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| Sun, Chiron, Mercury, Tolkien Dear Friend and Client: I did not miss in advance the fact that the Sun conjoined Chiron on New Year's Day, quite the harbinger of The Good Lord Knows What, but it feels a lot more significant looking at my chart animation program at the moment than it did in advance. The conjunction was exact at sunrise on the west coast and within a fraction of a degree as clocks struck midnight across the United States and many other countries. Here we have a moment that without any fanfare opens into a ritual space wherein we may feel our deepest self-healing needs consciously, and have a tangible sense of what we need to do. Sun/Chiron, natally or by mutual aspect, is potent medicine. And we need it now. That Thursday's new moon in Capricorn happened in a conjunction with Chiron adds some duration to the aspect's influence. The setup, combined with the Mercury station-retrograde of the same day, has a milestone feeling to it, or perhaps it's just the entrance to a maze. Getting from one place to another in life can certainly feel a lot more like a twisted path than it does like a stone's toss. We are complicated people. The world around us is beset with complexity and unnecessary struggle. Our lives can seem impossible to get in order. As a resident of the planet I'm right in step with that level of fear which says, "I have so much to deal with I'm never going to actually do it." Or, "If I start this, I'm going to open up the worm bin and never close it. I don't have time for that." The sense that we need to do something may show up in spurts along with being totally overwhelmed. Then arrives the point where one has no choice but to decide. Where Chiron is present there is often a documentable triggering event, but when we get there, we can leave behind the tit-for-tat morality of the world, and our simplistic notions of karma. Chiron is the living principle that all things work together for good. I am not saying this as a matter of theology, but rather as a witness to and participant in the process. I know how frustrating it is to try to access this level of reality and find it out of reach, but here is where we can just lean into astrology. Where Chiron is present we have reason enough for faith in the process. Step two is pay attention. Step three is use what you know. On a Chirotic theme, I spent much of my New Year's Eve contemplating my somewhat elongated path of recovery from (as they come) minor surgery. Any surgery invokes many risks thereof, some of which have not changed since the day the first operation was performed, and for about the past 10 days I've been navigating my way through a fairly serious post-operative complication. This has required placing significant attention on my body and various physical functions, as well as working with healers to size up the situation and seek alternatives to conventional medication, while at the same time checking in with mainstream doctors to get their opinions, archaic though some of them are. I am fortunate to know an exceptional medical doctor who has provided me with a reality check from that department. And thankfully, a friend who is a midwife and herbalist has walked me through the darkest neck of the woods. I don't believe in much in this world, but I do believe in the midwife. Know one before you need one. The help of a cranial-sacral therapist has proven to be exceedingly valuable as well. In my own experience, I feel the current meeting of Sun/Chiron as an image of the many-layered approach to the questions I've been facing. I recognize that I take for granted that it's essential to understand (for example) the emotional material beneath the need for a physical operation, and to do the work of what is called integration, but that's not exactly the way of the world. The world says take it all separately, often insisting that there is no connection between the elements of reality, throwing away some and keeping others; we're not into conspiracy theories, are we. Yet connection is the way of Chiron. When Chiron surfaces in relationship with a specific situation, by transit or in essence, the situation is asking specifically to be approached inclusively, integratively, and always using a combination of science and intuition, of reason and feeling. Sun/Chiron also speaks about mortality consciousness, and how the conscious awareness of death can be empowering. Our culture tends to put a lot of energy into denying the basic fact of individual mortality, thus creating a framework in which we're denied a relationship with it, and that relationship is vitally important to any true path of empowerment. With Sun/Chiron we're talking about individual mortality (the Sun being a kind of ultimate astrological statement of ego individuality, though there are others), but lately the collective mortality stuff has been coming through high-powered on collective channels, like CNN. Most of my readers are too young (as am I) to remember the demented throes of the Cold War, where rehearsal for nuclear annihilation was a regular activity of school children. We have, as a culture, been down this road before. (If you want a very memorable night of video watching, rent or buy a copy of The Atomic Café, a mind-bending history of the nuclear age woven of newsreels, propaganda film samples and government footage.) What we're getting pelted with now, the bullshit about Iraq developing nuclear capacity and the more significant threat of countries and terrorists who are actually armed, is a constant reminder of mortality, both individual and global. America has on its conscience the fact of being the only nation to use atomic weapons on civilians. Our current president has threatened to do so again. This is beyond the pale of even normal political madness, and almost beyond anything psychology can help us size up. Where the nuclear crisis simmers, reality goes up in steam. It is disturbing how frequently the nuclear discussion is in the news these days, and how casually we seem to take it. If we are fooled enough to believe that Dubya & Co. are helping matters, we're fooled enough to believe anything at all. And while we might say we need these reminders to help us feel alive, I think they're part of a kind of faux spirituality. The Apocalypse is, after all, the big orgasm for both lunatic fundamentalist Islamic and Christian religions. There are better orgasms, the real kind. My theory about the nuclear obsession is that it's an extension of our failure to deal with the ecological crisis. Just as many people justify smoking cigarettes because they're going to die anyway, flirting with nukes is a good way to not worry about our collective, long-term health and safety as a planetary culture, not to grapple with the closely-related ethical questions we face, and a fine way to put our personal growth on hold. After all, who needs to clean up the environment, ask deep questions, change our lives or deal with thousands of global problems when we can just simply nuke ourselves into oblivion? And who cares, if "it all doesn't matter anyway?" We know that the essence of the nuclear paradox is how we're going to make the world safer by making it more dangerous, and this logic has worked its way into just about every facet of life. We might want to question it. It is the exact same idea as thinking suicide will solve your problems. Remember that the next time you see Dubya on TV selling global death. Pretend he's a morbid cult leader saying, "Now, all we need to do is kill ourselves and everything will be fine. But first, if you don't mind, I'm going to make a whole lot of money." And we know he's not going to personally drink the purple Kool Aid. Right? Mercury and . . . The morning of Jan. 2 Mercury stationed retrograde. Once again this happened as tensions on the world stage grow, and through a critical period of decision-making, Mercury is going to be sliding backwards through the horoscope. In Capricorn of all signs, the sign of corporations and government. Mercury is the Trickster. The trickery required to pull off these global stunts and to impart mass murder with a pleasant, self-righteous Madison Ave. whirl that makes it all seem wholesome like peanut butter is indeed impressive. Let's give credit where it's due. I am thoroughly appreciating the flimflam that they could be selling this specifically as a war for oil if not for SUVs. It seems that many people are fully accepting of the fact that this is all about oil. What calling it about terrorism does is take away the personal responsibility for all that oil that's squandered on those dumb "trucks." I drive a huge old luxurious Buick and it gets nearly three times the gas mileage of an SUV, and I only justify it because I don't usually go very far. Maybe we need to change the initials on the SUV to WHY? Yeah, I drive the new Ford Suburban WHY. It gets a mile to the gallon, a little more at the bottom of a tank. It's a beautiful WHY. I say buy a WHY. You'll love it. During this retrograde period, Chiron aspects the personal planets Sol, Luna and Mercury, which translates the collective issues pointed to by Chiron and Capricorn into terms that are uniquely individual. We are, in our age, blatantly missing the idea that the personal is political and the political is personal. That is a fancy poetic way of saying that this all matters. We are so glitzed over by the untouchable glamour of television that it's difficult for us to really get that this is about us, that our lives are being played with, our fates, our fortunes, our well-being and that of our children. We don't, for the most part, really get that we have the power to have at least some significant influence. I am really, really curious to watch the reflections in both the government and the anti-war movement as this retrograde slides through the corridors of Capricorn. The president and his men have been bargaining with people and with the world community for a long time to have this war. In an era when technological progress is measured in dog years, it's taken him years to get this project taken seriously. He's been begging the people, congress, the world community and the UN since when? September? August? That's 2.5 or 3 dog years. That is a serious bog. They have their doubts, I assure you. And they should. They are lying their damn faces off. And people are emailing the truth around the world like there was no tomorrow. Keep doing it. It matters. Email is mightier than the F-16. Happy Birthday J.R.R. Friday, Jan. 3, 2003 is the eleventy-first birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien, the father of Middle-Earth and author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. He would have been 111 today, the same age as Bilbo Baggins when the action opens in The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien spent most of his professional career as a classical linguist immersed in Old English and Old Norse as a professor at Oxford University in England. His novels were initially woven of bedtime stories for his children and crafted as settings for the development of various languages he had created, including several dialects of Elvish, the Black Speech of Mordor and some truly beautiful English to boot. Tolkien's birth data, provided by Time Cycles Research (9 p.m. in zone SA02 on Jan. 3, 1892, at Bloemfontein, South Africa) gives him Leo rising with Chiron close into the ascendant, in the 1st house. The ascendant, as the dividing line between the sanctified womb of creation of the 12th house, and the conscious individual identity of the 1st, is a critical angle where we simply seek to be. Place Chiron there and we can live with a sense that existence itself is somehow wrong, or confront the belief that we don't have the right to exist at all. As time progresses, Chiron rising imbues a person with vivid awareness in several dimensions of reality, a powerful sense of individuality, and a highly eclectic quality. But these gifts can be riddled with doubt at the same time the native will endure anything to express him or herself, never quite believing they are doing so. Chiron rising can represent a mighty struggle in which one needs to push themselves into existence every day, even when it is very difficult. The end result can be a person of exceptionally gifted ideas, perceptions and a truly extraordinary sense of self, who has learned to survive above all else. The Lord of the Rings was written in fits and starts in a cold garage between bombing runs on England during the Second World War, amidst the author's having to perform many other duties. The story of its publication illustrates the Chiron ascendant. After the initial success of The Hobbit many years before, Tolkien did not consider publishing the manuscript to his second novel until he was close to the mandatory age of retirement from Oxford. He simply needed the money. The publishing firm Allen & Unwin had long expressed an interest in the novel as he was developing it. According to J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth by Daniel Grotta-Kurska, Tolkien submitted the book, but the manuscript arrived while Raynor Unwin, the son of the publisher, who had been expecting it, was away. An editor unfamiliar with Tolkien's work read the manuscript and rejected it, without even an encouraging note for him to rewrite and resubmit it. "Tolkien was deeply hurt and humiliated over the unexpected turn of events -- so much so that he initially refused to submit it elsewhere," writes Tolkien's biographer. "Despite the encouragement of his friends, he declined to pursue the matter further." Chiron rising indeed. (J.R.R. also has an early-degree Pisces moon, Mercury in Capricorn retrograde and Jupiter in Pisces. His Libra Saturn is placed exactly in the first degree of that sign, one of the more compelling indicators of the extent of public contact that he had, because it exactly aspects the Aries point. And he has the Neptune-Pluto conjunction on the midheaven, suggestive of the dark-and-light themes of his fantasy novels.) Many months later he was finally persuaded by friends to submit his novel to other publishers. A friend acted as his agent. One house told him that the book was unsaleable. Another liked the book but demanded that it be shorter (The Lord of the Rings is longer than Tolstoy's War and Peace) and that the language -- all the Elvish references -- be removed, changes that Tolkien actually considered making. It was around this time that the Gods intervened and Raynor Unwin, after learning that the work had been rejected by his publishing house without his knowledge or approval, contacted Tolkien again. Unwin had read segments of the novel when he was an undergraduate at Oxford and was eager to read the whole manuscript. Tolkien reluctantly agreed. So much for all Capricorns being ambitious. Unwin read it, felt it to be a work of genius, knew that his firm would publish it, and was sure it would incur GBP1,000 (then about $2,800) in losses for the firm. He was unauthorized to make the decision to lose the money, so he tracked down is father, Sir Stanley Unwin, who was traveling in Japan and the far east, asking if he could lose a thousand pounds on a work of genius. Father cabled back to his son, "If you think it is a work of genius then you may lose GBP1,000." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of how The Lord of the Rings was published. Need we say it demonstrates how fine is the line between failure and the world's favorite author. It is also further evidence that we need to stop allowing editors to make decisions about books. Editors should make coffee. What moves me the most deeply about this book is its commentary on men, their development and their relationships. Women play a few supporting roles, but they are minor (Arwen, or Evenstar, Strider's elf-love, is far more prominent in the films than in the book, but this is a plot construction to make the movie more romantic). The Lord of the Rings is the story of men who take the risk of doing the right thing even when they know it's impossible. In its essence, it is the story of the restoration of the true monarchy, a more-than-symbolic gesture which helps all people regain their sanity, their perspective and their sense of identity. This is especially vital today because we live in what some have called the time without a king, and in an era when there are exceedingly few sane male role models but when men are expected to run society. Along the way, we watch a diversity of different men -- four hobbits, a wizard sent from another dimension, an elf and a dwarf who are rather unlikely friends, and a once-shady traveler turned leader of the people -- mature and develop into their truly evolved sense of responsibility, justice and power. If you have not read this book, or if you read it too long ago to appreciate it, please just read it. Don't worry about The Hobbit, that will be stunning when you catch up to it. Don't worry about how long it is; your only regret will be that it was not longer, a comment that Tolkien himself left us with. The films, in all their splendor, are little more than a coming attraction trailer for the real thing, the one and only The Lord of the Rings. Capricorn Birthdays for Jan 3-10 Focus on what you can have, and what you do have, and you'll be a lot happier than if you focus on what you can't. I'm using the word 'have' as generic for experience, feel, learn, and to some extent, possess. There is what's within reach, and there is what's out of reach, and by now you're getting a sense, on one hand, of the difference, and on the other, of the game your mind can play with you when you seek what's not available. But as you move and grow, what seems distant today will likely seem quite available over the next six to 12 months. With Mercury retrograde in your solar return chart, particularly in your own sign, you can expect to have several areas of life where you emphasize the past. In particular, your religious or spiritual views are coming up for a major review or revision. The problem with religion is not so much what it teaches; the problem is the extent to which we don't question what we've been taught, and how we underestimate its effects on our lives. If anything, I suggest you look with a microscope at the religious teachings of your family, whether or not they were overt, and study the values they conveyed to you beneath the surface of the words. When in doubt, examine the feelings, and don't be afraid to ask the same question 100 times. Maybe more. Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope By Eric Francis Aries (March 20-April 19) Track a career matter closely for the next three weeks and you will be given a series of opportunities to correct past mistakes and improve on what you've done right. Remember, there is no rush right now, and if anyone thinks there is, you can just yes them along until they forgot what they asked you to do. Mercury is a more powerful ally to Aries than most astrologers recognize. The key thing to remember during a Mercury retrograde is when to act as the initiator and when to be a little more like the Trickster. Keep a grip on reality by moving through life in slow motion and not taking anyone's michegas too seriously. If you don't, they'll have their second thoughts. Taurus (April 19-May 20) You are nearly at the break-free point in a complicated relationship situation that's been developing over a long while. The word 'transform' is overused by astrology and just about everyone else talking about personal growth, but it is the best word to describe what has happened, or more accurately, what is about to happen to you. What's interesting is how familiar the new space will feel, as if you'd been there all along, or are returning to somewhere you've long ago left behind. It may seem silly what a struggle it required to have this modicum of freedom and breathing room, but remember you've been through some heavy-duty changes and have invested a lot of energy taking into account the needs and desires of others. Life is about to offer you something very different. Gemini (May 20-June 21) Retrograde motion of your guiding star says pay close attention to joint financial matters, particularly contracts and business arrangements. It's vital that you not enter any agreement that does not meet every one of your requirements, and more to the point, that you avoid any agreement that you don't fully understand. Your bargaining power is a lot stronger than you may think, and watch for the unexpected blessing of a benefactor who appears on the scene shortly. It's not the fairy godmother kind of benefactor, rather, a friend of equal stature whose opinion you value and trust. And, if you're patient and let the dice tumble, you may discover that this person is a friend-plus. Cancer (June 21-July 22) The recent and somewhat shocking new moon will have a variety of effects on your life, but give the picture a few cosmic moments to develop. What you're about to experience is a wide, sweeping 360-degree view of your entire reality but from a very different inner perspective than you're used to. The feeling I'm getting from the charts is one of walking through the world with a kind of emotional x-ray vision, where you can sense the hidden factors behind the situations of your reality and the people around you. Naturally you will find this very helpful, particularly given that it seems like you spent the past couple of weeks with a bag over your head that you didn't know was there. Well, contrast is everything. Leo (July 22-Aug 23) The Sun in Capricorn must be a funny time for a Leo because these two signs are among my favorite 'couldn't be more different, couldn't be more similar' astrological energies. What you're probably getting is a sample of how seriously Capricorns seem to take everything, while they're secretly having fun all the time. Anyway, you won't need excuses or covert opportunities to have fun as both Venus and Mars work their way into your sympathetic fire sign Sagittarius and stir up your creative impulses with a steamy mystical flavor. Just remember, though you'll be reminding us, I am sure: love is the only true religion, however hot you like it. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) Current aspects may have you looking a second time at what seem like risky ventures. If we could count on everyone in every situation to be fully honest about their intentions, that would help quite a bit. Unfortunately, as you're seeing, you have to devote a fair amount of your analytical zeal to sizing up the often complex motives of the people around you. I do recommend that you keep it analytical and be a true-to-life Virgo and document your observations because, for one thing, a lot of less-than-rational energy is on its way into your life, and for another, you are unusually prone to doubt yourself these days. The seat of doubt may well be a very old situation you're still trying to resolve emotionally. See it for what it is, so you can see that the solution is right within reach. Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) Close partners may seem to be slipping clutch plates, teetering on one rocker or acting like that lovely hybrid of creative genius and blazing asshole. Take it with a sense of humor and plot to delay their ski or snowboarding trips for a week or two and everything will be fine. When in doubt, you do the driving. The coming few weeks, anyway, promise to be some of the most refreshing for you in many moons. Remember all you had forgotten about what you want out of life, then remember you probably want a lot more than that today. Actually, while you're remembering, remember that it's all up for grabs and that any decision you've made you can just as easily unmake. I mean, it's about time, right? Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) You're working your way towards a moment when you will have an absolutely true perspective, but it's not going to last long. The really really important thing is that you remember what you observed before a second, less benevolent observation that seems to be far more important takes its place. While the whole sequence of events is conspiring to shock you into a new level of awareness, the point is you had it right the first time. The notion that partners are truly free people is a fact that takes getting used to, but what is less obvious is the more important fact that you're a free person, which means free to make choices, and they don't have to be rash or spazzy in order to seem justified. Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22) I have reached the point in my astrological career where every time I meet a Sagittarian, I get the feeling I'm having a close encounter. But next week's entry of Venus into your sign is brilliantly human, down-to-earth, and something of a bliss-bomb. Warm up to this little phase of your journey slowly; as the weeks go on, it gets better, and you'll remember much that you'll welcome back into your heart and mind. If perchance you've ever harbored fantasies of being a temple priestess, a sexual healer or erotic philosopher, this is your living moment to experiment. You could, of course, focus on making a lot of money; money is always good to have. But if you notice that you're earning cash to the exclusion of life's more subtle pleasures, or even the less subtle ones, you might want to get a new job. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) You could spend your time analyzing everything that's wrong with you, or you could be visioning what you want to be right and true. In either case the implication is that you could be more than you are now, which implies that you're less-than-something. But self-improvement is in the air. The issue, as far as I'm concerned, is taking it from a wholly constructive perspective, rather than tearing yourself down in any way. For what it's worth, I suggest you call a truce on the struggle about whether you belong on the planet or whether you belong where you are in life. You're actually at a pretty good place in life, and as for the planet, you're better suited than most for this time in history. The most important thing you can do is be aware of the process by which that becomes true; watch and listen as you grow. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Emotional habits run in communities. There are circles of friends where people tolerate abominable, impatient and threatening treatment of one another; there are others where people take life and love a lot lighter. You have the opportunity now to gravitate toward pockets of subculture where people are really kind to one another. Remember, if you came from a household where people were intolerant or ran a high-pressure routine on one another, this may take some getting accustomed to, and your more cynical side may doubt that kindness is authentic. But you are an Aquarian. You'll get used to it. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) With Venus crossing your midheaven this week, charm, wit and beauty will be all you'll need to keep your visions growing strong. Competitive is definitely out of the question, for now, anyway. This particular moment is dedicated to putting the softer energies to work, and allowing the power of grace to light you up, and it will. Venus is a force to reckon with because few can resist her attractive power. Contrary to what you may read at dustyusedbooks.com, Pisces are people who thrive on action. The past couple of months have overdosed you on ethical naval-gazing, spiritual wormholing and double-mirror introspection. May it come as a great relief to simply feel right about who you are and what you do. How do newspaper horoscopes work? Planet Waves Weekly and PlanetWaves.net are edited by Eric Francis, with help from Chelsea Bottinelli and the Vision List. This newsletter is $49.95 per year and published 52 times per year plus the monthly horoscope. We encourage our readers to contribute their artwork and writing to the Planet Waves project and to cultivate themselves as creative forces in the unusual and socially formative times in which we live. |
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