Dear Friend and Reader:

What a strange, beautiful mix of energies we're in right now. When I was in the spiritual boot camp known as Miracle Manor, we often tossed around an expression: love brings up everything unlike itself. The only thing unlike love is fear, so if we can be prepared for that, and willing to meet it (though not on its own terms), life can be more productive. It's one reason why it helps if people in relationship share some of the same spiritual or metaphysical language; then for example the love/fear paradigm can be used as a tool rather than as something we get caught in unwittingly.

Pan and a nymph. A fragment of relief.

I'm guessing you noticed that the 'swine' flu media panic is occurring just as spring is taking hold -- and in the prime of Beltane season. Beltane is the month of May or the first week of May or Taurus time or the Taurus solar midpoint, depending on how you reckon. I'll choose all of the above (once you grok Beltane you really cannot get enough), though the astrological focal point is when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus (which happens around each year May 5). There, it's in a dialog with the four cardinal points (the beginnings of the seasons) and the three other cross-quarter days, which take place when the Sun is at the midpoint of one of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius).

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, where the flu story is primarily occurring, the surge of panic is arriving in the time of Pan, that is, the spring. Pan is the namesake of panic, which is mass terror. This of course reflects a strong Christian bias against one of the great gods of nature and primal male energy: the god with horns on his head, who shows up as the antagonist in their myths as 'the devil'. Based on both American Heritage and the Oxford English Dictionary, it would appear that the word pandemic has different etymology (from Late Latin, the prefix pan means all or all encompassing) but the pun is difficult to miss, and I suspect they are connected.

So here we are in the time of Pan having a panic over an alleged pandemic. I can think of better ways to spend a spring afternoon.

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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, May 1, 2009, #764 - By ERIC FRANCIS

Taurus (April 19- May 20)
It can be sickening how much of what we call life is a game of appearances; of people striving to establish their identity and supremacy for their own sake. You don't seem to be up to this; your consciousness has been and remains internally fixated, as if you're trying to establish your existence within the context of your own awareness. Don't work so hard at it. Venus remains in Aries, which is something of a blind spot for you. She is making a square to Pluto, which will draw you into yourself in a somewhat obsessive way. The result might feel like needing to search inwardly for something that is right there but which is not quite visible or available to your emotional senses. Be gentle to yourself. The mystery of who you are is less like a riddle and more like a painting in progress: one stroke at a time.


Virgo (Aug. 23- Sep. 22)
The Taurus Sun is doing more to lift your spirits than nearly any transit this year; you have been so focused on necessities that you have not had time to think of the possibilities. However, you may find the greatest potential in doing that which is most necessary. You will have, in the next week or so, a few clues about how you can make this work for you and for everyone else. What happens is only a sample, example or a test run, though you will learn enough to remove some flaws from your thought process and the delivery of your idea in a professional context. If things seem to backslide, nothing is being taken away; rather, you are getting a chance to refine and reconsider. Therefore pay careful attention during this experimental phase, because by next month the data will be crucial.


Capricorn (Dec. 22- Jan. 20)
You have more options than you believe. Because so much is important to you, you're experiencing a phenomenon of this leading to a narrow sense of potential; few outcomes could actually cover as many points as seem necessary. But you don't need many possibilities, outcomes or directions of movement; you need the one that works for you. I suggest you focus on that. Part of why you have so many options is so that it's possible to eliminate the ones that are not what you want. I would propose that each time you subtract something from your agenda that does not match up with your values, you declare a minor victory and go back to your elimination process. This is not reducing your potential for freedom; rather, it's pointing you directly toward it.

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