meaning with you. (The buck in this expression is not a dollar, but rather a buck horn traditionally used in poker games.) When someone gets the buck horn, they must deal the cards — or they can “pass the buck” and not deal.

So the buck stopping means you get the opportunity to deal — with your own personal material, in a direct way. This is a kind of personal intervention; you take hold of an issue that is troubling you, and accept the responsibility to address the material, for yourself, not by blaming anyone, but by seeking understanding.

Understanding the lines of responsibility and of accountability is necessary — and that is different from blame.

You don’t pass your pain along (for example, to your child or another younger relative). You take the opportunity to stop the cycle of abuse, knowing that one convenient option for victims is to become abusers. When we talk about the “cycle of abuse” this is exactly what we’re talking about, and the thing that needs to be stopped.

Where Mercury is involved, that means cultivating inner honesty and communicating, using I-statements, about the ways in which you have been hurt, betrayed or been in any way involved in hurt and betrayal. Nessus goes deep (as do all the centaurs), so this may reference the most serious things that have happened to you and, by extension, to relatives whose lives have impacted you.

Mercury is making an usual pattern of movement; it will station retrograde right in those early degrees of Cancer. It spends a total of 19 days there, in a water trine to Nessus. In the process, Mercury stations retrograde on June 7, which you can think of as a profound opportunity for introspection and self-honesty.

Those fleeting opportunities to say what has been troubling you are now slowing down to a degree where it’s possible to look, to feel, to hear and to see. What is most interesting is that Mercury stations in early Cancer — in a close aspect to what is called the Aries Point. This is a mysterious degree of the zodiac where personal material intersects with collective material.

When we speak from Mercury in Cancer trine Nessus, we are speaking from a common place, and when we listen, we are listening to humanity. The implication is that you are part of humanity, sharing a common experience with everyone around you. And when we do actually listen, I believe we will discover something that’s been discovered many times before — that we have far more in common than we recognize.

The fine print: “I used the first 5,000 words for 7 of Shakespeare’s works: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, As You Like It, Winter’s Tale, and Troilus and Cressida. For Melville, I used the first 35,000 words of Moby Dick. All lyrics are provided by Rap Genius, but are only current to 2012. My lack of recent data prevented me from using quite a few current artists.” Graph and data by Matt Daniels.

A Shout-out to All the Word Lovers in the House

With the Sun in Gemini, words and wordplay are a featured theme, though not everyone who says a lot really has much to say, or uses much of a vocabulary to say it. Data scientist and graphic designer Matt Daniels decided to chart the vocab depth of hip-hop artists — with some surprising results.

“Literary elites love to rep Shakespeare’s vocabulary: across his entire corpus, he uses 28,829 words, suggesting he knew over 100,000 words and arguably had the largest vocabulary, ever,” writes Daniels. “I decided to compare this data point against the most famous artists in hip hop. I used each artist’s first 35,000 lyrics. That way, prolific artists, such as Jay-Z, could be compared to newer artists, such as Drake.”

Both the Bard and Moby Dick scored higher than most, with a good 20 rappers on par with them in terms of unique word use. Although as Robert T. Gonzalez points out at io9, “vocabulary is clearly an inadequate metric for success, profundity or impact.” Yet nobody — not even Shakespeare or Melville — could touch a rapper who’s taken his name from another great from classical literature: Aesop Rock. He was born June 5, 1976, making him (of course) a Gemini.

Gemini New Moon, the Isla Vista Incident, Planet Waves Horoscope 1000 and a Shout-Out to Bob Dylan

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I cover the Gemini New Moon square Neptune. This is quite an aspect pattern, involving the asteroid Apollo in Virgo. I do the chart of the Isla Vista shooting from Friday night and comment on the toxic combination of advertising images, anti-depressants, hero-worship, guns and alienation. After a song break by Suzanne Vega, I talk about the desire to go beyond alienation that led to my becoming an astrologer, and read some thoughts of Dane Rudhyar, published in 1936. Finally I give a shout-out to Bob Dylan and acknowledge him for the turn of phrase after which Planet Waves is named.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for June were published Friday, May 23. We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. Moonshine horoscopes for the Scorpio Full Moon published Tuesday, May 13. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for June Tuesday, May 27. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 30, 2014, #1000 | By Eric Francis

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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 16, 2014

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Aries (March 20-April 19) — When Mars stations direct next week, the mystery revealed is less likely to be how someone feels about you, but rather how you feel about a relationship situation. When that moment arrives, remember how much thought you’ve put into this situation. So when you finally get that information, I suggest you trust it. The chart describes a scenario where you’ve wondered what to call something, whether you’re stuck there, what you want and what your environment is telling you — all of which are stylizations of the core idea of how you really feel. The only reason such a simple thing could be made so complicated is because it has so many other seeming manifestations, which all seem to move the central reality of the situation away from you. It never was outside yourself and it never will be. That counts for many other situations you may be wondering about.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The past will stalk you to the extent that you let it. Note that the past is not a thing, but rather a set of perceptions, expectations and beliefs that were more appropriate for another time in your life. It may also extend to the results of choices you made in the past that still have some manifestation today, but not usually. If so, most of the time they are obvious and easy to address by making decisions. But the decisions might indeed be clouded by those perceptions, expectations and beliefs. You may not be the only one who needs to address these elements of history; someone close to you may be struggling to have a clear, tangible and useful opinion about the way things are versus how they were supposed to be. I would suggest here that these seemingly complicated, even convoluted, questions come down to, “Who am I now, and what do I want to do?”

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You may be feeling edgy and uncertain as the Sun makes its way across the very last degrees before entering your birth sign. When it does, I think you will feel new determination that may seem, on one level, to be driven by your desire to survive or endure. Yet there’s much more going on, in particular, a surge of creative and sexual energy
that you’ve been holding back for some reason — perhaps out of an abundance of caution, or because your life seemed too complex to give yourself the space to take any chances. However, that seems to be the very thing you now must do, if you want to get anywhere. Taking chances sometimes means risking everything, but more often it means allowing yourself to do something that you previously hesitated over. As of today you may think you’ll never have the courage or the confidence to do that. I think you might feel a lot differently in a week.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You have learned a lot the past few months, by some measures more than you’ve ever learned (and resolved) in such a short timeframe. I would sum this up in a few words as “leadership comes from within.” You must take over your own life and your living space, and get into alignment with the people around you before you can be effective in any other aspect of your life. This is not true for everyone; many people can be grossly out of whack with their environment and still get a lot done. You cannot be. Remember that every waking moment — what you do is every bit as important as where you’re doing it. Your energy level and overall performance will be entirely influenced by where you’re doing whatever you’re doing. How you feel will be your best barometer. That includes how you feel about the people who surround you. For all of the above, choose carefully.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The Sun’s entry into Gemini will make it easier for you to catch up with all the changes that have been going on around you. You haven’t exactly been left in the dust, but progress does seem to be moving a little faster than you prefer to go. Your solar chart suggests that the most meaningful thing you can do is be available and visible. Take every opportunity to engage and converse with others well beyond your home office, your cubicle or the cafe where you usually work. You’re the one who must bring the initiative and reach out to others. Make the call, send the email, start the conversation. Gemini is the 11th house of your solar chart — the house that brings the greatest benefit, the income rewards of your work. Gemini says this will happen through human contact, and the Sun says that starts with visibility. So freshen up and take every opportunity to be seen and heard.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Mars stations direct in your money house (Libra) just as the Sun enters your career house (Gemini). This is a great combination. Mars is the money planet — making money takes motivation. The Sun is a fine indicator of work and reputation. Put the two together and you can allow success and financial motivation to drive your desire to succeed, and allow success to drive your financial goals. This may all seem too worldly and not so spiritual, though I would define ‘spiritual’ as being responsive to the conditions of your environment and your current stage of growth. The past six months have come and gone with all kinds of questions about money, and the best direction you want to be taking. It looks like the next week will provide you with significant information, though I think your deepest discovery will be about who or what is the most important to you, and what you want to do about that fact.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — You are approaching a moment of truth. It could be about any aspect of your life, though it’s likely that an intimate situation is involved. Your charts tell a story about your having gone through a series of initiations over the past six months, which has put you in a place where you could hardly have expected to be. You may, as a result, have outgrown a relationship. Rather, it looks like you’ve become the thing that you’ve always sought in other people. That means that you no longer need them to provide it; this in turn will save you loads of time and energy pursuing something outside yourself. Yet at the same time, you want to relate to others, and this is suggesting that your contacts with others will benefit from a new purpose. I don’t know what that will be, but I would propose that it’s more about being a whole person than it is about being half of a relationship.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You may have dreamed many dreams about what you would do, if only you were less afraid. You may have even tried, and succeeded, to go beyond your own inhibitions. The journey of Mars through your 12th solar house has been a study in these hesitations, which has served to remind you how much time you’ve spent wondering if you were doing the right thing, or what might have happened if only things were some other way. It’s time to leave your regrets behind you and confront the moment in which you stand, edgy though it may be. You’re not really standing at the edge of a cliff; you’re standing right on the edge of your relationship to yourself. There really is no point hesitating about that. If you were fully committed to your relationship with yourself, many factors in your life would seem far more confident than they often do. And that moment of full commitment is about to arrive.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You may think you’ve been struggling to fit into the world someplace, when you’ve actually been succeeding at doing just that. I know it may not feel that way, but there’s a discovery or two you have yet to make about what the changes of the past few months have really been about. One thing I can tell you is that determining the direction of your life is not merely a process of elimination. It’s true that eliminating non-viable options is critical, and you’ve done some of that, but that’s not all you have to do. I suggest you take an inventory of what is working in accordance with your stated life plans. Notice what is already happening in some form or fashion the way you say you want your life to be. Notice where your gifts are already recognized. Notice who tells you, or in some way demonstrates, “you belong here,” and notice how that feels. Use that information to make any further choices.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Everything you’ve been doing the past few months has been mere preparation for the Take Leadership position you’re about to adopt. Since that was preparation, it’s worth remembering everything you’ve learned since early December, especially about your professional relationships. It is clear that you either want or are destined to dominate a certain situation, though you may realize you cannot do this in an obvious way. You must do it in an artful way. That involves an emphasis on beauty, any time you get the chance, but mainly it involves finesse in your relationships. Even if you’ve rubbed certain people the wrong way, you have the chance to make amends and align your mutual goals. One thing you can trust is that you have something of worth in the relationship, be it power, influence, talent, a vision or charisma. Remember that, and notice how well the skills of others compliment your own. That is a good position to be in.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You can take things more lightly than you have lately, and you’ll probably feel just that inclination. You might even call the feeling ‘spiritual contact’. However, one reason I try (not so successfully) to avoid the concept ‘spiritual’ is that it’s an abstraction of what you already contain and who you already are. So, an aspect that suggests that you’re growing on the dimension of faith suggests that you have more faith in yourself. An aspect that describes ‘messages from the gods’ can be interpreted as you getting into deeper contact with who you are and fulfilling your reason for living. An aspect that describes ‘lessons’ is also about your willingness to learn. All of these images relate to your chart, and therefore to your existence — suggesting a moment of enlightenment, which is to say, becoming lighter; a moment of contact, which means improved communication with yourself and, if you want, with others around you.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Looking at your solar chart I would take an educated guess that you wish things were simpler in your professional life. Many of the more meaningful small planets are clustered in your 10th house, and it has a churning feeling — the sensation of relentless developments, transformations and revisions. Yet this truly unusual set of conditions is the very thing that is helping you create or achieve what you are doing. For example, the presence of many seemingly smaller goals rather than one pointed objective is compelling you to be fully adaptable and to reassess what you’re doing on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. Your mind is organized such that you can handle this much change. But there’s something more significant at work. You have the ability to observe the order in the chaos; to see a vision rise up out of the mists. And that’s exactly what you’re doing.

The Radical Notion that Men Are People

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Mars stations direct in Libra on Monday, after being retrograde since March 1. In modern astrology, Mars is the planet of desire, motivation, drive, impetus, volition and aggression, named for the Roman god of war.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Our society has Mars issues. We have too many wars. We spend too much money on wars, on police and on imprisoning people. We also don’t know the difference between need and want. We tend to want what hurts us and not want what helps us.

Mars is also about men. We train our men to be warriors, then seem surprised when they act like them.

The Mars retrograde journey has stirred up many questions, rocked the boat of relationships and shaken up the life orientation of many people I’ve heard from. Mars retrograde at its best is a study in desire: in getting clear about what you want and why you want it.

Certain events in astrology sum up an entire era, and Mars stationing direct is like the distilled essence of everything that’s happened all year. Think of this as Mars holding a message or secret of some sort, and it’s about to choose its moment and reveal it. That message will reveal something about what we’ve been through these unusually intense and strange months. I have a sense that something deeply introspective, some long-silent inner voice, will reveal its truth as Mars shifts polarities.

Yet because this particular Mars retrograde involved the Uranus-Pluto square, an aspect that describes the culmination point of an entire generation, there’s information on tap that reveals something about our current phase of history. The Uranus-Pluto square is the second great turning point of our century, the first being the Saturn-Pluto opposition of 2001-2002 that arrived with 9/11 and two of the longest wars in U.S. history. One thing we have with Uranus-Pluto is the opportunity to reverse much that went wrong during Saturn-Pluto.

Because Mars is now in the spotlight, I think this would be a good time to comment on men and maleness. Back in April, Amanda Painter quipped that Mars running retrograde in Libra, the sign ruled by Venus, would delve so far into Libra that it would produce the first fully transgender planet. She gave language to something I’d been trying to put into words for months: this is a transformation experience for Mars and all things martian and male.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

During my coverage of Mars retrograde and related gender studies issues, several women have asked me what I have to say to men. But first I have something to say to everyone: men are people.

I say this because men are currently blamed for all of the world’s problems. This is so prevalent that it’s seemingly an unquestionable truth, perceived to be a fact of nature. Everything bad that happens is allegedly a man’s fault. I don’t deny the existence of the patriarchy, but it consists of a far more complex set of dynamics than most descriptions you will see.

The shape-shifting Archetypal Bad Man morphs from oil company CEO into the misogynist frat boy to the serial rapist into the emotional or sexual abuser to the womanizer to the psychological infant to the terrorist/active shooter to the deadbeat dad to the guy who will stick it anywhere to the state governor shutting down women’s reproductive health services to the human trafficker to the hypocritical preacher, politician or warmonger.

Let’s not forget the generic asshole, the jerk of a boss, the drunk, the guy who never puts the toilet seat up (or down), the dude who loves his car more than his girlfriend or children and your everyday inhabitant of the fragile male ego.

The presence of the Archetypal Bad Man, the one whose values and conduct are so base he’s not worth bothering with or acknowledging, or worse, not considered human, is looming everywhere. As a result, everyone with a penis is at least a little suspect.

Not everyone feels this way. But enough people do, including many men, that it’s time we take notice of the prejudice, and notice that it’s not helping anything. It’s not making the world a better place nor is it helping anyone be more enlightened.

These men all exist somewhere. They all have their female counterparts. It seems to be that society’s problems are a human thing rather than a male thing. Yet the open and casual derision with which men are spoken of in our era is impressive, if one is able to notice. There’s not a commonly-known word for this. Who has seen the word ‘misandry’ in print or heard it in school? Who could define it without a dictionary? Does it have anywhere near the connotation of ‘misogyny’?

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

If you are a man, you may find it extremely difficult not to take on some of this projection. However, I suggest you make a conscious choice of not taking responsibility for what you didn’t do, that which is not yours or for who you are not. You don’t have to accept the projections of others, especially those that would in any way deprive you of your humanity.

Yet at the same time you, like any other human, must evaluate yourself, and determine what is in fact yours — and not because someone said so. You will only know what is yours if you search your soul. That is the essence of personhood. Personhood is not a destination. It’s a process, and a lifelong journey.

Being a man has special demands in our society; being a man is a slight twist on being a person, as is being a woman.

I have some other suggestions for men and those people becoming men, which I would offer for all humans in search of their personhood. I offer these as ideas for your consideration, not as necessities or requirements. As ideas, they are focused on facilitating development into what you might describe as a self-actualized state. [Here is a discussion forum for this article.]

Get to know yourself. I know, this seems obvious — but it’s necessary to say in a society that is so committed to depriving people of self-knowledge, and where there are so many opportunities to forget. There exists a taboo against knowing who you are. Self-knowledge is considered a dangerous thing. Among those who lack self-knowledge, it certainly is. It’s also an essential ingredient in freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. Knowing yourself is the ever-ripening fruit of a relationship with yourself.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Focus on your growth. Growth isn’t just for little kids, puppies and kittens. Psychologically and emotionally, I would propose that growth has three basic elements: maturity, confidence and self-esteem. These are different things, they are all closely related and they are all related to honesty. There’s a severe shortage of these things in our society. They are equally meaningful, though I would say that of the three, the self-esteem crisis is one of the most serious issues facing our culture. Part of the problem is it’s not easy to notice one’s own lack of self-esteem. You may have to deduce it from your confidence and maturity levels (which are easier to see), or by noticing how you let others treat you. You can also see it in the value that you place upon yourself in your interactions with others. Once you notice your actual self-esteem level, it’s easier to address in some constructive way. It’s very unlikely to just “fix itself.” It’s something that you have to focus on.

Know what you don’t know. If you are clueless, that will make this fact all the more challenging to ascertain. Figuring out how little you know is one of the most liberating experiences of life. Ignorance, which has as its root the word “ignore” — an intentional, even forceful act — is not an excuse for anything. Its vast popularity is no excuse, either. That is different from lack of knowledge. To address that, you have to figure out what you don’t know. This takes special sensitivity, because you need to notice your voids of knowledge without judging yourself. When you know you don’t know something, and you can admit that fact, then you can find out what you need to know. This is called intelligence. The more intelligent you are, the less prejudiced you will be. Prejudice is the result of not knowing when you don’t know (whatever).

Learn to look after yourself. By this I mean acquiring basic life skills that are quickly being forgotten in our “service-oriented” society. Learn how to shop for food, how to prepare meals and how to establish and take care of your home. Learn how to wash your clothes and keep your house at least vaguely orderly. Learn how to take care of your body. Many men believe that it’s a woman’s role to do all of this for them. You’re not learning this for their sake, however, you’re learning it for your own sake. If you’re terrible at cleaning or can’t stand doing it, then learn to make enough money to hire a professional; that counts as self-care. Speaking of money, learn to organize yours, and to have a healthy relationship with it. Your money is your power. It’s not your only power but it’s one of the most important kinds. Know how much you have at all times, and look after it and measure every purchase on its investment value. In our society, functionality with money is one of the most essential ingredients in looking after yourself and one of the most obvious failings of people who might otherwise be successful and productive.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Focus and master your talents. Pursue what you are good at, what is useful and what gives you pleasure. Note that some skills are to some people less “fun” but are also essential to a good life. You might not like filing taxes, but if you’re good at it you have a distinct advantage. Our society has gone through a profound deskilling in recent decades. Most of your friends will spend most of their free time entertaining themselves. Obviously some amusement is necessary. However, humans stop growing when they stop learning. I suggest you spend a significant portion of your time building your skills and accumulating knowledge, and putting them to use. This will make you a more well-rounded, self-reliant and overall useful and productive person.

Take care of your health. This is a key aspect of looking after yourself — indeed, the most important. All the things you know can hurt you actually do. If you work with chemicals, know what they are and what they do — don’t believe any claims of innocence by your company or by your boss. If you smoke, you are contaminating every cell in your body with every single drag of every cigarette — smoking is that efficient. The cigarettes you smoke are also deadly to the people you come into contact with (second-hand smoke) and the people they come into contact with (third-hand smoke). To quit, you may need to figure out why you smoke in the first place. If you drink alcohol habitually, there’s a reason for that too. You’re literally consuming and expending the resources of your liver, of which you have but one. Note, if you want to preserve or improve your health, and have a good quality of life, you have to eat real food, which means knowing how to shop and prepare food. Additional note: I suggest you discover the extreme virtues of dental floss.

Beware of doctors and hospitals. The medical profession can do some excellent work and has made many strides in recent decades — and it also needs to be approached with extreme caution. Many people leave hospitals sicker than they went in. (I suggest you look up the word nosocomial.) On all medical matters affecting you or your loved ones, I suggest you get two opinions on things that seem minor and at least three on things that seem more important. Most significantly, use your intuition. Doctors will want to prescribe or inject you with drugs they may not have fully researched. (Please look up the word iatrogenic.) It is up to you to understand what is being put into your body. Don’t be afraid to stop the show and seek additional information the moment you don’t understand something. It’s worth mentioning that there exist many forms of complimentary or alternative care, often disavowed by the medical profession for reasons of competition. A good homeopath can help you resolve an issue that most medical doctors cannot diagnose. However, you must do your homework choosing an approach and a practitioner.

Learn to take care of women’s bodies. If you’re a man who has physical relationships with women, it’s essential that you actually understand something about what a female body is and why it needs special care. Women’s bodies are resilient, amazingly strong and do all kinds of fun and biologically fantastic things that men’s bodies don’t do. They’re also more sensitive and more challenging to maintain. Rise above any ignorance and squeamishness you may have, or any sense that the woman’s body is some alien “other.” Get yourself a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves and read it carefully. Ask the women in your life about the special care that their particular bodies need. You would be amazed at the subtlety, the detail and most of all at how much you did not know before.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Learn to negotiate sexual consent. That means having an authentic conversation in a sober state about what both partners want and whether sex is appropriate for you both at that particular time. This includes being real about your sexual history. Sex is negotiated on a per-event basis, not as a standing contract — even with your fiancee or wife. We are rapidly heading back into the time when there is no such thing as clear yes or clear no, but you don’t need to go there. There’s a lot more sex available without the integrity of a clear yes or clear no, but I don’t suggest it’s the kind of sex you want, and you can get in serious trouble without clarity. I would propose that you want to relate to people who are excited about you, for whom yes is clear, honest and real. That puts a filter up — one made of respect and self-respect.

Keep it covered. Presume that all sex will include a condom, unless you specifically plan to create a child. You are responsible for the destiny of every single sperm cell your body produces. You are responsible for any pregnancy that you co-create. It does not matter if a woman says she is using birth control. Everyone needs to bring their own birth control to the table, and not put it off on anyone else. That means you, in the first instance. You are also responsible for any sexually transmitted infections that you pass along, or that you get. Condom negotiation with you should take a grand total of no seconds, though this is not the norm. Bring your own condoms and note that many women are sensitive to latex. Ask your partner about this. While you’re keeping it covered, keep your private parts — all of them — clean. Good hygiene is essential to healthy, friendly sexual relationships.

If you’re gay, accept that fact. If you’re questioning, that’s OK too. Despite all the positive PR about being gay in recent years, many gay men still pretend to be ungay. If you’re biologically and emotionally attracted to men and are not so attracted to women (or not attracted at all), then you’re probably gay. There’s no point being in denial, even if you don’t understand why you are gay.

Bisexuality is normal. Having attractions to and fantasies about both men and women is normal, in the statistical sense — it’s part of the norm. Many people of both sexes experience this (far more than you might imagine), and it does not make you gay. Along the way you will meet women who have attractions to both men and women — I suggest you treat this with the utmost respect. It’s not your sex toy, and if you’re ever invited into the sanctum of female-female sex, consider yourself fortunate indeed.

Deal with your homophobia. Your homophobia is not about that other guy — it’s about you. Usually homophobia has a power source, an engine of some kind running it. It’s up to you to figure out what that is.

Deal with your jealousy. The partners in your life are going to have attractions to others and others are going to have attractions to them. You are going to have attractions to people other than your partner. Make room in your relationships for the simple truth of this fact. The first way to do this is for you to deal with your own jealousy, which is at its essence a control drama and death trip. Note, just because you address your jealousy does not mean that other people will address theirs. It’s up to you to select enlightened partners who share your values.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Your sexual desire is your property and your responsibility. It’s not up to anyone else to provide you with sexual gratification. It’s not the responsibility of women, no matter what anyone may say, think or put into a music video. Your most available consensual sexual outlet is masturbation. It’s more than about getting off; masturbation is an expression of your relationship to yourself. If you treat it that way, all forms of sex will become more relational and more about communication.

Your partners are not your property. You are not theirs. There is much confusion about this. Our society’s whole relationship model is based on the presumed ownership of other people, which is so prevalent as to be taken for granted. The concept is inherent in everything from marriage to rape. This is the source of so much misery it’s impossible to measure. Both sexes are trained to do this to other people. The only solution is to be your own person and to treat others as their own person. This takes bravery, enlightenment and risking people thinking you’re weird. In fact it may require some authentic stubbornness and a revolutionary spirit. So be it.

Learn to be friends with women. By that I mean learn to have friendships with women where you treat them as equals and feel respected as their equal. I don’t mean ‘just friends’ mode; I mean friendship with a real commitment. This may necessitate keeping the sexual and romantic aspects of the relationship off to the side. I am not suggesting you deny your feelings but rather that you express them in a way appropriate for that particular situation. Friendship makes a solid foundation for other forms of relationship, and tends to be what endures the longest. Note that it’s also taboo in many social circles. This is a good taboo to break.

Learn to be friends, not competitors, with other men. Despite the incorrect notion that all men always stick together, men are often viciously competitive with one another, to everyone’s detriment. If you don’t want to live that way, you’ll need to choose male friends who don’t take that approach. Cooperation gets more accomplished, and is the only thing that can build a sane and productive culture. Cooperation means getting beyond the idea that there are absolute winners and losers, not seeing your interests as separate from those of others and being a more generous person. You will feel better about yourself and about existence.

Love those who respect you. In the course of your life, you may fall in love with others who do not seem to love you back. You may put considerable energy into these seeming relationships. Unrequited love is a popular item on the menu of human diversions. This is worth looking at as early in life as possible. Who you love is your choice, and who loves you is their choice. I don’t think it’s possible to persuade someone to change their feelings. I suggest you cultivate a life policy of loving those who, at the very least, offer you respect, kindness and attention; and those who voluntarily offer you nourishment in some form. I have found that we tend to love who and what we take care of. This is a profound gift of human psychology, and I suggest you be open to it working in all directions.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

Go to therapy. Everyone in our society needs therapy. We all have childhood damage and neglect to work through, no matter how wonderful and attentive our parents were. Those injuries get in the way of happiness, success and intimacy. However, therapy is not just about dredging up the past or delving into one’s unconscious motives. It’s about learning to speak about one’s reality and how to put one’s experience up to a more objective mirror. Many men in particular feel, for some strange reason, that this is a sign of weakness, something I’ve never understood and which I suggest you not fall for. It’s unhealthy to let things build up, and one potential reason we may see so much violence coming from men. The skills you learn from a good therapist will benefit you the rest of your life, and enhance your ability to help others in need.

Cultivate mentors. Therapy is a form of mentorship, though there are other kinds that are essential. Mentors are generally older people from whom you learn life skills, and learn about yourself. They are not ordinary friendships but rather associations with people you respect, and to whom you’re willing to listen. They are relationships wherein you gain clarity and receive the gifts of someone’s perspective and long experience. You get a chance to see how far you have to go, and you can get some reassurance that it’s possible to actually make the journey. It’s been said that a wise person is able to learn from the mistakes of others — another reason it helps to have mentors. Along these lines, I suggest that whenever possible, you hang out with some people you suspect or are certain are much smarter than you.

Your anger is your responsibility. Anger is a natural emotion, particularly in a world with many aggravating and frustrating factors. As a matter of discipline, you can remove as many of those factors as possible, along the way to actually dealing with your anger. If you’re someone who sulks, you’re probably angry at your mother. Remember that in our society, men are trained to be warriors, and often have all kinds of warriors as heroes. They have superpowers, kill people with impunity and are able to act out their drive for justice or revenge. You are human and that places certain limits on you, which can be frustrating. You’ll need to create healthy means to personal justice and ways to channel your warrior energy.

You don’t need a gun. Guns provide a false sense of security. They also cast an eclipse over every other common sense form of avoiding or dealing with danger, from street smarts to staying away from where you don’t belong to learning martial arts. If you ever have to use your gun, your life will be changed irrevocably, and unlikely for the better. If you carry large amounts of cash or jewelry as part of your work, you can probably afford to hire a security detail.

Photo by Charlie Lemay.

You are not your father. You don’t need to live up to any of his supposed expectations, and even if you do, he may not acknowledge you. Your life is your life; you are you and not anyone else. If you want the potential for a solid relationship with your father, be your own person and meet him on level ground.

You must come up with your own answers. There are many in the business of dictating right or wrong, telling you who to hate, what is moral and what rights you’re supposed to have. Whether it’s some relative, FOX News, a politician or a preacher, you don’t need anyone telling you what to think or do. You do need to decide what to think and do, and that will take some conscious reflection and exposing yourself to a wide diversity of viewpoints.

Don’t let anyone cheat you out of your passion. There are plenty who would say that to do what you want is wrong, that your sexual desire is incorrect or evil, and that what you know in the depths of your heart somehow goes against nature. Ultimately you are the only one who can give up your passion, your awareness and your freedom to choose, and these things are your birthright.

You will not live forever. Get used to that fact. Make your days, your seasons and your years count. Notice the passage of time. There are some who say you’re not really alive until you have a conscious relationship with death. This relationship will help you value your time more consciously, and calculate the risks you want to take.

I have three book suggestions. These are the three books that helped me understand being and becoming a man, and understand women, more than any others. They are: Iron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man by Susan Faludi. They are all worth their weight in pure gold.

Lovingly,

Here is a discussion forum for this article.

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual subscription rate: $99/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions.

Charlie Lemay: About the Artist

I consider Charlie Lemay one of the great contemporary artists, and it’s a privilege to have his work illustrate my writing. We met when he arrived one day many years ago as my astrology client, and I’ve since taken him on as one of my photography and philosophy of art (and living) mentors.

He is both a photographer in the classical style, often using black and white film, and a digital artist, morphing his studio work into elaborate montages and triptychs that emerged one day as a nearly fully-formed deck of tarot cards.

His book, Seeing: Insights and Images, will be available shortly. I will let you know when that’s ready. There are some excellent galleries on his website.

In an email this morning, Charlie wrote to me:

When I was asked in 1996 by Karen Smith to write what I thought the job of the artist was, for the digital show I was participating in, I said, “to wake up the artist, and then for the artist to wake up others.”

I stand by that still, and it seems to be indicated by the neuroscience. In the sequence of events, impulse, command, action, and rationalization, all our jobs might be to do our best to not interfere with impulse, to allow it to flow through us and be made as whole in the physical world as each of us is capable of. That may be what “getting it” is really all about. The secret of our existence might be to simply be and allow this physical manifestation of the spiritual to manifest. Our insistence on the rationalization as the reality may be the cause of all our problems.
He added: All critics, like our thoughts, are late to the party and have nothing whatsoever to do with the initiating impulse. Like our conscious minds, they may actually inhibit the flow when they become the arbiters of this process. This includes our self-critic especially.
Mars Stations Direct: Planet Waves Community Forum

You are invited to a first-of-its-kind event — a Planet Waves open forum, presented as a call-in radio program. It’ll take place at 8 pm EDT on Sunday, May 18, 2014. This will be an opportunity for Planet Waves readers all over the world to hear from one another and participate in a live conversation. The focus of the discussion will be Mars stationing direct, which happens one day later. The event is free, though you’ll need to preregister.

You’ll be able to participate via telephone, Skype or by listening to a live stream. Internet listeners will be able to participate via a chat feature; I’ll read some of those comments on the air.

We are planning to develop these events into a number of formats, including live question-and-reply sessions associated with each of the birthday readings and 12-sign reading products, and a series of astrology classes.

Subscribers who participate in Sunday’s event will be offered an upgrade path, available the first year with discounted early renewal, that will enhance their Planet Waves experience. This will include opt-ins for a daily mailing and astrology update text message service, and teleconferences on special topics open only to Planet Waves core community members (our subscribers).

I am looking forward to seeing you there. Once again, here is your link for pre-registration.

w/love,

At Long Last, Mars Stations Direct

As Mars stations direct over the next few days (exact Monday, May 19, at 9:31 pm EDT), see if you can feel the subtle shift of energy. This has not been an ordinary Mars retrograde, owing to the fact that Mars has now passed twice through alignments with the Uranus-Pluto square — the aspect that is helping define this moment of our lives, individually and together.

This is a brain schedule, but it’s similar to a train schedule. The word LONG, above, is short for longitude. You can see the daily positions of Mars and for contrast, a far-away planet, Pluto. Notice that for about four days, Mars moves slower than Pluto. Note that this lists the retrograde as ending on May 20 because it’s set for midnight Greenwich Mean Time, four hours ahead of New York time.

I’ve been referring to this as the cardinal grand cross. You can review my description of that aspect in this article, called A Matter of Trust.

These next few days as Mars stations are a sensitive moment. Mars in Libra seems to be hanging in the balance, about to make a decision about who it is.

There may be a subtle edginess in the air, an apprehension about what direction to take, and the sensation of many things unexpressed.

Easy does it. I describe this in greater detail in today’s edition of Daily Astrology.

Mars has been retrograde in Libra, the sign opposite Aries, which it rules. So we’ve had many questions arise relating to role reversal, sex and gender, relationship, and matters of desire and consent. This has raised many questions related to sex roles and sexual identity, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways they influence relationships.

When Mars is retrograde, what’s really happening is that the Earth has passed between Mars and the Sun. When that’s happening there’s a visual illusion that Mars has changed directions. Now that the Earth has moved out of that alignment, Mars will soon appear to move direct.

Yet before this happens, there is what’s called a station — Mars appears to be standing still in the sky, and in the ephemeris. For a few glorious days, Mars seems to be moving as slowly as an outer planet. In the table above, I’ve compared its daily position to that of Pluto. Note that the only column where either have any progress indicated is arc minutes, or sixtieths of a degree.

Sample of my latest chart for Mars stationing direct. In my handwriting are included the points Typhon, Logos, Atropos, Child, Vulcanus, Cyllarus, Kronos, Requiem and Amor. Full chart here.

There are many ways to think of this. One is a kind of pregnant pause. Another is a delicate balancing point. Given that Mars is the planet of action and Libra is the sign of balance, there may be a decision, or many decisions, involved. There may be questions of commitment. You can scan through the different factors in your life and notice where the metaphors apply.

Mars emphasizes the matter of desire, in particular, focusing the question of what you want. So as Mars pauses in the sky, this is a good time to consider that. One of the factors is likely to be the impact of the “what you want” concept on a relationship — that is, how you feel someone else would respond, or how they do respond.

This takes us to the identity theme in the chart: to what extent do you submit your whole identity to a relationship that you’re in? For many people, their identity is dependent upon a relationship,
and without one, they don’t feel like a complete person. This setup is suggesting it’s time to look at that issue. You may indeed be formulating your need for independence, or discovering who you really are in the context of a relationship.

Once you have that going, then you get to experiment with “being yourself,” which might mean “asserting your individual will,” and seeing how that influences things. Because this whole arrangement involves Mars and Libra, there may be a specific focus on sexual desire, and on sexual or gender orientation.

While this is happening, Mercury is moving into a square aspect with Chiron. Mercury — the original planet synonymous with mental — is in Gemini. On one level that is the very symbol of smartness, though since Mercury is approaching a square to Chiron (exact Saturday), there are some poignant questions appearing in the chart. [Link to an introduction to Chiron.]

Somewhat simplified chart for Mars stationing direct. Note that Mars is high in the sky across the eastern United States, and it will be visible from many other points west. If skies are clear, you can be looking at Mars while this happens. It’s interesting that the Aquarius Moon is making an exact trine to Mars at the moment it stations, an image of mind-body integration that is also inherent in Mars in Libra as well.

The first is described by Mercury approaching the depth and full-spectrum sensation of Chiron in Pisces, and involves recognizing how superficial most communication is. Yet the mind that may be caught in that superficiality has a deeper question, which is about its own capacity for emotional intelligence.

Who hasn’t had the notion, “I’m not smart enough for that”? Yet with Mercury-Chiron aspects this can be a debilitating obsession. This aspect seems capable of bringing lurking doubts to the surface. The opposite of this is another prevailing state, that of being cocksure, absolutely certain of something with no basis in fact or experience.

I would describe Mercury square Chiron as the aspect of “know when you don’t know.” My first words of training for young journalists, knowing when one does not know is the first step to finding out. It is the essence of intelligence. Yet in this illustration, with Chiron in Pisces, the superficial mind, the one that might be entertained by TV commercials, is encountering something on a different order of reality.

So this is not really about facts or ideas; the encounter is more along the lines of one of those spiritual awakenings when someone one day realizes that everything they know is wrong. That would be a real point of beginning.

Why plants move around in circles as they grow has “been a mystery since way back.” Plants may be stationary but they’re rarely still, says biologist Roger Hangarter. They’re simply coming up with engineering solutions on their own time. Photo: Science Friday video still.

The Mystery of the Spiraling Cucumber Tendril

People born under a Taurus Sun often seem to live in a separate temporal universe, moving along at their own pace until provoked to get moving — mirroring the often-slow emergence of Northern Hemisphere spring. Likewise, J.R.R. Tolkien once noted that while plants and animals share the same physical universe, plants seem to inhabit their own temporal universe — but it has taken time-lapse photography for humans to get a clearer view of how that operates.

Flora Lichtman, producer of the Science Friday video series, notes that the reason behind why plants move around in circles as they grow has been a mystery since way back. Lichtman has featured the time-lapse movies of biologist Roger Hangarter, creator of the website Plants in Motion, as well as the work of physicist Sharon Gerbode and biologist Joshua Puzey, to create an entertaining explanation of how cucumber tendrils twist — and of the broader engineering implications of the discovery.

“If you do enough time-lapse, you see that there aren’t too many parts of a plant that don’t move,” explains Hangarter. The branches move around, the leaves wiggle around.”

If you can slow your own perception down enough the next time you’re with your favorite Taurus, you just might notice the same thing.

Scorpio Full Moon, Games People Play, Millennial Generation Astrology

This week’s extended edition of Planet Waves FM covers three topics. I begin with an overview of the current astrology including the Scorpio Full Moon (which was exact Wednesday), Venus passing through the grand cross and Mercury square Chiron.

Eric Berne, from the book jacket of Games People Play, first edition.

In the second section, I look at the work and the astrology of Dr. Eric Berne, innovator of transactional analysis. This is the 50th anniversary of the book Games People Play, and Dr. Berne’s 114th birth anniversary was this past weekend on May 10.

Dr. Berne was one of the great contributors to modern psychology, and one of the most practical. His work has largely been left behind as “pop psychology” but its source was an idea he developed while training young psychiatrists, and it managed to break into popular culture. I consider his work and take a look at his chart as well.

In the third section, I look at the astrology of the millennial generation, in particular people born between 1983 and 1999. I cover a series of events that shaped the lives and thinking of this generation, and which helped define the concept “millennial.”

You will learn something about the chart for Pluto entering Scorpio in 1983, the Saturn-Uranus conjunction of 1988, the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 1993-1994, Pluto entering Sagittarius in 1995 and the Chiron-Pluto conjunction of Dec. 30, 1999 (the Y2K aspect). Note, this is just the beginning of my Astrology of the Millennials coverage. I will be back soon with more.
An Astrology Reading from Someone Who Really Understands Gemini

To My Gemini Readers:

Soon after the Sun enters your sign, I’ll have an extended reading for you. My readings are highly practical sources of information, inspiration and motivation. I speak directly to you in plain language. They are divided into three sections — two astrology segments of about half an hour each, and a section of astrology afterthoughts and a tarot reading.

These readings morph the best of my work as a Sun-sign astrologer and a professional counseling astrologer. When I developed this method, I thought it might work pretty well, but I’ve been amazed at the response I’ve had.

Astrologically, I will cover the unusual Mercury retrograde that happens in Gemini, the highly unusual grouping of planets that’s working its way across your relationship angle, and what it could possibly mean to have the planet Chaos in your sign.

I’ll also go over the influence of the grand cross, and focus on Uranus square Pluto and the impressive influence of Chiron and Neptune on your career.

The reading is accessible and playable on any kind of computer or mobile device (smartphone, iPad, etc.). It includes a live question and reply forum that will be held right around the New Moon (archived for those who cannot make it), as well as access to last year’s reading, so that you can review and check my accuracy. Plus you get an extended written description of your birth sign. And there will be some fantastic original theme music composed by Daniel Sternstein.

It’ll make an awesome gift for you if you have Gemini Sun, Moon or rising, or for the Gemini in your life, and is now available to subscribers for the pre-order price of $19.95.

Lovingly,

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. Moonshine horoscopes for the Scorpio Full Moon published Tuesday, May 13. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 16, 2014, #998 | By Eric Francis

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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 2, 2014

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Aries (March 20-April 19) — You will only feel abundant if you share who you are and what you have. If your plan involves doing something other than that, I suggest you come up with a better one. You have plenty to share, and though it may sound like a contradiction, you’re more likely to feel that way if you actually extend yourself and offer yourself to others. The easiest way to unravel the challenges you face in your relationships — which all seem to involve an exchange, be it of emotions, of resources or of trust — is to take the first step. Don’t expect things to go perfectly — be grateful if you learn something about yourself, or about someone else, or about life. Learning requires more than drawing a conclusion from one event or experience. Authentic learning is about gathering information and putting it into context, seeing contrasts and making an ongoing evaluation. Remember that idea — to evaluate is to determine what is really valuable.

Are you ready for a change? The astrology of this season offers a new opening to intimacy and trust in your relationships. Order your Spring Report by Eric Francis now. You’ll get all twelve signs for $59.95 or you may purchase individual signs for $19.95 each. Curious to know more? Listen to the free audio preview.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Be aware that you may have a blind spot where certain personal matters are concerned. Most of the time that would be like looking directly at something and not seeing it. This blind spot is more like feeling something and not noticing you’re feeling it. Or it might be existing with a certainty of who you are, and not noticing that you may be having your doubts. You will learn more as you feel out the territory, which will happen as you rub against certain people and discover information that you did not know before. You might discover something you were not told; you may have a response that keys you in to what is appropriate and what is not; you may get a clue about an old relationship question that you’ve long puzzled over. There are moments when this feels like pure intuition at work. Yet it’s likely to be based on factual information that you are perceiving. Therefore, if you ‘sense’ something, seek the facts, ask the relevant questions, and use the information wisely.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You must mind your politics and your manners even if you have no specific reason to do so. Be impeccable with your words and be mindful what you express to others. You may be inclined to reveal secrets about yourself, and while I might normally advise transparency, for the moment I suggest you practice restraint, especially in work-related environments. In determining what to say to whom, I suggest you use the ‘need to know’ basis — do you need someone to know some particular bit of information about you? Why do you think so? If you have a solid reason, then reveal what you have on your mind. In truth, there is little that most others really need to know about you. Part of this scenario involves some discoveries you’re about to make about yourself. Anticipating those revelations, and wanting to know more, is what might incline you to reveal more than you should, or more than you need to. Therefore, I suggest you take your time, make your inner discoveries and then make statements to others only when they feel absolutely right.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — You may feel like you’re under less pressure than you’ve been under all year, and if you don’t, I suggest you take steps to open up your time and lighten your burden. That may take some collaboration, but mostly it will involve taking a little space for yourself. I can imagine you feel hesitant to do that, as if you’re feeling some emotional resistance. That hesitancy would be described by Mars still moving retrograde through one of the most sensitive angles of your chart. I am using that as a timing factor. When Mars stations direct on May 19, the pace of your life will increase, along with your confidence level. That is why I am suggesting you take the opportunity to be a little more introspective, and disengage as best you can, while you can. Mars retrograde is rich with information about self-confidence, whether and why you might feel insecure at certain times, and in particular, your fears of abandonment. The knowledge will be forthcoming, though to receive it you will need to listen.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — You don’t need to hold up the sky. You only need to keep your feet on the ground. If you can do that, you will know which way is up, and you will feel the Earth supporting you where you stand, and as you walk. Keeping a connection to the ground will help you keep your perception in your senses rather than in the more abstract parts of your mind. Time will slow down a little. You will be able to feel more clearly, and as a result, have clearer ideas about what to do when you feel you must take action of some kind. This weekend’s astrology is offering you a chance to gradually find your center. From there, all the swirling will seem to be going on around you rather than within you. Your own stability is central to your success; your ability to hold to a steady course, to lead by example and to be proactive on the issue of fairness. Yes, I can see that at times you may be experiencing some profound emotional insecurity, but that is what can happen when you choose to remove the past as a basis for what happens in the future.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — This is a blessed moment for you. You may not fully trust that unless you try it out, and experiment with your ideas in a way that you have not done before. This looks and feels like a continually moving impulse, a little different every day and maybe every hour. It’s essential that you stretch your vision. If you perceive a need, expand your concept of what is possible to fulfill it. If you have something to say, be bold enough to say it. Eventually you’ll reach that angle where you know it’s time to take authority over something larger than just your life. Along the way, there’s a fine line between what serves you and what serves others; ideally there is a synergy between the two, where what is profitable for you immediately expands to the benefit of those you care about the most. It’s the hot fulcrum where selflove meets love. The beauty of this kind of symbiotic (plus-plus) relationship is that there is always enough.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Rare is the moment when you can encounter your perfect match, but you may be there. It’s an ‘opposites attract’ kind of thing, but the question is, what kind of opposites? Inverse, converse, reverse or obverse? They all have one thing in common, which is the root verse, which means to turn — therefore, much will depend on which way you turn. I suggest you turn toward who you desire, and face them. Speak if you want, though what will get their attention is your magnetism. Note, it may take a little while; during that time I suggest you be patient, friendly and take care of yourself. The most significant direction you can turn toward is awareness of your own existence, and your freedom to choose. That you may have considered this perilous in the past, and that you may have your concerns now, should not stop you. The path through life is guided by decision, though too often we ascribe that power to fate.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Take your time working out an emotional issue, and remember, this is about how you feel rather than being about a relationship. It may seem for all the world and in your imagination like the subject matter is partnership or involvement with someone else. That’s a kind of mirage. Here’s a way to think about it: As in dream interpretation, every aspect of the dream is an aspect of yourself. Given that you may be in a phase of increased unusual dream activity, that’s a good thing to keep in mind. Dreams are deeply personal and situation-specific. There are no stock interpretations for dream symbols. If you remember that all aspects of the dream are facets of your own psyche, and your own state of mind, it will be much easier to discern what messages you’re receiving from yourself. The same can be said of any thoughts involving a relationship. I’m not saying that other people involved don’t have volition or intent — rather, I am saying that your experience is your experience, and that is the place to start.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — This can be a brilliantly productive time for you with work-related contracts and collaborations. You are in an unusually opportune moment, and I suggest you do two things. One is to take advantage of it in a conscious way. You have some options open, therefore you can afford to have some criteria. The most significant of them is to make sure that in any work, collaboration or contractual situation, you are treated as human, and that your human needs are recognized. Gravitate not just toward the money but also toward the places where there is food, water and a comfortable environment. The second factor involves discipline. All the talent and opportunity in the world are worthless without commitment, honoring time structure and working within the needs of the larger organization or community in which you are participating. There are really two skill-sets described in that statement: one is the discipline aspect and the other is the political aspect. Be alert, ready to grow and prepared to do your best work — right now.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You may be allowing your mood or emotional state to hang in the balance on how someone else feels. You know well how you feel, though you may not be thrilled about it all the time. It would be better to address that basic fact of your reality than to pass the issue to someone else. My impression is that there is a commitment issue on your part. Were you to fully commit to the situation, you would have to do two things — pluck up some real self-esteem, and truly offer yourself. The two are related, more closely than is usually acknowledged. One way to reality check this is to consider the ways you hold back on the excuse that you’re not really valued. Were you to not hold back, you would have to put that theory to the test. You would need to find out, in reality, how much someone cares, and how they care. Then you would have to respond to that information. At the moment you seem to be in a state of limbo, waiting for someone else to take action. Very soon it will be your move — within about three weeks.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Your chart describes a self-portrait or autobiography. As a living metaphor or ‘psychomagic act’, you might want to give that a try. I don’t mean a selfie. I mean an actual self-portrait of your mind. Meanwhile, remember that you project or insert yourself into everything you say, do, write or otherwise create. Be aware of this, and make sure you do it in a refined, conscious way, utilizing the art of understatement. If you’re doing something that is not intended to be a personal statement, such as business writing, or any professional activity, do it your own way, with some finesse, but don’t go out of your way to put your personal mark on the work. One other bit. You may be in ‘if you want a job done right, do it yourself’ mode. That may be true, but only after you seek input from everyone else, to get better ideas and to propagate a sense of involvement (and therefore investment). The larger theme of your life at this time is leadership, and this is a subtle art indeed.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You have made considerable progress in the two months since your birthday, and one of the ways you’ve done it is by taking matters into your own hands. One theme of Mars retrograde is being able to exert your will and fulfill your own intentions without relying on the motivation of others to get you going. You are learning to do things under your own steam, and learning to trust your ideas and perceptions. Your astrology indicates that if this is not going well, there’s still time to get with the program and, for example, stop waiting for anyone to act or to get out of your way, and then to decide what it’s time to do and get your ass in gear. In any event, the planets are leaning strongly in your favor through the weekend and indeed for the remainder of the season. You will maintain your momentum if you remember not to give your steam or your passion away to those who resist. At the moment, you are capable of letting go of nearly all your resistance, and there are some people around you who have the same idea.

The Rites of Spring

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Since Mars stationed retrograde on March 1, there’s been a run of truly strange and outrageous news stories, beginning with the disappearance of a commercial jetliner without a trace. Events reached a series of peaks with the lunar eclipse, the grand cross and the solar eclipse earlier this week, and closer to the station direct on May 19, I’ll do some kind of recap.

Photo by Christine Marsh.

Among them all, two events this week stand out, among many associated with Tuesday’s solar eclipse.

On Sunday, Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, canonized two of his predecessors, Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) and Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II). That is, they are now allegedly saints, declared such in a mass ritual, internationally televised, with the grand cross still in tight alignment and two days before the annular solar eclipse in Taurus.

Though Bergoglio has been a popular figure and has captivated the public imagination with his charm and seemingly liberal views, I have refused to invest any spiritual energy into him. There’s been something I have not trusted, apart from the fact that he’s head of one of the most corrupt institutions on Earth. Everything about his presentation has seemed like corporate public relations.

Now he’s sainted two men who presided over the church’s child sex trafficking scandal, in effect, completing the cover-up. [I covered the events and astrology surrounding the former pope Ratzinger’s resignation and Bergoglio’s election at the time they happened.]

The church did not invent hypocrisy, but it may as well get the credit since it’s perfected the concept so artfully. The church has been involved in a nearly 16-century cover-up of its priests having sexually abused children.
The Vatican’s files include incriminating documents dating to the 4th century, according to the documentary Mea Maxima Culpa, which exposed the molestation of deaf children by Catholic clergy, and the subsequent cover-up. All the while, the church has preached sexual purity and in the process done what it could to regulate and crush human love, empathy and contact, selling for money its version of spirituality — and notably, also selling indulgences or sex licenses for a fee.

Every pope since then has been involved in the child sex abuse cover-up, though it was Wojtyla who presided at the most critical times — as most of the lawsuits were being brought by survivors and then settled before trial, costing the church more than $3 billion. Roncalli for his part was uniquely situated to do something about it; apparently the reforms of Vatican Council II, which modernized the church during a rare moment of opening in society (the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s) did not involve considering the actual ethics of priests.

Photo by Eric Francis.

Naming two of his predecessors saint was more than Pope Bergoglio’s “Ford Pardons Nixon” moment. The church has again buried one of the most horrendous atrocities of our time, and now tens of thousands of people a day will visit the saintly relics of men who took many of its worst secrets to their crypts.

Many years ago I had an astrology client whose mother grew up in a remote part of Greece. She advised her son to never, ever trust the church, and she told him a story to demonstrate why.
When she was a child, she lived in a town with a convent, and one day workers came to dig up the dirt road in front of the place, and pave it. When they did, they discovered an infant mass grave right outside where all the nuns lived.

Not only were the supposedly celibate nuns either sexually active or subject to sexual abuse, someone involved was killing and burying the resulting babies in the yard. In this light, combined with what we know about child sex abuse worldwide, every bit of church dogma and doctrine on the topic of sex deserves to be presumed fraudulent, and there is plenty going around.

It is not limited to the Catholics. In her 2006 book Kingdom Coming, author Michelle Goldberg explains the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States.

Michael Farris is one of its founders. According to the author, he is the man who did most of the work lobbying for home schooling in all 50 states, in order to allow fundamentalist Christians to get their kids out of godless public schools. I’ve only recently become aware that this is the purpose of most home schooling.

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

What he is saying is that the main thing that Christian political activists must attack in order to concentrate their power, first and foremost, are sexpositive attitudes. This is only news because he is so influential and put it into such vivid language.

A Human Sacrifice Ritual

Next, two days after the sainting of the two former popes, just hours after the annular eclipse, the state of Oklahoma attempted to execute a man named Clayton Lockett. Lockett had been convicted of participating in a particularly heinous rape and murder, and sentenced to death. This week Oklahoma decided move ahead with his execution despite a significant controversy.

Photo by Eric Francis.

There is a shortage of the drugs normally used to conduct lethal injections. Oklahoma has killed so many people that it has run out.

European drug companies refuse to provide the drugs to the United States; all of Europe has banned the death penalty. American drug companies will only sell the substances to governments anonymously, afraid of political backlash. They are obviously aware that sooner or later, someone within the company will tweet about it.

So the states are using an alternative blend of drugs, ones not actually studied or approved for human executions. Aware of this, “The Oklahoma Supreme Court tried to stop it last week, concerned that the state refused to reveal the origin of the deadly cocktail. But several lawmakers threatened to impeach the justices, and Gov. Mary Fallin blindly ignored the warning signs and ordered the execution to proceed,” The New York Times said in an editorial Wednesday.

The attempted execution proceeded; all three drugs had been injected into him, including one to stop his heart and another to dull
the pain of that drug. He was declared unconscious. Then according to press reports, about 16 minutes into the procedure, observers said that Lockett began twitching and convulsing. He raised his head and shoulders and said, “Man” and “I’m not.” Prison officials closed the curtain, blocking official observers from seeing anything else.

After a series of phone calls, the execution was stopped by order of the director of the Department of Corrections, who was present at the scene. By one account, prison officials considered taking him to the hospital. He died of a heart attack about 45 minutes after the execution began.

I consider it an atrocity and a blight on our national conscience that we still have state-sponsored murder in the United States. Murder is the only crime for which the state sets an example of committing the same offense on the convict, in effect endorsing killing. Were the government to rape rapists or burn down the homes of arsonists, the public would be outraged.

It is well established that the death penalty does not deter crime, and that it may have a brutalizing effect (that is, lead to more violence in the days following a widely-publicized execution).

Then there is the exculpation problem — people who have been tried and convicted and exhausted all their appeals, who are then found to be innocent and set free. Many other people go to their deaths declaring their innocence. Many are guilty of what they’ve been convicted of.

Photo by Eric Francis.

You can be sure that some are innocent of any crime. [Also see Planet Waves coverage of Troy Anthony Davis.] Anyone who thinks it’s okay to continue executing people even if a bunch of innocent people are put to death needs to meditate on their concept of ethics.

Then there is the cost — 20 years ago, capital trials and executions cost four times the expense of life imprisonment. Today that number is eight times the cost of life imprisonment.

We are left with one reason for the death penalty, which is blood lust. With Vesta rising to the degree, the chart for Clayton Lockett’s botched execution says that his killing was a
human sacrifice. This is my theory of why capital punishment persists: it’s a remnant of a very old and dark ritual, perpetuated by those intent on maintaining power. The message of the executioner is that he has the power to kill us.

Year by year, state by state, the balance gradually tips against capital punishment. Oklahoma has been particularly stubborn (about the death penalty and many other things — currently, it’s the most reactionary state). The Clayton Lockett incident will focus some attention on death penalty states and the problem they have. Gradually the legal system is waking up. Much of the population still seems to be confused, with many people cheering and wanting to see prisoners fried till they glow, confusing retribution with justice.

In the United States of America, we are not supposed to be governed by the Code of Hammurabi. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and capital punishment turns us all into killers. If you want to align your energy and take a moral or ethical stance in relation to anything the power structure is up to — war or other forms of injustice — then it helps to have made up your mind about what you feel in your heart is right and what is wrong, and why. Participation in any death cult is optional.

Mid-Spring Holiday: Beltane

Next up in our procession of many interesting astrological developments, we arrive at Beltane, an annual event — the celebration of rebirth, of love and of abundance. This is our background contrast to what you’ve read about above. Beltane is when the Sun reaches the midpoint of the Aries equinox and the Cancer solstice. It is a balancing point and an energy center of the solar year. Because the Sun is between two of the quarter days (equinox and solstice), it is in aspect to the Aries Point, which funnels energy and emphasis into the current zone of the zodiac.

The dark themes we’ve been seeing with this year’s Beltane are not just the result of the current astrology. In November, at Samhain (pronounced sah-wen) and Days of the Dead, we experienced an unusual solar eclipse conjunct Saturn in Scorpio.

Eclipses intersecting Taurus and Scorpio place an emphasis on the relationship that these two ancient festivals are designed to remind us of, the cycle of nature that involves death/surrender/transformation and sex/rebirth/union of male and female polarities.

Photo by Eric Francis.

It is not surprising that we are seeing and feeling reverberations of last November’s eclipse in our present moment. Even without eclipses to add gravitas to both seasons, they offer a deeply influential polarity that is being given extra emphasis and momentum by exact Sun-Moon alignments.

This may make it challenging to bring yourself into the present and focus on the current season, but then again it can also fill you with determination to be here now.

Beltane is a way of thanking the Goddess for the truth that all wealth comes from the Earth. Far from being a theoretical idea, I consider this a basic, well-demonstrated fact of nature.

Last week I described a diversity of sexual crises our culture is wrapped up in, particularly the notion that all sex must have a victim, and what is becoming a serious crisis around the concepts of yes, no and maybe.

I am not sure it’s occurred to anyone that the struggles our society faces around the issue of wealth and abundance (both ‘the economy’ and the issues of individuals), and our crisis of being able to express our sexuality with a clear conscience, may be aspects of the same scenario.

The energy center where they meet is Beltane — the nexus of sexual expression and acceptance of natural wealth. The ancient ritual is simple — sex outside, with the intent of gratitude. I don’t consider this sex magic. I consider it a natural way to celebrate life and the Earth, affirming something that is, if you look, plainly true: we are supported entirely by the Earth, and we are created by procreation. If not for sex, nothing made by human hands would exist, because there would not be anyone to make it. Sex and money involve the same basic gesture of opening up to the flow of existence.

If outside is not practical, then improvise. The spirit of the gesture is what counts, as is the shared intentions of the people involved — and connecting with the season. Be aware that what is called Hieros Gamos, which translates to the union of god and goddess, is one of the most potent and profound rituals there is; be respectful and go slowly. Work with the real meaning of consent, which is to feel together.

In contemporary times, another message of Beltane has emerged: that of selflove and self-given sex. Back in the 1990s, May was declared Masturbation Month by the Good Vibrations toy store, and among many sexpositive people, the idea caught on. Taurus is imbued with this message, and the combination of the Sun-Moon event, plus Juno, describes self-marriage.

If we live in times where the lines of sexual consent are blurred and where nearly all sex is perceived to have a victim, masturbation is the first form of sex we can be sure is fully consensual. It’s worth mentioning that old-timey (and many modern) opponents of masturbation describe it as self-abuse (as in self-rape) but that, I perceive, is just more fraud perpetuated by hucksters of the death cult who would seek to divide us from ourselves.

Photo by Eric Francis.

The association of May with masturbation would suggest that a new way to look at Beltane is the meeting of the male and female polarities within us. I would propose that is where sexual healing begins.

I am reluctant to present anything as a panacea, but I will go so far as to say that masturbation, by which I mean consciously seeking understanding of selfsexuality, is a workable first approach to nearly any sexual question, problem or challenge. In our era when the lines of identity between partners are often blurred, selfsex says ‘I am me, and you are you’. In our era of cultivated codependency, masturbation is a uniquely independent sexual experience. Amidst much insistence of sexual identity (and related politics), masturbation is the one thing that all sexes, genders and sexual orientations have in common.

Since most of our sexual problems involve lack of self-knowledge and self-awareness, fear of the other, the hyper-polarization of the sexes, projection of both desire and blame onto the opposite sex, and dependency on others, selfsex is a fantastic place to start the healing process. Other sexual crises we face include homophobia and paranoia about sexual diseases. Selfsex allows a reprieve from these things.

There are many young people who, if they were told about masturbation in a friendly way, and were told that it’s really OK, would not be so driven to get off on others before they’ve figured themselves out some.

One way to help a teenage girl stay focused on herself is to give her a vibrator or sex toy as a gift. The reason I say this is because most boys don’t need much in the way of supplies to masturbate, but most girls will benefit from a sex toy. In my opinion this is a fully appropriate ‘rite of passage’ gift from a mother to a teenage girl. Be creative and you can come up with something comparable for boys in your household.

Note, I am not proposing masturbation as a substitute for partnersex or for comprehensive sex education — to the contrary. It is an essential element of both. I am, in this commentary, proposing it as an option that is fully appropriate for young people who are still learning about themselves and not mature enough to handle the responsibilities of partnersex.

Photo by Eric Francis.

One mistake adults may make is assuming that young people will figure it all out on their own. Most people will feel some guilt about masturbation and need to be told it’s OK. They may have been given exactly the opposite message in Abstinence Indoctrination class in school or in church.

The best rite-of-passage gift you can give to a young person is information. The book Our Bodies, Ourselves belongs in every household, library and cafe bookshelf. Another dependable book that helped spark sexual consciousness is Sex for One. There are other essential books, including The Joy of Sex and Sexual Secrets. There is also a fantastic website called Scarleteen that I recommend.

Note, I do not recommend most books or other materials on ‘tantra’ as they conflate spirituality with sex, which I believe is confusing and can be misleading. What we need are clear, factual and open-minded materials about sex that do not include dogma or moralism of any kind.

Meanwhile, returning to the topic of masturbation, there are many older people who need a rest from constant attempts at or involvement in sexual relationship who would benefit from a phase of devoted self-exploration.

One great thing about selfsex is that it’s something you can do outside of a ‘committed relationship’, whether alone or with others. There are some friendships that will accommodate it nicely. I don’t mean touching one another, by the way — that is partnersex. I mean witnessed or shared selfsex.

Many people in partnerships (whether interesting or sexually stagnant) could light their erotic lives on fire by exploring selfsex together. It’s a great way to open up, stoke your curiosity and do that exhibitionist/voyeuristic thing that humans just love to do. Part of that ritual can involve the open sharing of fantasies, a great way to get compersion going. Before you look that up, I define the term as sexual empathy.

I have written more about this in the series It’s Not About Sex, It’s About Self, which is available free to anyone and is suitable for teens.
And there is plenty in Book of Blue (my own ongoing project), which is available by request.

In any event, ’tis the season to raise energy and praise the goddess of love and abundance — however you choose to do it. One last thing — Beltane is also known as The May. This weekend is a focal point, but the season lasts a little while. So choose your moments and have fun.

Lovingly,

Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Friday morning in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual subscription rate: $88/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Hillary Ghee, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Painter, Amy Silver, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.

Not only did Henry Hargreaves and Caitlin Levin use different types of citrus in this map of South America, but the fruit appears sliced whole, in rind form, in pulp form and so on, lending the array a mouth-watering spectrum of color, shape and texture — all while delineating boundaries clearly and unifying the image as a whole. Are you drooling yet? Photo by Henry Hargreaves.

All (Tasty) Wealth Comes From the Earth

We tend to associate Ceres with food, nourishment and agriculture, rather than Venus; but Venus rules Taurus, the sign during which ancient Pagans celebrated the abundance and renewed fertility of the Earth at the Beltane holiday. By one method of reckoning, Beltane is Monday, May 5 — the day the Sun reaches the midpoint of Taurus. And while one typical way to mark the holiday is by engaging in sex with some ritual intention, these food maps created by photographer Henry Hargreaves and food stylist Caitlin Levin also glorify the Earth’s reproductive power — albeit by way of the end-results of the seed-planting associated with this time of year.

You can watch the creative process as Hargreaves describes it in this video. Some maps are of a single country, others of an entire continent; in all cases, the duo worked to choose a representative food that was iconic (corn for the U.S., spices for India, etc.) as well as versatile, so that different parts or varieties could be featured: “Every state within a country is different; nothing is repeated,” says Hargreaves.

And it’s all delicious — just ask any Taurus.

Eclipse in Taurus, Beltane and Loreena McKennitt’s Chart

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I look at the annular solar eclipse in Taurus that happened Tuesday at 2:14 am EDT.
This includes a close look at several planets in Taurus, including Juno and Tantalus. I talk about eclipses, how they work and how to use them — and the message of this eclipse being about getting closer to yourself. Finally, I look at the chart of musician, poet and visionary Loreena McKennitt — which I’ve included on the Planet Waves FM site so you can see what it looks like.

Dan and Eric’s Music Appreciation Hour: Intro to (the Lost Art of) Rhythm and (a Little About) Lead Guitar

In this week’s edition of Emmy Award&#8482 winning Dan and Eric’s Music Appreciation Hour, we talk about the difference between rhythm and lead guitar. Eric tries to hold down a simple beat while Dan shreds a musical staff with one finger. A fun edition with lots of stuff you’ve always wondered about guitar.

Preview of Taurus Birthday Reading by Eric Francis

I’ve just finished the Taurus birthday reading (great for Taurus rising as well), and recorded a preview of what I’ve covered — it’s like a mini-reading that gives you a taste of the scope of the subject matter and the tone of the work. The reading includes two astrology sessions, a tarot session and access to last year’s reading. I’ll also be hosting a live Q & A for those who get the reading.

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Friday, April 25. Your extended monthly horoscopes for April were published Friday, March 21. Moonshine horoscopes for the Libra Full Moon were published Tuesday, April 8. Your Moonshine horoscopes for the Taurus New Moon published Tuesday, April 22. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for April Tuesday, April 1. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 2, 2014, #997 | By Eric Francis

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