Astrology ahead, Aug. 18-25 from Planet Waves

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Welcome if this is your first visit to Planet Waves. We offer published services that are designed to bring the full energy and elegance of astrology to a much wider audience than I could work with one-to-one. Among our tools for doing so are highly unusual horoscope columns. If you would like to get a sense of the feeling and ideas, here is one called Inner Space, for August 2008. More information is directly at left. If you’re curious about the process I go through writing horoscopes, here is a small collection of articles on the subject.

We’re doing a lot more than horoscopes; we offer a viewpoint that integrates personal growth with astrology and the affairs of the planet at this crucial time — the journalism of the future right in this moment. Thanks for tuning in…

Dear Friend and Reader:

I am slowly going deeper into the newest Radiohead CD, In Rainbows. Like everything I’ve ever heard by these guys, I don’t like it at first, then gradually it grows on me like a vine and doesn’t let go.

Thom Yorke is my favorite harbinger of the apocalypse — of the message, It’s Time To Move On. Move on from what? Our obsession with death and negativity; our devotion to escapism; our worshipful devotion of fear; our refusal to feel, including to feel our situations for what they are or are not. It’s time to move on from anything that depletes us and does not nourish us. From the fucked up mess we thought we were.

(I’ll return to Yorke with his chart around his birthday in early October. He is more living proof of my “human blowtorch” theory of Libra.)

I was just wondering yesterday what music or art or writing would represent our moment like a DNA capsule, and a song I’ll introduce you to in a moment reminds me that usually, Radiohead does it for me. One of the central dilemmas of our lifetimes is that so many of us have so much power in our hands, yet ultimately feel inert at the prospect of using it — perhaps because we are so attached to our comfort that we can’t embrace the need to do something more primal and just survive for the long haul. And on the other side of the tracks, some of us are so wedded to the raw struggle to survive that there’s just no way to embrace any greater possibility. How many people think they have “succeeded,” but fear they have done so at the cost of their own soul?

I think we’re in a moment with very little hope but that offers no choice except to take in whatever joy life has to offer, and to be real — as real as we know we are inside, realer than we think we’re capable of being, so real that it feels dangerous — with ourselves and the people around us.

Usually when you’re interpreting poetry, it helps to be able to point to references in the text that support your interpretation. Just as in life, this is not always possible with poetry or lyrics. Yorke writes like he’s thinking specifically about something and describing it precisely. But he often does so in an open and elliptical way that allows you to feel what he’s saying without being to express it, then to bring your own story to the words.

Here is a song called Reckoner from In Rainbows. I would love to know what you think, to know where this song takes you. I’ve included the words on the page at PlanetWaves.FM and I’ve played it about 11 times so far tonight.

So, astrology, and life. We have come through these eclipses, hopefully no worse for the wear. I am hearing that a few of us got banged up, I know a friend who was in a pretty good car accident with her kid but everyone is fine. Another friend got a tick bite and needs to take antibiotics. I had a profound aspect of a prior incarnation open up during a healing session in the interclipse interval, and I have been feeling better since having the chance to process even a little of the emotional material that came up. I’ve also been handed two assignments by a top environmental journal in the UK, and then I was referred onto one of their best sex journals and hired to write my first professional foray into erotic fiction. I’ve been having plenty of fun with the amateur stuff lately.

Here are Genevieve’s interpretations for this week’s aspects, which are calculated by Serennu.com and a bit of help from Raphael’s Ephemeris. I’ve mingled in some of my own commentary among Genevieve’s, I won’t distinguish who’s is who’s. We begin as of this writing Sunday night with the waning Moon in Pisces about to make a conjunction to Uranus/Prometheus, which could make for some pretty wild overnight dreams.

18 Monday: Mercury trine Jupiter. Pholus stations direct in Sagittarius. In the final degree of Virgo, Mars sextile Ceres in Capricorn. Pholus is like a battery, and it can hold its charge for generations. Stationing direct in Sagittarius, still harmonized with Nessus and Chiron in Aquarius, is like a release of pent up faith in ourselves.

19 Tuesday: The Moon enters Aries at 10:10 am EDT. Mars enters Libra at 6:03 am EDT. The opposition takes place while both planets are at the end of mutable signs. The inspiration to make connections with people or places could be overlooked if you don’t look it over. Speaking of look, yes, and anyone you can stare at longingly you can walk up to and say hello.

20 Wednesday: Sun trine Pluto sesquiquadrate Jupiter. Generosity is the result of a level of the ego being dissolved. That level is the level that decides what we need and do not need. This feeling is part of the discernment process of Virgo, who separates, puts things in order, digests them, and breaks them down. The Sun has entered Leo’s final degrees, and the energy of life-force that emanated from the Leo Sun is transmuting into Earth energy, where all those heat and rays were picked up by the metabolic processes of all creature.

On a practical level, this translates into the desire for a more pristine existence, to finally go through your wallet and throw out all the old receipts, business cards, coupons and expectations in anticipation of new arrivals. Have you ever cleaned out your fridge of all the old food and condiments, and then immediately wanted to go buy new food? You might want to wait a while, and see what comes in.

Look closely at those phone numbers and that jar of mustard in the back of your fridge. It’s possible you’ll need them soon.

21 Thursday: Moon enters Taurus at 2:38 pm EDT. Mercury conjoins Venus in Virgo. Sedna stations retrograde in Taurus. Pholus opposite Pallas. The Sedna station is deeply introspective, almost intuitive. This suggests that among our values must be some ideas and resources to help us cope with how difficult life can be, and how we must keep our hearts open as part of the process of bridging moment to moment. Pallas in Gemini opposing Pholus is like a dual response to how good life can be when we keep our hearts and minds in a state of grace. You do get to pick.

22 Friday: In the final degree of Leo, the Sun conjoins Orcus and then enters Virgo. Mercury and Venus sextile Varuna.

23 Saturday: Mercury and Venus oppose Uranus. This is a cool one. Under this astrology, you can say anything to the people you’re most intimate with, or that one person; you could say anything to anyone or anything to yourself. Tell yourself everything and let the truth spill over to your whole existence. The Moon sextiles Uranus before entering Gemini at 5:48 pm EDT. Mercury and Venus trine Sedna, allowing us to think, feel and express what we feared a few days ago was too dark for words. Words are light.

Chiron square Psyche. Psyche is like a psychic version of Chiron. It often represents an injury based in belief only. Chiron may prod you to remember this fact, and to take advantage of an opportunity to get real, to move on, to set yourself free of your belief that you were hurt irrevocably by anything or anyone.

24 Sunday: Pallas in Gemini square Eros in Virgo. It’s not necessary to negotiate with love. No debate is possible.

Daily aspects and oracle will be added overnight.