The POW/MIA (Prisoners of War/Missing in Action) flag flies high at Coney Island, a reminder of those yet unnaccounted for. Photo by Eric Francis. Prior cover: Night view of Paris.
If you're looking for the February horoscope... My America | Link to archived Planet Waves article by Eric Francis 
 Dear Friend and Reader:EARLY THIS morning, we published the first installment of the Love, Lust and Compersion report, which is now titled, "It's not about sex. It's about Self." It was sent directly to people who purchased that product over the past few weeks. This special series continues Monday. If you have not subscribed, here is how you may opt in. Any back issues you may have missed (one, so far) will be provided to you. Everyone is looking for love; everyone craves sex. Many people are in crisis about these things, and some are at war with themselves and those around them. Many are trying to figure out who they are, with not so much help. As one of my literary heroes, Wayland Young, wrote long ago, people are unhappy mainly because they are unfree. I am conscious of writing into an atmosphere of confusion, longing, considerable anger -- and a prevailing state of unfreedom. My intended audience is those who want to be free and who are willing to take the risks involved in doing so. As a professional astrologer, most of what I hear from people about is their relationships. On our planet at this time, they tend to not work so well. We tend not to question why, in a meaningful way that gets under the surface. I have some ideas about why, and while I'm not sure they're right, my intention is to start some discussions rather than settle them. This is tricky, deeply personal territory, and there are many more questions than answers. I am the hearty fool asking the questions. This project has grown considerably larger than I originally planned, so to facilitate workflow it will be issued over a series of nights, through the 13th or so. After the current post, I'll take the weekend off and resume posting through the week on Monday evening. The first few segments don't touch the astrology -- yet. Rather, they address key themes relating to jealousy, relationships and compersion. The last few posts will look at the astrology, ending with the horoscope which (like Small World Stories) is being written with the assistance of Paloma Todd in Barcelona. I'll explore the astrology mainly through 8th house themes (sex, death, surrender, shared money, power issues), also looking at the implications of the 2nd (self-esteem), 5th (creativity and risk-taking) and 11th (group and friendship themes) houses. We'll also check out Chiron and Nessus in Aquarius, potent forces today. I am sure I won't be able to avoid Eris; never a good idea. She contains information about the personality chaos we are living through right now. A few weeks ago, I received a comment from a reader concerned that my writing was slanted toward heterosexual reality. It's difficult to see one's own bias, but I am aware of being bisexual while consciously writing for an audience of predominantly heterosexual women (about 99% of whom identify as monogamous, according to our audience research). However, an above-average number of men have subscribed to the Love, Lust and Compersion series; I've kept that in mind when writing, and I am truly happy to see you there. This being said, I must claim a mental limitation in that I don't understand sexual orientation that polarizes (or tries to polarize) to one side of the sexual spectrum, to the exclusion of the other. Intellectually, I kind of get it a little; but intuitively I can't grasp the notion. I cannot predict the relevance of this writing to people who are not heterosexual, but being something other than heterosexual myself, I trust there is at least some relevance. I'm in a similar situation with monogamy: I don't understand love that excludes. To me, love's greatest quality is that it includes, to the best extent that we can cooperate. Yet theme of jealousy seems to be endemic to the human condition. There are few coherent ideas on the topic, much less sane ideas about what to do. Those in the reading audience who have explored polyamory (honest non-monogamy) will recognize some of its themes as the series develops, particularly the idea of compersion. While I have been a presenter at numerous polyamory conferences over the past 10 years, I don't quite grasp that way of life either. Though it's a bigger box, I don't quite fit. So the writing that subscribers to this series will receive is the product of a total misfit. In practice, relationships and gender are fluid; they change and are subject to an ongoing process of revision and sometimes even conscious creation by individuals and by society. Our definitions of masculine and feminine seem important, but more often they are ridiculous. Despite being ridiculous, they make all kinds of demands on us that we hop to, as if somebody were pointing a gun. If you would like to subscribe to this series, here is the link. Yours & truly,  |
