Dear Friend and Reader:
I AM looking forward to the day when I can publish an article and not worry about losing subscribers or being told I am a “conspiracist” or “anti-science.” This is unusual, given that the theme of my writing career has been covering unpopular, controversial, dangerous and taboo subjects, often involving the conduct of bureaucrats and so-called scientists.My well-developed field of speciality is scientific fraud. I started writing about this when I was 19 years old and have rarely stopped.
I’m cautious of declaring (in the words of that old rock song) “Everybody’s so different; I haven’t changed.” However, that may be true. That said, the world has never really been friendly to the idea that the government is collaborating with big corporations to poison us. But occasionally, it’s in vogue.
There were only two other times in my Planet Waves career when I was at odds with many of my readers. I’ll skip one and tell you about the discussion nobody but me remembers. Once upon a time, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condi Rice and company were about to invade Iraq, which had done nothing to the United States or its allies. In fact, Iraq was our ally just a few years earlier.
They made many nightly appearances on every network claiming that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, and was about to have the atomic bomb. I called foul.
Read More on Planet Waves | Read Your November Monthly Horoscope
You may be familiar with my theory that Mercury retrograde is primarily a mental phenomenon. After living through a hundred or so of them, however, there is no way I can deny that these intervals, which occur three times a year, do not affect electronic equipment.
Mercury stations direct. Full Moon in Aries. Sun enters Scorpio. Is anyone or anything always right under all circumstances? And a new Planet Waves weekly horoscope by Eric Francis.
Dear Friend and Reader:
This week represents the working-out of much astrology that dominated late summer and early autumn. We’ve just been through the Mercury retrograde, pole-shift edition, which has had the power to turn integrated circuits to scrambled eggs. That ended at about mid-day Monday in most of our time zones, and early evening across Europe.
You may be familiar with my theory that Mercury retrograde is primarily a mental phenomenon.
After living through a hundred or so of them (going back to my days at the Echoes-Sentinel), however, there is no way I can deny that these intervals, which occur three times a year, do not affect electronic equipment.
Nobody can prove that they do, but the effect is obvious to anyone noticing. And while the argument could be made that the noticing is most of the effect, we could also debate whether it really is raining outside, or if it just seems like it.
However, they tend to affect the mind the most strongly, having a distorting effect on consciousness.
This can lead to a serious flake factor, people making bad choices that have repercussions, and the human effect of digital systems failing. Then these factors all play off of one another. The result can be quite a bit of confusion and mental tension.
Anyway, though the retrograde is behind us, be careful of the effects, here in the storm phase and the next few weeks as Mercury re-crosses the degrees where it was retrograde. Take your time getting things going again. Perhaps look through your notes for all the people whose calls you need to return, or whose business card you collected for a good reason. Check for emails that you missed.
Read More on Planet Waves
Hey, kids, shake it loose together
Dear Friend and Reader:
This letter includes a new horoscope column, published below. I also give a detailed reading of the next seven days of astrology on STARCAST, which also includes a Planet Waves TV on the same page.
We are at a slight lull in the astrology for a few days. For about two weeks we’ve been living through Mercury retrograde on steroids. If you recall, last week’s Libra New Moon conjunct Mars was followed by a triple conjunction of retrograde Mercury, Mars and the Sun on Saturday.
All three remain in Libra, and Mercury stations direct on the 18th, which is likely to come with a new set of revelations, personal and collective.
This is a lot — of turbulence, of pressure, of anxiety, of decisions made under less-than-ideal circumstances. It’s the astrology at a point of no return. There is nobody I know who is not going through some unusual pressure, drama or circumstances, and the world is in rough shape. Perhaps you are among those who are monitoring whether the people around you have any interest in confronting reality, or at least taking a look at it.
Because I learned astrology first in a newsroom, from a newspaper editor in New Jersey (when I was about 24), I’ve long had my pulse on the relationship between public developments and planetary movements. Given what we’ve experienced the past two weeks, Mercury direct is promising to be, let’s just say, unusual.
Read More on Planet Waves — and Read Your Horoscope
Tales from the Other Side of Astrology
Originally published Oct. 28, 2011 | Link to original
Dear Friend and Reader:
Being an astrologer is sometimes like being a metaphysical minister. People assume we have a connection to the other side, and many of us do. Practicing astrology helps people enhance their subtle senses. There is a need to reach a little beyond the obvious, into the unseen, and this gradually helps us open doors.
More significantly, astrologers are presumed to be open-minded about things that other people won’t believe in, or won’t go near. We hear about a vast diversity of human experiences, including plenty that people would never tell their therapist.
In truth, it’s only a short hop from studying these mysterious charts, and the lives of both the living and the dead, to direct encounters with the spirit world. I understood this was the reason why a young mother approached me one evening in a bar on Vashon Island in Washington State, and asked me if I had any experience dealing with haunting or possession.
I asked if there was a child involved. The answer was yes — her young daughter. The mother believed some kind of spirit occupying their home had been coming through and tormenting her daughter, but the child had other problems.
She said the spirit contact didn’t happen all the time, only periodically. I suggested that if things got worse, they get the child out of the house immediately, since children, especially those with any kind of psychic or emotional disturbance, make an easy foothold for certain kinds of entities.
Read more on Planet Waves
What you missed on C-Span flipping through the cable channels late one night in October 2019.
By Eric F. Coppolino | Listen on Planet Waves FM or use the player above.
C-Span is my dad’s favorite cable channel. He’s a recently-retired communications professor. He will watch it for hours late at night, probably while I’m taking in South Park.
What he likes is that on C-Span, you see the thing itself and not someone’s interpretation of it.
This includes proceedings of Congress and levels of government that never make news programs.
When things do get onto the news, you’re told what you’re supposed to think happened.
On C-Span, one can witness discussion of policy and law as it takes place. Topics are elaborated in whole thoughts, not selections by TV producers that can easily bias or distort the issue. C-Span is the thing itself — and that is a thing of beauty (sponsored by a fund provided by the different cable companies).
Listen on Planet Waves FM by Chiron Return
The Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope is Back
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Two era-defining events take place in your sign this week. One is the New Moon conjunct Mars, on Oct. 6. The other is a triple conjunction of the retrograde Mercury, the Sun and Mars — that in my view is the main event. It is distinctive as it is a rare before-and-after-type event that does not involve a slow-moving planet. There is something about this aspect that has the (non-astrology) internet buzzing with anxiety, and who knows, it may indicate some kind of wider disruption. For you, it is a moment of revelation. It is the rare person who is capable of revising their opinion or viewpoint when they come into contact with new information. Most humans build a dam and a series of dykes around their consciousness to blockade themselves against anything that could change their mind, and — as a result — live in a split reality. I don’t think that’s your karma. Yet to resolve this, you would need to be open and available to a perspective other than the one you may currently have: even if it means a total reorientation of your worldview. Such a shakeup would be refreshing, but not if you resist.
Read the new horoscope for your sign on Planet Waves
The worldwide search for any record of SARS-CoV-2
Tonight’s season premier of Planet Waves FM features an interview with Christine Massey, who has coordinated the worldwide search for any record if purified or isolated samples of SARS-CoV-2. She has compiled responses from 107 different state, provincial and national governments, as well as institutions and organizations around the world.
None have any record of proof of existence of the alleged virus, which would be necessary before it could be shown to be harmful, or sequenced sufficiently to develop a PCR assay. The PCR can only find something if it has some of it already. Christine’s work is the other half of what I have been doing demonstrating that the PCR for SARS-CoV-2 has never been validated because there is no sequence available.
Now on Planet Waves FM
The Collapse and Rebirth of the American Idea: Remember the United States Pluto Return
Dear Friend and Reader:
Why is a New Yorker with cerebral palsy my nomination for the face of the United States Pluto return? And what is that transit? Meet Julie Maury. In my view, she is the Paul Revere of the New American Revolution. Her “midnight ride” was aboard an electric wheel chair Monday in Foley Square Park.
Until recently, we all agreed that society needed to make accommodations for people with disabilities. We all agreed that there should be ramps and wheelchair-friendly bathrooms and doors. That’s because someone with cerebral palsy is a person too. We didn’t used to think so, as a society; it was just too darned bad if you couldn’t walk up one step and get into the store, or fit your wheel chair in the bathroom stall.
Society slowly changed. Now we all understand why we must protect the rights of those whose bodies are not up to the task of the old-style urban environment. Maybe only 1 in 100 bus riders needed wheelchair access: I don’t know anyone who would say they should not have it.
In her presentation, Julie says that everyone she knows, with or without cerebral palsy, has had an adverse reaction to the injection. But they still have to take it in order to enter a restaurant and many other public accommodations in New York City: in order to eat. No exceptions are being granted. Doctors are having their licenses threatened for advocating on behalf of their patients.
Continue reading on Planet Waves
The Balancing of Medicine: Of Owls and Skunks, the Pisces Full Moon and the Victoria Declaration, by Eric Francis
Dear Friend and Reader:
The other day I was walking down the sidewalk with a friend, when I saw a beautiful picture of a baby owl in the trash. Without hesitating, I picked it up and made it my own. I explained to her that my primary medicine is Skunk. To me, that means working with the counter-medicine, Owl — particularly the great horned owl (though any Owl will serve).
She seemed a little surprised at this theory. I explained that when you work with an animal guide, it’s best to work both sides of the equation.
Nearly all animals give Skunk a wide berth. While not deadly or especially harmful, nobody wants to get sprayed. Skunk is attractive to the right people, often identifying one another by scent. Skunk has only one natural predator: the Great Horned Owl lacks the usual sense of smell, so does not mind eating Skunk.
Therefore, if you are are protected by Skunk, you make friends with Owl. That’s a good friend to have: one of the supreme hunters, a bearer of wisdom, and a true master of crossing the realms. Even the most hardened rationalist will be a little spooked or mystified by seeing or hearing an owl.
There is a similar principle in astrology, which seems obvious enough but in the old literature, I’ve only ever heard Alice A. Bailey express it. It is central to her theory of the zodiac: opposite signs contain one another. They are different expressions of the same underlying energy. One of the spiritual or growth objectives of astrology is to integrate one’s opposite sign. This may be why so often, opposites attract (including the rising sign, for example, people with Aries rising attracting Libra Sun partners or some such combination).
Read more on Planet Waves
Metamorphosis: In and Out of Aquarius
Dear Friend and Reader:
Eric McLuhan was not kidding when he warned, “The body is everywhere assaulted by all of our new media, a state which has resulted in deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world. In the age of disembodied communication, the meaning and significance and experience of the body is utterly transformed and distorted.”
Eric McLuhan was not an astrologer. He did like my environmental approach to the topic. But he may as well been talking about the transits to Aries and Aquarius with that statement.
We continue to move through these uncertain and even tumultuous times, all driven by the disembodiment created by total overexposure to digital technology. Life would be easier if we could find our bodies, and remembered what they are for.
I have more to say about that as it relates to the current astrology — but first some in-house updates. Note, realtime astrology updates are at STARCAST.
Read more on Planet Waves
Planet Waves FM :: Reconciliation Through Truth
Are Anti-vaxers idiots? What are they thinking?
Dear Friend and Reader:
In two recent articles, I’ve contemplated the nature of Virgo as it relates to the holistic principle and the idea of biophilia. Virgo is intimately connected with our approach to health and wellness, which many have figured out is best practiced as an integrative method.
Speaking of health: I woke up Wednesday morning and was treated to an article in The New York Times: This is the Moment that the Anti-Vaccine Movement Has Been Waiting For. It begins with an introduction to Joshua Coleman, a guy who they tell us “organizes anti-vaccine rallies.”
“In March 2020, he said to his flock, ‘This is the one time in human history where every single human being across this country, possibly across the planet, but especially in this country, are all going to have an interest in vaccination and vaccines’, he said. ‘So it’s time for us to educate’.”
The Times then helps us understand what Mr. Coleman means, in case you did not know. They write, “By ‘educate’, he meant to spread misinformation about vaccines.”
Yep, that’s all he’s going to do: spread misinformation, but call it education so they fool everyone. How nefarious! And what an original idea.
Yet I keep wondering what the authors and editors of these kinds of articles think “anti-vaxers” are motivated by. Why are they so committed to their cause? Is this part of a pattern in their lives? Do they also disinform people about other things, such as the weather or the score of last night’s Braves game?
What drives people to devote their lives to such a strange pursuit, like putting sugar in random people’s gas tanks? Are they merely anti-social discontents, acting out in this odd way? Is there nothing else to protest? Are they rebels without a cause, or a clue? It’s perplexing.
Read more on Planet Waves
The book Silent Spring is the perfect historical document to help us understand the times we’re living through.
Dear Friend and Reader:
With the Sun in Virgo, the notion of “holistic” is on my mind. So is the Goddess: Virgo is the sign of Gaia, the organism once known as the living Earth. In a poem written toward the end of her career, Adrienne Rich wrote in her 1991 work Dark Fields of the Republic, “Because you still listen, because in times like these / to have you listen at all, it’s necessary / to talk about trees.”
Times have changed a bit, though I would like to talk about birds, and the discovery of the ecosystem. I credit another of the 20th century’s great woman poets with discovering that facet of nature, and explaining it to us, and to President Kennedy, who took action based on what he learned from her. That was Rachel Carson.
The ecosystem was not really a known thing before the book Silent Spring came out. Carson, a marine biologist and avid birder, set out to figure out why, one year, the entire forest around her home went quiet. Previously it had been flooded with the sounds of songbirds.
The writing and the message of Silent Spring were so powerful that the book got the attention of then Pres. John F. Kennedy, who referred it to his Science Advisory Panel. They studied the scientific assessments in the book and a year later determined that Carson’s work was based on valid toxicology. This led to a 1972 ban on DDT in agricultural use in the United States — though not until after 600,000 tons of the stuff had been dumped on the environment. Once the DDT issue came to public awareness, many other events followed, which helped raise awareness of toxins and begin the process of regulating them — at least for a while.
Read more on Planet Waves
Sun enters Virgo, the sign of the Holistic Principle
I’ve been talking a lot about the primary function of Aquarius, which is pattern-setting. I think we probably have a good idea how that feels by now. Virgo also has an energetic property, which is integration. What Virgo and Aquarius have in common is technological expression. Hold that thought.
The Sun entered Virgo a few hours after the Full Moon on Sunday; the Moon enters Pisces just minutes after the Full Moon. The Moon-Sun opposition from the last degree of Aquarius to the last degree of Leo is exact at 8:02 am EDT. Sunday will be an interesting day, between the Full Moon and then both bodies changing signs almost immediately.
I have covered the mythical and spiritual meaning of Virgo in one of my favorite articles, The Threefold Goddess in a Field of Grain (view in our old-style newsletter format).
It seems like I wrote that one yesterday; I still remember working on it. You will get a taste of Virgo from the standpoint of Esoteric Astrology. That is not an easy book to read, but if you get into it, you will find it mind-expanding. The chapter on Virgo is one of the best pieces of astrological writing I have ever read.
Regarding integration, this is about a reckoning of every facet, fact, or idea with every other. Integration is from the same word-root as integrity, which means to render something whole. An integer is a whole number — same idea. All of these come from a word root (called a PIE root) that means to touch or to handle.
Read More on Planet Waves
Aquarius Moon, Leo Sun, Face to Face: The Mystical and the Mundane. New essay by Eric Francis.
Dear Friend and Reader:
There are some paths of growth and self-development that consider everything a spiritual experience: nothing is special. Buddhists suggest you handle dishes you’re washing like the baby Buddha. A Course in Miracles has you paying attention to people you don’t recognize who you may meet in an elevator; you can resolve lifetimes of karma with a glance.
We are in such a moment. We are being challenged to pay attention and to treat each moment and each decision like it matters: to treat each person like they matter. There are ways to test the unusual new trance that society is in. How do you respond to the people you meet? How much fear do you feel from hour to hour? How is your cortisol level?
Thursday’s Full Moon in Aquarius describes a scenario where the mundane affairs of the world come face to face with a high-order spiritual initiation. What we usually think of as different things are shown to reveal one another. Today is the 52nd anniversary of the Woodstock Festival. All those participants consciously knew they were at such an event.
Read More on Planet Waves
They Were Barefoot in Babylon – Woodstock at 52
Originally published June 4, 2020 | Link to Original | See related letter
Dear Friend and Reader:
A few weeks ago hanging out in the backroom of 30th Street Guitars, master luthier Matt Brewster mentioned that the Woodstock festival was held during the Hong Kong Flu pandemic. All public sources agree that this outbreak of H3N2 influenza-A killed a million people worldwide and 100,000 in the United States between mid-1968 and 1970, during which time the festival occurred.
I posted a photo of the crowd to Facebook mentioning this fact, unaware I was wading into one of those seemingly pre-packaged, ready-to-snap shitstorms. My post got 157 comments, including a good few of the “there’s no comparison between then and now,” “you’re comparing apples to oranges” (about which I finally wrote an essay), “it wasn’t really in the middle,” and the “you’re an idiot” variety. People posted numerous articles “debunking” the claim from self-styled factchecking websites. Problem is, it actually happened. Even Snopes cannot make the whole Woodstock festival or a global pandemic vanish.
In that mysterious Facebook way, an audience of plebes spontaneously morphed into a panel of elite epidemiologists. They were quick to remind me that back then, more people smoked cigarettes and didn’t wear seatbelts, either. True, true. I knew that.
Continue reading on Planet Waves
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Link to your September Reading for all 12 signs
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Flash Sale! Planets in Motion 2022
What’s happening in your astrology right now?
Dear Friend and Reader:
My approach to astrology is based on what is happening right now. I have just completed Planets in Motion, an e-Book that covers about 20 transits happening to people now, ages 1-84. This is an easy introduction to using astrology in practical ways. I write in clear language and bring your astrology to life. It comes with an audio introduction to the topic to help you get oriented and learn the value of transits.
You will read about the first and second Saturn return and related transits, Uranian opposition, Chiron Return and related transits, and then many subtle events that are specialized to specific years of birth. These will be relevant for many people in your life, young and old. We finally have a resource on people born between 1980 and 2000.
Here is how to order now. The book and audio are done and available.
Thank you for your business and your trust.
“For those who want free astrology, there’s plenty out there, and a few good ones that I look at. Yours is the only astrology column I subscribe to. I consider it to be worth it.” — Martha Hauser
“I have wanted to thank you so many times for what you have written, especially during what seems to have been at times, a very long and grueling year or so. Thank you for being a very centered, grounded person, even more so as you are writing about astrology.This comes through in your written words. I feel as if I have been given a spiritual, for lack of a different word, blessing every time I read your work.”
— Eileen Metz“Thank you Eric. I have followed you for many years and appreciate your journalistic rigor and astrological insights! Good job and I appreciate you and your work. Thank you.” — Michelle
This special edition horoscope offers excerpts from the Aquarian Era, Aquarian Age annual readings for each of the Sun, Moon and rising signs.
This week’s horoscope is a sample of An Aquarian Era, transits that track your astrology out to about 2025. While this is an unusual duration for an astrological reading, there are events on the horizon that make this a valuable tool. Those include Pluto entering Aquarius, and the forthcoming conjunction of Chiron and Eris. The link to the full reading is right above each of the horoscope entries. — Eric Francis
From Aquarian Era, Aquarian Age for Aries:
Weaving the World, One Relationship at a Time
Aries (March 20-April 19) — To build face-to-face reality takes work, and it will take adaptation. It does not need to be expensive, and an essential ingredient is the community itself bearing the costs and, more to the point, sharing resources.
The result could come in the form of a potluck, a food coop, a musical space, any form of creative collective, a lending library, a dog-walking/pet care organization, a community garden, a spring-cleaning society (where people help one another clean) or a hundred other possibilities.
They can be home-based, though remember that in the United States and many other countries, there is an abundance of unused space sitting idle and basically deteriorating. The value of using and sharing space rather than letting it sit empty is something we need to teach and learn.
Establishing and building community is true leadership: the type that is not vested in authority. Rather, it is grounded in your ability to relate to people, and to find a common purpose with them.
While we cannot exactly repair the past, it is possible to preserve what remains of a way of life before the digital environment was allowed to take over – and before it takes over so completely that most people don’t remember anything else.
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