Dear Friend and Reader,

Saturday’s Oracle, the only version of Eric’s horoscopes available without an inexpensive subscription, takes us back to five years ago, when we thought there was only about a year left of the Bush administration.

Consider this entry your fast-forward button.

And for weekly, monthly and annual horoscopes with an eye towards the future, join us at Planet Waves:click here.

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Virgo Monthly Horoscope of
June 01, 2003

(The Oracle is a random daily selection from among 10,000 horoscopes written by Eric Francis)

Perhaps it’s seemed challenging sorting out truth from lies in your relationships lately, but how much of that is about the people you’re associating with, and how much is about the world we live in? Or, closer to home, what does it take to penetrate the lies about sex, love and companionship that we were told by our parents? I say told, but what I mean is that we learned from example and osmosis. Too often we were told one thing and shown another, or we saw one thing acted out and felt another vibed to us. But what was (and is) usually conveyed is an invisible split. That is what’s being revealed to you now, what you are revolting against, and what has always daunted you about others. But freedom is in sight, or rather, insight. Look, and you will see.

Dear Friend and Reader:

As I mentioned earlier, I’m at the Loving More East Coast Conference in upstate New York. Longterm readers know that I’ve been involved with something called the polyamory movement — responsible nonmonogamy — since the mid-1990s, and long before I knew the word, since the mid-1980s. Loving More is actually a Colorado-based magazine for which I write, and for 22 years they’ve sponsored these retreats on the East and West Coasts.

For those who have never heard the word or who think it’s a kind of plastic, polyamory is a form of alternative sexuality to serial monogamy, “permanent” monogamy and one night stands. The difference between poly and cheating is that the discussions are had out in the open. Poly by definition potentially means multiple partners, but the core is no secrets among partners.

The difference between poly and swinging is that swinging is about sex and poly is about relationships that may or may not include sex.

Every year there are a few relatively small conferences where the a small part of the tribe gathers. Polyamory is mainstream. If you do a Google search on the word, you come up with 2,190,000 returns. There are not that quite many people at this retreat center near Saratoga; there are about 70 of us. The median age is about 40 or 50 — it’s an older crowd in general, though some interesting, high-energy young people are here.

One of them is an attorney you’re going to be hearing more about in Planet Waves by the name of Diana Adams. I wish I could convey an energy picture of this articulate, bright and bold young Aquarian, a civil rights attorney who specializes in sex, gender and sexual orientation-related cases. In other words, if you’re a dominatrix and your ex-husband is trying to take away custody of your child on the grounds that your job is immoral, Diana, apropos of her name, is the woman you go to for help.

She’s friendly, but I would not want to be opposing counsel. She was the keynote speaker tonight, and among other things reminded us that we all have the right to make our own choices about our sexual orientation and family structure. We don’t have to follow the prescribed models. (I haven’t transcribed the quotes yet, she was more articulate than I’m being.) We share at least one thing in common: the idea that the best, safest, freest, realest place to be is out — out of the closet, out to your friends and family, out to the world if you can do it. She offered her goal that within five years, every college-age person knows that the word polyamory exists. In other words, that we all know we have options to traditional monogamy or being a single mom.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that she’ll agree to an audio interview, and I do plan to have a series of interviews from this conference next week (I haven’t even told our audio editor Lion that I’m here…)

More tomorrow. I’ll only be able to post these summaries…it’s going to be a busy weekend and I dare say more fun than an astrology conference.

Technorati Tags: bisexuality, Eric Francis, loving more, planetwaves, Polyamory

Dear Astrology Fiend and Reader:

I am checking in from the Loving More East Coast polyamorous conference in upstate New York, where I’m a fan and presenter. I’ll be blogging the conference in bits and bobs the next couple of days.

A couple of times/places this week I promised to post the pedigree of Sarah Palin’s birth data. I’ve also been reading in the best political blogs that those of us who support truth and justice need to keep the emphasis off of our little achtung baby uber cutie anti-choice Green Dragon girly gurrrl vice presidential candidate with the whopping Neptune transit. However, I will post a thread of emails in the spirit of giving a glimpse behind the scenes of astrologers working to figure out when somebody was born.

As you may have read in Planet Waves, there has been a unprecedented controversy over the birth times of candidates. Chris Brennan wrote a fabulous piece for Planet Waves on this strange data situation. Unprecedented means it’s really never happened before, at least in modern astrological history, that there is so much contention over candidate birth times. Is anyone collecting Obama times? I think there are six by now, and one of my teachers, Dave Roell, has done a rectification. (More on that next week, when I start my “advice” column for Mssrs. Obama and McCain.)

I originally got the 4:40 am time from Starlight News, send in by a reader, though its editor, Nancy, responded to my query and said that the time was unverified. I’ve been pinging around the astrology community and can share with you this set of email notes on the origins of the time. Anyone out there who feels so inclined is welcome to pursue the truth further, including researching mentioned newsletters and places where the data has appeared. What everyone seems to agree on is that the time is 4:40 pm. We need to find who has the certificate of birth in hand and if we can get it we need to see the thing. However, the chart works. In practice, the chart checks out, so that is a good start.

And hey, has anybody lived around Sandpoint, Idaho, or for example in nearby Spokane, WA? I hear that Sandpoint is a pretty gosh darned interesting town.

Here is the email thread. I’ve omitted some last names and all email addresses. I think that what you can see here is that astrologers care about these kinds of matters, and many have been genuinely gracious to Planet Waves. Any additional help sourcing the data is again welcome. You can send it to editorial - at - planetwaves.net, the email address I share with our associate editor, feminist scholar and accidental astrologer-in-training, Ms. Rachel Asher.

==

Hello Eric:

The following is a post from Noel Tyl’s site:

Palin’s AA Rated Birth Chart

Posted By: Halina
Date: Wednesday, 3 September 2008

In Response To: The 4:40 pm Birth Chart (Halina)

Sally McDonald at Astrowold has posted a 4:40 pm time that came from Claudia Dikinis, a friend of Sarah Palin’s, via Margie Herskovitz from NCGR. A Leo ascendant, and the 4:40 pm time does have Leo rising with a Moon in Aquarius. Sally’s friend Claudia says that an AFAN newsletter reports the birth time of 4:40 pm is AA (reliable). Still no word on the source, though.

These “sudden revelations” about Sarah Palin speak of Uranus, and sure enough, using this chart puts trans Uranus retrograding over her progressed Midheaven. That would fit perfectly with her being picked out of nowhere and then this rapid meltdown.
– End of Post –

Eric, this morning, Sept. 4, I went on both the astroworld and Claudia’s starcats web site. I did not find any articles on either site in regard to Palin’s birth time.

Please keep me informed on any news in regard to the source.

Best wishes
Ira Rubin

==

On 9/3/08 7:30 PM, “Dian” wrote:

This is from the AFAN Interactive Group. The citedperson is Linda Lehman.

Dian Bustillo

===

Linda, how did he get the BC? Or info about it? I’m so wary of things like this, having written whole treatises based on erroneous information.

Thanks,
Carole

==

LindaJea writes:

Astrologer Gregg DeLaCastro reports Sarah Palin’s birth information as

AA: Quoted BC/BR
February 11, 1964
4:40 PM
Sandpoint, Idaho

Technorati Tags: Astrology, Campaign '08, Eric Francis, palin, planetwaves, Republican

Dear Friend and Reader,

Hurricane Sarah. Image by Rachel Asher.

When it comes to the weather, we’re thankfully only up to the letter “J,” with Hanna, Ike and Josephine in view. I’m talking about the political storm in this entry’s title, and by that I mean: Hurricane Sarah Palin.

While waiting for Eric’s continuing analysis on her chart, I’d like to bring you a fresh voice: Nancy Sommers of Starlight News, an astrology site that provides political commentary. Read below for Nancy’s article on the election, and Sarah Palin’s natal chart (which you can see in the entry just below this one).

A veritable cacophony has erupted with the selection of Sarah Palin as the GOP vice presidential candidate. On the Right, there is jubilation over her extremely conservative social positions including the criminalization of abortion, abstinence- only sex education, and the teaching of Creationism in the schools.

Continue Reading »

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Technorati Tags: Astrology, Charts, drilling in Alaska, Eric Francis, global warming, hurricane sarah, John McCain, maverick, Nancy Sommers, planetwaves, Sarah Palin, Starlight news

Dear Friend and Reader,

A section of Sarah Palin’s chart.

We’re working hard here at Planet Waves to be a resource on the 2008 Election for those interested in a unique perspective, and for astrological analysis.

Click here for Sarah Palin’s natal chart, where her birth time is highly reliable. Eric wrote an article about her chart in Daily Astrology and Adventure on Tuesday, and you can jump straight to that article by clicking here.

We also have the 2008 Election chart available: click here to take a gander.

Coverage will continue straight through to November, and be sure to check in next week for a closer analysis of Palin’s chart and the 2008 Election chart.

Cheers,

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, Astrology, Charts, Eric Francis, planetwaves, Sarah Palin