Reality Gaps
In true eclipse fashion this week, the cosmos belched forth a bit more of its inner truth. The recent eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the first since the revolutionary days of the early 1980s, may be a mere coincidence, but it's an apt metaphor. The volcano in Washington State rumbled for a while; geological observatories were evacuated; steam, ash and boulders went flying; and finally lava started moving, and it's not done. It has that, "Wow, what next?" feeling. This, after one hurricane after another mauled Florida during the past two months and the astute asked, "Do you think it means something?"
Add a little earthquake in California and ten typhoons hitting Japan and an 11th forming, a big thunder storm in Paris last night, and Boston finally and at long last clobbering the Yankees in the playoffs, the motto of our days is: Like, Wow.
There appears to be a dimension shift happening as we take the ride into this election. This is the usual feeling associated with eclipses. The energy appears to be spiraling upward. You may feel like you're going nuts; I have managed to step out of madness for long enough to write this article, which has been edited for clarity. The current eclipse sequence began with a solar eclipse at the Libra New Moon last week, and it builds to an even more powerful lunar eclipse in Taurus next week, catapulting us through the Full Moon door.
Then there is a week of bonus eclipses in early November, as I've been referencing as often as possible. These consist of four planetary occultations -- like mini-eclipses -- by the Moon on November 9, 10, 11 and 14. In order, they are: Moon occult Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Mercury.
For a long time, people practicing alt-dot-forms of spirituality have been talking about how, fairly soon, the human race is going to kind of pick sides and divvy up, and a lot of people are going to move into a different dimension.
The Fifth Dimension, they keep telling me, perhaps sung to the tune of The Age of Aquarius. I have always resisted accepting such images, because they too closely resembled, well, something kind of dangerous. Authors of the "Left Behind" series, where extreme Christianity meets extreme New Age thinking out back by the barn, use the same metaphor of a dimension shift; the good people fly up to heaven and the bad ones are left behind here in hell. This series, practically required reading in the fundamentalist Christian community, sells better than John Grisham.
As a devout student at Course in Miracles school back in New Jersey, my fellow students would often talk about the Tribulation Period and Earth Changes like they were arriving as predictably as Thanksgiving. We are still quite close to the turn of a century (and a millennium) and history is replete with examples of how people become more engrossed with all things mystical, magical and apocalyptic at such times. This is one of the more interesting times to be an astrologer in the past few thousand years; there are a lot of planets and, thanks to the mini-tribulation, a good market.
We have come a long way since table thumping. The magic incantation of our times is Dimensional Dead Heat. And a week from Tuesday, many people feel, we will be holding a referendum on which dimension we're going to live in.
This week, the shift became obvious. It did so, primarily, for those who read, rather than those who solely watch television. TV alone is a kind of dimensional reality. The newsphere of the broadcast media is clearly a cosmos of its own, complete with an alternate physics, metaphysics and corporate sponsors. It used to be called TV-Land. Television news leaves a trail of vapor in its wake; you can't really save it on your hard drive, quote it, or cut it out and put it in a folder. It just disappears. But with writing, you can.
What may be the most quoted piece of journalism in recent history appeared in The New York Times Magazine this past Sunday. It's called "Without a Doubt" by Ron Suskind, and it addresses the issues of "faith" that lurk behind the truly bizarre events we're seeing in U.S. national politics.
Suskind writes:
I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
Who besides guys like me are part of the reality-based community? Many of the other elected officials in Washington, it would seem. A group of Democratic and Republican members of Congress were called in to discuss Iraq sometime before the October 2002 vote authorizing Bush to move forward. A Republican senator recently told Time Magazine that the president walked in and said: ''Look, I want your vote. I'm not going to debate it with you.'' When one of the senators began to ask a question, Bush snapped, ''Look, I'm not going to debate it with you.''
You can find the full text on The New York Times web page, but you'll need to get it quick if you want to avoid having to pay for it through their premium service. The article is 8,500 words and worth reading every one.
This article has begun a flood of journalism on the issue of "reality based" versus "faith based" existence that is pouring in to my inbox faster than Eudora can sort the emails out. Then, as if that wasn't enough, I read something truly beyond extraordinary, and quickly cut and pasted it from CNN.com into this article before it disappeared:
The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."
Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."
"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world'," Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now."
"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties'."
Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."
Pat Robertson? Says he warned Bush? How many dimensions are there, anyway?
And to think we've just got through with the first round of the game, the Libra solar eclipse conjunct Hybris. I am not sick of journalism yet, and at least on this side of the dimensional divide, it's been getting better and better. Then we get to see things like this:
http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/6019/bohemianrhapsody.swf
Planets On the Move
The Sun enters Scorpio Friday, Oct. 22 at 9:49 p.m. in the Eastern zone, and 2:49 a.m. Saturday Greenwich Daylight Time.
The eclipse of the Moon takes place at 3:04 a.m. London time on Thursday, Oct. 28. For reference, that translates to 10:04 p.m. Wednesday night on the east coast.
No major planets change signs this week. But Mercury is in Scorpio, about to square Neptune in Aquarius. What is real and what is not? There are no truths outside the gates of Eden.
More on the lunar eclipse here:
http://www.cainer.com/ericfrancis/eric.html
Early Scorpio Birthdays
A total lunar eclipse quite close to your birthday is likely to set the tone for the year. The message is that a particular relationship not only must change, but rather is changing and, in truth, has already changed. But so much progress would not be possible in your outer world were you not going thorough some profound new kind of personal developments as well.
Since we tend to measure the quality of relationships kind of like stock offerings -- by their stability -- adding the concept of change to a relationship is rarely such a welcome development. However, there is a certain precision to this eclipse that makes it trustworthy, and besides, it's happening so we might as well go looking for a few of its potential messages and try them on.
If there is one factor messing up the world, I propose it's the abject refusal of people and institutions to change. The culture of a relationship in a similar way can become a very dangerous place if its participants are committed to the status quo and the goal of stability above their own growth and personal truth, or that of one another. And it is indeed challenging to maintain a relationship that honors the growth of the individuals involved, that allows them to change and become, and transcends the fears associated with these things.
We might well ask what mysterious factor allows this to happen. And the answer is love. The reason why we might accept the fact that a person is changing is because we love them. And the reason why we might be compelled to change in the first instance is through love. In the quest for stability, we often forget the excitement that arrived with a new partner and how good those initial changes felt.
Eclipses are events that take place along something called the Lunar Nodes. For those seeking background, there is an article on the nodes in the second article down on this link which will refresh your memory:
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/sep10.html
The Lunar Nodes are completing an approximately 18-month journey across the Taurus-Scorpio axis. For Scorpio, this eclipse finally draws to a close the intense period of reflection that is likely to have begun two years ago, at the time of the Venus retrograde in your sign. The South Node sweeping through one's sign can feel like an endless process of taking care of old business, dumping old feelings and beliefs, and making a truly clean break with the past. It can be obsessive and the feeling that there is never a time when the work is completed is a frequent response to this kind of transit.
Here is the chart configuration. At the time of the eclipse next week, two planets form exact squares to the event: Eros and Amor. Eros in Leo makes an exact square to the nodes; and Amor in Aquarius makes an exact square to the Moon, just three degrees later.
There is a kind of provocation of love in this chart, like it's being jump-started. The Eros-Amor opposition is a good reminder that there exists the personal and heart-centered aspect of love (Eros in Leo) and the distinctly collective or transpersonal aspect of love (Amor in Aquarius) which has its center not in an individual but in a community. Exclusive relationships need to balance both carefully. This is a reminder that while we may at times sequester ourselves away and hide in isolation from the larger community within a relationship, we need to balance that with an equally expressive and non-possessive energy -- in a sense to share the whole relationship with everyone, just like we would share ourselves as an individual.
Because this opposition crosses the line of the eclipse, it would seem that whatever issues or subject matter the eclipse brings up, there may be a point of resolution available in studying the relationship between the public and private aspects of love, and finding a balance.
There are Scorpios in the world without partners. The message of this eclipse, in that case, is to let go of the history of relationships, such as past hurts and other circumstances, that may be prejudicing your experience in the present. If any aspect or omen portended a new beginning in the romantic and amorous side of your life, it is this eclipse.
For everyone, there is a reminder that taking the least step beyond the conventional norms of love, partnership and marriage is an act of rebellion. There are many "normal" things that are not so moral at all. We are taught to maintain many strange customs in our affairs; to call things by their opposite names; and to insist that we are free when we are not. None of this can be taken for granted in this particular year of your life.
What you can take for granted, however, is your purpose in living. I see a situation where it becomes ever more difficult to depart from your true path in life, or all the easier to find it. You need do little other than be yourself; assess each day as it comes; and relate in a direct and honest way to the people around you. That is, perhaps, a challenge too great for many people on the planet right now, but never too great for you.
More next week.
Planet Waves Horoscope
by Eric Francis
Aries (March 20-April 19)
There's no turning back. Not that you'd want to. Your soul is tugging you beyond anything you've known, with all its fiery passion. The question is what from the past you can bring with you. You'll bring what you've learned, but not in the literal sense; rather, a state of mastery and achievement is your natural resting place. You understand something about your power in relationships, and no longer suffer the ravages of ignorance. The task at hand in this new phase of your life is knowing when to apply certain aspects of your knowledge, and when to let the moment speak for itself.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
About five weeks ago, around the Virgo New Moon, you learned something about yourself. I reckon you had a revelation that gave you permission to take a certain risk, and your thoughts quite likely pointed to why that risk was the logical step to take. I want to remind you of that thought process, and let you know that you stand in the spot where the choice or action is possible. This may involve a relationship, one which you are ready to approach directly and with a level head. And it, too, is ready to approach you. Remember, though, that the true meeting is within yourself.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
There's an old question floating around about whether the truth is any match for lies. It is, when the truth slowly squeezes the world for the acknowledgement it needs. And it is, when on an individual level we slowly begin to figure out the nature of the psychological landscape that surrounds us. You're generally a clear thinker, but now, a level of depth, insight and what may feel like psychic intuition have been added to your repertoire of talents. Use them well. It's true that many people are on one of the biggest denial trips of all time. Float in your truth like a boat on the ocean.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
In a few days, the Sun moves into one of the regions of the zodiac most sympathetic to your way of living, water sign Scorpio. These days you may be dealing with the rather intense influx of energy and information by distancing yourself and taking as cool an approach to life as possible these days. Scorpio allows you to let your feelings loose and still keep your boundaries clear. One vital development is a lot more environmental support than you've had in most times recently. For you who's so close to the world in which you live, this serves to remind you that you're safe being alive.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Emotional patterns are the most difficult aspects of life to change. We can shift our financial status, learn a skill, think differently and become masters of the tango before gaining insight into shifting habits that are rooted in the feelings. Yet there are times when this becomes unusually easy, and you happen to be entering one of them. The formula you're working with is making clear connections between your own history and that of your family. It's as if you've finally noticed that everyone in your family equation shares one root into the past -- but vastly different futures.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
It's one thing to make a conscious decision about who you are, and another for the effects of that decision to finally catch up with you, and show positive benefits in your life. Then, suddenly one day, the effects are right there for you to see. That should be just about now. Perhaps it's subtle, but I don't think so -- not if you look right were you stand and figure out how far you've come. Something you committed to, a promise you made yourself, or a deeply held wish, has in fact come true. I suggest you take note of how genuinely amazing that is.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You still view your life as more of a mental exercise than a process of moving through experience. That, at least, is the story that's told in the mythology of your charts. There are, this story says, benefits to thinking things through clearly and strategically. But you no longer have to live so defensively. In fact, you will have the strokes of luck and good fortune you need all the more dependably if you assert yourself, and live as if the best things in life are coming to you. When in doubt, stop thinking and take a real step in the direction of your highest vision.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
The Sun and Mercury in your birth sign mean there's more of you to go around. Which is a good thing, because you've been in pretty high demand and at the same time feeling like a rather scarce commodity. The beauty of creativity is that there's no limit to the good it can do. There is no limit to the power of an idea. The only limit is an attachment to the past, or to an idea about the past. But we are alive right now. There are problems to solve, and people to love, and dreams to dream, none of which can help us yesterday.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
Developing aspects should serve to offer you a lot more privacy than you've become accustomed to during the past month or two. It's now time to add up your losses and gains, and the many things you've learned from these truly remarkable experiences. I suggest you give yourself a month out of the spotlight, with reduced responsibilities. There are quite a few people who are willing to help you handle your commitments, in part because they care about you, and in part because everyone stands to gain. Sleeping regularly, good food and a warm space will do you a world of good.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
This has been a year of intense and, at times, barely understandable stresses on your relationships, but you're learning to navigate the territory. My take is that you've had to make some tough decisions about who you are in relation to the people around you; you've likely had to take notice of how you let others define your identity, and how challenging it is to create new definitions and patterns of existence. But one idea has guided you; not exactly ambition, but more like aspiration to be the best person you can be. Let that idea guide you now. Let it challenge both you and anyone who has the privilege of knowing you.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
There are countless ways using astrology that we can begin to make heads and tails out of the influences of our parents. And there are times when the issue is focused more readily than others -- and now is one of them. If you look, you will see the ways in which the things you want out of life stand a galaxy apart from what your parents wanted. Now, you have the chance to adjust your actual priorities and actions to match the present reality. It is possible to be caught in the desires and disappointments of pasts generations all our lives. Update your files and you will shed a lot of frustration.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Few people know how vulnerable most Pisces feel in the world. Yet as events of the past three or four weeks have demonstrated, despite these feelings, you really do belong on the planet, and you have the means to support yourself here. Certain factors of your personality have more or less compelled you to exist with a high level of cooperation with the world around you. Because you're able to exist so well within your environment, event though it's not always so easy, you stand as someone who teaches others some very useful living skills. The better you teach, the easier everyone's life is.
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