Dear Friend and Reader:
One of our researchers, Shelley Stearns, noted in a comment to Monday’s diary that Mars is out of bounds — just as it makes a conjunction to Pluto and Narcissus, and a square to Uranus.
Go figure — Mormon founder Joseph Smith (1805-1844) had 30 to 40 wives.
The planets in the solar system do not orbit the Sun on a flat geometric plane. Rather, they are all inclined on an angle to what is called the celestial equator — the Earth’s equator projected into space. This week Mars is as far south of the celestial equator as it gets (about 24 degrees), and that is a condition known as out of bounds.
So, while Mars is making its current high-energy conjunction to Pluto and a square to Uranus — which may be tense, emotionally exhausting, arriving with various trials and/or very exciting — it is also in this over-extended state. Depending on who you ask, this might manifest as erratic events or states of mind, or some unpredictable result.
Among other things I would repeat my caution about doing anything vaguely dangerous, such as crossing the street or base jumping, without applying real mindfulness.
If things have gone to an extreme in your life, you may notice that they start to come back to within the range of normal, whatever that means in a time when nothing is really normal. This is a bigger issue than we think. Media philosopher Marshall McLuhan cautioned that we were living a century in a decade 40 years ago. The pace of existence has increased exponentially since then, yet we do little reflecting on what this actually means and how it impacts us.
I am always curious how unusual astrology will manifest in the public sphere. Since Mars was involved, placed in the sign Capricorn, I thought there might be some interesting news about sexual boundaries.
We got a little something along those lines. The New York Times reported that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons, had 30 to 40 wives, some of whom were the wives of other men. This fact, confirmed by the church itself, is testing the faith of some members, many of whom viewed Smith as the perfect person. Well, now they need a new definition of perfection.
The Daily News reported today that New York City will stop arresting people for small amounts of cannabis. Pot arrests have definitely gone to an extreme, especially under New York’s long-standing “stop and frisk” policy. This decision is a move away from that extreme, toward a more sensible position, particularly as state after state legalizes cannabis for recreational use.
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NYC Police Commissioner Bill Bratton holds up a bag of fluffy leaf pot. He needs a better connection. Mayor de Blasio is in the background.
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What always confuses me is that New York State decriminalized small amounts of cannabis in the 1980s; it has since been a violation rather than a misdemeanor. Many locales never stopped just giving tickets. New York City went the other direction. And there are many, many serious issues with the War on Drugs; this move seems to be a means of distracting people from those problems.
Then there was this item — a woman named Sue Ann Hamm will receive a billion-dollar divorce settlement from her ex-husband, oil man Harold Hamm. It is not the largest divorce settlement in history, however — a Russian man paid his wife a $4.8 billion settlement earlier this year.
I will be considering Mars out of bounds on tonight’s Planet Waves FM, and a few other topics — the many Scorpio planets that are now conjunct Saturn, and the chart of media philosopher Marshall McLuhan. My musical guest will be jazz guitarist Frank Vignola.
I usually post Planet Waves FM by 6 pm EST. See you there.
Lovingly,
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More Mars out-of-bounds conjunct Pluto in Cap news — most sadly not “good” news — courtesy of Democracy Now’s headlines today:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/11/headlines
— In Nigeria, a suicide bomber disguised as a student has killed nearly 50 boys at a boarding school in the town of Potiskum. The militant group Boko Haram is suspected of carrying out the attack.
— In India, at least eight women have died, and nearly 70 others are hospitalized, after receiving sterilization surgeries with infected instruments as part of a government-run program. More than 80 women were reportedly operated on over a six-hour period by a single doctor in the central state of Chhattisgarh. India offers free sterilizations as a way to curb population growth, often giving cash incentives that amount to the equivalent of a week’s salary for the poor.
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then again, perhaps these two stories might fit the “positive news” category for Mars-Pluto in Cap (and with the Obama/Net Neutrality story, maybe a sign of Narcissus in there, too?):
— Three civil rights activists murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964 after traveling to Mississippi to register black voters have been posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner shocked the country and propelled the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
— President Obama has issued his strongest statement to date in favor of a free and open Internet. In a video message, Obama called for the the Federal Communications Commission to uphold the principle of net neutrality by classifying the Internet as a public utility. He said such protections would prevent Internet service providers, or ISPs, like Comcast, from blocking access to websites, slowing down content or providing paid fast lanes for Internet service.
Eric: Thank you for the excellent explanation of “out of bounds” (along with the celestial equator and declinations in general as part of the bargain) and a superb account of how Mars in such a state, correlates.
fyi- that photo of the NYPD commish features a bag of oregano. He was demonstrating what 25 g of cannabis would look like, but not with the real goods. Because if that were real cannabis, it would be useful only for making edibles.
re: Joseph Smith- great American huckster. I’d be disappointed if he didn’t have more than one wife, gotta practice what ya preach and all. The fact that anyone still believes in book-based “religions” is a demonstration of how powerful the Trance has become in these latter days.
Oh, and how can I let old Joe Smith go past without this classic bit of humor?
Q- What is the difference between LSD and LDS?
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
A- With LSD the hallucinations wear off!
ROFLMAO – thanks – I’ll remember that one
Anyone know the story of Joe Smith doing federal time for the Miracle Wheat fraud scheme?
Eric and Amanda, thanks for all of the examples. I’ll listen to Planet Waves FM tonight.
Regarding the Mormon Church, that kind of blows me away that they are admitting the women had multiple husbands. I looked up Joseph Smith’s Mars and it is just OOB between 23S54 and 23S51, depending on his birth time. It is also at 12° Capricorn, which is where Mars is right now.
Incidentally, today is Armistice Day, which many in this country refer to as Veteran’s Day. Armistice Day is a time to celebrate peace, and yes to honor veterans, but not to glorify power or violence. It marks the end of WWI on November 11, 1918. And Mars was OOB!
Shelley — though if you read the article, it sounds like although some of the women had a husband other than Smith, they seemed to get capped at two.
And even less fair are the double standards for widows vs widowers after death if they remarried.
Oh, thanks for pointing that out. I’ll read it.