Hello again from the PlanetNews team. We're back after a week's delay due to a few complications from changes in the horoscope schedule, here bringing you some campaign news to reflect upon on this President's day weekend, and some practical and metaphorical ideas about giving the gift of light.
Existential Loneliness, Survival,
and the Truth about Cats and DogsJohn McCain as the poster boy for political
prisoners, or all in all I'd rather be in Philadelphia...Republican primaries move to Michigan following the heated South Carolina contest. It seems Governor Bush had a lot friends down in Dixie.
Prior to the tally, which ultimately favored Bush over McCain, McCain was the man to watch.
Chris Matthews, producer and host of Hardball on CNBC, said McCain set the pace, and defined the field. And that's a strong place to be.
Matthews pointed out that the Bush campaign is pouring four times as much money into negative TV and radio ads than his opponent. He described the marketing attempts being used by the Texas governor's camp: injecting messages and questions, via fax and phone calls, to broadcast producers who were interviewing McCain. Also according to Matthews, this type of "guerilla" marketing is common practice among establishment-backed candidates who are quickly losing ground.
Matthews went on to say that there's something about McCain-who spent 6 years in solitary confinement in a North Vietnamese POW camp-that was "very American," fitting exactly with Americans' respect for war heroes.
PlanetNews readers may remember last week's report on Uranus conjunct the solar eclipse in the US's Fourth House, and that McCain's natal chart is described as "compatible" with the US chart. (For a look back at last week's column it's right here.) Basic astrology states that the sun represents the life-force, while the ascendant represents the image of a being as presented to the world. When -- as Matthews noted -- "there's just something" about a person's life (wartime imprisonment) that naturally meshes with the US's image,(heroes and survivors all), we can agree that maybe, just maybe, it is McCain's Sun conjunct the US ascendant.
It's too early to tell, but it appears none of the campaign ads in South Carolina mentioned the astrological proclivities of either candidate.
We also reported on the partial solar eclipse of February 5. The energy of eclipses can last for up to a month after they actually occur, with most of the energy compressed around the time a week before and a week after. On Thursday, February 10th, a mere five days after the solar eclipse, the Philadelphia City Council voted 12-4 in favor of a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania.
The Council also said that the moratorium should stay in effect until a study can be organized to determine if the death penalty is being justly applied. Philadelphia County has sentenced 125 of the 226 people now on death row in Pennsylvania. Nearly 90% of these Philadelphia prisoners are people of color (and 100%, if you consider "pinkish" a color). Nationwide, Philadelphia County ranks third in number of prisoners it has sent to death row (123), behind Los Angeles County, CA (156) and Harris County, TX (140). Pennsylvania has the fourth largest death row in the nation, behind California, Texas, and Florida. Over 90% of the state's death row prisoners were too poor to afford their own attorney at the time of their trial. More than two-thirds are people of color (three-thirds including the pinks).
The city of Philadelphia is the largest of the eight municipalities in the United States to recently urge a halt to executions. Charlottesville, VA, adopted a resolution similar to that adopted by Philadelphia just last month. Other places that are working toward such moratoriums include New Haven, CT; Mt. Rainer, MD; and Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham and Orange County, all in North Carolina.
On the state level, The Philadelphia resolution comes less than two weeks after Illinois' Republican Governor George Ryan's announcement on January 31st of a temporary halt to executions in that state. The Philadelphia action sends a clear message to the state Legislature, which has scheduled hearings for its Senate Judiciary Committee on a moratorium bill on February 22. The legislation is also under consideration in Oklahoma, Washington, New Jersey, Maryland, and Alabama.
(PlanetNews readers take note: Pennsylvania Abolitionists, a 4000 member, multi-racial, nonviolent direct action movement to abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania, will be holding a Rally for a Death Penalty Moratorium on April 15, 2000, in Harrisburg, Pa. Stay tuned to our column for more details.)
The Life Song of Freedom Breaks Out through the Ice
While death penalty abolitionists all over our country work to free prisoners, on the world stage last week China unexpectedly released an American researcher who had been detained in response to NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade last Spring. Song Yongyi, a librarian and authority on China's cultural revolution at Dickinson College, was charged with "smuggling state secrets" nearly six months ago.
When a child is first learning to walk, there's more backpedaling than there is forward progress. The loving parents always focus their attention on the steps made toward them, and disregard the awkward trips and stumbles. In this way, the parents hold the space for the child to succeed in learning to walk. We can use this metaphor to locate the truth of just about any situation in our lives. In so doing, we can learn the true meaning of "forgiveness."How might God see China?
Though China is one of the most ancient civilizations on Earth, in comparison to even the youngest fully-formed star she's a mere newborn.
So maybe God sees the release of Song Yongyi as a baby step toward freedom.If we could allow ourselves to see as God sees, what would we see? Would we make more room in our lives for hope and forgiveness? A quote from the late Charles Schlutz provides some food for thought.
"The most terrifying loneliness is not experienced by everyone and can be understood by only a few," Mr. Schulz wrote. "I compare the panic in this kind of loneliness to the dog we see running frantically down the road pursuing the family car. He is not really being left behind, for the family knows it is to return, but for that moment in his limited understanding, he is being left alone forever."
(For more on Schultz's career and death, see this article.)
Despite Schultz's protestations, most of us know all too well that feeling of bleak abandonment and despair. Another story from this week reminds us that "the darkest hour is right before the dawn."
Consider the case of a 29-year-old surgical intern in Norway. Dr. Anna Bagenholm was doing some "extreme" skiing when she tumbled headfirst into a river. Her head and upper torso were stuck under the ice. Despite their training as emergency doctors, her skiing partners could not get her out of the ice. For forty minutes she struggled on her own until her body went limp. It took another forty minutes for properly equipped rescuers to arrive and free her from the ice. At that time she was declared clinically dead.
But at the hospital, doctors worked feverishly, ultimately for nine hours, to resuscitate Dr. Bagenholm. They put her on the ventilator, performed a cardiopulmonary by-pass, and warmed and oxygenated her blood until finally her heart started beating again.
Not only did Dr. Bagenholm survive, but, when her father asked her credit card PIN she gave the correct number. She suffered some long-term nerve damage in her hands that required she choose a specialty other than the delicate surgery she had originally planned to pursue. But eight months after being caught under the ice, she was happily skiing back out on the slopes.
Seems there's no need to insinuate the finality of a given situation, as does the heartbroken family dog.
For people and their pets, each day is Valentine's dayWe imagine that last month, most of our readers gave or received at least one piece of candy or a conversation heart. (For a refreshing perspective on what constitutes a true gift of love, read Eric Francis's February essay here, and your responses here).
Whatever form your own Valentine's day observances might have taken, for some the act of "giving" can be a very lucrative business. Corporations regularly "gift" enormous sums of money, and more often to their own executives than to charities. The cynicism bred by these stories of greed often overshadows stories of another type. Sometimes what appears to be greed is really generosity.
A television repairman from Oregon, whom everyone (including himself) described as "a miser", died after 79 years of penny-pinching to the extreme. Gordon Elwood is said to have lived in an unheated house, and was known to drink outdated milk. When it was all over, Mr. Elwood had stashed away $9 million! (For more on amassing your own fortune, we recommend last year's bestseller The Millionaire Next Door.) Mr. Elwood left all of his money to social service agencies. His beneficiaries included the YMCA, Salvation Army, the American Red Cross . . . and charities for cats. Many orphaned and abandoned "finicky" eaters can thank Mr. Elwood for their fancy feasts.
What any human can give an animal may ultimately pale in comparison to what we as a species gain from our pets. In Argentina, a dog named Chocolate was playing in the yard with his master, a four-year-old boy named Kharin. Suddenly, a swarm of bees began attacking Kharin, rendering the boy completely helpless.
According to the police report, Chocolate jumped on top of the child and stayed there, shielding the boy's body from the swarming bees and receiving hundreds of stings himself. Because of Chocolate's protection, Kharin received only a few stings. After the attack, the boy made a complete recovery. Unfortunately, the bee attack cost Chocolate his life. Still, the dog died a hero.
Some spiritual paths teach us that enlightenment is the willingness to lay down our own lives for the sake of another. Chocolate the dog might show us less willing species what it means to be enlightened. Now think about this: If everyone was willing to lay his life down for his brother and sister, who would ever need to?
While we can't all sacrifice our lives to a cause or a beloved, and most of us don't have a cool $9 mil in the bank, we're all usually scouting around for some other wonderful gift. And Uranus in the fourth house means this is a particularly good time astrologically to bring light into our homes.
Just about everyone loves candles, especially the scented ones that fill the room with fragrance. But as with all things, there's more to know about how to choose a candle, as well as how to burn it, than you may have thought.Some candle waxes contain additives that may vaporize into gases as they burn. The additives (such as stearine) are used to raise the melting point of the wax so the candle burns longer and keeps its shape in hot weather. However, some of these vapors may not be completely healthy to breathe. Researchers recommend pure beeswax candles, which emit no unhealthy vapors.
Also, check out the wicking used in a candle. Always avoid candles with wire-core wicks, as these types of wicks emit lead when burned. Lead poisoning is a very serious condition, causing behavioral changes, kidney and gall-bladder damage, and in children, life-threatening toxicity and illness. Stick with candles with cotton or paper-core wicks, and keep the wicks trimmed to about 1/2 of an inch so they don't droop in the wax.
A recommended alternative to aromatherapy candles is to add a few drops of essential oil to boiling water. This, in combination with naturally honey-scented beeswax candles, will give you heavenly candlelight, any pure fragrance you desire . . . and clean air to float around in.
Vibrational Frequencies, or the Yoga of Cloth
Jean Dye tells the story of her visit to the Community of the Beloved Disciple, in Joshua Tree, California. It was a year ago she first heard Jimmy Twyman's music at one of his peace concerts. She heard of his exercise of taking a piece of cloth and infusing it with "the feeling of what this new world in Peace will be like," praying a simple prayer three times: "Peace prevails on Earth."She remembers hearing of Twyman's audience tearing small pieces of their favorite dresses, under-garments and shirts to participate with the singer. And last week she saw at least a dozen large cartons of the swatches sent in by people of Brazil, England, Australia and all over the United States-people who believe the Cloth of Many Colors will help wrap the nations of the world in a feeling of peaceful coexistence.
Jean is one of the many whom have offered their time and skill to sew together the thousands of peace-infused pieces of clothing into the banner that will be presented at the UN General Assembly in April. After the ceremony, the Cloth will be divided into "peace shawls," which Twyman will deliver to each of the leaders of our world.
The banner is intended to represent world unity and peace, and the Cloth itself is expected to carry actual energetic significance. Based on laws of quantum physics, any object carries the vibrational frequency of the intention with which it was made. Some theorists would say even the books on your shelf carry the energy of the thoughts written within their pages.
Consequently, the Cloth of Many Colors will carry frequencies indicative of cultural diversity in social harmony, and the certainty that the world is being positively transmuted.
The Cloth of Many Colors is the official project of the Community of the Beloved Disciple, Twyman's "un-mystery school," as he calls it.
Up until now, the CBD has been an on-line experiment, with participants gathering in the chat room in the Emissary of Light website. Every few months, the Beloveds-all 300+ of them-get together, in the same city, and blast Love through the roof.
According to a prominent yoga instructor in New York, right now in America we are witnessing many manifestations of positive transmutation. Beryl Birch says that, in spite of frequent criticism aimed at the "Westernization" of the 5,000 year-old Indian wellness tradition, the growing American yoga trend is in fact "enriching" the practice by making it more accessible to more and more people. She cites the present time as one in which "America is at the center of the most exciting developments in yoga", and sees this as a manifestation and part of "the universal flow of energy."
The word "yoga" literally means "union," suggesting the joining of all disparate parts into the whole, The One, or "God." The ancient practice emphasizes the spiritual, laying a moral groundwork for bringing body and mind into alignment each day. It's about knowing the divine Self through a commitment to practice.
And this is where some critics of Americanized yoga pick up their argument. If the purpose of yoga is reduced to reducing, and attaining a smaller waist size, then the central teachings of yoga are lost. But Birch describes her instructional process as one that guides her students from where they are, frequently focused on a physical-centered practice, toward a spiritual-centered practice.
In conclusion, we can say that wherever one looks for and finds "right action", it beats never finding it at all.
Until next week, the PlanetNews team encourages you to find your own right action wherever you can.++
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