What is Your Mission? Responding to the Global Crisis

Dear Friend and Reader:

Every day, the American political crisis and the global crisis are pounding on our doors. Every locale has a different manifestation, or many of them; though I have not written about this yet, Europe and the United Kingdom are currently divided over the Brexit issue. Some places, environmental issues are more pressing than political and social ones.

Last week, I asked Planet Waves readers around the world to describe what they feel is their role in rising to the occasion. On some level, I recognize everyone is wondering about this. Some people stay up all night trying to figure it out; some make contact with the question occasionally; some are already on the job doing what they can.

Today we have your responses for you, presented in full. We've only made slight edits, correcting typing style and removing text such as "have a nice day."

While you're reading, and considering both the ideas of others and your own, I suggest you check in on a few levels. What kind of commitment is involved in the statement of action? What kinds of resources are being offered or allocated?

How much courage do the actions described require?

And I think most significantly, what is the modality of collaboration? In other words, which ideas involve working together? Is this through an organization, or through direct, tangible cooperation, on the ground, in a real place and time?

This is the beginning of a discussion that we need to have, ongoing -- while we stay busy materializing our ideas.

Thanks to Amanda Painter and Jocelyn Allton for compiling and proofreading the text.

With love,
"My Role" In World Healing: Emails From Readers

I am a microcosm of the macrocosm of the world

If I were to distill it down to one sentence, it's this: "Do No Harm but Take No Shit." I found this meme on FB and it really works for me.

My role is to be aware that I am a microcosm of the macrocosm of the world. Therefore, I'm responsible for cleaning up the conflict, aggression, toxicity and passivity within my own psyche as a way to heal the wounds and toxicity of the whole.

With Saturn in Aquarius on the Ascendant, my role is to lead and to learn how to have authority in my own life without being an authoritarian dictator to myself or others. With Venus conjunct Chiron in Pisces intercepted in the first house, my role is to be expansive, compassionate, wise, forgiving and loving without sacrificing myself at the altar of others' agendas, and to take responsibility for what is mine to work with and not to take on the wounds of the world.

The more I tend to my own inner life in service of creating peace, centeredness and awareness, the more I will help heal the outer world. The more I acknowledge and seek to understand and work with my own internalized authoritarian dictator, the more self-authority I have. The more I tend my physical body through wellness and clean-ish living/eating, the more I help heal the Earth and the epidemic of addictions.

The more pleasure and ease I am willing to experience, the more joy and positivity I can contribute to others. The more responsibility I take for the internalized white supremacy and the hetero-patriarchy living in my own head, the more equitable and inclusive I can be in the world. As a teacher and healer, my role is to walk the talk as best I can in search of wholeness rather than perfection.

I grew up as a good daughter of the patriarchy as expressed by the Catholic church, with a mother who refused to take birth control, despite her doctor's warning that her life could be in danger after 8 pregnancies and the deaths of two children. My role is to learn about my ancestors and understand the structures, privileges, traumas and obstacles they faced or perpetuated and take responsibility for healing what I can and giving back to them what is theirs to resolve. My role is to stay awake, show up and not fall asleep, check out or numb out as a way to escape.

My role is to heal the wounded parts of myself as best I can so that I don't put my woundedness on others or perpetuate violence upon them; to interrupt my own unnecessary struggling and suffering and striving and help bring more ease, peace and pleasure to the parts who've been utterly deprived for the sake of production, productivity and "more is better."

The more peace I can create in the internal community of "me," the more peace I bring to the world community. The relationship to "Self" and relationship to "Other" are intertwined. My first and seventh houses are packed and my Sun is exactly square my nodes. So I see my part as always balancing between self and other, how the past informs the future and how the future can heal the past, and how do I use my awareness of the visible and invisible forces to create the most good right now.

I play a small but crucial role in the whole, of which I am part.

With love,

Mary Kuentz

***
I use my home to encourage people to connect

I am a true Cancerian mom. I use my home to encourage people to connect. I host yard sales and potluck suppers and make my home available for sleepovers and drop in childcare. I believe that things have gone too far, total destruction of the Earth is now inevitable but I believe life goes on and that we will reincarnate in a place compatible with our current lifestyle, so I expect to be reborn in a place where children, home and family are valued and Trump will be a toad in a sewer somewhere far, far away.

-- Rosada Nolan

*** Add good vibes, be a light bringer

Hello! I feel my role is to help, in a POSITIVE way, if possible, to get the ‘American Taliban' out of office. It's horrible. The mass of people who like Trump is atrocious. Yet it seems there's no nice or positive way to make them see how corrupt, violent, or hateful the current leaders are; it's like they have eaten the pill called ‘the economy is better' (which is a lie) and then put noise canceling headphones on. So what is my role, and how can I help? The only answer that I have to is add good vibes, be a light bringer, and love my fellow American citizens.

-- Layla Remmert

***
A merging of the individuated self with the Oneness of all

As someone with a birth chart with a number of corresponding elements to the Sibley chart -- I turned to astrology to find out why the United States' life and mine seemed to parallel -- I can tell you for a fact about the paralysis.

In my youth, it manifested as a concomitant desire for a resurrecting daddy to save me from all the bad things, and to become my own superpower to go out and kick some serious ass for myself and all the other vulnerables.

Early adulthood, I married for money and have been paying for that mistake ever since. But late in life I married for love and finally enjoyed financial security. Beneath all of it was an aching wound of abandonment created when my dad died of cancer as I was turning 18 and Pluto was conjunct my Libra ascendant.

But now my Aquarius Moon manifests as a compelling urgency for enlightenment. One defining stage of enlightenment is a merging of the individuated self with the Oneness of all. If you think about it, that event alone would instantly solve all the problems of the world and turn all of us into a nation of divine consciousness with unlimited knowledge, potential, and redemptive powers of creation. The only reason we are in crisis now is because of the perception/illusion of separateness anyway, and once that mistake is corrected, who knows how magnificent we will become?

Enlightenment for the citizens of the United States, at least, seems the most direct, practical way out of this debacle. Of course, I don't know who we could get to plant the lettuce and change the diapers and deal with an Ebola outbreak -- mundane functions of life we don't see saints and gurus performing -- but I trust some Higher Intelligence has worked that out already.

-- J Seymour

***
Signing petitions to change the chaos

For the past few years I have been signing petitions to change the chaos of our current administration. I give support to a Democrat running for the Presidential Office. I also donate to some charities, especially during weather disasters. Perhaps I should do more? I may sign up for voter registration signups etc. after the running Democrat is chosen.

-- Elaine Richard

*** It starts with me, in my own life and home patch

I'm a big-picture person, always have been. When I think of the problems facing America, as per your question, I can't isolate them from the problems facing the world, facing 'all of humanity'. In America's case I think that's especially true, what happens in America has a huge impact and spin-off worldwide.

So, where to start with: healing or helping? With so many issues, which has the most pressing value? How can I choose, how can I distinguish between this crisis or that crisis in order to prioritise one over the other? My way of coping, and arguably it could be seen as a cop-out, is to 'go galactic' and send healing intent to the whole darn world, galaxy, and beyond. I figure "Gaia" knows better than I do!

I used to think it was a cop-out when in one situation or another there would be an intent to 'send healing' to a specific event or crisis, and I would find myself spinning out trying to include all the crises I could think of across the planet, and beyond, beyond, beyond. Now that I am older, and have more understanding of more traditions (and more meditation experience) I know it's not a cop-out, that it is a valid role when done with awareness and not escapism. And yes, that doesn't negate the need for day-to-day practical applications, we still need to feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the wounded in real time.

I keep coming back to the same foundational principle though, that it starts with me, in my own life and home patch, to "be the best version of me that I can be," and that includes all that bag of loving-kindness and caring for individuals, and the planet, and the galaxy, and recycling, and growing my own food as much as I can, being nice to my neighbours. Walking my talk and "living gently." And hoping, trusting, believing, that somehow that tiny drop of calm and peace and harmony that I can create will have the spin-off exponential effect the sages speak of. The butterfly effect.

I'd be a crap activist in the sense of getting out there at the coalface. But I'm darn good at doing what I do -- could be a lot better, I'm no buddha yet!! But I'm working on it, that's my role, this lifetime around anyway. And I believe the world needs buddhas just as much as it needs activists -- equal but different.

At the end of the day, if we as a species screw up enough, Gaia is just going to shrug her pretty shoulders and we'll be just another failed experiment in the cosmos. In the meantime, I'll keep on practicing "being the best version of me that I can be" and if enough of us did that, including being the best scientist, or activist, or astrologer, or counselor or street sweeper or housewife (ooops! house-person), I reckon that'd be a good start in solving all the problems of the entire planet.

-- Eadie Miller

***
To help people make the transition

My role in all of this is to help people make the transition into the best or better version of themselves when they are confused, lost, fearful, and frozen. I'm here at this time, as I have been at others, to share whatever I have or can as it comes to me or that I retain.

-- Roxanne Grice

***
To leave strangers better than I found them

Reminding the world it is kind, usually in simple, small and seemingly imperceptible ways. I like to leave strangers better than I found them. Show people there are good folks out there through my actions of kindness. Push for what I want rather than against what I do not. There is enough pushing against and it isn't working.

So much else feels out of my sphere of influence. These days my job is to be a reminder that people like me do exist, and it's an unspoken army of us collaborating for harmony. It may feel chaotic out there, but there's a lot of good still holding things up. I believe in the collective power of smiling.

-- Eric Heston

***
To promote 21st century sustainability

[My role is] as a journalist with a short radio show to promote 21st century sustainability; to circulate petitions on matters of utmost importance to me, e.g. 5G.

-- Linda Hunter

***
Facilitating the urgently needed changes

My role, personally, in facilitating the urgently needed changes in American society, is to sign petitions and help fund activist organizations.

-- Michael Wilson

*** Social media and conversations with folks

My Moon is also in Aquarius, and I most definitely am not "father knows best" oriented. However, the best way I can stay sane in this political maelstrom is to try and keep up with the facts, the actual facts. The lack of knowledge in the general population is abysmal! (Case in absurdum: many Millennials cannot tell time by analog clocks.)

Social media and conversations with folks I know has been my role so far. If I can let people know what untoward acts are going on, under "the Big Tent," and possibly add my own opinion of the act for emphasis, maybe people will learn what is at stake! I have acquaintances who are 45-ers, some are still (?), good friends; it is a hard rope to walk.

I am concerned for our Constitutional Democracy's foundations, the "real" basis of our Republic. We the people are becoming disenfranchised. I have been an Independent most of my life; today I am more a Social Democrat. Change is not popular, but we have to change. We have to evolve, and change is the best way to go; enough is becoming way too much.

-- Barbara Peaslee

***
Walk my talk by living the values I verbalize

1) Speak up where I can through signing online petitions, putting bumper stickers on my car, voting, and not ducking talking about difficult issues whenever an opportunity arises.

2) Walk my talk by living the values I verbalize including respecting the humanity, if not the values or conduct, of everyone I interact with.

3) Accepting that I can learn from everyone and every circumstance I encounter in my life, and doing my best to do so. Learning is life-long, and the key to spiritual liberation from the karmic wheel.

Niki Sebastian

***
My job is to Uplift & Inspire

My job is to Uplift & Inspire, upgrade your frequency, and assist you in fulfilling the role you are here to play. I do this with my writing, and the mentoring of those attracted to me here in Bozeman. I have handed out thousands of [inspirational] cards.

-- Sahara Devi

*** To involve myself in my community

To stay informed on a national level and maybe more importantly on local level. To involve myself in my community -- not for power or influence but for the sake of community itself.

-- Dion Murphy

***
Healer

Healer. Matriarch.

-- Maria Brewster

***
I try to get my "ego" self out of the way

It's interesting you ask this question because I feel as though I have been trying to figure this out for decades. I became an attorney because I saw it as a profession where I could use the legal system to bring about social changes for the better. That was over 40 years ago, and while I have participated in a number of activities and projects via bar and community organizations and otherwise, I could never feel that I was making any significant enough contribution to make progressive changes.

Then my separation/divorce in 2003 embarked me on a spiritual journey and I became a Course in Miracles student in 2004. (I have exchanged a few emails with you on ACIM a while back.) During the last ten years, I went from a chronically sick and a completely non-athletic bookworm to someone other people consider as an "athlete." In the process, I have somehow inspired others to take up an athletic activity and/or have an interest in spirituality (or perhaps how I view and live life). I find it fascinating that I seem to have a positive impact on other people's lives when I stopped trying so hard to solve problems but began doing something I had never done before, but which I find greatly enjoyable and challenging.

I have come to conclude that the problems that we face now cannot be solved politically. The polarization that exists makes it virtually impossible to come up with a solution that does not antagonize and rile up a huge segment of the population, no matter what it is. It is a duality on steroids!

It is as though different segments of the population live in different universes because their perceptions (which are so entrenched) are so vastly different from one another, and any attempt to discuss issues seems to go nowhere because not everyone speaks the same "language." I am not talking about English, Spanish, etc., but people are defining words differently because their perceptions and past experiences greatly differ (or so they believe). So the same word does not convey the same meaning to everyone. I am sure this was always true to an extent, but it seems that it has gotten much worse.

Fear and anger are everywhere. Compassion seems to have gone out the window for a lot of people because they are so afraid, and they are angry without knowing how to address it.

This is why I believe the solution has to be spiritual in nature. But spirituality is not something that can be imposed, like a religion. In order for it to have any meaning or healing effect, each person has to "wake up" and embark on his or her journey, and not everyone is ready at the same time. But as ACIM says, when you are healed, you are not healed alone.

There is a passage in ACIM that talks about an ancient hate turning into present love, and how that impacts not only that person, but so many people unknown to us, whether from the past, present or even future. So I keep on working on myself and also to go towards what I feel compelled. I try to get my "ego" self out of the way, but it is not easy.

I am beginning to have a glimpse of my ultimate role in this lifetime. But I am not entirely there yet. According to your horoscope, what happened in the last 10 years is only a dress rehearsal compared to what I will now go through. (I am a Taurus with Leo rising and Libra Moon.) So I trust my role will become more and more clear in the near future. It is a work in progress.

Finally, I wanted to thank you for your ever-insightful and provoking work. Planet Waves has been an indispensable part of my spiritual journey.

-- Anne Inoue

*** To provide a sort of "home-away-from-home" to others

I personally see my role as me being available to others and providing space for them to be themselves. In relationships, work, and just in passing, I try my best to be present in order to allow people to feel that they can be their most authentic selves without fear of judgment or ridicule.

It's decidedly not a concrete task, and it doesn't feel like much. But on reflection, I suppose my goal in this is to facilitate space for awareness to be exercised freely, so that growth can occur. (Or, in a less wordy way, to provide a sort of "home-away-from-home" to others.)

On a more concrete level, I'm working on a multidisciplinary art project that I hope reflects and embodies these values. I can't really apprehend a way to tackle the grander structural issues of American society, so in line with the axiom "as above, so below," I try to start with allowing myself to be myself. From there I try to provide that to others, and, hopefully, from my artwork to American society as a whole.

-- Spencer Stevens

***
Just be present and available

I am trying to learn how to just be present and available to what is going on in front of me, without getting angry or anxious.

This is clearly what I need in my life! I am growing to think that if I can pull it off, it may also be my most important role as an American, as a parent, and as a human.

So many of us desperately need this calm, peaceful ability to set our worries aside and just see what is right in front of our faces. If any of us can figure out how to do that, maybe we can help show the rest how it's done. Or at least that it's possible.

-- Dylan Tweney

***
To face and transform wounds for myself

[My role] is to look deeply and face and transform wounds for myself and to write, express and co-create radical methods of community action. I affiliate with those doing similarly on a global scale.

This piece is great and I suggest you include some of all that IS occurring in the positive, adult world. Your focus on just the negative feels in itself feels parental. While I do not know the astrology of this movement there must be some as it is occurring. I suggest you add a bit of whatever is supporting the adult side of the split.

I was going to share this as it has such depth; and now as I feel it, you simply asking, "what are you doing" is not enough balance to the negativity. Many are doing and facing a lot of their mommy/daddy stuff. FOCUS on some of that would you please.

Example: June 27th there will be a Zoom conference put on by Riane Eisler's Center for Partnership Studies to celebrate not just her new book but all that the global community is doing.

Would love to know some of the astrology of all that is growing up and expressing. Your negativity in my view feeds into the trauma so many are feeling. Too bad, as you are such a deep seer. And your negativity feels parental. Wake up, dad.

BTW when you speak of the ENVIRONMENT you are speaking epigenetically: a field where we know now we can even change DNA purely by thought.

-- Nancy Peden

*** My role is to help people grow up

As a counselor, my role is to help people grow up, to become adults, to become free, to be able to think for themselves independently, and ultimately to feel and experience the joy of life. Of course that begins with myself, so I have my daily practices; and thanks to my teachers and the support that I have received they work beautifully!

-- George Jacobs

*** Aligning the personal, political and planetary

Some time ago I woke up to the necessity to align the personal, political and planetary in the story we tell ourselves about our lives -- which, amplified over many people, becomes the story we tell ourselves about our society and our world. We've understood since the Sixties that the personal is political. Now we have to understand how the personal is political is planetary -- how our individual actions and modes of being impact not only the woof of politics, but also the warp of the environment.

I did this work for myself in my memoir, What I Forgot…and Why I Remembered (Green Fire Press, 2017); and now I am offering myself as a guide for others to undertake this incredibly valuable journey of aligning the personal, political and planetary -- a process I call purposeful memoir. Purposeful memoir, as I conceive it, looks back over our individual and collective experience in order to better understand the present and envision the future we want to live into and co-create.

My writer's guide, The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir (Green Fire Press Nautilus Silver Award winner, 2017), offers a year's worth of prompts to get people thinking about how the personal, political and planetary intersect in their life stories.

I have also developed a new workshop, "Aligning the Personal, Political and Planetary: Purposeful Memoir as a Path to a Thriving Future," which I'll be offering in various places in the coming year, including the Transformational Language Arts conference in September, the Bioneers conference in October, and at Findhorn eco-village in May 2020.

I'm also offering a new series of workshops called The Alchemy of Purposeful Memoir, which focus on looking for entry points into our life stories through positive qualities we seek, like Joy, Courage, Health, etc. The alchemy comes in saluting the positive and transmuting the negative in our lives, through the narrative magic of purposeful memoir.

In addition, I'm working on a new book that weaves together the purposeful memoirs of the leaders I call Worldwrights, path-breakers of social and environmental justice who have also written purposeful memoirs, like beacons for others coming along behind them on the trail.

Eric, you should write a purposeful memoir that brings together all your amazing insights into the way the personal, political and planetary weave together -- starting from your own life story and working outward, as you do in every reading.

-- Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D.

***
Promoting change that benefits everyone

Increasingly it seems to be promoting intelligent thought where it doesn't presently exist. Promoting change that benefits everyone and everything possible. Remembering a future for all our young. Standing up for my own and others' needs. Thanks for asking about my role. It made me want to be better at it.

-- Mary Turcich

***
Kindness, decency, integrity

Personally to live & act upon human values -- kindness, decency, integrity, that kind of thing, as much as possible. Not so much as change the world, but figure if I can live to my highest, it may inspire others to live to theirs.

-- Sonal Shanker

***
Coming to myself

-- Coming to myself
-- Spending more time disconnected; mentally also
-- Observing myself and feeling those around me for their presence not their roles
-- Being quiet
-- Physical movement and fully aware of my body during it
-- Appreciating this incredible planet we live on

-- Diane DeGrande
Dear Friend and Reader:

Astrology is often a study in human development. Those developments can be tracked by certain transits that happen to people of the same age range at about the same time. [See video preview here. See PDF of some class charts here.]

We live in a society that fails to recognize meaningful developments in our lives. Once someone is past college graduation and marriage, it's rare that the progress people make is honored -- no matter how hard won. Going out to dinner or getting a gold watch when you retire is not enough.

One result of this, I believe, is that most people's maturity is either stunted or unrecognized in our culture. Progress is rarely claimed -- and progress is what we need.

Read more.. Choice of Movement By Amanda Painter

On one level, this week's astrology is describing some very insistent and action-oriented themes, related to Mercury making the same aspects in the cardinal signs that Mars has been making. At the same time, we have activity in mutable signs lending their own sense of movement, in their own style.

To start with, Mercury is currently in early Cancer.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Over the next couple of days it makes squares to Makemake and Logos in Libra, an opposition to Quaoar in Capricorn, and squares to Salacia and Chiron in Aries (it opposed Pholus in Capricorn on Wednesday). So we're still working with ideas about how family and generational patterns play out; what we think of 'secret' sexual material and how it does and does not get spoken about; and the 'mystery' and logic of how things have come to be the way they are.

Though with Mercury involved, you may find that your perception of these themes and how you tend to speak about them comes into greater focus. One thought that comes to my mind is the way you conceptualize your place in the family -- which is a facet of identity -- and how it affects your worldview. Are you feeling more compelled than usual to investigate this, or to 'think out loud' on the topic when in conversation?

I witnessed something along these lines today, in conversation with a friend, before sitting down to write this -- and also noticed what I've just dubbed 'the urge toward aggressive caring' in myself, now that Mars in Cancer is between its two sets of major aspects. Though this could be just me, as transiting Mars has been contacting my own natal Mars (my Italian DNA really, really wants to feed an acquaintance who keeps complaining of not bothering to eat well). Regardless of your personal chart and genetics, 'aggressive caring' may be worth some consideration.

On Friday, Mercury's square to Chiron is exact. With the signs Cancer and Aries involved, it suggests to me the question of how closely we identify with our emotions and thoughts. As in, can you detach from them enough to feel your ability to choose and change them? Or do you feel like releasing a troubling or toxic thought or feeling will leave you adrift, not sure of who you are without it? Chiron is raising the awareness, and also offers the impulse to 'stand out' in a more independent way.

Intellect and the emotional body can be seen comingling via the mutable signs, too. On Saturday, Venus moves from Taurus -- a sign it rules, and a locus of feelings-via-the-physical-senses -- to enter Gemini (occurring at 9:37 pm EDT / 1:36:49 UTC). Venus in Gemini is said to sift the emotions through the mind, as astrologer Isabel Hickey put it. There's a greater tendency toward friendship, intellectual rapport, verbal flirtation, and light sociability with this placement.

Continue reading... Help From Astrology When You Need It Most Individual Signs, Personal Reassurance

Dear Friend and Reader:

To be alive in our moment is to live constantly at the edge of uncertainty. My role as an astrologer is to bring you closer to your sense of purpose, and to help you find your way through the maze of space and time.

When you finish listening to an astrology reading, the idea is to feel better about yourself, and that is how I work. [See video preview here.]

Still of Eric Francis doing one of the Call the Astrologer readings.

Last week, I completed a set of 12 readings for all of the signs and rising signs -- Call the Astrologer. These readings are now available for individual signs and rising signs.

This is astrology made easy, without losing any depth. You will find your reading to be helpful, reassuring and clarifying of your purpose. You will feel better about yourself.

All 12 signs are still available at a reduced rate. You may share these readings with friends and loved ones. My purpose is to bring the very best of professional astrology to you at a small fraction of the cost -- to put professional astrology within reach.

Please let me know how your reading helped you, and get in touch if you have any questions. Thank you for your business, and for trusting me as your astrologer.

With love,

PS -- Buy two signs and get a third for free. Once you've completed your purchase, write to us at cs@planetwaves.net to get your third sign, which you may give to someone else as a gift.

PPS -- You may see a video introduction to this reading, and several video sign previews here and here. Not Exactly Twins, but…

By Amanda Painter

With the Sun at the midpoint of Gemini, the themes of multiples may be prominent in your consciousness somehow. It reminded me of this social media art phenomenon that crossed my path a while ago: a thread on Reddit that started when someone's mom painted an image of an egret -- her second-ever piece of artwork -- and was worried nobody would like it; the son then posted it online.

Next thing you know, total strangers began to "paint it forward": a guy painted a picture of the mom holding her egret painting; then a woman painted a picture of the guy holding his painting of the woman holding her egret painting -- and so on. The result is something like a set of Russian dolls in painting form, or like zooming out to reveal an increasingly wider reality; with each iteration, the ever-smaller original nests in a larger whole.

The project also spawned multiple sub-threads of artists working off the same painting, taking things in divergent directions, with artists working in various styles. You can watch a brief time-lapse video here of Kristoffer Zetterstrand, the first person to paint the mom holding the egret painting, at work.

Just goes to show what you can set in motion in even the smallest ways, and even when you 'don't think anyone will like it'. We are all part of a larger whole, after all. 
New Edition of Planet Waves FM
Gemini New Moon Conjunct Magdalena

Dear Friend and Listener:

In this week's Planet Waves FM [play program here], I take two different looks at the Gemini New Moon, which took place Monday morning. One look involves the New Moon opposite two deep space points; the other takes up the Magdalena aspect of things.

In a political segment of the program, I consider how 2nd Amendment advocates relate to the responsibilities involved in such an unusual right. And then I play the entire statement by Robert Mueller and give some analysis.

In the last segment, I offer a review of Rocket Man, the new biopic about Sir Elton, and the relationship of his life story to the Queer movement that began in Stonewall in 1969. I have some comments about who needs to be included in the LGBTQIA through Z movement, who is currently excluded.

My musical guest is Emily Beck, a local artist I discovered at the Kingston Farmer's Market Saturday. You may visit her Bandcamp here.

On the program, I mention that we have an "open services" mailing, listing all of our free services. Please share this link.

I also highlight some new items we're offering: the Gemini reading, the Taurus reading, Call the Astrologer!, the Mercury retrograde reading and the Awakenings reading (Uranus transits).

Planet Waves FM is published by Chiron Return. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, supported by your monthly and one-time contributions. Thank you to all who add a little to the kitty every month and make our program possible. If you would like to offer something, please visit this link.

With love,
Attention Gemini Sun and Rising -- A New Reading For You
Where Does Your Power Go, and How Do You Get it Back?

Dear Friend and Gemini:

I recently finished the Gemini Astrology Studio reading. It's on the server and ready to go.

Here are some notes about what I've covered. The first topic is introspection. We live in a time when our lives have been turned inside out.

Scene from the Gemini New Moon.

We see this in many forms in the social media milieu: the most private and subtle elements of people's lives are often broadcast to the world.

Even if you don't consciously do that, the conditions around us have a way of making it happen anyway. What is yours is yours, and to be in the environment of constant exposure dilutes who you are.

So I focus on how to regain your inner vision; how to look, why you might be afraid to look, and what to do with what you see. I encourage you to fire your inner publicist.

I then move on to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in your solar 8th house, Capricorn. This is the power dynamic study. This is where we ask the question, where does your power go? The response to that question comes from Mars in Cancer -- your quest for independence -- financial, emotional, and from the tyranny of others defining who you are -- or you even meekly allowing them to.

The reading is one hour and five minutes, in three sections, with music by Vision Quest. It comes with the Mercury Retrograde Reading, which will soon be sold separately for $44.

You may still purchase for the pre-order price of $44.

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

With love,

PS -- Please call us on (206) 567-4455 to bundle your reading with an early renewal or other excellent astrology services -- or to enquire about discount pricing if you are in difficult financial straits. Thank you for being a Planet Waves customer. Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes

We've published your extended monthly horoscope for June on Thursday, May 30. Your extended monthly horoscope for May was published on Thursday, April 25. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Aries (March 20-April 19) -- It would seem you're gearing up for some kind of confrontation -- whether with another person, or with yourself, or possibly both. Specific truths are making themselves felt and challenging your understanding on a particular point. The uncertainty you experience may be disquieting, though it's perhaps better to sit with the feeling a while and not try to force a solution before its time. You will discover whatever is left to be found soon enough; then you'll be ready to deal with the situation head-on. Doing this will likely give you a renewed sense of purpose and vigor: the ground beneath your feet should feel a lot more solid. Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- Self-love is the root from which all other love grows. By self-love, I mean genuine and just appreciation of your gifts, and treating yourself with respect, not just as a result of those gifts and the way you apply them, but as a daily practice. Without this, we tend to need approval from others to bolster our happiness, which creates a dependency that's never quite satisfied. This is like Tantalus reaching for the fruit always out of his grasp. Vesta is about to enter your sign, which will help focus the question of where you place your energies; whether you need to divert more power, for example, to stoking your creative inner fire. Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- Your birthday season is likely to receive a nice boost as Venus enters your sign Saturday night ET. If you're so inclined, this is an excellent time to head out, socialize and meet new people. You deserve to feel good about yourself and do what you love. This is also true on a deeper level, as you continue making leaps and bounds on your journey of healing and growth. We all have moments of doubt, though in general you can deal with any that arise by simply understanding how much you've achieved, and recognizing what it took to get there. Celebrate yourself and have some well-earned fun. Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- Amid some recent tensions and challenges, you may well be in the mood for chilling out and reconnecting with your inner life, especially if certain people around you are creating some turbulence or perhaps bringing up old issues. Get away from such conflicts where you can. Spend time in any particular space you consider a sanctuary or where you feel at home. It's possible you feel under some pressure to take sides in an argument, though it would be worth refusing to bow to any attempt at boxing you in. Don't commit to any ideas you are not fully prepared to endorse for their own sake. Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- There is often a delicate line between evincing enough skepticism that you're able to examine any position critically, and sufficient trust that you don't dismiss anything you might encounter without due consideration. Just now you appear to be facing a decision on how far you might give a hearing to a specific concept. You could begin by resolving to keep an open mind for as long as there is uncertainty, and be careful to identify any preconceptions that may be hindering that; next, remember that research is your friend. Gather all the data you can that will help you make an informed choice. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- You're experiencing quite profound changes at present in terms of your aspirations, to the extent that you are in the process of removing some longstanding roadblocks and looking with new eyes at what is possible. Vesta entering your 9th house will open up your perception further, giving you perhaps a clearer idea than ever before of your capabilities. You'll probably want to take it one step at a time, leaving plenty of space for reflection as well as action. That said, steady perseverance is also likely to be useful. Notice where your attitude has shifted decidedly from the past, which is a good measure of your progress. Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- You seem aware that a change is afoot; tension is crackling in the air, and you may have a sense of uncertainty. Yet there's no need for any angst; the alteration is more than likely to show itself as a shift in your perspective, opening you up to new and interesting ideas. This is only frightening if you allow it to be, in the same way that learning anything from medieval history to paragliding can feel intimidating until you gradually gain confidence, and can look back on your early endeavors with pride in how far you've come. Think of this development as organic progress, and let it happen in its own time. Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- When you enter into an agreement of any kind with someone, do you know where your red lines are? This week you may be called on to consider that deeply. No commitment can be made without a sacrifice or compromise of some sort. Is the concession you're being asked for reasonable and worth offering, or would it encroach on your autonomy, freedom or ability to be true to yourself? You might also review your own requests in the same light. Gaining the upper hand needs to be the least of your concerns here; what you're aiming for is a cooperative scenario in which everyone receives something they need. Otherwise, why bother? Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- Your attention is being drawn to the way you respond to others when they act in less-than-perfect ways, whether loved ones or people you hear about. How often do you rush to judgment? Given the cultural pressure to do so, we all need to examine ourselves carefully on this subject. The first thing to remember is that none of us is a model of etiquette all the time. Secondly, you may not know all facets of the story. It's a good idea to gather all necessary information before making any decisions, and to keep your critical thinking faculties sharply honed. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- As you almost certainly know by now, much of the big astrology of our era is focused on your sign, with the developing conjunction of Saturn and Pluto. At times, this may feel as if you're carrying the weight of the world, or at least a significant proportion of it. You are not alone; many people are justly concerned by what is happening around them. Yet this too shall pass: astrological eras come and go, just as generations do, and human evolution proceeds along with them. All we can do, all we can ever do, is live our best lives, whatever that means for each of us. Be patient and kind to yourself. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Showing one's ideas to others is an important step in the creative process. Until that moment, whatever you've made is exposed only to your own worldview; as the audience widens, even if only by one person, there's a risk that some criticism (hopefully constructive) will follow. Yet this is something that has to be encountered on the way to completion. Cultivate your patience and remember that others do not always articulate their points well, or know what they're talking about. However, you may well receive at least one interesting idea you can apply. Be courageous. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Notice any reluctance you might feel to let go of the threads of what is past, and to focus on the future. While things may not have turned out precisely as you planned, you currently have a pretty rare opportunity: to place your hand firmly on the shape at the potter's wheel, and design it virtually exactly as you wish to do. At this point you are calling the shots in your life in a way you've not been able to do for a good while. Therefore, take the space to craft the life you envision in all its complexity and detail. It may involve one or two slips, though you'll be learning all the time.