Dear Friend and Reader:
This weekend is the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, which was actually held in Bethel, New York — a town whose name translates to “house of God.” We’ve always paid tribute to Woodstock at Planet Waves, and commemorated the event in some small way almost every year. The original, one and only festival, held Aug. 15, 16, 17В and 18, 1969, was one of the great watersheds of the modern human experience, defying everything that our society is supposed to be, and exemplifying what we can create if we want. I don’t mean sex, drugs and rock and roll: I mean people getting along with one another, sharing what we have and celebrating existence.
It’s a little-known historical fact that on the eve of 500,000 people gathering for what in fact became three days of peace and music, Wavy Gravy threw the I Ching and got Hexagram 13, “Fellowship Among Men.” This is “the creative, heaven” above and “the flame” below. It’s a picture of creative fire, rising from the Earth. We’ve been talking a lot about Vesta lately, and this is a beautiful manifestation of her energy: the goddess of the creative fire within, and in the world. In fact the asteroid Vesta is prominent in this chart, which I’ll get to in a moment.
This event took place in what would have been an unforgettable summer in any event: the Moon landing, the gruesome antics of the Manson family, the recording of Abbey Road, the breakup of the Beatles and many other events, all of which culminate at the Woodstock Festival on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in sleepy old Sullivan County, a place there are usually more cows than people.
The judgment or predicted outcome when this hexagram appears is: “Fellowship among men in the open. Success. It furthers one to cross the great water. The perseverance of the superior man furthers.” Imagine how they must have felt seeing that message come out of the yarrow sticks.
One commentary reads, “True fellowship among men must be based upon a concern that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals of humanity.
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 Weekly Horoscope for Friday, August 14, 2009, #779 – BY ERIC FRANCIS |
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Aries (March 20-April 19)
Finally a line of energy has opened up in a frustrating or divisive situation, though you’ll need to apply yourself to work it consciously. The go-ahead is that for a moment, anyway, you no longer feel so divided against yourself. You’re also in touch with your feelings in an unusual way; you are able to make certain admissions to yourself that are otherwise much more difficult. An issue that was previously invisible is now vivid enough to see for what it is. But it doesn’t resolve itself unless you assert yourself. We could make a list a mile or two long about why you’re not supposed to do that. Here is a clue: guilt does not mean you’re wrong; it means you’re suffering from having been made wrong in the past. If you feel guilty for feeling, for having emotions or for seeking self-understanding, you can be sure that was the case. These things can only be addressed now, which fortunately is precisely what time it is.
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Leo (July 22- Aug. 23)
One of the most sincere things that any person can do is admit that we stand in constant relationship to the unknown. One way to look at the overload of so-called information in our society is to fill a vast, terrifying gulf of what we don’t know: for example, how long we will live, how we got here, what the rest of our lives will be like, whether we can really trust certain people, and how serious the planetary crisis is right now. As the next few days pass you will be looking straight into not just the unknown but the sense of potential that accompanies any honest encounter with the abyss. If you haven’t already unplugged the thing and put it in the closet, these would be the perfect few days to boycott television and other forms of infotainment.
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Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22)
During the course of this year, an energetic condition or state emerged in your life that seemed to pick you up and carry you. The truth is, it took you by storm, making it difficult to track the decisions you were making as you made them; and made it more difficult to assess your motives. The more recent news is that what was once an onslaught of progress is more understandable in its constituent parts. Everything is composed of elements. The ones that are influencing you are in the process of distinguishing themselves from one another, but only so that they can re-form again in new ways. In fact there are so many possible combinations that it will be very helpful to work from the goal backwards to the process of getting there. This will save time and energy and maximize the results that you want.
Fe:
I was 30 years old, lived all of them in this country, and still had no idea it was a lot to take in! The musical Hair came out about a year before Woodstock, and we, straight-laced working class ladies, didn’t know whether to giggle or be outraged over the shocking (lack of) wardrobe, the script and the lyrics of this play. The hippies were just “cute” and not so threatening; I remember a Halloween party I went to dressed like a flower child, pretty much as a joke. Little did we realize how much of a protest was going on at the time. The music changed us and gradually consciousness started to seep into our waking hours. This form of protest, this music, was available to us and then along came Woodstock. The loss of King, the Kennedys and the war made going back impossible, although many were too scared to recognise this.
The air of expectation since Obama campaigned, won nomination and then presidency is similar to the feeling of those times. God bless the young for the energy and belief they provided, then and now, to unite so many Americans and revive those desires expressed through art, music and protest. The fire is rekindled and Vesta is indefatigable!
“The ability to create inner happiness in dark hours; the vivid faith in a transformed future”.
bk:
Perhaps we’ve become so used to Woodstock being a cultural metaphor, maybe even a cartoon of what it was in reality that some folks might have forgotten the times that surrounded it, and how much we were reeling from the war, the pain, the violence and the disruption we knew during the sixties. As a child of 14 born to parents new to this country, I had no idea that it was alot to take in.
Reading today’s posts, particularly yours and Patty’s, I feel my heart grow large. We pulled through a beautiful, creative and dangerous time, some of us worse for the wear, but souls intact. We needed an icon of what could be. We needed to feel part of something, and though I wasn’t there, I have a feeling people who were at Woodstock consciously created, moment by moment, that example.
Patty: thank you so much for the revelation of you. And especially for your strength.
Patty, some tough ass memories surrounding this event. You’ve come a long way baby!
jlo, . . could be, could be! Kickin’ back over a brew . . with their spouses even! Thanks for that info. Hadn’t dug too far into the chart yet; figured Chiron would be making a return after 50 years, but good news to hear about Juno and Dionysis in Leo (and Pallas in Libra). The more the merrier and merrier and merrier. . What would Eric say I wonder?
BK – My husband was at Woodstock. He was military escort for over 100 funerals of dead Viet Nam veterans in 1967 and then he was shot down later that year when he shipped to Viet Nam and served as an aerial photographer. His mother died that year too. Woodstock was a life changing moment for so many of us, and I was struck by the Christmas tree sabian symbol you just mentioned. I was still grieving for my baby that I gave away and working through the emotional grief of being shunned by old high school friends and relatives for choosing adoption. My husband and I met shortly afterward, so I guess we’ve been united for 40 years through thick and thin. Seems incredible when I think about it. We watch the old woodstock tapes whenever we catch them on cable. To this day he still gets emotional about all those Viet Nam veterans he buried, and I grieve over the adoption. Within a few years the whole world had changed, after Woodstock. 1967-68 were brutal, but the status quo certainly changed after 1969!!
Also in the 2019 chart we have juno & dionysus in the same degree right between venus & mars in leo, sextiled pallas athene in libra.
Could it be the genders kickin’ back hammering out some shit over a brew? 😉
J
What the hell. . looked at the cart for 10 years from right now and thought I’d share. There is a Sun, Venus, Mars conjunction and the Moon is opposed it! All are between 22 and 28 degrees Leo or Aquarius. Aquarius . .where the Neptune, Jupiter & Chiron conjunction is right now!
Also, Uranus is 2 degrees away from where the ’69 chart’s ruler is, in Taurus. Saturn, the south node and Pluto are in a 7 degree spread conjunction in Capricorn (14 – 21 degrees) and Jupiter squares Neptune. Sounds like a big old love-in to me! Oh yeah, and Neptune is trine the north node in water signs. bingo
Hi Len & all. . .so sorry if my entry wasn’t totally clear. I’m having a Sisyphus return and it was especially bad yesterday, everything I did I had to re-do many times, including typing the Sabian symbol for the ascendent degree of Woodstock chart. I kept losing my internet connection before I could complete the entry. Even had to re-type my login 4 times just now! Talk about your rolling stones!!! Anyway on the last try for yesterday’s entry I typed just the essential; the quote from the book with none of my own observations. (I’m also having Saturn conjunct the ruler of my chart these days, so nothing is coming easy!)
So now that it’s out there it doesn’t seem to be as breathtaking as it did yesterday, but golly, the group. . . the “cohesive group of people”, with a “common will” brought to a “focus in concrete action”, and of course the “use of water in order to move” just overwhelmed me with its synchronicity. Yes, Len, the I Ching connection (wish I knew more about this practice) but also the water equals feeling/emotion was important and then there was the RAIN. It rained all weekend!
Now, I wasn’t there but I was a working woman at a TV station. Only 3 channels existed, no computers, no internet, no cell phones, no IPods, no nothing we take for granted today. I operated within the status quo but something about the Woodstock phenomenon gave me an adrenalin rush and I knew life would change because of it. For all of us.
Would we be the same now if it hadn’t happened? It’s possible Fe. We can’t know for sure but the astrology for that weekend would be the same and maybe some other event would catapult humanity into a new age. I won’t take up the space to write them out here, but the ruler of the chart (Saturn) has a remarkable image too (Taurus 9 – A fully decorated Christmas tree) “The ability to create inner happiness in dark hours; the vivid faith in a transformed future”.
The Sun too seems fitting: In a Circus the Bareback Rider Displays her Dangerous Skill (“perform spectacular feats”, “within the context of a social function & expressing a flair for dramatics”) C’mon! And there’s the Moon’s symbol: “A Lion Tamer Displays his Skill and Character”.
It was such a volcanic time, much like now, when you knew it was just a matter of time when the status quo would be shattered and something new would emerge. A fearful thing, but also a hopeful thing. So glad to celebrate this memorable event of 40 years past. Can’t help but imagine what it might be like 10 years from now!
It’s especially good Eric- never saw the chart to Woodstock before-
is it possible to link to it from my update?
Shelley Ackerman
Good Morning Dear Chelsea!
Please forward my Thank You to Eric and Judith for another great Friday read. I mean really, those two just blow me away. I wonder what it must feel like to be that brilliant?
Love Eric’s article on Woodstock. I was there, even though I wasn’t there, if you know what I mean. I was a junior in high school, and those hopes and dreams of Love and Peace and Brotherhood and Sisterhood meant everything to me, and I never lost that hope that One Day….
And his This Week’s Noteworthy Astrology: well, so informative and educational, and HOLEY-MACKRELL, if it’s a roller-coaster now and it’s just going to continue to intensify. Well, Life’s going to be veeerrry in-ter-esting. 🙂
And Judith’s writing today is something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while now. (she does that a lot). Please thank her again. I know I say that a lot, but it’s sincere.
Hope all is well with you and yours.
Love and Peace, Little-Sister.
Lynda
Len:
I think you’ve got part of it with the Butterfly effect, but also remember, this festival was made a legend overnight, as important as the moon walk and the Beatles as Eric says, and to which I agree.
There were icons and milestones of that era that acted as talisman for growing what we called the counter-culture, which has evolved into the progressive movement we know today.
Even if folks weren’t there, Woodstock was an icon for generations – a miracle of community and creation that inspired me and many throughout the last forty years. We were part of it by osmosis and gathered strength from it like a culture battery.
So the question really is, if we had neither the Beatles or Woodstock or the moon walk, would we be the same?
Fe,
If i understand your observarion(s) and questions correctly, that subject of would seem to fall into the category of chaos theory, popularized as the butterfly effect. Not sure if you subscribe to it, but the math apparently came first (to describe the dynamics of cloud formation – as i understand it) and apparently the math works. That being the case, your question is complex. If the thousands of people actually at Woodstock were doing something else that week , that’s a lot of people each following a different series of paths, events and decisions than they actually did. Wouldn’t that seem to add up more than just numbers? i don’t know. Maybe there’s a sort of momentum to things that no number of butterflies can change.
Forgive me if i misunderstood your drift.
-Len Wallick
Years are just numbers, and our lives are a series of paths, events, and decisions. I wonder, what would WE be like if Woodstock had NOT happened? Would the counter-culture movement have been any more robust? Would we see the progressive movement we see today?
i’m a Leo and i’m actually taking off sun-tues so this is nice to hear. also, i dont own a tv 🙂
Thank you, bkoehler, for what i’m assuming is the Sabian symbol. Amazing how that fits with the I Ching reading (“crossing the great water” and all that implies). It has been my experience that careful and well-timed use will show that an I Ching reading will concur with and reinforce the current astrology. Synchronicity, it seems, can provide us with a paralllax view.
Always love your contributions!
-Len Wallick
“Capricorn 4: A group of people outfitting a large canoe at the start of a journey by water. (keynote) The ability to use natural resources and basic skills in order to achieve a group- purpose.
“As this scene was recorded in the original version only in imprecise terms, it seems merely to indicate the start of a journey undertaken by a cohesive group of people, who perhaps together have built this large canoe. Thus we see here a common enterprise which may be an answer to the need for a change of locality. A social group more strongly than ever reveals its homogeneity and common will when it decides to move away from its familiar habitat. The zodical sign Capricorn brings this common will to a focus in concrete actions. It does so in terms of socio-political expediency and under a definite type of executive direction, even though the decisions are arrived at by common consent.
“As this is the 4th symbol in the 55th five-fold sequence, we find in it a hint of how to do something concrete. The “canoe” may also have a special technical meaning, as it uses water in order to move. A common feeling-response to a specific situation may be implied. The main emphasis is nevertheless on GROUP-ACTIVITY in circumstances implying a need for change.” Dane Rudhyar “An astrological Mandala”
paletiger,
Speaking as someone who also lives without a television, i support you. As time goes on you will appreciate your choice all the more. Engaging in barter / trade as part of the same action seems synergestic somehow. You’ve got it going on (and isn’t it amazing how your actions evolve the meaning of that term?). Finally, i love the idea that you are not intimidated by the image of an abyss. Thank you for the inspiration and sharing in the spirit of Woodstock.
-Len Wallick
Reading Leo (still read it for me at moment as well as la crabette as it’s been relevant and there’s a lot in my chart) I’m cheerful at the prospect of an abyss staring event. And I wonder what the abyss would make of things if it could stare into me.
I swapped the gargantuan, monstrosity that was the TV for two great haircuts – one for me and one for my partner. We gave it up because we realised that we rarely watched it and when we did, we felt our lives passing us by and wasting away. I felt that way before I met my partner and lived on my own. And for the most part, even the news, especially the news, was was another form of terrorism in my living room. It was also bigger than the sofa – ridiculous.
Anyway, my sister needed it more than me, she’s an artist and watches/makes films etc., handy for her work. She also does brilliant hair. So we’re all happy.
PT x