The Borasisi Effect "She hated people who thought too much. At that moment, she struck me as an appropriate representative for almost all mankind." -- Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's CradleDear Friend and Reader: On Tuesday, March 8, there will be a total eclipse of the Sun in Pisces conjunct a slow-moving planet called Borasisi. Discovered in 1999, Borasisi is located in the Kuiper Belt, slightly beyond Pluto. It takes 292 years to go around the Sun, compared to 248 years for Pluto.
Back in March 2011, there was a New Moon conjunct Borasisi, and on that occasion I told the story behind the name, which is from Kurt Vonnegut's 1963 novel Cat's Cradle. This novel, which has its roots in the author's stint as a public relations man for General Electric, deals with some of the most profound questions of our time, involving religion, science, ethics and specific topics like technologies that can destroy the planet, particularly nuclear -- a GE speciality. One metaphor in the book is a substance called Ice 9, a chemical form of ice. If one crystal of Ice 9 gets in the ocean, the whole thing freezes. Symbolically, this represents the kind of toxin that can affect the entire world, the effects of which cannot be reversed. Ice 9 can stand in for many of the environmental problems we face today. If you're studying Borasisi from a psychological standpoint, themes emerge; such as the lies we believe in order to be happy. I included that interpretation in my original article. Yet, having personally covered the environmental crimes of GE, I made sure to tell the story of Cat's Cradle and describe its implications. In order to rig the world with atomic bombs, and to create technologies that contaminate every living creature on the planet, it's necessary to suspend all ethics and tell a lot of lies, which GE does generously. I'm typing right now next to a huge bookshelf that is stacked with binders full of GE documents demonstrating that very fact. While I really liked what Vonnegut had to say, I was taking it mostly as symbolic, and used the Boraisisi New Moon of 2011 as a way to bring up those themes; as a way to remind my readers that these issues exist. Then something strange happened. One week after that 2011 article, there was an earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power station. Three of the six reactors melted down. That is, a power loss disabled the cooling systems of the plants, the reactors went out of control, and hundreds of tons of radioactive fuel melted into the Earth.
The nuclear reactors were designed and built by none other than GE, examples of a deeply flawed model called the Mark III. It was as if within days the New Moon conjunct Borasisi invoked the very thing Vonnegut was warning about. We've all seen odd synchronicities. Even in retrospect this seems impossible, though it happened. I don't know how this can happen. Everything is documented or I might not believe it. And now we're about to have a total solar eclipse conjunct Borasisi, the first event of its kind involving this planet since the one in 2011. I don't think that means there will be a repeat performance of Fukushima some time soon, but it would be wise to take what happened five years ago as a warning. The situation with nuclear power is no better than it was then. We know a lot more about global warming -- and now nuclear companies are offering themselves as a panacea to climate change; no thank you. Five years have passed and there has been no real progress on addressing the issue of genetically modified foods. We know a lot more today, including the fact that levels of glyphosate, or Roundup (an essential part of growing many genetically modified crops), are steadily increasing, both in the environment and in the food supply. There is no going back now; those altered genes will be in the environment forever. This is the kind of thing Vonnegut was talking about with the Ice 9 metaphor.
Both sides of the equation are essential. Someone must tell the lie, and then someone must believe it. As people have enough information to recognize that somethig is not true, the burden of responsibility shifts to them. If you know better, it's really your issue if you believe a lie, or fail to act on your awareness of false information. We've reached the point in world history where we know enough to recognize what the corporations who perpetuate these crimes are doing to us. It's no longer enough to call them out on their conduct. There is nothing more that needs to be documented. We know plenty. It's now up to the people who are being poisoned to do something about it. Al Gore summed this up as "an inconvenient truth." It is indeed inconvenient to seek social, economic, environmental or political justice. Part of why it's so inconvenient is that consciousness is so dense. The more people are in denial, the harder it is to work on these issues. After doing this for many years, the real thing one is dealing with is not the corporations -- it's the refusal of people who should know better, to respond in a meaningful way. What we think of as the environmental crisis is really about human mentality. We seem to think that the target of our reforms needs to be corporations. The real focus of action must be the people that the corporations are killing, who tend to be the very best enablers any criminal could hope to have. Borasisi in the News: Manhattan Nuke Leaking I've been watching the news especially closely lately, as we circle closer to Tuesday's eclipse. There have been some exciting examples of what I'm starting to think of as the Borasisi Effect.
The radiation is coming from a system inside the plant that transports fuel rods from the core to the spent fuel pond. It's an underground tunnel that's flooded with water so that the rods stay submerged (or else they burn out of control). The water is therefore extremely radioactive. It's handled by special pipes and a storage tank, and that's the system that we now know is leaking; it turns out that it's been doing this for at least 10 years. Most of us are just hearing about it now. (The issue has been a big star on my Facebook page for weeks.) Nobody knows how far the radiation is spreading, at the moment. But the issue raises the question of just how intelligent it is to have the most decrepit nuclear power plant in the country just 40 miles north of the Empire State Building.
There are two reactors in the plant, both put online in the 1970s. An older, decommissioned unit ran between 1962 and 1974. The operating license for Unit 2 expired in 2013. The license for Unit 3 expired in 2015. So the plant is in a re-licensing phase. Yet it's clearly not up to code, and it's so close to New York City that it would never be dreamed of, much less built and licensed, as a new project. How it happened in the first place is a result of the nuclear industry's favorite idea: nothing ever goes wrong around here. The prevailing winds blow right at the most concentrated population center in the United States. Now, the question is, does anyone care? Can anyone actually wrap their mind around the possibility that Manhattan would have to be abandoned in the event of a meltdown? Or does the $2 million a day in profits that Indian Point's owner is making prevent considering that very notion? And what about the perfectly crazy idea of running a natural gas pipeline across the property? Sometimes it seems like the world is run by the criminally insane. Donald J. Drumpf Winning Big in the Primaries So far, it looks like The Donald is on track to be the Republican nominee. It's going to take some serious maneuvering (and some other candidate) to stop him. Trump is taking advantage of political and ideological anarchy, and a void of leadership, on the Republican side of the world. Trump is Dr. Frankenstein's monster created by the mainstream Republican party making friends with the lunatic fringe Tea Party.
Recently, John Oliver, who we first met as a brilliant cast member of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, did a segment on his new HBO program focused on Trump. It's one of the most hilarious, blistering, stunning takedowns in comedy history, and will be the best 20 minutes you've invested in anything for weeks. Here is the video. Trump's real family name is Drumpf, and Oliver has called for us to all "Make Donald Drumpf Again." Trump is also a con artist, one of those people who is beyond the point of being a pathological liar, who seems to have no concept that there is such a thing as reality. He's not in the reality-based community, that's for sure. But people are eating him up. MSNBC has been doing crowd interviews at Drumpf events, asking people if anything could possibly persuade them not to vote for him. They say things like, "He tells it like it is" [not true], "He's funding his own campaign" [not true], "He's so successful" [not true], "He's a great businessman" [really, really not true].
And he just swept most of the Super Tuesday primary states; and no other Republican candidate is even close to him. It would seem that in true Borasisi style, Donald J. Drumpf is the lie that people tell themselves to feel better about themselves. Everything about him is a fraud; it's difficult to imagine how anyone could pack more deception into one person. But that's what we have -- and there is a wide, popular support base of actual American citizens that is eating him up. To me, Trump is not the scary thing. It's his supporters who give me the chills. Hillary Clinton, Who Tries to Tell the Truth There is a reason that Hillary Clinton is not winning over young progressive voters, who are swarming in the direction of Bernie Sanders. Her whole presentation just falls flat. She's winning most of the Democratic Primaries, but as The New York Times reported this week, turnout is low and the party's base is not exactly inspired by her.
Maybe it has to do with her voice being as irritating as that of Dick Cheney, which is difficult to achieve. Maybe it has somethig to do with how betrayed those same progressive voters feel by Barack Obama, who they thought was a liberal. It's true that Republicans keep calling him one, but that doesn't make it true. Young Democrats expected an authentic progressive in Obama, but what they got was more like an old-school Republican. In an interview this week, CBS News asked Clinton whether she's ever lied to the American people. Here's a segment of the transcript. SCOTT PELLEY: You know, in '76, Jimmy Carter famously said, "I will not lie to you." HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I have to tell you I have tried in every way I know how literally from my years as a young lawyer all the way through my time as secretary of state to level with the American people. PELLEY: You talk about leveling with the American people. Have you always told the truth? CLINTON: I've always tried to. Always. Always. PELLEY: Some people are gonna call that wiggle room that you just gave yourself. CLINTON: Well, no, I've always tried -- PELLEY: I mean, Jimmy Carter said, "I will never lie to you." CLINTON: Well, but, you know, you're asking me to say, "Have I ever?" I don't believe I ever have. I don't believe I ever have. I don't believe I ever will. I'm gonna do the best I can to level with the American people.That would be great! Let's start with the Goldman Sachs transcript (or video). I'm sure that for that much money it was a fantastic speech. We would all love to read it and watch it in our home entertainment centers. Footnote to history, Jimmy Carter really needs to tell the truth about what horrors he allowed to happen in a place called East Timor. Aubrey McClendon, Archbishop of Fracking, Hits the Wall One last item. There was a guy named Aubrey McClendon, who I guess you had to be an energy news junkie to know about. He was the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, which basically started the fracking revolution. Fracking is a method of extracting gas and oil from shale, by injecting high-pressure hydraulic fluid which wrecks the water table, the land and the air. The company's energy production is still second only to Exxon Mobil, according to news reports Thursday.
On Tuesday, McClendon was indicted on federal bid-rigging charges under the Sherman Antitrust Act. He was accused, while the head of Chesapeake, of conspiring with another company to avoid competition by rigging the prices paid to land owners to sell their mineral rights. This is called price fixing, which is a form of monopolization. The people he cheated are the same ones you're hearing about, whose homes and farms are being ruined by fracking, lured by the promise of immense wealth, whom he saw fit to rip off. There will be no trial. Wednesday morning in Oklahoma City, he drove his car into a concrete bridge support at a high speed, and it burst into flames, killing him. For a variety of reasons, there is little chance that this was an accident, and many reasons to count it as suicide. [I've read the crash chart, and it looks like suicide to me. If anyone is interested in the details, I'll do a blog post.] I don't know if there is any moral lesson here. Those days seem to be long gone, for most people. However, those who look can see what fracking has done, and what it got for its most assertive and successful salesman. And we are its most eager consumers. Of course, I can't run my stove on anything other than gas, so we may be a captive audience. People talk a lot about making the world a better place. They hope beyond hope; at the same time they are lied to and believe those lies. As the old Native American saying goes, you cannot wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep. With love,  PS, I cover the chart for the total solar eclipse in Pisces in detail right at the top of this week's Planet Waves FM. 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. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. 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, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick.
 Point Your Canoe Toward How You'd Like to Feel By Amanda Painter The big astrological event on the near horizon is a total solar eclipse (visible mainly over the Pacific Ocean and parts of Asia) in Pisces on March 8, which is also the Pisces New Moon. Eric commented to me that as we near that event this weekend, the idea is to "point the canoe straight down the river, and avoid the rocks."
First, a little about the eclipse. Eric has covered it in great detail in this week's broadcast of Planet Waves FM, but the basics are that the New Moon is exact at 8:54 pm EST on Tuesday (1:54 UTC Wednesday). At that time, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun at 19 Pisces (near the middle of the sign), blocking it out. Joining the Sun and Moon in Pisces are a slew of major and minor planets, points and other objects (including Mercury, Nessus, Neptune, Ceres, Borasisi, Chiron and the lunar South Node, among others). Together, those objects put a huge emphasis on all things Piscean: emotions, creativity, erotic energy, passion, vision, dreams, psychic sensitivity, beliefs, escapism, humanitarianism and so on. Add the eclipse, and there's a sense of releasing something to make room for something fresh; that also might mean remembering something you once understood long ago, and which suddenly feels new. Some of the basic advice for eclipses in modern Western astrology involves staying open to unexpected opportunities and shifts, which might appear like a doorway opening where you'd previously seen a wall. It can be helpful in identifying opportunities if you have a clear vision of some goal, dream or desire that you're working toward. But what if you don't? In fact, what if you feel conflicted between what you want and what you think you should want? What if you've been carrying beliefs about what is or is not okay to dream for yourself, or you've gotten so stuck in the material reality of 'what is' that you're having trouble imagining anything beyond that sense of fixity?
Setting one of those intentions (or similar) will not be like waving a magic wand. Rather, I'm suggesting that instead of getting caught up in second-guessing yourself, or hung up on the details of how to get from point A to point B, you might be able to take a more Piscean approach that opens your intention-setting out of the mental plane and into a more fluid realm. This could be especially helpful given what might be cropping up as some astrological 'rocks' as we head into the weekend stream: Mercury square Mars, exact Saturday at 12:43 am EST (5:43 UTC); and the Sun square Saturn, exact Sunday at 1:03 am EST (6:03 UTC). The Pisces Sun square Saturn in Sagittarius speaks of issues around authority, specifically your authority over your own life and your beliefs about it. If you feel some tension there, see if it points you toward the ways you can participate more actively in decisions about your responsibilities, or toward constructive ways of making your dreams real. That these planets are in mutable signs ruled by Jupiter suggests you can find some flexibility here if you broaden your perspective. Mercury in Aquarius square Mars in Scorpio might ask for even more of your awareness. Partly because these planets will be in the last degree of their respective signs (a potentially edgy place to be), and those signs are both 'fixed' in quality. If you've noticed in yourself (or possibly in someone close to you) an inclination to dig into some position, belief or desire -- especially if fear is involved, or if you feel like you need to defend something about yourself at all costs -- that would be one of those metaphorical rocks in the stream. Given that we're in the midst of presidential primary season and it seems to be the most chaotic one in recent memory, the urge to defend your beliefs or your candidate with all your might could be strong.
Collectively I would say that a lot is indeed at stake with these presidential candidates, in terms of the future of the US. Yet, superimposing those stakes on each individual conversation you have with your friends, family and work colleagues looks less than helpful. Defending your position as though you're both gladiators in the Coliseum does not put people into a receptive mood. If you don't feel the pull of politics, this dynamic can still occur in other personal situations where you might feel yourself taking a defensive position. What is that fear, really? Again, I'm going to point to the idea of envisioning the feeling-tone you'd like to enjoy. Would 'winning' an argument really put your heart at ease? Or can you set your sights on something gentler, something that feels joyful, loving and grounded -- and that opens the way for all the dreaming, co-creating and passion you'd like to experience in your life? The brilliance of this approach is that it shifts your focus away from what you might have to 'give up' to make space for the new thing you'd like to invite into your life (i.e., 'change'). Instead, it puts the emphasis on receiving -- if, of course, you're willing to allow it. Yours & truly,  Amanda Painter   Martin Molin in the official video from Wintergatan, playing the meticulously crafted, music-box-like machine that uses 2,000 marbles. According to thisiscolossal.com, "Molin began work on the marble machine in August 2014 and hoped to spend about two months on the project. Its complexity soon spiraled out of control as all 3,000 internal parts had to be designed and fabricated by hand, a time-consuming process that eventually took 14 months." As the device cycles, it activates instruments that play a score programmed into a 32-bar loop made of LEGO Technic parts. Image: video still.
A Marvel of Musical MarblesBy Amanda Painter If the degree to which certain political candidates seem to have lost their marbles is making you feel like you're losing yours, good news! Martin Molin and the Swedish band Wintergatan have found them -- and in perfectly Piscean fashion, they're making some lovely and fun music with them. Watch their video of a musical Marble Machine (shot by Hannes Knutsson), and let your sense of curiosity-fueled play get rekindled. Maybe you'll be moved to dance around your living room, or create some music of your own. If you're inclined toward the more Virgoan planning/making side of the axis, check out the series of videos showing how the machine was built. True to Pisces' affinity for beautiful illusion, the sound you hear in the first video is not the full sound of the whole machine as the video camera (or your ears, if you were in the room) experiences it. The audio captured by small contact microphones placed beneath individual points on the machine (such as where the marble hits the paddle to make the kick drum sound) can be isolated from the camera's recorded audio in a software program. This allows the final recording to sound ‘clean', minus all the extra marble noises. Prologue video #8 -- Kick Drum Works! -- shows how this is done. Or just revel in the playful beauty of the music as we approach the Pisces New Moon and total solar eclipse on March 8 (March 9 in some time zones). Who knows -- maybe some of those marbles are better off lost in the cosmic waters, anyway.  Super Tuesday Edition of Planet Waves FM Total Eclipse in Pisces, Indian Point is Leaking, and the Laniakea Galactic Supercluster Dear Friend and Reader: This week we have a gorgeous Planet Waves FM for you, really, three programs in one [play episode]. First a reminder -- this program is sponsored by your memberships to Planet Waves, to Vision Quest and the affordable, excellent readings I offer.
What I neglect to mention is the presence of Jupiter in Virgo, serving as a massive counterweight to all that Pisces, without which the world might spin off of its axis. As you listen, keep in mind that all those planets are opposite Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. I describe the Jupiter opposition extensively (particularly as a relationship feature) in the Pisces birthday reading, expected Wednesday. There are so many planets conjunct the eclipse that it's tempting to ignore them, but I don't. Those include asteroid Photographica, centaur Nessus, Mercury, dwarf planet Ceres, the Sun, the Moon, asteroid Memoria, Kuiper object Borasisi, and centaur Chiron. Jeez. But, I actually make sense of this alignment. I then break for music by Sloan Wainwright, possibly my very favorite artist to feature on Planet Waves FM. When you listen, check out how she swings her gorgeous, alto voice. It's like she's pulsing to some rhythm that only she can hear. In the second segment I do a news roundup that I had much help compiling, from my friends on the Eco List (Lizanne, Amanda, Amy, Len, Carol, Cynthia and others). First I look at the underground leak at the Indian Point nuclear plant just north of New York City. With the help of Manna Jo Green at Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, I was able to learn what that's about.
Then I go over an issue that hasn't made the news yet -- a massive release of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulphur compounds that flooded the West Coast a week ago and may be a precursor to an earthquake [see really freaky satellite video here]. Next up is U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), an Iraq vet and congresswoman who resigned this week as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee so she could endorse Bernie Sanders for president. This was apparently so controversial that her appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show last night was either disappeared or buried so deep nobody can find it on the MSNBC website. I speculate about what might have happened. Last, I look into the incident wherein Donald Trump was endorsed by ex-KKK chief and white supremacist David Duke. Yes, that's what I said. Trump pretended not to know about Duke, the KKK or white supremacy. For that, I have the help of Democracy Now!, our sister program on the Pacifica Network. Bonus Section: Interview with Prof. Brent Tully, Galactic Astronomer
One of them is Brent Tully of the University of Hawaii (today is Hawaii Day), who is part of the project of mapping out the supercluster of which the Milky Way galaxy is part. Our supercluster (of about 100,000 galaxies) is called Laniakea, and it all leads to this thing I have often referenced, called the Great Attractor. Prof. Tully is a specialist in measuring the distances between galaxies. He's one of four people on the Laniakea team that has been mapping out the way that the group of galaxies that surround us is structured.
Basically, it turns out that the center of our little galaxy is nearby in Sagittarius, but so too is the center of the known universe. It's located about 200 million light years away. If Sagittarians have ever seemed a little extra something to you, this illustrates the point. Tully first takes us through what a galaxy is, what a black hole is, what dark matter is -- and then we move on, to the structure of our supercluster. This is a truly amazing presentation that you will not hear the likes of anyplace else. I am always grateful when an astronomer is supportive of the work that research astrologers are doing. They tend to be the very brightest scientists who understand that we are interested in the cosmos just like they are. And that's your program. Amanda has written a summary of everything else on Planet Waves the past few days, below. W/love 
Miracle Hour Episode 4: Everyone Teaches, All the TimeIn today's edition of The Miracle Hour [play episode here], I provide an introduction to the teacher's manual in A Course In Miracles. Here is an excerpt from the opening passage of that document: The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe.Music is by Vision Quest. The program is 59 minutes. Here is the interview with Kenneth Wapnik that I linked to last week -- it's so good that I felt compelled to share it again. Note that even Wapnik does not endorse uncritical acceptance of the text.
ATTENTION PISCES -- Sun, Moon and rising! The Sun is in your sign (and a gorgeous eclipse is headed your way), which means your 2016-17 birthday reading is now available for pre-order. You can get that here for just $19.97.
You may find out more about your reading here.
 Your Monthly Horoscopes -- and our Publishing Schedule Notes Your extended monthly horoscopes for March were published Thursday, Feb. 25. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for February on Thursday, Jan. 21. Your Aquarius New Moon Moonshine horoscope by Len was published on Feb. 11. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Thursday after the Sun has entered a new sign. Short Monthly Horoscope for March 2016, #1090 | By Eric Francis
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 The audio readings for Vision Quest are now published. You may order by sign or receive all 12 signs here. Listen to samples at this link.
 I'm about to record your Pisces birthday reading. I will have it to you well in advance of the March 8 total solar eclipse. I'll cover the themes of that event, and the other planets in Pisces. I'll also cover Jupiter going into Libra, and the Uranus-Eris conjunction. This reading will be a keeper! Sign up now for the pre-order price.
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