Confess your passion, your secret fear
Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier
— Donald Fagen
Dear Planet Waves Reader:
Normally we distribute the early-week edition on Tuesday, but there’s an intriguing astrological event that takes place starting today. This extends overnight and into tomorrow afternoon, so I’ve decided to run this edition today. It’s based on a blog post from over the weekend though please note that there are some reinterpretations of the astrology in this version. Monthly horoscopes for January will be distributed after the solstice, schedule to be announced.
Mercury stationed retrograde in Capricorn Friday morning, close to a number of other planets and points. Monday night and into Tuesday, there is an unusual triple conjunction of Mercury, Mars and Pluto, all conjunct within one arc minute (that’s 1/60th of a degree). Perhaps you have to know a little astrology to appreciate this, but imagine three moving points of this potency just happening to be in the same place at the same time, with the added spin or influence of Mercury retrograde.
In case you’re new to charts, you’re looking at the three bodies with the bold 4 next to them. That’s the degree value; the arc minutes, or fractions of a degree, are the small numbers, and look how close they are as well. Mars and Pluto are in an exact conjunction, to the arc minute. And just as that’s happening, ercury backs over them both within a few minutes of one another. I have to say, that is laser-like precision. Just consider that these planets are millions of miles from Earth, all moving at different speeds, and there are not three bodies aligned but four of them — that precise conjunction means they align not just with one another but with the Earth.
There is a message involved; that’s the nature of Mercury. Whatever this chart is about, there is a message. In personal matters, this is a day to either stay silent or if you want to speak, to choose your words carefully. That would choosing include listening, a skill rare enough to find. Listening would include to yourself and to others. The retrograde advises introspection, thinking before you act, and focusing on psychology and motives, especially your own. The theme of ‘motives’ comes from Pluto, the prime mover, the unstoppable force, and the scent and sensation of hormones. The ‘think carefully’ theme comes from Mercury conjunct Mars, which says thinking fast, but Mercury may not be perceiving accurately: I am not suggesting you ‘second guess’ yourself but that you not be overconfident. A little conscious humility will suffice.
Mix this up with Capricorn and, in one dimension, you get the astrological incarnation of kinky. This would be kink in the form of wordplay and power exchange. On the most basic level, it could be a day to speak softly and slowly with intimate partners and tell the truth about sex. Capricorn adds the predisposition to guilt, which is a response to perceived authority. The retrograde suggests you may be able to get beyond the sensation of guilt as a restrictive force, and allow your truth to come out. Once it does, you will begin a process of working that reality through the rest of your mental field, like kneading dough.
Though it’s not shown in the chart sample above, the Moon is also in the neighborhood — by aspect. In astrology planets can be grouped by being together, or being in the same degree range. Tuesday at 2:14 am EST, the Moon enters Aries and thus crosses the Aries Point, and soon after squares its own nodes; then Tuesday at 10:57 am EST it makes a square to Mercury, then to Pluto, then to Mars in rapid succession (in about the space of one hour). This is the Moon ‘setting off’ the aspect. A square is shorthand for ‘something happens’ and there is added emphasis in that the Moon is making a 90-degree aspect to its own nodes, which are hot and vibrating in anticipation of an eclipse on the solstice. And of course we are in Aries Point country — never left, we’ve been here since Pluto first touched Capricorn in 2008, though thanks to eclipses and other planets showing up lately, we are going through a series of peaks.
While this setup has some dark shades, I suggest that there is something to be learned about the current circumstances of the world. We are seeing some unprecedented things going on, as I described last week. There are mainly two groups of people who know what is in the rest of those 250,000 cables that WikiLeaks has not yet released — the Obama administration, and the WikiLeaks crew. (So do a bunch of Bushistas.)
Has everyone heard that Anna Ardin moved to the West Bank? I got this news a bit late. It was reported by the Australian website Crikey on Thursday and republished in The Huffington Post. She was the older of the two women who claimed that something inappropriate happened between her and Assange. She has stopped cooperating with prosecutors and has headed to do missionary work in the Holy Land. That sounds like a true calling.
According to Crikey, in a recent tweet she said, “CIA agent, rabid feminist / Muslim lover, a Christian fundamentalist, frigid & fatally in love with a man, can you be all that at the same time…” Yes, this woman sounds like she knows exactly what she wants out of life. Wait — she’s admitting to being a CIA agent? She seems to be kidding, but she makes a convincing case — and disappearing to a remote corner of the world when she’s become a star in this global crisis only emphasizes the point.
That leaves the stalker/groupie in the pink jump suit. Oops, that would be jumper, a sweater in England — my fantasies were running away with me. Is she a CIA agent too? She was recently seen in a police station collaborating with one.
I just read that Assange’s first extradition hearing is scheduled for Wednesday — right in the wake of this planetary alignment. You can be sure that there will be some interesting negotiations going on during the next 48 hours.
The Swedish sex case (such as it was) is unraveling, and the Brits and Yanks are going to be falling all over one another to figure out a way to keep Assange in jail. So far, no charges have been filed by Sweden for the alleged sexual misconduct, and no charges have been filed by the United States relating to the leaked documents. The Espionage Act was considered, but apparently that didn’t work when the US government tried to prosecute Daniel Ellsberg for releasing the Pentagon Papers. Instead, Nixon went after The New York Times — and that, too, failed; the Supreme Court would have no part of banning the newspaper’s coverage of the secret Vietnam War file that Ellsberg released. Besides all of which, Assange is a direct collaborator with the news entities of the world — not the leaker with security clearance as was Ellsberg.
So, back to the astrology. Let’s look at some minor planets. Here is what’s called a 90-degree sort, looking only at the early cardinal signs. That’s another way of saying this is a list of planets and points that make conjunctions, squares or oppositions to the triple conjunction of Mercury, Mars and Pluto. A few stand out.
One is Hermes, an asteroid — that is right in the conjunction with Mercury, Mars and Pluto. The Sabian symbol for this degree is: “Indians on the warpath, while some men row a well-filled canoe, others perform a war dance.”
Hermes tossed into the mix adds a touch of the miraculous. He is a rather meaningful figure in the history of astrology and other forms of magick, alchemy and science. (In the ancient astrological literature being translated by Project Hindsight, he is referred to as one of the ‘founders’).
Across the dial in Cancer is Cyllarus. This is a centaur (Chiron-like body) that is exactly opposite the triple (quad, if you count Hermes) conjunction. One key phrase for Cyllarus is ‘out of the blue’. That is conjunct Kronos, a very slow-moving point (not a planet) that involves authority. This is not a day to cuss out a cop or to get pissed off at an IRS operator. It may however be a good day for an extradition hearing, in case you have one of those coming up.
Asteroid Amor is square the arrangement in Aries; that can represent “the conditions on unconditional love,” in the words of Martha Wescott, and this is conjunct Pelion — a centaur planet named for a mountain in Greece — but not just any old mountain. We are climbing the mountain of unconditional love. But it’s perilous, dark and shadowy. According to Ovid, Pelion is a remnant of the original creation of the world. It is prominent in the charts of Marilyn Monroe and Hitler, seeming to have a flare for drama and revenge.
Ophelia, an asteroid, is in Libra, also square the big conjunction; she is a character from Hamlet, the one who is ‘incapable of her own distress’, a reference to her being dead. With all this Mercury-Pluto going on, let’s give a big cancel-clear on that kind of message.
So what’s this all about? I don’t know really, but I know that we’re likely to see the story of the ‘man from Mars’ advance this week, one way or another. We have an extremely angry, nervous political establishment in Washington, and we have a lot of banks on the brink of making a large investment in canned sardines seem sensible.
We also have a lot to learn — about knowledge, gaining knowledge and what to do with it once we have it. Mercury conjunct Hermes certainly emphasizes that point.
So, let’s keep an eye on this one. Pay attention to what you say, what you write and what you hear, and for sure, don’t text, or for that matter sext, while you’re driving. Especially in Buffalo.
Yours & truly,
Pattissima… Hey, doll! it’s not *November* – where most of my really heavy training takes place.
But yeah. This weekend was slammed. And then there is the Saturn return about 3 years up the road. I have to tell you, I am *kissing up* to the Ringed One during his sojourn through my 10th house.
If I can find a few minutes tonight, I’ll write offlist.
Life to Smoochie!
M
Mystes is that why i was meditating about you this weekend? You have been weighing on me.
Take care of yourself, but not just tonight. This is about the coming years.
Womanda,
Here’s the secret: meditation doesn’t happen in ‘time.’ Forget about carving, finding, assigning or otherwise locating your space to sit. Just drop and gimme 40, as it were. The count (and count-er) usually evaporates at “2”.
This is the one true thing about the onslaught I am currently living. Grace doesn’t happen in time, nor does meditation, and I suspect love may not either. They are all intimately related to death, which is the definitive outtatime.
All out of Empty, babe…
M
mystes — thanks for the metaphor(s)! this conjunction is happening in very intersting aspect to my various aries point planets, yet i haven’t quite gotten a “plugged in” feeling yet. guess i’ll just keep in motion and try to carve out some time for a little meditation.
Dianae reminded me to check where this conjunction was occurring in my own chart (as well as my kiddo’s). 1st (or solar 7th). . . Yippee.
Yesterday I was starting to feel the Mars/Pluto burn, like rocket thrusters kicked on for a slow descent. I was going for the splash-down. All kinds of noise was emanating from that life sector that bitches about what *hasn’t* happened in the last ummm 3, no wait, 5… hang on… how about 12 years? Well, let’s make it a nice, round 15.
Instead of setting fire to my email account or leaving any (more) nasty voicemails, I sat down to meditate. Exactly ONE mantra in, the Ladies flanked me and rolled out another view entirely. Suddenly I could see that all of the pissing and moaning was nothing more than spiritual physics – the deceleration of a whole karmic pattern as it got ready to drop away. I felt no guilt or superiority – just clear-eyed recognition that thus is the noise of the lifework shifting frame and velocity.
But. I have other friends who are drinking or fracking their way through this conjunction. This is a mighty mighty pressure drop, my friends – but don’t be afraid of the sonic hedgehogs going boom. All of the needles will land on the right points.
Enough metaphors from me. Back to the moonmines.
M(state)
“The Misplaced US Determination To Indict Assange
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/
On truth, these days…
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/truth-lies-here/8246/
…and the times, they ARE a changin’!
Perhaps over quoted, though I have always taken guidance from the reminder that the wheel is still in spin.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
I don’t suppose “they” much care if the rape charges unravel – those charges were intended to last long enough to get Assange into bail-less custody and until “they” can figure out how to proceed to dis-credit him, thusly shutting him up.
And where is the real wizard behind the Madoff scam and now the Madoff murder?
The over-salted soup is thickening.
This nonsense, albeit it quite troubling on one level, is exactly where we have been wanting to head for a very long time, but are we ready and are we prepared to rise to the challenge? This twisting the truth around with impunity will no doubt be vigourously challenged by the Assange legal team, lead by Geoffrey Robertson Q.C. Eric, you say in one of your posts here that the DOS’s pathetic scrambling to redefine laws of freedom and expression are “hilarious.” When I read that I heard a play on the word hilarious which sounds a lot like “cyllarus”, one of the centaurs mentioned above! Upon referencing your article in your Small World Stories on cyllarus, I came across a lyric from Dylan that seems appropriate here:
“A man should not be where a man does not belong.”
Julian Assange is currently being held in jail with suspicious charges and labelled with all sorts of misleading terms except the right one of course, that of scientific journalist. Ironic isn’t it, that he had hoped to establish WL in Sweden because of their laws regarding freedom of expression yet that it is the very same country which has now maneuvered events to have him placed in a prison cell, while your government attempts to figure out how to proceed dismantling his influence.
(BTW according to the Daily Mail in England, the rape charges may be unravelling: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337862/WikiLeaks-rape-victims-hidden-agendas—Ive-seen-proof-says-Assange-lawyer.html)
I suspect the PTB won’t be displaying any courage or creativity in how they counter WL because they predominantly operate from narrow minded positions of fear and suspicion. I’m very grateful that the current planetary alignment of Mercury and Pluto are channeling their vibrant energies through you Eric. You’re an original “scientific journalist” without doubt and by dropping into PlanetWaves while all this is going on, you make PW a vital place to drop into these days.
“Freedom of the Pest” indeed……;-)
Looking at that loaded Capricorn House feels like looking into my 6th house where I have a lot going on there. What it means to me is having information about how and why I was ousted from my job of almost 7 years and how much I should tell to who and moreso how much will be understood by those who want to know but are outside the realm of my work so would not “get it”. A kind of you-had-to-be-there scenario. These conjunctions seem to be wringing into a new shape to fit into a new world. The health aspect of this is my body literally speaking to me with aches and pains screaming at me to make changes in how I treat it.
That’s what I’m hearing anyways.
It seems to boil down to “the truth must be heard”.
Glad this aspect has surfaced here at PW. Troubling and hilarious both at the same time, seems to be the nature of this.
Just to add to the free speech/1st Amendment stew, I have noticed a number of instances of chilling, first being the US military forbidding the use of digital recording devices among its members (jaw dropped at that one, it did, like, no iPods, no CD players, etc etc??) Then, NOAA forbade its employees to discuss WikiLeaks (I forget the details of this one, it swam by last week sometime.) Also, Columbia University students were warned by some employee of the State Dept not to discuss WikiLeaks as it would affect their future job potential, not to post about it on Facebook etc. Which apparently they promptly did, post about it. And that report went on to say that State would not acknowledged the communication or stand by it ……. Then yesterday a friend on another forum where we were talking about all this let us know her employer had sent around an “Ominous Email” that any “views” of Wikileaks material had to be immediately reported to management (like, if they happened to see any contents, they had to ‘fess up.)
gee…….
Yeah, I know … the argument is beyond weak — but so was the argument for torture. Just sayin’ — troubling.
Oh fuck, this is hilarious —
— ROFL
Yes, let’s see that spun into a legal motion. DOJ has it backwards. Either: Assange is practicing political/protest speech, therefore he’s protected; or he is part of an establishment of the press and therefore he’s protected.
If wearing a jacket that says “fuck the draft” in court is protected speech according to the Supreme Court, then so is WikiLeaks — assuming that he didn’t violate the Espionage Act, which only applies to members of the government and not to leakers or journalists.
The 1st Amendment says:
Note, the 1st Amendment does not protect journalists; it protects the freedom of speech and of the press.
Here is some fuck the draft history for you:
http://www.psychsound.com/2009/06/
PS, Back in the ancient 1990s, Dr. D. Bruce Johnstone, then the chancellor of the State University of New York — the whole place, all 64 campuses — once personally declared me “not a journalist” because I was doing investigative reporting on the toxic dorms. To wit: “I really don’t even consider Eric a journalist. He has no interest in the truth.” The chancellor actually said this in person to the editorial board of the Times Herald-Record, a local daily paper at the time owned by Dow Jones & Co. I consider this my honorary Ph.D. in journalism.
They replied with an editorial titled, “Freedom of the Pest.”
Fun times.
That’s the best they can do?
Okay! Time for a constitutional law quiz!
Why does that argument fall flat on its face?
Here is a parallel — it’s like saying that because you are speaking about religion, you’re not protected by the 1st Amendment. Therefore they may as well go and censor The Watchtower.
In fact, the 1st Amendment protects journalism, political speech and religious practice, in one gesture. It’s all put on the same level. Is he an “establishment of the press” or is he “petitioning the government for the redress of grievances”?
There are no content-based restrictions implied by the 1st Amendment, except to make sure that the press, religion and politics are on the same level — and free from government restraint.
Also, it’s absurd on its face — all media in some way has a political interest. He certainly does not qualify as being a “partisan” of any political party; and if what they are saying about him is true, then it would apply to Fox, the NY Times and Rachel Maddow equally.
This is deeply troubling:
Having ‘political objective’ disqualifies Assange ‘from being considered a journalist,’ State Dept. says
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/state-dept-political-objective-disqualifies-reporter-from-considered-journalist/
st.brigit and eric’s posts re Sweden resonate. After reading many of the comments posted after the Wikirebels video it is frightening to see how many angry voices there are directed at our country and it’s allies.
Really. When is Stockholm in the news? Now suddenly they are ALL over the news…and then there is terrorism…in Stockholm? I agree this is too close to JA and WL to be a coincidence. We could also be getting a lesson in Swedish-US relationships. What are they doing in Afghanistan?
kirsti — thanks so much for the scandinavian insight!
i wish i could track down the original tweet. one of the crikey commenters i quoted says there was a “???” in the tweet, possibly implying ardin is expressing incredulity at the idea of trying to go after such big companies — that it’s ridiculous.
nothing like a little ambiguity to make things interesting….
Eric :
The explosions in Sweden…Gut-feeling says that they have more to do with Assange than with the `official story`.
Also, the (apparent) suicide of Mark Madoff on Saturday…occurred close enough to the Pluto-Mars-Mercury conj…..A dark, violent message …but to whom?…from whom ?
Sabian Symbols by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones (the earlier rendition, later reworked by Rudhyar)
Capricorn 5: Indians rowing a canoe and dancing a war dance
…his is a symbol of the irresistible impulse to action inherent in the very fact of conscious being, and of the powers of accomplishment brought to their personal focus as some patter of motives takes form on the subjective side of things. Implicit in the symbolism is the ever-primitive nature of life aat roote, and the necessity that thoroughly practical and immediate considerations prevail whenever the inner or ideal ordering proves inadequate. The keyword is MOBILIZATION. When positive, the degree is a capacity for aggressive leadership and an unusual effectiveness in sidetracking minor issues for the sake of major achievement, and when negative, unnecessary moods and tantrums.
in fact, I have always viewed Cancer 5 as a degree symbol of sacrifice rather than one of foolish behavior but I guess it depends upon perspective. The man in the automobile is killed by the train – but he in fact stopped a runaway train. The upcoming eclipse in gemini is for a man waiting to fly a new flag, to take down the old flag and run a new flag up the mast. Whew. Big changes coming.
I have uranus at Cancer 5, and the degree use to worry me until I realized what it meant.
The sabian symbols are always so telling. How does this relate to the eclipse of cancer at 5 degrees last year? The symbol was for the automobile causing a trainwreck. we may be witnessing the end of an era.
Very unrelated, but at 7:50pm this evening, 12th Dec in Western Australia, I was out the front watering the garden. Sun had just set, still a slight orange glow on the horizon. I look up at the moon & Jupiter, who was especially bright. The brightness intensified, then Jupiter became 2. This 2nd Jupiter moved east across the sky, intensifying till it was as large as a street light. It then changed course & headed out. I mean out, or up. But most certainly away from the Earth till it was a pin prick of light, & then it was gone. A second light, much smaller & a tangerine colour followed the same course. They both appeared to move about the same rate as a low flying plane. The local airport is only a few km south from where I live, yet I was facing north. These lights did not flash, nor faulter. A very unusual sight.
oops………got that degree wrong…..
PHASE 275 (CAPRICORN 5°): INDIANS ON THE WARPATH, WHILE SOME MEN ROW A WELL-FILLED CANOE, OTHERS IN IT PERFORM A WAR DANCE.
KEYNOTE: The mobilization of physical and emotional energies in a spirit of conquest.
War is often undertaken mainly to mobilize the common will and avoid individualistic disintegration. The “Indian chief” in the symbol for Capricorn 1° may find it convenient or necessary to arouse the war spirit — perhaps under a very slight provocation — in order to more firmly establish his authority. The scene presents an extremely dynamic situation. The group (or the nation) affirms its solidarity and unity of purpose by taking the offensive. The group-life demands constant activity and challenges in order to remain healthy.
This is the last symbol of the fifty-fifth sequence. It suggests that AGGRESSIVENESS may be a necessary ingredient in the activation of the potential of growth inherent in any social group.
AND the political is personal…………….an important point for me!
Eric…simplified Sabian Symbol…
5-6o capricorn – Ten Logs lie under an archway leading to Darker Woods
6-7o capricorn – A Veiled Prophet Speaks, seized by the Power of God.
http://www.cafeastrology.com/sabiansymbols_degreemeanings.html
Not Dane Rudhyar, or Lynda Hill. but for quick reference……………
OR
http://mindfire.ca/The%20Sabian%20Symbols/An%20Astrological%20Mandala%20-%20Capricorn%201-15.htm
SECOND LEVEL: EMOTIONAL/CULTURAL
PHASE 276 (CAPRICORN 6°): TEN LOGS LIE UNDER AN ARCHWAY LEADING TO DARKER WOODS.
KEYNOTE: The need to complete any undertaking before seeking entrance to whatever is to be found beyond.
Number 10 is a symbol of completion; it symbolizes even more the revelation of a new series of activities just ahead. Yet unless the concluded series is brought to some degree of fulfillment, nothing truly significant is likely to be accomplished by a restless reaching out toward the as-yet-unknown. Number 10 is a symbol of germination, but the seed (Number 9) must have matured well. No natural process can be accelerated safely beyond certain limits.
This represents the first stage in the fifty-sixth five-fold sequence. It establishes a foundation for what will follow. Here man reaches a THRESHOLD in which he may have to pause in order to safeguard his further advance.
PHASE 277 (CAPRICORN 7°): A VEILED PROPHET SPEAKS, SEIZED BY THE POWER OF A GOD.
KEYNOTE: The ability to act as a mouthpiece for the revelation of a transcendent will and truth determining future action.
Here we witness the deepest manifestation of that Power which operates within all relatively permanent social units, especially at the level of tribal organization. A tribe is a bio-psychic whole (or organism) integrated by a collective superphysical Power, the god of the tribe. In the Hebrew tradition this god is YHWH (Yahweh-Jehovah); in earlier tribes it may have been a deified more or less mythical “Great Ancestor.” All these tribal gods are local manifestations of the very power of “Life” within the earth’s biosphere. It is this deified Power which psychically “seized” especially sensitive or religiously trained men or women, who became Its mouthpiece — prophets, seers, oracles. That Power operates in our days as well, but in different ways because of the individualization and intellectualization of modern man’s consciousness. It binds together and helps to maintain the integration of organized social collectivities. It guides their development by releasing and focusing through especially open persons the visionary expectation of developments about to occur.
At this second stage of the fifty-sixth sub-cycle the future interacts with the present to release it from the inertial power of the past. Thus this symbol stands in contrast to the preceding one. At the threshold of tomorrow man is allowed to have a vision or revelation of the essential elements of the as-yet-unknown next step in evolution. The key word is MEDIATORSHIP.
I need to buy a book…..whose, do you recommend?
“Mastercard, Visa och paypal — skärp er, nu!”
My swedish is poor, but I don’t think that is an expression of support. The verb is “skärpa” which means “sharpen, make sharp, exacerbate.” “Skärp” is the imperative. I think she is advising Mastercard, Visa and Paypal to be tough now.
— in Finland
05 Capricorn is also the same degree as the lunar eclipse/full moon of June 26 (04 degree /47 minutes) when the moon was conjunct Pluto–more conundrums of deep collective mystery–so there may be references to that time as well.
“Across the dial in Capricorn is Cyllarus.” Edit, please? Cyllarus is at 4 Cancer.
It’s a little confusing trying to follow complex thought processes backwards and in heels, thanks!
Explosions in Stockholm?
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/12/11/bpr.stockholm.blasts.cnn?hpt=T1
5 Capricorn – the degree of the triple conjunction – sabian
Indians On The Warpath. While Some Men Row A Well-Filled Canoe, Others In It Perform A War Dance
also, pretty sure wilen was in a pink jumper — i.e. british for sweater — not a jumpsuit.
the comments on crikey expand/correct the translation for that tweet:
1.
Doublechecked with a Swedish speaker, and they said “it depends on who has written it…. if someone wants it down.. it means like “all, getfocus now” or if someone dont want the servers to go down… its more a “*sigh* grow up” … but I think because of the “???”, it means… why are you atacking theese, comeon and grow up….but normally “skärp er nu” means “get focused, now” or like “we arn´t doing it good enough, so come on now”.
2.
My Swedish boss says that tweet says something more like ‘get real’ (as in, don’t be so silly)
3.
The translation of those tweets:
” mastercard, visa och paypal – skärp er för satan!”
“mastercard, visa och paypal – skärp er, nu!”
would be something like
“mastercard, visa and paypal – shape up, now!”
with the first one adding “… for fcks sake”
******
apparently Ardin tweeted the first version then amended it, but that particular reader caught the original version. looks like idiomatic swedish is a little tricky to pin down in translation.