Dear Friend and Reader:

Wednesday, the United Astrology Conference opens in Denver. I’ll be arriving in the evening with plans to cover the conference as one of its only officially recognized journalists, and naturally, making sure that all 1,500 attenders and 125 faculty members have heard of Planet Waves. If you’re coming to the conference, you can follow the trail of Planet Waves postcards back to me. We’ll have a table with a red and white banner with our scripted logo. If you like, I will dub you a reporter and you may go out scouting the human and intellectual territory of the event, and bring your story ideas back.

I did not realize the Sun was square Neptune today till I checked the aspect list, but this isn’t the first time Neptune has disappeared from the chart; it does that sometimes. Given Neptune’s influence over anything psychic, spiritual or esoteric, it’s an interesting day to start the biggest astrology conference in the world (that I know of, anyway). A cautious astrologer would recommend (as with any square to Neptune) to be cautious what you believe. A square to Neptune is not time for blind faith, nor is it time for unsubstantiated belief. You know you’re under the influence of a Neptune square when appearances count more than discernment; when common sense ceases to be a factor. It is more like false faith and less like true faith, but the beauty of Neptune squares is that they can be the best teachers of impeccability.

So, this is a good time to say that I’m bringing a good bit of discernment to UAC. I am impressed that a bunch of astrologers have been able to put on a conference that might impress even P.T. Barnum. There are many distinguished faculty members, giving the feeling of anyone who is anyone is there — some brilliant ones will not be there, however. There are people with whom I have corresponded for more than a decade who I’m dearly looking forward to meeting. I plan to have a great time, taking Hunter S. Thompson, Henry Miller or Patrick Walker as my muse (depending on the day).

Planet Waves will have daily blog coverage beginning Thursday night, audio coverage beginning Saturday (both of these will be available to all readers, including non-subscribers), and next week’s edition of Astrology News will have a lead story out of the conference — most likely on the presidential elections. In Hunter’s immortal and would-be understated words (were they not in all caps) I will GET THE STORY.

If you’re a pre-subscriber who is attending, I’ll have discount coupons for new subscriptions; and for renewals if you’re already a supporter of our project (discounts are half off if you’re a new subscriber, 25% off if you’re renewing at the conference).

This being said — discernment. I am skeptical that this kind of event, that is, a big conference in a huge hotel in the middle of a city, is the way to teach astrology. Astrology is a sensitive art; it’s at least one-third comprised of a psychic gift that cannot be taught; it does not do well in a spirit of competition or a huge crowd. Even if you view it merely as a “source of information,” this conference needs a press corps, not one journalist and some volunteers he’s rounded up from his database. There is a positively stunning lack of journalistic interest in astrology. Blogs are not enough. I hope someone has invited the area press, but at most they will do one or two stories and not dig into the subject matter.

I am skeptical of teaching astrology like it was Sociology 101, in a lecture room, indoors, away from the stars and trees. I am concerned about the divisions between “faculty” and “attenders.” I am skeptical about how many people who want to be there cannot attend — it’s going to cost us about $2,500 of your subscription dollars to have me there covering the event for you. That’s 100 clicks of Small World Stories or a lot of astrology readings, if you’re a young astrologer or a well-established one.

And I am ever and eternally concerned that therapists and therapist trainers are no longer invited to astrology conferences. What we do as astrologers requires so much therapy technique it would seem plain on its face that you want two or three non-astrologer therapists there to guide people in how to handle sensitive situations that arise in the work that we do. True, some of the presenters happen to be wise old owls and some happen to be therapists, but to my knowledge these are also astrologers. We need to get away from the astrological viewpoint at these events at least part of the time, and take things from the human perspective early and often.

In other words, astrology is not about technique, it’s about people.

We need to discuss the ethics of doing astrology at all. We need to tear apart the ethics of horoscope columns, predictions, relationship analysis, doing the charts of people not in our presence, and all the many things we tend to take for granted.

And finally, new planets are usually kept at bay. With many whole new classes of planets coming onto the radar the past 10 to 15 years — centaurs, trans-Neptunian objects of many kinds and crucial discoveries like Sedna, Varuna and Eris, these need to be something other than boutique items. Usually they are treated precisely like that — if at all.

With Neptune square the Sun, that is the lens of discernment that I plan to bring, in addition to my sense of adventure, my digital recorder, a little stack of Fellini films on DVD and 2,000 of the most gorgeous postcards you’ve ever seen. If this conference measures up to some basic standards of common sense, I will tell you. And if anyone wants to show me how, I am all ears. If something real happens, you’ll hear about it first!

Thank you to the Planet Waves readers who have stepped up with offers of housing, a ride from the airport, conference table coverage and every dollar and dime provided by our subscribers that is going to get me safely there, keep me well fed and get me home.

Look for me if you’re there — my cell number is on those postcards if you cannot find me amidst the teeming throngs of astrology seekers.

Wednesday 14 May 2008

Sun (24+ Taurus) square Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Mars (2+ Leo) quintile Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Mercury (15+ Gemini) quintile Orcus (27+ Leo)
Venus (17+ Taurus) opposite Psyche (17+ Scorpio Rx)
Juno (27+ Sagittarius Rx) trine Pallas (27+ Aries)

Dear Friend and Reader:

ShakeMap of earthquake in China.

Yesterday’s earthquake in China is the second of two recent events that qualify as Aries Point events. The first was the cyclone (known in our culture as a hurricane) that made landfall in Burma on May 2 and has, so far, killed an estimated 100,000 people.

Earlier in May, I explained how the May 5 New Moon was precisely on the cross-quarter — that is, at 15+ degrees of a fixed sign, in this case Taurus. I explained how this is 135 degrees (a sesquiquadrate aspect, which is a square plus a semi-square) to one of the cardinal points, which tends to magnify the news. In the past decade, all these events have the feeling of what used to be called Earth changes (this language originally came from Edgar Cayce and was adopted by the New Age in the 1980s). Two other memorable examples of Aries Point events are the Sept. 11 false flag attacks and the Asian tsunami of late 2004. Each has this sense that “something big is happening” and if you’re the type to use such language, “the end is near.”

The New Moon was square the centaur planet Nessus. A friend summed it up well when she wrote that Nessus “is associated with the dynamics of power and abuse, and in Aquarius is about those situations we are all collectively responsible for.” The concept of responsibility stands tall now: both tragedies are mired in politics, including American politics. We could do more; we cannot (for one example) offend China, from whom we borrow $2 billion a day.

Yesterday’s was a 7.9 magnitude earthquake, the worst in the region since 1976. For the record, 7.9 is not the same thing everywhere. I felt a 6.8 once and though this is significantly less, it felt like a Jell-o mold jiggling; the beer bottles didn’t fall of the shelf in the local tavern. If the waves hit a different way, you can level part of society.

This is the second major disaster since the Taurus New Moon. As Judith Gayle writes in our Political Waves feature about the cyclone in Burma or, officially, the Union of Myanmar:

Take the Myanmar tragedy, with the complications projected to take a million lives; relief is still being kept out generally, but the junta continues to vigorously export rice to Bangladesh and other points, while throwing their citizens the spoiled leftovers. The “election” went on as planned, even though 100,000 people are dead or unaccounted for and the country is in chaos.

I sincerely feel that astrology needs to get out of the business of predicting disasters — you won’t read that stuff here — but we do need to see the patterns for what they are and know what we are dealing with. So, an estimated 10,000 have died at one time in one day (it’s China, so you can quadruple it), and 10 to 100 times more in Myanmar. This is beyond comprehension — think of the families of all those people, the communities lost, the networks.

What is particularly sad regarding the event in China is the proximity to Tibet, one of the true points of historical grief on the planet at the moment. Associated Press reported that the earthquake occurred along a faultline “where South Asia pushes against the Eurasian land mass, smashing the Sichuan plain into mountains leading to the Tibetan highlands - near communities that held sometimes violent protests against Chinese rule in mid-March.”

Rescue workers in China uncover rubble where 900 students are trapped under their collapsed school. Image: Shanghai Daily.

Then consider how about 154,000 people a day leave the planet, every day. Consider how an estimated 24,000 of those people a day die of hunger, every day — many thousands of them children. Consider in light of the Sept. 11 false flag attacks, wherein 2,998 people died, and then the United States tore up Afghanistan and Iraq, and is apparently still planning an attack on Iran. To be clear, on Sept. 11, many more children died of starvation than New Yorkers perished in the event. And we don’t hear about them except on late night infomercials. We still hear about Sept. 11 in one form or another every time a politician opens his or hear mouth.Therefore, while it’s deeply tragic and truly beyond the sphere of an individual’s understanding to hear of these events, I suggest that what we need to be questioning is the death manufacturing industry. We are not impressed until these deaths happen all at once; it’s like we don’t notice the pain of the world otherwise.

And there is plenty of it now. And that, too, presents a paradox: awareness immediately leads to the awareness of the world’s pain. We have a lot of incentive not to pay attention. At least these events cause us to notice for a little while.

This being said, we have the question of how to respond. Is this rightly an excuse to stop living the adventure of our lives? Well, not if we really are doing that, and many of us know perfectly well that we are not. In which case, we can remind ourselves of the fleeting transience of existence as we perceive it, take a breath and resolve to live every day.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Pallas (26+ Aries) trine Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) septile 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries)
Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx) sextile Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) quincunx Pandora (14+ Scorpio Rx)
Juno (27+ Sagittarius Rx) trine Orcus (27+ Leo)
Venus (15+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) trine Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx) sextile Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mars (2+ Leo) quintile Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx)
Venus (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate M87 (1+ Libra)
Eros (4+ Gemini) opposite Hylonome (4+ Sagittarius Rx)
Ceres (17+ Gemini) quincunx Psyche (17+ Scorpio Rx)
Psyche (17+ Scorpio Rx) trine Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Amor (6+ Taurus) quintile Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Apollo (26+ Cancer) quincunx Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)

January 10, 2002 - Cancer - Weekly

Sitting here wondering just how to put into words such a beautiful new moon in your house of relationships two Grateful Dead songs come to mind both with the idea of rolling in their words: Let the Good Times Roll and Franklin’s Tower (roll away the dew). You can trust the flow of what is happening in your life. I know things got strange with people for a while there and it really shook your faith in the one attribute of this life you cherish the most. And we both know there can be no doubt that to open your heart involves risk. These days it’s a risk well worth taking.

Dear Friend and Reader

Here is the Mercury retrograde in Gemini rundown. As you may have read here or elsewhere, the process began Sunday. Mercury has an approximately 88 day orbit, so it goes past the Earth three times a year. Each of these is called Mercury retrograde, because it appears to pass by the Earth and thus moves in apparent reverse motion. This is not an illusion, as some astrologers say. It is actual relative motion, which is why the experience has real effects.

We all know how weird this can be. On a technical level, it’s sometimes simpler than the psychological level; i.e., back up your disk drives early and often; avoid doing anything of the kind during the days close to the station. All of this becomes common sense after a while. What makes each Mercury retrograde interesting is the psychological and emotional material around the process, which many have noticed can be quite creatively potent.

We will be looking at this in detail, using the minor planets in Friday’s subscriber edition of Planet Waves Astrology News. (Subscription info is always on the main cover of Planet Waves.) All UT calculations by Serennu. All EDT calculations by me.

11 May - 20:42:08 UT - Mercury echo (also called shadow) begins (12 Gemini 58′). This is when Mercury enters the degrees where it will later be retrograde. Mercury is always direct during the echo phases.

23 May - Mercury slows toward station, shifting mental and perceptual perspectives, making your hair dryer act weird and deleting the occasional mainframe system. This is sometimes called the Mercury storm.

26 May - 15:47:34 UT - Mercury stations retrograde (21 Gemini 32′). It is closely trine Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius at the time. Neptune also stations retrograde the same day. Mercury covers about 11 degrees of Gemini (most of the second decanate or “face,” which is ruled in old timey traditional astrology by Mars. So on one level we have what may feel like a long Mercury-Mars conjunction.

03 June - 3:22 pm EDT - Gemini New Moon, with the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Ceres in Gemini. Ceres is opposite the Galactic Core.

7 June - 11:27 am EDT - Mercury makes its interior conjunction to the Sun, marking the midpoint of the retrograde phase. Notably, Venus is also making an exterior conjunction to the Sun the same day, which is close to the midpoint between the 2004 and 2012 Venus transits of the Sun. An “interior conjunction” is when Mercury or Venus is retrograde and conjunct the Sun. An “exterior conjunction” is when they are direct and conjunct the Sun. Remember that, you will need it another time.
19 June - 14:31:07 UT - Mercury stations direct (12 Gemini 58). Mercury now moves through the same degrees where it was retrograde for the third time, again direct.

02 July - Cancer New Moon.

04 July - 12:32:44 UT - Mercury echo or shadow ends (21 Gemini 32′).

Tune back in on Friday. And watch Planet Waves later this week for ongoing coverage of the United Astrology Conference in Denver.

Monday 12th May 2008

Venus (14+ Taurus) quincunx Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Venus (14+ Taurus) quincunx Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx)
Pallas (26+ Aries) quintile Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Orcus (27+ Leo) trine Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius) - Near Miss Only
Sun (21+ Taurus) sextile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Venus (14+ Taurus) quintile Apollo (26+ Cancer)
Venus (14+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Arachne (29+ Virgo Rx)
Venus (14+ Taurus) square Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Venus (14+ Taurus) opposite Pandora (14+ Scorpio Rx)
Amor (5+ Taurus) quintile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Sun (22+ Taurus) trine Jupiter (22+ Capricorn Rx)
Venus (15 Taurus) semisquare Aries Point (0 Aries)
Vesta (10+ Aries) quincunx Hidalgo (10+ Scorpio Rx)
Pandora (14+ Scorpio Rx) square Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) opposite Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sisyphus (10+ Libra Rx) opposite Vesta (10+ Aries)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) opposite Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (14+ Gemini) trine Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx)
Eros (3+ Gemini) quintile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Arachne (29+ Virgo Rx) semisquare Pandora (14+ Scorpio Rx)

Dear Friend and Reader:

That one day break turned into a two day break — I was down in Brooklyn and Manhattan area on adventure, part of which involved spending a lot of time in New York City traffic. I don’t think it’s ever felt so good to get out of my car upstate and take a deep breath of our actually clean air.

Today we have an aspect not listed on the aspect directory because it involves the Moon. If we listed all the lunar aspects, the list would go on for pages every day. So we skip those here, but on Saturday the Moon makes an exact conjunction, called an occultation, to Mars. If you could see it, it would look like the Moon going over Mars like an eclipse. Occultations can indeed feel like little eclipses.

The occultation occurs just after Mars has entered Leo, leaving Cancer for the first time in many months. Mars was in Cancer through much of the late autumn, winter and early spring because of a retrograde, which keeps it in one part of the sky for about six months. Mars entering Leo is really about Mars moving on into new territory, which translates to new, bold territory of that Mars topic of desire.

The Moon making an occultation emphasizes the ingress of Mars to Leo. Occultations are difficult to interpret in advance. But I’ve seen some odd things occur during them; if you recall, last Tuesday’s Moon conjunct Neptune was an occultation and it was very, very strange. There were a lot of other planets in the configuration, which tends to add intensity.

Last night I pulled an Oracle reading which I’ll add to this entry when I get home to my other computer, where it is. The reading essentially said, now is the time to go from idea to reality; that is, these ideas you/I/we have been having about living more authentically, daring to try new things, or daring to say yes — well, when did you think you were going to get started, anyway? It was a great reading just at the right moment.

Okay - here it is.

March 07, 2003 - Capricorn - Weekly

For all its reputation for adhering to tradition and organization, scratch a Capricorn and you will find an iconoclast and system-buster under their surface. From this point you need to let your imagination, not past precedent, lead the way. On some level you may have lived with a tremendous reluctance to let the world in on the deep changes in your values system that have dominated your life almost as far back as you can remember. But now you have no choice but to begin expressing the ideas that are, by their truth, going to change how you relate to the world. The word, or is it something much larger and less tangible? Look at it this way. The definitions of life that most people around you depend on have never meant less to you. And this truth will benefit everyone.

Below are the weekend’s aspects, including those for Friday. Mercury enters its echo or shadow phase Sunday, beginning an approximately seven week process of Mercury retrograde. Echo phase is like the warmup. Things will be relatively calm for another week or two, then we begin what is called by some astrologers the Mercury storm. I’ll have those dates for you tomorrow, and an expanded version of the Mercury retrograde story in Friday’s edition of Planet Waves Astrology News.

Have a great weekend. I have clients scheduled for most of it, but I plan to be having some extra fun as well.

Friday 09 May 2008

Sun (18+ Taurus) opposite Psyche (18+ Scorpio Rx)
Vesta (9+ Aries) trine Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Apollo (25+ Cancer) square Pallas (25+ Aries)
Hidalgo (11+ Scorpio Rx) septile Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Mars (29+ Cancer) quintile Sisyphus (11+ Libra Rx)
Mars (29+ Cancer) sextile Arachne (29+ Virgo Rx)
Ceres (15+ Gemini) quintile Orcus (27+ Leo Rx)
Eros (0+ Gemini) quincunx Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Chiron (21+ Aquarius) quintile Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Vesta (9+ Aries) semisquare Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Jupiter stations retrograde (22+ Capricorn)
Venus (11+ Taurus) opposite Hidalgo (11+ Scorpio Rx)
Arachne (29+ Virgo Rx) quintile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Amor (4+ Taurus) quincunx Hylonome (4+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (1+ Gemini) trine M87 (1+ Libra)
Venus (11+ Taurus) semisquare Hades (26+ Gemini)
Amor (4+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Mars (0 Leo) trine Aries Point (0 Aries)
Mars enters Leo (direct)
Venus (11+ Taurus) quincunx Sisyphus (11+ Libra Rx)
Sun (19+ Taurus) trine Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Mercury (10+ Gemini) semisquare Apollo (25+ Cancer)

Saturday 10 May 2008

Mercury (10+ Gemini) semisquare Pallas (25+ Aries)
Venus (11+ Taurus) septile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Mercury (10+ Gemini) quincunx Hidalgo (10+ Scorpio Rx)
Atlantis (14+ Libra Rx) trine Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Vesta (9+ Aries) semisquare Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Venus (11+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (11+ Gemini) trine Sisyphus (11+ Libra Rx)
Eros (1+ Gemini) square Saturn (1+ Virgo)
Amor (4+ Taurus) septile Hades (26+ Gemini)
Sun (20+ Taurus) conjunct Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx) conjunct Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)

Sunday 11 May 2008

Mercury (12 Gemini) quintile Aries Point (0 Aries)
Pandora (15 Scorpio Rx) sesquiquadrate Aries Point (0 Aries)
Mars (0+ Leo) quincunx Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Venus (13+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Juno (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (13+ Taurus) septile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Asbolus (3+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (21+ Taurus) square Chiron (21+ Aquarius)
Pallas (26+ Aries) sextile Hades (26+ Gemini)
Psyche (18+ Scorpio Rx) sesquiquadrate Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Eros (2+ Gemini) semisquare Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Mercury (12+ Gemini) septile Eris (21+ Aries)
Sun (21+ Taurus) septile Aries Point (0+ Aries)
Mars (1+ Leo) sextile M87 (1+ Libra)
Arachne (29+ Virgo Rx) sesquiquadrate Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Orcus stations direct (27+ Leo)
Venus (14+ Taurus) quincunx Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)

Greetings from New York City — I drove down here and realized I left my laptop in my office, which I’m going to take as a cue to pass on Thursday’s blog. An edition of Planet Waves Astrology News is in the works for Friday, with the lead article  being called “The Shape of Time.” It compares different models of time, including the digital vs. analog wristwatch, our calendar, the Mayan calendar and using planetary cycles as a way of telling time. The article focuses on the midpoint between the Venus transits of the Sun in 2004 and 2012, and there’s the weekly horoscope, an article by Jude and some news for people who will be at UAC, the United Astrology Conference. We are running on schedule this week and expect to have the edition posted to the subscriber homepage by Thursday night Eastern time and in the email to you Friday morning at 9 am. Thanks for tuning in. — efc

Dear Friend and Reader:

If you want a good example of asteroid Atlantis, think of genetically modified foods. Atlantis is about our relationship to technology, and the threat that technology will take (or has already taken) a life of its own and run away with us. Ceres is about many things, but one of the most important is agriculture. The first minor planet ever discovered (in 1801) and named for the goddess of the harvest, she arrived at the dawn of modern science and was an unfortunate harbinger for industrial agriculture.

Monsanto, a company I covered for some years and still follow today, is deeply involved in biotech. They cut and splice genes to do things like make wheat that is able to stand up to their weed killers. Plants and animals are mixed. Then the pollen from these tinkered-with critters is turned loose in the environment. If I had to pick one company in the entire world NOT to have this power in its hands, it would be Monsanto. Here is an article from 1999 called The Kemner Brief that looks at Monsanto’s history. If you read this, it’s going to make you angry — you might want to choose the time you do.

This is the fabulous company that brought you Agent Orange (the dioxin-contaminated Vietnam era defoliant, components of which are still available for sale in your local supermarket), Nutrasweet (aspartame, which is deadly), PCBs, Bovine Growth Hormone and many, many sources of dioxin. Take 20 minutes and read The Kemner Brief and you’ll have a clue just how evil this company is. In fact, if you want a working definition of evil, you can check in with Monsanto.

Lately I’ve been getting email about something called Morgellons disease. One was sent last week by Roberta, who helped me with the Dioxin Dorms project last year. Then Ursula in Toronto synchronously chimed in about 48 hours later, asking what I knew. I started looking around, sending her link after link as I found them, and got really creeped out. This is not easy. I have read about, heard about and walked through the scene of enough disgusting chemical disasters for 10 lifetimes. I have documented how Monsanto tested dioxin on its employees, trying to figure out what the stuff did.

Now, if you were to ask me if Morgellons disease, a bizarre syndrome involving weird sores with extremely tough threads coming out of them, and the feeling of bugs beneath your skin, is caused by genetically modified foods, I would say: I don’t know.

If you asked me if I believed it was possible, I would laugh. It is so possible it’s ridiculous, and I was sitting at my kitchen desk thanking the gods and goddesses and my own common sense for eating as much as possible from the organic food aisle and for being medically banned from eating wheat. Then a few days later, I went to the High Falls Food Coop and paid about $7 for a pound of organic butter (to avoid BGH, a genetically modified bovine hormone that increases milk production, and udder infections) and I recognized that if you have a kid or three, you’re not going to be shopping there or anywhere like it. And this being the case, most people are confined to feeding their children genetically altered biological material.

You may wonder if a French fry potato that is altered to kill a beetle (Monsanto’s New Leaf potato is a registered pesticide) can harm you. You may wonder if extra pus in milk resulting from the use of BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) is bad for you or your kids. You can wonder, but that does not make it safe. My colleague Peter Montague described genetic engineering as a vast, uncontrolled experiment on the planet, because the pollen from genetically altered plants mixes with the pollen from natural plants.

And to think that Monsanto, who left dioxin contamination in Lysol at the same time that they were recommending people use it to disinfect kids’ toys, is one of its leading purveyors.

Atlantis, indeed.

“As I have said, this isn’t the first time your civilization has been at this brink. I want to repeat this, because it is vital that you hear this. Once before on your planet, the technology you developed was far greater than your ability to use it responsibly. You are approaching the same point in human history again. It is vitally important that you understand this. Your present technology is threatening to outstrip your ability to use it wisely. Your society is on the verge of becoming a product of your technology rather than your technology being a product of your society. When a society becomes a product of its own technology, it destroys itself.”

– Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsh

Wednesday 07 May 2008

Pandora (15+ Scorpio Rx) semisquare Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Mars (28+ Cancer) quincunx Juno (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Atlantis (15+ Libra Rx) trine Ceres (15+ Gemini)
Mercury (7+ Gemini) septile Mars (28+ Cancer)
Mercury (7+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Jupiter (22+ Capricorn)
Hidalgo (11+ Scorpio Rx) sesquiquadrate Hades (26+ Gemini)
Mercury (7+ Gemini) quincunx Chariklo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (7+ Gemini) semisquare 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries)
Sun (17+ Taurus) sextile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Venus (9+ Taurus) quincunx Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)

Oracle takes us back to September 01, 2002 - Aries - Monthly

You will have a lots of company if you get the yen for doing your own thing your own way. Oh, wait, that’s the Thing that I’ve been writing about in this space for months. There are times when astrology provides us with better metaphors than any translation thereof, so I ask: what do you think it means that the asteroids Dionysus and Bacchus join Jupiter, the god of wisdom, joviality and excess, in your Fifth House of celebration, creation and taking risks? It must mean something. (If you’re a parent, please get your kids an account with the local cab company, or set up a network of rides and stash the car keys.) If you’re any species of impassioned, inspired or illuminated, you are being given cosmic license to celebrate the moment and celebrate the season. And while we’re into the astrology, Chiron’s renewed forward motion across your career angle says that such revelries will provide wholesome professional fuel.

This edition corrects an astrology error from earlier in the day. Apologies for that. — efc

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today is the first day of the lunar cycle. The Moon entered Gemini at about 8 am EDT, is square Saturn and will make a conjunction to Mercury in a few hours.

Today’s aspects to the Sun reveal something about the perils of committed relationships and longterm companionship. The Sun and Earth align with the asteroid Pandora. Venus opposes Chariklo, one of the early centaur planets. Pandora is named for the famous myth about the box out of which come all things evil: greed, vanity, slander, deception and so on. At the bottom of the box is hope, which may be the most difficult issue of all. We have come to see a revival of hope with the Obama campaign, but we rarely question whether this is a productive sentiment.

Chariklo, for her part, embodies the principle of faithful companionship, perhaps against all such perils. She might stick with someone through thick and thin; she might stick around too long and endure abuse, unable to leave or let go. She was the wife of Chiron, who through the latter part of his life endured with him a long illness related to his being injured in battle. Structurally, she is the archetype of she who stands by her partner no matter what. The question, of course, is what.

So it seems that in relationships (signified here by an exact opposition to the Sun) we might encounter either one or both of these events: some form of a huge surprise, or some form of sticking with a person through something that has nothing to do with us. The shadow side of all of this is enduring things above and beyond the call of duty; enduring abuse; sticking around where one is not happy.

I recognize that this brings up a debate — an old one, one more apropos of the 1970s when it was still being debated whether people should stay together when they are not happy. I think we need to know this discussion when we see it. I’m not saying there is a correct answer, but I am saying that the topic is quite old and was a subject of extreme controversy in many families, particularly catholic ones, two generations ago. I will add that in many cases, feminism was blamed: if only women didn’t want to be independent of men, things would be so much simpler.

Notably, Pandora was in opposition to the Sun was for the New Moon yesterday. And notably, the Sun was also square Nessus. If you’re curious about Nessus, the link into Planet Wiki will give you an idea. The square aspect to the Sun internalizes the matter, and suggests that we may be living in a container with a past injury that will not — as most hurts go — be healed until it is revealed in the context of either the relationship where it occurred (sometimes impossible, if it occurred in early childhood); or a current relationship where it may be a factor.

Ideally, any such discovery would be addressed in a process outside the relationship first, so that the material can be handled in the relationship having been processed. That is not always possible; and here, enormous objectivity is necessary and, I would add, very difficult to establish. Can one ever see something outside one’s own point of view? Even if you see another person’s viewpoint, you are seeing that from your own perspective.

So here we have a procedural issue: what do you do when this stuff either rumbles below the surface, or comes to the surface? This is no small question. In human relations, it actually takes training for this kind of discussion to go well, and that is not a guarantee. Often it takes help. And one must be truly devoted to working with their shadow material (not getting rid of it) for anything to happen at all.

Fritz Perls once said that the client brings all the unfinished business of the past into the therapy room. I would add that we bring all the unfinished business of the past into every human encounter, including bumping into someone in an elevator (it feels like that some days). Since we are all walking around with sufficient DNA in our bodies to replicate the entire human race, we’re not going to get rid of that past material so quickly, at least not by conventional means. Therefore, we need a way to be mindful of the whole body of past experience and emotion that we carry around, and moreover, we need to know it when we see it.

By know it when we see it, I mean that awareness goes a long way, in any situation.

There is plenty of room for miracles in the universe, and there is always an opening from the past to the present that we’re not aware of, if we look for it.

Synchronously with these psychological themes, Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856. He would be 152 today. Here’s his wiki page.

Tuesday 06 May 2008

Sun (15+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Apollo (24+ Cancer) sextile Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Eros (27+ Taurus) square Orcus (27+ Leo Rx)
Eros (28+ Taurus) sextile Mars (28+ Cancer)
Sun (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate M87 (1+ Libra)
Sun (16+ Taurus) opposite Pandora (16+ Scorpio Rx)
Sun (16+ Taurus) quintile Mars (28+ Cancer)
Pandora (16+ Scorpio Rx) semisquare M87 (1+ Libra)
Vesta (7+ Aries) quincunx Chariklo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Mars (28+ Cancer) septile Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Mercury (6+ Gemini) semisquare Eris (21+ Aries)
Venus (7+ Taurus) opposite Chariklo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Eros (28+ Taurus) quincunx Juno (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (3+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)

Oracle takes us to September 16, 2005, Libra weekly

You may be experiencing this as a moment of great potential but which is somehow inaccessible to you. This will not last long; the equinox, one of the most potent times of year and clearly the most influential in your own life, is about to arrive. Until then you may feel as if you’re in some kind of highly charged state of suspended animation. You may feel like life is a fantasy or mental picture of some kind. This is a time to carefully observe both within and without. In truth there is nothing stuck about this moment; it’s just that you’re waiting on the perfect timing to make your next rather significant move. While that’s happening, have faith that the world has not stopped moving around you.

Friday night, 8:26 pm EDT

Ladies, Gentlemen, Esteemed Readers:

I am taking a break from all astrology writing for the Beltane holiday. I will be back Tuesday morning with the next entry in this series.

Aspects for three days are below. Here is an article on the Taurus New Moon by Kirsti Melto and Deirdre Tanton.

I wish you a joyous, prosperous, pleasurable Beltane

Saturday 03 May 2008

Venus (3+ Taurus) sextile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Saturn stations direct (1+ Virgo)
Mercury (0+ Gemini) quincunx Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Mercury (1+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Atlantis (16+ Libra Rx)
Mercury (1+ Gemini) trine M87 (1+ Libra)
Sisyphus (13+ Libra Rx) trine Ceres (13+ Gemini)
Venus (3+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (13+ Taurus) quincunx Sisyphus (13+ Libra Rx)
Mercury (1+ Gemini) square Saturn (1+ Virgo)
Eros (26+ Taurus) septile Varuna (17+ Cancer)

Sunday 04 May 2008

Sun (13+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Juno (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sisyphus (13+ Libra Rx) septile Hylonome (4+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mars (26+ Cancer) quincunx Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Sun (14+ Taurus) quincunx Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Sun (14+ Taurus) quincunx Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (2+ Gemini) septile Apollo (23+ Cancer)
Venus (4+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Mercury (2+ Gemini) semisquare Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Venus (4+ Taurus) quincunx Hylonome (4+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (4+ Taurus) septile Hades (26+ Gemini)
Psyche (19+ Scorpio Rx) sextile Logos (19+ Virgo Rx)
Sun (14+ Taurus) square Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Ceres (14+ Gemini) opposite Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Ceres (14+ Gemini) septile 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries)
Eros (26+ Taurus) quincunx Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Apollo (24+ Cancer) quincunx Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Mercury (3+ Gemini) quintile Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Ceres (14+ Gemini) opposite Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)

Monday 05 May 2008

Apollo (24+ Cancer) sesquiquadrate Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Arachne (0 Libra Rx) opposite Aries Point (0 Aries)
Arachne enters Virgo (retrograde)
Venus (5+ Taurus) quintile Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (12+ Libra Rx) semisquare Orcus (27+ Leo Rx)
Amor (2+ Taurus) conjunct Asbolus (2+ Taurus)
Amor (2+ Taurus) quintile Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Chiron (20+ Aquarius) quintile Asbolus (2+ Taurus)
Sun (15+ Taurus) conjunct Moon (15+ Taurus) - New Moon
Venus (6+ Taurus) quintile Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Sun (15+ Taurus) quincunx Atlantis (15+ Libra Rx)
Mercury (4+ Gemini) opposite Hylonome (4+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (27+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Sisyphus (12+ Libra Rx)
Pallas (24+ Aries) sextile Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Venus (6+ Taurus) semisquare Uranus (21+ Pisces)
Pallas (24+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Pholus (9+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (3+ Taurus) sextile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Ceres (14+ Gemini) trine Nessus (14+ Aquarius)

Dear Friend and Reader:

There are actually eight seasons in the year. Each of the traditional four seasons is divided in half, for a total of eight, six-week mini-seasons. We reach the turning point within one of the official seasons when the Sun’s apparent position is halfway between an equinox and a solstice; that is, when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of any one of the fixed signs, which happens Monday. The fixed signs or the signs of the fixed cross of the heavens are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. Memorize them! They are the core of the zodiac.

Here is a page from the old Astrology Secrets Revealed series that explains this in some more detail. Here is a Google search that will give you about a day’s reading if you’re still curious.

What’s interesting about Monday’s New Moon is that it occurs with the Sun exactly on the cross-quarter. As the Earth orbits the Sun, it moves through the seasons in an extremely predictable cycle. The Moon’s cycle is slightly off that kilter: there are 12 signs of the zodiac per year and approximately 13 lunar cycles per year. So the lunation cycle is always gaining a little time on the solar cycle. (This is why the Jewish holidays and Easter slide around the calendar — they are planned based on the lunar months.)

Monday’s New Moon is exactly at the midpoint of Taurus — precisely between the spring equinox and summer solstice. This rarely happens; I have not had a chance to ask one of my more technically competent friends to figure out how often this happens, but it’s rare enough. The obvious question is the significance of this astrologically, and it’s in two parts. One part is that we get the “symbolism” (lacking a better term) of the precision. Though there are many ways to time Beltane and it is traditionally May Day (the 1st), I recall from many past lives as a devoted astrologer to the High Priestesses that you time the rituals by the positions of both the Sun and the Moon.

Beltane is the holiday about balancing the male and the female, and it’s a beautiful metaphor to have them exactly together on the cross quarter. There is a deep seeding moment here, and as I (and my colleagues Rachel and Jude, who have written tomorrow’s lead essay in Planet Waves) have suggested, you can use it to your benefit and that of your community. If you don’t think that there is a connection between celebrating Beltane and cultivating prosperity, I suggest you give it a try. This is not magical thinking, which I shun at every turn. Rather, this is about as practical as planting seeds in the spring and harvesting them in the autumn.

The second half of the equation is a bit more technical. If you’ve been reading Planet Waves for more than 10 minutes, you’ve probably heard me talk about the Aries Point. This is the first degree of Aries and by extension the first degree of Cancer, Libra and Capricorn — that is, the cardinal points, collectively. As shorthand, all four are called the Aries Point, though I’m developing separate delineations for all four of the points. They are, however, closely related. They are all associated with big events that link the public and private orders of reality. Glance at this piece called The Personal is Political for some additional insight.

To make a long story a bit longer, the Sun and Moon form a conjunction exactly 45 degrees from the Aries Point on Monday. Astrology is based on math. Beneath all the signs, symbols, aspects, cycles, archetypes and the whole freakin’ cosmic flea circus is a lot of math (ask anyone who programs an ephemeris). In the maths of it all, anything related to the 90-degree aspect is (for some odd reason) supreme our plane of reality. That means half of 90 degrees (45 degrees), it means double 90 degrees (180 degrees) and it means 135 degrees (90 + 45 = 135). Don’t glaze over from the numbers, this is as easy as playing with Legos. Be thankful you don’t have to figure out what time Eris is conjunct 1992 QB1.

So when we get a big alignment on the Aries Point or one of its derivatives (Cancer, Libra or Capricorn) or when you get an alignment at one of the cross quarter points (15 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius), you get some potent energy moving.

What do you do about it? As your astrologer, I recommend that you get the energy going. Do it however you can. For example, drum, dance, go outside, have sex, masturbate, make art, make fire, get your friends together, have a party, clean your fish tank, plant the garden, forgive the debts of people who owe you money, give gifts, say yes in general, call your therapist and see if you can get an appointment for Monday and clean out a psychic closet, forgive someone who has given you a hard time in the past, cast divination, take the day off…you get the picture.

Remember that this is the day of balancing the male and female energies, the basic polarity we contain, express and (as it works out) struggle with in the physical world. Part of this game can involve shifting the energy of a monogamous relationship specifically by opening it up in some way. You will not keel over and croak, I promise you. The chances are your relationship will get more intimate, not less so. You can confront your jealousy and make a tangible commitment to letting go of your attachment that you demonstrate in action and not merely in words. This will help get the energy moving, flowing and growing. This, in turn, helps you manifest, create and develop prosperity, which in turn you share in some way and keep the exchange going.

You can help the process by sending loving energy toward lovers (i.e., people in couples); wishing hot sex for people besides yourself (shock them pleasantly and SAY the words); keep your own energy fresh and sexy and smile back when people send you a lusty glance; encourage your partner to share his or her fantasies and cheer them on; and say yes in general. If you are single, you have a few choices here. One is to fire up some unusually hot selfloving. Dare yourself to go places you don’t usually go. Get with a mirror or two. Write your fantasies out and let someone see them. Submit a contribution to Solotouch.com, the hottest website on the Internet because it’s written by real people. Get out your digital camera and make some racy photos of yourself and dare yourself to share them. Call up someone who has been propositioning you and feel the energy out — this would be a great time to say yes. If you don’t want to marry the person, explain your offer, that this is a one-time gig in honor of the Goddess. Yes, practice “safer sex” but get wet! Sex is all about water.

Notice if you feel guilty or “impure” for any of this. Notice whose voice it is in there. This is called shadow material, and it will often arise where sex and love are present. Resentment, anger, guilt, fear and/or fear of diseases are all part of the same negative thought complex that blocks energy, vitality, intimacy and prosperity. If you are struggling with any of this, remember that you are part of nature. You have a right to exist. Go beyond the struggle for self-esteem and jump right to self-awareness. If someone judges you or if you fear they will; stand strong in your life force.

You are alive, just like a tree, a bird or a skunk, and you not only have a right to exist: you actually do exist. This is not debatable, it is a cosmic, scientific, spiritual and practical fact.

All hail the Beltane New Moon!

Aspects for Friday 02 May 2008, courtesy of Serennu.

Sun (11+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Galactic Center(26+ Sagittarius)
Sun (12+ Taurus) opposite Hidalgo (12+ Scorpio Rx)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra Rx) sextile Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Amor (1+ Taurus) trine Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx)
Vesta (5+ Aries) semisquare Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Pallas (22+ Aries) conjunct 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries)
Mercury (29+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Sisyphus (14+ Libra Rx)
Hidalgo (11+ Scorpio Rx) semisquare Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Mercury (29+ Taurus) quincunx Juno (29+ Sagittarius Rx)
Vesta (5+ Aries) septile Nessus (14+ Aquarius)
Venus (2+ Taurus) conjunct Asbolus (2+ Taurus)
Mercury (0 Gemini) sextile Aries Point (0 Aries)
Mercury enters Gemini (direct)
Venus (2+ Taurus) quintile Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Mercury (0+ Gemini) trine Arachne (0+ Libra Rx)
Sun (12+ Taurus) septile Uranus (21+ Pisces)

Friday Oracle returns June 06, 2002 - Gemini weekly

I recognize you may feel like you’re under enormous pressure. There has not been a solar eclipse in your sign for nearly a decade and Monday’s is quite impressive combining forces with Saturn Pluto and an odd grouchy point called Hades. For the past year or more cosmic influences have conspired to mature temper and focus your soul. But you’ve never been called upon to go more deeply toward the roots of what has held you back in life. You may not like it when you find it but you’ll like it a lot when you leave it behind. Yet at this time there is no forcing anything. You can only let your life unfold. And it will.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Beltane arrives with a very fine Earthy grand trine of Venus, Pluto and Saturn. We arrive at the holiday of sex with a purpose — ensuring enough food to eat, which in current times we consider to be prosperity. Most of us are pretty far removed from the production of food, except after it’s been frozen and wrapped in plastic and we toss it into the microwave (that is not production, it’s preparation). We involve ourselves with the gathering of money. That is a reasonable fit for Taurus, which is the sign associated with one’s personal resources.

The triangle is interesting because May is traditionally the time to break the monogamy taboo and experiment with someone besides your lover; we get so frisky, the legend goes, we cannot resist. However, this is generally considered the purview of freaky heathen pagan communists such as myself, rather than proper Christians.

Venus is also conjunct an asteroid today, Amor. This one is a little trickier than your average talking rock. Amor is about the conditions on “unconditional love.” Amor could be the catch; it could be the exception. Both have the potential to be enormous, dominating the whole story. Giacomo Cassanova had Amor conjunct the Sun and his name remains a household word more than two centuries after his death.

Martha Lang Wescott once made a brutal commentary on trines. She said they are the aspect with the theme, “you lie and I’ll swear to it.” (In the same class, she also said they are rewards for past life struggles, which to me says that they grant some extraordinary power that can be used with more or less integrity.) In the image presented by the planets today, we have Venus conjunct Amor supposedly experiencing unconditional love, trine Saturn (the planet of boundaries, including the healthy ego) and Pluto (the planet of change, depth, transformation and surrender).

Ok, so what is the catch, that is, the condition on unconditional love? Well, we are guided by a lot more than love on this Earth, and unless one is a dog, one always puts conditions on it. We could be guided by just love, but it’s cold here: there is competition. There seems to be a lack of everything, most particularly truth, self-esteem, and the loving attention of others. It is fair to say that for most people, the whole concept of a relationship is in some chaos, and failing to provide what we need. Most of us are not quite able to articulate what we need, and if we do, it may seem untenable. If we do, that in itself may arrive with conflict or the sense of conflicting needs.

We are between paradigms now — that of the notion of romantic marriage, and whatever is going to come next. We may have thought the 1950s style of marriage went up in smoke along with the bra burning (and draft card burning) of the 1960s and 1970s. Yet there has been so much pressure on young people to do things like sign the Virginity Until Marriage Pledge (and to go to war), and so much economic pressure and religious pressure, that many people find themselves in an era of what you might call neotraditionalism, whether they like it or not.

Some people are happy; many would say that a lot of them are in a sugar trance. Many people are really struggling with a need for greater independence and the deep desire to define themselves outside their relationships but not sacrificing having a relationship.

Many strive to achieve some independence not knowing what they are up against, and not knowing how to handle their need for greater sexual independence because there are no models to follow. We pretty much have two legal options: one orgasm and we’re married; and the disposable one night stand. Safe to say that neither of these is working well for most people. I would propose that we are still too embarrassed about sex and our sexuality, and too stuck in the barbs of guilt, to even speak the words we need to say to redefine our relationships. We are too scared of the world collapsing around us; we depend on barely-functional models of a relationship to support us economically and psychologically.

So, here we have an image of Venus conjunct Amor. The two are trying to make an agreement with Saturn and Pluto, so that we can have some useful structures and boundaries, and also some hot sex, deep relating and relationships that give us (instead of deny us) what we need profoundly, personal transformation. One condition is that many people feel this is intelligent in principle, but are too terrified emotionally to dare or speak up.

Then there is the judgment factor. I have heard way too many stories of people [i.e., women] who declare themselves a little more free and then meet the wrath of coworkers, neighbors, friends and family. It is NOT your imagination: whether you live in the United States, the UK, Europe or Oz, you’re in a society that has very little clue how to handle sex, nor how to allow anyone to be more free than they are personally. Jealousy is a particularly vicious form of judgment, and it often exists between peers, not just within sexual relationships.

Any revolution begins with words, and to do this one we’re going to need to speak up about our needs. To do that, we’re going to need to have a long talk with ourselves and get a handle on those needs, remembering that they are likely to change as we grow. Some of those needs might be extremely frightening to discuss in church — the need for multiple partners; the need for same-sex erotic and emotional experiences or relationships; the need to do other things that threaten our partners (like get an education or do something that feeds our creativity).

We might need to admit that we’re in love with someone else; that we’ve outgrown a relationship; that we don’t know what we want (a good first step). We might decide we don’t want to have sex or relationships. If you believe the LA Weekly reporter who has been interviewing me lately, some women perceive that men there are turning down sex (the article discusses why this might be happening).

Processing the events of the past few days, I woke up this morning thinking about some wisdom imparted by Simeone de Beauvoir, who provided me with most of my map of gender relations. Simone pointed out that relationships, in particular, marriage and its analogues, provide two entirely different functions for men and women. She noted that there are no men whose entire goal in life is to get married. But you have many women who state this as a goal, and though this may seem to have changed in the past 50 or 60 years, very little changes that fast.

Men, she says, view or are conditioned to view a relationship as part of their life: they have a career, they go to the Elks, they build ships in bottles in their spare time. And they have a wife. Women traditionally view the relationship as the centerpiece of life; the defining factor. Note that this can be the determining factor on the spiritual meaning of sex: that is, why sex as a symbol takes on an entirely different meaning for women as for men in, if we remember this context.

We seem to be attempting to embark on a cultural trend for women to see a relationship as part of their life, not the whole thing; as one “goal” among many. But it’s not so easy.

For this to happen, everyone has to adjust, but the change is far greater for women, who must recontextualize everything about their existence. In other words, if their tattooed on, clobbered in identity was previously based on a relationship, many now face the formidable, at times seemingly impossible task of finding core self (perhaps for the first time) in another context. It may seem like grasping at the air. Many may feel their partner will be so threatened, nothing could ever happen; they would never dare the threat. (Usually this involves a threat to an economic structure of some kind, and less so, also an emotional threat.)

Most men have the built-in advantage of their relationships being part of their life, not the centerpiece (though some men are still extremely dependent on their partners for goods and services, as well as a sense of identity). Regardless, I suggest that the switch is far more difficult for women, when they must attempt to face the world on equal terms, having never done so before.

The kind of change we are talking about is not superficial; it is foundational, and that may at first feel like pulling the bottom cards out of the card house. In the end, it comes down to a struggle between what we need more: the structures of our lives, or the ability to express our vital force. One way or another, the vital force wins, or entropy wins, and we die (whether you take that spiritually, physically or both).

It really should not shock us that our pre-Christian predecessors associated vitality and prosperity with the opportunity to share sex outside of the marriage box. I would say that before we share sex, the freedom to prosper and thrive involves giving ourselves the freedom to feel what we are feeling, and to see a way out that does not involve death, but rather allows for change.

Thursday, 01 May 2008

Mercury (26+ Taurus) septile Vesta (5+ Aries)
Vesta (5+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Psyche (20+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (26+ Taurus) quincunx Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Pallas (22+ Aries) square Jupiter (22+ Capricorn)
Sun (11+ Taurus) semisquare Hades (26+ Gemini)
Jupiter (22+ Capricorn) square 1992 QB1 (22+ Aries) - Near Miss Only
Venus (0+ Taurus) trine Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Venus (1+ Taurus) quincunx M87 (1+ Libra)
Eros (24+ Taurus) square Neptune (24+ Aquarius)
Ceres (12+ Gemini) septile Eris (21+ Aries)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra Rx) sextile Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (27+ Taurus) square Orcus (27+ Leo Rx)
Sun (11+ Taurus) septile Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Eros (24+ Taurus) conjunct Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Venus (1+ Taurus) conjunct Amor (1+ Taurus)
Venus (1+ Taurus) trine Saturn (1+ Virgo Rx)

The Oracle takes us back to Sep 01, 2006, Aries - Monthly

You may be feeling like it’s time for a new job. Wider horizons are calling, perhaps painfully, but most definitely. Often we need to reach a limit to go beyond whatever familiar territory becomes enmeshed in our patterns of living. Even if rearranging your day-to-day affairs seems impossible right now, you have an opportunity to make an adjustment in the way you express or exert yourself in the place you call work. I suggest you look at how you use your energy; study the patterns; account for where your time goes, and what you actually accomplish. Notice how you feel about it. Because this promises to be such an incredibly busy and productive month, it’s an interesting phase for a study. While you’re at it, notice what you like to do the most, and what you set out to do first when you have several choices. Getting a new job is precisely the time to choose, so practice now.