Ceres Enters Leo After Kicking Butt on GMO Food Issues Around the World

Ceres enters Leo June 22 after an extended transit of Cancer, and the things that nourish us most deeply shift from Cancerian things (home, family, roots, familiarity, food, comfort) to Leonine things (fun, play, style, art, drama, kids).

How much do we need this shift? A whole lot, I'd say.

Ceres is the dwarf planet related to agriculture, grains, and the fertility of the Earth, and during its transit of Cancer, Ceres took part in an extremely hardcore cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, just as Uranus and Pluto formed their third exact square May 20.

I'm not a predictive astrologer, but I did correctly predict, with the strong Ceres influence, that food and agriculture issues - particularly GMO issues - would be huge, at the make-or-break point, by planting time this spring.

From a November 8, 2012 article:

"Agriculture-related dwarf planet Ceres stationed retrograde at 3 degrees Cancer on October 31 within a cardinal Grand Cross with Venus in Libra, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn.

This configuration brings food and agriculture issues to prominence, particularly as they relate to increased corporate globalization (Pluto in Capricorn) and the direction into biotechnology (Uranus in Aries).

Ceres maintains its strong influence into mid-2013, forming a cardinal t-square May 5-7 that will still be within orb during the third Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square May 20, 2013.

These are high stakes times for the future of food and, correspondingly, for life on this planet.

And nowhere are those high stakes more visible than in the realm of natural versus genetically modified seeds and foods."

These are some of the extremely high stakes GMO-related events that took place with Ceres in Cancer within cardinal t-square this spring:

- It was recently announced by the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network that, despite widespread public opposition, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has approved a variety of Monsanto's RoundUp Ready GM alfalfa for commercial sale and growth in Canada.

Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa was first released in January 2011 in the United States by a pro-Monsanto FDA and Department of Agriculture. It was scheduled to be commercially sold in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, by Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics as early as spring of 2013, under the Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square. All that was required was a rubber stamp approval of the GM seeds by the Canadian government - which it has now reportedly received.

This means it is now legal to sell and grow untested, unproven genetically modified alfalfa seed commercially in Canada. Forage Genetics and others have the green light.

It is also impossible to know if other varieties of GM alfalfa have been or will be approved, as the approval process is kept secret from the public.

Currently, Canada's alfalfa crop is GMO-free and mostly unsprayed. Since alfalfa is a feral perennial, cross-pollination by GM alfalfa would be impossible to contain, and contamination of the natural crop would be absolutely devastating. Because alfalfa is used primarily as animal feed, the spread of GM alfalfa could potentially contaminate all meat and animal products. But because alfalfa is used as a fertilizer and foundational building block of the entire organic agricultural system, contamination by GM alfalfa could mean the literal end of any certified organic food at all.

Opposition to GM alfalfa is widespread among farmers in Canada, as well as among many citizens.

I've been writing about the threat genetically modified alfalfa poses since the spring of 2011 and started an active "Stop GM Alfalfa in Canada" campaign in February 2013, as Ceres went direct in Gemini. I wrote a GM alfalfa primer as well as a basic explanation of the threat GM alfalfa poses to our food supply and sent it to media outlets and organic grocery stores around the country, as well as to politicians in my province.

I telephoned reporters in newsrooms around the country, with very limited interest generated. ("You're talking to a newsroom in downtown Vancouver. We don't grow alfalfa here. This doesn't affect us. You want farm issues.")

Cross-Canada protests against GM alfalfa were spearheaded by the National Farmers Union earlier this spring. Demonstrations in 38 Canadian communities on April 9 brought some new media coverage of the issue.

Anti-GM alfalfa protesters in North Battleford, Saskatchewan on April 9, outside the MP office of Gerry Ritz, the Conservative Minister of Agriculture responsible for approving GM alfalfa.

No to GM Alfalfa in Canada! Between 200 and 300 marchers protested in Guelph, Ontario on April 9. 

However, the mainstream media, as well as the information control of the anti-GMO lobby in Canada, failed miserably in providing the context that would convince people that they need to care about this issue. This is more than likely because the reporters and lobbyists themselves don't fully understand why they should care.

So the GM alfalfa issue failed to cross over to the masses in any substantial way, but word was that the protests and anti-GMO activist efforts had created enough resistance and enough attention that Forage Genetics would not be releasing genetically modified alfalfa this spring.

When I started writing about GM alfalfa in 2011, Ceres was transiting Pisces. Neptune was ingressing Pisces, and it was conjunct both Ceres and Chiron in Pisces at the time.

From the April 13, 2011 article, "Ceres in Pisces, GM Alfalfa and the Neptunian Permeation of the Seed Supply":

"At the time of Neptune's ingress, it was conjunct masculine 'wounded healer' Chiron (3 degrees Pisces) and feminine 'Goddess of grains, cereals, and fertility of the Earth' Ceres (5 degrees Pisces). It was also just past the orb of a conjunction to Venus in Pisces (10 degrees). These conjunctions colour Neptune's entire 15-year transit of Pisces...

Ceres, along with other feminine bodies and points, plays a secondary and often invisible role in most of the astrology of the day, indicating the downplayed importance of food, agriculture and feminine grounding and nourishment. Combined with the double dose of Neptunian/Piscean influence, these issues remain obscured, glossed over, and do not have the hype factor required to keep an entertainment-addicted public interested. Everyone eats. Almost no one cares about or understands agricultural issues...

Most visibly, the wounding (Chiron) related to food (Ceres) involves purposeful food shortages and criminal inflation of food prices bringing about increased levels of starvation worldwide. Less visibly, it involves the slow degradation of the quality of our food through contamination by genetically modified organisms, over-processing, soil pollution and the leeching of the soil of minerals."

Pisces is a sign related to the dispersion of elements into the whole, and the message coming through at that time was one of intentional permeation (Pisces) of the seed supply (Ceres) by genetically modified varieties.

Gerry Ritz is the Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food under the Bilderberg-approved Conservative government, led by Stephen Harper. (The "Agri-Food" part was added in the mid-1990s when GMOs were first unleashed in Canada.) According to his wikipedia profile, Ritz was born August 19, 1951 in Delisle, Saskatchewan. He was a farmer before making it big in far-right Canadian politics.

Ritz is an Old Guard Pluto in Leo with a Leo Sun conjunct.

He is the Minister responsible for the Canada Food Inspection Agency, the agency that approved Monsanto's GM alfalfa, which is sure to cross-contaminate the alfalfa crop in Canada almost completely over the course of time if it is planted.

Terrifyingly (and fittingly), Ritz has a natal North Node in Pisces conjunct Ceres in Pisces. His forward-ho path through life involves agriculture and, quite literally, the permeation (Pisces) of the seed/food supply (Ceres) by GM varieties.

Transiting Chiron is currently tightly conjunct Ritz' natal Ceres in Pisces, indicating a devastating and ongoing injury to the health and well-being of the whole brought about through his actions.

Ritz has Mercury and Venus in Virgo, loosely conjunct his South Node. This makes for a weighted South Node with pitfalls including not seeing the forest for the trees and not understanding the broader effect on the whole of his personal actions - or perhaps just not caring? 

Gerry Ritz. Click to enlarge. Note: this is not a correct birth time.



I'm not sure if Ritz is ignorant, stupid, or just straight-up NWO evil. If ignorant, he certainly does not see the long-term implications of his actions, which could destroy most of the Canadian food supply by contaminating it with poisonous, untested GMOs.

Though Monsanto's dirty alfalfa seeds have been approved for sale in Canada, they have not yet been planted or grown. It's crucial that the "No to GM Alfalfa" pressure continue. If we lose this battle, much of the food supply will be lost.

- In May, under the intense Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reportedly told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the continued agenda of the Big Ag GMO corporations could bring about World War III.

As we last experienced a Uranus - Pluto square series in the 1930s during the lead-up to World War II, the war threats (Uranus square Pluto) spurred by global food and agriculture issues (Ceres) are apropos. You could even say, planned and timed?

Particularly at issue is the huge global honeybee die-off underway, including "colony collapse disorder," conclusively linked to chemical pesticide use. Bees pollinate crops so that they grow. If the bee population is destroyed,  most of the current global food production is also destroyed.

One of the major problems, as seen by Putin and others, is the continued use by the United States of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids - named for their resemblance to nicotine. Scientific studies have shown that neonicotinoids kill bees. The European Union, following the lead from Russia, Switzerland, France, Italy, Slovenia and Ukraine, has passed a law to ban the use of neonicotinoids in Europe, but the United States refuses to follow suit.

Swiss-based GMO and chemical corporation Syngenta is the maker of two of the most problematic neonicotinoids.

Exposure to genetically modified organisms and electromagnetic frequency pollution have also been raised as issues in the global bee deaths.

You can read the full article on this subject here: Ceres in Cancer Forms Cardinal T-Square with Uranus and Pluto: Putin Says Big Ag Could Trigger WWIII

- During the last week of May - again, under the intense Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square - a farmer in Oregon discovered a patch of unapproved and illegal RoundUp Ready GM wheat in his field. The farmer found the stray wheat plants and sprayed them with glyphosate-based herbicide RoundUp in an effort to kill them. When the wheat did not die, the farmer reported his findings.

The GM wheat, produced with an experimental gene by Monsanto, was last planted in test plots in Oregon in 2001. It has never been approved for commercial use or for human or animal consumption. This means Monsanto's unapproved GM wheat is contaminating wheat fields in Oregon 12 years after it was last planted, discrediting Monsanto's common line that their genetically modified crops can be safely planted alongside non-GM crops with no fear of cross-contamination.

After news of the GM contamination, Japan - the largest market for U.S. wheat exports - cancelled its tenders. The European Union also went on high alert.

On June 3, 2013, a Kansas wheat farmer was the first to sue Monsanto for damages related to the contamination by GM wheat and for the psychological damage done in overseas wheat markets, which now question the purity of U.S. wheat.

Ironically, also on June 3, Monsanto announced it would be developing a new Wheat Technology Center in the Twin Falls, Idaho area. This is an expansion of the growing and testing of GM wheat at a time when the planet is crying out for Monsanto to discontinue its experimental wheat crops.

The pro-GMO Idaho Wheat Commission Commissioner Bill Flory was quoted as saying, "Monsanto's continued commitment to wheat is front and center in southcentral Idaho...It's a major commitment on the part of Monsanto. Wheat is their new frontier." Source.

- This spring saw countries taking matters into their own hands, destroying genetically modified crops. In Hungary, one of the 27 countries worldwide where genetically modified seeds are banned, 1,000 acres of corn found to be genetically modified were destroyed. In China, a country which imports GM crops, three shipments of U.S. GM corn were destroyed when they were found to lack proper safety documentation. Both actions took place in May, under the Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square.

- On May 25, a worldwide March Against Monsanto was held, as an estimated two million people marched in 436 cities and towns in 52 countries to protest the insidious contamination of the food supply by genetically modified seeds, as well as the massive use of glyphosate herbicides like Monsanto's RoundUp - the most popular and widely-used chemical herbicide in the world.

Marching Against Monsanto in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Marching Against Monsanto in Akron, Ohio

Marching Against Monsanto in the Netherlands

Although there was very scant mainstream media coverage of the worldwide protests, the marches did raise public awareness of Monsanto's long list of dirty deeds and crimes against humanity. However, they also put a disproportionate amount of focus on Monsanto. Monsanto may be at the top of the GMO game, but it is only one of the major players. If you lop the head of the Monsanto beast off, there will be at least five more heads popping up to take its place - Bayer, Dow, DuPont, BASF, and Syngenta, as well as others waiting in the wings.

All these GMO corporations - five of which are actually chemical corporations with a long history of production for the military industrial complex - are aggressive, litigious, and deadly. All require our attention.

- Also in May, Monsanto announced that it would halt the production of its GM corn in Europe, discontinuing attempts to force GM acceptance in mostly anti-GM European markets. Monsanto will continue to market and sell GM corn to Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic.

- In June, the results of the first-ever feeding trial study of GM soy and corn on pigs were published (available in full here). The lead researcher in the study was Australian Judy Carman who studied 168 newly-weaned pigs in a U.S. commercial pig barn for 22.7 weeks.

The study results found that the pigs who ate a GM diet had a much higher likelihood of developing severe stomach inflammation (32% for pigs fed a GM diet compared to 12% for pigs fed non-GM food). The results also found the pigs who ate GM food had 25% heavier uteruses, indicating potential adverse effects on fertility. Source.

These results echo the findings of the Seralini study, the first-ever long-term GM feeding trial done on lab rats that found toxic effects from GM corn in 2012. Those trial results found that rats fed a diet of GM corn were much more likely to develop tumours, digestive problems, and to experience premature death. From September 21, 2012: "Ceres in Gemini, Food Issues in the Media, and Unprecedented GM Feeding Trials Produce Horrifying (Though Unsurprising) Results"

Ceres has been one busy little dwarf planet over the past months while transiting the signs of Gemini and Cancer.

Now, Ceres shifts into Leo, and it is our heart-deep creative force that nourishes and sustains. It is our heart-deep creative force and bold artistry that can keep deadly power in check on this planet.

Art and creativity are very potent for socio-political change now - or they can be.

Ceres in Leo says: play, sing, dance, create, be your dramatic and hot-shit little self! But be relevant. Be potent. Use your creative energy to address the major issues facing us now as a collective, rather than diverting attention from them.

Ceres is one hardcore Earth Mama. She goes to the mat. She takes on any power player she has to take on, and she holds life on this planet in the balance as she does it.

Now is the time when we need our artists, our astrologers, and our creatives to use their public platforms in more relevant ways. Art for art's sake isn't going to get the job done. Art and astrology for diversion's sake certainly isn't the move. Controlled opposition figureheads manufactured for your viewing and listening pleasure are far from adequate.

With Ceres transiting Leo, we inject a little more fun, a little more style, and a little more glam into the fight for our food supply. (And don't kid yourselves - we've only just gotten started there.)

With Ceres in Leo, we nurture ourselves and others by not taking things too seriously, even the life-and-death issues we're being faced with on a daily basis. If we can laugh at the hijinx of the sociopaths at the helm of business and government these days, we've won half the battle.

This is what we need now: play, fun, style, drama, the joy of creation. This is what nourishes our souls and rejuvenates us after the long-haul transit of Ceres in Cancer within cardinal t-square. Those themes have been with us since October 2012.

In Leo, Earth Mama farm wife Ceres is treated like the Queen that she is. She gets to have her hair done. She gets to buy a fabulous new outfit. She gets a little of the star treatment. All the hardcore Earth Mamas protecting this planet do, and they couldn't be more deserving.

The glam and style of Leo gives Earth Mama Ceres the confidence and the attention she needs to change the course of food and agriculture on this planet. A tall order, but this is what faces us now.

Enjoy the warmth, the fire, the heart, and the creative excitement of Ceres in Leo from June 22 to August 28.