As the World Twists, and as it Turns

Eclipse Charts Here:
http://planetwaves.net/aquasphere/norlnpgg/open/chart_list.html

The planet and its people are now spinning into the singularity point of the Libra solar eclipse. The exact event takes place in the States just before midnight the evening of Oct. 13. Yet we are now fully under its thrall, being drawn rapidly into the vortex like the little ball going down the funnel in the late Carl Sagan's ancient program Cosmos, which he used to demonstrate the effects of a black hole. The ball, drawn down the singularity point, swirls in tighter and tighter spirals and is finally propelled by gravity and its own momentum through the vortex.

In much the same fashion, events approaching 2012 will feel ever-more compact and condensed (to those capable of noticing or rather noting the change). Both time and the cause/effect phenomenon compress around an eclipse as well. It's possible to feel like one has lived a week in a morning. Then, in review, an actual week has disappeared feeling as if it were a day. Back when I was living in spiritual boot camp in New Jersey in 1987 studying A Course in Miracles, we used to call this 'celestial speedup'. The phenomenon as actually experienced needs to be mapped out more carefully. There is no one single effect; it's like time is leapfrogging all over the place. Many people are noticing it, and it's happening more often. Few people say anything. It is full-on weirdo country. And we tend to forget till the next time it happens.

In actual fact, there is a part of consciousness that can take over the passage of time and our perception of the passage of time, which are about the same thing. They are the same thing because what we call time and its passage is an illusion of the mind; it is literally a construction of thought. Miracles, when they occur, make careful use of the time-control phenomenon, reversing apparent inevitabilities, condensing events, erasing the effects of history and, at times, bridging vast gaps of space. As both the Course and Einstein have explained in different words, "space and time are one illusion."

In the world of perception, eclipses can and often do concentrate these effects. And they can be put to work. Imagine that the small, fast circling of the little ball as it goes down the funnel is really about intention setting. The faster it spins in tighter spirals going into the eclipse, the more potent the thought forms it creates. Further, imagine that this little ball of thought can be projected as energy anywhere out the other end, just as we will be projected outward with Wednesday's New Moon -- the other end, of course, being the rest of time on the other side of the eclipse.

That is one way to imagine the energy of the eclipse. It is kind of like a time checkpoint, or a threshold where the world is lifted to a different plane of reality. Eclipses, as you may know, are alignments that occur on or near the lunar nodes. The lunar nodes seem, based on much personal observation and studying what others have observed, to be among the major vortices we have available. They are time funnels which we are now getting drawn into, and projecting ourselves and our intentions out through. The lunar nodes can gather together vast numbers of people, bridge seemingly unrelated events, connect us with the distant past, and set up the full-on sense of mission that we can experience on Earth and that indeed rivets us to the Earth plane, whether consciously or not.

This particular solar eclipse is a south node event. It is karmic rather than dharmic. Karma is the collection of benefits and consequences of past action; dharma is the active expression of right action and purpose in the present time, becoming the future. Karma is an effect. Dharma is the corresponding or associated cause. Yet oddly, it seems that the effect precedes the cause, which creates quite a lot of confusion and leads us to believe we cannot ever solve our problems. This eclipse involves resolving the past and releasing ourselves from the past, and is also a kind of direct confrontation with history. The Oct. 28 eclipse of the Moon, stationed on the other side of the nodes, occurs close to the north node in Taurus and is on the dharmic side of the equation -- calling on us to "act as if to hold the world together" -- my favorite definition of dharma.

As for the Oct. 13 solar eclipse, it is an astonishing synchronicity that as this alignment makes its final approach, we will have delivered into our homes the third and final presidential debate between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry. Anyone who thinks this is mere politics is kidding themselves. In the neighborhood of make-believe we call 21st century reality, this is the closest thing we will come any time soon to an actual discussion of the fate of the Earth amongst those who have some influence as to the outcome.

Presently, the issue of who wins and who loses this election stands apart from immediate relevance. What is at stake is a question of evolution, and an actual experience of evolution: in particular, evolution of thought and perception. Many people are now feeling that their conscience, their opinion, their perception, all matter, and that they can get together with others to make a difference. In a world where most people feel nothing at all has the least consequence, this is a welcome thought form. It even seems, at times, that perceiving reality is enough to reinforce its presence and hold on the Earth plane, as we appear to be choosing between two entirely alternate and diverging sets of potentials.

On the levels of the political game where mundane power is brokered, bought, sold and stolen, we can be sure that high-level discussions are being had and decisions are being made that have nothing to do with the vote tally. There are currently a group of desperate people in the White House protected only by the facts that a) about half the country is having a mass-hallucination of bringing on Armageddon and the tribulation period, b) the mass media, another form of mass hallucination, can only reveal so much of the truth without totally and irrevocably losing face, and c) the big bosses have not yet pulled the plug. They may, if the natives get too restless.

Speaking of losing face, did you see the Cheney-Edwards debate the other night? I now live in a place with a big TV set and 100 cable channels, including the weird Brit version of CNN, Bloomberg in French, and a bit of BBC. I am impressed more than anything by how terribly boring TV is, at those times when it's not desperately sad. Seeing this, I don't get why anyone thinks it's a good thing. Anyone who looks at the bloody images of war and suffering and thinks the answer is to feed the violence against children truly needs to have a long talk with their guru.

Between these incessant reports of war, we are treated to long, tedious analyses of the financial markets with lots of spiky graphs, discussion of home heating oil prices, and urgent commentators trying to nail the bottom line. Then there's this hypnotic ad for India tourism being shown between every segment. I would much rather play my favorite Bjork songs (alternately, 'Hyper-Ballad' and 'It's Oh So Quiet') over and over again, really loud.

Anyway, the debate seemed worth staying up for, and it was truly worth it all for the one moment where Edwards said the words "Halliburton" and "$7 billion" and Cheney responded with one of the longest, most uncontrollable shit-eating grins in the history of the human race. Ron Kurtz, are you reading? You need to show this video in your Hakomi therapy training class. Edwards, playing Hakomi therapist, drops the probe: "Halliburton-$7 billion" and Cheney, therapy client, takes it in and has an immediate response: he smiles, sways, fumbles mentally and then says: "Well, Gwen [addressing the moderator], I think the record speaks for itself. These are two individuals who have been for the war when the headlines were good and against it when their poll ratings were bad."

What a comeback. Cheney proved he is human when his unconscious seized control of his body and the big joke got let out, was splayed on the video screen, and hung suspended in midair for everyone to see and examine for an excruciating five seconds. Then he said something totally irrelevant (which is why Hakomi therapy teaches its practitioners basically to ignore what people say, and just watch their face and body for the real cues). More people should be doing this. It's as if we're in the midst of a huge psychology experiment to see how many lies the American public will believe; and how many the boys can get away with; and they just may get away with it. If we studied their faces as they spoke this would not happen so easily.

Big Fun Moment #2 arrived when Uncle Dickie urged the American populous to faithfully flock to Factcheck.com and learn for their very own selves how the Kerry-Edwards people were working with skewed information. (He meant to send them to Factcheck.org, a non-profit site hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, but oops, he misspoke.) Factcheck.com turned out to be a for-profit domain owned by some guys down in the Cayman Islands (hardly the seat of philanthropy). Seeing an opportunity for some fun and a meaningful political statement, they put up a redirect, automatically pointing the ensuing flood of visitors arriving at their homepage onto the site of none other than George Soros. Ah, the joys of interconnectivity. Soros is the billionaire activist who has been financing some excellent awareness-raising projects and who has made no secret of his disdain for Team Bush and what it's doing. Thus, thanks to K.F.Cheney himself, a peak of 100 hits per second were being funneled into Soros country.

Meanwhile, my inbox is getting more interesting by the day. This morning I was sent a link to votergasm.com, a site set up by various Ivy League-type graduates and some from University of Wisconsin at Madison (original home and spawning ground of The Onion). There, readers can pledge to have hot, steamy sex during election night (which event was endorsed by Rush Limbaugh, then in a stunning flip-flop, unendorsed). Those making The Pledge can also promise to withhold sex from nonvoters, though under certain conditions those who make The Pledge and vote may receive oral sex from those who don't pop the chad on Election Day. (Not that I need another excuse not to vote.)

Speaking of sex and politics, Steve Bergstein, our neighborhood civil rights attorney and partner in a boutique constitutional law firm in New York, forwarded this item from The (Manchester UK) Guardian last week. Read carefully, it is true. It is not one of my satires. Honest.

He is the conservative bastion of the US supreme court, a favourite of President Bush, and a hunting partner of the vice-president. He has argued vociferously against abortion rights, and in favour of anti-sodomy laws.

But it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies.

Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged."

It seems unlikely that this is what President Bush meant when he promised to appoint more judges like Scalia to the court, should the opportunity arise. Crucially, Justice Scalia is one of the judges in favour of overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark judgment protecting abortion as a constitutional right.

 

On a less entertaining but equally impressive note, I also read an excellent nationally-published article sent out by Jude to the Political Waves list (a non-profit educational list owned by Planet Waves) about Elizabeth Edwards bashing the administration on its horrid mishandling of national security issues, while simultaneously claiming to be the great national security heroes of all times.

She pointed out that the Canadian border, where the would-be Y2K terrorist attacks (including blowing up LA Airport) were foiled when a terrorist panicked coming into the U.S., had gotten no additional funding from the many billions spent in the War on Terror. She's one of the few prominent people to mention the fact that military families are having their benefits cut, and was brave enough to state that many of them are surviving on welfare. And she brought up how the Bush administration has abandoned Sept. 11 survivors after promising to take care of them forever. So much for compassionate conservatism.

The word is out, and it has its pants on. Let's see how far it goes, and what this eclipse adds to the discussion. It is, given the current circumstances, always possible that Team Halliburton will, facing the probable loss of the election, find a way to eliminate the election. That would be interesting, but it would be far more interesting to see how people respond, or if they even put down the remote control. ++

--

More at cainer.com. http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/eric.html


Libra Birthdays, Book Three

The theme of an eclipse so close to your birthday, and indeed for every Libra, is a break in continuity. That is, the continuous chain of circumstances, patterns and events that have been so influential in your life for so long, perhaps as long as nine years, is about to finally give way.

What it gives way to is another question entirely, and one that is more a matter of your own choice and preference than you may yet imagine. That alone may be a big part of any apprehension you're feeling, for it is far easier to live in established patterns than it is to create new ones. But the message is clear, a change is necessary; you have reached a turning point; and to say the very least, it would be far more productive and happy to go with this energy than to resist. While change is always a bit harrowing, even when it's perfectly exciting, the alignment of planets to this eclipse suggests that you are being spurred to action (Sun/Moon square Chiron) and, to a greater degree, very well supported in this process (Jupiter in Libra; plus Sun/Moon sextile Pluto).

Those who have already taken the cue from the cosmos to heart have likely resolved to do so long before now.  To those who may be struggling, resisting or determined to hold fast, I would like to take a moment and question the potential role of unexpressed anger in your life. The clue I have that this train of thought is worth developing is that the eclipse is immediately preceded by the Moon making occultations (very exact conjunctions) to both Mars and Mercury before it makes its exact conjunction to the Sun.

Moon plus Mars plus Mercury, aligned in such precision, is about expressing how you actually feel. Before that time, it's likely to put you in touch with how you actually feel, which is always a very fine first step. This one fact, of your inner reality, and none other, needs to become the basis by which you guide your life. With Libra, the boundary issue is pretty serious. Ascertaining which things you think you feel are really you responding to how others feel, how others want you to feel, and how you think others want you to act and respond, are big pieces of the growth puzzle. (Pisces has some very similar issues.) It is easy to be swayed, and though you always sway back, you can get rather seasick in the process.

Having worked with a great many people as their astrologer, and having some training in a diversity of therapy processes, I have learned that one of the most difficult things for people to admit is their anger. Yet every therapeutic, social, sexual or political movement -- and each individual who seeks them out -- eventually makes the discovery that there is no power without making contact with one's anger. Left unacknowledged, and unexpressed, anger becomes a point of resistance, interference and struggle within the psyche, something that weakens us, and which ultimately kills us.

Sexual desire works a similar way. Though it is difficult to see in this era because frustration is now considered more 'natural' than desire, and shame more 'natural' than pleasure, without the acknowledgement of, and encounter with, our inner sexual reality, the personality basically ceases to develop. I am saying that unless we can be angry and express sexual desire openly, we basically cease to be men and women, and return to being little children, under the control of others. If you are seeking your freedom, these may be helpful things to remember.

Your charts are full of reminders that these basic, primary human energies exist as part of you. The planets most active in your chart, recalling the June 8 occultation of the Sun by Venus as well as your current chart, are the Sun and Moon, Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter. Essentially, this is a reminder to set aside your notions about what is spiritual, moral, ethical, proper and the least threatening, and take up your basic place on the Earth as human. This will give you an easy platform from which to make your decisions. You are human, thus, you have needs, feelings, desires, and most of all, the capacity to grow. And growing you are.

I was reading some Melanie Reinhart last night (a book called To the Edge and Beyond) and she mentioned that while the symbol of Libra is the scales, few pause to question what exactly those scales are hanging from. There must be some very solid support structure within you, and you can as easily identify with this as you can with the overwhelming influences that make it difficult for you to proceed in any one direction. Perhaps the support structure relates to the close affinity that Saturn has for Libra (this is the sign of its exaltation), a fact often ignored by Western astrology.

If Saturn struggles for flexibility, this is being addressed by the presence of Jupiter in your sign, which is a little like a floating city come to visit the sky right above your house. There are possibilities now awaiting you that you have waited for during many long seasons. There are desires you have yet to express in all your years on the planet. There are whole worlds awaiting your exploration, the moment you deem yourself free. ++


Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope
By ERIC FRANCIS
For Friday, Oct. 8, 2004

Aries (March 20-April 19)
You must feel under enormous pressure at the moment. There are literally vast influences surrounding you. At the same time, you are looking boldly into your image on an inner movie screen in your mind 25 meters high. I don't think it's possible for you to maintain a sense of scale and proportion under this astrology, so you may as well forget it. If the choices you are faced with seem enormous, let them be. But if the potentials you sense feel beyond what ever seemed possible, let them be possible. It is in truth your sense of potential that is being radically altered now, which means seeing yourself entirely differently. By the time Wednesday's eclipse rolls around, you'll know you've taken a big step in the right direction.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
Events this week should have the effect of releasing you from the abundance of obligations that you've been shouldering so well. Until that time, though, you may find yourself under enormous pressure and perhaps wondering whether you can really handle it. You can; you're discovering just how resourceful you are, particularly with that rare form of intelligence known as creativity. Yet enough is enough, and a major change is inevitable. I suggest getting used to the idea of receiving the benefits of the commitments you've made and kept so well, so diligently and for so long. Many patterns are about to change in the next two to three weeks and that, thankfully, is one of them.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
It is difficult to exceed one's limits by accident. Yes, it happens. You go out jogging and happen to run 26.2 miles. Or you enter a neighborhood pool tournament and then suddenly find yourself in Las Vegas at the national finals. But usually, people who exceed their limits do so because they want to, or because they absolutely must. And often, they manage to make the effort despite the fear that they're acting too big for their own shoes, or that pride is a deadly sin. Those who don't attempt great things have no idea how humbling it is to try. I think you know. And I am certain when you achieve what you are now hoping is possible that all you'll say is, "I did it. It was possible."

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Wednesday's solar eclipse in Libra occurs in the ultra-sensitive 4th house angle of your solar chart, and you may well be feeling rather edgy about it. You're keenly aware of what a fragile place the world is, particularly now. Yet something remarkable is happening in your life, and while you may have noticed certain key changes that point to it, you may not quite believe it yet. The effect of the eclipse is likely to feel like a false floor opening up beneath you. It's as if, in the past, you could only go so deep on an emotional level before reaching the bottom. Now, like the ocean you love so much, your depth will be something you experience as reaching many fathoms into unseen worlds.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
The lesson of this time is discovering that you are limited only by what you think of yourself. We could speculate and say this is a positively fabulous universal law. We could also apply it to someone in Iraq and fall short of anything that seems probable. And we could look at how, most of the time, what we (in our society) are limited by is precisely our inability to think in different terms than those with which we were indoctrinated as a small child. I suggest you become reacquainted with the early limits that were branded into you. You're not bound by them; far from it. But you must know what they were if you plan to get any further in life -- and I know you do.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Everything has an end, and that end is inevitable. This is the hidden thought that keeps many people from daring to live, because after all, whatever we become, accomplish or create, and whoever we love, we will ultimately leave behind. There are whole philosophies that ultimately say, 'Why bother?' because, you know, eventually, the Super Nova comes along and toasts the planet. I suggest you take the bold step of honoring experience and achievement as entirely transient. The world and all its people are transient, and from here, we go we know not whither. This, if you ask me, makes the gifts we give and the love we make all the more precious.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
One way to study the effects of astrology is to look at the past. What, for example, was the story behind the Libra partial solar eclipse of October 1996? Can you identify that as a turning point (it is very likely to have been one on a second count, which is that Chiron was rapidly passing through your sign, and was closely conjunct the eclipse). Something you were made aware of in no uncertain terms has come back to remind you of its message. Chiron is involved in the picture again, now making an exact square to the eclipse instead of an exact conjunction. Opportunities like this don't grow on trees. It is time to take action, if you dare.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
To say the least, the past few years have come with many valiant attempts by your psyche to purge and release you from ancient patterns and, oddly, this has become a pattern of its own. I would propose that in the process, you've become intimately familiar with who you are, in many respects finding yourself increasingly determined not to be that way. This is requiring a kind of progress that is among the most difficult to negotiate. Aspects of you that are fully invested in a relationship need to change, yet within the context of that relationship. Will a person close to you let you become who you are becoming? Or is the whole affair threatened by the act of your growth? Ah, let off some of that pressure. They face some big movements of their own, with which you may surely cooperate. Set a good example and let the next stage of life be born.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
Some months ago I resolved to mention at least once in every horoscope column that astrology is not exactly the truth. Astrology is a form of mythical fiction which we can take or leave. So we begin today. As I sit here and write 'you' this and 'you' that, though I have a very fancy chart in front of me, I am basically making things up with a lot of help from my intuition. No more, of course, than a novelist or playwright, but people take astrology a lot more personally than they take their Harry Potter. Yet is my intuition or storytelling good enough for you? In a similar vein, I suggest that you get involved in a little friendly demystification of your own craft or talent. People take you extraordinarily seriously and hang on your every view. Revealing a few tricks or making fun of yourself is the best possible inoculation against next week's solar eclipse. It'll remind everyone that you see the world through balanced eyes, and think with a critical mind. Of course this may only serve to enhance your legend -- but whatever.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
With about half the planets in the traditional solar system now in your solar 10th house, you should, by all rights be a final contender for chairman of the board. But your confidence may be a bit shaky because an eclipse of the Sun is about to occur in that same house. As certain and as good as things seem, they feel equally unstable, with a 'don't count your chickens before they hatch' vibe. The thing is that your chickens have hatched and they are growing up fast. And though there is an eclipse in the vicinity, Jupiter is saying don't worry, we've got you covered. Be a good Capricorn and do what you need to; people are counting on your success.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
It has, I reckon, been difficult for you to think of yourself with any sense of stability or balance. But ongoing developments are slowly improving the opinion you hold of yourself, and are freeing you to see the wider possibilities. But as of this date, you haven't seen anything yet. The whole field of what is possible opens up wide and free over the next week, as if broad daylight disappears and the night sky appears, revealing a lot of planets bearing very significant messages right over your head. The message is that while some find it difficult to see in the dark, you find it difficult to see in the light. Remember, whatever you find, learn or discover is ultimately within you. So you might as well start there.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
It may seem that you have entirely too many outstanding commitments or pending financial matters for anyone's good. Next week's solar eclipse in the angle of your chart involving money, obligations and shared finances will help you consolidate your interests. What you must do is see everything that develops as an opportunity. While you may feel you're living your life on a high wire without a net, you have substantial support that's not going to let you down, and is in fact well poised to assist you in this critical phase. Nobody actually does anything alone, and you too are part of the vast network of light that supports life on the planet.

 

---

 

This is a subscription service. To subscribe, please visit this link:
http://planetwavesweekly.com/sales/home.html

 

Published by Planet Waves, Inc. of Seattle, WA. Written & produced in Europe and the UK. Please direct all inquiries to (206) 463-7827 or to info@planetwaves.net

Customer Service: Chelsea Bottinelli (877) 453-8265, Eastern business hours please. International, please use above number.

Editing and Web Design/Programming: Tracy Delaney.

Archivist: Pam Purdy.

Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are located here:
http://planetwaves.net/TOS

All rights reserved. Copyright 2004. Non-commercial forwarding is permitted. Web reproduction or print distribution expressly prohibited without written consent.

Planet Waves horoscopes are available for print publication. If you're interested in publishing them, please contact us.