Dear Friend and Reader:
The first week of the climate convention in Copenhagen had a flavor more of scifi-adventure than politics and science. Between the hacked emails of "Climategate" fame, the "UFO" over Norway and Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize just days after escalating the war in Afghanistan: well, art and life are doing a fine imitation of one another.
Wouldn't it have been awesome if actual aliens had showed up for the climate change conference? Nothing like a few extraterrestrials to make us all feel warm and cozy here on Spaceship Earth.
Of course, the spiral turned out (most likely) to be a weapon -- the runaway motor from an intercontinental ballistic missile; the thing designed to deliver a nuclear postcard to a faraway city.
And here we are in the midst of it all, hoping for the best. It's interesting that the climate conference began with the alchemical conjunction of Jupiter and Chiron. This suggests that more is going on behind the scenes than we are aware, particularly with Neptune so close by. Yet still, we need to deal directly with what we perceive as reality.
In 1999, I wrote, "Chiron has some pretty powerful messages as an environmental harbinger. When Chiron is in the picture, radical awareness is inevitable. Something happens that gets our attention. There can be a huge crisis, but it's usually one that was brewing for a long time and suddenly surfaces in awareness. The result can appear messy, but it's always the beginning of real healing."
Jupiter stands for all the things we hope for and want: expansion, wealth, health, wisdom, culture and of course, excess. But too often it can be full of promise that it doesn't really keep -- or that can betray us. Humans in the developing world have become the victims of our own prosperity. And we are, at the same time, hostages of our untapped potential. Chiron is in the equation to ground, focus and help us make contact with Jupiter energy; with that untapped sense of what is possible -- and to help us be realistic about what it is we are doing to ourselves.
We know that we need a solution. Chiron says that meeting our ideals is not always as convenient. Growth rarely is. Yet if we pay attention and are willing to take the necessary steps, growth is possible. To get there, we have to take or partake in the necessary pragmatic movement toward making any potential real; Chiron may be the most pragmatic planetary energy we know of.
Jupiter-Chiron, with Neptune right there, is calling on us to focus on the unseen, the less than obvious, and that which we are inclined to doubt or deny. It is also calling on us to pay attention to the power of awareness itself, since this leads to every coherent observation or choice that we make. Neptune says that invisible forces are at work, and if you consider yourself invested in a spiritual view of life, I suggest that we remember, and participate more actively in our process of change, which (in Chiron style) begins with awareness.
The United States is a culture of denial. We're not the only place, but denial is one of our most prolific exports. We deny history. We deny that public figures have sex. Heck, we deny that we want sex. We deny that our cultural problems are serious enough to actually call for serious discussion. We deny that antidepressants cause more problems than they temporarily alleviate. We deny just about everything that does not fit our personal vision of the American Dream.
Chiron, in its usual attention-focusing form, is calling all of this into awareness. Yet what often happens is that shutdown mechanisms kick in when we start to notice, and decide that it's all too much to bother with. With these credit card bills to pay, when we are dealing with teachers at school or getting our kids through the flu, why think about 'the world' at all? Well, not thinking is what got us into this mess.
There is an edgy quality in the air right now; we are living amidst actual uncertainty, and it's not something we're hallucinating. We live daily with the feeling of momentum building toward some inevitable, out-of-control change. It is true that there is plenty of change to come, with Saturn, Uranus and Pluto about to align with the Aries Point. Many factors suggest that we need to go beyond appearances. For example, we need to go beyond the appearance that most of the climate change discussion is being conducted for the benefit of the Earth or its inhabitants. I think we need to take a good look at how this is one enormous greenwashed business conversation. That may not be a happy revelation, but we cannot have the real conversation until we address the false one.
Last week we were treated to news of an escalation of Afghanistan. Yet we don't question the premise of that blight: of how we got there in the first place. I have written many times about the Sept. 11 chart, which in the most basic or advanced reading you like,
describes an inside job. Planets for the terrorists and the government occupy one another's signs and can therefore switch places, stating that they are acting in collusion. As early as October 2001, based strictly on the chart, I also warned that
the stated enemy will change and it did, from bin Ladin to Afghanistan to Iraq and now back to Afghanistan.
The Sept. 11 chart has Mercury rising, which says:
get the message. The astrology also reminded us that the population was asleep at the wheel: the Moon was void of course. We did not get any message: the Cheney-Bush administration plunged us into not one but two wars based on an event, the reality of which bears no resemblance to the story we were told, and so willingly believe.
This all serves to ask: should we believe what we are being told now? We have good reasons not to. Excellent reasons, in fact. Yet who is really paying attention? Do we think that even Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow can put together the pieces of what led to the Sept. 11 incident -- just the obvious ones? Do we look at what business interests favor this war? It's cost a trillion or so dollars. Who got it? What about everything else we are not hearing? Politics as presented to the public grants access to the surface of the issues. In a similar way, our conversations about growth and change tend toward public relations level.
The planets tell us that we are at a significant crossroads right now, and by that I mean the alignment of Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto along the Aries Point axis: it's all coming home; and the energy isn't even near the first big peak in June 2010. What is the right thing to do, and what can an individual do?
It may be difficult to argue the point that raising awareness is the first step toward working our way out of the global crisis, which every day takes a toll on more and more individuals. But let's look at it the other way. Yet we have many reasons for not seeking the truth -- for example, not knowing who to believe; the difficulty of having to think for oneself; and the comfort zone of bread and circuses.
When we talk about changing the world, or changing ourselves, I believe this is the first place to start making alterations: we need to wake up and pay attention. There are many who feel that to pay attention to the news is to soil our spiritual hands. Many feel that it's an indulgence of pure negativity. Your spiritual teacher or therapist might indeed ask you, why pay attention when you have no influence over the situation? Why get frustrated when you can't do anything?
Others feel that to look within themselves is the most dangerous, even repulsive territory that exists, yet the fate of our journey on Earth -- not the Earth, but our presence here -- depends on this. Most of the time, most people are caught in a kind of netherworld between not quite participating in the events around them and not quite participating in their inner universe.
In reality, it does not matter where we apply awareness, but sooner or later it's going to land on the internal connection we share with the world. Sooner or later we will figure out that our thoughts and our intentions shape what we call the world, and more to the point, our experience of it.
We often think of expanded awareness as something that feels good, and often it does. With Chiron in the picture, calling our attention to both the world crisis and our inner spiritual crisis we may become aware of our pain, of our futility, and of what we need to attend to. Waking up may not seem convenient; but sooner or later, going back to sleep reveals itself as pointless.
Yours & truly,
By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
December is not shaping up this year as the customary flow of social excess, frivolous spending and holiday glee. We're still buying at a steady gallop, but most of us appear to be downsizing our expectations to meet our dwindling budgets. All the trappings are in place: carols piped in to soothe shoppers and make them jolly, early Christmas parades come and gone, Santa installed at the mall, tent cities of tree vendors popped up like mushrooms on the lawn.
I don't see as many shoppers as usual, the parking lots are not jammed and there's a kind of 'wait and see' attitude going on, but some traditions die hard. Here in California, where I'm visiting on my yearly pilgrimage home, the Christmas Light Wars have already begun, the newest blow-ups added to the collection of lawn decorations and the requisite jumble of lights running, chasing and winking their way across rooftops. My son-in-law has outdone himself this year, annoying his competitive next-door neighbor so much that the man -- apparently afraid of heights -- forced his young teen up onto the second story roof with lights in hand.
Sitting in the sunshine reading, I had to smile as I listened to him micro-manage the placement of each string: "No, not there, to the left, the LEFT!" Not to be outdone by my SIL's talent (and dexterity) he purchased a set of three electronic trees that pump out a light show to music, and now we're being treated to Christmas warbling eight or more hours a day. The Grinch would be tearing his hair out in tufts.
|
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, December 11, 2009, #796 - BY ERIC FRANCIS |
Dear Friend and Reader:
Over the past few days, we experienced the conclusion of the Jupiter-Chiron conjunction in Aquarius. This has been working out all year; this week's was the third of three contacts since May, then July. I believe this is one of those aspects that future astrologers are going to look back on, associate directly with the historical developments of our era and wonder: what on Earth was it like to live through that?
Speaking of threes, there are three planets involved at the core of the Aquarius astrology, and a fourth one close by which I will explore next week. The three are Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune. What we experienced over the past few days was the Jupiter-Chiron conjunction; next will be the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction, exact for the first time on the winter solstice (though it came quite close in May).
Jupiter is the fast mover of the lot. It's been in Aquarius for less than a year, while Chiron has been around for five years and Neptune for 10. Jupiter is therefore visiting and going over and in a sense gathering the experience of these two outer planets (Chiron and Neptune) via Aquarius for so long. I have in the past referred to their eventual conjunction as an Awakening of the first kind; and the meeting is dancing close. To my thinking, this is a review process of many changes that we as individuals have been through, and that our society has been through. Much of this involves the themes of: where do you fit into the larger world that surrounds you? What is the cost of conforming to expectations that you don't understand? What must we give up in order to be an individual?
Because this setup involves Aquarius, part of the conversation involves the mental realm and what is known as the technosphere: the cloud of technology that surrounds us, the energy and information that move there. In recent years it's taken on the name, 'the cloud', a term used to describe part of Earth's environment. In a book called
Time and the Technosphere, the author suggests that the biosphere, this green-blue living sphere where everyone grows and blossom and squirms around and eats and reproduces, is gradually being encircled in the technosphere.
That is, all the wires and broadcasts and devices and engineered seeds and all of us awash in microwave radiowave 3G 4G bluetooth blueray wifi myfi jai alai, that whole buzzing sphere that it is, is merging with the living realm. We are merging into one another.
How do we personally relate to the experience of being immersed in this? I am curious about people's personal journeys through the technosphere; our own personal intermingling. You can post your
thoughts and experiences here.
Do you see yourself as passive in the process, or do you strive to be an active contributor to the collective in some way? On this, more depends than you may imagine, because whether you see yourself as separate or apart, as having an influence or not, suggests the posture of your mind as you move through life.
The last factor involves our relationship to mass deception, as individuals and together. Neptune has been in Aquarius for a decade; we have been lied to quite a lot during the past 10 years, I believe far more than usual. Or perhaps the demand for deception, as a form of prepackaged denial, has grown more enthusiastic. This issue comes into high-resolution focus as Chiron (the focal point) makes its first exact conjunction to Neptune early next year.
Yours & truly,
Note to Readers: Today is the last day to purchase Cosmic Confidential at the flat rate. After today, the signs will only be available separately; and after Jan. 1, the key life transits section will be available separately. Also, the Confidential Diary has been created and is being updated daily. All readers are welcome. Thank you for making this year's annual such a success. -efc
Hey! Do you receive Planet Waves by forward? Please sign up.
(March 20-April 19)
Take care not to act out your parents' dramas in your relationships. Their bonds were more likely based on a sense of ownership rather than friendship or partnership. You have an opportunity this week to discover how meaningful and productive a step in relational philosophy this can be for you. One of the key reasons that our personal lives are so complicated involves this issue. To even begin to take the step of recognizing one another as free people, we need to know ourselves well, and address our own weaknesses. We need to understand our emotional triggers. We need to embrace clarity in our dealings with others. These requirements leave out most of the population, despite the profound benefits of relationships created of awareness and trust rather than entanglements made of fear and expectation.
(April 19- May 20)
You may experience some wild extremes in your sex drive for the next few days, which would be fine -- except for how judgmental we're taught to be. Despite what you keep hearing, you've got nothing to hide. That you may have mixed feelings about being so passionate is not evidence of who you are inherently. It's about an agenda that takes the most spiritual experience in the world and turns it into something we're allegedly supposed to feel bad about. I invite you to try an experiment of reversing this equation, beginning with affirming your existence, your desires, your body and your intentions as evidence of only goodness and beauty. Grant yourself the space to be completely honest with yourself. Remember: once you experience a new depth of inner freedom, you won't want to go back.
(May 20- June 21)
Remove the 'fate' factor from a crucial personal or business situation. You seem willing to let the pieces fall where they may, when vigilance would serve you better. Be attentive to every word spoken and action taken. I'm not suggesting that others have a negative agenda for you; rather, it seems that certain people close to you are in a lot stronger position than you are. They're likely to be seeking encounters with those who are determined to help themselves, rather than those who are drifting or caught in their sense of victimhood. Notice your motivation as it comes in strong some days and seems to have gone missing on others. Communicate clearly, and listen till you understand. Take conscious and tangible steps toward improving your financial and personal partnerships. Look for common ground and you will find it.
(June 21- July 22)
Whatever door has swung open the past couple of months is still open, and you have access to more energy and resources than you ever imagined possible. You're also blessed with a passport to exploration of both ideas and experiences. Most of what you felt judged for in the past will no longer stick to you -- so you don't have to live as if it will. Once you're clear with yourself, others will feel a need to be clear with you. Embrace your own right to exist as a free person, and a space will open granting you the privilege of acting on that freedom. Meanwhile, I suggest you get out of the habit of trying to predict what others think. If you admit that you really don't know, that will save you the burden of aspiring not to care.
(July 22- Aug. 23)
Has anybody but me noted the conflict between our society's obsession with hot romance and its other obsession with marriage? The whole situation seems doomed to turn our relationships into the kind of 18-hole scandals we love so much. Many who feel they want marriage respond by turning up the valve on sex and dating -- which is unlikely to work. There are political and business agendas involved that have nothing to do with us. My question for you is: what is your agenda now? What do you need, socially, erotically and spiritually? More to the point, what do you want? If you're clear with yourself about what you need and want, you'll be likelier to find it, and less likely to feel bad if you don't live up to an image of yourself.
(Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
Everyone has their own idea of fun. You believe in serious fun. That puts you in the queue for occasional serious debauchery; you need both. Yet the thing you would benefit from them having in common is that no matter what you do to amuse yourself, observe yourself doing it. Notice your obsessions, and be generous admitting them to yourself. This will feel good in a way that you'll appreciate, daring you to align language with intention in a way that offers intellectual pleasure and the emotional pleasure of relief: the fully-absorbed idea that life is easier when you don't hide. Over the next month or two you are likely to do pearl diving within your own psyche, discovering what else may be down there, and what else you want to reveal.
(Sep. 22 - Oct. 23)
You may have more to offer than your current friends can stand. It's not their fault; you seem to be bursting with energy and they seem to be holding back a little. You can psychoanalyze why, but it would probably be a waste of time; you have more important things to think about than why friends or partners don't want to move their energy. For you, your motivations are worth considering, though. One thing that's clear is that you're needing to take deeper emotional risks than you have in recent years. And you have come to the limit of one particular self-concept, and seem determined to let that fall away and be replaced by your actual sense of existence. You know, not a persona, but an actual person. The difference can be pleasantly shocking, though it usually requires some reorientation, both emotional and social.
(Oct. 23- Nov. 22)
Don't push yourself to anything like a peak expression of strength or power -- I suggest you reserve your energy. Now is the time to work from the interior outward. Think of this moment as the fulcrum, where small changes on a deeply personal level can result in much wider, deeper changes months or years down the seeming line of time. Actually, the observations you make about yourself, and the commitments you make to yourself, have effects immediately. Everyone in your environment is influenced. The small hang-ups you identify and release liberate energy on a much deeper level than anyone is aware. The agreements you make with yourself change your inner orientation and therefore influence every subsequent agreement you make with another person.
(Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
'Tis the season to be pushed, pulled and stretched in every possible direction, plus a few you haven't heard of. Except for: you seem to be calm as a willow. Perhaps you've finally learned to let others do all the worrying, or you've figured out that faith works better than fear at getting you where you need to be. Here's the thing to be cautious of: the sense that your emotions are running out of control. There's something to be said for grounding any state of consciousness that verges on manic into a hot bath or a walk in the woods. You're releasing so much energy right now that you may have the impulse to let it all go at once. I suggest holding your charge, like a battery. Then learn to let go in gentle bursts of energy that you can come back from, without losing yourself, relaxing into the after-effects.
(Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
Each day you awaken deeper into a process of inner growth that finally has a life of its own; a life you can recognize and relate to. There are times when the journey seems to be directly part of your existence, and times when you seem strangely removed from it; which is of course a trick of the mind: you are your life. If there's a theme behind these developments, it is creating a concept of responsibility that is yours alone, having nothing to do with your parents' or prior authority figures' notions of right, wrong or necessary. You're developing a concept of responsibility that has little to do with what you have signed on for through much of your life. What you are learning is new, and integral to a way of seeing that the world itself is gradually accepting, first as meaningful, then as valid.
(Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
Recent days have arrived with a shift in your self-perception, and likely, of your view of the world. It's as if energy that was building for many months has finally tipped in one direction, which feels curiously like forward. Yet there is a review process involved. Many weeks leading up to the current moment have found you exploring your personal history from one point of view; you reached a culmination, and now it's time to describe your process going back even further -- about 10 years -- and consider it from that perspective. This one may be a little more challenging to grasp or express in words or formed concepts. But here is a clue: something within your character has been in the process of dissolving, like soft stone left out in the elements year after year. That is what's being revealed to you.
(Feb. 19- March 20)
Make careful moves this week; treat every decision like it matters, because it does. If you're involved in a career or project that requires visibility or at least depends on your reputation, be mindful that others in key positions of influence can see you vividly now, and some are poised to reach out. This is not the time to be passive. Action starts with awareness, then choosing based on what you notice. You may feel like you've been navigating without being able to see the real landscape you're in. Aspects over the next five or six days will give you a much clearer picture of where you are and how you're getting to your next destination. Meanwhile, I suggest you take a moment and look at what you've accomplished in recent years. Some of what you think amounts to the least really amounts to the very most.
