By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

REALITY IS back, with a bite. We've been on an eight-year holiday from same; some would say even longer. We've been journeying Over The Rainbow, in the alternative world provided for us when we so badly bumped our head on the unprecedented Supreme Court decision that installed George Bush in office. He was the perfect Man Behind the Curtain, promising much, demanding compliance and delivering little but chaos. In this amazing light show on planet Terra, there couldn't have been a more apt Wiz of a Wiz (if ever a Wiz there was.)

Reflecting. By Rebecca Cleaves.

Our head wound put us in a coma for a long while, and in that strange, surrealistic place we inhabited up was down, right was wrong and black was white. We came to second-guess ourselves, since nothing made sense. We lowered our eyes to our feet and picked our way carefully along that twisty yellow road; finding one another, helping one another, while increasingly aware that there were Flying Monkeys to be battled along the way.

But every story has an ending, and while Obama doesn't look much like Glenda the Good Witch, he has reminded us of who we are, pointed out the Ruby Slippers that each of us wear and asked us to click them together. We've discovered that, despite the smoke and mirrors of confusing ideology and the works of oppressive government that have assaulted us on a daily basis, we have a magnificent brain, an open heart and astounding courage. And while it's great to be home again, nursing our heads and listening to soothing voices and snatches of common sense, we find ourselves standing in ruins.

I would think that Pluto in Sagittarius approved the story line for this final transformative act, starring Mrs. Bush's first born. Our long run of religious extremism and philosophical review has reduced much of what was into a pile of rubble. That's Pluto's job, after all; and the world has become a good place for a Phoenix to stir, and eventually arise. Still, as the retreating energy takes a bow for its stellar performance, we're all shaking our heads to clear the cobwebs and looking around to see where we are now.

We're not in Oz any more, that's for sure. The tone of the news has me pondering the sudden shift of collective thought; of course, it only appears to be sudden. It's been pooling for years. This was a Hundredth Monkey political/spiritual shift ... its beginnings evidenced in the 2006 elections ... that was in place months ago, and is only now making its way into headlines. These things take a while to clarify, as we all look around to see what page our neighbors are on and find, surprisingly, that we have more in common than not.




By Rahmana Finney

This article, which looks at three Sagittarian men: Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee and Richard Pryor, was originally published on Wednesday in Daily Astrology and Adventure. An excerpt is available below, but to read the full article, click here.

With the Moon's North Node in Leo, and Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Pluto trine or sextile Neptune, I would say that music was always waiting for Jimi Hendrix. He quickly rose to stardom in Europe and literally changed music by revolutionizing the guitar in seven years. Jimi basically broke every rule set for recording techniques and the use of special effects and sound equipment.

Jimi Hendrix had a Capricorn Moon. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

His Sun, Venus and Juno were all in his 12th house -- Jimi was only here in body. A 12th House Sun can make a person feel "outside themselves." One girlfriend actually recalled that he said to her, "I'm not going to live to 30." This has been true for many musicians. It's a tough business -- a record contract is akin to getting a loan to create something, paying the money back with interest and realizing that you not only don't and never will own your product, but that your lenders control your life. This is how record companies work.

At the height of his career, Jimi would still be singled out and harassed at airports because of the way he looked. In interviews with his ex-girlfriends, they expressed what a kind and almost innocent person he was. As he began to drink more alcohol, he became violent and towards the end, wound up alienating a lot of people. What everyone knew though was that his record company was sabotaging him. He was growing musically and became frustrated with the gimmicks that people constantly requested at performances. He began to want to combine what he called "earth" accompaniment with "space."

This meant funk-driven rhythm, which is an African-American creation, combined with the psychedelic melodic sounds he made on his guitar. Today this is called Funk Rock, and it still doesn't have a genre on the Billboard Music list. When he started gravitating towards the Black musicians who could play this music, crazy things started happening. The members of his last band, Band of Gypsies, swear that before shows, management slipped him acid without his knowledge. A few months prior to his death, at a show that he was contractually forced to do, Jimi walked off the stage after only two songs saying, "I've been dead a long time." Like fellow Sag Little Richard said, Jimi wanted to take us higher than drugs.





Which way is north? NASA scientists are bending their minds around this question right now. A space probe, THEMIS, recently delivered some stunning news: the Earth's magnetosphere doesn't work like they expected -- and it's allowing a "massive breach" that is letting in the solar wind. This could be a problem because the Earth's magnetic field orients our understanding of direction, like north, and it protects all our gadgets. The hard drive in your iPod can play Britney Spears because it knows which way is north.

Illustration of how solar winds impact the Earth's magnetosphere. Image courtesy of NASA.

The Earth's magnetic poles supposedly remain static, but the Sun swaps polarities -- south becomes north and north become south -- every 11 years. Until the THEMIS discovery, scientists believed the greatest exchange of magnetic energy occurred when the Earth and Sun faced one another with opposite polarities, a kind of "69" configuration. Or like two gears moving in opposite directions. But the data from THEMIS proves the opposite is true: solar particles and plasma pour through when the Earth and Sun face each other in parallel orientation, north/north south/south. Imagine trying to catch water from a fountain: you would hold the cup up to collect the water, wouldn't you? Your cup and the water are opposing one another so you can catch the water. But according to NASA, Earth collects more magnetic energy when its "cup" configuration is upside down. It's counterintuitive, and much like the discoveries that woke scientists up to quantum mechanics, it's rockin' the field of astrophysics.

We've just begun a new 11-year cycle of increased solar activity, so scientists will have ample opportunity to study this revelation. Recently, NASA noted increased solar activity -- after a long lull -- that coincided with the date of the American elections. The metaphysicians among us can't help but see these counterintuitive revelations as a chance to reorient our world's concept of "true north," or "truth." But we know not everyone will be interested in tossing out their philosophical compasses. What's obvious to astrologers and astronomers alike, though, is that we've begun an 11-year period of intense solar activity flowing into the arms of Earth like a long-lost lover. The union will peak in 2012. What the climax will bring, no one's sure, but with our land and sky plastered with receptors for this baby, I'm confident someone's gonna know the Earth, or at least all of its magnetic domains, moved. -- Shanna Philipson

Weekly Horoscope for Friday, December 17, 2008, #745 - By GENEVIEVE SALERNO

Aries (March 20-April 19)
Do you have ample time and space in your life to shine like you want to? You seem to be experiencing an increase in ego-centered "Me" energy. The advantage of this is being able to truthfully assess whether or not you are happy with how you are progressing in the world. Do you like your job? Does what you do and who you are at home line up? Do you like the people you work with? These questions are important to you because the career of your choice is really the outlet by which you choose to operate with society. Right now you're experiencing a powerful tug in a new direction. How willing you are to change, and if you feel it's necessary, are part of this process.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
Your energy has been crackling lately. Your need to stand alone and interact with the world as a singular entity has shown itself in your life's vision. The time is right for you to pick an area of study, an art form to learn about, a place to go: anything that broadens your horizons and gets your juices flowing. Your situation may be a call to honor the self by feeding your mind with as much knowledge and experience of your choice as possible. Luckily, you have more than enough energy to do that right now. On the flip side, you have the ability to become more aware than ever of the things that hold you back or make you hesitate. Take note of them. They are like the little dotted lines around the coupons, telling you exactly where to snip.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Powerfully intimate exchanges are revealing a lot about who you are and what you are made of recently, and at the same time there has been a lot of social activity. It is part of the process of your transformation, as well as the gauge by which you can measure it. You have a lot of energy right now as far as relationships are concerned -- it looks as though there is a lot of involvement and a lot of contemplation about the self going on at the same time. Your values, as well as your valuables may be serving as a palpable symbol of where your power is going and coming from. Take note of these things. If you do not like what you see, you have the power to make the changes.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
A test of lowering the ego-drive is developing, and you may be experiencing a feeling of being buried beneath a pile of work and wasting your energy on mundane tasks. This increase of strength and endurance can help you figure out all the kinks in the system you have been operating for some time. There are some resources, exchanges and experiences waiting in line to be sorted out, but are being avoided because of misplaced pride. It is not a question of lowering the self in a demeaning way, but rather by undertaking tasks that take a long time to be done well.

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Your creative processes are linked very closely with your health and well-being lately. Have you had enough time to go outside and play? It seems there is a process of self-denial going on in or around you, coupled with a powerful need to let loose and get funky for no one's gratification but your own. What is stopping you? Perhaps there is something going on where you feel you need to be an adult and that has become equated with being very serious. Usually when a person gets the urge to enjoy themselves, the inner child is trying to make an appointment with the outer adult.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
It seems as though your family, your parents, your heritage are coming to the forefront of your mind, and a specific urge for a base of operations seems to be developing. A search for the best, safest place to carry on your creative self-discovery may be at the base of this feeling for "home." Issues of independence and the relationships that have/are transforming you may be coming to the surface, enabling you to get a closer look at yourself and your attachments. An important gauge by which you can measure your progress in relationships is how safe you feel within them. Do you feel weighted down by a sense of someone else's seriousness? Who? Where? Why?

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
It seems there is a lot of emphasis on siblings lately and if you are an only child, on those you have known the longest. There is a specific kind of energy that is transferred between two people who go back a long way. Through these encounters you've been having, you may be beginning to understand a specific part of your family's storyline and how it affects you. Everyone has a different reaction to the same stimuli and when you talk to someone you trust regarding this shared experience, you can begin to understand how you are different from the other. The more you can understand yourself as a singular entity, the more power you have at your disposal.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
A shift in your value system and a new dynamic at home seems to begin a true reassessment of your life's purpose. Put another way, something is going on that is forcing you to question what you own and what owns you. This includes forces from your past, things you have been taught and patterns you thought were suited for your needs. Perhaps you have found yourself in the same old situation and it seems unfamiliar somehow. Ask yourself at this moment what it was that used to be there and if you can still find it. Do your values fully represent what you are capable of?

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
It's become very obvious to you this week that it is time for some self-assessment. Perhaps you feel the need to take a sweeping look around at your circumstances as well and try to figure out if you are ok with them. Your values seems to be metamorphosing, and with that sweeping change may come a feeling of wanting to block it in the name of duty to your relationships or environment. I know you can handle the honesty, Sagittarius, so I will leave you with this: if you are not good to yourself, it will be very hard for you to be good to others. Now is one time when it's good to pay closer attention to yourself than at other times, if not for the purposes of action than certainly for the purposes of contemplation.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
I have read that there are two types of signals that occur simultaneously in everything we do as communicative beings. One is the signal of what we are trying to do, the other is the stuff we are not aware of that tells other people what we really want. It seems that most of your energy and your force has been drawn into the realm of the unconscious these days, leaving you with a feeling similar to a kitten in a burlap sack. It is not like you to hesitate from a mere episode of wonder, but perhaps now is the time to change the routine. The more aligned you are with your purposes and desires, the more power is at your command.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
It seems that the challenge of this week is about accepting what others have to offer without getting discouraged about your own ability. For some reason, being receptive has been confused with being needy. This isn't always the case, and it doesn't have to be the case this time. Your life is in the process of taking on a new dimension -- the things you are feeling now are the things that will be processed tomorrow and the day after. A more encouraging situation for the things you value may be in the offing. You can make it easier on yourself by listening to those around you and seeing if the help they can offer is indeed helpful.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Does it seem like people and opportunities are rushing at you from all directions? Perhaps you are discovering a new way to make an impact on the world. You have what it takes right now to get some serious work done. When the pace picks up it helps to listen to everything around you. Take notice of how you affect those around you. Think of the fox in the desert with its giant ears: it can change direction at an instant, yet it is focused on one goal at a time. Deep within the realm of your subconscious it may occur to you that this is part of a cycle with a meaning and a purpose towards healing and wholeness. You're right.