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With the first frost approaching, Creek Iversen and a bunch of students from SUNY New Paltz about to go picking peppers on an autumn afternoon at Brook Farm. Photo by Eric Francis.
Dear Friend and Reader:
Some people have no sense of irony.
In June 2011, Mohonk Mountain House, a high-end hotel in New Paltz, NY, sold approximately 874 acres of its land to the Open Space Institute (OSI), the land preservation organization where former Mohonk Preserve board member Robert K. Anderberg is vice president and general counsel. Planet Waves readers have heard of Anderberg before — he’s the mastermind behind attempts to illegally claim large swaths of the Grandmother Land, where I take many photos, and put it into the hands of land conservancies.
This transaction is part of a much larger foothills preservation initiative by land conservation organizations that’s been in the news the past few years, the stated purpose of which is to protect land close to the Shawangunks from development. When you study the plans, however, it can start to feel like the region is being raided by land conservancies who intend to acquire every square inch they can get their hands on, by any means necessary.
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Working at Brook Farm CSA, October 2013. Photo by Eric Francis. |
Almost immediately upon acquiring the land, OSI offered a lease to about 323 acres to an organization to which it’s closely related, called Glynwood Institute.
Described by Harvard University as “one of the nation’s leading sustainable agriculture and food organizations,” it does its best to present that image.
Glynwood and OSI are funded from the same pot of gold — the Wallace Foundation, created from the profits of Reader’s Digest, a favorite magazine of Middle America. Another interesting fact: OSI even owns the land where Glynwood’s headquarters is located, demonstrating OSI’s influence over Glynwood on the decisions you’re about to read about.
If you read Glynwood’s literature, you hear about how its mission is to encourage community-based agriculture. You’ll see pictures of horses pulling a plough, guided by young people, and greenhouses, and barns, and idyllic scenes of rural life the way things used to be. Their webpages and brochures are public relations masterpieces, appealing to the “back to the land” spirit of prospective donors to the organization.
Glynwood has plans to start up a number of farming incubator projects on the acreage it will be leasing from OSI (there is a rumor that this will be a 99-year lease, though I could not confirm that) all of which in theory are designed to help encourage the farmers of the future, in a controlled, almost academic environment rather than how it’s usually taught — through a form of apprenticeship.
As it turns out, there’s already a working farm on the land that Glynwood is leasing, called the Brook Farm Project. An actual organic CSA (community-supported agriculture) project, it’s been there for 10 years. After making many improvements to the land and farmhouse over the past decade, Brook Farm is a thriving community that by some miracle broke even in the 2013 growing season.
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Organic farmer Guy Jones tells Brook Farm supporters the story of how his farm was foreclosed on by Open Space Institute (OSI) when he could not make a mortgage payment after Hurricane Irene. Then they ‘flipped’ the property. Photo by Eric Francis. |
In June, Brook Farm Project was informed by OSI, in the person of Robert Anderberg, that it would be shut down. Glynwood, for all its widely-advertised ideals, plans to commence its relationship to the community by kicking out an actual organic, community-supported farm run by young people — the very thing it says that it supports.
Brook Farm is a source of food for New Paltz families, a place for people interested in farming to work the land, and a place to meet others who have bonded into an extended family. Its farm stand near The Bakery in New Paltz had become a friendly summertime fixture.
A community meeting called by the Friends of the Brook Farm Project was held in October, which packed Deyo Hall with people concerned about the conduct of local land trusts and the closely related Glynwood Institute.
Among the facts that came out: Brook Farm takes up just 20 acres of the 323 acres that Glynwood will be leasing. Unless there’s some huge divergence in mission, values or purpose, one would think that the two projects could coexist in a mutually productive way. Three hundred twenty-three acres is more land than most local farmers can imagine, and is just one part of Glynwood’s land holdings.
Before I go any further, I have a question. How come every time I write an article mentioning OSI and the name Robert Anderberg, someone else is getting kicked out of their home, off of their land or being sued to have their property taken from them? Is this some coincidence, or is there a pattern?
At the Oct. 2 community meeting in support of Brook Farm, a man named Guy Jones, an organic farmer, told this story. Seven years ago, Anderberg approached Jones, saying OSI wanted a working farmer on a tract of land in Orange County that the organization was willing to sell to him.
“Farming is all we do for a living,” he said, knowing he would be the perfect tenant. But he was still skeptical. He said OSI came on like a buddy and persuaded him to take the offer — $300,000 for 110 acres, and they would hold the mortgage.
“At closing they banged me for another $100 grand plus a mandatory donation,” Jones said to the group of 75 Brook Farm supporters. Still, Jones became OSI’s poster child for organic farming, even appearing on the cover of the organization’s annual report.
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Photo by Eric Francis. |
OSI sold Jones a balloon mortgage, meaning that he would make interest payments, then pay off the principal at the end of the mortgage. When the balloon payment came due two years ago, Hurricane Irene struck and Jones lost $250,000 worth of crops in the flooding.
Despite the obvious hardship, OSI would not renegotiate the mortgage, Jones explained.
“They said ‘Give us all the money or get the f*ck out’. They wouldn’t even talk. I owed them the last month’s interest and I was hoping to wrap that into a new mortgage. But they foreclosed and then they sued me for the last month’s interest,” needlessly forcing him off his land at a considerable financial loss.
“Then they resold the property. They flipped it. They sold it for $400,000 cash.”
“These guys are bullies,” Jones warned the supporters of Brook Farm Project, referring to OSI. “They’re not nice people and they’re not going to negotiate. They’ve got the title and they’re just going to drive it. They don’t need to listen to anyone.”
That much is true. Brook Farm organizers say they have been left out of all the significant discussions, and that OSI and Glynwood officials have refused to attend their meetings. The heads of OSI and Glynwood did not reply to emails sent to them for comment in this article.
Creek Iversen, who runs the farm, was put under a gag order by OSI officials, which led to the resignations of three Brook Farm board members in protest — gardening columnist Lee Reich, Culinary Institute instructor Rich Vergili, and Dan Getman, a local attorney.
“Recently, the board has not functioned as a board should — by consensus or majority rule,” they wrote in a resignation letter signed by all three.
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Brook Farmers Creek Iversen and Lisa Mitten. Photo by Eric Francis. |
“Each of us also wishes to dissociate ourselves from the recent joint public statement released by BFP [Brook Farm Project], OSI, and Glynwood, as well as from statements made to Creek Iversen dictating his activities apart from the work for which he was hired. Neither of these activities were authorized by the board though they purported to be issued under that authority. And they contravened the board’s instructions. We cannot be part of a board that is treated in this way.”
Those involved with Brook Farm and the organizations supporting it say that Anderberg is directly involved in calling the shots, as general counsel of Open Space Institute.
In August, Planet Waves reported on a lawsuit that exposed how Anderberg, who serves as a land-acquisition agent for Mohonk, devised a scheme to purchase land from someone who the State Supreme Court ultimately determined did not own it. After securing a false deed, Mohonk then sued the rightful owners, Karen Pardini and Michael Fink, trying to legitimize its title. The courts rejected the effort, affirming Pardini and Fink as the actual owners.
I also reported how Anderberg, representing a land conservancy, once purchased a nonexistent interest in land from a former owner, then the conservancy tried to sue Pardini and Fink to take the land. That effort, too, was rejected by the State Supreme Court, which held that Pardini and Fink could bring a fraud lawsuit against the people who had done this to them.
More recently, I reported the well-known story of Louise Haviland, who in the 1980s owned land adjacent to the Mohonk Preserve. Anderberg personally purchased her mortgage from its holder, and after he did so, took advantage of a provision allowing him to call in the note — that is, to demand that Haviland pay him back all at once.
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Last watermelon of the year at Brook Farm. Photo by Eric Francis. |
When she could not do that, Anderberg brought a foreclosure action against her and her tenants, ultimately taking possession of the land and selling it to Mohonk, which is often the beneficiary of OSI transactions.
Honest land preservation involves a willing seller or donor — not someone from whom land is unwillingly taken. OSI and Mohonk supporters overlook these transgressions, arguing for how much good the organizations allegedly do protecting land from development.
Nobody is contesting that Glynwood Institute and OSI have a right to choose their own tenant. No evidence shows that any of the land transactions involved in Brook Farm have been illegal, though I have not personally studied the deed record. Many locals have noted that as land coms off the tax rolls and is placed in the hands of conservancies, residents of the towns involved end up paying their share of the tax burden. That would be reasonable if the organizations really were acting in the public interest.
The common thread is about the illusion of something versus the underlying reality. The illusion perpetuated by Mohonk and OSI is that they are good neighbors and stewards, not land-grabbers. They go out of their way to perpetuate that image. Glynwood kicking Brook Farm off the land it’s occupied for 10 years challenges the illusion that Glynwood supports community agriculture or plans to help “incubate” young farmers.
The three organizations involved — Mohonk, OSI and Glynwood — seem to be playing a shell game with accountability for this action. For example, in a series of public statements, Glenn Hoagland, the executive director of the Mohonk Preserve, assured the New Paltz community that Brook Farm Project would be left alone.
In early 2012, The Oracle student newspaper at SUNY New Paltz covered the foothills acquisition project and reported that, “Hoagland confirmed that the Brook Farm CSA will continue leasing property.”
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The last squashes of the fall harvest, too small to sell but not too small to eat. Photo by Eric Francis. |
In 2011, he told The Gunk Journal, “No major changes to the use of the land are contemplated, we would opt for what we call ‘mixed use’ conservation. That would mean a combination of public use of the lands, where possible, scientific research, educational work with schools and colleges, and the continuation of the present-day sustainable farming at Brook Farm.”
He made similar reassurances at a meeting earlier this year where Mohonk was seeking approval of the New Paltz Town Board on a state grant that would help with its acquisition of the foothills land — Brook Farm would stay where it is.
The problem here is that Hoagland is not in a position to make these statements about Brook Farm. Mohonk is managing a large tract of OSI’s land, though the property that Brook Farm currently occupies will be under the control of Glynwood Institute.
Perhaps Hoagland was mistaken, or maybe his statements were designed to reassure the community that Brook Farm, something it loves and cares about, would be left alone. He has said the same thing many times, and it turns out not to be true.
At the Oct. 2 community meeting about Brook Farm, Mohonk Preserve sent the chairman of its board of directors, Ron Knapp, to represent the Preserve. (Nobody from OSI or Glynwood attended; presumably Knapp was their guy in the room.) After listening to community members vehemently express their concerns about land trusts for three hours running, he stunned the room by asking people to make donations to the Preserve so that it could raise $2 million and purchase land from OSI. That is what I said, and I saw it with my own eyes: at the end of the meeting, Knapp tried to get a little cash out of a bunch of people trying to save the CSA that he was helping crush. Had I not been there, I might not have believed it.
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Creek Iversen teaches New Paltz students the basics of food production at Brook Farm CSA. Photo by Eric Francis. |
The next weekend, Brook Farm Project held a concert and festival to build public support for its plight to stay on the land. Pete Seeger was on the schedule.
Twice, Glynwood Institute officials tried to talk him out of performing at the event. Yes, they contacted the 94-year-old singer, who has stood up for every imaginable progressive cause for the past 75 years, and tried to persuade him not to support the Brook Farm Project. As I said — some people have no sense of irony.
Tom O’Dowd is a former member of the board of directors of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an environmental organization founded by Seeger. He wrote to Seeger on Oct. 3 and pleaded with him not to “join the unfortunate bashing of OSI, Glynwood, and Mohonk Preserve.”
The lobbying efforts didn’t work. Seeger performed as planned. Members of his organization were confused because they didn’t notice any bashing going on, just some young people trying to save their farm from green-coated agribusiness.
“I have not seen my father so pleased with an afternoon of music in a long time,” his daughter Tinya Seeger wrote to Brook Farm Project’s leadership. “The afternoon was such a relief for him. He loved seeing so many local singing young people and is enthusiastically in support of all of you.”
Many people in New Paltz and the surrounding towns feel the same way. The ball is now in Glynwood’s and OSI’s court — let’s see if they do the right thing.
Lovingly,
Additional Research: Amy Elliott and Lizanne E. Webb.
Note to those in the Albany, NY area: I will be the keynote speaker at the Property Rights Foundation of America conference Saturday. My topic will be “Preserving Our Property Rights Against Conservationists.” This will be held at The Century House, Latham, New York. For details please see their website.
Clove Valley Cemetery on the Grandmother Land in High Falls, NY. Photo by Eric Francis.
Scorpio in Two Directions
Monday, Mercury stationed retrograde in Scorpio, so you may have spent the past few days adjusting to the fact that the tide turned without you noticing. It’s often necessary to reset your mind and your routines after this meaningful little planet changes directions, so give yourself an opportunity to do that.
If you’ve been distracted from something, pick up where you left off. If you were in the midst of sorting out an emotional question, note that you may be seeing things from a new point of view now that Mercury is treading backwards through our zodiac, and will be doing so until Nov. 10. [Additional coverage here.]
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Chart for the Nov. 3 combined annular and total solar eclipse, set for Kingston, New York. The eclipse is conjunct retrograde Mercury, the North Node and Saturn. |
Meanwhile, the Sun ingressed Scorpio early Wednesday morning EDT, making a forward trek across that sign. There will be a series of solar events the next two weeks — including a conjunction of Mercury and the Sun on Nov. 1 and a solar eclipse conjunct both Mercury and Saturn on Nov. 3.
Also on Nov. 1 is the fourth of seven events of Uranus square Pluto — the 2012-era aspect. This is the central event, the one marking the midpoint of a process that officially extends until March 2015, when we have the seventh exact square. Just to give you an idea how slow this process is, after the square, we will reach the opposition point of this cycle (Uranus opposite Pluto) in 2046.
All of this is happening at a time of year where there’s already plenty of concentrated energy and when we have that ‘thin veil’ sensation of Sun-Scorpio. That has been commemorated for millennia with holidays similar to Halloween, from Egypt to the Americas, that have celebrated the connection between the worlds of the living and the dead, honoring the ancestors and tuning in to the impending approach of Northern Hemisphere winter.
Remember, in the old days there were no guarantees of surviving winter, and many people (including children, the elderly and the infirm) did not. There was no guarantee that the food, the fuel or the candles would hold up. Nobody knew how long winter would last. We are fortunate to live in much more stable times now, but the memory is contained in our cells. Note that anyone who threatens the supply lines for basic necessities is not a friend.
Mercury, the Sun and the eclipse are part of the grand water trine that has been developing most of the year. In addition to all this Scorpio activity, the grand trine includes Jupiter in Cancer and Neptune and Chiron in Pisces.
That’s more emotional and psychic energy than we’re accustomed to, and it could be manifesting for some people as confusion or drama, or feel overwhelming. This is the time to see the patterns and do something about them, taking incremental steps and acting on what you know. If you know something and know you should take action, I suggest you ask yourself what’s motivating you.
One remedy to the emotional quality of the sky is Mars in Virgo. That’s suggesting that precise action, focusing on what needs to be done and getting it done efficiently and with some determination, will be helpful. Note that Mercury and Mars are occupying one another’s signs — Mars is the traditional ruler of Scorpio, Mercury of Virgo. The two placements are working together.
There is plenty to be done, and it needs to be done well so that you don’t have to go through the same thing three more times. Allow the Mercury retrograde process to help you work in layers, doing as much as you can, seeing what needs redoing or additional detail, and going deeper. The combination of those four factors, Mercury, Mars, Virgo and Scorpio, can produce some excellent results. There’s both cognitive intelligence and innate knowing; attention to detail and attention to the psychological angle of things.
Note to Readers: News items below are written and edited by a team consisting of Anne Craig, Eric Francis, Amanda Painter, Susan Scheck and Carol van Strum, with research assistance by the Planet Waves staff. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, which goes over each edition on Thursday night — and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Our editions are also proofread and fact-checked by Jessica Keet.
Republican Unraveling?
“Genetic Republican” and presidential great-grandson John G. Taft published a stern editorial in The New York Times on Wednesday, saying he didn’t recognize the party of his forebears in the “bomb-throwing obstructionism” currently underway, and comparing the Tea Party to McCarthyism. Taft echoes the sentiments of a Texas judge who denounced the party’s “ideological character assassination” in an announcement of his decision to run as a Democrat.
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Drunk on power and religion, Tea Party Republicans may finally be turning off their constituents — and ‘real’ Republicans. |
A CNN poll shows that the Republicans have the approval of 12% of the country’s voters, while a Washington Post poll gave them 32% and the Tea Party less than a quarter. When respondents were asked about the government shutdown tactic, roughly eight out of 10 disapproved. Dissent from old-school Republicans continues to grow, with Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah suggesting that the hard-right faction needs “rehabilitation” and openly expressing concerns about the Heritage Foundation’s influence.
In New Jersey, Democrat Cory Booker won handily over Tea Party opponent Steve Lonegan, and Democrat Terry McAuliffe stands a good chance of winning the Virginia governor’s race.
Yet inside the scream machine, the most strident promoters of right-wing hysteria kept up the battle cry: the shutdown was heroic, and Obama and the Democrats are the ones who should worry. At GOP.com, banners demanded the firing of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul calmly endorsed “misinformation” as a viable tactic in a speech to a group of medical students.
On Fox Noise, Bill O’Reilly accuses Democrats of outright socialism, while Karl Rove suggests that the executive branch is “in la-la land.” Sean Hannity produced a segment in which three interviewees straight-out lied about having attempted to navigate the ACA website.
What’s driving this ongoing cesspool of idiocy? People for the American Way has a list of some 800 organizations and “think tanks” busily spewing policy suggestions and stirring feces on behalf of those who, like the billionaire Koch brothers, are desperately eager to defund the social safety net, crush workers’ rights, and promote corporate profit at the expense of both the environment and the people in it. Sloganeering and a drumbeat of fear are used to convince folks in the heartland and hinterlands that when the right-wing “saves the day,” they’ll have “their America” back.
It would seem that Tea Party darling Ted Cruz is staying true to his Christian Dominionist roots — a theological construct that exhorts evangelicals to go forth and seize all the money by divine right — which dovetails nicely with the goals of the corporate empire builders.
Back on Earth, 58% of Americans support marriage equality and marijuana legalization, and as of February of this year, 54% favored developing alternative energy sources.
De-Bugging the Affordable Care Act
Experts brought on board by the Department of Health and Human Services are striving to straighten out the operational issues facing HealthCare.gov, the central portal through which Americans are expected to access the insurance marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act.
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A 2012 rally in support of the Affordable Care Act in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of LaDawna Howard/Mountiewire.com. |
Reports of site crashes and slow loading times have plagued the website’s soft launch, which coincided with the government shutdown of Oct. 1. What seems to be emerging is a textbook bureaucratic snafu, no doubt complicated by the intensity of the political debate surrounding the legislation that is styled “Obama’s signature accomplishment” by supporters and some odd confabulation of doomsday, slavery and Communism by right-wing pundits.
Those who have succeeded in using HealthCare.gov to create secure accounts and shop the insurance exchanges say the results aren’t bad; the subsidies offered do, in fact, create affordable healthcare choices. The Congressional Budget Office projects that by the end of 2014, about 16 million more U.S. citizens will have health insurance and that, over the next decade, the ACA will result in aslight reduction in the national deficit.
The processes of the several private contracting firms responsible for the nuts and bolts of the website and the government agency they were working with were rife with miscommunication, the site crashed during a test just hours before the rollout, and contractors apparently felt pressed for time and at the mercy of arbitrary decisions. These factors, aired during Congressional hearings on Thursday, offered ample grist for the blame mill, much of its outpouring aimed at Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Blamers, of course, conveniently ignore the fact that the noisome tantrum being thrown by extremist opponents of the law has required both Obama and Sebelius to stay focused on trying to correct massive onslaughts of misinformation, rather than hands-on oversight of the stuff under the hood. Demands that Sebelius be fired would, if accommodated, take one of the most knowledgeable players out of the game. Republicans on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce reached out to techie-pioneer-turned-party-boy John McAfee as their vision of the Answer Man,a role he has apparently declined.
While it all gets sorted out, some Democrats are joining Republicans in advocating that enforcement of the individual mandate section of the ACA, which levies penalties against people who remain uninsured, should be delayed while the website gets fixed. An A-team of specialists has been brought in to troubleshoot the massive system, which is intended to be used by insurance seekers, insurance companies, and government employees from various agencies performing complex tasks such as income verification.
Estimates are that the website will be fully operational by the end of 2013 or early 2014.
A Canadian Crackdown in the Fracking Clash
Indigenous Mi’kmaq protesters and Royal Canadian Mounted Police clashed on Turtle Island in New Brunswick on Oct. 17. Cars were burned and some 40 people arrested in a raid on the ongoing blockade the Mi’kmaq had established against shale gas exploration by SNW Operating Company of Texas.
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Police say at least five police vehicles were set ablaze in Rexton, New Brunswick, as RCMP began enforcing an injunction to end an ongoing demonstration against shale gas exploration Oct. 17. Photo: The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan. |
Within a day, protests had sprung up across Canada in support of the Mi’kmaq and messages of support were pouring in from indigenous activists and environmentalists around the globe. In 2010, the government of New Brunswick opened one-seventh of the province to possible fracking, and Premier David Alward has refused calls for a referendum on the issue, in spite of (or because of) the evidence that two out of three Atlantic Canadians are against it.
Alward and Elsipogtog Chief Aaron Sock agreed on Friday to a cooling-off period, but it’s unclear whether any of this will impact the provincial government’s behavior. Indiscriminate mineral extraction and disregard for treaty rights are an unholy combination that puts the entire North American continent at risk of outcomes far more sinister than a few flaming cop cars.
In New York, Onondaga representatives paddled down the Hudson to the United Nations last summer in the company of non-native allies to win support for enforcement of the Two Row Treaty of peaceful coexistence, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court refuse a land claim suit that had been working its way through the courts since 2005. Since 1823, indigenous treaty rights have been considered subordinate to the Doctrine of Discovery, which holds that Christians may “discover,” take and use land held by non-Christians.
The Canadian government takes similar positions on the “rule of law.” Generations of frustration and the threat posed by fracking and tar sands extraction have crystallized the Idle No More protest movement, putting indigenous people and their allies on the front lines of the resistance. While international bodies like the UN have offered treaty rights proponents a sympathetic ear, national governments seem determined to keep stonewalling.
Mountain Astrologer Article on Monsanto Available Free
Over the summer, The Mountain Astrologer published my investigative feature on the astrology of Monsanto. That article is now available free to all readers as a PDF download.
The article examines the natal chart of Monsanto — the first time this has been done in a competent and accessible manner (perhaps the first time ever). You’re invited to both read and share the PDF with others concerned about the rise of Monsanto and genetically modified organisms.
Group Says No Consensus on GMO Safety
The European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility on Monday strongly refuted claims of GMO safety, saying it felt “compelled to issue this statement because the claimed consensus on GMO safety does not exist. The claim that it does exist is misleading and misrepresents the currently available scientific evidence and the broad diversity of opinion among scientists on this issue.”
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The group gave several reasons in support of its position. First, recent calls by the European Union and the French government for more research to investigate the long-term health impacts of GM food consumption belie the claim that a consensus exists when it does not.
In addition, no epidemiological studies exist that investigate potential effects of GMO food consumption on human health. Since GMO foods are not labeled in North America, a major producer and consumer of GM crops, ENSSER said it is scientifically impossible to trace or study patterns of consumption and their impacts.
Due to this lack of data, claims that GMO foods are safe for human health based on the experience of North American populations have no scientific basis.
ENSSER also pointed out that claims of scientific and governmental bodies endorsing GMO safety are exaggerated or inaccurate; that there is no consensus on the environmental risks of GM crops; and international agreements show widespread recognition of risks posed by GM foods and crops.
Whether to continue or expand the use of GMO foods is too broad an issue to be based on “narrow scientific debate” and decisions need to encompass a broader range of society, the group stated. It believes that strong scientific evidence must be “obtained in a manner that is honest, ethical, rigorous, independent, transparent, and sufficiently diversified to compensate for bias.”
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From left, winners of the 2013 World Food Prize: Robert T. Fraley; Mary-Dell Chilton; and Marc Van Montagu, founder and chairman of the Institute of Plant Biotechnology Outreach at Ghent University in Belgium. Photo: WFP Foundation. |
ENSSER is a non-profit association whose purpose is “the advancement of science and research for the protection of the environment, biological diversity and human health against negative impacts of new technologies and their products,” according to its website.
UPDATE: Petitions with more than 345,000 signatures admonishing the World Food Prize Foundation for awarding this year’s Prize to top executives from Monsanto and Syngenta were delivered to the Foundation’s headquarters in Iowa hours before the ceremony, the Center for Food Safety said.
Often called the “Nobel Prize of agriculture,” the Prize, in its own words, “emphasizes the importance of a nutritious and sustainable food supply for all people.” Dr. Robert T. Fraley, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Monsanto, and Dr. Mary-Dell Chilton, founder of Syngenta, were two of the three recipients.
“With this award, the World Food Prize is perpetuating the false notion that genetically engineered crops are a solution to world hunger and malnutrition. This kind of biotech propaganda obscures the huge potential of low-cost agricultural techniques that actually increase food production and alleviate hunger,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for the Center for Food Safety.
Can We Heal Our Broken Oceans?
Few understand first-hand how gravely humans have damaged the world’s oceans, and the creatures who live there. Ivan Macfadyen, a yachtsman from Newcastle, Australia, recently sailed from Australia to Japan, and then on to Hawaii and the continental U.S. His assessment of our planet’s waters?
“The ocean is broken.”
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Australian yachtsman and activist Ivan Macfadyen aboard his boat, the Funnel Web. Photo: Max Mason-Hubers. |
In a recent story for the Newcastle Herald, Macfadyen describes only catching two fish while sailing for 28 days between Australia and Japan. Sailing the same route ten years ago, catching fish for dinner had been easy.
“I’ve done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I’m used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds,” says Macfadyen. “But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen.”
The uncanny silence and apparent lack of sea life appear to have two major causes. One is huge trawlers that catch every fish they can in an area — and then toss overboard to rot everything that is not tuna. Another is tremendous quantities of trash, from plastic drink bottles to an entire factory chimney — much of it swept from land by the massive tsunami that hit Japan March 11, 2011.
“In a lot of places we couldn’t start our motor for fear of entangling the propeller in the mass of pieces of rope and cable. That’s an unheard-of situation, out in the ocean.”
As they sailed cautiously, listening to objects hitting the hull, something in the waters off the coast of Japan reacted with the paint job on that hull, fading it in an unprecedented way.
Two and a half years out, we’re only beginning to understand the magnitude of damage that tsunami set in motion — same with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, where catches are severely reduced and tar balls continue to wash up — all on top of ‘regular’ pollution. When will we learn?
Toxic Dog and Cat Jerky Treat Alert
The Food and Drug Administration is asking pet owners and licensed veterinarians to help them track down information on why hundreds of dogs and cats have died since 2007 from eating poisonous jerky treats. About 3,600 have been sickened, and the numbers of illnesses and deaths has appeared to rise since January. The affected jerky seems to be chicken, duck, sweet potato and fruit-flavored varieties. Most seems to be made in China, however pet food manufacturers are not required by U.S. law to state the country of origin for each ingredient in their products.
For more information, see Wednesday’s blog post.
The End of Sex? Maybe, in Japan
Japan’s under-40 population is turning away from marriage and sex by the millions, according to a report in The Guardian newspaper. It’s a trend that its media has named sekkusu shinai shokogun, or “celibacy syndrome.” If it continues, Japan’s shrinking population — now at 126 million — could fall further by one-third as soon as 2060.
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A 17th or 18th century woodblock print featured in a current exhibition at the British Museum in London depicts the good ol’ days, when the Japanese still liked sex. |
Young people in Japan no longer feel duty-bound to have families; the very model of traditional marriage — breadwinning husband, stay-at-home mother — is repugnant to career-minded singles of both sexes.
Men don’t want the responsibility of a wife and family, while women know marriage and motherhood would end their careers, The Guardian reported. The World Economic Forum ranks Japan as one of the world’s worst nations for gender equality at work.
Sources for the story speculate that the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and destruction of the f*ckushima Daiichi nuclear plant left psychological scars as well, engendering feelings of futility and hopelessness.
“Both men and women say to me they don’t see the point of love. They don’t believe it can lead anywhere,” Ai Aoyama, a Tokyo sex and relationship counselor, told The Guardian. “Relationships have become too hard.”
Single Japanese people say they enjoy their unattached and nonsexual lives, seeing anything else as “too troublesome.” Japan’s Institute of Population and Social Security reports 90% of young women believe that staying single is “preferable to what they imagine marriage to be like.”
Aoyama tries to educate her clients on the importance of intimacy, whether it’s in a committed relationship or not. “It’s not healthy that people are becoming so physically disconnected from each other,” she said.
Free Press vs. National Security: A ‘False Choice’
When governments threaten the ability of a free press to do its job by seizing reporters’ phone records, documents and names of sources, in the name of national security, it ultimately weakens them and sets up a “false choice” for its citizens.
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Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The Associated Press, speaks about press freedom at the 69th General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association. Photo: David Zalubowski/AP. |
Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The Associated Press, made those remarks to the 69th General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association in Denver Saturday, adding that the U.S. Justice Department’s secret seizure of phone records of calls to and from AP reporters last year was one of the most blatant violations of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution the 167-year-old news cooperative has ever seen.
A free and independent press “differentiates democracy from dictatorship; separates a free society from tyranny,” he said.
In countries where journalists have fought long and hard for a free press, Pruitt said dictators can look to the U.S.’s example to justify their own media repression. The Justice Department’s actions “could not have been more tailor-made to comfort authoritarian regimes.”
Pruitt said he was encouraged by proposed Justice Department guidelines, introduced after the records seizure, that would give reporters more protections and guarantee that they will not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.
“But you can bet that we will be watching closely to make sure they are implemented and enforced,” he said.
New Jersey Governor Stops Fighting Same-Sex Marriage
In the latest win for same-sex marriage, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie abandoned his fight against its legalization in his state. Christie had asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to ban same-sex marriages while he appealed the court’s earlier decision to uphold legislation that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. The court refused his request unanimously on Friday.
The legislation took effect at midnight Monday, and same-sex couples began wedding immediately through the night and into the early morning.
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Stewart Fishbein, left, and Peter Aupperle showed off the rings signifying their marriage at Hoboken City Hall on Monday. Photo: Bryan Thomas for The New York Times. |
Christie, considered a contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has maintained his stance against gay marriage despite its popularity in his home state, ostensibly because it is not popular with conservative voters in the rest of the country.
However, even while emphasizing that marriage should be between a man and a woman, Christie has also signed a bill outlawing “gay conversion therapy.”
Four months ago, after Christie had vetoed the bill allowing same-sex marriage, many activists thought he had solidly blocked their progress. According to The New York Times, however, Judge Mary C. Jacobson of State Superior Court ruled in September “that the state had to allow gay marriages to comply with the United States Supreme Court decision in June that guaranteed same-sex married couples the same federal benefits as heterosexual married couples.”
The SCOTUS decision meant that couples in civil unions in New Jersey did not have the same benefits as those in marriages, running counter to a 2006 New Jersey Supreme Court decision guaranteeing them equal protection.
“Ocean plastics now outweigh the amount of plankton by at least six to one. This statistic is terrifying, and fuels my artistic endeavors,” says Angela Pozzi. Photo: Henry the fish; WashedAshore.org.
From Marine Menace to Transformative Art
Oregon artist Angela Pozzi understands that the first step in curbing the destruction of our oceans is to foster individual awareness through tangible means around our use and disposal of non-biodegradable materials. It can be hard to comprehend the 3.5 million pounds of trash collected from beaches across America — in just one day — by the Ocean Conservancy’s clean-up project last year.
Believing in creating “art for life’s sake,” Pozzi (who is lead artist for WashedAshore.org) collects plastic from Oregon beaches, sorts it by color, and creates large-scale sculptures of sea creatures with it.
“I wanted it to be where people would want their picture taken next to it,” said Pozzi to Hawaii’s KITV of her giant pieces of art, while there for the Pacific Rim Marine Debris Conference. “And then they would have to tell someone what they just had their picture taken next to.”
Not only is she leading a community effort involving volunteers and school children to create more large-scale artistic ambassadors, Pozzi is available for educational consulting, curriculum development and project design if you’d like to start a similar effort in your community.
Mercury retrograde, healing codependency and Gary Lucas
This week I am honored to have world-class rocker Gary Lucas as my musical guest, on a program that addresses themes as deep as Gary’s music and lyrics. In this edition I cover the recently-begun Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, which will be followed by the Sun ingressing Scorpio early Wednesday morning EDT.
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Gary Lucas as seen from backstage at Backstage Studio Productions in Kingston, New York, this past summer as part of the Kingston Film Festival. Photo by Eric Francis. |
I pick up where Monday and Tuesday’s editions of Daily Astrology begin, which is the theme of opening up to your own inner truth, and addressing denial and codependency.
All this astrology in Scorpio, especially the introspective Mercury retrograde, the forthcoming solar eclipse and the presence of Saturn — all basically working as one entity — provide a compelling image of how useful and empowering it will be to look within.
As for Gary Lucas: you get a full introduction, including a look at his chart and two truly magnificent tracks, one called Evangeline, from his 2000 CD Street of Lost Brothers, and then Ride of the Valkyries from the CD Coming Clean.
I give a fascinating overview of Gary’s chart, focusing on his cluster of planets in Gemini and Cancer and how they work together to produce someone who is like an atomic fusion reactor of creative energy who looks like he can get by on an hour of sleep a night.
We are happy to offer once again one of our most popular products: the Planet Waves All-Access Pass for 2014. The All-Access Pass is for members who want access to everything we offer in a calendar year. In recent years our product line has grown considerably, and the response from our All-Access subscribers has been overwhelmingly positive. You can read about everything that’s included with an All-Access pass here. For those who can’t get enough Planet Waves astrology, it’s an unbeatable value. Plus, if you order now, we’ll include the rest of the readings that come out in 2013, and you’ll save $100.
Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes
The extended monthly horoscope for November is below in this issue. We published the extended monthly horoscope for October on Friday, Sept. 27. Inner Space for October was published Friday, Sept. 20. Moonshine for the Libra New Moon published on Tuesday, Oct. 1. We published Moonshine for the Aries Full Moon Tuesday, Oct. 15. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space usually publishes the following Tuesday but for now it’s substituting for one Friday horoscope a month.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for November 2013, standing in for weekly #972 | By Eric Francis
Aries (March 20-April 19) — Your plans may unfold more slowly than you were expecting, as if you’re living in a parallel world where time runs at half-speed. This is not only necessary; it will be helpful. Typically you run so fast you don’t look back to reflect on where you’ve arrived. Then the movement itself becomes the thing to do for its own sake, which happens not to be for your sake. The purpose is some form of healing, rest and repair. It would be a good idea to seek out someone’s assistance, or to notice who is in your environment — most likely a professional and not a friend or relative — and willing to assist with your healing mission. One other purpose of taking work, projects and social activities slower is so that you can place your focus on what appears to be a significant transition in a personal relationship. Your astrology describes this both as a release point and as an opening; as the invocation of a limit and your ability to surpass a previous blockage. This relates directly to your healing path, and though you cannot control the outcome, you can influence it in a positive way by being attentive to your own needs and always taking responsibility for what you can do to improve the situation, starting with yourself. No matter what it may seem, ultimately your life is not about anyone but you.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Driving is a metaphor for life. Notice the road conditions at all times, make sure you’re in good shape to be behind the wheel, and most important, stay in your lane. You might also want to keep track of whether you’re coming or going. I know that’s a funny old expression that few people think about, but I do mean knowing whether you’re going toward something or away from it; whether you’re approaching or avoiding, and why. The approach/avoid thing seems to involve something you’re simultaneously trying to remember and to forget. The astrological syntax translates to, “Question your mother’s logic about sex.” I think when questioning the teaching of our parents or of anyone, it helps to extend their logic and see where it would take you if you went the whole distance with it. You are likely to find that it’s not even vaguely suited to guide you through where you are in your most intimate relationships. That logic, such as it is, was shattered a long time ago, though you may still be maintaining some loyalty to it. In truth you’re at an absolutely unique crossroads in your life, and you may feel you have to make a huge decision right now. I don’t think that is true. Where there is a commitment, it has already been made. Where one is lacking, that much will be obvious.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Do you feel like you’re trying to pass some kind of psychic kidney stone? Thankfully, unlike the physical body, the spiritual body has the ability to process large ‘objects’ in a way that doesn’t force them through tiny openings. Indeed, however large this thing you need to purge yourself of is, you have the ability to move it along and send it on its way. Your astrology can be illustrated with some ideas from homeopathy, a branch of medicine more people deserve to know about. When it works, homeopathy seems like magic, and compared to other forms of medicine, there’s relatively little the patient has to endure. But two things are necessary. The price of admission to homeopathic healing is admission — revealing to the practitioner what you’re experiencing, in intimate detail. That translates to revealing something to yourself, with scrupulous honesty, ongoing, never satisfied that you’re reached the bottom. The second qualification of homeopathy is the healing crisis — in releasing old pain, it must come to the surface. Going through that consciously is a necessary prerequisite to feeling good and being healthy. Honesty and awareness — perhaps the two things most lacking in our world now, and the fact that they’re missing is one of the most prevalent causes of sickness. What passes for healing is usually denial and suppression of the symptoms. You’re ready for the real thing.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Has the whole sex thing been a little weird, whether mired in karma, needlessly complex or seemingly nonexistent? You may find the topic annoying and wish it would go away, or feeling some deep need, wishing something would actually happen. Count yourself lucky if you’re experiencing this on the level of “you can’t always get what you want, but you can get what you need” — though where sex is concerned, that’s pretty boring. By sex, I mean both the experience and the relationships in which it occurs, the agreements involved and what is exchanged. Saturn has been in Scorpio, your solar 5th house, for a year, and it’s leading you to be more careful, or putting the brakes on your adventures. At the same time, Saturn points us in the direction of authentic necessity and always gives more than it takes away. You have reached a kind of crux point on whatever it is that you’re going through; events of the next few weeks are likely to come with a bold transformation, and to reveal the deeper contents of your feelings. The essence of Saturn in this area of your chart is about taking total responsibility for your sexuality and for what you exchange with others. Mercury retrograde is about finding the intersection of your fantasies and your reality. The eclipse is the catalyst that starts the reaction — and an X factor.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The central question of this month’s solar eclipse is safety — when and where you feel grounded and confident of your environment. While this may seem to be about having a dry roof, food to eat and dependable companionship, the question quickly slips into how you feel about yourself. Self-criticism is one of the most direct pathways into feeling threatened or unpleasantly vulnerable. Often self-critique is projected onto others, which is designed to vent pressure. However, projecting it onto a relationship turns out to be just as painful. How safe you feel reflects how much you like yourself. If you feel unsafe in your environment for direct reasons you can document, that, too, may be a reflection of how you feel about yourself. Whatever may be the case, you are in a phase where you can take some giant steps toward learning about self-esteem. The planets are aligned perfectly so you may learn from the mistakes of others. We live in a time in history when the way most products are sold is to make people feel inadequate. Legions of manipulation artists are paid an ocean of money to ‘educate’ us how horrid we allegedly are, and charge us money to feel better. Often we try to con ourselves using similar means. It does not work. If you think you need a reason to feel good about yourself, I suggest you go deeper.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — You stand to benefit significantly from all manner of weird events that unfold over the next month or so. It may not seem that way, though I suggest the best strategy is to maintain your independence and stay out of the fray — until you notice that it’s the perfect time to make your move. The way the astrology looks, that’s going to be in the later innings; let the adventures, misadventures, games and dramas develop for a while, as you pull back and get the wide view. This is another way of saying maintain your independence, which may feel like being antisocial. What is currently passing for social among certain people you know isn’t exactly social, either — the more congenial mode (in the immortal words of the Grateful Dead) is to ‘take a step back/take another step back’. Give people space to be themselves, and give yourself space to be yourself. Perspective is everything. Observe the action from all angles. Yes, there are several ways to read the astrology indicating how personally you could take things, but you’ll feel silly if you take things personally and then discover in the end that it had nothing to do with you. Meanwhile — be optimistic. My dog-friend Jonah is a Virgo and whenever there’s any activity in the kitchen, he’s standing there wagging his tail. I would call that faithful expectancy.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — There is a cosmic feeling to your charts right now, as if you encounter some spiritual intervention that helps you work out an emotional knot you’ve been carrying around nearly forever. The way the picture looks, you’ve been drawn with increasing intensity to focus on a group of issues that seemed daunting and even impossible to address, not knowing how you would do it. Yet at a certain point, you seem to have suspended doubt, and then soon after that, you seem to have made a commitment to yourself. That was akin to the choice to make an investment in yourself. The thing with an investment is that it’s never a sure thing. You have to put up a lot of energy (in various forms, including emotions and money) before you get a return. Then, that return might be something entirely different than you are expecting (which seems to hold true for both business investments and for deeply personal ones). It looks like something is about to come to fruition. I will say this, however: the die is not cast. Your imagination will have an influence, though when you go there, you may experience some fear. Consider that fear a psychological response to the expression of your potential power. If you feel guilt, consider that direct evidence that you’re moving in the right direction — that of claiming your value, your personal power, your resources and your independence.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Scorpio has a reputation for being the sign of jealousy. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood emotions, that goes along with Scorpio being one of the most misunderstood signs. You seem to have been grappling with jealousy lately, whether your own or that of someone else. It doesn’t matter which; you would need to address it in either case, and the same awareness is called for. Jealousy has two main components — attachment and control. That differentiates it from envy, which is about wanting what someone else has. Underneath this is a spiritual struggle that’s about to come to a head. If you find yourself feeling especially strong emotions, including the desire to control anyone in any form, pause and notice what’s going on beneath the tempest. Don’t be distracted by the surface layer or cast of characters. The real subject matter is between you and existence, or said another way, what you encounter walking that fine line between existence and non-existence. Below the drama is the sensation of how close to the edge you walk, all the time. Think of the turbulence as a fear reaction, though it’s worth questioning: what exactly are you scared of, and in the spirit of the Serenity Prayer, what exactly can you do about it? There may not be answers to these questions, but the cosmos of your psyche has some relevant information for you.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You seem to be working through the whole love vs. fear thing — that there are two emotions, and that all other feelings and sensations emerge from one or the other. One does not cancel the other out or compensate for the other; there really is a choice. However, you may be getting the occasional torrent of fear that obscures the love you’re feeling. There’s a potential lure to the fear in that it’s blended with passion, potentially sexual passion. It may reach into some of your deepest, darkest desires, yet at the core is a form of anxiety. I’ve been studying this one with my spiritual teacher Elisa Novick: it’s a tricky one. The love, alternately, has a cosmic feeling to it, and may feel disembodied or impersonal; that may seem to contradict your desire to go for the physical and the embodied, though you still have that option open to you. The ‘choice between fear and love’ may manifest as the option to build on one foundation or the other. If you thought of it in those terms, the choice would be easy. You may be wondering where the fear will go, if you choose to place the home known as your soul on love. There’s a vent opening up, through which fear or any other negative emotion can be returned to the universe as unconditioned energy — liberating you in the process.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) –You may not feel like the flavor of the month, but if you refuse to be swayed by group opinion, you’ll discover how much respect people have for you. At the same time you’ll discover a new depth of self-respect. This word — respect — means to see again. There’s a re-evaluation implied, with the result being seeing something that you hadn’t seen before. This lends some credence to the idea that respect can be earned or gained as people get to know one another, or get to know themselves. And there is the hint that it may take some time for that to happen, especially if your ruling planet Saturn is involved in the equation (which it is). Therefore, allow some time to pass, during which there may be a bit of confusion, mixed or missed messages, and a little competition for a niche. Remember, though, that your niche is all your own — the thing you do that nobody else can do; the gift you have that is yours alone, and which you may discover in the process of offering it to others. As you move through this territory, just make sure that you don’t con yourself into coming to any ‘final’ conclusions about who you are, what you do or what you have to offer. Make room for a discovery process — there’s plenty to discover.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — I’ve often pondered the phrase ‘authority issues’. One definition is not knowing one’s place in the order of things. The result can be attempting to act with greater influence than one has, or with far less. We see manifestations of both in our society, and the particularly toxic equation of those on a power trip acting out on those on a powerlessness trip. Noticing this dynamic may convince you that you want to get out of the game entirely. True authority begins with your relationship to yourself. It becomes real the moment you recognize that no other person can dictate that relationship, no matter how hard they try and regardless of what happened in the past. This month’s solar eclipse is a reminder to be on the lookout for what you might call ‘shadow figures’ from the past who you’ve internalized. They may boss you around and attempt to tell you who you are and how to feel about yourself. One attribute of finding your authority will be taking back your consciousness from hijacking by these inner voices. The first step in this process is recognizing that they are not you. They may seem convincing but really, if you listen carefully, you will be able to hear the difference. Then you’ll be able to feel the difference, in the form of feeling a lot better about yourself.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — It is amazing how the division between that which is erotic and that which is spiritual is so successfully pushed as a political agenda. Perhaps it’s even more astounding that it still works. I reckon it’ll work for as long as people feel misgivings about themselves. It will work for as long as sex and/or some form of allegedly spiritual idea are accepted as ways to gain power over people — and people are willing to give that power away. You’ve reached a point in your growth where this is simply untenable. Rather than trying to dismantle the power trip, I suggest you focus on the essentially spiritual beauty of pleasure, be it of body, of soul, of the emotions, of nature or all of the above. This is not a matter of theory — it’s about appreciating your existence and recognizing as birthrights feeling good, feeling open and being able to share yourself. It’s easy to let yourself be distracted by those preaching hellfire, including its more subtle form as guilt. Consider the extent to which, if you ever experience these things, they are an inheritance from previous generations. Those who passed them on to you lacked your knowledge, your freedom and your appreciation of life. They were more subject to superstition and had fewer resources available. Simply put, they were not you, right now, living the life you are living.
Wondering about how astrology is influencing your life now? Eric has prepared a written and recorded reading for you that tells the story. You can get all 12 signs of LISTEN, your 2013 reading, for the special reduced price of only $29.95. LISTEN gives you a detailed reading, available immediately, covering work, relationships, personal growth and creativity.
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Dear Friend and Reader:
We keep hearing that the election may hinge on the results of one state — Ohio. There are several close states, but for a number of reasons, Ohio stands out.
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On the Electoral College campus / L.M. Glackens. From the Library of Congress. This is a joke; there is no campus and the college never meets as a group. But it picks the president. |
FiveThirtyEight, a blog project of The New York Times, has been running computer simulations of the many permutations of what might happen during the presidential election — specifically within the Electoral College, which it covers as its primary focus. (There are 538 votes in the Electoral College.)
Earlier this week, they ran 40,000 different combinations of scenarios based on the latest poll results, and half the time, the results in Ohio picked the winner.
Right on the other side of all the stagecraft and the debates, the billions spent on the campaigns, the 24-hour cable news analysis or outright fictionalizing, is an often-overlooked fact.
Beyond the battle over reduced polling times, voter roll purges and other attempts to block participation in the election is the reality that the United States has a representative, or indirect, electoral system, in which the loser of the popular vote can win or ‘win’ the presidency.
That’s what happened in 2000 (when Bush lost the popular vote and took office), and what nearly happened in 1968 (when Nixon won the his first presidential election by just half a million votes, and the Electoral College was nearly abolished as a result).
In the Electoral College game, some states are more meaningful than others — particularly the ones where the polls show the state could go either way (sometimes called a battleground state, a swing state or an undecided state). You’re probably getting sick of hearing about Ohio as being one of these. There are scenarios wherein a candidate can lose Ohio and win the electoral vote, but Ohio does seem key (especially for modern Republicans, who always win Ohio when they win the presidency), and I want to start this week by offering three reasons to pay extra attention to what happens there.
First, there are two different voting machine scandals that come back to Ohio, one involving a company that the Romney family essentially owns (through a series of subsidiaries), and the other involving an Ohio-based company called Diebold.
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Your stuff is safe with us! One of Diebold’s original products. |
Voting Machine Scandal One involves a Romney-held private equity fund called Solamere, which invests in H.I.G. Capital, which in turn invests in Hart Intercivic, the nation’s third largest voting machine manufacturer. (This is the electoral equivalent of the expression, “Freedom of the press belongs to those whose subsidiaries have one.”)
Numerous Solamere/H.I.G. staff are represented on the Romney campaign, including its two top finance people. Hart Intercivic machines are used in two Ohio counties — one of which includes Cincinnati, home to two million voters.
Voting Machine Scandal Two involves good old Diebold. This company was big news in the 2004 election, when Wally O’Dell, then its CEO and a fundraiser for George W. Bush, famously wrote in a solicitation letter to mega-donors: ”I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” (Those electoral votes were in fact delivered. O’Dell was later forced out of his own company during the federal investigation of an insider trading scheme. Researching this article, we noticed that there is a disturbing pattern of execs of voting machine companies being involved in various fraud scandals.)
Diebold is now two companies, one called ES&S and the other called Dominion — and between them, they control the rest of the voting machines in Ohio, particularly, those lovely touch-screen, tree-friendly machines that leave no paper trail and where no actual recount is possible. Basically, all of Ohio’s voting machines are in Republican hands.
Next, by now you’ve probably heard that Ohio’s Republican-held office of the secretary of state, which controls voting hours, has been attempting to curtail access to the polls in a way that’s designed to block communities that predominantly vote Democratic. Jon Husted, the secretary of state, has tried to block early voting, including the “Souls to the Polls” program where black voters go from church to their voting places — but the federal courts have repeatedly stopped him.
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Delivery Man: Wally O’Dell, high-level fundraiser for Bush and then-CEO of Diebold, promised to deliver Ohio’s electoral votes for Bush in 2004 — and he did. Photo from Cryptome.org. |
Along with this, there’s a dirty tricks campaign going on that would have been a real knee-slapper for Nixon and his boys, if only they could have peered into the future. My favorite (so far) was putting the wrong election date on voter literature in a county where Obama won in 2008 by a close margin.
So far that’s two reasons — and we know that Ohio has had electoral problems in the past.
As I’ve written before, Mercury stations retrograde on the night of the election, an event typically associated with technical problems, reversals of various kinds, inaccurate reporting (news, data), miscommunication, delays and a general state of confusion. Between the Republican-possessed voting machines and attempts to cut back voting hours, the setup in Ohio is spooky enough even if nobody means any harm, and nauseating if someone has a plot brewing. The atmosphere of any Mercury retrograde — though this one in particular — is the perfect festering pool for fraud.
Part of why I say that the retrograde that begins on Election Day is especially murky is because this Mercury retrograde involves three squares to Neptune. The first is on Monday, Oct. 29, with Mercury in the first shadow phase. Then there’s another one during the retrograde on Nov. 13, then the last one is Dec. 11, during the second shadow phase. Mercury square Neptune makes it extremely challenging to discern the truth. The series of three Mercury-Neptune squares means that as the facts and fact pattern emerge they will be in layers, blended with layers of deceit — and anyone trying to navigate the territory must use extreme discernment.
The Natal Horoscope of Ohio
The last reason to be concerned about Ohio is that bells are going off in the natal chart of that state — and I mean warning bells. Mercury retrograde presents a kind of climatic condition that affects everyone, everywhere. But when you focus on the astrology of Ohio itself, the place looks like a crime scene — or at least the scene of an attempted theft of the election.
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The chart above is the statehood chart for Ohio, cast for March 1, 1803, set for the old capital. You can see Neptune in the ascendant on the left side. Neptune is the blue trident on the left, which aligns to within a fraction of a degree of the ascendant, indicated by the dark horizontal line. View more detailed charts here. |
The first thing to know about Ohio is that the state has Scorpio rising, and there is a planet exactly in the ascendant (the rising degree, aligned with the eastern horizon). That is Neptune, the planet of illusions, deception and denial. True, Neptune is also associated with beautiful music, dreamy fantasies and spectacular cinema, but it’s drawing on the same basic properties in both its toxic and creative expressions.
When a person or an entity has a planet very close to the ascendant, it can take on the identity of that planet. People with Neptune rising tend to have fuzzy boundaries, right down to the locks on their doors not working correctly. They are easy to infiltrate. Events that take place with Neptune in the ascendant can have the property of ‘the truth is never known’. This situation blends properties of both.
Neptune was retrograde at the time Ohio became a state, meaning (in this case) that its presence and effects are veiled (which can involve being perceived as ‘this was an issue in the past, but not today’). There is added potential for duplicity. This is astrology calling for some grease cutter, an audit team and a few alert investigative reporters on the scene. In fact, in Ohio and many other places, things are so bad that the ACLU and other civil rights organizations have called on UN inspectors to observe the election. We need them. Neptune has a way of camouflaging itself, and the best disguise is the denial of someone looking straight at something.
This placement — retrograde Neptune in Scorpio, exactly rising — gets some emphasis right in the wake of whatever happens on Election Day. There is about to be a total eclipse of the Sun conjunct Ohio’s Neptune, just two degrees away from Neptune and the ascendant. Think of that as pointing to that Neptune, ramping up its power and creating a kind of vortex into which we could get vacuumed.
The total solar eclipse happens in Scorpio on Nov. 13, a week after the election. Regardless of the Ohio chart, if the results are not agreed to by that time, then the lack of certainty could persist for quite a while. Eclipses have a wide orb of influence, with effects long before and long after they actually occur, and this eclipse so close to the election adds gravitas to whatever happens. Eclipses have an Aries Point-like quality: they often come with an intersection of personal and collective events. What happens to Ohio happens to all of us.
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Black voters stood in line for hours to vote in Columbus, Ohio, in 2004. This line doesn’t look bad, but it actually extends twenty miles, almost to the next county. Photo: Chris Hicks. |
Meanwhile, the coming Mercury retrograde directly involves the Ohio chart. There is an axis in the chart where Mercury gets hooked right in, and around which everything seems to turn — the axis of the chart that involves governmental affairs, called the meridian (the 4th/10th house axis).
Envision Mercury flying along like a Frisbee and then the cool looking dude with the tan sticks his index finger up, and catches it, spinning at full speed, and does a little dance. This is how the Ohio chart snags that Mercury retrograde, many times over, because Ohio has a lot of points concentrated there close to the 4th house cusp.
For example, among the points that Mercury retrograde will make squares to three times include Ohio’s natal Mercury; its Part of Fortune; and its lunar nodes. Mercury will come close to squaring Ohio’s Pluto and 4th house cusp at the start of the retrograde — and finally reach Pluto on Dec. 15, by which time things may seem finalized, for good or ill.
Mars in the Atlantis Degree
There is one last thing about the Ohio chart that I want to point out, relating to a theme that you may remember from my earlier coverage of Sept. 11 false flag attacks, WikiLeaks, f*ckushima and a number of other events. I covered this in an article last year called Here at the Edge of the World.
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The degree that shows up too often — the Moon (gray crescent, top right of chart) at 28+ Gemini in the 9/11 chart. This degree shows up too often in too many weird events, including f*ckushima and the natal chart of Ohio. |
This involves a single degree of the zodiac — 28+ Gemini. This one degree ties together many of the strangest, most scandalous historic developments of our lifetimes — and one organization that has consistently tried to expose the truth. (WikiLeaks has this degree rising.)
I call it the Atlantis Degree because it seems to show up with a reminder about how our technology is creating us more rapidly than we are creating it. There is a fixed star right nearby, called Betelgeuse, which Bernadette Brady associates with things going very well.
This seems to include disturbing things, as we’ve seen so many times, and which William Lilly associated with what he termed “rare engines of war.” As my colleague Tracy Delaney quipped when she told me about that, “Pretty good, considering that neither jet liners nor skyscrapers were invented in the 17th century,” when Lilly wrote his astrology textbook. She was referring to the accuracy of his delineation, given that this fixed star shows up in a conjunction with the Moon, in the chart for the 9/11 incident.
As mentioned, the Ohio chart has Scorpio rising. Scorpio is ruled by Mars. Mars appears in that degree in the Ohio chart. And it appears in the 8th house of secrets, shared resources, money and sex. In many respects, the 8th is the house of all things scandalous, and Mars sitting there gives me chills. It has a violent, two-faced quality, and the word rape comes to mind first, and denial comes to mind second.
Notably, that Mars is trine Ohio’s natal Mercury in Aquarius (which is itself retrograde) to less than half a degree. Mars and Mercury work together in this chart, and to my senses, they are up to mischief. And now, every time the forthcoming retrograde Mercury makes contact with Ohio’s natal Mercury, it’s also talking to Mars in the Atlantis degree of Gemini.
Mars is the planet of maleness, of warfare and of aggression. In Gemini, it will conceal its real agenda, behind a second agenda. With the air signs involved, the use of language and law are involved. And as it turns out, this is an election all about maleness and warfare, as well as the use of the law, in particular, by men.
Next week I will deal with the military issues involved in the U.S. government and in this election in particular. Today, taking a hint from that Mars in the Ohio chart, I want to conclude with a commentary on the gender issues in this election.
More Politics of Rape
Earlier this week, Mitt Romney endorsed a Tea Party-backed Senate candidate named Richard Mourdock, who is running in Indiana [see video here]. Romney touted him as the potential 51st vote against government health care (even though ‘Obamacare’ is a corporate health care program). Rachel Maddow said that Mourdock was the only candidate for Senate endorsed by Romney in this election cycle, so he stands out a bit. The very next day at a debate against his opponent, Mourdock said that he was against a woman’s right to have an abortion, even in the case of rape — because the pregnancy was a “gift from God.”
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Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said Tuesday when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape, ”that’s something God intended.” See the full video here. |
“I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen,” Mourdock said [see video here]. He struggled with it? Are we to assume he got pregnant?
Mourdock became the second GOP Senate candidate to wax philosophical about rape and pregnancy in recent months. Rep. Todd Akin, running for U.S. Senate from Missouri, said during a television interview in August that women’s bodies have ways of preventing pregnancy in cases of what he called “legitimate rape.”
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child,” he said. I am sitting here wondering by what logic, or precedent, a fetus has more rights than a sovereign citizen — unless one does not count women as such.
As if it’s not enough that abortion rights, which are long-settled case law, are somehow a central issue in this campaign (Romney has promised to sign the so-called Personhood Amendment if it lands on his desk) and as if it’s not enough that even the right to birth control is coming into question (Romney has promised to do his part to have the Supreme Court’s Griswold v. Connecticut decision repealed), now we have to hear about rape on a regular basis. Rape is about an attacker taking total control over the victim, in truth, one step shy of murder. Until recently, it was subject to the death penalty in many American states. Now it’s being associated with a “gift from God.”
The official platform of the Republican party states its opposition to abortion under all circ*mstances, including in cases of rape and incest. The official platform! I have been reading comments like “This is how Jim Crow guys in the south were during the Sixties — very loud,” implying that this kind of misogyny is a kind of death rattle for their point of view. I am not buying that argument, at all. I am not willing to take that chance. There are too many forces pushing in the same direction, and to me this seems more neo than retro.
However you may feel about voluntary medical abortion, making it into a crime presents a problem: abortions and miscarriages happen spontaneously, and would be subject to criminal investigation and prosecution as potential murders. The central question here is, should women have autonomous dominion over their bodies, or should every pregnancy be government property, subject to investigation? In essence, this is a discussion about making every uterus a potential crime scene.
It’s easy to cast this as opposition to something distasteful, painful and often considered a necessary evil. It’s easy to cast it as a moral issue, and blame God. There really is no secular, scientific or medical argument in opposition to a woman’s right to choose the destiny of a pregnancy, especially early in the term — all of the arguments are religious, or emotional.
American political discourse has degraded to the point where it’s now considered legitimate to claim, in public, that women have no rights whatsoever over their bodies, or their reproductive destiny. If you have studied any feminism at all, you know that for women, reproductive rights are the same thing as human rights. And now we are even hearing politicians advocate for the parental rights of rapists. I really wonder why there is not a bigger outcry. Is it because this seems too weird to be true? Or is it about a conscious giveback of both rights and their corresponding responsibilities?
For the past three decades, many American children have been subjected to abstinence-only indoctrination in public schools, which is basically a taxpayer supported campaign of ignorance and shame. This is the perfect state of mind for such a vicious, actually insane conversation to flourish. And, one would think, anyone who wanted to see fewer abortions would be in favor of family planning and conscious pregnancy prevention. But that’s not the way things are going — which puts women in an extremely dangerous double bind.
The slide or even downward spiral of how women are treated, and how women assert themselves in society, is a complex scenario and I think that each of us would be wise to take the inquiry inward, and into our relationships as well.
We have to look at this in the context of the conscious assault on the rights of women, as well as the voluntary abdication of those rights; the dumbing down of the population via abstinence indoctrination; the proliferation of sexual imagery; and the rise of hom*ophobia, which also influences relationships between the sexes as well as intrapersonal relating. That is to say, all of this influences our most intimate situations, and how we feel about ourselves.
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Natasha Richardson as Offred in the 1990 film adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the story of a totalitarian theocratic society where women have no rights. See trailer here. |
There are other contexts to consider, including the hormone chaos issue (plastics, pesticides, PCBs and other chemicals acting as hormones), which is potentially influencing any and all things sexual through contaminated food and air.
Women’s issues are often presented as ‘special interests’, which is part of the scam. The more pressing issues of our day seem to be the planet heating up, the power of the arms industry, total corruption, the abuse of technology and corporations thinking they have the rights of humans, enabled by the courts. Yet these all may be byproducts of the condition of human rights, and deep at the core, this is about the treatment of women, by both men and other women. What I am saying is the first human rights issue is how we treat one another — and this seems to involve gender more often than not.
Sex and gender issues are not boutique items. I believe they are the center of the cyclone. If the prevailing, real-life story of the human race is one sex oppressing the other, that’s going to reflect in every other way, influencing everything that happens on the planet — including how we treat the Earth.
The central political question of our day, in my view is: To what extent have women and men learned to recognize one another as people? To what extent have we learned to recognize ourselves as people? The political is indeed as personal as it gets.
Lovingly,
Additional research: Amanda Painter, Susan Scheck. Photo research: Sarah Bissonnette-Adler.
November: Mercury Retrograde and Scorpio Eclipse
Two events dominate the astrology of November — Mercury retrograde and a total eclipse of the Sun. There is also a corresponding lunar eclipse, though it’s a penumbral eclipse, which some would say is not particularly strong; but to me this gentle eclipse looks like a special opportunity. Let’s take these events one at a time (and I suggest you review the October stars piece from last month).
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The Mercury retrograde that begins Nov. 6 is a particularly interesting one. Apart from the fact that it begins on the day of a U.S. presidential election, Mercury makes a number of challenging aspects. Fortunately we have astrology so we can see them in advance. These include a series of three squares to Neptune — one during the forward shadow phase (the weeks leading up to the station retrograde), one during the retrograde and the last during the second shadow phase, with Mercury again direct.
Mercury square Neptune can be slippery. It is difficult to discern the truth under the influence of this aspect. It is therefore essential that you not act on what you know or suspect to be incomplete information. Also, I suggest you raise your standard to pausing and seeking additional information if you should know something; you are responsible for both what you know, and acting on that information.
When in doubt, the thing to do is pause. Lost opportunities during these aspects are unlikely to have been opportunities at all — and if they were, they will still be there in late December or early January when things settle down. One potential issue is that decisions made under these influences can have substantial staying power, mainly due to the involvement of a total eclipse of the Sun, which will have a pattern-setting property (eclipses almost always do). Therefore, get in the habit now of making sure that you’ve got your facts right, and pausing if you fear that you do not. This might not be the time to act on a suspicion, but it’s definitely time to pause for more information.
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The first Mercury-Neptune square happens Monday, Oct. 29, just two hours ahead of the Taurus Full Moon. (The Full Moon is exact Monday at 3:49 pm EDT.) We are under the influence of the square and the Full Moon now, and there is considerable momentum (in part because the Sun is in Scorpio and in part because we are close to one of the cross-quarters of the year, in particular, an old holiday which we how commemorate as Halloween).
The second Mercury-Neptune square happens two weeks later, very close to the total solar eclipse of Nov. 13. So the first two Mercury-Neptune squares are combined with lunations, meaning that emotional pressure is likely to influence your already slippery intellectual process. Emotion is not subject to reason and, while it may be good at guiding you in certain circ*mstances, you cannot expect a rational result, especially under this astrology. Therefore, do a kind of ‘therapy check’ when making decisions — question one is, how do I feel? Question two is, what are the facts? Beware of wishful thinking and selective inattention.
The last Mercury-Neptune square is Dec. 11, when Mercury is direct but before it’s entered new territory after the retrograde. This is the moment that may come with the feeling of, “I should have known.” Therefore, starting now, I suggest you take it slow and recognize that you are responsible for what you do not know.
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As for the usual “don’t buy, don’t sign” influence happening during part of the holiday shopping season, I recommend buying modest gifts, and if possible, doing your holiday shopping once Mercury has stationed direct on Nov. 26 (give it a few days). Yes, there will be residual influences hanging around, though they will be easier to handle after the station direct and after the stormy phase close to the end of the retrograde settles down. You don’t need to fall for the compulsive behavior associated with holiday shopping. It really is the thought that counts.
Last, here are a few thoughts about the eclipses. The total solar eclipse in Scorpio is the first eclipse in Scorpio for nearly a decade (eclipses run on a nine-year cycle). Eclipses stir up the psychic territory, wherever they are — and Scorpio is challenging for many people because it brings up taboo subject matter: sex, desire, death, money and all the various shades of secrets associated with these things.
Saturn is also in Scorpio, in a sense compelling that discussion. I suggest you have it sooner rather than later, though due to Mercury retrograde, please do not expect “the truth” to arrive in a neat bundle. If ever the truth be known, it’s usually something we put together from many points of view, with the occasional revelation.
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Last, there is a penumbral eclipse of the Moon in Gemini on Nov. 28. (This is also the Gemini Full Moon.) For this eclipse, Venus, Saturn and Mercury are all in Scorpio, so there will be plenty to talk about — under the influence of a talkative Full Moon. By this time, you may notice that it’s become a lot easier to handle taboo topics. Here is the message of this eclipse: You are what you talk about. Therefore, choose your subject matter, your point of view and your language carefully and consciously.
Changing how you feel can begin with changing your mind, and that often starts with how you choose to describe your experience. Listen to yourself.
All photos by Anthony Ayiomamitis.
Lawrence O’Donnell: Third Party Worth a Vote
A rare instance of a major network anchor championing third parties in a presidential election — and an equally rare instance of real journalism on television — graced MSNBC Wednesday night courtesy of Lawrence O’Donnell.
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O’Donnell pointed out that Larry King, the moderator of a third-party debate in Chicago Tuesday night, reminded the nation that the two major-party candidates have refused to address America’s failed War on Drugs and other significant issues that four third-party candidates were more than willing to tackle. All but one said they would legalize cannabis.
O’Donnell then called out the blatant corruption of the U.S.’s two-party system, and slammed the public, the media and even Mitt Romney for not holding Obama accountable for signing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). NDAA — which none of the third-party candidates would sign — allows the government to detain, interrogate, prosecute or just make people who it suspects to be terrorists (including American citizens) to disappear without a trial of any kind. With such an outburst of truth to power, O’Donnell may qualify.
The next third-party presidential debate will be between candidate Jill Stein and Gary Johnson on Oct. 30, streaming live on Free and Equal.
It’s Not Easy Being Green (Party)
Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates, Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee, together with the Federal Election Commission and Lynn University.
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Jill Stein (far right) and Rocky Anderson (second from right) in their virtual debate with Romney and Obama. Image: Democracy Now! |
Stein, who along with running mate Cheri Honkala has been barred from participating in the official debate process, claims that the organizations named in the suit have deprived her of her constitutional rights to due process, equal protection and free speech, as well as her statutorily protected civil rights. The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, also sought to enjoin the last CPD presidential debate from taking place that night.
Unlike the League of Women Voters, which ran highly transparent presidential debates for nearly a decade, the CPD allows ‘secret contracts’ between the two main parties that specify things like which moderators and topics are allowed. If you’re curious how Stein and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson handle the same questions Obama and Romney faced Monday night, you can watch an expanded version of the debate hosted by Democracy Now!
CIA Whistleblower Meets Saturn in Scorpio
Retired CIA agent John Kiriakou, who served from 1990 to 2004, pled guilty this week to leaking classified information. Kiriakou is best known for describing the torture of al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah in a 2007 ABC News interview.
Kiriakou renounced the waterboarding of Zubaydah that he had previously condoned, saying that it was not something we should be doing, “because we’re Americans, and we’re better than that.”
The news of Kiriakou’s plea and sentencing arrived with the Sun’s conjunction with the asteroid Arachne, which has been bringing light to our interconnectedness as well as webs of secrets. With Saturn, which rules Capricorn (institutions, structure, government) also in Scorpio taking a conjunction from the Sun, we’re getting a reminder of how our government deals with secrets when they’re leaked (depending on who leaks them; remember Valerie Plame?). Kiriakou admitted via plea bargain to a single count of revealing the identity of a covert officer, which carries a potential sentence of up to 30 months.
The Solution to Pollution is Commodification
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Satellite view of Chesapeake Bay. Image: NASA. |
Much like how some industries have figured out how to abuse the carbon credits system to pollute more and profit, the financial market has turned toward public resources such as water as a way to make a buck off of environmental measures.
“Market-based ‘solutions’ to the problem of pollution are based on a system of credit accumulation that allow polluters to amass the ‘right’ to pollute and trade that right as if it were a commodity,” reports Food and Water Watch. By creating a market for pollution, these schemes actually promote it.
For example, in 2010 the EPA established a Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL, for nitrogen and phosphorus pollution discharged into the Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately, market-based offsets that polluters can use or trade are more likely to increase pollution to the Bay. The EPA and the Obama Administration are promoting the plan as a model for other waterways. Food & Water Watch has joined with Friends of the Earth to file a joint lawsuit challenging the legality of pollution trading under the Clean Water Act.
Scorpio Sun Shines Light on Abuse at the BBC
The Sun’s ingress of Scorpio continues to illuminate the sexual, financial and death-related taboos we keep in the darkness. The BBC, one of British television and radio’s most-respected institutions, is being rocked by a sex abuse scandal that came to light a while ago, but has really come under full steam with the current astrology. Jimmy Savile, the U.K.’s celebrated version of Dick Clark who died last year, is at the center of an ever-growing web of revelations accusing him of sexually abusing girls and boys.
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Inquiries into the BBC’s knowledge of Jimmy Savile’s abuse of minors is the biggest scandal the organization has faced in decades. It points to a culture of sexism and secrecy in one of Britain’s most highly-trusted social institutions. |
Savile, a DJ and television host for the popular “Top of the Pops” and his children’s program “Jim’ll Fix It,” allegedly used his BBC programs as easy access to the kids and young teens he abused and coerced into silence. Police have identified upwards of 200 potential victims, whose accusations span several decades. Other suspects connected with the alleged abuse are under investigation.
An obvious theme in the story is how Savile used his enormous fame and popularity to gain power over his victims, who assumed they would never be believed. This is common to almost all situations of sexual abuse, and a major reason why survivors often do not come forward until many years later — if ever. Particularly disturbing is the fact that Savile, who involved himself in children’s charity events, was allowed access to a number of hospitals — including a high-security psychiatric hospital where he worked as a volunteer and had keys to the wards.
The BBC is now the subject of two independent investigations combing through internal communications to determine who knew what when. As with the abuse at Penn State, there are indicators it was not completely secret — and the money the BBC was making off of Savile surely influenced those in authority.
Last year, the BBC’s flagship current affairs program “Newsnight” had begun an investigation of Savile but dropped it. It remains to be seen how far the web extends of people turning a blind eye at the BBC. As the light of the Scorpio Sun shines into these old, dark corners filled with pain, Chiron in Pisces is offering the tools of awareness, acknowledgement and documentation in the quest for healing. It’s a long road, and Savile is not alive to take responsibility for his actions. But this is a start.
Wait — Who Said What?
In a seeming moment of reversal the 21st-century American ideological landscape, a well-known TV ‘conservative’ and his supposedly ‘liberal’ counterpart took surprising stances on the killing of civilians in drone strikes overseas, noted the FAIR website. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe television show, right-leaning Joe Scarborough criticized the idea that the loss of life (sometimes called collateral damage, and less politely, murder) incurred with drone strikes is ‘clean’ warfare. Meanwhile, Time columnist Joe Klein, oft-identified as left leaning, was shockingly content to paint the collateral deaths of young people overseas as taking out ‘bad guys’ in the making.
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Drone aircraft launches missiles on a beautiful day. |
Klein, impressed that drones can kill ‘cleanly’ using just a joystick in California, met with Scarborough’s indignation:
“You have four-year-old girls being blown to bits because we have a policy that says, ‘You know what, instead of trying to go in, take the risk, get the terrorists out of hiding… we’re just going to blow up everyone around them’.”
At least Scarborough gets that indiscriminate killing is not okay on some level. Klein, on the other hand, replied:
“The bottom line, in the end, is: Whose four-year-old gets killed? What we’re doing is limiting the possibility that four-year-olds here are going to get killed by indiscriminate acts of terror.”
Whose four-year-old gets killed is the bottom line? Is he serious? This is more than just bad foreign relations. It’s chillingly devoid of empathy.
Promotional photo for The Yes Men Are Revolting.
The Yes Men Launch Kickstarter for New Film Project
The Yes Men, famous for their social-justice hoaxes that champion people and the environment while ‘punking’ big, unethical corporations, are making another movie, their third. (Their most recent was The Yes Men Fix the World.) And they need our help. They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary aimed at inspiring and equipping us with what we need to get involved in creative, revolutionary acts. How Uranus square Pluto, no? [Eric donated his astrological services to help them select the best time to launch the Kickstarter campaign.]
They write on their Kickstarter website, “Energized by our involvement with the Occupy movement, we came to realize our true role in social change. Now, we’re hatching our most ambitious plan ever: a human-staffed platform to help every inspired viewer of our film — or anyone at all — get active as well. This ‘Action Switchboard’ taps our 100,000-person database, as well as some much bigger lists, to create fun, meaningful, movement-building projects around the issues we all care about.” With pledge levels starting at just $1, they’re making it easy to be a bright light among many shining through the dark.
Planet Waves FM :: Sun in Scorpio — and Ohio
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This week’s edition of Planet Waves FM covers the Sun in Scorpio, including the Sun’s conjunction to Arachne and trine to Neptune in Pisces. I describe the inner nature of the sign Scorpio, and its relationship to Pisces.
At the end of the first segment I discuss the case of Amanda Todd, the Canadian teenager who killed herself two weeks ago after being sexually stalked on the Internet for years.
After a song break, I discuss the (Scorpio rising) chart of the state of Ohio, and the factors in that chart which might influence the Nov. 6 election in the United States.
Here is your program in the Old Player. Note, you can download a compressed file of the program on the Old Player page, which also includes a full archive of Planet Waves FM going back to 2010. More recent programs are collected in the category listing at the top of the blog frame.
Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes
Planet Waves monthly horoscopes provide a broader perspective that surveys the themes of the coming month and often, weeks that follow. The November monthly horoscope is published below in today’s issue. The new Inner Space will come out this coming Tuesday. I recommend reviewing the monthly horoscope at the end of the month. The October Monthly horoscope was published Friday, Sept. 28. Inner Space for October was published Tuesday, Oct. 2. The October Moonshine Horoscope was published Tuesday, Oct. 16.
Please note that the longer monthly horoscope is being incorporated into the Friday issue after the Sun has entered a new sign; Inner Space still publishes on Tuesdays.
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for November 2012 | By Eric Francis
Scorpio Birthdays This Week
Beware of what you think you know. Beware of the words “I think.” They may be the best indication that you are not really thinking at all. This is a large moment in your life, and I suggest that rather than being eager to make changes, you focus on learning about yourself and letting that information gradually influence the course of your existence. One thing to guard against is the emotional influence of others. This may come in a diversity of forms, such as people trying to impress you with how stuck they are (it’s not really true) or how enlightened they are (easier said than done). If you find yourself in a power struggle of any kind, it’s likely to be a red herring: what seems to be the issue is not really the one, so look beneath the surface. You may not know what the issue is for a while, so take the next month to gently observe matters and see what you learn. If you’re trying to figure out where others are coming from, learn what you can about their relationships to their parents; I could say the same for you. Note to Scorpios: I didn’t get to your birthday reading this week, so it will be next week for sure. Look for an announcement in your inbox.
Aries (March 20-April 19) — The time has come to go beyond belief. In fact, I suggest that the moment you find yourself ‘believing’ something, that’s the time to question it. By this, I mean ask yourself a series of questions, check every fact, and persist in going deeper, over an extended period of time. You’re about to encounter a situation where this kind of mental rigor will be essential both to your happiness and your financial wellbeing. The setup is essentially that you’re headed for making a decision that seems good at the time, only to doubt yourself, only then to find out that you have regrets. You can avoid this whole thing by pausing and getting the facts now. I recognize that this kind of attentiveness can be off-putting to others. Having information is a form of power, and refusing to go blithely on belief, or simply to accept others at their word, can be off-putting. You might feel guilty for challenging others. The most important thing you can do, besides having some healthy skepticism, is to be polite. Persist in seeking specific facts and numbers, which will take a few more weeks (into early December or a bit longer). Meanwhile, if you’re moving forward about anything and you still have your doubts, slow down the move. Build in some delays, and hold your cards until your knowledge starts to reach a tipping point. That’s a moment of truth, and it’s better when this happens before you’re committed to something you can’t get out of easily.
Hello Aries — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). If you would like to hear your Aries birthday reading, please visit this link.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Whatever else may be going on in your life — and there is plenty — I suggest you keep your emphasis on your wellbeing, such as maintaining a balance between your work and your personal life. The most intimate aspects of your existence are likely to be compelling, as you rethink your involvement in a certain agreement based on factors you’re unlikely to have considered before. The practical aspect may seem to compete against the emotional aspect, though you’re making progress when you see them as the same thing. It’s essential that you become a highly conscious decision maker, which may be challenging amongst so many unusual factors, events that somehow seem fated, and doubts about your past choices. I suggest you develop the skill of knowing when you’re in denial. Each time you figure it out, consider that a moment of awakening. From there, your first objective would be to remain awake, so you can use your awareness to help you guide your life in a wholly positive direction. One additional challenge is the sense of mystery that may be pervading everything. There are the usual questions, such as where am I and how did I get here? These have answers. The most pressing questions involve you and what you want. You’ve taken some strides on this particular issue; you’ve figured out some of what you don’t want and discovered a few things that make you happy. Yet you remain the most persistent mystery in the room. Sit with that one; don’t rush yourself.
Hello Taurus — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). If you would like to hear your Taurus birthday reading, please visit this link.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Maintaining one’s independence is challenging in relationships, especially in a world where we seem to have two options — taken and not taken. Taken often involves signing a 100-page contract, and not taken can come with the sense of being a non-person. You’re finally seeing the futility of this, yet there doesn’t seem to be an easy way out of the paradox. It would be a cruel world where intimacy came only at the expense of a hostage situation, though for too many people this is what happens nearly all the time. You seem intent on going beyond this limited reality, or what could less politely be described as an emotional trap where your own needs and desires are used as bait. If you’re seeking your freedom without the corresponding sacrifice of closeness, make sure you notice those moments when freedom seems like a dangerous, unstable state of existence. Those are your best indication that the door is actually coming unlocked. Usually, an overwhelming sense of responsibility and the daunting prospect of failure, contribute to the sense that the fewer options one has, the better. Lately, however, you’ve become aware of a fact that verges on metaphysical: you are a distinct entity in the universe, responsible for the course of your own existence. You may be feeling it as a struggle for survival, and I assure you that your quest is precisely that. Don’t let anyone convince you of what is not true, but more to the point, don’t convince yourself.
Hello Gemini — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Have you listened to your birthday reading? Click here for an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — If you find yourself going deeper than you feel safe in an erotic situation, remember one word: healing. That will help you focus, and it will give you a basis of both purpose and communication. You can pretty much assess everyone and everything on the basis of their affinity with this concept — including yourself. There’s the phase of this experience where pleasure itself is a kind of necessary balm. Yet the experience continues from there. The whole experience is a vehicle to take you deeper into a kind of hidden realm, which may involve dealing with certain matters that (for example) your parents did not address and which were passed on to you. Yet there is something deeper than your immediate lineage that you’re about to address, and that is part of the reason why you may be feeling out of your depth (particularly around the time of a total solar eclipse on Nov. 13). You seem to be dealing with something much larger than yourself, and if you know that, you will both not feel so overwhelmed and you’ll also have a line of approach to the territory. You seem to be involved with a situation that started with the intent for one thing, then in a series of steps you didn’t know you were taking, became something else, as if you encountered a kind of emotional or psychic undertow. To proceed from here, you will need to take one step at a time, making one decision at a time, based on the best available information you have.
Hello Cancer — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). To hear your birthday reading for the year ahead, please visit this link.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Is this a moment of settling down, or of upheaval? The astrology for your sign this month presents two distinct scenarios, and how you respond to it will depend on a number of factors, one of which I will call your density level. This isn’t a concept I’ve used in my column before, so I will explain. Think of increased density as contraction, fear, resistance, denial and the feeling of being stuck. Think of lighter density as expansion, a sense of flow, flexibility, alertness and the sensation that you have the ability to choose. Taken on a denser energy level, the astrology of this month could be jarring, threatening to your security and come with the sensation that changes are being imposed on you by outside forces. As you go to lighter, less dense levels of awareness, the astrology will feel more like being in the right place at the right time, putting down emotional roots, and taking the opportunity to make productive, necessary and long-overdue changes. Looked at in the best light, the approaching combination of astrological factors describes a time of distinction between the past and the present. You’re being set free from negative attachments, seeming obligations and a whole raft of family karma. This is an amazing opportunity for you, except for one thing. It’s entirely too easy to be attached to a low-density level. It’s easy to be attached to the past. Therefore, focus on raising your vibration — and keep your mind focused on a vision for the future.
Hello Leo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). To hear your birthday reading for the year ahead, please visit this link.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — This month we return to a theme that’s arisen periodically over the past few years: your relationship to your ancestral past. You do seem to be here on a mission, though it’s difficult for you to separate your particular calling from the views of so many others who have imposed their intentions on you. Some of this is from the distant past, some of it’s from your family of origin and much of it is filtering in from various teachings you’ve been exposed to over the years. At the moment you seem poised to do something daring, and that you haven’t quite done before: go beyond all of that theory, and reach your awareness into the core of who you are. You don’t need these other influences, they no longer serve you, and to the extent that anyone thinks they need you to do their bidding, they’ll get over not having you as their agent. Here’s the thing: on the way to finding out something that is absolutely true for yourself, you will go through a process of discovering what’s not true — and that may be a little unnerving, especially as you realize the negative influences they’ve had. Remember you’re doing this in a time when there’s a prevailing philosophy that ‘there’s no such thing as the truth’. There’s another notion that the truth is whatever someone can get someone else to believe. As you’ve no doubt noticed, these become excuses for many to abandon integrity. You have a different agenda.
Hello Virgo — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). Did you miss your birthday reading? Use this link to order an hour of astrology plus a tarot reading by Eric.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) –You will need to be impeccable with money and resources for the rest of the year. This includes making no commitments you’re not sure you can keep, or that you even suspect you might not be able to keep. You’ll also need to preserve what you have as a conscious act. As you do this, a lot of information is going to come your way. There will be certain specific facts that prove to be useful, though the thing to look for is the overall pattern. This will take some time to develop, and you may find yourself wading through plenty of murky water before you arrive at several moments of clarity. Take these one at a time, and watch the pattern of what you learn from these developments as well. Any sense of needing to rush is entirely artificial. Rather than resisting the urge to push forward, devote your energy to learning, and in particular, learning about the way in which resources are as important as money, or more so. ‘Resources’ includes your skills, your reputation and your ability to relate to others. It would also include your relationships with resourceful people, and all those who care about you and have demonstrated over time that they are willing to lend support to your cause. The communication piece — listening, and learning to speak in a clear, focused way — may be the most significant of all. In a sense, it’s the key to everything else, and the most meaningful tool for establishing both your credibility, and your creativity.
Hello Libra — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed). To hear your birthday reading for the year ahead, please visit this link .
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — On Nov. 13, there’s a total solar eclipse in your birth sign, the first in more than nine years. Though there are numerous other factors influencing you this month, this by far is the most significant. Eclipses are about shifts in continuity, sometimes subtle, sometimes radical. I would say they represent ‘change’, but these days that’s a meaningless word. It’s a special kind of change, involving things that have gone on so long you’ve taken them for granted. This could include emotional patterns, certain facts about your sexuality and most significantly, the ways you communicate with yourself and others. Your charts present an image of you passing through what would normally be a ‘veil of forgetfulness’, only this time, you remember who you are. Not only that, you remember the support, love and trust that surrounds you, much of it coming from far beyond the Earthly realm. Yet in the aspect of your life that’s located here on Earth, one implication is that you’re experiencing the drive to rebuild your integrity. It may be painful, at first, to consider the ways that your words and actions have not been in alignment — then after a while, you’ll figure out that every time you discover one of these fractures is an opportunity to make amends with yourself and by extension, with others. It will help if you come to terms with the fact that, for many years, not everything you’ve believed was true. And that, you will discover, is very good news.
Hello Scorpio — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — As the days go by, the forces of society increasingly draw people outside of themselves. Whether people are gazing into little rectangular crystal balls, obsessed with fashion, obsessed with romance, chasing sex or success or fixated on something they despise, in our current era, the prevailing direction of flow of consciousness is outward. For you, the pull is in the opposite direction — into yourself. This may be happening to a degree that is unsettling, though the result will be to make you a more settled person. It’s true that there are still externals to distract you. Yet your inward draw is much stronger, and it’s likely to increase in intensity over the next few weeks until it gets not only your attention, but your full devotion. Of particular concern are resolving any ways you’ve been living a double life, which could include any tendency to exclude people close to you from awareness of what you think or do. Yet there is something else going on, which is being real about your tendency to compartmentalize and hide information from yourself. This kind of detachment can allow you a measure of temporary freedom, and helps you suspend awareness of certain ethical or emotional responsibilities. However, you’re no longer in a position to pretend that these emotional influences or factors don’t exist, or to make believe that you don’t know what you know and feel what you feel. It doesn’t matter how popular you are. What matters is that you’re real with yourself and with others.
Hello Sagittarius — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — In retrospect, you may decide this was the month you actually woke up and figured out that you’re alive, and that you’re here to live your life, your way. One element of this is the discovery that it’s simply impossible to please everyone, and a miracle when people actually recognize who you are. The message coming through from life and from the planets is: don’t bother trying to please anyone, and recognize and appreciate who you are. Acting on this intention will introduce a shock to your psyche, making you more alert and calling several people around you into focus. Then, you’ll get to have a different kind of conversation. When you feel a real level of trust, take the opportunity to push the boundary of who you are — and by that, I mean not only to stretch but to exceed your comfort zone. The idea is to be realer than you’re accustomed to being, even to the point where it feels a little dangerous. Yet I suggest you do this in a contained environment, not live on YouTube. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this journey is an experiment in revealing what you would have been reluctant to reveal before, or indeed, what you would have never considered. You cannot be comfortable with yourself if you’re not comfortable being yourself and allowing others to see who you are. While you might think that you would feel confident before making any such revelation, your growth will proceed in the other direction.
Hello Capricorn — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).
Note to Aquarians — The answer to last week’s riddle about the secret ingredient to success is that it’s almost always a group effort. Depending on others can be a delicate line to walk — we tend to do it a little too much, particularly in a codependent form. However, professional success is almost always a kind of conspiracy, involving various shades of subtle and substantial help from many people, which you are responsible for coordinating. I suggest you draw consciously on the assistances of others, remembering that while nobody does it for you, nobody really does it alone either.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — It was the astrologer Patric Walker (1931-1995) who handed John Lennon the beautiful line, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” This is a fair reading of your chart these days, particularly as regards your professional life. It’s true that some people are born knowing what they’re ‘supposed to do’, set about doing it, and succeed brilliantly. Most of the time, the process is an extended experiment, and devotion to one particular path or intention can be altered by a casual conversation at a party, a chance meeting or an opportunity that seems interesting. In those moments, it seems to be the hand of fate that’s guiding you, though what you call it doesn’t really matter — only that you notice when it’s at work. Through this month, there are two forces or factors guiding you. One is your traditional approach to success: set goals, work hard, be dependable. The second factor is the sensation of providence moving in your direction. It’s essential that you recognize this when it happens; it may not come in a form that you recognize, and in truth, everything that happens to you this month is part of a conspiracy to guide you to where you belong, and where you want to be. For this to work, you’ll need to let go of your desire to control your direction or the specific outcome, and muster up just a little faith in yourself. A little goes a long way.
Hello Aquarius — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — As the Zen Room of the zodiac, your sign often spawns individuals naturally inclined to live in the moment. This is more neutral than it seems, facilitating pleasure-seeking or spiritual growth, self-absorption or devotion to service. Yet you’re now feeling the need to develop your longterm plan, and to put certain deeply cherished goals into action. Your solar chart suggests that you’re tired of wondering what is possible, or what the universe is willing to cooperate with, and are intent on finding out for yourself. This will take a combination of discipline and risk-taking, which is exactly what this month’s aspects offer. Yet the most meaningful chance you will take is expanding your beliefs about what is possible. It would be best if you could set the whole question aside, focus on your vision and go one step at a time for as long as it takes to get where you want to be. To do this, you need to blend persistence with something even more challenging: believing in yourself, and what you want. And there’s one other factor. To fully embrace your mission, you must accept being different. This includes the potential for standing out, for challenging people, for being thought of as weird, and recognizing that some people will not agree with or approve of what you’re doing. Your spiritual and creative quest is not a popularity contest. However, being willing to take these risks might make you very successful in the end.
Hello Pisces — Eric has written a new description for your sign that you have access to from this link (no password needed).
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Scorpio really has three symbols — the scorpion, the eagle and the fish. Which one do you want to represent you? This is a mystical way of saying that you have a choice of who you are, and that choice counts for more than you may imagine.
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Scorpius from the Uranographia of Johann Bode. Part of the scorpion’s body is overlapped by the foot of Ophiuchus, the supposed 13th sign of the zodiac. |
Aries (March 20-April 19)
You may not understand the energy source behind so much change in your life, though you need to stay fully awake in order to count it as progress. You run the risk of becoming overly invested in a relationship situation that could distract you from far more meaningful endeavors. If that relationship involves business, it’s vital that you take the advice of others under consideration without letting it dictate your choices. This is easier said than done.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
You seem to be involved in a confrontation or an unusually passionate direct encounter of some kind, and the chances are it’s going to change how you see and feel about yourself. Well, you may take credit for the change yourself; after all, you made the decisions involved. Yet you need to look at what is happening around you and what is happening to you and be sure you at least draw the associations between these seemingly unrelated circ*mstances.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Make a clear decision about whether you want someone as your lover, or stand aside. It would help if you were realistic about whether this person wants you. He or she seems to be self-absorbed, which is not usually a green light. The deeper question is whether sex is a necessary prerequisite to the relationship that you want. Generally, people get sexually involved way too soon, long before they have processed their prior relationship. You don’t have to do this.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You have some powerful support right now, and some deep ideas about which you’re passionate. The thing to remember is that there is more to life than projects, no matter how driven you feel. Put some of your energy into people, or into someone in particular, and you will have plenty of inspiration and drive for the creative work that you want to do. If you keep your life in balance, it will be some of the best you’ve ever created. And you will not be doing it alone.
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Scorpio is intense. No two ways about it. They radiate charisma and magnetism even when they’re not trying. Famous Scorpio Condoleezza Rice (Nov. 14, 1954) recently said that she’s looking forward to “getting back to shopping”. |
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Is there some work that you’re leaving unfinished or neglected? You seem to be pouring your love and devotion into your home life, and this is giving you a deep sense of security and pleasure. Yet you also have a calling, a mission or a role to play in the larger world. You may underestimate its importance or balk on the grounds that it’s not feeding you the way it should be. Yet are you really feeding it? You will surely get the results that you invest.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
You may not like the seemingly inevitable shakeup or disruption of your slow, steady process, but it’s time to get some fire under your feet. You love to do things in a thoughtful and methodical way. Others seem bent on demonstrating that there is another way to do things: with gusto and little sense of the consequences. You have taken every conceivable precaution. Now all you need to do is let go.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You may want to examine your ambition and determine whether it’s being driven forward by loneliness. If that is the case, I suggest you put your energy into human contact rather than gunning for cash or a sense of achievement. Alternately, you have an option that may prove even more fruitful: dive deep into yourself and learn something that in truth you can only learn right now. The beauty of this moment is its introspective quality.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Planets are lining up in your birth sign, and each one is bringing you new opportunities to express yourself. It would be great if life bent to your will this easily all the time, but of course you would not notice the brilliant moments like the one you have right now. And the truth of the matter is, it’s not a good idea to take any of this for granted. Keep a conservative edge and make sure you apply common sense at every opportunity you have to deny it. There will be many.
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Antares (a Scorpii / Alpha Scorpii) is a red supergiant and the brightest star in Scorpio. It is one of the four brightest stars near the ecliptic. |
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
Pay attention to your motives. You seem obsessed by someone or something, and usually that is justification to do whatever you want to whomever you want. This is a situation calling for ethics, because for one thing the karmic stakes are high. You are also more vulnerable to emotional longing and unmitigated lust than usual, and these are usually not the best states of mind for making decisions. When in doubt, wait a week. If still in doubt, wait another. Even if you’re certain, you owe yourself a good session of self-questioning.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You have a wide opening for an unusual success, but it’s not going to last that long. This is not the time to say that you’ll get to it next year. You have tortured yourself over whether this decision is right or wrong, and a few times you’ve come close to taking the leap. Remember what you’ve learned from these previous attempts. Admit you’ll never be 100% certain of success in advance, nor are there any guarantees. Once you make peace with that, what to do will be obvious.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
You have so many different influences working on you, I suggest you reduce your inputs down to the most trusted sources of information and that you take your time before making any major decisions. For most of November you will be under the influence of aspects that can backfire as easily as they can spur you forward. The most vital thing you can do is be committed to honesty with yourself. Of all the skills available to the human race, this one seems to be the least accessible. You need to put it first.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
The planets are pushing you to be more focused on your long-term goals — and to give you the feeling that failure is impossible. It may be, but there are things you can do that put it closer within reach and an even longer list of things that can set you back. You can’t count any gain as solid until it’s been tested two or three times. The thing to remember as you go through the unusual events of this month is that you have the upper hand. You’ve taken more time to prepare, you have come further and your ideas are consistently good — if you remember to use them.
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