Neptune Stations in Pisces and We Head to the Gemini New Moon Entryway Into the Cardinal Grand Cross/Triple Eclipse Summer of 2011

Flooding in southeastern Saskatchewan

As I've written about, the current cardinal t-square formed by Uranus in Aries opposite Saturn in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn becomes a quite unsettled (and unsettling) Cardinal Grand Cross mid-June through the end of August. We're under very similar astro conditions as we were last summer, only tighter and more condensed. The parallels are striking - and orchestrated.

- Last summer, the Canadian prairies, where I'm located, were flooded. This caused massive crop failures - if farmers were even able to get a crop in after an unusually cold and wet spring. Honeybees starved to death due to the lack of flowering crops - not a good omen.

This spring, we have more of the same: unusually cold temperatures and heavy precipitation. Farmers can't get on the land due to flooding. People along the rivers have been evacuated from their homes, and they're calling it a once in 300 years flood.

- Last spring and summer, the prairies had wild weather all summer long, including baseball-sized hail, destructive winds and tornadoes.

This spring, various U.S. states are experiencing deadly tornadoes and baseball-sized hail. A HAARP-induced tornado Sunday night in Joplin, Missouri killed at least 116 people and destroyed large swathes of the 50,000-person city.

More artificially-created, unnatural disasters are to be expected. Don't blame Mother Nature or even global warming on these ones. Their hands are being forced.

- Last spring, the major, gut-wrenching disaster was the oil/Corexit/synthetic micro-organism horror show in the Gulf of Mexico.

This spring, it's Fukushima. (Both events are under media blackout.) The most recent readings released to the public show radiation releases from Reactor 1 shot up from 45 sieverts per hour to over 200 sieverts per hour on May 22/23. For perspective as far as how much radiation this is: an exposure of six sieverts per hour results in almost immediate human death. With a timeline of nine months until containment (as if anyone could really pinpoint it), the entire northern hemisphere is at risk for contamination by radioactive fallout - all while the government and media tells us next to nothing. Almost 5,000 Japanese nuclear power plant workers have been found to be suffering from internal radiation exposure after inhaling radioactive materials near the disaster site.

- In April of last year, a volcanic eruption in Iceland spread ash across northern Europe, stranding 10 million air travellers.

This May 22, just after Family Radio's "Rapture Weekend," another volcano blew in Iceland, kicking up similar clouds of ash and causing more air traffic problems.

- Last summer, the G8 and G20 meetings took place June 26-27 under a cardinal t-square/energetic Grand Cross as well as a wickedly potent Capricorn Full Moon lunar eclipse exactly conjunct Pluto at 4 degrees. The meetings took place with Uranus on the zero degree of Aries, moving into its long-term square position to Pluto in Capricorn, and planning for the Uranus-Pluto square series was laid out.

This summer, NATO is involved in a brand new war against Libya, headed by Canadian General Charles Bouchard. The initial attack was scheduled to begin on the vernal equinox 2011 as Uranus re-entered the zero degree of Aries. (The invasion of Iraq was scheduled to begin on the vernal equinox 2003 as Uranus ingressed Pisces.) NATO warplanes have been bombing Libya since then with the heaviest shelling to date happening this morning. Three people are dead and at least 150 injured, many gravely.

Osama bin Laden's death was announced May 1 just before Obama's appearance on The Oprah Winfrey show, giving his approval ratings a boost as he leads the United States into another attack on a sovereign nation. Other reports claim bin Laden has been dead for years. Now, aggressive language is being ramped up against Pakistan for supposedly harbouring bin Laden, justifying an attack against that country.

It's all a farce.

As we head into another potent eclipse season within Cardinal Grand Cross, the socio-political scene across the globe is incendiary, and the orchestrated war machinations take direction from the energy and decisions made at those G8/G20 meetings under the Plutonic lunar eclipse.

Obama has recently made purposefully confusing statements about Israel and Palestine, with CBC reporter Neil McDonald writing: "A diplomatic fog surrounds U.S. President Barack Obama's explosive remarks last week about the borders of a future Palestinian state...The diplomatic fog, as is often the case, is deliberate."

You nailed it, Neil.

Neptune is currently stationing retrograde at 0 degrees Pisces (going retro June 3), and communication tensions related to this strong Neptunian overlay infuse the Gemini New Moon eclipse June 1. Everything has that tinge of foggy surreality - especially when related to the media (Gemini) - and this energy is being purposefully utilized to veil, divert, confuse, and sway mass opinion.

We're in a confusing and arduous place with this Neptune station, moving through life in a world where dream (nightmare?) and waking life are difficult to differentiate.

The Sun in Gemini is currently moving out of a square to stationing Neptune in Pisces. As the Neptune-influenced Sun moves through the eclipse and to a June 13 conjunction with the South Node in Gemini (followed by Mercury, Venus and Mars), media-related diversions abound. The line between truth and manipulated information is as blurry as a surrealist watercolour, and we're only getting the latter from most sources.

And still the Sagittarius North Node demands that we stick to the truth - staying firmly within the bounds of what we know and feel to be true, what we have faith in. This is the shield that keeps us sheltered as we move through the kicked-up Geminian detritus of half-truths, partial-truths, artifice, lies and utter bullshit. This is how we stay straight and true as an arrow, moving through the bluster of words and frequencies attempting to toss is this way and that.

- Gemini New Moon: June 1, 2011 at 4:03 p.m. Central, partial solar eclipse at 11 degrees
- Sagittarius Full Moon: June 15, 2011 at 3:14 p.m., total lunar eclipse at 24 degrees
- Cancer New Moon: July 1, 2011 at 3:54 a.m., partial solar eclipse at 9 degrees

- Cardinal Grand Cross (Uranus in Aries opposite Saturn in Libra, Pluto in Capricorn opposite Mercury, Sun, Venus, Mars in Cancer) in effect June 16 to August 29, 2011

Points of intensification:

- June 18 - 22 as Mercury in Cancer triggers the Cardinal Grand Cross
- June 25 - July 2 as Sun in Cancer triggers the Cardinal Grand Cross
- July 1 - Cancer New Moon partial solar eclipse at 9 degrees Cancer within Cardinal Grand Cross formation
- July 6 - 13 as Venus in Cancer triggers the Cardinal Grand Cross
- August 8 - 25 as Mars in Cancer triggers the Cardinal Grand Cross

Now, I'm pretty sure those who read this blog are able to handle and absorb the facts of our planetary situation, but for those who find information laid out like this overwhelming, I will remind you of the love, spiritual guidance and people fighting the good fight that you are always connected to, never separated from. We're experiencing this mystery together, and the love and spiritual power we belong to is so much stronger than the forces attempting to break it.

No matter what happens, you are loved, you are beautiful and you are whole. Every nasty trick and shitty turn of events is just one more layer to experience (with black humour, if possible), move through and shed. They never touch the core of you. They don't even come close.

The loving spirits we're connected to know what we're going through. The information we're collecting, the perspective we're gathering, and the work we're doing are invaluable. None of it goes to waste. All of it matters. We're here now for a reason, and for those of us who have the skills, getting to the root, to the full ground-level reality of what's going on here is where we're most effective. This is how we add to the cumulative knowledge of what's going on and what can be done about it. This is how we hit the energetic marks where things can change.

Not many can go there, right to the central points, so there is honour in doing so. It hurts. It's hard. It's scary. It's lonely. And you're honoured for doing so. Feel the lineage behind you. Feel the grit it's gone through. And honour yourself for being another sexy, hardcore motherfucker in a line of sexy, hardcore motherfuckers who had the courage to go there. Thank-you for having the courage to stay with it. It's not easy.

I don't live in terms of things being "light" or "dark," "positive" or "negative." I personally believe that the light-dark paradigm is an artificial one, perpetuated through New Age to keep people from their true effectiveness. To me, that way of looking at things is overly simplistic. It keeps people using training wheels. I just don't see things in those terms, flipping back and forth like a switch. I don't feel the subjects I write about are "dark" and that I then need to run out and take a bunch of hits of Neptunian ether "light" to counteract the effects.

My soul craves give-it-to-me-straight reality. That's what I find beautiful and inspiring. I know it and feel it, anyway. I'm not able to deny it. So to know the way things are on a deep level gives me strength. It validates that I am not crazy and that my experience of this planet is on the money.

I'm not attracted to gloss, watered-down social artifice, or artificial light. I like reading about reality, and that's what I like writing about, so that's my contribution. It's the type of information I find important and pertinent to the situation of being human on this planet at this time. So, to use a hockey metaphor, I have to keep driving to the net, and I can't and won't apologize for the information I include on this blog.

From now on, I write what I write, and the chips can fall where they may.

Vesta Conjunct Pallas Athene in Aquarius: Fighting for Our Investment in the Future

Asteroids Vesta and Pallas Athene are currently conjunct in Aquarius as Pallas slows for a retrograde station May 31. Under this aspect, we're fighting for the soul-level investment we've made in the future direction of life on this planet. We're fighting for a free humanity, and the effort takes all we have this week. 

Pulling into the retrograde station, we're starting to tire. The fight has been long and hard, to say the least. Working for a broader vision of freedom, justice and equality on this planet has kept us battling, on the outside looking in in many ways. We knew the direction we had to go. We saw the path laid out in front of us. And we followed it, come what may. We've accepted our outside-the-mainstream status as bizarre, eccentric, odd, weird, misunderstood, and we've stood apart while holding the vision. 

We held the vantage point and kept driving forward because we knew what existed on this planet fell far short of where we needed to be. 

But with Vesta and Pallas Athene in tense square aspect to the Mercury-Venus-Mars conjunction in Taurus, we're starting to wonder if it's even worth it anymore. We're starting to question whether we have it in us at this point. We're starting to ask, where's the incentive? 

Don't let up. Don't give in. We've put too big a personal investment in (Vesta) at this point to let it slip away now, so close to the tipping point. 

One foot in front of the other gets the job done this week as Pallas Athene inches forward, inches forward, planting the flag at 15 degrees Aquarius before falling back into a retrograde that goes all the way back to 27 Capricorn. Pallas will go direct again September 24. 

With Pallas Athene, the fight is a creative fight, so find whatever creative outlets and creative mojo you can find to eke out those last bits of driving feminine warrior spirit energy. Join with others of similar mind if you can and draw on the energy of the groups of people who also fight these fights in their own ways. 

Pallas stations as we experience the Gemini New Moon partial solar eclipse June 1, kicking off triple eclipse season and the Cardinal Grand Cross summer of 2011. The battling, never-say-die feminine spirit infuses the proceedings. 

Vesta, too, soon goes retrograde - June 21 at 19 degrees Aquarius until turning direct again September 16 at 6 degrees Aquarius. 

Vesta represents a great soul-level investment. It is the flame we continually tend, keeping it alive and burning despite the personal sacrifice and diligence that entails. In Aquarius, it relates to the future of humanity on this planet. It's the direction taken right out of the Aquarian era gate. It's our own vision of the future that we tend, outside the carefully manufactured options presented to us that take us into more of the same. 

Use the energy of the Taurus squares over the next two weeks to dig in and commit fully to your own version of the Aquarian future, staying grounded within some very bizarre and ungrounded societal and planetary scenarios.

The Taurus Stellium Trines Pluto in Capricorn as the Canucks Celebrate the Birthday of the English Matriarch

This upcoming weekend is the first long weekend of the spring in this country, and many Canucks far and wide will be camping and drinking and whooping it up - or at the very least, taking an extra day off work - after coming out of the long, dark winter.

This holiday (falling on the first Monday on or around May 24) is unofficially called May Long but, outside Quebec where it is called Patriot's Day, it is actually a celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday - Canada's first sovereign and the matriarchal head of the British Empire at the time of Canada's confederation. In other words, this holiday is yet another shout out to Canada's toxic Mummy Dearest mother figure and the overlying and underlying power structures of the British Empire.

The Moon entered Capricorn this afternoon and will conjunct Pluto early tomorrow morning, setting a deep, dark, Plutonic emotional tone as people start to get the party started for the weekend. As usual, there is a lot more going on beneath the surface than is apparent to the beer-drinking barbequers on this traditional day of national celebration.

By tomorrow, Mars, Mercury and Venus are conjunct in Taurus at 7 degrees exactly trine Pluto Rx in Capricorn. The sign of tradition and living of the good life (Taurus) coming into flowing aspect with the corrupted power structures of Pluto in Capricorn.

Yesterday, I was at the shop where I'm doing readings and selling my jewellery, and I could feel people on the avenue starting to ramp up for the holiday. It was hot, sunny, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Until the tell-tale white streaks appeared out of the back of an aircraft.

I watched from the counter as the aircraft sprayed one long streak through the otherwise entirely blue sky, and over the next couple hours, the standard hazy, filmy chemtrail clouds started to form.

I watched the people going by on the avenue, none the wiser. No one looked up from the busy goings-on. But I could see the whole scenario unfolding in the sky.

It was a hot, windy day, and I had the door open to let the breeze in. Bad idea. By later that evening, my lungs were reacting. I woke up throughout the night feeling chest constriction. By morning, my throat and airway felt raw, which has continued throughout the day. I'm a person with a history of asthma and allergies - my body has been rejecting this sorry, post-industrial revolution excuse for "air" since pretty much birth - so adding a layer of chemtrails is not a good thing.

We aren't going to be so lucky as to have a hot, sunny May long weekend. It's like clockwork every time the sun is shining. This morning, the sky was cloudy, and rain drops came down intermittently. I couldn't help but think that with the combination of chemtrail chemicals, leftover Corexit from the Gulf of Mexico and possible radioactive fallout from Japan, being caught out in the rain, especially with bare skin as I had, was not an innocuous thing. I also started to wonder if it would be wise to start wearing a mask while outdoors.

The Plutonic layers of the situation are bizarre, indeed - especially as the mainstream has no idea any of this is going on.

The Sun enters Gemini on Saturday (May 21), and the duality, the co-existence of multiple realities, becomes a prevalent theme.

In light of this, I say, hey, if we're going to celebrate the birth of the English matriarch, let's dig right in. Let's celebrate surviving the raw lungs, dry coughs, runny noses and fake clouds full of chemicals! Let's celebrate living through the multi-layered abuses from our power structures - the long tradition of living through them - as we watch powerful, murderous figures dupe the mainstream into thinking they warrant our celebration. Let's get right to that Plutonic edge with our Taurean good times and good food and good pals.

All hail the Queen! Cough, cough.

Pluto in Capricorn Opposite Canada's Sun in Cancer in Cardinal Grand Cross Formation: And So it Begins

From my May 8 post on the Canada Day eclipse/Cardinal Grand Cross:

"Canada's benign, peacekeeper image, so strategically useful on the world stage, is in the process of being stripped bit-by-bit by a Pluto in Capricorn opposition to its Cancer Sun. Squared by transiting Uranus in Aries, the shocking extent of Canada's role within the global war machine emerges as the facade is stripped. The fundamental understanding of Canada's identity on the world stage - past, present and future - shifts rapidly and repeatedly over the next four years."

According to a Wikileaks document obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and reported on tonight, Canadian military forces were secretly committed by a Foreign Affairs official to aiding the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

On March 17, 2003, days before the invasion, then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced in the House of Commons that the Canadian military would not be part of the invasion of Iraq.

According to the Wikileaks memo, on that same day, meeting secretly with American and British diplomats in Ottawa, Foreign Affairs official James Wright said Canadian forces already in the Persian Gulf could be used on the down low in the mission.

From the CBC story:


"According to the U.S. account, Wright "emphasized" that contrary to public statements by the prime minister, Canadian naval and air forces could be "discreetly" put to use during the pending U.S.-led assault on Iraq and its aftermath.

At that time, Canada had warships, aircraft and over 1,200 naval personnel already in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, intercepting potential militant vessels and providing safe escort to other ships as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, the post-Sept. 11, 2001, multinational war on terrorism.

The U.S. briefing note states: "Following the meeting, political director Jim Wright emphasized that, despite public statements that the Canadian assets in the Straits of Hormuz will remain in the region exclusively to support Enduring Freedom, they will also be available to provide escort services in the Straits and will otherwise be discreetly useful to the military effort.

"The two ships in the Straits now are being augmented by two more en route, and there are patrol and supply aircraft in the U.A.E. [United Arab Emirates] which are also prepared to 'be useful.'

"This message tracks with others we have heard," the U.S. diplomat wrote in his briefing note to State Department bosses in Washington.

"While for domestic political reasons… the GOC [Government of Canada] has decided not to join in a U.S. coalition of the willing,… they are also prepared to be as helpful as possible in the military margins.""


Chretien (or Cretin as my grandmother would call him) also downplayed the role of the "few" Canadian soldiers that were to be involved in the invasion.

Those soldiers included a Canadian General, Walt Natynczyk, and were helping to plan the invasion up to the highest level of command - something of which even the Canadian Defence Minister was not initially aware. Plutonic shadow military at its finest. Natynczyk was also installed as deputy commander of 35,000 U.S. troops and other allied forces eight months after the invasion.

Pluto in Capricorn is currently conjunct Canada's Black Moon Lilith and opposite its Sun-Uranus conjunction in Cancer in a long-term unearthing of all the nasty bits being held beneath the Cancerian protector image. It's all very Plutonic: there seems to be a shadow version of the Canadian government and Canadian military at work unbeknownst to even high-ranking officials. (Wow, what a shocker!)

In a full case of Plutonic obfuscation, the Canadian forces were not even aware if what they were doing in the Persian Gulf was, indeed, part of the invasion. From the CBC article:


"Eugene Lang, chief of staff to then defence minister John McCallum, says there was no end of internal debate over whether the Canadian Forces were being put into a mission impossible.

"How do you know if something is connected to terrorism or Iraq? When you are intercepting unknown boats, you don't know what you have taken over until you have taken it over."

Lang says that after "painful" consultations with federal lawyers, the Department of National Defence issued Canadian naval commanders in the Gulf clear orders not to engage in anything to do with Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"But who knows whether in fact we were doing things indirectly for Iraqi Freedom? It is quite possible.""


There are astrological parallels between the invasion of Iraq and the current attacks against Libya. Both were planned to begin on March 20 - Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere - and both were planned to coincide with the beginning of new Uranus cycles. As I've written before, Uranus relates to the shocking and unpredictable - except when its movement is being used like clockwork to plan events such as military attacks.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was scheduled for Spring Equinox 2003, just after Uranus entered Pisces March 10. A Canadian General and other Canadian soldiers were secretly involved in the invasion and mission.

The U.S.-led attack against Libya was scheduled for Spring Equinox 2011, exactly eight years after the invasion of Iraq, just after Uranus entered a new sign, Aries, March 11. Now out in the open, the NATO mission is being led by Canadian General Charles Bouchard and involves 435 Canadian soldiers so far.

March equinox marks astrological new year, which is the day the Sun moves into Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, in the Western tropical system. It is a highly potent day to initiate new things, and in these cases, the things being initiated are quite literal: Aries is a cardinal, masculine sign ruled by war planet Mars and is associated with, among other things, beginnings, war, warriors and aggressive action.

The Aries Stellium Completes Under a Full Moon in Scorpio

The Aries stellium we've been experiencing for two months finally burns itself out this evening as Mercury and Venus ingress Taurus, joining Mars and the Sun in the fixed sign of the bull.

As the moon grows full in Scorpio (exact in the early morning of May 17) and opposes the Sun in Taurus, the super-charged, full-blast initiating energy of the Aries stellium shifts. The last of the embers of the blazing, initiating fires wink out and we enter quieter territory. The green, green grass of Taurus may take a while to fully soothe our singed selves after two full months of blazing, fiery, Arien roar, but by this evening, our toes touch down, and we can take a breath on solid ground.

Venus enters very comfortable territory in its domicile of Taurus at 5:12 p.m. Central this afternoon until ingressing Gemini June 9. Mercury enters Taurus just an hour later at 6:18 p.m. until ingressing its domicile Gemini June 2.

Mercury and Venus are heading to a second conjunction at 0 degrees Taurus at 4:25 a.m. tomorrow morning, creating a cementing and solidifying touchpoint for the new directions coming out of the Aries stellium trine Sagittarius North Node. Work to ground what you like in your life. Things start to dig in.

Mercury and Venus were also exactly conjunct May 9 in Aries before Venus pulled ahead a little. Mercury was still slow at that point, gaining speed direct after its retrograde in Aries (March 29 - April 22). It has now regained full speed and catches up to and passes Venus in the zodiac, giving us a bonus conjunction, this time in Taurus.

Jupiter has also almost had its fill of ram, ram, ramming into new territory and moves into Taurus for its year-long stay June 4 until ingressing Gemini June 11, 2012. As of June 4, the dispositor of our path-guiding Sagittarius North Node becomes earthy, sensual, organically-timed Taurus, which we will need to keep us grounded during this summer's Cardinal Grand Cross and triple eclipse season.

We're hurtling toward this time frame, which begins with the Gemini New Moon partial solar eclipse June 1. The two-month Cardinal Grand Cross is first triggered June 3 - 5 with the Moon in Cancer and then June 16 as Mercury enters Cancer.

Mercury, the Sun, Venus and then Mars transiting Cancer keep the Cardinal Grand Cross hot, triggering Saturn in Libra, Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn in waves until late August. Shattering changes spurring new initiatives and new leadership - a continuation and furthering of what was initiated last summer under similar configurations.

Two of the major Cardinal Grand Cross players station over the next while, increasing the potency and permeating the astro atmosphere further. Saturn stations direct at 10 degrees Libra June 12 and moves forward in the zodiac until stationing retrograde on the anaretic (29th) degree of Libra February 6, 2012. Uranus stations retrograde at 4 degrees Aries July 9 until stationing direct December 9, 2011. This is in addition to a Neptune retrograde station at 0 degrees Pisces June 3. Neptune dipped into its domicile of Pisces and now heads back into tail-end Aquarius for a bit of unfinished Pisces-to-Aquarius-related business.

The Aries stellium of planets trine the Sagittarius North Node definitely fired people up as far as socio-political ideas and personal beliefs. From a previous post:

"The North Node is in Sagittarius now disposited by Jupiter in Aries. Getting clear on our personal beliefs (and maybe more importantly, on what we don't believe), speaking up about it when necessary and directing ourselves accordingly are the keys to our successful progress here."

This energy was meant to get that Sagittarius North Node humming, with people directing themselves by their own guiding personal beliefs and truths, beyond culturally dogmatic or socially artifical constructs that were not getting to the heart of the matter.

Coming out of these trines, we should know exactly where we stand and where the people around us stand.

With the Uranus ingress of Aries March 11, we tipped the scales toward a stronger Aquarian overlay, out of tail-end Pisces. The lazy, hazy, glossed-over version of unity coming out of tail-end Pisces no longer gets the job done. It never really did. Under a stronger Aquarian overlay, our individuality and our true, raw personal perspectives and beliefs matter.

I've written about this before as it pertains to astrology:

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

So it was interesting to see how these themes came up during this period of time.

My most recent post on the Canada Day eclipse, Cardinal Grand Cross and Canadian uranium industry was censored on AstroDispatch. This is the problem that arises when another professional astrologer (a quite competitive one) is in charge of a situation that involves group effort and a range of perspectives.

I don't appreciate being censored. I don't think there was anything so inflammatory in that post that it needed to be censored. And I don't think one individual's personal politics should reign supreme over all others on that site. I'm guided to do the work that I do and to the topics and information I cover. It pertains to issues that need to come up into the public's awareness, and believe me, doing a post like that one takes a lot out of me energetically. I'm not doing it for fun or for blog hits or for popularity. And I don't believe it's the right of any other individual to cut that or any other post off at the knees in a public arena.

Coincidentally (or not), this censorship happened a few days after I was drawn to the comments section of another astrologer's post on the Osama death announcement. A commenter had written that he/she did not think astrology and politics should be mixed and was quite indignant about that post "crossing the line." I replied to the comment, writing that nowhere does it say astrology and politics should be separate and that I actually thought the most potent astrology of the day did take on the pertinent socio-political issues.

I think it's important to realize that the personal is political. People's decisions about what to do, what to say and how to live their lives are political. One astrologer's decision to write a post about uranium mining and the nuclear industry is political, just as another astrologer's decision to censor that post is political. This takes on even more relevance considering the media black-out on the nuclear diaster going on in Japan.

In other words, an astrologer who chooses not to touch the controversial socio-political issues of the time for whatever reason is making a personal political choice just as an astrologer who chooses to write and speak about them is.

There is a lot of hiding and glossing over of personal politics and true personal perspectives going on in the astrology of the day. A lot of astrologers choose not to say how they really feel about things so as not to alienate their followers, supporters or paid customers.

This is fine as long as people are aware that it's going on, but unfortunately, it's mostly hidden.

No one is completely neutral or objective. That doesn't mean personal politics enter heavily into paid readings - I'm sure most pro astrologers, like me, are careful along those lines.

But in the case of a site like AstroDispatch where astrologers' work is grouped together and lip service is paid to its diversity, a single astrologer's personal politics arbitrarily dictating what posts "cross the line" and where that line even is is not something I can personally support.

Canada Day Cardinal Grand Cross Eclipse: Well, Golly Gee Whiz. Look Who's Fuelling the Global Nuclear Industry

The July 1 New Moon eclipse in Cancer amidst the Cardinal Grand Cross happens on Canada's birthday, and this nation is poised to take on new position and influence within the broader global agenda.

Uber Global Governor Stephen Harper is at the helm for the next four years with a brand, spanking new majority neo-conservative government (won with only 39% of the popular vote), and this global position is going to involve a whole lot of war activity. We see an aspect of this with the installation of Canadian General Charles Bouchard as head of the illegal NATO campaign against Libya. But that, friends, is just the tip of the depleted uranium-tipped iceberg.

Canada's benign, peacekeeper image, so strategically useful on the world stage, is in the process of being stripped bit-by-bit by a Pluto in Capricorn opposition to its Cancer Sun. Squared by transiting Uranus in Aries, the shocking extent of Canada's role within the global war machine emerges as the facade is stripped. The fundamental understanding of Canada's identity on the world stage - past, present and future - shifts rapidly and repeatedly over the next four years.

With World War I already on the docket, the British North America Act was drawn up by the "Fathers of Confederation" (no sign of the Mothers) and signed May 8, 1867 as the Sun crossed Pluto in Taurus with Mercury, Neptune and Venus in Aries.

The Act came into effect and Canada "officially" became a nation July 1, 1867. This is Canada Day, the date used as the nation's official birthday - like July 4 Independence Day in the United States.

On July 1, 1867, as the union came into effect, the Sun and Uranus were conjunct in Cancer.

The Moon was in Balsamic phase, and as Canada's day of birth unfolded, the moon went dark in Cancer before a Cancer New Moon exactly conjunct Uranus. So Canada's date of official confederation was set to occur on the Cancer New Moon - echoed this Canada Day with the Cancer New Moon eclipse. (The recent federal election May 2 also utilized Dark of the Moon/New Moon energy - this time in Taurus to re-elect Taurus Sun Conservative leader Stephen Harper.)

The dark and shadowy side of Cancer, which I wrote about last summer during the Cancer/Capricorn eclipses, is woven into the foundation of this country. From the beginning, it was built on native genocide and forced assimilation and the exploitation of poor immigrant settlers who came to do back-breaking, life-snuffing labour because they had nowhere else to go after being forced from their own homelands in one way or another.

Let's just say those enjoying the spoils are dancing on some very deep graves.

Currently transiting Pluto in Capricorn is opposite Canada's Sun-Uranus conjunction in Cancer, making its first exact opposition January/February 2012 and its final pass November 2013. Transiting Pluto is also conjunct Canada's Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn, pushing to the surface dark and twisted elements generally kept quiet, including the role Canada has played and continues to play in furthering inhumane agendas on the world stage.

As the Stars Foretold, New Moon in Taurus Brings New Harper Government

There's some amazingly bad news coming out of Canada this morning for anyone opposed to the trajectory of the current global agenda. Stephen Harper, our Taurus Sun Global Governor/Conservative Prime Minister, has been re-elected, and this time, in a majority. The Taurus New Moon unfolds into a new Taurus Sun-led government, right on schedule.

I felt that Saturn Rx on Harper's North Node-Juno conjunction at 12 degrees Libra would produce another minority government, but the Aries stellium on his South Node-Mercury has propelled him to independence. Free to pursue the corporatist war agenda at his will.

This is a man who has been held in contempt of Parliament, who refuses to hold press conferences or answer questions from journalists, who conducts governmental affairs under a cloak of secrecy. Under his "leadership," the House of Commons was all but abandoned, including a prorogueing during the 2010 Olympics. Harper has proven to be an insular, difficult, 'my way of the highway' type of Prime Minister under a minority government, and unfortunately, we haven't seen anything yet.

Harper spoke to the Bilderberg group prior to his installation as Prime Minister in 2006, and his government has gone full speed ahead into North American Union merger. Canadian troops were sent into the quagmire in Afghanistan and are now involved in the attacks against oil-rich Libya. A Canadian General leads the NATO mission there.

Development of the toxic and deadly tar sands in Alberta has steamrolled ahead under this government despite protest from native people who are being slowly poisoned by the carcinogenic tailings. Fossil fuels and nuclear power are the energy solutions under this government, guided strongly by corporate interests. The Harper Government is for the further development into genetically modified organisms. The moratorium on GM alfafa is now more than likely toast and the non-GM/organic industry goes with it. Harper has proven hostile to women's groups, slashing their funding. He has slashed government funding of social programs in all kinds of ways as he pours money into the wars against Afghanistan and now Libya. The list could go on and on...

This much Aries (Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Black Moon Lilith) in the election chart conjunct Harper's South Node certainly does not bode well for peace.

Aside from the seemingly impossible Conservative majority (I'm not ruling out election fixing, to be honest. This man and Baby Bush are cut from the same cloth), there were other shockers in this election:

The New Democratic Party (leftist/labour) usurped the other establishment party, the Liberals, and is now the Official Opposition.

In a major upset, the leaders of the Liberal and Bloc Quebecois parties didn't even win their seats. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is stepping down.

And Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, became the first ever Green member of Parliament after winning her seat. The Green Party hasn't even been allowed in the televised debates up until now, so this win should change that.

New Moon in Taurus and the Canadian Federal Election

It's Election Day in Canada, and it's unfolding under the Dark of the Moon in Taurus. I'm sure the date of this election is no coincidence. Stephen Harper, the Bilderberg-approved head of the newly re-branded "Harper Government" is a 9 degree Taurus Sun. The New Moon happens on the 12th degree.

By 1:51 a.m. Central tomorrow morning, things have been astrologically set to unfold into a Taurus New Moon and a new Taurus-led Stephen Harper government. It will more than likely be a minority government again, something Harper can't stand. So that's one ray of sunshine. Can't fight that Libra North Node conjunct Juno, Stevie! Especially now that transiting Saturn is conjunct it.

Most know I'm a big non-fan of Harper and of the neo-con Harper Conservatives. But I'm not really a fan of any of the candidates, to tell the truth. At a certain level of governmental hierarchy, they all play the same game these days. I don't see any of the candidates as strong enough leaders to pull us out of the quagmires we've entered. I don't think you reach that level of government at this point if changing direction dramatically is your goal.

Do I think an NDP or Liberal government will get us the hell out of Afghanistan and Libya? No.

Will a national leader from one of those parties ban genetically modified alfalfa and kick the rest of the crap out of the country? Will they extricate this nation from the North American Union? Will they stop development of the tar sands and of the nuclear industry and move into the free energy sources that have been so far suppressed? Will they dismantle corporatism and class injustice and restore power to the people? I don't think so.

Regardless, anything that decreases Stephen Harper's power is a good thing in my books.

At the same time, the mass media diversions away from the Japanese nuclear disaster are coming fast and furious. First was the royal wedding and now, lo and behold, Osama bin Laden has been killed! This will most certainly make the rogue attacks on Libya easier to swallow by the North American public.

Just in time for Obama's appearance on Oprah. How convenient.

Aries Planets Trine the Sagittarius North Node: A Generous Boost Over the Hump(s)

April 30 - May 15

We're heading into that two-week glory span of time when the planets in Aries conjunct each other and trine the Sagittarius North Node before moving out of the massive Aries stellium and into Taurus.

We're going to get a generous boost from the universe here...as long as we don't get greedy. Jupiter/Sagittarius energy is beneficial, expansive and generous, but it also has the tendency to trigger overconfidence, over-expansion, and gambling with a resultant fall on our faces unless we keep a realistic, level head with both feet on the ground. Luckily, the Sun in Taurus assists us to do just that so this boost can really dig in and get us somewhere.

Both Mars and Venus in Aries have busted out of their squares to Pluto in Capricorn (which stationed retrograde April 9), and we're hitting a burst of lovely energy that gives us a big boost in whatever direction we're moving in. This burst forward is the reason heeding and acting on the Mars in Pluto square was so necessary. We have to be going in the exact right direction personally within the true broader context of the times in which we're living in order to get the full benefit of these trines to the North Node, which includes Jupiter in Aries, the North Node's dispositor.

Trying new things, moving in new directions and broadening our horizons in whatever ways inspire us are lucky now, as long as we have heeded Pluto and dropped absolutely every direction that is not necessary. The more detritus we've purged and the more effective and streamlined we are at this point, post-Pluto square, the more we progress.

If you've been toying with doing something new, now is the time to get it fully on the move. This is a timeframe when we need to be inspiring ourselves daily and acting on impulse in ways that excite and interest us. Think big, believe in yourself and take action.

April 30 - Mars conjunct Jupiter in Aries at 22 degrees
May 2 - Mars in Aries trine the North Node in Sagittarius 24 degrees
May 9 - Mercury conjunct Venus in Aries 22 degrees
May 7 - Jupiter in Aries (dispositor) trine the North Node in Sagittarius 23 degrees
May 10 - Mercury and Venus in Aries trine the North Node in Sagittarius at 23 degrees
May 11 - Venus conjunct Jupiter in Aries 24 degrees
May 11 - Mercury conjunct Jupiter in Aries 24 degrees

Juno in Virgo Stationing Direct Opposite Ceres in Pisces: Getting the Word Out Bit by Virgoan Bit

Juno is currently stationing direct at 14 degrees Virgo (May 1) opposite Ceres in Pisces, and I'm posting the news article I did recently on Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa and the threat it poses to the organic industry.

Included in the article is information from a scientist who studied the spread of genetically modified canola in Manitoba, Canada, and found that unintentional hybrids are being created due to the cross-pollination of Monsanto's RoundUp Ready canola variety and Bayer's LibertyLink canola variety.

Despite the fact that these issues are important to all who eat organic or care about their food supply staying GMO-free, it's very difficult to get agriculture and food issues into mainstream media sources. For the most part, stories like these are considered "special interest" and generally only of interest to farmers (?!?).

I approached about forty daily and weekly newspapers in Manitoba and got the story published only once - in a newspaper in a small Manitoba town of less than 3,000 people.

I found my Juno in Virgo Mercurial "soul mate" in the editor there (named Ed!) who just happened to be running a special agriculture (Ceres) issue at the time that my query e-mail crossed his inbox. There's some of that Piscean flow we all know and love.

From what I can see, Ed is a rare breed - a small-town newsman who still cares enough to write his own copy and to publish pertinent articles written by other local journalists and writers, rather than just pulling stuff off the wire to fill space. I thank him for getting this story out to his readership and wish more papers had. A longer article will be coming out in a different paper in June, and I will post that one, as well:


A stalled motion in Canadian Parliament regarding a moratorium on genetically modified (GM) alfalfa could have the non-GM and organic agriculture industries hanging in the balance.

On March 3, 2011, a motion was tabled by Liberal members of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee calling for a moratorium on the approval of genetically modified alfalfa in Canada. The vote on the moratorium was delayed March 11 by the Harper Conservatives, who support further expansion into genetically modified crops, leaving it up in the air as the country heads to an election.

U.S.-based multi-national agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto is currently attempting to make its Roundup Ready alfalfa the first genetically modified perennial planted in North America. Roundup Ready alfalfa is genetically modified to withstand glyphosate, a herbicide sold under the Monsanto brand name Roundup.

After a five-year court battle, Monsanto’s GM alfalfa was authorized for sale in the U.S. by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on January 27, 2011. Additional lawsuits were launched against the USDA March 18, 2011 by groups including the Center for Food Safety and the National Family Farm Coalition, challenging the authorization and stalling the sale and planting of the alfalfa.

Priscilla Reimer, organic inspector and President of the Manitoba Organic Alliance, says the production of GM alfalfa in Canada is a huge threat to organic agriculture and is opposed by Manitoba's organic industry.

In addition to being used as feed for livestock, Reimer says alfalfa is a crop often used by farmers during the three-year field transition from conventional to organic. It also becomes essential in the crop rotation once a farm is organic because, as a nitrogen-fixer, it naturally fertilizes the soil.

"If in fact [GM alfalfa is] approved, it would essentially put organic production out of business," Reimer says. "[Alfalfa] is embedded in organic production, and for that to go GMO would literally destroy the foundation of organic production."
Reimer says genetically modified crops are already contaminating non-GM crops due to the lack of sufficient regulation framework from upper governmental levels, including no separation within the system and no labelling.

Reimer says non-organic corn, canola and soybeans are so cross-contaminated by GMO versions at this point that it is virtually impossible, once they have been put into the supply chain, to guarantee they are GMO-free. Unless these crops are organic and, therefore, kept separate, they are mixed in with GMO varieties.

"There's no effort in the system to keep GMO and non-GMO products separate. So when the farmers take it to the elevator, it all goes into the same bin. Even if there is a GMO-free product grown, by the time it's gone through the system, you are guaranteed to be eating some GMOs in those key three crops - canola, corn and soybean," Reimer says. "We have a climate in which it is virtually impossible to ensure against contamination."

Anneliese Schoppe and her family farm outside Poplar Point, one hour west of Winnipeg, producing beef, eggs and heirloom vegetable seedlings up to organic standards.

Schoppe says her family works hard to keep its animal feed GMO-free, growing its own organic hay, and a test plot of Monsanto alfalfa has the ability to wipe out all that hard work.

"Just because you have a buffer field in between or an acre or two doesn't mean that's going to stop the wind or insects from pollinating this GMO alfalfa crop to the next alfalfa crop and then, what's pure anymore?"

According to Alexis Knispel Kanu, who did her PhD doctoral work on the spread of GM canola, buffer fields are not enough to stop the spread of genetically modified seeds. From 2004 until 2007, Knispel Kanu studied canola plants growing outside field habitat where they had not been planted, in ditches, for example, in order to determine genetic make-up and how genes might be spreading.

"What we found was that genetically modified traits were widely present in these escape populations of canola outside of cultivated fields where no one had planted them and there were no licenses to do the planting. They were just growing sort of like weeds in the way that seeds that get scattered grow," Knispel Kanu says.

Knispel Kanu looked at landscape elements that could have contributed to the spread of the seeds outside fields. What she found was that factors like the location of elevators and the traffic intensity on nearby roads contributed strongly.

"A truck going to an elevator will spill seeds inevitably, and a train being loaded will spill seeds inevitably, so those larger-scale transportation factors are contributing to the spread of these plants," Knispel Kanu says.

"That makes co-existence really challenging because it's a matter of segregating our transportation systems for these crops, not having a truck transporting GM canola through an area you're saying is GM-free. It's not just about where the crop is planted in relation to another crop. It's about how we're transporting these things through the whole landscape."

Knispel Kanu's found that the genetically modified canola plants she studied from the escape populations had also cross-pollinated with each other, creating a hybrid of Monsanto's Roundup Ready variety and Bayer's LibertyLink variety.

"Of the two GMO traits that are widely grown in Manitoba, we found both in the same plant, which is not something that is done by the companies. That's something that results from out-crossing in the field."

Knispel Kanu says GM alfalfa poses even more of a problem as far as cross-contamination due to it being a more feral, perennial crop that isn't dependent on cultivated environments tended by farmers to survive.

Astrological post:

April 13, 2011 - Ceres in Pisces, GM Alfalfa and the Neptunian Permeation of the Seed Supply

A Cardinal Grand Cross Summer Solstice and Triple Eclipse Season: Here We Go Again

Flooding in southeastern Saskatchewan.

- Gemini New Moon: June 1, 2011 at 4:03 p.m. Central, partial solar eclipse at 11 degrees
- Sagittarius Full Moon: June 15, 2011 at 3:14 p.m., total lunar eclipse at 24 degrees
- Cancer New Moon: July 1, 2011 at 3:54 a.m., partial solar eclipse at 9 degrees

Cardinal Grand Cross Summer 2011

We're heading into very similar astro conditions as last spring/summer with a Cardinal Grand Cross forming by the June 21 Summer Solstice and the entry of the Sun into Cancer.

It feels like deja vu. Or rather it feels as if we never left the conditions of the Summer of 2010. Ontario, Canada was turned into a "you aren't in Canada right now" official police state as it hosted the G8 and G20 meetings last summer for the initial ingress of Uranus into Aries. The tone and agenda were set at that time for the series of Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn squares running through 2015.

Currently, we have widespread flooding in the Canadian prairie provinces, just like last spring. Roads are closed and washed out. Homes are flooded. I don't remember my home area ever flooding, and now it has been under water two years in a row. Many farmers were unable to seed crops last year due to excessive moisture, and the same problem two years in a row is devastating. Many farmers who were able to plant last year saw their crops drowned out later. In addition to the obvious hit to food production and farmers' incomes, there were many offshoot problems, including honeybees starving to death because there were no flowers to sustain themselves with. Honeybees starving to death in addition to the mass deaths due to colony collapse disorder. Very, very unpleasant. A harbinger.

Last year on April 20, the Deepwater Horizon exploded, leading to the ongoing nightmare of oil, Corexit and synthetic oil-eating micro-organims that has laid waste to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and caused tens of thousands (more?) of people to become sick. Some are dead. People are dying of bacterial infections down there or just dropping dead with no satisfactory cause. Many have flesh-dissolving rashes. Respiratory problems. Pain. Nausea. Diarrhea. Tremors. Exhaustion. Their organs are compromised. Cleanup workers are going blind from exposure to the toxins. Three-year-old children have chemical toxicity and kidney stones. People have been poisoned and infiltrated with organisms the human body has never experienced before.

Peoples lives, livelihoods, ways of life have been wiped out. Florida Oil Spill Law remains the best site for ongoing coverage of the Gulf.

But the world media has moved on.

Time has become compressed as we're psychologically and physically rocked by multi-layered global crisis events being set off like dominoes. Does it really feel as if an entire year has passed since the Gulf disaster? As the fabric of our energetic existence on this planet is screwed with by those who erroneously believe they hold dominion over God, things have gotten very, very bizarre.

This April, we have another (in my mind pre-planned) End Times scenario going on with the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. The earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crises were triggered just as Uranus slid out of Pisces and into Aries, moving into cardinal square formation with Pluto in Capricorn. Uranium square plutonium. The latest news I've seen on timeline indicates a best case scenario of nine months until they can contain the radioactive emissions. Food, milk and water are now contaminated with radioactivity. It's hard to say how far it will reach, but my guess is, after nine months or more of continued spewing radioactivity, there won't be many areas on this globe completely spared. The Northern hemisphere will be widely affected, at the very least.

We can expect the Summer of 2011 to be a continuation on the theme - another tension-filled and unpredictable summer with many things coming unglued both personally and on the world stage. The mind-boggling shitstorms we're dealing with on this planet continue to sink in at the same time as new ones are unleashed.

The ballgame continues to shift. The cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) relate to the points in the year when the seasons change. We're in the midst of a period of time (2010-2015 most intensively) when all four seasons change at once - and then again, and again, and again. This hasn't really let up from last summer's cardinal action, and it increases stress levels. The next steps on the global agenda are unfolding, and people are striving to find survival territory - both physical and soul-level - in their own lives.

As upheaval-weary as the human population is at this point, we've only just begun. New directions are being forced on multiple fronts with new community leaders coming to the forefront out of sheer necessity as the global agenda steamrolls ahead.

Mercury will enter Cancer June 16 and kick off a two-month Cardinal Grand Cross. This is two oppositions forming four squares among the initiatory, leadership-oriented cardinal signs. It is kept strong as Mercury, the Sun, Venus and then Mars in Cancer trigger the Cardinal Grand Cross configuration into late August opposite Pluto in Capricorn with Uranus in Aries opposite Saturn in Libra. Saturn in Libra stations direct June 12 at 10 degrees.

Squares (90 degrees) and oppositions (180 degrees) are considered challenging aspects requiring a great deal of energy, focus and dedication to successfully navigate. In the cardinal signs, these aspects are forcing us to make our moves under tense and pressure-filled conditions. Let's be clear: we're taking the directions that are being spurred and stepping into newly opened leadership positions with humanity under various levels of duress. Anyone who doesn't acknowledge this fact is not fully aware of the situation on this planet.

This summer, things are even tighter than last. There is even less room for error or for denial. Last summer, the configuration was actually a cardinal t-square with the fourth leg of Saturn in late Virgo making it an energetic Grand Cross. It was a Grand Cross by orb (degree), but it was not a Cardinal Grand Cross because Saturn was in a mutable sign.

This summer, Saturn's in Libra, and we've got the full-on real deal.

In addition, Uranus will be highly potent, pulling into a retrograde station July 9at 4 degrees Aries. As it stations, Uranus will be within a degree of its first exact square to Pluto in Capricorn at 5 degrees Capricorn within the Cardinal Grand Cross formation. This is some lightning-hot intensity ahead of the first exact Uranus-Pluto square June 23, 2012. Next spring/summer, Saturn will be in late Libra, out of orb of the Cardinal Grand Cross.

If people were able to resist or deny the grand-scale movements and global upheaval initiated (and forced) during the cardinal t-square summer of 2010, that will change this summer, the Cardinal Grand Cross summer of 2011.

Sagittarius North Node: Our Real History Isn't in the History Books

With the North Node transiting Sagittarius, there will be renewed optimism and expansion in our lives betwixt and between the horror. It's when we're pushed to our breaking points and beyond that the power of our inherent wisdom, passed along through generations enduring historical horror after historical horror, proves its real mettle. Here, we draw strength from the real history on this planet - our history, the people's history. The grace and wisdom we've gleaned through our cultural heritage moves through us, lives in us, guiding us and connecting us across cultural lines, hand-to-hand, heart-to-heart. This is the truth of the human condition on this planet - for those who know and live it.

The versions of truth being portrayed on this planet - even the supposed alternative versions - are not even close to the real story. The magic we hold has never been captured by their history books. What we know could never be contained there.

What the history-keepers (predominantly men) of the world think matters is not what I think matters. My version of an important historical event or trend, what's important to me personally, wouldn't be big or sexy or monied or deadly enough to enter their record books.

There are those who think they have the story all wrapped up. We know differently.

The women of the world have the missing half of the puzzle inside them.

As Jupiter enters Taurus June 4 and becomes the dispositor of the North Node, we draw on the wisdom of simplicity, goodness in basics, groundedness, reserve, and one of the most important aspects of humanity's continuation on Planet Earth - endurance. Like the bull, we persevere. We dig in. And we really don't get too excited about much of anything - even a two-month Cardinal Grand Cross within triple eclipse season.

Triple Eclipse Season

The Cardinal Grand Cross at the northern hemisphere's Summer Solstice this June is sandwiched in a triple eclipse season, which includes a total lunar eclipse at 24 degrees Sagittarius conjunct the North Node.

We're not going to be able to hold standard positions in the same old fort this summer. Everything is on the move. The cardinal points are triggered all at once, and there's no damming ourselves up against the force of what needs to move. Things are not as they were, and we come to understand more fully what that means.

Eclipses usually produce a between-spaces, unglued energy, resulting in big emotional back-drop changes and sometimes involving shattering events. The timing of global socio-political events is often tied to these points. Eclipses happen every six or so months and are basically New and Full Moons that involve a more exact alignment than usual of the Sun, Earth and Moon and are considered more potent than standard New and Full Moons because of it. There are usually two - a Full Moon eclipse and a New Moon eclipse - though three is not all that rare. The last triple eclipse season we had was July/August 2009.

From June 21, 2009: Two New Moons in Cancer and Eclipse Season, All Wrapped Up in a Plutonic Bow

This summer we have three eclipses (Gemini New Moon, Sagittarius Full Moon, Cancer New Moon) in combination with the two-month Cardinal Grand Cross, shaking our foundations and spurring movement that much more.

The Gemini New Moon partial solar eclipse June 1 happens trine stationing Saturn in Libra. With the South Node also in Gemini, the era of much too much information, constant contact, milli-second attention spans and instantaneous, multi-front communication is coming to a close. Though now a part of many lives to some degree, social networking has reached its peak. The fevered pitch has broken, and the din dulls now to a manageable hum. Society starts to wean itself from its constant connection addiction, moving into the Sagittarius North Node of direct experience in the world, real, meaningful conversation, and the type of guiding wisdom and intuition that doesn't really have to say a word.

We started into electromagnetic detox and a detox of the mental environment as the North Node entered Sagittarius March 3. This New Moon eclipse influenced by the South Node steps it up a few notches, moving us out of the social backdrop where people, en masse, are constantly, ridiculously glued to internet/cable/cell/Blackberry/Facebook/Twitter/iPod, etc. The high adrenalin communication junkie vibe becomes passe. The collection of as many friends and feeds and sites and followers and perspectives as is humanly possible goes on the wane.

With a trine to Saturn in Libra, the communication channels we do receive necessarily become streamlined - quality over quantity. We'll be looking for more substantial information and connection over entertaining fluff. More serious, adult fare than the perpetually high school-ish chitter chatter that has become omnipresent over the last decade. The stylish, stylish yet unsatisfyingly superficial perspectives being churned out and sold on internet, in magazines and on television will no longer be cutting the mustard. It will become harder to propagandize and put one over on an increasingly media and politics-savvy public with the North Node carving out a track in Sagittarius. The same old ploys and diversions no longer work - though there are some big blind spots and pitfalls associated. I've been writing about this theme for a while, but things should shift dramatically after this eclipse.

The Full Moon total lunar eclipse June 15 happens at 24 degrees Sagittarius conjunct the Sagittarius North Node. This is another strongly symbolic time for the unfolding of current overseas war agendas. Following the guidance of our inherent wisdom, especially the old school wisdom of female kin, keeps us on track during a time when, with the Sun conjunct Mercury in Gemini conjunct the South Node, the propaganda will be flying fast and furious, spurring the next chapter of "war on foreign terrorists." We have to listen beyond the words to hear the truth. Expect directional and philosophical shifts both personally and globally as the grand-scale global power shift and shuffling of the cast of characters continues.

The New Moon partial solar eclipse July 1 at 9 degrees Cancer happens just one degree off the "Haiti Earthquake" Full Moon partial lunar eclipse (10 degrees Cancer) on December 31, 2009. This is one of those prime symbolic times, so seismic activity would not be a surprise. Don't blame Mother Nature if it should occur.

The New Moon Cancer eclipse happens on Cancer Sun nation Canada's birthday - July 1, and we can expect this nation to rise to new prominence in the furthering of the current global agenda. Its merger with the Cancer Sun nation to the south is a done deal, and it is acting as an arm of the U.S. miltary in Afghanistan and Libya. This includes the escalation of Canada's role in the attacks against Libya with Canadian General Charles Bouchard being appointed head of the NATO campaign. Four hundred thirty five Canadian personnel are currently involved. Canada still has a sort of benign, "peacekeeper" image on the world stage, but my guess is that will hold out about as long as Obama's Hope Train did.

The Cancer New Moon eclipse happens three days prior to the birthday of the Cancer Sun nation to the south (Independence Day), and this is a nation whose fundamental understanding of itself is in the process of shattering. The United States' ego (Sun) has taken multiple hits - though it's still running on bravado in a lot of cases. Like those CEOs who saw that the jig was up but kept flying around making bad deals on the private jet. A new global role for the United States continues to emerge as the financial string-pullers shuffle the deck. The U.S. economy is still being artificially propped up. It's running on fumes, postponing the full brunt of the 2008 orchestrated economic collapse that began as Pluto entered Capricorn.

The Summer of 2010 also involved eclipses along the Cancer/Capricorn polarity - the third of three sets of eclipses on that polarity. From those eclipses:

Post-Eclipse Emotional Backdrop Transformations and What the Crab Can No Longer Deny

Pluto in Capricorn Retrospective: It's All Just a Norman Rockwell Painting, Isn't It?

With Pluto retrograde in Capricorn, I've been reading old issues of Vanity Fair from the library, which has covered quite a lot on the banking/insurance collapse in the United States. Vanity Fair has a sort of gossipy, status quo vibe - like the people dishing at a well-heeled Hamptons party who are very much part of the scene they're dishing on. They want to tongue wag but never get into the real roots of the situation because that would upset their own privileged foundations. There were a couple issues that I found interesting, though, as far as Pluto in Capricorn themes.

One thing that disgusted/infuriated/exasperated me about all their coverage, as usual, was the overwhelming male energy in the articles. The financial world is completely dominated by men. Not just men but primarily greedy, immature, short-sighted, materialist men who will gladly hand over their souls and play corrupted systems in exchange for the supposed indicators of success, power and recognition - money, homes, vacation homes, cars, art, women.

The women, their wives or mistresses, exist only in relation to these men. They're there to support, sustain and cover for these guys. Look pretty, ask no questions type stuff.

The whole thing is bizarre and insane. You have to ask yourself, how can this be the way the financial world is structured? With so many people just playing along, looking to cash in?

One of the articles from the November 2009 issue was about a man named Marc Dreier who is now in prison for 20 years after masterminding a huge Ponzi scheme that blew up a few days prior to (and was overshadowed in the press by) the Bernie Madoff scam. (Canadian connection: Dreier was caught in Toronto during an attempted swindle of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.)

Dreier was a lawyer who was sort of middle-of-the-pack and felt under-appreciated and under-rewarded. To gain the "success" he deserved, he concocted a four-year $380-million Ponzi scheme involving hedge funds (what else?) that funded a huge law firm under his name, multiple luxury homes, Picassos, beach houses, an Aston Martin, a yacht, a sushi restaurant. Super overdone instantaneous New Money. You know the drill.

The thing that struck me from the article was a paragraph at the end from a very philosophical Marc Dreier about to be shipped off to prison. He'd come to some realizations that a lot of people are born knowing and living by, but I guess are hard to come by in the financial sectors of the day. He talked about how success and happiness are being determined by professional and financial achievements and material acquisitions and how that is a fallacy. He said that young people getting into finance have to define what success and happiness are and that they don't have to make the same mistakes he made.

Another interesting issue was April 2010, which had an article on thirtysomething Michael Burry, an ex-neurosurgeon with a glass eye and Aspergers, who made a fortune buying credit-default swaps on subprime-mortgage bonds.

Michael Burry started out as a value investor looking for undervalued bargain stocks being downplayed. Burry soon picked up on the insanity of subprime mortgage lending and figured out a way to bet on the inevitable failure of those mortgages - credit-default swaps.

Predatory mortgages were being lent that were guaranteed to go bad. Middle and lower-middle class people were set up to fail with mortgages that involved no money down and a very low interest rate for the first two years. After two years, the interest rate jumped and then continued to climb incrementally. With the incomes stated, there was really no way people were going to be able to meet these mortgages. There was no way their mortgages should have been approved in the first place.

Burry saw this, bet on them going bad, and made big coin as millions of loans were defaulted on and people lost their homes. The real estate bubble burst and people woke up from the American Dream...hard.

The Vanity Fair article would like us to believe Michael Burry was one of the only people who figured this out. He bet on the system to fail while the entire financial sector was asleep at the wheel and got his payday.

In reality, though, isn't he just one of the non-insiders who figured it out and then took his cut? To me, it looks as if the entire thing was one big Ponzi scheme rigged to impode and create U.S. Treasury-looting pay-offs for those who had bet on it doing so. I could be wrong.

These stories are pure Pluto in Cap, and they made me dig up my first blog post on Pluto in Capricorn, the second post on this blog, the February 2008 Astro Perspective:

"PLUTO IN CAPRICORN: January 26, 2008 - November 20, 2024
Pluto fuels a process of intense examination and scrutiny of the aspects of life we would often rather not look at. All the dark creepy crawlies we’d prefer would just stay hidden under the rug - the dark undercurrents of life, ourselves and other people; denied emotional realities; abusive, unequal relationship dynamics; things we repress that then come out in our lives and selves in a multitude of unpleasant ways; power struggles; control issues; hidden motivations; betrayals; emotional suppression and poisoning; oppression; domination and subjugation; lack of personal integrity; behaviours and circumstances that result from disconnection to the core, soul-level reality; etc. All that fun stuff that we all love dealing with...

Pluto’s location indicates the area that needs most desperately to transition and be reborn into something new. So while Pluto is in Capricorn, we’re going to be forced to look at our concepts of material progress and success and all the structures that have grown out of those concepts and transform those things to better fit our continued life on the planet.

As far as the transpersonal view goes, Pluto in Capricorn will be a time when the Plutonic process is applied to things such as: business and corporations and the hierarchical structures within them; “bosses;” owners; management; time; money; economics; material goals and progress; patriarchy; use of power of those at the top; the aspects of control and power that money and position afford; public image; what our societies respect, recognize and deem worthy; leadership and the legitimacy of that leadership; concepts of success; climbing the corporate ladder and where that ladder is leading us; etc.

In my view, the masculine and feminine energies on the planet are currently unbalanced and unequal to the point of collapse. And nowhere is this more apparent than in our business structures, with the prevailing ideology of growth and achievement at all cost and a seeming lack of concern about negative effects on the environment, the populace and the basic overall soul of things. To me, we’ve gone as far as we can go with the current system of unfettered growth (to the point of almost destroying our planet), and now we desperately need some balance. We need to inject some soul into our structures. We need to balance outward achievement with inner reflection and guidance. We need to care about how our actions and “progress” affect other people and the planet. We need to make sure that the ways we’re striving to be recognized and respected in the public world feel right to us in our inner world. This relates to the balance of Cancer and Capricorn. During a Pluto transit through a sign, development of the sign opposite Pluto is crucial to sort of pull us out of the muck and mire that Pluto kicks up and create some balance. Capricorn rules the Father figure energy (masculine) and Cancer rules the Mother figure energy (feminine). Capricorn rules the outwardly visible public self and Cancer rules the inner, soul self. So to me, Pluto in Capricorn is very clearly a time when the disconnect between these things must be addressed. Masculine and feminine must come into balance. They must learn to work together as equally important forces, each playing a complementary role and becoming one force of creation, instead of two separate forces resisting each other and fighting for dominance.

One of the things a birth chart illustrates beautifully is the fact that we all have masculine energy and feminine energy within us. There are six yin signs and six yang signs that we all, men and women, contain. A mistake that we make in our society is to equate feminine with women and masculine with men. So adding women to a corporate boardroom is often considered enough to address the imbalance of masculine and feminine. This is, of course, not true because women can behave in a very masculine way, especially when they’re trying to fit in and succeed in an excessively masculine structure.

So we need to transform (Pluto) the way we understand the interplay of masculine and feminine, outer and inner (Capricorn - Cancer). And see how denying the existence or the importance of the feminine or yin energy in our work and business structures is creating a problematic imbalance in our society.

Addressing and rebalancing these issues through Pluto in Capricorn will, hopefully, change the lifestyle track that people are running on of go, go, go!, "I'm so busy," tossing down three Starbucks a day to keep going, cocaine sniffing (yes, business people have resorted to that, apparently), body in a constant state of alert/panic, constant growth, constant focus on outward results, goals!, achievements!, recognition!, outpacing the other guy/gal, etc.

Along with that, the way all this is artificially supported by a controlled and invisible form of feminine, which exists only to support this mad machine, will also transform. An example of this is the receptionist or admin assistants in the business structure, who support what other people are doing but usually have no real independent roles of their own.

This Plutonic transformation will also renew our respect for and understanding of growth cycles - the fact that creation involves outward growth, but also rest, dormancy and connection to the inner for guidance. The fact that the human body is not a machine, and it cannot just produce, produce, produce. Energy levels fluctuate. There is a timing of things.

These are some of the things which will come up during Pluto in Capricorn and not in a superficial way! Pluto asks for nothing less than complete transformation from the core. No stone is left unturned. So Pluto will be demanding complete institutional change.

Pluto will help us to see what power is legitimate in our business structures and what isn’t, who is rightfully a leader and who does not have the personal integrity or character to truly lead humanity into a new era, who is a dinosaur clinging to power using the old methods of coercion, manipulation and control and who has rightfully earned the position of leader.

I think during the next 16 years, (within the context of the Aquarian era shift), equality will be chosen more often than not over hierarchy. Even the concept of a “boss” will come under scrutiny within many organizations. As will the owner-worker paradigm and the right to dominate, manipulate and control “underlings” that sometimes goes along with being in charge of the purse strings. Any inequalities in the dynamics between people on different levels of the hierarchy will come up. The way people are bullied into putting up with abusive conditions out of fear of losing their employment. And the personality issues that people at the top of the hierarchy are allowed to have - things that would not be tolerated in workers lower on the totem pole. Top-down decision-making where people who are completely disconnected from the reality of the workers are creating policies that don’t make practical sense. The lack of access many workers have to the decision-making process, despite the fact that it affects their livelihoods. Corporate policy that is sometimes impractical and inhumane."

Another article that interested me in the November 2009 issue was one related more to the other end of the spectrum and Pluto's effect on Cancer. That article, running in the same issue as Ponzi schemer Dreier, was one on how Norman Rockwell's art is having a big resurgence, gaining newfound appreciation where previously it was considered corny Americana. Norman Rockwell's work was big after World War II when the world wanted to go back to "a simpler time" and this has a strong Pluto in Cancer feel to me.

We've now entered the series of Uranus in Aries squares to Pluto that we also saw at the beginning of the Great Depression and in the lead-up to World War II. At that time, Uranus in Aries was square Pluto in Cancer. Now, it's square Pluto in Capricorn.

This is a time ripe for people going into overload shutdown mode and wanting to go back to that "simpler time," which never really existed. Rockwell said he made art that depicted life as he wished it were, rather than the way it really was. How's that for denial of Plutonic reality?

As Pluto transits Capricorn, it does a complete gutting and re-working of Cancer, also. Home, family, Mama, apple pie, meals made from scratch, fresh sheets, comfort, emotional security. Both the United States and Canada are Cancer Sun nations, and both have a healthy dose of denial going on as far as living in protected little bubbles as the rest of the world goes to hell - often by their hands.

I wrote about some of that last summer during the Cancer/Capricorn eclipses:

Post-Eclipse Emotional Backdrop Transformations and What the Crab Can No Longer Deny

There's a strong ongoing tendency during Pluto in Capricorn that we need to be vigilant about: regression - another Plutonic theme - in the relations between men and women/the masculine and feminine. Hello, bell jar.

Society is going to backslide here unless we really consciously work to buck the trend.