Dark Moon Podcast #5 with Yerevan and Willow - Forced Vaccine Agenda

Dark Moon Podcast #5 with Yerevan and Willow - Forced Vaccine Agenda

 

The forced vaccination agenda is heating up throughout 2019 and 2020. In this podcast, Yerevan and I discuss the reasons why people should not be force-vaccinated against their will by the state and why they should not be forced or coerced to vaccinate their children against their will.

This is not a pro-vaccine/anti-vaccine debate. This podcast is about human rights and what right the state has to force you to take substances proven to be potentially fatal or disabling into your body against your will. 

This podcast outlines some of the very real dangers associated with vaccines that are currently being swept under the rug in the discourse around the issue.

Informed decisions can only be made when the dangers of the vaccines are weighed against the dangers of the diseases they are supposed to ward off. Currently, the dangers of the vaccines are not being fully taken into consideration in the public discourse.

Hundreds of stories from people harmed by vaccinations have been collected at the VAXXED TV YouTube channel. 

A Late Scorpio Full Moon: No War With Iran, and No War on Earth. Not Now, and Never Again.

The Moon is full in Scorpio, the sign of its detriment. This is both an unsettled and an unsettling Moon. This is a Moon that sheds light on the darkest of intentions, on the dirtiest of allegiances, on the most hidden of motivations. This is a Moon-mother that prepares us for the trials up ahead. It doesn't sugarcoat things. It doesn't pretend or deny. It emotionally acclimatizes us to the darker elements of life on this Earth, helping us to get comfortable with even the most uncomfortable of emotional and psychological realities. It illuminates previously-hidden nuances, aiding our intuition as we feel around in the dark. This is a Moon-mother that comforts us with the understanding that we can get through even this, that people always have gotten through. This is the Moon of ancestors. They had the grit to make it through tough times, and so, of course, do we. This Moon provides validation on that point.

Under this Scorpio Full Moon, the psychopaths who call themselves our leaders are puffing themselves up and making themselves important via plans for a new and vicious war attack. 

Uranus is the planet of the unexpected, you see. But with the past two Uranus ingresses have come the all-too-reliable unleashing of violence, death, misery, and destruction by the powers-that-be on the people. 

With the change in signs of Uranus has come the roll-out of a new version of Hell on Earth:

Uranus in Pisces in 2003. The horrific invasion of Iraq and mass slaughter of Iraquis (either quickly through direct attack or slowly through economic sanctions) under false pretenses.

Uranus in Aries in 2011. The illegal bombing of Libya, murder of Libyans, and assassination of the country's leader. Simultaneously, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan as covert nuclear warfare and the immediate murder of thousands of people with the tsunami.

Uranus in Taurus in 2019. A well-publicized intent by the U.S. of A. to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East with Iran, in particular, in its sights. This is being called "reminiscent of the invasion of Iraq."

The Hell on Earth initiated by the power establishment at each Uranus ingress is experienced most acutely, of course, by whatever poor human beings find themselves in the geographical cross-hairs, living, through no fault of their own, on land pre-destined for the orchestrated horror, pain, and atrocity that benefit the ultra rich, sipping martinis in glass cages in the sky while the profits from their murder machine passively roll in. 

This pre-planned, engineered, and orchestrated Hell on Earth is also felt oh-so-acutely by whatever country boys and inner city boys and working class gals were convinced that they were doing a good and honourable thing for their countries by enlisting. They don't yet see the full extent of it, the Hell on Earth that will be rolled out for many of them for the remainder of their days. The post-traumatic stress, the mental illness, the addictions, the impossibility of re-integrating into society, the poverty, the homelessness, the lifelong haunting by what they've seen and what they've done. 

But this Hell on Earth does not begin and end with these direct targets, with these lambs being sacrificed without a second thought by the murder machine. 

This Hell on Earth has a very long reach. It seeps into every farm, every town, every city, every household, every office building. It seeps into the special occasions and the regular, old days alike.

It seeps into every psyche.

And the epidemics of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and hopelessness deepen. The badness strengthens until even the hyper-scheduled and frantic pace of daily life can't bury it, can't deflect from it, can't create escape from it. 

The Hell creeps in, seeps in, sets in, even though most cannot see the roots of it. They cannot see the toxic energetic state of this planet as directly affecting their own well-being in any way. 

And I can write about all this, after so many years, in a matter-of-fact sort of way. I can lay out the astrology. I can back up my sentences with applicable research links. I can describe this new roll-out of Hell on Earth in simple, black-and-white words on a screen.

And maybe it even seems a little bloodless, how I foresee all this and then lay it out.  

But none of this is bloodless. None of this is without horrendous consequence. None of these words are written without awareness, to the very core of me, of what they really mean.

These are real, precious people who will be hurt while the elite celebrate their missile strikes with champagne. These are people who are loved. People who have families, communities, lives, hopes. People who have favourite foods and favourite music and favourite animals. People who tuck their sweet babies into bed at night. People who sip coffee or tea, who watch the sunrise or sunset, who laugh or cry. These are real people who are going to be hurt by psychopaths erroneously calling themselves our leaders, psychopaths who truly believe that the masses are less than they are, that precious human beings are nothing but collateral damage on their paths to obscene wealth and "greatness."

I know that it's real blood, real pain, real suffering, and I know it's being intentionally brought down by those who feel justified in setting this in motion for their own benefit, to settle their pathetic "pissing matches through the ages." As the bodies pile up, so do their profits. And so does their smug self-satisfaction. They see nothing wrong with this. To them, this is just. This is the natural way of things in their sick and twisted world. This is the way it's been planned all along. This is the way it has always been planned.

Oh, God, please, how do we stop this? How do we stop all of it, the whole thing?

The slaughter and violence brought down on Iraq is still felt today, a decades-long primal scream. So is the slaughter and violence intentionally brought down all around the world.

It doesn't really leave us. It just piles up. Because it's never fully acknowledged. It's never fully exposed. We never get to the real roots. We never uncover the full scope of depravity in the power establishment, swinging instead from Liberal to Conservative, from Democrat to Republican, without seeing how they all play the same vicious and anti-human game. 

We are already at the brink of what our collective sanity level can manage. This planet can't take any more war. We've absorbed all we can absorb. To push forward in this way against Iran is madness, but it is, indeed, mad men and women at the helm, and we need to understand this in no uncertain terms. 

It is globalist male dick-swinging combined with personal vendettas that are going to get people hurt and killed. These people are not our leaders, no matter what the political stripe. These people do not hold legitimate power over us. They do not tell the truth. They are not good people. They do not live good lives. 

Under this Scorpio Full Moon, we're getting prepared for a reality that almost no sane, thinking, caring person wishes to experience. 

We're getting comfortable with the ugliness under this Moon so that it doesn't take us by surprise.

We're getting comfortable with the ugliness under this Moon so that it doesn't take us down.

So thank-you, Scorpio Moon, for not sparing us. Thank-you for preparing us. Thank-you for trusting us with knowledge of the full reality, even when it's a reality we do not want. 

This knowing is power - a power they try mightily to sever us from. 

But as this Moon grows full in Scorpio, we know with every fibre in us that we cannot actually be severed from this knowing, not for long, not without our permission. 

We're soul-connected through time and space to every person who knew the real deal, who felt it and could not un-feel it, who saw it and could not un-see it. This is our comfort now. That we share this knowing and this seeing, even without speaking a word to each other.

We stand under this beautiful, glowing orb, bringing its heavy, unsettling, and most-valuable realizations, with our eyes wide open. 

The Moon is full at 27 degrees Scorpio at 2:11 p.m. (PDT) on May 18.
 

#NoWarWithIran #NoWarOnEarth #NotNowAndNeverAgain

Alter Mind Podcast: The Exploited Underground

I had a great conversation yesterday on the Alter Mind podcast with Jon Darkly and Yerevan. We talked about a subject that I think is important to shed some light on, and that is the rampant plagiarism and general ripping off that's going on in these digital age times. In particular, we talked about the how the underground is being exploited and tapped to feed the larger public platforms of others. You can watch here:

Alter Mind #018: The Exploited Underground

Thank-you to Jon for the invitation to come on his show and to Yerevan for laying down some potent and interesting information on famous plagiarists from history, as well as her own personal experiences. Valuable show!

The Uranus in Taurus Transit and Orchestrated War Attacks Involving Nuclear (Uranus) and Banking (Taurus)

I've reported previously on orchestrated, U.S.-led war attacks that have been carried out around the time of Uranus ingresses.

Uranus is a planet associated with unexpected events and trauma-based shock. It appears that the symbology and energy of Uranus are being drawn upon to create "surprise attacks" by the establishment that have actually been long pre-planned. 

The invasion and attack against Iraq/Saddam Hussein was carried out by the U.S. and NATO forces in March 2003 as Uranus ingressed Pisces.

Then in March 2011 as Uranus ingressed Aries, the illegal bombing of Libya was carried out by the same forces. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan was, I believe, a covert nuclear attack that was carried out at the same time.

From the March 11, 2019 article, "Chiron in Aries and Uranus in Taurus Mark the 8th Anniversary of the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster":

"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.""

The orchestrated war attack associated with the Uranus ingress of Taurus (March 6) is a little behind schedule. Taurus the bull is not to be rushed. But we have just had reports that U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton is planning to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East, with Iran in mind, in a move that is being called "reminiscent of the invasion of Iraq."

Iran has long been in the sights of this man.

From the L.A. Times, May 14, 2019, "It's John Bolton's world. Trump is just living in it," by Colin H. Kahl and Jon B. Wolfsthal:

"Bolton’s hard line toward [North Korea] is perhaps only surpassed by his fixation on Iran. During a trip to Israel a month before the 2003 Iraq invasion, Bolton told Israeli officials that once Saddam Hussein was dealt with, the United States should turn its sights to Iran. And over the past decade, countless Bolton op-eds, Fox News appearances, and speeches have called for attacking Iran and supporting regime change there. In January 2018, even as international inspectors repeatedly confirmed that Iran was complying with its nuclear obligations, Bolton dismissed the value of the nuclear deal and argued that America’s policy should instead be to end the regime before its 40th anniversary in 2019."

So as Uranus (uranium) gets comfortable in this new sign, we have more pre-planned war manoeuvres that have a tie-in to nuclear, and this tie-in has some long tentacles to uncover.

Down the rabbit hole we go...

Stuxnet was a computer "worm" believed to be created by the U.S. and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. It was discovered in 2010.

Operation Olympic Games was a covert campaign of cyber sabotage believed to be initiated by the U.S. and Israel in 2006 under the Bush Administration, continued under the Obama Administration, to disrupt Iran's nuclear facilities. 

Also in 2010, the year the Stuxnet computer worm was discovered, it was reported that Japan had agreed to enrich uranium for Iran. 

We also learned that an Israeli security firm called Magna BSP had worked at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear site installing a high-tech security system that could be controlled remotely.

So we certainly have the nuclear angle well-covered with this Uranus (uranium) ingress via the violent threats toward Iran from the U.S. and allies. The nuclear tie-in, again, has threads that reach back to the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the bombing of Libya in 2011, as well as to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Taurus is a Venus-ruled money sign, and we also have a strong money/banking angle (Taurus) with this Uranus in Taurus ingress and transit, coinciding with the new threats toward Iran. 

From my April 15, 2018 article: "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."

Iran is one of the last hold-out countries in the world that is not under the thumb of the centralized Rothschild banking scheme. Libya and Iraq were two other "rogue nations" that had resisted globalized banking.

North Korea, Bolton's other obsession, is another of those "rogue nations," and we saw some puppetry between the U.S. and North Korea in late February 2019, just as Uranus was moving back into Taurus March 6.

There's a nasty combination of nukes (Uranus) and banks (Taurus) rolled into the war-based symbology of this Uranus in Taurus transit (2018 - 2026). 

Attacks related to food, agriculture (including geoengineering), starvation, systemic poverty, and lack (Taurus) can also be expected under this astrological symbol.

I've also been reporting in an ongoing way on the Bayer-Monsanto merger, including some of the surprising (Uranus) economic (Taurus) justice we've seen through the courts since Uranus kicked off its transit of Taurus in May 2018 (retrograding back into Aries from November 6, 2018 to March 6, 2019). An article from April 10, 2019: "Uranus in Taurus, Bankrupting Bayer-Monsanto, and Unexpected Economic Justice for Corporate Violence"

The third and most recent ruling against Monsanto (now Bayer-Monsanto) has awarded a staggering $2 billion to Alva and Alberta Pilliod for the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma they both suffer from and say was caused by regular Roundup exposure. The Pilliods used Roundup for 30 years on their properties.

There are currently more than 13,000 pending lawsuits against Bayer-Monsanto for Roundup damages.

Then Bayer will face approximately 30,000 lawsuits over damages caused to women by its Essure birth control coils. Those lawsuits are scheduled to get underway in November 2019.

Since purchasing Monsanto in 2018, Bayer's share prices have plummeted 44%. 

These rapidly depreciating share prices are another example of the surprising economic justice we've seen under transiting Uranus in Taurus. 

Keep it coming, Uranus.

#NoWarWithIran

Venus Conjunct Uranus, Open Mic Censorship, and the Apolitical Arts Scene

Venus (arts) is currently conjunct Uranus (sudden events, upheaval, community, radical), and a 15-year-old from a cover band just tried to censor me at an open mic that I was instrumental in organizing and promoting.

I couldn't make this stuff up at this point.

This was the third open mic we had put on. I was an original organizer and put many, many (unpaid) hours into organizing, promoting, social media, local media, liaising with the public library, photography, videography, and even the writing and creation of a 40-page Open Mic Nights Zine to be sold to raise funds for the open mic. 

In fact, I'll blow my own horn here and say that I'm the reason this open mic has gotten organized so quickly and efficiently and why it has been running so well. I was the driver, so to speak. I've also been very supportive and encouraging of all the performers involved, and I've encouraged newbies to join us despite their nerves, as well. IE. lots of emotional energy has been expended, as well as physical/intellectual.

We had put on two smaller open mics before this one, and I read some of my work at both events to a good reception.

I've written before on the blog about my long history of being censored, something I partially associate with a tense Mercury-Black Moon Lilith contact in my natal chart. From January 29, 2019: "Mercury-Black Moon Lilith Contacts, Censorship, and Reporting From the Fringes" 

In a fit of high irony, I actually read from that article at the first open mic!

My second open mic reading was on zines, and I read an excerpt from my own recent zine on toxic oil flaring on the prairies, titled, "Dystopian Flames."

No one expressed any discomfort or problems with the information I was throwing down. 

At the third open mic, with Venus in feisty late Aries square Pluto in Capricorn and conjunct Uranus in early Taurus, I recited my folk-punk song titled, "The Nazis Got Me With Fluoride Pills," and shared some purely-factual information about Bayer and Monsanto's corporate practises. I also mentioned the upcoming worldwide march against Bayer-Monsanto on May 18 - on the very day the Venus-Uranus conjunction becomes exact at 4 degrees Taurus. 

In other words, the reading was topical. I asked to read it later in the night, toward the more "adult hours." I also said in the reading that I was sorry if people found it controversial but that I was speaking the truth. It came straight from my own personal experience with fluoroquinolone antibiotic poisoning and from my own work exposing crimes against humanity being committed by Big Pharma. It wasn't just a random political rant. I actually never go off on random political rants, to be honest.

And it seemed there was a good reception to the reading again. I was told by one performer that he "loved it," and I was thanked by an audience member for reading it. She was also interested in marching with me on May 18.

But yesterday morning, I woke up to a message from the 15-year-old (strongly influenced by her family, I assume) that had been somewhat sneakily sent to another group member without my knowledge.

"I feel that we originally came up with the idea as a way to bring artists and musicians together, and I feel that the political and opinionated topics, brought forth by [Willow], are counterproductive. I am all for having our own opinions and beliefs, however, I view the open mic as a platform of love and everyone coming together through music and art. I am also all for the spoken word, such as poetry or a story. I feel as though being aware of who your audience is is an extremely important piece to performing, and i believe that the open mics are supposed to be a family-friendly event where anyone, no matter their political views or beliefs, should be able to enjoy without becoming uncomfortable. I do know a handful of people who had this experience when [Willow] read her piece, and I think that is unfair for the audience."

There are a lot of things I think are wrong with this email, and I'll go through these now so as to energetically and verbally set some new parameters for the arts (Venus) under transiting Uranus in Taurus!

1. Art was never meant to make you feel comfortable. In fact, some of the best art has the exact opposite effect. True artists are expressing vision, perspectives, and ideas that others do not have. These are often outside the norm. They often expose things that are hidden, downplayed, or denied in mainstream culture. And yes, this can be uncomfortable, particularly for those of a more mainstream lifestyle and mindset who are usually sheltered from such things. That's art for you. That's creative expression. It isn't all designed to make you feel warm and fuzzy, and that's honestly what's great about it. It rattles people's cages, changes their perspectives, shakes them out of their complacency - or at least, it tries.

2. Art does not have to be apolitical or non-controversial. I'm not sure where that idea even came from. Art does not have to be "just for fun." The currently highly apolitical arts scene often acts as more of a diversion, a distraction, or an illusion rather than producing anything truly meaningful at a soulful or a sociopolitical level. We are in crisis times on this planet, and these times require our awareness and action. If even our art is not allowed to express this, we're in serious trouble. 

3. I'm not sure of the definition of "spoken word" being used here, but have you ever heard Jello Biafra's spoken word? From the "famous" punk band Dead Kennedys? How about a dude named Henry Rollins? Are these guys getting censored at open mics, too? So if world-famous Jello Biafra or Henry Rollins wanted to do spoken word at our lowly open mic, they wouldn't be welcome, just as I'm not welcome?

4. There are many ways to show love with creative expression and not just in "positivity"-pushing ways. (Positivity-pushing is actually a distinctly non-positive practise, in my opinon...) What I do is done purely out of love for this planet and for the living things here. That's why I care enough to do this (often very heavy and very unsupported) work. That's why I work so hard to expose the people and power schemes that are hurting us, while educating people on this so they can protect themselves. Why do you think people like me would do decades of unpaid activist work, all while being shit on, censored, blackballed, shut out, vilified, ostracized, plagiarized, mocked, and straight-out attacked as we do it? If that isn't pure love for this Earth, I don't know what is! I don't find it "loving" to bury your head in the sand or to deny reality. I don't find it "loving" to paint people with a more hardcore message or who practise a more hardcore art form as negative or counter-productive just because they make you squirm a little. 

5. Open Mic? I think you'd better change that to Heavily-Filtered Mic. By their very nature, there's a wild card element to open mics, especially with a mixed arts open mic like this one. You don't really know who's going to get up there or what they're going to do for the crowd, and that's part of what makes it fun and interesting. If you don't like what someone is throwing down, get up and take a little walk down the street for 10 or 20 minutes until they're done. Go have a smoke. Go answer an email on your phone. Make your own political statement by walking out! You will not always love or even like everything that comes out of an open mic (I don't, either), but you do not have the right to censor, discourage, or blackball people whose work you deem "too political," "too opinionated," or "counter-productive" to your feel-good lovefest version of the arts.

The gal who wrote that email is a phenomenal singer and musician for 15 years of age. She does rock-and-roll covers and prides herself on the fact that they do harder rock songs that people might not expect from a teen band. But I do think she's missing the entire spirit underlying the songs she's belting out. Rock-and-roll was spawned out of rebellion, non-conformity, a desire to shake up the status quo. It made a lot of people uncomfortable. It shocked a lot of people. 

This gal has received a huge amount of praise, attention, and support for her music since she was a child. Other artists are not that lucky. Not even close. She's lucky that what she produces is palatable for the mainstream. She could be fighting a daily, uphill battle with her creative expression like me and most of the other anti-establishment, freedom-fighting individuals out there.

It's my view that the apolitical mainstream arts scene is part of the reason we're in such a big mess on this planet to begin with. Writers, musicians, and artists of a more anti-establishment, intellectual, or sociopolitical bent are shut out, dismissed, or blackballed while more palatable, middle-of-the-road "art" is constantly promoted and reinforced. The more anti-establishment arts simply do not have the same public platforms or opportunities - ostracized even at a lowly open mic in a town of less than 10,000 people! And so we have a very cleansed and skewed reality being reflected back to us in the arts of the day. We have people doing covers of their favourite rock songs to great fanfare without a real understanding of the spirit underlying those songs, without the rebel heart and soul that originally spawned those works.

With Venus coming together with Uranus, boundaries are certainly an issue. But there is a distinct difference between boundaries and censorship or blackballing.

We're setting the tone for a new social/relational foundation as Venus and Uranus form their first exact conjunction of the Uranus in Taurus transit, exact May 18. This is a benchmark aspect for everyone, not just for people in the arts.

However, the influence of radical (Uranus) politics in the arts (Venus) is a strong theme now. I'm not asking everyone to like what I do. I'm not asking everyone to become more radical in their thinking. I'm just asking for the place at the table that I've already earned. And so far, it has not exactly been forthcoming.

Let's hope for better times ahead on the other side of this Venus-Uranus conjunction.

Dystopian Flames Exhibit at the Public Library - May to June 2019

 These are photographs of my photography, jewellery, and zine exhibit called "Dystopian Flames" that is running at my public library for the months of May and June 2019. 

One of the main reasons I'm doing this exhibit is to raise public awareness and to force action on the part of government to end the toxic and deadly practise of open oil flaring. You can read more about that practise later in this article, after the photographs.  

Most of the items in this exhibit (and more) are available at the Willow's Web Astrology Etsy shop.

I'm also doing a free "How to Make a Zine" workshop at the library in hopes of starting a revolutionary wave of zine-makingggggg in my area!

If you live in the wild West Kootenays of British Columbia and would like to know details about this exhibit or the zine workshop, please email me at willowsweb [at] hushmail.com

  

 

 

 

  

   

      

 

   

 

   

 

  

Planet of concrete challenges, Saturn, is within orb of a conjunction to Hell-ruler Pluto throughout 2019. As this conjunction tightens, becoming exact a single time on January 12, 2020, we are confronted in our concrete lives and realities with all that has been suppressed, manipulated, lied about, and buried (Pluto) within business, corporations, finance, government, and institutions (Capricorn). Things are coming to a head on multiple fronts throughout 2019 and 2020 under the slow-burn effects of this Saturn-Pluto conjunction, and the toxicity and violence inherent in many of the structures and hierarchical pyramid-schemes of power on Planet Earth cannot be denied. 

Saturn relates to what is real, what is concrete, what is tangible, and as it steps further into the murky, netherworld regions of Pluto, we are faced with real, concrete, and tangible confrontations with some of the hellish scenarios that have been manufactured for us on this planet. These confrontations will require some type of effort on our parts in order to liberate ourselves from their weight. 

Whatever Plutonic threads are being plucked in your life, I encourage you to follow them to their roots and address them, working toward concrete solutions both in your own personal life and within human society at large. The personal is transpersonal and vice versa.

Saturn conjunct Pluto in Capricorn requires that we work, step-by-step, for our liberation from the many manufactured and manipulated Hell-scenarios currently running amok. It requires that we demand something better, something more honest, something wholly legitimate, and that we do so from right where we stand.

Our efforts toward liberation from the muck and the murk are not futile (far from it!), despite what we may have been conditioned to think...
 

- DYSTOPIAN FLAMES: The True Cost of Oil Production on the Canadian Prairies  -

 

by Willow from Willow's Web Astrology

 

- a 24-page pocket-sized 'zine on open oil flaring and the release of toxic by-products from oil production, going on across the Canadian prairies

- includes a photojournalism spread from oil sites in southeast Saskatchewan

$5.50 plus postage

 (approx. $2.50 in Canada or $5.00 in the U.S. for single issues, more for multiple issues or for international)
 

Please contact me at willowsweb [at] hushmail.com to order, or it is available at the Etsy shop.

All Willow's Web Astrology 'zines can be found here. 

These are photographs of open oil flares, well sites, and pumpjacks on and around my parents’ ranch in southeast Saskatchewan. They depict a scene that is very common to see on the prairies. Tens of thousands of open oil flares exist on the Canadian prairies, burning off and releasing toxic by-products of oil production into the surrounding environments, including benzene and other hydrocarbons and heavy metals. Other gases, particularly hydrogen sulfide (H2S), are released from the well sites themselves often in concentrations many times higher than allowable government limits. There is also radioactivity being released from oil well sites. Many well sites and flares are short distances from people’s homes, as there is very little regulation regarding where these can go or how many can exist in a certain area. In many cases, as in southeast Saskatchewan, multiple well sites and flares are clustered into small areas.

I was reprimanded by a battery operator while taking these photographs of a flare on the oil lease. I could tell he was considering confiscating my camera... 

I grew up living amidst oil activity. The foul smell of the gases around the well sites was considered something that was normal to live around. We laughed about it as kids when being driven past a particularly rank oil battery or flare.

In recent years, oil drilling has gone on at a frenzied pace in my home area. The first open oil flare on my parents' ranch went in less than a mile south of their house, and it was like a punch to the gut to see this blazing, toxic orange flame on the grassy landscape. It was alien, dystopian, post-apocalyptic looking. 
 
Within seven years, there were three more flares surrounding my parents’ home and a couple dozen pumpjacks. Two of these flares are directly across the road from my parents’ house and can be seen from their living room window.
 
The quiet of the prairie is no longer. The hellish squeal and moan of pumpjacks is omnipresent.

 

One of the most deadly gases being released from the oil well sites themselves is hydrogen sulfide (H2S).
 
Multiple independent audits of wells in the area have shown horrifically high releases, many times higher than allowable government limits.  
 
As reported by the University of Regina journalism school (from which I am a graduate), in a 2015 audit of 43 oil wells in Saskatchewan, poisonous H2S gas was found being released at an average of 30,000 ppm. 
 
The allowable limit for H2S releases is 10 ppm.
 
The lethal level is considered to be 1,000 ppm.
 
The highest level of H2S gas found being released in that audit was 150,000 ppm. 
 
The Saskatchewan government claims it has found no regulatory breaches by the oil industry that need to be followed up on by them.
 
H2S is only one of the toxic by-products being released at well sites. When H2S is burned off in a flare, other toxic substances are released, such as sulfur dioxide. A single flare can release dozens of toxic by-products, including benzene and other hydrocarbons, dioxins, and heavy metals. There is no monitoring of these.  
 
Open oil flares and the releases from well sites have been linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, heavy metals poisoning, respiratory damage, chemical sensitivity, miscarriages, birth defects, and livestock deaths. Headaches, nausea, and vomiting are commonly experienced after exposure to the gases.
 
And people live in this. Every day. 
 
They’re getting sick and dying from this. 

All around these flares and well sites, in the sparsely-populated surrounding areas, there has developed a cancer cluster as well as an increased incidence of autoimmune disorders and other health problems. Very few neighbouring ranches or farms have not been visited by some devastating health problem at one time or another. 

As little girls, my sister and I played with another little girl who grew up on a neighbouring ranch. We rode our bikes or walked down the gravel road to her place to play Barbies or to play with new kittens. She developed leukemia when she was 18 years old, received chemotherapy, moved away, and has been cancer-free since. 

My Dad's childhood friend and his wife lived about ten kilometres from us. His friend's wife developed cancer and has battled it for almost two decades. His friend was diagnosed with cancer more recently, prior to them retiring and moving to town. 

Another rancher and his wife live a few kilometres to the east, close to a huge flare near the highway. His wife was diagnosed with cancer a number of years ago and has had bouts of chemotherapy since. He suffered from a disorder that involved vertigo and, at times, had a difficult time doing his work.
 

That man's brother also lives nearby, a rancher and now-retired battery operator. He drove a circuit five days a week as a battery operator, visiting and monitoring multiple oil sites each day. He suffers from arthritis, inflammation likely caused or exacerbated by the chemicals and gases he was exposed to on the job, and is now in kidney failure.  

My mother was diagnosed with fibromyalgia thirty years ago, an autoimmune disorder causing pain, chronic fatigue, and equilibrium problems, among others, and she has suffered with it ever since. She is one of many people in and around the area with fibromyalgia or inflammation/autoimmune disorders like it. 

The medical establishment, the oil industry, and anyone benefiting from those things would argue there's no connection. That it's all just a bit of bad luck. 

But I know better. 
 
People are scared to speak out. They’re scared to question the activities of the oil industry. The oil industry provides most of the “good-paying jobs” in a working class area that is struggling mightily to survive and to preserve its way of life. 
 
Surface or mineral rights or an oil job provide the income that often means the difference between a decently comfortable life and constant, grinding financial hardship. 
 
Many people in the area maintain their farming and ranching cultures, the life that runs through their blood, a life on the land, with income from the oil industry. 
 
People are scared. So they live like this. 

They gamble their health away. 

They risk a shortened life. 

They look the other way. 
 
And the government does the same, filling its coffers with oil profits.
 
The oil industry could pipe these gases underground and capture them. In many cases, the gases could then be used for other purposes. But this would cost the oil industry money. It would require infrastructure. Maybe some new technology. So the current rule is that capturing these toxic gases has to be economically viable for the oil companies. Otherwise, they can use open oil flaring. 
 

The true cost of oil production is being passed on to the people in this way and to the animals that live and graze around these flares and oil sites. They shoulder the burden for the oil industry with their own ill health and shortened lifespans. 
 
The dangers of oil pipelines are much-discussed these days. There is much less public outrage and knowledge about the direct threat to human and animal health caused by open oil and natural gas flaring and unmonitored releases from well sites.
 

Please Support a Ban on Open Oil and Natural Gas Flaring

Please Support Increased Monitoring of Releases From Existing Well Sites 

 Sign this Change.org Petition to Stop Open Oil Flaring

 

A documentary by the University of Regina journalism school, my alma mater:
 

Crude Power: An Investigation Into Oil, Money, and Influence in Saskatchewan 

 

Willow’s Web Astrology YouTube videos: 

Post-Apocalyptic Oil Flare Wasteland 

Stop the Oil Industry From Open-Air Flaring! A Toxic and Dangerous Practise

A New Moon in Taurus Opens a Chapter of Measured Experimentation and the Implementation of Personal Values

 Some Earth riches that unexpectedly materialized under Uranus in Taurus...

Available at the Willow's Web Astrology Etsy shop

 

 

"A New Moon in Taurus Opens a Chapter of Measured Experimentation and the Implementation of Personal Values" is an article available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.