Extremely Lo-Fi One-Woman March Against Bayer Monsanto - May 19, 2018

We're onto you, evil-doers! 

Yesterday was the worldwide March Against Monsanto, a day each year when millions of people gather around the globe to march through the streets and protest Monsanto's many destructive practises. 

Monsanto is a corporation that produces, among other things, genetically modified seeds and chemical herbicides. It uses standard "add-a-gene" genetic modification, as well as relatively new "remove-a-gene" genetic modification called gene editing or CRISPR, which has been shown to produce genetic mutations.

According to multiple independent animal feeding trials, genetically modified diets can cause severe health damage in animals, including digestive damage, reproductive damage, organ damage, suppressed immune systems, tumours, and premature death, among others. 

Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, has also been found to be toxic to biological systems at even tiny levels, at levels the governmental regulatory agencies, as well as the GMO corporations themselves, deem perfectly safe for regular animal and human consumption. At this point, with glyphosate usage through the roof worldwide, women's breast milk is testing positive for glyphosate. Our urine is testing positive for glyphosate.

In Canada, there were marches planned for Calgary, Kelowna, Dartmouth, Kitchener, Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City, and St. Georges-de-beauce.

I tried to round up (no pun intended) some people to march in my local area but came up short, so I decided to take to the streets (ahem...the small town streets) myself to get the word out. 

It takes a bit of gumption to do a one-woman march on a subject that is socially divisive, but I've actually done this in the past, so after I made the decision to go for it, it felt fairly familiar.

I made the decision to march at the last minute - on the morning of May 19. I made my signs in the hour before I started marching, so they were a bit of a rush job. I procured some white bristol board from my local print shop, as well as a red and a black chisel-tip Sharpie. The classics.

When the words were complete, I hole-punched two holes at either end along the top of the bristol board for the string. I put a couple layers of packing tape over the holes to reinforce them and punched a hole through that with a pair of scissors. I threaded some string through to make a double-thick hanger to put around my neck, and I taped the ends of the string to the back of the paper.

There are definitely more professional and slick ways to make signs, but I've always liked the do-it-yourself stylings of handmade protest signs...

I made a second sign about genetically modified alfalfa - a pet issue of mine that I've been campaigning and educating about since 2011. I hung this sign backwards so I would have a pertinent message for the peeps both coming and going. 

Yes, this brings up the possibility of your sign getting caught in the wind and half-assed choking you out (which happened a couple times), but it's all worth it in the name of Marching Against Bayer Monsanto! 

My march was definitely a march against both Bayer and Monsanto. Bayer is the maker of Cipro, the horrifically dangerous fluoroquinolone antibiotic that poisoned me in 2009.

These two nasty corporate criminals are in the process of merging in the unholiest of matrimony. The merger is expected to be completed this year, and it follows other monster-mergers of GMO/chemical corporations: Dow with DuPont and Syngenta with Chem China.

Bayer is, of course, equally as evil as Monsanto, and I've covered its crimes and checkered past in previous articles and videos:

From February 3, 2018: "Stop Bayer-Monsanto's Crimes Against Humanity, Animals, and the Environment!" 

From April 28, 2017: YouTube video "Billions Against Bayer Monsanto April 28, 2017 and Continued Recovery From Bayer's Antibiotic Cipro"

From  April 13, 2017: "Pluto Stationing Retrograde in Capricorn: From Millions Against Monsanto to Billions Against Bayer"

Protest Report

The astrology for the day was very on point. The Sun was in the final degrees of Taurus, the sign of the farmer. Planet of revolution and (bio)technology, Uranus, had just entered Taurus on May 15, and Venus, newly in Cancer, formed a productive sextile to Uranus in Taurus that morning. The Moon was in late Cancer, forming a sextile to the late Taurus Sun. Both Taurus and Cancer are signs associated with food and also with protection, so worldwide marches designed to protect our food supply were quite fitting under these skies.

It was around noon by the time I had finished my signs, and I started off walking around the downtown business district. I was met mostly with curious looks and people's queries about what this was all about. I was surprised how many people asked me what Monsanto was and what a GMO was, but I was happy to fill them in on the subjects.

I came across my musician friend who was practising guitar on her lunch break at the library amphitheatre, and she was nice enough to snap the pictures of me (above) with the signs. 

From there, I moseyed along to the Farmers Market, where most people still didn't know what the hell I was up to. I spoke with a friend who was at the market selling her famous borscht, and I also procured an aloe vera plant, which I had been looking for for a few months now. Nowhere in town seemed to have them. I took this as a good sign for the day and for the march. 

After depositing my new aloe plant back home and purchasing some almonds at the health food store as fortification for the journey ahead, I marched along the main (read: traffic-clogged) thoroughfare through town. This road connects downtown with uptown, and there is a big hill as you climb your way uptown. I'm not sure how far I walked uptown, but it was in the ballpark of 1.5 miles. I was walking on the sidewalk against the traffic so people would have a close-up view of my sign as they drove past me. 

After I made it uptown, I switched sides and walked down the opposite sidewalk as I made my way back downtown.

Overall, this was a fruitful leg of the march. In total, I received:

- ten honks
- one thumb's up from a bus driver (he probably couldn't lay on the horn as a public official and all...)
- one excited wave from a Mama with her two bambinos
- one "Nice sign!" as I walked past a young man
- one "Monsanto sucks!" yelled out the window of a passing truck
- one woman who stopped me to ask why there weren't more of me (more people marching)

I made a stop at the community garden, where I have a couple plots, before wending my way through the park. This was also a fruitful area. I had a very nice conversation with a woman who was biking through the park. She was very interested in what information I had to lay down, and I gave her one of my Stop GM Alfalfa zines. As we were talking, a couple came riding up on their bikes, and I was able to explain to them what Monsanto and GMOs were. In particular, we talked about the gene edited "non-browning apple" abomination that is being produced in the Okanagan area of B.C. 

They were adequately grossed out by what I told them.

From there, I continued my trek and was stopped by two elderly couples, as well as a 7-year-old boy who asked what my signs were about. I tried to explain genetic modification of food to him and asked if he had heard of GMOs before.

He replied, "I think I might learn about that next year in Grade Three."

Too adorable! If only that were true!

You can see a few clips from my jaunt in this video (although I've pretty well summed up the proceedings here in this article):

Extremely Lo-Fi One-Woman March Against Bayer Monsanto May 19, 2018

It was somewhat tricky to march (especially uphill), keep my signs on straight, and get action shots, so these clips are mostly re-caps, but we do what we can do! I'm sure long-term readers are used to my guerilla, lo-fi, DIY ways by now and can overlook any gaps in camerawork. 

Overall, this march was a joyful and fun thing to do. Although a lot of people were wary of me and did the eye-averting thing, I didn't run into any overt nastiness. This was a big relief because GMOs and chemical herbicides are divisive issues that can get quite heated at times.

I enjoy doing things on my own, so it was not a hardship to do this march as a one-woman band, but I'm always open to other people in the area who would like to come together to march in future. 

Basically, I hope people take away from this article and this video that they do not need an external group in order to take meaningful action! Independent actions are powerful, sometimes even more powerful than group actions.

With Uranus transiting Taurus until 2026, we can expect an onslaught of new (mostly unlabeled) GMO foods in the marketplace, particularly involving the relatively new gene editing technology. 

But we can also expect a massive surge for local food, independently-produced food, non-GMO food, and food that is organic or produced up to organic standards. Uranus in Taurus indicates a strengthening of "local food community" worldwide with new connections being forged on both local and global levels. We can expect increasing "radicalism" when it comes to the resistance to corporations like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, and BASF. (Only in a world this messed up would human resistance to poisonous and deadly GMO foods/herbicides be considered "radical.")

There is joy to be had under this Uranus in Taurus transit in taking firmer control over our food, in making healthier choices, in sourcing higher-quality options, and in exuberantly thumbing our noses at the people and corporations who are dramatically crappify-ing our food supply. 

Choose good food! Fight for good food! Grow good food! Work to stop Bayer Monsanto and all evil-doing and poisonous corporations! It's well worth it.

Introducing: Dark Moon Podcast with Yerevan and Willow

I'm happy to introduce an exciting new podcast project I'm involved in called Dark Moon, along with my co-host extraordinaire, Yerevan.

We had a large number of glitches and problems and obstacles to overcome over the past couple months to get this puppy on the interwebs, including a nasty cold that made it hard for Yerevan to speak (!!), but despite all this, our very first (somewhat raw) episode has gone live today, just in time for the New Moon in Taurus and the Uranus ingress.

Fittingly, the title of our first episode is:  

- Uranus Ingresses and Timed War Attacks -

We're planning a series of these Dark Moon podcasts that will cover a wide range of topics. If these 'casts are of interest to you, please subscribe to our Dark Moon YouTube channel. 

Thank-you to my co-host Yerevan for suggesting this project and for all her hard work, and special thanks to Jon Darkly for the use of his wonderful music, as well as for his technical assistance. 

We've officially planted our flag on this new astrological chapter - Uranus in Taurus until 2026 and Chiron in Aries until 2027 - and I hope it is a great one for all freedom fighters and peace workers and resisters of the bullshit! 

I do believe the Dark Moon podcast is a harbinger of good things on that front. 

An epic shift is upon us. Let's observe it and enjoy it and use it to its full potential.

Thanks for sticking with it, friends. 

From the Vault: Saturn in Virgo Calls Bullshit on The Secret/Law of Attraction Phenomenon

Willow's Web Astrology: the original

Often imitated, never duplicated.

This is one of my articles from a series of articles I wrote in 2009 on New Age deconstruction. It's called "Saturn in Virgo Calls Bullshit on The Secret/Law of Attraction Phenomenon," and it was first published on the blog on April 21, 2009. 

Saturn transited Virgo from September 2007 to July 2010. During that transit, it formed an opposition to transiting Uranus in Pisces. The time was ripe for cutting the crap as far as the New Age mechanism (and all pseudo-spiritual bullshit) was concerned...

This is actually one of my favourite articles I've ever written. 

"(Here's one last purge of old Piscean energy as Venus, Mars and the Moon sit on the final degree of the zodiac. By the time you've had your first cup of coffee tomorrow morning, the Moon and Mars will be in Aries. By the wee hours Friday morning, Venus will be in Aries, too...)

As one of my forays into the world of the New Age movement, I worked at a New Age wellness centre in Calgary a few years ago (for a split second) that preached "wholistic health" (yes, they spelled it with a "w").

At that time, most of the people there were over the moon for The Secret and fervently promoted the crap out of it, day in, day out. They had regular screenings of the low budget video and had a 20-year-old "Belief Repatterning Practitioner" at the ready to cleanse you of your "negative beliefs." (For about $80 per session or so - should only need three to six sessions!)

When I wouldn't submit to a "belief repatterning session," the owner of the business whipped out the New Age passo aggro in record time, telling me she was sorry I wasn't "open to new modalities" but she hoped that one day I would be. She also snuck a snide little dig in there about my unfortunate "inability to manifest."

God. What a fucking hack.

That dissenting view was the beginning of the end for Willow at "Love and Light Central."

The thing I couldn't get behind then - one of many things - was the absolute lack of any sociological context involved in the promotion and application of these ideas. The large majority of people who bought and/or provided services in that place were middle to upper-middle class, urban, white people (or identified with that group).

So to have them saying, "Oh, people in bad situations are choosing it for themselves. They're keeping themselves there due to their negative thinking, etc. My life is great! I've manifested everything I ever wanted because I know how to apply the law of attraction 'positively.'" That just didn't fly with me. And still doesn't.

These people seemed to have absolutely zero understanding of their own societal context (privileged urban white folks - even the hippie lookin' motherfuckers) or of the influence of systemic roots related to human conditions. There was no understanding of any kind of interconnection between/among conditions, either. IE. that an owner might be rich because his labourers are poor. He is rich because of a power structure that allows him to reap the benefits of the labour and effort of other people, not because he "manifested his abundance" magically.

So you know that brand new Escalade you're patting yourself on the back for "manifesting?" Well, think about all the people who actually made that Escalade happen. There were the workers in the factories shaping the raw materials. Then the people in the auto plants who built the thing. These people do manual labour day in and day out (and many have been laid off at this point). Then there are the truck drivers who loaded 'er up and drove the thing to the car dealership, hopping themselves up on speed so they can meet their mileage quotas. There are the guys out working on rigs, being hurt and killed to drill oil in order to run the thing, drinking themselves silly to get through another -20 day of work in the winter. There are soldiers fighting and dying (and killing, of course) for access to Middle Eastern oil to run that big bitch. And there are women who are expected to somehow emotionally deal with the results of all this and prop their husbands/boyfriends up for another day or week or year of this stuff while raising kids and holding down jobs of their own. Then there is the damage to Mama Earth that running these big luxury vehicles causes.

Point being, there's a lot going on with this whole "manifestation" process that people don't see, regardless of what it is they're "manifesting." And the disconnect from it fuels all the thinking that it just magically appears one day.

Sorry, but you success stories are being propped up at every turn by people who are getting the fuzzier end of the lollipop. Pluto in Capricorn disposited by Saturn in Virgo knows this stuff.

Following this application of The Secret's ideology, it doesn't matter if you're a poor black kid born into drug-and-violence infested projects or if you're a female born into Taliban-ruled Afghanistan or if you're a rural farmer treated like a labour slave your entire life who had to leave school at 13 to work or whatever the circumstances an individual struggles with. If your life is difficult or depressing, it's the workings of your own negative thoughts and you are somehow choosing this life for yourself because you alone are "creating your reality" and you alone are responsible for changing things. If you were more "positive" and knew how to "manifest," you would be one of the success stories, instead of the failure that you are.

There's little to no concept that the deck might be stacked against. Or that it might not be solely about figuring out how to "successfully" work the same old structures, capitalizing on a bad situation for your own personal gain. Or that it might be of collective responsibility to improve conditions for all people. That THAT is the real meaning of holistic health, not just eating overpriced organic food, recycling, and having a colonic flush once a month. If you refuse to look at social justice issues, if you refuse to look at the power systems/structures that aid in determining who is a winner and who is a loser (and the collective beliefs holding those systems/structures in place), you're missing the point. Because those are things that need to be improved to actually create a real, meaningful holistic health.

As long as the New Age movement is happy to make its coin treating the symptoms of a sick culture, it's just capitalizing on a bad situation.

And it's just a group of navel-gazing privileged people patting themselves on the backs for being so damned successful and enlightened.

It was actually funny because that New Age business owner was a perfect example of the lack of understanding of the owner-worker sociological context. She was a person who brought new people into the fold, milked them for their talent, energy and ideas and then, once they became an ego threat to her, turfed them from the organization. All the while glorying about what a visionary success she and her business were.

Again, using and abusing other people to manifest your Grand Success is a total load. But as long as the Emperess has no clothes and no one will speak up about it, it continues.

Well, you know what? The Emperess has no clothes. She's naked as a fucking jaybird.

I decided recently, after a 1.5 year hiatus, to start posting again on an astrology message board.

Within two days of being back, I had received e-mails from three different people promoting The Secret and the so-called law of attraction to me. Of course, they don't come right out and say this. They tell me they are offering to "check my perceptions" or some such drivel.

So I was thinking, wtf? Three years later, The Secret still has this much sway?

Within a day, I see ads plastered all over the website for Beyond the Secret. Oh, yay! The Secret has a sequel. Well, blessed day.

From what I can surmise, the original created so many people blaming themselves for their "inability to manifest" and so much depression over their "inability to create the exact reality they desired" (not to mention being blamed by those shiny, happy people who DO know how to create their every desire, mostly through social privilege) that they are now schlepping a sequel with the premise: Oh, um, yeah. About that instant manifestation thing. Well, it helps if you have a plan to get your every desire! And let us show you that plan for another $29.95 in yet another seminar or yet another video/book.

So now the shame spiral created by the original has an antidote. Uhhh, yeah. And if that doesn't work, never fear!

**The Secret - $29.95
**Beyond the Secret - $29.95
**One Last Secret - $29.95
**Seriously, This is the Last Secret - $29.95
**Oops! We Forgot About This Secret... - $29.95
**OK. Really. This is the Final Secret - $29.95
**Wow. This is Getting Embarrassing, But This Is REALLY the Last Secret - $29.95

Have your credit card ready, folks, and we'll show you how to manifest a huge bill...almost instantly!" 


All Willow's Web Astrology articles from the blog on Deconstructing the New Age Meme Complex

Zine Deconstructing New Age: The New Age Movement as a Spiritual Control Mechanism

From the Vault: New Age Solipsism

Willow's Web Astrology: the original

Often imitated, never duplicated.

This is one of my articles from a series of articles I wrote in 2009 on New Age deconstruction. It's called "New Age Solipsism," and it was first published on the blog on May 29, 2009. 

  
"This is something so many people are caught up in these days, and it has some really horrid effects socially, culturally and politically.

This idea of: "Nothing exists outside me."

This concept is basically feeding the already off-the-charts strain of narcissism in Western culture and leads to endless philosophical tail-chasing, navel-gazing and inaction in concrete, meaningful ways. It also leads to that very scary level of detachment so commonly asserted: "I live in a different dimension. I've transcended the pain and suffering of Earth. It has nothing to do with me. I'm enlightened."

(I'd just like to point out here - anyone who uses the word "enlightened", isn't. Nothing worse than premature enlightenment! The New Age sells it in a jar.)

It's some sort of Piscean oneness concept gone way wrong. Horribly misapplied to the point that its effect is opposite what was really meant. Instead of understanding the energetic connection among people/situations and the personal responsibility that goes along with that, it promotes a very desired mindset: It's all about you! Nothing exists outside you and your little bubble of understanding!

It's a prime example of how the New Age latches onto a grain of truth (concepts of holism, for example) and then promotes the misapplication of it.

I was on an internet message board yesterday on a thread where people were talking about Obama and if he is a "lightworker." Someone posted that he was doing the evil deeds of the New World Order.

The reply to that comment from another poster (a huge The Secret fan who is constantly schelpping his website based on it) was a prime example of this solipsism.

Instead of actually talking about Obama and his concrete track record (you know, continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, funnelling trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money to international bankers under threat of martial law, attempting to bring in compulsory military service for all citizens 18 - 25, etc., etc.), this dude gets all up on his pseudo-Socratic high horse (another common method with these condescending douches who believe they're "kindly and wisely" pointing out the errors in our perceptions) and asks:

"What is it in yourself that Obama reflects that you've decided is evil?"

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

The old "If you don't like something about someone, it's related to something you don't like about yourself" trex. Bullshit dime-store psychology packaged and sold as "spiritual truth."

His whole ideology is that if there is something you're seeing that you don't like in the world, you just require more meditation or cleansing or self-examination or whatever the fuck he prescribes, more INTERNAL focus, and that will make all the bad stuff go away.

Insanity. Sheer insanity. And the popularity of The Secret (and now, of course, Beyond the Secret!) has created millions of these people, promoting this same garbage, up on their "enlightened" high horses about how those of us who see "darkness" are buying into a "negative belief system" and that we will only understand the errors of our ways once we get to their "level."

Dear God. And we wonder how Bush et. al. were able to get away with it all? And how international bankers just robbed the American people blind under Obama? How all this continues?

It doesn't matter what particular subject you're talking about, "true believers" of this stuff translate everything into their brand of The Secret-ese. It all has that very simplistic and meaningless answer. It all goes back to the same solipsistic ideology and lets them off the hook for any sort of real analysis or concrete problem-solving.

Don't like poisonous oilsands mucking up your river systems? Well, it's a part of you that's doing it! You're creating it.

Don't like babies being born irradiated and deformed from exposure to the U.S. Army's depleted uranium munitions? Well, it's connected to you! You create your own reality, so you're creating that.

They seem to believe constant repetition of this messed-up, solipsistic idiom is meaningful in and of itself? It's not.

You can see exactly how this is being used by the powers-that-be. They love the fact that people are going to look at themselves as the cause of the murderous, destructive regimes and focus internally, rather than holding them accountable for their crimes against humanity.

It's this whole idea of giving institutionalized murder and crime a New Agey free pass because "we were all murderers in one lifetime or another!" Bullshit.

It's the same misuse of concepts like "bad karma" and the caste system. Manipulating people with "spiritual" concepts into accepting injustice and substandard conditions.

The NWO seeks control in four ways - political, monetary, intellectual and spiritual.

And its clear that the ideology of the New Age movement works perfectly to subdue and energetically lobotomize the population. They'll repeat the same old, meaningless idioms, lulling themselves and those around them into complacency. A complacent population: just what the doctor ordered. Unless humanity starts to collectively take a look at what is really going on, to hold awareness of it and demand accountability for crimes committed against humanity, these things continue unchallenged.

All while the "enlightened" crowd sits on their thumbs in some yoga studio.

Oh, but these people are all beyond the archaic political system, right? It has nothing to do with them, up on their enlightened pink clouds. They see no level of personal accountability at all. It's all in the hands of the "higher power," which, it turns out, is THEM! (No wonder these people are so messed up.)

"All part of the divine plan. All part of the divine plan. All part of the divine plan."

The thing is...spiritual hierarchy is over. Dead. Done.

So anyone talking about "enlightenment" is living in an outdated paradigm. Most of the "love and light" worshippers I've come across are enamoured of false light. They have little to no intuitive capacity as far as determining what is real and what isn't and have handed over their personal discernment powers to external sources.

Many go from fad to fad, desperately trying to get their fix of puffed-up Neptunian glamour. Using whatever energy they can find (dirty or not) to sustain their ride on the spiritual carnival merry-go-round. Not wanting to get off to face anything beyond that spinning wheel of hyper-real lights and mind-spinning ether.

Neptunian energy really can be an intoxicating and addictive substance, and once you see how people are using/abusing it, it's sad and enraging at the same time. Most people are better than this.

I see signs of progress, though. There are a lot more people speaking up about this stuff than there ever were before, challenging the constantly repeated assertions of the New Age ideology and ideologies of the day, in general. I think the mass appeal is weakening. People are speaking up despite the fear of spiritual bullying from the positivity-pushers. That pressure really was immense. There were (and still are) so many people lying in wait to latch onto anything they perceived as "negative" and stuff their ideology down other people's throats. It definitely created self-censorship, and I hope people continue to break the influence of that.

It's kind of crazy that the positivity-pushers could have that level of control, considering the weakness of their schtick, but they did and still do, to a great extent.

The other odd thing is how many people who are blatantly promoting ideology related to the New Age movement do not consider themselves New Age. (Or at least won't admit it.) The aforementioned The Secret-spouting message board poster is an example. As are quite a few people in astrology circles. One astrologer, a yoga and Eastern philosophy-lover living in California, even has a personal guru named Amma - a lady who hugs people all day, giving them old paradigm Piscean unconditional love. And yet, he doesn't see any connections among himself, the ideology he is constantly promoting/reinforcing and the New Age movement at all.

I think it's possible they have no idea what they're promoting when they constantly spout off this ideology. No real understanding of the effects this stuff has...

However, in the name of bringing this all to awareness, I definitely encourage people speaking up and putting these New Age regurgitators in their places. I do it every (clear) chance I get."

All Willow's Web Astrology articles from the blog on Deconstructing the New Age Meme Complex

Zine "Deconstructing New Age: The New Age Movement as a Spiritual Control Mechanism" 

Mercury Busts Out of the Retrograde Shadow, and Things Pick Up Speed

So mooooooo-ve it!

Photos: Willow

We are now gradually moving out of the edgy, mental stress and challenge indicated by an extended square between Mercury in Aries and Saturn in Capricorn. 

Messenger planet Mercury was retrograde in Aries from March 22 to April 15, forming three squares to Saturn in Capricorn during its transit of Aries (the final one April 25), and this indicated a complex and somewhat stressful start to spring in the northern hemisphere.

(Not to mention below normal temperatures in locations worldwide. Chiron on 29 degrees Pisces, the degree associated with the last day of winter, coincided with a winter that didn't want to end!)

We're now moving forward, but we've certainly been required to work for it every step of the way.

Communication and intelligence planet Mercury is putting the pedal to the metal as it breaks free of the Saturnine hold that has added challenge and hard work and strategy and complication and complexity to our fresh, spring plans. 

Mercury busts out of its retrograde shadow at 16 degrees Aries on May 3 and moves out of orb of the square to Saturn, now retrograde, in Capricorn by May 5.

This indicates a strong propulsion forward, and we must be prepared for it. After biding our time and working through challenges and making adjustments to the delayed timing indicated by Mercury retrograde and Mercury square Saturn, we must now be ready for things to take off quite quickly! The connections we're making, the conversations we're having, and the information we're sharing are bringing us onto new ground. The territory we have been striving to reach is about to get here fast, and this brings new challenges and requirements for successful navigation. 

Mercury in Aries will move into a particularly cardinal-dynamic period on May 12 and 13, as it forms a square to action planet Mars at 28 degrees Capricorn (May 12 at 6:30 a.m. PDT) and a conjunction to revolutionary Uranus at 29 degrees Aries (May 13 at 3:50 a.m.).

The Mercurial action around this time indicates particularly potent movement, as Mars will be just inside its retrograde shadow at 28 Capricorn at the time of the square (returning to these themes again in late August). Uranus will be in the final minutes of the sign of Aries at the time of the Mercury-Uranus conjunction, ahead of the Uranus ingress of Taurus on May 15. 

The Mercury-Uranus conjunction at 29 Aries is actually the last non-lunar aspect to Uranus before it enters the sign of the bull. This indicates the potential for mental breakthroughs, hot ideas, and startling/exciting realizations as Mercury and Uranus conjoin on the potent anaretic degree of Aries. The Moon will also be in Aries on May 13, forming a square to Mars in Capricorn and a conjunction to Uranus, and this amps up the potency of these aspects. We're fully immersed in the drive into new terrain. 

We can expect big, bold movement around this time, especially movement that we have been working for throughout the Mercury retrograde process. Some breakthrough moments are indicated as we break new trail and hit our strides.

However, there is also an indicator of some "peak stress moments" hitting around these times, as well. 

Mercury moves into grounded Taurus on May 13 (5:40 a.m.), immediately following the "too hot to handle" conjunction to Uranus at 29 Aries.

Mercury transiting Taurus indicates that a bit more of a mellow mindset is possible in the last two weeks of May, and this comes as a relief after the extended stress and charge of the Mercury in Aries retrograde in square aspect to Saturn in Capricorn. 

A nice, stabilizing trine between Mercury in Taurus and Saturn Rx in Capricorn occurs on May 18, and these two bodies are working together from much more harmonious angles. This earth trine should soothe some of the frayed nerves and raw mental states following the hard-angled cardinal energies we've been navigating.

May 18 also appears to be a fortuitous date to plant a garden! This date follows the 24-degree Taurus New Moon on May 15 and will involve Mercury in Taurus exactly trine Saturn Rx in Capricorn, as well as the Moon quite comfortable in its domicile of Cancer.

If one is planting according to the lunar cycle, it is said that plants that grow above ground should be planted between the New Moon and the Full Moon. Plants that grow underground should be planted from the Full Moon to the Balsamic Moon. The Moon in a water or earth sign is considered fortuitous for planting, and Moons in air or fire signs are said to be less fortuitous. 

So the Taurus New Moon on May 15, the day of the Uranus ingress, provides an official opening into Gardening Season 2018 (except for you lucky people who can garden almost year-round).

I generally plant my gardens intuitively, when I have the time and energy to plant, as I'm sure most people do these days. I also don't generally plant the above ground plants and the below ground plants at different points in the lunar cycle. But since the astrology seems to be lining up nicely, I may pay a little closer attention to it this year.

It's been a long haul, friends, but as Mercury burns its way into new degrees of the zodiac as of May 3, we're over the hump. 

Happy Gardening, and enjoy the warm and sunny weather!

Mars Enters the Retrograde Shadow of a Highly Uranian Retrograde Period

Action planet Mars, exalted in Capricorn, is currently activating the Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square (yes, it's STILL within orb) ahead of a very Uranian (unpredictable, erratic, surprising, forward-thinking) Mars retrograde period from June 26 to August 27, 2018.

We're moving into a period of "goals assessment" - determining which goals we have successfully met, which goals must now be released or re-jigged, and which new goals must be committed to at this time.

With most of the Mars retrograde occurring in Aquarius, we are focused on forward-thinking and far-reaching goals that propel us into a preferable future. We're looking to advance the play on multiple fronts (personally and collectively), turning our ideas and concepts (Aquarius) into action (Mars).

Mars goes retrograde once every two years, and in basic terms, Mars retrogrades involve reviewing the personal trajectory we have taken in the prior two-year period, determining how effective our actions and ways have been.

During these retrogrades, we re-visit our use of will, desire, motion, physical energy, aggression, and sexuality, and we also make adjustments as we set off on a new two-year action and goal cycle.

We re-visit what we wanted and whether we achieved it, but we also review the continuing value of certain goals altogether. What we once wanted may not be what we want now. Mars retrograde periods give us a chance to update our goals, our trajectories, and our methods for achieving our goals.

Mars forms a conjunction to Pluto at 21 degrees Capricorn on April 26, and we are asked to get smarter, more streamlined, and more cunning in the ways that we fight (Mars) corruption and general bullshit (Pluto) on this planet, particularly in the patriarchal hierarchies and institutions (Capricorn) of the day.

Mars in Capricorn now slowly forms a dynamic square aspect to revolutionary Uranus as Uranus enters the new sign of Taurus on May 15, and to be quite frank, all bets are off.

We are heading into a very Uranian Mars retrograde period this summer which will be followed by a very Uranian Venus retrograde period this fall.

Willow's Web Astrology patrons have already received a juicy article on the Uranian Mars and Venus retrogrades of 2018. New patrons can purchase this article at a discount (please contact me for details), or non-patrons can purchase the article here:
 

Uranian Agitation and Conscience-Driven Breaks in Protocol: the Venus and Mars Retrogrades of 2018 - $11.25

The strong influence of Uranus on the astrological proceedings of 2018 indicates many changes - even shocking changes - ahead. People may be doing things that are "out of the ordinary" or "out of character" this year.

It's time to make some quantum leaps in the way we do things, particularly in relationships and general human social relations. It's time to break some strongly-ingrained patterns and protocols that are holding us back, keeping us in unsatisfactory circumstances or relationship dynamics. It's time for some new ideas and some new energy to permeate the scene, and this is what Mars brings to the party.

Mars will go retrograde from 9 degrees Aquarius to 28 degrees Capricorn from June 26 to August 27, 2018, and we are setting our Aquarian-era sights on a preferable future. (This is certainly not the vision of the future that the Global Fascists are unrolling for us as I type...)

This isn't all air-sign conceptual, however. Mars wants to put things into action and as quickly as possible. With the influence of late Capricorn in the retrograde process, we are laying down some concrete blueprints to get us to that preferable future, tout suite. There are concrete steps to take, points to dig in on, and areas to work harder for.

We have to work for this preferable alternative, for the preferable future vision in our mind's eye, and we have to work hard for it.

These hard working themes are very prevalent while Mars is in nose-to-the-grindstone Capricorn until entering Aquarius on May 15. 

Our concrete work load becomes concentrated yet again when Mars retrogrades back into Capricorn on August 12, stationing direct at 28 degrees Capricorn on August 27, and then grinding out the final degrees of the sign of business, re-entering Aquarius on September 10. 

The period from mid-August to mid-September 2018 appears to involve lots of work and lots of tests as far as our willingness and our ability to shoulder responsibilities and leadership moving forward. There's a "proving ourselves" theme when Mars is transiting Capricorn, and this theme becomes particularly concentrated and potent around the time of the Mars direct station at 28 degrees Capricorn on August 27.

During the Mars retrograde in Aquarius/Capricorn, we're adapting our personal modus operandis to a new era and to new rules for relating within that era. 

Actively calling out the misuse of energy (Mars) is a strong requirement now, particularly the misuse of sexual, violent, and/or masculine energy, but this includes all illegitimate or corrupted uses. 

Mars square Uranus indicates battles that seem to spring up from nowhere, unexpected attacks, and random shows of aggression or temper. 

(The powers-that-be most likely have our "surprise war attacks" all planned out accordingly...)

We may feel quite "wired" physically during the Mars retrograde process as Uranus uses our spines as lightning rod conduits for its electric insights. It may be difficult for us to relax, especially when the Mars-Uranus squares are near-exact, and there is a caution about being too active, doing too much, being too overloaded as we run off any excess Uranian energy through our physical systems. Ants in our pants. A little on edge. 

We're mining our body intuition for clues and impulses about the road ahead, but the guiding Uranian flashes of light can be a little too bright at times, causing some neurological disturbance or distress.   

It's going to take a lot of focus to stay on top of these electric and sometimes over-the-top energies and themes.

Mars will form three squares to Uranus in 2018 (May 16; August 1; and September 18), making this erratic, electric, revolutionary energy a strong influence over our personal paths this year and for the following two-year Mars cycle. We're thinking bigger and broader than we have before. We're seeing our personal paths within their global context, and unexpected new pathways are opening to us.  

The initial Mars-Uranus square occurs on May 16 with Uranus on the zero degree of Taurus and Mars on the zero degree of Aquarius. Fresh! Mars will be just inside the retrograde shadow at that time, which it enters on May 12 at 28 degrees Capricorn. The initial Mars-Uranus square on May 16 sets a tone (and the general work ahead) for the entire Mars retrograde period. 

The period of time from Mars entering the retrograde shadow on May 12 to the retrograde station on June 26 is very ripe, very juicy, and very dense. We may be called upon to act immediately, or spontaneous events may occur with which we must "bide our time." Opportunities will be uncovered and new pathways will open to us as we work through the Mars retrograde process, which indicates a slower timing for progress and advancement. Frustrations must be managed.

Changes in tactics, changes in course, changes in desires, and changes in our overall goals - all this and more is to be expected this year. 

We may be surprised by how our goals and desires are changing this year, and we may be a little thrown as the goals and desires of others around us change with little-to-no warning. 

Mars will move retrograde into a second square to Uranus on August 1 at 2 degrees Aquarius/Taurus. Uranus is stationing retrograde at this time (August 7) and will be an even more potent influence over the proceedings. Unexpected impulses (and motivational flashes of anger) drive us onward... 

Mars goes direct at 28 degrees Capricorn on August 27 and will move into the third and final square to Uranus on September 18 at 1 degree Aquarius/Taurus.   

Mars in Aquarius will also cross the South Node of the Moon three times during the retrograde process, indicating that we may be re-activating ideas, concepts, friendships, or community connections that were initiated previously. 

Mars forms conjunctions to the Aquarius South Node on June 8 (7 degrees Aquarius), July 20 (5 degrees Aquarius), and September 25 (4 degrees Aquarius).

Things may have a bit of a fated quality to them around the times of these conjunctions. Valuable ideas, particularly involving technology to solve humanity's basic problems, could be "sprung" by these Mars-South Node connections, but they need our assistance. We have to fight (Mars) for these life-changing and society-changing ideas and technologies (Aquarius).

We are drawing on "a little help from our friends" with these Aquarius South Node contacts. We may find new allies and comrades to work with, even conceptually or at a distance. The use of technology to connect us through shared ideas/vision/goals may be particularly important during the Mars-South Node in Aquarius contacts.

New Age Windbags Will Be New Age Windbags

Plagiarists and PowerPoint Presentations and Puffed-up Egos, oh my!

I recently discovered a New Age individual who has ripped off my New Age critiques from articles I wrote and posted on the blog in 2009 and 2010.

Not only did this dude-bro use my work without giving acknowledgment, he actually turned it into a personal cash cow, creating a five-hour (!!!) PowerPoint presentation to take on the road in a multi-city lecture circuit in 2013/2014. 

I seriously couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

To hear this guy preaching about morality and defending the truth in his YouTube videos was quite surreal, as I saw my critiques appear one-by-one on his PowerPoint slides and heard my analysis, albeit in watered-down and co-opted fashion, coming from his mouth. 

This dude has lifted analysis from multiple articles on my blog, including "The Vilification of Virgoan Analysis and Scorpionic Intuition Within the New Age Meme Complex," originally posted on the blog June 1, 2009, and "Time to Beat a Dead Horse! Aquarius and the End of Spiritual Hierarchy," originally posted on the blog March 4, 2009. 

He has drawn from other articles, including New Age Solipsism published May 29, 2009 - an idea from here, a critique from there. He has even used the same (fairly obscure) terminology I used (solipsism, moral relativism, etc.).

I wrote the first two articles for "free" and left them on the blog for the public from 2009 to 2016, when I compiled them into a zine. The articles are still on the blog (now hidden), and I also emailed a copy of them to myself in 2010, so I have proof that these articles were written and published far before his little New Age Rockstar Multi-City Tour.

So I offered my New Age critique to the public for free for seven years and still have many Deconstructing New Age articles available on the blog because I know how important this type of critique is.

And this guy takes that information, that very potent information, my very potent information, and makes a big name for himself with it, traveling around as if he's a big deal, as if he has legitimate things to say to people.

I've written in the past about Big Name Astrologers using the work of ghost writers and ghost readers to bolster their own bloated public personas and platforms.

This would be an example of that. A guy with a pretty big idea of himself stealing my work, my energy, my perspective, and feeling he will get away with it because he's more popular than I am. 

(Remember, kids: what's popular is rarely true; what's true is rarely popular.)

For all the people who shelled out good money to hear this guy regurgitating my critiques in NewAgeSpeak for five straight hours, my sincere apologies! 

You could have learned the real information in my zine (and on my blog) in 10 minutes from the comforts of your own home.

If you really want to assist the truth in coming out, buy the zine from the original author of the articles, from the real New Age critic who has been doing this down-and-dirty work, almost entirely for "free," for 13 years now. Don't shell out good money or God forbid even travel to hear this yahoo or yahoos like him regurgitate stolen and co-opted information.

This guy is not a real New Age critic. He's New Age himself. There are many ways to tell: his speech, his guru-sized ego, his "expanding consciousness/Higher Consciousness" ideology, the way he capitalizes random words that don't need to be capitalized.

But the biggest tell is that for every critique he (I) made, he added a "New Age Correction."

A true New Age critic knows that there is no "correcting" this system of heinous mind control. There is no reforming it around the edges. There is only the repeated exposing of it and the gradual elimination of its influence.

I've been stolen from before, including by a Big Name New Ager (part one and part two) and by a previous patron, and I've called it out when I've come across it. 

The stealing of creative work is rampant on this here interwebs, and we have to call this stuff out when we can. There are some dirty, dirty, dirty things going on, like a New Age dude-bro making fat cash and a fat name for himself on Willow's Web Astrology work.

That won't stand.

I wrote the following article after a run-in with a Big Name Astrologer with New Age tendencies who will remain nameless. It's still true today and will be true every day I'm on this Earth: My Black Moon Lilith in Leo Would Like to Say Something...

False Flags, the Friday the 13th Bombing of Syria, and Timed War Attacks with Chiron at 29 Pisces/Zero Aries

Wounded healer Chiron is currently on the final degree of the zodiac (29 Pisces), about to enter the first degree of the zodiac (zero Aries) on April 17.

This is a highly symbolic area, related to powerful endings and beginnings all rolled into one, and this oh-so-potent end point/birth point zone has been used by the current global fascist regime as a marker to time war attacks in the past. 

When Uranus was on this 29 Pisces/zero Aries point in March 2011, we experienced the illegal bombing of Libya and the assassination of Gadaffi by NATO forces. The illegal attack against Libya by the United States government and allies coincided with covert nuclear warfare being unleashed at Fukushima, Japan with the destruction of the Daiichi nuclear power plants, subsequent explosions, and ongoing releases of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean ecosystem is now in a state of collapse, most often erroneously being blamed on climate change or even plastic in the ocean.

Now, as wounded healer Chiron activates this 29 Pisces/zero Aries point again, there is a new illegal war attack unfolding, this time against Syria. United States, British, and French armed forces initiated the new round of bombings on Friday the 13th - April 13, 2018 - with Chiron on 29 degrees Pisces, just ahead of the ingress of Aries on April 17.

Pretty boy elitist and lapdog of the NWO, Justin Trudeau, has pledged his allegiance to psychopath U.S. vice-president Mike Pence, committing Canadian armed forces to the farce.

The Astrology of the Bombing of Syria on April 13, 2018 with Chiron at 29 degrees Pisces, about to ingress Aries April 17 - click image to enlarge

This new round of bombings follows what can only be an orchestrated false flag in the form of chemical weapons attacks against a refugee camp of Syrian civilians at Douma on April 8, 2018.

Whenever I hear "chemical weapons attacks" in the media these days, I think, "Iraqui Soldiers Stealing Preemie Babies Out of Incubators." It's all a sham and a scam, folks - except for the bombing and the slaughter. Unfortunately, that's real.

The Russian government has called out these "chemical weapons attacks" as a false flag. ("Russia says Britain helped fake Syria chemical attack, calls for emergency UN meeting to 'avert danger of war'")

In fact, Russia reported to Reuters news service on March 13, 2018 about its intelligence that the United States was planning an attack on Damascus and was going to use a false flag chemical weapons attack against civilians, blamed on the Syrian government, as the pretense for that attack.  

As stated, war attacks have also been timed to Uranus ingresses in the past, and we have Uranus entering Taurus on May 15, 2018. 

I would be looking to the re-entry of Uranus into Taurus in March 2019 for the big show, however. Uranus ingresses around the time of March equinox have been particularly popular points for timing the war attacks of the "New World Order."

(It's all very, very old, though. There's nothing new about any of this.)

At March equinox every year, the Sun is on that potent little "endings-and-beginnings" zone of 29 degrees Pisces/zero degrees Aries. This marks the astrological new year as the Sun moves into the initiatory sign of the warrior (Aries), and it seems to be a favourite occult-harnessing point for the warmongers of the Global Fascist Regime. 

Uranus Ingresses Around March Equinox Coinciding with Attacks

- Uranus re-enters Taurus on March 6, 2019. Uranus last transited Taurus from 1935 to 1942, coinciding with Great Depression years, as well as the first years of the second World War. We look to the upcoming Uranus ingress of Taurus for war attacks related to banking, money systems, and resources (Taurus), in particular. Attacks via lack, poverty, starvation, or the manipulation of food or food production would also fit the astrological symbolism. Manufactured systemic conditions of poverty, hunger, and lack of jobs/opportunity have historically been used to entice people into the armed forces to fight the wars of the monied establishment in exchange for a roof over their heads and three squares a day. We see a repeat of these conditions currently under a New Great Depression.

- Uranus re-enters Aries, activating 29 Pisces/zero Aries, on March 11, 2011. The Fukushima nuclear disaster was timed to the day, occurring on March 11, 2011, just as Uranus re-entered Aries from Pisces. 

 The Astrology of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster on March 11, 2011 with the Uranus ingress of Aries occurring that day  - click image to enlarge

The illegal bombing of Libya, driven by Hillary Clinton and planned/executed by Canadian General Charles Bouchard, occurred just nine days later with the Sun at 29 Pisces/zero Aries (conjunct Uranus) on March 20, 2011. Uranus was at zero Aries during that attack, the birth point of the zodiac and a powerful initiatory point.

From a March 20, 2011 article: "The Sun Conjunct Uranus at the Zodiac Birth Point Marking Astrological New Year and the 'Odyssey Dawns'"

"The people of Libya are now being "kept safe" from yet another villainous bad guy as Cancer Sun nation U.S. of A. rains missiles down upon them in a military operation named Operation Odyssey Dawn. Yesterday, 120 Tomahawk missiles were fired at Libya by United States, British and French military. Italy and Spain are allowing the use of their air force bases for the launching of the attacks. This marks the largest military attack against an Arab country since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which gained public support through bogus claims that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction after the bombing of the World Trade Centers in New York City September 11, 2001.

The invasion of Iraq happened exactly eight years ago (March 20, 2003) just after Uranus ingressed Pisces (March 10, 2003). Still don't think astrology is being used in these war agendas?

The invasion of Iraq during Baby Bush's regime has left more than two million Iraquis dead along with thousands of U.S. soldiers. Five million Iraqui refugees are currently subsisting in absolutely dire circumstances. Five million children - thirty five percent of the country's children - have been orphaned, and parts of the country have been left irradiated through depleted uranium munitions. One of the worst humanitarian crises currently existing on this planet is the legacy of the 2003 equinox invasion. Operation Iraqi Freedom (ha) was renamed Operation New Dawn by the United States on September 1, 2010, reflecting the shift into burgeoning Aquarian Age language. We see this continue with the naming of the military operation against Libya - Odyssey Dawn."

- Uranus re-enters Pisces on March 11, 2003. With Uranus at zero degrees Pisces and the Sun at 29 Pisces/zero Aries, the invasion of Iraq was executed by the United States government and allies on March 20, 2003 under false pretenses. Accusations about Iraqui involvement in 9/11 and also its supposed stockpiling of "weapons of mass destruction" were used as excuses. Neither of those accusations was true. We certainly see parallels between the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the current attack on Syria.

The Astrology of the Invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003 with Uranus at zero degrees Pisces - click image to enlarge

- Uranus at 29 degrees Capricorn on March 20, 1995, before entering Aquarius April 2. A sarin nerve gas attack on a Tokyo, Japan subway injured 5,500 people. Some victims suffered permanent damage to their eyes, lungs, and digestive systems. The attack was blamed on a Buddhist cult called Aum Shinriko, led by blind leader Shoko Asahara. 

- Uranus at zero degrees Capricorn on March 16, 1988. Chemical attacks, blamed on Saddam Hussein, killed more than 5,000 Kurds at Halabja, Iraq.

- Uranus at zero Sagittarius March 11, 1981. Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet is sworn in for a second eight-year term as President of Chile. (This date, March 11, was used for another orchestrated attack in 2011: the Fukushima nuclear disaster.) The democratically-elected socialist leader of Chile, Salvador Allende, was overthrown and assassinated in a CIA-backed coup that installed murderous dictator Pinochet on September 11, 1973. (Does that date sound familiar to anyone?) Pinochet rounded up and murdered thousands of his critics and tortured tens of thousands of others (likely lowball estimates) during his U.S.-implanted regime. On September 11, 1991, President of the United States and ex-Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), George Bush Sr., announced the "New World Order" to U.S. Congress. On September 11, 2001, a false flag event brought down three buildings in New York City and killed more than 3,000 people with many of the first responders dying after the fact from breathing in toxic materials without proper respiratory protection. This event was blamed on Iraq, providing the pretense for invading and attacking that country at the Uranus ingress of Pisces in March 2003.

So we see a history of war attacks being timed to the astrology, in particular the timing of war attacks to Uranus ingresses around March equinox when the Sun is on that very potent 29 Pisces/zero Aries point, initiating a new astrological year.

Again, this new attack against Syria, following the false flag "chemical weapons attack" on April 8, coincides with wounded healer Chiron on 29 degrees Pisces, just about to enter Aries on April 17.

Chiron will retrograde back into late Pisces from September 16, 2018 to February 17, 2019, and it will activate this 29 Pisces/zero Aries point three times in total: 

- mid-April 2018
- mid-September 2018
- mid-February 2019

Uranus first enters Taurus on May 15, 2018. It will retrograde back into Aries from November 6, 2018 to March 6, 2019. This ingress point is also activated three times:

- mid-May 2018
- early November 2018
- early March 2019 (with the period around March equinox highlighted in particular)

We also see the sick use of numerology by the powers-that-be with particular dates being used repeatedly for their historical and also occult meaning. As an additional example, we saw a combination of astrology and numerology being used during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma during the total solar eclipse at 28 degrees Leo in late August 2017. 

We can expect more nasty timed events and attacks as the global fascists attempt to form One World Government with astrology and numerology in their back pockets. 

Understand this, though, first and foremost: Uranus is the planet of sudden changes, revolution, radical action, lightning bolt realizations, and breaks in protocol. We can harness the power of Uranus entering Taurus to break the orchestrated momentum seemingly leading us to a repeat of history and another World War.

We just have to see through it all. We have to see these patterns in order to break them. We have to understand that there are actual people responsible for this orchestrated murder, torture, and destruction. There are people responsible for the lies and for the psychotic false flags being set off like dominoes. There are actual people who must be held accountable for their crimes against humanity and against all life on this planet, and this involves every aspect of the highest echelons of power within the illegitimate hierarchies of Planet Earth. 

This is the challenge before us now as natural and loving human beings on this beautiful planet.

We can throw a Uranian monkey wrench into their well-laid plans, but it's going to take diligence and vigilance and people willing to stand up for what's right.

Standing up for what's right is a primary healing theme of the Chiron in Aries transit. 

So dig your heels in, friends. Resist! Refuse this orchestrated repeat of history.

It's all hands on deck as we turn this ship around...