Dear Friend and Reader:
Northern Hemisphere summer begins Monday with a series of planetary events, and as often happens, events in close proximity describe a theme. When the Sun makes its ingress into the cardinal sign Cancer, it will be conjunct an asteroid called Vesta.
This magnificently complex asteroid, I believe, holds the key to understanding how we might go about healing our often injured, burdened and confused sense of our sexuality. In one word, the method is devotion.
In this article I’ll do my best to describe the qualities of Vesta in a way that makes it possible to feel and experience them — and to put them to use in our relationship experiences. Vesta is primarily about tending the fire within. That fire, and that experience of constantly caring for it, becomes the focal point for organizing space; that is, the psychic space of our lives, our priorities, and our beliefs.
Vesta is represented by a hearth (actually, a chevron, though in mythology it’s a hearth), and that hearth is the center of the home. We make our homes, comfortably or not, primarily within our psyches. The fire is the core fire of human existence, which is inherently sexual and creative. We use this fire for light, for heat, for creative purposes (you could say, to prepare our meals, whatever form they may take on the physical and nonphysical levels of existence).
Honoring this would give our daily lives and our relationships, whether sexual or not, a central concept to work with. Vesta is inherently about one’s relationship with oneself, which is the thing we share with others no matter what form that sharing might take. It may seem a paradox, but there is a touch of the impersonal to Vesta, which to me is about a boundary between self and other that gives everyone a little extra space to be who we are. Yet there is something collective about Vesta as well: we all share the same inner fire, whether we recognize it as the same thing or not.
In the solstice chart, the Sun meets up with Vesta in Cancer, a sign associated with nourishment, nurturing, emotions, mother and the experience of incarnating. The Sun is about expression. It is the source of all light in the astrological system; it is the central point that holds the solar system together and provides an anchor for awareness and for one’s tangible place in the world. So Sun/Vesta in Cancer is one version of the full expression of Vestal energy.
The next day, there is a New Moon, with Sun, Moon and Vesta in a precise conjunction. This is the first of many potent lunations (including three eclipses in July and August) that defines the current stretch of time. Happening so close to the beginning of a season (with the Sun still at solstice), this New Moon activates events that occur on a large scale that feel personal; and personal events that reach past our individual lives toward a collective experience.
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When a kid — especially a boy — gets a scar, he’ll usually come up with a story to tell his friends that’s much more interesting than the truth. Say, “I was attacked by pirates” rather than “I tripped on my shoelace and fell.”
But a German teen named Gerrit Blank won’t have to bother with that, since it’s pretty hard to beat the truth: “I was hit by a meteorite.”
Gerrit, who is 14, caught a glancing blow from the streaking space rock as it plummeted to the earth late last week. He wound up with a three-inch scar on the back of his hand, according to a June 12 article in The London Telegraph. It reports that Gerrit saw a ball of light headed his way, then “a red hot, pea-sized piece of rock hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot-wide crater in the ground.”
The rock has been confirmed by scientists as having originated in space, making it a pretty rare thing: A meteorite that survived a trip through Earth’s atmosphere, where they usually burn up.
So, how rare is it to be hit by a meteorite? The odds usually applied to the incident are one in a million. In fact, the folks over at Space.com dug into their archive and found only one other recorded incident where a person was struck by a meteorite. That was in 1954, when napping Alabama housewife Ann Hodges got a rude awakening after a 3-pound meteorite fell through the roof of her home, bounced off the furniture and struck her in the hip, leaving a bruise.
Space.com also tracked down a few near-misses over the years, including a spectacular 2004 event when a meteor weighing a ton and bigger than a fridge blew up in the night sky over Chicago, showering the Windy City with bits of space debris.
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 Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 19, 2009, #771 – BY ERIC FRANCIS |
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Gemini (May 20- June 21)
You may be wondering what you have to give up. This question has nagged you for the past month or more. Part of you has one idea and part of you has another idea, but I wonder why you’re thinking about this at all. One potential reason involves the depth to which we are indoctrinated into the idea of sacrifice. Offering willingly is one thing. Offering from a sense of owing others is another. The difference can become obscured if we lack a healthy sense of self-worth. In my experience, the first obstacle to self-worth is figuring out that you might be lacking in the stuff. As long as we keep telling ourselves we’re fine, we will overlook the issue. I suggest you phrase it as a series of questions, beginning with the words “what if?”
Coming Soon: the Next World Stories Midyear Horoscope Edition. Look for signup information Monday for the midyear edition horoscope by Eric Francis. And if you haven’t read your Next World Stories annual edition, it’s still waiting for you! Sign up here.
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Libra (Sep. 22 – Oct. 23)
These past few months may have resonated with more potential than success; with more crisis than creative opportunity. But think of all that as preparation; consider how much more aware you are now than you were just a few months ago. Now comes the moment of truth: focusing your priorities and making sure that you put your potential to the best possible use. The sky is about to light up with an opportunity. As I have been suggesting in the other signs, it may not be specifically about you. Your job is to hold space (Vesta theme) for something much larger to occur. How large is large? Look around you. Look at what you say you support, and what you know feeds the world. If it’s within reach, throw your support behind it.
Coming Soon: the Next World Stories Midyear Horoscope Edition. Look for signup information Monday for the midyear edition horoscope by Eric Francis. And if you haven’t read your Next World Stories annual edition, it’s still waiting for you! Sign up here.
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Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
Everyone has the gift of healing. When you get a little cut on your hand, have you ever marveled at how your body knows how to repair it? Your role might be to make sure the injury stays clean for a while, but then the body does its part. That is how being a good healer works. There are ailments you are suffering that will yield to this formula; there are injuries that others are suffering to which you can offer your consciousness and support. Monday’s spectacular New Moon in your 6th solar house — the house of healing, service and your best work — resounds with one message from ancient wisdom: let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food. Practice this and you will help many.
That IS outrageous Patty. Yes, that would qualify as 3rd house in my book. You will get a chance to fight it as any tax on home grown lettuce is fighting words for the whole country. I’ll carry a sign for you. And I’d stand in line for your lettuce . .and your soap and onions and anything else you got. Hang on, help will come.
I’ve been uneasy all year, on the personal level as well as global, especially about the food supply.
I doubt I’d take to the streets for Iran, but my son sent a link to a bill that will tax farm markets and people with wells at exorbitant fees. They are looking at a $500 tax on the farm market vendors, which would literally strip all profits. I sold 18 bags of lettuce for $2.00 each this week. I was washing lettuce at 9:00 on Friday night getting it ready. People were lined up for my lettuce and I am proud to be known for fresh lettuce! I could have sold twice that amount and ran out early. I don’t think you can say I made any money on it, based on the amount of work I put in – but I want the market to be successful so I will put in my time to help make it . I also sold hand-made soap, onions, greens, and fresh herbs. I didn’t make any money really, after I count my costs, time, and especially the insurance. I should charge more, but I don’t want to.
Big business is trying to control where we buy fresh produce. The wells and personal garden tax is outrageous enough to cause the next revolution, as it comes down to taxation without representation. Who do we send to represent us? The leader of the local master gardener association? Walmart and Kroger control most of the food, and they can afford to pay for a lobby.
I guess this qualifies as 3rd house and a plutonian issue that needs to see the light of day, on big signs.
mystes, Patty . . .we keep coming back today! Patty, I know we talk about the 3rd house so much as communication and short trips, which it is, but not so much about the family factor, as in brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins. . . . It also represents your neighborhood and neighbors, so this could be adding to your concern for the people you “know”, which I assume could be near by. Pluto and Chiron work slowly and never too far away to give you a reminder poke in the ribs, huh? Is there a cleanup campaign in the family or your neighborhood? Getting rid of the useless (stuff, thoughts) is a possible corridor for this down and dirty combo. How about your car? Need replacing?
mystes. . okay so I’m back on for fact-finding mission re: #447, although wasn’t sure anybody was interested anymore. Thanks for re-assurance. Meant to tell you that the fireplace was not intended for dumping my fears, but I probably made it sound that way. On the contrary, it was a sort of refuge (and yes, alter!) and reminder to keep the creative juices flowing. I have natal Vesta conjunct my Saturn and when I was a working woman (getting paid in other words) she got me through “assignments” that my poor old Saturn would have cringed over had he been alone. I owe her a lot.
Patty . .your 27 degree Pisces Sun is so activated by Uranus right now I wouldn’t be surprised to see you on TV marching for some cause! Specially since Juno is there right now too. Listening to CNN re: Iran and the remarkable kind of “coverage” we are getting from there. . . .it’s a new world. The unpredictable forms of getting coverage, and the uncensored scenes, sounds, are just so Uranian it takes my breath away. The fact that the Iranian government (Saturn) can’t control or shut it down completely gives us a big fat clue as to one of the ways the next opposition between these two will manifest. The Galactic Core is surely the source for all this revelation and I say take a deep breath, we got a long way to go. We will be depending on your activated Chiron to keep us posted from your neck of the woods!
Hello Dears,
Mystes – you may be right about the dream life coming back. I tend to dream in two ways – prophetic, or personal warning. The dream could have been on the personal level since I know too many people who are coming to the end of unemployment. I’ll know for sure if I dream it again in another way. No fear – yes. We are all sky divers!
BK – my sun is at 27 degrees pisces so i can relate in two ways – my love of the harvest, and what I think is coming back to bite in the ass. Pluto is conjunct my chiron and has been all year – right in the third house. My chiron is 2 plus degrees and interpreted in the 3 degree.
My day job is the worst I’ve ever encountered for fear, anxiety and hate. Don’t know how long I will last at it, but somewhere in all of it I have the impression I’m supposed to be either learning a lesson in humility, or teaching a lesson in humility. My third house seems to be emphasized right now.
BK…”For me that would mean unfocusing on Airflight 447, (thanks for the advice mystes) and let it all go. ”
I didn’t mean to imply that you should ‘let it go.’ I have a sense that you doing some *really* good work in that realm! Never underestimate the power of simple attention – which can lift the lost into less confusion, nudge what is hidden into the light and provide a general, loving tonic to situations that are boiling with ambiguity.
(This goes for Iran as well.)
I was just saying ~don’t let it rattle you~
“Rattling” usually comes from a sense of alarm and helplessness. Your attention is *far* from helpless. Immediately post-mortem (up to several weeks) the new-dead, especially fire&water dead, can really hear and feel the love.
Love and thanks…
M
A veritable farmers market of thought was my treat at Planet Waves this AM! Thanks so much for sharing, but where to start?
Bless you Patty, will think about these symbols as we near the New Moon tomorrow. Linda Hill’s “Batman costume label warning” was funny and also has a ring of truth. That same degree is about raising consciousness in Dane R’s book. Part of what he says “Accepting a stable focus, the mind can raise its point of observation and see reality in a truer perspective” Maybe meditation can ease one into that “stable focus”, so hard to attain (for me anyway) with all the mental stimulation around at this time.
For me that would mean unfocusing on Airflight 447, (thanks for the advice mystes) and let it all go. But, if worse comes to worse, maybe jlo will catch a few “green bits” floating in air next month and try it out on one of his fabulous homebrewed meals. Let us know jlo, is she as nutritious as she is tasty?
Seriously the three of you have such admirable – and useful – talents that I’m inspired and am moving gradually to a lifestyle of simplicity that makes so much sense. Thank you for your writings and openness.
A last note about symbols; want to include the Uranus (27 Pisces) and Neptune (27 Aquarius) locations to the New Moon picture:
27 Pisces: The Harvest Moon Illumines a Clear Autumnal Sky. “. . .the time has come to reap what we have not only sown, but also cultivated – or failed to cultivate.”
27 Aquarius: An Ancient Pottery Bowl Filled With Fresh Violets” We’ve seen this one in this column before but I want to add Rudhyar’s words “. . the dependence of the purest feelings of natural living upon the traditions within which they find their most adequate and effective setting” (example coming to mind might be — a waitress refilling a salad bowl. This one’s for you mystes!)
Happy Fathers Day all, be
B, I was checking the geometry of the sky the other night… septiles and quintiles and… It’s a pretty sky.
I want to throw some out as far as gardening. For the last 16 years, I’ve been growing food. Here, there, anywhere I rested my bones for a bit. Right now, I’ve carrot greens, broccoli greens, snap peas, squash, cucumber, (a bunch of green tomatoes on the vine), sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, chard, mint, and some other seeds planted. I supplement my grains and legumes with garden stuff. 2 bucks buys a pack-o-seeds. Recycling aluminum and plastic supplies the cash. (I tell you now, there is nothing like homegrown, life energy full, food). I use other condiments such as nutritional yeast, seaweed, algae, and herbs, and Bragg’s liguid amino’s (soy sauce, kind of..), and every day I get to enjoy a homebrew meal, that’s super-nutritious, and gives me time to figure out what the f&$k to do with myself next, not to mention the all around health benefits of playing with the soil.
There was more to say, but I lost it.. Growing food brings comfort to all. (I’ll bake on this a bit more and return.)
Jere
Patty, slow down… The tomato/potato vines freezing may be the people who depend on you chilling out. In July a chill is not necessarily a bad thing. And the feeling of anxiety in the ds –while unpleasant, often means that a part of you is getting ready to become active that has been dormant for a while. Step back and watch. That energy may change right before your eyes…
B, that fireplace is your ‘hearth,’ right? Wasn’t this in honor of Vesta? Not sure fear needs a place on the altar (or maybe it does… I’ll send one of my finger-puppet ghouls). Part of this may be coming from your focus on the Air France flight. It’s good service you are providing there, just don’t let it rattle you.
This lunation has a lot in common with my chart, but its the eclipse that really blows it open. If you find little floaty green bits in the air after the 7th, might be me. I understand I provide good seasoning in that form, but use sparingly.
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I have been intensely focused on bringing Tantra for Bobos to fruition, so fiercely that my ‘economics’ are looking chaplinesque (anybody got a potato?). But the other day –after a week of eating carbohydrates– I took my son to a restaurant. While he was wolfing down the gardenburgers, I asked for a salad.
The waitress, wouldn’t you know it, was an artist. She brought me seconds. And thirds. No charge.
Trust.
Saturn – ugh! Vir 17 A vast display of cosmic forces is seen in the eruption of a volcano with dust clouds, flowing lava, earth rumblings
Venus and Mars – Doesn’t this sound like the world right now?
Tau 17 An imaginative battle is underway between swords (the disciples of might) and torches (the disciples of enlightenment)
Pluto Cap 02 Three stained glass windows in an old cathedral are seen, and the center one has been damaged by bombardment.
Cancer 02 – the new moon and sun – Can 02 An alert and eager individual rests upon a magic carpet, observing a vast level vista over which he hovers motionless. Caution: Cape does not enable user to fly. Batman costume warning label (Quote from Linda Hill’s website.)
Linda Hill has interesting commentary about the new moon possibly keeping you in a state of limbo and disconnected from reality. That has a ring of truth because we are so weary of the bad news of the last 6 months or so that we can’t seem to focus and take action. Seems like some of the unemployed people I know have frittered away their unemployment instead of focusing on saving and putting away for the truly bad times. Then I read today that a lot of the middle class people are homeless! It is incredible. The unemployment is starting to run out for millions of American families.
Ah – good idea to look up the symbols. i’ve had a strange feeling all day.
Patty,
I’d say that your unconscious (that provides all your dream stuff) is using that attribute of yours, of caring so much about people, to send you a message. Frozen vines and snow mean hard times in a big way to you. This new moon is almost an overkill message along the same lines. . . . Sun in CANCER, with the MOON and VESTA and all 3 opposite PLUTO! Good grief, sounds like the home, hearth and family could take a beating this month.
I’m sure I was motivated to buy my (faux) fireplace (hearth) to ward off evil spirits in the difficult times ahead. The fire may come from cans of oil, but it DOES put out the heat! It also makes the room cozier. Perhaps your dream’s message is to focus on stocking your pantry while you can. Or to just be aware.
When Jupiter went retrograde on Monday, the symbol for the degree it was in was: “A tree felled and sawed to ensure a supply of wood for the winter. A powerful image don’t you think?
Speaking of symbols, I thought you would be the one to provide the Sabian symbols for the three sets of 3 planets in the New Moon Chart. Haven’t looked yet myself, but there might be another message for us to consider. Good to hear from you.
Bk, I had a rather frightening dream this morning. I dreamed that I looked out and saw that the tomato and potato vines were all frozen in my garden, and the snow was coming down fast. I was alarmed in the dream because it was July, and I knew that people would starve.
What do you make of that? It felt like a warning. Interesting that you bought a fireplace, and I dream of freezing and loss of food.
I have several relatives who are struggling to survive because of health and economic issues……and I’m wondering how the rest of the unemployed are faring this night.
Well….my good thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has no fire in the stove, and no food in the kettle. I pray for a miracle for the billion who are starving.
This comes to mind. Each set of 3 shares a kinship of some kind. The kinship of opposites (Sun,Moon to Pluto), the kinship of element, in this case, earth, (Saturn, Mars, Venus) and the kinship of mutual reception (Neptune & Jupiter to Uranus) In a way, it reduces (or multiplies!) the energies from 10 to 4. Seems like it would focus these energies, less distraction. I get a feeling of balance (opposition)as in consciousness to unconsciousness, harmony (trine)and stability (earth), equality(mutual reception)and understanding as in “you walk in my shoes and I’ll walk in yours.
Of course, it would be a less homogeneous interplay of energies than in your typical chart, with only Mercury (of the original 10) to connect and communicate with them all. Who else?
On the other hand, for what it’s worth, Venus/Mars DOES form a semisquare to the New Moon and a septile (52.4 degrees) to Uranus, and a sesquiquadrite (135 degrees) to Pluto. Saturn DOES form a 3 degree orb Quintile (72 degrees) to the New Moon, so there IS subtle communication. Perhaps it means that Mercury is being left out . . as in the lack of dependable information coming from Iran to “free world”. Does this happens often and I’ve just never noticed it?
A curious thing about this New Moon. Of the 10 major “planets”, only 1 doesn’t share a degree # with 2 other planets. That would be Mercury. The Sun & Moon & Pluto are all at 2 degrees of a sign, Neptune, Jupiter & Uranus are all at 27 degrees of something, and Saturn, Mars & Venus are all at 17 degrees of the signs they are in. I don’t know what to make of it. Do you? Each set of 3 includes an exact conjunction and then forms either a trine, or an opposition, or a semi-sextile. Looks intense.
By the way, I bought a fireplace yesterday. Seemed the right thing to do.