Tonight the United States Senate takes up the measure of health care reform for the American people. While this is being looked at as a budgetary issue, a political issue or a religious issue in the form of abortion, it’s really about whether people have the right to go to the doctor, here in the “wealthiest nation in the world.” The not so funny part is that a bunch of people with excellent health coverage are deciding for everyone else whether they can get help if they need it; or if they are entitled to the same preventive care. That is, if your kids should be allowed to live, or just theirs. Whether one should have to sell their house and go bankrupt due to medical bills, which in other advanced countries would be seen as scandalous.

Notice that through this conversation, the number 60 senators keeps coming up. We fancy ourselves to in a democratic system where majority rules, but we have a senate that calls for a 60% majority to get anything done. Tonight it was a big deal that 60% allowed the conversation happen — and 39 senators voted against proceeding with the discussion. Isn’t that strange? I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to build support for a political project of any kind, or to get people to agree on what day they should go out for lunch. But it’s not easy to get any two people to agree on the fine points of something, much less 60% of a political body that’s already sold out to special interests.

The 60% majority necessary to pass any law in the senate means that the minority rules. It cannot actually do anything productive, but it can do exactly what we are seeing — threaten to block any progress. In fact, tonight, one senator can sway the entire debate and in effect determine the fate of the country on this issue; one senator can make or break break the 60% majority (and the vice president cannot assert his right to break a tie in the senate, like he could do of the vote were 50-50).

As you listen to this conversation, and try to sort out the truth, I suggest you keep this in mind: Intelligence is not about how many marbles of wisdom one has collected, or how noteworthy one’s achievements are. Intelligence is about one’s humanity, and sensitivity to the truth. In part it’s also about sensitivity to the pain of others, and the plight of others. There is the crucial piece about understanding how the lack of awareness of our own pain or issues can lead us to be insensitive or intolerant to the pain others.

Intelligence is about the awareness of hypocrisy – and how little of it we can stand.

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Pisces – Weekly of May 02, 2003

The sky is set at maximum Pisces right now and believe me — that’s a lot of Pisces. Yes, the Sun is in Taurus and just one major planet is in your sign, but the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune are in the midst (I wrote ‘mist’! — Neptune slipping in there) of a potent and unstoppable setup that may feel more than a little daunting. Daunting, as in stretched over a vast paradox you can’t reconcile, or like really trippy dreams, or like how do I handle all this power, or daunting as in why does everything seem so up in the air, but I feel so fine? It’s all true. All you have to be attentive to is fear. Visionary Pisces keeps coming up with visions. Visions can be scary too, but the most important thing you can do is to allow any fear that arises to keep passing right through you, and let the movie roll.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. The Oracle is a divination tool like tarot cards, and also can be used to research any horoscope for the past 10 years. It is available to subscribers of Planet Waves Astrology News in all its working glory. This is a brilliant piece of programming combined with a full decade of Eric’s writing — when you have a question, it really works (as long as you’re sincere), and we know that you’ll love it. Sign up to discover how and why. Or enjoy one selection free here every day.)

We are now up to the last of the 12 signs, proceeding in order from Aries through Taurus. The project is Cosmic Confidential: A Future Investigation, the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves. This is an invitation for Pisces and Pisces rising (or others with a strong signature from this sign) to contribute your experiences, ideas and responses to your astrology. Pisces of course has experienced Uranus in its sign for the past six or so years, and until recently, Saturn in Virgo — your opposite sign — for about two years. This has probably made for some interesting relationship/partnership stories, or ones about where and how you fit into the world.

Saturn has moved onto Libra, which may have brought some evolutionary steps in your relationships over the past couple of months — but I’ll leave that part to you. Even if you don’t know your astrology, you can riff on your life, your relationships and your creative/professional experiences. To comment, you will need to be a member of this blog, which is free and takes about a minute to join. You can also send them to be at dreams (at) planetwaves.net, though it’s a bit easier to keep them all in one place.

Thank you for your contributions.

From here, we will be moving onto age ranges, to cover key life transits. If you want to start thinking about that now, they will include: Saturn return (ages 27-31), Pluto square Pluto (ages 34-36), Uranian opposition (ages 39-41), Chiron return (ages 49-51) and second Saturn return (ages 56-59). Please do not add your comments yet — just start getting them ready. The one question is, what is unique, odd or special about this time in your life? How do you conceive of the “before” and “after” of this time in your life?

We will open these pages for comment starting Monday — beginning with the Saturn return.

Many thanks –

cosmicsigns

Good evening. Say hello to Cosmic Confidential: A Future Investigation. This is the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves to which so many of you have contributed your thoughts, and which the rest of you have waited for eagerly. You will have to wait a while longer, because it doesn’t come out till the first week of January, But you can have the satisfaction of pre-ordering now and getting one article from the annual, called in the Shadow of Saturn — part of a series of how we think about Saturn, which is a good thing to think about these days. This page provides a description of the project. As a regular Planet Waves reader, I can offer you some promotion codes. First is the sign-by-sign option. There are two bundled options: Cosmic Confidential & Planet Waves Astrology News, and Cosmic Confidential & the new Astrology News Light.

While I’ve got your attention, today’s issue is hot. We will be posting a sample of it as soon as that page is finished, but that’s just the sample. [Note, we have not had time to do this today, sorry.] It’s not the whole plate of Irish peas. I have once again succeeded at decoding an entire week of insane news in one article, and even Carl Sagan contacted me from Jupiter and said that this week’s horoscope is hot. Use one of the combined subscription offers above for a good deal, but please don’t tell anyone you did.

cosmicsigns

By Len Wallick

“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.” –Abraham Lincoln

This day started off with the waxing Moon ingress into Capricorn, conjoining Pluto and squaring Saturn in short order. This (along with The Big Square being in separation but still functional, because as soon as Saturn goes retrograde, it will be applying again) resonates with the weekend immediately past. But that was then, and this is now.

The Scorpio Sun is entering a period of being pretty much void as we roll into the weekend, which when over will have seen the ingress into Sagittarius — hopefully allowing us to dry out our socks (or warm up after having stayed up late to see the Leonid meteor shower).

Mars in Leo has pulled into an opposition with Nessus (in Aquarius) with Venus (in Scorpio) finally catching up to t-square the both of them. This will make interesting, meaningful conversations — as long as we keep them in I statements.

Topping things off, Pallas (in Libra) is perfecting its opposition to Eris (in Aries) with Chiron in sextile to one, trine other. Chiron and Eris are in a long sextile, with Jupiter and Neptune amplifying the contact. There is something here about the unruly mind (Eris) being able to come along with the crowd (all that Aquarius). The addition of Pallas says: you can be smart if you want to. But it’s optional (a trine). Oh, Pallas in Libra adds the element of politics, which has been through the roof this week, if you happen to watch television. Indeed, of a woman in politics. Who could that be?

So what does this have to do with Abraham Lincoln?

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Today’s Oracle takes us to the Virgo – Daily of Aug 12, 2005

Track your state of mind carefully over the next few days and you’ll notice how quickly your moods and mental state change from hour to hour. An object of fear can seem absolutely real at one moment and then disappear the next. The contrast is really quite amazing isn’t it? It’s a wonder we take it all so seriously but then we seem to have rather little to navigate by except for our thoughts and feelings. If you’ll stand back and watch yourself like a detached observer you may notice a higher intelligence is starting to take over; a more detailed guidance system that speaks less and says more.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. The Oracle is a divination tool like tarot cards, and also can be used to research any horoscope for the past 10 years. It is available to subscribers of Planet Waves Astrology News in all its working glory. This is a brilliant piece of programming combined with a full decade of Eric’s writing — when you have a question, it really works (as long as you’re sincere), and we know that you’ll love it. Sign up to discover how and why. Or enjoy one selection free here every day.)

Dear Friend and Reader:

Slipping under the radar during the memorials for the Fort Hood shootings was Attorney General Eric Holder’s November 13 announcement that the U.S. Department of Justice was bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi to civilian trial in New York City.

Perhaps you may have heard of them. They’re accused of conspiring to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.  With the Attorney-General’s announcement, last Friday’s Planet Waves edition arrived presciently and was aptly named “Beyond the Reactionary Floorshow,” about the Saturn-Pluto square.

Holder’s announcement feels like we’ve walked into another world. We’ve been told what to think about the attackers for so long and relinquished our civil liberties in the face of the 9-11 incident that the mere thought of actually bringing the 9-11 conspirators to trial is a reality shift. That the men are even getting a trial in any court in the US is in itself stunning. It’s taking a while to adjust to following the rule of law again.

A civilian trial will hopefully shed some light if not find the truth in this chapter of our history, starting that summer of 2001. The question now: Are we ready for it?

The arguments for and against moving with a civilian trial and instead of a military tribunal for these men boil down to this: Was theirs an act of war or a crime?  The opinion divide between these two choices defines the political contours of the left and the right for the last eight years, one side fighting for transparency and the other for utter control of information. It feels good just having an open argument about the relative merits of both court systems for this trial. It feels good to have an open argument, period. It beats being branded a traitor for questioning the government’s motivations for going to war.

Continue Reading »

You’re about to read my old friend Michael Ackerman say that Johnny Mercer was the best American songwriter of all times. But if that’s true why isn’t he a household word? All Belgians have heard of Jacques Brel and all Brits have heard of Paul McCartney. Mercer was not a pop star; he was someone mostly behind the scenes who wrote many of the standards you find in those big books of Broadway and film show tunes. You’ve heard many of his songs: “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “Hooray for Hollywood” and “Moon River.” In other words, the songs you thought were around forever. And you’ve played lots of records published by Capitol Records, which he founded. Everything has a beginning.

John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American songwriter and singer.

I tend to be ignorant of culture, but it’s not just me; his birth data isn’t listed in Astrotheme, or even Astrodatabank. But — now we know. And today happens to be the 100th anniversary of his birth. I discovered this while simultaneously gabbing with Michael and googling yesterday morning.

Really, there is no explaining someone with this kind of unusual talent astrologically; my preference is to look to his chart for information about astrology itself. (And we do learn something about the cardinal signs, something we already knew.) It would be great if we had his birth time; putting his planets into houses would be a big help toward helping us have a clear picture of who he is. But we do have planets in signs: here’s a bit:

Mercer was a Scorpio with an Aquarius Moon (Neil Young has this configuration, which provides intellect and emotional capacity in equal measure). His outer planets are in signs distinctly unfamiliar to most astrologers today — Pluto in Gemini, Neptune in Cancer, opposite Uranus in Capricorn — exactly opposite, to one degree, which to me is his songwriting aspect. True, everyone was born with this doorway in their chart in that era; Johnny Mercer came through the door.

In 1909, Eris was still in Pisces, conjunct Nessus; when Mercer was born, Mars was there too, and it’s in the last degree of Pisces — the degree of the shapeshifter. Pisces is one of the places you look to for musical talent, and this is an odd mix but it’s an energy source, and the imagery fits. Many people experience Nessus as the dark side, and many songs are about the woes of life.

Continue Reading »

Today’s Oracle takes us to the TAURUS – Weekly of Nov 05, 1999

In your most personal affairs, you will need to assess what is serving you and what is not. It’s time to size up the profits and losses of your involvements, and make some important choices. One particular relationship may have you on edge, and tossed in with the mix may be all kinds of insinuations of commitment, business involvements, and quite possibly control dramas. If you knew the extent to which your own generous values and good nature were being used to your detriment, you would surely see things in a different light. And if you knew the extent to which you were really capable of holding your own in this situation, you would have absolutely no doubts or misgivings about doing so.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. The Oracle is a divination tool like tarot cards, and also can be used to research any horoscope for the past 10 years. It is available to subscribers of Planet Waves Astrology News in all its working glory. This is a brilliant piece of programming combined with a full decade of Eric’s writing — when you have a question, it really works (as long as you’re sincere), and we know that you’ll love it. Sign up to discover how and why. Or enjoy one selection free here every day.)