Dear Friend and Reader:

We have a guest blogger today, photo editor Danielle Voirin. She recently wrote to Eric with a piece on women’s standards of beauty and the lengths they will go to achieve it. A topic she covers, skin lightening, is one I haven’t thought about in a long time, since I read an editorial written by a newspaper columnist in London.

She wrote that she was an intelligent, educated and successful young Indian woman, but that she is obsessed with making her skin lighter. No matter what the known risks, and how much she aligns herself with female independence and equality, she stated firmly that she will not stop using these skin lightening creams.

The whole story flooded back to me after reading this short essay, and I went on a quest to find you an example of a website that sells these creams. If you do not find the premise of skin lightening creepy enough, then click here, and pay special attention to the videos.

I realize that, as a light-skinned person, I may not be in the right position to criticize skin-lightening. I benefit from white privilege every day of my life, and am not subject to racial profiling by police and security guards, discrimination by employers or by media representations of beauty and power. We all can relate, though, to the unreal standards of beauty presented to us in media and advertising that tells us we are always too poor, to short or too fat.

Last year, I took a short class on beauty myths, based loosely on Naomi Wolf’s book. Our discussion turned to the roots of gender programming and self-esteem; one idea that came up was the gendering of children’s toys (there’s a common saying that one’s gender is constructed from the time you’re born and the doctor announces: “It’s a girl!”)

Discussing possible solutions to gender programming, I brought up the Barbie Liberation Organization. The project began in 1989 when Barbie came out with a voice box and started saying things like, “Math is hard!” and “Will we ever have enough clothes?” As a response, a group of concerned folks stole a bunch of barbies, switched their voice boxes with G.I. Joes’, and soon the pink-clad ladies were shouting “Vengeance is mine!” to some very confused little girls.

This story always makes me laugh and encourages me, and I hope it does the same for you. We may not be able to stop it now, but we can always find a way to fight back.

See below for the daily aspects, courtesy of Serennu, and today’s Oracle.

All the best,

A Short Rant on Beauty

The other night my friend Elena Rossini had some friends over to get feedback on the research she’s been doing for a documentary on the beauty industry. It’s incredible the stuff she’s finding.

Cover of Vogue, April 1968. Circled is the headline introducing cellulite.

First, Vogue introduced the idea of “cellulite” in April of 1968, as “the new word for fat you couldn’t lose before.” It was just an accepted fact, not a diagnosable problem before. AND, the only reason people think the creams work is because it’s the act of massaging the leg that makes a slight improvement. It’s hereditary, no fancy magic creams will do a damn thing.

Designer Christian Lacroix has had to re-organize his women’s line of clothing for the U.S. market. Because of breast implants, the clothes are not fitting Americans like they are supposed to.

Implants have to be re-done every five years because of scar tissue, something doctors do not tell patients. They make too much money on this fact.

One of the scariest things is marketing beauty products to toddlers and children. In the U.S. there are kid-beauty-salon places in malls where little girls can have birthday parties and get manicures, pedicures, hair extensions, makeup and beauty tips. This is so disgusting. Elena showed a clip of a mother interviewed saying she got her first pedicure at 22 and, “yeah, it’s kind of strange to see her getting one at 5.” Um, but you’re taking her there!

The Dove “real-beauty” campaign (using real women, with curves and wrinkles) was retouched by probably the most famous retoucher, a French guy names Pascal Dangin.

The same companies that make tanning lotions in the west also make skin-whitening creams in the east. 50-70% of women in India use skin whitening creams. Whiter skin is associated with the West, women that have jobs, money and power. Tan skin in the west is considered a luxury, obviously you have time and money to go on vacation, or at least have leisure.

So, not only do we want to control the earth and exploit its resources, we have to control our bodies as well: hair color, skin color, makeup, nail-painting, hair removal, piercing, altering physical structures with liposuction, implants, Botox, face lifts, anti-wrinkle creams, anti-cellulite creams. Insecurity, anxiety, insecurity, insecurity…spending more money, money, money on these products and procedures that will not make us happy but only snowball into more extreme control. There must always be a higher standard of beauty to attain, otherwise the whole system doesn’t work. It would collapse with no goal, with everyone having reached beauty “standard.” And what could we do with all this time and money, as women, if it were spent elsewhere???!!! Not to mention buying into this beauty system takes you farther and farther away from nature, the Earth, health.

Ah, and here’s a good one. The visible effects of Botox last six months, yet in lab rats it’s still found in the body several months after that. The long-term effects aren’t really known. A small vial of the stuff costs $40 to manufacture, then is sold to doctors for about $400. With that, they can make $4,000. The procedure only takes a few minutes.

I’m angry.

– Danielle Voirin, Paris

Danielle contributes many of our covers to Planet Waves.

Aspects for Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Apollo (9+ Leo) square Pandora (9+ Scorpio Rx)
Juno (21+ Sagittarius Rx) quincunx Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Mercury (13+ Gemini Rx) septile Eris (21+ Aries)
Mars (21+ Leo) trine Eris (21+ Aries)
Venus (29+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Nessus (14+ Aquarius Rx)
Eros (5+ Cancer) quintile 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Sun (26+ Gemini) opposite Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Eros (5+ Cancer) trine Chariklo (5+ Scorpio Rx)
Juno (20+ Sagittarius Rx) sextile Chiron (20+ Aquarius Rx)
Sun (27+ Gemini) conjunct Hades (27+ Gemini)

Today’s Oracle takes us to Dec. 04, 2006 - GEMINI - Monthly

There can be no doubt: if you don’t feel right, you’re not where you belong. This may pertain to a relationship or to a physical space; it may refer to the work you do or the city or town you call home. Once feelings enter the picture, however, it becomes more difficult to deny them, which is why it’s so darned popular to get rid of them. For you, there is no turning back. This is a lifetime like no other, a moment in your personal history that has no valid comparison, and you are discovering yourself (mainly by feeling) someone you never expected to become.

Eric Francis makes sense out of all of this insanity here on Earth. He seems to capture a certain order about it that, to me, never made sense before. The way he uses astrology to understand how politics affects us, how our personalities can affect us and how we can understand ourselves better — and thus make our relationships with others better — is what drives me to learn more from him. Every day it’s a fascinating journey that feels right and true with my soul and my heart; they both grow in understanding as I walk upon this earth. He is a great teacher to me and I seek out his pages every day. I am a proud supporter of Planet Waves. Jamie

Dear Friend and Reader:

Last Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court made a stunning decision regarding the status of prisioners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an American military base. It ruled in favor of Habeas Corpus, meaning the prisoners have rights: particularly, the right to a fair trial.

Following September 11, 2001, President Bush and his administration stripped the rights of captured prisoners from Afghanistan, and elsewhere, who are held under suspicion of terrorism. They have been kept in Guantanamo Bay indefinitely and without court hearings. According to the New York Times, Guantanamo Bay currently has 270 prisoners. The administration placed these people in Cuba because they believed Habeas Corpus — the right to a fair trial under U.S. law — would not extend to prisoners held in foreign waters.

Planet Waves’ own civil rights attorney, Steve Bergstein, has written a clear and concise article on the Supreme Court decision. I’ve included it below.

Eric Francis will return to writing for Daily Astrology and Adventure on June 20. Until then, I’ll be here with daily news in astrology and beyond, the aspects and the Oracle. Please continue to submit your responses to: “What is Planet Waves?” It’s the highlight of my day reading your emails. My address is: editorial -at- planetwaves.net

See you tomorrow,

Rachel Asher

Even George W. Bush Cannot Destroy Habeas Corpus
By Steve Bergstein

I always wondered how the United States got away with establishing a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That’s Cuba! Enemy territory! I can understand why the United States wants a base there. Our government has bases everywhere. But why does Cuba put up with it? Maybe because the country that has tried to kill Fidel Castro many times has the muscle to put bases and detention centers wherever it pleases.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Image courtesy of GlobalSecurity.org

But all the military might in the world can’t stop the Constitution from applying to Guantanamo Bay. That’s because the Executive Branch, where the President does his business, was reigned in on Thursday by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that even enemy combatants and detainees can challenge their detention under the Habeas Corpus rules which protect everyone else in U.S. territory.

Habeas Corpus is a latin phrase which means that you can ask a court to review the legality of your detention. It’s one of the oldest legal concepts in Western Civilization. It’s what separates the free from the oppressed, and when I say oppressed, I mean OPPRESSED, those who live under totalitarian regimes and can be swept off the streets for no reason and without any recourse. Without Habeas Corpus you can spend years in jail simply because you held different political views, or some other frivolous reason. No matter how bad the Bush administration or any other tyrant abuses power in the American political system, there’s always Habeas Corpus.

Here is a summary of the ruling by the New York Times’ excellent Supreme Court reporter, Linda Greenhouse:

The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered its third consecutive rebuff to the Bush administration’s handling of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, ruling 5 to 4 that the prisoners there have a constitutional right to go to federal court to challenge their continued detention.

The court declared unconstitutional a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which, at the administration’s behest, stripped the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus petitions from the detainees seeking to challenge their designation as enemy combatants.

Congress and the administration had passed a shortened alternative to a habeas procedure for the prisoners in the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act. But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said that procedure “falls short of being a constitutionally adequate substitute” because it failed to offer “the fundamental procedural protections of habeas corpus.”

Justice Kennedy declared: “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”

The decision . . . was categorical in its rejection of the administration’s basic arguments. Indeed, the court repudiated the fundamental legal basis for the administration’s strategy, adopted in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, of housing prisoners captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere at the United States Naval base in Cuba, where Justice Department lawyers advised the White House that domestic law would never reach.

Here’s the opinion, for those who care to muddle through the legal jargon.

For international human rights lawyers, the decision handed down by the Supreme Court is groundbreaking, like Roe v. Wade for abortion rights activists or Brown v. Board of Education for domestic civil rights lawyers. What’s most interesting is that the Court sees right through the justification for locating the detention center in another country. That tactic does not mean that the U.S. Constitutional protections of Habeas Corpus cannot apply.

The Supreme Court is consistently striking down the Bush administration’s contorted legal rationales for the treatment of detainees in the War on Terror. This brings us back to Civics 101: separation of powers, a concept we all learned about but never really paid attention to. In fact, we would laugh at the concept that one branch is not allowed to get too powerful and that each branch of government (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) serves as a check on each other. It all seemed so quaint. Schoolkids got the point, but was this rock-paper-scissors theory really useful in real life? It is now. As one commentator notes in quoting from the opinion, “Even though the two political branches — the President and Congress — had agreed to take away the detainees’ habeas rights, [Justice] Kennedy said those branches do not have ‘the power to switch the Constitution on or off at will.’”

The moral of the story is that the Bush presidency is out of control, and has done whatever it pleased in the name of security and, of course, politics. Separation of powers is no longer a cute theory of government. It prevents this country from falling into the abyss completely.

Today’s Aspects

Monday 16 June 2008

Amor (18+ Taurus) semisquare Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Mars (20+ Leo) opposite Chiron (20+ Aquarius Rx)
Venus (27+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Psyche (12+ Scorpio Rx)
Mars (20+ Leo) square Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Mercury (13+ Gemini Rx) opposite Ixion (13+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mars (21+ Leo) septile Atlantis (12+ Libra)
Mars (21+ Leo) trine Juno (21+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (27+ Gemini) septile Asbolus (6+ Taurus)
Sun (25+ Gemini) semisquare Pallas (10+ Taurus)
Venus (28+ Gemini) sextile Orcus (28+ Leo)
Arachne (2+ Libra) square Ceres (2+ Cancer)

Today’s Oracle takes us to July 1, 1999 - LIBRA - Monthly

I get the idea that you are struggling to change your mind about something large and overwhelming, and yet also very personal. I don’t know what it is, and it could be a meta-theme that affects numerous aspects of your existence. But I can give some general lines of approach to the process. Using astrology itself as a metaphor, consider that this craft involves exploring existence through most technical analysis of data (traditionally a Virgo process) alternately with, or simultaneously with, surrendering to the most etheric influences of soul and cosmos (traditionally a Pisces process). Composing music or creating art works the same way; full expression is achieved through what is at once mystical and highly disciplined. In the coming two months, I suggest honoring art as a divine process. Listen to music as if it was a direct expression of religious wisdom; consider lyrics over and over again, as a rabbi would read the Torah; view visual art with awe and wonder and as a direct window to the universe. If you practice daily, it will help — help, that is, to move your soul to the act of creation itself. And only this will save you.

I was turned on to Planet Waves by Carolyn Baker via Maurice Fernandez’ Evolutionary Astrology website in 2005. I have been a comp subscriber since then and a paid subscriber to Spiral Doors, the Compersion series, and the Mars Calling project. I feel what I have paid for is really in return for the comp subscription I have had for the last two and a half years I have been a college student. The rest is just an amazing bonus worth much more than the dollar value. Planet Waves is a place to ask the questions you might be afraid to ask of others because those questions may form barriers or a create a distance from those we think we are close to. PW is a place to share astrological ideas and test social and sexual theories experientially or vicariously. PW is a safe place to try something we may not be and a safe place to say so. PW is a place to read reflections of our shared selves. PW is an abundant resource for astrology, sexuality, spirituality, community, politics, environment, health, and the arts.

Best, Chad Townsend
Tucson, Arizona

Dear Friend and Reader:

Ah, it’s the weekend!

Looking over the minor aspects, it seems there’s a lot going on over Saturday and Sunday. Today Pluto (moving retrograde) enters Sagittarius for the last time of this 250 year cycle. It will remain there until Nov. 26, when it returns to Capricorn to stay until 2023.

Eric describes Pluto in Sagittarius as having a psychological affect. The combination of the two is quite potent, as Pluto can be fixated and articulate Sagittarius is often connected to religion. For a more complete description, read “Neptune and Aquarius Rant” below.

And, as always, we have the daily aspects and the Oracle.

Enjoy the weekend,
Rachel Asher

Neptune in Aquarius Rant
May 28, 2004, London, England

Aquarius is the sign of “isms” that exist as fixed patterns or what I call standing waves in society. Republicanism is a good example; fundamentalism; science; the political system itself. And with Neptune in Aquarius, there is a message to look at the extent to which we are a culture that is all about drugs and drug-like energies, including religion.

Now, I’m certain most astrology students are thinking at this moment: this sounds like it has something to do with Pluto in Sagittarius. Yes it does, because Pluto, which represents obsession, mass consciousness and the focus of evolutionary process, is moving through a sign that has a lot to do with religion and ideas, Sagittarius. The two placements are quite analogous, but one seems to be a yin energy system (Neptune in Aquarius) and the other a yang system (Pluto in Sagittarius). Sagittarius is like the brother of Aquarius: exactly the same and completely different, as brothers often are.

The rise of intense ideologies was promised to us at the beginning of the Pluto in Sagittarius transit in the mid-1990s, and now we’re seeing the full expression of that in the form of the Islamic world in a war with the Christian world (stick a lot of quote marks around Islamic and Christian please, because both sides are faking it and using their religion as ideological garb — advertising and packaging — to justify their existence). There is a relationship between the processes of Neptune and Pluto in their respective signs; they are working together, with Neptune in Aquarius acting like a drug that makes people sleepy or highly unrealistic and Pluto in Sagittarius doing the psychic surgery: adding very specific ideas that can be extremely destructive if taken unquestioned.

Both Pluto and Neptune tend to work unconsciously, that is, with effects, but beneath awareness — until we become aware of them, a task with which astrology itself can be enormously helpful. This has been fairly easy with Pluto in the fiery, expressive sign Sagittarius. Yet Neptune is particularly insidious in this respect — that’s why Dave Arner suggested I write the meanings of Neptune on the wall of my studio. I have spent long sessions looking at many client’s charts and only at the end noticed that something extremely interesting was happening Neptune-wise; but I could not see it or did not notice. I’ve noticed no other planet behave in this strange way, going so far as to vanish from perception and reappear.

Subscribers to Planet Waves Astrology News can read the full article here. It’s a good one, definitely worth checking out.

Saturday 14 June 2008

Mercury (14+ Gemini Rx) opposite Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Ceres (1+ Cancer) square M87 (1+ Libra)
Pluto (0 Capricorn Rx) square Aries Point (0 Aries)
Pluto enters Sagittarius (retrograde)
Venus (24+ Gemini) semisquare Pallas (9+ Taurus)
Sun (23+ Gemini) sextile 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Juno (21+ Sagittarius Rx) trine Eris (21+ Aries)
Vesta (24+ Aries) sextile Neptune (24+ Aquarius Rx)
Sun (24+ Gemini) trine Neptune (24+ Aquarius Rx)
Sun (24+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Pandora (9+ Scorpio Rx)

Sunday 15 June 2008

Saturn (3+ Virgo) square Hylonome (3+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (18+ Taurus) sextile Varuna (18+ Cancer)
Eros (3+ Cancer) quincunx Hylonome (3+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (3+ Cancer) sextile Saturn (3+ Virgo)
Asbolus (6+ Taurus) quintile Varuna (18+ Cancer)
Sun (24+ Gemini) sextile Vesta (24+ Aries)
Mars (20+ Leo) quincunx Jupiter (20+ Capricorn Rx)
Juno (21+ Sagittarius Rx) sesquiquadrate Asbolus (6+ Taurus)
Eros (3+ Cancer) semisquare Amor (18+ Taurus)
Eros (3+ Cancer) quintile Eris (21+ Aries)
Eros (3+ Cancer) conjunct Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Arachne (2+ Libra) quintile Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Venus (26+ Gemini) opposite Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Venus (27+ Gemini) conjunct Hades (27+ Gemini)

Today’s Oracle takes us to Dec 19, 2003 - Libra - Weekly

The Sun changing signs later this week to Capricorn will help take some of the pressure off and entice you to feel a little more secure in your position. That you have set things up so well is the result of careful planning, conscious choices, and, as you’re now experiencing, continuous review. But don’t get too carried away going over the past. It is what it is, and the more obvious lessons are the more important ones, anyway. This is actually one of the more stable times in your life, and you can accomplish whatever you put your mind to. Have confidence in that. You really have whatever it takes.

Hey all, a British writer that I met at UAC was corresponding with me re. horoscope columns. But I can’t find your emails! Please write to me again. Thanks! And that goes for anyone who wrote to me recently expecting a reply that I did not send. — ef

Dear Planet Waves:

Planet Waves is a place I like to go visit when I feel like connecting with the “Big Picture” of life. It has been many things to me at different times and different moods, similiar to a kaleidescope with its many changing colors and shapes. It has been a soft and comforting place when I needed a friend.

It has been incredibly fascinating and interesting and way beyond places I thought my imagination could go. It has been a journey that is both educating, informing and enlightening. It has shifted my perception and expanded my mind. I am thankful to continue subscribing to Planetwaves and know that there will always be something of interest that will catch my curiosity.

– A Faithful Reader

Dear Friend and Reader:

One of today’s aspects is the Sun square Uranus and, if you’re like me and need a refresher course on Uranus, I’ve pulled an excerpt from one of Eric’s articles to shed some light on the subject.

Uranus is often associated with groups, and as Eric notes in “Full Moon Door” (see below), with protests and revolutions, in addition to more peaceful gatherings. Today, subscribers to Planet Waves Astrology News will be experiencing a virtual collective of their own, as we all receive the Friday edition together and join our minds, each processing the same nourishing sentences, all over the world.

And, on the topic of unity, if you’d like to add your voice to the growing choir of testimonials, please email me at: editorial -at- planetwaves.net, answering the question: “What is Planet Waves?”

See below for the daily aspects, courtesy of Serennu, and the daily Oracle.

All the best,
Rachel Asher

Full Moon Door
Bamberg, Germany, September 3, 2004

It may be of interest to students of astrology to consider that the other great day of protest of our era, February 15, 2003, occurred on the eve of a Full Moon. The same is true of Sunday’s march for peace in New York City, where an estimated half-million people filled the streets peacefully, walking past Madison Square Garden and the Republican National Convention. The protest was a clear, undeniable statement of objection to the illegal and deceitful occupation of Iraq, and many other policies of the unelected Bush administration. If nothing else, we can say that democratic principles are still alive, at least in New York City.

NYC Peace Protest. Image by Sonia Aguilar.

In particular, the 1st article of the Bill of Rights guarantees that the people shall not be prohibited from public assembly, or from petitioning the government for the redress of grievances. But it’s always interesting to see how far people have to go to secure that right: facing intimidation by heavily armed police, standing down threats from public officials, and having their words and actions intentionally misinterpreted.

Charts for both Full Moons, the one after the Feb. 15 protests and that which occurred Sunday, have a striking similarity: the Full Moon in a close aspect with Uranus, the planet of invention, innovation, liberation and change. In the Full Moon that occurred the day after the F-15 protests, the Aquarius Sun was in a close conjunction to Uranus, with the Moon opposing. In Monday’s Full Moon chart, the Moon was in a close conjunction to Uranus, with the Sun in a tight opposition. Both brought a peak of energy, the momentary awakening from delusion, and a moment of joining. But they also had the particular quality of a Full Moon, being polarization — that is, raising the contrast between two different or opposing viewpoints. That is one sign of a healthy society. And it’s encouraging to see that these things happen with the Moon’s blessing. But also with that of Uranus.

Uranus is something of the guiding star of the United States, discovered as it was in 1781, just after the Revolution and seven years before the federal Constitution was ratified in 1788. Uranus was the first planet ever discovered; till that time, the only ones known were the traditional seven, for which one does not need a telescope.

It is often taught to astrology students that Uranus has an affinity with groups. Here we get some confirmation of that idea. But on Sunday we saw another side to Uranus, which was the power of clarity rather than of force. The event was collaborative, loving and peaceful, as calm as such a crowd can possibly be. And as is usually the case in modern protest marches, it was extremely creative. This was no 1968, when activists led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin disrupted the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and created a violent, chaotic spectacle that may have won the election for Richard Nixon, who later resigned in scandal. New Yorkers know that quite a lot is at stake. People, including and especially the police, truly kept their cool. But then, they were vastly outnumbered.

Subscribers to Planet Waves Astrology News can read the entire article here

Friday 13 June 2008

Sun (22+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Hidalgo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Apollo (7+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Uranus (22+ Pisces)
Venus (23+ Gemini) sextile 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Apollo (7+ Leo) trine Pholus (7+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (22+ Gemini) square Uranus (22+ Pisces)
Venus (23+ Gemini) sextile Vesta (23+ Aries)
Sun (22+ Gemini) semisquare Apollo (7+ Leo)
Mercury (14+ Gemini Rx) trine Nessus (14+ Aquarius Rx)
Eros (1+ Cancer) square Arachne (1+ Libra)
Chiron (20+ Aquarius Rx) square Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Venus (24+ Gemini) trine Neptune (24+ Aquarius Rx)
Amor (17+ Taurus) quincunx Quaoar (17+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (24+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Pandora (9+ Scorpio Rx)

Today’s Oracle takes us to Sep 19, 2005 - Aquarius - Monthly

Potentially annoying domestic or emotional influences are in the air, but how this works out depends on how you handle the situation. Keep your best Aquarian calm reserve, and don’t try to solve tomorrow’s problems today. Stick to who and what you know about, and try one day at a time. You’ll make the most creative decisions that way.

Dear Planet Waves:

Kudos to Mr. Francis for showing us in the concrete, how to quash the voices of needless self-doubt, external criticism, and the self-pitying fear of others, in the face of that most daunting of tasks: figuring out how to make our vocations actually viable [please see recent edition, Taurus: What is the Question].

I don’t even want to go into how relevant his conclusions on this topic are for me, and those closest to me, as we wade through our late 30s and into our 40s with remarkable gifts and not a damn clue how to do what we do (most joyfully, uniquely and with divine beauty) without jettisoning all hope and taking the first salaried position, or hourly wage, that comes our way. Until we become a bartering society, let the magus of Kingston have his pay, and maybe the rest of us will have a chance at becoming sufficiently empowered by being able to hear his say…

— M.

P.S. And lest some suggest Mr. Francis and all at PWs lack soul — I’ll risk exposing myself: My very recent subscription is comp’ed (and with friendliness that was truly humbling — not the kind of snobby condescension reserved for those that Mr. Dolittle identified as the “undeserving poor” — thanks, Chelsea!).

I say this to make the point: contrary to suggestions that Mr. Francis and Planet Waves have sold their souls, the organization quietly offers crucial mercy for brilliant but be-leaguered grad students going on their 10th year of a doctoral program while single parenting two sons on adequate child support and with no loans to spare.

Sold out? My ass.

When I am finally financially solvent (meaning: not on food stamps and assisted utilities — and don’t worry, I know my time is coming — I am finally discerning my divine worth and value…did I really just say that??!) I’ll be subscribing, gifting subscriptions, and offering the occasional good will donation for the next brilliant grad student figuring out that how her value makes for the possibility of living out a vocational that is, indeed, viable.

Dear Friend and Reader,

Thank you all for sending in your testimonials, it’s really encouraging to read them and see how much Planet Waves means to you; please keep them coming.

It’s been unusually sunny in Dublin this summer; last year, we had a record-breaking 49 days of consecutive rain. Everyone around me is doing their part to make up for last summer: outdoor seating in pubs and cafes are packed, St. Stephen’s Green, the largest park in the city centre, is carpeted by picnic blankets, teens spooning on the grass after school and hippies juggling and playing frisbee (much to my girlfriend’s consternation, as they’re always blocking the footpath.)

In the spirit of things, I decided to go for a walk after work. I’m not great at distances, but it’s about a mile or so to walk from my girlfriend’s house to the beach, where we stroll along the water, spot the joggers that follow the route religiously and, if we’re lucky, spot the cute Weimaraner in her red harness, splashing around at the edge of the sea.

About halfway to the beach, we paused at a traffic light. That’s when I felt it: a hand grabbing me hard on my waist. I spun around, and found myself facing a very broad, tall, ruddy-faced man sneering at me drunkenly. He bent down, matching his face to mine, and said, “What’s your problem?”

Mary Clare and I were scared, but she said, “Hey! What are you doing?” and he raised his paws and clapped in her face. Then he ambled off.

You see, no matter how many times I forget, there’s always someone who will step forward and remind me: women are public property in this world. We exist without a forcefield, without a strong one anyway, and people, particularly men, are welcome to invade that space, our conversations, our bodies.

On days like these, when I feel so invaded, the only thing that’s guaranteed to make me feel better is music. Eric wrote about Faithless, a politically-minded artist in the trance genre: I’ve included an excerpt of that piece below. For me, though, it’s Le Tigre. I’ll leave you with some lyrics that helped me a lot today, from a song called “FYR” (Fifty Years of Ridicule).

Ten short years of progressive change
Fifty fuckin years of calling us names
Can we trade title nine for an end to hate crime?
RU-486 if we suck your fuckin dick?
One step forward, five steps back
One cool record in the year of rock-rap
Yeah we got all the power getting stabbed in the shower
And we got equal rights on ladies nite

Feminists we’re calling you!
Please report to the front desk!
Let’s name this phenomenon!
It’s too dumb to bring us down!

F.Y.R. fifty years of ridicule
F.Y.R. take another picture

Scroll down for today’s aspects, courtesy of Serennu, and the daily Oracle.

See you tomorrow,
Rachel Asher

To All New Arrivals
Brussels, Friday, April 13, 2007

It is always interesting what constitutes a subversive at any given point in history, and I think that Maxi Jazz, the face and principal voice of Faithless, qualifies for ours. He is not a closet idealist; it seems everything about him, every sentiment and idea, is out in the open. He is a peace and love kind of revolutionary in deeply cynical times, who uses words like “Enron” and “Halliburton” in his song lyrics and proposes that political activism consists mainly in loving and taking care of people.

In Paris, Maxi Jazz performs as the audience watches, seemingly nonplussed. Photo by Danielle Voirin / Planet Waves.

I discovered Faithless living in London three years ago, basically because I have a habit of buying work by musicians I’ve never heard of when I go to a record store. Their new CD had just come out — called No Roots. I saw a stack of them by the cash register and asked the clerk what she thought. “They’re kind of chill,” she said.

I bought it and have played it hundreds of times since, often the last thing before sleeping. Maxi is one of the most reassuring voices alive, speaking from a place of certainty that has not forgotten its pain; pain that never descends into feeling sorry for itself. Early in the No Roots CD, he calmly explains, in a light rap style which hooks you even if you have no interest in rap:

Whether long range weapon or suicide bomber
Wicked mind is a weapon of mass destruction
Whether you’re soar away Sun or BBC 1
Misinformation is a weapon of mass destruc’
You coulda Caucasian or a poor Asian
Racism is a weapon of mass destruction
Whether inflation or globalization
Fear is a weapon of mass destruction

Given the current state of the music industry, where most of what’s commercially available is pre-mixed Skippy peanut butter and Welch’s grape jelly on Wonder bread served up as exotic fare, this is some gutsy stuff. In reality, it is the simple, direct truth as told from a personal perspective by one willing to own it. Astonishing, then, that it reached #7 on the UK charts at the peak fervor of Bush War II. The CD entered the charts at #1.

This was at a time when all of the lies about the Iraq war were standing unchallenged and nobody had heard of Valerie Plame. In London, Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror at the time, had just been fired for publishing controversial photos of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. (It was American investment bankers who pushed him out of his job.) Shortly after he was fired (the very day after, if I recall), the story, if not the photos, was proven to be authentic.

It’s not, however, the political position of Faithless that I find the most appealing, the most calming to my stressed-out sense of responsibility and overburdened conscience: it’s their reckoning of politics with individual existence, their awareness of the supposedly political being distinctly personal. That is, we are all products of our world and nothing happens in a vacuum, and Faithless takes us out of that vacuum, out of that space of meaningless vapor and into a world where we must see the world and feel ourselves.

Subscribers to Planet Waves Astrology News can read the full article here.

Thursday 12 June 2008

Venus (22+ Gemini) opposite Juno (22+ Sagittarius Rx)
Apollo (7+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Juno (22+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (0+ Cancer) septile Pallas (9+ Taurus)
Venus (22+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Hidalgo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Sun (21+ Gemini) sextile Eris (21+ Aries)
Venus (22+ Gemini) square Uranus (22+ Pisces)
Mercury (14+ Gemini Rx) septile Vesta (23+ Aries)
Mars (18+ Leo) semisquare Kronos (3+ Cancer)
Pandora (9+ Scorpio Rx) quintile Jupiter (20+ Capricorn Rx) - Near Miss Only
Sun (22+ Gemini) opposite Juno (22+ Sagittarius Rx)
Apollo (7+ Leo) square Hidalgo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Eros (1+ Cancer) square M87 (1+ Libra)
Vesta (23+ Aries) conjunct 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Pandora (9+ Scorpio Rx) opposite Pallas (9+ Taurus)

Oracle takes us to Jan 02, 2006 - Aquarius - Monthly

Personally, I prefer to treat people like autonomous adults, otherwise I wind up being a dog trainer. I don’t do parental mode, and I wish people would see that it really gets us all nowhere. I say this recognizing that being mommy or daddy to other adults is an absolute obsession in most Western and Eastern cultures alike. Our governments, religions and places of employment are, for the most part, based on this notion. I am aware that there are many tons of people willing to play the child’s role and keep the whole scenario going in virtual perpetuity. You are now receiving a high-intensity call to do what used to be called self-actualize: to be real unto yourself; to be actually you at every moment; to stand apart not merely for the sake of doing so, but because you absolutely must.

Mail bag…

I was moved by the story of Heather, the eventual-subscriber who recognized subscribing to be a symbolic gesture of accepting Planet Waves’ ideas as worthy of consideration. It sounds as though she put a lot of thought into whether she could make such a gesture and commitment. I’m going to suggest that we all consider such a commitment with that level of intention.

I read Planet Waves several times a week. It has given me the courage to do several things that I would not have done otherwise, I believe. To me, Planet Waves acts as an ambassador of freedom. From the time I was very, very young, I learned that my being real frightened people — threatened them, actually.

I now live in a body that has quite literally become rigid and cold (a disease called scleroderma). My body has taken on the task of holding myself in so that I do not threaten. Planet Waves was one of the factors that helped me to realize, in a much more subtle and deep way than I had before, how imprisoned I am.

For all of us who care passionately about freedom, let’s make a gesture that says as much. I am going to make a donation to Planet Waves over and above subscription costs and encourage others to do the same. The amount does not matter. The intention, gesture, and commitment does. I’m a little late for the New Moon with this intention, but I think the universe is still listening. LET’S EMBODY OUR COMMITMENT TO FREEDOM and watch what happens. LET’S MAKE A GESTURE IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM and all those who are striving to step more into this state. LET’S SUPPORT THOSE WHO INSPIRE US to live with vitality and abandon.

Thanks to those of you who live with this intention everyday,
Chris

Subscribe to Planet Waves Astrology News.

Dear Friend and Reader:

For the next two weeks, I will be posting testimonials from readers who answer the question: “What is Planet Waves?” If you would like to participate, you can email me, Rachel Asher, at editorial -at- planetwaves.net. Eric will be back on June 20.

Frozen forest in late winter, near New Paltz, New York (in the Clove Valley), far from the contamination on the state college campus. Photo by Eric Francis.

I’m sure that some of you are unaware of Eric’s involvement in Dioxin Dorms, an ongoing project that is raising awareness of PCB contamination in SUNY New Paltz, a state college halfway between New York City and Albany. Four dormitories were contaminated after an electrical explosion 17 years ago, and they are still unsafe to inhabit. Regardless, students continue to live in the residence halls; some do this out of ignorance, others out of denial.

Eric has been frequently shocked and dumbfounded by New Paltz’s — and the local press’ — disregard for the safety of these students. I find it particularly shocking because I graduated from New Paltz three years ago and was unaware of the dioxin poisoning until this year. Many of my friends lived in the contaminated dorms, and I slept in them for weeks on end.

I’ve included a section that Eric has written, covering the contamination of SUNY New Paltz dormitories. As an addendum; for those of you unfamiliar with the campus, two new dormitories have been built in the last 6 years (Esopus Hall and Lenape) that are clean, new and uncontaminated. Instead of closing down the four Dioxin Dorms and moving students to the safe and new ones, the administration has filled them all, and will continue to do so as long as students arrive, move in and, unwittingly, risk their lives.

As I wrote yesterday, it seems that times are finally shifting into a new, brighter era. Hopefully, if we keep shining the light on this dangerous situation in my beloved alma mater, students can complete their undergraduate degrees, walking out with only their diplomas and some very fond memories.

Take care,
Rachel Asher

From Blacksburg to New Paltz
Rotterdam, Friday, April 20, 2007

Imagine this scenario. Your kid dreams of being a schoolteacher, and was accepted there, planning an education major. The big day comes, a sunny afternoon in August, the first day of college. You and your family drive from Long Island up to the Hudson Valley turn right off of the Thruway and you’re in another world. The town is utterly charming, and the mountain setting is stunning enough to make Northern California a little envious. You follow the campus map to Bliss Residence Hall, go to the desk, check in. The roommate’s family is there, and they’re of course very nice.

You unload the car, then go out for lunch at the Bistro and basically feel great. This is such a turning point: your child is now a young adult, taking a tangible step toward independence.

What you don’t know is this. You just moved your son or daughter into a building where an electrical explosion one cold morning in December 1991 sent levels of toxins spiking a million times the “safe limit.” You don’t know that the radiators and air vents in the building were contaminated when thick, greasy PCB and dioxin-tainted smoke literally soaked the place, rising rapidly because the smoke was so hot and the air was so cold.

You don’t know that in just the first three years, more than $36 million was spent, supposedly to clean the campus, and that the cleanup effort was wracked in scandal, controversy and crisis from the first days. All you see is the surface layer: a nice, if somewhat old, dormitory on a fairly typical campus. You never planned for your child to die of leukemia six years later. And you are appalled that a basic Google search of New Paltz + PCBs warns of just this potential and a good bit besides — but a little too late.

Since the dorms were prematurely re-opened in 1992 and 1993, approximately 15,000 students have come through those very buildings, each of them being exposed to toxins that at best add significantly to what they carry in a polluted world (their body burden, or total lifetime exposure), and at worst, send them over the edge toward a terminal or debilitating illness. The results might be immediate (such as getting mononucleosis) or long-term (such as fertility issues). They may be subtle (a compromised immune system, for no apparent reason) to violent (brain tumors). They may appear in the next generation (childhood vaginal cancer in your granddaughter).

How does this happen? Cleanup levels used to re-open the dorms are outdated. They do something that is now unconscionable in science: they presume a “safe level” of exposure to dioxin and PCBs. Key areas in all four dormitories were never checked for toxins. There is no way to verify the truth of the state’s tests, and it’s nearly impossible for anyone else to get in and take samples. Further, we don’t know what predispositions new students will be coming in with, but we do know that we live in an increasingly toxic world.

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Venus (20+ Gemini) quintile Saturn (2+ Virgo)
Venus (20+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Chariklo (5+ Scorpio Rx)
Venus (21+ Gemini) trine Chiron (21+ Aquarius Rx)
Mars (17+ Leo) trine Quaoar (17+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (15+ Gemini Rx) septile Apollo (6+ Leo)
Venus (21+ Gemini) semisquare Asbolus (6+ Taurus)
Hidalgo (7+ Scorpio Rx) sesquiquadrate Uranus (22+ Pisces)
Sun (20+ Gemini) quincunx Jupiter (20+ Capricorn Rx)
Apollo (6+ Leo) quintile Admetos (24+ Taurus)
Eros (29+ Gemini) conjunct Ceres (29+ Gemini)
Sun (20+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Chariklo (5+ Scorpio Rx)
Sun (20+ Gemini) trine Chiron (20+ Aquarius Rx)
Sun (21+ Gemini) quintile Saturn (3+ Virgo)
Eros (0 Cancer) square Aries Point (0 Aries)
Eros enters Cancer (direct)
Venus (21+ Gemini) sextile Eris (21+ Aries)
Eros (0+ Cancer) opposite Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Ceres (0 Cancer) square Aries Point (0 Aries)
Ceres enters Cancer (direct)
Arachne (1+ Libra) quintile Ixion (13+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (21+ Gemini) semisquare Asbolus (6+ Taurus)
Apollo (7+ Leo) sextile Sisyphus (7+ Libra)
Ceres (0+ Cancer) opposite Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Asbolus (6+ Taurus) quintile Neptune (24+ Aquarius Rx)
Hylonome (3+ Sagittarius Rx) sesquiquadrate Varuna (18+ Cancer)
Mars (18+ Leo) septile Hades (27+ Gemini)
Mercury (14+ Gemini Rx) septile 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Venus (22+ Gemini) semisquare Apollo (7+ Leo)

Oracle takes us to Feb 01, 2002 - Cancer - Monthly

Between what is perfectly uncertain and absolutely certain in your closest partnerships is a narrow window of true potential. This window is not always open, and its view is most unfamiliar. Whole worlds have arisen in a short time. New dimensions of what is possible to share with another person have emerged in your perception. I would say this probably feels a little daunting, really amazing and also scary because you know it may not happen any time soon. But some days your entire perspective is obscured by doubt, fog and mystery. Though security ranks among your actual priorities, you are also capable of embracing deeply uncertain realities. In a strange way, you can draw a sense of perfect safety in just how mysterious and unpredictable your situation is. I would call this putting all your personal attributes to work for you, rather than against one another, just when you need to the most.

Mail Bag…

My daughter, Gwen, has been talking to me for some time about what you people are about. I am very interested in everything you are discussing and want to order a subscription. You might find it interesting (or not) that at 75 years old I am very much in tune with what I hear you are saying….But after about 40 years in the arena of spiritual seeking and everything that implies, it might be more understandable. From what I have heard about you, your voice is that voice that I spent most of my life looking for in the world. I have since learned to listen diligently to my inner promptings. But now the two are coming together. Thank you…

Dear Friend and Reader,

Good morning; Rachel Asher here with your Tuesday edition. The Gemini Birthday Report is available today via Planet Waves Astrology News. One of the benefits of subscribing is having access to the archives, which includes close to a decade of articles and horoscopes. Today, I was clicking through those pages and stumbled across one from Independence Day, 2003.

The United States at night. Image: courtesy of NASA.

It’s an apt piece for the moment, especially as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton make American history. This week, the first black Democratic candidate for the presidency emerged, and Senator Clinton, the first woman to come close, managed to bow out of the race gracefully.

Five years ago, Eric wrote about the struggle between the United States’ different identities. Our country’s growth is far from resembling a smooth igneous rock with hard, clean lines and solidified meaning. The United States is a conglomerate; sandy pebbles of civil rights achievements are cemented together by moments of hatred and bigotry: the possibility of political change jams itself against an era of war and conservative social policy.

Take a moment today to read this excerpt from “A Tale of Three USAs” — I’ve copied and pasted a bit below — and I think you’ll see that it takes on new meaning in current context. While forming a national identity is a constant process, we’re certainly in a high point of becoming right now.

Thanks for reading,
Rachel Asher

A Tale of Three USAs
Friday, July 4th, 2003 - Planet Waves Weekly

Doesn’t it often seem like there are two versions of the United States? One is the country where, in her main port, is a statue inscribed with an invitation to the tired, huddled masses to seek shelter and relief. The other is the land of Rodney King and other recipients of bigotry and hatred that characterize our national culture.

One is the land of Martin Luther King and the other is the land of the Klan and King’s assassins, and the police who turned mean dogs loose on him and his fellow civil rights marchers dressed in their Sunday finest in Selma, Alabama. One is the land of opportunity, freedom and justice, and the other is the country where the poor are systematically shut out of the economic and political process, where children starve needlessly, and where millions of African-American men sit in prison cells for possession of the same cocaine that is sniffed and traded regularly in the corporate and political halls of power. One is the land of equality. The other is the land of gross hypocrisy.

One is the nation that brings freedom to the oppressed people of the world. The other is the one that deceptively and brutally bombs foreign cultures for profit, sponsors death squads in East Timor and Central America, and hides Nazi officers in South America.

One might speculate that this split personality hinted at in the astrology of the United States.

If you scan the whole business of the USA’s charts on Lois Rodden’s Astrodatabank, you will likely get a good headache. Send an SASE to Planet Waves for some aspirin, and then check this link: http://www.astrodatabank.com/NM/USA.htm. This deck of charts offers not just a moment of true chaos, but also the lesson that becoming a country is a process. It’s not exactly like being born. But hey, becoming a person is a process. it also demonstrates that astrology is not an exact science. It’s an art, a craft and an inexact science. Just like history.

Oracle takes us to Feb 27, 2004 - Taurus - Weekly

It can take a long time to find your way to the truth about yourself, and it can also happen in a moment of clarity. The most important thing right now, as you well know, is for you to do what is right for you, and there has been quite the cloud around the facts that constitute that particular truth. But the clouds are clearing, and you have a measure of leverage at the moment that is allowing you to move certain obstacles out of the way and have enough admiration for yourself and what you’ve accomplished that your next step will be more than a flight of fancy.

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Sun (19+ Gemini) square Logos (19+ Virgo)
Juno (22+ Sagittarius Rx) semisquare Hidalgo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Ceres (29+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Nessus (14+ Aquarius Rx)
Vesta (22+ Aries) trine Juno (22+ Sagittarius Rx)
Juno (22+ Sagittarius Rx) square Uranus (22+ Pisces)
Vesta (22+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Pholus (7+ Sagittarius Rx)
Hades (26+ Gemini) opposite Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Venus (20+ Gemini) quincunx Jupiter (20+ Capricorn Rx)
Eros (29+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Nessus (14+ Aquarius Rx)

Mail Bag…

My daughter, Gwen, has been talking to me for some time about what you people are about. I am very interested in everything you are discussing and want to order a subscription. You might find it interesting (or not) that at 75 years old I am very much in tune with what I hear you are saying….But after about 40 years in the arena of spiritual seeking and everything that implies, it might be more understandable. From what I have heard about you, your voice is that voice that I spent most of my life looking for in the world. I have since learned to listen diligently to my inner promptings. But now the two are coming together. Thank you…

Dear Friend and Reader,

It’s Rachel again, here with your Monday edition. Eric is taking a breather from blogging for the duration of the Sun’s transit through Gemini and will be back June 20. Weekly and monthly horoscopes continue at Planet Waves Astrology News.

Today I have an excerpt for you on the Mercury retrograde, in hopes that you’ll get some insight into the one we’re experiencing now. Eric writes about the effect that Mercury has on our perception and how there’s more to it than having all our technology go wonky.

This being said, this retrograde seems to be responsible for more than its share of car and computer problems, but it’s difficult to tell since it’s not studied scientifically. The bright side is that ideas are subject to change, revision, expansion and a test for whether they really hold water, or in this case (Gemini) air.

But he associates the experience of Mercury retrograde with the ideas of a Jesuit named Teilhard de Chardin. Have a look — it’s interesting.

Catch you tomorrow morning, bright and early.
– Rachel Asher, in Dublin, Ireland

The Swiftly Tilting Planet: Brussels, Friday, August 4, 2006

For individuals, the mind free in the cosmos, making its way along the web of humanity, Mercury itself presents real challenges when it changes directions. There is a phase of reorientation during and after the station. It’s a little like a magnetic pole shift which our brains take time to catch up with. I have no doubt that, though not ‘proven’, this is a physical as well as symbolic phenomenon, and I propose that we’re at a true advantage for being aware that it’s happening.

This environment goes beyond the devices and obvious connections. All that is broadcast enters consciousness and reverberates within a kind of mental or psychic environment that contains every sentient being. An early 20th century Jesuit scientist and philosopher named Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) called this the noosphere. Even if we attempt to pay no attention at all, we are affected; we swim in this environment, it is made of us and our awareness, and centuries of evolution have taken us to the point where psychic senses are now an accepted fact.

We feel the planet and we feel one another, all in addition to feeling ourselves at this urgent crux point of history where the momentum of change is gathering rapidly. Yet at the same time, many factors have conspired to create a mass shutdown of awareness. This, combined with the compression of time and new psychic portals opening, has a lot of people living with some pretty severe internal tension. It feels as if a balloon of awareness is growing inside everyone, waiting to burst.

Because tuning out and shutting down does not work on any level except the most temporary, those who plan to survive need to develop adaptation strategies, the first of which are psychological and emotional. Then we need processes to embrace the accelerating onrush of the future in more creative and efficient ways. Planetary awakening on any scale involves many combined individual awakenings, as well as a plasma-like gathering of energy. On the larger scale this is for the sake of the planetary evolution process, that is, our collective mission here and certain other goals seemingly beyond human awareness.

Read more here

Monday 09 June 2008

Apollo (6+ Leo) square Chariklo (6+ Scorpio Rx)
Juno (22+ Sagittarius Rx) sesquiquadrate Pallas (7+ Taurus)
Venus (18+ Gemini) conjunct Sun (18+ Gemini)
Jupiter (20+ Capricorn Rx) trine Sedna (20+ Taurus)
Eros (28+ Gemini) sextile Orcus (28+ Leo)
Eros (28+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Psyche (13+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (16+ Gemini Rx) quintile Orcus (28+ Leo)
Chariklo (6+ Scorpio Rx) opposite Asbolus (6+ Taurus)
Venus (19+ Gemini) square Logos (19+ Virgo)
Sisyphus stations direct (7+ Libra)

Today’s Oracle takes us to September 23, 2005, Virgo - Weekly

To allow new energy into our lives and to express ourselves in new ways it’s vitally important to let go of what has occupied our spaces and priorities for so long. There are some people who cannot make a change without the sense that something is being taken away; there are others who will cling to negative circumstances simply because they’re familiar. Neither strategy is going to work for you now and you can be glad of that. The options you have before you are simply too compelling to ignore and too good to make excuses about why you don’t deserve them.

Dear Friend and Reader,

Happy Weekend! Rachel Asher here, covering the Daily Astrology & Adventure so Eric can recharge his batteries a bit. Today’s segment comes from August 2006, when consternation over the supposed demotion of Pluto from Important-and-Recognised-Planet to minor planet (dwarf planet) was big news. Pluto joined new discovery Eris and very old discovery Ceres in this category.

See below for the weekend’s aspects and today’s Oracle.

Voilà, c’est tout pour l’instant,
Rachel

The Continuing Discovery of Pluto — Brussels, Friday, August 18, 2006

If astrology in any way reflects the shape of the human psyche, whatever you may think of minor planets, the sheer increase in their rate of discovery tells you something about the changing nature of the climate on Earth and the inner world of humanity — and how incredibly fast things are developing. By accepting three of these objects as planets, science would be playing some excruciatingly slow catch-up, but by the proppsed definition, leaving the door open to a rush of progress.

You can read the entire article by clicking here. The followup, The Foggy New Edge of Neptune, is at this link. These two articles give you a good idea of the beginning and the end of the astronomers’ conversation on just how to handle Pluto and Eris when they finally took up the issue. Newer articles in this series appear in Planet Waves Astrology News each Friday.

Saturday 07 June 2008

Venus (16+ Gemini) quintile Orcus (28+ Leo)
Mars (15+ Leo) septile Sisyphus (7+ Libra Rx)
Ceres (28+ Gemini) sextile Orcus (28+ Leo)
Sisyphus (7+ Libra Rx) quincunx Pallas (7+ Taurus)
Mars (15+ Leo) semisquare Arachne (0+ Libra)
Mercury (17+ Gemini Rx) conjunct Sun (17+ Gemini)
Mars (16+ Leo) semisquare M87 (1+ Libra)
Ceres (28+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Psyche (13+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (17+ Gemini Rx) conjunct Venus (17+ Gemini)
Vesta (21+ Aries) quintile Kronos (3+ Cancer)

Sunday 08 June 2008

Vesta (21+ Aries) conjunct Eris (21+ Aries)
Eros (26+ Gemini) conjunct Hades (26+ Gemini)
Eros (26+ Gemini) opposite Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Pallas (7+ Taurus) semisquare Uranus (22+ Pisces)
Sun (17+ Gemini) opposite Quaoar (17+ Sagittarius Rx)
Juno (23+ Sagittarius Rx) septile Nessus (14+ Aquarius Rx)
Venus (17+ Gemini) opposite Quaoar (17+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (27+ Gemini) septile Asbolus (5+ Taurus)
Apollo (5+ Leo) square Asbolus (5+ Taurus)
Mercury (16+ Gemini Rx) sextile Mars (16+ Leo)
Amor (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Arachne (1+ Libra)
Amor (16+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate M87 (1+ Libra)
Arachne (1+ Libra) conjunct M87 (1+ Libra)
Pallas (7+ Taurus) opposite Hidalgo (7+ Scorpio Rx)
Pallas (7+ Taurus) quincunx Pholus (7+ Sagittarius Rx)
Kronos (3+ Cancer) quintile Eris (21+ Aries)

Today’s Oracle takes us to Dec. 13, 2001, Leo - Weekly

I see you about to take some kind of unusual risk with your feelings. You have a lot of pent-up emotion and it’s true that you’re in a potent release point right now. But be aware that your actions this week will affect you for many months to come, and whether you do anything daring, or not, the words you say and the words you hear can guide you to the place you want to be. So your first priority needs to be relating to the world with your heart, which is your smartest organ.

Dear Friend and Reader,

Rachel Asher here, Planet Waves’ Associate Editor: Eric is taking a hiatus from writing for Daily Astrology and Adventure so he can focus on other projects for the Planet Waves site. Don’t fret, he’ll be back for the northern solstice on June 20. In the meantime, I’ll be here, bringing you some quotes from the past, the daily aspects and, my favorite, the daily Oracle, which randomly selects a horoscope from the archives.

While Eric’s away, we thought it would be a nice time to get some feedback from you. So, if you’re interested, email me at: editorial-at-planetwaves.net and answer the question: “What is Planet Waves?” Please write “Daily Astrology and Adventure” as the subject. I’ll be posting some of the responses over the coming days.

Today’s quote takes us to the summer of 2006, a time when Eric’s writing began really “breathing fire”, as he described to me on the phone a few days ago. Some may call it the Paris 1968 of Eric’s contribution to Planet Waves (alright, I’m the only one who calls it that.)

Soul to Soul — Brussels, Friday, July 21, 2006

Chiron in Aquarius represents the “tribal wound” we’re speaking of here, but also the ability to raise awareness around it and resolve the problem. Indeed, Chiron always resolves more than the perceived problem — there is an effect where power is concentrated around what we call an “issue” and a much higher order of reality can be evolved, developed or created. It’s very much the cosmic pearl, which is the result of irritation. When we respond consciously to Chiron, we are responding on the level of seeing the problem and creating a system of productive energy around it.

This factor is inserting itself right at the membrane between where the individual meets any form of a group; on the level of an individual’s perception of how they relate to a group; and other questions of whether one is able to break away from conformity to the rules.

Chiron in Aquarius will aspect some important factor in nearly every person’s natal chart, particularly vital planets on the fixed cross (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) that are the backbone of a chart. By these transits, the themes of this discussion will arise in a way specific to your life experience. For example, if you have a Scorpio Moon and have nourished your emotional need to be possessive, the square from Chiron could serve as a trigger to begin letting go of that.

Friday 06 June 2008

Venus (14+ Gemini) septile 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Eros (25+ Gemini) sesquiquadrate Pandora (10+ Scorpio Rx)
Mercury (18+ Gemini Rx) opposite Quaoar (18+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mars (15+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Venus (15+ Gemini) sextile Mars (15+ Leo)
Atlantis (12+ Libra) septile Hylonome (3+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (16+ Gemini) quintile Orcus (28+ Leo)
Amor (15+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Pluto (0+ Capricorn Rx)
Vesta (21+ Aries) sextile Chiron (21+ Aquarius Rx)
Juno (23+ Sagittarius Rx) trine 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries)
Vesta (21+ Aries) square Jupiter (21+ Capricorn Rx)
Pandora (10+ Scorpio Rx) quintile Orcus (28+ Leo)

Today’s Oracle:

Jun 18, 1999
AQUARIUS
Rock critic Bud Scoppa once described Bob Dylan as “the enigma, the elemental force, the phantom, the ’self-contained unit of communication’.” Yes, yes, yes, yes. Consider all of these things individually, and what it would mean to embody them at the same time, and you will get a picture of what your power is at this moment. Your position is so strong, you don’t really have a clue because there are no precedents. You cannot rely on the past for information, and the past, I would add, cannot rely on you. In fact, the past is quickly approaching an encounter with the elemental force known as yourself, and it better watch out.