Hi Eric,

Quick and silly question for you: Do you think it is okay to wear astrological symbols that are not your own? I mean, I’m a Sagittarius but the Pisces necklace was much cuter, so I bought that one. Other than confusing my loved ones, does it matter? Just wondering.

Happy days,
Suz

Dear Suz,

I think that it’s reasonable to wear any astrological symbol that you understand and can relate to. All of the signs and planets relate to everyone. They are “universal” symbols here on Earth.

Anyone who asks you why you’re a Sagg wearing a Pisces symbol can be the beneficiary of a short astrology lesson. “Well both signs are ruled by Jupiter and they’re both mutable signs and besides aren’t those little fishes adorable?”

There you have it.

Happy back at you,

Eric Francis
Reporting from Dominick’s Cafe

Editor’s Note: The following article was written by Suzanne White, and it explores the Oxen personality, and, in particular, Oxes that are Leos. Barack Obama is a Leo/Ox: he was born on Aug. 4, 1961. Have a look at the profile below and see how it fits with our new president’s personality, or the Leo/Ox you know and love. To read more from Suzanne White on the Year of the Ox, click here. –RA

Leadership and dominion combine here to create an unforgettably forceful personality type. The tone of rapport with Leo/Oxen never feels quite intimate or cozy enough. One wonders if there is really a heart beating inside their dense ribcages or whether they are propelled by some remote control device in their garage. This assessment of the indifferent attitude that the Leo/Ox emanates is perhaps harsh, or may seem unfair. But the Leo/Ox is so austere in manner that it’s difficult not to imagine him as obdurately insensitive.

Barack Obama speaking at a campaign rally in Abington, PA. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Leo/Oxen get places. They never cease pushing and advancing and arriving at goal upon goal despite hurdle after hurdle. We usually admire the Leo/Oxen that we meet and we cannot help but admit that they are amazing: strong, courageous and, most of all, effective. Leo/Oxen take the reins in every situation and when they are onto a project or idea, they never let up until they have mastered it.

These people are opportunists and do not hesitate before the dark wall of the devil. They plunge through fire and never flee conflict.

Normally, Leo/Oxen don’t talk very much. Around the house or office, they come off as strong but silent, even stodgy personages. It’s always obvious that Leo/Ox feels himself individual and separate from the group. And if he involves himself at all in any group endeavor or communion, he must have center stage, do all the talking, crack all the jokes and generally hold forth. Now, all of a sudden, in company with a captive audience, the Leo/Ox becomes gregarious. When he is listened to, the Leo/Ox is an orator, a performer, a fabulous synthesizer of information and a raconteur par excellence.

Leo/Oxen are “know-it-all” types and rarely let anyone get a word in edgewise when they speak. They are not too curious about others’ opinions or reflections on their views. The Leo/Ox is the personification of the Father Knows Best approach. He is the first and final judge of what is suitable and intelligent. If you have a different opinion, keep it. When there is a Leo/Ox in the room, everybody present is on his show. He is intransigently, tenaciously and arrogantly there. You are mere decoration.

The Leo/Ox character seeks permanence and longs for solidity in both personal and public ways. He is as earthy as they come and seems to need to sop up warmth from the outside, to hold on tight to love and marriage and dreams of home and family for dear life. Yes, he is successful and unbeatably strong. But it can get lonely inside that autocratic head. And the Leo/Ox needs somebody else to turn on the heat. He can build and make and do anything at all humanly possible — except simple tenderness. Expressions of affection are not given to the Leo/Ox, and when you get to know them well, you realize that what’s lacking weighs them down.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

If you haven’t already noticed, we’ve entered eclipse time again — in Aquarius — and the theme of this eclipse is the stuff of science fiction. Or to paraphrase an enduring legacy of an earlier Aquarian age, we’re on a mission to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

An model kit from the original Star Trek series, c. 1967. Photo courtesy of AMT, manufacturer.

Today’s solar eclipse, in the sign of Aquarius, arrived at 2:55 am EST, Jan. 26 and peaked over the Indian Ocean, where sailors surely got a terrific view of an annular eclipse’s thin ring of sunlight in the early morning sky. It won’t be visible by those of us in the northern hemisphere, but we’re sure to notice its effects.

This solar eclipse, with its Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron, Nessus and the North Node in Aquarius, should give us a big new lesson about the currents of time. Aquarius brings the future to us. It’s innovative, quirky — unconventional. Aquarius brings revolutions to us, too. With seven planets or points in Aquarius, this chart is unmistakably a giant shove into the future.

Eclipses shut down old ways of being to make way for the new. This is a simple way of saying that according to the laws of nature, something’s gotta give so something else can take its place. Your Christmas tree, for example, probably looks a little forlorn if it’s still around today. And it’s likely that if you didn’t pull the weeds from your garden bed last fall, you’re facing a stiff clean-up job before the tulips re-appear next April.

But what if the “old” is a job, a loved one, a friend, a dream — making way for the new? We usually look backward to know who we are. Our identity is embedded in comfortable old habits: we always meet at that one diner, take two creams in our coffee, dependably joke about the recalcitrant Xerox machine on the third floor, count on that friend to call us when she’s got to move her three-ton sofa-sleeper — again. These patterns so define us, that when we’re called to give one up we feel as if we’re forced to give ourselves up. If we let go of that job, that lover, what will become of us, we ask? Who are we then, if not a reliable note in a dependable 4/4 beat of life?

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Dear Friend and Reader:

The wonders of the Internet.

When I was new to reading about astrology, I found a book that covered the Western signs in the context of the Chinese zodiac. It’s called The New Astrology by Suzanne White – a book where you can look up some ideas to go with being a Leo Rooster or a Pisces Dragon, and it was intelligent (the Pisces Dragon, my own sign, should seek employment as a philosopher or photographer, Ms. White suggests).

Knowing that I needed to sound vaguely intelligent about Chinese astrology with the New Year happening, I drove to Mirabai Books in Woodstock yesterday to fetch the book, which is in print and selling copies 20 years after it came out.

Then it occurred to me to call the author and see what she had so say. I found her email address, wrote to her and the next day, we were in a long conversation about this, that and several other things. And at the end of that conversation, one of the truly eloquent writers on the Chinese horoscope offered Planet Waves readers her Earth Ox article, as well as one we’ll print Monday about the Leo Ox — that is, Barack Obama’s combined sign.

Suzanne, a Wave of love and appreciation for your work.

– Eric Francis
for Planet Waves

The Year of the Earth Ox – by Suzanne White

1709 Samuel Johnson

1769 Napoleon Bonaparte, Le Marquis de Sade, Adolph Hitler, Jean Cocteau, Erle Stanley Gardner, Robert Benchley, Jawaharlal Nehru, Claude Rains

1889 Charlie Chaplin, Sessue Hayakawa, Jean Cocteau

1949 Ivana Trump, Lindsay Wagner, Billy Joel, Sigourney Weaver, Paloma Picasso, Jessica Lange, Richard Gere, John Belushi, Jeff Bridges, Sissy Spacek, Niki Lauda, Hank Williams, Fanny Ardant, Patty Lupone, Ken Follett, Lionel Ritchie, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Wagner, Shelly Duval, Keith Caradine, Robert Caradine, Twiggy, Ed Begley Jr., Bruce Springsteen, Sigourney Weaver, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Armatrading, Ted Danson, Sissy Spacek, Tom Waits, Victoria Principal

Here we enter the year of the busybody dictator Ox. Curious to a fault, nosy and meddlesome, Earth Oxen think they know best, and they often do. In general, these folks consider themselves superior to other people. They not only think they are better; they believe they were born to lead others, to teach the poor things how to live, and sometimes even to push them around like pawns on the chessboard of life. What we have here is a very nature-oriented, earth-bound, power-mad megalomaniac whose nose for locating flies in life’s various ointments is practically infallible.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Yesterday, the Sunday Times Magazine published an article by Daniel Bergner that explores the work of Canadian sex researcher Meredith Chivers. Dr. Chivers has conducted research that explores the differences between what people think turns them on sexually, and what actually turns them on. She did this by placing probes on or in the genitals to observe sexual excitement (an objective measure) and by providing a keypad to rate what turned the subjects on. Then a diversity of erotic scenes were played on a monitor — apes having sex, women together, men together, men and women together, and so on.

What she discovered is that men pretty much know what tuns them on. Women think very little turns them on, when in fact nearly everything does. I think this study has profound implications on how men and women relate, and also how women tend to relate to the world: if Dr. Chivers is right, with an enormous gap between what they think they want and what they actually want.

Please take a look at the article. I would love to hear your thoughts.

– Eric Francis

We are in an eclipse moment. The first of two, an annular solar eclipse, occurs overnight Sunday to Monday at 6+ Aquarius. [Here is NASA's official page on the eclipse.] This is Tet, the Asian New Year. Tet is held on the first New Moon after the first Full Moon after the winter solstice. This year it happens to be a solar eclipse that brings in the Year of the Ox. The qualities of Ox are diligence, tolerance and persistence. It is a stoic sign, whose natives are known for speaking little but showing quiet strength.

Up Close & Personal. Photo by Eric Francis.

The approximately equivalent Western sign is Capricorn, a cardinal earth sign. This is interesting because Capricorn is now such an important focus of Western astrology, as Pluto has taken up residence here.

Wikipedia’s page on the Ox year relates the traditional wisdom that it’s “the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.” Like Capricorn, there can be a quality of mischief and devilishness at the center of Ox stoicism, though it does not emerge easily or often; natives of this sign like to maintain the appearance of propriety and are easily embarrassed if seen to be childish. But most of what they experience as different or unconventional occurs within the interior of their lives.

A Chinese year repeats every 12 years. Each Chinese year is associated with a color or element, which move in a 60-year cycle. We are now entering the year of the earth Ox, and the last time that happened was 60 years ago, in 1949.

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On Jan. 11, as Mercury turned retrograde, Czech concept artist David Cerny punk’d the stodgy Council of the European Union. His joke? A 2,760-square-foot model kit-like sculpture that depicts the 27 EU countries with ironic, politically incorrect stereotypes: France is on strike; Sweden looks like an IKEA flat-pack; Britain is missing altogether. Bulgaria is a patchwork of Turkish squat toilets and Italy is covered in soccer players who look as if they’re masturbating with the help of soccer balls.

The piece, sardonically entitled “Entropa,” was commissioned to celebrate the temporary Czech EU presidency. Twenty-seven individual artists would illustrate the theme “Europe without barriers.”

But Mercury the Trickster had other plans. The underfunded and over-ambitious EU plans inspired Cerny and his colleagues to secretly change the plan.

To complete the postmodernist joke, Cerny’s team created a brochure, complete with 27 fictional artists and dense mock artist statements. Elena Jelebova, for example, is a Bulgarian whose toilets intend “to cause a scandal, especially at home,” with a “punk gesture, intentionally primitive and vulgar, fecally pubertal.”

The hoax was revealed soon after it’s unveiling. “We knew the truth would come out,” said Cerny to the BBC. “But before that we wanted to find out if Europe is able to laugh at itself.” Bulgaria didn’t: it demanded the Turkish toilets be covered. But the rest of the European countries are — in good Mercury retrograde style — rethinking their assumptions about one another. Which is the point, says Cerny: “Self-reflection, critical thinking and the capacity to perceive oneself as well as the outside world with a sense of irony are the hallmarks of European thinking.”