By Len Wallick

And I’ll tell and think it and and speak it and breathe it.
-Bob Dylan

The Gemini Sun squares Chiron later today. It fits. The latest prediction of a rapture has not manifested. It has since been re-scheduled from the first day of Gemini to the first day of Scorpio. We don’t have Osama bin Laden to kick around anymore. Pro football is on hold and The Donald is down for the count. The course of events has cleared away some distractions. Fewer distractions mean more time for action. In the context of this astrology that’s an opportunity get in touch with and unlock some discrepancies between how you think and how you feel.

Action is what a square is about. It is nothing to be afraid of. Graphically, it is at least two objects at a right angle to each other. Besides that, there are three things to remember about the aspect. First, the signs involved have their quality in common — that is, cardinal, fixed or mutable. We cycle through each quality in a season, which means that to act is to be in harmony with that process.

In addition, a square implies tension. Not between you and somebody else, rather on the inside. That is good news. The source is under your control. In this case, the interior tension is usually felt as stress. The key is to act. The hard part is that the action must be directed and not projected. That requires being self-aware as opposed to self-involved. It takes some practice.

Finally, on top of placing you in accord with the cosmos and relieving the physical manifestations of emotional strain, a square properly addressed will promote growth. You end up stronger, wiser, and with improved aptitude for acting on the next challenge. What a wonderful thing to get relief and get better in one swell foop. The important thing is to act consciously.

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Today’s Oracle takes us to the Virgo weekly of July 2, 2004

People who make a habit of control dramas are unlikely to be on a quest for fun, unless of course it is at someone’s expense. There is a continuum that has pleasure at one end and power at the other. The more someone skews their reality toward keeping a tight grip on reality, the less they are capable of letting go of their inhibitions and relaxing. I suggest you beware of these tendencies, within and without. That certain people may have had a difficult childhood is no excuse for them to act like children.

Are you looking for an extra clue? That’s what astrology is for. New horoscopes are published weekly plus twice a month in Planet Waves subscriber edition and Planet Waves Light. And for your annual reading, check out Light Bridge.

Sun in Miami, 2010. Photo by Eric.

Today is May 26. The Sun is square Chiron, from Gemini to Pisces. This is the perfect astrology for sex scandal-du-jour, blamed on men. Sun-Chiron contacts are about the sense of the wounded male, inner male or father. Many of us grew up around men like this, men who could not or would not fully express themselves; how could they, given their situations? And the ones who did were often blamed for abandoning us. Don’t worry — you won’t be attacked by the nearest feminist if you describe the no-win situation many men get painted into, or allow themselves to be painted into.

Fe Bongolan writes, “The Sun’s ingress into the early degrees of Gemini these last three days finds many of us beginning new directions by distances ranging from small increments to leaps of faith. On these journeys — a form of creative ‘walkabout’ — we’ve begun exploring what we’re capable of, what tools we’ve got to get there, and how far we’re brave enough to go. With the Gemini Sun squaring Chiron in Pisces, those journeys are deepened. Chiron is associated with a wound, ancient or recent. Often, that ‘wound’ is felt as a limitation and a heightened awareness, a creak in your knee that prevents you from dancing full out, a sense of weakness that makes you feel vulnerable, or an old fear that you may never succeed in what you dream, do or say. But today’s Sun square has the help of an exact sextile to Uranus, the Awakener — also known as Prometheus.” Let’s come back to Uranus/Prometheus in a moment.

The thing about Chiron-styled injuries is that they awaken potential. The seeming limitation, or the pain, or the struggle, brings something out that might not have come out otherwise. We know this about life, and often wish it were some other way (and it can be); but then it is possible to find your way to a sense of gratitude for what shapes and informs you so deeply. Prometheus was the guy who was chained to the rock as punishment for stealing ‘the fire of the gods’ (however you interpret that) and bringing it to mankind. A bird would eat his liver every night, and every day it would grow back — day after day. In transcending his own injury, Chiron also freed Prometheus from that horrendous situation. Chiron and Prometheus are bound by karma, and they are linked up today because both are taking aspects from the Sun. Today’s aspects seem to say: remember, there is a way to freedom.

If you missed my podcast yesterday, here it is. The theme is Gemini; the title is, “Looking for Ourselves Everywhere.”

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This is from the Aussie site Crikey, published yesterday. Seems like there is a new wave of information coming out about the Fukushima disaster, which TEPCO just confirmed involved three meltdowns (in units 1, 2 and 3) and then there was Unit 4 which kept bursting into flames because the water leaked out of the spent fuel pond.

Today in news reports we have another carefully metered dose of the truth seeping out from the corrupt, incompetent and totally dishonest Tokyo Electric Power Company, that apart from conceding that a meltdown occurred in the Number 1 reactor there ‘appeared to have been partial meltdowns in reactors Number 2 and Number 3′, and that the pressure vessels in one or more of the reactors ‘appear’ to have been damaged . (Evaporation related radioactive waste releases from spent fuel ponds cleverly built above the core of the reactors was also conceded to have occurred in the Number 4 reactor.)

Here is the rest of the article by Ben Sandlands.

We also heard today that the US government is hording iodine, and that it’s not available to pharmacies.

By Fe Bongolan

As former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn awaits trial for his alleged assault and rape of a Sofitel Hotel maid, the information and evidence bubbling to the surface becomes more compelling a conundrum. This conundrum almost makes you imagine the possibility of conspiracy: a set-up discrediting the man holding the strings and on the brink of a turning point. That includes two ‘smoking guns’ familiar to Americans: a semen-stained dress, and the potential for the entire European Union’s economic collapse from debt default by Greece — a situation quite similar in seriousness to the US sub-prime lending crisis leading to our economic meltdown of 2008.

Having the wisdom of hindsight from two recent sex scandals that rocked the US — those of President Bill Clinton and former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer – it’s easy to see one way how Strauss-Kahn’s defense team could play his case out in the US courts. Both men in positions of power were taken down by their indiscretions and their respective downfalls used to set up political and economic crime. A conspiracy theory with this type of historical backdrop for Strauss-Kahn’s defense may be plausible enough to provide shadow of a doubt for an American jury, particularly in New York. But before we delve into further speculation on this story, we need to dig deeper and focus on what the IMF, Strauss-Kahn’s former place of employment, does and what was about to happen prior to his arrest on May 15.

Near the end of World War II, the IMF was formed to act as global lender to struggling nations working to recover after that war’s devastation, and by its tradition has been headed by a European ever since. In order to qualify for a loan from the IMF, a country needs to become a contributing member, paying in to a “membership fund” contributing a fair percentage of its gross national income to be used by fellow member nations in need. Memberships are “weighted” based on the amount of a country’s annual contribution using the American dollar as benchmark. The more money you have, the more weight and power you carry.

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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

It seems that, in spite of its appearance in an earlier article (Symbolic Alchemy — A view of The Lovers and Art), Temperance has been tapping me lightly on the shoulder for a few weeks, each time I come to choose a card to study in the major arcana. So I shall ignore it no longer. It feels fitting that today it has its own stage, and with slightly different lighting which should throw up a few more angles.

Temperance, the 14th card in the major arcana, from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. Click on the image for a larger version.

Both of the cards here — from the Rider-Waite Smith and Xultun Tarot decks, respectively — express the idea of Temperance quite similarly, their different styles notwithstanding. Both of them give me a sense of gentle calmness, of focus and forbearance. I find them very peaceful to look at. Here, between the endings of Death and before the onslaught of energy from The Devil, lies the middle path.

Let’s look at each card and see if we can get a better idea of just what it is to tread this middle path.

Temperance – Rider-Waite Smith

An angel stands in the foreground, clothed in white, its wings outstretched, their tips disappearing off either side of the card. In contrast to the robe, the wings are a deep, blood red. There is a skin-coloured triangle over the angel’s heart, which I take to be a hole rather than appliquéd material, which would make sense: the heart of the angel takes on the form of flesh. Both wings and triangle demonstrate the melding of spirit and matter, held, images of physicality that they are, in the form of a creature that is otherwise viewed as heavenly.

A golden disc with a single dot sits above the angel’s face, as yellow as its hair, and its head radiates light, mirroring the Sun that sits above a distant blue mountain range. In each hand it holds a cup, one slightly raised, linked by a ribbon of water. One of its feet rests lightly on a green bank; the other is submerged in the water, which is clear and calm. To its left grow two yellow flowers — perhaps irises — which reflect the formation of the cups. All of these images to me convey the same idea in different ways: body and soul; the visceral and the transcendent; below and above. And here there is a smooth, continuous, balanced flow between each, denoted by the double stream of water that passes from cup to cup.

The angel is focussed on its hands, but its expression is of calm contemplation rather than frowning concentration. This is meditation rather than manipulation. It is a process of allowing, while holding the balance between the earth and the heavens. The term “state of grace” comes to me here, where “grace” refers to the expression of a form of beingness: one has to be necessarily graceful in order to walk that middle line without faltering or wobbling, resisting the urge to dance off one way or the other.

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Today’s Oracle takes us to the Libra monthly of Sept. 16, 2008

One of my readers is fond of reminding me that we are all many people stuffed inside of one meat puppet. Now it’s your turn to make an appearance in the Neighborhood of Make Believe. Don’t worry if you have no clue who you are, based on the diversity of either ideas you identify with, or things (including perhaps people) that you want. If your imagination is raging hot in all weird directions, get to know the inner entities that inhabit you. Note that they want different things, sometimes different things than you want. They have values you don’t necessarily agree with, and their thinking may tend in different directions than yours. Yet beneath all these different sub-personalities is an entity who is you. You can find this creature deep in your solitary space. Most of the time she functions as the observer, the one bearing witness to your many choices. Now let her bear witness to you.

Are you looking for an extra clue? That’s what astrology is for. New horoscopes are published weekly plus twice a month in Planet Waves subscriber edition and Planet Waves Light. And for your annual reading, check out Light Bridge.

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Today’s edition of Planet Waves FM includes a discussion of “the end of the world,” the most interesting explanation of Gemini you’ve ever heard, a long rant about advertising and a 70th-birthday shout out to Bob Dylan. Bob, you have something rare: you’re one of the most fantastic artists and chroniclers of your decades — and we all know. The first song break happens at about 29 minutes, with talent provided by Dave Harnetty. Right after that music break is potentially a good time to pause the action if you need to. The gray tab above will take you to the podcast in the new player, and here it is in the old player.

The Coxing in High Falls, New York. Photo by Eric.

Today is May 25. There are more than two kinds of dualism, but today with the Moon in Pisces and the Sun in Gemini, we have both of them expressed at the same time. I describe dualism in today’s podcast as looking for yourself everywhere. Sure, it’s about relating to others, divisions between others, night and day, black and white, body and soul and many other things we sort of take for granted, but really one of the most obvious forms of dualism is The Search.

Gemini — home of the Sun these days — presents us with a kind of black and white dualism. There are two twins in Gemini. They each represent something distinct, but seemingly separate. That much is obvious. There are two fish in Pisces, but they are connected; they are part of the same process. Their energy feeds one another. There is unity represented, rather than division or separation. Of course, Pisces comes at the end of the cycle and Gemini toward the beginning; there have been 12 stops on the journey before we get to Pisces. And by the time we get there, the journey has built up a lot of emotional sensitivity, which bubbles to the surface — especially when the Moon is hanging around.

Of today’s aspects, Amanda writes, “Meanwhile, back at the Pisces underwater ranch, the Moon will, in its travels, make a conjunction to the dwarf planet Ceres. Named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres does in fact have to do with food issues and Mother Earth. Building on yesterday’s theme in this space, this may be the perfect day to dream a little deeper about that idea for an aquaculture business you’ve been joking about for months. More likely, however, is that the Moon’s proximity to Ceres will bring up some veiled emotions you carry surrounding food and/or your mother”; in particular, mother-daughter relationships, which are related because she probably fed you quite a few times. “Cook your way through those feelings, paint your way through them or fuck your way through them — just remember to keep moving forward along with the Moon.”