November 19, 2008

This is great--my friend Renee heard my plaintiff cry and wrote a dazzling letter, one that hits all of my own, personal belief points (so I love it) but hey--you know, this section can be controversial, as well (I mean, if you are a Republican, what do YOU think? I would love to know!)And what about your metaphysical thoughts, or astrological ...???
Don't forget--the new site is in Special Features...Letters to the Editor.

November 18, 2008

Hi Everyone, long time no talk....I kept thinking, “After the Beautiful Coup, what's left to say?” but the answer is: The entire GALAXY—I was so immersed in politics I forgot all about Astrology!

I am trying to get better organized so I can at least write once a week, but till that time I wanted to 'introduce' a new feature.

The Tarot section, previously written by Barbara, must now be retired into memory. Barbara is beaucoup busy these days with teaching multiple collage classes, giving personal readings and adjusting to her recent life changes, so a return to writing the column is (for now, at least) out of the question. So I wuz thinking, here is a pre-made slot on the site, just waiting for something to fill it up. Then I received a truly cool email from my friend Kendra...who sleuthed out some interesting facts while she was tracing the transits of Saturn. I thought, “Hey—what about a Letters to the “Editor” slot? (I get to be the editor) and I requested to post her message and she graciously agreed. Ta da, Kendra you are our launching star to the Cardinal Star System's newest feature!

Letters to the Editor
http://cardinalstarsystems.com/special/tarot.html
(It still sez Tarot...gonna need the Goddess of Cyberspace Diana to fix that but no biggie, it will get us there.)

Listen, you all send such great stuff, why not let's share it? If you want something on the site, either to post on the Good to Know, or if you write something personally and you would like to share your message, let me know and I will place it in Letters. Please just say print this, PJ—I think you Grasshoppers are all so in the know, on the case and articulate, it will be a real shot in the arm to the site!
….......
PS.....Last Saturday (November 16) Mars entered Sag, on Friday (November 21) The Sun will join it and on Saturday (November 22) Mercury will complete the trio! This means we just might have some UMPH to use—Mars being physical energy (it's happy in Sagittarius, the sign of sports) Mercury being quick and energy-intense (restless, active and fastest around the Sun) and the Sun giving both of them his shot of Solar Power! Thank the Goddess! I am so READY for a shot of energy...I keep looking at my bed and imagining how sweet it would be to just curl up there—but that IS very Scorpio, which Mercury and the Sun are still in residence, so I'll get my exercise clothes out and set them where I can see them—I'm ready for the change!

November 11, 2008

Yo, Grasshoppers... today we have a "Guest Column" from a fine astrologer named Lynda Hill...she works with The Sabian Symbols (they are like Haiku's that tell the essence of each degree of the Zodiac) and she has written about the election.  Enjoy!  (ps...who can resist quotes from Leonard Cohen?)

Subject: Uranus Saturn Opposition & Sabian Symbols for the Election
Sabian symbols for Election Day. Very interesting!

Subject: Lynda Hill's newsletter: Breakthrough! - the Uranus Saturn Opposition Heralds the End of an Error - warning political content!

Two Guardian Angels Bringing Protection - Virgo 3 -the current progressed full Moon of the United States chart set for July 4 1776 at 5.10pm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence.

We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; and God has provided for this, by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you... Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.
Saint Francis de Sales

We forget to pray for the angels and the angels forget to pray for us.
Leonard Cohen.

Wow, what a time it's been. The world has turned somehow, it's turned in a new direction and it feels like a breath of fresh air and a new page of history is in the making. The progressed Moon for the chart of the USA is Virgo 3: Two Guardian Angels Bringing Protection - what a fabulous degree! In the next week or so, the progressed Moon goes onto Virgo 4: Black and White Children Playing Happily Together. 

Months ago, I saw the progressed full Moon of the States chart happening smack on the election (progressed full moons happen every 28 or so years, so this is no small thing) and immediately thought that Barack Obama was one of those 'angels'. When Obama nominated Joseph Biden as his running mate it was abundantly clear that here was the other 'guardian angel'.

Amazingly, the Uranus-Saturn opposition happened smack on the day of the election. The old guard, represented by Saturn in Virgo, was being challenged by the new guard shown by Uranus in Pisces. It's been wonderful watching the unfolding of this process. For months and months while Obama was campaigning, Uranus was on Pisces 18: In a Huge Tent, A Famous Revivalist Conducts His Meeting With a Spectacular Performance.  Obama's brilliant oratory style was reflected in this degree. His words were waking people up to possibilities again after years in the wilderness.

On the day of the election, Uranus was at 18.57 Pisces - Pisces 19: A Master Instructing His Disciple. More than any candidate perhaps since JFK, Obama was embodying the 'master' in terms of charisma, prescence and having a commanding nature. Or course, Obama, in his own style was wordlessly, humbly and respectfully not asking for the adulation he was receiving. During his acceptance speech, Obama made statements akin to a teacher and the crowd responded again and again to what he was saying 'Yes We Can!'. What joy that night was. Amazing for everyone around the world. My daughter Jess was in Chicago that night with joyful, leaping, crying, sobbing people everywhere. Jess reported that guys everywhere were sweeping women up and throwing them in the air with joy and release. It sounded so wonderful - what a peak experience!

People everywhere around the world were crying. Everybody I spoke to said they cried. The old guard was falling and we woke the next day seeing the possibilities of a brand new day. (Straight after I wrote these words a song came on the radio with young people yelling 'Wake Up!'). Yes, we needed to wake from a nightmare... the end of an error that lasted for 8 years. I'm hearing everywhere that the US is immediately set to regain its reputation and standing in the world.

Saturn, traveling through Virgo was reflecting the old fogey side of Virgo and John McCain (a Virgo) and the Republican Party represented the old guard that had to fall in order for the new beginning that Uranus is heralding. The attacks on Obama's color, spirituality, beliefs, associations, experience et al and ad nauseum showed the negative and dark side of politics. Obama never faltered although the stress on him must have been enormous. 

Saturn on the day of the election was at 18.57 of Virgo - Virgo 19: The Swimming Race. A 'swimming race' the election was for sure. It seems that the Republicans spent too much time looking at and smearing their opponent and not enough formulating their own strategies for winning the race. Obama never faltered but looked straight ahead, concentrating on his own performance. One tends to hit the wall if you're swimming like crazy and not paying attention or watching where you're going.

Forming a t-square (stressful angle) to the Saturn/Uranus opposition is Venus in Sagittarius on Sagittarius 21: A Child and a Dog With Borrowed Eyeglasses. It was like we couldn't believe our eyes; what was unfolding, what the numbers were, what the outcome was after feeling so long in the wilderness. This Venus t-squaring both Uranus and Saturn also shows the nature of the division in the country; just over half the people voted for Obama and just under half for McCain. This division, I truly hope, will be healed over the coming years. One has to hope. Hope is what we have.

Jupiter has been playing into this with a trine to Saturn and a sextile to Uranus, freeing up the energy. Jupiter was on Capricorn 18: A Union Jack Flies from a New British Warship. This was reflected through people all around the States ensuring, or trying to ensure, that everyone got to vote, had their vote counted or that the machines weren't playing up. There were reports of several thousand lawyers supervising what was going on. The myths of Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter tell the story - check it out - do a Google, so interesting!

The Karmic Condition of Saturn is Virgo 18: Two Girls Playing With a Ouija Board. There's a lot to be said about people not seeing the signs, etc, but the thing that tickles me the most is Obama saying in a light-hearted way in a speech today that Nancy Reagan held seances in the White House. The Sabian Symbols are often so incredibly literal! (btw, Mars for his speech today was on Scorpio 24: Crowds Coming Down the Mountain to Listen to One Man).

One thing that needs to be approached cautiously in all of this is playing into the cult of personality that is so prevalent in the US. Barack Obama is an extraordinary man but he is a mere mortal just the same. Having said that, Pluto was on Sagittarius 30: A Pope Blessing the Faithful. This sounds very much like what happened this week - people voted with their hearts, minds and hands and Obama gave the US a blessing in a great speech that promised to bring the country together.

The pressure and the onus placed on him from the shocking situation that the Bush administration has bequeathed is really something. Jupiter is set to move onto Capricorn 19 in the next few days. The Sabian Symbol is A Young Child Carrying a Heavy Load of Groceries... being weighed down with responsibilities is a huge ask and surely everyone needs to take a breather. God knows George W. Bush did; he took more holidays than any president in history. 

Another thing: what I hear more now that the euphoria has settled and we're getting used to the fact that our world has turned is that Obama be kept safe. I, too, find myself often having to think of him surrounded with white light, protected and out of harm's way. This is reflected in the Mars/Neptune square on the day of the election. Mars was on Scorpio 22: Hunters Shooting Wild Ducks with Neptune on Aquarius 22: A Rug Placed on the Floor for Children to Play On. Sales of guns and ammunition went through the roof with the realisation that Obama would be president. People rushed out, fearing that Obama would tighten gun laws or some such thing. Why people need to have guns is beyond me... what about my right for people not to have an instrument that could kill me and mine?

I'm sorry, but I have to say it; I'm so pleased that we don't have to look at those horridly reptilian faces anymore. Yay!

My hope is that those that didn't and wouldn't vote for Obama will come to see what a wonderful man he is. The Inauguration chart is amazing. I'll do the Symbol for that soon.

If you like Leonard Cohen (I love him), listen to his song Democracy http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=OETwbVBPI1U - wonderful! "Its coming to america first The cradle of the best of the worst Its here they got the range And the machinery for change And its here they got the spiritual thirst Its here the familys broken And its here the lonely say That the heart has got to open In a fundamental way Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

The threat to Obama is very real but we have to hope, trust and pray that he's fine and that the new administration is allowed to get on with the job of leading such a marvelous, wonderful, diverse and talented country as the United States to a brand new day.

Book a reading with Lynda and find out the Sabian Symbols in your chart and what's coming up for you www.sabiansymbols.com/page.asp?id=1404

Check out Lynda's blog at www.sabiansymbols.typepad.com and Lynda's Sabian Symbol Oracle at www.sabiansymbols.com

If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter, give feedback or ask questions, please email Lynda at sabiansymbols@gmail.com

November 5, 2008

now we type now we type type whatever what you want

Could we ever have achieved this acomplishment if we were not challenged to do so?  It's a human thing to only do 'it' (change a pattern) when we're pushed to the edge.  GW gave us a really big snootfull of what greed, separationalism and ignorance can do to living conditions all over the world--so YES WE DID abandon our old ways and had the courage to jump into a brave new world!  OH. MY. GODDESS!!!!!!

Of course, it doesn't hurt that there was the once-in-40-year Saturn-Uranus change, flip things around aspect--but there were other murkier, confusing aspects that made me really nevous and, I will say it: Doubt. 

I have a friend, Roxy, who I ran into at the parking lot at Sonoma Market when Obama was early in the primaries.  Roxy is a zero degree Cancer, very intuitive, and she said, "I have a sixth sense about these things--Obama will be our next president"....he had not 'defeated' Hillary yet and I was of little faith in humanity, but the look on her face and the slight chill I got when she said that has sustained me ever since that day.  Roxy--YOU WERE RIGHT!!! You have NO IDEA how many times I have resurected that moment to get me through!

This morning I got an email from my friend Pallas in the Netherlands and she said there is dancing in the streets there, that Europe is over 80% for Obama and everyone is deleriously happy.

More to say but I am exhausted.  I can only say that there's hope for us yet.  Oh, it is so very sad to hear that Prop. 8 is (most likely) going through and we are going to be allowed to take away basic rights from a group of innocent people.  Still, how often did this sort of prejudice "win" in the past?  LET'S keep fighting--remember how bad we all felt when Gore (and then) Kerry "lost" the election?  NOW LOOK!  Sometimes you gotta sail East to get West.  We will all keep fighting for freedom and fairness for ALL.

Every Great Leader Has a Great Tyrant.  George W. Bush, the tyrant of torture and greed, (and he's just this wimpy little Cancer) has given us cause to elect a GREAT LEADER! 

What a wonderful world we live in!!!!!!!  

November 4, 2008

VOTE!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/5friendsvote

I can't wait till this is all over, don't you feel that way too?

The aspects will be crazy but let's all just forge ahead and visualize smooth sailing...talk to you soon--good luck USA!

October 29, 2008

One thing is for certain—this election has brought out the creative in us all!

Have you all received a flood of emails and Utubes and writings that educate you on the state of the union of the day?  Me too.  It’s awesome.  I have spent more time reading and clicking and answering ‘the call’ for various organizations than writing, so sorry, but it has been too compelling for me…it will all be over soon, and for that I am grateful.

The thing is, by next Tuesday we all will have a choice that is about more than electing a president—it’s actually about voting on the direction that the collective body of humans, (the ones that live in the USA as well as everyone abroad), will walk as we proceed into the Future—a very different and uncertain future at that. 

Will we walk into The Unknown with curiosity, a willingness to change and explore, with respect for all that is different, and with a concern for our fellow humans?  Or will will continue to vote to elevate our Fears as the most important concern—with everyone being a potential enemy and Change being a frightening and undesirable thing? 

Domestically, will we resent it when someone not as strong or capable or endowed with as many resources as us needs our help, or will we open our hearts and minds to discover new win/win solutions to old and new problems (including the up-and-coming urgent Global Warming weather changes)?  It is up to us, and of course, the electronic voting machines—but I am of good cheer and high hopes.

I am sending two things that are cool—one I have printed in Good to Know, http://cardinalstarsystems.com/special/goodtoknow.html

the other follows.  My friend Virginia sent it to me and I asked her if she wrote it.  She said that her friend did and she edited it—I love it and here it is:

“Pals, Time is short. We are all running on frayed systems that have been bombarded with too much negativity. Let's all give this positive approach some focus, for our own sake as well as the planet's. Visualize President Obama's successful Presidency. Who knows what can happen. Virginia”

The year is 2016. We glance at the television one morning and see President Obama having another of his many press conferences. He has now been in office for almost 8 years. It hasn't been perfect, but things are so much better than when he took office in January of 2009. You notice that his hair has whitened and he still has that winning smile and that take- charge/positive energy that he had when he was campaigning way back in 2008.
 
You remember back to how concerned you were about whether or not he would win in 2008 and you feel deeply contented that he has been safely in office for such a long time. You feel waves of gratitude for the active part you played in getting him elected, joining with so many people you did not know at the time.
 

He and Congress have done much to address global warming, health care, development of alternative energy sources and a variety of other important matters to the country and the planet. You feel deep gratitude for the past eight years and how things have unfolded. See it...Feel it...Breathe it....

and pass it on.

Lets stop fighting against McCain and Palin, and start working for Obama-Biden. Lets stop driving ourselves crazy with all of the outrageous mind-upsetting things they say and do, and start remembering all of the wonderful reasons we want Obama.
 

Take 30 seconds right now. Close your eyes and imagine exactly what our country will feel like with President Obama. Imagine how good it will feel. Imagine whatever it is about him that you desire. Imagine the pride. Imagine the diplomacy. Imagine the peace. Imagine the wind mills and the clean cars. Imagine the citizen groups. Imagine the economic prosperity that stabilized the world economies, the heath care that everyone is enjoying and the education that every child and citizen has access to.

 
Imagine the earth being healed and revitalized. Imagine being very proud of your country and its leader. Imagine what it feels like to live in a country that is creating good in the world. Imagine whatever it is that draws you to support Obama. Imagine what your life will look like.
 

30 seconds. Do it several times a day. Focus on the positive change.

October 22, 2008

This is the first morning in a long time that I have gotten up, treaded on the mill, then grabbed my cup of ‘morning grounding fluid’ and unclipped the astrological calendar from the wall to see whatzup.  Hey, I’ve been out on the fringes of time lately and lost a month—it turns out that today we’ll head into Scorpio at 6:09 p.m. PST, as a matter of fact.  Happy Birthday, all Scorp’s, you’ve had such challenging aspects in the last few years but recently the aspects have softened—hope that you are all enjoying improved circumstances.

As I was treading, I was watching the news and it occurred to me what a strange custom it is that we always hold our elections when the Sun is in Scorpio, the sign of sex, death, big money and mystery.  Is that why there are always such shenanigans every time at the Presidential polls? Humm…I hear that Diebold’s machines are already at it in Florida; if you push the Obama/Biden button, it comes up McCain/Palin.  We can’t blame that on Scorpio, but Scorpio IS the CSI spot on the zodiacal dial…a power place and currently we are all looking at a different expression of power than we have been witness to in many a year. Frankly, I don’t think Obama is going to let those machines slide.  Best to get it resolved early on before a decision would go to The Supremes…we know how THAT would go, humm.

Wally has been gone for this last week.  He went to visit his mom in Arizona…I stayed here and held the fort.  He ventured out into McCain territory—better him than me, my Turrets is at an all time peak these days and I have a twenty second zone before I pop into a ‘Socialistic’ rant.  Socialism?  You mean being fair to people with less money and resources?  Un-American, you say?  WHY?????  I know the buzz rhetoric is that ‘liberals are cheese and wine eating/drinking elitists, who don’t work and are out of touch with the most famous plumber in the world (say it ain’t so, Joe) but I found in no uncertain terms that I can’t eat cheese and crackers and drink wine without gaining ten tons of weight, so there goes THAT theory!  Anyway, his tales of conversations left me sad and confused.  I feel the divide from people I have loved most of my life (not that I still don’t love them) but I feel confused and frustrated to be so marginalized—and to marginalize THEM, myself!  Insanity, eh?  THANK THE GODDESS that it will all be over soon—but I will not sing victory until we see if those machines work…the Rovians have a real need to ‘win’…I mean, they could have to PAY for their crimes if there is an actual government in place!

Anyway, everyone is just now arising, it’s getting noisy so I will just say that I am starting to come out of that fetal position and believe that it’s possible that we won’t have to go through life living in a Mad Max movie... I have been fairly pessimistic for about eight years now.  What on earth will I do if it goes the Other Way? (The Soothsayer will be un-sooth-able!) 

This morning I got an email with this clip from a Utube film that is dynamite!  It’s about Prop 8, the amendment to change the constitution to deny rights to people with a different sexual orientation.  What’s the world coming to?  Anyway, this is FAB…the speaker is so clear, watch this if you have a few moments.

__________________________________________________
 

October 13, 2008

Pam nudged me again this morning.  She said, "PJ!!!!  Write something!!!  Not that I haven’t heard from many of you also, but now I am really starting to feel a bit guilty.  As I sit here attempting to gather the shattered pieces of my mind enough to look at the aspects and say what I see, guess what?  I am being attacked by wasps!  They are hovering around my keyboard and won’t let up so I give up, I'm going back to my projects!  (Is it a sign?)

(One hour later…) My projects, begun almost at the beginning of this Mercury retrograde, are all about a huge, turbulent change going on in this house.  Sky, our youngest (did I tell you this already?) has moved to the city (S.F.) and Wally & I are moving into the BIG bedroom, initially Gabe’s then Sky’s now OURS but it is the first time I have moved in 24 years and boxes of junk, paint buckets and cleaning products are EVERYWHERE so I am rather preoccupied.  In addition, at the onset of Merc’s moon-walk, we also (finally) got a new roof (even the buckets that we had to catch the water were getting old!) so I had started to write earlier (twas when Sarah & Joe were talkin’) but pieces of ceiling were falling on my head and into my morning smoothie—you see why you haven’t heard from me? Besides, I had so much to say, it was overwhelming…it was a NOVEL, so I just went ‘mute’.

But listen, here’s a few things, just to hold till I get my brain back:

Mercury will go DIRECT on Wednesday @ 1:06 p.m.  This will be helpful with all of my cleaning projects, but it could spin the economy & election around again…it will go direct on the day of the last debate.  Will Johnny say something that convinces people that he isn’t old, mean and clueless?  We’ll see.  Will Barack make a connection to those people with the torches and pitchforks aimed at him?  Humm…. Mercury turning around is such a change, anything can happen.

The market crashed (like it always does) with three planets in Libra.  Besides the fact that the USA’s Saturn is in Libra, it usually seems to have to do with a ‘grounding correction’.  I mean, what IS the market, anyway?  It’s people putting a relative value on their wares.  When values get so far out of alignment (or wares get so abstract) that no one can participate, things crash. It always happens and it did again. At the onset of all the excitment, I cast the chart of the crash last week, got the ’29 crash chart and the ‘87 crash out of my databank, and to my amazement I saw that they all looked so similar I SO wish I knew how to post them up on the site to give you a visual...it creates quite an impact.  Some day (sigh).

Neptune is still on the USA’s Moon (and Sarah’s Sun and Barack's Rising) and the moon in the chart of a country always rules “The People”.  Neptune not only rules The Dream of Possiblity but it also rules delusions and lies so I am holding my breath until November 5th--what will it be? 

Truthfully there is so much to say but I am still having problems with two wasps (do you know how hard it is to ‘herd’ wasps out of your door?) and I need to go get back to work on the back rooms…truly, I think it is displacement therapy.  I can hardly sit still when election stuff is happening so I am thrilled to just sit and pour over junk from the past—a kinder, gentler reality. 

Now, that said, by November 5th we could all have a TRULY kinder, truly more fair and hopeful future.  The difference is clear—do we vote for FEAR which we clearly see by the message of John McCain and Sarah Palin, or do we vote for POWER..with the plans and ideas presented by Barack Obama and Joe Biden? 

I know, I may be naive for believing, but Barack has the chart to deliver the change.  Change is the theme in The Stars, too... Personally speaking, I am for amazing new technologies—massive emphasis on new, green manufacturing, fabulous new transportation systems, ‘healthy’ health care (affordable, FAIR and consistent) and a level playing field—leveled by fabulous education and respectful community service programs for all.  This will be affordable AND profitable, as long as we take our trillions away from the gas & weapons guys and redistribute the resources…we simply have to change our brain from “All to One to One with All”…so much more friendly, eh?

I will talk again, I’m just waiting for my brain to unfreeze.

September 26, 2008

Someone sent THE BEST economic stymulus idea EVER!  Go to Good to Know, you will enjoy!  By the way, don't forget to watch those debates tonight!!!!

http://cardinalstarsystems.com/special/goodtoknow.html

September 22, 2008

Now it’s official, fall has begun.  I could hardly get out of bed today—it was crisp and cold with that ‘stay in bed’ feeling that is one of the great luxuries in life, and only the thought of coffee (yup, back to it after a cleansing sabbatical) inspired me to arise.

Fall is the season of The Teacher, of letting go and of harvest.  It is the time of Grandmother Ocean, the place that connects us all and the place from which we all spring forth…and it is the season of The Trickster—reminding us that we are not in control!  (In case you never realized this)

How do we let go and the same time care with all of our heart?  Yup, it’s tricky all right.  I suppose it is all about attitude…and it begins with feeling better and clearer about/within our own selves.  If we feel like we are being the best version of ourselves, we realize that we have done everything we could to arrive at our desired outcome.

Fall is a time to honor where our knowledge comes from—through the teachings of our education (any body of knowledge we take on to intentionally increase the range of our perspective) and from our Ancestors (the family patterns we were raised with, our genetics and our lifestyle) and most significantly what we have learned on our own from our life’s experiences.  It is a harvest of all that has gone before us, and each year at this time when nature ends one growth year it begins another.  Last night at Equinox with my ‘coven’, it was pointed out that the buds for the next spring’s bloom are what pushes the leaves off of their branches….in other words, the beginning of the next thing to come is the doom of the current thing…whoa!  With that sense of ending/beginning, it is important to stop and think of the year we have lived…what we went through…how we handled things.  It is empowering to be praiseful to ourselves if we were brave and courageous…and to be compassionate with ourselves if we were afraid or tired or fell short of our expectations…this way we will have more strength for our journey in the future—self criticism is quite exhausting… (tell me about it!)

Anyway, I wanted to write a Fall message this morning but I have so many things on my ‘list’ I was going to put it off….but Pam wrote a FABULOUS, INSPIRING piece—for the first time sense April and I wanted to let you know…so thank you Pam, you got me to sit down and write a few words and this helped me to feel centered!

Pam’s musing is wonderful, I so appreciate her message…you will too.  She has been deeply in service to Ancestor work in that once-in-a-lifetime way…this summer Pam’s mom died.  Her mother was no ordinary woman—she was a Star.  She was the first woman to work for Walt Disney, at the time when women were NOT let into the Boy’s Club!  This is Pam’s story to tell, and I hope she will share a piece with us at some point.  Today’s entry is one on Deepak Chopra’s take on politics, very, very insightful Pam, thank you so much.

Let us all dedicate this fall to the elevation of Knowledge—the most powerful antidote to the collective fear that we have all surrounded by!  Speak with clear, brave and fair tongue (easier said than done, you might have to remind me later about this one, I get so frustrated!) and don’t let that Trickster make you crazy—he’s here to help us all remember that it’s all a dream, and what happens in a dream can change in a heartbeat!

http://cardinalstarsystems.com/special/spirit.html

September 17, 2008

I want to thank all of you for the hilarious and frightening emails with facts, stories and jokes about Sarah Palin—for a while there I had lost my sense of humor about this whole election thing and wow, you just can’t survive without it!

One of the best things about the strange and unreal state of politics at this time in America is that the secretive, lying rhetoric that is so prevalent in politics in general is not able to survive with the connectedness of “The Internets”.  The speed with which ideas link up these days is astonishing.  Remember, the first appointment of GW was at the dawn of the ‘net’, most of us still on dial up.  The next ‘election’ we shared our grief and outrage, and with that connectedness in 2006 we were able to get ourselves a ‘tie’ in the Senate and House!   NOW we are linking up ahead of time, sharing information, ‘community organizing’ and we are a force to be reckoned with!

Now, so many of you have written to ask about my take (as spokesperson for the Cosmic Point of View, ahem) on the election ahead.  I have to admit, I haven’t been able to respond because the aspects are so intense and I wasn’t certain whether or not civilization ‘needed to fall’ before it rose again or not…but indeed, a reckoning is a-comin’, since within one year of this election’s outcome the USA will enter it’s 8th (if my calculations are accurate) Saturn return!

Watching the banks crash and chaos ensue was interesting yesterday and, as always, sent me to my software to cast a chart.  While in my data bank, I also looked up the crash of ’29, and a thread that is consistent throughout all catastrophes in the USA, shows that there are always planets hovering around the middle degree of Libra whenever catastrophe strikes!

The USA’s natal Saturn is 14 degrees Libra (by the way, this was the degree of the ascendant and Mercury, in exact conjunction of the chart of 9-11, the moment the first plane hit the Trade Center).  Libra is all about balance, you remember, and our country is so out of balance I am not sure WHAT we need to realign it!  The poor are really, really poor….the rich are really decadent and out of touch, our ‘morals’ are askew—we are not helping each other, we are punishing each other…and we do not seem to have an avenue to make a connection…the last time we were this disconnected we had a crash, too, it was 1929………..

The ’29 crash had a Moon/Venus/Mercury alignment in the ‘teens’ of Libra, and yesterday had an alignment of Mars/Mercury/Venus in Libra, 18-20 degrees as well.  Venus comes up frequently in many charts of conflict since Venus is one of the main ‘rulers’ of money and comfort, which inevitably are troubled when a crisis arises.  With Saturn soon to return to this location, what this means is that we will need to be responsible for what we have created, and this will be almost impossible with McCain and Palin as the czars, and so I fear we will be subject instead to the Karmic ‘equalizer’ of Fate—much more challenging than having an intelligent, sensible head of state who has a Plan.

Anyway, back to Palin….. I was driving on Monday and I heard a terrific program on Ed Shultz’s radio show.  He was in Alaska talking to citizens there in a Town Hall meeting, and believe me not EVERYONE is so big on Sarah in Alaska—yet another hype! (Like McCain saying he had 25,000 at a rally in a building that only held 3,500!) anyway, I can’t find the link, I am running late but you would truly enjoy listening to this show-it had the good, the bad and the specific of what Palin’s tenure as gov was like, it’s good to know…………..and speaking of Good To Know, go to ours in Special Features to read my favorite email on the difference between the spin on Palin and Obama!

Listen, when can you ever get so much excitement on your TV and radio without cable?  This election is a true adrenal stimulant!  More to come, (I’m sure)

September 12, 2008

Once again, after writing all morning I am STILL struggling to come up with an uplifting and positive way to look at life at the time of this election.  I have been more than a little frustrated with humanity, so I am obeying the First Rule of All, “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anythingl”.  No, I don’t mean that in a Pollyanna way, but I haven’t yet reached up inside of me to gain the perspective needed to see this from its spiritual point of view.  That said, two things I CAN say (one to say, one to share) with you this morning:

Sarah Palin is a double Aquarius with Leo rising.  Obama has Aquarius rising and is a Leo.  McCain DID find his own ‘Rock Star’, and perfectly, for the purposes of being a Republican in this Century (so far) since what you need to be a Republican these days is an ability to ignore facts, be indifferent to the situation or suffering of others, and to have a sense of entitlement to most (and sometimes ALL) of the resources on the planet….that’s all.  Now, how will they convince people who are suffering, broke, without health care, with no job and scarce education that they are the party, in spite of every possible fact on the earth, that will best represent them?  Well, let’s just call on Neptune, the planet of illusions and delusions!!!!!!!!!!!  Just what The Team wanted!  And guess what, Grasshoppers? Sarah Palin is currently experiencing a once in 164 year transit from Neptune—it’s EXACTLY on her Sun in Aquarius this year!!!  Okay, I suppose you’re going to want me to tell you what that means in English, n’est pas?  It means she is JUST THE GIRL they needed to be able to pull off the lies.  Neptune is THE flim-flam person’s best friend.  Hey, it’s also a planet of great spiritual and artistic capability as well, so let’s send Sarah back to church where she can only hurt the local flora and fauna, (so, so sorry wolves and caribou) but with the USA having an Aquarius Moon, and she looking so symmetrical in a red, white and blue flag bikini, it’s easy to see how the less informed can have lots of fun projecting on her Neptune-influenced chart.

One more thing I will leave you with this morning, have you all gotten Depak Chopra’s message about The Shadow?  It’s very helpful too.  Here it is as well.

Obama and The Palin Effect

From: Deepak Chopra

Posted: September 4th, 2008
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the National psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week.  
On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing.  Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City.  By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure.


Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper. She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other."


For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.)


I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.


Look at what she stands for:


--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.


--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.


--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.


--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.


--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.


--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
 

--Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is."


The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good.


The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.


Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in.  We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

 

September 9, 2008

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp

Okay, by now we have all, I’m sure, gotten the info that this book list (September 8 Musing) was a hoax…I actually had a tiny red flag on this when I first saw it (which was late at night when I couldn’t tell a red flag from a freight train) but what I realized the next morning when I could think again was that if Sarah Palin had ever READ any of these books I would be stunned, so how could she care enough to ban them?  Anyway, in the true spirit of FOX News, I now print a retraction.  Speaking of, did you know that FOX won a battle in the Supreme Court to have the right to be able to print false news?  YES!  (I forget the grounds for this ruling, but this one you can find if you Google around, it was a recent within the last couple of years)…so, if I were a FOX reporter caught with printing an unresearched peace of material that proved to be fabricated, I would simply answer,

“So?”

……………..but I’m a Liberal Democrat, so I apologize profusely, mia culpa.

PS........................................................................................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(This next one is real and very, very important!!!)


Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 8:46 AM
Here's a little info on Palin...
   PLEASE FORWARD AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.

Send email response after reading the letter
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

Friends,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have
felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the
Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this
terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a
dangerous farce—on the part of a pandering and rudderless
Presidential candidate—that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of
what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead
to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters.
To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice
platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development,
freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to
fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church
and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete
lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on
the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a
woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but
solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice 
for Vice President.
Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so
fiercely  fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not 
demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree,  publicly.
Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct  message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as 
second-in-command for our nation.
Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of  residence.
We will post your responses on a blog called "Women
Against Sarah  Palin," which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please
send us your  reply at your earliest convenience—the greater the
volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.
VIVA!
Sincerely,
Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York, NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in
the next hour, you could be blessed with a country that takes
your concerns seriously. Stranger things have happened.

September 8, 2008

Every morning I get up and write.  I write and write and write but it all winds up like gobbledygook.   I am trying to achieve a bigger view, trying to get some perspective.  I promise that I will write (from this bigger view) and comment on things that are happening, star-wize, as soon as I unwind out of my fetal position and can locate that thread of sanity that I know is in me.  Till then, I leave you with this email that I received from my friend Barbara yesterday  (this stuff doesn’t help me out of my angst) ah, well…read it and weep…………..

From: Noble Vicki

Subject: FW: Sarah Palin's list of banned books
To: Vicki Noble <vicki@motherpeace.com>

Dear Motherpeace Friend:

I couldn't resist sending this out to you. I've been thinking we're moving toward The Handmaid's Tale in this country (Margaret Atwood's haunting prescient book about the way fascism would come to America), and now you can see the book has made it onto Palin's list of books to ban from the library. Time to wake up and turn this boat around, brothers and sisters.

Much love, Vicki


 

Hi,
Thought you might like to see Palin's book list.
In Beauty,
Susan
Sarah Palin's book ban list and Chris Hedges on "American Fascists"

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.
Sinclair Lewis, 1935

Below is a list of the books Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla, Alaska Library.  When I was in Anchorage two years ago, residents of Wasilla I met described the place as a growing, more-and-more suburban community north of Anchorage.  In her speech, Palin called the area "the valley."  Mayor Palin would seem to be a strong force in the suburbanization of the village of Wasilla.  When the Wasilla librarian refused to trash these books, Mayor Palin tried to have her fired.  This caused a stir in Wasilla which then turned into a drive to protect the librarian.  Some of my favorite examples of American literature are on this list.  This is the act of a patriotic American?  No, this is the act of a religious fundamentalist trying to squeeze herself into the role of a mythic frontier American.  The attempt to ban American literary masterpieces like Catcher In The Rye, Grapes Of Wrath, To Kill A Mockingbird, Death Of A Salesman, Leaves Of Grass, As I Lay Dying, Huckleberry Finn, Catch 22 and Tarzan indicates, flags and Bible citations aside, her ascendance to national power would be downright un-American.  In the realm of Rovian political marketing and the unfolding effort to win the Presidency not with ideas but with a cult of personality, McCain is the humiliated warrior ready to "go to the gates of hell" to preserve American exceptionalism and Sarah Palin is his fascist "bride," a mythic frontier mom able to shoot, gut and cook a moose while  nurturing her family who has said publicly our war in Iraq is supported by God and people should pray to God to get the Alaska gas pipeline approved.      

This is a pivotal moment in American history, and we all need to expose this cult of personality for what it is, a cynical sham.  Please pass this on far and wide.

John Grant

This list is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library Board.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
Symbols by Edna Barth

VFP31 Annual Banquet Speaker Chris Hedges wrote the book on people like Sarah Palin.  
It's called American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America

August 21, 2008

There was a question that Rick Warren at Saddleback church asked of both Obama and McCain during that fateful debate.  It is a classic in religious circles…and it’s a famous ‘trick’ question that leads people away from a meaningful answer.  The question? 

“Is there such a thing as Evil, and what do we do with it?”

I remember (years ago!) having an argument with Audrey on the subject.  To illustrate my point, I cited animal testing.  I had just finished reading an article about the painful lives of animals that live in testing laboratories and the article was full of details I will spare you from.  Needless to say I was doubled over with angst when I read about these laboratory tests, and I thought if the way these innocent creatures were treated is not evil, what is?  At that time Audrey had just listened to a talk given by a Los Angeles channel and scholar, Dr. Ron Scolastico (he channels The Guides) and The Guides had just delivered the quintessential treatise on good and evil; they said, “There is no such thing as good or evil….there is only fear and ignorance vs. love and knowledge.”

Surely there must be a malevolent force in the universe that makes us do stuff, right?  I mean, it can’t be us, can it—it must be—Satan!  The Guides said not…evil is not a force, it’s a choice.

I, of course, lost the argument with Aud—she (the Guides) were right—what we see out there is all about reaction, and the choices we make based on our very own fears, lack of understanding for others point of view, and our self righteousness. 

The current popular demon is The Terrorist.  This mindless, faceless, killing machine must certainly not be human, right?  He (she) has no life, no point to their violence, no reason to strap a bomb on their chest and slaughter a room full of people just sitting there—they must be possessed by the evil forces.  Of course, if we stopped to talk to this walking bomb-person, we might just find out that an earlier blast from a bomb that was labeled, “made in the U.S.A.” just dropped on their village and killed their lover or child or parent, or blinded, crippled or wounded so many in their community.  Or that they and those they love had been starved-out by lack of provisions because their community was surrounded by walls that were build to keep them from their water supply, markets, the rest of their family…that they were left to do menial tasks in their own country, to serve their oppressors…that they were not allow to farm, work, live or love in peace...or worship their religion, their way.  So they strapped on a bomb and walked into a building…thinking that they were bringing ‘justice’ to the situation.   And in the building they chose to bomb, were people who were lovers and children and parents, etc…

The trick question is a trick because the minute we give evil over to a force other than our own choice, we give away responsibility for our own actions.  “The Devil made me do it”.  Defeat evil?  Do we defeat it with land mines, torture, nuclear weapons--no matter the cause?  It seems to me that these things are all the same.  We can never defeat evil by becoming evil.   That's the trick...if we want our species to survive, we must give up our arrogant richeousness and the justifications we make to act without thinking about its effect upon others.

The opposite of evil is not more of the same, the opposite of evil is compassion. 

August 18, 2008

Well, how’ve you all been handling the Mercury, Venus, MARS and Saturn in Virgo opposing Uranus in Pisces squaring Pluto in Sag thing?  I haven’t enjoyed it, myself.   Long story and all…but since our buddy Mars will leave his Virgo home and enter into the world of Libra, we’ll soon get a relief from the effects of this T-square.  Of course then there’ll be that Mars-Jupiter square but you know, it’s always something.

Usually I enjoy Mars in Virgo, I get a lot done, my cupboards start to look like they were arranged by the Stepford Wives, so neat they are, but with the Mars all tied up with coping with squares to the right of him and oppositions in front of him, my cupboards are just the same old chaotic, dusty and disorganized lot that they were in when Mars entered Virgo on July 2nd…ah well, there’s always next time (that’s two years from now!).

And hey—how ‘bout that NEWS and all that has transpired under this mutable sky?

Since we’ve talked, a country has attacked and been attacked back (Georgia, Russia) debates have been held at churches (not so good for anyone who digresses from the evangelical ‘party line’) and of course, ex-politicians have been ‘outed’….ah, it’s just not that easy to be a double Gemini under today’s current aspects (John Edwards, of course).

Oh, let’s just start with that one, okay?  Remember that John Edwards has the same birthday as Elliot Spitzer, (June 10th) the previously ‘outed’ governor of New York, caught with a very steep Hooker bill several months ago?  If Edwards knew about astrology, he might have curbed his activities.  You know, as a Matriarch, not a Patriarch, I am in favor of sex over war, but I really am not too keen on lying…ah well.  I was sad, as I am an Edwards girl, policy-speaking.  You know, the two Americas thing and all…help for the poor, domestic manufacturing, jobs increasing, stuff like that…so sad that in politics if you go over the line, you loose your job.  If you were a CEO you would just go into therapy.  If you were a performer, you would get tons of free publicity and your salary would increase.  Politics is no place for anyone with a life, at least not a life that varies from the one that The Public (who IS this public?) thinks is the 'right' kind of life.

As for the Georgia-Russia conflict, it is a situation with more complexity than the media reports to us sound-bite-small attention-spanned 'public' (THEM again!).  It appears that Georgia attacked first, in order to provoke Russia (like the bully who hits his adversary when his big brother is standing right behind him—and that big brother is the USA!) it has to do with a power grab, money and oil…(what else is new?) and perhaps a more (conspiracy theory here) manipulative reason as well.  Here is an interesting fact to ponder; when Herr Karl Rove was subpoenaed to appear before Congress and he ‘just didn’t feel like going’ his excuse was he was out of the country, remember?  Guess where he was?   Ahh, go ahead…yup, you guessed it!  He was in Georgia on a ‘diplomatic mission’ right before all of this started…wonder why?  Humm…  Anyway, good thing he was, right?  I mean, ‘We’re all Georgians’, eh?  (this article was pretty good if you want to know more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081403053.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

The one thing here that truly concerns me is that this all took place under that aforementioned ‘T’ in mutable signs, with the missing 4th place being late Gemini, which is the sign that is always in play when the US has a ‘tragedy’, like  9-11, Katrina, WW1; WW2, anyway, you see that this could eventually be a big deal…if, for example, it causes The War Lord to be crowned King…then we will have endless opportunities for catastrophe…

Anyway, back from my political tirade…you know, this stuff always zaps me.  I keep trying to give it up, but you’d have to be on a dessert island to avoid it these days.

Oh, what about those debates?  I thought when I saw McCain popping those answers out before the questions were fully asked, “Hey, this is a set-up!” They’ve given him the questions in advance!  Then I just forgot about it…but on the news this morning it turns out that McCain was NOT in a ‘Cone of Silence’ as reported…in fact, he had full access to the event on his way to the church…which he was late for.  Hum….

Okay, so there you go…I have been thinking about you all, and as usual I have actually edited a whole bunch of ‘blame and judgment’ out of this musing, but I think I still left some in, sorry.  Hope Mars into Libra will loosen up the traffic jam of craziness these aspects create…but if you are a Cardinal…Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn, you will need to USE this intense new energy, better to have a physical outlet…you will find me running MILES on this silly treadmill just trying to stay ahead of Mars!

Nameste

August 5, 2008

Yoohoo…and standard mia culpa salutations…I know that it’s been a long time since we’ve talked, but time flies and all.  What popped me out of my stupor last night was realizing that it was Barack Obama’s birthday—and that we could all get a ‘sneak preview’ of what’s up by casting a chart for his SOLAR RETURN!!  I zoomed to my computer and prepared to calculate…but for a solar return to be accurate, the exact location is necessary.  Have you ever tried to pin down where Obama would be in campaigning season? 

Yup, it’s a task all right!  On to ‘The Internets’ I climb, and first I read that he will be in Boston Harbor for his birthday—this was easy enough!  Except as I keep reading, the article says that he was expected to arrive for a special dinner in honor of his birthday and that on that morning he would be flying to Boston—holy mid-air solar return!—his ‘return’ was scheduled to happen at 8:30 that day!   In the air?  How will I ever get THAT latitude and longitude?

Well, thank God I saw that he would be addressing a breakfast crowd in Lansing, Michigan…on the ground…at 8:30 a.m.  WHEW!  We have a ‘fix’ on him and so here is Obama’s solar return for the year.

By the way, you all remember that a Return is when any planet returns to the exact degree and minute that it was when you were born.  A solar return (otherwise known as your birthday—when the Sun is in the exact place it was when you were born) is usually ON your birthday,  but it can be anytime before or after…it’s the degree and minute that count—not the day.

Remember this is a COMPUTER PROGRAM….as such when you read, you will see that some of the paragraphs are just spooky how accurately they can apply to what we see going on in his life these days.  Isn’t it amazing?  By the way, the solar return DOES change by location.  One year I saw that my aspects would be particularly difficult in the relationship arena, so for my birthday, my spouse and I flew to Las Vegas to get a better longitude and latitude.  I think I just didn’t go far enough east, since it didn’t seem to work very well—two days in Vegas had us talking the ‘D’ word for the first and only time of our marriage.  (I think it was more about Las Vegas than it was about our relationship, this is a very nerve wracking place to be!)  Just make certain your longitude/latitude settings will firmly place you in the right setting.

Lansing Michigan seems like it will serve Obama well…we’ll see…

http://cardinalstarsystems.com/special/goodtoknow.html

(by the way…we don’t know where John McCain will be on his birthday, August 29th.  As soon as we get his location, we’ll see what this program has to say for him!)

July 3 (for JULY 4) 2008

Fourth of July in Sonoma is textbook, fairytale small town USA.  At ten a.m. the hometown parade winds around First Street East….and we, the people of this town sit three to four deep on the side of the road to watch some of the funkiest, slow-moving, barely glued together floats carry a motley crew of riding and walking townsfolk around the block.  There are the usual baton twirling, karate swirling kids in matching outfits, jugglers and somersaulting dancers, unicycle riding Roger Rhoten (our local theatre owner) Ken Brown, our once and always mayor carrying the hometown banner, antique cars, majestic horses, our very own Audrey carrying the flag for Sonoma’s Peace and Justice League.  Of course there is the wonderul Hometown Band and The Other Hometown Band (which is the same band wearing silly outfits).  Standing on the sidelines with Bloody Mary’s purchased at the Townsquare Bar (all those young 20’-30 somethings not ME, ha!) the whole thing seems more pageant-like, but it’s pretty sweet no matter what you’re drinking—I always forget my Kleenex, (it’s the music that gets to me) but I always remember to wear my sunglasses, thank God.

I’m sure this little scene is being repeated all over the country on this day, July 4, 2008.  We love having the day off and getting to see everyone we haven’t seen since last year at this time.  We love the Bar-b-ques that follow throughout the rest of the day, and of course (barring the fires!) we especially love our piece de la resistance, those brightly colored explosions in the sky that we all watch together when the sun goes down.  So fun it is, we forget just WHAT and WHY we celebrate.  We toss certain terms about—Independence Day, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, yadda yadda…it’s all become something else.  I, too, never gave it much thought—until these last few years which have been a crash course in civics.   In the words of Joanie Mitchell, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’ and as we watch our rights slip away with every passage of distorted laws, the meaning of this day and what this country stands has never been more illuminated. 

I was driving to the post office on Tuesday, and I happened to hear this broadcast by Thom Hartman on Air America.  It blew my mind.  He reads the Declaration of Independence and explains the context that it was written in, and then he tells a bit of what happened to some of the 58 signers of this document.  They were tortured, their families were killed or imprisoned, their personal fortunes taken from them by King George and many of them died soon after signing this document, (their act of treason), as broken men. 

This radio show was so profound and meaningful to me that  I went hunting The Net and I scored—this is the broadcast that so inspired me.  It is about 10-15 minutes in total, and as homage to our Forefathers, and to give a greater sense of awareness to the meaning of the holiday we will be enjoying, I hope you have a chance to listen to it.

Happy, safe and sacred 4th of July.

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/44234-the-declaration-of-independence-thom-hartmann-b-17

July 1, 2008

I don’t know whether I became an astrologer because I WAS a poster child for the transiting aspects, or whether it was because I was an astrologer that I became so responsive to the aspects, but this morning when I got up early at 6:00 (like my OLD self!) and did my Qi Gung exercises and then spent a decent amount of time on the exercise treadmill, which I did between bursts of cleaning up the junk on the kitchen table and changing the sheets, I said, “Hey—what gives?” and lo and behold, once again I noticed that my biorhythms had synced with my biopod to conduct those super rays from space—in other words, when I checked my ephemeris, I saw that MARS went into VIRGO this morning!  Wow.  This stuff really works (astrology, that is!)

So, Mars is the planet of energy and physical force.  Virgo is the sign of discipline, order and practice.  You put them together and you have marvelous obsession—for whatever purpose you wish to use it!  Today, with this fresh Mars energy I’m all about repossessing my body, it having somehow slipped away into the Zone of the Pod People (taken over by the dreaded poison, ‘gluten’).  Mars in Virgo brings with it a fresh energy to re-do, un-do and do whatever is necessary to improve, repair or re-design that which is malfunctioning (pretty much everything around here-- hey-the dishwasher repair guy is supposed to come today that's another Mars-in-Virgo miracle!)

Mars in Virgo's power is that it is all about effective sorting.  This is why it ‘rules’ the intestines—those are the workers in our bodies that are diligently sorting out all of the strange stuff we put into this Pod at any given time.  Exhausted, busy, they must separate ‘wheat from shaft’ as it were, and then those intestines re-distribute these appropriately sorted nutrients to all of the organs and parts of our bodies that need them.  Just like our intestines, when we sort our stuff that has piled up (on the kitchen table, ahem) and put it where it belongs, we unblock energy.  After a space is cleaned and sorted, we know where everything is, and that gives us power. That's the way the little industrial Virgo works!

Virgo, in the zodiac, rules the 6th house—work, service and health.  The work we do (and it’s appropriateness for each of us) the service we give to our family, community or cause, and how we take care of our health are the domain of this sign, and Mars being the planet of the physical realm in this sign gives us the umph to do what needs to be done.

It will be in Virgo until August 19th, plenty of time to get those linen closets cleaned and FIND those summer sheets! (Sorry, I’m talking to myself again).

June 26, 2008

I woke up this morning feeling weird as heck.  I assumed it was the smoke in the air, from the fires that are close by in Napa.  Then I do what I do when I feel wierd--I opened my Ephemeris, and I find that today, at 5:01 p.m.  Uranus, planet of change, is changing directions!  Yup, another one goes retrograde.

Well, we know that Mercury has shifted directions (went direct on the 19th) and is moving forward where it will continue straight ahead till September 24.  Saturn, back from a long retro which began last November, moved direct at the beginning of May… but with Uranus crab-walking backward, that still leaves four out of five of the outer planets all moving in the opposite direction as the rest of us, so to speak…so, I suppose you will ask me what that means, eh? Well, Grasshoppers, you remember the standard answer, n’est pas?  OBSERVE…

Personally speaking, after observing retrogrades all of these years, I find that life goes on, planes crash no more frequently than when the planets are direct, and “The Market” goes up and down in the same strange way that it always does…but a few things DO seem to stand out.  For example, we all have observed my personal relationship with Mercury retrograde (by the way, the “part” is still on back order for the dishwasher, and you will find me—as the lone female of this household—over the sink.  Apparently the dishes only appear visible to me.  Sigh.)  I know you all have similar Mercury ‘war’ stories so we can certainly say the we have observed this phenomena up close and personal, and consistently over time.  Urban Legend?  Have I put my appliance repairmen’s kids through school, or what?!!  It’s less obvious with the other planets, and the question is, is there anything unusual, remarkable and CONSISTANT that occurs with this aspect?  I have been looking for years and I have not found the commonality.  In fact, the one thing that I know for sure about this phenomena, is that it is NOT a wrong thing, it is a natural thing and with the exception of the days when any planet changes direction or signs while retrograding (ahem, like today…and the most famous example, the day of the 2000 ‘election’—ha!) there seems to be a specific quality of resolution, completion, and perfection that occurs when you ‘go back’ over previously crossed territory.  I mean, ‘back over’ is what we often hope for, a do-over, a chance to improve a situation!

My oldest son, the Rock Star was scheduling time in the recording studio to complete The Album (which is soon to hit the scene, stay tuned!)  I looked a bit askance at the big line-up of planets in retro, and the band would be starting their recording week with Mercury at the end of this retrograde time.  But it turned out that Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto all moving backward only helped the boys with the details in each song, since recording is all about going over and over and OVER things….!  So what happened?  PERFECTION!! I will proudly announce with links when the time comes, but I have OBSERVED that retros appear to be a natural climate to cut a record, since practice and do overs are what you need to do to make a ‘perfect’ product.

Okay, well and good, but on the days when a planet (ANY planet) changes direction there is a woozy energy, and today is that day, so drive with care.  By the way…this retrograde (Uranus in Pisces) will last till November 27th and it will be especially meaningful to anyone with planets from 18-22 degrees Pisces (which you would have if you were born between the 8th and the 13th of March)…and by the way, if you were born between the 8th and the 13th  of ANY month, your ‘inner change’ module will be activated, so think: change—a good thing…you don’t want to get on the wrong side of change, since it’s the only thing that is true and consistant in the Universe—and this I have observed!

June 19, 2008 Summer Solstice

At 7:31 am today little Mercury will swivel around (not really) but indeed begin sailing forward in the direction of our Sun…the retrograde's officially over...just a bit (in this household) ahead of the time when the dishwashing repair person is scheduled to arrive, if I’m not mistaken.  It was a typical Merc Retro around here, which included a visit from the washer/dryer repair guy, THREE visits from the cable guy (and the picture still cuts out), two visits to the mechanics for two cars (ours and our youngest son, Sky’s car) and this last repair visit today, hopefully occurring in time for our machine to wash this bunch of used kitchenware rather than me picking them out and scouring them one by one.  How spoiled am I?  Mercury retrograde is my own personal third world reminder—what would I be doing if I didn’t have these mechanical servants?

But listen, that’s not why I’m writing…

At 4:31 p.m. Friday afternoon El Sol will reach, this year of 2008, its peak in the Heavens (here in the Northern Hemisphere) and we will stand at the summer solstice…once again (Whew! We made it another year!) What is your vision?  What guides you forward?

The summer, the season of the Visionary, compels us to take stock of our lives…what are our beliefs and how have they 1) stayed on course with our inner truth or 2) become corroded with our fear and disappointments? 

In computer language there’s something called, “vaporware”, which is when you have an idea for a program but you have not yet created the software to run that program.  Our dreams are our vaporware, and it is much more elaborate to manifest those dreams in the physical reality than to have them stay entirely in our minds, a wishin’ and a hopin’.  For our visions to manifest it requires we make that big leap from mind to action.

To undertake this process, it has been my experience that what must occur is a step out of our patterns!  How the heck are we supposed to do THAT?  You know the drill, “The longest journey begins with the first step…………..” So, some ways that our lives change are by doing very basic things…what about taking classes?  Join with others to create/solve/do politics/church/meditate/sing...or travel…..what is something you can/are willing to/are excited about doing that takes you in the direction of your dreams and takes you out of the stagnation of your typical patterns?  In other words, what are you willing to do that you have never done?

My own personal Visionary Guide has always been my friend Audrey, who (quite appropriately) was born on the Summer Solstice and who truely LIVES the life of a Visionary!  I have watched her take risks, create, manifest (in SPITE of ALL CIRCUMSTANCES TO THE CONTRARY!) so many of her dreams...and these dreams now live, thrive, and inspire and support so many.  Once again I say, "Happy Solar Return" friend Audrey--and in case you all want to know the power of dreams, come and take a look at her--Audrey will be 70 years old on Sunday!!! Geez.... (Gotta see her to get the full impact of this phenominon)

So back to our Summer Solstice.  Here we have peak light…all the better to see our options.  

All software (some programs so remarkable that they have changed the world) began as vaporware.  Those that created these programs took the idea, joined forces, persevered, and, most importantly, believed.

It all boils down to that.

Anything you can believe in you can create.  Have spectacular, world changing visions, happy solstice!

June 13, 2008

What brings ANY good witch out of her fetal position?  Yup, you guessed it—Happy Friday 13th!

It’s been a while since we’ve spoken, but that hasn’t stopped the world from swirling around, has it?  I mean, besides the usual stories of despotic governments abroad, steadily rising gas prices and the strange influence of Global Warming on weather patterns, we’ve had the much hoped for and highly anticipated event of Dennis Kucinich presenting thirty-five Articles of Impeachment to Congress, charging GW Bush with high crimes, and I MEAN CRIMES, impeachable and subject to YEARS in prison…. which was immediately shelved, by the way, by chicken heart Nancy P and the gang —and as so many were saying, where is Monica when we need her?  All GW did was murder 100,000’s of people, but he did not (that we know of) have illicit sex—sigh, but we all know that death is a sacrament here in our Patriarchal Industrial-Military regime, and sex is a crime, so we’ve placed this petition on the back burner, but still it is now on record and must at some point, be dealt with.  

Yesterday, however, was the piece de la resistance…. a strike for humanity, justice and The American Way (really) when The Supremes voted in favor (in SPITE of the four Gestapo Supremes, who were really pissed!) to reinstate our most precious rule of law, the right of habeas corpus—the right to a fair trial, to be given to the prisoners held at the US version of Auschwitz… Camp Guantanamo…just as Pluto was at zero degrees retrograde, on the cusp between Capricorn (government) and Sagittarius (law)….ohmygoddess….some times the right thing happens!

So speaking of Pluto, those members of The Ruling Irony Committee have arranged for  tonight, Friday 13th eve, to have Pluto re-enter Sagittarius cross our Galactic Core gateway one more time, (yee haw, and gulp) .  We have been watching this aspect for the whole of last year and it’s been a doozy… good vs. evil, as it were… and we’ve seen how differently people perceive what each of those concepts mean.  Some think sex is evil, some think immigration is evil, some think guns are evil, some think prejudice is evil, how do we know what is right or what is wrong?  I like the old school version—do unto others.   It’s a great way to know if something is torture or not, good or not, righteous or not… do you want it to be done to you? 

We have to take care of our own personal moral space and sometimes that’s just heck.  It’s easier to be upset with the state of The World than deal with failed love, friendships, personal challenges and our own powerlessness… this aspect is on the cusp between our own personal beliefs and how we govern our lives…it’s very important that we get out of a philosophy of victimization and realize this is a point of collective power and implementing this positively and creatively to find solutions to difficult situations. (like finding ways to replace gas with alternative fuel) which is taking a bad situation and using it to improve the Global Situation…  still, that is way easier said than done.

(AS I WAS WRITING THIS…I received an email from my old friends Greg and Ellen with a totally COOL news blip about a man who has created water fuel!  I can’t figure out how to post it but it is remarkable.  If you want me to forward it to you, write an email to cardinalstars@comcast.net and I will forward it to you.  Be patient, I am slow to answer but sure.)

Okay, one more thing I need to talk about before I poof back into a pumpkin…

Next Thursday Mercury goes direct.   I want you to know that I found a new washer/dryer repair person, very sweet guy—I think we will have a long and satisfying relationship (you all remember that I bought my washer/dryer under a retro, eh?) Anyway, the warranty ran out and they just don’t make ‘em like they used to…or was it my purchase date?  Anyway, it’s 7:31 a.m. that Merc returns to Forward…Thursday the 19th in case you want to know…but of course that ‘shadow period’ will continue until the 4th of July! (The shadow period is the time it takes for Mercury to return to the degree it was when it went retro…in this case, 21 degrees of Gemini which it will reach on July 4!)  It is advisable to keep ‘Merc Retro Rules’ in play till that date, but I have not ever paid attention to those rules anyway (as per my relationship with washer repair guys).

Oh, yeah, there is ONEMORETHING…Audrey is leaving to see her darling grandson in July and she sez we have openings for readings (currently no waiting list)!  If you are at all interested, call Audrey when she is here, Wednesday through Friday between 10:00 am and 3:00 p.m.!

Okay, time flies…Happy witches day, thirteen is that wonderful YIN number ruling The Divine Feminine (why ELSE would everyone be afraid of it?) but what it really means is that the receptive, intuitive, compassionate and sensual side of us is out in FULL FORCE today, as our Goddess number (13) meets our Goddess of Love’s day (Friday, Freya…or Venus) so get out there and revel in your senses and enjoy this cosmic, powerful, mystical weekend!

June 4, 2008

Wow.  Did we ever think that ‘living in Interesting Times’ would be so interesting?  

We are all alive on the planet at a time when a man with the qualities and biography (and racial background) such as Barack Obama would/could win the nomination of one of the two major parties to run for President of the United States!  I’m SO on the team, thrilled to think that we could have a person with an IQ of brilliant in the Oval Office again.  Still, Obama could not have come this far if it weren’t for GW Bush.  YOU HEARD ME, I am giving credit where it’s due.  GW has been responsible for this country sliding into one of the worst slumps since the Great Depression, so many people have lost everything from their homes to their lives; I mean when you have been deceived, tortured, robbed, and ‘dissed’, as we all have been  by Bush and the NeoCon Minions from Hell,  then the word ‘change’ does not sound like a threatening thing. 

Along comes Obama and he sez ‘change’ and believe me, he’s got the chart to deliver it!

It’s a fact that the planet of changes, Uranus, is a key planet in Barack Obama’s birth chart.

At the time of his birth, on August 4, 1961, Uranus was in Leo conjunct (side by side) Obama’s Sun in Leo!  This means he is ALL ABOUT CHANGE, he was born to create it, whatever field, circumstance, arena he would have found himself in, changing things would be his stock-in-trade.   If we are smart and elect him president, he will change things that are now beyond our grasp.  Health Care, anyone?  What would THAT be like?  Outta Iraq, eh?  YES WE CAN!  What about Green Technology?  What about reversing the effects of Global Warming? What about creating NEW FACTORIES for Union employment?  Yippee!  Am I a dreamer?  Well, I’m not the only one.

Congratulations to us.  Now we get to WORK making it happen!

May 27, 2008

I know Grasshoppers, it’s been a while since I have written, but it’s certainly not because I haven’t tried.  There’s been so much going on ‘out there’ in the outer world-illusion, and Goddess knows I always have something to say about it, but it’s just been ‘too much’, hasn’t it?  Thousands of people leaving ‘en masse’ with earthquakes, tsunamis, disease and starvation…the escalation and cruelty of wars and politics and all manor of events that evoke such strong emotions in us all…  It’s always a challenge to boil it down to try to find some way to hold these events in a positive light.  I was sort of waiting till I had a positive thought….tick, tick, tick tock.  Humm…anyway, I DID start a Musing last week, there was an alignment that was so very intense that I wanted to be sure to let you knew about it:

“Hold on to your hats, Grasshoppers—the aspects we’re in (and that will be intensifying over the course of this weekend) are absolute DOOZIES!!!”  I wrote that last Monday (May 19th) but in the middle of forming the thought, events here on the homefront called for my attention and I was distracted.

Everything began to pick up speed when The Sun entered Gemini on the 20th…Gemini’s are in such an intense astrological condition these days, this month we’ll all share in their state-of-mind—(it’s that T-square from Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces and all)…it’s overwhelm all over again!!  Then Venus joins the fray along with El Sol on the 24th, stirring our imaginations and bringing in just too much creativity and excitement to handle, and when we were all ready tired from it all, there was that three-time-a-year event, that Astrological piece d’la resistance, Mercury (in Tophat and tapshoes) went retrograde on Monday 26!  What makes this an especially intense Merc-retro was the fact that THIS retrograde, within a matter of 1 hour and 15 minutes, another mind-altering planet, Neptune joined Mercury in the retrograde dance—holy turnaround!!  Although Mercury will only retro until the 19th of June, Neptune will be there all the way until November 2!!!!  So, our planet of confusion, delusion, and ‘other ways to see things’ (Neptune) along with the planet of thoughts, communication and transportation (Mercury) will be sharing the back roads of our collective sub-conscious, either spacing us out, playing havoc with our memories (or possibly, since we are going ‘back over’ past territory, it will help—like do you think I could actually find where I put the summer sheets?) Anyway, hopefully this will do us some good with our cerebral infrastructure and help us re-wire our thinking patterns.

Listen, one more thing that hit me in the solar plexus was Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor.  Oh no!  He was CONSTANT in his valiance, always there ‘for the people’…. I looked him up on my data-bank and guess what?  He has his moon in Virgo (where Saturn is right now) and you know this is always hard, right?  It’s harder still since his moon is in the 8th house, the House of Death.  It’s many things—the house of sex, death, money and dreams…all of the mysteries….but when Saturn is on your Moon in the 8th house, it usually is what it is…but it is also the house of miracles and Shamanic journeys…who knows?

Anyway, speaking of Shamanic journeys…it’s always personal, eh?  Here in our home this transit  was about our youngest four-legged being diagnosed with kidney failure and within a week going from hardy and hale to taking the Big Train.  This was Cha-Cha, our Australian Sheppard.  She was the one who always rolled over on her back to get her belly rubbed.  An innocent, she was born here and never left her mother so she was always ‘The Ingénue’.  She loved to eat (I mean really—absolutely everything!) and she was totally freaked by lawnmowers.  We always assumed that’s how she left the earth in her last life.  This time she left on Memorial Day…I guess so we would always remember her…how could we forget?  She was a sweetie pie, and it seems very quiet this morning, way too quiet.  With the millions of people and critters and things constantly coming and going on this play dough clay planet, you’d think we’d get used to it, but we never do.  

May 9, 2008

This morning at 5:11 a.m. Jupiter, our big protector turns retrograde.  At 1:20 p.m. Mars enters Leo.  And, YES, we will feel the whiplash!

Still, what could be more devastating than a cyclone that kills over 100,000 people?  Well, the aftermath, I suppose…and that is what retrogrades are all about—going back over recently traversed territory.  It is hard to imagine what the Burmese population is going through, a nightmare…like the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004, or hurricane Katrina of 2005, this is a terrible example of the things that happen when we are without the benefit of a helpful, caring government—and this is the case in ALL of these examples.  This, however, is the most extreme example of a dictatorial government, gone very, very bad.  There is a ship sitting off the Burmese shore, full of food that the Myanmar government will not allow in—control above all!  Beware military rulership!   If you wish to sign a petition to hasten aid sent to this stricken area, Pam Burns-Clair has sent this address:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/895141111?z00m=15117114 

Of course an altar with prayers is a personal power-gift, as well….

Retros, in addition to their meaning of going back over territory, also pull their energy and power to the inward zone.  For Jupiter, our planet of glorious expansive knowledge, leadership and all things that expand and connect us, Jup’s current move onto the inner plane is speculated to challenge our ability to process and discern information, and, it is speculated that this could be difficult in a time of election—but what else is new?  I prefer to believe that people can see what is really happening—I’m taking an odd turn back to optimism—yippee!

 (Pam sent me an entry from the wonderful astrologer, Lance Ferguson, FYI in case you haven't read Lance's take-- http://www.skywatchastrology.com/south-texas-chronicles/1791/in-the-news  )

The math stats are—today’s retrograde, with Jupiter turning at 22 degrees of Capricorn, will take until September 7th, to reach the 12th degree of Capricorn, so let us all go about  ‘enlightening’ ourselves on the ‘inner plane’!

And speaking of light…what always lightens our mind and heart?  You got it, Grasshoppers—Fridays always do!  So, it’s Friday, and we all know that ‘let there be light’ is moot—Friday’s Venus Days, are days ARE de-LIGHT-full! Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

May 7, 2008

Well, I guess the vote count last night teaches us all about our expectations, doesn’t it Grasshoppers?  A grand trine will get you one extra delegate in a primary election—unless it is your ‘Fate’ to prevail.
(For those of you who do not follow the elections here in the USA or who live on Mars, Hillary won Indiana by a margin of 51/49 giving her one more delegate than Barack, and he won North Carolina by 14 points...not sure his net delegate count there).

The intensity of this election time reminds me of a class that I once took.  When asked who would win the election, (I think it might have been about Regan!) our teacher said, “Easy—just look at the candidate who has the worst aspects for the next four years and you have the winner!” looking at Regan’s, Papa B’s, Bill Clinton’s, & GW’s faces after their time in Big White, it sure seems like that holds true.  It proves that money isn’t everything.(‘Cause they all got waaay richer!)

So, do I think Obama will be ravaged by a win?  To some extent, for sure….still, the thing is, he was born with a Sun/Uranus conjunction in Leo—and Uranus IS the planet of CHANGE!  This could work out…for him and for US…if he is allowed to live!

Cynical?  Is this my own Reverend Wright moment? 

Just like Reverend Wright I have MANY questions that have gone unanswered  by my government.  Just when did it become ‘unpatriotic’ to ask questions? Isn’t this still America?  Whether I’m Right or a Whack-o, aren’t I allowed to have my own opinions?  Am I to be imprisoned and tortured for what I believe?  When did this become a third world dictatorship?

Answer: It isn’t—yet!  And THAT, my friends, is why we’re voting!

May 6, 2008

Well, it’s another Super Tuesday.  We’ll see if it is super or not—but of course, what’s super for one is ‘heck’ for another.

I was so excited to see the aspects (speaking on behalf of my personal favorite candidate, Barack Obama) but then I realized that the aspects that I was happy about were four days off —and in Astrology, time off is OFF.  We’ll see.

The aspect I'm talkin' about is all about Mars, folks!

I thought, cool—Mars is finally getting the heck out of Cancer—this will help immeasurably since it's been stuck there for months with its long retrograde and all, and it hasn’t been pretty. I was so anxious to have it outta there, I remembered that it left today… but it will not happen until Friday (sigh).

Mars is the planet of energy.  It’s all about the physical side of life on our terrestrial planet; about force, exercise, certainty, bravery… Mars is a military ‘man’ , sometimes aggressive, sometimes protective and ‘he’ is associated with the zodiac sign of Aries, a fire sign.  He’s been muddling around in water sign Cancer for months now—a swampy place, kind of like the Mekong Delta.  

This aspect has been (personally, me being an Aries and all) a challenge to my energy, (Cancer to Aries is a 90 degree angle that I’m sure all you Grasshoppers remember is a square—a stress aspect) so I am really happy to say adios, see ya in two years! 

Think of all of the Cancer-type intense stories we have had in the last few months.  From concerns about dwindling global food supplies (Cancer rules food) to today’s totally tragic typhoon in Burma (water has a profoundly violent side) to stories of covert military brutality (Cancer ‘rules’ covert—ala crab shell—and Mars is the military) and, of course, a prominent story that has been unfolding over the last several months has been about a very significant Cancer born on July 6th.  No, not GW (although he is a Cancer and he WAS born on July 6th) but I am talking about another July 6th Cancer (Holy Irony), the Dalai Lama of Tibet!  Certainly our Mars didn’t cause these things, and if Mars brought stories of Tibet, torture and the Global Food Supply to light, then he’s done a fabulous job—but being in Cancer there is a tendency to curl up and feel depressed and defensive, and that is not going to help what needs to be done.  Here’s hoping that once our valiant Mars arrives at his Next Stop on the Zodiac Highway, the sign of Leo, there will be an energetic movement towards solutions.  Leo is a fire sign, and Mars works well with this fire energy.  Mars arrives in Leo on Friday @ 1:20 p.m. and there he will stay until July 2nd.

So, what’s this have to do with Hillary and Barack?

Hillary is a Scorpio with a Pisces Moon.  Tonight Mars will give her a grand trine.  If she doesn’t do well under THIS aspect, nothing will do it for her.

Barack is a Leo with his Mars in Virgo.  This is one of the reasons that I think he is the right person for the job--Mars in Virgo is a great aspect for The Times, since it's all about discipline and solutions, and we have so many problems that we really NEED someone who has the ability to solve them.  This is well & good, but he needs to be elected first and right now Mars is opposite his Saturn, where it has been for the last two weeks and we KNOW it hasn’t been his happy time now, has it?  If he can win these next two states (Indiana & North Carolina) under these aspects, then he can win under any circumstances. 

What would it be like to have a grown up, intelligent, sensitive-to-the-needs of The People, calm, insightful LEADER at the helm of the Big Ship?  OHMYGODDESS….it’s been so long I can hardly remember WHAT it would be like to TRUST a president!  I’m holding my breath and my fingers are crossed…

And Now for Something Totally DIfferent:  Just for some Spiritual Perspective!

Pam Burns-Clair sent this next conveyance…from her friend Anita’s Andromeda Guides:

”The Guardians speak about the candidates, and I'm taking the liberty here to share
(given that Anita's father just passed away after a long bout--blessings to her family for their loss) their illuminating insights and suggestions for how we might hold all 3 candidates in the Light at this time, given that this is a"critical election for our planet," as they put it. We are to visualize John McCain amping down his zeal, cooling the fever of aggression for the perceived enemy that consumes him.  He needs to become more in touch with the people, more in touch with the humility and clarity he once brought to his public service.”
 
We are to visualize Hillary Clinton returning to her inner "yin," to the feminine wisdom she once also brought to her public service which has transgressed in this campaign to "yang" masculine energy out of a perceived sense of desperation--"It's as if she feels she's drowning, yet she's submerged in merely two inches of water."  We are to wrap her in a blanket of softness and visualize her becoming still and soft, in touch once again with the goddess within.  We need her to return to her woman-ness and release the notion that she has to "fight like a man."
 
We are to visualize Barack Obama integrating his well-developed feminine "yin" aspects into his leadership--he is capable of embodying "yin" and "yang" in a new model.  Michelle Obama, however, is playing his "yang" counterpart--ironically, and we are to visualize the cords of enmeshment between them--some aspects of her influence that may be too strong or too pushy--dissolving.  (ed note from Pj…don’t have a problem with Michele myself!)

Pam:  “I found these images enlightening and empowering, in contrast to the focus on drama and minutia that the media has emphasized increasingly in this election.   It reminds me that each of these candidates, in a sense, represents an archetype of our times, of our collective consciousness, and we need to "work with" each
model to bring wholeness and en-Lighten-ment to our planet!”

And re: the current administration, we are to visualize containment--they must be bound to "their bunker" such that they aren't allowed to do more harm to the planet, aren't allowed to recklessly attack.  Grounded!  Disarmed!

PJ here, to Anita ….My deepest condolences to your loss, Anita, wishing your father peace and light on his journey… and thank you for sharing your guide’s perspective.

May 2, 2008!

I woke up this morning and I just felt different.  Better.  I could think.  It’s been a looong time since THAT happened!  So, wassup with that? 

For the first time in a month, I got out the Ephemeris and I was actually curious about where the planets were, and guess what?  TODAY our most intensely felt little buddy, Saturn, is going direct, after a long retrograde that started on December 20th!!!  Holy Relief!  Er, for some (of course) and not others, but definitely for me.  That little sucker was flying straight at my natal Saturn (29 degrees Leo) and it was like one of those shots in a movie when the knife comes right up to your nose and then stops.  Whew!  I lived!

I am sorry I have been MIA this last month, I had house guests and Saturn, Pluto and Uranus in critical degrees in my chart and I couldn’t think.   I like to think of it as research—I get to see if Astrology actually works, how these aspects feel from the inside out.  See what I do for you, Grasshoppers?  Ha ha.

Anyway, in addition to my mind-muddle, Spring has been beautiful and I have been just ‘being’ in my world….which is different than my usual addiction to The Future (we fortune tellers have a little problem with that).  Looking at the aspects and speculating is a ‘futures’ game, so you haven’t heard from me.  I haven’t felt very future-ie….in fact, I have felt future-less, which (as you can imagine) ain’t that good for business, if you know what I mean.  Still, there was a certain peace in ‘Being Here Now’.  I have been sitting on the porch watching the hollyhocks emerge.  (Beautiful)

Anyway, I can most likely attribute my energy to the very active and exciting star-pattern changes that are occurring this day.  As I mentioned, Saturn turns in a forward-moving direction tonight at 8:07 p.m., but seven hours earlier, our smallest (Mighty Mouse) Mercury will have just entered Gemini—the sign of his Home, Sweet Home—at 1:00 p.m., today.  Yippee—I can all ready feel that fog clear!  We will all be better organized and smarter by the end of the day.  THANK GOD—what a species, eh?

Of course, even though I have been watching the hollyhocks I have also had my eye on the elections, too.  Geesh.  Does anyone else feel a bit insulted by what the media is telling us that we think?  Do you actually THINK what the media is telling you what you think?  THINK AGAIN!!!  In fact, T H I N K!!!!!  What do you WANT to happen on this planet in the coming intense years?

(Here were a few pages of ‘blame and judgment’ which I rid myself—and you all—of in just a flick of the delete button).

Ah, it’s good to be back in The Rant.

By the way, something I learned was that in the LAST Saturn in Virgo (where it is right now) during the Jimmy Carter Administration, Jimmy put SOLAR PANALS up on the White House!  He had a plan to be (at least) 30 % Solar within’ 30 years (that’s now) just like Germany is!  The first thing Ronald Regan did when he was elected, was take them down.

Anyway, I have to go, I haven’t regulated my time, but I did want to say, “Hi”, and wish you a happy belated Beltane!  Beltane (May Day) was yesterday.  You all remember the Ritual of the Rites of Spring, n’est pas?  Of course you do….so, did you all go running out into the field last night, making passionate love with a handsome/beautiful stranger in order to insure a healthy crop for the year?  Thanks!  Good to know you are out there doing your part. 

I missed you all, hope you have had a beautiful April and are onward to having a very Happy May!

April 14, 2008

Wally just read me a headline, “Clinton criticizes Obama while reminiscing about her childhood hunting da