Friday, July 24, 2009

Venus in Cancer Opposite Pluto in Capricorn

At the moment, we're heading quickly to a Venus in Cancer opposition to Pluto in Capricorn August 1 at the first degree of the signs. This is the first of our big post-Cancer/Capricorn eclipse tests related to the shedding of past-related emotion that was holding us hostage, family patterns, emotional tricks and general emotional dramz we were holding onto...stripping this Plutonic-clean and moving forward with the new emotional realities the two New Moons in Cancer moved us into.

This Venus-Pluto opposition echoes the first New Moon in Cancer (June 22) when the Sun and Moon were at 1 degree Cancer opposite Pluto at 1 degree Capricorn.

We'll see with this opposition how we've done with these themes. It's a status report of sorts. As the opposition tightens and the whole Cancer-Capricorn continuum starts to sing, we'll become aware of any areas left to clear and any remaining detritus left to dislodge and release - long-held emotional resentments it's time to purge and wounds left to integrate, as well as any further emotional ties to sever/transform, especially related to the past, our familial roles and our early conditioning.

There could be some Plutonic gut punches involved if we've been looking the other way when Pluto shows us what needs to go. It's deep, emotional, sometimes gut-wrenching stuff, and Cancer has a tendency to hold on and hold on and hold on...not always conducive to Pluto's psychic surgery and purgery.

Pluto in Capricorn has long-term goals for us. Concrete steps we have to take and progress we have to make to reach our full, shining potentials on this Earth. So relationships now are strengthening the emotional/soul anchor we need to strive for that potential...but at the same time, they're getting the Plutonic strip-down. We're dropping all the remaining emotional baggage we can no longer carry, baggage that would hinder us from reaching those Pluto in Cap achievements, in particular, and transforming dynamics that are past their prime into something more suitable.

This is the balance between honouring our emotional realities and the emotional realities of others (Cancer) and having to do what we have to do to get the job done (Capricorn). The interplay of emotional nurturing and "just getting on with it."

This Venus-Pluto opposition ties in to the opening Venus in Aries squares to Pluto in Capricorn we experienced in April and May. Opening squares create the friction and push to initiate some action in our lives, and with the series of Venus in Aries squares to stationing Pluto in Capricorn, we started off in a blazing new direction, within the broader context of long-term Pluto in Cap progress.

We had to be honest about who we really are now and what we really want...while keeping in mind the context of what is desired for us on an evolutionary/collective level. A fresh start of the most deep and refreshing kind was necessary, and relationships we had outgrown had to be let go of.

If we refuse to let go, Pluto unceremoniously strips things away that would hold us back from our purest and most raw evolutionary drive and process, and relationships hit the chopping block in a big way during the Venus in Aries retro. If not the entire relationship, definitely ways of relating within the relationship that were no longer ringing true. Pluto shifts dynamics in a big way. Anything dishonest is considered worthless. So things got brutally honest there for a while. :-)

We entered a new Venus cycle during the Venus in Aries retrograde:

"During the retrograde period in Aries, Venus had to deal with all the things it would prefer not to: anger, rage, and corresponding passive aggressiveness coming to a head related to all the crap she puts up with from people, the ways she dulls her flame in order to keep the peace with those around her, the way her personal will and desires are put on the back burner in favour of others, the ways her identity is subjugated...

We've become aware, during this retrograde and the squares to Pluto, of relationships and ways of interacting in relationships that have run their course. Relationships that can no longer contain who we really are have been dusted off to make room for more vital ones...or have been gutted and transformed.

There is a new set of rules we started following during this Venus retrograde period. We have to be ourselves 100% and speak up when people project onto us who they (wrongly) think we are. We're expressing a Venus that is no longer willing to put up with any crap."

Now Venus is making her way to Cancer and an opposition to Pluto Rx. This is where we start to come to terms emotionally with where we are now, with the changes that were made March-May as we committed to being truer to ourselves in relation to other people. We headed in our courageous new Arien directions relationship-wise then and have since gotten a little distance between what happened then and where we are now.

Venus transitting Cancer should give us an opportunity to get comfortable with where these new directions have taken us and to recast our emotional anchors where necessary.

Astrology relates to processes, each phase related to what came before and what is up ahead.

And Pluto is very involved with this new Venus cycle. The entire cycle should be looked at as a Pluto-infused transformational process, I believe, related to those things ruled by Venus - relationships, what we love, how we show love, beauty, our needs, self-worth and values. Keeping that in mind as Venus makes her way through the zodiac over the next year and a half will be helpful.

As always: "If we avoided or denied what that Venus - Pluto square was trying to show us then, we could have some nastier experiences as Pluto gets a little louder and more ruthless in bringing certain things to our awareness. We have to sever the dynamics Pluto asks us to sever for our future survival. We have to purge the old emotion we're holding or risk bringing more of the same crap into our lives."

So this Venus in Cancer-Pluto in Capricorn opposition on the heels of so much Cancer-Capricorn eclipse emphasis should be very telling. If we've dug in and done the work Pluto has requested since the Venus in Aries retrograde, we should hopefully just have some finishing clearing to do. If we've been lagging on this front, things will come to a head around this time, making it impossible to deny what is going on beneath the surface.

The only way to appease Pluto is to go as deeply as it says to go...or deeper. It's not much comfort, but the pain we feel doing the work is nothing compared to the long-term damage leaving it undone will do.

Anyway, I know I'm just a little ray of Plutonic sunshine, but what are you gonna do? :-) It's always best to be aware so as not to be blindsided and sucker punched. If we can get on top of the Plutonic game, we can work with the dynamics instead of only being forced to react to them.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Rinse, Rinse...Rinse, Rinse.

We're just finishing the last of the lunar-driven rinse cycle and starting to dry out after the emotional floods of the past month. There are some lingering soggy spots, but the Sun, Moon and Mercury are now in Leo, post-solar eclipse at 29 degrees Cancer yesterday. We've shifted from the Moon being the major dispositing influence to the Sun. We've been emotionally wrung out like a sponge over the past month, and now the sunshine has just started to peek through, getting ready to dry us out and get some energy moving externally again - a relief after all that intense emotional, inner focus.

The total eclipse of the Sun was visible yesterday in the Asian countries of India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China. Apparently, millions of people in India shut themselves inside yesterday to stay out of the eclipse rays. Eclipses have a bad rap as bringers of malevolent events in some of the old school Vedic astrology.

Back in the day before we knew the scientific explanation, I can imagine the sun "going out" was more than a little unnerving...if not terrifying.

I don't see eclipses as bad things...more as a backdrop change on certain levels. But they do have a tendency to be emotionally crazy and over the top (Full Moon lunar) and draining/exhausting (New Moon solar). The changes and sometimes overwhelming energy they bring can be difficult to deal with, so I do understand the distaste.

We've now got one more eclipse to experience for this particular eclipse season...

A Full Moon lunar eclipse in Aquarius August 5.

This one should be more emotionally detached and objective as we look to the future - both personally and for humanity/the planet as a whole. It should help us to gain some perspective on what we've been experiencing and where it's taking us. That'll be nice after just keeping our heads above water this past month.

As I said in the Uranus in Pisces Retrograde post, these eclipses should have an initially loosening effect, with some major catalyzing events/aspects in late August to mid-September:

Saturn in Virgo leaves its retrograde shadow August 22. So new territory and progress with our concrete structural realities, especially related to work, daily routines, health and practical service. Getting back into a new "swing of things" after so much ground to a halt over the past six months. Finally changing course and transitioning into new situations after biding our time.

Then we have Pluto in Capricorn (disposited by Saturn in Virgo) going direct on September 11. Pluto is right back at 0 degrees Capricorn here as it moves forward, and we can see how thorough (Virgo) this Plutonic gutting and transformation is. Pluto means business in the sign of business.

Four days later on September 15, we have the third Saturn in Virgo-Uranus in Pisces opposition (this time with Uranus retrograde). Again, the polarity of practical, functional structural realities and egalitarian humanitarian revolution and true spiritual understanding as we transition from Pisces to Aquarius.

The Cancer-Capricorn emphasis of the past month had us immersed in our pasts, our roots, our family histories. And now the FM lunar eclipse in Aquarius brings the future into the mix, creating some momentum and movement toward where we're going now and the astro events of August and September.

We're infused with the understanding and can really feel that we're always connected to our pasts, our families, our homes, our histories no matter how wild and wooly our futures appear to be - collective and personal. We always have that anchor there, and hopefully the past month has helped us to strengthen that anchor while releasing old resentments that were ready to go. We're in this together with the people we love, and the Sun and Mercury in Leo are reinforcing this fact, stretching open our heart centres beyond old wounds and old walls. S-t-r-e-t-c-h! Yowtch. Just keep breathing.

The fiery joy of Leo balances out all the Aquarius emphasis reminding us not to get too detached, too intellectual, too rational about it all...or we might miss the fun of experiencing life with our loved ones on this crazy planet.

Respecting our own emotional realities as well as the emotional realities of those around us. Easier said than done. It's an art, really, isn't it? Just in time to bring what we've learned in Cancer into our Leonine artistry and loving self-expression.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Lunar-Driven Rinse Cycle

These days surrounding the Full Moon lunar eclipse in Capricorn (July 7) remain all-encompassingly lunar-driven. "I feel" is the operative term. 

At the moment, the Sun and Mercury in Cancer are disposited by the Moon, which is travelling to meet the Sun for the next eclipse - that big one - the total solar eclipse at 29 Cancer on July 21. The longest total solar eclipse we will experience in this century. 

The Moon is the reflective body. The Sun is the externally expressive. Our Sun sign expression of "what it's like to be me" is very coloured these days by our emotional states - the inner, reflective, soul reality. 

Rather than being reserved for nighttime, behind closed doors, in our safe little nests, this inner, reflective, soul reality is shining through both day and night, a mixture of sunlight and moonlight, forming the most fundamental of balanced yin and yang expressions (or the potential for them). 

But this mix of light with light made even more beautiful through its reflection in the dark is also a vulnerable expression. A tricky combination. Our emotions are full to painfulness in our chests. They're right at our throats, pressing. We speak this emotional reality, the reality of our souls, with every word now. Listen, and you'll hear the words are thick with it. 

Mercury in Cancer comes together with the Sun on the evening of Monday, July 12. The intellectual comprehension of these emotional, soul realities and their beaming expression in the conscious moment come together now. We've got our heads wrapped around our emotions at this point and can express them freely. Our thoughts are under the Moon's spell now, coloured by what we're feeling and what we're feeling about. Pulled into the lunar orbit of influence. 

The Moon is the fastest-moving body through the zodiac in relation to Earth, changing signs every two-and-a-half days or so. The constant cyclical movement of emotional processing and response related to the Moon and Cancer are the prominent themes - with an added depth as we travel through eclipse season with an influencing Pluto vibe. 

The water element is strong. We sit on the shore of a silvery lake, our soul's home, ears full of the rhythm of lapping waves. So immediate are the longings for roots, home, family, belonging, the comfort of mothers when the Sun is in Cancer. We move and flow daily, in our every waking and dreaming moment, through these emotional cycles made conscious, connected to the Moon and influenced by it, as the ocean is. We can't escape these longings or pulls of the past any more than the ocean can escape the pull of its lunar-driven tides. 

A catch in our throats and eyes brimming as we think of our families, of the times we have shared, the homes we have shared - how very much they mean, to the depths of our souls. 

Words can't truly express, but we can hear how much they have meant and mean to us now if we listen carefully, with emotional intelligence. We can speak this through gentle words, a kind touch, a knowing smile. (Mercury in Cancer) 

A time of homesickness, for both homes of the past and for homes we have not yet known. Belonging, both longed-for and realized. Memories of a feeling of home so comforting, of a belonging so full, that perhaps we have not yet experienced the extent of it on the Earthly plane. Home beyond the Moon and stars. Home among the Moon and stars. 

All these Cancer themes are made even more deeply touching and poignant now as the Sun and Moon head to conjunction and the New Moon solar eclipse on the final degree of the sign. The Moon will also be in perigee at this time - at the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth. Another indicator of the permeating lunar themes and their all-encompassing emotionality. 

The Dark of the Moon period that happens just before this New Moon will bring every preceding degree of the sign of Cancer to a place of emotional completion, stillness and rest. 

The Moon enters Cancer at 9:51 p.m. MDT on July 19, opposing Pluto Rx in Capricorn at midnight. The influence and raw emotion of that opposition to Pluto will be carried into the whole Dark of the Moon process and following New Moon solar eclipse. 

I imagine the period of July 19 - 22 will be intensely and almost unbearably emotional at times as we're pushed out of the nest into a new emotional beginning amidst deep endings. The final clip of some old emotional strings. Painful at first, but then relieving. 

The feminine, mothering energy is taking its place as a full equal, out from under the weight of old dynamics. 

These eclipses are creating a loosening effect, shaking us, at first gently, out of one layer of an older reality and preparing us for another. One layer of backdrop, emotional and physical, taken apart at the seams, broken down in sections, weakening its grip on our reality. As another is being overlayed. 

The eclipses will shake us with increasing urgency when it is really time to move on. When we hold fast to the comfort of the old backdrop a bit too long. As we linger and our heart breaks with goodbyes, not yet assuaged by the hellos that are to come. 

With a Full Moon lunar eclipse up ahead in Aquarius (August 5) as the final of these three eclipses, whether we like it, the future is beckoning. 

Mercury and the Sun in Cancer will both trine Uranus in Pisces on their way to the NM solar eclipse - Mercury on July 16 and the Sun July 18. The spiritual insight that we are always together and connected to the ones we love should assist the planets in Cancer to embrace the (however bittersweet) possibilities of the future here. 

There is also a deeper, more insistent force breaking things down. Pluto. Seemingly with more presence in retrograde (since early April) than direct. Possibly the retrograde process is more suited to Pluto's style. Dealing with the internal examination, unearthing, digging out, release, and then regeneration and recalibration. 

Pluto in Capricorn has seemed to be a constant, consciously-felt force in retrograde, a relentless slow burn staying near the surface instead of the more usual volcanic eruptive intensity followed by retreat to the hidden, undercurrent level. 

This must also be Capricorn's influence - visible and step-by-step, getting closer to the goals. 

So the influence of Pluto continues with its ripple effect, connected to the movement of the Moon as it does its thing in eclipse season - an eclipse season prefaced by the first New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn at the first degrees of the signs (June 22). We went deep there and haven't really surfaced yet. 

In combination, it's a sort of lunar-driven rinse cycle, washing away the stubborn spots, the hold-outs. Leaving us scrubbed clean for new emotional territory, but not without tears first. 

There are things way down deep that we still need to come to terms with. 

Luckily, both the Moon and Sun enter Leo almost immediately after the New Moon solar eclipse. Mercury will also be in Leo then (entering the sign Friday, July 17). Sunny Leo comes out just in time to dry our tears and raise our spirits. There's no more time to pine for the past when there is so much fun, enjoyment and love to be had in the present. And so many people we love to share it with. 

 

The itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the water spout. 

Down came the rain and washed the spider out. 

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain 

And the itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the spout again. :-)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Conspiracy Theorist? Do the Research

I'd like to throw a little disclaimer down here that I'm not a conspiracy theorist. In fact, that's a term used to discredit people who have questions and information that threaten the status quo, so I dislike it being used in reference to me quite intensely. 

Nothing I present on this blog remains in the realm of conspiracy theory. Anyone can do the research into any of the subjects presented here and will find them to be quite well-known and well-documented. Not within the mainstream, sure. But that's really beside the point. The mainstream has never been well-informed, as far as I can surmise. (And not purely through fault of its own...) 

In actual fact, though, subjects like the Bilderberg Group and the so-called "elites" have often made it into the mainstream media of late... Reality is stranger than fiction. I couldn't make this shit up.

In Order to Get to a New Reality, We First Have to Understand the Old One

In honour of this morning's Full Moon penumbral lunar eclipse in Cappie... 

Here's an excellent article written by James Lieber for The Village Voice detailing the derivatives scheme that toppled the economy:  

What Cooked the World's Economy 

(You can also read it at The Village Voice, but tribe.net has it all laid out here...) 

Honestly, I've never understood the actual details of derivatives/hedge funds until reading this article, and I'm shaking my head at how obscene it all is. I knew it was rotten (couldn't you feel it in your gut all along?), and here it is all laid out... 

Securities were set up in fundamentally flawed ways, destined to fail (ie. groups of high-risk, adjustable rate mortgages, for example)...and then the hedge funds (unregulated investment houses) basically bet on that failure, selling derivatives or "insurance policies" on the securities, which produced huge wins for their investors when they did fail. 

Not only that, but investors could buy these derivatives when they didn't own the original securities! So that's like buying an insurance policy on your neighbour's house after it has been slated for demolition. 

Multiple policies were taken out on each security, meaning that the value of the derivatives is now twenty times more than the value of the actual stock market! 

"At almost $600 trillion, over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives dwarf the value of publicly traded equities on world exchanges, which totaled $62.5 trillion in the fall of 2007 and fell to $36.6 trillion a year later." 

This is how companies like AIG were taken down. The derivatives they held were worth three times as much as the company itself. 

And this is where the government bail-out money went. All those taxpayers' dollars, stolen from the people under Obama et. al. and a threat to Congress of martial law. Covering the bets of criminals... 

$152 billion (that we know of) went to AIG alone. 

Corporate capitalists setting the system up to fail and then betting on that failure, making off like bandits while the rest of the world is kept in the dark about the dirty dealings, trying to keep going in a system that is imploding. 

"The bottom line in this scandal is that fantastically wealthy entities positioned themselves to make unfathomable fortunes by betting that average Americans - Joe Six-Packs and hockey moms - would fail," Lieber writes. 

And fail they did...because the system was set up for that exact purpose. They were given loans they had no hope of repaying, under unscrupulous terms. The deck was stacked against from the get go. 

Now, instead of prosecuting the parties responsible for the derivatives fraud and for the provision of the bad loans in the first place, the U.S. government pays off the gambling debts of the extremely wealthy with taxpayers' money. 

Anyone still convinced that Obama is the change we need? As he funnels money to these crooks under threat of martial law? 

Sounds like the history of power on this planet, doesn't it? The same scam is played out again and again, with different backdrops, through time and space. The people got scammed. Big time. And now we have to be wiser going forward. 

We have to stop leaping at the dangling carrots and playing into these schemes. Keep digging, Pluto...we've only just begun.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Moon Enters Capricorn and We Head to the Lunar Eclipse

The Moon enters Cappie this evening (opposite sign of its rulership) and conjuncts Pluto at 11:28 p.m. MDT.

As the Moon moves through the sign all day Monday, we can feel that there's something coming - the Full Moon lunar eclipse early Tuesday morning (3:21 a.m. MDT).

This eclipse is the first of three we are experiencing this summer. A detailed post here.

This eclipse season is going to be one demanding mother. With Cancer so heavily involved and a Plutonic undertone, it could get under our skins like the very worst irritating mother-in-law. The one who doesn't think you're good enough for her baby. I think we can expect an emotional rollercoaster complete with dips and turns throughout the summer.

We've also got Mars in Taurus squaring the Aquarius bodies (now retrograde) just before the FM lunar eclipse, which is the last of a series of Taurus-Aquarius squares we've been experiencing since Saturn went direct in Virgo May 16.

Mars will square Chiron, Neptune and then Jupiter throughout Monday morning and early afternoon - so give people some slack with these squares in mind, as they are apt to feel frustrated. Not too much slack, however. Mars in Taurus demands that we stand up for and enforce our personal boundaries. Don't tread on me! So if you find yourself getting pissed, it's more than likely a boundary being breached that needs some reinforcement.

This set of squares has our physical bodies/energy/drive involved (Mars), so we could feel constricted and squeezed there. Only the most concrete and necessary of actions, giving us the most value in return will be worth the energy expenditure here. These aspects could get exhausting as we're yoked like oxen pulling against all that Aquarius, giving it the good fight for grounded, earthy progress.

The Mars squares to Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius also factor heavily into this Full Moon lunar eclipse.

Mars square Jupiter is the last major aspect we experience Monday afternoon until the FM lunar eclipse in the wee hours Tuesday morning.

In addition, there is a not-quite-exact kite formation involved with this FM. Saturn in Virgo (16 degrees), the Moon in Capricorn (15 degrees) and Mars in Taurus (26 degrees) form the trines, with the Sun in Cancer (15 degrees) forming the sextiles and opposition.

Mars in Taurus is not quite in alignment here (a bit out at 26 degrees), but it is doing some pretty important work here squaring the Aquarius bodies and working on gaining some solid footing.

So I would say the kite formation is in effect - a formation that takes the flowing potential of a Grand Trine and adds two sextiles and an opposition for some friction and tension, to create the impetus to apply/realize that potential.

Add to that the initiating progress/action aspect of an opening square of Mars (personal goals, action, will) to Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius (the dreamy future possibilities), and this FM lunar eclipse is going to create some long-lasting effects. As eclipses seem to do...

Uranus Retrograde in Pisces and the Next Saturn-Uranus Opposition

Uranus turning retrograde July 1 at 26 degrees Pisces means that all three outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) plus Jupiter and Chiron are moving retrograde.

This is a lot of retrogrades, but we've just gone through one hell of a changeable and often bizarre period on planet Earth, so we need them.

We're going back over the territory we just whipped through to internally recalibrate to what we've just experienced. This is a time of regaining our bearings, especially in light of the three bodies conjunct in Aquarius and the infusion of future-oriented energy and vision we've just received. Our path forward is probably different from what we thought it was going to be...in some cases, very different. There have been some abrupt changes in course, and these retrograde periods give us a chance to adjust to the new space we're occupying. Here, we let go of previous-held dreams and visions in favour of new ones.

These retrogrades should help with clarifying what we're doing and where we're going now - a very necessary thing considering how heavily involved Neptune/Pisces are and have been. A lot of veiled fogginess and illusion to contend with. We can also emotionally prepare ourselves during this time frame for any big changes up ahead.

Since Uranus has gone retrograde in Pisces, I've had some very bizarre dreams. A common experience, I'm sure, since Pisces relates to dreams and the subconscious.

What I've also noticed, after the shift of Uranus retrograde, is an increase in weight and pressure from Saturn in Virgo. I've been waking up depressed and having an extremely difficult time clearing the fog. Just completing the very basics seems to be a task-and-a-half.

What's going on is that Saturn and Uranus Rx are heading to their third opposition in Virgo and Pisces. They are within a 10 degree orb at the moment, getting ever-closer, now that Uranus has turned retro, to exact opposition between now and September 15.

So the balance here between Saturn in Virgo earthly practicalities and Uranus in Pisces spiritual vision is starting to come to the forefront again. The challenges of receiving downloads of spiritual insight and then applying them in the day-to-day material realm while staying on an even keel is tricky. Balancing the requirements of both material and spiritual while bringing them together as one and the same. Knowing when to surrender to circumstances (Pisces) and when to dig in and get to work (Virgo) is proving to be very confusing, at times.

I've felt paralyzed at different times throughout the entire Saturn-Uranus opposition cycle (combined with my Saturn Return) and unsure of what to do next. A lot of void time and weightiness.

And with the reinforcement of the transitting bodies, I sort of feel like, enough already! hahaha But Saturn says no. It's not enough until it says it's enough. Isn't it funny how Saturn transits always have that feeling of, "Isn't it over yet?" Saturn and time. So relative. It feels as if "this" has been and will be going on forever.

Not to mention the odd effects on our experience of time in general with all the Uranus/Aquarius influence. I was re-reading some of the posts on this blog and couldn't believe that some of them were written only a few months ago. I feel as if I wrote the December 2008 post years ago - and it was only six months! It sort of boggles the mind how much ground we're covering these days, doesn't it? Warp speed.

(Another reason those retros are necessary.)

I was trying to do a little predicting for my own life, and looking at the aspects for the rest of the summer, I have a feeling things aren't really going to get moving until mid-September. As much as I don't want this to be true, for my sake and for the sake of anyone who is feeling at the mercy of the universe right now.

But let's be honest. All the outer planets are in retrograde plus Jupiter and Chiron, and Saturn is still going through its retrograde shadow (previously covered territory).

Things really are still in the freefall. Massive scrambling and restructuring are still underway, and it's quite difficult (if not impossible) to get a new direction going on until the dust has settled. This is my feeling for myself, anyway. There's a lot of wheel-spinning possible but not a lot of getting anywhere solid. Baby steps are all we can do in a lot of cases. And treading water.

Saturn hits new ground August 21 (phew!) and starts moving into opposition with Uranus Rx at 24 degrees Virgo/Pisces, exact on September 15. This will be the third shake-up between concrete structural reality (Saturn) and revolutionary change/upheaval (Uranus).

In the midst of that, Pluto goes direct at 0 degrees Capricorn on September 11. Zero degrees at Ground Zero. Starting on the second wave of Plutonic break down and transformation of our structures, hierarchies, public images and versions of success. Round One was the economic meltdown, the bail-outs, the job losses, the business closures, the funnelling of trillions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to international banks, the lack of integrity, honesty and transparency in our structures coming to the surface. You know...all that fun stuff.

If I were a predicting gal (which I'm not, generally), I would say that Pluto going direct at 0 degrees on September 11 will coincide with more 9/11 scrutiny. This could be when the idea of U.S. government involvement and/or knowledge before the fact could go from conspiracy theory to commonly held suspicion. Maybe we'll even get some proof on this front, for those who need it.

My feeling is that these September astro-events are the major catalyzing aspects we're leading up to this summer.

However, the eclipse season we're currently experiencing should have an initially loosening effect to get things started. Especially the total solar eclipse on 29 degrees Cancer. It's the longest total eclipse in the 21st century, not to be surpassed in length until 2132. It's a big one.

Hmm...I Think I Know A Factor That Went Into This Decision

Sarah Palin is being paid $11 million dollars to (co-)write a book about her life.

And the world just keeps getting more twisted...

I think the idea goes like this: Sarah knows she can bank on her (extremely disturbing) celebrity and build her power up that way, one delusional, Neptunian-Kool-Aid-sippin' American at a time. She can also "fundraise" this way with paid appearances around the country.

And this is much easier than actually, you know, performing a real role of public service like Governor.

My feeling is that this is the "effecting change from outside government" she's talking about.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Oh, Synchronicity

Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin - August 2009 issue

In light of my recent posts (on Palin and the George Tiller murder)...

This link is to an article which opens with Sarah Palin speaking at a anti-abortion banquet in Evansville, Indiana.

From the article:

"It is the story of a political novice with an intuitive feel for the temper of her times, a woman who saw her opportunities and coolly seized them. In every job, she surrounded herself with an insular coterie of trusted friends, took disagreements personally, discarded people who were no longer useful, and swiftly dealt vengeance on enemies, real or perceived."

An interesting thing the Vanity Fair article outlines is how many people were once enamoured of Palin, supported her advancement professionally, and then found themselves bitterly disillusioned.

Oh, the power of the Neptunian special Kool-Aid! It'll glaze your eyes over with adoration and oneness and glamour...until you realize that you've been hoodwinked. It sucks you in and gets you feeling the love and the promise and the "larger purpose." It gives you a sultry "we're all on the same team here" wink. This is how the fervour gets its legs.

And when you pass over the details of reality in favour of the promise being sold to you of what could be, it'll screw you.

I can see exactly how this could go on with Palin's Chiron in Pisces opposite Pluto-Uranus in Virgo/Neptune in Scorpio combo.

Something in the Milk Ain't Clean

From Sarah Palin at her press conference:

"We know we can effect change outside government at this moment in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities, so we will. For Alaskans and for Americans."

Also (misattributing the quote, apparently):

"Take the words of General MacArthur. He said, 'We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction.'"

Advancing in a different direction? Outside government?

I'm really not sure what to make of this press conference speech. Palin seemed to have an underlying edge of panic about her. She was rambling and making conflicting statements. It's hard to say what her real agenda is at the moment. There's a sense that she is struggling with the interplay of her personal responsibilities (home, state, family) and her long-term political ambitions. Possibly her North Node in Cancer emotional faculty has broken through here for a moment with the recent involvement of her children in the media...but probably not for long.

There is also a sense that Sarah Palin's individualistic ambitions won't allow her to go through the usual political channels. That she is looking for a quantum leap in power and will try self-declared unconventional methods to get there.

The eclipses combined with the retrograde station of the Aquarius triple conjunction have definitely pushed an unstable situation to the edge...

At the same time, there are Internet rumours that Palin is facing a criminal investigation related to the building of the $12.5 million Wasilla Sports Complex and that she is pre-emptively stepping down.

From Bradblog.com and an article cited from the Village Voice:

"THE $12.5 MILLION sports complex and hockey rink that is the lasting monument to Palin's two terms as Wasilla mayor is also a monument to the kind of insider politics that dismays Americans of both parties. Six months before Palin stepped down as mayor in October 2002, the city awarded nearly a half-million-dollar contract to design the biggest project in Wasilla history to Kumin Associates. Blase Burkhart was the Kumin architect on the job-the son of Roy Burkhart, who is frequently described as a "mentor" of Palin and was head of the local Republican Party (his wife, June, who also advised Palin, is the national committeewoman). Asked if the contract was a favor, Roy Burkhart, who contributed to her campaign in the same time frame that his son got the contract, said: "I really don't know." Palin then named Blase Burkhart to a seven-member builder-selection committee that picked Howdie Inc., a mostly residential contractor owned at the time by Howard Nugent. Formally awarded the contract a couple of weeks after Palin left office, Nugent has donated $4,000 to Palin campaigns. Two competitors protested the process that led to Nugent's contract.

A list of subcontractors on the job, obtained by the Voice, includes many with Palin ties. One was Spenard Builders Supply, the state's leading supplier of wood, floor, roof, and other "pre-engineered components." In addition to being a sponsor of Todd Palin's snow-machine team that has earned tens of thousands for the Palin family, Spenard hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004. When the Palins began building a new family home off Lake Lucille in 2002—at the same time that Palin was running for lieutenant governor and in her final months as mayor—Spenard supplied the materials, according to Antoine Bricks, who works in its Wasilla office.

Todd Palin told Fox News that he built the two-story, 3,450-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, wood house himself, with the help of contractors he described as "buddies." As mayor, Sarah Palin blocked an effort to require the filing of building permits in the wide-open city, and there is no public record of who the "buddies" were."

The idea being the possible awarding of the lucrative contract to build the sports complex in exchange for gifts like the construction of/supplies for the Palin's home on Lake Lucille in 2002 (photo).

Anyway, these are just rumours, as I said. I'll remove this info if it should prove to be baseless.

But a scandal including dirty dealings related to home (Cancer) and business (Capricorn) would certainly fit the bill for the current astro-events...and also the imbalance in Palin's Cancer-Capricorn nodal axis. A little Pluto-induced realignment there?

I would guess that we won't know exactly what's up Palin's sleeve until the third Saturn-Uranus opposition on September 15...

Friday, July 3, 2009

Creepy, Creepy Sarah Palin Has Something Up Her Sleeve

Sarah Palin announced today that she is stepping down as Governor of Alaska in a rambling, unscripted, thrown-together press conference. Yeah, sounds like Sarah Palin.

Just in time for the Mercury in Cancer opposition to Pluto in Capricorn tomorrow morning. Using the media to further somewhat murky strategic agendas. This goes much deeper than the surface appearance, of course. Palin is being groomed for a run for Pres in 2012...Dear God, help us.

Palin's lunar nodal axis is Cancer-Capricorn, I must add, so the New Moons in Cancer/eclipses in Cancer, Capricorn and Aquarius are all affecting her in a big way. Two New Moons (one a total solar eclipse) on her North Node with a Full Moon lunar eclipse in Capricorn coming up on Tuesday on her South Node.

This woman in power terrifies the crap out of me. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. I think she's pretty much batshit crazy and a very unbalanced, unwise person. I strongly believe she lacks perspective and experience, not to mention having wounded extremist tendencies.

This is a woman who wasn't sure which countries belonged to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) or if Africa was a continent.

She also belonged, until recently, to an Armageddonist church in Alaska that believes we are in the "End Times" and that Alaska is to become a "refuge state" for people fleeing the Armageddon.

Yep. She's someone I want with her finger on the nuke button! Someone who thinks we're heading to the prophesied end of the world and would consider it her honour to do God's will by helping it along.

The fact that, as a Time article declares, Palin is "the woman who tops most G.O.P. 2012 shortlists to challenge Barack Obama" shows me just how out of touch with reality the U.S. Republican Party really is. It's scary that they are advancing this woman.

I pray that this is not the start of a run for President in 2012, but I don't think Palin's ambitions will allow her not to run now that she's gotten a taste of the big time. Designer labels! Limos! Secret Service! Oh, that Cappie South Node is just salivating.

Palin has an incredibly unbalanced birth chart, and the way she embodies it is, again, disturbing to me. (Note - it's not the birth chart, but the way a person embodies/lives it that is the real issue.) Five planets in Aquarius (this decision to step down/reorient her quest for power being triggered - along with the Cancer-Capricorn eclipses - by that Aquarius triple conjunction going retrograde), two in Aries. North Node in Cancer, South Node in Capricorn - so her quest for power and public recognition is stemming from the karmic South Node - not a stable thing.

No personal planets in earth or water (feminine, receptive, intuitive, grounded, realistic) to balance the Uranian erraticness or the Arien headstrong impulsiveness, which I think is very visible in her personality and actions. Very unpredictable, fire first, ask questions later, random, scattered, hot and cold, very little depth...but with a blistering belief that she's in the right, led by God and prayer. (*cough* Chiron in Pisces delusions *cough* Armageddonist *cough*)

Palin is hell-bent on following her own individualistic right-wing fundamentalist agenda, come hell or high water, and lacks receptivity to other points-of-view. She is prone to abuses of power and refuses most forms of direction - as has been backed up by numerous Republican insiders who attempted to advise and coach her (to no avail) during the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Forcing rape victims to pay for their own rape kits (collection of forensic evidence), which happened under Palin's watch as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, is a perfect example of this exertion of her own personal beliefs as a public official. This policy continued under Palin as mayor despite it being legislated by the then-Governor of Alaska that the counties would pay for this. Her way is the right way, after all. Why let a little something like a law get in your way?

Palin's chart is extremely heavy on the masculine/yang...with very little feminine/yin to balance.

Here is a previous article I wrote on Palin in September called: Why Sarah Palin in Power Scares the Crap Out of Me - the Wounded Extremist.

And another on Palin's particular Chiron in Pisces wound...

And another on the Scorpionic vibe of her Chiron in Pisces wound...

Yes, I've written a lot about this lady. The Neptunian bullshit that surrounds this woman is absolutely amazing to me. How little substance there really is, but the media (and Republican Party supporters) eats her up with a spoon.

I thought this quote was also bang-on from Anchorage talk show host, Michael Carey:

"This is classic Sarah Palin, the mixture of the personal and political...It's all done ad hoc. There's no strategic plan. It's, 'This is what I'm going to do, baby. Here we go.'"

A woman driven by South Node ambitions, trying to juggle the ever-increasing demands of the North Node (five kids, one a baby with Down's Syndrome, one a teenager with a kid of her own). This creates a massive imbalance, and again is not someone I want to see in any position of power - not even the PTA.

The transitting Aquarius triple conjunction basically stationed retrograde right on her natal Sun-Mars-Saturn in Aquarius. And you can see this all-encompassing drive here (Mars), this belief that it is her responsibility (Saturn) to lead people into the future (Aquarius). Her personal version of the future, of course (Aries influence). And the fight for this personal future vision, the responsibility she believes she has to lead the planet there, is her very identity, who she believes she is.

But again, her version of the future is not one I wish to be led into. What I get from this woman is nothing but delusion, distortion and dystopia. The Three Ds. haha

But all the better to pull the wool over your eyes with, my dear. You can see why the powers-that-be get all hot and bothered over this one, can't you?

With all that Aquarius and a Chiron in Pisces exactly opposite her natal Pluto in Virgo, she is a person who is trying to lead into the Aquarian future without a solid grasp of or an ability to apply true Piscean understanding. And a mastery of that understanding is an absolute must these days in the tail-end Piscean Era.

So Palin has a wounded Piscean energy directly opposite her natal Pluto. 13 Pisces/13 Virgo. (Her natal Pluto in Virgo is also conjunct Uranus in Virgo - which is the dispositor of all that Aquarius, and you can see how this Chiron-Pluto dynamic takes centre stage.) And this is what I was talking about previously regarding not seeing the forest for the trees. This woman is setting up an old (and wounded) Piscean paradigm (Armageddon, End Times, prophesies, Jesus returning, etc.) as the balancing point for the power of her natal Pluto in Virgo. It has disaster written all over it because instead of this imbalance working itself out in her personal life, it will be working its way out on the global, nuclear-armed stage.

This is just not a woman with the universal wisdom to lead (or even comprehend) people as a whole.

Man, the Neptunian special Kool-Aid is pretty fucking powerful these days, isn't it?

This chick's gotta be an alien. :)

Mercury Opposite Pluto on the 4th of July

Mercury has just entered Cancer this afternoon and is vibing hard with Pluto in Capricorn. Mercury opposes Pluto Rx at 9:30 a.m. MDT tomorrow, July 4. And between now and then we have zero aspects to break up that scene. There is some Plutonic uneasiness building...

So if things are feeling a little more intense, irritating or deadly serious than your usual 4th of July, you'll know why. This aspect could make people more apt to hunker down in their homes, rather than venturing out into this emotionally loaded territory. This is how I felt on July 1 (Canada Day) when the Moon was in Scorpio...similar themes.

This is also a day when certain intelligence, information and communication can be absolutely incendiary. Fingers crossed that there are no violent attacks on this day...despite the charged atmosphere. The media could definitely be used here, so there is a possibility of big news stories being dropped to further certain agendas.

The innocence and simplicity of home, country, friends and family on the 4th of July under the backdrop of what else is going down on this planet. And what else the U.S. government is up to both at home and on the world stage. This is the opposition being dealt with.

Again, there's a lot going on beneath the surface as people smile into their digital cameras...

Thursday, July 2, 2009

"The George Tiller I Remember" from the New York Daily News

This is an article written by Dr. Tiller's colleague, Dr. Wendy Chavkin...

George Tiller Murder

Yes, I'm a month behind again, but I must say that I'm horrified by the murder of Witchita, Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller at his church on Sunday, May 31, 2009. It's another in a long line of violence, murders and attempted murders against abortion providers and clinic staff. The list is actually sickening to read:  

Wikipedia link on violence against abortion providers 

Tiller was murdered on the 31st by an anti-abortion activist named Scott Roeder, who told Associated Press reporters from prison that more violence is coming: 

"I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal." 

Tiller's clinic was bombed in 1986, and in 1993, Tiller was shot in both arms by an abortion opponent. Coincidentally (or not), it was 1993 when a radical anti-abortion organization moved to town. 

"That year Operation Rescue, the largest organizer of anti-abortion mobs, moved its national headquarters to Wichita to target Tiller; more than 2,000 people were arrested as they besieged his clinic that summer. They then started stalking clinic employees." This information is from an article at The Internationalist about Obama/the Democrat's conciliatory tone regarding anti-abortion groups. 

Tiller's clinic and staff were the target of countless acts of vandalism and harassment over the years. And Roeder was known by police. 

"The assassin, Scott Roeder, was no stranger to the anti-abortion protests, or to the police. A 2007 posting by a Scott Roeder on the Operation Rescue web site stated: “Tiller is the concentration camp ‘Mengele’ of our day and needs to be stopped...” (Washington Post, 2 June). 

The local office of the FBI was well aware of Roeder’s activities, having warned him in 2000 about gluing shut the doors of a Kansas City clinic, a federal crime. On May 23, he was seen on a security camera gluing the doors at the same clinic, and he was chased away by a clinic worker on May 29, the day before the murder. The FBI was informed about both instances but said it could do nothing until a federal grand jury was convened. Police around the country proclaim “zero tolerance” of petty crimes, arresting people on the slightest violation, yet here they did nothing about blatant violations of federal law as the “perp” went from “vandalism” to murder." 

From an L.A. Times article on the subject: 

"The National Abortion Federation, which supports abortion rights, has documented more than 6,100 acts of violence against abortion providers in the United States and Canada since 1977. The group classifies as "violent" not only the acts of murder, attempted murder, bombing and arson, but also vandalism, burglary and stalking, among others." 

It's an all-out assault against a woman's right to choose what goes on with her own body. These are just the recent murders and attempted murders (not including arson, bombing, vandalism, stalking, harassment, etc.):  

Murders: 

March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida was fatally shot during a protest. He had been the subject of wanted-style posters distributed by Operation Rescue in the summer of 1992. Michael F. Griffin was found guilty of Dr. Gunn's murder and was sentenced to life in prison.  

July 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot to death outside of another facility in Pensacola. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings, received a death sentence, and was executed September 3, 2003.  

December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. John Salvi, who prior to his arrest was distributing pamphlets from Human Life International, was arrested and confessed to the killings. He died in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.  

January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.  

October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York state which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Dr. Slepian's murder after finally being apprehended in France in 2001.  

July 16, 2001: Steven Rogers, a security guard at a clinic in Melbourne, Australia was shot in the face and killed by Peter James Knight. Knight was charged and was sentenced to life in prison on November 19, 2002.  

May 31, 2009: Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed as he served as an usher at his church in Wichita, Kansas.  

Attempted Murders:  

United States  

August 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller was shot outside of an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas. Shelley Shannon was charged with the crime and received an 31-year prison sentence.  

July 29, 1994: June Barret was shot in the same attack which claimed the lives of James Barrett, her husband, and Dr. John Britton. 

December 30, 1994: Five individuals were wounded in the same-day shootings which killed Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols. 

December 18, 1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second-degree attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years.  

October 28, 1997: Dr. David Gandell of Rochester, New York was injured by flying glass when a shot was fired through the window of his home.  

January 29, 1998: Emily Lyons, a nurse, was severely injured in the bombing which also killed Robert Sanderson.  

Canada 

There is speculation that the timing of the shootings is related to the Canadian observance of Remembrance Day. The physicians were part of pattern of attacks, which targeted providers in Canada and upstate New York, including Dr. Barnett Slepian. All victims were shot in their homes with a rifle, at dusk, in late October or early November. James Kopp was charged with the murder of Dr. Slepian and the attempted murder of Dr. Short; he is suspected of having committed the other shootings as well.  

November 8, 1994: Dr. Garson Romalis of Vancouver, British Columbia was shot.  

November 10, 1995: Dr. Hugh Short of Ancaster, Ontario was shot.  

November 11, 1997: Dr. Jack Fainman of Winnipeg, Manitoba was shot.  

July 11, 2000: Dr. Garson Romalis was stabbed by an unindentified assailant in the lobby of his clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

The sick part is that some anti-abortion activists will cheer this list. They've compiled hit lists on the Internet and cross names off as people are killed. And let's not kid ourselves - many abortion opponents will feel that these tactics are at least in some part justified. They'll keep quiet about it. 

Keep abortion safe, legal and accessible is what I say. I don't want to live in a society where women are forced to carry children against their will. That's a version of hell. 

We need to do better protecting abortion doctors, clinic staff and the women receiving services. This is abysmal. 

I would say this all ties in to the Cancer New Moons and the Cancer-Capricorn/Pluto in Capricorn emphasis going on these days... 

State control of female reproduction...and the erosion of women's right to choose whether to give birth by the institutionalized power structures. Use of violence (Pluto) to intimidate and shut down clinics, making the services go underground, decreasing accessibility. Devolution, it is. Backalley abortions. Do we really want to go back there? Ask yourselves.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Sweet Talk Me, Baby! Tell Me Everything's Gonna Be All Right!

Here's Obama sweet-talking the American people into "prolonged detention." IE. Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial. (Yes, this speech was given a month ago, but I'm not on "media time" anymore.) 

It's interesting how Obama talks about the "poorly planned, haphazard" approach of the previous administration on the so-called War on Terror. 

Yes, and now he and the other Pluto in Virgos can further the same agenda but with icy cold Virgoan planning, bringing all the insanity into pseudo-law! It's the new and improved New World Agenda, folks! Wire-tapping and spying on citizens, amassing databases of personal information, citizens being placed on terrorist lists - and then "prolonged detention" without charge or trial (whilst being tortured) - all cemented into the system! The worst of the Patriot Act is being advanced. The precision and order of the Nazi regime definitely comes to mind here. 

So not only is the Bush Adminisration not going to be held accountable for torturing prisoners or for their various other crimes against humanity (not least of which is getting the U.S. Armed Forces and its allies into a war in Iraq under false pretenses), but Obama is going to take it even further. It's so interesting to me how this man uses Virgo key words like "effective and sustainable." 

And again, I see how he and his administation are even more dangerous than the "poorly planned, haphazard" Baby Bush and crew. Because these motherfuckers have a plan. [chills run up spine] It also makes me think about the use of speeches, oratory and the Mercurial silver tongue to dominate and control the masses. Mercury ruling Virgo.

Canada Day is Creeping Me Out

I was wondering why things were feeling a little treacherous today. I thought maybe it was just the whole happy, shiny people out celebrating Canada Day in all their happy, shiny glory? There's always a bit of a creepy subtext to these national holidays...

Then I realized, of course, that the Moon is in Scorpio. Not only that, but the Moon started this huge aspect day off with a sextile to Pluto in Capricorn. OK. Things are starting to make a little more sense.

With four squares, four trines, and two sextiles today, we've got a lot to mix in to the alchemical stew...

And the creepy, treacherous vibe will continue with the U.S. Independence Day on July 4. Mercury in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn, bringing to our conscious minds the themes of the recent New Moon in Cancer.