New York, Jan. 2, 2025 | View on Web | Visit our Home Planet

Dear Friend and Reader:

That we began the year with a national tragedy does not surprise anyone. We are past any form of shock from mass-kill events. The surprises now come in the press release. Early New Year’s morning, we are told that a guy with a rented pickup truck drove into crowds along Bourbon St., killing 15, then shooting it out with the cops. His chickens, goats and sheep are all said to have survived him.

Who exactly was behind this? A dead man named Shamsud-Din Jabbar is accused, and in his truck, he allegedly had the flag of ISIS. Remember that, from back during the Obama administration? Yes, the Islamic Caliphate, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh.

That was the thing we were told replaced al-Queda in 2013, and that named itself a trans-national “country” in 2014. Was Shamsud-Din Jabbar really part of ISIS? Does ISIS even exist anymore? Or did he have some of its memorabilia handy?

There’s a photo of me posing with the Doobie Brothers floating around, backstage before a concert. For all the world it looks like I’m in the band. I am not. No more does having a flag make someone part of a movement or a nation. But once again we are back to the myth of alleged Arab terrorists using weapons of opportunity; in this case, the most American thing ever: a pickup truck.

In my Dec. 19 article High Anxiety, I described the ongoing experience of Mars opposite Pluto, exact in the New Orleans massacre chart, as “psychic disturbance [that] is intensified and prolonged by Mars being retrograde: turned inward on itself.” It represents “energy, intention, ambition, desire, and action, all turned inward. This is stoking up a lot of both aggression and paranoia.”

Mars in Leo represents the individual; Pluto in Aquarius represents the group. This pattern is an early indicator of Pluto in Aquarius and its pitting of the individual against the collective. Notice how much damage “one disturbed person” can do. Notice that we have no skills or resources to stop such an incident in advance. Humans could easily attune themselves to create a psychic field where such a thing would be impossible.

The ground (of society and individuals) is prepared for this to come from any and every direction. In a short while, the center of astrology shifts to Aries, and retrograde Mars is serving as a probe telling us a little about what to expect. Once it begins, around the March equinox, the Aries energy is sustained for about two years, peaking a second time in the spring of 2026.

No matter who is behind these kinds of attacks, or who is behind not preventing them, the message here is that you must never feel safe anywhere, at any time. That is the point of terrorism. It’s about intense fear as a way of life. Yet most people cannot live in a state of abject paranoia, so the only option is to stuff it under awareness — where it will wreak havoc.

Events of the world cannot be separated from the media devices which convey them to us everywhere, all the time. Not long ago, an event like the NoLa truck attack would have garnered a small page-one article in The New York Times and maybe some TV coverage. Today it is broadcast wall-to-wall, around the clock, for many days on end. How do you respond? You really have no option but to cut off. Staying “connected” is all too painful.

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Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — The recent very unusual New Moon in your birth sign suggests that you will want to take your usual reserved approach to your life situations rather than your unusual wild approach where you let it all hang loose. We are all feeling rather boxed into the grid of the digital environment with all of its apps and frames and passwords and triple authentication. It’s natural to want to do something outrageous, even if only a little. However, you want to be aware of the law of unintended consequences. Recognize that big effects can have seemingly small causes. So pay attention to what you’re doing and make sure you understand the known consequences of every action that you take. Then from there, consider the ones you may not be aware of, and pay close attention. The chances are you still have time to make a change of course.

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Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — This is not a good time to go blow-for-blow in any interpersonal confrontation. There will be effects that you did not predict and could not have foreseen. Rather, take the approach of de-escalating any situation. This will require you to suspend the pretense of “being right,” or in any way intractable in your position. And from the look of the planetary setup right now — Mars retrograding in your relationship house with Pluto in your sign — that could easily be your preference. You are still getting accustomed to Pluto in your birth sign, which represents a whole new phase of your existence — and an important one. Your power and influence have increased. And in all sincerity, it’s unlikely that you have any idea to what degree, much less how to handle yourself under these conditions. Experiment in small ways, and test the energy.

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