Dear Friend and Reader:

One week from tonight is the Leo New Moon. That chart is heavy on the fire and water, with clusters of planets in Leo and Cancer, and it has a strong message about ‘service’. Eric will be discussing the Leo New Moon in his Planet Waves FM broadcast, which usually posts by 8 pm EDT Tuesday nights.

Beetle on young corn. Photo by Amanda Painter.

He’ll also be introducing this Friday’s feature article, the result of a three-year investigation involving one purported conservation group’s efforts to steal part of the Grandmother Land (if you’ve been a PW member for a while, you’ve seen Eric’s photos of this beautiful area).

And finally, in another twist on ‘service’, Eric will be talking about the discussion surrounding three sex-scandalized politicians — Anthony Weiner (NYC), Elliot Spitzer (NYC) and Bob Filner (San Diego).

If you’ve been seeing mention on the Internet about a “Star of David” configuration (also being referred to as a “grand sextile,” among other terms) and have wondered what Eric’s take on it might be, check out Monday’s Daily Astrology post. “If nothing else,” writes Eric, “it represents a moment of stability (the grand sextile), and some tension (the Sun’s various aspects) and some opportunity to weave together the pattern of your life in a conscious way.”

In today’s Daily Astrology, we’ve developed one leg of the grand sextile configuration in tandem with another piece of the sky. There seems to be a question regarding how the idea of ‘cosmic love’ may be a factor in re-patterning your life right now.

Finally, in Len Wallick’s column today, he addresses the give and take of the current Venus-Mars configuration. That will post to the Planet Waves blog at about noon EDT.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

Dear Friend and Reader:

This week on Planet Waves we have a special exclusive audio broadcast of the talk Eric gave over the weekend at the first-ever Queer Astrology Conference. Titled “Holistic Sexuality,” you can listen to it on its own Planet Waves FM page here. The talk is about an hour and 40 minutes long, and Eric delivered it to the conference via Skype, while sitting in his Kingston, New York, studio.

Peaks Island portal, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Eric will be taking tonight off from a regular Planet Waves FM broadcast. If you want to listen to more from Eric, be sure to check out the right-hand margin on the Planet Waves FM home page. There he has hand-selected some of his favorite interviews with people such as Chiron specialist Melanie Reinhart and healer Elisa Novick.

On the blog, we have today’s Daily Astrology column. Having just gotten through Mercury’s station direct on Saturday and yesterday’s Aquarius Full Moon, this week looks a little quieter astrologically.

That said, the sky is never boring — and the newly Leo Sun is making a square to 1992 QB1, planet little-used by other astrologers that’s about crossing thresholds into new phases of experience. That square is happening in the context of Mercury’s tides moving in direct motion in Cancer. You’ll want to be aware of what’s floating to the surface of consciousness, and Mercury’s trine to Chiron says, ‘use what you learn’.

Finally, in Len Wallick’s column today, he asks you to investigate exactly how your life has changed since the spring eclipses. With the Sun now in Leo, we’re about halfway to the autumn eclipse season. That will post to the Planet Waves blog at about noon EDT.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

Dear Friend and Reader:

Lilith is a topic that’s finally getting some attention from astrologers and spiritual teachers. This week’s Planet Waves FM includes an interview with San Francisco-based astrologer Chani Nicholas on the Lilith archetype as it manifests in the lives of men and women. The discussion is about going beyond biblical models of gender identity and reaching something more elemental to who we are.

Lilith by John Collier; held in the Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, England.

It’s a perfect follow-up to yesterday’s New Moon in Cancer, which was conjunct the asteroid Atlantis — as fitting a symbol of our times as you’ll find.

If you were busy with holiday travel or other activities over the weekend, today would be a great time to review the horoscopes Eric wrote for this week, since the New Moon is still unfolding.

You can also check in on your resonance to this New Moon with Eric’s installment of the Daily Astrology column from Monday, in which he writes, “This is a ‘get real’ moment. It’s not just about getting real vis-a-vis the global situation we face, but also getting real with ourselves and the people close to us.”

In today’s Daily Astrology, we’ve covered retrograde Mercury’s conjunction to the Sun in Cancer — which is today, and which is making an interesting aspect to the minor planet Juno. This configuration is adding up to a “what gives?” moment regarding how your relationships exist in the context of the people that surround them.

Given the astrological context today, you won’t want to miss Eric’s broadcast of Planet Waves FM later this evening, usually posting by 8 pm EDT.

It sounds like a perfect beginning to this week.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. If you have your Sun, Moon or rising sign in Cancer, be sure to check out Eric’s birthday reading for Cancer. Focused on the incredible activity in your sign this year — and more — it also makes a perfect gift for your favorite Cancer loved one. You can hear an audio preview here.

Dear Friend and Reader:

In this week’s broadcast of Planet Waves FM, Eric will be exploring some of the spiritual questions and the ‘meta’ level of last week’s revelation that the National Security Administration has been collecting the phone call records of millions of U.S. citizens, as well as emails and records of Internet use by those in other countries.

Last week the NSA was revealed to be wire-tapping all messages coming from the Milky Way galaxy. Ok, not really — but is that next?

Eric will also take a look at the chart of Edward Snowden in this broadcast. Snowden is the 29-year-old former CIA employee who has publicly claimed responsibility for leaking this monumental information to the public.

Planet Waves FM will also cover the growing stellium of planets in Cancer and the upcoming Mercury retrograde in that sign (Mercury entered its ‘echo’ phase on Sunday). The program generally posts by 8 pm Tuesdays, often earlier.

For other perspectives on the energy you may be feeling, try Monday’s Daily Astrology post, in which Eric touches on the sense of ‘walking on the edge’ that can come with a Sun-Pholus opposition, as well as the “invitation to empathy and service” being extended by the planets in Cancer.

Also on Monday, we published an article asking how you deal with the pressure symbolized by the Sun’s aspects to Pholus and Eris; chances are you have more options than you think, and some of them are actually productive.

In today’s Daily Astrology, the Jupiter-Galactic Center prompts the question, “What do you do with something so big you can’t understand it?” Many people don’t bother trying; is that how we’ve gotten where we are now?

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

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