By Len Wallick

I dwell in Possibility – A fairer House than Prose”
– Emily Dickinson

Things may be looking or feeling a bit weird about now. Over the last few days, some of us may have experienced or witnessed something that just does not add up. Now that Jupiter is in Aries and Saturn is retrograde, some elements of perspective have most probably synchronized in a shift of background, direction or both. The objective of today’s astrology is to be of service in maintaining or recovering at least some degree of orientation.

Our purpose is not only to endure but also to make the most of current and impending transitions. In the process we will catch up with two of the personal planets (Mercury and Venus) as well as some of the minor ones. For some time now, Jupiter and Saturn have played a very important role in the astrology, extending their influence by occupation or deposition. That means two things. First, the signs they have each occupied for months on end are in places where they were well and powerfully positioned to assert their respective character. These two planets have been in their element. In addition, the signs ruled by both planets have been in the places where many other bodies have been congregating and collecting. Thus, both the expression and interpretation of those other objects has been through the filter or lens of the trans-personal pair.

In synchrony, the complementary energies represented by Saturn and Jupiter have been prominent in the personal and political aspects of our lives. In the case of Jupiter, it may be principles and practices of expansion. For Saturn it could have been the contrasting, complementary concept of limits and boundaries. The result has been a balanced dynamic of exchange and interchange, giving things a certain shape or trajectory.

Now it may seem as though the wheels have come off — that things have veered suddenly and unexpectedly off course. Please do not yield to the temptation to cave in, but be encouraged to feel pressure as something to press back against. There does seem a bit of method to what may appear to be madness. Think of it as a remodeling project. This part will pass and there will be a new decor for us to live in. The key is to keep working and participate in the shape of things to come. After all the things that all of us went through together during the cardinal T-square last year, it is not as though we should be surprised or unprepared.

As indicated earlier this week, a lot of this has to do with relationships. Specifically, there are the emotions we each bring to our participation. The involvement of the trans-personal planets, Jupiter and Saturn is a clue. We may want to examine where some of those feelings come from. Are they the result of our own personal experience in our own, current lifetime? Is it instead possible that we may have picked up some of our emotional responses in another way? Are they learned, conditioned, emulated, are they really ours? It’s no easy task to trace back to the origin of what we so closely identify with, but it may be worth our while to try.

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Today’s Oracle takes us to the Leo weekly of March 11, 2005

These days your life has been a torrent of passion if it’s been anything at all — not necessarily for anyone in particular mainly for existence itself. This is a moment so powerful you can create anything at all; you can create something from nothing or anything from anything else. You need just one thing which is faith in what you feel and faith in the people around you. Quite literally everything is negotiable as long as you presume and accept the reality of the goodwill of those closest to you. Face it: people want nothing more than to see you happy.

(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 Oracle takes us to the Libra daily of Nov. 28, 2005

You must be careful not to over-react to a situation that’s about to work itself out, and is indeed barely a factor. If you do, you’ll only create a disturbance for yourself where none is necessary. The most helpful thing you can do for now is to sort out the past from the present. If you can do this consciously, you’ll see that far more is resolved than you may have imagined, though what’s not quite settled is how you feel about all of it. Events today may stir up your doubts, but they can pass as quickly as they as they surface.

(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: 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

This week, we are taking a trip into the realm of the subjective: the use of ritual when it comes to tarot. By “ritual” I mean the way that tarot readers might approach a reading, the ceremony they attach to it, the paraphernalia they use with it.

Ace of Swords from the Camoin-Jodorowsky Tarot, a restored version of the Marseille Tarot.

Ask a group of tarot readers about their own particular rituals, and you will get as many different responses as there are participants in the discussion. Some have reading cloths, others use a favourite table, while others still are happy to lay them down on any relatively flat surface. Some keep their cards in the original cardboard box, while others carry them around in a purpose-designed bag or container. Some let others touch their cards; some view their cards as being completely off-limits to anyone else.

Ask tarot readers what their rituals are, therefore, and you will tend to get responses akin to those above. Ask us why we use ritual, and the discussion tends to ramp up a few notches. Or maybe it’s my reaction that ramps up a few notches, because I’ve found that at the basis of every ritual lies a question that smoulders away, refusing to go out:

What is it all for? Or, more specifically: Is ritual even necessary?

I ask this not because I have an answer waiting in the wings. I ask it as someone who sits in two camps when it comes to the subject of ritual in tarot. I have a purple cloth embroidered with a silver “om” sign; I keep my cards in a velvet drawstring bag decorated with an image of The High Priestess from the Rider-Waite Smith tarot deck; I tend to shuffle the cards and cut them in a certain way; I am mindful of introducing the subject of the reading with due reverence. And yet I believe that all of this is primarily for my own benefit, and no-one else’s. I don’t believe that the message will be any less accurate without them. Oh, the dichotomy!

Which is why, today, I’m inviting you to take part by putting forward your ideas and reactions about ritual in the comments section. To get the ball rolling, here are the two camps that I am referring to — the two seemingly opposed ideas that, together, start to get those questions smouldering in the recesses of my mind.

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As mentioned in the audio: How to Cross an Ocean, How to Light a Fire

Good morning,

I’ve got a bit of audio for you; this is a pretty straightforward astrology report, not veering too far into political missive.

Your audio covers Uranus and Pluto doing their thing, Jupiter changing signs the other day, and a few more bobs. Here’s your record in the old player, and the gray button below is the new one.

I do have additional thoughts about last evening’s Obamaganza, Olbermann and Assange/Manning, though not fully formed.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Yours & truly,

Amanda sent me a photo of her Christmas tree that she just took down tonight, a reminder of the so-recent holidays.

Apparently anonymous Pentagon sources have told NBC news that they are failing to find any evidence of direct contact between Pvt. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange in its attempts to indict Assange for prosecution.

Manning is still in solitary confinement at the Marine base in Quantico, VA. According to Democracy Now!, “On Monday, the human rights group Amnesty International wrote the Pentagon to protest what it called Manning’s ‘inhumane’ treatment.” Manning was arrested last spring in connection to the “Collateral Murder” video released by WikiLeaks, which shows a US Army helicopter opening fire on civilians; those killed included two Reuters employees. Manning allegedly confessed to former hacker Adrian Lamo that he was responsible for leaking the video, who turned him in.

The treatment 23-year-old Manning is being subjected to includes being “held for 23 hours a day in a sparsely furnished solitary cell and deprived of a pillow, sheets, and personal possessions since July 2010,” according to the Amnesty International website. It continues,

Last Tuesday, Manning was placed on ‘suicide risk’, which resulted in him being stripped of his clothes apart from underwear, and the confiscation of his prescription glasses for most of the day, which Manning says left him in “essential blindness”.

Following protests from Manning and his lawyers, the ‘suicide risk’ restrictions were lifted on Thursday.

Manning is classed as a “maximum custody” detainee, despite having no history of violence or disciplinary offences in custody. This means he is shackled at the hands and legs during all visits and denied opportunities to work, which would allow him to leave his cell.

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Today the Scottish celebrate the birth of their national poet, Robert Burns. The holiday is traditionally celebrated with public readings of To a Haggis (a much tastier food that many imagine). Given Eric’s reverence for mice, I thought Burns’ famous mouse poem — from which we get the admonition about “the best laid plans of mice and men” — more appropriate. – amanda

To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough

Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!

Continued here, with Scottish definitions.

By Len Wallick

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
– Helen Keller

As we said yesterday, the first aspect the Moon made after entering Libra was to oppose Jupiter on the Aries point. Today, still in the same sign, Luna conjoins with Saturn in the same degree and at the same arc minute at which Saturn stations retrograde tomorrow. On the surface that tells us that the lesser luminary is traveling fast and the ringed one is moving really slow, which is true of both. On a different level, this information links the two trans-personal planets and their closely concurrent transitions. Our blog today explores that link and takes a closer look at Saturn’s station.

If we were to say one word about the Moon in astrology, a likely candidate would be ‘emotion’. Luna ebbs and flows from one aspect to another over the course of a day as do the feelings of all but a special few who are either severely disabled or substantially evolved. Even given that side effect of rapid apparent motion, yesterday and today have been exceptional with 37 lunar aspects to planets, major and minor. That’s more than one every hour and a half and that counts only the major aspects of conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition. That’s a lot of emotional to and fro and attests once again to the continuous potency in the cardinal signs during this year of transition between outer planets on the cardinal points.

Emotions, of course, are a factor in relationships of all kinds. Even business relationships, governed by contractual boundaries and legal regulation are subject to emotional investment even if final decisions are determined by an economic bottom line. Among the many touches the Moon had and will have yesterday and today, none seem more auspicious than those with Jupiter and Saturn. Both of them have something to tell us about transition in relationships right now.

The lunar opposition with Jupiter on the Aries point is a pointed reminder of the need to negotiate. Given what appears to be the beginning of an expansive trend of energetic and probably well-intentioned personal aspiration, relationships may suffer. It will probably be necessary to consciously balance that trend by being strong enough to proactively offer more inclusive, non-confrontational options. We say necessary because in the long run, one thing that will probably prove true about the cardinal sign continuum is the need to navigate the course through supportive and constructive relations with others.

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