Dear Friend and Reader:

Today you may have seen two words appear on Planet Waves that you will rarely if ever see — ‘malefic’ and ‘benefic’. These pertain to descriptions of planets from traditional astrology, that is, astrology that existed before the modern revival (and before the discovery of psychology), and which dates back about 3,000 years.

These categories rank Mars and Saturn as ‘malefic’ (bad) and Venus and Jupiter as ‘benefic’ (good). Back in the day, astrologers were not interested in process. They were interested in getting a reading on fate. If you didn’t go to an astrologer to get your question answered, you might go to someone who would cut open a chicken and read their entrails for you — same price, same credibility.

Tonight the Sun makes an exact alignment with Saturn in Libra. Yes, some guys in togas thought that Saturn was a ‘malefic’ planet. To me this aspect is about help on the way, and offers us a moment where it’s possible to set ourselves free from the past and experience the benefit of true maturity. Conjunct the Sun in Libra, Saturn is a truly friendly influence — if you honor Saturn. That is, if you work with limits and not against them; if you know that energy needs to be contained and directed; and if you honor the idea that if you take authority over your life, others will not be able to do so for you.

Today, astrology is psychological in nature (mainly because psychology is such a crucial reference point, even in religion and science, and we cannot get away from it). Modern astrology involves understanding processes in the psyche. In those processes, we honor all the parts of what a person is, and the role that they play in our lives. It is tempting to want to predict the future or ‘read the fate’ of something, and I believe that it’s the job of modern astrologers to get people past those ideas and into a more reflective mode where we get to understand ourselves.

For those who are new to planetary meanings, I will give you mine on the four planets referenced.

Mars is the masculine or yang principle, and it’s about what motivates us. It represents a driving force in one’s life, which can be the drive to succeed, one’s sex drive, the impetus to make money, and the desire to build or achieve something. Any force can be turned destructive, either by applying it unconsciously, or by representing a toxic motive. Mars can be turned to violence, violation and warfare. Like a knife it can manifest as a sharp object. But we would never say that a knife is malefic. It’s what you do with it that counts. The question is, what do people do with their motivation? Well, we know it’s not always positive or helpful things; and we also know that the goal of growth is to turn motivation toward what is helpful. But that is an act of will; Mars is involved inherently.

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By Len Wallick

“If the Super Bowl is the Ultimate Game, why are they playing it again next year?”
– Duane Thomas

The Sun takes 365 days to go around the 360 degree circle that is the zodiac. That’s the baseline for astrology and everything else is in comparison to that. Once a year during this circuit Sol will conjoin with Saturn. It’s not rare like Jupiter-Uranus conjunctions in Aries or Pisces. It’s not exceptional either. The Sun bumps into everything on your ephemeris while taking a lap.

So what is it about this year? You can feel it. It’s been coming on for days, at least. Eric felt compelled to write a short but cogent blog about “The highlight of this week’s astrology” just this last Monday, and he’s a busy man. Perhaps we should start with the highlight’s of Eric’s highlight.

There were three salient points. The first had to do with your work and authority. Notice that relationship. Most of us feed, clothe and shelter ourselves by devoting our time and energy to someone else’s satisfaction. Eric’s point was to be present to the mutuality of the relationship between employer and employed. It makes sense because Saturn has to do with authority and what each of us do to fit in to avoid being ostracized to society’s fringes. Then again, if everybody said “no, I’m not going to work anymore”, on the same day at the same time well, the tables would turn. That’s why certain natural substances are against the law, by the way.

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Today’s Oracle takes us to the Cancer weekly of Oct. 31, 2003

Much of participating in the healing process of another person involves bearing witness. There are other factors, but acknowledging the feelings, needs and life path of another person is often the most effective way to help speed their process. I think the reason is because so much of what we suffer in life is lack of acknowledgement and affirmation from our early caregivers. It is never too late to have your life affirmed, acknowledged and respected. While it’s not possible to make up exactly for what was lost, listen carefully as people around you remind you of what you already know, and remember it’s all you need.

(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.)

Today’s weekly audio is below!

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc

By Sarah Taylor

I have been drawing a lot of aces in my readings recently — both for myself and for my clients — and there seems to be an atmosphere around right now that supports the idea of new beginnings, which is what I believe that aces are associated with. So I thought that today we would focus on the aces in a tarot deck, and the ideas that they bring to a reading.

The Ace of Wands and the Ace of Cups from the Rider-Waite Smith tarot.

Each ace has a different quality, but they all share the same idea: that of initiation. Each represents the purest potential that its suit offers to us. It heralds the arrival of a thought, a feeling, a creative spark, a new method. It is the inspiration that precedes incarnation — it is what we draw upon from above and then manifest in the world.

As the major arcana describes the journey that our consciousness takes as we move through life, so each suit of the minor arcana describes an evolution in a particular area of our lives. The ace is the starting point of that evolution, as we take its gifts in the form of inspiration, and forge our own experience as we move along the path, ace through to ten, page through to king.

The path is not strictly linear, in that we may find ourselves seemingly going over the same experience again; and we may jump around the cards from time to time. But even if it feels like we’re traveling in circles, or going backwards, we are constantly moving forward: we revisit old ground in order to seek out something new in it, and we use what we find — no matter in what form it comes — to continue on our path. We also make different journeys along the same cards depending on what it is that we have chosen to focus on. We end one journey, and start another. We travel several paths at the same time. But at the beginning of each one, there is the moment of ignition in the form of the ace.

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Note, I’m moving this out of the way of the new tarot article. –efc

Dear Friend and Reader:

This week’s audio describes the simultaneous conjunctions in Libra and Scorpio. Over the next 48 hours, the Sun is conjunct Saturn in Libra. And we are in an extended conjunction of Venus and Mars next door in Scorpio.

The first conjunction describes our obsession with “proper relationships” and “doing it right.” Saturn is involved — there is a sense of duty and obligation.

The second conjunction describes what we really do, which is get it on, think about getting it on, want to get it on, need to get it on and hopefully get to get it on, despite the rules; despite what is right; despite our image and propriety and whatever else we finally end up not caring about when the time comes to not care about it.

The astrology describes how to work with this setup. Mars in Scorpio, and Venus retrograde in Scorpio, are both illustrations of authentic desire, and Venus retrograde is a deep personal inquiry. So — let’s inquire.

That’s this week’s audio — brought to you by our subscribers. Comments are welcome below.

Yours & truly,

We will be back shortly with your weekly audio. Stay tuned!

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Aries weekly of May 27, 2005

There are times when you can push fear away and there are times when it’s wiser to work it through gradually; the second is a much better idea at the moment. It would help enormously to speak, write and gain a mental understanding of what’s really an emotional condition — one that is unlikely to be a source of any real problem. Your imagination is what’s working overtime and if you would take some time and clear the contents off that great stage you’ll discover that you have much more creative and pleasurable enterprises to focus on.

(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: This was sent to me via email by a reader who wishes to remain anonymous, in response to Sunday’s post, Back in One Piece. He said to me by way of introduction, “It started out as therapy writing. Putting it into a dream… there are others of us out here like your friend… it’s been twenty years, I still dream about this and other things. There isn’t a recovery really but, an acceptance of responsibility, then coping… maybe one day forgiveness…” And in a second email, “I forgot to add, we buried those bodies…the bone broke when we moved him…a dramatized version of a real event.” — amanda

“Dude!! Dude!! C’mon.” Tim looked around.

“What?? Who’s that?”

“Tim, let’s go dude… get down from there, time to find some trophies!” Tim took in his surroundings. Yeah, the cease fire, the prisoners, we had won but, we were just fighting??? “You alright man?” Cosmo asked. Tim looked around confused, the sun beating down on the back of his neck. He slowly got down from the turret.

“Cosmo, where are we?” Cosmo turned and gave Tim a look that said, “You’re joking, right?”

“Did you fall asleep dude?”

Tim looked around again,“No, no man. I must have been thinking about something else.”

“Over here Sgt. K, I found something!” One of the men shouted. Tim began to walk toward the bombed-out tank. The gun turret lay 30 yards away upside down; something inside the tank was still on fire. Tim walked around the edge of the ripped apart tank… bodies. The men of his squad stood around two bodies. Arms and legs drawn up, one was on his back the other looked as if he was crawling away. They were human as far as Tim could tell, but even that was a guess. Blackened, mouths open, lips pulled back as if in a final scream, the clothes completely burnt away. The one on his back was the worst. It looked as if the flesh had burnt away from his stomach leaving the exposed intestines cooked into place. Tim thought how much he looked like a bug in one of those glass cases; all he needed was a needle through the middle with a little flag that said ‘Homo Sapiens’.

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