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Planet Waves Weekly for Dec. 7, 2023 by Eric Francis
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The way is open, if you will go. The door is unlocked, if you will turn the knob. You’re being offered something, if you will accept it. You have talent, if you will develop it. Healing is possible, if you want it. Yet the creative impulse, that seed of fire, must come from within you. You may never receive a direct invitation; there’s a little test in there, which is you proving to yourself that you want something enough to take initiative. As has been written before, the stars in their courses may guide you, though you must row the boat. This is all the nature of a trine aspect — in this case, Sun in Sagittarius trine your honorary ruler Chiron in Aries. This is an aspect of opportunity, though it is not self-activating. You are the one who must stand up and step up. And above all, the trine insists that you be real with yourself.
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Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You may be familiar with the Hindu term “moksha.” Think of it as the path of liberation, in particular, from one’s own past karma. For those whose reality framework includes reincarnation, moksha is a kind of exit ramp. The work of that exiting is, of course, done over many lifetimes. Events of the present moment indicate that you are freeing yourself from some of the ties that bind you to the karmic wheel, sometimes called “samsara.” My sense is that releasing yourself from some of what happened in the distant past will feel like you get to stop wandering aimlessly in that aspect of your existence. There will also be a sense of relief that can only be described as healing. And in one particular area of your experience, you may feel the itch to do something new, rather than something old. Freedom from the past implies the freedom to take a step forward. I suggest you pause and take a deep breath before you do. For as long as you remain part of this world, you are subject to the laws of karma.
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Where Humanity Meets Technology: Top Six Astrological Events of 2024
Dear Friend and Reader:
When you study the history of media and how it impacts society, which very few people ever do because of course it’s just a bunch of gadgets, it’s easy to see that no foresight is involved. None whatsoever. Society blazes blindly forward driven by the lure of the Next Great Thing.
And right now we are speeding blindly through the intersection of humanity and technology.
We get little hindsight, either, and it ain’t 20/20. It’s more like looking in the rear-view mirror when the guy behind you has his high beams on and is tailgating you at 80 mph with light rain coating the road.
However, the story of our lives is that of how our social relationships, our personal sense of being, the meaning of existence, and the most important qualities of society are all driven by exposure to the media environment.
And we are in a brutal phase — with most people driven out of their bodies and out of their minds, disjointed from one another and from the cycles of nature. It’s fair to say that there is no longer any such thing as “nature” — that may have ended when the first satellite was put into space and the planet became an art exhibit.
My sense is that people’s souls are howling for contact and acknowledgement. So many are burning with pent-up energy that wants to go somewhere creative and loving. Many are in agony watching the world fall apart, and be taken from them. Many want to awaken from the anesthesia and feel something, anything.
Astrology is about nature and cycles. Astrology tells us about the timing, and “what time it is” in the largest sense of the idea. If the Earth is an art exhibit, astrology serves as the curator. So let’s take a little tour of the major events of 2024.
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Planet Waves Weekly for Nov. 30, 2023 by Eric Francis
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The Sun’s arrival in your sign comes with an invitation and a promise: you can put yourself back together. You can gather all the seeming parts of your existence and your purpose, scattered though they may be. Yet as you do this, there is one thing you’re likely to overlook; one thing you might just miss. It may be that your sense of something missing will drive your whole quest for completion. At the moment, there seem to be a great many people in the world who are terrified at any sense of there being an unknown. They do not like the news that institutions which have promised they have all the answers simply do not. The whole problem is the “all the answers” business. If you connect to your innate being, you will notice an inner cosmos so vast you know there are no answers to the most important questions. And you are likely to find out that this absence can only be answered by faith, and in that experience, there is no conflict. However, to appreciate this, you don’t need to sit on a mountaintop staring into your bellybutton (though that would teach you plenty). Your existence can be tuned to the “ritual de la habitual.” That offers the cosmic beauty in activities as ordinary as making breakfast or cleaning a room. If there exist any great mysteries at all, they may be present in anything you do, at any time you do it. True love may exist in every person because it can exist within you. Dare yourself to find out.
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Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Yours is a Saturn-ruled sign, and your home planet is now in your fellow feminine sign Pisces. Let this time in your life be one of peace and reflection. Recognize that your life as you are currently experiencing the world is more stable and prosperous than nearly anyone around you. It’s partly that you’ve been through so much the past decade, and also that as the sign that represents mountains, you’re so well adapted to life on Earth as a matter of your innate makeup. Pay attention to the passage of time. Look at old photos and if you feel nostalgic, remember that some day, you will feel nostalgic for the moment you are living through right now. Carly Simon offered us something brilliant when she wrote the line, “These are the good old days.” You don’t need to chase after anything better than what you have. Appreciate the moment. Do what you feel called to do. What is truly yours will come to you.
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Welcome to Deep Space: Sun Enters Sagittarius
Dear Friend and Reader:
I’m here today to get you excited about Sagittarius, which the Sun entered Wednesday. Though deep space points appear in many places chartable on a zodiac wheel, Sagittarius is special. In a way, it’s where we all live, in the cosmic sense. There are two enormous beacons there, helping us orient on where we are and remind us of our direction of travel while we are here.
Speaking of — in the Esoteric Astrology approach of Alice A. Bailey, Sagittarius is ruled by the Earth.
It’s amazing how recent humanity’s knowledge of deep space is. It was only in 1924 that astronomer Edwin Hubble informed the world that what was thought of as a “spiral nebula” called Andromeda was actually a galaxy, and that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies in the universe.
Then on May 5, 1933, The New York Times announced that the core of the Milky Way was emitting “mysterious static,” which was different from “cosmic rays.” The direction of origin: about 26 degrees into the sign Sagittarius.
In 1954, John D. Kraus and his collaborators identified the radio sources at the center of the galaxy, and named the brightest one Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-star).
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Planet Waves Monthly for December 2023 by Eric Francis
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You will feel less edgy and less emotional if you recognize there is very little to cling to. The experience of existence as humans always rides along an uncertain edge, though this is an especially cliff-like time to be alive. Your moment holds distinct potentials that you’ve never had available. If you are feeling swallowed by uncertainty or like time is running out, ask yourself what you can do right now that has never been possible before. To sense that, you may need to give yourself to something that seems impossible or unlikely. You may need to dare in some way; this will confront you with limits that are purely conceptual. In a fairly short time, your modern ruling planet Pluto will be arriving in Aquarius, where most of your limited thought forms are contained. They exist as invisible patterns that were instilled in you by the speech, the emotions and the authority structure of your family of origin. During your most formative years, there was very little you could do about any of this. You could barely even shift your awareness, because the speech patterns and mental orientation of the people around you was so ridiculously strong. You are discovering that was an illusion, and further recognizing how fragile and uncertain they all were despite their bravado and know-it-all quality. At this stage of your life, a healthy outlook is something like this: “I’m not sure, but I want to know.” Then take up the full responsibility for finding out, and allow the quest itself to have most of the meaning you seek.
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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The Sun’s arrival in your sign comes with an invitation and a promise: you can put yourself back together. You can gather all the seeming parts of your existence and your purpose, scattered though they may be. Yet as you do this, there is one thing you’re likely to overlook; one thing you might just miss. It may be that your sense of something missing will drive your whole quest for completion. At the moment, there seem to be a great many people in the world who are terrified at any sense of there being an unknown. They do not like the news that institutions which have promised they have all the answers simply do not. The whole problem is the “all the answers” business. If you connect to your innate being, you will notice an inner cosmos so vast you know there are no answers to the most important questions. And you are likely to find out that this absence can only be answered by faith, and in that experience, there is no conflict. However, to appreciate this, you don’t need to sit on a mountaintop staring into your bellybutton (though that would teach you plenty). Your existence can be tuned to the “ritual de la habitual.” That offers the cosmic beauty in activities as ordinary as making breakfast or cleaning a room. If there exist any great mysteries at all, they may be present in anything you do, at any time you do it. True love may exist in every person because it can exist within you. Dare yourself to find out.
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Related article for STARCAST below
Somewhere In Between :: Pluto Into Aquarius
Dear Friend and Reader:
As my established readers know, this is the time of year when I am working on the annual edition of Planet Waves — extended, premium-quality audio and written readings for the coming year.
We are heading for a most unusual experience in 2024 as Pluto changes signs — a rare event for all of us, and rare enough for astrologers to confront and address. Today I want to tell you a little about the annual, my process of creating it, and the astrology I’ll be exploring. The result will be 12, one-hour audio readings and 12 book-quality written readings applicable to your Sun, Moon and rising signs.
Most people are not in therapy these days; most cannot afford to work with an astrologer, and there are not so many worthy of your trust. But I think we all need an orientation point and a place to unwind from all the social pressures on us now. My intent here is to make both top-quality astrology and the sanctuary of therapy available to everyone, affordably.
This is my 26th year doing the Planet Waves annual edition. Most have been written and many have combined written with audio. I’m approaching the end of doing these, but I am fired up for 2024. That is as much as I can promise; be aware this may be the last set of annual readings.
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Planet Waves Weekly for November 16th, 2023 by Eric Francis
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Scorpio is said to be one of the more emotional signs, though that does not necessarily mean that you feel. As we go deeper into the digital age, feeling is being conditioned out of the human experience; or perhaps noticing feeling is being filtered. You may recognize your need to tune into the messages of your body and the energy that moves through it. Yet in these benighted days, the problem with feeling is that it would lead to so much sadness and grief. Once that begins, you may fear, it would never end. Though if you actually notice what is going on within your deeper layers of awareness, you will not drown. You contain yourself and can hold any internal experience that you have. You are not wholly alienated from yourself. Be grateful you have the capacity for actual human sensations and desires.
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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The last few days before the Sun enters your sign are always a combination of strange and intense. This is especially true now, with a diversity of factors raising the pressure and the emotional stakes. You may not even know what you’re feeling, much less understand it, though pausing to reflect would make a good start. See if you can get yourself to a body of water — any one will do — and reflect quietly, perhaps in the hours just after sunrise. It will be worth getting up early and finding your way to a lake, a stream, a river or a shore of some kind, and being alone with your thoughts and your feelings. You may discover that a relatively small matter was magnifying itself like a shadow on the wall, cast by a candle. Take a good look at it and ease through the next few days until the Sun enters Sagittarius (at about 10 am Eastern Time on Nov. 22).
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Hang Loose: Standoffish New Moon in Scorpio
Dear Friend and Reader:
Scorpio is the sign of hormonal desire and the drive to connect, to merge and to create life. Monday, the Moon and the Sun align in the dark and mysterious 8th sign for the annual New Moon here. This event would be quite enough on its own to draw up the waters from inside the cave systems deep beneath awareness.
Yet the New Moon is also joined by Mars and Ceres, which are infusing the nearly unstoppable emotional prowess of the sign of the Scorpion (who never changes his nature). It is my assessment that the whole concept of Scorpio, with its associations of sex and death, is much of what makes people nervous about astrology in total. It is the sign of all taboos; of all that you cannot mention at the holiday dinner table.
When we consider that Scorpio is a fixed water sign, one might think: how do you ‘fix’ (set, or hold still) the substance that can penetrate everything? How does one make permanent the very element that is never so? How does one fasten the unfastenable?
Examples of ‘fixed water’ might include fossilized seawater, permafrost, or an iceberg so massive nothing can survive colliding with it. If you can think of other examples from nature, I am curious what they are. (A glacier is more of an active process; I would associate them with cardinal earthy sign Capricorn.)
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Planet Waves Weekly for November 9th, 2023 by Eric Francis
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You are the power source of your life. You, not someone else, are your inspiration; the light of your world. The gift of your existence is your personal canvas of creation. Our societies and all they teach exalt relationships above all else. This is a distraction from your most important relationship, which is with yourself. I am not talking about some kind of “individualism” or an anti-social approach to life. Rather, the world you see around you exists because you are in it; because you are here to live within it. You may have limited options within the setup you see, though part of your creative ability is about making possibilities for yourself and understanding the true meaning of potential. In terms of relationships, you can only share what you already have. And nearly all of what you think you need from others you can provide for yourself. Understand this and you will grow toward a simpler, more spacious existence. Any drama is merely a distraction.
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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — The New Moon taking place in the most sensitive angle of your chart — Scorpio — is an invitation to align with yourself. There are matters that have been causing you anxiety, which you may discover was caused by engaging in a form of denial. For you this often takes place in the form of minimizing your feelings, or compartmentalizing something that should be a priority that you address directly. It may help significantly if you have a conversation partner here, one who is not directly influenced by what you have to say. You have some getting accustomed to your feelings to do before you can express them in a coherent way to someone they may influence. When an issue or set of feelings has been placed in its own room for a long time, it’s necessary to integrate it into the rest of your mind and body. The time has arrived to get that process started.
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Of Jonah and Henrietta
Dear Friend and Reader:
Friday night, my beloved canine friend of 12 years left this world, naturally, without narcotics or medical intervention. Jonah Kelly Francis and I were together nearly all the time from the day I adopted him at age 5. Our dear friend Henrietta Saint Francis left this world in October 2021. Today, on Day of the Dead, I am standing up for both of them together.
Jonah arrived in 2012 by way of a girlfriend named Maggie Kelly who was on her way to Hawaii. The first time I met Jonah, the very first thing he did was bite me. He was miffed about something; maybe they had had a little spat; Maggie plopped him on my couch and went back to the kitchen.
I got down on the floor to greet him, extended my hand, and met his teeth. You might say it was love at first bite. I knew he was setting boundaries and establishing mutual respect. It was just a little warning nip.
Before she moved to Hawaii, Maggie had the choice between assigning Jonah to me or to her mother, who was putting her under some pressure to leave Jonah with her. Maggie and I took Jonah for a walk one evening right before she left. I said, “Maggie, he’s your dog.” She spent the night at my place and Jonah stayed with me.
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Planet Waves Weekly for November 2nd, 2023 by Eric Francis
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — You’re in a new stage of potential in your relationships, though to make that real, the creative spark has to come from you. The heat, the light, the ideas, the motivation, must start with you. However, you may discover that ultimately this is not about relating to anyone but yourself. You know this on some level: that your partnerships are a reflecting foil. You don’t need them as much as you think you do, or for the reasons you think you do. Imagine if you woke up one day released from all the connections, commitments and entanglements of your life. If you could consciously choose only what you want, I reckon it would be simpler than what you now have. Yet your present scene is mostly driven by your desires and complexity. Important people in your life have been moving toward greater independence for quite a long time.
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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — If there is conflict in your life, do not be so quick to trust it. By trust, I mean take it seriously, or assume that it’s valid. It’s likely, and close to certain, that any strife is coming from a source other than what seems obvious. So begin with some healthy skepticism and then based on that, try not to get too involved, or to act on any “hunches.” Whatever you’re experiencing is bubbling up from a source other than what you may think. It may take some time to work out what that is, and it may have roots in the distant past. Also not to bring up anything too personal in a horoscope millions of people will read, but are you able to express yourself sexually in any of the ways that you need? Your imagination seems to be rather rich at the moment, and you might look for creative partners in this important facet of life.
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Planet Waves Monthly for November 2023 by Eric Francis
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — The challenge this week comes down to one question, really: what are you trying to say? Therefore, when you do say something, perhaps don’t be so declarative about it. That will be difficult with Mercury, the Sun and Pluto lining up, making it seem like you must express yourself with tremendous urgency. If you must, write a song, or a poem, or an essay — something created with a gust of passion that you can rewrite a few times. In fact, it’s altogether better if you have something to say, to type it, save it to your drafts folder (if you’re old enough to know what that is), and look at it in an hour. You will find that there is much you don’t need to say, and much that you say that you can temper. This same astrology will be excellent for solving problems, as long as you let your proposed answers sit for a couple of days so that you can correct the flaws in your thinking. If you don’t find any, you’re not looking carefully enough. But overall, your proposed theory will be correct — even if some fine tuning is required.
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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You may not like the feeling of being constrained and limited, both in your home environment and in the need for discipline in your emotional inner space. Yet working within a structure and boundary will serve you in many ways. The growth lesson here seems to be about having negotiable, movable dividers rather than fixed and inflexible ones. The idea is to divert your energy and attention rather than to bind it up. You need reminders of the places where you begin and where other people end. At the moment you have so much energy welling up inside that it needs somewhere to go. Generally when the psyche is overloaded, a typical response is projection: give it to someone else; assign it to someone close to you. Yet this is the problem that I suggest you fully commit yourself to working out. You may have feelings that are difficult to express to an intimate partner. You might begin by expressing them to someone who will not be threatened by an honest recounting of your fears, needs and desires. It will be easy enough to deny these things, and pretend they have no real influence on you. Yet tuning them out will not help anyone. You don’t need to be under this kind of pressure. If anything is taking a toll on your body or your creative expression, you must vent some of these feelings and concerns. Doing so in a controlled environment such as with a massage therapist who is a good listener would make a fine start.
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“The machinery of destruction is complete, poised on a hair trigger, waiting for the ‘button’ to be ‘pushed’ by some misguided or deranged human being or for some faulty computer chip to send out the instruction to fire. That so much should be balanced on so fine a point — that the fruit of four and a half billion years can be undone in a careless moment — is a fact against which belief rebels.” — Jonathan Schell
Dear Friend and Reader:
Lord knows we have enough to worry about. Many people with the longest list struggle just to get through the day — one day. They don’t face the week or the month or the quarter or the fiscal year.
They wonder how they’re going to make it through the morning. And the rest of us are pretty stretched. We don’t need any more. We don’t need the world to be any less stable than it’s become.
By all indications, it looks like every effort is being made to drag Iran into this latest outbreak of war in West Asia. What we are seeing is not so new, but really the inflammation and exploitation of tribal conflict that goes back not to Biblical days but somewhere around 1948. That is when one country (Israel) was imposed by the victors of World War II on another country (Palestine).
I understand that there is an ancient claim to what we are told is this land, said to be commanded in the Torah. I am also concerned that if I express my observations about this problem, my many Orthodox Jewish friends and Israeli stepmother will never talk to me again.
I’m not here to critique the idea of a Jewish homeland. To me, that is an important and necessary idea. Yet and as my teacher, the late Arthur Joseph Kushner, advisor to rabbis, used to say: “This cannot be about land. All there is out there is land.”
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Planet Waves Weekly for Oct. 5, 2023 by Eric Francis
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Do not let others pressure or force you into making a decision. Yet closer to the point is, be mindful of imaginary pressures that seem to be coming from family, when in reality nobody is leaning on you. It’s merely your own guilty conscience or attachment to the past that is seeming to wrap you around its finger. You can do something about that, by being honest with yourself about what is real and what is not. I know these lingering past influences (in Sanskrit, samskaras, or latent past impressions) can seem real and present — though the point is, they are phantoms of history, whether real or imagined. Yet they have a way of running the lives of many people who have not updated their files. You don’t need ghosts from the past consuming your time, energy and attention; you don’t need figments distracting you from making your choices your way. If you feel a guilt reaction, you can be sure you’re being confronted by one of them.
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Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — The challenge this week comes down to one question, really: what are you trying to say? Therefore, when you do say something, perhaps don’t be so declarative about it. That will be difficult with Mercury, the Sun and Pluto lining up, making it seem like you must express yourself with tremendous urgency. If you must, write a song, or a poem, or an essay — something created with a gust of passion that you can rewrite a few times. In fact, it’s altogether better if you have something to say, to type it, save it to your drafts folder (if you’re old enough to know what that is), and look at it in an hour. You will find that there is much you don’t need to say, and much that you say that you can temper. This same astrology will be excellent for solving problems, as long as you let your proposed answers sit for a couple of days so that you can correct the flaws in your thinking. If you don’t find any, you’re not looking carefully enough. But overall, your proposed theory will be correct — even if some fine tuning is required.
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Why do things keep getting worse?
Dear Friend and Reader:
IF NUCLEAR WAR BREAKS OUT, at least I’ll have enough preserved garlic in olive oil to last for a while. And I probably have a three-year supply of fermented habañeros. That’s what I am thinking, here on the edge of a solar eclipse in Libra.
But I wonder why.
I wonder why every time something happens, as in some kind of “news event,” the world gets worse. I don’t mean in my personal life, or in yours. It’s possible to improve one’s own lot in life, to a real degree, if you’re determined and you remove obstacles and you stick to it and are somewhat lucky, and all that.
This does not work for everyone, however. Those of us with good lives, or pretty good ones, need to remember: there is a big “other half.” Many places, they burn plastic to cook food and stay warm.
I mean the world itself. Global and national problems that existed when I was a child are no better today, and most are far worse: a world constantly at war, people enslaved by and dying from narcotics, the pandemic of cancer and chronic illness, six billion prescriptions a year sold in the United States (up from 4 billion when I checked a few years ago, and nobody any healthier for it). Then there’s the trafficked, abused and neglected children, failing relationships, lonely people, hungry people, environmental degradation, greed as the motivation for most actions, the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and everyone in between squeezed.
Where exactly is the progress? I thought that’s what our civilization was all about.
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Planet Waves Weekly for Oct. 5, 2023 by Eric Francis
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — The forthcoming solar eclipse in your birth sign or rising sign may have you feeling edgy without knowing why. The sensation might be like a bubble building, and you’re wondering when it will burst. What is more likely to happen is that the air will rush out and equalize the pressure between you and your environment. Till then, do your best to live in harmony with yourself and whatever you may be feeling. That’s passive, though. The action to take in the region of an eclipse (which takes place on the 14th) is to emphasize what you want. Your choices, attitudes, and how you spend your time will have a way of establishing a pattern you can work with. At the same time, be prepared to drop what you don’t need and don’t want. Even small steps in this direction can be rewarded by positive results, and a new sense of potential. We may have limited freedom in this life, though we do have some — and it’s always either activated or cast aside in the moment when you are able to make a decision.
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Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — With Mars in your sign, you may be living with gusto. Yet beware of potential blind spots in all that you do. That’s the thing that can hide a whole truck next to your right fender — if you don’t turn your head and take a look before you change lanes. It will help to slow down just a little, and stay in tune with the vibe coming through your close social circle. There’s intelligence available from certain friends, most of them female, that will temper your passion and provide you some guidance and even wisdom. This will help you make the most of your emotional drive while avoiding some of the pitfalls, such as giving the impression of being insensitive. Think of your friends like animals in a forest, whose sounds and behavior give you a clue to what you might not otherwise be aware of. In this sense they serve as extensions of your own consciousness. Every bit will help, if you listen, and tune your frequency through emotional resonance and dialog.
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Check Your SMS for the False Flag Alien Invasion
Dear Friend and Reader:
Now we know — the alien invasion will be announced by text message.
On the afternoon of Oct. 4, the United States, Russia and Colombia each tested nationwide cell phone alert systems in their respective nations. If Russia is our enemy in the Ukrainian war, why is it coordinating with the United States on a digital systems test?
And I thought Colombia was a university; it turns out to be a whole country.
One minute I think I know everything, and the next minute I am totally confused. Is this some new geopolitical axial alignment? Is there some plan for little green men to “invade” only those three countries?
One day you’ll remember I said it would be a false flag event, then you’ll open your closet and two of them will be standing there rummaging through the pockets of your winter coat, feigning startled looks on their faces.
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Planet Waves Weekly for Oct. 5, 2023 by Eric Francis
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — If you move with precision, you can resolve a critical matter once and for all. Everything is aligned. Just be sure you’re impeccably organized and possess genuine understanding of your situation. This includes being able to interpret the same facts from a diversity of viewpoints, so you have all of the counter-arguments covered. As in judo, utilize the force coming from others and turn it against them. This requires minimal effort on your part, and mostly the use of leveraging one thing or idea on another to get your desired result. Situations are not as dangerous as they seem, though you must not use any of your own disadvantages against yourself. And of course don’t let on what they are. Leverage means saying less rather than more — though ensuring that you say the right thing at the right time. Your presently high visibility is a factor. Use that to your advantage.
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Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — If you stick to working on important long-term matters this week, rather than immediate dramas, you will do well for yourself. There will be little making sense of personality dynamics, and it’s possible to avoid them — rather than play into them — especially in any work-related matters. But you will need to monitor your anxiety level, because that could drag you in. Your colleagues have a much different approach to their commitments than you do; they are not so invested, and so their words and actions often mean less. Hence, you can skip past any tempests in the kettle, and stick to what truly makes a difference to you, and what will help you in the future. Do this a few times and you may decide that the dramas were there only as distractions from your most urgent life priorities. You can leave that to others; it’s a popular product, but you don’t need it.
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Notes, Photos and Charts for the new STARCAST
Advertisement for Grief
Is there some mischief planned for during the 10/4 national communications test — or is the drill itself the issue?
Dear Friend and Reader:
First, let’s start with an idea from media studies: In the current digital environment, everything is equally true and/or false. In terms of allegedly meaningful perception, the distinction is gone.
The scenario often goes a little like this: “If I believe something, it’s true. If you believe something, that is merely your opinion.”
At the same time, anything can be faked — except for what you think is real. Therefore, in the everyday sense, truth or falsity is a difference without a distinction. What is true is often tossed off as something inconvenient, and this is then “supported” with “proof.” Does that make the actual truth less true?
All Ideas are Alive in Consciousness
I used to be offended by this issue; it is offensive to reason, and made-up facts do not actually support opinions. However, consider that in our time, an idea (any idea) is either “in play,” or it is not. Either way, it is still active and alive in consciousness.
Whether anyone thinks something is false or true, the Dharma remains unchanged. Believing lies, or making them up, causes problems for us — not for the Dharma.
If you’re lost in the wilderness and you are fortunate enough to have a compass, you’re free to smash it with a rock. North is still north.
We get the choice to act in accord with the Dharma, or not. That is free will. You are entitled to sleep through your whole life if you want. To live in denial is your divine right. We are here, in part, to figure that out.
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Planet Waves for October 2023 by Eric Francis
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Be careful of the temptation to force any situation, while trusting that you will work it out. Beware of any drive to get your way that rises from below. These things are going to be present as Mars makes contact with Pluto and stokes your need for power. In New Age terms, you’re working through some root chakra issues, and for the next few weeks will be easily triggered into fight-or-flight mode. Right now, force seems to be the solution to everything, but it’s nothing of the kind. It’s really a trap. So ease on through situations, using careful planning and evaluation of the facts; they are on your side, but not if you don’t notice them, and not if you don’t use them wisely. The same planetary pattern is here to teach you how to gain influence over the affairs of your life. It’s granting you plenty of leverage in this endeavor, too. Yet the criteria remain the same: the use of strategic planning, using leverage where needed, and applying no force. Since hardly anyone lives in the physical world anymore, the notion of leverage is not really understood. A pulley system uses leverage to make things seem lighter; shifting a bicycle into low gear enhances leverage; having knowledge and good timing provides leverage in the mental world. Ideas are leverage; listen to yourself, and inquire of those who know more than you do.
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Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — The time has come to understand your anxiety. That means not living with it as if it were a given, but rather noticing how your mind and feelings work – and asking the right questions. You might say that to understand is the opposite of overlook. ‘Under’ really means among, therefore, to stand among your feelings, rather than to bypass. Admit that there are qualities of yourself that you don’t understand, and may have denied. It will help to admit that in our time, feeling is considered a waste of energy and source of possible disturbance. However, if I may be so bold as to say, you need to comprehend yourself better. There are things you take for granted, and take as entitlements, that call for careful evaluation. In fact, others do understand you, and if they do, and you do not, you will be subject to their will and their intentions. Continuing to riff on the notion of ‘understand’, it also means to be close to, and in the presence of; and in reality, we are not talking about feelings in some abstract sense but rather, working with who you are, how you feel and what you want. Your contradictions are not yours to hold against yourself or others, but rather an invitation to inner dialog. Simply put, you don’t need to be afraid of yourself.
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Notes, Photos and Charts for the new STARCAST
Libra Equinox: Of Integrity, Justice and Beauty.
Humanity has always had a little going for it, and these days it seems to have ever less. But two things we count on to preserve our sanity and give ourselves reasons for continuing on are beauty and justice.
And we depend on integrity — commitment to truth and honesty — to get through the day, though we expect them to exist in others more than in ourselves.
Libra is a metaphor for all of these qualities. It’s the sign of balance, associated with the planets Venus (representing love, beauty, and value) and with Saturn (integrity, structure, and the reality principle). Libra offers an outbound and masculine expression of Venus; it’s more about action than its laid-back cousin Taurus, which usually prefers to stay home and have things delivered.
Life has come to the point where we never expect anything or anyone to be fair. In fact, it’s easy to evaluate nearly everything as a scam, a trap or at least to be skimming the profits. Then people cheer the billionaires as debt soars, food prices rise and the economy slowly tanks. We are starving for fairness and justice, which are essential to liberty.
What we think of as love so often ends in conflict. What we believe is integrity often turns out to be a mirage; an image. Astrology teaches us that these core concepts are preserved, undamaged, within the Dharma.
What we think of as beauty is being reduced to technology. And despite all the goddess-talk, it’s becoming illegal to perceive a woman as beautiful.
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October Monthly Readings, Part One.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — There is a reason why financial matters are treated with such taboo: they involve secrets, they touch on issues of death and legacy, and people tend to treat money as if it was some occult, mysterious object rather than a storage device for energy. The way to handle taboo is to call it what it is, and to dance with fear rather than cow down to it. Yet there is another factor that impacts you directly. Financial freedom is personal freedom. You are aware that, on one level, your ability to make choices depends on your resources. And at the moment, your astrology is saying to get your own, and to be minimally dependent on others. For many people, the appeal of relationships involves a monetary arrangement, which is then cast as love or partnership. You will make useful discoveries if you peel back the layers and look closely at the dimensions of your agreements. What would you do if you suddenly had all the resources that you needed? What about your situation would you change? That would be an honest assessment of how you really feel. Then the question moves to, do you need to take action in any event?
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Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Relationships of all kinds have been under scrutiny the past couple of months, and once again this comes to a head in the chart for the Sun entering your birth sign. Slowly, the fog is clearing. The truth is emerging, though this often happens through confrontations — not your favorite thing. Gradually, you are determining what is necessary, what is harmful, and what you want and do not want. With the Sun moving through your sign, and a solar eclipse forthcoming, think of this moment as a phase of sorting out. Be grateful every time you’re faced with a decision, and make a choice. Pay attention to how many situations in your life are the result of not deciding rather than consciously exercising your discretion and your power to choose. While much of life seems to be a popularity contest, in truth, that does not apply to any issue that actually matters. It would be best to remember that people decide how they feel about you; you have no control over that. But you do have control over whether you’re true to yourself, and whether you honor your own opinion rather than wondering what the neighbors may think. I know that has never seemed to matter more, and in reality it has never mattered less.
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Virgo, Pisces and the Corruption of Healing
Dear Friend and Reader:
Virgo is the sign of healing. We could weave many yarns around how it evolved that way from a primary association with agriculture and food storage, though it has. Virgo, a cousin of the 6th house, represents practitioners, treatment spaces, and is worth studying for all matters of health and wellness.
Virgo’s association with food is a reminder to “let food be thy medicine.” In my experience, the food we eat is the single most significant determiner of wellness.
The expression has a second part, though these days, it’s not safe to “let medicine be thy food,” since it was probably made in a lab in China, and you don’t know the safety or cross-reaction data. (My guest on Friday’s Planet Waves FM, Rebecca Culshaw, will be talking about off-label use of pharmaceuticals.)
Chiron is Associated with Virgo and Sagittarius
When Chiron was discovered in 1977, and named for the first surgeon and teacher of medicine in Greek mythology, it became associated with Virgo. For more than 46 years, this association has gradually strengthened.
Though I prefer not to use the term “planetary ruler” with modern discoveries, Chiron has a strong affinity to Virgo — one of its two most important facets.
The other is the questing aspect of Chiron, which has a strong affinity to Sagittarius. These two primary and equally important expressions of Chiron are the topic of another article.
Speaking of Chiron, Mars in Libra is about to make an opposition to it. This happens once every two years, and is the full expression of both planets. It makes available a kind of spiritual warrior quality that we need dearly today.
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Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope for Sept. 14, 2023
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Mercury stationing direct in your sign later this week will help you unravel several complicated and seemingly urgent situations you’ve been dancing with for the past month or so. However, that will include the discovery that maybe they were not so pressing after all; and that the thing missing was a vital bit of information that suddenly makes things much simpler. The reason to wait until after Mercury retrograde to make decisions and life maneuvers is specifically because you may not know what you do not know. You might not even know the question exists. Mercury stationing direct always comes with a peak of data and other revelations that can shift your view and allow you to either sidestep potential problems or confront them with much greater efficiency. The motto of Mercury retrograde should be printed on a coin that says, “It’s worth the wait.”
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Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Everyone is a big star, though you’re getting a moment to shine brightly. Yet here is the question, and it pertains to every topic. For instance: If you visit the Great Pyramid at Giza, do you take a selfie and say to everyone, “Look at me! I’m here!” — or do you walk up to the thing, take some detailed photos, and a few perspective shots, and write detailed, accurate captions? You may say it’s not a choice of one or the other. But I disagree. Either the world is all about you, or the world is all about what you learn, observe and discover. The difference pertains to your mental orientation. Your life is always about you. That can mean putting your body in front of something, or revealing what you are witnessing. Which is more relevant? Which one will you be able to study in the future, and keep learning from? Now, apply this question generally.
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The Light in Virgo, and All Those Retrogrades
Dear Friend and Reader:
Virgo sunlight is unusual. I don’t know what it is, though it’s a whole different shade of illumination than even weeks earlier in the summer. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are growing shorter as we approach equinox.
The Sun’s arc across the daytime sky is lower, and the degree of sunrise is creeping south along the horizon. You can watch it day-by-day make its trek along the Catskill Mountains as seen from a reservoir nearby.
The air is thick and still, with the feeling of the last weeks of summer camp. Here in New York, it’s a lush time of year.
Many Planets Retrograde
I’ve seen some commentary about how many retrograde planets there are. The reason for this is that most of the slow-movers are to one side of the Sun. In order, they are Uranus, Jupiter, Eris, Chiron, Neptune, Nessus, Saturn, Pluto and Pholus.
These are all bodies that are retrograde every year for several months; they just happen to be close together at the moment, spanning about 120 degrees of the sky.
The effect may be uncomfortable: a calling to be introspective in a time when we are being sucked out of ourselves and our inner awareness by the digital environment. It may also seem difficult to make progress, in the outer sense. Yet there is plenty of progress to be made on the interior aspects of existence, which are now more important than ever.
There is much inner work to be done — and most people are dismissing it. This was true before the iPhone, but it’s never been easier to avoid yourself, your feelings or the necessities of growth.
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Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope for Sept. 7, 2023
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Mercury stationing direct, followed by the New Moon in your sign, is granting you an opportunity to start over in some significant way. But use these last days of the retrograde, and of the lunar cycle, to get obstacles out of the way. You may not be able to move or resolve everything that is obstructing your path. But you will do well if you address one small matter, and one large one. That’s all you need to do in order to get the momentum going; to get into solutions mode, rather than being stuck in go-round-and-round mode. Think of the issues you work out as being ritual objects. Take care of one important matter, and imagine you are taking care of others in effigy; or in a practical sense, inventing a way to handle all similar issues. You could do something ordinary like sort out all your papers and paper mail; that will help you get a sense of control or mastery.
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Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — If Mars in your sign is making you feel unstoppable, then you had better stop. Pace yourself; pause and reflect regularly. Take note of what you think must be done at a particular time, and verify whether that is true. Libra possesses a quality unusual among all the signs, which I call the “human blow torch.” You can turn yourself down to a barely-perceptible flame; you can turn yourself up to the level of a rockstar on a moment’s notice. Mars is pushing you to turn your flame all the way up, when this is not necessary. Your words, deeds and actions have influence and impact beyond what you can perceive. So you don’t need to strive for much; invest your awareness in gently directing the flow of your life rather than ramping it up, or pushing the river. Said another way, conserve energy. You don’t need any extra heat or flame right now.
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Astrology Studio for Virgo
Planet Waves September Monthly Horoscope
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You may be getting the message to turn your attention to your finances, and if you are, run with it. There are two stages to this, one being order and organization with numbers and records, and the other being the motivation to succeed. Yet for you, this cannot have the meekest tinge of greed, by which I mean, money for its own sake. You’re usually far from that mentality, though the fear of being this way can creep up on you. The thing to focus on is beauty rather than wealth. You will know you’re doing the right thing because the effect of your actions is to bring balance and elegance to the world around you. Depending on the circumstances, this requires drive and passion. There are subtle ways to go about it, like keeping a garden, and they certainly count; they will contribute to your positive state of mind. Yet it seems there is something you want to move forward in a bolder and more public way. There’s an interesting parallel between your solar chart and that of Leo, above — you might read that entry and note the ways that it applies to you. The common thread is integrity. Care and caution are required to safely handle power in any form.
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Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Mars moving through your sign is pushing you to make your mark on the world. It will also dredge up all the reasons in the past that you have not done so. You may be familiar with how, when you step up your energy, you uncover a new layer of concealed issues that you must work through efficiently, or they slow you down. These are likely to relate to family matters, as Mars is talking to potent, slow-moving elements currently in Capricorn (your 4th solar house): that’s the family part. This is stuff that may be about your grandparents, though really it will go back to your “tribal” history (your nationality, your family’s immigration story, and related matters). You can draw strength from the discoveries you make, and from tapping into the strength of your bloodline. Overall, this is a time to connect to your ancestors. Dust off their photos. Say their names. Remember who they are, and tap into the ones who loved you the most. You can even visit their graves and pay homage to their lives any way you can. These slow-moving aspects are not going anywhere any time soon; you will be living with them for a long time. Consider them an oil well, or a vein of gold.
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Living at the Edge
Dear Friend and Reader:
Wednesday morning I woke up early and thought I would drive north toward an obscure state road called 23A, which winds through the Catskills. My not-so-firm plan was to visit the Schoharie Reservoir and write the rest of the horoscope in the Prattsville Diner nearby.
These are ordinary places, nothing special; it just seemed like the thing to do. My sleep schedule is all over the place since returning from Thailand on Saturday, so I’m taking advantage of being awake near daybreak, and doing something different when I am.
On the way, I drove right past the entrance to the North-South Lake camping area, a state park with an astounding view of the entire Hudson Valley. I turned around and went back the 100 feet to the little road leading there. It was a few miles to the entry booth, where I paid my $10. Another mile or so to the very end, and I parked at a shady spot on a cul-de-sac at the edge of nowhere.
The Unusual Sensation of Peace and Silence
On the cliff where I was headed once stood the Catskill Mountain House, the hotel that began tourism in this region when it was near-wilderness back in 1824. The Mountain House was a big deal, offering a stunning view that inspired the Hudson River Valley school of painters.
In that era, visitors would take a steam ship up the Hudson from New York City, then a train across the valley, then a five-hour stagecoach ride, and at times, a special elevator. The hills were so steep on the 2,200 foot climb from the valley floor, the well-heeled passengers in tuxedos and gowns would have to get out and walk so the horses could pull their coach up the incredibly steep hills.
My trip was much easier. The place is about 45 minutes from my door. With some practice, I learned how to get there last summer (first, to the campground, the correct parking area near the trailhead and then out to the cliff, with my gear, in the dark) all to photograph sunrise.
Hardly anyone was there on a late August weekday morning. At the top, I was treated to about 45 minutes of having the place to myself — the utter silence and solitude of being in the sky, but on the ground.
Gone was the din of society and of the ubiquitous fear that infuses it. The enveloping peace came with an odd but lovely sense of relief, like the experience of a machine suddenly being turned off, and a drop of pressure, realizing it was dominating your mind from the background.
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Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope for August 24, 2023
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Venus retrograde is working its way through your sign. This journey is about re-thinking what you do, and how you relate to what is called “career” or “vocation.” Suddenly, nearly everyone has been thrust into the anarchy of the gig economy, and there are no tidy professional trajectories. There is hardly such a thing as a job, and even people who have one often have three or four other things going on. The important underlying question is your purpose or motivation for doing anything. You’re in a stage of growth when your actions must be directed by something very close to the core of who you are. In our time, nearly everything is driven by appearances, fast profits or getting a lot of clicks. Most people expect nothing to be real, or to have any value. Your purpose is in some other direction than all of these things: toward your core truth, and your soul’s calling. Therefore, lead the way.
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Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Though few ever write about it, the theme of nobility runs through your birth sign. This has many inferences, though one of them is that your life and what you offer bring something forward from the distant past. This is more about a spiritual inheritance than it is about royalty. And what you may possess and what you may know only has value in its expression, rather than being held for some future time or special purpose. That time and that purpose are now. Everything you’ve been through has led you to this moment. Everything you brought into this life has its relevance in the life you’re living, and the world you see. You’re being guided to give forth, not to hold back; to share, and not to keep; to speak, and not to be silent. The only way to determine whether you have the value you suspect you have is to conduct what seem like bold experiments. Looking back, they will seem like they were the thing to do.
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STARCAST Astrology Update; Integrity Alert — Slippery When Wet
Journey Without Distance – A Course in Miracles
Notes, Photos and Charts for the new STARCAST
STARCAST: Back in New York
Update: Astrology Et Al
Dear Friend and Reader:
Greetings from Sumai, Thailand. This is my last night here, and I thought it was a good time to check in with an update and look at the astrology.
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STARCAST from the Arctic Circle to Bangkok: Venus conjunct the Sun
Dear Friend and Reader:
I was not expecting to be flying over the Arctic Circle today, nor to be in Bangkok, but here I am. I’ve got a STARCAST for you, covering the upcoming astrology (principally Venus conjunct the Sun), and my current adventures (charts at very bottom).
I have no new writing this week — between preperations and the flight, that just was not happening.
The standout astrology is the interior conjunction of Venus and the Sun, which takes place Sunday. That is followed a few days later by the Leo New Moon.
In the edition, I mention the Venus Transit of the Sun from 2004, a rather extra special interior conjunction; and also the grand cross and total solar eclipse from Aug. 11, 1999. More coverage of that event is in the article Flashpoints. These articles are all Web 1.0 and may look funny on a phone; but doesn’t everything.
Charts and extra images can be found here, nothing more to say. I’ll be in touch next week some time.
Venus Retrograde Trine Eris; Many Conjunctions Forming — Weekly Horoscope Below
Dear Friend and Reader:
This week’s sign readings are tuned to retrograde Venus trine Eris. This aspect is providing a voice and some inner awareness for psychic material that would otherwise be difficult to express.
For many of the signs, there is a message of some new version of yourself taking form within, gathering strength and coming into focus. For others, there is a sense of soul-retrieval, of taking a trip back to the past or to some unusual depth and returning with something forgotten.
Venus retrograde is an ongoing reminder to direct your focus internally rather than onto the projection screen of a relationship.
The Moon, though waning, is still bright, heading toward a series of conjunctions in Pisces and Aries before reaching last quarter in Taurus on Tuesday, Aug. 8. Lots of conjunctions there, too — to Jupiter, Uranus, Albion and others.
Minor Planets in New Signs
A number of slow-moving minor planets I work with are in new signs, some of them for the first time since they were discovered — the extremely distant Sedna, for instance, which has been in Taurus since the mid-1960s, is now in Gemini. Borasisi, out in the Kuiper Belt, is now on the Aries Point, after spending many years in Pisces. Centaur Asbolus has entered Cancer.
This is in addition to the group clustering in early Capricorn — Pholus, Ixion, Quaoar and Apollon — which is about an intense family drama, where some people pretend not to know right from wrong. You will see I draw this into every chart. (Pholus is green.)
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Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope for August 3, 2023
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — There is mystery and revelation in the seeming chaos. To relate to what seems disorganized in a coherent way is an excellent skill — more than about survival, though that’s certainly true. It’s a demonstration that your reality is mostly inside of your consciousness, no matter how much energy is swirling around. Your observations lead to your recognition of the patterns in your environment. Your creativity allows you to do something with them. You can think of “creative chaos” as a precious resource, though mostly it’s a state of mind and feeling where you choose to relate to the world this way. Over the next few weeks, keep your probes out and use them, and you will make some potentially lucrative discoveries about how you manage your finances, and your opportunities.
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Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — The idea of being equal to those around you means that you do your part, and a little extra. Usually, it’s the ‘extra’ bit that makes the most difference, such as how you conduct yourself after a commitment is complete. It is the second mile that you travel for someone that is the most necessary; your willingness to stick around even when you don’t have to and make sure that matters are resolved, and will remain that way. Equality from your point of view entails diligence above what is due. Why is this? Well, we could say, noblesse oblige. Those who have the greater gifts and privileges are called to do more for those who need them, and for a world that needs your example. Your quest for motivation is not just about you; it’s leadership.
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Summoning the Curious
Dear Friend and Reader:
The weather has been interesting here in upstate New York this summer. My preference, after living in many climates, is for weather that changes every few days. That’s what it’s doing here, and I’m noticing this from day to day.
One factor locally has been the claim of wildfires in Canada. This seems to have changed the temperature patterns, and the hue of the light filtering in from the sky. I am sitting about 240 miles from the Canadian border. There have been several bouts of smog here, and as far south as New York City.
This is something new in my experience, though I am curious why I’m not seeing photos of the fires in press reports, or details of the attempts to extinguish them. Mostly I see only photos of the resulting conditions hundreds of miles away — such as the New York City skyline shrouded in orange.
If you look in Google images, you get results — but this should be a dramatic story, the biggest of the summer. Whatever is actually happening, I am sensing an interesting disconnect.
You may know that there is an alternative theory that the smoke is coming from something or somewhere else. The other night, I was reassured by a friend who has personally fought wildfires (as we looked at the haze visible at 100 feet) that it does indeed smell like the right kind of smoke — wood, not chemicals.
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August Monthly Horoscope Part 2, For July 27, 2023
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Everyone, it seems, goes through a phase where they must learn how to say, “I am an artist” or musician or writer or race car driver or whatever you may be. Venus retrograde in your own sign is about aligning your whole being with your aspirations. Practice not hesitating when asked what you do. You don’t need to recite your curriculum vitae, or account for your side-hustles or hobbies. Answer simply and declaratively, so that any discussion focuses on the one thing that matters to you the most. Pay attention to any sense of doubt you may feel, without succumbing to it. This takes practice, and it’s just one stage on the way to embracing the dharma.
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Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Around the time of the Aug. 1 Full Moon, a doorway to your potential opens up, and some fresh currents of energy flow into your being. While there are several important influences coming through Virgo, the connection point is Mars tapping into the wisdom and confidence of Jupiter in Taurus. Any gift is a spiritual one. Underneath whatever may be happening on the level of personality and day-to-day activity, you are connecting with a force that looks like your higher self. You may be filled with the sense of already knowing what is true, and therefore, what to act on. You will not be pushed; anything you do must be a conscious choice, based on your faith in yourself. There are also influences luring you into insecurity, overthinking and a narrow point of view. Perhaps give them a voice, though you will not really have any confirmation of whether you’re right until you take action. That means making a decision and then going with it, no second-guessing involved. This may seem like a dangerous policy, though this is a special moment, and you are ready to taste your true sense of belonging, and some fresh experience of success.
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Introduction to the Venus Retrograde Horoscope
Dear Friend and Reader:
Venus will be retrograde in Leo through Sept. 3. The horoscope below focuses primarily on this one transit pattern. I have placed the formula I’ve used for reading your sign (Sun or rising) in italics below the reading, so you can see what interpretation guidelines I am using.
We are in a phase of the history of consciousness where we are being cut off from our inner senses and our inner life. This is a direct result of digital conditions. If you’re wondering why it’s so difficult for many people to notice something is funny, that’s an inner disconnect.
Start here if you’re looking for information about how strange the world feels right now. Without inner resonance, people cannot feel one another, and cannot understand one another. Empathy is based on interior connection, not exterior.
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Planet Waves Venus Retrograde Horoscope for July 20, 2023, by Eric Francis. August Monthly Part One
Cancer(June 21-July 22) — You are in a period of financial rearrangement, and it’s crucial that you take this rare opportunity to go the whole way. There are at least two layers here. One involves the basics of consolidating your financial power: knowing where you stand with yourself, how much you have, and how much you owe. The more important exercise is aligning your spending and investing with what you personally hold to be valuable. Such an inquiry into values is a rare activity on Earth, and an important point of maturity for you. Most people go through life spending their money where they are forced to do so. The false lesson is that you don’t have a choice, which is another way of saying your resources are not your own.
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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Everyone, it seems, goes through a phase where they must learn how to say, “I am an artist” or musician or writer or race car driver or whatever you may be. Venus retrograde in your own sign is about aligning your whole being with your aspirations. Practice not hesitating when asked what you do. You don’t need to recite your curriculum vitae, or account for your side-hustles or hobbies. Answer simply and declaratively, so that any discussion focuses on the one thing that matters to you the most. Pay attention to any sense of doubt you may feel, without succumbing to it. This takes practice, and it’s just one stage on the way to embracing the dharma.
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Venus Retrograde, Part One:
Whatever Happened to Common Sense?
Dear Friend and Reader:
You may be noticing that society and many people seem to be going insane. While the world has never been an especially rational place, we are watching it go over the top day by day and year by year.
Is anyone paying attention? How many times in recent years have you wondered what happened to common sense?
Have you ever thought about what “common sense” really is? It’s one of those things we all think we understand and yet are unlikely to have looked up or evaluated. And once you have a clue what the term describes, it’s easy to see where it’s gone and why it’s so crucial that we pay attention to this problem.
A standard definition of common sense is “ordinary understanding, without which one is foolish or insane.” This implies: you don’t need an expert opinion; anyone can grasp this. Later it came to mean “good sense,” with a slightly different shade of meaning. Both imply doing what “makes sense” or is “sensible” — and that is the operative concept: sensory perception.
In this essay, I will propose what I think has happened to common sense, and how understanding Venus retrograde may provide a response. If you are concerned about your sense of disorientation, depression or despondency, read on.
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Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope for July 13, 2023
Cancer(June 21-July 22) — Stay on message. Develop talking points and stick to them. This is not always a suitable approach; it’s an urgently necessary one now. Your ideas have added impact now, and you don’t want to waste energy or opportunities, or risk mishaps. Therefore, sleep on things before you send them out (and cannot call them back). Review your written presentations for factual accuracy and tone. When speaking, avoid doing so off the cuff. Usually that works for you, though with Mars in Virgo, you need to aim with precision. That means doing practice runs that include anyone you’re working with. Find the pitfalls in your own ideas, spot potential objections and learn how to answer them. Once you’ve done all that, there will be some room to go with the flow.
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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — There is no room for exaggeration; stick to understatement. Measure your words carefully, and spend your money intentionally. Listen carefully for when others stretch or enlarge the truth to the point where it’s meaningless. With the Sun passing through the most sensitive area of your chart for another week, it’s essential that you be mindful of potential blind spots, missing information and counting yourself out right in the moment when you can be counting yourself in. Venus is moving slowly through your sign, about to turn retrograde. This is calling for careful review of the past 18 months, especially related to your professional goals and your reputation. It’s easy for you to coast along on your charisma and your image. What you want is to be counted on as solid of character, reliable and easy to work with.
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Sage and Spirit
Dear Friend and Reader:
In my seeming “other life,” I’m a reporter who covers scientific issues, particularly fraud. The “other” part pertains not to me but to an audience that demands hardboiled adherence to the scientific method, extreme accuracy and wants everything provable down to five layers of verification provided by a journalistic SWAT team that can document any statement I make in approximately 20 seconds.
In this environment, certain readers accuse me of being an astrologer (and some imply that this might become a scandal, since it’s such a well-concealed secret). Then, I’m sometimes challenged to prove that astrology is scientific. The crusty readers over in that land demand that I provide the evidence.
Here is where I get to have some fun with them. I might ask, “Has there been a scientific study proving that the Beatles made beautiful music?” It’s the same thing with astrology.
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Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope for July 6, 2023
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Everyone has their limits, and you have reached one of yours. Be grateful; you’ve been patient and tolerant, and now you are taking action. What seem like difficult decisions are much easier when you line up the known facts and the known history. The path forward is obvious, even if you’re not sure of your destination. At the center of this plot is your recognition that your resources are primarily to serve your own needs. It’s only when you’ve taken care of yourself that you can safely take care of others. Your role is not to be self-sacrificing but rather to share from a place of abundance; and to receive from others when they offer what they have. Your resources come in many forms besides money — your considerable talent being the first.
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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Work with a methodical, fact-based financial strategy and you cannot go wrong. Yet you must make no assumptions, and every decision needs to be checked against specific goals and methods. Forget the willy-nilly approach to the world which usually takes to nearly everything and stick to the known facts and figures. You’re likely to encounter some challenging obstacles soon into this process, though that’s the time to be extra persistent and to understand the deeper nature of any problem that arises. Do not be discouraged; just keep going — slowly, persistently and patiently. Situations will respond to mental power and not to force. There will be several viable solutions to any puzzle that you face — even very simple ones.
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From Disenchantment to the New Enchantment
— Marshall McLuhan
In his landmark 2006 book Cosmos and Psyche, Rick Tarnas describes the problem of the disenchanted world brought on by the so-called scientific revolution. He describes how the beauty of nature and the cosmos is explained away and demystified by science.
The mystery of the soul is essentially dismissed by psychology and all of its fancy terms and findings.
Science always seems to be saying, “There, it all makes perfect sense. We’ve proven it.” (And in psychology, “Here is your diagnosis. You are officially suffering from a bad case of 302.3.” This sometimes makes people feel better when they think, “At least now I know.”)
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Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for July 2023
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Your solar chart is a map to how you can integrate yourself into the good works going on around you, and invite people into what you’re doing. There’s a delicate balance necessary here, and it’s becoming more difficult to find — which is energy exchange. That means mutual support and investment.
The ethics of the internet have largely taken over physical life, including lots of getting something for nothing. Nobody needs this; it’s terrible for the world, and for self-respect. Negotiating a relationship where everyone benefits is not always easy, and many are off-put by the discussion. Therefore, first, look for the places where it comes naturally and emphasize those relationships. Second, look for the places where there is an imbalance and address that directly, if tactfully. Living an ethical life is not quid pro quo. It cannot be.
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Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — With Jupiter and Uranus going across the midheaven angle of your solar chart, you’re likely to be on a winning streak. You are visible and recognized. This is an excellent time to build your reputation though working for genuine accomplishments (not merely being seen). Yet borrowing a phrase, the question of your charts is more about what you can do for your country than what your country can do for you.
You can do plenty, though there’s currently a trend in the world luring you (and everyone else) to hold back as much as you can. A mean spirit is permeating the social and political environments, and yet you have the capacity to respond with kindness. People are looking to you for an example of how to conduct themselves, especially when there are ethical gray areas involved.
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Northern Solstice: Points of Orientation
Dear Friend and Reader:
Wednesday, the Sun reached its northernmost point along the horizon and entered the tropical sign Cancer. This is the Northern Solstice, indicating the start of summer above the equator, winter below. The Sun rises in that spot for several days (when you say “solstice,” think “stasis” — so we’re still right here).
The seasons and the years go by. We’ve experienced something similar to this many times, living as if it will always happen again. The rhythm of the seasonal changes is one basic pulse of the planet, closely related to how we experience life in our bodies.
Cancer and Capricorn are unusual signs in that they represent extremes of the Sun’s movement relative to the Earth. The Sun does not merely enter those signs; it changes its apparent direction of travel when doing so. That’s a truly unusual property common to only two signs, and one I’ve never heard mentioned as something that could be interpreted.
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In the new STARCAST, I mention two resources, both located on Substack. This is a fantastic publishing platform that integrates email, web, audio, video and discussion. One is My Best Astrology Articles, part one. The other is the formation of a Planet Waves writer’s room. Check out our excellent subscription options — well worth a few bucks a month to support astrology that supports you right back.
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Great Heaven: Sagittarius Full Moon
Dear Friend and Reader:
I’ve got a new horoscope today, and a new STARCAST, and a new article about the June 3 Sagittarius Full Moon (below). First, a few housekeeping points. Today, everything I’m writing is open access to all readers, sponsored by our paying subscribers.
The Sagittarius Full Moon connects to a deep-space point called the Great Attractor, the vortex of the group of 100,000 galaxies where our Milky Way galaxy is located. Everyone reading this has the Great Attractor within one degree of 13 Sagittarius, so this is about all of us.
That coverage is below.
Writing my articles this week about wrapping up Covid19 News after 1,185 days of continuous publication, I figured out I have not had an actual rest since well before all of that began — so I will be taking one for the next couple of weeks.
I can hear the murmurs of, “I told you to do that!” and “What a great idea!” bubbling through the audience.
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Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope for June 1, 2023
Astrology Studio for Gemini is now available for instant access, check out the audio preview below. Professional, therapy-grade astrology for an affordable price.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The Full Moon in your opposite sign is your reminder that the world is much bigger than you think. Yes, we have those “small world” moments, and there are all kinds of interesting connections to be made.
Yet you can also marvel at how much you don’t know and will never see. Remember the untold thousands of people who exist, who you will never know of. But indirectly, through your words, your actions, the images you might make or the thoughts you may hold, you will make contact with their lives.
Let this week’s peak of the Moon remind you how much there is to discover, and how much will go undiscovered. Yet there is an ordering principle of reality. There are energy fields and various shapes of the land, the human environment and the cosmos, that facilitate tendencies of travel, movement and flow. You will benefit from following those now. You can trust them; they contain potential, and will help you get from one place to another more efficiently than you thought possible.
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Cancer (June 21-July 22) — The forthcoming Full Moon in Sagittarius will guide you in the direction of work-related activity: of wanting to do something productive. That’s about as much guidance as you will get, except for the reminder that whatever you think of as your work needs a spiritual angle somehow. Not everyone knows what this is; not everyone cares; it’s likely that you do. What you do for work must have actual meaning, to yourself and to others.
Now would be a great time to practice basing your choices for what you do on what you feel is relevant — rather than what is up next, or what you might get paid for. Money is certainly a value, though there are others. And it can take some practice to connect your income to what is meaningful.
That starts with doing anything at all, simply because it matters to you. And at the same time, remember to factor in your need to address any sense of “I should be doing something else.” How about this as an experiment: Between June 3 and June 5 — for a total of three days — emphasize meaning over any other value in all that you do.
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Astrology: Mental Portal to the Intuitive Realms
THE DIVISIONS between mind, feeling and what is considered ‘spiritual’ are usually arbitrary; there are not firm boundaries and the ideas are not subject to proof. However, it’s possible to approach something cognitively, or by body sensation, or by some other form of inner guidance. Everyone experiences this a little differently.If you experience a dream, it does not necessarily help to assign meaning to all the symbols and figure it out with “logic.” Dreams all have their own internal logic, and how you feel when you wake up is one of your best clues as to what is going on.
What makes astrology unusual is that it’s possible to take a reasoned approach to the realm of what cannot be put into words. The language of astrology provides symbols for things that elude language and mental constructs. It’s the relationship between the map and the ground.
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Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for June 2023
Astrology Studio for Gemini is now available for instant access, check out the audio preview below. Professional, therapy-grade astrology for an affordable price.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — You may find yourself addressing an important issue that you were sure was resolved. Mostly, it is. Whatever may be manifesting is some kind of last gasp, or a matter you may have overlooked. Algorithms don’t go away easily. So take your time and work this out. As you do so, you may discover some wider or deeper connections that you were wondering about.
You don’t have to act on any of this information beyond using it to make personal decisions, though you would be wise to keep it in mind. One thing that has changed is that your responsibilities are no longer strictly private (to the extent that was ever true). You are in a more visible role now, and people are counting on your wisdom.
As Pluto dips back into Capricorn for a few months, you will get to use well-earned lessons about the nature of how so-called reality is pushed on people generally, and on you specifically. Fortunately, you are much older and wiser than you were in 2008, when the journey that is now ending first began. Looking back, that seems like a world or two ago. You could fill several books with what you’ve been through since then, in some of the most challenging areas of living.
Yet if you have not made one particular discovery during this time, you’re in a great position to make it now. You have far more available to you than you think, in terms of both spiritual and material resources. Moreover, you are in a position to manage and allocate the flow of resources within your community — including putting the right people together with one another. You’ve not been accustomed to taking this kind of leadership role any time lately. But using your intelligence suits you well in whatever form you may get to do it.
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Cancer (June 21-July 22) — It’s rare that you wake up and find yourself in a whole new environment. Maybe you’ve had the experience of moving cities with no special plan, and waking up that first morning realizing you can create your life in a whole new way. Well, the cosmos has moved around you. Whole new territories of your life have opened up and been illuminated over the past few weeks.
If you’re the kind of Cancer who stays home a lot, now is the time to get yourself outside. You will find the previously extremely strange social environment to be different from what you remember, but more welcoming than it’s been the past few years. You will need to take the initiative and walk out the door; check events calendars and find something interesting; and be open to meeting new people — that is a choice. Your inherent makeup prefers what is familiar and settled in the social aspect of your life, as well as the domestic one.
You will continue to enter environments that have been deeply affected by the impact of technology. This is inevitable; everyone has. Your interests are what is tactile, warm, emotional and recognizably human. If you keep those senses open, it will be easier to notice who else is doing so.
The question is not whether people are technologically obsessed, but whether they are consumers or creators. And if they are creators, how awake are they? How passionate? How conscious of their potential impact are they? How devoted to understanding their world and its interrelations? Thinking about these things will help you take your philosophy of life to a new level. And as you do, you will find little pockets of affinity — intelligent people who consciously create their world.
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Cannabis and Computers; Saturn and Neptune
Dear Friend and Reader:
TODAY I AM PLANNING to cover some astrology developments — among them the Taurus New Moon, Mercury coming out of storm phase, and Jupiter in Taurus. There’s something in here about the “reality principle,” especially when we bring Saturn in Pisces into the picture.Saturn in Pisces is the answer to Neptune, which has been in Pisces since Spring 2011. I don’t think I’ve said a word about cannabis suddenly becoming legal, just like that. Well, it wasn’t exactly sudden but it seems that way, if you rewind back to the days of buying it from a guy in the park at midnight.
For decades, that pot was illegal has always been something of a joke, unless someone was caught in the “stop and frisk” campaign against minorities; or was stupid enough to leave their pipe and a baggie in the glove compartment, then crash their car. Suddenly making it legal reveals how ridiculous prohibition was — especially during the decades of suburbanites selling pot as a second career.
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Weekly horoscope for May 18, 2023 by Eric Francis. Subscribers may read all 12 signs using the link below. To revive your membership, visit this link or write to us at cs@planetwaves.net.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Life is full of fine lines, and you are standing on one now. You have made some important discoveries the past few weeks. You know that something is developing, and changing for the better.
Some of this is based on exceedingly rare developments, the kinds of things that only happen once or twice in a lifetime. The broader theme of your astrology is your involvement in the wider world. It’s easy for people to hunker down and take care of themselves; it’s easy for most people to be involved and/or distracted by what is immediately around them.
Your astrology is calling you to have a greater vision; to take up the yoke of the changes that all of society is going through; and to use the superior power of your mind to solve problems that affect your whole community, however you define that. One effect of the digital lives that we are living is that everything is a fantasy, or somehow virtual or an illusion. The reality principle is calling on you to take action, and to use your intelligence wisely.
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Mercury stations direct, Jupiter enters Taurus — it’s time for a change, and fortunately, that’s what the planets are describing.
Dear Friend and Reader:
THE NEXT FEW DAYS ARE LIKE an astrological turn-around, with a series of rapid shifts in direction and emphasis. This happens in several stages as the Sun makes its way through the last decanate of Taurus and into Gemini on May 21.The news everyone is waiting for is Mercury stationing direct overnight May 14 to 15 (Sunday to Monday). Mercury’s position has stretched all the way back to early Taurus, and it will start to spring forward in harmony with Saturn and centaur Nessus.
The over-the-top of the events of the past week are likely to vanish into the mists relatively soon. If anyone goes silent, it’s likely due to regretting having overreacted during the conjunction of the Sun and Uranus this past Monday and Tuesday.
Both Saturn and Nessus indicate the ability to make decisions, demonstrate true accountability, and work within a time structure. The whole project of astrology is about using time well, and the Mercury aspect pattern — and Mercury in slow-moving, somewhat meticulous Taurus — wants to pace its moves, and remain aware the flow of events. Awareness is better than control, providing the basis for decisions.
However, be cautious: the Moon is conjunct Neptune at the moment Mercury stations direct, an advisory that says: make sure you have your facts and your perceptions correct. This will require several points of reality-checking, and where Neptune is concerned, there is no validation so good as what’s learned with the passage of time.
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Gemini weekly horoscope for May 11, 2023. Subscribers may read all 12 signs using the link below. To revive your membership, visit this link or write to us at cs@planetwaves.net.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — If you’ve been experiencing anxiety issues lately, Jupiter entering Taurus may help resolve them. It will be easier to think in terms of the affirmative possibilities rather than the detrimental ones. Yet Jupiter can also magnify whatever you are thinking or feeling, including what you’re not quite aware of.
Beware of that potential effect. The challenge you face, if you can call it that, is expanding your notion of what is “spiritual” into every facet of your life. There is something in your charts about exporting what may seem like it should be totally private, into something through which you relate to other people, potentially many. It’s true that one of the lessons of growing older is knowing when not to say anything.
However, it often seems like the people with the most relevant and observant things to say keep silent, while those who know very little say the most. What you know is relevant. The essence of your personal religion involves contact with others, and participating in group evolution. The time has arrived.
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We were promised the apocalypse. The ‘pandemic’ ended not with a bang, but a whimper. Now what?
Dear Friend and Reader:
LAST WEEK, THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) and the U.S. federal government, acting in unison, quietly declared an official end to what they claimed 1,150 days earlier was a global pandemic.There have been no celebrations, no collective sigh of relief, no clanking of pots and pans at 7 pm, and no shared acknowledgment of what we went through. No moment of reflection. Has anyone apologized to anyone for accusing them of being a murderer?
We have yet to reckon with the pain that this massive, induced crisis caused for so many people, and is still causing. We have yet to admit the damage that it inflicted, and most of all, have not admitted the new world order of the “biosecurity state” that it represents.
Even if you think there was a real disease, most would agree that it was horribly exploited and overblown, and that Big Pharma and Big Tech made out big time.
We succumbed to living in a society where people have no rights and where we believed that mere state governors could make “law” by fiat — martial law.
Sadly, all the things done in the name of protecting you have stitched you and your children deeper into the digital prison, and conditioned you to distrust, fear, avoid and even hate your neighbors and your relatives. What was presented as helpful has left us all residents of a more isolated, paranoid, angry and desperate world.
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What’s your price? Scorpio lunar eclipse wants you to sell out your values and principles cheap.
Dear Friend and Reader:
FRIDAY, WE EXPERIENCE a long-anticipated Full Moon eclipse in Scorpio. This takes place in one of the resonant points of the zodiac, precisely at the middle of the Taurus/Scorpio axis.Full Moons have many effects, including inducing a bit of lunacy, stress, insomnia and social tension. This one is causing a little distress. Full Moons also help break deadlocks.
When considering a lunar event in Scorpio, one consideration is that the Moon is exalted in Taurus — the sign opposite Scorpio. It’s a visitor in Scorpio, and not always a welcome one. The Moon is said to “fall” in Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars (thought to be unfriendly to such a sensitive influence as the Moon).
Due to the face-to-face nature of Taurus and Scorpio, a direct relationship is implied. Both signs are about the value of things — Taurus, to oneself, and Scorpio, within the context of others. Taurus is where we have what we have. That includes our stuff, and more than anything, our values and priorities. It’s important to know what those are. I have found that many people struggle with this quite a bit.
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Gemini monthly horoscope for May 2023. Subscribers may read all 12 signs using the link below. To revive your membership, visit this link or write to us at cs@planetwaves.net.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — If you feel, you will notice different possibilities than if you listen to the monologue that passes for “the mind.” To actually think involves a hybrid of a reasoning process with something more sublime.
That something involves examining meaning and context, and feeling your body as you work your way through a question. Your chart is set up for you to make discoveries that you may not fully be able to understand right away. In this, it will help if you slow down. Diverse conditions are in the process of rapidly changing, within you and in your environment. As they do, you will make discoveries about yourself and aspects of your situation that matter.
Yet you’re unlikely to see them right away, as if your eyes need to adjust to different light.You can count on three or four seemingly separate revelations over the next week or so, each of which will build on the next. You will need to be patient with the influence of each, and allow any new awareness to take hold gently — but consciously.
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Gemini Astrology Studio 2023-24
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Gemini monthly horoscope for May 2023. Subscribers may read all 12 signs using the link below. To revive your membership, visit this link or write to us at cs@planetwaves.net
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — There is only one approach to handling your deepest fears, which is a spiritual approach. It’s rare that fear is connected to something you can actually do something about, especially in the short-term.
If you’re afraid of your house burning down, you can check the stove and blow out all the candles, though that may not resolve your anxiety. It’s similar with courage; there is rarely something actually holding back those who summon their will and rise to some occasion — it’s almost always a mental or emotional trip that holds people back.
This month’s lunar eclipse in Scorpio may confront you with your anxieties, particularly material. Mercury retrograde in the same axis of your chart may have you feeling like you cannot influence the direction and flow of your thoughts — or even pin down what you’re thinking. Yet both present opportunities to work out something much deeper, including anxieties that have lingered around for many years. There is a possibility that you feel trapped within the seeming confines of your own mind. That is likely to be the first thing to resolve, with the sensation of something coming loose. At all times, you have the power to make one particular choice, which is whether to listen to the voice of fear or the voice of love.
This is not always easy to work out, because fear is so shrill and demanding of attention. It is relentless, and it’s almost always wrong. Fear needs to be discredited due to its terrible track record of not being at all helpful, though it’s also a habit. The only way to release an old habit is to replace it with a new one — and help is on the way.
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Eclipses: Point Your Canoe Straight Down the River
Dear Friend and Reader:
WE ARE NOW IN THE SEASON OF ECLIPSES. This is another one of those situations where you could say that such events tend to represent an acceleration of the historical process and a concentration of experience. But these days, who can tell?Let’s see if we can sort this out.
A solar eclipse is approaching overnight April 19 to April 20, and a lunar eclipse takes place with the Sun on the Beltane cross quarter, on May 5. Both take place in Mars-ruled signs, Aries and Scorpio.
In the next set of eclipses, coming in October, are both in Venus-ruled signs: the solar in Libra, followed by a lunar in Taurus. I’ve never noticed this kind of pattern; I am curious how it will manifest.
If you look up eclipses in an old book, you will discover that astrologers of yore say they represent blights, pestilences, seditions, anguish, scarcity, plus various mischiefs, sorceries and calamities thrown in for good humor. This is starting to sound like your average day on the planet.
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Aries weekly horoscope for April 13, 2023. Subscribers may read all 12 signs using the link below. To revive your membership, visit this link or write to us at cs@planetwaves.net
Aries (March 20-April 19) — This week’s total eclipse in the last degree of your birth sign is saying that it’s time to wrap up old business. This will involve coming to closure with certain people, claiming what is yours, and “getting your records back” as people used to say (meaning LPs, but it could pertain to financial documents).
This week’s total eclipse in the last degree of your birth sign is saying that it’s time to wrap up old business. This will involve coming to closure with certain people, claiming what is yours, and “getting your records back” as people used to say (meaning LPs, but it could pertain to financial documents).
On one level you may feel like you’re courting total chaos, but really, you are tapping into a kind of raw power that will help you keep your perspective. The debate about whether people are “doers” or “deciders” is settled in the lives of those who declare themselves inventors of their existence.
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When did our present state of insanity begin? Let’s take a walk through media history and see if we can figure it out. It’s not just about digital. It’s about electrical communication at the speed of light.
Dear Friend and Reader:
PLUTO IS NOW IN AQARIUS, and some seemingly new things are happening. For one, a former president has been charged with 34 felonies in a state court in New York. This is the first time a former president has been charged with crimes.Notably, this is after the nearly two-year Mueller investigation found that no election-related crimes (including financial crimes) had been committed. This was followed by two impeachments before Congress.
What is going on here?
Whatever Trump is said to have done is related to sex: that was the nature of the alleged $130,000 payoff. Trump and Daniels did the deed; that is the underlying big deal. Every time you hear this reported in the news, remember that fact.
To some, New York’s prosecution (for 34 counts of failure to keep business records) may provide evidence that nobody is above the law. To me, it’s proof that all of the far worse criminals — from Dick Nixon to Dick Cheney, from the almighty Prescott Bush to George I to George II, and from Tony Fauci to Klaus Schwab — soar high above the law and its worldly grasp.
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New! Press Room — International Coverage of Eric Francis
My Life as a Horoscope Writer
I AM A horoscope writer — the kind whose writing appears in the backs of magazines or next to the puzzles in the newspaper. That’s one of those unusual jobs where someone would definitely wonder how you got into the work. Many people question whether astrology in this form is even real, or how it could be — and hardly anyone has met someone who writes horoscopes.
Very few astrologers dedicate their work to this particular form. Many feel that it’s an insult to their profession. I think of it as astrology’s most elegant and practical medium: 100 words in a magazine, no birth time necessary, for free. If that reaches someone, astrology is serving a purpose.
I’ve written horoscopes for daily newspapers around the world, including the Mail and Mirror in London; the Daily News in New York; the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia; and countless magazines, from Marie Claire to Harper’s Bazaar; from Canadian Home to Flaunt.
I am also an investigative reporter — the old-school kind, who takes years to develop a story. My specialty is scientific fraud associated with chemicals so toxic they are measured in parts per trillion, called PCBs. I cover the history of environmental pollution and how it was concealed from the public, the press and the government. I could step before an audience right now and give an hour presentation on the history of Monsanto, without referring to notes.
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Pluto in a Strange Land readings are ready. Check out the introduction video below, which covers all of the astonishing astrology of March 2023.
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Made in America: Anaretic Pluto
Dear Friend and Reader:
IN THE MIX of all the planetary fanfare we are witnessing — Mars, Saturn and Pluto changing signs, the completion of Mars square Neptune, and the forthcoming New Moon on the Aries equinox — it’s easy to forget about the U.S. Pluto return.That was the big astrological news before the “pandemic.” But it got lost in the gritty sauce of Saturn conjunct Pluto on Jan. 12, 2020 and all that followed. (See full coverage of the unusual events of January 2020.)
Pluto is now in the last degree of Capricorn, after gradually transiting that sign since 2008. When a planet or luminary is in the last degree of a sign, it can behave in strange ways.
This is sometimes described as being “void of course,” which usually applies to the Moon but which can apply to the Sun or any planet. Yet when a planet is in the very last degree, contemporary astrologers call that “anaretic.”
There are many different ways of calculating whether a planet is anaretic, most of them lost to antiquity. Yet in our times, the term means “a planet about to change signs.”
From Greek, the definition of this word is “the destroyer.” This term is not recorded in any etymology dictionary that I know of, and the concept barely makes it into contemporary astrology texts. (So too does the fact that a planet can be void-of-course just like the Moon or the Sun can be.)
Essentially, the anaretic condition portrays the planet as a wildcard, and it must be handled carefully in all contexts (including in a natal chart). Pluto has been pretty wild since it’s been in Capricorn. You can never quite tell what’s going to collapse next. And these events are coming closer together. But now with Pluto in the last degree (where it will be on and off for the next 18 months), we are getting the effect at full strength.
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To the Edge and Beyond
Dear Friend and Reader:
DESPITE ALL THAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD, from East Palestine to Ukraine, the lead story is the astrology of March 2023. Of course, you can only really say this to an astrology audience; however, in case you’re new to the topic, I’ll be developing the theme today. Much of what I’ve written about the past two years comes to fruition in the next five weeks or so.This is some of the most concentrated and all encompassing astrology I’ve ever seen. Even spread out over much more time, the changes we have in March 2023 would be profound. But we are getting a glimpse of their intensity with the world-changing events we are witnessing now.
We are indeed heading right to the edge, and then somewhere beyond.
As this happens, many of us are feeling helpless about what is happening on the planet. As the situation grows worse, there seems to be little that we can do.
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Amazing. Audio-visual beautifully composed. Looking forward to delving in further and sharing with others.
Namaste from India,
I am Dinesh Sharma and I am a professional astrologer, practising in Vedic Astrology since last twenty six years ……… I am always looking for similar people and I always try to know new things ……. I am very happy to see your work here ….. Best wishes for more success and escalated heights ……..
Regards,
Dinesh Sharma