A Class, Hillary's Birth Time Controversy, and some Astrology Good Evening on Planet Waves: I'm going to lay low this week and let my colleagues handle most writing duties today. I'm planning to prep our class on Saturday -- It's All in the Houses. We'll email out another round of subscriber discount codes. Read more about the class here.
I am planning to resume my election coverage on Tuesday on Planet Waves FM with some astonishing information I discovered this week about Donald Trump's running mate, Mike Pence. More About Hillary Clinton's Ambiguous Time of Birth Below is a news item about the controversy over Hillary Clinton's birth time, which was covered by The Wall Street Journal last week, and which then became a sensation in the astrology world. ISAR, the International Society for Astrological Research, could have handled this better by saying that they had a new clue about Clinton's birth data rather than incorrectly claiming that they had "breaking news" double-accurate data. As I mentioned in my recent piece about Hillary Clinton's chart, she has multiple birth times (approximately six so far: 1:18 am, 2:08 am, 2:18 am, 8:02 am, 8 pm and 8:02 pm, plus a famous rectification for 7:58 pm). Yes, I think this is really weird. As in really, really weird. That story gets its own item in this edition below Amanda's article, reprinted from The Mountain Astrologer, a magazine I love that is part of the culture of American astrology. You can read that version here (with comments from TMA's readers). Your Zodiac Sign is Definitely Not Wrong It seems like the "your sign is wrong" and "there is a 13th sign" hoax has resurfaced. This has been going on so long that I was making fun of it in 1998, but really it goes back about 20 years earlier. I've made a YouTube video about this, which I would encourage you to send to anyone who is staying up late nights worrying. I also covered this extensively in 2011 when it popped up and became a national news story. That article is called You Are Who You Are. Coverage of the Oct. 16 Full Moon Coverage of the Oct. 16 Full Moon in Aries, conjunct Uranus-Eris, will continue in the Four Winds Report daily almanac. You might love this new publication we're doing -- it's compact and practical, and has things like a quick daily astrology wrap-up. You can sign up here. OK -- with that, I leave you in the capable hands of my colleagues. Thanks for tuning in. w/love 
Urge to Purge: Sun-Pluto and Self-Aware Self-ExpressionDear Friend and Reader: Free at last! That is, we're free from Mercury's post-retrograde shadow phase as of this afternoon. If you've been working through the lingering reverberations of recent glitches, you should notice that easing up considerably. The timing couldn't be better, too, as other factors in the sky are urging self-expression and action. The major current aspect is the Sun in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn, exact Friday at 3:33 pm EDT (19:33 UTC).
Yet there's a third kind of 'purging' that might come even more easily and be just as beneficial: simply getting something off your chest that's overdue to be put out there. Chances are you know what that thing is; if not, Pluto adds a deeply introspective tone. You may feel compelled to listen to yourself more closely as the weekend nears. On Wednesday, Eric wrote of this aspect, "Pluto focuses the Sun, and a square represents an inner impulse or drive. This is about independent self-expression. Independent means not dependent on the permission of others. You are the one who must give yourself consent to be who you are, and to express your soul's intentions. This is your journey." I would add that the fact that this is your journey means you have more influence over how self-expression happens than you might like to imagine some days. It's easy to get drawn into fantasies of big, dramatic displays of 'telling your truth' to someone in authority, especially if you're the type to shy away from that in actual reality. As the inner tension of a square builds, sometimes the image of really letting things rip feels cathartic, satisfying or downright justified. Sometimes it is. The vast majority of the time, however, it's not truly necessary. What's more, it can inflict collateral damage, both to yourself and to important relationships. A simultaneous square (which was exact on Wednesday) underscores this idea. Mars in Capricorn is square Jupiter in Libra. All squares are about action, but Mars-Jupiter in cardinal signs is pushing the 'Do it now!' button particularly clearly. This can be an ambitious aspect, so remember: a little will go a long way. And working for the sake of doing good work beautifully -- as opposed to doing it for the glory -- will be rewarded.
Mercury in Libra can sometimes be an indecisive placement; but Saturn's 'exalted' influence over Libra adds some stabilization to the mental environment, even though Saturn is over in Sagittarius currently. Let's not forget Libra's desire for harmony and fairness. It was recently pointed out to me that the shadow expression of Libra can manifest as manipulative, controlling or secretive tendencies, thanks to placing too much importance on superficial harmony and making situations 'look good' -- that is, avoiding at all costs the friction or confrontation that can come with honesty. But without going to that extreme, the harmony-and-fairness urge can guide you quite well. Think of it this way: there's a huge difference between yelling and slamming doors to make your point, and pretending everything is okay while going behind someone's back. In the middle there's a sizable swath of terrain where you can experiment with genuine, independently driven, soul-level self-expression that respects your desires, respects anyone to whom you might direct this expression, and also respects your other relationships and shared environments. Were this the easiest option, just imagine what a different world this would be. Yet it's also not the hardest thing to do, either. You can live your soul's intentions and purge some karma without creating more. The first step is the choice to do so. Yours & truly,  Amanda Painter Planet Waves Astrology Editor 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: Jonathan McCarthy. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Eric's Assistant: Gale Jazylo. Client Services: Amy Elliott. Media Consultant: Andrew Ellis Marshall McLuhan. Music Director: Daniel Sternstein. Additional Research, Writing and Opinions: Amy Jacobs, Cindy Ragusa and Carol van Strum.
It's October 2016 And We're Still Speculating About Hillary Clinton's Missing Birth DataBy Eric Francis | Reprinted from The Mountain Astrologer It's been an interesting week to be an astrologer. It all started when The Wall Street Journal published an article on September 29, Who's Demanding to See Hillary Clinton's Birth Certificate? Baffled Astrologers. That would be us. Astrologers are the new birthers.
The last time was their piece on how astrologers were responding to the demotion of Pluto and the naming of Eris (that was in August 2006). While the rest of the political dialog swirled around Donald Trump's $900 million write-off, his tax returns, and his comments about an allegedly zaftig Miss Universe, the astrology world was abuzz with a newly revived discussion about Clinton's missing data, thanks in part to Dow Jones and Company. Why exactly is WSJ the only mainstream news outlet that takes astrology seriously enough to write a real article every now and then? Maybe they have fond memories of Evangeline Adams counseling J. P. Morgan about how to be a billionaire. "There is one crucial detail Hillary Clinton hasn't divulged to the American people, and it's driving Michael O'Reilly bonkers," the article by Yogita Patel begins. O'Reilly, from Bend, OR, has loads of other birth data on major political candidates, but he's got nothing substantial on Clinton. "Mrs. Clinton was born Oct. 26, 1947, at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Ill., according to the Cook County Clerk. After that, astrologers must play gumshoe to get any closer. There's decent historical evidence for two times at either end of the day. The Clinton campaign declined to answer questions, ensuring the mystery will continue," Patel writes. (quotes from WSJ article linked above) This must be a running joke at both Clinton headquarters and Cook County Vital Records. The article goes through the litany of birth times and various sources for them. Phoenix-based astrologer Patrick Watson provided the Journal with Clinton's widely used 8:02 a.m. chart, which the newspaper published in the web edition. Watson used a whole-sign house version of the chart. Score one for Hellenistic astrology. Although Watson provided the Journal with Clinton's 8:02 a.m. chart, based on the Journal's research, it would seem that the 8:00 p.m. time is better documented. With the 8:00 p.m. chart, Clinton would have the last degree of Gemini rising; at 8:00 p.m. and 47 seconds, it would be the first degree of Cancer rising. There are moments when the exact birth time matters, and this is one of them.
"There are two disappointing things about this article," one reader commented. "One, that the WSJ published and printed it.? Two, I learned that I share the same sign as HRC. Keep me away from sharp knives and tall bridges!" "In an era where the internet rules political discourse, and things which are demonstrably and empirically untrue can alter the thoughts of voters so dramatically, pandering to nonsense astrology is stupefying," wrote another commenter. "Nowhere in the article is the premise of these 'astrologers' questioned as they should be. You write their 'conclusions' without questioning their basis in empirical fact. This article contributes to the disarray in our political discussions. One cannot have rational discussion about irrational beliefs." You can say that again. Adding to a week of intrigue, on September 25th, ISAR (the International Society for Astrological Research) announced that it would be revealing Clinton's true birth data at its conference in California next weekend. ISAR's press release said that data collector Marc Penfield "will reveal the Democratic contender's time of birth then, and the process he went through to find this KEY missing astrological link for forecasting the 2016 USA presidential election." Notably, this revelation was planned for the end of the conference, which would have kept the data concealed for all of the preceding discussions of the forthcoming election. Other astrologers, not afraid to point out that this looked like a way to get people to come to the conference, put the pressure on ISAR and Penfield to reveal the data sooner. ISAR responded by releasing a video on Sunday, October 1st, in which Raymond Merriman and Shelley Ackerman interviewed Penfield. Both are well-known astrologers: Ackerman is reputed for having obtained Bill Clinton's birth time from his mother in 1992. Merriman is a noted financial astrologer whose work is actually read by traders.
Penfield, in the interview, said that this was actually old data, first published in March 2008 in the AFA Journal. He started with the story of how 2:18 a.m. data purportedly originated with an unnamed cousin of Hillary Clinton, who, in turn, got it from Clinton's mother. However, he added that he got the same data from Zayin Cohen, who claimed to have got it from the Court Clerk of Cook County, Illinois. (Other versions of this legend have him getting the data from an unnamed source in "Israeli intelligence.") Several political astrologers I spoke to said that over the years, Cohen has given out three different times for Clinton's birth (1:18 a.m., 2:08 a.m. and 2:18 a.m.). Penfield said, "I called the records office in Springfield, the state capitol, and I asked the gal there to verify this birth time for me. I knew that she could not give me the information verbally over the phone. So we worked out a deal which a lot of reporters do whereby if I'm wrong, you tell me so, and if I'm right, say nothing." Using this method, he determined it was a morning birth, thus eliminating 8:00 p.m. and 8:02 p.m. Then, he said, they went through a number of questions: "We worked around a couple of other times and I got down to 2:18, at which point she said nothing." "We saw that in All The President's Men. Woodward and Bernstein used that device as well," Ackerman said. "This is a trick that reporters use all the time!" Penfield added. However, Penfield did not claim to have recorded the discussion, which would be required by most fact-checkers and editors. Many apps make this easy from a cell phone. He does not have anything on paper. Patrick Watson, the Phoenix-based astrologer, said this scenario seems implausible, because revealing private records in the State of Illinois is a felony carrying jail time and a $25,000 fine. So, it would seem that something intended to resolve the controversy over Clinton's birth time has only added to it. 
By Amanda Painter Gary Greff saw where Regent, North Dakota, was headed: ghost town status (its 2010 Census population was 160). Beginning in 1989, he set about trying to figure out how to get people to travel off the interstate, down 30 miles of desolate highway, to visit. "I said, if someone doesn't do something, this community will be a dead community," says Greff in this Great Big Story video. "Then it dawned on me: nobody's going to drive 30 miles for normal sculptures. But they might drive for the world's largest." Greff started in 1989, learning how to weld from local ranchers. It takes him roughly 4-5 years for each piece; he uses flattened out, reclaimed oil well tanks for 90% of his metal. Beginning with the Tin Family, he's moved on to such subjects as pheasants, grasshoppers, anglers and their fish, and a flock of geese in flight that's in the Guinness Book of World Records for largest scrap-metal sculpture. "I want people to see that this guy who didn't know how to weld, didn't have an art class; if he can create something like this, I can do most anything." As Eric has described, Friday's Sun-Pluto square indicates independent self-expression of your soul's journey. With Libra and Capricorn involved, that expression could easily be something artistic that endures -- even if it's not very large.  This Week on Planet Waves FM What If This Whole Trump Thing is a Joke? Dear Friend and Reader: In this week's edition of Planet Waves FM [play episode here], I begin by considering whether the whole Donald Trump candidacy is a joke that won't end. We learned a couple of months ago that it was Bill Clinton who reportedly put Donald Trump up to running, which may have seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, he's bigoted and doesn't like women; he's ultra politically incorrect and can't shut up. He's the perfect candidate to beat.
They give Trump all this bullshit to spew, and he does it, tweeting at 5 am and admitting he doesn't pay taxes and all -- but nothing can stop him. He's the fire that won't go out. He's captured the public's imagination. In this show I also look closely at the Hillary Clinton birth data controversy. Here's the Wall Street Journal article that I mention, and here's the ISAR press release, and the video that ISAR put out Sunday evening featuring my friends: merry Ray Merriman and sunny Shelley Ackerman. My musical guest is Thom Yorke, with selections from his solo work. You can order The Eraser [Amazon or iTunes], or Tomorrow's Modern Boxes [Amazon or iTunes]. Thom's chart is on the Planet Waves FM page. Don't forget my class, It's All In the Houses, is planned for Saturday. Write to us for the special discount link. Thanks for tuning in and thanks for your membership support. We can't do this without our members! Thanks for being, or becoming, one of them. With love,
12 Noon to 4 pm EDT, Saturday, October 8, 2016 "Technology is a wonderful thing when it connects people together to follow their passion. Eric is a great teacher as he empowers people to think creatively. Bless."Do you wish you could get the chart to give up its secrets, or do you have a feeling there's more you're not seeing? Do you want to be a more articulate astrologer? We have a class for you, called It's All In the Houses. If there's one secret to astrology, this is it. If you understand the houses as environments and groups of themes, you can read a chart. This live audio class (with a video introduction) will be recorded -- so whether you join us for all four hours (plus a break), or just a couple, or prefer to catch up with the recording later, you're covered. "Eric is a gifted teacher, fascinating storyteller, with a incredible base of both knowledge and experience that draws one in. Combined with patience and a gift for translating subject matter into very understandable terms, the class was great."We will hold the class by teleconference at noon EDT on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. You may sign up here. If you're a Backstage Pass or Core Community Member, or need a reduced rate, please write to us.  Your Monthly Horoscopes -- and our Publishing Schedule Notes We published your extended monthly horoscope for October on Thursday, Sept. 22. Your extended monthly horoscope for September was published on Thursday, Aug. 25. We published the Moonshine horoscope for the Libra New Moon, by Len Wallick, on Thursday, Sept. 29. Your Moonshine horoscope for the Pisces Full Moon was published on Thursday, Sept. 15. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign. Short Monthly Horoscope for October 2016, #1120 | By Eric Francis
      Just What You Need When You Need It: Your Libra Reading
Dear Friend and Reader: Just in case you missed the news, Eric has completed Part One of the 2016-17 Libra Birthday Reading: two lush segments of studio-quality audio astrology. He'll be completing Part Two, the video tarot reading, in the near future. We're already getting fantastic feedback about this reading -- including this email from longtime member Ginger Aarons:
As always, your reading is spot on and validates what I am experiencing in life at this time. The sheer acknowledgment that, as a Libra, I need balance, beauty and aesthetics in my life to make me tick on -- balanced -- in my day-to-day endeavors, and consequently some very huge endeavors for the year, was just what I needed to keep going. I have been struggling for about four years now on the idea of safety and security within myself instead of in outside sources. This will be put to the test this year (as if it hasn't already been tested!) and while I struggle to want some cohesive partnership, as most Libras do, it is elusive still. I wonder can I wait for a miracle? The shifting of Jupiter into Libra was indeed an overnight event, and suddenly I am able to face the future full on. I think to sum it up: the reminder that really what it gets down to is acting in integrity, and realizing that quality, respect and beauty equals wisdom to this Libra. And then perhaps we can change the world. Soldiering on. Thank you again, Eric. I think we are entering about 18 years of knowing each other. That's a long time in today's world. You're a blessing. Thank you for your service! -- Ginger Aarons If you know and love a Libra, you can let them know by giving them this reading. It's ideal for those with Libra rising, too, and you can still order it for the discounted price of $24.95 for a limited time. Note: the price will increase again before the tarot portion publishes. (Still not sure? Listen to last year's Libra reading here, on us.) Yours & truly, Amanda Painter Planet Waves Astrology Editor      
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