Harriet Malinowitz of Kingston, NY and Fred Nagel of Rhinebeck, NY, on Woodstock's Village Green on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 2. They and others, members of the mid-Hudson Valley activist group Middle East Crisis Response (MECR), were conducting a vigil commemorating the Nakba. The Nakba ("catastrophe" in Arabic) is what Palestinians call the ethnic cleansing of their population circa 1948 via a series of massacres, murders, rapes, looting, burnings, and expulsions by Zionist militias (Haganah and Irgun). Israel calls it the "War of Independence." Over 700,000 refugees were created by the Nakba; today, they and their descendants number four million. They still seek the right of return to their homeland granted to them by U.N. Resolution 194, but this right is refused by Israel. Photo by Eric Francis. Prior cover: Anya from the Book of Blue.
 GOOD MORNING New York, London and Los Angeles, and everywhere in between. I've been slacking a bit on my daily letters the past couple of weeks, catching up from Small World Stories and now moving ahead into the Love, Lust and Compersion Report (I changed the name, and also the publication date -- it will be out before Valentine's Day). What I thought would be a simple enough essay now has a table of contents. As my regular readers know, I've covered these topics for years -- jealousy and other psychic forces that keep us unfree, and compersion -- the quality of mind that frees us to love, accept love and embrace the full emotional and erotic spectrum of our beloveds. I have not come back to the topic (in writing) for some years, though, and since that time I have done a lot of exploring that I've learned from. The essay -- really a monograph (a short book) will be illustrated with photographs from Book of Blue. Book of Blue has given me an endless source of opportunities for this thing called compersion -- embracing that others have an erotic life that does not necessarily include me. Yet I must include my photographic subjects in my emotional sphere, rather than doing the usual thing and rejecting them and the pleasure that they experience in life. In the big buildup to Valentine's Day, someone should mention that there are a lot of people who are not getting sex. They are either too stressed out, too scared of people, or have a standard so high nobody could meet it. We might think that nobody is evolved enough to allow in; we may be afraid that people want us to make a commitment when what we want is pleasure. Some people like just sex and no communication (no talking, just head, as former Talking Heads bass player Tina Weymouth put it once). So -- we shall see what develops, but Love, Lust and Compersion (actually titled, IT'S NOT ABOT SEX -- IT'S ABOUT SELF) will be available at about midnight New York time on the 14th. Today is potentially a special day. According to Wikipedia, "On February 4, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. EST, NASA will beam 'Across The Universe' to the star Polaris, 431 light years away. This is being done to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network, and the 50th anniversary of NASA. The idea was hatched by Beatles' historian Martin Lewis, who encourages all Beatles fans to play the track as it is being beamed to the distant star. Additionally, this date will be known as 'Across the Universe Day'. The event marks the first time a radio song has been beamed into deep space, and was approved by Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, and Apple." It's kind of silly that they're going to beam it just once. It's going to take 431 years to get there, and last for about four minutes, if I understand the program correctly. They should at least play 20 commercials before and after, to give an accurate idea of what life is currently like on Earth and increase the chances of someone hearing it. But it is a nice gesture. I watched the last minute and 58 seconds of the Super Bowl yesterday, the longest I have ever watched a football game for. It was extremely interesting. I noticed that one of the coaches had the word MOTOROLA across the mouthpiece of his headset and said to my friend Mick, "It could say 'god is love' or something." Yes it could. But at least four centuries from now, some kid on a planet orbiting Polaris who is listening with his hobby deep space radio kit is going to her John Lennon sing, "Jai guru deva, om." Catch you tomorrow.  Mike Brown, the discoverer of Eris and professor at Caltech, tells the world why he loves astrologers. In "Notes from the Technosphere," Kirsti Melto and Eric Francis look at the solar eclipse coming on Feb. 7, and its many themes involving computers and digital technology. Plus, each Friday edition includes the Eric Francis weekly horoscope, unavailable anywhere else online. The Aquarius birthday report will be available Monday. It's available as part of Planet Waves Astrology News, or will be sold separately for $9.95 (ordering details Monday). To subscribe to Planet Waves and get instant access to current issues and five years of archives, please check this link.
In Our Midweek Edition of Planet Waves Our midweek email edition for subscribers includes a detailed article about the current Mercury retrograde in Aquarius and the upcoming eclipses. Eric has also posted his annual...interior decorating horoscope, the annual edition of Inner Space. Both Inner Space and Planet Waves are now available as part of Small World Stories, the 2008 annual horoscope edition.
Last Week in Planet Waves Astrology News: Pluto in Capricorn Pluto arrived in Capricorn for the first time since the 18th century last Friday. What are the implications of this? Eric Francis looks at the connection between the planet of intense obsession and the sign of corporations and politics. In his article "We Have Met the Enemy," he declares that our real concern is not the One World Government but rather a seemingly harmless predator most often seen on road signs. Plus the weekly horoscope, Mars stations direct, Mercury stations retrograde and more. To get this edition, subscribe to Planet Waves Astrology News.
Squish Over, Amazon! The Planet Waves Subscription Store After years of tinkering, market research, rocket science and database programming, we are pleased to present a Subscriber Store that will make you want to click, click, click.
 Small World Stories Login | Need Help With Your Purchase? Small World Stories | Small Worlds FAQ | Notes from Small Worlds Small Worlds Stories is our annual edition of Planet Waves. It now includes the monthly horoscopes, which will no longer appear on the free horoscope pages. At Planet Waves, we do astrology differently. Really differently. Our 2008 annual edition offers up detailed love, sex, art and money forecasts for each sign, and a collection of first-of- their kind character studies on the new planets from Chiron to Pluto to Eris. Learn about yourself. Learn about the world transition. Small World Stories from Planet Waves. Instant Access to Small World Stories. If you have already purchased and would like to enter, click here.
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Planet Waves Monthly for January 2008 | By Eric Francis Planet Waves and Inner Space monthly horoscopes now appear in Small World Stories, our amazing annual edition. Learn more. |
