Mercury Meets Mars Retrograde

Dear Friend and Reader:

Mars is now retrograde in Aquarius for the first time since 1971. Mars is retrograde for about 60 days every two years. However, by some astronomical quirk, the retrogrades are not evenly distributed through the signs, and tend to lean more in the direction of Leo.

Detail of view from NASA's Curiosity rover of Vera Rubin Ridge on Mount Sharp, Mars, taken a year ago. Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

When Mars is retrograde, the Earth is passing between it and the Sun. Since the Earth takes a year to go around the Sun and Mars takes two years, it takes the Earth a while to catch up and pass it on the inside lane. That's what's happening now, and the result is that Mars seems to be moving backwards through the zodiac, from the standpoint of a viewer on Earth.

Mars is also visible in the night sky; it's difficult to miss: it is red.

We've been under the influence of Mars retrograde since May 12, when Mars entered the degrees where the retrograde occurs, sometimes called the shadow or echo phase. Note the changes and developments in your life since that time; note the climate you've been living under, and the direction things have been moving. That is what you're working with, developing, learning and integrating.

What is so interesting about Mars retrograde in Aquarius is that it tells a story about where the individual (Mars) meets the community (Aquarius). This includes the thought forms and patterns that are made by the "group mind," which can be overbearing, and pressure people into thinking and feeling ideas and emotions that are not really their own -- sometimes on pain of shunning, or other punishment inflicted by the tribe.

Electrical Media and the Global Village

And tribal we are, these days. One of Marshall McLuhan's core theories of media is that the electrical environment tribalizes people. His reference to the "global village" was really about radio, though the name was picked up by a well-known manufacturer of modems used to connect to the internet.

He attributed the tribal attitudes of the 1960s to the impact of television -- the thing itself, not the programs. In my day hanging out with Marshall's son Dr. Eric McLuhan, who passed earlier this year, I asked about the impact of high-resolution screens. Eric said that the impact would only be greater.

My personal theory is that the binary nature of the internet, which reduces everything to zeros and ones, radically polarizes an already partisan and in-group driven environment. For those of us wondering when society is going to calm down and people are going to start working together, we may as well ask when people are going to become conscious of the impact of digital technology, when young people are going to start reading books, and when those who hide within a tribal environment are going to have the guts to express their own opinions, violating the norms of the community around them.

I have not mentioned that Aquarius is the perfect representation of the patterns imposed on us by the digital environment. In a late-night conversation I once had with astrologer Rick Levine, we explored an idea (for science fiction) that the internet is really an extraterrestrial "being" that incarnated through the electrical systems of the planet, thereby infesting everyone's mind -- as what we call the internet (his name for this being was Aquarion).

Of Groups and Masses

Now that Mars is moving retrograde in Aquarius, some people will be in a position to challenge the seemingly mandatory norms that we presumably must adhere to, uphold and contribute to, on pain of excommunication. Mars retrograde provides a countercurrent that anyone with some courage can insert themselves into, and get a little extra energy added to their process of individuation. To do this, it's necessary to rise above one's fear of conflict and rejection.

In her wise and (thankfully) abundant discussion of the sign Aquarius, Alice Bailey defines the difference between "mass consciousness" and "group consciousness." The main difference is that a group is a group of individuals, relating to one another as such. Mass consciousness is the crowd cheering at a football game.

For a group to be a group, it must be composed of people who have gone through some experience of individuation. Often, that takes conflict, because we've left one another very few other options for how to find or discover ourselves. Another would be the honest transaction of sex and sexual desire; however, if one actually "comes out" about their real sexuality, rather than their political conformity to a group, one likely result is conflict.

Marshall McLuhan in 1963; photo by Erik Christensen/The Globe and Mail.

Mercury Opposes Mars on Thursday

Getting into all this deep philosophical stuff, I almost forgot to mention that at 7:48 am (11:28:17 UTC) on Thursday, July 5, Mercury in Leo opposes Mars in Aquarius. This will push the issue of individuation, and it may come with some conflict.

In any event, Mercury draws attention to what it makes contact with, and this opposition will likely flip the lights on when it comes to what this Mars retrograde is about. The idea of independent thinking is currently so alien to our society that it verges on impossible to describe.

Yet you do have your own thoughts, and your own ideas: about yourself, about life, and about who and what you want. That is a good place to start.

I would add one other thought. Perhaps part of the struggle with individuals choosing to be free at this time is that we know it comes with the solemn responsibility to allow others to think what they want and be who they are. This is more than most people can handle. We are noticing that the allure of controlling others is, for many, greater than allowing them to be free.

We need a good dose of live, and let live; of think, and let think.

With love,
In Tonight's Edition of Planet Waves FM What is Your American Dream?

Dear Friend and Listener:

In tonight's Planet Waves FM [play edition here], I ask: what is your American dream? This is in honor of Independence Day, which is Wednesday -- the 242nd birthday of the United States.

I give a reading of the current Mars retrograde, I read the United States chart, and I consider the differences between desire and consent.

Planet Waves FM is presented without corporate sponsorship or commercial interruption. It's part of the Pacifica Radio Network, and sponsored by your contributions to Chiron Return, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Thank you for your generous contributions and memberships, which really do pay for the program.

With love,

Are You Ready for the Sacred Space of Self?

Dear Friend and Reader:

It's not for everyone. It may be for you. Are you ready for a journey into your astrology, and the astrology of our times? Are you ready for a full-spectrum view of Mars retrograde?

This event is in Aquarius, the sign of society and its patterns. I have done something truly shamanic, which is to be transported deep into the shadowy underworld of what is going on, right beneath the level of appearances, and the level of technology. I have witnessed and experienced things I can barely describe.

All that I've learned, I've shared in the Sacred Space of Self. This reading covers Chiron in Aries, Uranus in Taurus, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius -- all of which are directly related events. (Mars is the classical ruler of Aries, where Chiron is, and Uranus, now in Taurus, is modern planet associated with Aquarius). We are working out an energy pattern.

Eric recording the Taurus Spring Reading video.

Everyone feels the need for change, sometimes to an urgent depth of necessity. These readings (12 of them, plus a supplemental one on Chiron in Aries) are a guide to moving through, working with, and experiencing these energies in a creative way.

I have designed a guide to change, as society changes.

In this letter, we have three offers for you: for the readings as stand-alone, or combined with a written reading a discounted membership or extension; and then with either my written The Art of Becoming reading, and a membership. Those are listed below.

We can customize a purchase for you, though that is easier by phone. This will also get you an opportunity to talk with Amy or Ellen, and if I'm in the office, with me.

Here are your options, described a little more elegantly:

Option One -- The Sacred Space of Self video readings, all 12 signs, one purchase per household (i.e., share with your kids); or individual signs. These are 40-50 minute readings, applicable to your Sun sign, rising sign, Moon sign and the astrological ideas you have of others. I consider it ethical to 'research' possible viewpoints of others as a means of improving communication.

Option Two -- The Sacred Space of Self plus a year of Core Community membership, whether new, an extension, or upgrade and extend. Core Community gets you all of our publications, website access, and The Oracle divination tool (and intelligent horoscope archive). This includes daily, weekly and monthly horoscopes. Also included is a Planet Waves diary (beautiful new pink ones arrived) or personalized astrology kit.

Option Three -- The Sacred Space of Self, plus Core Community, plus The Art of Becoming Annual Reading. This is if you are super curious, and you want to catch up. The Art of Becoming will always be relevant, though I propose you want the information that it contains right about now, or as close to now as possible.

Remember, if you're confused or want some other options, or need help on the financial end, call us at (845) 481-5616. If you leave a message we will get right back to you.

Thank you for your business, and for trusting me as your astrologer.

With love,

P.S. Don't forget to watch our other sample videos: we have a compilation of cardinal sign previews, or you can watch the entire video on Chiron transits here.

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Listen to Vision Quest on Live Stream

Planet Waves has an in-house music ensemble, called Vision Quest. We have a 38-hour loop of our music, which you can listen to any time. Included are finished pieces, rehearsals, live concerts, drum grooves, and spoken word recordings. I consider it a kind of musical divination. Click in randomly at different times of day and see what you discover.

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Four Winds Almanac Now Includes Daily Horoscope

Planet Waves publishes a nifty daily astrology newsletter called the Four Winds Report. Designed as a fast read arriving early in the morning, we're now trying an experiment -- we're including the daily horoscope for everyone.

Were it not for horoscopes, I wouldn't be an astrologer. It was the Patric Walker daily that convinced me there was actually something to astrology, and I got my basic education studying his column each day in the New York Post.

I pack a lot of energy into each sign's 50-word write up. Part of the value of astrology is the timing, and daily allows for precision, as well as chronicling a narrative day by day.

Your almanac also includes information about Mayan astrology (long count and short count dates), several formats of the current date (including Hebrew and Islamic), a daily birthday reading, and special discounts on products and services.

Best of all, we take no outside advertising.

Sign up free here.

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Planet Waves: Calm Amid the Chaos


Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

We published your extended monthly horoscopes for July on Thursday, June 21. Your extended monthly horoscopes for June were published on Thursday, May 24. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign. Aries (March 20-April 19) -- The key to your successful handling of Mars retrograde will be not overreacting -- to anything. This is not easy, as you are a natural born fighter, and you like to stand up for what is right. With your ruling planet retrograde in Aquarius, you will be feeling no reservations about standing out from the crowd, going against the grain, or even being unpopular. However, you must be strategic about this. If you encounter something that angers you, particularly if it involves some form of hypocrisy, you will come up with a better response if you give yourself time to consider it. You might really need to carry around an apple, and if you feel the temptation to speak, bite into it, and chew for long enough to turn around and walk away. Then, think it over. Avoid arguing in public, even if it's a reasonable substitute to tearing off someone's head. Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Be cautious of anyone who claims to be a soothsayer, prophet or alchemist. They may have no clue what they're talking about. It would be helpful, overall, to avoid omens of any kind, and proceed on the basis of logic, strategy and verified data. This would hold true, in particular, for any family or household situation, or when your personal security seems jeopardized. You must be precise in your understandings, rather than predictive. You also don't have to hold up the sky where a family matter is concerned; rather, be aware of the situation, and spend two or three times the duration you feel is necessary to get the facts (if, indeed, you choose to be involved). Meanwhile, there are plenty of ways you can be supportive. Make sure all the basics are covered, at work or at home. Wind the clock, do the dishes, and pass along any important phone messages. Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- As the week develops, you may be inclined to engage with someone in writing. By engage, I mean fight. This will be risky because anyone you take on is unlikely to be telling the truth, and is certainly not telling the whole truth. Therefore, your efforts are likely to be misguided, and your words could be used against you in the future. What comes to the surface on Wednesday will be abundantly revealing, and provide confirmation that holding your fire was the best policy. That revelation will also help some of your long-range plans, though you will want to hold off making major decisions until Mars stations direct in late August. By major decision, I mean anything irrevocable, where something is truly at stake. It's a similar situation as this week: you will need the information you gain over the next seven weeks, without which you lack the solid grounds for any decision.
Cancer Birthdays 2018: Step into Your Year, and Step into Yourself

"Thank you -- I can't even begin to explain how this resonates!!!"

-- Andrea Hogan Finn

Dear Friend and Reader:

With the Cancer Sun heading into a grand trine with Jupiter in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces this week, how will you use that energy? Will you swirl around in your dreams and emotions, or will you use your empathy and vision to take the lead in your life somehow?

No matter which way things go for you this week, your 2018 Cancer Birthday Reading will have you covered for the rest of your solar year. Eric brings his most empowering perspective to these readings, offering you tips, constructive questions and proactive ways to get yourself pointed in the right direction for whatever develops this year -- all in friendly, accessible language.

"Eric's readings have helped me so much over the years, to overcome insecurities, difficulties and hard times. His readings have helped steer me through some of the roughest days and beyond. I have appreciated his calming, positive and practical counsel. I am amazed at his ability to do what he does."
-- Mici B.

When you pre-order your Cancer Birthday Reading, you'll receive two segments of astrology (at least 30 minutes each), access to last year's birthday reading, an extended description of your sign, and online access to the chart Eric used -- all for only $33 when you pre-order prior to publishing.

Once the reading is ready, the price will increase -- so I definitely encourage you to pre-order sooner rather than later. We'll email you when it's ready, and then you can listen to it as many times as you like throughout the year.

With Saturn affecting your relationships, Chiron urging you to step up in your self-understanding, and Uranus lighting up your zone of career, calling and public reputation, this is shaping up to be a year like no other. It makes sense to have an astrologer like no other by your side.

Yours & truly,

Amanda Painter

P.S. Your Cancer loved ones deserve astrological guidance that is grounded, practical, inspirational and reassuring, too -- give them their 2018 Cancer Birthday Reading as a gift.

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Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- Keep making course corrections in real time, based on the latest available data. Making a series of small adjustments is better than making any large change, especially if you cannot easily reverse it. Mars moving retrograde through Aquarius is reminding you to address your various scenarios with people one at a time, as individuals, rather than as a group. In any matter of negotiation, work one-on-one. Have in-person conversations, rather than email, and do not conduct any important business by group chat or email. That will give rise to exactly the kind of conflicts and confusion that you're trying to avoid -- problems born entirely of the internet. Over the next week to 10 days, the Sun will make aspects to both Neptune and Pluto, which is a reminder that you're dealing with forces seemingly greater than yourself. That is not true, though your strength and power stem from being a straight arrow, aimed carefully at its mark. Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- If there is an antagonist in your environment -- a person or situation whose primary role is to irritate you -- steer clear of that person or scene. It's vital that you not voluntarily engage with them. Mercury in your sign is working up to an opposition to retrograde Mars. This is exact Thursday, and it represents some situation coming to a head. Proceed with care, and do your best to know who you are dealing with at all times. Don't reveal any information voluntarily; make sure you ask questions, and verify the answers you get before accepting them. If any discussion involves an intimate partner, you must be gentle rather than pushy, and listen more than you speak. Rather than making any accusations, listen for consistency and sincerity. This would be good policy any day of the year, though it's particularly relevant now. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- Your home planet Mercury is moving through the most sensitive angle of your solar chart, which is drawing your attention inward. That's the right direction to focus; listen carefully to the messages of your own psyche. However, this kind of inner awareness is in short supply at the moment, and many people have no idea what it is. The best way to describe it is something akin to meditation, where you sit in silence and listen to your inner voice, without judging what you hear. There's also a necessary element of reducing your emphasis on messages from the outer world, and placing your priority on focusing on your own understanding. This will entail being especially honest with yourself, particularly about what you know and do not know; and how you know what you think you know. While it is possible for others to deceive us, the truth is that most deception is self-inflicted. Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- Do not force anything to make sense; rather, sort out your thoughts and first see if you can determine what you are thinking. There's a handy tool you can use: language. Focus on words. Notice whether they make sense; consider whether the words you use, or that anyone uses, correctly describe the thing or the situation they are intended to represent. Many factors of contemporary life are contributing to a reckless and careless approach to language, as if words don't have actual meaning, or as if anything can mean anything. So notice when meaning seems to drift, slip, or morph. Notice when you or anyone changes the story. Pay particular attention to how you describe sexual feelings and experiences, or your feelings about them. Are you coming from a place of injury, or are you coming from a place of strength and alignment with yourself? The words you choose will reveal that. When in doubt, refer to the dictionary. Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- It's sometimes shocking the extent to which people live in the past. Don't be even vaguely afraid to admit that you're doing this, when you notice it. The problem, though, is that the mental environment tends to be invisible, and it seems natural or even sensible to be stuck in some previous version of reality. You will notice when things seem to go wrong: when there is a ripple, a wrinkle or an aberration of some kind. It could be an error you make; it could be a disagreement that you have with someone. Should something like that occur, consider it in the framework of whether it was brought on by mistaking some past fact or condition for something relevant today. It's also possible, though less so, that leaping to a future conclusion prior to it manifesting is the root of the situation. Check carefully. Honor the flow of time. Know where you are, and where you're headed. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- Leadership means taking care of people. That means feeding them, being sensitive to their feelings, and taking the time to help them however you can. This works on every level, whether in your family situation, among friends or, most significantly, at work. Too often, work is where people check their souls at the door. You must not only bring your soul to work every day; you must honor the spiritual existence and the human condition of everyone you work with. This is equally for you as it is for anyone else; it is a situation where there are no separate interests possible. This of course violates every rule of the modern world, where we're told that separate, competing interests are the only kind that exist. However, you might consider that there is a higher law in operation in your life. Look for the win-win in every scenario; consider that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- The world is holding up a brighter reflection than you've been accustomed to in recent months. Sometimes this is unpleasant, if you don't feel like you can live up to the happiness that you perceive in others. Yet you need something to aspire to. Think of contentment as a skill, like cooking or riding a bicycle. It is learnable, though this is a form of learning that calls for unlearning old patterns and replacing them with new ones. The kinds of patterns I'm describing involve your tendency to judge yourself. That, in turn, is related to your desire to be part of something larger than yourself, which you may think is about being like others, or acceptable to them. Yet that never works, or at least not if you want to be a happy and creative person rather than a device integrated into a system. Being who you truly are, and challenging people to accept you, is the order of the day. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- As you've probably read, Mars is retrograde in your birth sign, something that has not happened since 1971. This astrology has many themes, though one of them is about discovering who you are. That idea is thrown around a lot in spiritual circles, and billions of dollars have changed hands over the years, based on promises that self-actualization can be taught. One thing to consider is the importance of conflict in the process of gaining self-awareness. You don't need to pick fights, only to study the dynamics of your interactions consciously. Notice what you learn about yourself when there is friction between you and others. The other thing to verify is what happens when you desire someone or something. How do you respond, and how do others respond, in any given situation? When people object to who and what you want, how do you react? Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Be bold about living your life with all your cards facing up. You don't have as much to hide as you think, and you may have yet to discover the strength of living out loud. There are thresholds involved in doing this, one of which is observing what it is that you might want to conceal, and moreover why. One of your summer projects is discovering the many ways in which you've been pressured into many of the feelings that you have, particularly about yourself -- and the ways you've internalized that conditioning. It's your privilege to decide how you feel about yourself, and how you feel about everyone and everything. In other times and places it was better understood that that only you can set yourself free, and at the same time, only you can hold yourself down and back. Of course, you are interacting with the external world. But ultimately, you are the mediator of your own reality.

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