Thursday, May 31, 2018

Triggers and Baiting and Smokescreens, Oh My!

 The clock in my town is stopped at 11:11...

We're currently in the grips of a very spicy opposition between Venus in Cancer and Pluto in Capricorn. This opposition is in effect now, and social/relational/financial pressures may be building as the aspect becomes exact June 5 at 20 degrees of the signs (7:25 p.m. PDT). 

A Venus-Pluto opposition, which occurs about once a year, has a real "cut the crap and cut to the chase" sort of tenor at the best of times. This one is made extra spicy by the influence of Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn, which is tightly conjunct Pluto, as well as soul mate asteroid Juno in Aries.

People may become triggered very easily under this aspect, and, with the extra-triggering influence of Black Moon Lilith, those triggers may carry on and on and on...

Understand this charged social/relational atmosphere, and give space where necessary. 

The cardinal sign influence indicates that we may need to lead or participate or stick our necks out in some way within this charged atmosphere. But after we've done what we need to do, we can take a cue from Black Moon Lilith and duck out of sight/reach. 

Laying low or practising mindful avoidance at key charged points has distinct advantages now. 

If you have unintentionally triggered someone with an innocent remark, there may be some damage-control finessing you can do to set things right. Some soothing or apologizing or smoothing over. But there also might not be! Juno in Aries says, you may just need to stand your ground and do your thing, regardless of the reactions around you.

We're not going down as martyrs anymore, friends. That's so last era.

So remember: other people's triggers are not your responsibility, just as your triggers are not theirs. Recognize the roots of the reactions or behaviour if possible, but don't allow people to dump a steaming pile of nasty emotions on your lap. Just step out of the way. Allow some processing time. And keep your lips zipped until you sense the "all clear."

Confident women with strong personalities may be especially triggering now, particularly to The Old Guard sticking with the patriarchal rules of engagement. But you know what, strong women of the world? That's not our problem! Those are triggers that need to be sprung, and we're going to spring them just by being ourselves and doing what we need to do in this world. 

There's a pretty strong "suck it up" vibe with this one, especially for those doing their best to reinforce old, outdated status quos. There will be some ego bruising for those clinging to the old standards.

At the same time as we're doing our thing with our fine-yet-triggering selves, we're doing our best to avoid our own known trigger zones so as to save ourselves the time-suck and energy-spew that triggered emotions create.

We may be thinking some dark-ass thoughts about the people around us and about human society in general under this Venus in Cancer opposition to Pluto-Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn, but know that the "human intolerability quotient" is exaggerated at the moment and will start to ease as Venus moves out of orb of the opposition to Pluto-BML (officially by June 13 when Venus enters Leo). 

Just as our social/relational tolerance levels are being stretched to the breaking point by Venus opposite Pluto-BML, the Sun and Mercury come together in exterior conjunction at 15 degrees Gemini (June 5 at 7:02 p.m.), forming challenging square aspects to stationing (ie. very potent) Neptune in Pisces on June 6. 

(Neptune is currently slowing to station retrograde on June 18 at 16 degrees Pisces.)

These aspects to stationing-intense Neptune indicate a confused and chaotic element to things where people may be looking for a scapegoat to blame for their pain, struggles, and troubles. People may not be able to pinpoint exact what is stuck in their craws, so they may lash out at whatever or whoever is handy.

Again...we ain't playin' that game.

The Sun-Mercury in Gemini square to Neptune in Pisces also indicates a prime time for media-related distractions (the Roseanne gong show springs to mind - that had to be a set-up from the get-go), as well as mainstream media outlets attempting to pull the wool over our eyes in some way. (When are they not doing that, though, really?) 

Eliminating as much contact with media as possible may be in order for the next couple weeks. Read a good book instead! Get outside. Forget the diversionary maya world being constructed for us via mainstream media and social media. Really...you don't need to pay it much mind at all. 

Mercury in Gemini will continue into an awkward, uncomfortable, and potentially-inflammatory quincunx aspect to Pluto and Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn on June 8, and again, this indicates that mainstream media and social media have an even more toxic element to them than usual. Conversation, ideas, and words are not hitting the right spot, either, and this may be one of those "duck out of sight" times. 

The Sun in Gemini continues into this quincunx to Pluto-BML on June 11, extending the intensification of media toxicity for a few more days. 

There is a lot that we need to be outsmarting and seeing through these days, and the hair-trigger intuition of Black Moon Lilith conjunct Pluto helps us to spot the poison before we inadvertently swallow it down...

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Extremely Lo-Fi One-Woman March Against Bayer Monsanto - May 19, 2018

We're onto you, evil-doers! 

Yesterday was the worldwide March Against Monsanto, a day each year when millions of people gather around the globe to march through the streets and protest Monsanto's many destructive practises. 

Monsanto is a corporation that produces, among other things, genetically modified seeds and chemical herbicides. It uses standard "add-a-gene" genetic modification, as well as relatively new "remove-a-gene" genetic modification called gene editing or CRISPR, which has been shown to produce genetic mutations.

According to multiple independent animal feeding trials, genetically modified diets can cause severe health damage in animals, including digestive damage, reproductive damage, organ damage, suppressed immune systems, tumours, and premature death, among others. 

Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, has also been found to be toxic to biological systems at even tiny levels, at levels the governmental regulatory agencies, as well as the GMO corporations themselves, deem perfectly safe for regular animal and human consumption. At this point, with glyphosate usage through the roof worldwide, women's breast milk is testing positive for glyphosate. Our urine is testing positive for glyphosate.

In Canada, there were marches planned for Calgary, Kelowna, Dartmouth, Kitchener, Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City, and St. Georges-de-beauce.

I tried to round up (no pun intended) some people to march in my local area but came up short, so I decided to take to the streets (ahem...the small town streets) myself to get the word out. 

It takes a bit of gumption to do a one-woman march on a subject that is socially divisive, but I've actually done this in the past, so after I made the decision to go for it, it felt fairly familiar.

I made the decision to march at the last minute - on the morning of May 19. I made my signs in the hour before I started marching, so they were a bit of a rush job. I procured some white bristol board from my local print shop, as well as a red and a black chisel-tip Sharpie. The classics.

When the words were complete, I hole-punched two holes at either end along the top of the bristol board for the string. I put a couple layers of packing tape over the holes to reinforce them and punched a hole through that with a pair of scissors. I threaded some string through to make a double-thick hanger to put around my neck, and I taped the ends of the string to the back of the paper.

There are definitely more professional and slick ways to make signs, but I've always liked the do-it-yourself stylings of handmade protest signs...

I made a second sign about genetically modified alfalfa - a pet issue of mine that I've been campaigning and educating about since 2011. I hung this sign backwards so I would have a pertinent message for the peeps both coming and going. 

Yes, this brings up the possibility of your sign getting caught in the wind and half-assed choking you out (which happened a couple times), but it's all worth it in the name of Marching Against Bayer Monsanto! 

My march was definitely a march against both Bayer and Monsanto. Bayer is the maker of Cipro, the horrifically dangerous fluoroquinolone antibiotic that poisoned me in 2009.

These two nasty corporate criminals are in the process of merging in the unholiest of matrimony. The merger is expected to be completed this year, and it follows other monster-mergers of GMO/chemical corporations: Dow with DuPont and Syngenta with Chem China.

Bayer is, of course, equally as evil as Monsanto, and I've covered its crimes and checkered past in previous articles and videos:

From February 3, 2018: "Stop Bayer-Monsanto's Crimes Against Humanity, Animals, and the Environment!" 

From April 28, 2017: YouTube video "Billions Against Bayer Monsanto April 28, 2017 and Continued Recovery From Bayer's Antibiotic Cipro"

From  April 13, 2017: "Pluto Stationing Retrograde in Capricorn: From Millions Against Monsanto to Billions Against Bayer"

Sunday, May 6, 2018

From the Vault: Saturn in Virgo Calls Bullshit on The Secret/Law of Attraction Phenomenon

Willow's Web Astrology: the original

Often imitated, never duplicated.

This is one of my articles from a series of articles I wrote in 2009 on New Age deconstruction. It's called "Saturn in Virgo Calls Bullshit on The Secret/Law of Attraction Phenomenon," and it was first published on the blog on April 21, 2009

Saturn transited Virgo from September 2007 to July 2010. During that transit, it formed an opposition to transiting Uranus in Pisces. The time was ripe for cutting the crap as far as the New Age mechanism (and all pseudo-spiritual bullshit) was concerned...

This is actually one of my favourite articles I've ever written. 

"(Here's one last purge of old Piscean energy as Venus, Mars and the Moon sit on the final degree of the zodiac. By the time you've had your first cup of coffee tomorrow morning, the Moon and Mars will be in Aries. By the wee hours Friday morning, Venus will be in Aries, too...)

As one of my forays into the world of the New Age movement, I worked at a New Age wellness centre in Calgary a few years ago (for a split second) that preached "wholistic health" (yes, they spelled it with a "w").

At that time, most of the people there were over the moon for The Secret and fervently promoted the crap out of it, day in, day out. They had regular screenings of the low budget video and had a 20-year-old "Belief Repatterning Practitioner" at the ready to cleanse you of your "negative beliefs." (For about $80 per session or so - should only need three to six sessions!)

When I wouldn't submit to a "belief repatterning session," the owner of the business whipped out the New Age passo aggro in record time, telling me she was sorry I wasn't "open to new modalities" but she hoped that one day I would be. She also snuck a snide little dig in there about my unfortunate "inability to manifest."

God. What a fucking hack.

That dissenting view was the beginning of the end for Willow at "Love and Light Central."

Saturday, May 5, 2018

From the Vault: New Age Solipsism


Willow's Web Astrology: the original

Often imitated, never duplicated.

This is one of my articles from a series of articles I wrote in 2009 on New Age deconstruction. It's called "New Age Solipsism," and it was first published on the blog on May 29, 2009

  
"This is something so many people are caught up in these days, and it has some really horrid effects socially, culturally, and politically.

This idea of: "Nothing exists outside me."

This concept is basically feeding the already off-the-charts strain of narcissism in Western culture and leads to endless philosophical tail-chasing, navel-gazing, and inaction in any concrete, meaningful ways. It also leads to that very scary level of detachment so commonly asserted: "I live in a different dimension. I've transcended the pain and suffering of Earth. It has nothing to do with me. I'm enlightened."

(I'd just like to point out here - anyone who uses the word "enlightened," isn't. There's nothing worse than premature enlightenment! The New Age sells it in a jar.)

It's some sort of Piscean oneness concept gone way wrong, horribly misapplied to the point that its effect is opposite what was really meant. Instead of understanding the energetic connection among people/situations and the personal responsibility that goes along with that, it promotes a very desired mindset: It's all about you! Nothing exists outside you and your little own bubble of understanding!

It's a prime example of how the New Age latches onto a grain of truth (concepts of holism, for example) and then promotes the misapplication of it.

I was on an internet message board yesterday on a thread where people were talking about Obama and if he is a "lightworker." Someone posted that he was doing the evil deeds of the New World Order.

The reply to that comment from another poster (a huge The Secret fan who is constantly schlepping his website based on it) was a prime example of this solipsism.

Instead of actually talking about Obama and his concrete track record (you know, continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, funneling trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money to international bankers under threat of martial law, attempting to bring in compulsory military service for all citizens 18 - 25, etc., etc.), this dude gets all up on his pseudo-Socratic high horse (another common method with these condescending douches who believe they're "kindly and wisely" pointing out the errors in our perceptions) and asks:

"What is it in yourself that Obama reflects that you've decided is evil?"

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

The old "If you don't like something about someone, it's related to something you don't like about yourself" trex. Bullshit dime-store psychology packaged and sold as "spiritual truth."