Editor's Note: We've given Eric a week off before he dives into writing Next World Stories, the 2009 annual edition of Planet Waves. He will be back Tuesday with the Scorpio birthday report. -- Rachel Asher

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

A BIT OF WISDOM from A Course in Miracles tells us that no matter what our lives look like at any given moment, we can choose again. As our awareness shifts, we create ourselves anew, adjusting our resonant signature and consequently, experiencing life differently.

Rebirth. Image by Jude Valentine.

We all have the capacity to decide our future, based on our decisions today. In essence, that is the metaphysics behind being 'born again'. We can rebirth every day, every minute, every thought -- therein lies the creative divinity within our human potential.

It's been a surprising week. I've discovered how much of my natural exuberance I've learned to keep a lid on, how practiced I've become at patience and resignation, at factoring bad news into the political mix and projecting its national fallout. I seem to have soothed my screaming emotions with an "if you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed" attitude. I suppose that's the consequence of visiting the alternate reality of Bushian politics on a daily basis. Some portion of my psyche evidently thought it would never end.

When Obama won, I couldn't switch internal channels fast enough to get the full impact. The news has given me a series of gifts this week that I was emotionally unprepared for, even though intellectually I knew they were coming. For a few days, I simply didn't know what to do with them. Even now they seem almost too good to be true. I was not overwhelmed by the difficulty of the last eight years; but in the last few days I've seemed momentarily overwhelmed with the wealth of possibilities that have opened before us.

Guantanamo will be closed, it has been reported. Stem cell research will begin. Obama's transition team hit the ground running, bringing a sense of competence along with them that we are unaccustomed to. Even the last-minute mischie of the Bush administration, seeking to make permanent distressing energy and environmental regulations, can be quickly reversed thanks to a little-known congressional ruling. Pinch me, somebody! [Please see related article by Steve Bergstein]

Obama's first press conference was relaxed and transparent; informative and intelligent: there were no embarrassments, malapropisms or hesitations. It was there that he mentioned the hunt for the children's new puppy. The Obamas were searching, Barack tossed out casually, for "a mutt, like me." I think that was the moment in which I realized the Bush years were truly over; that we'd shed that old prickly skin of divisiveness and posturing. That the man we had chosen to lead us was comfortable in his own skin, which made me comfortable in mine. My heart lit up like a Christmas tree.

Over the last eight years, most of us did not follow the daily events that created our nation as a pale replica of the Republic we counted on to be there forever, indivisible. Those of us who did soon came to expect the worst, and too often our expectations were met. I remember thinking, in the first months of 2000: I hope somebody is writing all this down -- if we don't get a list going, we won't know how to start to untangle the changes in four years.

Back then, I thought the fearful change I was seeing was being witnessed by everyone, and I was sure four years would be more than enough time to make that evident. Then came 9/11 and everyone went blind and tone-deaf. We were simmering in some kind of emotional, dysfunctional cosmic soup. And the world looked on in surprise and, soon justified, mistrust.

The nation has, gratefully, just climbed out of that bubbling pot; it has chosen again, and this time it favored hope and progress, restoration and reason. Yet, even now, that darker energy continues to lurch forward. I've had conversations this week that expressed the parallel paths we continue to run. Talk of race wars and bankruptcy, of liberal give-aways and domestic terrorism; old paradigm conversation, caught in the undertow of lower-thought and nativist tribalism.

While the majority of us are riding a wave of enthusiasm and anticipation, there are many of us still lost in the undertow of hate. That's how human history has played out, and it's amazing what we get used to, and how quickly. The ability of humans to adapt and move along is rather stunning, even in the face of darkness. It works for us sometimes; against us just as often.

In this time of dissolving structures and the emergence of new ideas, we should be able to ride the wave of change into a creative, expansive future. We have the capacity to embrace that magnificent rush of energy and let it carry us forward; we can, that is, if we don't get caught in fear -- if we can sidestep the currents that always try to carry us away.

The Holocaust would be an extreme example of mindlessly following the undertow right out to the limits of our sanity: and beyond. We don't think of the tug that pulls us as dangerous to start with, but it doesn't take long to discover we no longer have our footing. By then it's usually too late. I doubt that the Germans saw it coming, either.

I think of the Bush years as that kind of sorrowful and disastrous misadventure; all of us running into the surf to join in that early nationalistic fervor and patriotism, and finding -- quickly but not quickly enough -- that the momentum of the energy was carrying us away to a narrow place of darkness and emotionally-charged violence. We had entered into a slipstream of dangerous radicalism.

It is not the exterior of our civilization that defines us; it's the interior. When we create someone as the enemy we deny them their humanity. When we think of them as less than ourselves, we make them sub-human. When we think of any of our brothers or sisters as expendable, murder is just around the corner.

Our latest racial words are Muslim and Hadji. Our latest inhumanities are those we thought we'd risen above: torture and rendition and collateral damage of women and children. The GOP, currently in chaos and without obvious leadership, has distilled that dark behavior and claimed it as their ideology. Caught in the undertow, they don't care about these horrors -- they consider them appropriate national behavior. We do not see danger in the same way; what they fear and what I find of concern exist in separate realities. In fact, over the last two Bush terms, most of the things that transpired did not seem to upset Republicans at all.

As I worried about the blows to the Constitution, my conservative friends waxed on endlessly about open borders and the criminality of illegals. As I cried over discoveries at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, they passed on fearsome stories of how radical Muslims wanted to convert us all or kill us. As I stood back in dismay over the corruption within the Department of Justice, I got outraged e-mails about the fat salaries of undeserving congressmen (most of them liberals.)

My Republican friends found cries to impeach Bush and Cheney ridiculous; I wonder how they'll feel when the topic of war crimes come up in the future, as I believe they will. They are outraged at the possibility that over 200 ideologically-driven Bush policies and executive orders will be reversed or rewritten within the first weeks of Obama's term.

When Obama was running, I had Republican friends send me long lists of what they considered egregious examples of his liberalism, with dire warnings. I thanked them for sending me examples of the good Obama might do as potential president. Those were the better e-mails -- I expect you got some of the worse ones. Those were the ones that said Barack was the anti-Christ, or taking orders from the Muslim hierarchy, or contained predictions of race war. Do these people not see that this is a direct reflection of their thought-system? That there is no logic there, only fear? How much power they've given away to their emotions?

And now that they have lost their election, I'm amazed -- stunned, actually, because it seems so foolish -- how many people have made Barack Obama the enemy. There's a tug at my ankles when I hear these kinds of things ... a warning, like a Beware of Undertow sign posted at shoreline. Don't step into it. Don't let it take you.

The energy that is opening now is big, broad, welcoming -- it isn't designed to run in dark, narrow channels. Marianne Williamson, in a recent article, tells us that we have birthed a non-violent revolution. It began at grassroots, it came because we were ready for it and because we had chosen again; it found a resonance in a single, historical candidate, but it is OUR energy that produced it. Our longing. Our idealism. Our manifestation of the new thing.

We can, improbably, thank George W. Bush for being the guru, for breaking the nation so ruthlessly and exposing the old paradigm so thoroughly. The process of the last years has given us everything we needed to finish off the old. For instance, for the first time in my adult life, I no longer see the government as something outside of myself seeking to control me; I see the government as me. I no longer consider myself just a number; I think of myself as a global citizen.

Us vs. Them had to die an ugly death; it hasn't, everywhere -- but it has in me. Perhaps it has in you, as well. For the first time since I was a kid, the world is opening wider, not closing tighter. It's a vibration, rattling our bones into life again, infusing us with enthusiasm. Can you feel it?

The past is behind us; we drag it with us unless we're willing to release it. If we can't release what was, we will struggle to birth what can be and that new way of being is already here, demanding our attention.

In Jerry Jampolsky's Love Is Letting Go Of Fear, he gives us the words we use to stay in old energy and sabotage our progress, and suggests that we both notice and curtail their constant use:

impossible
can't
try
limitation
if only
but
however
difficult
ought to
should
doubt
any words that place you or anyone else in that category
any words that tend to measure or evaluate you or other people
any words that tend to judge or condemn you or someone else

I was not able to soothe those with whom I conversed this week, those who insist that the world is dangerous and ready to explode without a repressive, authoritarian hand at the wheel keeping a tight lid on everything. As race seemed the larger context, I tried to point out the possibilities of a truly color blind society, a movement toward realizing human potential without the stereotypes we assign one another. I got nowhere -- I got the "we've already tried that," response.

"But we haven't tried it today," I said. "Today everything is different."

That provoked a derisive snort. Down in the undertow, there is no wave to ride, no lifting up toward the Sun, no opening to fresh air and grand possibilities. But that doesn't change the truth of the wave, or its ability to take us into new territory defined by our opening hearts. In the dark trench, they refuse to notice the alchemical properties that allow us to be informed by our better angels, push back outworn fears and define a new experience of ourselves.

We will try it today -- we will DO it in the days to come. We will create a new social contract with one another, the nation and the world. We will continue to reach down and offer a hand to those drowning in the darkness of fear and self-loathing. We will stand in the audacity of this new thing we've produced, and insist that it become the reality of our nation. We will ask the world to join us.

Obama said something at the end of every stump speech that made the Republicans both furious at his presumption and gleeful at his supposed arrogance. He said we could change the world -- and now we have. We will continue to lift ourselves up with hope and determination, including everyone and mining our dreams for the possibilities.

Oh, I expect that those caught in the undertow will continue to tell us all the things we can't do, all the changes we can't make -- but the last months have given us victory after victory, changing history and changing our minds about what can be done. There will always be challenges on planet Terra, but we can be confident in our ability to face it with courage and hope and intellect and heart.

That is the new thing, here at last. Love IS letting go of fear. And we've chosen again.

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, November 14, 2008, #740 - By ERIC FRANCIS

Aries (March 20-April 19)
There is little point getting ahead in life if you feel that others are more likely to take from than to give to you. You might feel your own gains are small compared to those around you, but you have to guard against being exploited. In truth, very little that anyone has is worth anything unless they have the opportunity to share or exchange it, and I speak mainly in terms of your personal resources and gifts. Why would you possibly have them if they were not of value to someone else? That is precisely how you would, under ideal circumstances, go about taking care of yourself. However, I suggest you think in terms of how your effort, talent and knowledge contributes to something larger than yourself. I am suggesting that you let yourself be used, in a conscious way, maintaining your identity in the process.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
A difficult experience unfolding in a sexual or contractual situation is in the process of bringing you a sense of grounding and stability. It's also putting you in touch with your conservative values. I don't mean to suggest that you're against freedom, though I do mean to say that it makes you quite nervous. You're still unsure the difference between necessary and unnecessary risk; you are still uncertain the difference between a risk and an opportunity. How you would discern one from the other is partly a matter of experience, partly a matter of intuition and mostly a matter of getting the facts. Someone is offering what seems to be good information, but you seem certain you can't trust it. Or rather, whether you can trust the person giving it. Maybe you need to bring up that very issue before you can proceed with a clear head.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Early in my astrology career, when Pluto had just entered your opposite sign Sagittarius, I wrote every Gemini horoscope with a degree of apprehension. I wanted to be sure that I was offering ideas about life and astrology from the right perspective, with a sufficiently light touch. Now another Pluto sign change is taking place, and this one will call upon you to use everything you have learned and many things you have forgotten. What have you learned these years since 1995? More meaningfully, what have you forgotten? The important times to consider were whatever developed in late 1999; whatever came to pass in the summer of 2001, into the spring of 2002; and whatever you are noticing develop right now. This is a crucial time of transition for you, and I would describe your whole job as being about taking stock of what you know. You will need it all.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
This week's Full Moon aspects the most creative and passionate angle of your chart, full of strength, opportunity and desire. If that is true, then why are you feeling these doubts? Take the opportunity to learn a trick of the mind: let the doubt speak, and recognize it as one voice. There are others, such as the one encouraging you to embark on an artistic or sexual risk of some kind. There is the aspect of your psyche that understands that its purpose is creation, and with the sense that reaching into the void is potentially dangerous. You risk losing the approval of people you care about; this is true. You risk 'failing', this is also true. Now you get to ask whether these risks actually matter. Few ask, and therefore, few bother to dare.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Getting to know oneself is so difficult, few people bother. It is easy to assume that you already know everything there is to know, but that's boring on the scale of television. The dimension in which you're searching is that space where you are seeking the ability to express deep emotional sentiments in a clear way, first to yourself, and then to others. When the time comes to share your feelings, don't be put off by someone's apparent lack of interest; there is someone closer to you who will truly understand what you're feeling, from your own viewpoint and not the 'opposite' one. Remember that you're not seeking approval for what you feel as much as you are a sense of resonance, companionship and mutual awareness. True, those are forms of approval, but they are a subtle reward for approving of yourself for daring to feel.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
The revelations continue. Though you seem to be mentally obsessed and enjoying it, I suggest that on the important matters you trust your feelings more than your ideas, and on the one most important matter of your long-range security, you trust your spiritual foundation exclusively. This may be a challenge because you are so deep in thought, and you are a thoughtful person, if nothing else. If you were to recognize the source of your fear and put that energy into something else, you would have a lot less on your mind, and your abundant mental resources could be invested into something entirely creative. The fact is, you are taken care of, but it is fear and fear alone that blocks your ability to see and experience that. You know this intellectually; now it's a matter of managing your energy.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
Humans find unusual and unlikely meeting points. And they often find some sense of authentic contact when they were least expecting it, leading many to believe that expectations drive away the people who might nourish us. Maybe that's true, maybe it's a lot more complicated than that. Yet what develops in the current days will, I trust, give you some reassurance that the people in your environment can feel you and that they can -- when they want, and when they choose to -- offer you what you need. Certainly you feel you have plenty to offer them, and you do. What, exactly, is the thing that opens the way? That may remain veiled in mystery for a while. And the deeper truth is that any experience of receiving or of taking in nourishment that you have is yours alone.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
The Full Moon in your opposite sign Taurus is, at least, making some of this incredible potential that you sense seem tangible. Yet if the planets seem to take more than they are giving you, consider whether what you are being asked to relinquish is indeed something that you need, and whether it is keeping the things you truly want and need away from you. This is a crucial moment in spiritual development: deciding honestly what serves you and what does not serve you. I am not suggesting that you rationalize; to the contrary, that you simply assess what works for you and what does not. You are very close to the beginning of something, and you could surely benefit from leaving behind one or two unhelpful habits and pointless goals. Don't worry if you have nothing special to replace them.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
So much is possible right now, and this is the time to lay deep foundations. I suggest you make a point of not thinking too far into the future, but rather keep your focus primarily on what you are doing now. You are going through a highly unusual transition in your life, and attending to the details counts for a lot; indeed, it may count for everything. You might want to forget entirely having goals and objectives and trust the trajectory that you're currently on. In fact, your plans are coming to fruition, though unless you've been elected president, there's not a marching band there to welcome you. When your plans work, you have work to do -- good work, not trivial, productive and soul enriching. And if I am not mistaken, that has been your primary objective in life for a long time.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
I suggest you take a deep drink of the well. Feel the water, and feel what it's like not to thirst. Feel your own commitment to stability work not as something that hinders you but rather as something that allows you to take the necessary chances required to thrive. Any tradition that does not change is dead, and you are very much alive, and you are changing, and that means you are open and vulnerable. Get used to it. To exist in a state of potential, of being both receptive and expressive creatively, is one of the most daring spaces that a human being can enter -- particularly at the beginning, when you don't quite know how to handle the energy or what to expect. Indeed, one of the first things you figure out, as you no doubt just have, is that you can expect very nearly anything.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
You may be recognizing that an emotional element is currently missing from your life, and that you can't make up for it with professional activity or any form of worldly activity. If events of this week are (once again) shaking your foundations and reminding you that there is a kind of vacuum in your life, go into that space. It's not as empty as you might imagine -- what is missing is your presence, your awareness of a need that you have; which is, in turn, preventing you from acting on it. You are insecure for a reason. That reason is not so mysterious, and if you explore it now, you will learn something about guiding your life toward a specific kind of balance that will gradually help you relax. Remember that success is not about conquering the world, and peace of mind is not about conquering yourself.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Simply trust that your strength will not only hold up, but increase. You know you're working toward something that is deeply important to you; vital and personal and connected to your mission in the world. This week's Full Moon may have arrived with what seems like choices, neither of which are viable, but what you are experiencing is really an outgrowth of your perspective. If you feel stuck, quickly look at the situation from a new angle. If you feel like you need additional information, get it from someone you haven't asked before. Or, sit quietly for a little while and ask to be shown another approach to the question. As I have said many times, most dilemmas are false dilemmas. There are more than two options, and clearly the obvious ones are the least interesting, especially in your current world of brilliant possibilities.