Tag Archives: WikiLeaks

Democracy Now! — Monday, July 25, 2016

Eric is about to begin creating the new 2016 Midyear Reading, BALANCE. Covering Jupiter in Libra and other forthcoming astrology, this exciting reading will carry you well into 2017. Seize your chance to get all 12 signs for the bargain price of $47. Grab your copy today. Image from the 2012 Blue Marble by NASA GSFC.

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned after the leak of nearly 20,000 emails, which showed attempts to undermine Bernie Sanders. Image: video still

The Democratic National Convention is opening today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, amid massive party turmoil. Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has resigned following the release of nearly 20,000 emails revealing how the Democratic Party favored Hillary Clinton and worked behind the scenes to discredit and defeat Bernie Sanders. The emails were released Friday by WikiLeaks.

Amy and Juan interviewed Julian Assange on — among other matters — the rumor that the documents were leaked by Russia to assist Donald Trump. When asked about his opinion on Clinton versus Trump, he had this to say:

Well, you’re asking me, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea? Personally, I would prefer neither. Look, I think—you know, we know how politics works in the United States. Whoever—whatever political party gets into government is going to merge with the bureaucracy pretty damn fast. It will be in a position where it has some levers in its hand. And so, as a result, corporate lobbyists will move in to help control those levers. So it doesn’t make much difference in the end. What does make a difference is political accountability, a general deterrence set to stop political organizations behaving in a corrupt manner. That can make a difference, because that changes the perception of what you can do or not do. And so, always—well, almost always, you should choose the principled position, which is to set a disciplinary signal about acting in a corrupt way, and take a philosophical position, which is our institutions can only be as good as our understanding of our institutions.

Also today, the show looks at the record of Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine; reports on Philadelphia’s low income Chinatown and a 10,000-strong climate protest; and discusses the ongoing situation with Puerto Rico’s economy.

We are honored to offer this broadcast as part of our affiliation with the Pacifica Network. Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

The Personal is Personal: Nessus in Aquarius

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Dear Friend and Reader:

I propose that we need to ponder how and why Rick Santorum is doing so well in the Republican primaries. This week he tied Mitt Romney in Michigan, the state where Romney’s dad was one of the most venerated governors. Romney got a few more votes; Santorum won exactly half the delegates. He did so spending one-sixth the money that Romney spent, working with far less experience, a much smaller organization and a perfectly vicious message.

John F. Kennedy, the first and only Catholic president, wanted to guard against merging state and religious interests, consistent with the Bill of Rights and the main text of the U.S. Constitution.

Though it’s couched in moral and religious terms, the message amounts to: women and their reproductive capacities are the property of men and all sex is the property of the church-state.

In case you don’t know the name, Rick Santorum is the former senator from Pennsylvania who has equated same-sex marriage with men and dogs getting it on, and with pedophilia and with three men getting married. He has been at the head of the class on the ban birth control message, importing the position of the Holy See into Republican politics verbatim. Earlier this week he took on John F. Kennedy, the only Catholic president, who in the 1960 campaign emphasized his intention to honor separation of church and state. Many had falsely assumed that his first loyalty would be to the Pope — or used that idea to discredit him knowing it wasn’t true. And apparently Santorum is worried that JFK might be on the Democratic ticket in November.

“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote,” Kennedy said in a speech at the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in September 1960. Santorum this week told the nation that Kennedy’s position “makes me want to throw up.”

Can you say American Taliban?

This comes in the context of many other related developments. Four different states are currently considering requiring vaginal ultrasounds prior to a woman getting an abortion. That is to say, the patient (or the government) would be required to pay for an unnecessary procedure requiring penetration prior to exercising a constitutional right. Abortion is just as much a constitutional right as is going to church, per the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.

Their commercials talk about smaller, less invasive government, which may just mean that it fits into smaller places.

Many states in recent years have introduced or adopted a diversity of laws designed to reduce access to abortion. If you’re an abortion doctor in Kansas, you stand a good chance of being shot.

And lately, taking this a few steps further, the anti-birth control movement has been big news. Anti-abortion activists know that the Supreme Court decision underlying Roe v. Wade is a previous decision involving birth control — the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision. Yet the Supreme Court is not the current focus — the health insurance system is. On Thursday, the Senate defeated Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-Missouri) proposed amendment that would have allowed employers to decline to cover health benefits that conflict with their purported religious beliefs. This too was being done in the form of “religious freedom” — honoring my religious beliefs, I will deny you yours. While not always connected to religion, similar issues are gaining ground in other countries as well. For example, obstetricians in Western Australia last week called for fetal homicide laws that give a fetus legal rights to be used to criminally prosecute moms and midwives if a baby dies after a home birth.

The immediate history of this stance in modern American politics goes back to 1981, when Ronald Reagan and the Heritage Foundation successfully got the first Abstinence Only indoctrination program through congress. This was back when the whole “say no” thing got going and, in the wake of the 1970s, sexual purity campaigns became a standard part of American politics. Not only would they succeed in getting real sex education thrown out of many schools, and abstinence programs put in place abroad as a requirement of foreign aid, authentic discussion of sex would have a difficult time finding a home. And now we have a presidential candidate who embodies this message.

Rick Santorum at the bully pulpit.

While we’re pondering why Santorum is doing so well — he won the Iowa caucus, as well as the Colorado and Minnesota primaries, tied in Michigan and has had solid support in every other primary this year — we might want to consider that the whole religion thing is a ruse.

For one thing, he’s an impressive liar, claiming that “people of faith have no role in the public square” when we all know that the “conservative base” (of fundamentalist Christians) is leading the Republican party and all of national politics ever further to the right: toward a politics of so-called morality, fear and control.

Sex is often the vehicle that’s used to do this, since so many people have so much unresolved material, so much guilt about sex and so much shame about what was done to them as children. A Rick Santorum would have no hook into the psyche of any person or the public consciousness unless there were a pre-existing weakness. He is a kind of opportunistic infection that seems to be taking hold in a weakened, low-vitality body politic that’s terrified of freedom. Is there any other way that a Rick Santorum could be taken seriously? Said another way, he’s the reflection of all of the unresolved baggage that’s being dragged around in American culture.

He’s only running in the Republican primary race so far, but if he gets the nomination that puts him one stolen election away from the presidency. Remember, Mercury goes retrograde right in the middle of Election Day 2012. The only other time that’s happened in American history was Election Day 2000, when Al Gore won and George W. Bush took office.

It’s Not Normal — It’s Weird

One thing about all this anti-sex, anti-women rhetoric is that to most people, it doesn’t seem that strange. It may seem wrong, it may seem unjust, but the truth is, it’s really, truly, weird. It’s weird from a human perspective. Women exist and are more than half the population. Aside from having a shorter average height than men, there would seem to be no reason for a bias. And sex is a normal biological function, essential to emotional health and to the basic happiness of many people. It might seem to have a place in national politics, but what place, when you consider the ice caps melting, peak oil, various global economies teetering on the brink of collapse, world hunger, children in sweatshops who made nearly every stitch of your clothing, nuclear meltdowns and numerous wars being fought or threatened? Why is sex an issue at all?

Pro-life van parked outside of the women’s clinic that was bombed by Eric Rudolph in the mid-90s. Don’t try to wrap your head around why anyone who claims to be “pro-life” would bomb people. Photo by David Walker from Wikipedia.

The reason that attacking sex doesn’t seem weird is because the attack matches the misgivings that so many people already have — misgivings that are the toxic residue of previous attacks that go back through the ages. It’s possible to have the current ‘discussion’ because nearly every other discussion has been banned or shamed out of existence. This has done nothing but add to the sexual pain that so many people are in, many of whom have no idea they have an option, much less any ideas what those options might be. With rare exceptions, even many therapists are embarrassed to have real conversations about sex. This is a weakened state; it undermines us from the core outward. Passion in every form is compromised: creativity, political will, relating to one another free from paranoia and many other ways. With this comes the idea that “sex is not so important,” and that the only real pleasure from sex comes when you’re “in love” — which negates the exploratory and experimental kind of sex that helps people figure out who they are.

Sad to say that in my experience as an astrologer and participant in the world, few people have any clue where to turn even if they figure out they want to heal and grow past this insanity. And few people are willing to look at the ways that sexual injury, repression and general misgiving compromise every other aspect of their lives. The sexual energy has to go somewhere (we all have plenty of it, no matter what we might think), and where it goes if not into creative play is into neurosis and other forms of mental imbalance, mental illness and personality armor. If you’re wondering about Rick Santorum’s power source, it’s sexual energy per se. It’s part of why he’s so obsessed with the topic and cannot stop talking or thinking about it, and it’s why so many people are willing to listen.

I looked at his chart a few weeks ago in an edition of Planet Waves FM. If a chart could be dripping with emotional infection, his wins the prize. Charts have little meaning outside the context of a life — and the two conform to one another.

Nessus and the Anti-Sixties

You’ve probably read something about the current aspect that’s in the background of everything right now — the Uranus-Pluto square. This aspect is an outgrowth of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of 1965-1966, and it’s the one I’ve suggested will make the Sixties look like a walk in the park. Uranus and Pluto are both slow-movers. They get together only rarely, especially in the heavy-hitting quadrature aspects — the right-angle ones (conjunction, square, opposition).

Uranus square Pluto on June 24, 2012. Nessus is in light blue, at the midpoint. Uranus, the blue H, is a rebellious influence, and is conjunct one of the more influential asteroids that day — Pallas Athene, which can represent a political leader or attorney involved in the situation.

We’ve been living with the warmup to the Uranus-Pluto square for a couple of years, and we haven’t even had the first exact contact yet — that’s in June, and the last of seven is in early 2015. The first undeniable signs that it was taking effect were Arab Spring, the Wisconsin rebellion and the Occupy movement, which all commenced within a few months.

To sum up, Pluto in Capricorn is gradually re-shaping the institutions of the world, causing some to collapse and others to become obsolete. Uranus in Aries is stirring up the quest for self-actualization and self-awareness. But it’s also the energy behind a kind of militant narcissism that we see in many of these anti-sex, anti-women operatives.

In many ways we’re still in an anti-Sixties time. Instead of people stating their desire for women’s rights (for example) we have an open movement to deny them. Instead of a quest for sexual liberation, we have an active movement to convince us that sex is wrong. This is part of a much wider social control campaign of which peoples’ misgivings about sex is the hook, the place where it’s easy to snag people, many of whom have fallen for the lie that they’re sinners and that there’s something wrong with their natural desires.

Where do we find this in the astrology? The chart above gives us a clue. It’s the chart for the Uranus-Pluto square. I’ve left four planets in the display. Pluto is the red one at the top. Uranus is the large blue glyph at the left. There’s a pale blue one about halfway between the two, which is Nessus. This is a centaur planet (in the same group as Chiron), which was discovered in 1993.

Nessus has themes that include the results of action, such as karma biting someone on the ass. Melanie Reinhart has noted that it’s the place where the buck stops. It often comes tinged with the darker sexual themes: sex where consent is in question, sex involving disease vectors, revenge and betrayal. Stepping outside of sexual themes, Nessus can represent an environment of psychological abuse, or a tendency to get caught in psychological abuse patterns. Chiron and Neptune recently left Aquarius and entered Pisces. That has left behind one last slow-mover — Nessus. In Aquarius, Nessus is involved in a group dynamic. Aquarian group dynamics include organizations, informal social networks and anything that considers itself elite.

Anti-choice students, some of the most impassioned activists of our day, at the 2004 March for Life. Photo from Wikipedia.

All year, Nessus is close to what’s called the midpoint of Uranus and Pluto. It splits the distance between the two better-known planets, revealing something underneath their dynamic. If the Uranus-Pluto square represents tension (it does) then the midpoint is the place where we can look for how to resolve that tension, or what the deeper issue might be. That deeper issue seems to be a form of sexual abuse projected into a group environment (Aquarius) with the help of the media, including the Internet.

Here, we have an image of the negativity being broadcast into the environment with its special obsession around sex. The dynamic is so beautifully illustrative of Nessus in Aquarius that it affirms 15 years of research into this small, little-known planet. You could say that those people who identify with Nessus are having their revolutionary impulses spurred, regressive though they may be.

If we need confirmation of this, in Rick Santorum’s natal chart, there is a conjunction of the Moon and Chiron right there in Aquarius. Some of his deepest personal wounding, particularly around women, is right there. And this is square his natal Nessus in Taurus. So he’s getting both transiting Nessus and Uranus-Pluto at full strength. On one level he’s in tune with the times; on another, his deepest unresolved material is coming up and finding a home in the political discourse.

Among the places that you can turn for sane discussion of sex is the website of Betty Dodson. Betty and her creative partner, Carlin Ross, provide an example of what an authentic, friendly sexual conversation sounds like.

Yet he is merely a spokesperson for a perspective. He’s an extreme example of what can happen, indeed what in fact happens, when personal abuse issues are left untended and unresolved: one can easily become an abuser. Sociopaths often wear the uniform of a superhero, and clearly Santorum is Superman to his devotees. To anyone who is biologically and emotionally functional, he’s the ‘small government’ guy who wants to get between your legs with his ultrasound probe, get between you and your doctor, and ultimately between you and yourself.

Here’s the thing to remember: As the Uranus-Pluto aspect takes hold, everything will hinge on whether we can really address the issues of Nessus at the midpoint. In true centaur style, they will keep coming up for healing again and again until we see them for what they are — and address them directly, meaningfully and beyond their superficial expressions. Nessus in Aquarius is raising some deep issues and to get to the bottom, we’re going to need to go just a little deeper.

I was curious about this placement of Nessus at the midpoint of Uranus and Pluto, so I called up a minor planet specialist who also has a pulse on midpoints — Martha Lang-Wescott. Regarding Nessus and related bodies (in the centaur group), she said: “If you’re not willing to see yourself, these points can scare the pants off of you.”

Her take on Uranus square Pluto with Nessus involved is that, “It sounds like this unbidden empty narcissism surging from the depths of Pluto and all of its psychological scars. People can get distracted by the twinkles and the erratic behavior of Uranus and overlook Pluto,” which addresses deeper material and and is a more urgently necessary agent of growth. That erratic behavior includes the conduct of various political movements that want, in effect, to ban women from being people and who are creating a huge distraction in the process.

As such, she believes that it’s serving to mask a whole layer of awareness. “There is the show and the excitement of Uranus [in Aries], and then there’s this underbelly of the concealed drives of Pluto [in Capricorn], such as greed. Uranus presents as the perfect distraction — all this technology stuff — when Pluto is often acting invisibly. There’s also the attraction to the dangerous element of Pluto charisma. Nessus accents that quality of Pluto.”

She said that one theme of the Uranus-Pluto square is about “how power can be exerted using technology. At what point do people scream about that? Or are they so distracted that they’re willing to relinquish power and control over their lives? At first I thought, that nut [Santorum] doesn’t have a chance. But that he has a chance makes me scared for my country.”

Taking This Personally

For anyone interested in healing, there’s a valid question about what to do about this personally. I would note that from the start, questions of healing are headed directly for some of our most personal struggles around sex, including our phobias about how our ‘friends’ and other groups (including family) would respond if they knew the truth about our sexuality. I’ve said before that heterosexuals are some of the biggest closet cases, terrified of revealing their secrets for fear of excommunication. Lesbian and gay people have crossed this bridge a long time ago, recognizing that they were neither safe nor sane in the closet. Bisexual and transgender people are starting to figure it out.

Keith Haring illustrates coming out of the closet. It’s not just for gay people anymore.

Starting with Aquarius, there are at least two ways to look at the social environment. One is the way that it influences us. What choices do we make on the assumption of how others will judge us? That includes fear that the police are going to kick in the door; the fear that someone is spying on your Internet habits; the fear of getting fired because you have a certain sexual desire or tendency; and anything where the group dynamics of religion come into play.

If you actually start to notice how you’re responding to your own thoughts and feelings, you might begin to observe the relationship between you and all those expectations and presumptions.

The other side of Nessus in Aquarius is how you influence others around you with your actions and your choices. It’s your role in the dynamic, particularly as you make the commitment to healing. People will have a response to you, and your presence will shift the social dynamic around you. The response may not be positive. Women in particular, in my experience, are rarely supportive of one another’s forays into erotic freedom, no matter how meek. One sexually free woman can lower the price of marriage for a whole group of them.

Men tend to be much more supportive of one another’s experimentation — as long as it’s within the approved sexual orientation of the group. One man among others coming out as bisexual (for example) can make the rest feel threatened and stir up their homophobia (which means their sexual shadow material).

If you take a step out of your particular closet, that means announcing your existence in some way, which is an experiment. When you do, you’ll find out how your friends actually feel — and you may need to respond in some way as a result. It can be challenging indeed to find a group of friends who are supportive of your actual sexual and relational desires, and you may need to go it alone for a while. That’s more than enough to keep most people in the closet, wishing they could do something about their desires but terrified to take action in any form. And it’s also a pretty big excuse not to take any risks, particularly the risk of actually being yourself. After a while, though, the walls of that closet are likely to feel like they’re closing in.

As I’ve been reporting the past few weeks, Neptune has recently joined Chiron in Pisces, which is activating some of the most rich erotic territory of the zodiac. Neptune is feeding our dreams and fantasy lives, and providing plenty of inspiration for art and photography. Chiron is accentuating both curiosity and a craving for experience, and the awareness that experience is essential on the path to healing. Chiron in Pisces might point to any of a wide diversity of things you haven’t tried yet but have long wanted to. At a certain point, fantasy is not going to be enough.

Lovingly,

Additional Research: Christine Simek.

Note to Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces Readers: Birthday reports for Cap and Aqua will be available later today. Check your inbox for a second mailing with signup info. Pisces birthdays will be done early next week. Look for an announcement Monday night. These reports are a whole new spin on your annual astrology, picking up where Reality Check left off. This will be our first year completing all 12 signs! We appreciate your patience with the pause associated with the annual edition. — efc

The waxing Moon enters home-loving Cancer today, making this a good weekend to nest in. But Cancer is an emotional sign, so be prepared to feel anything that comes up for you a bit more deeply than usual over the next couple days, as the Moon picks up on considerable energy currently in Pisces. Note that the Moon is building toward the Virgo Full Moon on March 8.

Closer to the present moment, there are a number of aspects this weekend that point to turning points in relationships, including leaving behind one form of relating for another — or perhaps finding a new perspective on how your relationships can work. There are also some potentially volatile triggers in the sky, calling for awareness as to whether any conflict you may experience is actually located between you and another, or within yourself.

Continue reading.

Astrologically, this week’s theme has been one of ‘turning points’ — and nobody in politics saw this one coming. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a moderate known to split against her party on key votes, announced Tuesday that she will not seek a fourth term this year, despite original plans to do so. She has long been a ‘safe’ incumbent, having never lost an election in 35 years of politics. Her announcement is a monkey wrench in the Republicans’ plan to gain a majority in the U.S. Senate, and is an indicator of just how outrageously far the Republicans have slid to the right.

Olympia Snowe.

Snowe remarked in a prepared statement, “I do find it frustrating … that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.” According to the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, “… she has never seen a legislative body as ineffective as the current Senate. ‘Unfortunately, everything is concentrated in political messaging, and the art of governing and legislating has been virtually lost’, Snowe said.”

Snowe, who lives in Falmouth Maine, has served Maine as one of its two senators since 1995 and as U.S. Representative from its 2nd District for 16 years prior to that. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of state legislature and both houses of the U.S. Congress. Said Josh Tardy, a former House GOP leader who now works as a lobbyist, “On all sides, it blows (the race) wide open. The Democrats may take another focus on it and increase their field. It will create a frenzy on the Republican side.” Said another way, this makes it a lot harder for the GOP to take over the Senate in 2012.

In a ruling handed down Feb. 24 and announced Monday, federal judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed a case brought in New York by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Assn. and others against agricultural chemical company Monsanto. The farmers were seeking to prevent Monsanto from suing them if their crops become contaminated by Monsanto’s patented products, genetically modified pollen which can drift onto nearby fields. Monsanto, in its insanity, is considering this contamination of farms adjoining those of its clients to be “patent infringement” and has been suing those farms.

According to the Organic Consumers Association, since the 1990s, “144 farmers have had lawsuits brought against them by Monsanto for alleged violations of their patented seed technology.
Monsanto has brought charges against more than 700 additional farmers who have settled out-of-court rather than face Monsanto’s belligerent litigious actions. Many of these farmers claim to not have had the intention to grow or save seeds that contain Monsanto’s patented genes.” Some farmers have stopped growing certain crops to avoid a lawsuit.

Said plaintiff organic farmer Bryce Stephens of Kansas, “The careless, inattentive, thoughtless and negligent advertisement Monsanto has published on their website to not exercise its patent rights for inadvertent trace contamination belies the fact that their policy is in reality a presumptuous admission of contamination by their vaunted product on my property, plants, seeds and animals.” As of mid-February, 300,000 activists, including country singer Willie Nelson, had joined the lawsuit as part of the “Occupy the Food System” campaign, protesting the corporate takeover of small farms and the use of harmful chemicals. The plaintiffs plan to appeal the ruling.

WikiLeaks announced Monday that it was releasing 5.5 million emails that detail corporate spying on activists. The emails were obtained from the servers of Stratfor, a private U.S.-based intelligence-gathering firm described by some as a ‘shadow CIA’ for corporations and government agencies.

Andy Bichelbaum of the Yes Men leads a musical outburst during a 2009 takeover of a Whole Foods Market in NYC. Photo by Eric.

The hackers group Anonymous claimed responsibility for acquisition of the emails. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the files implicate some of the world’s largest firms in corporate espionage, including Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical and sectors of the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Included among the activist groups apparently spied on are the Yes Men, subject of several previous Planet Waves articles.

Democracy Now! spoke with Andy Bichelbaum, co-founder of the Yes Men, who appeared as a spokesman for Dow Chemical on an eight-minute interview broadcast on BBC World. Bichelbaum said that Dow had finally taken responsibility for the Bhopal tragedy in India on its 20th anniversary, an event described in the emails. He told Amy Goodman, “What surprised us in those emails, though, was that we would have assumed that Dow would be really concerned with the exact issue of Bhopal and Dow’s responsibility, stuff that could directly impact their bottom line. But what Stratfor seems to be really a bit obsessed with is whether we or other organizations are going to draw this into a bigger critique of corporate power.”

The WikiLeaks/Stratfor story unfolded against the backdrop of Google’s planned change in their privacy policy. This change had many Internet users scrambling to suspend their Google browsing history, so that the company could not store and share detailed data about heir Internet habits — including medical reading, political reading, and porn — linked to their identity.

Conservative ‘commentator’ Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly on Thursday at age 43. He was apparently losing his mind in the weeks before his death. Earlier this year, he confronted a group of Occupy protesters outside CPAC, a national conservative conference, screaming at both men and women, “stop raping people, stop raping the people … you freaks, you filthy freaks, you filthy filthy filthy raping murdering freaks.” Breitbart, one of the ‘Net’s earlier bloggers who helped Arianna Huffington found Huffington Post, had falsely accused Occupy protesters of rape in a series of reports on his website.

Breitbart was an Aquarius with a Leo Moon (born at the Full Moon). He had an alignment of Jupiter, Chiron, Uranus and the lunar nodes on the Aries Point, which have been taking a lot of transits lately. His chart is an indication of how much influence you can have compared to how little substance you have. Apparently it was little enough that he felt he was brainwashed into liberalism by his professors and the “Democratic media complex” that does not exist.

In another casualty for the conservative cause, James Murdoch’s head was severed from News International, the UK division of News Corp that included the now-defunct News of the World as well as The Sun. James is the son of Rupert Murdoch and was until recently considered heir apparent to News International. The Murdoch feifdom has been caught up in a scandal involving its ‘reporters’ hacking into the phones of murder and terrorism victims, politicians and entertainment figures, as well as bribing police and government officials, manipulating investigations and lying to Parliament. There have been many arrests in this scandal, which we covered in a recent issue of Planet Waves.

Still Time to Apply to be a UAC Room Monitor

Until March 10, UAC is accepting positions for room monitors. Being a room monitor is a wonderful way to attend the conference, save money, and be eligible for a number of benefits.

Room Monitors can:

— Attend the UAC conference for only $150

— Apply for free tickets for the banquet and other entertainment through the Fortunate Ones Fund

— Enjoy lectures presented on many tracks throughout the conference

— Receive a gift of 18 MP3s

Don’t miss out on this fabulous opportunity to attend the conference at a minimal fee and get the maximum benefit!

Please email Charlotte Benson for more details and to apply as a UAC 2012 Room Monitor. Applications must be received by March 10, 2012. Charlotte will be happy to email additional, detailed information regarding your obligations and benefits, and to answer any questions you may have.

Introducing the Planet Waves 2012 Spring Report by Eric Francis

Spring 2012 is the wildest season I’ve ever seen in 18 years of doing around-the-clock astrology [listen to short audio preview here]. It fits the 2012 pattern of ‘everything, all at once’, even making that sound like an understatement. I am working on the report even as we edit this issue, and it’s coming out beautifully — every sign is coming through loud and clear and distinctive.

We have retrogrades of all three inner planets involved — Mercury, Venus and Mars. There is a rare Venus transit of the Sun — an exact conjunction of Venus and the Sun that you will be able to see if you have a clear view during daylight hours (you will need special equipment to protect your eyes). There are eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. And then, just four days after the Cancer solstice, we have the first exact square of Uranus and Pluto.

In honor of putting all this action to work for you, I’m preparing a special Spring Report for all 12 Sun signs and rising signs, as well as an introduction to the astrology that will be useful to everyone. This is a package of all 12 signs for one price. I’m designing it so that you can actually put many of the signs into use — for example, Virgo will be able to use the Gemini report as a career reading. Pisces can use Virgo’s report as a relationship reading, and so on. I give suggestions at the end of each sign, and will do a detailed description so you can get maximum use from this product.

We’re offering it at a special pre-sale price for current subscribers and customers — all 12 signs for $19.95. Once the report comes out, it will go on general sale for $24.95. The report will be ready by March 7, well before the spring equinox — I’m working on it now and it’s coming out amazing. Here is the link to pre-order. Thanks for signing up.

This section also includes the upcoming publishing schedule! The March monthly horoscope (long edition) was published Wednesday evening, Feb. 22. Inner Space Monthly was published Tuesday evening, Feb. 28. We will publish Genevieve Hathaway’s Moonshine Horoscope for March on the morning of Tuesday, March 6. The next Planet Waves monthly will be the April edition, which will be published on the evening of Wednesday, March 21. This will include coverage of the spring equinox. There will not be a regular Friday edition that week; Priya Kale will stand in for Eric Francis for the weekly horoscope of Friday, March 23.

Friday, March 2, 2012. Weekly Horoscope #893. | Eric’s Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Mercury has just entered your sign, which illustrates a kind of awakening to something that should have been obvious. Yet you may soon decide that it wasn’t so obvious after all, or that what you have to give up is worth more than what you might have gained by making a decision. Other factors in your chart indicate that you may be more obsessed by hesitation than by the prospect of action. Yet no sooner will that become obvious than you become seized by the desire to be spontaneously, impetuously and boldly decisive, and do things that you might regret. I suggest you pause and consider what you actually want to do. While you’re doing this, give the concept of ‘sacrifice’ a good once-over. That does seem to be the sticking point. While you’re reflecting, I suggest you consider why you’re devoted to whatever you feel devoted to. Does it nourish you back in some way, or are you devoted for its own sake? Once you’ve sorted out these themes, it will be easier to make clear decisions.

Revolution. Revelation. Reality Check. has been published and is available. It is still available at the special subscriber discount price for all 12 signs, or the order price per sign. This year’s annual offers an extended written report plus 90 minutes of audio for each sign and rising sign. You will love it.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Maybe it’s my positive experience with Gestalt therapy speaking, but the notion of ‘unconscious’ has always seemed suspect to me. ‘I did that unconsciously’ or ‘that person has an unconscious motive’ sound more like denying consciousness than anything else. There does seem to be a level of information that at times percolates into the one to which we’re normally accustomed, such as remembering a dream that reveals something interesting. I suggest, however, that you’re fully responsible for knowing your motives and your goals, and that if there is any question or issue, it’s going to have a manifestation, for example, as some form of conflict or frustration. Another clue that something might be going on ‘beneath the surface’ is that you find yourself rationalizing, that is, making excuses for why something is a certain way, rather than investigating how it got to be that way. Yet none of this is beyond your ability to perceive it. Your mind is a light; I suggest you look directly at what it illuminates.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You can safely let the tensions of the week go. It seems like people around you were feeling a bit revved up and expressive at the same time, and their reactions may have left you feeling some shade of insecure. Or rather, they may have affirmed certain pre-existing insecurities you’ve been experiencing, which in turn date back to old material. It’s strange when something someone says in the middle of your adult workday relates to some feeling you had when you were five years old, but it happens. There’s a significant relationship between what you have experienced in the past and what you’re experiencing today, though it’s here for a reason — so you can work it out and get yourself free from any snags that have persistently held you back. I will give you one clue from your chart — you don’t need to be popular to be successful. But you don’t need to be unpopular either. It would help immensely if you feel good in your skin.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Be on the lookout for news about your professional life for the next few days and indeed the next few weeks. You’re in an extended phase of developing both your career aspirations and your reputation. And now the immediate astrology is making contact with the longterm astrology and there is a synergistic effect developing. I have a few suggestions for how to make the most of this. One is consider your goals a work in progress. Second, focus on what you’re the most devoted to. That may mean what you do the most of (that’s one way to tell what you’re the most devoted to) or it may mean shifting your priorities a little so that you give some of your energy to something you want to do or create, and be persistent about that for a while. This may be something you gave up at a certain point in the past, and now want to reconnect with or devote yourself to. I suggest you consider some of your most persistent desires and make sure that they are getting some of the energy they deserve. Keep the flame alive; add the fuel a little at a time, and tend the fire around the clock.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — There’s no need to wrangle over a money issue. Your fiscal conservatism is at its most committed right now, to the point where I suggest you do what you can to avoid paranoia about money. At the same time, the values of others may seem extravagant lately when in fact they match your own values a lot more than you might recognize. I suggest you let key partners or loved ones have an influence on you that you can use to balance out any concerns you may have. However, this all goes deeper than money. You’re in an exceptionally beautiful moment to work out and let go of certain judgments about yourself that have contributed to some unhappiness in the past. These include various shades of being imperfect or not good enough. If you’re going to embark on a self-improvement campaign, you might start with cutting yourself some slack so you have actual space to make the changes that matter to you the most. You’re correct that impeccability is a meaningful agenda item, though how you get there matters.

Introducing the Planet Waves All Access Pass for 2012

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– Tuesday/Friday Email editions of Planet Waves weekly content and horoscopes. Follow Eric’s weekly and monthly interpretations for all of 2012.

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Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — People love you even when you don’t feel at your best. The only thing that really changes is your ability to receive love. Therefore, practice receiving. I know that it’s easy to make the argument that many people in our culture (and others) practice a self-centered and superficial approach to life. But what’s really going on at the core of that? I recognize that many people feel unworthy of love, but when you peel that back even just one layer, what’s in there? I would propose there’s something about the ability to receive. Yes, that’s directly related to one’s sense of worthiness. Though we might seem to be in chicken-and-egg territory here, I believe that when we’re cut off from emotional nutrients earlier in life, we might decide it’s our ‘fault’, whether that comes from child-logic or from having no other probable explanation available. Being open to receive from others who are happy to give to you would teach you something about how to treat yourself — and the time is right. As in right now.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — This is a complex time in your life and in particular, your relationships, though I would remind you that you’re the one in control. I say this because, sooner or later, everything you accept into your life comes down to a decision, and while you will definitely arrive at a series of decision points, I suggest you take them up on the soon side. That is to say, don’t wait until you think that something has gone too far. Run every circumstance through the filter of your actual boundaries whenever that situation arises, and make your adjustments incrementally rather than all at once, at the ‘end’. The key to avoiding being stressed out is never letting anything get too far. This will require you to stand up for yourself, which I assure you won’t tarnish your image as a reasonable person. To the contrary, certain people in your environment will feel reassured that you’re asserting yourself and your needs when you actually need to.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — I suggest you not push the health campaign, workout routines or dieting right now. What you need is balance. At the moment there’s no escaping the amount of work you have, but at least you’re into projects that you can use to bring out the best in you. At the moment to balance that you need the right amount of the right food, and just enough physical activity to let off any mental or physical tension you may be carrying. However, I suggest you not stretch too far in that direction; the pull will be too much for now. Rather, listen to the signs that your body is sending you; pay attention to the foods it’s asking you to eat and make sure that your physical space is clean and orderly. That will save a lot of energy and help your efficiency. I also suggest that you invest plenty of energy getting the opinions of others — and that you not take too much credit for what you get done. Point out the contributions of everyone else. Work in a spirit of service, and thank everyone for their shared effort and influence.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The time is nigh for you to let go of your old ideas about your personhood — or anyone’s — being associated with relationship status. That’s the relic of another era, and for the most part it’s only served to the detriment of humanity. Relationship status is used for many purposes, ranging from ‘acceptability’ to certain communities to the appearance of decency, no matter what someone really does. It’s a way of signaling social status (married to the ‘right’ person) and as various dog whistles for unavailability, availability for surreptitious activity, and most of all, an acceptable form of relationship to our parents — no matter how many times they got divorced. This all amounts to a sham. You are acceptable for who you are, not for your status or who you’re with. The thing is, these programs run so deep they verge on impossible to see and unappealing to question. Sooner or later you will figure out that you are you and that your life is an experiment, and that’s likely to be sooner than you think.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Your feelings are loaded — and loaded with information. Over the next few weeks you may be making many discoveries, potentially involving a range of subjects including your family, your father’s family, certain misunderstood events of the past, your local community and your current living environment. I suggest, however, that you pause before you make any decisions based on any of that information. At this stage, once you decide something, you’re likely to discover something else that shifts or even radically alters your viewpoint. No information is final at this stage, and you have so much left to learn that I suggest you consider it an ongoing process that will last a while. I don’t know if you’re excited about any of this yet, but you’re in a dimension where one discovery will lead to another, and eventually you’ll be hooked on the process of learning and the experience of your perception changing. We both know you have a craving for history and the truth of what went on in the past; you now have access to one of the most interesting attics of your life, so take your time exploring.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You have more power in someone’s life than you may think. Forget what the press release says, or how big of a shadow someone casts in your mind. Imagine you really do have influence. You have the power to say yes or no. You have the ability to grant or deny access. Indeed, you have the ability to take up space that might actually belong to someone else — physical space, or emotional. Are you feeling generous, or are you responding some other way? What is motivating you to act a certain way? The relationships are more involved than they may seem. There are several levels to what you’re feeling, and you may not be aware of some of them. Bear in mind that your choice to act a certain way may create a blind spot that prevents you from seeing the real effects of your choices or emotional posture. The deeper question I suggest you ask is, how do you want the situation to work out? Then act accordingly.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Check any door you think is locked; it may be open and you may be able to walk right in. You may be welcome where you thought you were not, and with certain individuals you may have previously thought had no interest. However rather than trying to decide what anyone else wants, what matters the most is what you want. I suggest you make some decisions about that because those openings will work for you in any event — so you may as well go from your own inner guidance. In our moment of time, however, you could make an operetta called, “But What Do I Want?” mocking at least half the human race. It would have all kinds of song and dance numbers and the running joke would be that everyone really does know what they want, but they keep forgetting or they’re afraid to say anything about it or too paralyzed to take action. I suggest you stop making excuses and get clear with yourself, and start making some decisions.

The World in a Grain of Pholus

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So leave me now the Moon is up
But remember all the tales I tell
The memories that you have dredged up
Are on letters forwarded from hell — Joe Strummer / “Something About England“

Dear Friend and Reader:

Every now and then, a significant global event affirms the theme of one of the recently discovered planets. By recently, I mean since the late ’70s starting with the discovery of Chiron — and I mean bodies within our solar system. Many people wonder how astrologers come up with the meanings of these things, these ice cubes and hunks of iron orbiting our Sun in odd patterns. We have many ways. Wide-scale public events where a particular planet appears prominently in the charts help confirm what we know, expand our understanding and create new dimensions of knowledge. I call these things ‘provings’, after a homeopathic term that basically means to test and experiment.

Cover of The Guardian, one of Britain’s left-leaning actual newspapers, from earlier in the month, breaking the story of how News of the World writers hacked the phone of slain teenager Milly Dowler. After publishing her parents’ anguished voicemails in the newspaper, they deleted the messages, leading her parents and police to believe she was still alive. This outraged England and sent the news across the Atlantic, forced the closure of the newspaper and has resulted in nine arrests.

One such event is developing right now, involving the second centaur planet Pholus: the unraveling of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, particularly the criminal conspiracy within his News International division that owns many newspapers in the U.K. This is the phone hacking scandal you may have read about elsewhere. It’s a complex story and it’s a bit exotic for our U.S. readers, so I will offer a summary before I get into the charts.

Just this week there have been nine arrests of current and former News Corp staff, including someone who had just served as the communications director to the current prime minister (the equivalent of our president). Hearing about the conduct of News Corp reporters, this week members of Congress from both parties called for a criminal investigation in the U.S., and as of Thursday the FBI was involved. News Corp, Murdoch’s company, is a Delaware corporation. Rupert Murdoch and his son, James, both hold U.S. passports.

The scandal takes place within England’s tabloid newspaper world, an environment so competitive and so vicious that it defies comprehension. An interesting element here is that newspapers still exist, for the moment: this issue will make many of them less profitable and speed their demise — though notably, it was a British newspaper, the The Guardian, that cracked the whole affair open. There is no equivalent market or environment in the U.S. In London you can walk up to a newsagent and have your choice of a dozen different papers with headlines screaming about the private business of nearly anyone, adorned with photos of naked or bikini-clad women, inciting controversy and harvesting human agony on an industrial scale.

Rupert Murdoch with his third wife, Wendi, in 2011. Murdoch has a prominent Vesta in his chart, which suggests that he is surrounded by young women. Photo credit: David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons.

To visualize the product, imagine what would happen if The New York Post dropped acid with TMZ and The National Enquirer, aided by hackers, lawyers and corrupt private investigators, with unlimited resources, spurred and enabled by pure greed and the luxury of having no ethics at all. Then you might come close. We do have related problems here in the states, particularly Murdoch’s FOX News. More on that in a bit.

I have long maintained that the media, in particular what we call the news media, is one of the biggest spiritual problems of our times. By that I mean an existential problem on all levels, from consciousness to politics, influencing every thought we think and why we believe we’re alive. If we want to understand why society’s problems seem so intractable, imagine if there were more newspapers that told the truth about them, rather than covering up the issues. If we want to understand why so many people are so poorly informed, have bizarre opinions, absurd worldviews and believe in the politicians and policies that hurt them the most, we have the media to thank, all of it, including movies, TV and most books. We’ve all seen this over and over: a problem surfaces in mainstream news coverage, and then it disappears. We all know about issues that get no press at all. And we figure there must be a reason — such as the newspapers are protecting their friends in public office, or are somehow involved in what they’re making disappear.

If we want to understand why people are so caught in shame, blame, guilt and fear, we can attribute a lot of that to what we inject into our minds. True, people make the choice to watch, but it’s also true that television is pervasive and addictive, and that it feeds off of well-known human weaknesses, including the need for escape. The same is true of gossip journalism; if you’re emotionally injured, you might find a temporary palliative in watching others get shamed. Most of what we think of as news is so toxic and so contrary to any agenda that would help living things, it’s a small wonder that anyone gives it any credence — but we do. And typically we do because we’re trying to fill a gaping spiritual hole.

British tabloids exist in an environment like no other, where anything is ‘fair’ play. Photo: Creative Commons, via IB Times.

There has always been yellow journalism, but the digital age has expanded the possibilities for spreading carcinogenic ideas to something as dependably repugnant as a hazardous waste incinerator built next to a school. Most ‘news’ propagates an obsession with negativity, which comes in the form of fear, paranoia and divisive ideas that pit communities, regions and the generations against one another. At the dark soul of this industry is Rupert Murdoch, whose media holdings (the second largest globally, with reported revenue of $33 billion in 2010) have made him one of the most influential men in the world.

As he controlled the media market, working relentlessly toward a monopoly, Murdoch in many ways has seemed to have a stranglehold on ideology, doing his best to exploit the pre-existing pain in the human psyche and choke off any hope of progress. He has not entirely succeeded, but he’s done damage on a global scale, and direct damage to the political systems of the U.S. and the U.K. the extent of which we have yet to determine. Part of his game involves having a little something (as in a dirt file) on anyone who is anyone. If you challenged him, you could find yourself in the newspaper the next day. Right below the surface of what we’re seeing reported in the news is a vast criminal enterprise, a kind of blackmail and extortion racket, designed to amass power not just over a market but power over people and institutions.

Now it’s starting to unravel, with another series of stunning revelations every day.

The Prince’s Knee Injury Makes ‘News’

Since 2005, the British public has been learning, mainly through press reports in The Guardian, that a Murdoch Sunday scandal sheet, News of the World, was hacking into cell phones of royals, sports figures and entertainers, and spreading gossip found in their voicemail boxes. The first incident that came to light involves a story published in December ’05, when news of Prince William’s knee injury made it onto the pages of the tabloid. Prince William is heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, and his injury had only been known to his family and staff. Buckingham Palace suspected hacking of William’s voicemail and those of his staff, and called in Scotland Yard, which began an investigation. Not surprisingly, the investigation turned into a cover-up.

The Guardian from earlier in the year, stating that the hacking investigation was being reopened. On the cover is Murdoch and his henchwoman, Rebekah Brooks. She was the editor of News of the World through many of he newspaper’s worst ethical violations. Murdoch tried to protect her, but she resigned Friday facing a summons to testify before Parliament and a call for her resignation from a Saudi shareholder of News International.

About eight months later, in mid-2006, the author of the story and a (previously convicted) private investigator who worked for News of the World were arrested. Police seized computer files, recordings and other documents. In 2007, a special commission determined that there was no further evidence of wrongdoing.

At the time, a guy named Andy Coulson was editor of News of the World. Coulson resigned from his post when the case came to light and not long after, he became the communications director for Conservative (Tory) leader David Cameron, a member of Parliament. Two years later, the then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown learned that Murdoch and News International were dropping their support for him and the Labour Party, whom they had backed via Murdoch’s The Sun tabloid since 1997, in favour of Cameron and the Conservatives. Brown was ousted and Cameron became prime minister — giving a hint about Murdoch’s political influence.

The Sun is the bestselling daily newspaper in the U.K., and Cameron has had their support right through his candidacy, to his becoming prime minister and beyond. So this goes right to the top of the British government.

The story lay quiet for two years, and was re-opened in July 2009 when The Guardian revealed that Murdoch’s organization had paid £1 million to settle a variety of lawsuits that would have named other phone hacking journalists it employed. A News Corp statement responding to The Guardian’s story said, “all of these irresponsible and unsubstantiated allegations against News of the World and other News International titles and its journalists are false.” A top police official said, “This case has been the subject of the most careful investigation by the most experienced detectives… No additional evidence has come to light. I therefore consider no further investigation is required.”

But the story would not go away. It turned out that more than 4,800 people had their phones, voicemail and email hacked. Police had been regularly bribed for phone numbers of public figures, and even the schedule of Queen Elizabeth. Imagine envelopes of cash changing hands between so-called journalists and police on the queue at drive-through fast food restaurants. There were ongoing denials of wrongdoing from News Corp and various government officials. Yet in early 2010, the truth began to surface again, with a parliamentary investigation concluding that there must be a wider scandal than was originally indicated.

Current British Prime Minister David Cameron, who hired the former editor of News of the World, Andy Coulson, as his communications director. Coulson resigned in January and Cameron’s administration, with its ties to Murdoch, is now threatened. Official photo.

Along the way, it was revealed that among the many thousands of people who had their phones hacked were the victims and survivors of terrorism, including the 7/7 attacks that had devastated England in the summer of 2005. The Guardian’s investigation revealed that, “phone hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the tabloid.” Through 2010 and 2011 there have been many developments behind the scenes, including former News of the World editor Andy Coulson’s resignation as communications director for the prime minister this past January.

Then suddenly the story made it across the Atlantic on July 4 when The Guardian reported that News of the World had hacked into voicemails left for murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who disappeared and was killed in 2002. During the six months she was missing, reporters working on the story had listened to, published and then deleted voicemails in Dowler’s cell phone. The deletions led her family and the police to believe she was still alive, and made more room for anguished pleas from her parents that were published in the newspaper.

Notably, the editor at the time this happened was Rebekah Brooks, who on Friday resigned as the head of News International, Murdoch’s U.K. newspaper division. The high-publicity trial of Milly Dowler’s killer had evoked tremendous sympathy from the British public, and this revelation broke the dam of outrage at Murdoch and his newspapers.

In the same burst of news, swirling around the solar eclipse two weeks ago, we also learned that News of the World had hacked into the medical records and bank accounts of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, sensationalizing the illness of his infant son in the pages of the newspaper. It was clear that any boundary between public and private, between what is truly intimate and what is made into political fodder, was nonexistent.

Then on Friday, July 8, Coulson — just six months after he resigned as communications director for the current prime minister David Cameron — was arrested for his involvement in the phone hacking scandal. His former boss, the very head of the British government, denied that he had any knowledge of what Coulson had been up to as editor of News of the World, though he was warned about it many times. This damages Cameron’s administration and he is viewed by many as a pawn of Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Davos. 2007. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

On Sunday, Murdoch closed News of the World after 168 years in print, hoping that would work as a kind of sacrificial offering. The man who would never back down gave up significant ground; News of the World was one of his few profitable newspapers. Then on Wednesday, Murdoch gave up his $12 billion bid to purchase the remaining shares of a satellite broadcasting system called British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) that he did not already own. Labour, Liberals and Conservatives in Parliament joined together and demanded that he back off of that deal. Later that day, the chief lawyer for News International resigned after 26 years with the company, the first senior executive to quit in the scandal. The lawyer, Tom Crone, is believed to have signed off on many of the more controversial articles that appeared in News of the World.

Then on Friday, July 15, Rebekah Brooks resigned as chief of News International, the British newspaper division, for her conduct while editor of News of the World. Murdoch had succeeded at protecting her through the scandal, but demands from the public, the Dowler family and one of News International’s biggest investors pushed her out. It’s unclear whether she will testify before Parliament next week, where she has been subpoenaed.

One last. A New York City police officer recently said he was approached by reporters for News of the World who were trying to get the contact information for Sept. 11 victims and their families. Immediately, several congressional representatives, including Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) have called for investigations into whether the privacy of Sept. 11 families was violated.

“The limited information already reported in this case raises serious questions about the legality of the conduct of News Corporation and its subsidiaries under the [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act],” Lautenberg wrote. “Further investigation may reveal that current reports only scratch the surface of the problem at News Corporation.” Lautenberg, as senator from New Jersey, represents many of the families of Sept. 11 victims.

So there you have it: a vast criminal enterprise, scavenging on the suffering of parents missing their child, survivors of the most notorious acts of terrorism in the past decades, and a private company with deep tentacles into government and the police; both are already implicated in the cover-up.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose phone and medical records were hacked to exploit a medical condition of his infant child. Murdoch then turned against him and the Labour Party. Photo: Screen shot from BBC.

All of this was done for profit and power, with the end result being the parading of pain and suffering before the public and multiplying it by many orders of magnitude. When anyone would try to stop it, they could be thrown to the sharks; most said nothing out of fear that they would be assassinated in the newspapers.

Remember that the product of all this activity was supposed news. The public has gazed into this oracle for some orientation on what is important in life, such as: should we bomb and invade Iraq? Is a public option for health insurance a good idea? Should we kill Social Security? Are we safe from environmental toxins and radioactive fallout? In the United States alone, 100 million households have access to FOX News, nearly total saturation. Many people — including educated people who should know better — take its paranoid, delusional pronouncements as gospel. And we are now getting a glimpse of what has been going on behind the scenes.

The one thing that all commentators say about this story is, there’s no telling when, where or with whom it will end. The once seemingly invincible Murdoch organization is cutting off appendages to stem the damage. The allegations have spread to other titles in his News International group, including The Sun tabloid and far to the other end of the journalistic spectrum, the prestigious Sunday Times. Everyone involved in the British press knows that crimes were committed at many newspapers beyond Murdoch’s group, but he is the Godfather.

Pholus: The Process that Cannot be Stopped

You may be familiar with Chiron, a small planet discovered in 1977 orbiting in a path that weaves it between Saturn and Uranus. In 1992, a similar planet was discovered, and the centaur group was designated by astronomers. The new planet was called Pholus, one of the other wise centaurs (and possibly a direct branch off of the Chiron cycle of myths).

Pholus in the natal chart of Rupert Murdoch. It is the small florescent green planet close to the horizontal line, with the large number 5 next to it. Murdoch has Pholus rising in Capricorn — the sign of business and government. The nearby planet is Vesta, suggesting devotion to the cause of profiting on human suffering (and an obsession with young women). View chart.

The energy of Pholus feels like something leaking out of a pressurized vessel. It could be anything; in the myth, it’s a cask of wine, the scent of which draws a mob of rogue centaurs, who get involved in a war with Heracles. Many disasters ensue; it’s one of the most horrendous scenes in Greek mythology. The most important thing about the wine is that it’s collective property. That stuff that comes out — it belongs to everyone. And once the process is started, the genie doesn’t go back into the bottle. The wine, of course, is a symbol; it could be anything that causes a reaction.

Pholus represents processes of rapid transformation that can be provoked by seemingly minor things. Robert von Heeren, one of the first astrologers to delineate Pholus, gave it the key phrase, “small cause, big effect.” Its energy is highly reactive, unpredictable and can be grossly irresponsible. There is a connection to alcohol, including conduct inspired by being drunk.

In the chart of Rupert Murdoch, Pholus is rising; that is, it’s in the ascendant, right on the eastern horizon, arguably the most powerful spot in a chart. That makes it a primary factor in his personality. It’s placed in the sign Capricorn, which covers corporations and government. What better way to describe the sense of unleashed scandalous information, springing from a source that cannot be stopped, spreading war, havoc and a weird kind of intoxication? Think of FOX News going around the clock, spouting its seemingly endless stream of lies, laced with a toxic agenda. That’s how Murdoch manifests his Pholus in Capricorn. He also has Vesta nearby, illustrating his total devotion to the cause. That’s a property of Vesta — devotion. But it has several other noteworthy factors. One is a connection to sexuality, particularly the shame/guilt aspect (this is especially true in Capricorn).

Pholus in the chart of News of the World’s first edition, in October 1843, long before Lincoln was president. Pholus in this chart aligns directly with that in the chart of Rupert Murdoch, above. See full chart here.

In 1969, Murdoch purchased News of the World. It had been in print continuously since Oct. 1, 1843. Wikipedia’s editors sum up the newspaper’s mission: “It quickly established itself as a purveyor of titillation, shock and criminal news. Much of the source material came from coverage of vice prosecutions, including transcripts of police descriptions of alleged brothels, streetwalkers and ‘immoral’ women.” By 1950 it had become the biggest-selling newspaper in the world, with circulation of about nine million. This is astonishing given that the population of England was just over 40 million at that time. That is saturation on the level of FOX News in the U.S. — nearly every household.

On the day that News of the World first published, Pholus was in Capricorn; in fact it was sitting in the very same degree of Capricorn as Rupert Murdoch’s Pholus, though he would not be born for another 92 years. That happens to be one Pholus cycle, pretty much to the day. You could say there is an element of destiny at work here, or at least an alignment of purpose.

Pluto in the chart for the last edition of News of the World, on Sunday, July 10. Notice that Pluto (red guy) is in the same degree Pholus occupies in both the charts of Murdoch and News of the World. Full chart here.

Now for the current moment. Remember that the story developing so rapidly now first surfaced in 2005, nearly six years ago — but it didn’t go out of control until the past two weeks. On the day that News of the World published its last issue, Pluto in Capricorn was (and still is) exactly conjunct Pholus in the natal charts of Murdoch and the fated newspaper. You could say that Pluto is activating natal Pholus in both of these charts — and we are getting the full Pholus effect, rippling through the world of Capricorn: business and politics. There are many planets making aspects to Pluto — we keep describing this as the cardinal cross, plus Chiron in Pisces and Jupiter in Taurus. All those planets are fueling the fire ignited by Pholus in the charts for Murdoch and News of the World, and they will be for a while.

Notice how something new seems to be escaping from a structure in a way that can never be reversed: the truth of what went on behind the scenes. With Pluto in Capricorn we have the energy of the unstoppable force, combining with Pholus in Capricorn (in the natal charts of Murdoch and News of the World) to wreak havoc on one of the world’s biggest companies and oldest, most established governments. This is not a scandal in any conventional sense of the word; it’s the revelation of a massive criminal and political conspiracy, which has largely been fostered by something called the corporate veil. That’s an aspect of a corporation that protects individuals from liability created by the people who run the company. With the prosecution of 11 individuals so far (two in 2006 and nine in the past week), the corporate veil has finally been breached.

When other journalists commenting on this story say they have no idea where it’s going to end up, or who will become involved, they are describing the astrology perfectly.

An Age of Change: Uranus, Pluto and WikiLeaks

Pluto in Capricorn has certainly ushered in an age of change to the institutions of our society. The financial crisis that started in 2008, with the worst recession by far since the Great Depression of the 1930s, is illustrated by Pluto in Capricorn. We all have this sense that there are bigger changes in the works than the ones we’ve already seen.

Julian Assange, creator of WikiLeaks, is involved in releasing information that is damaging to corporations and government. He exists in what seems like a parallel universe to News Corp and Rupert Murdoch. Coincidentally, both are from Australia. Photo: Assange’s personal ad.

Through this era, we’ve witnessed the emergence of WikiLeaks, which has cracked the vessel of government and begun to get out the truth, in particular about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. There are striking parallels between the WikiLeaks and News Corp situations. Both involve corporations, governments and the unsuppressed release of information that is damaging to them. Both are stunning commentaries on the gross abuse of political and corporate power. Yet one of the releases is being done to those institutions (WikiLeaks) and one is coming from inside the system. Both are revealing crimes against the people at large and doing severe damage to the reputations of those in power.

What is interesting is that, at least in the short run, an external assault on the system (WikiLeaks) seems less effective than when the system starts to self-destruct from within (News Corp imploding, though spurred by The Guardian newspaper). Yet both methods will have effects that are going on in a kind of living laboratory, and the results will take years to understand.

You can think of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, as a kind of anti-Murdoch. Both are in the business of revealing hidden information, but Murdoch reveals what damages individual people, and Assange reveals what is damaging to big institutions, calling them to task for damaging people. (Notably, the chart for WikiLeaks has a powerful Pholus, exactly squared by the Moon.)

As Pluto makes its way through Capricorn, we will be seeing more of these damaging revelations, from many sources. Once Pluto gets going, it’s nearly impossible to reverse the process. Pluto in Capricorn is not just going to be about economic collapses. There is a restructuring of society taking place, we’re all watching it happen and many will be called to participate. If you have a copy of your natal chart, look at what’s in the early to mid cardinal signs for a clue as to how you will be taking part. (Murdoch has Pholus there; he’s unwittingly become part of the solution to the problems he helped create.)

There is a major crux point in that process, which is in June 2012, when Uranus in Aries makes its first exact square to Pluto for this cycle. This is the first axial alignment of Uranus and Pluto since the 1965-1966 conjunction that shook the world for more than a decade (what we think of as the Sixties). It’s a moment when personal consciousness (Uranus in Aries) meets up with the restructuring of society (Pluto in Capricorn.)

Protests in Wisconsin this year were the perfect image of the Uranus-Pluto square. Photo: UAFF.

The Uranus-Pluto square is close right now: as of today it’s less than two degrees apart, meaning that we are seeing some of the more interesting effects of the aspect start to manifest. We’ve been witnessing them all year, from Arab Spring to the protests in Wisconsin. One implication of this is that not only is Pluto conjunct the natal Pholus of News of the World and Murdoch himself, Uranus is making a square to that position. Uranus influences the speed of events and also the sense of a surprise. So when that first square makes exact contact next spring — pay attention because events will progress at a blinding rate.

Anything or anyone with important points (planets, the ascendant, etc.) aligned with the Uranus-Pluto square is set up for big transformations over the next few years. As we watch what happens to Murdoch, News Corp and its various actors, we will get a clue how big. Just a few months ago it would have seemed impossible that things could come this far, that so much would be revealed. Of course, we weren’t expecting the wave of revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa either, massive, rolling protests being another manifestation of Uranus-Pluto.

Yet what anyone looking to improve the world is looking for is structural change, and while we have yet to see much of that, it is inevitable. Awareness is the first step in the process, and right now that means being aware just how much influence Rupert Murdoch has amassed in the governments of the United States and England. His truth incinerator known as FOX News has helped create many wars, relentlessly exploited terrorism for profit, and built up the hate-inspired Teabag movement in the United States, a fundamentalist religious movement which is currently holding the government hostage over the debt ceiling issue. And women are being taken hostage. This year alone, 81 laws have been passed that in some way restrict access to abortion thanks to Teabag movement politicians getting into office.

FOX News involves itself directly in the U.S. political process. It is a breeding ground for potential presidential candidates, all of whom display a bitter resentment for humanity. Not surprisingly, the same sentiment emerges from what is revealed in the WikiLeaks files. Conservatism is not about conserving anything; it’s about fear.

The Change We Need: An End to Garmonbozia

When we think of the structural change associated with the current astrology, it might help to think on multiple levels of reality. Astrology itself is multidimensional. Do we really think that an undiscovered hunk of iron (Pholus in Capricorn, in charts many decades old) is physically influencing our reality? Or is there some kind of energetic influence?

“Bob, I want my Garmonbozia.” Michael J. Anderson as ‘The Man from Another Place’, a resident of the Black Lodge in David Lynch’s film “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.” Garmonbozia is human pain and sorrow, collected and consumed by demonic beings who manipulate events to cause, and thus feed on, even more pain. Such is the nature of News Corp and much of the mainstream media.

The concept of multiple levels of reality also hints at a relationship with the unseen world, what some call the spirit world. An illustration of this comes from one of the most reviled films in 20th century cinema — Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The film, considered by most to be as incomprehensible as reality itself, explores the relationship between the Black Lodge (a kind of nonphysical organization) and events in the town of Twin Peaks, which surround a series of murders. People in the town became possessed by the spirits of the Black Lodge, which harvested their pain and sorrow and created it into a kind of food they consume, which they call garmonbozia.

We think of enterprises like News Corp as spreading pain, warfare, shame and hatred, and then collecting money, which is true on the physical level. But rarely do we consider the spiritual damage these things perpetuate. There are factors at work on the energetic level, and one of them is the harvesting of that sorrow, converting it into the ability to cause more of it, and harvesting that. I cannot tell you exactly what entities are behind News Corp and Mr. Murdoch on the invisible planes of reality, but I know they’re there, thriving on what he seems to create, and I know who they work for.

Television, newspapers and plenty of Internet sites spew out human pain and then profit from it, but the results collect on another level as well. In this image, a woman who lost her son in a car accident is covering her mouth, suggesting that she is both grieving and ashamed. The story verges on pointless, but millions of people will relive her agony through video. Image: NBC TV.

As individuals, we feed the process as we focus our attention on the pain of others in a way that is unrelated to their healing or our own. We might think we’re being entertained or informed, when in truth we’re multiplying the negativity like an infected body multiplies a pathogen. Then we get drawn in and addicted to (which means controlled by) the multiplication and transfer of energy. There is a reason people watch FOX News or listen to Rush Limbaugh hour after hour. It creates the very psychic void it pretends to fill, much like the combination of excess sugar and salt in fast food makes it impossible to satisfy one’s hunger.

There really is no systemic way to address this deeply personal aspect of the problem. Each person has to make a choice to divest his or her energy and invest it in something else. This does not mean turning away from the whole situation; it’s precisely the lack of awareness, what you could call ‘unconsciousness’, or what some call ‘ignorance’ (the conscious choice to ignore something) that enables and invites the problem to begin with. Most of us from time to time notice how much we look away from something simply because we don’t want to deal with it — even though we know that looking away perpetuates the problem.

The very thing that we believe is designed to spread awareness and tell the truth — the news — has been taken over to spread disinformation and then benefit from the resulting chaos. It’s true, as the House of Murdoch is flushed of its demons, we are getting a dark look inside the media, and also a dark look inside our collective psyche.

Our job now is to raise awareness and make a decision. We are seeing the cost of letting other people do our thinking for us, and stated as simply as can be stated, it’s high time we think for ourselves.

Lovingly,

Additional Research: Fe Bongolan, Tracey Delaney, Hazel Ferguson and Carol van Strum. Photo research by Sarah Bissonette-Adler. Additional editing: Jessica Keet, Amanda Painter.

Discuss this article here.

Something About England

By Joe Strummer & Mick Jones — The Clash

They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
Of the respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine an’ roses
If England were for Englishmen again

Well I saw a dirty overcoat
At the foot of the pillar of the road
Propped inside was an old man
Whom time would not erode
When the night was snapped by sirens
Those blue lights circled fast
The dancehall called for an ambulance
The bars all closed up fast

My silence gazing at the ceiling
While roaming the single room
I thought the old man could help me
If he could explain the gloom
You really think it’s all new
You really think about it too
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
I’ll tell you a thing or two

I missed the fourteen-eighteen war
But not the sorrow afterwards
With my father dead and my mother ran off
My brothers took the pay of hoods
The twenties turned the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
The ladies lifted cake to their mouths

The next war began and my ship sailed
With battle orders writ in bed
In five long years of bullets and shells
We left ten million dead
The few returned to old Piccadily
We limped around Leicester Square
The world was busy rebuilding itself
The architects could not care

But how could we know when I was young
All the changes that were to come?
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
And now the terror of the scientific sun
There was masters an’ servants an’ servants an’ dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
But through strikes an’ famine an’ war an’ peace
England never closed this gap

So leave me now the moon is up
But remember all the tales I tell
The memories that you have dredged up
Are on letters forwarded from hell

The streets were by now deserted
The gangs had trudged off home
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An’ old England was all alone

To discover how the developments of the next six months influence you personally, check out the Planet Waves 2011 Midyear Report by Eric Francis.

Planet Waves FM: Capricorn Full Moon, Rupert Murdoch, News Corp, U.S. Government Psychosis — and PHOLUS.

Today’s edition of Planet Waves FM looks up close and personal at the Capricorn Full Moon, which takes place Friday. (Don’t forget — you can receive our special edition on that event free by sending an email to thunder@planetwaves.net.)

Eric Francis, at the podcasting mill.

This has been a very, very interesting Full Moon. Just look around and notice for yourself.

The Sun and Moon align exactly with a slow-moving aspect we’ve been talking about — Varuna square Eris. The thing about your Varuna square Eris kind of aspect is 1) you can’t look it up in a book and 2) no matter how significant these newly-discovered outer planets are, the aspect is going to seem like it’s in the background right up until it’s lit up in the blazing light of the Full Moon — and that’s what’s happening right now. (Note, our readers recently took a throw at delineating this aspect in a special edition that you can read here.)

In today’s podcast, I look at the Rupert Murdoch / News Corp scandal, and the utter insanity going on in Washington DC in the form of the Tea Baggers (far right wing Republicans) pushing the United States government to the brink of financial default, which if it happens could set off a lot of problems. In the second half of the program, I look at how Murdoch’s chart lines up with that of News of the World, the weekly that he shut down Sunday.

Our musical guest this week is the acclaimed Emma’s Revolution, described by our friends at Z Magazine as, “Beyond progressive commentary, Emma’s Revolution examines issues of our time the way the media should.” Pete Seeger once said, “This record is part of the worldwide revolution which will save this planet… these songs you’ll find yourself singing for the rest of your life.” Gee whiz! Anyway you can hear them on Planet Waves FM.

For the old player and the full archive of my programs, visit the Planet Waves FM homepage. Our theme music, in case you were ever wondering, is called “Earth Calling,” composed and performed by Tino Izzo, represented by Chacra Music.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, July 15, 2011, #867 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

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

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Certain events may seem to be pivoting around you, or your influence — and you may be wondering how things have gone so far. I suggest you ask another question, which is: how far can you go making use of this circumstance? You are likely to be learning something about the kind of impact you can have, saying or doing very little. I would persist in a policy of saying less rather than more, but choosing what you say well. Consult with others and work from a strategy. You may think you’re in a situation where you have to choose sides. How do you do that? Well, know your own agenda, and subject it to some scrutiny. Then see where your intentions align with those of the people in your professional environment. You may think you’re ahead of yourself; you may think that you’re into something too advanced for what you’re capable of. Remember your ethics at all times and you will do beautifully.

Click here to order your 2011 Aries Audio Birthday Report.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — The world around you seems to be moving at full thrust, and you’re in one of your more sensitive moods at the moment. You’re in an amazing position to observe and express empathy for what’s going on around you. Yet the Full Moon in your fellow earth sign Capricorn is an invitation to take a step up in the world. It’s also an occasion to step out of the psychological box that you’ve inherited from your mother, who understood the world more in terms of the past than as something you can experience in the present or the future. You seem to be accustomed to going through this psychological material with a spoon, or with a garden spade on a good day. Now you can feel the experience for what it is, and that feeling can propel you to make decisions about what you want and how to be that will surprise you with how simple they feel, and in fact, how simple they are.

Click here to order your 2011 Taurus Audio Birthday Report.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Remember that there is such a thing as right and wrong. I know that certain members of fundamentalist faiths blast the notion of moral relativism, or what you might think of as situational ethics. In truth, most of what we think of as right and wrong are indeed relative (such as it’s wrong to harm a dog, but you can eat lamb if you want). By right and wrong, I mean aligned or not aligned with your personal constitution. The problem you have is the same problem that everyone else has: it’s difficult to distinguish guilt from an ethical impulse. Maybe this will help you: Guilt judges you wrong before the trial. An ethical impulse asks a question, and then you get to answer the question based on your values. Listen to yourself; listen to the values you’re referencing when you make your assessment. This is a step-by-step process. It should take longer than a Gemini minute; more like a Taurus hour.

Click here to order your 2011 Gemini Audio Birthday Report.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — We’re in the midst of a Full Moon in your opposite sign Capricorn. The Sun in your birth sign suggests that this is time to experiment with role reversal. If you tend to be the passive type, it’s time to take action. If you tend to be more like a child, it’s time to be an adult. If you tend to be the kind of person who seeks security, it’s time to take a chance. The kind of astrology you’re experiencing is the kind that rewards action, conscious decisions and knowing continuously what crossroads you’re standing at. You are indeed standing at a significant intersection of possibilities, of potentials, and of influences. You may seem so overwhelmed that the only logical thing to do is stand back and watch. Yes, I do suggest you watch — but not while you’re standing back. Life is calling you to participate right now; don’t worry that you feel like you’re in over your head. That’s how it usually is, whenever something actually relevant is happening.

Hello Cancerians! I am doing your birthday report today. We will send a special mailing when it’s ready — and post it to the main PW blog.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Sometimes it’s meaningful to think of success as a mountain that you climb, though there are times that what once seemed high up descends to a place where you can reach it. People you may have thought were inaccessible or superior to you are now more obviously your peers. What seemed like it might be a great achievement is now seen as a practical matter. What you thought of as success you can now think of as doing things well. All of these changes are an attribute of what you might call a maturing process, though really what you’re discovering is that you have a place in the world. A bit of grace and poise are called for in stepping into that place; faced by so much to be angry about, you are the one capable of looking at the world with some peace of mind. When you communicate anything, remember that you’re relating from all of these points of progress, and are often speaking to those who struggle to have any faith in themselves.

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

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You’re not the type of person for whom the ends justify the means. Your whole life is a story of process; you could certainly use being a little more goal-oriented, and this is a time when you can experiment with that boldly. Goals require action to be meaningful. It’s true, they can reside in your mind as an abstract concept for many years, though I suggest you think of a true goal as something you’re experimenting with and want to go further with. More than being an idea, it’s something that’s already in progress. You may have to be what feels like ruthless in moving obstacles out of the way, so that you have the space and energy to do what you want. It’s more your style to involve yourself in what is the most meaningful to you and gradually allow it to take over your life. And remember this: it’s unlikely that you have two goals. You really have one agenda that expresses itself many ways. Keep coming back to that and you will stay in alignment with your purpose.

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

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — There is a limit to how far purity will get you. Striving for impeccability is another thing. There is a limit to the value of being sentimental; there is no limit to the value of caring deeply, and that certainly describes you well. Now for the tricky part: accomplishing most goals requires a little detachment. Sure, it’s possible to froth at the mouth like a stock trader, or to lust after power and glory — those things work, but they don’t usually work when the actual objective, when the purpose involved, is an authentic or nourishing one. So focus on your authenticity, and on the process of cultivating nourishment. You have something that others benefit from, and it would be helpful if you made peace with that. In a sense, you’re being used for a purpose larger than yourself, and as long as you love that purpose, it’s one of the most exalted states that a person can attain. I suggest your mantra for these days be, ‘the greatest good for all concerned’.

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

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Remember that every work relationship is indeed a relationship. Each is a unique experience, and in truth one human contact is not ‘bigger’ or ‘more important’ than another — or at least that is the wise assumption now. Remember that none of these situations is an ornament for show; be especially mindful here if you have a partner whose position somehow reflects on your status or credibility. Maintain your integrity and stand on your own merits. The sky is volatile right now, but it’s rich with potential. You are obviously feeling some pressure with the Full Moon, and you may have a sense that if you make a mistake, you won’t be able to undo it. This is not really true. While you want to make your decisions consciously and carefully, August presents a kind of review phase wherein you can reassess certain elements of your situation and make useful corrections. The key is to stay in contact with your motives, and be honest with yourself about what they are.

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

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You may be feeling provoked; you may even be feeling outraged about something. This may be enough to spur you into some kind of unusual action, and that could be a truly positive thing. I suggest that while you’re experiencing the sensation of feeling pushed or compelled to notice something, think back and ask yourself how many times you’ve noticed the same thing; how many times you’ve had the same sentiment, but less passionately. Who or what is spurring you to action now? The planets in your solar chart are in a dependable alignment that is designed to get results, with the one caveat being that you must stay in close alignment with your motives, your ideals and what you actually want to create. I strongly suggest you think in pictures, rather than just in words. Visualize what you intend; notice what is in the picture and what you want to add to the picture. Then notice when it takes on a life of its own.

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

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — How much happier would the world be if we lived among sexually satisfied people? Think about it. Think of all the subverted energy that would be going to where it really matters; think of all the toxic aggression that would fizzle out and be replaced by fresh passion. Consider all the pain that would be replaced by the direct experience of healing. Imagine all of that hungry ghost yearning that is really sexual starvation, replaced by the desire to generously nourish oneself and others. Then imagine this multiplied by all of the people experiencing it, you among them. What would society feel like? What would your world feel like? What would it feel like to exist? You have many opportunities to open up, which means to relax and flourish. Whatever dark emotions, fears or inhibitions that may have bound you in the past are too weak to hold you back now. Your desire and passion are stronger than they are.

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

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Among my pet names for the zodiac signs, I have two for yours: one is Acurious, and the other is Aqueerius. They are related. These days, it’s weird to be curious. Part of why it’s weird is because the things that others think about doing, you tend to dive in and experiment with. I reckon that often, you do so knowing there are no guarantees — that’s very helpful. Experimenting, exploring, endeavoring to give your curiosity an actual place in the world are best left open ended, free from expectation. Who knows, the results might be a mixed bag; they might be a huge breakthrough; you might decide it wasn’t worth it, and move onto the next thing. The beauty is that you actually dared to find out. You stopped living in your head and took up a process of understanding the world through first-hand experience. Your charts are especially encouraging of this at the moment; can you feel it?

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

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — This is the weekend to be as visible and social as you can be. Your relationship to the world is changing, as is the world itself. All of this is happening at a pace so fast, we feel it about as palpably as we feel the Earth moving beneath our feet — that is, not so much. One way to experiment with change is to get out into a social environment. The big Capricorn Full Moon is shining bright in your 11th house right now, which represents your circle of friends. Yet it’s also one of the houses that represents your vision for your life, and this house is the scene of many unusual changes these days. Looked at one way, the soil is being turned over for new planting. Looked at another way, there is an archeological dig going on, where you’re able to retrieve long-lost desires, ambitions, and a quest for freedom that has over many years been buried by the shifting sands of time. You have strong intuitive guidance right now, and many other factors working in your favor. Pay attention to who you meet, and notice how the world has evolved around you even from the place you remember it being just a few months or years ago. Be aware; get in sync. These are unusual days.

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

A Homeopathic Moment: Mercury Retrograde

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Dear Planet Waves Reader:

Earlier this morning, Mercury stationed retrograde in Capricorn, conjunct Pluto. Mercury will be retrograde until Dec. 30, a span of time covering an eclipse of the Moon and the Northern Hemisphere winter solstice, as well as the holiday travel season. Mercury will dip back into late Sagittarius, treading in reverse over the Galactic Core, then after stationing direct make another conjunction to the core early next year. Before I get into a few other details of this astrology and what it may say about our most personal lives, I have several points of follow up on last week’s article about WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange.

Image from the video calling card of the activist group Anonymous, which has declared war “against all enemies of Julian Assange.” The group this week took out the websites of MasterCard, Visa and the Swiss bank that froze Assange’s funds. The full video is a masterpiece of zeitgeist, capturing the spirit of global chaos mingled with technology. Other videos on the YouTube channel provide a closer look at the organization’s philosophy.

The two are closely related, as I will describe in a moment, though I would state straight out that Mercury retrograde is often a tipping point when it comes to the truth of some underlying matter being revealed. If that pattern holds up, we ain’t seen a thing compared to what we’re about to discover during the next few turbocharged weeks. Though this involves certain factors that are local to this moment (eclipses and Mercury retrograde), in the biggest sense, the world as it is becoming now is in the full throes of the Uranus-Pluto square that is the centerpiece of 2012-era astrology.

For astro-historians, this is part of the same cycle that gave us the 1960s, which were sparked by the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo.*

So far as I can tell, the WikiLeaks revelations are the most significant historical event since whatever happened on Sept. 11, 2001. Though the effect is subtler (so far), what has happened the past two weeks has taken government, the media and the public over a threshold of confronting actual truth. We are seeing confirmation of things that politically alert people have known for many years — but it’s finally coming up now, being brought to much wider awareness. You might even say coming up for healing. This is a homeopathic moment for world managers and media gatekeepers, who are now being given a dose of their own medicine. The concept of homeopathy is that ‘like cures like’. WikiLeaks is delivering, in potentized form, what they have been holding onto and not letting go of. The result of a successful remedy is often a healing crisis, and this is precisely what we are seeing.

The public is discovering what our ‘leaders’ have been up to, as the media is being compelled to report stories that it has systematically ignored or obscured for decades. I cover this and related topics Wednesday in my weekly podcast, where I describe how actual documents are the only thing that ever advance an important news story.

As a result, a new kind of war has broken out on the Internet — the first ever — between entities that would seek to censor WikiLeaks and a diversity of hackers, free speech advocates and legal experts who are coming to its defense.

The Mercury connection involves its current contact with Capricorn, Mars and Pluto: could we have a more fitting image of this situation than the combination of these energies? Mars and Pluto in Capricorn are taking us to the depths of what governments and corporations are really about. We get the picture as the foreclosure crisis grows and the rich try to write themselves a check for half a trillion dollars in the form of renewed tax cuts that they plan to borrow from China. Mercury is telling us a few things, such as: there is power in knowledge; strength in awareness; community in communication. There is power in knowing some history — illustrated by the retrograde (past emphasis) in Capricorn (where we find information about the goings-on of the past, and about corporate entities). This is blended with the compelling lunar North Node (dharma, true calling, current life challenges), also in early Capricorn. This, in turn, picks up the Aries Point because it’s early in one of the cardinal signs, drawing in millions of people who are affected around the globe. Mars so closely in the mix adds passion, and we are certainly seeing some of that.

Seemingly unstoppable forces are being revealed for what they are, how they think and how they work, all with the force of Pluto that is digging into the soil of existence and turning it over — particularly in the sphere of government and corporations. Looking at this another way, we see that the personal is indeed political (Aries Point theme) as Assange, an elemental force on the global political stage, is being held prisoner in relation to subjects emanating from his most private life. I cover that subject closely in this blog comment.

Assange turned himself in to a London court Tuesday morning, was denied bail and is still in custody, pending a hearing on extradition to Sweden. He was wanted for questioning in connection with two relationships he had over the summer, and in an unusual move, a high-level Interpol warrant was issued last week.

Notably, he hasn’t been charged with a crime by any country; given that his role is political, it would be fair to call him a political prisoner. From what we can tell after analyzing many accounts of the charges, these were consensual incidents that were later recast as something else, with the two separate ‘victims’ acting in collusion with one another to ‘seek advice’ from the police. This is a maneuver in Sweden that allows someone to implicate a person without actually making a false complaint. One involves the allegation of a condom breaking or sex without a condom, in a country where in such a case the male partner can be charged with a crime. The details of these allegations are so wrought with issues — both personal and legal — as to be an embarrassment. While it seems that Assange was not a perfect gentleman, it also seems that the prosecutor is testing out some new ‘feminist’ legal theories. There is a discussion of this subject matter at this blog post on Planet Waves.

Assange will be represented by the renowned Australian/British human rights attorney Geoffrey Robertson, who will begin by helping him fight extradition to Sweden. Robertson, considered one of the brightest legal minds in the world, is said to be one of the few attorneys who is both a specialist in free speech cases in England and in extradition cases involving Scandinavian nations.

Even as it scrambles to recover from the damage caused by the leaked documents, the U.S. government has gone to war against WikiLeaks, though neither Assange nor his organization has been charged with any crimes associated with the release of the cables. WikiLeaks, under pressure from the U.S., has had its .org domain taken away, it’s been kicked off of its American servers under pressure from Sen. Joe Lieberman, and has lost access to cash flow through MasterCard, Visa and PayPal. The Swiss, who served as the central bank for the Nazis, for innumerable members of the Mafia and other notorious international outlaws, have closed Assange’s bank account there. That is remarkable in itself.

There were protests in London and Sydney on Thursday supporting Assange and WikiLeaks (plus massive demonstrations in London related to education budget cuts and increasing fees, wherein students reclaimed Parliament Square as a protest space for the first time in a generation).

About 1,000 websites around the world posted mirrors of WikiLeaks, making sure that the site is impenetrable against censorship. The collective Anonymous vowed revenge “against all enemies of Julian Assange” and its many hackers this week began in earnest, taking down the websites of MasterCard, Visa and the Swiss bank that froze WikiLeaks’ funds.

Speaking of hacking, a purported birth time for Assange has been found, or rather a few of them all close to 2:05 pm. The sources range from “a close family friend” to an informant in the bureau of records or hospital where Assange was born. The data, published by The Mountain Astrologer magazine, seems solid. The chart gives Scorpio rising and a 12th house Scorpio Moon (illustrating the ‘secret dossier’ and one who might find it) and places his powerful Chiron/Eris conjunction in the 6th house — he is a revolutionary who has aimed his arrow at the military itself. I cover this chart in my current podcast.

Meanwhile, the leaked cables are continuing to emerge, though the central issue — the content of the cables — has lost some steam in the mainstream press. The Guardian in the UK continues to be the leading voice, with the latest revelations involving the fiasco surrounding the Venezuelan oil business. And we are learning more about how the United States’ presumed closest Arab ally, the Saudis, are providing money for Iranian terrorists and promoting extremism in their children, while goading the United States to bomb Iran.

Speaking as one who has covered many scandals and has followed world events night and day for more than 20 years, here is how this feels. Time after time, we have seen world leaders, particularly Americans, act with impunity against nations and their people. Bucking the overwhelming majority of world opinion, Iraq was blamed for Sept. 11 and invaded and disastrous war was begun. By modest estimates, the war in Iraq has killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians (some estimates go 10 times that high; in either case it is tantamount to genocide). More than 5,000 American families have suffered the loss of a loved one in the military, and tens of thousands of vets are returning with severe brain trauma, only to find inadequate, underfunded or nonexistent support services.

Billions of dollars have been stolen from the federal treasury, from banks and from millions of people whose homes are being foreclosed. The world economy is faltering, and the wealthiest people, many of whom made their fortunes profiting from war, feel they are entitled to lavish tax breaks, with no plan to pay for them.

I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to fall, for someone or something to resist this onslaught — and for the first time, this feels like it. WikiLeaks has sparked not just an antiwar movement, but wide-scale exposure of the crimes of war — and this arrives not a moment too soon. What we are seeing is an actual consequence of the crimes that have been committed against the people and the Earth. I don’t suggest anyone look for a neat and clean ‘outcome’ to these events. Though you’re unlikely to see anyone say this on cable news, I believe that this moment of radical honesty has inaugurated a new era in world history. It’s the first real penetration of the seemingly insurmountable wall of deception that we know has characterized awareness for so long.

Mercury Retrograde in Capricorn

Let’s focus in on the astrology. To sum up, this Mercury retrograde is going to do for our personal lives what WikiLeaks is doing for the world. If the government and corporations keep secrets from us, we do a fine job of keeping secrets from ourselves, and creating family systems that are based on deceit and its inevitable power dramas. This retrograde phase can be a refreshing change of pace.

To recap: Friday morning, Mercury stationed retrograde in early Capricorn, in a close conjunction to Pluto, and quite close to Mars and the North Node. This counts as an Aries Point event because everything is in the early degrees of a cardinal sign, talking directly to the first degree of Aries — the one that emphasizes the connection between what is private and what is public, going in both directions. Private matters are having an influence on global events, and the changes of the world are having a direct influence on our individual lives. This often comes with the sensation of the world crashing into the living room, or being subjected to vast forces of which we have no control.

Planet Waves

Chart sample for the moment Mercury stationed retrograde, at 7:04:26 am EST. The chart, set for New York, features yet another appearance by the Pholus-Great Attractor alignment in Sagittarius (marked by the little pink flag). The Sun is approaching the Galactic Center (not shown in chart, but close to 27 Sagg), as is the asteroid Pallas (which represents political and legal affairs that are dominating the news). Four points are shown in Capricorn: Mars, the North Node, Pluto and Mercury. Mercury will now retrograde over each of the planets shown with the exception of Pholus, before stationing direct on Dec. 30.

Consider the combination of energies: the background energy field is Capricorn (corporations, government, family and the lingering influences of religion, such as guilt). This is connected to the world stage via the Aries Point. The North Node is right there, inching its way toward 00 Capricorn, with a total lunar eclipse about to fully energize both nodes. The North Node pulls us into unfamiliar territory and has a feeling of confronting the unknown. The South Node, where the eclipse happens, grants a release point from the past and a break in continuty. Mars, meanwhile, has just arrived in Capricorn, it’s about to make a conjunction to Pluto, and Mercury is about to retrograde over the whole arrangement.

Setting aside all the mythology connected to Mercury retrograde, such as lost keys and electronic gadgets acting strangely, let’s remember that Mercury is a planet associated with messages, communication and the mind. It is a personal planet (close to the Sun), so it speaks directly to/from us; and its influence is now being combined with a variety of forces — from the very personal energy of Mars (desire, will, anger, aggression) to that of Pluto (soul energy, evolution, world karma) and the North Node (which can also be described as dharma — or acting as if to hold the world together).

Mercury is giving a voice to this diversity of themes, and it may be confusing and personally overwhelming as all this new information pours in.

That is to say, inner material is arising rapidly. With Mercury, Mars and Pluto involved, you can be sure that some of this subject matter is sexual. Indeed, you may find yourself wanting to admit to yourself or state out loud what you have never before been willing to reveal. Using the life of Julian Assange as an example, we have a window into how unresolved material in one’s personal life can create a disproportionately large effect in a public life — and we all have a public life. The message of this Mercury retrograde is: clean closets.

You may finally be willing to make inquiries on subjects you’ve avoided for decades. This may involve family secrets (a domain of Capricorn) that you’ve wondered about or dragged around for years. And, what you learn will have the power to change your life, or said another way, you can take this as power to make changes. Looking at this in the most intimately personal way, the overriding theme is the paradox of guilt and desire. Where sex is concerned, many feel ‘damned either way’, or live in some form of a no-win, double bind or paradox.

We are now heading into an eclipse of the Moon on Dec. 21 that stretches from the last degree of Gemini to the last degree of Sagittarius. It’s a total lunar eclipse that happens right on the solstice, which multiplies (rather than adds together) the effects of the Aries Point, the eclipse and all the high-voltage planets loaded there.

About two weeks ago, just prior to the WikiLeaks revelations, I commented on a New Moon in the last degrees of Taurus/Scorpio: “This sequence of events has the feeling of something coming out of the background. It’s as if the Moon-Sun opposition happens in the wings off to the side of the stage, just out of sight — then suddenly it becomes obvious what’s going on.”

Well, what happens next may not be entirely obvious to everyone — but what we are witnessing and experiencing are the birth contractions of personal and global change that are the defining theme of what we call 2012. Part of that change is the raising of awareness about what we have so blithely denied about the world, about ourselves and about the place where the two meet.

Yours & truly,

*This is covered in my earlier series Born in the Sixties, as well as by Richard Tarnas in his article Epochs of Revolution, posted in Cosmic Confidential.

PS: For homeopaths in the audience, if this is a homeopathic moment, what remedy is described? I have a guess. Write to me with yours (dreams@planetwaves.net) and I’ll reply.

Judith Gayle’s Political Waves will now appear Saturdays on Daily Astrology & Adventure — the Planet Waves blog. She also has her own blog, called Political Waves.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, December 10, 2010, #843 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Aries Confidential

I suggest you call it a year on working toward any sort of professional advances or job searching, and shift the focus of your energy inward. The light is shining in your inner world and it’s rather complicated in the angles of your chart where you have to relate to society in a responsible way — so complex as to be counterproductive. Therefore with Mercury retrograde in that sector of your chart, devote your energy to closing up the business of the year and tying up any loose ends. Your inward focus will be far more productive toward anything you’re striving for than what amounts to pointless busy work. Yes, check your email and your voicemail and respond selectively to what is important. Yet the juicy fruit is in your stoking your imagination, creating your vision and nourishing your dreams. If you’re getting sick of hearing about the recession, unplug the television and turn on the Beatles.

Aries Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Taurus Confidential

Now is the time to start a fire and burn any beliefs that you don’t want as a joyful year-end, decade-end sacrifice. By now you know what most of those beliefs are. You also know that most of the time, it seems difficult to change what seem like your fundamental ideas. It won’t be difficult now, on many accounts; what is usually hidden from view is now out in the open, for one thing. For another, you’ve seen the negative effects of believing what is not true or what doesn’t really apply to you. One problem with getting rid of old beliefs is that it really helps to have something to replace them with. Usually the new beliefs displace the old ones, though at the moment your mind is a dynamo of invention — that’s all the restless energy. In case you need guidance, here is how I would sum it up. Replace guilt with the absolute freedom to feel. Replace expectation with what you want to offer the world or those you love. Replace the concept of “God” with the reality of Self.

Taurus Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Gemini Confidential

Keep it simple, and beware what you commit to. The usual advice of Mercury retrograde is “don’t sign, don’t buy.” With Mercury retrograde in your 8th solar house (contracts, investments, taxes) then, it would be prudent to back off from all such business until it stations direct, or preferably, after the solar eclipse in early January. You will know more then than you do now. You will know more about the people you are dealing with — which brings me to the ways that the current series of aspects may be reflected in your personal relationships. The theme translates to commitment in that zone where sexual relationships overlap with financial ones. That usually translates to marriage-like relationships. You will need to be an excellent listener through this phase, so that you really have a grasp where the people close to you are coming from. It may not be easy to avoid taking things personally, but a little detachment will go a long way.

Gemini Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Cancer Confidential

There are times when fast communication works, and times to let discussions go on for weeks. Now would be an excellent moment for the latter approach. I suggest you make no attempt to finalize arrangements, opinions or intentions; rather, observe and deduce. Mercury retrograde is an interesting phase for people with Cancer or Cancer rising because it engages you with so much of what you’ve tucked away in the hidden corners of your mind (that’s the natural relationship between Cancer and Mercury). As you discuss anything with another person, you’re getting a window into either what you believe, or what you don’t want to believe. As the conversation evolves, move slowly, as if you’re moving underwater. Remember that you’re relating to some of your deepest material. Be gentle with everyone and you will learn a lot — and open the door to a hidden dimension of pleasure.

Cancer Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Leo Confidential

Put a little extra emphasis on your health. That includes getting enough movement to stay flexible, and making sure you don’t over-exert yourself, say, shoveling snow if you live in Buffalo and you don’t exercise regularly. Get enough rest. Make sure that the floor stays dry and that you not only drive with caution, but also get in and out of the car with caution. As for your mind, the thing that runs the body: any stress management, or reduction, techniques you can put to work these days would be a good idea to warm up now. Remember, you can only do so much work, and only so much work is necessary. There is a long list of things that can wait till after January 2nd, and I suggest you keep that list current. Focus on what needs attention now, and when you’re not focused on something, let your unconscious work on it quietly in the background.

Leo Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Virgo Confidential

Sexual adventures have a way of becoming something else. We know this, whether they morph into friendships, enemy-ships, love affairs, entanglements, scandals or actual loving relationships. But the thing to remember is that they tend to transform, and there is an old expression that ‘sex changes everything’. It transforms us. All of that said, I suggest you focus on observing and participating consciously in that process of transformation. Part of that is going to involve monitoring your language. Are you speaking the language of peace or of power? Are you hearing words that invite or repel? In an odd way, your reality will follow the words you choose. I suggest you choose carefully, and listen just as thoughtfully. Ultimately this is the test: are your experiences creative? If so, that is where you want to be. If not, then gradually guide yourself to a new place, remembering as Adrienne Rich suggested: words are images; words are maps.

Virgo Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Libra Confidential

Whatever may be going on with you now, look for the emotional roots of the matter. Everything physical, spiritual or mental will — for now — come back to an emotional state that is influencing the rest of your reality. Your feelings will likely be grounded in your domestic situation, which may in turn be magnified by any encounter with your family of origin that is imminent as the holidays draw near. How does this translate, in practical terms? I suggest you spend plenty of time alone, getting a sense of your interior weather. Adjust your commitments according to how you actually feel rather than how you think you should feel. Take extra measures to take care of yourself, and follow the healer’s guide, ‘take care of yourself before you take care of anyone else’. This goes against the conditioning of our culture, especially for many women. If there is a ‘lesson’ in what you’re experiencing, this may be it.

Libra Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Scorpio Confidential

Beware of head-trips — the kind you inflict on yourself, and the kind that others inflict on you. In fact I suggest you do your best to avoid all conversations of ‘issues’ with anyone you think has issues. If it sounds like I’m saying make nice and keep things superficial, you’re correct, and it’s probably the first time you’ve ever heard me say anything to that tune. Yet with the energy you save, I suggest you carefully investigate the inner ties that are binding you to your situation. This is likely to be a matter of your mental outlook, though that has many constituents, which include believing things that were perhaps true at one time but are not true today. Or, they were true for someone else but are not true for you. Be aware that you may be feeling particularly sensitive to what others are feeling, which could qualify as empathy or which could coax you into codependency. You’re your own person — live that way.

The Scorpio Audio Report is now done. This reading includes more than an hour of astrology and 20 minutes of tarot custom created for those with Scorpio Sun, Moon or rising. Priced at $14.95, it makes a useful and economical gift. Use this link for instant access.

Sagittarius Confidential

Make some fast decisions to slow down your outward flow of cash, and quickly return to more creative matters. Your chart is full of mixed signals at the moment, and if you listen to them, you’ll get in the way of your ability to manifest the abundance you know is on its way. Therefore, I am suggesting you focus on something else, on something that feels good and creative and that leaves you with a sense of belonging and participation. While you’re doing this, a deep level of instincts will take care of your survival, instincts that are likely to be confused when you translate them into concepts. Mozart is said to have asked his wife to read to him while he composed music, so as to distract the ‘word’ part of his brain and leave the rest of it free to create music. In a similar way I suggest you distract yourself from facts and figures, and spend your time in the abundantly lush territory of your creative life.

Sagittarius audio coming soon!

Capricorn Confidential

By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a really interesting alignment in your chart right now. Capricorn plays by different rules, though this still may be playing a tad of havoc with your head. Yet somehow you’re in your element. You don’t need to work harder or think deeper — you’re looking for the key idea that’s going to unlock a puzzle and set your energy free. The way this is likely to work is in layers, and each layer will have its access point. Unlike most humans do these days, I suggest you remember the phases of this journey, because as you collect these revelations, they will add up to more than the sum of the parts; or said another way, you add up to more than the sum of your talents, your ideas and your good deeds. A lot more. Happy discovering that fact.

Capricorn Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Aquarius Confidential

As you know, you’re not the cool, logical person that the world perceives you to be, and that you love to be when you can. Particularly lately, you’re an intricate, complex and inwardly focused critter, always preparing to leap off the next psychic cliff. What is really interesting, and exciting, is that you’re losing your intimidation about exploring your own labyrinth. You’re fully aware that there is a vast dimension to you that has no adherence to logic, no loyalty to being rational, no need to make sense all the time. What you would benefit from is clarifying your relationship to the past. It still seems more solid to you than it really is. I suggest you consider the idea that the past is an interpretation. And as you look at it differently, that interpretation will change — and as you see the past in an original way, you will create an interpretation that favors you.

Aquarius Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Pisces Confidential

Focus on who you are — not who others think you are, or who you think others think you are. That is entirely their business. It would, of course, be a triumph in the life of a fish to not take personally what others seem to think of you personally, but it’s a huge distraction, and besides, you would be surprised how little many others think of anyone besides themselves. I say this because you’re visible at the moment — it’s that time of year. If what you do in life is designed to reach out, trust that you’re doing just that. Yet remind yourself that you’re not really reaching — you’re emanating a vibration. I suggest you focus your awareness on tuning that vibe like a guitar. Harmonize with your desire, and very quietly be who you are and nobody else. That is your point of influence and indeed of power.

Pisces Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

The Most Wanted Man in the World

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Dear Planet Waves Reader:

When I was teaching English 101 at SUNY New Paltz, I assigned my classes a book called Reading the News. In its clear-headed approach to understanding how journalism works, its first chapter was titled, “Who Makes the News.” That’s a statement, not a question: who makes the news — before what, where, when and why. We want to know about people. We want to know what they do, and we crave a window into their psyches, perhaps in search of ourselves.

Julian Assange, the most wanted man in the world. He evokes the archetype of the hero-outlaw, or a character from a graphic novel — but he’s a real person, doing real work. Photo: Agence France-Presse.

Currently, that ‘who’ would be a man named Julian Assange. In 2007, the native of Australia created an organization called WikiLeaks, an online clearinghouse for people who want to reveal injustice. Whistleblowers can upload classified or confidential documents into the WikiLeaks system from anywhere. WikiLeaks authenticates the documents, then working with news organizations, selectively makes them public. You may recall reading about WikiLeaks in this space a few months ago, when the organization published the Afghan War Diary, a collection of internal memos and field reports from the U.S. military’s database [see Clearing the Smog of War].

At the time, I described this as a manifestation of Chiron conjunct Neptune in Aquarius — a moment of clarity and revelation for a country that has been huffing the shoe polish of denial for many decades, particularly when it comes to the conduct of the military. That conjunction, which gradually started gathering steam in 2005, is now working at full strength, and it seems to be getting results.

Assange is back in the news, along with dozens of stories the media has been ignoring forever and seven Sundays. WikiLeaks this week made public 250,000 pages of memos from the United States diplomatic community. The latest revelation is that the United States is propping up a government in Afghanistan where most of the money goes to graft. To date, we have spent $371 billion in Afghanistan only to learn that Hamid Karzai, the president, is personally facilitating the drug trade. “Mr. Karzai pardoned five border police officers caught with 124 kilograms (about 273 pounds) of heroin and intervened in a drug case involving the son of a wealthy supporter,” one cable revealed, according to Friday’s New York Times. U.S. diplomats said they believe that every cabinet minister except the minister of agriculture is involved in graft and bribery. The war has now been going on for nine years and two months. We’re reading about this today?

Earlier in the week we learned from the leaked cables that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered her diplomatic corps to serve as a spy ring on the United Nations (including the secretary general) and foreign diplomats, telling them to collect everything from credit card numbers to computer passwords to DNA samples from saliva left on teacups.

“She [Clinton] should resign, if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up,” Assange said to Time magazine this week.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reads up on Iraq. As a senator, she gave an impassioned speech supporting the invasion.

The cables also reveal that the Obama administration worked to protect Cheney-Bush administration officials from their conduct interrogating detained terrorist suspects. One cable details how “the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution,” AlterNet reported Thursday. And on his program Thursday night, Dylan Ratigan discussed cables involving Saudi Arabia that reveal how the country both funds terrorism based in Iran, and was or is trying to manipulate the United States government to bomb Iran at the same time.

How does a computer hacker get himself into the position of being able to call for the secretary of state to resign — and all the major media are writing about it? How is he getting his way with those who so recently believed they had total power, secrecy and impunity? Well, with courage, conscience and talent. And timing; all year I’ve been writing about the high-impact astrology (such as the Aries Point alignment of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto) that looked, long in advance, like it would rearrange world politics. Plus we are currently under a potent alignment in Sagittarius (the sign of international relationships) focused specifically on that theme [see And What Are We Attracting?]. This alignment peaks Sunday with the Sagittarius New Moon [related article below].

It’s a plain fact that the United States has gotten away with murder for decades, manipulating governments around the world, staging coups, starting wars and lying about all of it. Now one man comes along and opens up a floodgate of evidence of what has happened, and what is happening, and he cannot be ignored. So far as I know, Assange is the first person in two generations to openly take an actual stand against the United States in actions rather than words. Nothing against Code Pink protesting the war outside George W. Bush’s ranch, but Assange is personally rearranging the chess board with nonviolent direct action.

Who makes the news. Because we have a name and a face, the mainstream media propaganda machine has to actually report on many of the international issues it loves to pretend does not exist. Anything Assange does is news — and then they mention that he happens to have proof of conspiracies and war crimes. And the more public officials such as Clinton point to Assange as the problem, the more it begs the question what his documents say.

Top-Secret Chart Reveals a Real-Life Revolutionary

Assange till now had been concealing his birthdate, and thus any information about his chart. In my last article, I used the data for WikiLeaks itself, which is available through the website’s registration information. We now have Assange’s personal data because INTERPOL posted his birthday earlier this week, listing him as one of its most wanted international criminals.

Julian Assange has until now concealed his birthdate. This chart is based on the data published Monday night by INTERPOL. The blue planet on the left — shaped like an H — is Uranus, which is square the Sun — the yellow circle planet at the very top of the chart. Two features in this chart that I haven’t mentioned in the article are a complex square between Venus and Ceres (in Gemini) and Pluto in Virgo. Another interesting feature is that he has an exact conjunction between Mercury and the asteroid Psyche in the sign Cancer. This suggests that while he obviously has a powerful intellect, he does as much feeling with his mind as he does thinking; and that his thought process is guided by what may to him feel like a flaw or sense of weakness. That sensation draws in the soul quality of Psyche.

Is he being hunted for espionage, cyber-terrorism or revealing state secrets? No, they say he’s wanted for rape, in Sweden, and European authorities have launched a sweeping manhunt across the continent and into the UK to find him. In case you’re wondering whether he actually committed sex crimes, when was the last time you heard of an international dragnet for an alleged rapist? Notably, Sweden’s laws don’t require physical evidence of rape, only testimony. The case actually seems to involve whether condoms were used during consensual sex with two different women he met at a political conference. Note, he has not been charged with any crime, and a new warrant had to be issued Thursday because the old one was defective.

Since Assange had succeeded at keeping even his birthdate secret, this is something of an astrological coup, apparently first published Monday night to the astrological community by Lynn Hayes. Our chart for Assange is set for noon, because we don’t know the birth time. However, it’s a noon chart that goes straight to the point.

The first thing that catapults out of this chart is Sun square Uranus. Uranus disrupts, transforms, up-ends and blazes forward. This combination (through the influence of Uranus) brings in the revolutionary, rebellious and moreover inventive principle, expressed at full strength by the Sun. This aspect is in the DNA of Uranus — the Sun was square Uranus on the day that the planet was discovered. Many inventors and scientists have this or a similar aspect, and it contains Assange’s gift for technology. When you think of the Sun square Uranus, remember Nathan Hale: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Sun-Uranus is the full embodiment of the forward-thinking Uranian principle, which is associated with Prometheus; that’s the guy who ‘stole the fire of the gods’ — a fitting image of what Assange is doing.

These are the planets and points conjunct, square or opposite Assange’s Sun in Cancer. Isis is closely conjunct Uranus; this is a gift for assembling many small parts. Minerva is opposite Chiron/Eris, which brings in the theme of politics and serves like a guardian angel. Persephone opposite the Sun is a nice image of his affinity for the underworld, and Borasisi says, ‘Something is true if we believe it’s true’. It’s how belief activates perception. Sauer, an asteroid, is named for a river in central Europe; I’ve never used it in a chart, but it’s exactly conjunct his Sun.

(Others with this aspect include Joseph Campbell, Bono, Galileo, Bill Gates, Marconi, and those visionary birds of a feather, Barbara and George Bush.)

Casting his chart for noon, Uranus is exactly rising, as if to emphasize the point, giving the aspect emphasis and an extra means of expression. Notably, this square is hanging out at about 10 degrees of the cardinal signs — close enough to the Aries Point to count, and currently aspected by the approach of transiting Pluto. (Pluto is opposing Assange’s Sun, and square his Uranus.) And it’s in line with the Uranus-Pluto square of 2012, an aspect that will last for years and is gradually turning the revolutionary power of Uranus and the evolutionary mojo of Pluto loose on the world. This will come with Assange’s Uranian opposition — which represents attaining a new intellectual peak. Let’s say he’s just getting warmed up.

So, his chart is right in line with whatever 2012 is about — and make no mistake, what he’s doing is part of the story. When we think of the kinds of social progress we might associate with 2012, and the ‘paradigm shift’ and ‘people waking up’, how exactly might that look? Part of what is keeping the world situation so intractable, and so resistant to change, is that so few people know the deeper truth about many of the things that affect them, or even have access to it.

Many who do insist on denial as a means of persisting in their ways. This is an opening. It’s like the press is playing catch-up on what we missed during decades of fixation on Madonna, Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton. When the truth is revealed, there’s a release of energy — and the effect is unpredictable. But when we wonder just how it is that one would begin to dismantle the out-of-control military and espionage machine referred to in cables as USG, it could easily begin with an event like this, that pierces the deception that it is 100% necessary to maintain a condition of nonstop war.

Eruption of Self-Awareness: Chiron and Eris

In a similar vein, we see an exact conjunction of Chiron and Eris, two relatively new planets. Chiron (the maverick, healer, bringer of awareness) was discovered in 1977 and Eris (associated with identity crisis, disruptions and the castaway feminine aspect of both men and women) was anointed in 2006 (revamping the system of planetary categorization in the process — including the ‘demotion’ of Pluto). Chiron and Eris were conjunct through the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the conjunction is exact to the degree in Assange’s chart. In past articles I’ve associated this aspect with the revolutionary nature of the ‘second wave’ feminist movement that was thriving at the time.

Seventies-styled feminism may look kitsch today, and in many ways it sent a mixed signal. But it also brought a breakthrough in awareness and social progress, messy and incomplete though it was.

Chiron and Eris together in Aries (the sign of self and initiative) sparks an evolutionary impulse for self-actualization. It is about healing the fragmented sense of self that afflicts so many. There were many innovative therapy movements thriving at the time, which are all but forgotten today — gestalt, transactional analysis, primal, EST and others. The ’70s were said to be the ‘me generation’, and though this had many selfish and destructive results, there was overall a breakthrough in self-awareness and consciousness. The anti-Vietnam movement was thriving and Nixon was about to be busted for Watergate. Be Here Now was published, along with Rules for Radicals and The Anarchist Cookbook.

For those curious about the degree symbol of the conjunction, the degree is 14 Aries, and the image is, “A serpent coiling near a man and a woman.” Dane Rudhyar explains: “Identification in bipolar relationship with the impersonal rhythm of natural energy,” or in a short phrase, “ritualization of relationship.” Assange likens what he does to playing chess — a ritualized game with very few rules.

In his chart, the Sun, Chiron, Uranus and Eris are all in aspect — they are all working together, though the tension is rather incredible. It’s nothing less than you would expect in the chart of someone who would dare to take on such a massive issue, and succeed at getting noticed.

Saturn Opposite Neptune: The Shapeshifter

Assange also has Saturn opposite Neptune. Saturn contains and solidifies; Neptune dissolves. This is an illustration of tension, but it’s subtle, and it’s a picture of his quality of invisibility and ubiquitous presence. This aspect is one of his power sources as a hacker and his best camouflage as kind of hero-outlaw.

Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat. He has Saturn opposite Neptune in his natal chart, and is a kind of shapeshifter.

Assange started his career as a prodigy teenage hacker. He was arrested, but the prosecutor in the case said, “There is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to — what’s the expression — surf through these various computers.” The charges were dropped. His hacker name was ‘Mendax’, derived from a phrase of Horace: splendide mendax, or ‘nobly untruthful’ — a fine description of Saturn-Neptune in one of its more evolved manifestations.

Let’s consider how this works. Saturn and Neptune mirror one another in his chart. Looked at one way, Assange plays the role of Neptune the dissolver, and the power structure plays the role of Saturn, whose barriers are being melted away. Or as Tracy Delaney suggested while we were brainstorming this aspect Thursday, Saturn (in Gemini) is like a cold wind blowing on the cloud of Neptune, freezing and crystallizing the pattern of deception, so we can see what it is.

Saturn-Neptune is an illustration of his shape-shifting power — Sasha Baron Cohen, the actor who created the Borat character and Ali G, has this one as well. His mind has penetrating power: he’s a mindf*cker, and we love him for it. Just as Cohen’s characters penetrate the minds of the people he’s pranking, Assange soaks through the previously impermeable walls of power. Both work with a combination of discipline and illusion. Both, in Tracy’s words, “have a kind of congenital inability to be intimidated. No point throwing rocks at a cloud.”

Notably, Assange has a centaur planet conjunct Saturn — it’s called Amycus. In some earlier research, Tracy and I deduced that this planet is prominent in people who have a knack for getting the word out — including the Yes Men.

Logos and Atlantis: The Word Abused, and Revealed

Let’s check in with one last telling detail — an aspect between two minor planets. The first is Atlantis (an asteroid discovered in 1931). Atlantis is associated with the abuse of technology and its power, and the sense of ‘imminent demise’ of civilization due to the unbridled use of that power. Then there’s Logos (a small planet right beyond Neptune’s orbit, discovered in 1997). Logos is actually a binary, with a co-planet of comparable size, called Zoe. (Technically the pair is now referred to as Logos | Zoe.) Research by Kirsti Melto indicates that Logos | Zoe is prominent in the charts of breakthroughs in computers and programming. Zoe means ‘life’. I think of Logos as the framework of technology (it means ‘the word’) and Zoe as being the spiritual content, when present — the life inside the machine.

In Julian’s chart these two are in a perfect square aspect. This is happening late in the cardinal signs, from Atlantis in Libra to Logos | Zoe in Cancer. He takes this personally; technology for Assange is a relationship, and he is personally embodying the ethical struggle suggested by Atlantis. We have all long suspected that our addiction to, and abuse of, technology has the power to take down our civilization.

Assange is aware of this, and he is a kind of personal intervention in the process of a society that is committing suicide. And I do mean personal. With that Scorpio Moon and Cancer Sun, he feels what he is doing. He is acting on a combination of instinct, intuition and intellect — but make no mistake, he is not detached from his work. This is personal; it’s a matter of heart and soul, and he is aware the influence that he can have by using technology to reveal the truth.

“To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly, for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not,” he once posted to his blog, explaining the WikiLeaks philosophy.

The regimes’ resistance to change is their worst weakness. They become utterly brittle, and creative activity ceases. That makes them vulnerable — as we can plainly see.

Yours & truly,

Additional research: Tracy Delaney, Amanda Painter, Carol van Strum.

And for our next act…the Sagittarius New Moon

When you look at a conventional astrology chart, you’re only seeing a small part of the picture. This is little comfort to those who stare at the page (of a normal chart) wondering what the holy heck it all means — and if you’re trying to learn, give it time and pay attention to your experience of existence. Let’s have a go at the Sagittarius New Moon.

Sagittarius New Moon set for Washington, DC. Appropriately, Pallas — the planet of politics — is the highest point in the chart.

Here is a conventional chart, okay, a little more than conventional — it has a few extra points. It’s set for Washington, DC, since that is where the action seems to be these days. And I do mean action — with the WikiLeaks revelations erupting on five different fronts, 42 members of the Senate (I won’t name their political party affiliation) signed a letter saying they won’t let anything happen till we charge the national credit card and give $700 billion more to the wealthiest Americans while the government supports a heroin trader in Afghanistan to the tune of a million dollars per soldier, per year. A new banking crisis is looming — that would be Subprime Part Two. And though nobody has mentioned it this week, despite the chilly weather in most of North America, the ice caps are still melting.

The Sagittarius New Moon is conjunct Pholus, a centaur (a little Chiron-like planet) that opens the jar and lets stuff out that’s not coming back in. My favorite key phrase is “small cause, big effect,” which I learned from my old friend and teacher in Munich, astrologer and classical guitarist Robert von Heeren. The Sun-Moon-Pholus conjunction is sitting on the Great Attractor, the biggest thing known in the universe. So it’s fitting that, this very week, every issue that has been suppressed for a decade is coming out all at once.

Meanwhile, Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius, is conjunct Uranus — that’s big news all by itself; and Chiron and Neptune are in a near-perfect conjunction in Aquarius. All of this amplifies and features into the dynamic of this rather potent and unpredictable New Moon.

Yet there is much more going on behind the scenes. I present this information at a slight risk of overwhelm, but I want to show you what it’s possible to see and work with. I’ll give a couple of examples and leave you to your weekly horoscope. This little table tells us what, from about 100 points that Tracy Delaney (the programmer) and I have tossed into the box, shows up in mid-Sagittarius. Amycus speaks of getting the word out. Icarus is about peak experiences.

Points in mid-Sagittarius, at the Sagittarius New Moon.

Sun and Moon are precisely, to the degree, conjunct one of the earlier centaurs — Hylonome. This is about the cry of the poor (key phrase from Juan Revilla) and it addresses collective grief and ‘senseless’ loss. Note, of the points I routinely use, this is the only one occupying the degree of the New Moon, and it’s a potent one. Hylonome made a stunning appearance conjunct the Scorpio New Moon precisely during the funeral of Yasser Arafat in late 2004 — a jaw-dropping astrological synchronicity.

Switching methods for a moment, the degree symbol (also called Sabian Symbol) for 14 Sagittarius (anything numbered higher than 13 is occupying the 14th degree) is: The Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. Dane Rudhyar interprets this as, “The enduring power of occult knowledge and of its quasi-divine Custodians, ‘seed men’ of a previous cycle of existence.” Well doesn’t that just illustrate WikiLeaks and its editor magnificently.

We see that Pholus is exactly conjunct the Great Attractor. This is a long and slow aspect and it’s precise right now; what comes out now is not going back, and it’s going to get bigger. Good Morning America — the truth is out.

This is conjunct Narcissus, who sees his own reflection in the pond. You could say he ‘falls in love’ or you could say that this is about self-awareness; and it’s about the effect of narcissism on the global political process. Close by is Ixion (anyone is capable of anything; amorality; what we do with our second chance) — we’re seeing plenty of that. Next is a really interesting pair of very different points: the first is Cupido (a hypothetical; it doesn’t exist, but it’s there to work with) which Martha Wescott delineates as: “issues in the family history; group unity or dynamics” followed by Quaoar, an actual planet beyond Pluto that says exactly the same thing. Quaoar adds the theme of our creation myth. Who are we and how did we get here? That is the mystery of The Pyramid and the Sphinx.

This New Moon is about the family of humanity. Welcome to it. The rest of the minor planets are listed here, at Serennu.com.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, December 3, 2010, #842 – BY ERIC FRANCIS

Aries Confidential

You have seen the power of negotiation, and you’ve seen what happens when you disregard certain communication protocols. Yet your quest is to be a sincere person, and you may be reviled by the notion that you have to be two-faced as a means of social lubrication. Circumstances of your life, particularly of your professional life, are calling on you to be direct and to take authority. I would suggest the following: be direct with yourself first. If you know the lay of the land, and have a sense of who is playing what game, you will feel less defensive; that means you’ll be more receptive to information. Second, you don’t actually have to say much. One technique is to ask people what they know rather than telling them what you know. You will learn something along the way, people you’re working with will have the sense that you’re listening, and then you will be in a better position to have your knowledge be your point of authority. So gather your information, assemble the pieces and make sure you use your power judiciously.

Aries Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Taurus Confidential

Be aware of a tendency to think that your faith rules the world. It may rule your world, and that would be enough, though I suggest you back away from any possibility of being an evangelist. Faith teaches in silence, through actions and through the passage of time. Your mere awareness of something is an influence. The thoughts you think have potency beyond what you have ever imagined. This is particularly true for how they influence your own state of mind, emotions and sense of the future. Obsession is not certainty, though you may be riveted on a particular subject that you cannot let go of. That represents energy, and it may represent ideas, and an appropriate and useful response is to focus your mind in a creative and constructive way. Remember that you cannot control the future, but you can certainly influence it. One gift of the present moment is that you have enough experience to not make the same mistakes again, particularly in a relationship.

Taurus Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Gemini Confidential

You may feel like you’re in over your head with a situation that, at the moment, seems to have total power over your life. It may be a sexual obsession, it may be a fear that you have no choice but to encounter, or it may be coming to the realization that someone has tremendous influence over you. I suggest you think of the situation in terms of an agreement or a contract. This will be a way of processing your emotions through a rational filter. What have you actually agreed to? What has someone else committed to? And how does the current situation reflect these facts? You may determine that the facts and your emotional state have no apparent relationship; that your intensity is not grounded in reality. No matter how powerful someone may seem, or a situation may appear to be, the person you need to negotiate your freedom with is yourself.

Gemini Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Cancer Confidential

You have boundless energy at your disposal, and it’s yours to direct toward healing, productivity or pleasure. The three have more in common than you may realize; anything that nourishes one of these concepts in truth feeds all three. We’re trained to think that anything meaningful has to be done in a big way; that at any moment of decision, you must ‘figure out what to do with the rest of your life’. What you do these weeks may indeed influence the rest of your life, and it may resolve something you’ve carried around for a long time. Yet the way that will happen is a supreme focus on the present moment. What you want is a state of wellbeing now, rather than something deferred to the future. That is nothing more or less than being present in your experience. It’s about recognizing that your whole life has led to this moment, and that this moment is the portal to your future. Stand in that doorway and feel the energy move through you and around you.

Cancer Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Leo Confidential

This weekend’s New Moon in your fellow fire sign Sagittarius is designed to open up your sense of what is possible, if you apply your creativity. I suggest you let your curiosity lead the way to direct experience, rather than theory. You do not need to exert much in the way of effort, or think of this as requiring anything special; curiosity is powerful and it’s inherently creative. Remember that all creative energy is connected to sexual energy. I recognize that not everyone ‘agrees’ with this, but for evidence I would merely point to existence itself. A little of this energy can go a long way; the small choices you make now have an extra potent ability to help you create your life, experimenting and experiencing and feeling your way through existence. I suggest you keep in mind what it is you want to create; hold a vision for yourself and the life that you want.

Leo Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Virgo Confidential

Subtle adjustments you make to your emotional patterning may result in significant progress toward healing. We typically want to ‘fix everything’ about ourselves, without recognizing that patterns develop and evolve over time; the most meaningful part of the process is initiating them and gradually maintaining them into existence. This is particularly meaningful where improving your health and wellbeing are concerned. For you that comes down to courting an inner sense of safety. I recognize that we are under the constant influence to not feel safe. We are given reasons to feel threatened nearly all the time. It would help if you removed those external influences, so that this way you can tune into the ones in your mind: those messages are the ones you need to respond to specifically by wanting something else, something better; a safe place within your own thoughts.

Virgo Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Libra Confidential

Consider yourself on the verge of a decision, which involves whether you will embrace yourself fully; whether you will give (to yourself) or withhold (from yourself) the love that you seek. This is the question that lurks inside the drama of what we call love. Here, the phrasing is clear and the choice is simple: and it depends on no other person. I recognize this presents a kind of metaphysical problem. If ‘how we feel about ourselves creates our experience of relationships’, does that mean we control them? Obviously not: there are other options. When we resonate with ourselves in a way that is true or loving, we create a resonance field, and we draw or repel appropriate people. The message of the current charts is simple — how you feel about yourself is the most significant metric of how you will experience existence. And you have reason to feel good; you’ve been practicing.

Libra Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Scorpio Confidential

Gender and sex (as in the many forms of interplay of male and female, inner and outer) are fascinating, beautiful things to explore and play with, don’t you agree? There are so many shades and hues of attraction, empathy and simpatico; so many gradations of distaste and repulsion. With Venus now back in your sign after the recent retrograde phase, you have a strong emotional magnet pulling you inward toward a mysterious other within yourself. The world is rampant with drama of ‘the other’ being an external. It has an all-consuming quality, at the same time there are a diversity of taboos on taking that whole discussion to an inner plane. There is a force of nature that exists within yourself, and it has some quality of being your polar opposite; in truth it is what you seek in others, that has so often been the source of so much drama — and that aspect of you is now making itself known.

Sagittarius Confidential

It’s time to have full confidence in your talent. There comes a time when, after years of development, you take the leap into the truth of that notion. You know that what you create is fully worthy of existence in the universe. You are witness to its independent life beyond you, and I believe that deep down you are confident that it will support you economically. I would emphasize that these are recognitions now available on the emotional rather than the intellectual level — things that work better when you feel them. It is one thing to know them in your mind; it’s another to feel the truth in your body, something akin to balancing on a bicycle. Remember, on a bicycle you can go nearly anywhere, but not everywhere at once.

Sagittarius audio coming soon!

Capricorn Confidential

So much of what you want seems to depend on others — and so much of your experience the past year or two has been about learning how to depend on yourself. You might think of what you’re learning as a form of autonomy. That is true, to a point; for as long as we need someone to change the oil on our car, we’re not really autonomous. But what you are acquiring is sufficient independence to explore interdependence. That is different than codependency, which is an unhealthy overreliance on the other. The associations you’re cultivating at this time will form the basis of community based on actual mutual interests and common ground. There is the potential for creating something far greater than the sum of the parts; human alchemy of the first order, for which you are a catalyst.

Capricorn Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Aquarius Confidential

You have plenty to celebrate. It’s true that you also have your moments of fear and doubt, and I can empathize if you feel that your shadow runs a little deeper and darker than some others you know. That means your light will shine equally bright and moreover, that you are moving steadily along the path to fully integrating the many facets of who you are. But setting your spiritual psychology aside, I can tell you this. You are in a remarkable moment for making your existence known, and for influencing your community (and that may include community of interest, circle of friends or something similar). Though I’m not sure what you do with your life, I can offer you this — you are onto something significant, and some idea that has the power to shape your world, if not the world. Speak clearly rather than loudly. Don’t worry about the ‘ultimate effect’ of what you put out. Simply trust.

Aquarius Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.

Pisces Confidential

This is a moment filled with great potential for you, in the aspect of life that some call ‘career’. I prefer to use other concepts — such as expressing your life purpose, making your way in the world, and shining in your chosen field. But let’s keep cause and effect in the right order; that’s the mission of any true seeker. It is who you are that is doing the expressing, making your way or shining your light. There is no ‘thing’ you are after, and you are existing and growing rather than careering. Existence as you are experiencing it now is a process of original invention. You are becoming something new every day and indeed moment. This is unnerving for some, who need a reference point to the past in order to feel secure. You have no need for such a pretense; this moment is offering you everything — but it’s an intense, potent and moreover rare moment. Be mindful. Be present. Be real, and gently so.

Pisces Birthday Audio by Eric Francis is available. Check this link for more information.