Chiron in Aries and Uranus in Taurus Mark the 8th Anniversary of the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Eight years. One full Venus cycle. The entire Uranus transit of Aries. Almost the entire Chiron transit of Pisces.

And here we are.

Eight years into the worst nuclear disaster this planet has ever seen, a disaster with no end in sight, and eight years into establishment denial, downplaying, and distraction. Eight years into a worldwide media blackout lulling people into a false sense that everything's OK, it's all under control, it's all in the past now.

I've been covering Fukushima on this blog since it began in March 2011. The urgency around this situation has never dissipated, not one bit. 

For the people who know about the situation, what more is there to say or do? 

The people who care to know already know about it. So we wait for our directions, for the inner compulsion to act or write or speak.

Penetrating the media blackout, the governmental official li(n)es, the arrogance of establishment science, and the hearts and minds of the general public with the knowledge of the real Fukushima deal has proven difficult if not impossible over the past eight years. 

We have a collective discourse absolutely obsessed with the highly-manipulated subject of "climate change." Lowering emissions. Reducing carbon footprints. Greenlighting a hugely unpopular carbon tax that will kill most of what remains of the middle class. (Just one example of the extreme economic violence we will see during the eight-year transit of Uranus through money sign Taurus.) 

All while the much more immediate threat is ignored, while the global emergency situation created by Fukushima and Fukushima fallout is denied and glossed over and has been for eight long years now.

We have people screaming about plastic in the oceans (a problem, certainly, but nowhere near the same calibre of emergency) without a sniff about the Fukushima fallout that is literally poisoning and collapsing the Pacific Ocean ecosystem, causing mass die-offs in hundreds or even thousands of species of marine life.

There are 50, 100, 1,000 issues that are more critical, more of a direct threat to human health and to life on this planet, than plastic or (often geo-engineered) "climate change."

Fukushima fallout blanketing North America and beyond and collapsing the Pacific Ocean ecosystem, with many aging and leaking nuclear power plants spread throughout the world?

The ongoing toxification and genetic modification of our food supply and bodies?

The murder and disabling of tens of millions of people worldwide via unnecessary pharmaceuticals and vaccinations?

The frying of our biological systems with electromagnetic radiation via the ongoing roll-out of super-speed 5G wireless?

The global web of pedophilia and child trafficking uncovered in the highest positions of power in our institutions?

Horrific homelessness and affordable housing crises around the world with more and more people falling into poverty and insecure/inadequate housing?

Geo-engineering and chemtrailing causing violent weather patterns, crop losses, property destruction, toxification of air and soil, and loss of human and animal health? (Intentional geo-engineering is behind much of what the public calls "climate change," by the way...)

Any one of these issues (and many more) should be usurping the "plastics in the ocean" and the "climate change" agendas in media and in importance within the general public discourse.

Even if you do believe that climate change and plastics are as big a threat as we're being told, the unnatural saturation of media across all forms by these issues to the exclusion of other critical issues must be questioned. 

Why the extreme fixation on these particular subjects while other more critical issues are entirely ignored or at the very least downplayed? Why are politicians running on "getting rid of plastics" platforms as they try to get elected while looking the other way on much more important issues?

If it all doesn't smell a little (radioactively) fishy, I don't know what does.

On this eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, communication planet Mercury is retrograde, spending an extended period of time in the sign of its detriment, Pisces. This indicates a theme of immersion (Pisces) of the public mind (Mercury) in diversionary or illusory (Pisces) subjects. Invisible (Pisces) propaganda (Mercury) that seeps in bit-by-bit over time. 

Constant repetition by "authority figures" makes it truth, and before long, the general public is taking up the manipulated causes themselves, speaking the words and propagating the ideas that have been implanted in their minds without their knowledge or consent.

When subjects absolutely saturate mainstream media and the collective discourse, like both climate change and plastics are currently doing, they are part of a control-based agenda, period. The media simply does not become saturated across all forms like this organically. Neither does the education system (currently extremely climate change-heavy). Public obsessions like these do not occur organically. The intense focus on issues of secondary importance - simultaneously diverting attention from more critical issues - does not occur organically. It's all very much orchestrated.

But it's in one ear and out the other as people continue gobbling up their tasty (radioactive) sushi...

Amidst the intricate difficulty of working with a suppressed truth subject like Fukushima, researchers and writers and YouTubers and thinkers and conscientious folks from around the world (with a lot of help from the media compilation site Enenews.com (RIP)) have scrapped together a basic picture of what we're dealing with, which I will share here.

We know that massive quantities of radioactive isotopes and particles were released into the atmosphere and into the Pacific Ocean during the initial explosions of Daiichi nuclear power plant Units 1 and 3. Uranium, Cesium, Strontium, Tritium, Iodine, Plutonium, and on down the line. Even the High Body of Fascist Global Governance and Social Engineering, the United Nations, has admitted to the Plutonium releases and dispersion.

We know that Fukushima fallout has been found in fish, seaweed, produce, soil, sand, and water all along the West Coast of Canada and the United States ever since despite no systematic or ongoing testing of animals or plants, where radioactivity accumulates.

We know that three nuclear cores are in melt-down.

We know the highly-radioactive spent fuel rods on top of Unit 4 appear to no longer be there. The top of the building is no longer there. Vapourized? We also know mainstream media has created false news reports, supposedly reporting from inside an intact Unit 4.

(Go to sleep, little baby...)

We know that new fission products are being detected - Xenon, Krypton, Tellurium, Iodine - indicating that criticalities are still taking place.

We know that the nuclear cores have melted through their containments and into the ground somewhere beneath the nuclear plants, contaminating groundwater that is then being pushed out to sea. 

We know that tanks full of radioactively-contaminated water, used in an attempt to cool the nuclear cores, are leaking at the site, pushing yet more contaminated water into the Pacific. 

Four hundred tons of radioactively-contaminated water per day flowing into the Pacific was a (likely lowball) official estimate that was given. Every day for eight years now.

We know the Pacific Ocean ecosystem is collapsing. Mass die-offs across hundreds, thousands, of species. Fukushima fallout is dramatically accelerating what was already a very bad situation in the world's oceans due to chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other pollutants. Thanks to the extensive work of Dana Durnford, we know that the tide pools along the West Coast of Canada are missing thousands of species. 

We know that native bands in Canada have found salmon hot with Fukushima-signature radioactive fallout. Even bought-and-paid-for establishment scientists are finding it in the salmon. And we know the salmon stocks along the West Coast of North America are now collapsing. (Just in time for genetically modified salmon to enter the food supply. What a coincidence.)

We know that the establishment scientists and the governments and the mainstream media mouthpieces for those institutions are operating under an extremely dangerous and extremely deadly falsehood: that man-made radioactive isotopes are no different from naturally-occurring radioactive isotopes. That the levels of man-made radioactive isotopes being found in our food, water, milk, sand, soil are perfectly harmless, not large enough to do any damage. "You get more radiation from an airplane ride! From an X-Ray! From eating a banana!"

But those who understand - and I mean really understand, intuitively, to the bone - know this is not true.

Humans cannot recreate nature. Every time they foolishly try, they fuck it up severely.

Intuitively, we understand that man-made radioactive isotopes - especially in combinations that are not found together in nature - are not the same as the radioactive isotopes produced in nature. They just aren't. We don't need any "scientific proof" to understand that. And we don't need some trumped-up expert to know that we don't want to eat food or drink water or breathe air that is contaminated with man-made radioactive isotopes and particles in any concentrations. 

Animals most often instinctively know when there's poison in the food... 

In reality, there is no scientific consensus that man-made radioactive isotopes are fundamentally the same, have the same effects, as naturally-occurring varieties. The idea that they are the same, that they are equally "harmless," is just the standard line that has permeated mainstream media. It's the standard line fed to us by the scientists who have been provided the big public platforms, held up as experts for us all to listen to.

Even establishment scientists are finding Fukushima fallout in the salmon. Remember that. The point of contention is how dangerous and/or deadly that fallout is to the health and well-being of biological organisms. At what level it becomes dangerous or deadly.

Many people, myself included, adhere to the understanding that there is no level of man-made
radioactive isotopes that is safe to ingest, particularly on a continual basis through food, water, air, and soil.

We know that a year before Fukushima happened, Japan agreed to enrich uranium for Iran. 

We also know an Israeli security firm, Magna BSP, had worked at the Daiichi site, installing a high-tech security system with cameras around the six nuclear cores, and this security system had the capacity to be controlled remotely.

Those of us who know astrology know that the astrological symbol of Uranus is associated with both uranium and shocking or unexpected events.

We know that for the past two Uranus ingresses that occurred around March equinox, there were orchestrated "surprise" war attacks involving uranium.

I believe Fukushima was an act of covert nuclear warfare (uranium/Uranus) timed to occur on the day that Uranus re-entered Aries - March 11, 2011. The 11th is a date that has been used numerous times for orchestrated events for its numerological significance.

During the previous Uranus ingress, as Uranus re-entered Pisces in March 2003, the invasion of Iraq by the United States military was initiated. This attack also involved covert nuclear warfare (uranium/Uranus) in the form of depleted uranium munitions and bombs, which have left radioactive dust behind to contaminate the genetic lines of generations of Iraquis, as well as NATO soldiers. There was also a tie to the 11th in that attack - the September 11, 2001 false flag in New York City that brought down the World Trade Centres and Building 7 in controlled demolition was a way to get public support for the invasion of Iraq, a country proven to have nothing to do with the event, even in the official story. It also allowed the U.S. government to bring in the Patriot Act and other fascist control measures that violated citizens' rights in the name of "security and protection."

You can read more about these astrologically-timed events in this April 15, 2018 article, "False Flags, the Friday the 13th Bombing of Syria, and Timed War Attacks with Chiron at 29 Pisces/Zero Aries." 

Or listen to Dark Moon podcast #1 from May 15, 2018, "Uranus Ingresses and Timed War Attacks."

We've experienced one full Venus cycle - eight years - since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan began. On this eighth anniversary, March 11, 2019, Venus is at 11 degrees Aquarius, tightly conjunct the placement of Venus (10 degrees Aquarius) on March 11, 2011. Currently, the relationship planet (Venus) is in the sign of humanity (Aquarius), disposited by Uranus (uranium), newly in Taurus as of March 6, 2019.

At the time that the nuclear disaster began in March 2011, Ceres, the feminine dwarf planet related to nourishment and the fertility of the Earth, was at 26 degrees Aquarius, tightly conjunct Neptune on the anaretic (29th degree) of Aquarius. Neptune moved into Pisces on April 5, 2011. Female warrior planet Pallas Athene had also just entered Aquarius and was on the potent zero degree of the sign.

Three feminine bodies (Venus, Ceres, and Pallas Athene) in Aquarius at the time indicates the ongoing importance of intuition and emotion in the battle to unravel the true Fukushima story amidst a scientific establishment that almost entirely discounts and dismisses these things. In order to protect ourselves and each other as best we can from Fukushima fallout, we have had to follow our own guts, our own intuitive cues. Again, these types of gut feelings and intuitive cues are almost entirely discounted - and most often mocked - by the current scientific paradigm.  

 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster - March 11, 2011

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster 8th Anniversary - March 11, 2019

The culmination of this eight-year Venus cycle brings to mind the community of people worldwide (Aquarius), working mostly through internet channels (technology/Aquarius/Uranus), to continually expose pieces of the real Fukushima story, digging beneath the laughably obvious official lies and becoming the media in the midst of the global mainstream media black-out. 

There are maybe a few hundred thousand people on this planet (highball estimate) who know the real dangers of Fukushima, who live, on a daily basis, as if this is a real thing with real consequences for health and lifespans. And we're among them. This is the powerful fact upon which to ruminate on this 8th anniversary of New Radioactive Hell on Earth, unleashed on us from the sabotaged nuclear cores at Fukushima, Japan.

Do not be consumed by the seeming futility, hopelessness, devastation. 

Wounded healer Chiron has now left Pisces, the sign of the oceans, the sign that brings it all together in cosmic love-connection. Uranus has also jolted into a new sign as of March 6.

The time for emotional and psychic immersion in the roiling, boiling devastation of it all is over - no matter what the devastating circumstance, Fukushima being but one of many. 

The time for paralyzed shock and emotional catatonia is over. It's all fact now. It's happened. It's happening. This is our reality, the foundation our feet are planted upon as we take action from this point forward. This is now Chapter Two of the Ongoing Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima, Japan, being brought to you by Chiron and Uranus in new signs. This story isn't going anywhere. The curtain closes and then re-opens on a new scene, one where this reality has been fully integrated into the overall setting. Accepted as fact. As existing in the background of daily life. As requiring our ongoing awareness and attention.

Under transiting Chiron in Aries, the healing battles take on a new and invigorated tone. A defiant tone. A tone of confidence and swagger. Yeah, we know the score. We know the full-blown collective trauma-situations that have been created for us by those in the tippy-top of the pyramid caps of power on this planet. So what? We have to keep living. We have to stay engaged. We have to continue to create meaning for ourselves amidst all this insanity. Otherwise, what's the point? What was the point of every ancestor struggling through every almost-impossible situation in the history of human-kind, surviving it all long enough to pass life along to us? What was the point of the ones who came before carrying us here on their backs?

It's a point of human honour. Of respect for who and what came before. It's a point of self-respect.

So we shrug off the deadening, dampening weight of despair as pointless self-pity now. 

This world doesn't need any more martyrs, exhausting themselves and bleeding themselves dry with the tears and the laments and the turmoil and the over-extension.

I never saw a wild thing 

sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough

without ever having felt sorry for itself.

- D.H. Lawrence

Dispositor planet Mars leads the eight-year Chiron in Aries surge. We're taking on the tight and to-the-point healing battles of the warrior now. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Warriors don't curl up in the fetal position and let the evil fucks do as they will. They don't feel sorry for themselves. They cut through the suffocating collective emotional and psychological trauma being manufactured for us. They don't revel in it. They don't roll around in it like a pig in shit.

We're tapping into the healing power of our inner drill sergeants during the transit of Chiron in Aries. It's this tough love, this never-say-die voice, that drives us on, motivates us, barks at us a little when we need it.

So get yourself up off that floor, no matter what it is that put you there. And get yourself into position as one of the elite squad that's here for the next leg of the battle. We've earned our stripes. We've taken on as much as we could stand to know. And now we live, every day, with that knowledge as our guide, as our shield, as our motivating drive.

They did everything they could to stop us from getting here. And still we're here. Still we know. 
Still we see. We understand the circumstances, no matter how much distraction and illusion we had to peel through to get here.

We're liberated from the weeping and the wailing for the poor creatures of this Earth. Because to be quite fucking frank, we're among those poor creatures. We are them, and they are us. We're really in no better standing. We're as inextricably connected to this poisoned psychopathic playground as the dying whales and the dissolving starfish and the lesion-filled seals and the starving polar bears. (The dolphins really do make me cry, though, as Hootie once said...) Shed a tear for yourselves while you're at it. And for every human being you've ever loved or will ever love.

Because we're all in the same boat now. 

So we'd better get to paddling. 

Ban Nuclear Power Plants and Nuclear Weapons on Earth!

- All Willow's Web Astrology articles on the Fukushima nuclear crisis -

Happy 11th Birthday, WWA Blog!

My blog is 11 years old today! Entering the pre-teen years with grace and aplomb...

One of my goals for 2019 was to help bring the intuitive/spiritual/metaphysical arts more strongly into the traditional arts scene, creating a solid and respected place there for serious astrologers, tarot readers, psychics, and other intuitive artists. 

I think we've more than earned our place!

Unrelated to that goal (or so I thought), I recently started a social group for writers of all varieties in the area where I live. The initial meet-up location for the group is at a cool little retro bistro/cafe near the railroad tracks here that has (what else?) a train/railway theme. I sense a "making connections" theme.. 

So far, the meet-up group has brought different creative people and creative threads together with ideas springing up for cross-overs and collaborations, including the possibility of a multi-disciplinary open mic night. Very cool!

Unexpectedly, I seem to be making a wee bit of progress toward my goal of carving out a place for astrology and the intuitive arts within the broader arts scene in this area - not by straight-out asking for this but by coming into contact with other creative people who want to grow and develop the arts scene here. Purely organic! For me, that's always the best way for these things to happen (probably the only way).

I'm excited and honoured to help bring astrology into the more traditional arts fold in my town in whatever way is needed and rightful, to respectfully represent this precious and sacred art and to introduce people to a more in-depth understanding of it and its amazingly helpful applications.

It isn't something I consciously set out to do with the writers group, but it's something I sure do love to see. I think it's just time - in my area and in many areas - to establish the intuitive arts and legitimate intuitive artists as real and valuable elements of the overall arts scene.

I know the rightful place for astrology, astrologers, and other intuitive readers won't be carved out overnight. (Understatement.) But to see any progress on this front is pretty delightful.

Thank-you as always for being the most kick-ass astro blog around, WWA! Please keep on keeping on with your damn fine self. 

And thank-YOU for reading, for becoming patrons, for ordering readings or lessons, for buying zines or photography or jewellery, for making supportive comments, for sending appreciative emails, and for sharing articles and videos with your own networks.

I hope I don't know a day when I'm not sharing what I see and fighting for a better way through Willow's Web Astrology.

Happy, Happy 11th Birthday, Baby!

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces: Spirit Whispers Directives as We Step into a New Astrological Chapter

"Mercury Retrograde in Pisces: Spirit Whispers Directives as We Step into a New Astrological Chapter" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

Happy Juno Day with Chiron on 29 Pisces!

Love and love and love and love!

Photos: Willow
Photo of my sister in her fab new skirt: Robyn Fahlman

Happy Juno/Valentine's Day from your anarchist astro-reporter!

This is our final Juno Day of the Chiron in Pisces transit, and it just so happens that the wounded healer is on the very last degree of Pisces this February 14th, which is the very last degree of the entire zodiac.

These are the master lessons about both the healing and the wounding potential of love on this planet. This Juno Day is ripe for some profound realizations about real love versus the illusory or overly-idealized versions that have run rampant during the final century or so of the astrological Piscean era. 

The influence of Chiron on the complex and potent anaretic degree of Pisces this Juno/Valentine's Day indicates there may be a little of that old school "dashed romantic ideals and disappointment" nipping at people. This is a throwback to the astrological Piscean era when fairy tale romances and Disney prince/princess dreams (often manufactured for us by nefarious social engineers) created a perfectly terrible clash of artificial, pie-in-the-sky ideals with human, Earth-bound realities.  

Well, folks, I'm here to tell you that with Chiron on the 29th degree of Pisces, about to blaze into Aries on February 17, that version of idealized and impossible-to-maintain-on-a-daily-basis love is a thing of the past! Poof! It's a relic. An outdated fantasy. And it's being banished to the maya realms where it belongs.

If Chiron on 29 Pisces this Juno Day has any message it would like to remind us of, it's this: love is all around us. It sustains us every day in every way - whether it is love for God (or whatever word you use for your higher power), love for family and friends, love for a significant other, love for co-workers, love for your community and fellow human beings, love for animals, love for plants, love for self, love for the work you do, or a combination of all of these. 

Love is the invisible glue that holds it all together. Invisible Love Glue! It's real, and it's there for us every day in amazing ways.

Of course, romantic love is wonderful. Almost every human being on this Earth aspires to it. But we aren't meant to make ourselves miserable when we do not have it. After all, romantic love is only one of the many wonderful forms of love on this planet. 

So instead of creating and reinforcing a day where people without romantic love feel like jumping off a bridge, this Juno Day - and I hope for every Juno Day that follows - we're celebrating the full, rich and gorgeous spectrum of love on this planet.

There's a common saying out there that love is an action, not a feeling. I think it's both! But love definitely exists in the basic, practical details of daily life, and it's this form of love that is more often downplayed or overlooked.

Love is holding the door open for someone. It's letting someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store. Love is telling someone about a great sale going on nearby. It's warning someone about an icy spot on the sidewalk.

Love is helping someone move. Oh boy, is that love!

Love is giving a genuine compliment. It's telling people when they're doing a good job.

Love is smiling at someone who looks as if they're having a rough day (or a rough life). Love is letting it slide when someone is a little snippy or abrupt toward you for that same reason.

Love is feeding people - physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. Love is cooking for people. Love is taking care of people. It's cleaning up after people. It's working hard to make sure others have what they need. Love is mothering and fathering - toward children or otherwise.

Love is doing a dreaded chore or task so someone else doesn't have to.

Love is being there for someone. It's being reliable. It's taking responsibility.

Love is teaching someone something. Love is being accepting of a lesson when we need to learn it. 

Love is my beautiful sister making her own V-Day skirt out of this adorable fabric (right) and wearing it to her office at the Faculty of Engineering. Sharing her creative love with the buttoned-up engineers and engineering students!

Love is my city's bus drivers persevering through six full months of hideous road construction, complete with sometimes 45-minute waits to get through, without losing professional courtesy toward their riders.

In Canada (and other cold-weather countries), love is scraping someone else's windshield. It's shovelling someone else's driveway. It's a private citizen shovelling the snow on the sidewalk around the bus shelter so people can board the bus safely. It's helping to pull someone's vehicle out of a snow drift or giving them a boost when their battery is dead.

A winter cold snap recently froze the pipes in my friend's home. Her husband dutifully thawed them out in -30 Celsius weather...on their anniversary. That is true Canadian romance! 

On a personal note, love is readers shelling out their hard-earned dollars to become patrons of this site. Showing love for WWA! I certainly love that.

Love is every article I write and every photograph I take. 

And yes, love is romantic gestures like flowers and chocolates and candle-lit dinners. Love is a special piece of jewellery. It's some sexy lingerie. It's a gift certificate for a couple's massage. It's a weekend getaway.

The point is, we show love and are shown love every day in a multitude of ways, and this is truly something to celebrate.

A day that creates depression, despair, and disappointment in people who feel they are falling short of the idealized, romantic (and socially-engineered) goals is not something I wish to celebrate or participate in. So let's shrug off that old, Piscean-era version of love as an uninteresting throwback. Love is much richer and grander and more exciting than all that.

Juno Day is a day to celebrate the soul mates in our lives in all the forms they take!

Soul mate asteroid Juno, currently in early Gemini, has a message from its transit of Pisces that could use a little replay on this final Valentine's Day of the Chiron in Pisces transit. From March 11, 2018, "Juno in Pisces and Our Relationship With Illusion at the end of the Astrological Piscean Era":

"Juno transiting Pisces indicates a period of time when we are working intricately with our relationship to illusion - a textbook Pisces theme.

With transiting Juno in Pisces, the soul mates in our lives may be helping us with these illusions in some way - perhaps drawing attention to areas where the rose-coloured glasses are a little thick or providing experiences that pop our Neptunian bubbles and bring us back to reality.

Under this transit, we may be bothered more than usual by people trying to portray "the perfect life" or "the perfect relationship" through media or social media. (Narcissistic tendencies are another Piscean/Neptunian theme, and we have more than enough of those going around these days...)

At the same time, we may have soul mates who are helping us to see through these carefully-curated lifestyles and immaculately-filtered images. Once we pop an illusion, once we disrupt the glossy surface sheen, once we see that there is no such thing as "the perfect life" or "the perfect relationship" or "the perfect Instagram filter," there's really no going back. There's no going back to a time when we were fooled by those things.

And at that point, we really have to ask: why are so many people putting so much time, effort, and money into portraying this false image of lifestyle-perfection? Why are people creating lifestyle illusions designed only to make other people covet their lives and what they have?

It's a little pathological, really, isn't it? 

We are now officially in the astrological Age of Aquarius, but there are still plenty of old, Piscean-era ghosts traipsing around and old, Piscean-era illusions left to dissipate.

The high romanticism of the standard Neptunian love story is one illusory element that may need to be put in tighter check under this Juno in Pisces transit. 

Within the pages of a classic English novel, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester find blissful union, at last, long last, as two halves of the same soul meet in holy matrimony. A fictional love to make your heart ache, feverish that you may never find its equivalent. And in real life, its author Charlotte Bronte marries a clergyman she is merely fond of - no great, melting love of her life - after watching her entire family perish one-by-one, only to die herself while pregnant soon after being wed. 

How's that for a sobering reality check?

How many of the great historical love stories, so implanted in the collective psyche and so sought after, have been myth, illusion, just a good story?

And how many of the great Facebook or Instagram love stories are cut from that same cloth?

We have now planted our flags on the Aquarian-era side of things and are looking to create a more rational and realistic version of romance and of life, in general. Even if we aren't looking to do that - that's the path to greater success, veering away from the highly-idealized and soft-lit versions of love, romance, and "lifestyle" that generally end in disappointment and bad feelings.

We're looking to maintain that beautiful Piscean love and connection, but we're doing it with our feet on the ground, with a keen eye toward egalitarian love, rather than a love that places anyone or anything on a pedestal."

So let's get our heads out of those bliss-bombed, Neptunian clouds and focus on the love that we have right in front of us. Real love is worth so much more than those fantastical, idealized, never-quite-realized versions.

Happy Juno Day, readers! Please share your own brand of love in this world on this day and every day. This planet needs it!   

Mercury-Black Moon Lilith Contacts, Censorship, and Reporting From the Fringes

Media and communication planet Mercury forms an exterior conjunction to the Sun in Aquarius today (6:52 p.m. PST) at 9 degrees. 

These bodies continue travelling in conjunction until Mercury enters Pisces on February 10. The Sun and Mercury are also forming conjunctions to Black Moon Lilith (BML), the point of deep, dark, denied feminine experience. 

This indicates that the Sun is shining its light on outsider (BML) information (Mercury) and on those who write, speak, and share that information. 

Reporting from the fringes!

Mercury-Black Moon Lilith contacts can indicate perspectives that are inflammatory or disturbing to a more mainstream/establishment mindset (even pseudo-alternative varieties), and these outsider perspectives can sometimes create hostile backlash for the marginalized messengers. 

There's some bounce-back, some rejection, some ejection, some circling of the wagons associated with Black Moon Lilith, and when winged messenger Mercury is involved, this particularly relates to information, ideas, and communication. 

As a person with a prominent Mercury-Black Moon Lilith contact in the natal chart, I'm offering up an illustrative tale here from my 20-year experience as a writer and reporter who has always, through no intention of my own, had a very hard time getting my work included in the public discourse - both mainstream and alternative versions.

Before I became the ass-kicking anarchist astro-reporter whose words you are reading here today (heh), I briefly worked in mainstream media.  I have an undergraduate degree in journalism and communications from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan. But even way back in journalism school, the BML writing was on the wall. 

I came to understand quite quickly that the media outlets as they existed would not allow me to do the work I needed to do. I knew they wouldn't accept my perspective or the perspectives of people like me as fully legitimate, as deserving of a voice and a real place at the table. 

So I've carved my own path out as an independent journalist and writer. People of a more establishment-friendly persuasion often look down on this type of path (not to mention, on blogging, in general) as less prestigious and less important work. 

(I recall being introduced to a fairly well-known astrologer who had achieved her fame doing newspaper horoscopes. I was introduced to her as an astrology blogger and "one of the best astrological writers out there." Her question to me was, "But have you actually written anything?")

Despite this public perception, I can say with absolute certainty that the work I've put out on my own is exponentially more powerful, meaningful, effective, and necessary than the work I would have been doing, than the work I would have been allowed to do, from a more institutional or establishment media platform.

The Black Moon Lilith-ian message of this story for you, readers, is to understand the power of your own pure and potent voice, even when it seems to fall on deaf ears, even when it is blocked or dismissed by others, even when it is not accepted into the public fold or given a broader public platform. Know that your undiluted voice is more powerful - and more necessary - than a million middle-of-the-road perspectives blending together so as to be indistinguishable from each other. Don't allow anyone to diminish your voice simply because it doesn't fit the standard moulds, simply because it doesn't have a category, simply because it makes someone uncomfortable to hear it. Speak. Write. Put it out there. Even when it seems that there is no one to tell. I guarantee you - someone's listening.

When I was but a youthful willow tree on my journalism school internship at a daily newspaper in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, I saw for the first time in real life (ie. outside the pages of Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent) how the news is filtered. 

It was November 1999, and I wanted to do a story on some local people who were travelling all the way from Saskatoon to Seattle, Washington for the protest of the World Trade Organization meetings being held there. 

So I gathered my courage, walked up to my editor's desk, and pitched the story to him. I was promptly informed that it was a non-story and that I would not be covering it.

I walked back to my desk wondering, how could this possibly be a non-story? I mean, that paper wasn't above re-writing press releases for a story. If local people doing a Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser run or erecting a statue in a city park was news, how could local people driving all the way to Seattle for a protest of this sort not be a story?

I had my finger on the pulse here! I'd heard the buzz about this protest. I knew it was going to be big, and I knew this editor was wrong. But what could a lowly intern reporter do about it? Not much.

Three days later, the story had absolutely blown up in worldwide media. The Battle in Seattle! Tens of thousands of protesters from around the world were on the verge of shutting down the meetings! Unheard of!

My editor came up to my desk and said, oh yeah. I guess you were right. Do you want to do a story on it now?

So I did the story. I talked to the protesters about why they were there, including the behind-closed-doors nature of the meetings. But when the story ran the next day, it had been censored. Anything the protesters said that was critical of the Canadian government had been removed. When I asked the copy editor about it, I was informed that I couldn't publish stuff like that. 

The protests continued to be headline news. Sensationalized photos of the protesters getting gassed by police were splashed all over mainstream media.

My editor came to me again and asked me to do another story about how out of control the protests were getting.

Instead, I interviewed the protesters and wrote their views: that the gas and the police and the sexy photos shouldn't distract from the real issues, from the real reasons the protesters had driven all the way from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Seattle, Washington to protest.

That story ran on the very last page of the City News section. It was buried as far back as it could possibly be buried without them axing it altogether, following even the wire stories.

That was my first understanding of how the news the public receives is filtered and shaped. If it even makes it into the paper/onto TV at all, it will be shaped into what is considered "acceptable." Now, this might seem pretty well self-evident at this point. The mainstream media doesn't tell the full truth? It only promotes certain perspectives coming from certain types of people? Big news flash! 

But this was almost 20 years ago, recall. People were nowhere near as media-savvy as they are today (and I wouldn't even call most people media-savvy at this point). The internet was in very early, dial-up stages at that time.

So this hit me like a tonne of bricks. I realized in that moment that publications like these only employ people who will naturally fall in line with the "acceptable standards" and that I would never be one of those people. I would never be able to go along with it. Writing had always been a sacred thing to me. A gift. Something that literally kept me alive. It was not possible to corrupt it for a prestigious job and a sweet paycheque, no matter how much pressure was put on me to do so. (And oh boy, there was pressure.)

In that moment of life, I knew the work and the writing I was on this Earth to do could not be done from a mainstream media platform. And that's a pretty big realization to have when you're a farm-fresh gal one year away from a journalism degree with a big student loan to pay back.

For that reason, when I graduated and my professor got me a job interview with CBC TV news, I did the interview. I accepted the job as "researcher" for the supper hour news show in Regina.

A conservative Torontonian from the private sector (CBC-ers often kind of looked down on the private stations' news due to its more advertiser-friendly, watered-down coverage) had been hired as head honcho of the newsroom. He was basically there to impose the “VJ” or video journalist system as a cost-cutting measure. In other words, reporters were now expected to shoot and edit their own stories as well as writing, researching, interviewing, etc. It would make many camera and editing jobs redundant, not to mention the fact that it would make doing a decent, in-depth news story almost impossible due to the time and energy constraints of the reporters. So this was a bit of a tense time at old CBC TV news. Just in time for Willow to show up.

My time at CBC coincided with the lead-up to another big protest - of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meetings in Quebec City in April 2001.

Again, I was pitching stories about this. Again, I was brushed off. 

I learned that RCMP officers from Saskatchewan were being called in to be part of the police force at the protest. In fact, I learned that the Liberal Jean Chretien government was bringing in officers from all across Canada, as well as members of the army. The police/military presence was going to be immense, something, at the time, that was unprecedented in Canadian history. This was a huge expenditure of taxpayer's dollars.

Of course, this was of little interest. The public not picking up after their dogs in the off-leash dog park was a much more important story.

I remember a reporter taking me aside and telling me that the head honcho was dropping the ball, that they should be giving me a camera so I could go to Quebec to cover the story.

It just so happened that my contract ran out just before the protest. I ended up leaving CBC (a mutual decision) and going to the FTAA protest with a group of people from Saskatchewan. Driving non-stop, day-and-night, from Regina to Quebec City in a 15-passenger van. Not fun.

The powers-that-be had learned from the Battle in Seattle, where protesters were able to get the upper hand and shut down the meetings by filling the streets around the convention centre. This time, in Quebec City, they had erected a huge chain-link fence, cordoning off the blocks surrounding the convention centre where the meetings were to be held. Police in full riot gear stood along the fence on the inside perimeter. Luxury cars carried VIPs through the fence at a policed checkpoint.

Marching along the fence at the FTAA protests, Quebec City, April 2001
Photos: Willow
These photographs aren't the greatest because they were taken with disposable cameras. I was afraid to take my real camera in case it got smashed or confiscated. 

The Free Trade Area of the Americas trade agreement had never been made public (as most of the “free trade talk rounds” were kept undisclosed). They were trying to extend already-controversial NAFTA to Central and South America without public consent. There was also word that water and health care were to be turned into free trade-able commodities, subject to free trade rules (ie. no protection, no government subsidization).

The fact that the heads of business and state were holed up in their meetings behind a huge chain-link fence patrolled by riot police was a pretty fitting symbol of the lack of transparency in our so-called "democracy, " no? 

Tin soldiers and Chretien's coming...

We started our march at Laval University, where we were staying, marching and chanting peacefully through the streets in quite a fun and high-spirited manner as we made our way to the fence. People were drumming and laughing and making noise. We were enjoying being together. Once we got to the Chain-Link Beast, we literally just stood at the fence watching the police standing on the other side of the fence. Some people made speeches. There were some dancers. People decorated the fence with paper flowers and other art. That was it. But soon, the police were launching CS gas grenades at us. Pepper spray powder. Spraying us with a water cannon filled with some sort of chemical that burned when it hit your skin. Later, shooting us with rubber bullets that left big, red welts on the people they hit, including my friend. The gas was everywhere. People were being overwhelmed. 

 

People fleeing from the evil gas

 The water cannon

I stepped in a mound of pepper spray powder which flew up into my eyes. They burned and watered, and I couldn't see at all. There were some DIY medics going around rinsing people's eyes with water, and luckily, someone saw me and doused me. (Thank-you, angel!) 

 DIY medics washing pepper spray out of a protester's eyes

One of the freakiest things I have ever seen was when a string of police - all in full riot gear and gas masks, shields and batons at the ready – came out from behind the fence. They moved in formation, like a centipede, to try to drive us away from the fence. No longer individual humans. They were a machine.

For two days, we held our ground. Some people had invested in gas masks. We Saskatchewanians had discussed it but since we were on such a shoestring budget, we didn't follow through. To make due once we were in Quebec City (and once we were being bombarded with massive doses of CS gas and pepper spray powder), we learned to soak bandanas in apple cider vinegar, tying them around our noses and mouths so we could withstand the gas. 

And it worked. The goon squad used so much gas against the protesters that the wind blew it back into the convention centre, and they had to shut down the meetings!

Gas mask drummers

A historical use of combined police/military force and chemical warfare, paid for with taxpayer's dollars, against peaceful protesters on Canadian soil: I was sick from the gas for weeks after I returned from the protests, and I and the other women I protested with got our periods immediately afterwards - something in the gas messed with our hormones. 

And also a historic moment for public protest in Canada: even with the fence, we shut down their meetings! (Sure, it was because they gassed the shit out of us in such an extreme way that it seeped into the convention centre, but I'll still take that as a win...) 

And yet, this was not warranted news-worthy by media in Saskatchewan. 

The Free Trade Area of the Americas protests in Quebec City in April 2001 were the beginning of the normalization, in "peace-keeper" Canada, of massive police/military presence, chemical warfare, and major expenditure of taxpayer's dollars to insulate bigwigs from the people protesting at their mucky-muck meetings. 

The G20 meetings held in Huntsville and Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in June 2010 escalated this further to include illegal searches, surveillance of organizers, mass arrests of peaceful protesters, and the roll-out of energy weaponry in the form of Long-Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs). The price tag for taxpayers was over $1 billion for the G20 police state.

I wrote extensively about this escalation on the blog (see G20 label), including the astrology of that G20 summit, which occurred under a Capricorn Full Moon partial lunar eclipse exactly conjunct Pluto within a cardinal t-square formation that involved almost every body in the zodiac (Jupiter-Uranus in Aries, Sun-Mercury-Juno-South Node in Cancer, Moon-Pluto-North Node in Capricorn). 

Reporting from the fringes. Reporting from the underground. Not out of choice, but out of necessity...

Reeling from the experience at the FTAA protests and not knowing which direction to go in, I tried mainstream media one more time - a thrice-weekly community newspaper in Whitehorse, Yukon. But while I was there, 9/11 happened. I knew instantly that this event was so much bigger, had so many more implications, than I could sum up in a 700-word news article. I didn't even know where to begin. But it was my job to put words down on a computer screen that would then be printed and put into the minds of a public that was trying to make sense of the whole thing. Again, I was confronted with the limitations and (for me) the impossibilities of mainstream media to the point that I knew I could no longer participate. I had to make the break. That was the last time I worked for a standard news organization.

As an astrological writer and blogger, I've mostly stuck to myself, but the few times I've been involved with more public platforms, things have often gone badly.

One censoring I recall was at an astrology blog conglomeration site called AstroDispatch. I had written an article on the very noteworthy astrology of July 1, 2011 (Canada Day), which involved a Cancer New Moon eclipse within a Cardinal Grand Cross formation involving Uranus in Aries, Sun-Moon in Cancer, Saturn in Libra, and Pluto in Capricorn. 

The article, titled, "Canada Day Cardinal Grand Cross Eclipse: Well, Golly Gee Whiz. Look Who's Fuelling the Global Nuclear Industry," outlined Canada's role as the number two exporter of uranium worldwide and a major exporter of nuclear power plants. This was notable, of course, because Fukushima had just blown in March 2011, we were being bombarded by radioactive particles, and it was quite likely that the uranium from the Daiichi nuclear power plant originated in Canada. 

The text of the article was removed from AstroDispatch, though the editor did leave the title up.

I disconnected from the site after that and wrote about the censorship in this May 15, 2011 post: "The Aries Stellium Completes Under a Full Moon In Scorpio."

"Astrology blogs, astrologers, and astrology audiences are differentiating rapidly. Stronger astrological identities are being forged, and the distinctions of politics, perspective, beliefs, and motivation are becoming more important." 

This was memorable for me because it was the first time I had been (knowingly) censored as an astrological writer. It made me aware that censorship and filtering are going on even in supposed "alternative" communities that often tout their inclusiveness and diversity.

In other words: astrology is a false karass. A granfalloon.

The idea of a "karass" comes from the fictional religion Bokononism in author Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. The word was mentioned on one of my favourite TV shows as a teen, My So-Called Life, and the concept stuck with me.

A karass, according to the fictional religion in this fictional novel, is a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will. The group is held together by a sort of soul-level centrifugal force based on a point of commonality. The people in the karass might not even know each other but act like the fingers that support a Cat's Cradle.

A false karass, called a "granfalloon" in Bokononism, is a group that mistakenly believes it is held together by this type of connection and common spiritual motivation. An example of a false karass could be graduates of a certain university, fans of a certain football team, or members of a certain profession...like astrology.

Astrology can definitely involve karasses, but as a subject in its totality, it has a tendency toward false karass in that people assume if you're "into" astrology, you have this type of common ground with all other people who are. Astrologers are seen to have this common ground simply because they practise astrology. But because there are so many different forms of astrology, so many perspectives, motivations, and ways to use it, this is often not the case. A lot of times, it's as if we're speaking entirely different languages for entirely different purposes, and it's beneficial for those interested in astrology to be aware of this when choosing their astrology sources.

I came into contact with the astrological false karass yet again when attempting to post my work on the main astrology page at Reddit.com. Reddit is a public outlet I've tried on a few different occasions, only to have horrifying results.

I attempted to post my September 3, 2017 article on the astrology of Hurricane Harvey at the main astrology Reddit page. The article, titled, "Hurricane Harvey, the Total Solar Eclipse, and This Era of Unnatural Disaster," was removed (twice), and I got into a hell of a rhubarb with the administrator (ahem, gatekeeper) on that page about the censorship.

This led to him making the following (to me, totally inane) statement: "Resources that discuss conspiracy theories are discouraged in much the same way we discourage palmistry, numerology, and general occult things like that."

I literally don't know a single astrologer who opposes things like palmistry, numerology, or conspiracy research to the point that they would attempt to shut them out, so to have this guy drawing a hard line like that in a public astrology forum was quite bizarre to me. 

I wrote about it on the blog on September 5, 2017: "The Diminishing and Marginalization of "Those Types" of Astrologers Within the Astrology Establishment." 

Let's call it...being BlackMoonlisted.

Even that was not punishment enough for me, though. 

I posted my July 28, 2018 article on Fukushima and the ongoing worldwide media blackout, titled, "Deconstructing the Worldwide Media Blackout on the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: California Wine is Just the Tip of This Radioactive Iceberg," on a conspiracy Reddit page. It was promptly (and blatantly) plagiarized by a "Truth-Teller (TM)" type. I found out because he left a hyperlink to one of my articles (not the original article) in the text he lifted. You can't make this stuff up, folks! When I contacted him and asked him to either credit me and link to the original in his article or to remove the content, I received a hostile denial which denigrated my work and research. I then went above his head to Before It's News, where the article was also published. The man was required to add a hyperlink to my original article, but not before sending a hostile and disturbing email threatening legal action if I "opened up [my] big mouth again." 

I wrote about that oh-so-pleasant situation on August 1, 2018: "Willow's Web Astrology is Plagiarized By a "Truth-Teller (TM)" Who Then Lied About It When Caught." 

In this case, it wasn't censorship. It was the pilfering of my work and research and the refusal to give me public credit for it - also a Mercury-Black Moon Lilith theme.

I've even been shut out of public anarchist forums! There are a handful of pet issues (heavy on the establishment liberal ideology) allowed within the current "anarchist scene," and the subjects of my work aren't included in those. It's kind of funny that supposedly anarchist forums and publications are being minded by (mostly 20-something male) gatekeepers, but that has certainly been my experience when attempting to share my information and work with that world. 

So as you can see from this handful of examples, the path of an anarchist astro-reporter (with a prominent Mercury-Black Moon Lilith contact in the natal chart) never did run smooth! I'm sure others reading here can relate - with or without natal Mercury-BML contacts.

It never gets any less unpleasant coming into contact with censorship, mockery, ostracism, plagiarism, or hostile opposition to the bare facts I'm laying down, but it does reinforce to me again and again that creating and sticking to my own potent little channel of information is the way to go. It's the only way to go. Whether that has any prestige to others is not really my concern. 

But I do know that I very much appreciate people who refuse to have their words filtered, watered down, or otherwise moulded to better fit consensus reality (or a paid gig). I like the other BML motherfuckers out there who refuse to bow down or shut up for the convenience or comfort or reward of others. I know these people are changing things for the better by taking the tougher path, and in my world, that's about as prestigious as it can get.

So have I written anything?

Yeah.

I've written some things.  


(Shout-out here to Matt Savinar, editor of Hexagon Astrology Magazine, for being the only more traditional publication that has published my astrological writing! And with minimal editing!)

Mercury Conjunct Black Moon Lilith and "Outsider Information"

One form of self-publishing I've gotten into in the past few years is the making of zines. In light of the current astrological energies and their “outsider information” themes, I thought I would share a little with you about this pursuit.

Zine templates

Zines are mini-magazines that are hand-made and self-published. Pretty much anything can go into a zine, but they often involve writing, photography, art, and/or activism. There’s a long history of radical political pamphlets being made in similar ways as a way to share political information or journalism. (“Radical” is a word that can instantly put people off, but let’s recall that the subjects considered radical are dependent on the time and location in which you are living. At one point in the not-too-distant past, it would have been considered terribly radical to publish sociopolitical literature written by women, by the poor, or by people of certain races. And to be frank, poor people still ain’t getting published.) 

If your creative output or perspective doesn’t fit neatly into the categories/institutions that currently exist, self-publishing can be another avenue for getting your work to the world.
 
Zines or pamphlets have traditionally been used as a way to share information or perspectives that are not being included in more standardized publications (newspapers, magazines, books, websites). 

In particular, these have been produced and distributed by punks and anarchists, and these publications fit the punk/anarchist m.o. for a few reasons: 

- they’re do-it-yourself (DIY), a primary punk and anarchist ethic 

- a basic zine is relatively inexpensive to create, which means almost anyone from any income bracket can produce one 

- there is zero censorship, outside control, or compromise required since you are writing, producing, and most often distributing the zines yourself. There really are no rules about what can go in a zine.

- they’re raw and not perfect and obviously made by a human who cares about the content: though most zines these days have gotten a little “precious” by my standards (heh), often being made with fancy design software, professional printing, and real covers and such, traditional zines have been quite raw-looking and obviously hand-made. The photocopies might not be perfect. There could be typos or formatting snafus. The pictures might be a little crooked. You might even have to hand-write some of the words that didn’t photocopy properly. This all adds to the character of the zine, in my opinion! 

- there are zine libraries where you can read many different zines from many different perspectives for free (punks and anarchists generally love things that are free to the public!) 

- producing a zine makes you part of a broader zine-making community that draws together a diverse band of self-publishing creative types. An interest in zines is something that can be shared and used to make new friends! (Friendship and community are Aquarius themes.) Almost everyone could use a medium for creating face-to-face conversation and for making friends in these “stuck-behind-a-screen” times, and zines are one of those media.

I now have six zine titles under my belt. You can see details at the Willow's Web Astrology Etsy Shop or on the blog under the button Zines.