The Year that Was

Dear Friend and Reader:

It’s time to sign off from 2017, a memorable year if ever there was one.

Let’s see, the women’s march on Washington was in January; there were the hurricanes, after which people are still sitting in the dark; the California fires from which people are still evacuating; the trillion-and-a-half-dollar-plus tax cuts for billionaires, added to the federal debt; the killing of internet neutrality rules; and a hundred top entertainers, politicians, reporters and business executives being revealed as sexual harassers or rapists.

There were the extremely strange, still unexplained mass shootings one night in Las Vegas; one Muslim travel ban after the next; the firing of the FBI director, and the president’s accusation that the Trump-appointed Justice Department is somehow Trump’s enemy; the indictment of four Trump campaign officials; North Korea making good on its nuclear ambitions; Russians still infiltrating the U.S. election apparatus; executive rule by Tweet Fiat; and so on.

Even by contemporary standards, this is an unusual litany of events, and it’s all surfing in the wake of the sheer madness of 2016 — the year of emotional asphyxiation, of gas-lit political nightmares, and getting used to what we didn’t know would be the new normal. Yet nobody is really asking how this is possible, nor how it’s possible that so many people think this is all good: that the president’s actions constitute actual, beneficial leadership.

The majority of people don’t think so, but somehow we now find ourselves in a minority-rules situation. The mysterious 35% of people who will support these policies no matter what, are now, evidently, the most important constituents in our land. We are gradually convincing ourselves, or being convinced, that it’s their country and not ours. Yes, those folks who believe that Armageddon is imminent, so we may as well bring it on.

There’s an astrology lesson in here, though we won’t find it in medieval textbooks or groovy 1970s pop astrology (fun as those things are, as play toys).

‘Disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture’

The thing that’s different now about even the recent past is that nobody expects anything to make any sense. It’s not the rules of society that have been suspended; it’s the rules of reality itself.

First up is the Uranus-Eris conjunction. This is among the top five astrological events since 1891 (that is, of the past 13 decades or so). It last happened in 1927-28, long before Eris was discovered, and at the dawn of the electric media age: the age of simultaneous mass communication.

Prof. Eric McLuhan, son of media theorist Marshall McLuhan, is one of the few people with a clue what’s going on. What we are experiencing is total disorientation, which starts to seem normal, and then leads to even more distortion of awareness. The weirder things get, the weirder they get.

Sand dunes in Iran; photo by Ebrahim Bakhtari Bonab.

“The body is everywhere assaulted by all of our new media,” McLuhan wrote, “a state which has resulted in deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world. In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.”

Let’s repeat that last sentence: “In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.”

Said another way, we’re living as if we’re in the midst of an out-of-body experience, an electronic dream in which nothing matters; as if when we screw up, we can just reinstall the operating system, restore our data and we’re good to go. That, however, is unlikely.

We find this mentality in the Uranus-Eris conjunction in Aries (an event on par with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s). This was exact on three recent dates — June 9, 2016; Sept. 25, 2016; and March 17, 2017. We’re still being thrown around in its aftershocks. This is a threshold event that will have effects well into the next decade, some of which are now seemingly permanent fixtures in our reality.

Remember that symbols stand for something else. Astrology does not cause events; rather, it represents and describes background conditions and cycles, which in turn describe our reality. Uranus conjunct Eris is inherently chaotic; Uranus in astrology is a revolutionary, and Eris is an instigator of chaos. They are in the sign Aries, which is about identity. Something is profoundly affecting our sense of who we are, as individuals and as various collectives.

And if we are going to make any real changes, such as personal changes, or collective endeavors that improve the world, we need to understand the impact of the Uranus-Eris conjunction, which really means the full immersion of our minds and bodies in the digital realm.

The Great American Eclipse, and Saturn on the Galactic Core

There are two other factors involved, though I think they are relatively minor considerations by comparison. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Uranus-Eris is the energetic setup, and that other events precipitated things from the background and into the foreground.

Blue pond in Hokkaido, Japan; photo by Kent Shiraishi / Nat. Geo.

Two events stand out, among many: one is the unprecedented Great American Eclipse, which crossed the United States in a streak moving southeasterly from Oregon to South Carolina. It was right after that that events jumped several orders of magnitude, and increased in frequency.

Second was a collection of planets, most notably Saturn, conjunct the Galactic Core. At various times, the conjunction included Mercury, centaur planet Pholus, Saturn and others simultaneously. The Galactic Core represents events and developments that are so large, they are incomprehensible.

At least the astrology of 2016 and 2017 describes those years eloquently. In three recent articles, I’ve described the main planetary transits of 2018: There is a Future, Small Wheel Turns, and Planets in a Minor Key.

I’ll be describing these in a series of videos that come with The Art of Becoming, your 2018 annual readings (now available for single-sign preorder).

What We Need to Do

Two years ago, I proposed that the potluck dinner would save us. In Planet Waves for January 2016, I wrote, “Community dinners will help us come out of the fear trance. We need to take some time and get together, be together, experience one another’s humanity, and share food, companionship and ideas. Plus, at the end of the night, no money is exchanged. It is wholesome to have some places in life free from the marketplace. We need exchange, not the medium of exchange.”

We need this more than ever — and we will need even more than that in the seasons leading into 2020 and beyond. I’m not in the business of making dire predictions. I can, however, say that based on what I’m seeing in the charts, we need, more than ever, to get to know our neighbors. That includes the people we think we agree with, and those we don’t think we agree with.

An uninhabited archipelago? No, it’s the eye of a Southern right whale; photo by Brian Skerry / National Geographic.

We have a dire urgency to relate to one another in environments where cash is not exchanged: not for food, not for sex, not for helping one another, not for taking care of the kids, not for shoveling the snow, not for anything — at some time, somewhere.

There are plenty of times and places where money must go around. Yes, people need to be paid fairly, which means we need to pay them fairly. We must learn to spend money all the more wisely now — which means going lower on the food chain and staying closer to home.

Yet there must be some places in our lives where we don’t have to reach for our debit card, and where we don’t expect any compensation at all. We need to remember how to give and receive.
We need to remind one another that we’re doing whatever we’re doing just to do it, merely because it’s the right thing, or because you need it, or because you feel like doing it for someone. Then, this spirit needs to be passed forward.

Among the many ways that disembodied communication and digital technology have taken over is that funds are now exchanged for very nearly everything, including people billing their friends for in-home dinner parties.

Enough. Please. If we want to save humanity, let’s go back to being human.

I’ll catch you next year. Please note: I’ll be taking another week off from Planet Waves FM.

With love,

PS — The horoscopes with tonight’s edition are something new, a short-format annual for 2018. These were written for the Daily News website, which to their credit, invites me to write exactly the column that I write. I’ll have an update on the long annual — The Art of Becoming — over the weekend.

P.P.S. We’ve gone with a simpler issue tonight, but you can find Amanda Painter’s SKY essay here. And if you missed Sunday’s Planet Waves FM broadcast, it’s available here.

I believe that humankind has entered into the most critical stages of a death­-rebirth mystery. In retrospect it seems that the entire path of Western civilization has taken humankind and the planet on a trajectory of initiatory transformation, into a state of spiritual alienation, into an encounter with mortality on a global scale ­­from world wars and holocausts to the nuclear crisis and now the planetary ecological crisis,­­ an encounter with mortality that is no longer individual and personal but rather transpersonal, collective, planetary; into a state of radical fragmentation, into the “wasteland,” into that crisis of existential meaning and purpose that informed so many of the most sensitive individuals of the past century.

It is a collective dark night of the soul, a deep separation from the community of being, from the cosmos itself. We are undergoing this rite of passage with virtually no guidance from wise elders because the wise elders are themselves caught up in the same crisis. This initiation is too epochal for such confident guidance, too global, too unprecedented, too al-­encompassing; it is larger than all of us. It seems that we are all entering into something new, a new development, a crisis of accelerated maturation, a birth, an entrance into a profoundly different way of being in the cosmos.

— Richard Tarnas, Earth as Initiate

 

New Features Added:
Understanding Key Life Transits of Saturn, Chiron and Uranus

Dear Friend and Reader:

The Art of Becoming is your 2018 annual reading. This is my 20th time at the rodeo! And that’s a good thing, because to write about the transits of the coming year will take experience. If you’re new to the discussion of this project, I’ve linked a letter in the last paragraph.

Eric Francis.

I’ve added three new features to The Art of Becoming, for those who pre-order all 12 signs: videos that cover Chiron in Aries, and Aries Chiron returns; Uranus in Taurus, and Uranus oppositions; and Saturn in Capricorn, including those two Saturn return groups (first and second). These cover many age groups and sub-generations.

Particularly regarding Chiron, the astrological profession for a while was starting to figure out this planet, which was discovered 40 years ago this month. Now astrologers seem to be forgetting or losing interest. I have not.

I have been a student of Chiron every day since early 1995, and will share what I have learned both from study, and from reading the Chiron transits of countless hundreds of clients.

These videos are included if you pre-order all 12 signs. Then they will be spun off as separate products. They will not be included with post-publication orders, or single-sign orders. Each will be offered separately for $37.37 each.

I’ve wanted to do transit readings like this for years! One distinction about my astrological career is that rather than predicting transits, I’ve been listening to my clients tell me the stories of their transits for more than two decades.

The current pre-order price is $99, which includes written readings for all 12 signs, plus the Saturn, Chiron and Uranus video presentations. Those will be published before the written readings, by the way.

Delivery is expected in January. That’s the time estimate, based on 20 years’ experience doing this project. If you’re curious to read more about The Art of Becoming, here’s a detailed letter describing how I do the readings and what they contain.

And if you have not read your 2017 reading, you may do so here at no charge.

Sign up today. The next price increase will be soon!

Thank you for trusting me as your astrologer, and for participating in Planet Waves.

With love,

Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for January were published on Thursday, Dec. 21. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for December on Wednesday, Nov. 22. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Aries (March 20-April 19) — Most people would rather lose themselves than find themselves, though you don’t have that seeming luxury. Yet with Chiron entering your sign this year (which last happened in 1968), you’ll find that self-discovery makes you bold, and that self-awareness is the first remedy in your quest to heal all that may ail you. Society is going through a mass-scale identity crisis, and you will run counter to that trend. Your best discoveries will come through the work that you do, and the success that you aspire to. There are times when your professional activities are the most spiritually meaningful aspect of life, and this is one of them. Let your work be driven by passion; never complain, only strive to do what you do in the most beautiful way you can. As in your relationships, you don’t need some abstract notion of connecting or oneness; reach for the heat and light of deep emotional and erotic sharing, knowing it’s your most direct path to enlightenment. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Of all the signs, yours may be the one that most prefers things stay the way they are for as long as possible. Yet with revolutionary Uranus entering your sign this year, you will experience the desire to change in ways you might have never expected. You will feel this first as a surge of energy, followed by the sense that there’s much more to life than you imagined. The first place this starts to take up residence is in your intimate relationships. Next is a more tangible sense that, no matter how old you are, you have a future that’s worth building, reaching for and aspiring to. Yet once Uranus is in your sign (which starts right around your birthday) you will want to exceed all limits, and become a master of self-reinvention. Contrast that with your previous mastery of self-preservation and a gift for stability that comes in handy on our planet. With the world in a state of constant upheaval, your ability to transform yourself will be a rare and precious gift. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Your relationships have been something of a whirlwind the past few years; and you’ll be happy to hear that in the coming seasons, you’ll be encountering others not in the air but on solid ground. Most of the difference will come from your newfound desire to commit yourself, whether in business or personal contexts. The key will be engaging with the right people, for the right reasons. Consider following a simple life policy: never make a promise that you’re not fully prepared to keep, which means both willing and able. With that as your guide, you may invest yourself in situations, confident in your identity. When you lose your sense of center, that’s when to take a step back, and spend some time alone. Your planets are describing the potential of having a stable person somewhere in your life, someone perhaps just a little older than you, whom you will recognize by their wisdom. For now, the purpose of your relationships is getting to know yourself. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Yours is the sign associated with cozy homes, good food and families. On a closer look, though, your knack for navigating the complex and competitive world of business is one of your strongest suits. So, too, is your ability to find yourself through the work that you do. These factors are being called forth from your character now, and will be for some time to come. Saturn now moving through your opposite sign Capricorn is an invitation to take your goals and aspirations seriously, and to clear out of the way anything that does not support your chosen purpose. That means engaging in relationships only with people who help create a supportive environment, and those who appreciate the positive influence you have on their life. (This mutuality must infuse every relationship you have, whether personal or professional.) It’s time to focus your efforts on what enhances who you are rather than in any way diminishes you. What for others might merely be “making a living” is for you more about creating yourself. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Your astrology is calling on you to create a sense of order and organization in your life. Your creative energy has been all over the place, which has led to some interesting experiments; though now it’s time to be more focused. This includes your personal projects and what you consider your professional work. A little discipline will go a long way. You will find it easier to adopt a more structured schedule and physical work environment, if you make just a little effort. And any movement toward health, fitness or wellbeing needs structure as well. Beginning with food would be a wise point of orientation; walk around all day reminding yourself “you are what you eat,” and that fast-food taco might not seem so appealing. The process of elimination is your best friend: notice what does not serve your best interests, and then subtract it. Once you have cleared away what does not work, it’ll be a lot easier to see what does. Not only that; you’ll feel better, and have more time and more space to maneuver. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — There’s a little child in you who wants to come out and play. Yet that means serious play, the kind that’s meaningful, and which you lose yourself in. It might involve your profession or vocation, but is more likely something personal that exceeds the relevance of a hobby. Your astrology describes you making something, such that there’s a tangible, useful result when you’re done. This is about passion for what you love. In a similar way, your romantic relationships need a job. It’s nice to think that people can get along without a core purpose that unites them, though that’s not usually the case. An example might be anything from raising children to building a business to creating a life that suits your mutual pleasures or interests. Whatever it might be, your connection to a conscious, well-expressed mission will both ground you and help open doors. In practical terms, if you’re dating, look for people who would prefer to attend a talk or go to a museum rather than some form of idle entertainment. We all need diversions, though those are easily enough found. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — For many moons, one of your most important personal growth projects has been emotional independence. This applies to your family and to any other aspect of life where your household or living situation is involved. Pursuing this objective has at times been messy. Perhaps you sent some mixed signals about needing to be free and also needing human contact — though in fact both are true, and they don’t contradict. This year begins a process of tidying up your boundaries. Start with something simple, like making sure all your doorknobs work; and if a lot of housemates have passed through, change your lock. Then clean some closets. Next, evaluate whether you have a space where you can actually enjoy some privacy any time you need it. For as hard as you work, you should have at least that much. Then set some guidelines for how you handle your family. They are not your masters, nor your judge, jury or guidance counselor. Step by step, day by day, build the emotional life that works for you. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Jupiter in your sign is magnifying certain aspects of your life, like living in a house with gigantic furniture, or where your innermost thoughts appear projected onto your living room wall. You’re seeing everything that you’re made of, and you’re also seeing certain missing elements. Cutting to the chase, the central question of your life is: what do you want? Don’t be content with stock answers (happiness, a relationship, winning Lotto). What do you actually want, as relates to your stated purpose for living? Have you even worked that one out? It matters. Events of this year will draw the distinction between thinking you know, and actually knowing. You must go beyond appearances, and get to the heart of the matter. That will involve rinsing off or washing out the programming of the last 100,000 advertisements you were exposed to (all designed to tell you what you supposedly need or desire). You must also get yourself beyond any care you have about what people may think about you — and that will take courage. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You have just experienced three years of Saturn in your sign — an event that happens just two or three times in a lifetime. This may have felt like an endurance test, or a time of enforced growth and maturity. First, evaluate what you’ve accomplished during this time, going back to late 2014. Consider the ways you’ve evolved your relationship to yourself. Consider how you relate to your work and life purpose. Going forward, you must use what you’ve learned during Saturn’s visit to your sign. You have unusual manifesting power, and your reliance on self-knowledge will serve to filter out goals, desires and options you don’t really want. Money becomes an important focal point under this astrology, though there’s an added twist: you’re now on notice that you must fully endorse, and feel good about, what you do for the sake of cash. This is the time to live up to your own values, not to violate them. Based on your experiences the past three years, you actually have the knowledge and power to do this. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

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Capricorn Birthdays 2018
A Special Year-End Gift for Capricorns

“Your passion, deep care and love always shine through; and you have the gift of all great teachers, of making one feel that one is being personally addressed, respected and taken care of.”

— Liz Glanville

Dear Capricorn Friend and Reader:

Are you looking for an in-depth review of your year as 2017 winds to a close? You’re invited to listen to last year’s Capricorn reading, as a gift from us, as you set your intentions for the New Year.

Once you’ve looked back at where you’ve been (and check Eric’s accuracy), I hope you’ll pre-order your 2018 Capricorn Birthday Reading. This is the reading to get if you have a Capricorn Sun, rising sign or Moon and want an intensive spoken-word meditation on the major astrological events of the year to come.

With Saturn in your sign for nearly three years, you have a powerful ally at your side as you set goals and work toward them. You also may have some questions to answer, such as: How do I take even greater ownership of my choices? And: How can I define myself as an individual and still ‘belong’ to a tribe?

You have a unique set of challenges, opportunities and missions on the way, Capricorn. And you’ll be navigating them in a world where the ground keeps shifting rapidly — both culturally and astrologically, as Uranus enters Taurus and Chiron enters Aries. Luckily, you’re a sure-footed goat — and you have some of the best internet astrology available on the internet at your fingertips.

“The Capricorn 2017 Birthday Reading was expansive and mind-blowing, and absolutely on the money in everything. You helped me immeasurably as I change and change and grow, and change some more. What a time!”

— Linsey

Eric will serve as your cheerleader, thought-provoker, perspective-shifter, inspiration-stoker and deputy problem-solver in two segments of astrology (at least 30 minutes each) plus a tarot reading that combine the best of his therapy training, life-coaching skills and well over two decades of astrology experience. You also get an extended description of your sign.

You can still nab this reading for only $33. This is the lowest price we offer — the price will increase as soon as the reading publishes, which could happen later today.

Happy Birthday, Capricorn!

Amanda Painter

P.S. The 2018 Capricorn Birthday Reading is distinctly different from the Capricorn written reading available in the upcoming Art of Becoming annual project. It covers your key astrology in a different format and emphasis, capitalizing on Eric’s more intuitive, improvisational skills. The Birthday Reading also makes a fantastic gift for a loved one!

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Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Saturn has returned home to your sign, which will feel good for at least three reasons. You’ll get some relief from your anxieties, which reached a peak in late 2017. Next, a missing part of you is now present and accounted for. Last is that you’re on track for completing many unfinished tasks — and letting go of the ones you don’t need to do. Get that bit out of the way. Unresolved matters, even small ones, are an energy drain and they place stumbling blocks on your path to the future. Yet your most meaningful task for the coming four seasons is defining yourself in a way that’s not dependent upon tribal identity. This is challenging because so much of your self-concept has been intertwined with a concept of family that’s likely to be outmoded. While you’ll still be associating with some of these people, the key to your happiness is being different without having to hide that fact. You don’t need to revolt. Yet you can be yourself at all times, and love yourself for it. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Many factors of your astrology describe de-cluttering: letting go of old patterns, coming to terms with the past, and finding new approaches to relationships. Aquarius is the sign of patterns and how they crystallize. So it will be helpful if you choose a habit to change, then in the same gesture establish a new way of moving in the world. Here’s an example: when you’re coming home from someplace, take a different route from the way you got there. Change something, so that you slip out of habitual behavior. Try this with food, with your social life and with the organization of your living space. Strive to meet new people, and to be accepting of them. Let your life be a dance, and allow yourself to be guided by seemingly random experiences. You know that you have important work to do. You are allowing yourself to have new goals. You also know that you need to love in a deep way. All of this implies change: letting go of what you don’t want, and embracing what offers you love and creativity. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — The beauty of your astrology is that you can now see what is possible, whereas before, this was not so clear. You have the confidence to know you can turn possibility into potential into manifestation. This is more like learning how to ride a bicycle than it is fabricating something out of thin air. There are methods involved, and you already know many of them; all you need to do is give yourself a little push and attempt something that you think is just a little outside your known capability. Over the past few years, you’ve established a reputation for yourself, and now you get to use that as a tool, resource or commodity. Focus on the practical aspect of whatever you’re doing, whether it’s building your career, establishing or widening your community, or creating something entirely new in the world. Think of your work as carpentry rather than the expression of some mysterious talent. Imagine that changing the world means building a solid, beautiful cabinet, rather than some abstract idea. Appreciate the cosmic beauty of sandpaper and wood glue. For your Eric Francis horoscope this week, please see this link.