By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

The East Coast has had its share of bumps and frights this week. West-coasters snickered a bit at the wide eyes and trembling voices of East Coast newscasters reporting on their surprising 5.8 earthquake and the dreaded possibility of “expected aftershocks.” Most people in that portion of the nation were not only unprepared for such occurrence, they were as startled as deer in the headlights.

And while any seismic activity under 6 on the Richter is barely worth a mention where I’m from, I heard an interesting discussion indicating that the shifting plates that produced this phenomenon are much larger than those associated with quakes on the other side of the Rockies. Evidently the size of the plate amplifies the amount of territory such a rattle affects. Originating in Mineral, VA, this particular tremor shook millions as far away as Ohio, Georgia and Canada.

Unprepared for the most powerful quake on the Eastern seaboard in 67 years, buildings there are particularly vulnerable due to age and construction. The Washington National Cathedral lost three of its four Gothic spires and an angel carved from Indiana limestone that shattered on the pavement far below the celebrated roof line. The cathedral is a national treasure and the site of our most important state funerals, but the Episcopal church is in serious financial decline and may not be able to afford repairs. Even more dramatic, the Washington Monument has been closed because of newly revealed fractures in the marble. Predictably, from his compound in Virginia Beach, Pat Robertson rushed to suggest that God’s wrath had a hand in the fracture of the iconic monument.

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Today’s Oracle takes us to the Taurus weekly of Nov. 6, 2009.

Someone you care about has something on his or her mind. It likely mirrors unresolved subject matter that you possess; many people in relationships have similar histories, though they don’t always know it. I suggest you listen carefully and do your best to find the common ground you share. I can describe the issue: it involves lacking the sense of approval by community or family for one’s ‘too much’ (that is, high energy) kind of nature. You could say it’s the fear of being scary, of being perceived as ‘too intense’ or ‘too deep’. Yet deep in those subtle or resounding fears is something you’re both trying to work out. It involves psychological social conditioning to be less than, or the message that we are inherently wrong; this in turn creates a disturbance, and that is up for working out now.

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.

A hundred years ago less than one in one hundred Americans were obese and coronary heart disease was unknown. Pneumonia, diarrhea and enteritis, and tuberculosis were the most common causes of death. Now, a century later, the two most common causes of death are coronary heart disease and cancer, which account for 75 percent of all deaths in this country. There were 500 cardiologists practicing in the U.S. in 1950. There are 30,000 of them now – a 60-fold increase for a population that has only doubled since 1950.

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Dawn from Book of Blue - New York, Photo by Eric.

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Sir Ian McKellen gives a master class…

Rush transcript available at Democracy Now! for those who prefer to read the interview with New York City public school teacher Brian Jones and Diane Ravitch, the former assistant secretary of education and counselor to Education Secretary Lamar Alexander under President George H. W. Bush, who has since this post dramatically changed her position on education policy. She is the author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Budget cuts are resulting in teacher layoffs and larger classes across the country. The drive toward more standardized testing is increasing despite a string of cheating scandals in New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and other cities. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also recently unveiled a controversial plan to use waivers to rewrite parts of the nation’s signature federal education law, No Child Left Behind.

Memories of another hurricane. This astonishing image -- one of my favorite news photos ever -- is from page one of The New York Times of Sept. 18, 1999; the presentation takes up most of the top half of the page and depicts a very flooded, burning Bound Brook, New Jersey, a glimpse of the apocalyptic damage caused in the New York area by Hurricane Floyd. This happened shortly after the grand cross and total solar eclipse of Aug. 11, 1999. I was among the evacuated -- and for the next eight years I traveled the world (with Planet Waves in tow) as a direct result. Now Hurricane Irene is heading up the East Coast, and we're expecting a lot of nonstop rain. Well, eventually it will stop, but even parts of New York City are being evacuated. Nobody seems especially concerned up in the hills north of the city.

Today is Friday, Aug. 26, 2011. Mercury, which has been retrograde since August 2, stations direct in Leo at 6:03 pm. The retrograde spanned from early Virgo back to mid-Leo. For the next couple of weeks we’re in what’s sometimes called the echo phase or shadow phase, as Mercury goes back over the degrees of the zodiac where it was just retrograde, and re-enters Virgo. This culminates with a Mercury-Chiron opposition on Sept. 10.

This was the Mercury retrograde that began with the United States coming right up to the brink of default, as the Treasury’s ability to borrow money ran out the very day of the station. Congress raised the debt ceiling just in the nick of time, but not before taking the world through a nauseating hostage situation. A few days later, the United States had its credit rating dropped by Standard & Poor’s, causing yet another wild ride on global stock markets.

Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, held a religious revival at Reliant Stadium in Houston, where he prayed for God to heal the economy, and declared his candidacy for the presidency. Many of his guest speakers believe that the world is ending, and that it’s their job to hasten the process along.

A Russian spacecraft blew up on its way to the International Space Station. Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple Computer. And a rare East Coast earthquake, centered in the district of everyone’s favorite congressman, Eric Cantor, shut down the cooling systems of the North Anna nuclear power station, which had to be shut down. The quake damaged the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral, and immobilized Amtrak up the eastern seaboard. Numerous nuclear power plants declared ‘unusual events’ but remained in operation. As the retrograde winds down, Hurricane Irene is headed up the East Coast.

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Today’s Oracle takes us to the Pisces weekly of Feb. 24, 2006.

Mean people make most of the noise — the ones who want to scare everyone and get their way. The loving people are usually too busy helping others, and they tend to speak second, and most softly because that is the language of love. I suggest you speak a little more boldly now; step out of the past; do something that may be really odd and step out of the rather intense expectations that you feel surround you and are influencing you. You are different, your life is different, and if you can embrace that with all your heart, just how true this is will appear before your eyes.

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.