Here are two videos that give you a sense of what happened in Jonestown. The first appears to be a movie trailer. The second is footage from the History Channel set to the music of Blue Oyster Cult.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Aftermath of the murders, which are often referred to as suicides. The vat containing the cyanide is visible in the foreground.

AS YOU MAY be hearing from places like NPR — or any news media that has a memory longer than three days — today is the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre in Georgetown, Guyana.

Anyone who is old enough to even vaguely remember surely does; that edition of Time magazine was unforgettable; I was 14 at the time and kept my copy for many years. Its page after page of stark, bright photos and blunt reporting may have influenced my choice to be a journalist. The link takes you to the cover, which in turn links to the original article. Jonestown is the source of cultural references to “drinking the Kool-Aid” (or purple Kool-Aid it may have actually been a similar product called Flavor Aid, or a mix of the two, laced with what was believed at the time to be cyanide; I am now hearing that there is some contention over this).

In any event, 918 people ended up dead, including more than 200 kids, a United States congressman named Leo Ryan, his party and a number of defectors from the cult. The adults were coerced into killing themselves, told that men would parachute in from the sky and torture them if they did not. The kids were killed by the adults; syringes were used to squirt the sweet poison into their mouths.

Formally called the People’s Temple Agricultural Project, the group transplanted from San Francisco to Guyana. Here are two parts of a congressional chronology and background summary on the incident (part one and part two). Let’s take a brief look at two charts associated with the event.

The first is the Rev. Jim Jones himself. His chart is dominated by Aries and Taurus; his conjunction of Venus and Uranus in Aries, along with the Moon, pretty much qualify him as a certified narcisist. Not that we needed astrology to tell us that. We might ask what about his chart says “cult leader” — and two things come to mind.

The first is Jupiter conjunct Pluto in the 7th house, in Cancer. Pluto focuses that religous aspect of Jupiter and tells us of someone who really does have spiritual understanding, but because it’s in his 7th house, he tends to project it onto externals (he claimed to be an atheist, a Marxist, a socialist) and eventually became a selfist, naming a “town” after himself and loading it up with money, guns and cyanide.

He also has a Sun-Chiron conjunction. Chiron was not discovered at the time of his birth, but it was discovered at the time of his death, just one year earlier; in his own birth sign and Chiron sign. Notably, Jones has Mercury precisely in the degree where Chiron was discovered just one year earlier (the “rainbow bridge” degree for which Barbara Hand Clow named her book). Sun-Chiron tells us how we express the energy of the healer; this placement gives rise to the wounded healer attribute of Chiron that is so famously characterized as its only meaning. It’s just an aspect of that meaning, though it comes out at times in very brash ways; this was one.

In the chart for the event itself, the Moon is in Cancer; a touch of cosmic irony. We have Chiron, newly discovered in Taurus and close to Jones’ Sun-Chiron conjunction. But the thing about this chart, the central image, occurs in the 8th house, in Sagittarius: a nexus of religion and death. Sometimes the symbolism of a chart is so glaring it would seem you don’t need any astrology training to see it.

That’s not really true, but it’s easy enough to explain. Whenever there is a death, you look to the 8th house of the chart for the story of what happened. Certainly Sagittarius on that cusp fits; it was a religious cult. Three planets are there: Mars, Neptune and Mercury. Mars and Neptune can combine in extremely volatile ways. The theme of isms — belief systems — is spray painted everywhere in this chart, and they are basically all revealed to be lies by the combination of three planets involved; Mercury, Mars and Neptune.

Of course there is no true belief system that would lead you to have 918 people dead and bloating in the jungle Sun; no true belief system that would lead people to squirt poison into the mouths of more than 200 kids; or anything of the kind. The teachers of Jesus Christ, which the Rev. Jones claimed to be, don’t do that. Remember.

Hello all,

You may have noticed the disappearance of the Moon Phase widget from our left margin. It was pretty, but the leading astrology programming mind over at Serennu.com in the land called Wales noticed that it was wrong almost all the time. At Planet Waves, we are wrong part of the time, but never all of the time, so it got the old delete key.

I asked her if she would make us our very own widget to track the Moon phase and planetary placements, and she has done so. This was during the final stretch of the election campaign, so I didn’t have a chance to acknowledge it — and that thank you would surely have been lost in our news blitz of the past three weeks. This note is by way of thank you — and to introduce you to the information we’re now offering.

With this vastly improved custom gadget, we now track the phase of the Moon as well as the positions (in longitude) of the Sun and Moon, the “eight planets,” the mean lunar node (Rahu), the dwarf planets Ceres, Eris and Pluto, the Centaur planet Chiron and the asteroids Pallas, Vesta and Juno. I.e., extremely cool. We LOVE Eris…speaking for myself, I am in love with this living sigil of the postmodern world…and would not cast a chart for anything, including walking the dog, without her.

You may think it’s easy for a programmer to calculate these points; after all, it’s just computers. But someone has to take the ephemeris equation (the set of data that constitutes a “planet”) and then make it run. Then, step by step, it must engage in a mighty digital chatter with many other ephemeris equations for a few moments that must be eminently entertaining if you’re watching from the Sixth dimension. That is called programming.

The further these nuggets of gas and chilled space debris get from the Sun, the more challenging that is. Many programmers (our sources say) cannot tell you what day an aspect happens with true precision much less the hour and minute of certain things with say 500 or 1,000 year orbits. While this particular program does not list aspects, those can be found by looking around the Serennu website. If you are researching planetary cycles (for example, how often is 1992 QB1 conjunct Eris?) you will find it there.

Chironically yours,

*or wants to…

Note to readers, here is a limited time special offer discount for subscribing to Planet Waves. Come all ye old subscribers and new visitors!

Dear Friend and Reader:

DUTY REQUIRES me to comment on the occasion of today’s stunning news that John Edwards had sex. Those Democrats; they just can’t help themselves. Or is it always a bigger deal when a donkey does the deed?

Senator John Edwards.

Now, you’re probably saying, this wasn’t about Edwards having sex. It was about him lying. That’s fine, as long as we remember that there’s a rule in American politics that you have to lie about sex.

Then you have to get caught. If you’re a Democrat such as Bill Clinton, of whom this naturally reminds us, it has to be a heterosexual affair, and you have to get impeached, quit office or drop out of the campaign. If you’re a Republican, you can only get in trouble for having gay sex in a public place or with a child, and you get to keep your job to prove that you’ve redeemed yourself. Then everyone forgets because nobody wants to think about a distinguished senator looking for love in an airport men’s room stall.

Let’s look at John Edwards’ natal chart. Astrodatabank rates this as C status, which means the time is iffy (like so many ‘08 candidates before him), but we know where his planets are: most of them are in Gemini, Cancer and Libra. Cancer is the soft, cozy exterior this man presents - the perfect dad, the ultimate hubby. He has just enough woman in him not to track up the kitchen floor, and to spend whole Saturdays traipsing around town with his kids. He’s the kind of guy who takes care of America.

But the fact of the matter is Gemini. He has the Sun, Moon, Mars and Jupiter in this sign, most of them lingering in the 12th house. He is well-spoken. He is multifaceted. He is slightly delusional. He is a little kinky (Geminis get the whole twinning thing, one reason why they make hot lovers). A former Edwards’ staffer sent me the silk scarves he allegedly used to tie his illicit partner, purported femme fatale and filmmaker Rielle Hunter, to the bedposts. After experimenting with them for several days, we are now attempting to match the perfume found in the scarves with Rielle’s at the Planet Waves Sciences Center in Raleigh.

Geminis like diversity. So does everyone else, but what good is astrology if we can’t blame things on it?

Church choir like this one factored prominently into former Senator Edwards’ fantasies.

Even though this chart’s birth time is dodgy, this revelation fits well with a 12th house stellium. The 12th is where we keep all our most delicate secrets, particularly if they involve sex, such as illicit affairs on the campaign trail or wanting to have sex with the entire church choir, the choir director and his wife.

Now if you really want to blame something, look at his Saturn/Neptune conjunction (has difficulty assessing reality, and it often seems to be made of a sand-castle-like substance) square Uranus in the ascendant. This is clearly a person who feels he can make up the rules as he goes along. Of course, that’s how he got to be a presidential candidate in the first place. What good is a national leader if he’s not a warlock?

He has Chiron in the mix (square Neptune and and Saturn), in the 7th house (relationships). This makes him more charming to the ladies than a bleeding tourist is to a shark. It also means his relationships could have that quality of one disaster after the next, which would be true as long as you don’t notice how much he’s learning, or the level of authenticity he strives to bring to the people he’s involved with, or how deeply they touch him. Apparently he was truthful with his wife Elizabeth, and she would have preferred to keep the matter private.

That may be part of the problem. A writer for the Telegraph (UK) today reported that there may have been hush money involved - that is, a bribe to keep Hunter quiet. Here is his report on that.

It would have been very bad for America had he (for example) had got nominated president or been chosen as running mate. Had he been the candidate right now, it would have strengthened or guaranteed the possibility of a McCain presidency. It shows some off-key judgment that he didn’t think of that; that he didn’t allow his love for his country to trump his need to be its president.

But the deeper issue is the requirement in American politics to hide and/or obfuscate anything having to do with sex. Deeper still is that some people think you have to be sexually pure to lead the nation into war. We have come a long way since Caligula.

The issue is honesty, but lies are part of the political process. Why do we turn a blind eye to all the other lies, then gawk at an affair? Why, because we like it!

Yours & truly,

Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today
Aha this kiss you give, its never ever gonna fade away…

-OMD (live) and studio version with archival footage. Interview with the crew of the Enola Gay.

Dear Friend and Reader:

TODAY WE COME to a somber point in the year — the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is one of our traditions at Planet Waves to acknowledge these events, which are typically treated as if they never happened. [Please see our cover photo here, of the Atomic Bomb Memorial in Hiroshima.] We Americans have good reason to ignore them: they are among the worst atrocities committed by human beings, and our nation was responsible. They were committed even as we were cleaning up from the Allies’ triumph over Hitler, whose crime was the mass extermination of populations.

The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of Little Boy.

Scarcely three months after the last concentration camps in Germany and Poland were liberated, an airplane called the Enola Gay set across the Pacific with the first atomic bomb that would be used on a foreign population. Previous bombs were tested over the southwestern United States through the 1940s, and more than 100 in total over the US itself. Countless American civilians, GIs, small children, farm animals and vast swaths of land were exposed to radioactive fallout.

What happened on Aug. 6, 1945 was different. An American plane, codenamed Mother and piloted by Paul Tibbets, dropped a bomb, codenamed the Little Boy, on a “virgin target” — a city unscathed by the war between Japan and the US that had raged the past four years. He named the airplane after his own mother. This is an astonishing bit of history that we need to psychoanalyze a little more often.

From what I have read, we dropped the bomb on a fresh target rather than a damaged one for scientific purposes: to see precisely what the bomb could do to an actual civilization. Three days later, on Aug. 9, another plane delivered a bomb to the city of Nagasaki. I will not attempt to quote estimates of the dead. The number does not matter. What matters more is that to this day people are still suffering the effects of the radiation, mainly through multi-generational effects such as genetically-induced cancers. We may wonder if an injury like this inflicted to a society can ever really heal, to the victim or the attacker.

If you consider yourself a sensitive, intelligent person, I encourage you to gain (or at least attempt) an understanding of this for yourself. The easiest, most direct way to begin that process is to rent a documentary film called The Atomic Cafe. It was made, incidentally, by Michael Moore’s film mentor, Kevin Rafferty, a cousin of the Bush family. He collaborated with two other directors, Jayne Loader and his brother Pierce Rafferty, and the project took five years to complete. I suggest you watch this film sober. It is just too much to watch under the influence of any substance. It reveals the mass psychology, delusion and psychosis of the development of the bomb and the so-called Cold War era.

Let’s take a look at the chart. This chart is actually worth a book, but I will offer several observations on both the major planets and the small ones.

– Virgo is rising, suggesting the methodical nature of the attack. Years of research and development of the bomb preceded its first use. Mercury, the ruler of the ascendant, is in the 12th house of secret missions, secret enemies and the shadow side of human nature. The Bomb is the shadow side of Virgo: the opposite of service, and the dark interior of what we nonchalantly call “science.”

– The Moon is in Cancer, and it’s exactly conjunct Saturn. I consider this the thumb print of the chart. It is as cold as ice. The Moon and Saturn are near the North Node, which reflects and establishes the direction the world would take for the next untold number of decades. This is an almost ironic expression of the dark mother imagery depicted in the choice of code names for the project — Mother and Little Boy. Need I note that this is a parody on Christianity so sick one could vomit.

– Venus is square Chiron. A lot of people on the American side got really, really emotionally high off of this event. More people were killed in one instant than any time before in known history, and for a lot of so-called scientists and government bureaucrats it was like huffing shoe polish. The problem was they needed the next high, and that’s not usually as interesting — in this case it turned out to be Nagasaki and then the endless proliferation of nuclear weaponry.

– Eris is opposite Neptune. Like most Neptune aspects, I am having difficulty translating this into words. But there is something deeply delusional about this aspect, with the goddess of discord and the patron of the postmodern age facing into the haze of Neptune.

– The Nuclear Axis is taking important transits from Mars and Uranus. The axis, which stretches across early-to-mid Gemini/Sagittarius, was defined in the chart for the first atomic reaction, in December of 1942.

– The closest minor points to the ascendant are Amor, Cupido and Photographica — two that deal with love, and one that is typically involved with the making of images. We put a loving face on the mass incineration of a city; we committed murder and called it good. For the most part, we still do. Just ask around.

Yours and truly,

Today’s Oracle takes us to the Saggitarius weekly of Sept. 6, 2001

(The Oracle is a random daily selection from among 10,000 horoscopes written by Eric Francis)

It’s now time to get aggressive on a financial matter that is associated with a creative venture. The value of this project just went up. You may not have seen it on the stock market update, but it actually happened. Part of why its value increased is a matter of timing: You were forced by factors outside your control to wait, and you did, and now you become a kind of beneficiary of circumstance — and of your own patience, work and ideas.

Tuesday 05 August 2008

Sun (13+ Leo) semisquare Hades (28+ Gemini)
Apollo (29+ Leo) conjunct Orcus (29+ Leo)
Mercury (19+ Leo) conjunct Eros (19+ Leo)
Venus (28+ Leo) trine Pluto (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Amor (6+ Gemini) quincunx Hidalgo (6+ Scorpio)
Venus (29+ Leo) conjunct Orcus (29+ Leo)
Apollo (29+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Jupiter (14+ Capricorn Rx)
Venus (29+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Jupiter (14+ Capricorn Rx)
Venus (29+ Leo) conjunct Apollo (29+ Leo)
Arachne (14+ Libra) quintile Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Ceres (23+ Cancer) square 1992 QB1 (23+ Aries Rx)
Mars (21+ Virgo) trine Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Sisyphus (16+ Libra) quintile Pluto (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Atlantis (23+ Libra) trine Neptune (23+ Aquarius Rx)
Sun (13+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Pluto (28+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (21+ Leo) square Sedna (21+ Taurus)

Dear Friend and Reader:

IN RESPONSE to recent inquiries about my consulting, here are the basics, which cover how to request a consultation, what consultations involve, my availability, and the waiting list policy.

Eric Francis in Book of Blue Studio.

I currently work two days a week as an astrology consultant (Thursdays and Fridays, with other special times as well). After a nearly two-year break, I’ve been working down the waiting list list steadily since last summer, including catching up with clients who requested sessions as early as three years ago. There may come a time when I stop or pause doing sessions because other work takes precedence. However, I am committed, if possible, to working with everyone on the waiting list prior to any decision to stop.

If you are local in the Hudson Valley, we skip the waiting list and work together at our earliest mutual convenience. This is also true for anyone willing to travel in order to do a session (I am fairly near Albany and New York City, in Kingston, NY). In emergency situations, such as illness, accident or serious family crisis, we generally skip the list and get the client in as soon as possible.

I enjoy the work that I do, and after nearly a decade and half it continues to be challenging and satisfying, and I’m well prepared for never knowing what’s going to happen or what I’m going to hear when the phone rings. I bring 20 years of highly eclectic humanistic, transpersonal and spiritual training (including doing A Course in Miracles in residence for a year), plus experience as a tarot reader and about 15 years experience as an astrologer. Many years as a journalist have refined my listening and analytical skills. And I have presented sexuality workshops around the U.S. since 1997, which makes this a topic about which I feel a sense of ease and easy communication.

My work is client-centered rather than chart centered; that is, the chart plays a vital role in the work, but the focus is on you. It is less a straight “reading” and much more of an interactive process where you and your chart both participate in the dialog. I work with minor planets and can address any question you have about their role in your chart and your life; these include Chiron, Pholus, Nessus, Eris, Varuna and others you have read about here and elsewhere.

The work may cover any subject that you need to work with or work through. It is true that people bring to me material they would not dare discuss with their therapist, spouse or even a close friend. While I don’t feel I am capable of true objectivity, I have a viewpoint that can, at least, allow for the presence of any experience or opinion. I will respond from my own point of view, and own my perspective and opinions, making them available to you. This article tells you a bit more about the process I’ve developed.

I also do teaching sessions for professional astrologers currently in practice who want to bring the minor planets into their work.

Once you have had your initial session, future sessions are available sooner and at a reduced rate.

It is an unusual privilege to do this work, and the members of my support team will do our best to provide you with a positive experience at what may be a significant turning point in your life. And we are working efficiently to make sure you get your session within a reasonable time. Please note that I will be suspending client work through part of November, December and January to do Next World Stories, the 11th annual edition of Planet Waves.

In response to questions about whether I travel, I will go to most major cities where there are 10 sessions and a class booked. So if you have a group of people who are interested in doing astrological work and attending an evening workshop. Please call to discuss those arrangements.

To request a spot on the client list, we ask that you be a current subscriber to a Planet Waves product. You can purchase a short subscription, or subscribe to Small World Stories (our very economical annual edition), but working with me personally is a privilege we reserve for those who feel the Planet Waves mission, message and public calling is worth supporting.

Once you’re a subscriber, you can then contact Chelsea Bottinelli, our office manager. That can be by phone at (877) 453-8265 or (206) 567-4455 for international callers. Explain what you need and she will guide you from there. Those who get onto the waiting list before July 31 will be eligible for the current rate. Those who get on the list on August 1 or after will be under the new rate structure, which will bring an increase of about 20%. Those who get on the list prior to this time preserve the lower rate.

If you would like to see my page in Wikipedia, here it is.

Thank you for your interest in my work and in Planet Waves. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Yours & truly,

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today’s edition is brought to you by the Victoria’s Secret™ Kevlar™ thong. Did you know that Kevlar was invented by a woman, for women? That’s right — when Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont created Kevlar in the 1960s, she knew that it wasn’t just five times stronger than steel. She had discovered something that would protect policemen and soldiers on the job — and protect your honor.

Kevlar is extremely difficult to penetrate, even for bullets, slings, arrows and X-ray vision. You can try pushing, pounding, forcing, finessing or even asking sweetly, but “it’s” not going to get through.

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And now — Venus opposite Arachne. In honor of the first chapter of Mars Calling coming out today, this edition of Astrology & Adventure is only for guys from this point on. Note, to purchase just Aries, which comes out at about 8 pm Eastern Time, use this link.

Venus is the planet of love, attraction and what we value. Generally it represents women, how we feel about them and how they feel about themselves. Venus is in Aries. I have learned from writing Mars Calling that with Aries, you get two layers: the surface, and the rest of the universe. The rest of the universe takes you back into the cosmic waters of Pisces. Aries represents what is new, but what was already there was the cosmic ocean.

Venus in Aries therefore gives us two layers of self-awareness: glamor and reality. Glamor is easy — you put on an expensive surface layer, adjust your face and your attitude and add sunglasses — then you take on the world.

Reality is you are a person with feelings, needs, contradictory emotions and most of all, confusion where your inner orientation is concerned. You wake up every day and the world is a slightly different place. You are not sure what’s right or wrong for you. You might have a hunch what is right, but not how to get there. No matter how much effort you put in, you’re not sure about it — the effort does not make it right.

Arachne represents the story we tell ourselves and others. She is the goddess-as-spider, sitting at the center of her web, weaving the world of which she is in control — and making sure that the present bears a distinct resemblance to the past.

This is, on one level, creativity — spider medicine, as referenced a few days ago in this space, is all about the creative force, that weaves truth or maya. She is also about the interconnectedness of people and things: the rumors we spread or listen to; the webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. It can be about intentional conspiracies between people as well.

In any event, where you see Arachne in a chart, you can note the possibility of story, interconnectedness and creativity (for better or worse). Points in the chart that Arachne contacts will feel conspiratorial. It may be subtle; it may involve a point of view or a way of life not quite abandoned after junior high school; it may involve people actually doing things behind the back of your chart native, or vice versa. But if you listen carefully you will hear the story.

Today’s story is about a conspiracy of purity, of piety, of making sure that you are perceived as a proper person, with no particular passions to which you are subject, even if this comes at the expense of truth, passion and the enjoyment of who you are. The conspiracy relates to mandatory/obligatory relationship models and the need to maintain the image of perfection, even if it’s crushing you on the inside.

Hey, today the Sun is sextile Chiron. This at least gives us a little leverage from the world of the individual to the collective around us. Sun sextile Chiron asks: are we the same person from situation to situation? Do we practice “What you see is what you get?” Do we say yes and no like we mean these words, or are they reflexes? Finally, how susceptible to group pressure are we? In particular, do we groom our image to be acceptable to a group? Or do we present ourselves to the people around us as we are, as an act of hour-to hour integrity?

On that note, I leave you with today’s full aspect list, courtesy of Serennu.

Aspecs for Wednesday 09 April 2008

Arachne (3+ Libra Rx) trine Ceres (3+ Gemini)
Nessus (14+ Aquarius) sextile Great Attractor (14+ Sagittarius)
Mars (14+ Cancer) quincunx Ixion (14+ Sagittarius Rx)
Venus (3+ Aries) opposite Arachne (3+ Libra Rx)
Sisyphus (23+ Libra Rx) trine Neptune (23+ Aquarius)
Mercury (12+ Aries) septile Ceres (4+ Gemini)
Sun (20+ Aries) sextile Chiron (20+ Aquarius)
Sun (20+ Aries) quincunx Logos (20+ Virgo Rx)
Sisyphus (23+ Libra Rx) septile Saturn (2+ Virgo Rx)
Venus (4+ Aries) sextile Ceres (4+ Gemini)
Chiron (20+ Aquarius) quincunx Logos (20+ Virgo Rx)
Mercury (13+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Orcus (28+ Leo Rx)
Mars (14+ Cancer) trine Hidalgo (14+ Scorpio Rx)
Apollo (17+ Cancer) conjunct Varuna (17+ Cancer)
Sun (20+ Aries) sesquiquadrate Hylonome (5+ Sagittarius Rx)
Pallas (13+ Aries) quintile Hades (25+ Gemini)

Today’s Oracle - Jan 23, 2004 - Taurus - Weekly

If you suddenly experience a loss of faith in a certain situation, in yourself, or in the cosmic plan, just be with it. What you’re experiencing is an echo of a past situation rather than an omen for the future. The world is not a perfect place and the mind is not a perfect instrument of the divine. There are moments of struggle and moments of clarity. Often, one leads to the other in that precise order. On one level, what you’re obsessing over is quite small; on another it is symbolic of something far deeper and wider.