Dear Friend and Reader,

Just got off the phone with my mother. I left her a message earlier today telling her that if she couldn’t get to the polls for one reason or another, I would drive from New York State to Connecticut to get her to the polling place. While I’m hunched over the mortar and pestle making mustard, she calls me back. First words out of the woman’s mouth:

Vote poster showing a classic art style popular in Soviet Propaganda pieces.

“I probably didn’t vote for who I was supposed to.”

I ask, “So you voted for McCain?”

“Yeah!” And immediately I could hear the vocal cords in her throat tighten like bow strings ready to fling those famous poison darts of contempt. I said to myself, now…this woman voted for a guy who she didn’t even want to vote for? That she wasn’t supposed to vote for? What exactly does that mean?

The only thing you’re supposed to do during the election is vote for who you want. If your family doesn’t like it, let them not like it and hope they aren’t the majority. It’s that simple. But now I found myself on the phone with a burlap sack of rattlesnakes. Me being the charmer that I am, I asked her, “Why did you vote for McCain?”

“Because if you hang out with a person for 20 years, it means you agree with what they’re saying.”

“Are you talking about Ayers?” I inquired probably not as coyly as I would like to believe. If I bit into a piece of horseradish at that point,В it wouldn’t have been half as hot as I felt right then. Imagine, this woman making her choice based on guilt by association. The first time IВ heard of guilt by association, I was taking a Russian History course and they were talking about Stalin.

“Yes I’m talking about Ayers. And I’m talking about that Reverend Wright. You know he damned our United States of America.”

Continue Reading »

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT. I’m alone in the house with the two cats, listening to a thick rainstorm in the midst of a Moon Pluto square. There are brussel sprouts searing on the stove behind me, their scent giving the air inside a tang of bitterness that might be a good metaphor for the edge I feel like I am balanced on. I’ve had a lot going through my head lately. I’m sure you all can relate.

The Thursday before last, when Mercury stationed direct and began its progress through shadow phase, I decided to quit my job. There was a murmur at the bottom of my heart that told me if I did not start to live my life creatively it was going to get pretty shitty, pretty soon. Now that I am half way through the two-week period and my temper has cooled, I am starting to believe that this was probably the worst decision of my life. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s the best one I’ve made yet. It’s been one of those weeks.

I’ve had this incredible feeling that I am floating through my own life: I have been divided by the self that demands I submit to suffering and the self that seeks the spiritual side of every struggle. I call them the Emperor and the Artist. Both of them are clowns, preferring to undertake the most extreme side of each situation. Then you have the one who they are arguing over: the Me-self. She’s in there between the two thrones, trying to figure out who she should listen to, and in the meantime not able to make any forward movement.

This is a prime example of what it is like in shadow phase. I’m sure that there are many times when Mercury is acting normal when a person feels this way, however, the main topic of the destiny I hold in my hands (and hands, mind you, are ruled by Mercury) is about creativity. I cannot decide. Both voices are taking on a resonance that I never expected. It’s like watching two people yell at one another in a boat-roofed cathedral and hearing the sounds of their voices bounce from wall to wall, animating the expanse of the church until it the words no longer matter and they are just elements in a montage of confusion.

Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader,

I’ve been hearing some pretty interesting stuff lately about the presidential campaigns from the other side of the pond. I have a good friend in Norway who summed up the sentiment of cynicism I think most Europeans feel at America’s political antics. He said to me, “It’s so hard being a Norwegian watching you [not very smart people] figure out who’s going to be your next president. In Norway, political commercials are illegal.”

Added to that, I listened to some radio commentary about Britain viewing Palin as though she were from the TV show Northern Exposure and Barack Obama as though he were from the show The West Wing.

Immediately, Europeans have identified the fact that both candidates, from both parties, are projecting on the stage like a group of actors vying for popularity. And I see examples of people every day who are still willing to be fooled by it all.

How weird that the Palin supporters I’ve talked to find nothing odd about her history in competitive sports and beauty pangeants leading up to a run in politics. How terrifying that in my local natural food store, I overheard the owner saying that according to Nostradamus, if Obama didn’t get elected, the world was going to end. And she was serious.

I realized that for many, politics is a sort of blank canvas by which world-view and personal power trips can be colored. The candidates are doing it by characterizing what it is they imagine to be our greatest desires for this country. We are doing it by watching the candidates like vultures for any gaff, bad joke or bad hair day.

Once I realized that I was looking forward to the VP debate with the same enthusiasm as I was during Wrestlemania 15 when Kane fought the Undertaker, I got the chills. Sometimes it seems like the very fate of the country we live in is on the back burner. Ever since the first televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon, the politics of politics flew out the window and entertainment took center stage. Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader,

TODAY MERCURY AND THE SUN form their interior conjunction in Libra, which marks the midpoint of the Mercury retrograde — in other words, we’re halfway through with the experience (it goes from Sept. 24 through Oct. 15). Interior conjunction means that the Mercury is between the Earth and the Sun. During the exterior conjunction, which occurs in about two months, the Sun is between Mercury and the Earth (Mercury is direct for this experience).

Jupiter and the Red Spots Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon-Miller (Goddard Space Flight Center), I. de Pater, M. Wong (UC Berkeley)

Today’s Sun/Mercury conjunction is distinct because it’s exactly square Jupiter. This adds a sense of things being larger than they are; Jupiter can inflate things mentally or emotionally, and when other planets get mixed up, you need to beware of confusion and keep a handle on what is your own and awareness of what is not your own. The square indicates an internal process of working out, which goes nicely with Mercury retrograde (retrogrades tend to internalize the energy of planets, thwarting expression and enhancing the mental or psychic dimension).

But this internal direction is one that we clearly need to take. Most people are incredibly confused (we wouldn’t need astrology otherwise). What I find interesting is how the presence of Jupiter in Capricorn (a kind of authority figure) shows up and seems to loom over our internal process — and that is often how it is, until we overthrow our parents and our attachment to Big Mama or Big Daddy keeping an eye on us, giving their approval and giving us the feeling that our mistakes are going to be compensated by some other force — one that also restricts freedom. Indeed, much of the creative process involves relating to internal authority, censors, editors, and so forth — and going past its edicts and dictates.

Finally the Moon enters the scene, making a conjunction to Jupiter and squaring Mercury and the Sun. I would say be careful what you talk about today, and why you do it, and with whom. Get to understand your motives, and let them reveal themselves in layers All plans are in motion, anything you were working out over the weekend you are still working out, and though today is clearly a turning point, it is not quite a point of commitment.

Genevieve has interpreted this week’s aspects. I’ll add my comments [in brackets].

Yours & truly,

Eros encourages the dish to run away with the spoon, seen at left. Seriously tho, in ancient Greece, sex and the Gods were depicted on household objects.

6 Monday: Sun squares Jupiter and conjoins Mercury. Mercury squares Jupiter. So to break it down, this means your power of being will come into conflict with expansion, and your methods of communication and craftsmanship will help this along. It might be a day where you find it better to keep under wraps your big ideas about the scheme of things. Or, perhaps it will be a good time to let your outcast-ish self shine through. Either way, today your voice is hooked up to a psychic amplifier. Use it as you will, but be prepared for the response. Psyche enters Sagittarius direct.

7 Tuesday: First quarter Moon. Venus sextiles Saturn. Venus squares Chiron. [The Venus-Chiron square is like a hot night with a lover you don't know that well. It's emotionally intense, you feel all kinds of deep passions, and ultimately you are left alone with your experience.]

The Moon is growing towards full — indeed, a very unusual Full Moon — and because of that, it’s a good time to continue moving those things that will contribute to your personal goals. Use love to support your work today. Remember that everything you do, ideally, is something that you want to be doing. If it’s not, try to figure out why it’s not and why you started doing it in the first place. [Those aspiring to the creative life would do well to remember some advice given to Paul McKenna's design classes at SUNY Buffalo: being an artist means you motivate yourself with creativity no matter what you're doing; that is to say, one use of your creative talent is to help you be creative when it comes to working through otherwise boring projects.]

8 Wednesday: Moon enters Aquarius at 12:03 pm EDT. Juno trine 1992 QB1. Eros conjoins Rhadamanthus. These aspects speak of promises, equality, oaths and the truth as it appears to yourself and those in relationship with you. Much of what we have been taught as correct is no longer right, yet it remains a popular way to steer through our society. Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader,

There’s something that I’ve had on my mind since the Presidential Campaigns began that’s hard for me to talk about. I’m not sure why I’m afraid to mention these things, but I do suspect that it has to do with being judged in a negative way.

So in the Planet Waves tradition of being as genuine as possible, I’ve decided to come clean to you all right here: I have noticed that there is an African American man running for President and also a woman running for Vice President.

It’s a rare time in America: two minorities are vying for power over our country. It seems to be bringing up a lot of emotion about rights and wrongs, yet I don’t hear anyone talking about it. It makes me wonder if there’s not some kind of fear involved in everyone else’s decisions to keep quiet.

I have sat at many a dinner table and not one person, save one with a negative opinion, has mentioned this fact. I think there is a tradition of silence among us. I have some experiences that I’d like to share with you to further illustrate this fact.

When I was in college I had the privilege of volunteering as an English tutor for a Korean student. As part of the curriculum, I was expected to contribute to an online bulletin board comprised of other English tutors.

The purpose of the bulletin board, I imagine, was to develop team skills, networking skills and the benefit of talking to other people who were doing the same thing that I was. The conversations that took place within that board never got too animated until one day I asked a question. Years have gone by and I am paraphrasing what I asked, but it was something along the lines of: “what were some expectations everyone had about their exchange students? What did you discover was right on and what did you learn was false? Do you think you participated in any stereotyping?”

The answers that returned were a sleety mix of denial and anger that I would ever suggest such a thing. Such a thing? From my side of the aisle, I was simply asking if these fellow tutors engaged in a process I thought of as perception: perceiving and anticipating the differences between our culture and their culture.

But the line between observation and stereotyping was much more blurry for those other folks. Instead, they denied any thoughts that they had of whether or not these exchange students, who were mostly from Korea, could be different in any way from us white folks going to school in Upstate New York. Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader

This week’s highlight is the New Moon, which occurred in Libra early this morning, covered in detail in this post. Libra is seeking balance and justice; Mercury retrograde is asking us to look at our relationships with others, and whether they reflect what is truly meaningful to us.

We are all feeling the quiet sense of uncertainty that is in the air, verging on outright fear — but the one reassuring thing is that we’re all in this together. And I think that just below the fear, many people are becoming conscious of their anger.

It’s sure to be an emotion-filled week, with the occultation of Mercury the Moon on Tuesday, and Mars entering Scorpio on Friday. Challenges are sure to result in great personal reward, so it’s necessary to keep moving forward and looking back as little as possible.

All the activity in Libra and Scorpio is surely making some interesting times in personal relationships. If you’re confused, if you’re struggling, if you don’t know what you want, remember, we are all in this together. Very few people do, and many of the ones who seem like they do are faking it.

Happy New Moon, and read below for further details on the week ahead, written by Genevieve Salerno with some editing by me. The aspects were calculated by Tracy Delaney’s ephemeris at Serennu.com and by Raphael’s Ephemeris.

Yours & truly,

29 Monday: New Moon in Libra at 4:12 am EDT. Sun sesquiquadrate Neptune. This is a trigger aspect, but it’s difficult to trigger Neptune. It tends to rise like flood waters that you saw coming months ahead but ignored. Sound familiar? Mercury was (and still is) opposite Eris at the moment of the New Moon. The stuff that you really want to be doing has been giving you goosebumps today. Perhaps you feel like just by imagining your fantasy, you’re tip-toeing on the edge of going crazy. That’s good! It means what you are doing is genuine. Use this feeling today to study the world around you. You are being given a rare capacity to see the projections that others are putting forth in order to get by in our world. A sense of compassion will be helpful today. If you’re going to project anything, let that be it.

30 Tuesday: Moon enters Scorpio at 12:26 pm EDT. Occultation of Mercury by the Moon. Mercury square Varuna. An occultation, like an eclipse, is when the Moon passes in front of a planet (under rare circumstances, it can involve two planets; and when something passes in front of the Sun, that is called a transit of the Sun — also extremely rare). What this means energetically is that for today, emotions are going to come right to the front of your personality. Normally we deny them and they bottle up. It might even feel like you are wearing how you feel on your forehead and what you’ll be feeling will tend to be very intense. Ethics prevents me from telling you what to do, but I can suggest that it may be in your best interest to wait until tomorrow, or the day after to share your thoughts with those closest to you, so that you can gain a little balance to offset what may be an exaggerated feeling of defensiveness. Of course, what comes out comes out. But try to be gentle. Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader,

Right now I have on two layers of clothing and my sheepskin slippers. The pickles have been made, the tomato sauce is sitting in the closet upstairs. My partner and I are preparing to move to one of the upper rooms very soon, because of the cold that is creeping in and taking over the lower floor of our house.

There is a candle burning with an unusual intensity next to me as I write this, while an apple that dropped from my tree outside perfumes my work space with its familiar, intoxicating scent. It is the autumn equinox. For pagans and witches, it is the Sabbath day called Mabon (pronounced MAY-bun). For Librans, it is birthday time. For the rest of us, it’s the equinox. [This old article by Eric tells about the different points in the wheel of the year.]

When the Sun crosses Libra’s threshold, time takes on a whole new meaning. For the next six months up here in the Northern Hemisphere, the darkness will get stronger, the cold bolder. The end of Daylight Savings Time always jolts into how short the days are. The world outside will fall into silence as the animals that buzz, whistle and hum head to warmer climates.

The plants, in a grande finale that’s been building since the spring, will dry out and die, sending out their seeds to be carried by animal couriers or the wind. Trees will go to sleep. Many animals go into hibernation. Of course, the opposite process is happening down in the Southern Hemisphere (and we welcome your reflections on the seasonal change).

Autumn is an exceptional time of year, because it is the borderline between life and death. New plants will push from the soil next year in time for the returning animals. The cycle will begin again.

There are many goddesses who personify autumn. All of them are sagely matriarchs in the golden years of their life. Check out images of Demeter, Ceres, Astarte or Hel and you’ll see what I mean.

Autumn is the time in life where we gain some perspective and return home. It is time to reap the benefits of the work we’ve poured ourselves into during the longer days. It is the time to hunker down in our houses to fix the tools of our trade, and reflect upon how we can do it better next year.

It is also an awkward time. The temperature is always changing, you can’t find the right combination of clothes to keep you comfortable and the rain that comes is always bitterly freezing. Mornings bring fog, which always has an aura of otherworldliness to it. And the trees begin to turn those flaming colors. Pumpkins are ready and apples too. The sweet scent of decay is pervasive in the air, and though the days are shrinking, the sun shines through balding branches and makes the days appear brighter. Continue Reading »

Daily Astrology and Adventure is taking a 24-hour break from reporting financial news, barring any major developments. We will return to the topic on Monday.В 

Dear Friend and Reader,

What’s the story with nudity these days? Pole dancers are wearing tracksuits and vying for the 2012 Olympics, and the Metropolitan Opera in NYC wants less heavy costuming, and more “take it off!”

Last weekend,the WPDF (World Pole Dancing Federation) held its sixth-annual European Championship competition in Amsterdam, where 14 finalists from nine countries competed for the title. Galina Troschenko from Spain came in first, and if you’re wondering why, take a look at the photo below — she’s touching her head with her toes!

Now, for any of you who’ve had to climb up a rope in Phys Ed, you can imagine how difficult pole dancing is: there is no question that these girls are serious gymnasts. And, on top of that, many of them are wearing sky-high heels and thongs while they perform: show me the last floor routine where that was a clothing requirement.

The buzz around the competition this year is all about qualifying as an Olympic sport, and in all likelihood, that’s why the headlines are focused on taking the sex out of pole dancing.

“Everything which we do requires so much strength. You train your legs and your muscles. It has nothing to do with eroticism. You have no time to think of that!” Jeannine Wikering, third place winner of the European championships, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, as I took a sneaky coffee break on Thursday morning, I opened up The Arts section of The New York Times and you know what the headline was? “Take It Off BrГјnnhilde: On Opera and Nudity.”

This month, both the Met’s production of “Salome” and “The Fly” will involve nude scenes for the main characters. (The production of “Salome” is returning after a four-year hiatus, which also included soprano Karita Mattila in the flesh, and not much else.)

I feel like I’ve stepped onto the set of 10 Things I Hate About You, that Heath Ledger/Julia Styles remake of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Basically, the uptight older sister (The Metropolitan Opera House) experiences a sexual awakening and learns to live a little, while the out-of-control little sister (pole dancers) finds a nice guy, buttons up her shirt and settles down.

While it seems inevitable that the Opera would join other stage arts (dance, plays) by including nudity, it keeps jarring with me that pole dancing – a sport/artistic medium that is almost solely practiced in strip clubs — is trying to deny its connection to sex. I can’t help but wonder: why do we have to erase all signs of sex before we can take something seriously? Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today is the Full Moon in Pisces [please see earlier article here]. It’s the Full Moon in the last sign of the zodiac. Brits sometimes refer to Pisces as a cosmic dustbin, which is to say that everything unresolved, every question unanswered, every feeling that is unacknowledged, ends up in this sign. The strange thing about Pisces is how dualistic it can be; that is, it can possess emotions that go in two directions, like those fish in the images you see of this sign. It is similar to Gemini, but it’s emotionally deep, and the two aspects of its nature have a closer relationship than those suggested by Gemini; there is the cord connecting the fish. Opposites are related. They work together and support one another. This would include, to the chagrin of many, pleasure and pain. Hey, just ask any Pisces.

Pisces. Art by Kagava.

Add this to the Full Moon and you get a lot of polarity. The Full Moon is an opposition; two planets face to face at 180 degrees to one another. In other words, the Sun, the Earth and the Moon are in a straight line, with the Earth in between. This can make people, situations, emotions and needs feel more exaggerated than they really are. Do your best to keep an inner eye on your mental and emotional state, and at least don’t be surprised if you’re feeling things more powerfully or poignantly than you might normally.

I suggest you remember what’s irritating you. It could be an exaggeration, and it could be something old, something forgotten, or something with a different name than you’re calling it — and it could be asking for your attention.

Continue Reading »