Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Mercury Rx Re-post: Ceres in Pisces, GM Alfalfa and the Neptunian Permeation of the Seed Supply

Mercury is currently retrograde in Pisces (February 23 - March 17) and will station direct conjunct Chiron and Neptune March 17.

The connections are there. We just have to make them visible.

This is a re-post of an article from April 2011, posted just after genetically modified alfalfa was approved unconditionally by the United States Department of Agriculture, headed by GMO-friendly Tom Vilsack, ex-Governor of Iowa.

The article talks about Neptune's ingress of Pisces on April 4, 2011 and the coinciding attempt at permeation of the seed and food supply by genetically modified varieties.

The first widescale commercial planting of GM alfalfa occurred in the United States in the spring of 2011, just as Neptune took up new residence in Pisces. At the time of the ingress, Neptune was conjunct Ceres and Chiron in Pisces, which colours the entire 15-year transit of Neptune in Pisces.

Currently transiting messenger planet Mercury will be retrograding over Chiron and Neptune in Pisces, and the Sun and Venus in Pisces are also lighting up the themes.

Two years later, the issue is as pertinent as ever with genetically modified alfalfa slated to be unleashed in Canada as early as the 2013 growing season.



From April 13, 2011:

We're heading to an election in Canada May 2 after the minority Conservative "Harper Government" delivered a budget bound to be rejected by the other parties. It was.

(For those who aren't hip to the now, the Government of Canada has officially been re-branded the "Harper Government" - complete with memos - since the appearance of being elected by and accountable to the people is so very last era. At this point, there really is no Government of Canada - we're officially in lock-step North American Union merger within a broader global agenda, so why not do away with the formalities altogether? Corpo-governmental identity re-branding. Aries square Pluto in Capricorn.)

As we head into the election run-up, the planet of spiritual/energetic connection and dissolution into "all that is" Neptune has just cracked into its domicile of Pisces (April 4), sitting on the zero degree until it retrogrades back into Aquarius June 3. This is the third sign shift of outer planets we've experienced in the past 3.5 years - Pluto into Capricorn, Uranus into Aries and now Neptune into Pisces (it's there for good February 2012).

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.

Understatement of the astrological age: there's a whole lot of psychic healing and healing of the human spirit required on this planet at the end of the Piscean era.

The Neptune-Chiron-Ceres conjunction involves complex symbolism, but in basic terms, this combination of energies shows us where we're starving collectively - spiritually and physically - so we can work on bucking the trend and making our way back to right principles and the healing they bring.

Earth Mama Ceres being so strongly involved, along with Venus further into Pisces, indicates that the spiritual healing and healing of the whole is intricately, inextricably linked to bringing the feminine and women to their rightful places of prominence, power, influence and respect, especially within the chronically masculine-heavy spiritual paradigms.

The astrological zodiac itself is one of these masculine-heavy paradigms, reflecting, as it does, the broader societies. Only two of the ten major bodies used in astrological analysis are considered feminine - the Moon and Venus. While these two do play a very strong role in astrology, this paints a skewed, two-dimensional picture of the feminine influence and experience on this planet: women and the feminine force are either the beautiful lover (Venus) or the nurturing mother (Moon) - existing in relation to others - with little nuance or variation in between.

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.

"Neptunian integrative spiritual healing" is a sexy little catch phrase that might hold some interest, though. And Ceres shows us some of what that's going to entail, involving a crucial link to our food sources.

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.

A big part of our collective starvation involves no longer living by right spiritual principles - more to the point, living in societies dominated by corporate interests that force and sell undignified, dysfunctional lifestyles and values disconnected from right spiritual principles. The collective streams are shaped and directed into these channels, and it takes a lot to live beyond them.

Nowhere is the divergence from proper spiritual principles more apparent - yet less fully grasped by most people - than in our relationship to food.

The dissolution of our Parliament in Canada has left unaddressed a key motion tabled by the opposition March 3, 2011 - a moratorium on the planting and growing of genetically modified alfalfa in Canada. The "Harper Government," which supports expansion into GM crops, stalled the vote on the motion March 11, 2011, leaving it up in the air.

This should be an election issue in Canada, but it isn't. The proposed moratorium, like Ceres itself, flies under the radar for most people. Agriculture issues almost always do since, again, people have become so disconnected to food and food sources that they don't even understand why they should concern themselves with such things.

But this is big, people. This is Ceres big, and Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt. Reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006 along with Eris and Pluto, Ceres is much larger than Chiron, though Chiron gets infinitely more play astrologically.

Ceres is in the league of Lord of the Underworld Pluto and we know that dude means business. So does Ceres. Fuck with Ceres too much, and she has the ability to snuff life out on this planet entirely. This is what they're playing with right now. Still think this is an inconsequential, secondary-at-best influence in the astrological zodiac?

Monsanto is currently attempting to make its Roundup Ready alfalfa the first genetically modified perennial planted in North America. Yes, perennial. Plant it once, and it's coming back again and again. Roundup Ready alfalfa is genetically modified to withstand glyphosate, a herbicide sold under the Monsanto brand name Roundup. Let's recall that Monsanto is the corporation that has brought us such improvements on the human condition as Agent Orange, DDT, saccharin, Aspartame, bovine growth hormones and PCBs.

On January 27, 2011, after a five-year court battle, Monsanto’s GM alfalfa was authorized for sale by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Just prior to this, Whole Foods Market sent out an e-mail to customers announcing it was no longer opposing the growing of GM crops. It was now supporting a policy of "conditional deregulation," despite the fact that it admitted such a policy could mean contamination of beef, dairy products and honey. (It turns out, about two-thirds of the foods Whole Foods sells as "natural" are already contaminated with GMOs.)

Whole Foods execs even adopted the "coexistence and cooperation" language of U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Visack. Whole Foods' new stance:

"The policy set for [GM] alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other [GM] crops as well. True coexistence is a must."

Secondary 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...for now.

The approval of GM alfalfa in the United States is, of course, pertinent to Canadian agriculture, as alfalfa grows and cross-pollinates like a weed, making cross-border contamination likely. Wind is a dual citizen. Hay goes back and forth.

I recently spoke with organic inspector Priscilla Reimer on this issue for an article I'm writing for a local paper, and she told me the introduction of GM alfalfa has the ability to wipe out the entire foundation of organic/non-GMO agriculture. Alfalfa is not only a staple livestock feed, it 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. Basically, alfalfa is embedded within the entire organic system, so contamination by GM alfalfa would be devastating.

Already, Reimer (an organic inspector, let's recall) says there can be no guarantee that a food product labelled organic is completely free of genetically modified material. She says GMOs have spread faster than anyone could have imagined, and due to the lack of labelling and segregation within the agricultural system, GM crops being grown widely in Canada, especially soybeans, corn and canola, have contaminated the non-GMO versions. If you are eating a product that contains a derivative of those three crops, you are almost guaranteed to be eating some genetically modified material.

I also spoke to Alexis Knispel Kanu who did her PhD doctoral work on the spread of genetically modified canola. Knispel Kanu studied escape populations of canola - plants that were growing outside fields and had not been planted - and found GM contamination widespread among them. She found that it was the transportation and containment systems that were most often the cause of the spread of those seeds (spilling from trucks, trains, elevators), making the standard solution of "buffer fields" between GM and non-GM crops almost useless to stop contamination. (This is something farmers have always known, incidentally.)

Even more disturbing, Knispel Kanu found something the GMO companies had not intended: the GM canola plants she studied had cross-pollinated with each other in the wild, forming a hybrid of Monsanto's Roundup Ready variety and Bayer's LibertyLink variety.

Who's going to sue whom for patent infringement there?

Knispel Kanu says the spread of GM alfalfa poses an even stronger threat as far as cross-pollination since it is a more feral crop than canola, a perennial, and does not require cultivated fields in which to thrive.

Alfalfa is the most wild, natural, sweet-smelling crop I can think of. It's one of the first things I think of when I think 'prairie,' and to think of it being irrevocably contaminated by genetically modified organisms is really horrendous.

Neptune relates to the dissolution of boundaries - maybe more specifically to the understanding that many boundaries do not exist, especially when it comes to the natural mixing of things through air and water. Unless you have your hermetically sealed bubbles ready, what happens in one area of the planet has widespread ripple effects in other areas. We see this Piscean/Neptunian princlple with the nuclear disaster going on in Japan. And we see it in the permeation of the seed supply by genetically modified varieties. I wish it didn't take these types of attacks on our energetic inter-relatedness for people to start to grasp that they should care about what happens in the world around them - even beyond their immediate daily circle of family and friends.

Will the Earthlings realize the ongoing corporate pollution of their seed supply and start to give a flying crap before it's too late?

Stay tuned...

Until then, buying food that is local and certified organic or farmed up to organic standards is the best safe-guard - outside growing your own organic plants. Since the organic system works on a system of "institutionalized trust," forming relationships with farms and farmers that produce such products is a good idea, too. Knowing how they farm and what they feed their animals makes it easier to ensure your food supply is GMO-free - or as GMO-free as possible these days.


More from Willow's Web on GM alfalfa.

7 comments:

LB said...

Some people may not realize that while all 100% organic foods are GMO free, not all non-GMO foods are organic. I have to admit, I wasn't always aware of the difference.

As an example, our local food co-op -where we occasionally purchase fresh vegetables and most of our bulk items- carries a brand of locally grown and produced almond butter that meets both criteria; the brand is also employee-owned and supports small family farming. Unfortunately, it costs almost $14.00 for a small 8 oz jar (!!!), which is pretty discouraging since not many of us can afford to make this kind of purchase. Wish I had the wherewithal to make my own or to buy this particular brand on a regular basis, but I don't. Trader Joe's carries a more affordable brand of almond butter that is supposedly GMO free, but NOT organic. Not a good choice to have to make.

One more reason we need to apply pressure (to suppliers and legislators) in support of anything that helps to promote 100% organically grown, non-GMO foods - so they become more available as well as more *affordable* to the masses, who, for a variety of reasons, don't always have the access, time or money to purchase direct (or even indirectly) from local farmers. I have to admit we do most of our food shopping at TJ's, one of the few places we can *afford* to shop.

Ironically enough, transiting Ceres through my natal 10th is forming a grand trine with my 6th house Aquarius Chiron and 2nd house Libra Venus, NN and Sun, but is also directly opposite my 4th house Saturn. Transiting Sun and Chiron are moving through my 6th, forming a quincunx with my natal 2nd house Ceres. Lately, I've been focusing even more attention than usual on practical ways to create and maintain good health. In the world we live in, it can be challenging.

With so much information/misiformation to sort through, it's important to talk about it, so thanks. I totally agree - there's a larger spiritual component to our choices; everything, every action or inaction, including those involving the food we purchase and consume, involves a spiritual choice, although very few of us seem to realize this.

What you shared about Whole Foods was very interesting and also very disappointing, but good to know.

Congratulations on 5 years, Willow! Thanks again, and all the best.:)

Willow said...

Actually, we're in the sad state that organic foods are not completely GMO-free. Organics have been contaminated by GMOs. This is why we have to stop GM alfalfa. That's the final nail in the coffin.

LB said...

I'm glad you pointed that out. The first sentence of my previous comment was misleading - should have said foods 'labeled' 100% organic.

Thanks again, Willow. If I hadn't read your post, I wouldn't have known about Whole Foods' reversal of position. A few years ago, they were leading the charge to regulate the growth of GE alfalfa in order to avoid contamination of organic and non-GMO crops. It's hard to keep up sometimes.

Willow said...

Yes, Whole Foods was a serious bombshell.

I think part of the problem is that they know their products are contaminated, so they're calling for "co-existence," which is impossible.

Instead of really digging in and doing the work on this issue, they took the easy way out. Which is to go softer on GM crops so they can keep the unlabelled contaminated foods on their shelves.

It really is hard to keep up on this GMO stuff because it's moving forward at warp speed and it's also being done almost invisibly. That's why I'm going to run these articles again with Merc Rx in Pisces.

LB said...

Mercury must be retrograde because I just realized I'm one of those customers who googled Whole Foods and was seriously misled by their online alert titled, "Urgent Action Needed to Support Organics and Non-GE Crops" issued back in January 2011.

Normally I'm more discerning (much more!). This was one of those times when the devil was in the details. Glad you're helping to educate us and keep us informed.

Willow said...

Yes, a lot of corporate "organics" have been discredited over the past couple years as far as being soft on GMOs.

Willow said...

If I hear the truly ridiculous argument that "since all seeds cross-pollinate in the wild, we're already eating GMO food all the time," one more time, I think I will simply implode.

There is a distinct difference between seeds cross-pollinating naturally in the wild and seeds being intentionally genetically engineered by human beings in a laboratory somewhere to withstand massive doses of chemical that would kill a natural (non-GMO) plant.

Multiple studies have linked both genetically modified diets and glyphosate (the main ingredient in Bayer-Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, the most popular herbicide in the world) with things like cancer, reproductive damage, organ damage, and digestive damage.

Bayer-Monsanto, BASF, and Dow-Dupont are chemical corporations that got into the seed/agriculture game so they could sell more of their chemicals. The motivation is pure corporate greed.

Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Roundup, has been proven in multiple courts of law to cause non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It has also been linked to leukemia and b-cell lymphoma. We've seen hundreds of millions of dollars awarded through the courts to various plaintiffs.

(The awards were later lowered drastically by the judges.)

Dewayne Johnson, 48, was originally awarded $289 million for compensation for his terminal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This was later reduced to $20.4 million.

Edwin Hardeman, 71, was originally awarded $80 million for his Roundup-caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which was later reduced to $25 million.

Alva and Alberta Pilliod, 78 and 75 respectively, were awarded $2 billion for their non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, later reduced to $86.7 million.

There were more than 125,000 lawsuits against Bayer-Monsanto over Roundup-related cancer and illness. They settled these cases for $10 billion in 2020: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/24/health/bayer-monsanto-roundup-settlement/index.html

Roundup herbicide, first produced by Monsanto and now Bayer-Monsanto, is the most popular herbicide in the world, and the world is now awash with it after GMO crops have proliferated. These (criminal) chemical corporations genetically alter the seeds to withstand massive doses of herbicide that would kill any natural plant. So they deliver massive doses of chemical into the soil and into the food itself.

Corn, canola, and soybeans are almost entirely genetically modified at this point (aside from organics). Their derivatives are found in most processed foods, including in the form of lecithin, maltodextrin, and corn syrup. Sugar beets, alfalfa, cotton, papayas, apples, potatoes, salmon, and zucchini are some other foods that can be genetically modified. Eating organic or up to organic standards remains the best bet for avoiding GMOs.

Article on the Roundup cancer lawsuits: https://www.consumersafety.org/product-lawsuits/roundup/