Did anyone see this? A moment ago Rachel Maddow was tearing apart those who lied and slimed us into the Iraq war, dismantling all the excuses that were used by the Bush administration, when suddenly her mic went off. Now, a moment before, she was showing Bush joking at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner about “no weapons here, no weapons there,” and there was a brief interval where the audio goes off on the video — you can’t hear Bush for about the first seven seconds of that clip; then you get about seven seconds of Bush kidding about WMDs.

Audio goes out on Rachel Maddow. This chart is cast for Kingston, where I am -- it's a horary chart. Maddow herself is in New York City. Notice the Moon newly in Gemini, and the new planet Eris rising. Maddow has a prominent Eris in her natal chart.

Then they cut back to Maddow as she summarizes how disgusting it is that Bush had joked about this, and her audio goes off. She’s talking but you can’t quite hear her; it takes her a moment to figure this out. You can hear her on a microphone off to the side of the set. She taps her lapel several times and says, looks at the camera and says, “This is unusual.”

They cut to commercial — a few commercials. When she returns, they go back to a series of video snips that we just saw of Bush telling lie after lie. So there is a bit of backtracking but you don’t see Bush joking at the Correspondent’s Dinner.

After the video, they cut back to Maddow — and in her first words, she describes how she’s in her “home studio, not on a satellite feed,” and describes how the mic is hard wired to her lapel, keeping her “pinned to the desk.” Then she adds, “I’m such a conspiracy theorist, I cannot tell you what I’m thinking right now, it would discredit me forever.”

Then she resumes the segment. She’s still in that same segment, and one of her colleagues asks how she’s doing and she says, “Alright, I think.”

Astrology note: Mercury is retrograde; the Moon has just gone into Gemini. It was void of course in Taurus as Obama gave his short speech. Of the three MSNBC reporters who were commenting after the speech, including Chris Matthews and anchor Keith Olbermann, she was by far the most critical — actually angry (not that Keith was tame). Maddow’s piece is called “Credit Where It’s Due,” a comment on how FOX News and McCain and others want Obama to credit Bush for the “victory” in Iraq.

Maddow, who was more outspoken about the war at Air America, went gloves-off when her 9 pm time slot came up. Credit where it’s due. Indeed.

Editor’s Note: the following has been adapted slightly from the Cosmic Confidential Diary. There’s also an earlier article from the time as well — Katrina the Awakener. — Amanda

With all the interesting news this past weekend and a bit of travel thrown into the mix, I neglected to make note of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — the costliest natural disaster in United States history according to Wikipedia. Given what a huge event it was, I knew Eric must have some astrological insights about it tucked away in the archives. So off I went to search Astrology Secrets Revealed, Eric’s column that ran for years on Jonathan Cainer’s page.

The site did not disappoint, as this article from September 9, 2005 shows. Eric notes a couple of important factors in the astrology of that event, both earlier in the summer: Saturn entering Leo and a Capricorn Full Moon exactly on the solstice — that date when the Sun enters Cancer. In other words, it was an Aries Point event with exponential potency.

Eric writes:

Continue Reading »

By Len Wallick

The cardinal T-square grinds on, as transitional as other cycles — earthly, celestial, big and small. The idea that one cycle can inform others is at the heart of your faithful servant’s work here on Planet Waves. Please keep that in mind through the days of our mutual service.

Up until now, the cardinal T-square has been a gathering of sorts. Where it all really began is up for discussion, but in 2008 Pluto got the whole shebang really rolling with its double ingress to Capricorn, a cardinal sign. The irresistible force of the metamorphic transformer came to shake immovable pillars of the established order.

The last time this happened was during an age of revolution in our lives on earth and our consciousness of the heavens: the revolt that originated the United States of America and the discovery of Uranus. For two centuries afterward, the revolution precipitated emulation all over the world. Uranus’ discovery opened our consciousness to the skies, science and mathematics as a means to extend our reach — even as our grasp was left behind.

In many ways we are still absorbing, adjusting to and struggling with the consequences of what happened the last time Pluto moved through Capricorn. That leaves open the question of whether we are prepared for this time around, even as we are two years into the process, and makes us question what direction the unavoidable evolution will take. Will we choose to leave the dross of the past behind, moving forward with the rare and refined? Or will we elect to become one with the dregs as our fine spirit evaporates? Continue Reading »

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Taurus weekly of Aug 27, 2004

Beware of paradoxes, and culturally accepted rules that contradict common sense or reality. You may feel highly resistant to bucking the tide, but then living under the thumb of authority is getting boring. It’s true that time will likely make certain more superficial issues go away, but not the deeper ones. They will remain to haunt you, if you let them. You’re now being presented with the perfect situation in which to assert your intelligence, reasoning and the independence you have so dearly earned, at such great cost. That may not convince you to believe in yourself; but success will.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. New horoscopes by Eric are published weekly plus twice a month in Planet Waves Astrology News and Planet Waves Light. The Oracle itself is a divination tool available to subscribers to either of these services.)

Editor’s Note: We’ve been asking our clients for feedback about the professional services we publish, and your responses have created the opportunity for an exciting dialog.

While fairly new to Planet Waves, the moment that lead me to subscribe was when I’d had yet another “a-ha, this helps me make so much more sense out of what is going on in my life right now” moment. (A friend had been occasionally forwarding me the weekly and the monthly ‘scopes.)

Your ‘scopes bring deep insight into the planets’ alignments and heart-felt compassion to integrating the planets’ constantly changing alignments with our own constantly changing individual human experiences here on Earth.

As we move into the era of 2012 transformation, your continued insights have become an essential ‘touchstone’ as I navigate my own personal journey towards self-understanding and soul/being actualization.

With appreciation and gratitude,
Ann

Yep — it really happened.

By this time, you are likely well aware that FOX News personality Glenn Beck held his large, dubiously-conceived rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC this Saturday — the site and anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s ‘I have a dream’ speech during the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice. While the Daily Show Video we’re posting here easily has the funniest take on why Beck’s event (and the lack of irony displayed by him and his followers) is so incredulous, some of the other bloggers-about-town make some insightful comments, too. Chauncey DeVega’s piece on Alternet, How Glenn Beck’s Perversion of Dr. King’s Vision is Proof Positive of Orwell’s Wisdom, gives some nice historical context for Beck’s particular inversion of truth. John Nichols over at Reader Supported News notes that ‘No, Glenn Beck is not a Civil Rights Icon‘ and the real commemorative march on Saturday was taking place in Detroit, staying true to the 1963 message of job creation and social justice.

While it would be easy to simply laugh this off as a misguided stunt and try to forget it ever happened, we would do well to pay close attention. Beck and Sarah Palin drew a significant number of people to this rally in a time when our society’s pain and rage seem to be glaringly lacking a productive outlet. I’d love to hear what Planet Waves readers have to say about the posts linked to here and whether anyone has any ideas about how to get a toe-hold for truth when so many seem to be on the other side of the looking-glass. — amanda

One of the topics we cover at Planet Waves is ‘alternative’ relationship choices, one of which is polyamory. A reader sent in this link from Psychology Today by Deborah Taj Anapol, a psychologist and pioneer of the poly community with whom I’ve worked in several different capacities since 1997. Deborah is a clear thinker and this article is a good example. She takes up a vital question — why do people choose polyamory?

She writes:

Just as there are many different forms a polyamorous relationship can take, there are many different reasons people choose polyamory. We’re not always conscious of the reasons we do things, and sometimes we even make up reasons which have little to do with our real motivations. I’m not saying that we intentionally lie to ourselves, and to others. Rather, we find ourselves doing something and then make up a story to explain it. We may sincerely believe this story, or we may suspect it’s fabricated. Either way, it’s not always easy to discover the reasons people choose polyamory. However, if you watch them over time, as I have, you can often determine their motivations by observing the results of their choices. And of course you can listen to what they say and what they report in anonymous surveys. I’ve employed all these methods to compile a fairly comprehensive view of possible motivations for choosing polyamory.

I invite Planet Waves readers to comment — I’ll write to Deborah and let her know the comments are collecting, so you may reply directly to her on this page.

efc

By Len Wallick

Yup, Mercury is still retrograde in Virgo. If we could see that planet right now, it would appear to be going backward even though we know good and well that it is not. That’s how the phenomenon of the truth coming out can be associated with this period: knowing better than to be deceived and acting to overcome deception. Knowing and acting, as it turns out, are also the essential elements of a seditious act. Our unhidden agenda today is to recruit you in just such a act.

Hearkening back to last Thursday’s blog, the seventh annual “big Mars in the sky” Internet hoax has been making the rounds. Every August since 2003 the bogus e-mail is believed and forwarded by nearly everyone who reads it. Fooled for seven years in a row — sound familiar?

With all due respect to those who feel that being repeatedly led down the garden path may eventually lead to some sort of enlightenment, your skeptical correspondent feels strongly that the time has come to say enough is enough. It is in this spirit that we encourage you to make a practice of looking at the night sky as soon as you can, as often as you can. Tell your friends. Call the folks who have taken up permanent residence in a traffic jam in China. Tweet the tea party. Send a letter to a soldier. Tell them to stop looking at lies and look at the gosh-darned sky. The rest will follow of its own course.

That’s the seditious act.

Continue Reading »

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Taurus monthly of Aug. 26, 2008

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron makes the excellent point that creativity is not based so much on inspiration as it is on routine. You seem to be running a bit cool on the flashes of inspiration but hot on the kind of energy that would help you expand and develop your ideas. Having said this, there is the chance you may feel like you have a lot of energy to do something but nothing feels quite up to the standard you have set for action. And it also seems that you have some obstacles in the way of seeing even a sketch of your long-term plan. The astrology is suggesting your time is better spent completing old projects than it is on starting new ones. When you start digging through the files of what you have not yet completed, you’ll be surprised how much you can do, and how easy it will be. The beauty of completing old projects comes partly from recognizing that beginning is the hard part, and this you have begun. Time also grants some perspective, and I trust that you will see the quality of your work in a new light. Finally, there is the satisfying feeling of resolution and closure. Plan on a couple of months of this, and the freedom to change directions entirely will be that much sweeter when it comes.

(The Daily Oracle is a random selection from one of 10,000 Eric Francis horoscopes. New horoscopes by Eric are published weekly plus twice a month in Planet Waves Astrology News and Planet Waves Light. The Oracle itself is a divination tool available to subscribers to either of these services.)