When I’m not traveling, I’m scheduled for astrology sessions most Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It’s not easy to do this work in the midst of writing what I do, the way I do, but it’s always worth the time and effort. I get a good fee for my work ($325 a session, which goes into the kitty at Planet Waves), and it would not be worth it for the money. This may sound odd, to be worth that much for 75 minutes of work, but the reason I can do it is because I learn so much. That’s what makes it worth every minute.
During my sessions these two days, the charts unfolded like another dimension opening up. In my working method, I do a LOT of listening: I’ll keep the client talking for the first hour if I have to, and work with the chart, listening on several different levels, barely mentioning the astrology, and then suddenly the chart, the client, the moment and my awareness align. This happens dependably; I have to be patient and have the experience. And each client, each chart, is like the experience of another world; another reality, spoken in that client’s unique language.
I’m getting ready to stop doing sessions, in preparation for Cosmic Confidential, the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves. As I go through this last dozen or so clients, I’m listening to their experiences, seeing how they align with their natal, transits and progressions, and filling pages with notes that are providing the foundation for the annual edition. As almost always happens in an astrology practice, the clients who arrive give me exactly the information that I need, to give them the information that they need, and to develop it into the public writing that I do. My clients have quite literally taught me astrology. I gave up on astrology books years ago. I learn from the process of listening, interpreting and writing; I teach by the process of listening, interpreting and writing.
The patterns and synchronicities can be very interesting. Today I worked with two clients who had suppressed their psychic abilities, and for whom those abilities (and much else) were beginning to re-emerge. Most of my clients this week were born very close to eclipses. Both clients today had Uranus in the ascendant. All had interesting Aries Point activity. All were on fire with the determination to grow and become — my favorite kind of client.
One thing I can say confidently to them and to you is that 2010 will be one of the most memorable years of our lives. It’s full of a vast diversity of experiences, developments, changes, processes — an incredible adventure that leads to some great breakthroughs — in the words of Blake, surely some revelation is at hand.
People have problems when they fight change kicking and screaming. Our lives go better when we dance with progress, with curiosity and the willingness to explore something new, someplace new, someone new. There is plenty new at hand; there will be many opportunities, and necessities, that guide us to try new options, and recreate our lives in ways we have always wanted to and ways that never occurred to us would be offered.
Thursday is my day to write Friday’s edition of Planet Waves, which will be dedicated to the Aries Full Moon over the weekend. That lunation is about relationships: finding ourselves as individuals in relationships instead of being “half a couple” as we so often do. I will probably not do much in the way of blogging; I’m gathering my energy and momentum for this article. Tonight I’m priming my brain with a friend named Stevie Jay. Here is a snip from our conversation. He just wrote to me:
Men love men and women love women, and that’s a reality of being human. And to take that simple reality and turn it into a “thing” via giving it a label adds all kinds of weight and significance and existential/social/interpersonal CONFLICT that are nothing more than mental constructs and have nothing to do with the reality of simply loving someone or simply being attracted to someone. Some of the best spiritual teachings deliver this very message: “Don’t label things; don’t draw lines. Render oneself vulnerable, like a child, and come into DIRECT contact with everything, with each other, with yourself, with whatever is before you.
“As soon as you’ve named it, you are no longer in DIRECT CONTACT with the thing, (whatever the thing is) — you’ve distorted it. Be nothing. Just be present with what IS.”
These are the basics of Zen Buddhism and these are also supposedly the central teachings of Jesus — to strip oneself of all dogma and stand naked before God. And folks just WON’T do it. This stuff sounds great on paper or in a Sunday church sermon, but it’s ultimately just another theory. Folks don’t really GET IT — that this shit is MADE UP. (They also didn’t want to hear it from Alfred Kinsey. Same message. Not interested.)
This “direct experience” approach is also taught by art teachers, (drawing, painting, etc.) Drawing 101: You look at a chair. In order to accurately draw the chair, you have to forget the word “chair.” You have to completely be present with the shapes and textures in your midst…and draw THAT. And the second you bring in the word “chair,” you’re no longer SEEING what is right there before you.
Very humane video that covers the basics well. They could say more about hidden ingredients, such as in salad dressings, sauces, gravies, and so on. Here is the text of my vigilante guide to gluten free, intended for servers and restaurant cooks.
Vigilante Guide to Gluten-Free
By Eric Francis, editor of PlanetWaves.net
“What the American public doesn’t know makes it the American public.”
— Dan Aykroid
Having been asked one too many times if pasta contains wheat, I decided to prepare this one-page guide to gluten-free for restaurants. This is not a complete guide, and it does not cover food preparation — only ingredients.
Gluten is a substance found in all forms of wheat (including spelt and Kamut), as well as barley, malt, rye and some oats. This includes all products made with those grains, including many that you would never suspect contain them because they are made with fractions (non-whole foods). This includes wheat protein used as a thickener or bulking agent, as it is in many, many foods. There is controversy over whether malt sweeteners (such as maltodextrin) are gluten-free; I would suggest avoiding them.
Most people who are on gluten-free diets have a disease called celiac. This is not an allergy. It is an autoimmune issue and a digestive disorder. Other people have a gluten allergy, which can be more or less severe. Others prefer to get gluten out of their diets to alleviate other allergies and illnesses. Most people who use the word “gluten” are under the advice of a doctor or nutritionist, and this is wise to consider a medical issue rather than a dietary preference.
Therefore, servers and food preparers must walk the plates with a gluten-free order through the preparation and serving process, taking care at every step and asking questions when necessary.
Most prepared foods contain gluten in the form of flour, bread, breading or “vegetable protein.” This is not about avoiding carbs or starch (for example, rice and potatoes are safe for gluten free people because they don’t contain gluten, unless it’s added somehow, i.e., if the potatoes are coated in flour).
While gluten appears in many foods, it’s fairly easy to get it out of any one meal or dining experience. It’s necessary to eliminate the following, at least:
— Bread, wraps, salad crutons and anything made with bread crumbs or batter. This includes anything made with beer, which is a barley product.
— Anything, including soups, that contains pasta, barley or wheat berries.
— Most sauces and soups, since they are usually thickened with wheat flour (tomato sauce is an exception). It’s necessary to check the formula or ask the person who prepared the product. Most soups and sauces that come out of a package or can will have flour or gluten in them. Others contain gluten in the form of soup-base (bullion).
— Anything that is deep fried (such as French fries), as many other foods containing wheat (often in the form of breading) are put through the fryer, and will become contaminated by the frying oil. Some places have fryers dedicated to just potatoes.
— Soy sauce contains traces of gluten unless it is labeled as wheat-free.
Additionally, many products are made with fractions of wheat protein that contain gluten. These include prepared salad dressings, which can easily be substituted with vinegar and oil. It is necessary to read the ingredients, but safer to assume that anything coming out of a package is contaminated. The key is to stick to simple, fresh foods. Avoid anything that comes out of a box or a can and generally it’s pretty easy to avoid gluten.
Eric,
Off subject but thought you would want to read, if you haven’t already, Dr. Jon LaPook’s article on celiac disease, on Huff Post. It includes a video too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jon-lapook/why-comon-foods-may-hurt_b_306662.html
three cheers for your business plan, darlin’! sounds pretty solid to me. 🙂
believe it or not, as much as i spin around in my little box, this semi-stuck taurus is starting to look forward to 2010. put me to work!
and thanks for sharing the bit from your friend stevie — makes some real sense to me. it can be such a trick to see/be and resist labeling. but those moments are gorgeous.
That’s what I like about doing my artwork; it empties my mind of words.
Jlo,
With a million, everyone who works for Planet Waves or Book of Blue would get a raise. People who have been working for me for years all deserve that.
I would invest a portion of the money in to these two enterprises, whose stock value has been remarkably stable, and develop the companies to the most efficient scale and staff levels. That would include a full time database programmer and someone to help with business development.
I would ease back my schedule a bit, though living and working approximately the same way. I would get myself a home to live in; there is a forest on the mountain calling my name and I would like to live near her. I would figure out a way to spend part of the year in Mykonos, near Delos.
I would create a small endowment to support young artists and writers, and continually invest a portion of my profits there.
That kind of thing.
I know it doesn’t take much to get me fired up (I’m an aries)…but come on!!! Hellooooo?! YES!!! Can we just all be understanding of what we are? Life is simple. People are simple. Living could be simple. I am no expert or even half as good at living this way as I’d like…but it does make sense to me and it does turn me on and I do my best. Let’s experience each other in a real way. Let’s look past the labels of teacher, bus driver, etc. and relate to one another in the moment. Let’s be happy for each other, not ashamed to love one another, not afraid to express gratitude and affection. The current state of the world is demanding that humans become humans again instead of corporate building blocks. If we don’t support each other through this mess (because it’s only going to get worse) we will lose our entire world and there is no need for that to happen. And besides losing our ‘comfy credit bought’ world…relating in truth to someone is joyous. We feel good. It feels ‘right,’ it feeds the spirit and revives our true perceptions.
You best appreciate your work, bro, not many can come up with that bit of scratch. (And what the fuck do you expect, people running to you with cash in hand!?!)
Truly, what would you do with it.. if I gave you a million dollars, what would you do with it?!
If I brought to you a million people, what would you do with them? If I showed you how to exist, would you even see?
Your borders are bending, breathing, take note, and care.
Trippers’ space,
Me
My reading for the week was Hexagram 22, line 1: seeing beauty and being beautiful begins by climbing out your box of expectations and stepping into the moment at hand. (My gloss.)