Dear Friend and Reader:

I’d like to offer a few comments about yesterday’s Mercury square Neptune. This is a challenging aspect, as many people experienced. Yesterday, it was connected to the North Node of the Moon (Neptune on the North Node like a big, foggy headlamp) and Mercury exactly square the Nodes. Anything exactly square the nodes can act like a tipping point or factor.

Then the Moon itself swept through the arrangement, making an exact occultation to Neptune (like an eclipse), listing the ship and sending the feeling through our collective emotional bodies with a surge. A number of other planets and asteroids were in the dance — Mars, for instance, in Cancer (hence connected to the Moon). So if you thought yesterday was a strange day, there you have it. I am not one who gets up every morning and studies Raphael’s Ephemeris, which is where I would have seen the Moon-Neptune occultation, but this is good incentive to. However, if you live by the ephemeris like that, you risk going insane, and I do mean it.

On its own, Mercury square Neptune is often about self-deception. Think of a square as a structure that contains energy. Mercury and Neptune in this position, together in a natal chart, have been described as signifying the consummate liar. I don’t think any aspect automatically predisposes us to having or lacking integrity, but this one seems to create a world within one’s own awareness that functions with little regard for what exists outside one’s inner sense of reality. Notably, it may not be experienced as inner — it may be peered through like a pair of binoculars that selectively magnify certain aspects of life. This can flush things out of the pipes; usually, it keeps them in, or creates a sufficient distortion to miss the big picture.

A closed psychic ecosystem such as this is the perfect setup for dishonesty, because self-deception is almost always the root of any lie. This, in turn, is an interesting model of how we process information in a competitive market environment; there is so much competition for our mental capacity that we have to be selective. So much of what we might discover is unpleasant that we have incentive to be so. If we allow in outside evidence, that pierces the inner veil and compels a reality check: not always so popular. Or it creates an unusually potent obsession with seeking and finding the truth, even the Truth. I know someone with this aspect natally who does such things as (in her own words) take a God Squad down to Mexico to do multiple lifetime healing work. She certainly believes it and that makes it believable.

Joseph Campbell had Mercury square Neptune and was able to decode humanity’s complex relationship with myth. Bob Dylan has this aspect; he has been viewed as a prophet, a modern Shakespeare and the master of the poison pen letter. Interestingly, Jim Morrison also had this aspect. Sean Penn does as well, and he is an example of someone regarded with extremely high integrity; when I think of him I think of Dead Man Walking, the film that blew the whistle on the death penalty.

The thing to be cautious of in the charts of famous people is that they always put their resources to work in ways that get unusual results. That is why they are famous; why we can recite their ideas, lyrics and hum their music. I have no idea what it’s like to talk to or live with any of the guys I mentioned. One thing is for sure, they moved a lot of energy and they got results.

In my personal dealings I can tell you this aspect is a bit more challenging than putting Light My Fire on iTunes. Whether we noticed it or not, we all lived through it (and it’s still pretty close). There can be a disregard for truth, or lack of concern for the truth, that would be stunning, except usually you were already anesthetized when the stun hit. Sometimes it seems absolutely sincere to you or to others. Watch this aspect carefully. Pay attention to what you sign and check the claims of others carefully for factual veracity, significance and what they might be cloaking, inadvertently or not.

Yesterday in the news, we saw two uproars that fit this description: the exciting sequel in the Obama’s pastor furor, and one that (naturally) I think is far more interesting — the absurd fuss over Annie Leibovitz’s photo of Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus.

Mercury is about vectors of thought in any form, from language to a radio tower. Neptune is about images, film, illusion, dreams, fantasies and drug-induced experiences. It has a lot to do with photography, which functions with a touch of all of these themes. Mercury coming in for a square felt like an airplane landing on the water with its gear down. The New York Post and I gather plenty of other news outlets went wild with this non-story about a 15-year-old star photographed by portrait master Leibovitz with her shoulder and part of her back exposed.

It is being characterized as veritable kiddie porn; her family is ‘mortified’; though you can hear the laughter as the Magic Kingdom, home of her billion dollar entertainment empire, goes through its appearances of moral spasms of shock and outrage. Miley, for those unhip as myself who needed to Wiki her, plays a normal girl who moonlights as a rock star. Leave it to Disney to create a virgin rocker. Then she has her portrait done and the war in Iraq evaporates.

The Miley scandal is not a relevant version of the truth: the episode, in addition to sending up a smoke screen, is one vast public relations boon for Disney, who rather than attempting to purify its magnificent gleam is decorating its enterprises with a few tons of free ink. And do we think the Vanity Fair production manager called the print plant yesterday ordering up a few hundred thousand more copies for good measure?

One huge lie being propagated, regardless of who profits, is that a teenage young adults are asexual, or that it’s somehow inappropriate to represent them as sexual even though it’s done all the time. This is like freebasing denial, particularly if we care enough to help them stay healthy and unpregnant. Go ahead, teach them abstinence, then watch what happens in the onslaught of hormones. It seems like we have projected so much sexuality onto young people, and fetishized the appearances of youth, that we now feel a need as a culture to strip it off with a sandblaster.

Furthermore, the world seems to have a need for Miley not to grow up. To me this is the psychic, media-driven version of that Austrian guy who locked his daughter in the basement, taking total possession of her. Here, the world seems to need to lock Miley in the basement and never allow her to become Destiny Hope Cyrus, the mature woman.

Scandals are scams. They are never what they are about. Deeper down they are always about repression. If there is a grain of truth to them, it’s usually employed to seed the greater lie. If you look closely enough, or look in the opposite direction (perhaps within), sometimes you can see a little gleam of light.

PS. I just went down for coffee and the Sally Brompton horoscope and encountered an explanation of just what is going on with Miley, courtesy of the profound social criticism of the New York Post, my third favorite newspaper. To wit, Todd Venezia writes, “The young Cyrus and photo diva Leibovitz have created an international firestorm with Vanity Fair pics showing the all-American Tennessee girl with a bare back, turgid lips and suggestively tussled hair — all while being wrapped in nothing more than a piece of cloth.”

Have I got a piece of cloth for you, guys: it’s called a burka.

Today’s Aspects: Wednesday 30 April 2008

Venus (29+ Aries) trine Juno (29+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (0+ Taurus) trine Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Ceres (12+ Gemini) quincunx Hidalgo (12+ Scorpio Rx)
Neptune (24+ Aquarius) square Admetos (24+ Taurus) – Near Miss Only
Amor (1+ Taurus) quincunx M87 (1+ Libra)
Atlantis (16+ Libra Rx) semisquare Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx)
Venus enters Taurus (direct)
Mercury (26+ Taurus) septile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra Rx) trine Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Venus (0+ Taurus) quincunx Arachne (0+ Libra Rx)
Sun (10+ Taurus) quintile Apollo (22+ Cancer)
Psyche (20+ Scorpio Rx) opposite Sedna (20+ Taurus)

Oracle takes us back to Dec. 12, 2005 – Gemini – monthly

I don’t know if people have been accusing you of being stubborn lately, but these days persistence is good for you. A series of recent personal developments finally seems to have got you sorted out in terms of keeping both twins focused on one goal. You now have a kind of miraculous moment of diplomacy coming, where you can basically convince anyone of anything. The only thing that could stop you is if you persuade yourself that certain people who are friends are really something else. They are not; it’s just a little touch of mild paranoia bugging you.

Dear Friend and Reader:

The following just showed up in my inbox, about one of today’s aspects. I am honored to yield the microphone to Genevieve Salerno. She writes:

These days at the 9 to 5 have begun to pass by without any names. Monday and Thursday, Friday and Wednesday could all be the same. I drove home in the rain after a seven hour stint in a little office that has about as much natural light in it as I have passion for the job. Don’t get me wrong, I get along well with the people there. I have made friends and have gotten a chance to meet teachers of many skills. There is a lot of laughter in my office, a blessing that I find rare when I look into the faces of say…people who work at banks and Price Chopper. But we all do what we must do. I remember the times I used to call up my mother with the mind to find a sympathetic ear, and got only: “Well that’s just what you do.”

And the frustration I felt upon hearing those words had a face, and a mind of its own. It had a soul, and a pair of hands to execute the works that its imagination brewed from deep underneath the Shell of Adulthood that has been ossifying for many years now. Whoever she is, lurking deep within me, she is the feeling that today’s aspect nurtures. The blissful side of me, the procreative side of me. She is Eros.

It seems that as soon as I graduated college and stepped into the world with a new goal to survive on my own, I could not help but follow the formula of all those people that have gone before me. I got a new pair of shoes, a car insurance bill, a cat, and a job to exchange money for all of the aforementioned. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t specifically passionate about what I did, as long as it gave me enough money to provide a space for me and the cat, good enough food, gas to travel with, and the occasional surplus for a bottle of Jack. When I wanted to write, or paint, or dream, I had about four and a half hours after work to do that, before I could retire for a proper amount of rest to start the whole thing over again.

And then years passed. My Eros found the channels by which to inspire me more crowded by the echoes of other desires, more pertinent, mundane desires, until I could only trace her by the rumblings I felt as though they were workings deep within the Earth; and not myself. There was one time I felt that shudder so completely, that it drove me to pick up my jacket and walk out of a 40 hour a week gig at a switchboard. I was about 5 hours into my first shift. I never returned, and I never answered the phone when they called me.

Why is it that we make the trade between living our lives creatively, and striving to create a “product”? At what point do we make that trade, where it is no longer acceptable to do nothing? Where dreaming is a waste of time and even the word “vacation” stresses us out because it means more work, more striving, for a better way to use our time?

The expansive, creative quality of Jupiter is that jolt of rebelliousness from our regimented schedules. It is a call to the Lord and Lady residing in each of us, to come forward without any fanfare and to celebrate the state of mind that is Eros; the Urge and the Sensation. Only through being completely open to our desires can we begin to understand their wisdom. For some reason, our culture has made it very hard to do this. “If you don’t swipe a card to get it,” I remember a friend saying, “then it’s viewed as suspicious in our culture.”

And that’s what my mother was talking about when she said, “You can’t get anywhere in this world without money.”

I know this is just not the truth. In times of defiance I draw strength from where Eros dwells. I don’t desire to work in an office for the rest of my life. I want to be a weaver, I want to drink up textures and colors all day long. I want to spend the sunlight hours watching things grow. I want to let Universe come through my body and throat in the form of sensuality and poetry. I am going to leave this place, and knowing with certainty that it will end; I adore it for its transience.

Today’s aspect reflects what I feel in a Cosmic sense: Jupiter and Eros united in element Earth invites us to take a step back from the world of work, stress, struggle; and just relax. Behold the grand scheme of things that is the expansion of pleasure.

Its hard to say that this feeling is still pure when looking at our current age. Somewhere along the line the baddies took the good idea, and twisted it like Melkor did to the Elves when he formed the Orcs. But the bliss of life, the joy of encountering the world of the flesh and the senses is still there, clear as youth; waiting to be disrobed.

Tuesday 29 April 2008

Mars (24+ Cancer) sextile Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Amor (0+ Taurus) quincunx Arachne (0+ Libra Rx)
Mars (24+ Cancer) sesquiquadrate Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Juno (29+ Sagittarius Rx) septile Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Eros (22+ Taurus) trine Jupiter (22+ Capricorn)
Pandora (17+ Scorpio Rx) trine Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Sun (9+ Taurus) quincunx Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Juno (29+ Sagittarius Rx) septile Chariklo (8+ Scorpio Rx) – Near Miss Only
Mercury (24+ Taurus) square Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Ceres (12 Gemini) quintile Aries Point (0 Aries)
Eros (22+ Taurus) sextile Apollo (22+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra Rx) quintile Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Apollo (22+ Cancer) square 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries)
Mercury (24+ Taurus) conjunct Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Venus (29+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (24+ Taurus) sextile Mars (24+ Cancer)
Venus (29+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Vesta (4+ Aries) trine Hylonome (4+ Sagittarius Rx)

The Oracle takes us back to June 2005 Virgo monthly for Flaunt magazine

More than you imagine turns this month on who you consider your friends to be. Don’t be afraid to use the word with caution; don’t be afraid to evaluate the people you meet extremely carefully. It all really comes down to this: do they help you be who you are, or do they hinder you? Once you know, act accordingly.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Mercury is conjunct Eros today. I take this as a personal invitation from the cosmos to continue my discussion of astrology and sexuality. True, my kitchen table is piled high with these invitations. But this is a good one.

Where you see Mercury, you can fill in the verb ‘communicate’, ‘express’, ‘idea’ or ‘message’. What is being expressed will be modified or described by the sign, the aspects and if you are using a natal or horary chart, the house involved. Today Mercury is exactly conjunct Eros, so presumably we have some form of a message of love or erotic feeling. Note, the god Eros is the root of the word ‘erotic’. So highly did the Greeks value this concept that they assigned it a deity. You may say that everything in Greek myth gets a deity, and you would be right — they lived in a different world than we did; a world that was worthy of respect and awareness.

However, Eros is not just one of the Gods. Eros is one of the prime creation deities, along with Gaia. So with Eros we are on another level entirely, than, say, the Olympian gods and goddesses. (The name Eros should be given to a trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper Belt, but because it’s assigned to an asteroid, it cannot be.)

Martha Lang-Wescott is one of the modern masters of asteroid delineations. I respect her work deeply and I tend to use her ideas as a solid starting point for the asteroids. (For centaurs, I depend on the work of Melanie Reinhart, Juan Revilla and Phil Sedgwick, who I’ll introduce properly on other days.) I also have a friend in Wales whose insight is so clear that she makes this rather highly competent lot look like the three blind mice.

Of the themes of Eros, Martha says: Sexuality; reproductive organs; the heart & cardiac system; the history, experience and behavioral repertoire of eroticism; joie de vivre; what “turns you on;” the Will to Live (the “passion” for life.)

People who wonder why they need to consider sex more fully, investigate their hangups and commit to letting go of them; or who want to live with greater gusto, might well consider how all these things are wrapped up in one idea: Eros. Even astrology, as defined by a careful, even prudent astrologer, is connected with the Will to Live and the joy of life. We all know this. Why do we shun it? Are we ashamed not just of sex, but to live fully? Maybe we’re being influenced by something. Maybe it’s the Church of the Marketing Culture, which says “be ashamed of your body so you buy our products.” If you catch yourself feeling that one, tap your knuckle three times and say, “I don’t need that.”

Mercury is conjunct this point in Taurus today. Taurus is the sign of the season of Beltane, where we are right now. Taurus and Beltane connect the ideas of eroticism and the flow of resources; access to our own resources; and feeling good enough about who we are to enjoy life and pleasure. The astrological cue is to express yourself on what in this subject area is important to you. If you have a lover or partner, say clearly what you like and see if that gets the energy moving in a new way.

If you are afraid to do so, perhaps consider all the things you have not said, and use that as a measure of your intimacy. We are in an unusually potent time for concealing our truth as a way of supporting the structure of a relationship. If this seems like a virtue, it’s in the short run. The longterm cost is incalculable. Eventually, lies , secrets and silence smother passion and the joy of living. As William Pennell Rock said on one of the most searched pages on Planet Waves, “Only the truth is erotic.”

* * *

Saturday, I went to the Beltane celebration at the Center for Symbolic Studies in Tillson. This is an annual event hosted by Robin and Steve Larsen, perhaps best known outside the local area for their book A Fire in the Mind, the biography of Joseph Campbell. This was my first opportunity to go in many years. I’ve been away in Europe for five of the last 10 Beltanes, and spent most of the rest of the time on the West Coast and in Florida.

I’ll post pictures from the event on the cover for the next few days, to give you the feeling. This was Beltane for the whole family. There was a pageant with droves of young people (between five and maybe 16) acting, singing and dancing the drama of the change of seasons (organized by the old-timers of my generation). The wee ones danced the May Pole (see today’s cover) and there was a kind of prancing pony show in a mini-Stonehenge that has been constructed on the property. At night we had a fire ritual without the fire (forest too dry to risk that) and then drumming well into the night. I drummed for the first time in years. it’s one of my passions, and it’s part of my Plan For More, Better Sex.

But what I must congratulate the Larsens on is making Beltane normal. It isn’t even easy to put together a Beltane celebration among the Pagans and pseudo-Pagans in your community. I tried on the West Coast, in Washington, and to my shock, nobody was even interested. Here, in sophisticated rednecky upstate New York, we have this celebration where everyone brings their kids and the girls are all wearing little floral wreaths and the May Pole is danced (which weaves the cosmic vulva [the ribbons] around the cosmic cock [the pole].)

In the world of liberating the sensibilities that defined humanity before Constantine, St. Peter and all those popes, what is missing is some sense that these old rituals are normal. Normal, as in Christmas, softball or a barbecue. With the worldly wisdom I have gained from a decade of traveling and living in different parts of the world, I returned to where I started and saw it as someplace new.

Here are today’s aspects, Note Mercury sextile Uranus and trine Jupiter, and Pallas conjunct Eris.

Have a great day. If you love Planet Waves, please sign up.

Yours & truly,

Monday 28 April 2008

Pallas (20+ Aries) quincunx Psyche (20+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (21+ Taurus) conjunct Eros (21+ Taurus)
Mercury (21+ Taurus) sextile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Venus (26+ Aries) trine Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Eros (21+ Taurus) sextile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Mercury (21+ Taurus) septile Aries Point (0+ Aries)
Sun (8+ Taurus) opposite Chariklo (8+ Scorpio Rx)
Pallas (21+ Aries) quintile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Eros (21+ Taurus) septile Aries Point (0+ Aries)
Apollo (22+ Cancer) opposite Jupiter (22+ Capricorn)
Vesta (4+ Aries) quintile Jupiter (22+ Capricorn)
Mars (24+ Cancer) quincunx Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Mercury (22+ Taurus) trine Jupiter (22+ Capricorn)
Mercury (22+ Taurus) sextile Apollo (22+ Cancer)
Pallas (21+ Aries) conjunct Eris (21+ Aries)
Venus (27+ Aries) trine Orcus (27+ Leo Rx)

Today’s Oracle takes us to Jan. 24, 2002, Aquarius – Weekly

Since Mercury went retrograde in Aquarius I’ve been having little problems with contained water: leaks, pH problems in my fish tank spilling things and so forth. It seems like the water bearer is reminding me of her existence. How are you doing in this regard? Are you sufficiently hydrated both physically and emotionally? If you want to feel a lot better for relatively little work, drink more water than you think you need, get your body into water and near a lot of water if you can. Step two would be plugging any leaks that you’ve noticed on the emotional level just by getting clear with the people around you — a fine way to start the year or better to define it.

Monday Morning Note: Hey there, please check for your new blog circa 9 am Eastern Time. efc

Saturday note to readers: I won’t be updating this weekend. Taking a moment to give my writing mind a rest, packing a drum, camera and picnic, and heading for Beltane at the Center for Symbolic Studies in Rosendale. I am looking forward to being miles from my computers for the day and into the night, which starts in about five minutes. )

Here is an aspect from today:

07:55:13 UT – Eros (19+ Taurus) trine Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)

Talk about it!!

Note to readers: We are at the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech incident. Here is the edition we published at the time referring to the Thema Humanum or the chart of humanity.

Hello Friday,

Planet Waves Astrology News is about to be distributed to subscribers. It may already be posted to the subscriber website. Today’s edition looks at the concept of values as it relates to Taurus. This issue is dedicated to everyone who is working to make her living doing specifically what she considers to be the right thing. You could call it “how not to sell out.”

Here is a sample:

I was first acquainted with the term values in Philosophy 101 at SUNY Buffalo, taught by Prof. Paul Kurtz. It arrived in the title of a textbook called Ethics and the Search for Values. I know that, for this reason, I equate the idea values with that of ethics. It may actually be easier to think of values as a subset of ethics: one’s personal inventory of right or wrong. Values are the inner psychic elements by which we determine what is right or wrong for us, as individuals — if we take the time to stop and think.

In effect, a value is a contract with oneself by which one guides one’s life. It is a commitment to invest vital energy (of which money is one form) somewhere that we feel is right, and to divest it from where we think it’s wrong. That requires an ethical judgment, or it calls for one. Usually this pertains to a person, to some activity in the world and, very often, to where we put our cash. In the process of relating to the material world, the ethical assessment is overlooked entirely. What we want is determined externally, by how brilliant an advertising person is; by how manipulative a videographer is at morphing a Mercedes with a slinky young woman.

This is from Planet Waves Astrology News, the twice-weekly astrology service that puts the navigational and therapeutic power of astrology into your hands. You can sign up for six months for a mere $44. We also have special discount categories, which you can find out about by calling Chelsea at (877) 453-8265. This is also the number to call if you’re not the kind of person who likes to type your credit card number into our positively fabulous secure database, custom programmed by this Scorpio friend of mine named Chris down in Virginia.

As for aspects — take a look at the curiosity below: Mercury making three sesquiquadrates on one day. I’ve put the whole line in bold.

Generally speaking, big news does not break on a Friday, but I think something is up. Mercury is making three aspects to bodies (one determined little planet, one weird asteroid and one ridiculously large galaxy) hanging around the Aries Point. The aspect is a sesquiquadrate or sesquisquare (135 degrees, or a square + a semisquare). One astrologer I know calls this aspect “magical” (I bought him a thesaurus for his birthday). Another school (the Uranian astrologers) thinks of sesquisquares as a trigger aspect.

For reasons I’ll get into more next week, we’re in a hot spot for the Aries Point ripple effect; that is, news that thumps the world and vibes your cubicle. This is because the Taurus New Moon is exactly on May 5, the day that the Sun is 135 degrees from the Aries Point (right about where Mercury is now). Thus, there is a New Moon sesquiquadrate the Aries Point, “magically” triggering something.

I am not in the mood to make predictions: and I can tell you this. The economy is one thing, and your life, your personal wellbeing and that of your community are entirely different things.

My friends, it’s Beltane season. Make love, not war. And make love; increase your wealth.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some materials commemorating the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. That is something we really need to never, ever forget. We have a friend called Elena in the Ukraine, not far from where this website is produced, who has done some truly bold and awesome photography riding around on her motorcycle in a vast dead zone of thousands of towns and cities.

Thanks for tuning in. It’s good to be with you.

Friday 25 April 2008

Pallas (19+ Aries) quincunx Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Eros (18+ Taurus) quincunx Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Apollo (21+ Cancer) square Eris (21+ Aries)
Sisyphus (16+ Libra Rx) semisquare Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx)
Amor (29+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Arachne (1+ Libra Rx) conjunct M87 (1+ Libra)
Sun (5+ Taurus) quintile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Mars (22+ Cancer) square 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries)
Mercury (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Pluto (1+ Capricorn Rx)
Mercury (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Arachne (1+ Libra Rx)
Mercury (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate M87 (1+ Libra)
Vesta (2+ Aries) septile Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Pallas (20+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Hylonome (5+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (23+ Aries) sextile Neptune (23+ Aquarius)
Arachne (1+ Libra Rx) square Pluto (1+ Capricorn Rx)
Apollo (21+ Cancer) trine Psyche (21+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (16+ Taurus) quincunx Sisyphus (16+ Libra Rx)
Sun (5+ Taurus) quintile Neptune (23+ Aquarius)
Amor (29+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Vesta (3+ Aries) square Kronos (3+ Cancer)

The Oracle takes us back to April 30, 1999 – Aries weekly

I’m one of those people who smells people. I might have been a beagle in some recent past life, but it seems natural to run up to folks, sniff their crotch and sometimes even lick their hand. I suggest you adopt some version of the Dog as your totem for about the next five or six weeks, doing the Pooch Review on everyone. If you do, the voice of a puppy will whisper in your ear the secret intentions of whomever you meet, though your first impressions alone will tell you everything you need to know. (Special assignment, unrelated to dogs: Sit naked in front of a mirror in a dark room for one hour, and write down whatever the shadows tell you.)

Good morning Thursday!

I got a note recently asking why I consider Psyche to be about an injury of some kind; in particular, injured faith. In part, I took a cue from the myth, but the delineations of planets can take you a long way from a few lines or an interesting story from Greek mythology. The thing about planetary delineations is that they have a life of their own. They are informed not just by many sources, but also by the archetype itself, which starts to come through directly.

For astrologers, the main way they come through is as direct communication in the charts and in the lives of the clients we work for. I view all kinds of work as the journey to make contact with one’s soul.

Psyche is Greek for soul. When the soul is conscious, one of the first things it often notices is what a struggle life is for so many people, including for ourselves. Even the “best” lives on this planet come with heartache, a measure of crisis, uncertainty, and longing that feels like the soul yearning for connection to something ineffable. In a sense, to be aware of one’s soul is to also be aware of what it means to be human, initially in a separated state.

For example, if one wakes up to one’s senses and the sensibilities of the heart, it’s impossible to miss how much suffering there is in the world. That is incentive to stay asleep; to deny soul consciousness. If we affirm inner awareness, we end up feeling; and when we feel, one of the first things we feel is pain. Why else would people need to go numb? Certainly not to avoid pleasure.

I’ve proposed before that Psyche is the sense of a wound that cannot be healed. If it’s an injury, it’s in the form of a belief that one is in some condition that cannot be rectified; that one’s issues will always be there; that someone is so marked or damaged by childhood conditions that there is no going back. These things are beliefs; not the truth, but beliefs are extremely powerful on this plane of reality.

You could say that we see what we believe.

One of the most damaging wounds involves desire and/or volition: a Mars wound. Desire, though it is encouraged for the sake of marketing, is often followed by guilt; or by judgment. So, too, is fulfillment. And then there is the most common Mars wound, that of disappointment; of desire dared, but unfulfilled. Or, we get what we want, but somehow it hurts us, or we decide we don’t really want it.

Our culture does a lot of values teaching in the form of advertising. Desire to be “innocent” must be restricted to what you can put on your Visa card. This is literally true — whatever you can acquire by use of a credit card is presumed moral and legal. Nearly everything else is questionable. That includes things that you pay cash for, and things that are free, such as relating to other human beings in the way that you wish.

Trines open up the discussion, or the flow of energy. Mars trine Psyche opens the discussion of injured desire, and of our struggle with the whole experience of wanting. This is a conversation that needs to happen: we need to create a safe space to state our wants and needs, and to consider what is really good for us. A safe space means a space where we admit that guilt is not the correct response to desire, and where we come up with other responses. A safe space means someplace where others look us in the face and say yes. A safe space means being able to live and breathe on the planet and not feel sick or like less of a person for merely existing.

You may feel there is no safe space to state what you really need. You may not even be able to tell your partner; you may not be able to admit it to yourself. The first steps in this discussion involve one, coming out to yourself and two, creating a space where you affirm the needs and wants of others, without judgment.

Or, maybe this: Dare to want what you want, despite having been hurt by it in the past.

Aspects for Thursday, 24 April 2008 – courtesy of Serennu

Mars (21+ Cancer) trine Psyche (21+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (13+ Taurus) opposite Hidalgo (13+ Scorpio Rx)
Venus (21+ Aries) square Jupiter (21+ Capricorn)
Eros (18+ Taurus) semisquare Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Eros (18+ Taurus) quincunx Atlantis (18+ Libra Rx)
Venus (22+ Aries) conjunct 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries)
Sun (4+ Taurus) septile Hades (26+ Gemini)
Mercury (14+ Taurus) quincunx Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Mars (22+ Cancer) opposite Jupiter (22+ Capricorn)
Apollo (21+ Cancer) trine Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Sun (4+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Mercury (14+ Taurus) quincunx Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (14+ Taurus) square Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Mercury (14+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Juno (29+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (18+ Taurus) opposite Pandora (18+ Scorpio Rx)
Atlantis (18+ Libra Rx) septile Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (5+ Taurus) quincunx Hylonome (5+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (15 Taurus) semisquare Aries Point (0 Aries)

Today’s Oracle takes us back to the Sept. 23, 2005 Libra birthday report, short edition.

There can be no doubt that you’re looking ahead at a year of highly unusual changes. At such times many people are inclined to fear; change is one of those things that human beings think they don’t do well but in fact do very well. The presence of Jupiter in your birth sign at the time of your solar return is an indicator of protection and of better things to come — and bigger. It’s just that you may need to face quite a bit of mystery on the way to getting there. But it’s the kind of mystery that will feed your imagination and longing to express the deeper aspects of yourself.

Good morning,

The diversity of aspects every day is so incredibly interesting. Every day there are at least five I could riff on. Asteroid Apollo is always worth a good ponder, commenting on the way we learn or don’t learn lessons from repeated experiences. Today Apollo is conjunct Mars and square Venus. The Ceres-Pholus opposition brings in a newer influence (Pholus, the second Centaur, after Chiron) and one we need to be paying a lot more attention to — the first-ever minor planet, Ceres (which started as a planet, then became an asteroid and is now considered a dwarf planet, along with Pluto and Eris). Many of these planets are covered in Small World Stories, by the way.

And then there is Eris. This is the discovery that shook up the solar system: it forced astronomers to define this elusive and wandering word, planet, and in the process conclude that there is this new thing called a dwarf planet. In my view it’s a meaningless phrase, but today’s not the day for a rant on this. [Here is an article from right when the "dwarf planet" class was created, in the summer of 2006.]

There are two aspects to Eris today — Venus conjunct Eris and Mars square Eris. That’s another way of saying that Venus and Mars are in a square aspect and that Eris is caught in the middle — a reasonable enough illustration of the relationships between men and women. Yes, things used to be easier: when sex roles were clearly defined and everyone supposedly knew who was boss. I am referring to days when the family structure was more predictable and when there were higher expectations on proper behavior.

Some would say that men were boss and some would say that women knew how to top from the bottom. Some would say that there was a complex power sharing arrangement in a world where men were supposedly in charge. Whatever you may believe about the days of yore, we live in an era when sex roles, sexual orientation and gender itself are in flux and in question.

Eris illustrates this point beautifully. The ‘discord’ to which she refers is precisely the kind of situation where there is a measure of anarchy, and this we have in our gender relations. It is true that many people cling to the old rules: men ask women out, gay and lesbian people don’t get married and if you have any alt tendencies, you stay in the closet.

I know I live in the supposedly blue state of New York, but I also live in a small rural city and on a street corner that I pass every day on the way into my studio, there is a huge sign for the LGBTQ Center (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer). Note, I will soon embark on a campaign to get an M stuck on that sign because I believe that masturbation is a kind of sexual orientation.

In any event, Eris to me represents some of the gender chaos we live with here in the early 21st century, which represents a change in the structure of society far greater than we can actually see with our own eyes so close to the events and developments. It looks perhaps like fashion; it is actually the world changing.

Another way the world is changing is the dioxin level. By dioxin, I mean all chemicals which disrupt the hormones — we are swimming in an ocean of them. Heavy metals (like mercury in your tuna salad) do the same thing. And this, I believe, is partly to account for all the Viagra ads that you get in your inbox, and for many things besides, for example, the apparent loss of sexual instinct that many people in our society are suffering from. I don’t believe that this is caused only by conservatism and abstinence only sex indoctrination in schools: it has a chemical aspect as well.

Eris is about a lot more than this. Psychically, she is about reclaiming the lost woman within; the castaway powerhouse; the archetype of the the female shaman, the healer, the witch, the whore, the independent woman of any stripe who is depicted in myth as one who allegedly causes chaos in society. Everything that represents independence is attributed to catastrophe. And every group in our society that claims any sexual independence, for the history of the puritanical Western world, has been blamed with the imminent collapse of civilization.

Venus conjunct this factor is about a return to this core of the disowned female archetype. Mars square Eris is about men clashing with that new-found power, if they act unconsciously. Mars happens to be conjunct Apollo, which can have a feeling of bucking the odds or doing something the same way over and over, hoping for a different result.

In a world of changing roles, men and women need to do things differently. I believe that heterosexuals also need to follow the example of that assorted thing called LGBTQ and come out of the closet. Modern views of heterosexuality have cast it as a form of perversion or deviance, which in the view of many we cannot talk about, describe or be open about in other ways. It’s extremely common to keep secrets from or partners (a form of being a closet case) and it’s considered dangerous to step outside the box (to live openly as polyamorous or one who has more than one lover or partner, even though nearly everyone wishes they could at least one day a week).

And then there is masturbation, the biggest closet of them all.

Eris challenges us to live openly, to let those secrets out of the dark basement, and to experience the freedom of living in the open air and the light of day. If not, she will surely give us a taste of what she’s so famous for.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Venus (20+ Aries) square Apollo (20+ Cancer)
Mars (21+ Cancer) square Eris (21+ Aries)
Mercury (11+ Taurus) semisquare Hades (26+ Gemini)
Sisyphus (17+ Libra Rx) quintile Juno (29+ Sagittarius Rx)
Vesta (1+ Aries) quincunx Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx)
Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx) trine Asbolus (1+ Taurus)
Venus (21+ Aries) quintile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (17+ Libra Rx) square Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Mercury (11+ Taurus) septile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Venus (21+ Aries) conjunct Eris (21+ Aries)
Eros (17+ Taurus) quincunx Sisyphus (17+ Libra Rx)
Ceres (9+ Gemini) opposite Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (11+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Sun (3+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (17+ Taurus) sextile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Venus (21+ Aries) square Mars (21+ Cancer)
Mercury (12+ Taurus) septile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Venus (21+ Aries) quincunx Psyche (21+ Scorpio Rx)

Today’s Oracle takes us back to…Jan. 27, 2006, Virgo – Weekly

Whatever pressures you’ve been under lately, you seem to be getting accustomed to them. You thrive on demands because you thrive on being in service, and we are certainly living through high times in that regard. People such as yourself are the ones who will in fact help the world through its current mess, because you have the vision, you have the energy and you have the completely overdeveloped sense of responsibility that doing anything with integrity demands in these strange years. Just make sure you take care of yourself; get away from the structure from time to time, and give yourself space.

Good morning world,

Before we get into today’s blog, Planet Waves is about to issue two new publications.

First is the horoscope from the series, It’s Not About Sex, It’s About Self. This was originally our Valentine’s Day series and it has stretched from one cross-quarter day (Imbolc/Valentine’s Day) to another — Beltane.

The horoscope was written by Paloma Todd, our longtime friend and collaborator in Barcelona (formerly of Paris and Puerto Rico). It was originally written as material that I could work with to develop into the horoscope, but the writing was so magnificent I could not make a single edit in her poetry. Here is a sample, from the Taurus edition:

I want it all. I want sex atop the Himalayas. I want cherry blossom sex in Japan. I want to expand, explore and explode. I want to feel the cosmic universe by meeting you, all of you. I want them all, on a plate to be eaten as a cosmic gourmet buffet; I want all the tastes melting as truth enlightens me, while I surrender the weight of my body into the smells of the skin of others. I am as hungry for orgasmic wisdom as I am for having sexes in my mouth and skins under my teeth. I ask for it all, and as much as I want, I am willing to give back to my lovers, as they are the cosmic stars of my voraciousness. I am such a laugh, such a gift. The energy I bring into meeting the other is overwhelming, overboard, even abrasive, but I do bring something joyful into other people’s lives. Others enjoy me devouring them.

It’s Not About Sex, It’s About Self was planned as a single essay and horoscope. It has grown into an online book. The horoscopes cover about 500 words per sign and there are six additional sections (with a conclusion and resources section forthcoming). If you sign up today, you’ll get the horoscopes for all 12 signs, plus the previous six parts which explore jealousy, compersion, self-disclosure, sexual independence in relationships and some ideas for new models of monogamy. There is a lot of very useful information about masturbation and its history, an enlightened view of solo sex.

And you’ll receive any additional mailings we do as the project concludes.

The series is based on a decade of my work as a presenter at sexuality workshops in New York and California, and I consider it my best writing to date on the subject of thinking outside the box as a sexual critter. I also consider Paloma’s horoscope one of the very best we have ever published at Planet Waves, and I am truly proud to make it available to you.

Next, my May monthly horoscope is about to be published in a few minutes. The monthly stars are now available only through our two main subscriber services — Small World Stories and Planet Waves Astrology News. If you need a comp subscription, please check this link for instructions.

Here is the Taurus horoscope for May 2008.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)

As a stunning New Moon sweeps through your birth sign this month, I suggest you ask yourself one question: is what you want based on what you want, or is it based on some extreme external conditioning? One’s work or mission must be based on an inner process in order to be authentic. While it’s impossible to sort out all external factors, there are a few you need to be aware of. These principally involve the effects of what you were told you could not do. The equation parses out like this. If you were blocked, chastised, or punished for expressing your talents, this can trigger a kind of obsession with ambition. The effect would be to make you object oriented rather than process oriented; in spiritual terms, you could stay hung up on the supposed destination rather than the journey. You will have a clue about whether this is happening if in some way you emphasize image over substance; if you are concerned more about what people think than how you feel. The most helpful thing you can do at this point is discern whether your goals are really your goals. Where exactly did they come from, and what other options do you see? For where you are at now, is it necessary to have goals at all, or do they conceal something deeper — something you truly want and need?

This morning’s blog is written by Genevieve Salerno. Genevieve strolled into my life one afternoon as a model candidate for my photo project, Book of Blue. She came in for her interview as her boyfriend Joe waited out in the car in case I turned out to be a weirdo. We became friends in an hour, and spent most of the time talking about Norse mythology — one of her specialties (an understatement). By the time she walked out of my apartment she had joined the Planet Waves staff as an astrology assistant. (We finally got to doing photos a few months later. She is a bold and creative photo model.)

Have a great day, and I leave you in the capable hands of Genevieve.

Psyche in Scorpio retrograde sextile Jupiter in Capricorn.

A few nights ago I was sitting in a field of grass that went outwards in all directions about as far as I could see. Beyond that, thin trees provided a buffer of more textured darkness before the mountains rose up like flat shadows of something much bigger against the wall of night. The night sky itself was a gorgeous polished lazuli, the Moon was almost full and it seemed like the light was as palpable as a spider’s silk when you walk into it. I was completely alone in that space, trembling on the very edge of hallucination, chilly enough to stay away from a trance, and I began to cry.

Looking back on that now, I know it was the delicacy of the moment that brought me to that state of complete helplessness, and brought in there before an almost Full Moon, the feeling, instead of the terrifying, as most people would anticipate, I found it revealing and safe. The culture we live in today, the emotions we most readily associate ourselves with, are ones of fear and worry. We try so hard to prevent things, it’s as though we live in constant flinch mode. But every so often, we get a chance to get a glimpse of things as a whole instead of just little parts, and instead of fragmented, jarring and stormy; it is unrolling, vast, and sublime.

The Moon was just leaving Libra, slipping into that dark, contemplative energy that is Scorpio, like a widow retiring from a party into a darker, secret room to reflect on the turns her life has taken. I felt a relinquishing of all the armor that helped build my personal niche, which I have outgrown, and slid out of it like the lambs that just got born out in the backyard from where I write this now. I wonder to myself, what was I so afraid of in the first place? What kind of pain did I carry so long and horde away from the Night, from the Earth, that I doubted it could be made into something more useful and more beautiful if I buried it and left it in that field to be nurtured by the milky moonlight and the lulling western breeze?

I find that tonight’s aspect reflects this feeling perfectly: the pushing outward from boundaries that, at first, strove to protect us, and instead became our tourniquets and collars. Jupiter in Capricorn makes a window where there was just a wall, and offers the Psyche in us to relish in the night that for so long held bitter memories of loss, and instead surprise with the tranquility of the new hunger for experience. And of course, since Psyche is retrograde, it is also a call to look within, because; after all, to find the answer to any mystery, we must look within, before we look without.

– Genevieve Salerno

Aspects for Tuesday 22 April 2008, courtesy of Serennu.

Eros (16+ Taurus) semisquare Vesta (1+ Aries)
Nessus (14+ Aquarius) sextile Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Atlantis (18+ Libra Rx) sextile Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (19+ Aries) quincunx Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Sun (2+ Taurus) quintile Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Eros (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Arachne (1+ Libra Rx)
Atlantis (18+ Libra Rx) opposite Pallas (18+ Aries)
Pallas (18+ Aries) trine Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (9+ Taurus) quincunx Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Vesta (1+ Aries) opposite Arachne (1+ Libra Rx)
Venus (20+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Hylonome (5+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (28+ Aries) trine Orcus (28+ Leo Rx)
Apollo (20+ Cancer) quincunx Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Mars (21+ Cancer) trine Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Pandora (18+ Scorpio Rx) quincunx Pallas (18+ Aries)
Sun (3+ Taurus) sextile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Venus (20+ Aries) sextile Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Psyche (21+ Scorpio Rx) sextile Jupiter (21+ Capricorn)

Oracle returns: Jan 31, 2003 – Aquarius – Weekly

You get to decide anything you want right now: to live or die, to know or to forget, to condemn yourself for the past pain of others, or to release and forgive and understand without words. There has been no time like this in your life so far. There are elements present in your environment and in your consciousness that no person could have foreseen, or perhaps a great master: someone named Ammachi comes to mind. We could say you are standing in the door to all truth, which is the same as the door to all lies. It just depends on which way you go, what you are willing to feel, what your soul needs, and the extent to which you are willing to set aside the fears of your parents, and of theirs. Check it out. It’s not your fear. It belongs to someone else. You can put it down.

This weekend’s special subscription offer is still valid today! Click here for more information.

Welcome to Monday,

Well, I did not read the Pope’s chart, but I did see his motorcade go by heading northbound on FDR Drive on Sunday afternoon, and it was extremely impressive. I think I got a look at several Lexus 2012 model SUVs which seemed to be chasing about 100 motorcycle cops and were followed by a fleet of ambulances and then three Good Humor men ringing their bells. I did not see the Pope, but when I asked a traffic cop at the 96th St. exit if that was indeed his motorcade, he smiled and — obviously kidding — said yep, the closest thing to God.

Along with reading the Pope’s chart, I was having fantasies of Eliot Spitzer confessing his whole scene to Pope Ratzinger, but I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen. I think if you’re Jewish you have to confess to a rabbi, though the pope was wearing a yarmulke.

Today the Sun is conjunct Asbolus and trine Saturn. Asbolus is Centaur #4, after Chiron, Pholus and Nessus. Asbolus was discovered going around our Sun in 1994. These first few Centaurs are easy to work with. Asbolus leaped out of the charts for me about five years ago. When you’re an astrologer, you hear a lot of intense stories about how fucked up life can be. This really teaches us compassion: it’s necessary to be fully present but not take on the pain directly; indeed the whole point is to help everyone let go of the pain.

I kept noticing that Asbolus would show up on an angle (such as the ascendant or descendant) of people who had some of the most harrowing childhood stories. I picked up quickly that it would be possible to “blame Asbolus” for the kind of stuff they went through, and then I realized that the common thread was that they had survived. So I began to think of Asbolus as the archetype of the survivor.

Now, there is something lonely about surviving. There is something desperate. As the Sun has approached this Centaur, what I’ve notice as the weather has warmed up is that people seem less obsessed by fear and more willing to be open and friendly. This is merely what I’m noticing from walking on the streets of my town and to some extent on the Internet. Anybody picking this up?

If you look with some sense of context, it’s possible to see that the turn of the century era has come with an obsession with fear; I mean fear of things like terrorists being used against everyone but also the rising tide of many people being paranoid to be real and talk to people, even down to social situations. I have a friend in LA working on an article about how people are too freaked out about one another to socialize or have sex. In California?

And the past 10 years all our TV programs on the UK and the US have had the theme of “getting voted off the island” or competing to see “who is the best.” We get Top Chef judging scenes that make military tribunals at Guantanamo look cheerful.

I think some of us can finally say we’re striving to go beyond surviving, and by that I mean emotionally, socially and creatively. I’ll tell you something else I’m noticing now, which is a lot of people saying they want to do this, but they seem to have no idea how; how to break the patterns and slip into their creative mental space or socially relevant mental space.

How do you get out of your routines and give yourself some freedom? How do you slip out of the state of mind that conditions you to believe that what you’re doing is irrelevant, and move into something that feels right? This is THE spiritual challenge of our times. How do WE personally change, to get in alignment with our purpose and then gradually get together and change the course of what is happening on our planet? I can tell you that we’re not going to do it from a place of strife, misery and certainty that our lives are meaningless. We may need some of that good old Human Survivor Spirit, but it’s going to take a lot more than that.

We have a clue in Saturn and Pluto, which are closely trine the Sun at the moment. These are the two planets whose energy we need to master. Saturn helps us have sane boundaries. In other words, we have to do better than “say no till you’re good and drunk.” That is not a healthy boundary. We need to be able to negotiate. Walls must have a door; doors need locks and locks need keys. Who gets the keys? And when can they come over? This is how you can start thinking of healthy boundaries.

Pluto gives us the ability to change; to evolve; to let go of our old forms and develop into new ones that serve us better. It can, at times, be a harrowing process. It helps a lot and I do mean a lot to embrace Pluto every single day; to be willing to change and grow and not be set in your ways.

Today the Sun is conjunct Asbolus, which means “carbon dust.” This is a reminder of what all life has in common. The answer includes carbon and it includes the need to survive — but what else? What do we have in common with our neighbors, our boss, our enemies, and our friends? I mean really have in common?

Here are today’s aspects, and the Oracle takes us back to Taurus time in 1999 — when I was preparing my readers for the imminent total solar eclipse later that year.

Monday 21 April 2008

Venus (18+ Aries) conjunct Pallas (18+ Aries)
Apollo (20+ Cancer) sesquiquadrate Hylonome (5+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mars (20+ Cancer) sextile Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Venus (18+ Aries) opposite Sisyphus (18+ Libra Rx)
Pluto (1+ Capricorn Rx) square M87 (1+ Libra)
Atlantis (19+ Libra Rx) quintile Pluto (1+ Capricorn Rx)
Ceres (8+ Gemini) quincunx Chariklo (8+ Scorpio Rx)
Sun (1+ Taurus) conjunct Asbolus (1+ Taurus)
Sisyphus (18+ Libra Rx) opposite Pallas (18+ Aries)
Sun (1+ Taurus) quincunx Arachne (1+ Libra Rx)
Venus (18+ Aries) trine Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (1+ Taurus) trine Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx)
Apollo (20+ Cancer) sextile Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Venus (18+ Aries) opposite Atlantis (18+ Libra Rx)
Vesta (1+ Aries) square Pluto (1+ Capricorn Rx)
Vesta (1+ Aries) opposite M87 (1+ Libra)
Mars (20+ Cancer) quincunx Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Arachne (1+ Libra Rx) quincunx Asbolus (1+ Taurus)
Sisyphus (18+ Libra Rx) septile Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (19+ Aries) quincunx Pandora (19+ Scorpio Rx)
Eros (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Pluto (1+ Capricorn Rx)
Eros (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate M87 (1+ Libra)
Mercury (8+ Taurus) quintile Apollo (20+ Cancer)
Mercury (8+ Taurus) opposite Chariklo (8+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (8+ Taurus) quintile Mars (20+ Cancer)

Monday’s Oracle Sept. 17, 1999 – TAURUS – Weekly

When I get all confuddled exploring the complexities of Taurus, I have to remind myself that difficult as it may be to comprehend what is happening over in the part of the sky known as your life, you are the one who has to live with yourself. For the moment, that is taking some patience, which you’ve got plenty of, but patience can work for us as well as it can work against us. You may feel you have all kinds of catching up to yourself to do, but as far as I can see things, it looks like you have everything you need, and know all of everything you need to know, and possess all the emotional readiness you’ve been working out, in order to take the next big step; in fact, you may have already taken it.

Heyo Internet Dweller or Visitor,

I am gonna call it a week, and also place today’s edition of Planet Waves Astrology News in the public domain.

Today’s lead article covers the sequence of Full Moon – Beltane New Moon – Full Moon across the Taurus – Scorpio axis. For those with any inclination to ritual, natural religion, or sacred/conscious sexuality, this is the time to stoke the fires in your heart and connect to the world on and in which we live.

I once got a Chinese fortune that said, “Be resolutely what you are. Be humbly what you aspire to be.” I am resolutely a story teller of astrology: not in what’s called the pier tradition of fortune telling (such as at the end of a pier, though it was such an astrologer who drew me into the work); not in the scientific practice of astrology and not in the karmic sense. I am more in the tradition of the people who made up the early myths than their much later interpreters. These new stories are rooted in tradition and set in a modern context. This, as we stand here at the threshold of an extremely uncertain time, or one where we discover that whatever certainty we were feeling no longer holds atoms.

Here is what I humbly aspire to: open the doors to what is considered journalism on a cultural level, so that we can take an integrated approach to covering the news and therefore use journalism as a mirror of existence — and as a way into the matrix; a way to participate.

I’ll take a moment of your time with some ideas about this. Most publications, columns, blogs and websites take on one subject. Generally, they specialize, even if such pertains to “the news” in a general sense. Nearly every one of these outlets bans discussion of most other aspects of life. The distortion is so pervasive we hardly notice it. Operating in this mode relieves nearly all writers and editors of the burden of context. The cosmic order, sexuality, art and even history are eliminated from nearly everything we consider news. In this environment, our minds and senses fragment because not only are the connections between things not made, they are specifically denied and concealed.

Planet Waves aspires to create a prototype news venue that allows the cosmos to speak. I am a seasoned journalist and experienced astrologer, and everyone who passes through our organization gets some training in how to integrate both of these crafts. We aspire to help open up consciousness for all of us to see ourselves and the world for what we are, to express our creative passions, and to listen when love whispers.

I recognize that the journey to freedom, maturity, sanity and adapting to the changes our society is going through requires resources, imagry, a sense of community and life-giving information, and that is what we humbly aspire to do at Planet Waves.

We admit and acknowledge the existence of the universe in every word and image we publish, and we venture what we do not just well, but beautifully. This is an a editorial model we feel reflects more accurately the content of your mind and the sensibilities of your heart. Moreover, we strive to be useful in everything we do. I have a grand earth trine in my chart, and while I am very Pisces, my plan is to feed your dreams, inner explorations and growth in a practical way.

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Planet Waves Astrology News is published Tuesday and Friday mornings. Included each week is my 12-sign horoscope column that started the whole pwaves project. And there are two (soon to be three) monthly horoscopes as well.

Sign up this weekend for six months or a year and you’ll receive access to Small World Stories, our innovative annual edition for 2008, in fact, the 10th annual edition of Planet Waves. It covers all 12 signs with detailed explorations of the current astrology, and has many other unique features that will give you things to discover month after month. Sign up for six months here, or one year here. There are less expensive subscription options here.

If you have always wanted to subscribe to Planet Waves but felt you could never afford it, we offer a comp program. All you need to do is write to Clare Miller, Planet Waves, PO Box 744, New Paltz, NY 12561 with your clearly written name, email address and phone number (and some art if you like), and we’ll sign you up. (If you don’t start getting your issues within a week or so of mailing, please write to clare – at – planetwaves.net.)

I’m not going to assume this goes without saying: even for the bold and brave among us, even in the first weeks of springtime, this world can be a cold and lonely place sometimes. By the grace of Vesta, we strive to maintain a constant fire next to which those who visit here can warm our collective soul.

It’s good to be with you on your journey, and to have you with me on mine.

dreams – at – planetwaves.net. Also I’ll be visiting Manhattan this weekend (I have been asked by the Vatican to read Pope Benedict’s natal chart at the Waldorf Astoria), with no plans for late morning into early afternoon Sunday. If you’re a Planet Waves reader, it would be fun to make a new friend. I’ll probably have access to email, tho my cell is (845) 797-3458. I don’t play messages but I return all missed calls. (If I don’t answer, pls call twice.)

Dear Friend and Reader:We all know that we need to have more honest conversations about the important things in life — and we all know what they are. There is nothing like a trine from Mercury to Pluto — supported by Saturn — to help get the conversation going. The astrology is pretty simple: trines open a flow. Mercury trine anything opens the flow of communication (specifically) about the topic of the other planet involved.

With Pluto this is about that delightful shadowy material of deep, dark eroticism, change, death and letting go, and our true emotional needs. Saturn addresses boundaries, the ego structure, and our willingness to change. These are all related topics — see if you can figure out the common thread.

One of the aversions to a real conversation is how we might feel the next day: about things we expressed (expressing a feeling is a form of a commitment, which is why we might shy away from it), needs expressed (also a form of a commitment), or secrets revealed.

“It hasn’t the same effect the next morning, when I’m in a different head space,” a friend wrote to me recently. “It’s like two different worlds. I wake up and see your emails and think of our conversation the night before and don’t necessarily want to go there in the daylight.”

We have all experienced this. It takes some time to get accustomed to the coexistence of the nocturnal self with the diurnal self; the self with fewer borders who can say, feel and need some unusual things; and the cognitive, rational ego self that is all about protecting its image, maintaining stability, and in general keeping a grip on reality.

If you open up under the influence of this weekend’s aspects, carried by the momentum of the Full Moon, be prepared at least to experience this effect. I call it the ritual effect. In doing any form of ritual — and honest conversation counts, particularly with the Full Moon coming through town this weekend — there is always an opportunity to deny or eschew what occurred; it can seem strange, inappropriate, or the part of your brain that the Christians, the U.S. government and the advertising industry have colonized can really wonder what you were ever doing.

This is the part of the brain that feels like the “uncreative self” that drags us through the day like a locomotive. When we open up in the reduced boundary world of the night, we make a subtle pathway out of that hard-edged world of money and limits and enter another space. I think that when people say they want to be more creative, what they mean is to get in contact with this softer, nocturnal, and more fantasy-driven aspect of their nature. That usually feels really good, though there can be odd things we find in the shadows that we simply need to accept or allow to be released.

And yes, there is the next day, were you need to accept who you became “last night.”

That ritual, exploration or intimate conversation is taking place in emotional and psychic territory (the limbic system). The rest of life is being lived in cognitive territory (the forebrain). Growth is the process of integrating the different aspects of consciousness, the various lobes of the brain, the different identities, and getting them all talking.

Part of the hitch there is we create relationships where people expect us to be a certain person; not only can’t we be “inappropriate” in those relationships, we might feel strange having any contact with this inner other identity. Image means a lot in our society, but it’s a prison. And remember — people never see you the way you think they do. You may turn on the prude, and someone who plays it totally cool who you see every day can’t stop thinking about eating your pussy.

Artists do something interesting: create something in one state of mind, and then deal with it the next morning in another. If you do drugs, all your fantasies and hallucinations evaporate; if you dream a really wild dream, it disappears, leaving you with a feeling. If you talk to someone, the words vanish. If you make art, you have evidence of your journey through consciousness; you have evidence of where you were, what you touched and what risks you took.

With sexuality and sex itself, the distinction between the “erotic person” and the “normal person” can be profound — and the two selves can quite literally deny the existence of one another. That is a huge split in awareness or consciousness. Where you have art to work with, you have a chance to reabsorb the product of one “personality” into the “other personality” due to the presence of physical evidence.

With sex, emotions and revealing secrets, you may need to stretch to accept this strange other person who you are — the one who did ________ last night or who admitted to _______ and still love and accept that person the next day — really claim this entity as yourself.

Otherwise, we run the risk of compartmentalizing ourselves out of existence. What we need, I think (it has worked for me as an artist, writer and to some extent as a lover) is to have the whole brain, the whole personality, be friends with itself, open up those compartments and allow ourselves the room to be a whole person, all the time.

“It takes some work to integrate and almost easier in the short term to let them be two different worlds,” my friend wrote to me this morning. Yes, and it’s a lot more than two. Here, we have a window into that odd experience of the ego, when you’re doing something really intense, you know what I mean, you’re stretched into this unusual shape (feelings and body) and you wonder: what would my father think if he saw me like this?

Indeed.

Yours & truly,

What could she say to the fantastic foolybear
and what could she say to brother
and what could she say
                      to the cat with future feet
and what could she say to mother
after that time that she lay lush
                                 among the lolly flowers
         on that hot riverbank
                 where ferns fell away in the broken air
                         of the breath of her lover
     and birds went mad
                       and threw themselves from trees
   to taste still hot upon the ground
                                     the spilled sperm seed

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

EVERYBODY LOVES A DISCOUNT! Yes, we have the two sides of our brain — the side that desires, and the side that rationalizes! Today I am speaking to both. If you subscribe to Planet Waves Astrology News (our weekly subscriber edition) for six months, you will get Small World Stories included. Astrology News arrives twice a week — you get seven horoscopes a month, many excellent articles, the monthly birthday report and six years of archives…and with Small World Stories, you have the annual horoscope for all 12 signs, many articles and our minor planet encyclopedia. This offer is good for this weekend only! So sign up today, get some fabulous services and help sponsor Planet Waves. (Note, if you want to subscribe for a year, we have an even better offer — call Chelsea at (877) 453-8265 and if you don’t get her leave a message — she’ll call you back.

Aspects for April 18 are courtesy of Serennu

Amor (26+ Aries) quintile Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Mars (18+ Cancer) quincunx Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (1+ Taurus) quincunx M87 (1+ Libra)
Mercury (1+ Taurus) trine Pluto (1+ Capricorn Rx)
Mercury (1+ Taurus) conjunct Asbolus (1+ Taurus)
Juno (29+ Sagittarius) square Aries Point (0+ Aries) – Near Miss
Juno stations retrograde (29+ Sagittarius)
Vesta (29+ Pisces) square Juno (29+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (15+ Aries) septile Neptune (23+ Aquarius)
Apollo (19+ Cancer) square Sisyphus (19+ Libra Rx)
Mars (19+ Cancer) quintile M87 (1+ Libra)
Sisyphus (19+ Libra Rx) septile Orcus (28+ Leo Rx)
Mercury (1+ Taurus) trine Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx)
Sun (29+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Arachne (2+ Libra Rx) quintile Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (2+ Taurus) quincunx Arachne (2+ Libra Rx)
Eros (13+ Taurus) opposite Hidalgo (13+ Scorpio Rx)

Aug 08, 2003 – Aquarius – Weekly

This week’s stunning Aquarius lunation may not assuage your fears and misgivings permanently, but you feel the possibility of a life in which you can meet the world on equal terms. Part of your insecurity is the result of Neptune’s presence in your sign, which is melting all those crystals you usually use to hold your personality together. It’s also working through the layers of faux Aquarian certainty that do little other than isolate you from people and new information. Feelings are subtle, and you will never quite feel the way the people around you do. But they are offering you a lot of very constructive guidance right now, and a fine lesson in being alive.