Dear Friend and Reader:
Sunday, I was contemplating where to begin discussion of this week’s astrology, when I noticed that on Monday, retrograde Mercury is opposite Uranus. Both are in fixed signs: Uranus in Taurus, Mercury in Scorpio. An asteroid is involved, which is Juno. The alignment is pin-perfect.
The combination of Mercury and Uranus has the feeling of a revelation. Uranus can feel like the stroke of inspiration, or the life-changing flash of insight. It is the patron of revolutionaries and inventors. Mercury is a local, accessible representative of awareness — in the words of Lord Krishna, the mind of the senses and the consciousness of creatures.
In mundane astrology, this aspect is a “surprise news” type of thing. It might also pertain to unusual technological oddities occurring during the retrograde*.
In fixed signs, Mercury retrograding past Uranus draws a picture of dislodging a fixed belief. Lately, we live with more of those than usual. It seems the way to “think” is to pick a camp (representing a belief system), dig in and defend the position against any and all possible intruders.
In no way does this engage thinking. It is the product of what some call the reptile brain, and what others might describe as root chakra issues (both of which can describe fight or flight). So with this aspect showing up, I’ve been pondering what it means to change one’s mind.
I have some ideas about that, though I want to start with a story.
Meeting Marty Outside Mother Earth’s Storehouse
I’m planning a radio piece on personal protective equipment, so I stopped by a few local stores Sunday, including the health food center, to get the names of the appropriate people to speak with, and on this particular stop, also pick up some groceries.
On the way out, the person whose car was in the parking space next to mine arrived. Turns out I’ve known him from the local poetry scene since about 1990. His name is Marty. After we said hello and reminisced about the old days and the loss of a close mutual friend years ago, I asked his impressions of the Covid situation. I am trying to get an idea what people who don’t research it all day believe.
He was one of the deeply concerned ones, wearing a face mask in a breezy, nearly empty parking lot, standing well beyond six feet from me in case I was a walking fontaine de ‘rona. We discussed the mask issue for a while. Finally, I said that I’d been working on the matter all year, and had made a discovery. When you break the thing into defined issues, and you analyze the facts and the data on any of them (I have 19 so far), you come up with nothing supported or substantiated; nothing that adds up to what it is supposed to be about.
He asked me if I thought people were dying of Covid. I said, “According to the CDC, most of them are not.” (This is the now-infamous 94% vs. 6% issue that surfaced over the summer — CDC admits that only 6% of recorded deaths were “Covid only” and all of the rest were all seriously ill, immune-compromised and mostly very elderly people. This is related to a CDC and WHO guidance issued in March changing the way that the cause of death is recorded for the first time in 17 years. I did not get a chance to mention any of this, however.)
He said, “I’m not going to stand here and debate with you whether this is all a hoax.”
“I didn’t say it was a hoax. I was referencing data from the CDC…”
By this time, though, he had turned his back on me and walked away. I watched him stride across the parking lot, leaving his groceries in his car. And that was that.
What exactly happened there?
This is the kind of “thinking” I’m talking about. Two educated, literate men should have been able to reason on this matter. I recognize the 94% vs. 6% issue is subject to analysis, which would mean a thoughtful conversation and perhaps validation of the data**. It also means questioning one’s beliefs and identifying them as such. That is the tricky part.
The problem here is that most, it seems, do not understand the difference between a belief and a scientific fact. This is an extremely dangerous situation, when referencing scientific data during a medical crisis is considered a form of heresy. There is no better way to say, “Not interested in finding out the truth.”
What Prof. Dentan Said the First Day of Class
When I was a sophomore at SUNY Buffalo, I had the great good fortune to be directed to a course called American Norms and Deviations, taught by Prof. Robert Knox Dentan. A small, somber, wiry man with thick glasses, he began the class — first words out of his mouth — by saying, “Ninety-nine percent of what you know is wrong.”
He then spent the rest of the class, and the rest of the semester, demonstrating this, and giving us some ideas about how to discover what might be correct. The specific focus of the course was the treatment of those marginalized as mentally ill or “insane.” Whenever you hear me talking about being aware of who can get through the day and who struggles to do so, that is a direct reference to what I learned from Prof. Dentan.
Our last conversation before we lost touch had to do with how it was remotely possible that George Zimmerman was acquitted of the shooting murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed and by all accounts peaceful black teenager on his way home from buying some candy at 7-Eleven.
Prof. Dentan said, “This will be easier to understand if you accept that the South won the Civil War.” It might seem like an outrageous statement, but I knew better than to be dismissive, particularly of someone whose ideas had proven to be so dependable. If Dentan said it, it was worth thinking about. That’s what professors are for. My job as his student is to figure out what he’s getting at; to look for evidence on both sides of the assertion.
Introduction to Epistemology
One of the most important questions we can ask ourselves as we go through life is the one about how we know what we think we know. When you do even modest research, that’s the question to ask, and it’s your lifeline when you are doing investigative reporting and legal work.
What does that idea back up into? How good is that source? How many times do you have that verified? To “re-search” is to search again, which means to re-confirm or shoot down the facts, to see how many viewpoints you can get about them, and to watch them change.
It helps to take a perverse pleasure in being proven wrong. You cannot be in love with your ideas. Any idea or fact is part of a mosaic, and the most crucial skill of a researcher, detective or artist of any kind is pattern recognition. Yet right up there is flexibility of thought, because the patterns change and evolve and new pictures and new possibilities emerge.
None of this has anything to do with belief. Indeed, belief is the mortal enemy of seeking the truth, which must be sought out and challenged. Belief is the counterfeit of truth. Instead, the mental routine is to identify and admit what you think, then ask yourself over and over, “How do I know that? Where do I have that? Why do I believe that? Where does that come from? Who said that? Where have I seen that before?”
Sometimes you figure it out: Oh, my mother told me. In like 1974.
Entering the Discomfort Zone, and Staying There
This kind of thinking takes work. It is also not the product of a Christian upbringing, where you believe what you’re told to believe, and that is that. (If you want to debate the will of God and the meaning of the law or the true nature of music theory, maybe hang out with Jewish people. Jesus was one of them. In any case beware of dogma; there are many sources.)
More than work, actual thinking involves shaking the foundations of your mind. Sometimes a seemingly simple question can have potentially cascading consequences, so for some it’s better if not asked. One question, sincerely posited, and sincerely investigated, could lead a person to change their whole way of thinking, or way of life.
Many great books have begun with a single question.
One of my favorite scenes in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance involves such an event. The protagonist, Phaedrus, is teaching a bunch of freshman or sophomore composition students how to think like philosophers. He’s doing this by getting them involved in his own project, which is figuring out the true meaning of the world “quality.” That is the central premise of the whole book (which is also about the treatment of the mentally ill).
Quoting from the text:
“How are we supposed to know what quality is?” his students said. “You’re supposed to tell us!”
Then he told them he couldn’t figure it out either and really wanted to know. He had assigned it in the hope that somebody would come up with a good answer.
That ignited it. A roar of indignation shook the room. Before the commotion had settled down another teacher had stuck his head in the door to see what the trouble was.
“It’s all right,” Phaedrus said. “We just accidentally stumbled over a genuine question, and the shock is hard to recover from.” Some students looked curious at this, and the noise simmered down.
End of quote.
If you want to live the truth, that’s just the shock you want, and it’s described beautifully in the planets today: retrograde Mercury opposite Uranus.
The Bone of Contention
One last thought. I mentioned that Juno is in the picture, taking an exact conjunction from Mercury. Juno has a number of delineations, one of which is “the bone of contention.” Usually this is a nagging issue in a marriage or relationship.
It also exists in other forms. The bone of contention could go like this: If I find myself questioning any fact about (for example) Covid, someone might think I’m claiming it’s all a hoax, therefore I sound like Donald Trump and I don’t want to be associated with him. (This is an actual thoughtform going around. The idea of not asking questions sounds a lot more Trumpian than actively doing so, but whatevs.)
So the bone might be not wanting to think of oneself a certain way. Somehow, there exists the idea that to question science is to reject science. That is not true. Science, or the search for verified and quantified truth, is supposed to be built on an endless series of questions, investigations, experiments and answers that are then questioned.
I admit, this takes effort. But if we don’t do that, let’s call the result what it is: unquestioned belief, or superstition, or magical thinking, or indoctrination, or a form of religion — or in a word, delusion.
You can’t be lazy to do this well, and you have to be willing to be wrong. As Mark Twain wrote, it’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been fooled.
That, cousins, is our problem right now.
With love,
First Footnote
* Two unusual things happened to me Sunday involving technology. First one: I pulled an old laptop off the shelf to charge it up and take a look at what was on the drive. But I could not remember the password. I typed a bunch of my standard ones and variants, with no luck. No prompt or hint came up. So I went upstairs to take care of another task.
Then I remembered the password, which involved a Canadian joke as I once took the computer over the border. I came downstairs to enter it and unlock the computer, but the computer was already open. Somehow it had unlocked without the password actually being entered, which is pretty much unthinkable.
The second incident involved calling my old friend and mentor Prof. Karl Grossman on Sunday. I looked him up in Google, and the search returned a phone number. I dialed the number and got one of those, “This call my be recorded for quality control purposes” messages, which was odd because it’s an ordinary home phone. So I hung up.
Then I dialed again and this time let it ring through and Karl picked up. I told him about the issue, and also told him the number I dialed and how I found it on his website. “That’s not my number,” he said. “You dialed 846, and my number begins with 746.” So somehow dialing the wrong phone number worked. He has only ever had one phone number.
Second Footnote
** According to the CDC website, “For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.” We checked as far back as May, when it was 7% where no other cause was referenced. Those 2.6 conditions are generally very serious underlying causes, requiring medication and resulting in immune suppression, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and so forth.
Here is my take on the true relevance of this 6% number, which I also discuss in my article on the “novel virus” issue. We were originally told that nobody is immune and 1 to 2 million presumably healthy Americans would die. As of today, the official number stands at 219,000, though based on the CDC’s data, that is 13,140 who died of “Covid only.”
This tells us at least two things: 1. we know exactly who to protect and 2. there is considerable existing immunity in the population. It says that in nearly all cases, someone needs to be immune compromised in order to have a life-threatening case of this illness. Do we really need to vaccinate 300,000,000 Americans or 7 billion people around the world (as Bill Gates is promising) with a rushed vaccine, if case fatality is that low? We were told at least 1 million (as high as 6 million, based on the initial formula) healthy Americans could die. Instead, it’s 13,140. That is a big difference.
Then, the 13,140 number is subject to analysis. How many of those were false positives? According to The New York Times and many other sources, including CDC itself, anywhere from 70% to 100% of test results created by the polymerase chain reaction (the PCR machine) are false positives. Here is my coverage, previously published in Planet Waves. Here is an article from August in The New York Times describing the problem, and here is an article in the Times from 13 years ago describing the same problem and sending a warning to those who might use the PCR machine in the future. (It is truly incredible to read these articles in succession.)
I had a somewhat humorous or depressing (depending how you look at it) email correspondence with the prize-winning author of the August article, Apoorva Mandavilli, star science staff writer for the newspaper. I asked why the 2007 article was never referenced and why the Times had not mentioned the issue until late August.
After saying she did not want to discuss how her article was researched, she added, “There’s a big difference between the two pieces, though. My piece isn’t saying there isn’t an epidemic or that cases were over-counted — that is a misinterpretation. There is very much a pandemic and a dire one. We are just testing people too late to be able to contain it.”
Her theory is that the PCR is catching people after they are no longer contagious, and that’s the concept of a “false positive.” This assumes that they were ever contagious. And it ignores that the PCR has so many sources of false positives, including nothing at all.
Notably, her article is not about the time of testing issue as its focus. It is about the accuracy issue and the false-positive problem.
The only reason we believe there is a pandemic is because of test results from the PCR device, i.e., this is entirely circular logic. This test that can make a pandemic from no cases now proves that there is a dire one, even when the writer who documented the problem is saying that 70% to 90% of the results may be false positives — and claims that cases are not over-counted.
We are walking on quicksand. With logic like this coming from one of the leading reporters on the Covid beat, for the nation’s newspaper of record, this situation will never end. Reasons to be cheerful, part three: I don’t write for the Times, but I am planning to make this into an Op-Ed. They must be called out for this nonsense.
PS — I just checked Apoorva’s Twitter feed, where she wrote, “All these months into the pandemic, we may have been testing the wrong way. Data from some state labs suggest up to 90% (!!) of people who get a positive result are no longer contagious and don’t need to isolate.”
This is an assumption: that all those false positives were at one time actually contagious. That is nowhere in the data. There is no evidence for this at all. It is merely a rationalization.
Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Monday and Thursday evening in Kingston, New York, Planet Waves, Inc. Core Community membership: $197/year. Editor & Publisher: Eric F. Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. News Editor: Spencer Stevens. Assistant Editor: Joshua Halinen. Client Services: Amy Elliott and Victoria Emory. Illustrator: Lanvi Nguyen. Senior Finance Minister, First Cavalry of the Local Economy: Andrew Slater. Archivist: Morgan Francis. Technical Assistants: Cate Ryzhenko, Emily Thing. Proofreading: Jessica Keet. Media Consultant: Andrew McLuhan. Music Director: Daniel Sternstein. Bass and Drums: Daniel Grimsland. Additional Music: Zeljko. Additional Research, Writing and Opinions: Rachel Chaput, Loreen Costa, Robin Dann, Yuko Katori, Kirsti Melto, Cindy Tice Ragusa, Abby Rohrer, and Carol van Strum.
Friendly Advice from the Government of the European Union on Avoiding Conspiracy Theories
The patriarchs (or philosopher kings) at the European Union have just issued a guidance memo on how to identify, avoid and deal with conspiracy theories. I promise you this is not one of my jokes, but again I am envious. I’ve covered the topic recently in this article called Where Two or More are Gathered. What this is, essentially, is a cult guide to recruit others into not asking questions. Yes, “the event” comes with its own indoctrination guide. Here is the document, and here is a little sample:
Level 1: Low exposure to conspiracy theories
PREBUNKING – Empowered people are more resilient:
- Warn people early on that conspiracy theories exist.
- Encourage rational thinking, questioning and fact-checking.
- Alert people about the arguments behind the most common COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the key traits of conspiratorial thinking – suspicion of official accounts, immunity to contrary evidence, reinterpreting random events as part of a broader pattern.
Level 2: High exposure to conspiracy theories
DEBUNKING – Facts and logic matter
DOs
- Focus on the facts you want to communicate, not the myth you want to debunk.
- Choose your target – the author, source or logic behind the conspiracy theory.
- Always state clearly that the information is wrong, before quoting a conspiracy theory.
- Provide a fact-based alternative explanation.
- If possible, use visual aids to back your argument.
DON’Ts
- Don’t focus on the conspiracy theory first. Don’t reinforce it.
- Don’t overwhelm with information.
Coming Soon! News About All Of Us Here
In honor of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius, the annual readings this year are called ALL OF US HERE. I will have information about this Friday or Saturday when the pre-order begins. I am planning to have your extended audio readings (with a video introduction wherein I describe the charts) done by Dec. 21, the day of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. There is also a separate written reading called AN AQUARIAN ERA, which covers 2021-2023. Many of you are already subscribers. I am still working out the schedule for AN AQUARIAN ERA.
Chiron Return, our nonprofit arm, publishes Covid19 News every day, in fact several times a day. We have updated about 800 times since we began publishing on March 3. This old-style news weblog takes a panoramic view of the virus situation. We offer news and viewpoints from a wide diversity of sources, science news, international reporting, videos and other resources to help you see the wide diversity of information not making it onto television or major websites. We are tracking the vaccine and testing issues carefully.
Each Friday night, Chiron Return publishes Planet Waves FM. Running since 2010, with roots into Radio Woodstock in the 1990s, Planet Waves FM covers current events, current astrology, science history, personal growth and other themes. Includes music by Vision Quest, the in-house Planet Waves orchestra.
Planet Waves publishes daily astrology and birthdays through the week. This feature includes a daily extended birthday reading and ongoing commentaries on developing astrology as it happens. Check in whenever you want — no password required.
Going back to February, I’ve developed a portfolio of essays, investigative articles, videos and audio presentations on the Covid situation. These include articles about the astrology of the situation, hand sanitizer, holistic care, social critique and a wide diversity of other topics. We’ve recently added a selection of my satires, such as CDC guidance on blowing kisses. This is a truly comprehensive look at the issues, written from a worldly, nonpolitical standpoint. Here is the link.
Monthly Horoscopes and Publishing Schedule Notes
Your extended monthly horoscope for October was published on Thursday, Oct. 1. We published your extended monthly horoscope for September on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Please note: we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope after the Sun has entered a new sign.
Monday Evening Horoscope #249 for Oct. 19, 2020 | By Eric Francis Coppolino
Aries (March 20-April 19) — Financial matters are a metaphor for the larger picture of a relationship. You might use them as an indicator, or you can work with money as a way of aligning yourself with a person. If you can agree on the business angle, you will be able to agree in many more ways. Yet there also seems to be something else evolving, which is your idea of what a relationship is, and what the ‘rules’ should be. Are they a little too strict? Does your emotional environment leave room for people to have feelings for others? Is that really so strange? Anyplace in your relationship where control has been used as a way of influencing the flow of events just might come unraveled. The place that is not subject to restriction is the realm of feeling and desire. Or rather, when pressure is applied, the result is either rebellion or frustration, neither of which is the result of contentment. You will be happier acknowledging what you really feel, and you will be happier accepting what other people feel. Our lives, like our bodies, are mostly water, which must seek its own level.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You will learn something about a partner that may surprise you, and in the process, you’ll discover something about yourself. Welcome what you learn. Let it change you and let it guide your growth process. One problem with the way we’re taught to think of relationships is as something entirely stable and in astrological terms, ‘fixed’. Some continuity is nice, though every day is different. Everyone wakes up each morning slightly changed, no matter how much they may be determined to stay the same. This would be a wholesome thought to allow into your relationships as a guiding principle. What this calls for, though, is tolerance: that is, wiggle room, and making the space in your life for who the people you care about become as they go through life. Be conscious of any ‘bone of contention’ that you may have with someone. It is likely to be false; it is more likely to be meaningless. If there is something you don’t understand about someone’s approach to life, ask them about it, and listen with an open mind.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Retrograde Mercury makes an opposition to Uranus Monday. This is the astrology of a revelation, a discovery, and the ability to change your mind about something. This will be easy if you look honestly at the world and where you fit into it. All you need to do is adjust to what is so, rather than what you want to be so. If you want to make changes, you need to start where you are. Then you can pretty much go anywhere from there. There is an art to doing this: to keep your files updated on an ongoing basis. That means allowing new information in all the time, and not denying, resisting or pushing back against it. The more you know, the more influence you have over your affairs. When something different happens, that means new information is coming in, and therefore, new observations are possible. You will know that’s happening because your plans, intentions and desires loosen up, and you will see the world in a new way. Current astrology says you are questioning your assumptions and rethinking your definition of what is real. That’s a sign of progress.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — To be alive includes being sexually alive. Yes, some will argue this point. Moral positions and past betrayals can get in the way of a simple recognition. Here is a clue: being sexually alive is not about other people. It is about you. It’s about how you perceive yourself, and also how you perceive others, which is a reflection of who you are. How can it be anything else? Right now, the biological and emotional critter that you are is yearning to feel the beauty that you contain and therefore that surrounds you. If you experiment with this and feel guilt, or the threat of jealousy, take that as a sign you’re heading in the right direction, and keep on going. It is galling to some that desire, attraction and one’s sense vitality know no boundaries. This is not a moral issue. It is not an ethical issue. Though these days you could convince at least some people that it’s healthier to wear a plastic bag over their head and turn blue, that is not your karma, and it’s not your choice. Breathe the air, drink the water and hear the music.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Security cannot be the first intention of a relationship or domestic situation. I know that seems like a potentially odd idea, given that the whole purpose of a dry roof is to keep you safe. There is another way to look at that, which is that its purpose is a place where you can be creative. A place where you can be happy. A place where you can grow. A place where you are free to be yourself. Any relationship that occurs within that same space can follow these priorities to a greater or lesser extent. If you are feeling some pressure on an intimate situation, or if you feel like its stability is shaky, take advantage of this. You have an opening, whether on your own or with a partner, to make a new decision. That includes embracing some new idea about who you are, and who they are. Anyway, I would propose a goal for your life, which is to feel at home where you live. That means feeling at home being who you are, all the time. This can take some practice, and possibly pushing a boundary or two.
Tailored for Virgo Sun and rising, this new audio reading by Eric Francis introduces you to your astrology through the autumn of 2021. We will take maximum advantage of the power you are drawing from the Earth signs at the time of your solar return: Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, as well as Uranus in Taurus. This is a grand earth trine, and the thing to do is gather momentum in the direction you want to go, and then point yourself there. Eric describes the influence of Jupiter and Saturn ingressing Aquarius later this year. The reading looks closely at Chiron in Aries, accompanied by Mars retrograde in Aries — your most important relationship house. Now with full transcript. Order now for instant access. This reading is included with the Backstage Pass.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You may have greater clarity about something or someone, which translates to inner focus. I would propose a measure for determining whether you’re living your truth, and embodying the truth of who you are: you feel liberated. Honesty feels good. In fact it feels incredible. That may come with a sense of vulnerability (such as the potential vulnerability hangover). That can be weird, though I suggest you welcome the feeling, because it means you have stretched free of something within yourself and have entered new territory within yourself. Any sense of weirdness or uncertainty is an invitation to keep going, to keep exploring, and to keep doing what you may consider to be a little dangerous or inappropriate. Your ability learn, to love and to grow cannot be regulated by a moral code. There is no evidence of a moral question in any of these matters. Should one seem to arise, question that viewpoint immediately. There is plenty of room in the world not just for who you are, but also for who you are becoming.
Notes to Myself is Ready | Astrology Studio for Libra
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — This is a rich time to reveal your own secrets to yourself. You are working the edge of your own territory, where your assumptions start to fall apart. This is a great place to be. The sensation of something crumbling is akin to a cast being cut from of a limb, or a scab falling off. It may feel a little dangerous to stretch and to reach, though that’s not true. Seen another way, you have unusual freedom to move around within yourself and push your inner boundaries. The most important place to give yourself the space to be is within your own thoughts — though do not stop there. Your mind is a model of the universe. What your senses perceive is a map to your environment. Be bold about trying this: shift inwardly, and then express that outwardly. If you seem to fail, or bang into someone or something, take a breath and try again. Notice not only where the obstacles are, but also observe when they move, or seem to disappear. Right now everything is portable, and anything is subject to change. Work with that.
The Scorpio File: Astrology Studio 2020
What’s in the Scorpio file? Does anyone really know? This year for your solar return, Mercury is retrograde in your sign. Adding to the mystery, Mars, your classical ruling planet, is retrograde in Aries, about to station direct. Then Jupiter forms a conjunction with Pluto, which takes the story to the level of your soul’s mission on Earth. In this 75-minute astrology reading, Eric Francis will unravel the secrets of your sign, and help you guide yourself through this strange new time we are living in. Preorder now for $33. Price goes up to $44 when the Sun arrives in your sign. The reading will be delivered on or about Oct. 23. Original music by Vision Quest.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — To what extent is your concept of who you are designed to make you acceptable to someone else as a partner? This would go for everything from how you tailor your appearance to what you call yourself to what you identify with: all the variables of identity. You might cast all of that off and assert the grand experiment of absolute sincerity. You know how to do this, though you walk a line. This was probably the result of being told you were too intense or too much or too sexual or too whatever, at a number of times (perhaps many times) in the past. Doing this is a work in progress, and as you may have discovered, there is the not-small matter of what you do with your precious time every day. The sincerity you now need is of action. In my reading of your solar chart, you are exploring the right work to do. This cannot be a mental exercise, but rather one of learning from experience. You don’t need an idea to lead the way: ask yourself what you actually love to do. Notice when the time goes by quickly and you are happy and fulfilled at the end of a task. Please more of that.
ADDENDUM FOR SCOPRIO — I will have more to say in The Scorpio File
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — Events this week will encourage you to rethink your concept of a “secret.” The bottom-line question is, why would you would need to conceal anything? There may be valid reasons. Know your motives for doing so, particularly if the matter is personal. Secrecy is largely a game, and one that people play with themselves. The first thing to do is look for any points of denial. This may have an astringent feeling; you would need to question what you assume, which means identifying it. This must be an ongoing project. Under this week’s astrology, you may discover something you were not admitting to yourself, and it may be slightly shocking. That would be a good sign. You need to see exactly how this happens, so you can spot the pattern in the future. Most people, it seems, are fully conscious of what they do and don’t allow into the part of their awareness where they would want to do something about this. Note that in this discussion, Scorpio is involved. The question is, what do you really want?
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You can afford to be much more experimental. You can afford to advocate what you hold true to your heart. In short, you can take greater risks with what you are willing to express, and set aside your concerns about what everyone might think. I know most people don’t like to admit that is a factor in what they express, though your fears about social acceptance remain at crisis level. Western society is rapidly moving toward the kinds of “social credit” schemes that exist in China, where people are evaluated by artificial intelligence for their petty behaviors, and carry a rank similar to a credit score. We do this informally in the Western world, and people have never been more concerned about seeming acceptable. The problem is that to be who you are, to be yourself, to express yourself at all, specifically involves taking the chance of not being acceptable. No true art is created to be “socially acceptable.” This is entirely contrary to being sincere.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — The Sun is about to cross the midheaven angle of your chart, which will help put you into some higher gear on professional activities. At the moment, retrograde Mercury may be playing some tricks, throwing you bits of information or revelations that you might find disruptive or shocking. Remember what you learn and keep going. Stay focused on your tasks, and keep perspective about where everything fits into the larger picture. There might be some points of business that you’ve neglected, so spend some time looking into that, and schedule your catch-up projects for sooner rather than later. They will take less time than you think, and any lingering business is eating time and bandwidth. Once the Sun enters Scorpio on Thursday, you will have a clearer sense of where you want to be. There are important developments in the offing, and you will want to have your house and your business life in order. Clear as much old and irrelevant business out of the way as you humanly can. You will need the flexibility.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You always feel better when the Sun enters a water sign, and that’s about to happen this week when the Sun enters Scorpio on Thursday (overnight Thursday to Friday in the UK and Europe). Mercury is already there warming up the territory. The Scorpio angle for you is about your long-term plans and vision for your life. Scorpio is an endless reservoir of ideas and potential, and is part of what makes you such a durable person. It’s also under some unusual conditions right now, which are encouraging you to point your planning and visioning in the direction of your income. You are close to a breakthrough on something that you’ve been working on for a long time. In Pisces fashion (and Chiron is also involved) this is not happening as fast as the Next Great App that scores someone a few million, though you have more relevant plans, more durable and productive ideas. These can take refinement. Be patient as the two inner planet retrogrades work out. Stay positive and go forward.