She might be 158 years old, but she’s still a hot date: The New York Times, that venerable Grey Lady, is getting a new lover. Carlos Slim, with a net worth estimated at $60 billion, became involved with the Times on Sept. 10, 2008 when he purchased a 6.4% common-stock stake in The New York Times Company. This made him the largest stockholder outside the Ochs-Sulzberger family, owners of the company since its inception. Until now, the Times has remained one of the only family-controlled major newspapers left in print.

Monday, Slim assisted the Times with its $1.1 billion debt, providing a $250 million loan. His second cash infusion in only a few months has tipped off observers that Slim may be headed for an outright takeover of the newspaper.

Commencing publication on Sept. 18, 1851, The New York Times has a reputation for a buttoned-down style. Venus is conjunct the Sun in late Virgo, which bestows this aura of propriety despite the many news reporting scandals the newspaper has endured since the early 1990s. What is interesting about the Times is that it commenced publication under some of the most revolutionary astrology ever documented, the Uranus-Pluto conjunction. Similar astrology opened the way for the French Revolution, the 1960s and many other eras in history characterized by surges of progress.

The Times also has Saturn in the mix. The conjunction of 1851 was actually a triple: Saturn, Uranus and Pluto are clustered in early Taurus, so there is a strange mix of reactive conservatism and revolutionary idealism. The Times has often embodied this psychic division, which is illustrated a second time in the chart by the Gemini Moon (for centaur fans, this is a Gemini Moon conjunct Nessus).

Pluto in Capricorn is now precisely trining the Times‘ Saturn-Uranus-Pluto conjunction, a suitable enough image of a door being opened to restructuring, modernization and new life.

Slim was born and bred in Mexico City. His father moved to Mexico from Lebanon in 1902, skipping the Ottoman army draft. Four of his brothers were already residing in Mexico, one of whom brought the first Arabic printing press to the country, and founded one of the first Lebanese magazines in Mexico.

Slim made his fortune in communications when he bought Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), a fixed-line operator (as opposed to a mobile line, where the connection is wireless). Today, 90% of telephone lines in Mexico are operated through Telmex. He has amazing foresight when it comes to investments; he bought 3% of Apple stock right before it came out with the iMac in 1998, for example. He attributes this luck to information. He is versed in the work of his friend, the futurist/humanist Alvin Toffler, whose work explores digital and communication revolutions.

As the world gradually moves into another phase of potent Uranus-Pluto astrology, the revolutionary side of the Times, under Slim’s influence, may yet make itself known. But after enduring the fraudulent reporting of Keith Schneider in the 1990s, Jason Blair a decade later and other problems in between, longtime lovers of the newspaper would be grateful to have an extended phase wherein the newspaper became known for telling the truth.

– Shanna Philipson, Rachel Asher, Eric Francis

Today the Macintosh is 25 years old. I’ve been in the game for 20 years. My Godmother, Aunt Josie, bought my first Mac in 1989. It cost a princely $5,000 and ran at 16 megahertz (the computer I am on now runs at more than 2,000 megahertz). Without sounding too melodramatic, this is the human gesture, and the creative tool that I credit with giving me a foothold in the world, which I further credit with saving my sanity in some very delicate years. I was able to stay busy and productive. Stories I wrote on that computer were published in perhaps 100 newspapers and magazines, from the Las Vegas Sun to the Huguenot-Herald of New Paltz to The New York Times.

Indeed, that Mac was immortalized in a column in the Times by Michael Winerip. “In 1989, as a graduate student here, he founded Student Leader News Service, covering the state and city university systems. It was really just Mr. Coppolino, a computer that his Aunt Josie bought him and three buddies who worked the phones in exchange for a place to sleep. They did good journalism. Mr. Coppolino was one of the few people not on the state payroll who understood the budget.”

I was just taking a shower trying to add up the different Macs that I’ve owned over the years. I remember them all. Let’s see, there was that original Mac II CX, which had a full color screen. There was a ridiculous Mac Classic without a hard drive. There were the two that the SUNY Binghamton Student Association gave me (both old Mac Plus computers, also lacking hard drives; I used a lot of externals back then). Allan Rousselle gave me an old 7200 that I started Planet Waves with. It was Allan, my assistant when I was editor of the campus weekly Generation at SUNY Buffalo, who announced to me one day years later, “You really need to be on the Internet.” Thank you Allan, for that and much besides.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

I was just soaking in the irony of New York’s governor choosing an anti-choice, apparently regressive Senate replacement for Miss Rodham the day that Mars squares Eris. I’ve identified Eris as being the representative of the outcast woman; the one who lives on the edge of town, who comes to the market early so that she doesn’t have to deal with the judgment she feels. She could be anyone, but she’s not going along with situation as normal/moral.

Detail of Jupiter's atmosphere, as imaged by Voyager 1.

Though she may not identify herself in public, I associate her with a number of feminine archetypes — the witch, the whore, the spinster, the lesbian, the solitary artist: generally she is not a householder, but she certainly can be, and this energy is getting stronger in the culture and that will resonate on some level with everyone. I think of Eris as the woman who knows she is different and is not afraid to be different, even though she may do it quietly.

She is the inner attribute of women who have not necessarily embodied their truth. For those who are aware of the Lilith archetype — the original woman, created equal to Adam — she is in this cycle of mythology. The problems with this energy generally arrive when she goes covert; when she conceals her agenda; when she refuses to state her needs because she is afraid that they will become a cause of discord. And this, more times than not, is the actual cause of discord.

Mars coming in for a square feels like a clash on the level of sibling rivalry. Mars and Eris are brother and sister. Mars is the essential male energy; the glyph is a circle with an arrow at the exact angle of an erect penis. The turbulence is between something that is inwardly authentically feminine and something that is outwardly, blatantly male. Men and women understand little about one another’s respective plights, or human conditions. I would propose as a man that most women think they “want their men to be men” but don’t understand what that really means. There is something a little wild about maleness, and I think this scares the bejesus out of the overwhelming majority of women, who feel that energy must be contained and controlled.

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Dear Friend and Reader,

Kirsten Gillibrand may be a Democrat, but she’s fiscally conservative, is against gun control, marriage equality and is anti-choice, and voted for the 2008 Farm Bill, which actually hurts local farms. She may be blond, and she may be a woman, but that doesn’t make her anything like a proper replacement for Hilary Clinton.

Kirsten Gillibrand. Photo courtesy of US Congress.

Gov. Paterson will make the official announcement at 12 noon EST today, but the word is out: 42-year-old Sagittarius, Kirsten Gillibrand, will be filling Hilary Clinton’s empty senate seat. Earlier this week, Caroline Kennedy pulled out of the race, stating that she wants to spend time with her ailing uncle Ted.

Gillibrand is Congresswoman for the 20th district in New York, one that includes everything from the Saratoga racetrack to FDR’s residence to the Adirondacks, New York’s greatest wilderness area. According to The New York Times, she’s been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, making her an interesting pick, both to replace Clinton and as a Democrat.

Unlike other candidates for the seat, Gillibrand is born and bred in New York State. She has an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and her law degree from UCLA. Gillibrand has previously worked for the Clinton administration, as Special Counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She’s been a big advocate for developing and investing in low-income areas.

I haven’t seen a complete list of her positions, but Gillibrand looks like a real upstate girl: she opposes gun control, is a member of the Blue Dogs: Democrats in favor of fiscal conservatism. She supported the contentious 2008 Farm Bill. The Bill, while it had some good provisions, predominantly “commits the federal government to subsidizing the destruction of family farming for another five years and invests little in the future of rural communities.” В And her position on immigration? She opposed Elliot Spitzer’s plan to give illegal immigrants licenses.

All in all, she’s pretty conservative for a Democrat and a confusing pick to replace Clinton: you can read a more complete list of Gillibrand’s positions on her official congressional website. Note the absence of reproductive rights and LGBT rights on the page. Is she undecided, or just unwilling to say?

The answer: unwilling to say. I just heard on NPR that she is anti-abortion and opposes marriage equality. The only hope we have is that she’ll have to survive a vote next year to keep her seat, so hopefully she won’t do too much damage before then.

Yours & truly,

Rachel Asher

Dear Friend and Reader:

It’s amazing, isn’t it? We made it through two terms of baby Bush without losing Roe vs. Wade. Today is the 36th anniversary of the Roe decision, so take a moment to appreciate it — we’ve scraped through with three-and-a-half decades of reproductive freedom in this country. That’s my entire lifetime plus a dozen years; anyone would call that a safe margin.

Reproductive rights was priority one in the 1970s, during the second wave of feminism: the first wavers were the suffragettes, the third started in the 1990s. [This revolutionary period was also marked by Eris' presence. You can read more about Eris and the 1970s feminist movement in this article.] And, though R v. W is probably the moniker I’d stitch into the proverbial second wave bathrobe — yes, it’s morning in New York — some advances have found survival a little more challenging.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest sexual and reproductive health care provider, started a program called Planned Parenthood International in 1971, two years before the Roe case was decided in the Supreme Court. Their primary aim has been to offer reproductive education and technology to developing countries, meaning access to birth control, condoms, abortions and explaining how pregnancy happens and how to prevent it.

In 1971, the program was funded by the US government. Then, in 1984, Reagan instituted the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule, which bans US funding for international programs that perform and/or promote abortion.

There is a pretty interesting pattern that’s developed since 1984. Because the presidential inauguration falls on Jan. 20, the celebration of Roe vs. Wade always comes a couple of days after a new president takes office. And, since Reagan, the Roe anniversary has been the day for the new president to execute his pro- or anti-choice beliefs by rescinding or re-instating the Mexico City Policy.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

Woodstock in the Sky is happening right now, as we are living under the most impressive Aquarian alignment in decades. The late Sagittarius Moon is waning, sailing toward an eclipse of the Sun on Monday. We will have more to say about this through the weekend and in tomorrow’s edition of Astrology News.

Lakshmi girl in the Chironian, Rosendale, NY. Photo by Eric Francis/Book of Blue.

The Woodstock lineup features the Sun in a mighty conjunction with Jupiter (exact today and tomorrow), plus Chiron, Nessus, Neptune and the North Node. Venus has moved onto Pisces and Mercury has retrograded back to Capricorn, but it will soon return to Aquarius.

In the midst of this, Venus and Mars stand out of today’s charts because they are talking to one another, and making several aspects to slow-moving planets.В 

In today’s alignment, Venus and Mars seem to be searching for their identity. Sex depends on gender identity, and gender identity is often the foundation of what we think of when we imagine “who we are.” We also tend to think of both sex and gender as fixed, that is, predictable and stable. Most of us feel we know exactly who we are sexually, and how we express our gender roles, but living things change constantly and even our natal planets are under constant changing influences (transits, progressions, new discoveries and others). I think of gender and sexual orientation as entirely mutable; that is, flexible.

No two people have the same Venus and Mars in their natal charts (even in nearly identical charts there will be slight variations). Since both planets are in constant motion, there is a constant dance of “who am I and who are you?”, “how do we relate?” and “what’s our chemistry?”

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Dear Friend and Reader:

“It (Roe v. Wade) has fundamentally altered the legal, medical and political landscape of this country.”

– Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Venus in Pisces is in a trine with Varuna in Cancer today as well. All planets point to an adventure in the realms of love and truth. The 36th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision which kept the right to choose termination of pregnancy available is today. The moon continues to sail through Sagittarius heightening the propensity for philosophical thought. The Sun in Aquarius is energizing the rest of the planets occupying that sign.

Photo by Sean Hayes.

Aquarius is an air sign — intellectual, mental driven by ideas. Sagittarius has a thirst for knowledge and a knack for turning even the most mundane detail into evidence for philosophy. Aquarius also has an impersonal way of synthesizing information. Aquarius the water-bearer was the dispenser of wisdom. He (or often she) was not the exclusive cup bearer that Hebe or Ganymede were to the gods. His gifts included all knowledge. Aquarius, in this case is simple what is, as supposed to what should be.

OnВ  Jan. 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade was decided in favor of the plaintiffs. What that means is that abortion is now legal, and woman still have the right to choose when they would like to be mothers. The decision has caused numerous debates. Abortion continues to be one of the most polarizing political, spiritual and medical topics to his day. We have all witnessed its polarizing effect: one moment we may be getting along fine with a friend and in the next we are raising our voices in a debate over the life of an unborn child or over the life of a full grown woman.

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