Thoughts on Approaching the Cancer Solstice Dear Friend and Reader: Recent events have lots of people wanting to retreat into a metaphorical shell of some kind; to protect the tender parts of ourselves with some form of armor, or to turn the hard parts of ourselves toward the world.
The world needs our wholeness right now. Even if you feel broken, lost or 'not quite ready yet', those feelings are part of the sum of who you are -- along with whatever else they might be masking. Your awareness of yourself in whatever form you currently take and your ability to express that awareness are incredibly valuable. It's easy to think that only the 'heroes' of our world are looked to as shining examples of strength, bravery, problem solving or worth. But if you've ever witnessed someone speaking their truth, even if it meant standing in their pain to say, "Here I am, in all my imperfection and unknowingness," you know how inspiring and empowering that can be to others. So please, do not retreat into your shell like a crab and hide under a seaweed-covered rock. Yes, the Sun arrives in Cancer for the solstice in less than a week on June 20 (at 6:34 pm EDT / 22:34 UTC), and you might be feeling that urge. But Cancer is also a cardinal sign: a sign of initiative, leadership and taking action in the world. The first step for action to occur is showing up for yourself, with all of yourself: your dreams, desires and goals, along with the fears, doubts and obstacles that go with them; the places that have been hurt and compromised, and the places that feel beautiful and strong. Who cares if you need to come at things a little sideways sometimes? All that matters is that you are out there, moving, bringing your sensitivity into contact with others. Together we grieve, and together we are stronger. As we care for others, we show them how to care for us in turn. And when we molt -- allowing the softness of a fresh, tender self to meet the world -- we are in the moment of greatest potential for growth. Yours & truly,  Amanda Painter Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Thursday evening in Kingston, New York, by Planet Waves, Inc. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Designer: Lizanne Webb. Finance: Victoria Pomante. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Outreach Co-ordinator: Victoria Bodge. Client Services: Amy Elliott. Media Consultant: Andrew Marshall McLuhan. Research, Writing and Editing: In addition to those listed above, Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno and Carol van Strum. 
Solstice Full Moon, and Preparing for Mars Stationing Direct
You give yourself to this, the longest day You give yourself, you give it all away Two rivers run too deep, the seasons change and so do IDear Friend and Reader: Mars stations direct on Wednesday, June 29. That's still about two weeks off, though this is one of those events that's been developing all year. It goes deep and it's especially significant for a few reasons, which you might be seeing dramatized in the world and feel developing within you.
While Mars is hanging out in Scorpio gathering up all that energy for its next jaunt around the Sun, a Full Moon is approaching on Monday morning June 20. [Look for additional coverage of that in Sunday's Planet Waves TV.] This is the second Sagittarius Full Moon in a month. We had one previously right as the Sun entered Gemini. This Full Moon happens in the very last degrees of the Gemini/Sagittarius axis, which adds an edgy feeling. It is indeed edgy, as the Moon and Sun change signs immediately after the Moon is Full. The Moon wastes no time, jumping into Capricorn an hour later. The Sun ingresses Cancer later that day, which is the Northern Solstice (also called summer solstice here up above the equator). This qualifies as an Aries Point event, as the Sun is crossing one of the cardinal points, making an aspect to the first degree of Aries. If the world seems loud, that's because this sensitive area of the zodiac has an amplifying effect. And as this happens, Mars is slowing down to a full stop in Scorpio, which adds huge emphasis to our moment. One indicator of our current environment is that Mars is in one of the two signs that it rules. Our society has both Mars issues and Scorpio issues: for example, matters of aggression, desire, sex and death. They are all up for review now. Religion has tried, over the millennia, to obtain a monopoly over sex and death, though those topics are just too practical to be subjected to some form of mysticism. Where mysticism has failed, moralism has often worked -- a factor we see in Saturn currently in Sagittarius. If moralism is wearing thin in place of necessity and desire, count that as progress.
That forms a 150-dgree aspect called a quincunx, which describes the need for mutual adaptation. Something must give on both sides of the equation, and when it does, an interesting balance can be attained. For astrology students, this is halfway between the ease and flow of a trine (120 degrees) and the tension and urgency of an opposition (180 degrees). The quincunx merges two totally different kinds of signs (in this case, a cardinal fire sign with a fixed water sign). We know that the Uranus-Eris conjunction in Aries -- which I've been writing about lately in the context of the identity crisis precipitated by the Internet -- has broad, sweeping effects, and has been collapsing any sense of rational identity. In the course of one full Uranus-Eris cycle (1927-28 through 2016-17), electronic media have become the dominant force of our lives; they have, in effect, supplanted both God and self as useful ideas, and seem to have upended and upstaged reason as a useful tool. That's true, if you don't mind total vertigo, dyslexia and disorientation. The quincunx aspect from Mars -- slow, powerful and persistent during its process of turning to direct motion -- makes Uranus-Eris personal, visceral and restless. Said another way, Mars is demonstrating that the Uranus-Eris conjunction is real, that it's calling for conscious change, and that the most important change is personal.
It's necessary to remember that humans rarely change, or even pay attention, unless they are forced to. This is the basis of Marshall McLuhan's idea that violence is a process of identity formation. Most people will not bother to, or even be able to, make up their minds about who they are unless provoked by a confrontation. This helps explain why someone can be an owl-hating anti-environmentalist, then turns into an activist when fracking lands in their backyard. The confrontation led them to find themselves. We see this acted out in ineffective ways over and over again, mainly in an unfulfilled appetite for violence. The people who live for their guns have an unrequited love affair: most will never, ever get to confront someone, much less kill them. So that longing goes unfulfilled, which is perhaps why it seems so zombie-like, refusing to die. It's also why streaming series about the ‘undead' (where so many of them are shot) are so wildly popular. Under this theory, Americans tend toward so much violence because they don't understand who they are, and so often lack the courage to find out. The Internet is providing the most powerful source of disorientation from the physical level. So they live that out trapped in an astral world of imagined confrontation, but not the real thing that would lead to progress. For that, it's not necessary to kill anyone. Rather, it's necessary to allow for abrasion and confrontation in our encounters with others. We need to go past apologizing for getting our toes stepped on (sorry my toe was in the way of your clumsy foot!) and be willing to assert needs, desires and civil rights (to whatever end). Together, the eminently personal Mars in Scorpio is being conditioned by, and is influencing, the wide, transpersonal influence of Uranus-Eris. Something on the hormonal level (Scorpio) is engaging with something on the level of ego and collective identity (Aries and the planets there). This almost seems like a negotiating process.
When we get down to the nitty gritty of this aspect, it's about discovering a new level of feeling on matters of sex and death. It will no longer work to be in denial, or to delegate any issues to God or the pope. You must make up your own mind about how you feel, and dare to live that truth. Remember that you're doing this in a time in history when the overwhelming presence and abuse of electronic media has shorn you and nearly everyone else of body identification, which would make sex and death meaningful. You can sidestep these things by projecting yourself into the electronic haze, and the hall of mirrors made up of all the profiles you've posted, your screen names and handles, your email addresses and your various agendas scattered around the robot of the Internet. Or you can come down to the maculate, flesh-and-blood level of earthy existence and be a living, breathing, feeling person. In our era, this requires a real decision. And we have a beautiful metaphor in the planetary pattern for considering that decision right now. It will take some courage, but not as much as you think. That's because you already know what you want, and who you want. You merely need to admit it to yourself. Lovingly,    Woodstock, Cookie Monster and Kermit gaze out at other Post-It filled windows across Canal St. in lower Manhattan in May of this year. Photo by Doug Tischler via NBC's Today show.
It All Starts with "Hi" By Amanda Painter If only the contact we made with each other was always playful -- an invitation to creativity and dialogue, even if sometimes an element of competition sneaks in. After all, there's nothing wrong with having your imagination sparked to try something more complex than what you've seen. That's how discoveries and innovations are made. And sometimes, along the way, you make others smile and inspire them to join in. Such was the case in a "Post-It war" between advertising and marketing companies in buildings facing across Canal Street in Manhattan. The whole thing started in early May, when "Hi" appeared in a window in the building on the north side of Canal Street. Across the way, in the offices of the advertising company Havas Worldwide, someone responded with "Sup." From there, workers have created Marge Simpson, floor-high superhero logos, a tribute to Prince, the Ghostbusters logo, references to song lyrics and more. All made from various colors of Post-It Notes. "That's how simply things can start, with a little 'Hi,'" Toygar Bazarkaya, the chief creative officer for the Americas at Havas Worldwide, told The New York Times. Alas, the landlord for one of the buildings said the art had to come down -- and one of the ad agencies involved decided to go out with an epic eight-floor-high image you can see in this video by Revelist. Who knows what you might spark the next time you say "Hi"?  This Week on Planet Waves FM Identity and Violence in the Global Village Dear Friend and Reader: The Global Village is where we live. It's the "space" where the whole world has been drawn together by instantaneous electronic communication. When a violent event happens, the shockwaves go through the village, magnified by hundreds of millions of people who are impacted and thereby become involved.
The question is, what function does violence serve? People complain about violence, and then blockbuster films based on death and destruction succeed wildly. The vast majority of people -- Republicans and Democrats -- favor stricter (as in actual) background checks and a ban on military-grade weapons for civilians. Yet they keep re-electing politicians who do nothing. Violence serves a purpose, which is to help people forge identity. It's not the only way, but it's the one most often chosen. In this case, most of what we have is virtual violence, since I doubt anyone reading this was at the scene. It's all a media event, transmitted digitally. What is the impact of this? In this week's edition of Planet Waves FM [play episode here], I look at these issues carefully. I investigate at the astrology of the purported shooter, and of the event, and where the two meet. [See charts here.] My musical guest is Jimmy Be Free of Portland, Oregon, a gifted musician who plays electric six-string violin. Planet Waves FM is sponsored by our subscribers and members, and by the generosity of personal contributors to our project. Thank you if you're one of them, and if you're not, please consider signing up now. Your options are here. Lovingly, PS -- I am aware that reports that this incident was staged or false flag are circulating widely, and are being given credence. The video of apparent crisis actors is disturbing, as are obvious problems with how the crime scene is being described. For our purposes, whether this event happened as described, or some other way, the effect is the same. If you're one of those people who is asking questions, I encourage you to keep going. Plenty is being posted to my personal Facebook page by other readers. Less Than Shocking, No Less Horrid, and the Facts of Life
In this week's Planet Waves TV, I look at the charts for Sunday morning's mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando. These shooting incidents would be meaningless if they did not comment on us and our society. Mars in Scorpio factors prominently into this chart. Omar, the presumed shooter, had his Sun right underneath Mars. This takes us back to the earliest discussions of this Mars retrograde -- it's about the intersection of religion and sex. More on Planet Waves FM. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Find Yourself Now, With the Astrology of Now Class and Discussion with Eric Francis, 12 noon EDT, Saturday, June 18 Dear Planet Waves Friend and Reader: Do you ever wish you could have a real conversation about life as it is right now? About what you're feeling and going through? About what the world is going through? The Astrology of Now, my new class, is just such an opportunity. We live in a moment of huge astrology, and of rare astrology. The Uranus-Eris conjunction is describing a world in total transition.
Pluto in Capricorn is shredding tradition and the past, and challenging us to find new ways to structure our lives. It's associated with the financial meltdown of 2008, though it's having effects every single day. A wild collection of planets in Pisces is a confrontation with the world of fantasy, be it friendly or mean, dark or light. Neptune is saying it's OK to go back to sleep. Chiron and Nessus are saying it's time to wake up. In The Astrology of Now, we'll hear more about these transits and you will get to share your direct experiences of them. Share, not as an astrologer, but rather as someone who has encountered these through direct experience. The class includes a 45-minute introductory video that I've just finished, as well as a three-hour discussion (which will be recorded, so you can stay for as little or as much as you like). This will be followed by an email discussion group that will go for as long as people want to participate. This meeting is an ideal place to share your experiences, to hear those of others, and to ground in your feelings about what it's like to be alive right now. It's designed for astrology fans, beginning students or professionals. There will be nearly no technical discussion; this is all about experience. Enrollment is still open. You may sign up here. If you're a Backstage Pass holder, write for your special discount sign-up code. I am looking forward to sharing this space and time with you. See you Saturday at noon EDT. Lovingly, Renew Your Self. That's right: feel renewed. (You thought this item was about renewing your membership? It could be, if yours is about to expire -- do you know when yours does?)
"Wow, that was great -- thank you for such a clear reading." -- Frankie Sidhu The world overwhelms us with violence, fear and the chaos of 'virtual' reality 24/7. Planet Waves has found a way to be responsive to these challenges without losing sight of what really matters: humanity; empathy; creativity; someone to quietly, steadily reacquaint you with your own light and the light that surrounds you -- even when it's hard to see. Visit the Planet Waves Boutique, and find something to renew your faith in yourself -- or look for a gift for that special someone who could use a little astrological help. "The Planet Waves team is our peeps and the astrological medicine for our generation. Incredible!" -- Barbara Bain  Your Monthly Horoscopes -- and our Publishing Schedule Notes We published your extended monthly horoscope for June on Thursday, May 26. We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Thursday, April 21. We published your Moonshine horoscope for the Taurus New Moon, by Len Wallick, on Thursday, May 5. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign. Moonshine Horoscope for June 16, 2016, #1104 | by Len Wallick
    Hey Cancer -- we're hurtling toward the Northern Solstice in a moment of rare, exciting astrology. Find out what it means to have the defining aspect of our era in your career house -- get your 2016-17 Birthday Reading at the bargain pre-order price of $19.97. Do you know someone with a Cancer Sun, Cancer rising or a Cancer Moon? With such unusual astrology as the Uranus-Eris conjunction, this is an especially key year for them to have truly accessible, clear and nuanced astrology available. Give your Cancer loved ones Eric's Cancer Illumination Kit -- pre-order today for the best price on the reading's two audio segments (at least 30 minutes each) and video tarot reading. "I'm a big fan, and your audioscopes have helped me and my 18-year-old-son immensely." -- Maggie Curran         
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