New York, March 29, 2013 | View as Webpage | Customer Service: Chelsea (206) 567-4455
Planet Waves: Benefits of Membership

Dear Planet Waves Member:

I've created this page to familiarize you with what you receive as a Planet Waves member. Planet Waves offers a diversity of content, all designed to be personally relevant, and to give you the advantage of having a professional astrologer working for you.

Although astrology is not science, it seems to be something better: a space where the intuitive, the creative and the intellectual coexist as part of the same experience. I use my gift with the subject to bring it into clear focus and make the information actually useful to you.

Astrology thrives in a quiet and uncluttered space. As I offer it to you, astrology is about gaining clarity, perspective and a sense of timing. I don't use it for predictive purposes, but rather for creative ones; meaning I give it to you for the purpose of your own self-creation.

What Goes In

I use a mix of astrology, news reporting, literary journalism and photography to create a service designed to help guide you through the confusing, challenging yet potentially rich times in which we're living. My approach is to integrate the many seemingly separate aspects of life, and reveal the underlying connections. Astrology is the perfect way to do this, because it reveals so many of those contact points between people and events that we might never associate with each other otherwise.

In my astrology work I use both modern and traditional methods -- the ancient rules, mingled with deep research into new discoveries, psychological astrology and a soul-centered growth process.

Astrology is an old tool; we are putting it into a modern context, in a form that can be easily understood and used. For many years, astrologers have tried to create something that is truly helpful and applicable to our lives without requiring a personal reading. The challenge is that astrology is difficult to translate into ordinary language, which is what we specialize in.

While you may not find ‘easy' answers, you will find suggestions for how to look at yourself and the world around you. I specialize in synchronizing us with the times in which we're living, and the special challenges we face being alive now. You will find practical ideas for how to use the current astrology to maximize your greatest potential.

Throughout my week, I am in communication with some of the astrologers and other deep-thinkers I respect the most, and my ideas are in a continuous process of evolving. My work is read by more than 1,000 professional astrologers around the world, and I have my ear out constantly for their feedback.

I have a lot to say about where I believe the astrology profession needs to go. When you have a moment, you're invited to read my article Beyond Astrology.

What We Leave Out

One of the most beautiful things about Planet Waves is that we do not accept outside advertising. We are supported by you. This is our most basic philosophy of publishing. You are our client; we respond to your needs, not those of corporate sponsors.

Planet Waves uses modern astrology but is grounded in ancient tradition. I took this photo in the Grotto of Heracles on the Greek island of Delos -- home of the gods and goddesses.

Ads are so pervasive (before the 'net, we were inundated with 5,000 a day, and this has grown exponentially since then) that we expect to see them everywhere; they even lend credibility. But advertising is a menace: it compromises editorial independence and integrity, pollutes your mind and is ugly. In a word, advertising is manipulative.

I believe it's impossible to absorb or enjoy something when you're pelted with adverts every three inches or 10 minutes. While we do have in-house promotions, they are exclusively for our own products, and they are always tasteful and understated. When I endorse the work of someone else, you can be sure I really mean it -- and I will make sure it's worth it for you.

Our choice to be ad-free necessitates an intimate relationship with our readers, who support our work through memberships and product purchases. While this costs money, you get something of actual value -- and it's a lot cheaper than buying something ridiculously expensive that you don't need (which is what adverts are designed to get you to do). In our evolutionary or revolutionary concept of the media, outside advertising is unnecessary, and illuminated for what it really is.

We Come To You

As a Planet Waves member, you receive our mailings every Tuesday and Friday morning that we publish, plus on other occasions as needed. Our clients prefer email because it's more convenient than searching the web, though everything is backed up onto our member website.

Each week, we write the SKY section to keep you up to date on current aspects and their influence on you. Short and focused, this section of each Friday edition provides an overview of the week's astrology that you can't find anywhere else. It includes Full and New Moons, sign changes, movements of familiar major planets, and movements of newly discovered planets. Planet Waves is the only astrology website with a political writing team. This originates from my role as a political journalist and investigative reporter. Each week, we select one or more stories that stand out from the world of politics, that exemplify the astrology perfectly and that are relevant to you. You don't have time to scan the news all week looking for what will impact your life -- we do it for you. We're called Planet Waves for a reason -- we love our planet. Our news team keeps a constant eye on ecological issues and tells you what we learn. Often an environmental theme will be covered in the lead article, though many weeks we will select a local, national or international story that impacts the environment. This includes news about what's going wrong -- and what progress people and companies are making to take care of the planet we all share. Since our first days, Planet Waves has taken a sex-positive view of life. A few times a month we offer interesting news about sex from the wider world in our ERO section. In addition, Friday's feature articles often explore themes of relationship modes, approaches to sexuality and deeper themes such as self-esteem and jealousy. Doing our bit to prevent Monsanto from slowly taking over the world, we scan the news for the latest developments involving this company and its many issues. We focus on genetically modified foods, and also cover Monsanto's legal issues, its toxic legacy and the company's history. Monsanto has been part of Planet Waves coverage since early 1999, and we are assisted by document junkie and troublemaker Carol van Strum.

Each week we select one super creative idea that we find on the Internet and send it your way. It's not an article about that thing -- it's the thing itself: a video, movie, illustration, song, map or other art. The Internet may be the creatively richest place in history, and each week we share a sample of that wealth with you. You're welcome to send your suggestions to our editors for inclusion in this section. Planet Waves FM is my weekly webcast, now in its fourth year. It's an hour of innovative commentary, interviews and music. We include each edition of Planet Waves FM with your Friday mailing so that you have direct access without looking for it on the Web.

We also send some mailings introducing new reports and other useful astrology tools. There are many benefits of membership, all designed to bring astrology to life for you. Note that there is an archive of all mailings on this webpage. When you signed up for membership, you received login information to browse the archive, which includes every mailing since 2003.

Our Friday morning mailing is our main event of the week. I sum up the week that has passed in a lead article, and the week ahead in my astrology readings for the 12 signs and rising signs. These readings make advanced astrology accessible to you, in clear, understandable language. Written with 20 years of training, experience and study, they take numerous factors into account -- not just your Sun sign.

They're in the format of a "horoscope" but offer much more. They are detailed readings that apply to your Sun sign, your rising sign and your Moon sign. I suggest you look up your other two signs at Serennu.com, for which you'll need your birth time (easily converted to GMT). You may get your chart from Astro.com.

The sign interpretations all contain something informative and helpful, even if they don't apply directly to your sign. I believe that it's ethical to read other people's signs, to give you an idea of the climate and circumstances that may be influencing their lives. When reading for others, please use the information sensibly. For example, ask them what's going on rather than telling them.

Planet Waves serves you whether you're interested in following your astrology out of common sense and convenience, or whether you want to go deeper and get an understanding of the various spiritual forces that are shaping our lives. Astrology students will speed and deepen their studies considerably by studying Planet Waves.

Friday Lead Articles

Most Fridays I prepare a lead article. These come in several possible formats. Sometimes I explore an astrological theme, covering the current planetary movements.

The Friday lead is the ongoing invention of a new form of journalism. I use many classical reporting techniques, then present the information in a way that is accessible, useful and fills in your understanding of where you fit into the world. I am specifically addressing the issue of the news being both irrelevant and alienating, showing the ways in which events are personally relevant and bringing you into the story. I frame that story in astrology, history and personal psychology.

Many weeks I look at groups of events that have influenced the direction of our lives, perhaps in obvious ways, or in subtle ones. I specialize in putting these wide-scale developments into personal context -- doing what I call 'to tell the story of the world'.

The Caryatids gracing the Erechtheum (407 BC) atop the Acropolis in central Athens. Photo Anthony Ayiomamitis.

Lead articles can also take the form of thematic pieces that cover relationship subjects or historical events, or in-depth pieces on astrology -- all of which are written in an accessible, personally relevant and easy to understand style.

Tuesday Letters

Each Tuesday we send a letter to members that includes a special edition horoscope (when available). These include the Moonshine Horoscope by Genevieve Hathaway and the Inner Space horoscope by me.

Tuesday letters also point you to interesting content that has appeared on our blog, on Planet Waves FM or elsewhere in the Planet Waves network.

We highlight anything that we know is of possible interest to you, and also remind you of our publishing schedule status when necessary. Our Tuesday editions are designed to keep you in the loop, in short format.

Frequency of Publication

I will write a Friday issue with a weekly horoscope at least 44 times a year. On up to eight Fridays each year, I will remove an issue from the schedule. Due to the nature of the work we do and its proximity to the news cycle, it's impossible to know which issues too far in advance, except it's safe to say that we will not publish during the winter holidays. I tend to slow down the schedule more during production of the annual edition.

Looking for Immediate Information? Ask the Oracle.

Planet Waves membership also includes access to one of the coolest inventions on our website: the Oracle.

It does two things. First, you can type in a question and the Oracle will return a horoscope from the archive in response to what you've asked. The Oracle function does not use keywords. It's based on the time of the question and then makes a random selection from 10,000 horoscopes that are in the database.

It's like a metaphysical Magic Eight Ball. Simply type in a question, click the "Oracle" button and the Oracle randomly generates one of Eric's thousands of horoscopes as an answer to your question. You may login and try it out here using the login and password sent in your confirmation email. The Oracle is also accessible from the Planet Waves website.

It's also a complete, searchable horoscope database going back to around 1997. Usually horoscopes are "throwaway" writing. We don't feel that way at Planet Waves. Used as a database, the Oracle is responsive to searches by keywords, dates and signs.

For example, you can find any time I've mentioned Chiron in a horoscope, or any other particular planet. You can search through key phases of your life. This tool lets you find any horoscope going back nearly 15 years -- the only such resource in the astrology business that we know of.

Archive and Back Issue Library

Every edition of Planet Waves is emailed to you, and also posted to our website. As a member, you have access to 10 years of complete edition archives. It includes all member mailings and horoscopes dating back to early 2003. This library is organized chronologically.

This resource can be incredibly valuable for those engaging in deep personal growth work and counseling, as well as for astrology students researching a topic or time period. It's also helpful if you're looking for information about world events from a specific period of time.

To access the archives and the Oracle (described above), you will need to use the login and password sent to you in your member confirmation email. The login/password combination changes periodically, and we send you an email each time that you will want to keep in a safe place for when you need it.

Sounion, ancient temple to Poseidon, god of the sea and earthquakes, near Athens, Greece. Photo by Anthony Ayiomamitis.

If ever you cannot find the most recent login/password combination, you are welcome to call or email us. We generally respond to queries within 24 hours.

Our Daily Blog

Your premium membership service is separate from our daily blog. We offer content by other writers in our collective, including frequent astrology updates. The blog is sponsored by our members, but available to all readers.

You can read the work of our network of contributors, specializing in such topics as astrology, tarot, alternative relationships and spiritual healing. There are also spot news updates when necessary, and one free selection from the Oracle every day.

We invite you to comment on articles there; to do so, you will be asked to register with a username of your choice. This is separate from your Member Area password (the member archive and Word Press blogging systems are not integrated). Blog membership is free. A password will be generated for you, which you can then change to something you'll remember.

Additional Member Benefits

Also, as a member, we strive to offer you the most personal service that we can. We're happy to help our members locate past articles or issues, and we do our best to respond to your astrology questions.

We will always give you the first offers at the best price on new readings, such as the annual edition, birthday readings, and other astrology products offered throughout the year.

We're glad you found us. If you have any questions about your membership, respond to this email or call Chelsea at (206) 567-4455. We love hearing from our members, and we do reply.

Get Involved

Our staff is continually growing. If you would like to work for Planet Waves, either in a professional or volunteer capacity, please send a letter expressing your interest along with your resume to notice@planetwaves.net. We are looking for editors, writers, graphic artists and people to handle outreach, public relations and marketing. For those who have begun their study of astrology and want to learn in a real-world environment, you may find a home with us. This may be your opportunity to take part in an exciting, idealistic publishing project that is all about now -- all about these strange, challenging and beautiful times in which we are alive.

Lovingly,