Eric Francis
The Hague

Dear Eric
In Planet Waves this week, you mention that Mercury will station direct on the last day of the Republican Convention. This makes me nervous, remembering that Mercury also stationed direct on the day of the 2000 election, and, well, we all know what happened... any predictions on what the fallout will be this time, or is the convention too far from the election (and too much of an empty media circus) for the Mercury movements to have much effect?

Chris

Dear Chris
The Bush Presidency has been the Mercury Presidency. Every time something interesting happens, Mercury is in the picture in some prominent way. It is indeed true that Mercury stationed direct just hours after the presidential election ended in Florida that bizarre Tuesday in 2000. For those who fancy the details, it stationed after dipping into Libra (scales, balance, justice) by about five arc minutes -- a tiny fraction of a degree -- giving some excellent imagery of something hanging in the balance by a thread.

The whole sequence of events in 2000 was, by the way, predicted by the astrologer Jim Shawvan on StarIQ.com several months in advance, as accurately as if he were reading USA Today of the future. Poke around that site and you'll find it.

In addition, Mercury that day was in a close conjunction to Pallas Athene, the asteroid of politics and law. If that is truly the time that the Bush presidency was born, and I would say it is, then Mercury's role in that chart is Athenian: representing wisdom and protection. I say this despite all appearances to the contrary. When the whole business comes undone, Mercury will be standing there laughing.

There have been many examples of prominent Mercury charts, particularly the Sept. 11 attacks, in which Mercury was exactly rising. Look at how much of the truth has come out about that fiasco in the three years since it happened. The only issue is whether people believe it. But the truth itself? That is well known.

Looking at the astrology of the Republican National Convention, Mercury stations direct in dramatic Leo the morning of the convention's last day, Sept. 2. Let's be simple. There is a late development. There is something that appears one way all throughout, then becomes another. The same is likely to be true for the entire Bush presidency itself.

One of the most serious issues of the convention is the way the media will handle the vast protests that are going to follow these old wizards and warlocks to Manhattan. There are an expected quarter-million protestors who will be there, many of them New Yorkers. New York City is not going to climb into a caged-in "free speech zone." If I know anything about the place, and I was born and raised there so maybe I do, it's going to protest the old fashioned way, loudly and in Central Park whether Mayor Bloomberg likes it or not.

But these events can be grossly distorted by the media, becoming something they are not. I am concerned that some kind of dirty trick will be played, for example, people being placed in the crowd specifically to make trouble. So everyone is going to need to play it really cool. And for the best source of news, I recommend http://truthout.org, which will be covering the convention from both inside and outside.

It is certainly going to be interesting astrology to watch unfold; at least we have that clue. It's always fun to speculate, but then you need to see what happens and learn from that. I have by the way done an article that looks at the inauguration chart and the election chart, and that will be posted to my homepage soon. Here is something that you may find helpful; it touches on the elections, which are, by the way, well under the influence of the Venus transit of the Sun:
http://planetwaves.net/aquasphere/norlnpgg/open/HotSpots.html

Dear Eric
I'm full up of whipping myself for this failure and the accompanying guilt. How do you suggest we "must heal humanity" zealots get out of the loop if we just freakin' want peace with what we ARE able to manifest here? I know my self-flagellation / condemnation is hallmark of my Virgo Moon and Venus . . . so maybe I'm a little harder on myself than others in this regard.
Dorotha

Dear Dorotha
You could say that spiritual growth is for many people learning to give up this kind of guilt. And for others, it is acquiring some. We should really start a guilt bank where those who have enough of the stuff can donate some to those who have a complete lack.

Guilt has never solved anything. If it has kept certain people good, it's been very expensive for them otherwise, speaking in terms of limits placed on their emotions, on receiving love, and on accepting the abundance that comes to them in life.

Guilt is generally the remnant of an abuse legacy. If you feel guilt as an adult, it is very likely because somebody trained you to feel that way when you were a child. There is a connection here between the impulse toward saving the world as adults and trying to save the family as children. These are often situations where people "take on" the burdens of others and carry them as guilt. If we are really going to save the world, which just means save our communities, we need to do it some way besides guilt.

It takes a lot of practice to get past this, but it can be done. Ultimately one just decides to love oneself and do one's best and call that good. And if you're ambitious, hopefully you can learn to be motivated by creativity rather than fear. These are not big changes; rather they are extremely small ones. They happen thousands of times a day as we accept who we are, slowly change our thinking, learn to feel different emotions (such as contentment) and slowly learn to let the people who love us, love us. They do, you know.

If you are searching your chart for clues, here is what I suggest. First look at what is going on in your 4th house, and with the ruler of your 4th house. Let's say you have Capricorn on the 4th house cusp; I suggest you study the condition of every planet in that sign and house, as well as the condition of Saturn, wherever it appears in the chart. No matter what sign you have on the 4th, Saturn is going to tell you a lot about your sense of responsibility, how you respond to authority, and what you fear.

Next, check Neptune. Neptune gives us a lot of information about where we feel we need to make sacrifices. Check its sign, house and aspects for clues. Plus, if you are willing to check asteroids, take a look at Vesta. Vesta tells you where "your fire is not your own." This may be creative fire, your labour, your sexuality or some related form of personal energy. Vesta and its aspects can tell us a lot about guilt and the sense of "not belonging to ourselves."

Next, check Chiron. Chiron will address matters such as the 'sense of injury', as well as hypersensitivities we have, and places we have struggled to grow more than any other place in the chart. Don't worry about whether you can interpret the planet's placement; begin by a process of deduction, making notes on where it is and what it is doing.

Last, check a few additional minor planets, which you can get online free thanks to Astrodienst at the web page: http://ephemeral.info/eph/

Set up your birthday on the online form, and then type in Nessus, Pholus and Psyche (you can also check Vesta and Chiron here, and in fact anything you can name). Nessus, a centaur planet, can spill the beans on the abuse legacy we carry, both psychological and physical. It reveal the psychological dynamics of that abuse process, as well as telling us something about where it entered our reality (conjunct Mars, in the desire nature, for example; conjunct Saturn, as parental authority, and so on). Don't worry that you can't necessarily look up or interpret the meaning of the placement right away; just note its location and what it is doing (and welcome to the world of research astrology).

Pholus, also a centaur, points to multigenerational issues. It tells us what we have taken on from our grandparents and great grandparents, including matters involving addiction and, once again, sacrifice. Important keywords for Pholus are "three generations." Read that into your aspects where Pholus makes contact with any planet. Pholus has a way of making fast or even instantaneous transitions and healing processes whereas Chiron makes slow ones. It's as if Pholus says: three generations? That's enough! You figured it out! Now you're free!

Last, Psyche. Psyche is the sense of the psychic wound that never heals. Often it is a wound to faith. It is where we think we are permanently damaged. WE ARE NOT! But that is the sense of where and how. Psyche works a lot like Chiron in that because we think we are damaged some specific way, and often are, we do a lot of healing work and create a sense of power and special strength; the injury becomes its opposite. But there is often some kind of psychological legacy involved, and it can -- among other things -- involve guilt. The house and sign placement should tell you something about how to go about healing that guilt, and maybe the several minor planets I mention can give you a more detailed picture of what is going on for you emotionally or psychologically that will offer a healing process.

Setting aside astrology, I will leave you with a quote about guilt from an article I wrote in 2000, called "How To Be Your Own Lover." This passage was co-written with my former (and awesome) Gestalt therapist, Joe Trusso:

"Fritz and Laura Perls, early pioneers of Gestalt Therapy, taught that guilt is resentment turned against itself. Generally speaking, children, being the powerful yet powerless little critters they are, take upon themselves the notion of 'fault and blame'. They cannot imagine adults (who are personifications of the gods and goddesses) making an error. If they do, it's still the 'fault' of the child. 'If only I would've done this or that, daddy wouldn't hit me'. 'If I was more quiet, mommy wouldn't drink'. And so on. Since they are at 'fault', they are 'guilty', and since they cannot rage against the adults very successfully or have a real impact on the direction of events, they turn the resentment at being pruned, modified, corrected, disciplined, strongly directed, or dictated to, back at themselves.

"That is guilt. It's fair to say that our lives, so often filled with the idea that we cannot influence the direction of events, so often caught in the web of control, of bosses, of taxes, of children, and yes, of our sexual relationships, are often holographic copies of these original crushing relationships with parents and teachers. Yet as adults, the programming, the patterns, are contained within us. They are internalized. Check it out: do we have especially creative jobs? Dare we say what we feel, go where we want, be who we are, or have sex with who we desire? Or are we pruned, modified, dictated to, and denied out of existence by our own self-control?"

I ask you.

See you next week.
Love from the Hague, world capital of peace and justice.