A Story of Mercury and the Milky Way

Originally published Nov. 30, 2017 | Link to original Dear Friend and Reader: If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably noticed things getting exponentially more insane by the day. Everything seems to be out of control. And if you follow astrology, you may be wondering what the holy heck is going on. I’m here … Read more

Notes on the Dereliction of Dharma

Dear Friend and Reader: As Mercury works its way retrograde in Scorpio, it’s exciting to see the impeachment of Donald Trump gain momentum. I am not saying this as a partisan of any political party. If someone robbed a bank, committed fraud or assaulted someone, I would not be asking what political party they belonged … Read more

Listening to the World Go By

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Dear Friend and Reader:

One of my journalistic hobbies is listening to the scanner. All I have to do is unmute Channel 1 on my soundboard, and it comes through my speakers. I can then eavesdrop on the chatter of government. I hear some law enforcement, but mainly what comes across are medical calls, fire calls and stuff like road maintenance.

Planet Waves
My basic audio setup includes a Uniden scanner (device right under the candle, made in Sugarloaf), so I can listen to public service activity in my community. I make no secret of the fact that I monitor; I discuss events and procedures with local leaders. Photo by Lanvi Nguyen.

For me this is like a civics meditation. I don’t actively cover local news. When I hear something newsworthy, I will text the city editor at the Daily Freeman, which does not have the time to monitor. But that’s not my main reason for listening. I just find it interesting, and also, I feel reassured to hear that society is functioning.

One of my favorite items happens on the hour, when the toll plazas along the New York State Thruway check in with the temperature and road conditions. I can hear this because they’re on a relay system that broadcasts all the interchanges on one local channel. There is nothing special about this; what I love is hearing routine business, and also the sense of space as the toll plazas announce the weather in their immediate area, spanning hundreds of miles.

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Aries Full Moon: Life at This Dangerous Crossroads

Oct. 12, 2019

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Thursday night, I presented the Aries Full Moon in relationship to its political implications, and how it aspects the charts of the United States, of Trump, and the U.S. Pluto return.

Photo: The Daily Gazette

To begin understanding the Aries Full Moon on a personal level, first consider what you’re feeling right now, and then consider this. We who are alive today live at a dangerous intersection, where the individual and the collective merge into one another.

This is so natural that we don’t notice it. But we live there, with all our stuff, not where two roads meet but at the railroad crossing of the collective (trains) and the individual (cars and pedestrians). With Aries, we are talking about the Aries Point — the astrological image of that railroad crossing. The Aries Point is the first degree of that sign, which extends well into it, and also into several other signs of the zodiac. At the moment, several of them are powered up by planets in the early cardinal signs.

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