{"id":50923,"date":"2011-12-21T12:59:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T17:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=50923"},"modified":"2011-12-21T15:55:19","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T20:55:19","slug":"miketz-happy-13th-birthday-planet-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/dream-diary\/miketz-happy-13th-birthday-planet-waves\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miketz: Happy 13th Birthday, Planet Waves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Planet Waves cover from late-1999. The note at the bottom says we had 1.4 million hits our first year on the Internet, long before everyone had a computer in their home, much less their pocket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a retrospective of early Planet Waves covers<\/a>.
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\nPlanet Waves is a teenager! I posted the first edition of planetwaves.net on the eve of winter solstice 1998. The image above is sort of what it looked like — the orange and yellow burst was on the first edition of the page, though the scripted logo was white. From the beginning, my concept was for an advertising-free, reader-sponsored website, with diverse content that spanned the approximate spectrum of astrology, environmental issues and sex\/relationships — in visually rich presentation.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Planet Waves project today, I would say we’re about halfway to that vision. The part of the vision that we do have is some momentum on an astrological philosophy — one that includes not just ‘the cosmos’ but also people and the world. I am aware that we’re breaking ground on several different fronts, and our readers tell us we’re a place they come back to again and again for both nourishment and shelter from the storm.<\/p>\n

Planet Waves has always been, and will always be, a group effort. By that I mean both that I’ve had a lot of help, and that the work is divided over many hands. I look to the people who work for Planet Waves, and our readers, and my clients, as a source of wisdom, of guidance and of spiritual grounding. That’s why we have plenty of ideas to share with you. And we are indeed reader-sponsored, which is a gesture of mutual trust.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Because Planet Waves is now turning 13, I thought I would check in with the Jewish tradition — were we Jewish, this would be our bar mitzvah. The bar mitzvah is a ritual invoking manhood, and that is demonstrated through literacy. That works just fine for me. (Visual artists are under-represented in the Bible, but that’s another story and we do try to make up for that with a lot of beautiful pictures and a deep devotion to the somewhat more intuitive Women’s Bible — the tarot.)<\/p>\n

The way the bar mitzvah works is that a Jewish boy (or more recently, a girl) reads out loud from the Torah, to demonstrate to the community a command over the written word. I learned from my eternal friend and Planet Waves’ attorney Michael Ackerman that each week, a different portion of the Torah is read — but he didn’t know which one this week. He said call up a synagogue and they will tell you. So I called up the Woodstock Jewish Congregation, and indeed they knew, by glancing at the calendar.<\/p>\n

Were we having our bar mitzvah on Saturday, we would be reading something called the Miketz<\/a>. This corresponds to Genesis 41 – 47. This is the story of the Pharaoh’s dream — the one of seven thick ears of corn and then seven thin ones. None of the magicians of the court could interpret his dream, so the Pharaoh went to someone named Joseph for help, whom he trusts dearly. Joseph assures him that God will give him an answer of peace.<\/p>\n

The seven thick ears of corn represent seven abundant years; the seven thin years represent a seven-year famine. They take heed of this prophesy, and under the leadership of Joseph, during the seven abundant years, they store up all of their extra corn; they don’t waste resources in the rich years. Then the seven years of famine come, and Egypt not only has enough food to feed its own people — it has enough to feed the world.<\/p>\n

Point duly noted; and I will make sure our business team reads this. The abundance that Planet Waves shares comes mainly in the form of spiritual nourishment, ideas and dependable ‘news’-type information. Even in the midst of famine of the soul, we have plenty of soul to share and we’re ready to feed the world. But we do something interesting with money, too. We gather a little from lots and lots of our readers and customers, and deliver something of high value; then the rest goes into creating our many free resources, with some saved for a rainy day.<\/p>\n

That was the idea — and it still is.<\/p>\n

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A happy moment on the Old Testament -- ''And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying: 'It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace'.'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a retrospective of early Planet Waves covers. Planet Waves is a teenager! I posted the first edition of planetwaves.net on the eve of winter solstice 1998. The image above is sort of what it looked like — the orange and yellow burst was on the first edition of the page, though the scripted … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1747],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50923"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}