From today’s Planet Waves Astrology News

Because this setup involves Aquarius, part of the conversation involves the mental realm and what is known as the technosphere: the cloud of technology that surrounds us, the energy and information that move there. In recent years it’s taken on the name, ‘the cloud’, a term used to describe part of Earth’s environment. In a book called Time and the Technosphere, the author suggests that the biosphere, this green-blue living sphere where everyone grows and blossom and squirms around and eats and reproduces, is gradually being encircled in the technosphere. That is, all the wires and broadcasts and devices and engineered seeds and all of us awash in microwave radiowave 3G 4G bluetooth blueray wifi myfi jai alai, that whole buzzing sphere that it is, is merging with the living realm. We are merging into one another. How do we personally relate to the experience of being immersed in this? I am curious about people’s personal journeys through the technosphere; our own personal intermingling.

19 thoughts on “From today’s Planet Waves Astrology News”

  1. My 12 year old niece who lives in England, wrote me a lengthy email a few weeks back asking questions about my leaving Ireland in my mid 20’s to work first in the UAE and then settling Canada. She was doing a Geography project on migration and had chosen me as her subject. I was delighted to help her out so we emailed back and forth over several days working out the details and particulars about the whys and wherefores of my various moves. Finally she submitted the project to her teacher and sent me a copy of the four posters she had compiled, scanning and emailing them to me. “Wow” I thought, when I saw 25 years of my life beautifully presented through maps, pictures, drawings and photos flash before me, and more especially through the eyes of someone I have sadly spent so little physical time with.

    The whole enterprise fostered a new and vibrant connection with the newest generation of my family and I could really sense that she and I were relating to each other in a whole new light. The collaboration between the two of us was very fun and could not have take place so effortlessly without us both communicating through our computer screens, all from the cosy comforts of our homes that were thousands of miles apart.

    For the twenty-five years since I left Ireland I didn’t feel very connected with my flesh and blood but today, with just a few clicks and typed words, I have some family members right “beside” me, making my heart sing with new avenues of dialogue and I love us being on each other’s radar, so readily accessible.

    It’s a brave new techno-wired world and I for one wouldn’t have it any other way. 😉

  2. Noosphere [no-osphere], according to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, denotes the “sphere of human thought”. The word is derived from the Greek νοῦς (nous “mind”) + σφαῖρα (sphaira “sphere”), in lexical analogy to “atmosphere” and “biosphere”.

    In the original theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the Earth and it includes all of the multiverse, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere. In contrast to the conceptions of the Gaia theorists, or the promoters of cyberspace, Vernadsky’s noosphere emerges at the point where humankind, through the mastery of nuclear processes, begins to create resources through the transmutation of elements. It is also currently being researched as part of the Princeton Global Consciousness Project.”

    From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere

  3. Yes the tecnocracy is coming or rather..”The singularity is near” to quote Kurzweil. I see that technology is merging with us and will continue to do so as he has foretold,,,but the opportunity to join in a “consciousness collective” which involves an unprecidented share of knowledge and information, yes, also presents an equally near overwhelming information download, which demands a counterbalance of some sort of mystical/contemplative practice, so as to keep that connection to spirit, the earth and the cosmic mind thus weaving into the technocracy a true line of hyper-knowledge tempered by inner wisdom…hopefully… for there are all sorts of other layers…it a mirror for the collective human experience…also it will transform in time limited gender roles, and perhaps most significantly, the fact that males will be more accepting of their feelings of attraction for each other and allow more freedom in expressing their “taboo” feelings and homosexual curiousities, in the context of cyberspace, allowing them to be who they really need to be unfettered by the societal constructs and conditioning of “tradition” enabling greater freedom and healing in expression which will further advance human evolution…ultimately, as I feel this is a “last great issue” of human growth…transcending gender roles and allowing greater, accepted and encouraged authenticity…beyond the fear of societies judgements…by stating this I am not condoning rampant sexual addiction…but conversely I am encouraging (the flow of movement is begun) the healing of the “hidden man” in so many men, by allowing expression, acceptance and honor… as the healing of the feminine energy, by it’s recognition, healing and reverence has began doing now in so many countries and societies globally…this all has only just began, in a 50 year time span true progress will be noted by all I intuit. I’m sure my voicing will be offensive some who dread the greater recognition of something other than “traditional and accepted” and “masculine” traits in men, which of course goes back to persons conforming to roles, biases and fears that they have been conditioned to accept abd believe, although I will recognise a greater capacity of females, generally, to provide structure to society and some men, the rigidity of these “sanctioned” identities will continue to shift and change, as a collective human experience which will further heal and benefit all eventually.

  4. I remember Rocky Gardiner, Len — she used to write a weekly horoscope for the LA Weekly.

    Did she pass away? I’m sorry to hear that. I stopped her reading her stuff a long time ago, but she was good.

  5. Len said: Of course, if a big solar storm should suddenly leave the world without electricity, it would be a big adjustment. Perhaps an even bigger revealation.

    I must be on a sci-fi roll tonight. This calls to mind S.M. Stirling’s Emberverse series.

  6. While i’m off the subject – this is the first night of the festival of lights. About half of what i know about Hanukkah i learned from the late, great astrologer Rockie Gardiner. She made a correspondence between each of the eight candles, a planet and a quality. As a way of passing the torch (pun intended), i would like to pass that on to you thusly: The first candle (tonight) light from the Sun. The second candle (Saturday) knowledge from Mercury. the third candle (Sunday) justice from Venus in Libra. The fourth candle (Monday) mercy from the Moon. The fifth candle (Tuesday) holiness from Jupiter. the sixth candle (Wednesday) love from Venus in Taurus this time, the seventh candle (Thursday) patience from Saturn and the final candle (sunset the next Friday) courage from Mars. Beautiful, huh? Don’t know if she made that up or got it from someone else. By the way, astronomers recently discovered one of the stars in the handle of the big dipper is actually a binary. maybe it was just discovered because Rockie just arrived there – could be.

  7. Eric, thank you. Interesting synchronicity. Awoke this morning from a vivid dream, wondering whether it had some connection with Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious because it intuitively felt that way. In the groggy process of shaving, showering, etc my thoughts wandered to Eric’s musings about the internet, or the web or the cloud or the technospehere or whatever one calls it, wondering if this phenomenon is the collective unconscious manifesting itself in the material world. Of course, this is only speculation. Things have moved on since Dr. Jung. As evinced on this very site, for example, the most current theory of dreams is that they are some form of calesthenics in preparation for functioning while awake. Still, as someone who has been speaking, writing and reading for over half a century, the idea that being and consciousness are rapidly changing and evolving somehow is worth some contemplation. The problem, of course, is how do we step back from being and consciousness to examine them from a detached point of view? It would seem that we are immersed. To be more aware than ever before and at the same time less aware than ever before, what a concept.

    Of course, if a big solar storm should suddenly leave the world without electricity, it would be a big adjustment. Perhaps an even bigger revealation. Lest we forget, the cloud has an underpinning in infrastructure.

    Not surprisingly i find great comfort in washing dishes, walking, lifting iron – those are things an old feeble mind like mine can handle. If anyone out there wants to hire a wood chopper or a water carrier, please let me know. My back is still strong.

  8. I think you are onto something about the computers being alive. The Indians will all tell you that anything with a face (a mask or a statue) has a spirit and some of the older elders will tell you to feed the spirit – a bit of oil on the mouth, or a small plate of food. The spirit can do good or bring harm – up to you.

    Did anyone read about the human manure composting in mother earth news this month? I’m thinking we are getting ready to move into a whole new other way of life real soon, and the technosphere is making it possible to know how to do that and still live well.

  9. For me it’s like how do we know what we know and where does that come from?

    I’ve recently come across the work of George and Clif at Half Past Human.com and their work on Predictive Linguistics on the internet. I’m not a technical person so trying to explain how I think this works is not easy, but here goes.

    As the internet has grown and more people can access the net I liken it to the neural pathways in a collective brain. Each new connection creates new pathways, more ways to find out things and learn about others. A technological collective consciousness if you like. Where we can find a multitude of answers to our questions.

    And so all the people who can connect to the internet can share their knowledge, experiences, fantasies, you name it, it can be found here.

    As I understand it, Predictive Linguistics is based on what words people on the internet use to communicate how they feel about things. An analogy would be the way the stock exchanges work in either a bull or bear market. As someone either buys or sells stocks and shares so other buyers/sellers sentiments can change to follow the “herd” so to speak. The hundred monkey effect perhaps!

    With Predictive Linguistics these guys found that when the sentiment changed and people started to use different words or phrases it was often in advance of a change in events. A glimpse into the future perhaps. Nothing specific, more a change in the collective mood that may reflect a change of context.

    This idea is supported by experiments in a scientific environment where people “see” or “sense” things before they happen. If you take all of the people connected together via the internet then maybe they can “see” events or change their sentiments towards the future before it actually happens.

    The counter argument to that would be that if enough people “felt” the same way about something or even someone then it is more likely to happen. Such as the success of the Obama campaign to become President.

    So all the knowledge, information, experience and of course Planet Waves is out there and how we all feel may just bring about the future we would all like to see happen assuming enough of us feel the same way.

    This link explains it much better than I can:-

    http://urbansurvival.com/simplebots.htm

  10. Nance,

    I wonder sometimes if we are being given option to (garner knowing as to how to) elevate from earth in some sense – perhaps some way we have deemed necessary by our actions – soon enough?

    Hmm I say again, “Hmmmmm”.
    Linda

  11. It’s great to explore this concept in more depth. Thank you Eric.

    Professionally, as a biologist, I feel a very deep connection to the biosphere. That said, I use immense amounts of technology to do my work. The mapping capability I have on my desktop, with Google Earth, GIS, soils data, etc. is so immense. People in 1985 dreamed of having this capability, and now I have it In My Home.

    We call Google ‘the oracle’ because it can answer just about any question.

    I enjoy the connectivity that I feel and the power of information access that I have through the technosphere. I also do feel directly linked in, contributing and receiving.

    Some big issues have been in my face recently related to this interface with technology.

    We have a local example because drones (the small unmanned planes that are currently used by the military) were invented here. The technology is continuing to be developed and now there is the presence of DOD money that wasn’t here in the past.

    From my perspective, these planes have potential beneficial applications even though they are now being used for military applications. I use alot of remote sensing information (i.e. aerial photographs) for my work. I can also see how a small spy plane in the hands of Greenpeace might have far-reaching implications. However, many in our local community are unhappy with being so directly effected by the Military-Industrial complex. The interesting thing is that the internet and much of our technosphere was originally developed by the US military.

    So, as much as I enjoy the technosphere, I also see there are complexities and effects that we don’t fully understand.

    There’s a great book by David Abrams called ‘The Spell of the Sensuous’. Abrams understands the detriments of disconnecting from the earth.

    So the question that arises for me, is can we connect and contribute via the technosphere and still maintain a healthy connection to the earth we depend on for our survival?

  12. I understand.

    I used to log into the internet every morning to connect with my powers that be – I learned and saw so much – the interenet was only there for me to then research the information that was being transmitted into and/or through me; it was not the source of the original information which would come in the form of cold chills and trance-like state. and ideas/words/stories typing through my fingers – much of which I would not remember having written (when I looked at it again) at a later time.

    This went for a period of many years (during which I “found” Eric I might add.)

    For me then, this energy field has been a strong connective tissue to alternative planes of existence.

    Intriguing.

  13. ..The Technosphere!,, I used to call it a neurogenic-field. I used to think it was a suppression of Life, and Creativity. Now, I realize it as a grid that allows us further contact with the rest of the globe (ourselves!). We.. can hop on and off this grid anytime we like. I can be open, and learn (with personal-discretion) any damned thing I want. Even MY pattern throws down into the “buzz”.

    ..but, Eric, you spoke of separation, in your contribution to the technosphere.. these are our creations.. separation is an illusion. Utilization of the Here/Now, This, is where it’s going..

    ..I’ve more to say, another day!

    (Good point to bake on.)

    Love,

    Jere

  14. I remember my first experiences on the Internet, during the winter of 1993. I had signed up for America Online. And suddenly I had access to what was clearly another dimension. As I would sit there chatting with people in the middle of the night, my body felt different; my sense of presence in the universe felt different, lighter and more flexible. It was almost like writing in a notebook tripping, except I was not, and the notebook (a very early Mac laptop) was responding with human presence on the other side. I had used computers every day since 1984 and this was nothing like the dead-end feeling of those offline machines.

    We don’t quite get this about the Internet: it is an astral plane that we access primarily through technology. It is a living dream that we all share. While plenty goes on in bits, bytes and pixels, there is another layer, which is the psychic envelope that surrounds the whole thing, and which anyone who is paying attention can have access to. We take the Net for granted these days, and have debates about privacy and security, and most people spend most of their time shopping; but the Internet has opened up so much in the way of knowledge, visual experience, interpersonal contact and the ability to have an easy space to dive into our creative impulses.

    In 1995 I was one of the first astrologers to put up a website, called The Worlds of Eric Francis. Then AOL itself was posting my horoscope to an area in the UK called Mystic Gardens — I assure you that the very best possible place to launch an astrology career is England. Suddenly and I do mean suddenly, people were finding me and writing to me and I was making friends and acquaintances around the world (and I have met many of you and I am always happy to meet the people I’ve been in relationship to here).

    Through the process of going through many Web incarnations, I feel like I’ve invested a substantial piece of of my soul energy into this dimension. I knew intuitively how to BE here, not just post articles here. I project my presence into everything that I do. I understand that living human creatures, each with a complex reality, is reading. I do my best to be responsive; I still try to answer every email I get.

    Sometimes I can feel the readers I have never met, never heard of, never heard from — the ones who keep coming back over the years but who don’t say anything. For me one of the greatest pleasures of the Internet is that it’s a dynamic, illustrated, fast-moving psychic field, that documents itself as it goes along. I am grateful to be here every day.

    What we may not recognize is that the “machines” themselves may be alive. They may possess consciousness and I have no reason to believe that they do not. Without anthropomorphicizing them — that is, I don’t make my computers into ‘people’ but they do have unique names — the whole technosphere seems to be alive with a consciousness and the individual components may be responding to our awareness. Rick Levine, the editor of StarIQ, has proposed that the Net is an etheric being called Aquarion that inhabited the Earth by nesting in our communications network. Arthur C. Clark has done a lot with computers that have consciousness. Book of Blue is about to veer into the territory of a lab where sex androids are being taught artificial emotional intelligence — how it happens, and what happens to the people who are involved.

  15. This is a new space to think about – perhaps not to be in – but to contemplate per Erics request. MaryMack, thanks for the idea about different “knowing”…..any further help translating the idea into reality so I can apply it (thusly responding at least in my own mind to Erics inquiry) would be appreciated and useful. I’m understand and am intrigued by this, but not quite feelin’ it yet.

    Thanks!

  16. Personally, I love it. On a mundane level, it allows me to keep in touch with the people I love; communicate; do myriad amounts of administration; plug into whatever I need or I want; and to participate from what is a relatively isolated corner of the developed world.

    On a collective level, it enables me to choose to be part of something greater than I am. It feels buzzy, as you put it Eric. That word is apt.

  17. I have been searching out the language for this shifting brand of “knowing” — unlike the standard issue of “I know thus and so” this merging of the spheres, bio and techno, insists on an experiencing “knowing” that feels true.

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