By Len Wallick

Who’s to say when it started? One could just as well pick the day or the week before. Who’s to say where it started? One could find evidence for Peoria just as well as for Kathmandu. We certainly can say however, with whom it started. It started with us.

Just what has initiated, it’s hard to say, but its there for us to feel now. Of course there is the approaching vernal equinox. The days grow more equal to the nights. The temperatures become less extreme. Between the earth and the sky, a blue-green nascence in our minds. The harvest of a season passing. The co-creation of a new time, first in consciousness, then in exchange,  finally in action.

As if to tell us so, the faster-moving, so called “personal” planets have led the way this week. This morning Mercury occupies the same spot the Sun did on Tuesday. In Pisces, it forms a sextile to the north lunar node in Capricorn. The future is talking to us but we must put in the effort of listening in order to hear it. Move on to Venus for a clue.

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Today’s Oracle takes us back to the Scorpio monthly of March 1, 2002

Once again you are in the position of chief negotiator. I feel like I keep writing this; maybe I am just dreaming. Why is it, this time? Of course, it’s because you can handle confrontation better than anyone around you. Scorpio really does understand the art of give and take, that life in any form is based on an exchange. Thanks to a series of lessons well-learned, you see an endpoint to confrontation, or at least a path beyond it, and are now rarely inclined to have friction in your life merely for its own value. But what you still possess is a gift for not going straight into avoidance mode when things get intense, as have so many people for so many generations before you (at least three, it would seem). Now, one series of events that is on your horizon has the power to free you one more time, and one more way, from the legacy you have struggled with for so long. I suggest you take these experiences with full consciousness, gratitude, and holding the idea that they contain rather awesome information about who you are, information unavailable any other way.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. New horoscopes are published weekly plus twice a month in Planet Waves Astrology News and Planet Waves Light. The Oracle itself is a divination tool available to subscribers to either of these services.)

I envision a world in which we grant one another the freedom to love ourselves, and to love ourselves freely in the presence of others: an intention field of mutual self-forgiveness, for the sake of awareness, freedom and love; for happiness and existence. For relief from the unnecessary desperation that so many endure, and a gateway to something beyond.

A foliate head in the shape of an acanthus leaf, Bamberg cathedral, Deutchland, early 13th c.

This means holding the space open for others to forgive themselves (the opposite of judgment), and finding the space where it is possible to forgive ourselves: for all that we’ve denied that we wanted, all that we’ve refused that was true, all that we’ve done in the name of whatever, when we wanted something sincerely, that we knew we could have; wanted simple pleasure and denied ourselves; wanted to grant simple pleasure to others and denied them; when we wanted contact and denied that truth.

It is possible to do this alone. It’s possible to be real alone, and at first, somebody has to dare and pierce the veil of purity. It is easier to do it together; in truth, we wake up together. In existing, we are continually influenced by how people feel about themselves. How I feel about myself influences you, and how you feel about yourself influences me. This exists in an active dynamic, on many planes of reality.

How would the world look and feel if we weren’t so scared of who we are? How would the world feel if we were not aspiring to total control, and to treating people like they have ‘delete’ buttons? We would be a lot more forgiving, and embracing. We could let go of the subtle disgust with ourselves and let compassion fill that space.

There would be less surface tension. The world would feel easier to penetrate, to participate in and to adapt to. We would feel more adaptable. We would know the places we are welcome. We could meet one another with fewer expectations of perfection, and offer one another more room to explore, including our shadows, our deepest desires, our long-concealed needs. I speak of those who hold one another as friends, or as lovers, or as fellow travelers. I envision a world where we grant one another the freedom we’re afraid to ask for ourselves.

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Judith Gayle | Political Waves

There are some things that define America’s soul. One is the notion, so eloquently expressed by Abraham Lincoln, that this Republic is “of, for and by the people.”

During the Bush years, we knew government was at odds with our individual, trickled-down good; now, we find that so much has transpired in favor of AmeriCo, there isn’t even a pretense of following Lincoln’s lead. The mythology favored by the conservatives is that private industry drives down costs and must be left alone to do so: the Ayn Rand-ian argument that Alan Greenspan was shocked — SHOCKED — to discover rested in the hands of those refusing to self-regulate.

This would be a good time to plug in an old favorite YouTube from earlier in this century: “Supply Side Jesus,” narrated by now-Senator, Al Franken.

As the administration attempts to moderate the egregious activity of the banksters and insurance industry, we’ve come nose to nose with the power of corruption and the stonewall of those who think lack of regulation is the American model. For instance, Obama recently proposed regulations suggested by Paul Volcker. As Huffy reported, Volcker is no radical. He’s a former Fed chairman from years back, but Volcker knows a scam when he sees one. The Volcker suggestions, along with an independent Consumer Protection Agency, are part of the greater reforms that are ruminating in Congress. Retiring Senator Chris Dodd is attempting to thrash out a deal in committee, but he’s meeting … and evidently capitulating to … the Party of No. Continue Reading »

Today’s Oracle takes us back to the Virgo weekly of January 10, 2003

Self-control is not self-esteem. No form of control can substitute for actually feeling good about yourself, though our culture often equates the two. Beneath the impulse to control is a deeper issue, which may be an addiction to danger, which has as the other side of its coin an attachment to a particular image you’re trying to convey to the world (in order to protect you from some expected danger). One thing we can say about your current solar chart is that you now have the ability to see both sides of an issue, and to read what’s inscribed around the edge of the coin. There are certain facts about yourself that you now have little choice but to acknowledge. If you can do so gently and honestly, an old, painful split that you’ve been struggling with will finally begin to heal.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. New horoscopes are published weekly plus twice a month in Planet Waves Astrology News and Planet Waves Light. The Oracle itself is a divination tool available to subscribers to either of these services.)

By Len Wallick

Today (or tomorrow, depending on where you are) is the literal red letter day. Mars has returned to the same place it occupied way back on Oct. 17, one day after it first entered Leo. No matter where on the Earth you are, sometime [in most time zones, on] Wednesday Mars will begin moving forward again after being in retrograde since just before the winter solstice. The exact station direct of Mars takes place at 12:08 pm New York time and 5:08 pm London time.

This has been a long time coming. The retrograde began at the Capricorn solstice, amidst many other complexities. But it is as fresh and immediate as the aspects of the last few days. The key here is to find balance and perspective so as to integrate the season just passing with the season just emerging.

The mediation involved will be largely internal but will not take place in a vacuum. We can all help each other to find wholeness and prepare to fill in the details of the big picture being sketched by the outer planets. The youthful passion of Venus in Aries will now be joined by the re-discovered will of Mars as their fire sign trine (120 degrees of separation) which exacted this last weekend finds its full energy of expression.

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Today’s Oracle takes us back to the Virgo weekly of June 11, 1999

How could you have missed what was so clear all along? Could it be that, guarding your sense of safety and security, you chose to see things the way you wanted? Could it be that in protecting your interests, you were willing to make compromises that you never would have otherwise made, had you not felt somehow forced into your circumstances? One aspect of the history of relationships in our culture is the tale of what people think they can do to control one another. Rather than being immoral, this is truly impossible. Life is not about control, it is about making decisions, and that, I suspect, just got easier for you.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. New horoscopes are published weekly plus twice a month in Planet Waves Astrology News and Planet Waves Light. The Oracle itself is a divination tool available to subscribers to either of these services.)