Out Back, Behind the News
As we head into the final weekend and really the countdown of hours before the 2004 presidential election, logic would dictate that it's impossible that John F. Kerry will lose; and equally impossible that George W. Bush will win. After all, in theory, only the thinnest majority of votes should be necessary to carry it off. And the thinnest majority of Americans should be able to see what is going on: that one of the biggest fuckups in history (along with his posse) is taking America and the world down a very dangerous road. In fact, I am sure that a majority sees this plainly.
Just based on the number of ingenious political satires I keep getting, and the number of scathing but well-done op-ed pieces showing up in my inbox (such as by Maureen Dowd), I can tell that many people are in fact awake, and awakening. For example:
http://www.imgag.com/product/full/ap/3067907/graphic1.swf
Re. the above game, I can smell the servers overheating (thanks to Via for this one. 'Theme music' will start when you click the link, and sorry if it distracts you from work for the next hour).
So, how could it be that the country seems so divided, right down the middle, neck in neck, statistical dead heat, the reality-based and the faith-based, the intellectual and the delusional, the servants of one god and the servants of another, vying with exactly equal prowess for control over the physical plane? Could the polls be fake? Could it be that they ignore everyone who only has a cellphone (generally, young people)?
Could a lot of people be responding to nothing but raw fear, and hoping daddy will keep them safe, even while he's out on a murderous rampage? Humans can be fairly primal critters. That's often how we think. As the band Faithless points out in their recent CD "No Roots," people will defend their father at any cost, no matter what he's done to them.
We like to think of the political and governmental process as being rational and empirical, based on facts and necessities. Really, it's all as sensory and emotional as ordering your fourth drink in a bar. Fortunately we have astrology to help keep us on an even keel.
Today I received an article from a reader published in the Sydney Morning Press in Australia, reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP). The lead:
Indian astrologers say that the planets favour Democratic candidate John Kerry to win the White House race over US President George Bush in next Tuesday's polls.
"For months opinion polls have shown the race between Bush and Kerry, his challenger, to be neck and neck," said author and astrologer Lachhman Das Madan, who also heads the Astrology Study and Research Institute in Delhi.
"But the cosmic writ reveals Bush cannot become the president of the US again. On the other hand, Kerry's horoscope shows that Saturn is in the third house from the moon which is highly favourable," he said.
"The planets Mercury and Mars in the fifth and third house have exchanged positions. Success in competition is certain...Kerry will be the new president."
Indian astrologers like to deal in themes like the "cosmic writ." You can almost see it illuminated with a spotlight, looking like the Rosetta Stone. Western astrologers tend to be more psychological, judicial and analytical. The article continues:
Several US pollsters have said the election appeared headed for a photo finish similar to the result in 2000.
But astrologer and writer Abha Bansal, managing editor for the "Future Samachar" (Future News), said nothing could change Kerry's destiny to rule.
"Kerry's horoscope shows that he was born to rule -- he has a number of 'rajyogs' (ruling signs) which are on the ascendant right now," said the 45-year-old.
Western astrologers, psychological and less inclined to predict destiny as they are, have repeatedly predicted Bush's downfall. In fact, some of the very best I know have done so (or strongly hinted at the possibility), using methods from the most conventional to the most out-there. I have been following this closely. Over and over again during the past three years, the transits have looked like a torpedo coming right at the bow of the Bush administration.
A few of the less-subtle points:
- The president has had Saturn going over his Sun again and again, in the sign Cancer (which theoretically should be very challenging). He has been showing signs of extreme emotional duress, and was recently put on antidepressants -- very typical responses to a challenging Saturn-Sun transit, particularly a conjunction.
- Chiron has opposed Bush's Sun a number of times, and the Saturn-Chiron opposition has caught it exactly in its crosshairs. One of the Indian astrologers quoted above suggested that Bush needs to watch his health. This is a reminder of the same thing.
- Saturn and Chiron, working together, have made a long series of squares to Bush's Moon/Chiron/Jupiter conjunction in Libra. This, too, is emotionally stressful, and I am sure it's put his marriage under stress.
- Pluto is sitting exactly, as in exactly within two arc minutes and it doesn't go so fast, on Bush's south lunar node at the moment of the election. This could be very karmic, on the one hand, but then there is an ancient rule that says that the south node lessens the impact of malefic transits. Still, we have the picture of a lot of past history showing up, for good or ill, and a lot of people involved (nodes + Pluto say this).
There are other factors. Varuna, a new planet (beyond Pluto, in our solar system, discovered in 2000), has been involved in the Saturn conjunction to his Sun. Varuna, usually depicted in mythical illustrations carrying a noose, is reputed to punish liars by death.
There have been eclipses on sensitive points in Bush's chart. There have been outer planet transits. There have been a series of rather vicious progressions between the charts of Dick Cheney and Bush that would have sent more evil men screaming to the nearest McDonald's Playland. I assure you, these boys do not get along.
But, like a vampire, Bush keeps getting up and walking. I am certain it's all the people who are praying for him. Or something. And frankly, these days, I am praying for him.
Now as for John F. Kerry. He also has Pluto prominent in his chart: it's recently crossed his ascendant, which tends to represent a radical break from the past, and a fundamental change in how one understands oneself. It is powerful and usually very positive, a real release from a great trial. Pluto in the ascendant often makes people entirely 'new' people. Pluto in this position has power and impact. This small, meaningful planet has also gone over his Sun by conjunction and opposed his Moon, in Gemini, by opposition -- two other transits suggesting he has survived a kind of 'ultimate transformation'.
The ongoing opposition of Saturn and Chiron (a transit that will last another year, shifting into Leo and Aquarius respectively) has worked supportively in his chart as well, rather than violently as it has with Bush -- the opposition has made a trine/sextile to Kerry's natal Chiron/midheaven conjunction. Saturn is also transiting Kerry's 8th house, which is a challenging but strong position, indicative of bonds of cooperation.
Then there was the momentous occultation of the Sun by Venus this past June. This event happened one degree from Kerry's Moon and exactly opposite his Sun (Kerry, a Sagittarius, is born at the Gemini Full Moon). The event was angular -- it was closely aligned with his ascendant. All rather momentous and arguably positive.
Kerry at the moment is projecting himself powerfully and clearly into discussion. And there is really no way the news (war, economy, etc.) could be worse for Bush. So, by any sensible astrological standard, he should win this election handily.
But sometimes we need to look to seemingly less sensible ideas for information. A few years ago I was reading an article in The Mountain Astrologer and the author (who I don't remember, please, write to me if you do) said: if you want to predict the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, do the charts of both candidates. Whoever has the worst chart wins.
The writer was not being cynical, only making an observation. It stuck with me. I have not tested it, except for now.
There is a word in the dictionary by the name of disaster. It breaks down to dis and aster: to go against the stars. Or like, to dis the astrology.
If we have an election that goes against the stars, we can be sure that there's going to be a kind of disaster. We need somebody with Kerry's stability and intelligence, and military record, and the ability to take care of himself, in the presidency. We need somebody who actually graduated Yale on his own steam. We need a member of the Skull and Bones society -- a tried and true colleague of the New World Order. We need somebody who gets along with the ordinary nobility of corporate America. We need somebody who can make a whole sentence. But in the end we may not get him.
The intriguing, perhaps troubling, thing about the astrology of the election comes the second week of November. I have written this a number of times, and asked you to mark your calendar. There is a series of bonus eclipses coming up. By bonus eclipses, I mean a series of planetary occultations. That's when the Moon makes an exact eclipse to a planet rather than to the Sun. If you were watching at night, and some people will be able to, you would see the planet disappear behind the Moon.
To see these coming, you need a tool called Raphael's Ephemeris, which is one of the very few commercial ephemerides that mentions this kind of event. An occultation is indicated by a little conjunction dot, filled in -- the symbol of a solar eclipse.
But here is the basic sequence:
Nov. 9 -- Moon Occult Jupiter, at 10 degrees Libra.
Nov. 10 -- Moon Occult Venus, at 15 degrees Libra.
Nov. 11 -- Moon Occult Mars, at 30 degrees Libra (super intense, last degree of Libra).
Nov. 14 -- Moon Occult Mercury, at 14 degrees Sagittarius (major mojo, on something called the Great Attractor).
There are just two signs associated with the courts: Libra (the lower courts) and Sagittarius (the higher courts). I don't think the next few weeks are going to be particularly simple. (Plus, three of the four occultations happen right on the most sensitive part of Bush's chart -- that Moon/Chiron/Jupiter conjunction in mid Libra.)
Consider this. In the American "democracy," we have a curious system wherein the one who gets the fewest votes can take office. It has happened before -- in 2000. Remember? I know it was a long time ago and much has (conveniently) happened since.
And how did people respond? Most grabbed another beer and sat back down on the couch.
I think it will be really, really interesting to see how people respond if this happens a second time. I am not one of the Lords of Karma, but we are good friends. And I can tell you that if people don't rise up if, perchance, the loser should declare himself victorious yet again, then America will have all the happiness it deserves.
So let me put it this way. Get ready to make a lot of noise. A lot of noise. More noise than you've ever made. Because there are some dirty, rotten, no-good so-and-so's in charge, and what they have in their hands, they have stolen, and it belongs to you.
But you've got a voice, even if you have to go out in front of your house and scream your head off into the night wind, or pick up the phone and call everyone you know, or get your body out to the nearest protest march in the street. If there are protests against some kind of election sham in your town and you don't get yourself, your kids and your dog out there, you'll never forgive yourself.
Listen to that.
And there's just one more thing that I've got to say.
I need a miracle every day.
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Tune on in to Planet Waves Daily. We will be holding vigil for the next week or more with a twice-daily weblog. Please spread the word. ++
Scorpio Birthdays, Chapter Two
I trust that everyone born under the sign Scorpio has felt a drop in tension as the week has drawn to a close -- and that many others have besides. An eclipse is a collective event and we all go through it. But some will experience it more directly than others. As for Scorpios: a total lunar eclipse in your opposite birth sign can certainly be stressful and remind you how little control you actually have over your intimate affairs. It's never without some worldly manifestation, even if that is simply about being pushed into the clear and taking a good deep breath.
The chances are, if you were born this week, that you've noticed that what seemed like a serious crisis in a relationship was not nearly as critical as you thought. In fact you may now be wondering what all the fuss was about. Yet after any crisis has passed, it's always a good idea to debrief the experience and ask: yeah, what WAS all the fuss about, anyway? And it's a good idea to remember that even though matters may seem much less urgent after the eclipse (or even a Full Moon) than before, something really happened; something arose; perhaps it was resolved, perhaps not.
Yet the chances are, with a total eclipse, you made some progress. In fact the chances are that you've experienced some kind of genuine renewal in a relationship. Let's consider that possibility. One of the big problems we face in our relationships is what to do with the past. For most people, forgiveness does not come so naturally. Either that, or being forgiving masquerades for being okay with holding a grudge. In the case of an eclipse, the past can really become the past. In some expressions, this will set a relationship on totally new footing and cleanse the air.
If that has happened to you, this is a year to proceed gently, and to allow the new patterns of relating to slowly manifest. Both Scorpio and Taurus are fixed signs and thus hold patterns; that is their cosmic function. But everything is subject to change, and there are phases during every cycle where pattern-making becomes the main activity rather than holding things the way they are. So I suggest you make conscious, gentle choices, each of which is based on bearing in mind what you want to create.
Under another scenario, you may have recognized it was time to move on. If so, that's likely to be able to happen leaving less of a trace or a scar than you might ordinarily expect. We in our culture are not so good at moving on in our relationships. I can tell by the number of people who hang on forever, or alternately, how many people end up in court, or in situations where brutal endgames are played out with jealousy, revenge or other anger scenarios.
There is such a thing as moving on. There is such a thing as releasing the past.
Part of that past may be associated with the values we hold. I imagine that, with so much activity in Taurus, what you consider to be important, and important in relationships, is changing with an undeniable energy. Relationships are a shared space wherein two people hold some of the same things as valuable. With any luck these are things they can share, or give to one another. This has suddenly opened wide. Even if you don't see or feel the opening, I assure you, it's there. You will know by what comes in through the gateway. You don't need to make much of an effort here; rather, observe and be clear about what you see.
Notice who has what values; who in your life shares your most important values; and perhaps use this as the arbiter of truth. "What do we have in common?" is really a question that means, "What is important to both of us, and do we share it?" This is really the only basis on which you need to evaluate any relationship or partnership.
There remains, at this time, a strong planetary emphasis on Libra. This is to say that, as the planets gradually emerge into Scorpio, hidden spiritual issues, new depths of awareness, facts and ideas will emerge as well. This is to suggest that you are very much a work in progress, and that the changes that others are going through are merely subtle reflections of what you are going through. Leave a lot of room for you to change as the next few months and in truth few seasons progress.
It is likely that people you love and spend time with are still in their own process of growth and reorientation and will be for quite a while. With care, honesty and mostly love, you can do your part to make sure those changes are synchronized or at least discussed. There is much you don't know about yourself at this time; there is a great deal you don't know about who you are allied to and why. The important thing to remember, as I've been getting at, is that none of that need stand as fixed in concrete. Believe that you, the world and the people around you are flexible, and offer your sincere communication, and change will be something you'll truly welcome. ++
Planet Waves Horoscope
by Eric Francis
Aries (March 20-April 19)
There are some things that cannot be measured, and I suspect you are starting to figure out what they are. It is time you came up with new methods of evaluating your value to the world, or perhaps gave up that struggle completely. You merely need to feel like you are worthy of your own love, support and kindness. It may be that events of the past few days have pointed to just what happens when you project that whole process outside of yourself and expect others to ensure that you are feeling whole and real. No 'other' person can give you 'self' esteem.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
The recent lunar eclipse in your birth sign may have set you spinning, even wondering whether anything at all really matters. The answer, fortunately, is an emphatic Yes. The beauty of this eclipse is that it so distinctly set the past and the future on different levels of reality. You have been for too long carrying burdens that were too much to bear. Imagine what is possible now that you have left some of these issues behind. If they trouble you, I suggest you boldly apply a lesson from A Course in Miracles: "The past is gone. It cannot touch me."
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
You can be timid, or you can be bold. But I don't recommend trying to be both at once. It may indeed be that the meek shall inherit the Earth. But do you really need the whole planet? For too long, you've lived at the mercy of forces that have seemed far outside of your control. It's as if you take for granted that any encounter has the propensity to become a power struggle. Yet people who possess actual power are often quite attractive to you. But have you stopped to consider that this is because you're one of their breed?
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
I trust that the recent eclipse of the Moon has left you with deeper insight as to your true role in the world, and the extent to which people depend on your benevolence and resources. In a society where most of the population is interested in little other than feathering their own nest, being a public trustee is something that calls for a high degree of shrewdness. And people who tend to help others must consistently look after their own interests. Usually this requires a learning process, beginning with the lesson, "Take care of yourself so you can take care of everyone else."
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
You now begin an extended period of reviewing and renewing your professional ambitions. But I suggest you begin with a thorough evaluation of your parents' professional ambitions and what they held to be important for you. It's important that you be able to separate the different interests of the many parties who had their say over who you became. It's clear that from this point on you must live as if you are your own person. Perhaps this seems pointless to say to a Leo, but from time to time we all need to be reminded that we share a destiny very different than our parents.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
It's fair enough to say that you base your life on what most people would call spiritual values. You have a tendency to take the larger picture into account and do your best to act for the good of all concerned. It is, however, possible to take this a bit too far. And if you have such a vivid distaste for being selfish or being seen as selfish, it's possible for the psyche to rebel and reject everyone and everything that could possibly take something from you. Before you get there, I suggest you gather all your marbles together and divide them in a way you think is reasonable and fair.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
If people are driving a hard bargain or seem to have backed out of a deal, I suggest you count the ways that this will work for you rather than against you. Business and financial arrangements need to be conducted with a measure of precision, which is often an indicator of their integrity. And this, I suggest you need to pay attention to closely. There will be a tendency for events and situations in your life to magnify, and it's vital that you pick and choose the ones you give energy to and the ones you let go of. Read the signs; respond accordingly.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Effects of the recent eclipse in your opposite sign, Taurus, will take some time to percolate through your life. For now, it's better to concentrate your activities on your own affairs, rather than on anyone whose changes and reassessments have compelled you to deal with their external situations. In other words, they have their situations and you have yours; it's better for a while if the two are kept independent. This is one of the more challenging lessons of relationship in a culture that defines relationship as total dependency. Yet the events of these weeks seem designed precisely to convey the importance of independence.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
It takes a long time to purge guilt from relationships. There are many layers to this particular issue, including dealing with the fact that you have power over people and that they are, in a real sense, subject to you. If that power becomes mixed with guilt, or influenced by it, the results can become ugly. You know this, and you seem to be doing your best at letting your conscience be your advisor and not your harsh master. At the same time, it seems necessary for people to snap out of their own sense of weakness. They may have deep feelings they're not expressing, and which you cannot see. It would be wise to ask.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
Capricorns have a more than mild reputation for being workaholics. But in fact Capricorns are Earth signs and value comfort and pleasure as much as any Taurus or Virgo. This comfort-seeking side of your nature is calling you with renewed enthusiasm. You may be in a situation where you can suddenly see what is missing from your life, which in itself may not be particularly easy. It may seem that integrating a measure of pleasure into your life requires taking a risk of some kind, and you may need to face a fear lurking deep in your unconscious. Make it conscious and take the step.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
It could be that you feel the bottom is being pulled out from under you, but I think that what you're losing is really your false sense of security. Nobody can deny that better things are possible in your emotional life, much less you. The problem with false security is that it often prevents us from seeking what is real, and provides an excuse for us not to take care of ourselves. If personal circumstances are turning in this direction, I suggest you go with the changes and, soon enough, you'll find yourself standing on solid ground.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
It seems that lately you've been able to dream no dreams that have not run into the necessity for honoring practical reality. At the same time, you've actually made some enormous headway on those practical dreams, even if the results have been more on the nuts and bolts side of life and less on the dreamy side. It also appears you're in the process of making a challenging decision, or dealing with the effects of having made one recently. It took you a long time to get to that point. There was a general personal confrontation involved, both within you and with others. Stick to your position.
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