How did we get here? (part one)

Dear Friend and Reader:

Back in January, Donald Trump was not removed from office after committing what appeared to be high crimes — using his office to gain personal advantage in the 2020 election, and then trying to cover it up. This revealed the failure of our system to correct itself, a massive karmic blunder that everyone could see.

A lot of us were concerned about what would happen next. Even some ardent Trump supporters were made nervous by this development.

As consolation, we were headed into an election where the country could change course. The people would decide. Bernie Sanders and many others were still in the race. There would, at least, be a national conversation about issues that had been sidelined for years.

Central to the election was going to be the discussion of Medicare for all, or some other form of universal health care. It was finally going to be time. The theoretical argument against it was going to be, we can't afford that. It's too lavish. That, and for some, the strange idea that "health care is not a right."

Today, less than four months later, it's as if there is no election. The "news" consists of around-the-clock reporting on one virus that we were recently assured would kill one to nine million Americans — a death fantasy that terrorized society and Wall Street and that led to a sacrifice of the economy: that is, the ability of many people to pay their way in life: to have food and shelter.

More than $4 trillion in federal debt has so far been spent dealing with this problem and it may not be enough to avert the next Great Depression.

More than 35 million people are off of the employment rolls, meaning many things — including their loss of health insurance, and depending on the state for unemployment insurance. Many more have seen their gig economy income disappear. A great many small businesses are going to fail, and the big ones are already getting bigger.

From Universal Health Care to One Vaccine

Now, the entire universal health care discussion has been reduced to talking about one vaccine for one virus that does not appear to be especially deadly or illness-producing (by the numbers, particularly compared to the initial death threat of one to nine million dead Americans).

We are finding credible questions as to whether the thing being defined as "2019-nCoV" even exists as we are told it does. I am not ready to accept that yet, though based on considerable research and many problems with the dominant narrative, I fully accept the legitimacy of the question. There are many questions that are not answered and to which we should not pretend to have the answers.

By "does not appear to be especially deadly or illness-producing," I mean it's not cancer, it is not heart disease, it is not diabetes, it is not autoimmune disease, it's not Lyme disease, and it's not AIDS. It's not the opioid crisis. It's not death by firearms or traffic accident. It's not alcoholism or domestic violence or any of the other problems that plague our society and kill many people every day, almost everywhere.

	Biotech is the new porn. Stock images like this abound.

Suddenly, it's as though none of these things exist.

Instead, we get daily body counts. My reporting, based on the analysis of many sources, indicates that the case count is grossly overstated, since being "Covid positive" is not proof of infection, of being infectious or of having a disease. The death count, for this reason, is inflated, and in some places, many or most overall deaths are being listed as Covid.

Meanwhile, we as a society are ignoring all other health problems, and in fact, all other problems. We have put more time, money, fear, concern and energy into the "novel" coronavirus than we have into DDT, dioxin, oil spills, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Roundup, asbestos in baby powder, smoking and murder — combined. The United States not only has a problem with its lacking health care system, and with not everyone having access to something that should be on the level of clean air and basic education. We have a situation where we are the most medicalized society in the world: the most people on the most drugs, sustaining their lives. We need to talk about this.

We also need to talk about wellness and its relationship to the food we eat. We need to be more alert to how our food is grown and prepared, and what's in it that does not belong there. We need to understand the health impact of our dominant national diet. We need to consider why so much food is wasted while so many people go hungry.

However, it seems that instead, we're going to be talking about a virus and a vaccine, as if health can be induced at the point of a needle. On the deepest level, this conversation is about what we think a person is; what it means to be human at this time.

Night and Day, Wall to Wall Virus 'Coverage'

We now live in a world where all that exists is a coronavirus, 24 by 7, on every channel and every newspaper except Comedy Central, all night and all day. The alleged culprit, 2019-nCoV, has not been proven as the pathogen.

	Sanjay Gupta, ship's surgeon at CNN, is now a war correspondent.

It is assumed and presumed to be the pathogen, which is not the same thing for many reasons, medical and otherwise. Basing the perception of a problem on a presumption or series of them is fine — until you need to solve the problem. If the solution is wrong, the situation will stay the same or get worse.

Note that our society does not like to resolve things; we like to "manage risk" and hang out on the brink of disaster. There is a word for this: dysfunctional.

As a viral outbreak, this one is on par with many past events that American society has lived through and forgotten, yet the response has been unprecedented and irreversible — and has had political and economic repercussions we have not even begun to consider. We have not considered the psychic damage of getting the entire society to distrust one another when trust is the one thing we need, if we're going to work together toward ANY goal, any improvement.

But what we're considering is one virus and one vaccine — and a gold rush. And if you have some opinion about this, other than one that the WHO agrees with, you can be removed from the discussion. If you discuss remedies other than masks and hand washing, you can be removed from the discussion or fined by the FDA. So there is just one discussion allowed: Virus + Vax.

We're also hearing discussion of the vaccine being mandatory, connected to travel "privileges," the idea of a permanent branding in one's skin, and "distributed," meaning injected by the Army.

Who knew? Rather, who didn't know?

As regards the foretold aspect of this incident — largely relegated to the "conspiracy" bin — let's say that for a surprise, unplanned event that caught everyone off guard, there was quite a bit of visionary future writing.

In his 1978 book The Stand, Stephen King writes about a weaponized virus strain that escapes from a lab. But instead of 99% of people getting the disease surviving, more than 99% of the population dies.

Dean Koontz, in his 1981 novel The Eyes of Darkness, describes a pandemic featuring a virus called Wuhan-400. The book includes the line, "They call the stuff 'Wuhan-400' because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside of the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center."

In 2003, Peter Daszak told the CBS program 60 Minutes that he feared a coronavirus would travel the globe before it was contained.

	In Season 22, Episode 6 of "The Simpsons," Fox News takes its seat at the table of media empire representatives who are planning the next crisis to keep up viewership and ad revenue. The presentation lays out the psychology of using the media to create a mass panic. This is the cleanest version of the video I could find; it has some additional graphics edited in, which turn out to be pretty interesting.

The Rockefeller Foundation, which has a virus fetish going back to the early 20th century, described the scenario in advance in 2010.

A movie called Contagion 2011, with an all-star cast, described the scenario. You may read a critique here.

Even The Simpsons described events in advance, in a 2011 episode that impeccably unveils the psychology of the media coverage designed to get the public to panic.

In Matt Groening's version of events, the media outlets get together and cook up the whole thing to drive up ratings and therefore ad revenue. Even if cable television didn't come up with this crisis out of whole cloth, we must study their business interest in maintaining the fear level. This kind of event is very good for ratings. Meanwhile, someone has to pay the $7 million annual salary of Rachel Maddow, and it's not coming from your cable fees. It's coming from advertising. So what happens when a potential news event is about an advertiser?

We also must consider the corporate media's interest in not having their version of the narrative challenged by any other viewpoints or alternative scenarios. If the main version of events being pushed on society turns out not to have been true, those reporting that story without question are going to look pretty stupid. On some level, anyone who accepts the narrative has a similar interest in saving face, whether with themselves or with others. Nobody likes to admit they were fooled.

An EU comic book in 2012 described the scenario in advance.

Then miraculously, Event 201 — funded by vaccine magnate Bill Gates — described it to a tee in October 2019, just weeks before everything went wild — down to the last detail: a coronavirus rather than an influenza, originating from a bat, followed by economic freefall, collapse of the travel industry in particular, the lock down of society, the need for bailouts, and a crackdown on discussion on the internet. The Event 201 scenario called for an 18-month shutdown of society, until a vaccination is developed — a concept that Bill Gates has talked about in his real life predictions of what would happen in the current situation. Many of the same people at the table are now the ones involved in developing the vaccine.

To me the most chilling element of Event 201 was the inclusion, in the preparation plans, of internet censorship of the conversation about the issue. Given that this is a situation calling on us to be mature adults and make important decisions, and to work together as a society, this is particularly enraging.

Even if all of these prognostications are not evidence of a setup, we cannot say nobody knew, or had never thought it through. In fact, the inevitability of a "corona pandemic" would seem to be the best kept open secret on the planet. Given that, it's inexcusable that our supposedly advanced society was not prepared with the most rudimentary personal protection equipment needed to supply the doctors and nurses attending to patients. It is inexcusable that there was so little surge capacity in hospitals that this one issue alone (as was said at the time) was responsible for the stock market crashes and the subsequent lockdowns.

And now instead of discussing health care — which obviously we cannot afford, because society just sacrificed its economy and tens of millions of jobs and many industries fighting a coronavirus of all things — we are discussing a vaccine gold rush. As if that one magic injection will heal all of our hurts.

Outsmarting a Virus with a Plastic Sheet

Some are delusional enough to think that a sheet of plastic next to the cash register, or face covering, is protection from the most brilliant evolutionary innovation ever, a virus. Or do we really? Is that just to have some sense of involvement, of doing our bit no matter how small? A lot of people know they are play-acting.

	At the only sushi place in Kingston still doing business, you have to pick up your order outside, separated from the employee by a plastic sheet stapled to some moulding. All that's missing is a sign that says, "All Viruses Must Stay on Their Side of the Divider." Photo by Lanvi Nguyen.

At a fraction of a micron in scale, plumes of virus can pass through (and around) the finest mesh, and somehow manifest in the Arctic and in a desert simultaneously. A virus can ride the jet stream across the ocean and still survive. It is not interested in one-way aisles at Walmart or your local supermarket, perhaps the most laughable "innovation" of this whole sordid incident.

In 2020, society is stuck debating a "technology" that was widely used in 1918 — putting a rag over one's face. Nearly everyone is missing the sad irony: after a century of medical advances, there is still nothing that doctors can do. The most advanced treatment involves paralyzing the person, injecting them with steroids, and shoving a breathing tube down their throat (or through their neck).

It is my observation that many Covid deaths could have been prevented with better care, and that the death count is being exaggerated due to inaccurate testing and improper listing of the cause. We have begun a collection of articles about jurisdictions walking back their death counts, and will soon be posting that to Covid19 News.

In body language, covering one's face is a sign of shame. That would certainly seem appropriate now. The question is how to move this discussion forward, since every problem society had before the "novel" coronavirus, it still has, and a good few more.

From the look of things, we're going to spend the next few months debating contact tracing and injections. Meanwhile, the election approaches, and neither the world's problems, nor those of individuals, are solving themselves.

I wonder when we're going to get around to that. Remember — we're in the midst of a political situation where the timing of this crisis is just a little odd. That's a call for caution, for prioritizing and for demanding a measured response. It's also a wakeup call, to all we have not been dealing with. And we have that little issue of how you can't wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.

With love,

PS — The horoscope below is a combined extended June-July horoscope that takes us out to the end of Venus retrograde, and Saturn retrograding back into Capricorn.

PPS — Among the hundreds of articles passing through the Covid19 News desk this week, this one by a doctor named Lissa Rankin was the pick of the litter. She compiled a list of 17 things we don't know and need to stop pretending we know about Covid. Her article reminded me a little of last week's extra publication, Is It or Isn't It? People who accuse you of being a "conspiracy theorist" for asking questions are not being intellectually honest. Apropos of that, here is my commentary on what a conspiracy theory is.

PPPS — The program LONDONREAL has done a new interview with Judy Mikovits. This interview is two hours, and it's gripping. Despite the outpouring of hatred and attempts to ban her from social media, the editors of Covid19 News (published by Planet Waves FM) continue to investigate her work and her comments about the origins of the new coronavirus. We're not accepting the "she's a hysterical crazy old lady" argument against her. And if she is a "fraud" she sure has a lot to say about the vaccine manufacturing process that checks out with my research long before I ever heard of her. We are well aware of the motives that would lead powerful interests to want to silence her, which plan is going terribly. I am also tracking the personal psychological reasons for the pushback, which I am planning to cover on Saturday night's Planet Waves FM. Cuomo orders contact tracing for 1969 Woodstock festival

Planet Waves Music Bureau

BETHEL, TOWN OF WHITE LAKE — Gov. Cuomo said that everyone who attended the Woodstock festival in Bethel, NY in 1969 would be subject to contact tracing. This is due to the Hong Kong flu outbreak that was happening at the time. Though the festival happened nearly 51 years ago, the governor said "you can't be too safe."

"Those kids were not following social distancing guidelines," he added in today's news briefing, where he told the story of finally having a sensitive conversation with his daughter for the 145th time. "We realize that many of them are now great-grandparents, but it's never too late. Better safe than sorry."

He said New York State would trace every person who went to Woodstock and everyone they had contact with for the past half-century, and everyone those people had contact with, which works out to 4,287,028,186 people.

About 450,000 attendees passed through Max Yasgur's cow pasture between Aug. 15 and 18, 1969, swimming in cow manure infused mud in the pouring rain. Concert officials say nobody even caught cold.

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Daily Astrology & Adventure with the daily birthday report updates every day by about midnight Eastern Time. This feature is better than ever. Check in for astrology ideas and insights.

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"We do indeed live in an age of decadence, but the Dharma is not decadent. The Dharma is the same as it always has been."

-- Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche

The DHARMA in Action Repositioning yourself in the next economy.
Doing what is right for you. Tapping your talent.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Whoever you are or whatever you may do, the reshuffling and reset of the economy will affect everyone to some degree. Anyone who plans on surviving and thriving will need to reinvent themselves. Though it's now being compelled of us, this is an excellent opportunity to do what you want to do.

Times of turmoil and change present opportunity. The structure has been crushed, and we know the big players are positioning themselves to make billions. Yet everyone who participates actively has the chance to find their niche. This is the time to make your choices based on your Dharma: your true calling, and acting as if to hold the world together.

	Shirt is Vashon-Maury Green Party. Pendant is by Gail Murphy on Vashon Island, which arrived today.

Much of my work as an astrologer has been as a business and professional consultant.

It is my number one favorite kind of session to do: to help a musician plan their next creative phase; to help someone redesign their career; to work with an artist figuring out where their talents can best be connected to a clientele.

I've worked with many, many doctors and healers (I have a lot of Chiron in my chart), commodities traders, fine artists, attorneys, someone high up in bank security technology, a top-shelf country music star and people in every odd walk of life. I have learned many things from each of them.

This is my mission in The DHARMA, the 2020 spring reading.

Following the sign change of Saturn, Venus retrograde, Mars retrograde and finally the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction — all events describing a rearrangement of everyone and everything — I have sketched out the possibilities in detail. I suggest where to look for your talents, your energy and your marketplace.

I guide you to be the connection between someone who has something to offer and a need in society. I take a positive, motivating, passionate approach to each reading.

You may wonder how I can do this in video readings. It's a talent I've developed over many years, combined with my innate ability to see patterns and recognize solutions. My clients and customers know I put all of my intelligence and talent into everything I do. These readings are $111 for the set of 12 signs and rising signs. The way astrology works, one little idea is all you need to get you started, and I do a lot better than that.

People pay me five times that amount for a single 75-minute consultation (most people come in for two initially). I am one of the most expensive astrological consultants in the business, because I get results.

To my astrology talent I bring decades of experience as a journalist covering business, environmental issues and many other specialized fields.

The DHARMA readings will help you orient yourself. I will help you see your personal gifts and your opportunities, and put the two together. I consider your time much more valuable than your money, and use both efficiently and creatively.

The samples below are the first five minutes of each sign and rising sign. The readings go 40 to 45 minutes, and I tend to warm up and get cooking a little ways in, once I catch the groove of the chart.

The world needs your help right now. You have an opportunity to find the right thing to do. Take a positive approach to your situation, and follow your Dharma.

All 12 signs are available here for $111. There is something in each sign for everyone, and you may share the readings with your household.

Individual signs are available here starting at $44 for the first sign.

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

With love,

PS — This reading is included in the Backstage Pass. You may sign up for one year or on a quarterly recurring basis. Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscope for June is published below in this issue. We published your extended monthly horoscope for May on Saturday, April 25. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope after the Sun has entered a new sign. Aries (March 20-April 19) -- Ultimately, to be real, healing is a quest to which one must devote their entire life. The form will change many times depending on one's circumstances. The underlying purpose of the journey remains consistent, even if you may seem to fail, or your attention to it falters. Now is the time to focus your awareness and your efforts. Call forth your strength and use it well.

In nature, no living system survives without complete and integrated cooperation. That is where you find yourself: needing to be integral to something larger than yourself.

Yet at the same time, Mars entering your sign on June 27 represents your need and desire to assert yourself boldly. That means gaining confidence and connecting your intentions to actions. These two factors can and must work together in your life. One cannot be at the expense of the other, as so often happens.

To this end, many factors are working in your favor. Saturn is now making its test run in Aquarius through July 1. While there is much other astrology to write about, Saturn is the forerunner of the new age of human cooperation and a measure of practical idealism, and you are positioned to gain its richest benefits via your 11th solar house. Yet this calls for a measure of leadership.

Mars's meeting with Chiron on July 14 will keep that in balance; Chiron is always working for the greater good, and in this position embodies the sacred warrior. This is a personal initiation for you, which you might think of as the opportunity to claim your personal power and express it in the most life-affirming way. You have every reason to have faith in yourself. Others are counting on you, your example and your bold wisdom.



The Journey of You and Chiron | A New Reading by Eric Francis

Anyone who has encountered it is curious about Chiron. Planet Waves provides one of the few dependable online sources of information on this unusual planet. For the 10th anniversary Astrology Studio reading, I will be covering Chiron in Aries — a momentous event for all those born under this sign, and of high interest to everyone else. Get instant access to this reading here.

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Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Lately we have been witnessing the shocking influence of Uranus in Taurus. What other influence could take a swath out of financial markets like that? Investors use the term "correction" when the dangerously over-inflated price of stocks takes on a more realistic character. This opens the potential for so many things of genuine worth that go far beyond their cash value. We're in a moment that our grandparents and great-grandparents might appreciate: a time when necessity matters more than desire.

This is the perfect condition for the evolution of genius and of solutions to long-ignored problems, and rebellion against what has not worked. Yet in your life, this also means looking into the ways of the past, often so much wiser than the way things are done today. Potent activity all year in your fellow earth sign Capricorn is illuminating your imagination and your faith in yourself. You can live in a wider and more beautiful world every day, no matter how strange or uncertain things may seem. That is part of the beauty; uncertainty is the perfect cause for true faith.

Saturn's ingress into Aquarius, your solar 10th house, describes unusual professional advancement on a lifetime scale. Do not rush things; spring and early summer offer you a time to experiment with the possibilities. While Saturn is entering a sign of its traditional rulership, the Uranus connection is undeniable. Saturn may represent what you achieve and the role that you play, though Uranus represents who you are. We could describe that a few ways, one of which is more radical than you let on.

Let Saturn stand for your reserved and cautious presentation to the world, and let Uranus reflect your quality as an inventor, transformer and revolutionary. All presented in that impeccable, polished and refined manner of Taurus.

You can now get instant access to your 2020-21 Taurus Astrology Studio here for just $44. This reading focuses on a professional breakthrough toward the end of the year, and preparing you for this development. Venus retrograde in the spring is preparation. Mars retrograde in the autumn is preparation.

Ultimately this is a spiritual development, yet in reality we are talking about aligning your purpose with action, with a calling, and with an opportunity. Elements of the reading go out to a series of power steps in 2021. Read more.

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Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- Your relationships are about to take on unusual qualities that are far outside the realm of 'normal' romance or partnership. Any situation that may not seem to offer you exactly what you want is in truth offering you something better. You are in a facilitating role in the life of someone close to you. You're in a position to allow something to happen that might otherwise be impossible.

The water-into-wine transformation is that on some other occasion, you might be more inclined to feel like your desires should at least be taken into account. You now have the ability to set that aside, and this is the source of your true power. Your ability to allow someone else's needs facilitates their experience, which in turn teaches you something you could not learn otherwise. Knowledge is created which would not manifest any other way.

It is a rare privilege to serve as the guardian, and one to which you must bring all of your learning, your experience, and your courage. Yet you remain largely in the role of the witness, and the catalyst. Whatever you may seem to surrender to be in this position, there is a corresponding gain -- though this is dependent upon your humility. That means your willingness to learn, and to face the unknown with respect.

Saturn's entry into Aquarius, your 9th solar house -- that of wisdom traditions, the 'higher self' and fair judgment -- describes your maturity and balanced quality of your judgment. You may find yourself in a position to make decisions for many other people in the coming weeks and months, or at least to advise them on a difficult ethical matter. Listen carefully to all sides, and then trust your understanding of right and wrong. You, at least, know there is such a thing.

Your 2020-21 Gemini Astrology Studio, The Sacred Space of Self, is now available for pre-order at just $33. The reading covers Venus retrograde in your sign, Vesta in your sign, Saturn in Aquarius, and the momentous astrology at the end of the year. Get the best price by pre-ordering today. Thank you for your business and your trust.

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Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- A profound solar eclipse takes place on the June 21 solstice, just as the Sun enters your sign. This is a point of reckoning for you: a before and after moment in the span of your whole life. Let's consider the astrology in detail. Your sign is ruled by the Moon. The solstices are the Sun's most powerful days of the year. The solar-lunar cycle connects right there, multiplying the effect.

It's important to take eclipses not just as things that happen, but rather as opportunities to use consciously. The first degree of your sign is a point of alignment with existence. It's also a point of self-creation. You are being presented with an occasion to both reinvent yourself and bring out a deeper quality of who you are, and allow it to enter the world.

Make your choices wisely at this time, though without hesitation. Decide everything on the basis of what you really want -- the outcome, the personal reward, what you want to share, and the ability or talent you choose to master. Be bold, and announce your intentions with your actions rather than with words. Do the very thing you want to do, or need to do, and be the person you want to be -- and keep going.

Eclipses of any kind are pattern-setting events, which is why actions speak louder than words. Later in the season, as Mars enters your 10th solar house Aries, the effect is redoubled. Mars joins Chiron in Aries on July 14, and the result will be something that can truly be called outstanding. Rest assured that you have grown into yourself enough to far exceed your accomplishments of the past.

Yet be aware at all times that cooperation is the essential ingredient to every success story. To this end, Saturn in Aquarius is your best friend. Ask for the help you need, offer what help you can, and build an organization. That's the spirit of our moment.


Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- If life is presenting you with a limit, study the situation and you will see the opportunity. This is not merely a "if you have lemons, make lemonade" scenario. Rather, there is a missing piece available, which has the potential to connect you to the world in a new way. The potential opens up briefly as Saturn goes stationary-retrograde in your opposite sign Aquarius. You might even miss it, though there is still something to be gained from a review. Learn everything you can, and plan for the next Saturn-related opening, which will be in December. This happens on an even greater scale, just once, hence the need for a thorough and creative review.

Until then, you have a spiritual imperative to make your work as meaningful as possible. Do this by choosing what is the greatest value, and when you don't have that option, size up what you're doing and exploit its potential for learning, growth or service. Take this attitude and you will make significant discoveries that inform not just what you do, but also the purpose of your life.

The breakthroughs are represented by an ongoing series of conjunctions between Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn, the next of which are June 30 and Nov. 12. Let's use nursing as a metaphor. This aspect describes using what you learn not just to help a few individuals get well, but rather to create a breakthrough in your profession that benefits people for many years to come.

All of these themes are highlighted by the movement of Mars through Aries, which describes you as restless and in the mood for some quest or adventure. Though your options may be limited in certain ways, your potential for self-development is wide open, and you are being called into an ever more humane worldview. Let that inform every choice you make, and may it infuse everything you touch.


Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- The peculiar message of your charts is about being realistic, pragmatic and focused on your goals. I only say peculiar because this is not the kind of thing astrologers usually suggest for Virgos in the audience, so it feels a little like selling ice to an Inuit.

That said, your chart describes you as being productive on an industrial scale, though with the potential to be misdirected, and thus to lose the energy rather than harness it.

Therefore, work with tools such as an action plan, a business plan, a strategy sheet, a flow chart or a tangible agenda (all being basically the same thing). This will ensure that you start with clear goals and steps toward reaching them. Then you have a reference point for sizing up whether you're on track or not. You will need to come back to your plan frequently, pretty much every time you make a decision, to ensure that it's consistent with your larger goals.

The key is to see every decision as getting you closer to or further from your objective, in a moment when time, money and other resources are precious. Take every opportunity to engage economy and efficiency, and keep checking for leakage, waste and errors.

Venus retrograde in your career and reputation angle is yet another call for a review of what you think of as your most cherished goals. A lot has changed in the past few months, more than anyone would have imagined. This calls for making a careful evaluation of what you consider a priority and why. You have your options open, though that would not matter if you don't see them for what they are.

Therefore, be bold, be comprehensive and let your creativity flow.


Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- Around the beginning of Venus retrograde in May, you seem to have to put a precious long-term goal on hold, for the sake of a much larger goal. This has brought out another side of your nature, one that may have been sleeping for a long time. It's possible you faced a similar circumstance around 2012, though not even close to the test of faith that you're experiencing today.

It's good that you have help. Saturn in Aquarius, now through July 1, and beginning again in December, will help you focus your talents, and create the support systems that you need.

Whatever you're doing is part of something else much larger, though it may not feel like it at the moment. Start on a small, limited scale, organizing no more than three other people toward a common purpose. Start with a modest goal that feels more like "let's do this right" than "let's save the world." Then learn from the experience.

Then take what you learned, and replicate it. Systemize it. And learn from your mistakes, each of which will pop open a little door of consciousness.

Meanwhile, someone who enters your life will begin with one role and end up with another. Don't get too attached, whether your response is initially negative or positive. Move with the person at the same time you assert leadership over your life. You may need to push back a little, or set some boundaries. You're available for some things and not for others.

Pay attention to how this person tries to influence you, and how they relate to the rest of their environment. Note the differences. You are likely to get a look at their true colors and true purpose around the time of the Mars-Chiron conjunction in your opposite sign on July 14. This is a potentially glorious moment of teaching and learning.


Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- You are on a special healing quest. Yes, you and the whole world, though your personal, individual life goes on -- and you will discover the point of contact between who you are, and where and when you are. Here is the metaphysical key: discovering the precise intersection between yourself and the rest of the world. This is something individual for you, potentially a spiritual project you've been working on for a long time, which now through a diversity of circumstances is about to manifest in an especially tangible way.

You may have many things you would list on a "healing agenda," which could include anything from physical ailments to your unusual relationship with self-esteem (which for you often manifests as the need to find the right livelihood). Yet despite your excellent image and brave face, a certain kind of insecurity often seems to vex you. Here's my theory. You are driven to express yourself boldly; at the same time you have a deep fear of not being accepted by others. Yes, many people have a little of this, though you coexist with a rather impressive polarity.

A rare combination of factors is now allowing you to work with both sides of the equation simultaneously. Usually it's one or the other, rather than getting the equation to balance. The way to do that is to push the limit on the individuality side. Assert yourself boldly, and unapologetically. Then when you feel any fear, uncertainty, guilt, or anxiety about being cast off, confront it just as boldly.

Study your response and tune into who is associated with the emotion you are wrestling. They usually hide in a group of some kind, which blurs their identity. But it's right there. Feel what you're feeling and ask directly: Who - Are - You? Then listen, feel and know.


Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- It was the Sagittarian guitar maestro himself, Jimi Hendrix, who asked the world, are you experienced? This is the question that you're about to open like a portal into a new reality. Your life is now all about having the full experience. Whatever is happening, whatever you're doing, go all the way in, be that thing, be yourself, and explore. You need no intended outcome or attachment to one. I am talking about pure quest, wherever it may lead. This is so often what you say you live for. It's what you say you want. Now is the time.

Then there is a second element: you must integrate what you see, feel, do and learn. The best way to accomplish that is to write about it. Tell yourself the story as it happens, and wrap your mind around it. Admit to yourself what you want, what you need, what you do about it, and how you respond. Writing is perhaps the single most powerful form of teaching and learning: which in this scenario means making your experience meaningful to you, and taking full ownership of it.

Maybe you already do this; maybe you have in the past. Yet a rare combination of factors is making this especially potent medicine now. The more bold and honest your quest, the more your written exploration will mean, to you, and eventually, to others. There would be no point, were your physical experiences not so meaningful and distinctive in themselves, and so worthy of expression.

While from one viewpoint, your spirit is reaching out into the wide world, you are needed in your local environment, and that is the place to bring your vision. "Think globally, act locally" may seem like an old adage, though at the moment, it is the thing that will get results -- and it's all we can do.


Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- Saturn's re-entry into your birth sign on July 1 begins a crucial phase of cleaning up old business. You've had a glimpse of the future with Saturn's brief visit to Aquarius, which started March 21. You may have a better sense than others that there is a world beyond the one that we now know; that there are possibilities and opportunities and a measure of freedom that just does not seem possible now.

Yet activating this for yourself is dependent upon resolving certain matters that have been lingering around, and others that have been calling for your attention. This not about "fixing your whole life." Rather, you are responsible for tying up several important loose ends, in a sensitive and thoughtful way.

This will mostly involve your family, or said another way, working with your family history. This has been a persistent theme, particularly since early 2018 when Chiron crossed the sensitive home and security angle of your solar chart.

What you've been in the process of doing is taking full ownership of yourself from those you perhaps rightfully recognized tried to take it from you. Yet now you're an adult, and this is not something that can be done without your cooperation. Therefore, do not cooperate "with them" and instead, cooperate with yourself.

To do that, you would need to be in agreement with yourself about the nature of the problem, and also the nature of the solution. You don't have the answers you need now, though what you can bring is your openness; you can bring your modest willingness. You will recognize potential points of closure and completion when you see them, or rather, when you feel them. Whatever else you may do, approach every situation gently, and with being open to forgiving yourself. There's no one else you can forgive.


Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Saturn's brief foray into your birth sign for the first time in a generation has you in truly unusual territory: as much for what is happening as for what you're preparing for. There are aspects of yourself you had little concept could change, or that you wanted them to, and that is the very pattern that is being rewritten. At times you may feel like the Wicked Witch of the West getting a bucket of water dumped on her, though it's not all that bad.

If you do, that's a measure of your resistance, and your adhesion to what has become uncomfortably crystallized. This has consumed your energy, and has taken a toll on your relationships -- the one that you could not explain.

There's something much better possible, which is embodied by one of the most essentially beautiful placements in astrology, Saturn in Aquarius.

To sum up: when you have substance, you can relax, which means to be flexible. Integrity bends: that's why skyscrapers stay standing; they move with the wind. A little is all you need, or need to begin with. You will find this comportment to be a relief given all the tumult you've been through in these years of Pluto in Capricorn (2008-present), Saturn in Capricorn (2017 through this year) and their meeting on Jan. 12. These represent a seemingly endless sequence of tectonic level shifts.

You have no doubt gone through an inner odyssey, one that a few times you thought might never end. You are now seeing the potential for resolution. This will call forth all of your maturity, your sensitivity, and your willingness to become something and someone not exactly new, but truer to your form: the person you've always wanted to be.

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Astrology Studio for Pisces | A New Reading by Eric Francis

This is a momentous time in collective history, and a turning point in your life. As the year develops, most of the movement — including Pisces' ruling planet Jupiter, and the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction — will be pointing into Aquarius, the most sensitive and innermost angle of your chart. I will also cover the retrogrades of Venus and Mars, and the forthcoming Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in your friendship sign Capricorn. Mostly, I will help you orient on your profound journey, and offer guidance how to harmonize with the world at this unusual time. Get instant access to this reading here.


Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- In recent years there's been an interesting dance between the you the world sees, and the you whom you are inside. Ideally these are the same being; how you express your inner/outer dualism has a number of potential causes, and influences. What is so interesting is that you've done most of your growth where everyone can see you, rather than in the seclusion of your psyche.

This has placed you in a rare position to be transparent, and to express yourself shorn of the reticence or embarrassment that most feel when they reveal what would ordinarily be the private.

Still, measure your words and stay on message. The word 'values' is perhaps overused, though it means your personal constitution, and your code of ethics. Stay in touch with this at all times. Make sure your choices and your words reflect your deepest underlying code of honor.

One of the most severe disruptions to the world involves community and the ability of people to associate with one another. This is where your chart is the most radiant at the moment. That, in turn, is a point of leadership on the social level, which is now firmly in the realm of the spiritual. The astrology involved is the ongoing series of Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions in Capricorn -- your classical planet aligning with one representing the soul of the world.

People are looking to you as a way to tune their awareness, so you therefore must relax and be a clear channel. Let the light and wisdom pass through you. Stay in contact with that element of life that is deeper than yourself, more powerful than your own strength. It's an awareness that is not 'normal consciousness' though something that you can tap into at any time. Remember the teaching of A Course in Miracles: "You will be told everything you need to know."

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