{"id":44139,"date":"2011-08-16T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=44139"},"modified":"2011-08-16T13:30:30","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T17:30:30","slug":"fellowship-among-men-and-women-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/fellowship-among-men-and-women-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellowship Among Men and Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editors Note:<\/strong> The post below is from the Planet Waves archives, and was originally published in August of 2009. Today is the 42nd anniversary of the Woodstock music festival.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Friend and Reader:<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
Max Yasgur, who allowed the Woodstock festival to happen on his dairy farm in Bethel, NY, greets the crowd on the third day of the festival. Photo \u00a9 by Elliott Landy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’ve always paid tribute to Woodstock at Planet Waves (both our name and that of the festival are references to Bob Dylan), and have commemorated the event in some small way almost every year. The original, one and only festival, held Aug. 15, 16, 17\u00a0and 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> threw the I Ching <\/em>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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 a lot more cows than people.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

One commentary<\/a> 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. That is why it is said that fellowship with men in the open succeeds. If unity of this kind prevails, even difficult and dangerous tasks, such as crossing the great water, can be accomplished. But in order to bring about this sort of fellowship, a persevering and enlightened leader is needed, a man with clear, convincing and inspiring aims and the strength to carry them out.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a>
Click on image to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was prophetic, if you ask me — it tells the story of an unprecedented community event, and of a vast, unconscionable missed opportunity in the decades that followed. Yes, some people tried in the 70s. Many people were searching or alternatives. There were numerous experiments in intentional community<\/a>, some of which were short lived and some of which are still in existence today. The groundbreaking work of the Humanistic therapists was incredible, and we need to start reading those books again, and organizing consciousness-raising groups. But the Woodstock Generation quickly degraded into what was popularly known at the time as the Me Generation; then came the Neoconservative movement in the 1980s and its absolute obsession with private gain and profit. Today, we are still fighting over whether people are entitled to go to the doctor.<\/p>\n

As for a persevering and enlightened leader: we’re getting there, though none too quickly.<\/p>\n

The Festival’s Astrology
\n<\/strong>
\nLet’s have a look at that Woodstock chart. There are a lot of astrologers in Woodstock. People have actually written books about this chart. It’s an astrology class in a sheet of paper. You might want to read the history of the event<\/a> in Wikipedia so that you have a clear, objective narrative of what happened that weekend. (The list of acts that declined, and why, is something I find eternally amusing.) Many accounts have been written and exploring them would make a fine evening on the Internet. The chart is for the moment when Richie Havens took the stage on Friday night, 5:07 pm EDT.<\/p>\n

\"Hexagram
Hexagram 13 of the I Ching: Fellowship Among Men.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chart for the Aquarian Exposition has Capricorn rising. This supports my theory that all truly revolutionary activity involves Capricorn. That’s because revolution is a tradition; and it requires structure and focus. However, let’s not forget that while the original festival was a total failure as a business, it was designed as a capitalist project, and as the decades have unfolded Woodstock Ventures, Inc. has certainly maintained this reputation impeccably. While I have bemoaned this attitude in past articles (there are some ugly stories that I will spare you here; but some are told in the third section of this article<\/a>), it’s all I can do not to drop down onto one knee when I bump into Michael Lang<\/a>, whose idea Woodstock was.<\/p>\n

Using a chart with about 24 planets and points, the only ones that turn up in Aquarius are the Part of Fortune, Ceres<\/a> and Pholus<\/a>. If you had cast the chart at the time, you would have been unlikely to see any of them. The Part of Fortune was cast using a different, incorrect formula, only revised recently. Ceres was largely ignored at the time, and Pholus would not be discovered for another 23 years.<\/p>\n

It would have been more accurate to describe this as a Virgo\/Libra Expo. The main item in Virgo is Pluto, which had been there since the late 1950s and which set the tone of the Sixties; the Moon is applying to Pluto in a one-degree conjunction, emphasizing the point. It had been just three years since the Uranus-Pluto conjunction — that incredible spark plug, which fires next in 2012 with the beginning of seven consecutive Uranus-Pluto squares over a few years.<\/p>\n

It’s always fascinated me that the Moon-Pluto conjunction is sitting on the South Node (called Ketu), which suggests that there is something coming up from the distant past; that this is the product of a very long history. This is located in the 9th house, the one about all things spiritual, exotic and invoking the Higher Self. As a filter, Virgo provides the energy of service, awareness and ideas.<\/p>\n

\"An
An advertisement poster for the Woodstock Festival, 1969<\/figcaption><\/figure>By 1969, however, big planets were transitioning into Libra, which brings in the vibe of beauty, balance and harmony. Many of the best and most beloved rock stars, from John Lennon to Elton John to Thom Yorke, have strong Libra placements. There was a big conjunction in Libra that summer: Jupiter conjunct Uranus, which in a word is about fellowship and in another word about art. This took place in the early degrees of Libra, opposite the Aries Point<\/a>, which as you’ve read here 100 times is about the intersection of the personal and the political; the zone of the zodiac where events take on vast meaning that resonates personally in a deep way with a broad population. Indeed, there has never been a single concert with greater cultural impact. Nothing that I can think of has even come close. I know from having been a writer for Woodstock Times<\/em> that the word “Woodstock” is one of the world’s most recognizable brands.<\/p>\n

As for the Aries Point, who do we find right there except Mr. Chiron, who would not be discovered for another eight years; and a few degrees away, Eris, who would not be recognized until 2006. So when you look at news footage of the festival, consider that the four most energetically weighted signs were Aries, Virgo, Libra and Capricorn.<\/p>\n

There’s just one last thing: Venus conjunct Vesta in Cancer. This is the story of people passionately caring for and about one another. This is not an act. These are in my view the two most significant representations of the Goddess. It’s about sex offered freely as a gesture of love, service and healing — values we could learn a lot from today. Venus-Vesta-Cancer fires up the devotional ray of consciousness, and the sense of making home wherever you are; of loving the one you’re with.<\/p>\n

Let’s go to an actuality — a fun quote from the history of the concert as told by the Wikipedia editors:<\/p>\n

As the only reporter at Woodstock for the first 36 hours or so, Barnard Collier of The New York Times<\/em> was almost continually pressed by his editors in New York to make the story about the immense traffic jams, the less-than-sanitary conditions, the rampant drug use, the lack of “proper policing”, and the presumed dangerousness of so many young people congregating.<\/p>\n

Collier recalls: “Every major Times<\/em> editor up to and including executive editor James Reston insisted that the tenor of the story must be a social catastrophe in the making. It was difficult to persuade them that the relative lack of serious mischief and the fascinating cooperation, caring and politeness among so many people was the significant point. I had to resort to refusing to write the story unless it reflected to a great extent my on-the-scene conviction that ‘peace’ and ‘love’ was the actual emphasis, not the preconceived opinions of Manhattan-bound editors.<\/p>\n

After many acrimonious telephone exchanges, the editors agreed to publish the story as I saw it, and although the nuts-and-bolts matters of gridlock and minor lawbreaking were put close to the lead of the stories, the real flavor of the gathering was permitted to get across. After the first day’s Times<\/em> story appeared on page 1, the event was widely recognized for the amazing and beautiful accident it was.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, cousins — all hail Woodstock and Fellowship Among Humanity.<\/p>\n

Yours & truly,
\n\"Eric
\nPS: We have covered the astrology of Woodstock before, most recently in 2007, at the 38th anniversary. Here is that article<\/a>. It’s one of my favorite studies in the Aries Point, with a sidebar comparing Max’s chart to that of the festival. There is some cool stuff in here about the Great Attractor and the Galactic Core as well, i.e., a bit of Sagittarius, which was Max by the way. And for those who missed the link above, this early Planet Waves article called Flashpoints<\/a> covers the disastrous 30th anniversary concert in the summer of 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editors Note: The post below is from the Planet Waves archives, and was originally published in August of 2009. Today is the 42nd anniversary of the Woodstock music festival. 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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}