WE SEEM to be embarking on the strangest weekend since God knows when, perhaps before the American Revolution. I woke up this morning and clicked on the
Planet Waves blog -- which someone else is covering for me at the moment -- to be informed that today is the day of Pluto conjunct the Galactic Core (conjunction number one of three). Gosh, the things you learn on the Internet. And Ceres entered Pisces overnight -- it's Cosmic Mother's Day. Hey, Cindy Sheehan got arrested again down in Texas.
Today is a brilliant day for conspiracy freaks. I mean, it's even Old Home Day for Sixties junkies. It's like that clear light of the Galactic Core is purging Pluto of all its interesting secrets, revealing strange truths and showing us how the world really is -- speeding the way to collective evolution. Popping up in my inbox very first thing was an article from
The Guardian about how the last of the FBI records involving John Lennon (supposedly concealed because they might
provoke an attack on the United States, no kidding) were finally released to the public. I have the text of the article, from The Guardian's music section, but not a link. If I find one I'll post it. Here is a sample, by Paul MacInnes:
Compiled in 1972, [the FBI documents] reveal that Lennon, a "former member of the Beatles singing group", had "encouraged the belief that he holds revolutionary views" and that some of the evidence for this behaviour can be found in "his songs and other publications".
By way of further evidence, the documents go on to record his meetings with Tariq Ali, then editor of a Marxist magazine - Red Mole - but observe that despite several attempts by Ali to elicit funds from Lennon to support a Marxist bookshop "no sum has been paid by Lennon for this purpose".
There is also reference to Lennon's drug use. A previous UK conviction for cannabis was at the centre of attempts to have Lennon deported from the United States where he was resident at the time.
Then a quick scan of CNN.com's front page filled in more of the cosmic story. Saddam is going to be hanged this weekend, which reminds me little too much of the
South Park movie for comfort. (In case any children, non-grammarians or people who have not seen a western movie are reading, that's how it's said, "hanged," or more properly, "hung by the neck until death," in the formal words of a traditional American death warrant.) So, Saddam, who was supplied weapons of mass destruction
by the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., will symbolically take the blame for all that has gone wrong in Iraq, and in the world. (The Common Dreams reprint of the WMD article is the best link I could locate. The Scotland
Sunday Herald original, long linked to from Planet Waves, is no longer available in the Internet, that I can find.)
Hobby media critics may note the significant difference in how evil dictator and CIA operative Augusto Pinochet (who "killed his own people") was so lovingly treated, as contrasted with how evil dictator and CIA operative Saddam Hussein (who "killed his own people") is being so exquisitely vilified. Pinochet, a creature of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, skirted the legal process year after year. Saddam, also a creature of United States covert operations (but who happened to be sitting on a lot of oil), got the most impressive mock trial in history, and his death will now adorn the last weekend of the year.
Meanwhile, on the home front, Watergate conspirator Gerald R. Ford, the man who pardoned Richard M. Nixon, has died and will be given full presidential honors. Ford was involved in the cover-up of the death of John F. Kennedy as a member of, indeed, the last surviving member of, the
Warren Commission. Here is a 1997
article by the Associated Press reporting that Ford admitted he rewrote part of the commission's final report on the assassination.
Everyone seems to be rallying round the flag. No mainstream media has mentioned the Kennedy connection in Ford obituaries, that I have seen yet, nor that his good friend Dick Nixon was somehow, for some strange reason, in Dallas the day of the assassination. Rather, he is being praised as an officer and a gentleman. For example: "President Ford was a great man who devoted the best years of his life in serving the United States," President Bush said in a brief statement to the nation Wednesday morning. "He was a true gentleman who reflected the best in America's character," according to an article by the
Associated Press.
Okay -- from Mr. Bush, this we might expect. But, let's read on, same article: I love how the Republicrats always stick together.
Former President Carter described him Wednesday as "one of the most admirable public servants and human beings I have ever known." Former President Clinton said, "all Americans should be grateful for his life of service." The first President Bush said "Ford was, simply put, one of the most decent and capable men I ever met."
Making a long story longer, Bob Woodward's
article in the Washington Post today, detailing the 50-year friendship of Ford and Nixon, and Ford's personal motives for pardoning him, is downright surreal. The
slide show is a must-see. Get ready for a stroll down memory lane. Our parents reminisced to memories of sock hops and Little Lulu. We get to recall our fond memories of Watergate.
I'm now getting a clue as to why I was going to call the 2007 Planet Waves annual edition
The Cosmic Circus. It's now called
The Spiral Door, but it's definitely the pre-history of The Cosmic Circus that is apparently beginning...right now.
Work on the annual projects is coming along. Two separate teams are on the projects; one is working on
The Spiral Door annual edition, and another on the first annual
Planet Waves Almanac.
The almanac now includes a full-length article on the astrology of Eris, which was last summer designated a "dwarf planet" along with Pluto and Ceres. This carefully researched, detailed article investigates the potential themes of Eris, written from the perspective I've gained from working with minor planets continuously for more than 12 years.
The article looks at the truly strange identity crisis that we find ourselves in at this point of history, as we find that the solid ground of the old world is nothing of the sort, and as we work every single day to redefine ourselves in a world that changes faster and faster. Nothing like it has been published yet. Here is an excerpt:
Though there have been thousands of discoveries of small planets orbiting our Sun in recent years, and several prominent ones the past few years, most have been diligently ignored by mainstream astrology, with only a few astrologers being involved in deciphering their themes, mostly on email lists.
It's only because last summer's categorization of Eris disrupted the established order of the solar system that this discovery is getting any respect from astrologers, and in reality, it's not getting so very much; other recent discoveries (particularly of Varuna in 2000 and Sedna in 2003) seem to have been taken more seriously, though they are still not in mainstream use. The Eris controversy, however, resulted in the supposed demotion of Pluto (discovered in 1930 and deemed a planet), from "full planetary status," and the "promotion" of Ceres (discovered in 1801 and called a planet at the time, but soon after, reclassified as an asteroid). Astronomers say Eris is as big as Pluto -- and that's what forced the issue of what a planet is.
Is Eris any more important than the smaller objects Varuna, Ixion, Chaos, Quaoar, Sedna or Orcus, or many others found in recent years to be orbiting near or beyond Pluto? In the cultural sense, yes -- none of those planets was able to push the door open to being recognized as a planet, even partly; none so much as started a good debate, much less was responsible for settling one. Because they were all smaller than Pluto, the entire world of minor planets, trans-Neptunians, Kuper objects, asteroids and Centaurs (such as Chiron and Pholus) seemed doomed to obscurity, discussion lists and/or private astrology seminars in London.
Yet it is the theme of Eris, not its size, that will guide its fate as an astrological factor, mark a moment of passage or transition, and perhaps tell the story of our time in history.
This article will only appear in the
Planet Waves almanac, which is still
$9.95. This chapter-length piece of writing is designed to be worth the price of admission -- and was an unexpected addition to the project. When I finished it this morning, the first three people to receive the proof were Michael Brown and Chad Tujillo, co-discoverers of Eris; and Richard Tarnas, author of
Cosmos and Psyche, who was helpful in clarifying my thoughts. If you haven't ordered an almanac yet,
give a click -- it's a hot show.
FOR YOUR solar return, Pluto has made its first conjunction to the Galactic Core in two and a half centuries. Though this has been developing for more than a year (in the most precise measure) and many years using other measures, it is indeed exact as of Friday, Dec. 29, 2006. Everyone is experiencing this transit, one way or another, but for you what's interesting is how closely it synchronizes with your solar return, and how it happens in the early degrees of Capricorn -- though in the sign right before yours, Sagittarius. This is your 12th solar house, the house of all that's hidden; the house of dreams; the house of the rising Sun.
While I am reluctant to speculate too much, some images come to mind. One is the image of the galaxy rising like the Sun. Then imagine Pluto slowly coming across the core of the galaxy like a focusing lens of the soul, gathering that energy and sending it into your life like a laser.
Yet because this is taking place in the 12th solar house, you may not be aware of it. It's as if it's happening on the other side of the dream membrane, just away from your personal sense of consciousness. It would seem you are at a dawn in your life, a moment of personal ascension, but only getting this message in signs, symbols and synchronicities.
Still, there are factors that are keeping you alert, highly conscious, and clearly tuned to your journey through life. Mercury has just joined the Sun in your birth sign, which is giving you measure of clarity on what may seem like another level entirely. It is not, though: awareness is awareness, and if you are paying attention, you will notice with little effort how much life is offering you right now.
That something enormous is happening in the background is, meanwhile, serving as an energy source, and as a furnace of inspiration. From a structural or functional point of view, there is a reason that we don't walk around in this world with our soul hanging out all over the place. While it's not necessary to go to the positively stunning extent that people go to deny their underlying spiritual or cosmic (as you prefer) connection, which is because it's entirely too vulnerable. We need the garb, literally, the physical clothing of the ego, to protect us in such a competitive environment as this world presents.
However, your most ordinary awareness right now will contain something rather unusual. I suggest that for the most interesting cosmic experience, indeed, a fulfilling religious and sensuous experience, you tune into your sense; look and listen; feel the textures of your world; smell the air. There is something else awaiting you right behind the veil of this world, and it's accessible all the time; all you need to do is be mindful of how consciousness works as a receptor.
Ceres has, overnight, ingressed Pisces, a sign which for you signifies your consciousness and your environment. The fact of having Pisces on the 3rd solar house is, in itself, a comment about your deep sensitivity and, moreover, the deeply intuitive quality of your mind and feelings. People with a Pisces Sun are often told about what sponges they are, which is true enough. But Pisces in your house of cognitive mental process and your immediate environment suggests that, like a fish, you are very much part of the water you swim in.
With Ceres in this house now, the thing to pay attention to is the exchange of nourishment within your environment. You need to be in places where you draw nutrients from the space around you, and also among people who find you a nourishing addition to their lives. Actually, this would prove to be no problem at all except for the fact that others are more likely to notice you as a source of strength, compassion, pleasure and spiritual fuel than you are likely to notice them. So your mission for the year is to pay attention to who and what provides you what you need, and do your best to surround yourself with those people and things.
Fortunately, with Venus and Mercury in your birth sign right now, you have the resources you need to make sure you are fully conscious all the time, and unlikely to miss the many opportunities that will migrate in your direction.
