Dystopian Flames Zine in the Mount Royal University Zine Collection

Dystopian Flames: The True Cost of Oil Production on the Canadian Prairies zine is now available in the Mount Royal University zine collection in Calgary, Alberta. 

A man from the university found the zine online and purchased two copies for the collection. 

I lived in Calgary for six years, which they call "the city that oil built," so to have this zine in a university zine collection in that city is a bit of a coup. Very cool and unexpected! I'm happy to spread the word about this terribly dangerous and toxic practise, going on in my home area of Saskatchewan and all over the prairies. This is certainly a practise that needs to come to a swift end before more people, animals, and environments are harmed.

Dystopian Flames was a companion zine, written in early 2019, for a photography exhibit I did at my local library. 

 

Dystopian Flames Exhibit at the Public Library - May to June 2019

 These are photographs of my photography, jewellery, and zine exhibit called "Dystopian Flames" that is running at my public library for the months of May and June 2019. 

One of the main reasons I'm doing this exhibit is to raise public awareness and to force action on the part of government to end the toxic and deadly practise of open oil flaring. You can read more about that practise later in this article, after the photographs.  

Most of the items in this exhibit (and more) are available at the Willow's Web Astrology Etsy shop.

I'm also doing a free "How to Make a Zine" workshop at the library in hopes of starting a revolutionary wave of zine-makingggggg in my area!

If you live in the wild West Kootenays of British Columbia and would like to know details about this exhibit or the zine workshop, please email me at willowsweb [at] hushmail.com

  

Dystopian Flames

"Dystopian Flames"

Photos: Willow

This five-photograph grouping, along with a supplementary 'zine, is available at the Willow's Web Astrology Etsy shop.

All photographs in this article are part of a photography exhibit I'm doing at a local library.

You can also see a YouTube video on this exhibit.

Planet of concrete challenges, Saturn, is within orb of a conjunction to Hell-ruler Pluto throughout 2019. As this conjunction tightens, becoming exact a single time on January 12, 2020, we are confronted in our concrete lives and realities with all that has been suppressed, manipulated, lied about, and buried (Pluto) within business, corporations, finance, government, and institutions (Capricorn). Things are coming to a head on multiple fronts throughout 2019 and 2020 under the slow-burn effects of this Saturn-Pluto conjunction, and the toxicity and violence inherent in many of the structures and hierarchical pyramid-schemes of power on Planet Earth cannot be denied. 

Saturn relates to what is real, what is concrete, what is tangible, and as it steps further into the murky, netherworld regions of Pluto, we are faced with real, concrete, and tangible confrontations with some of the hellish scenarios that have been manufactured for us on this planet. These confrontations will require some type of effort on our parts in order to liberate ourselves from their weight. 

Whatever Plutonic threads are being plucked in your life, I encourage you to follow them to their roots and address them, working toward concrete solutions both in your own personal life and within human society at large. The personal is transpersonal and vice versa.

Saturn conjunct Pluto in Capricorn requires that we work, step-by-step, for our liberation from the many manufactured and manipulated Hell-scenarios currently running amok. It requires that we demand something better, something more honest, something wholly legitimate, and that we do so from right where we stand.

Our efforts toward liberation from the muck and the murk are not futile (far from it!), despite what we may have been conditioned to think...

The Saturn in Capricorn Transit is Kicked Off With a Six-Planet Stellium

This article is available to Willow's Web Astrology patrons, or it can be purchased for $11.25 by PayPal or email money transfer. It includes information about an upcoming six-planet stellium in Capricorn, as well as themes surrounding the Saturn in Aquarius transit and six-planet stellium in Aquarius in 2021.

A companion YouTube video for this article can be viewed here.

A previous article with similar themes from December 31, 2011: "Sun Conjunct Pluto in Capricorn: The Awareness of How Deep it Really Goes Is Lit Up This NYE"

Until the end of 2017, all new Willow's Web Astrology patrons will receive the main Saturn in Capricorn article (7,000+ words) as a bonus.   

 Individual Articles:

Jupiter in Scorpio: Wisdom Drawn from the Still Depths of the Soul 
- this 5,000+-word article delineates and interprets the year-long Jupiter in Scorpio transit
$10.50 

Saturn in Capricorn: An Astrological Overview for Long-Term Strategic Planning 
- this 7,000+-word article delineates and interprets the three-year Saturn in Capricorn transit and includes information about the Chiron ingress of Aries and the Uranus ingress of Taurus
$11.25

The Planets Align This Friday the 13th: Hang a Horseshoe, Clutch Your Rabbit's Foot, and Load Up on Kitty Treats for Those Neighbourhood Black Cats

First Venus. Venus in Aquarius trine Saturn in Libra - 3:05 a.m. Central Venus conjunct Neptune in Aquarius - 9:17 a.m. Venus enters Pisces - 11:47 p.m. 

Love and relationship planet Venus crosses through the 29th degree of Aquarius - the official degree of the astrological era shift - on Friday, and as it does, it trines Saturn in Libra and conjuncts Neptune in Aquarius before ingressing Pisces late that night. This Friday the 13th, a day ripe with folklore, is an official relational tone setter, drawing on themes previously outlined here: Saturn in Libra (Not Quite) Trine Neptune in Aquarius and Saturn Retrograde: Neptunian Relationship Fodder From the Anaretic Degrees and way back here: Venus, Eros and Mars in the Via Combusta and Karmic Love Cleansing Through the Alchemical Fires. 

Recall that Saturn (challenges) is currently in Via Combusta Libra (spicy, crackling relationship issues), and we're still working under an overlay from the fall 2010 Venus retrograde through Via Combusta Scorpio and late Libra. That overlay isn't complete until the Venus Transit in Gemini June 5, 2012, and all this colours the relationship proceedings. 

On this Friday the 13th, we have another opportunity to calibrate ourselves to the tone of Venus' movement, letting it seep into our bones, and then commit to the new relational track. Venus conjuncts wounded healer Chiron in Pisces January 16, indicating a time period ripe for experiences of the healing, transcendent power of love, as well as, if we aren't careful, the wounding power of human interaction - with both experiences possible in the same interaction. We need to fortify and protect our wounded spots carefully, as this is very old salt in very old wounds. The wounding themes are related, in part, to: 

- unconscious/semi-conscious ways in which we interact with people and they interact with us 

- setting ourselves up for failure in relationship by overlooking key matters 

- social niche and social pigeonholing 

- being the scapegoat for the crowd or the one whose feelings and needs are sacrificed or stepped on when a sacrifice has to be made 

- social isolation 

- weak spots in boundaries: being too permeable when it comes to other people's energy field/influence 

- pining, looking back, excessive nostalgia for relationships past, seeing things through the veil of time, not how they actually were 

- old Piscean era social archetypes: the party girl, the ditz, the idealist, the wishful thinker, the one who's allergic to reality, the stoner, the addict, the starving artist, the energy vampire, the person with "bad karma," the sick one, the disabled one, the hard luck story, the martyr, the saviour, the chronic fuck up, the person who can't get it together, the one who's unlucky in love, the person ill-equipped for the rigours of life 

- keeping ourselves on the losing end of character flaws - in ourselves or in other people 

These are cyclical relational patterns, standard dynamics worked into a deep groove over the course of the astrological Piscean era that must be consciously ushered out with the door locked behind them. 

Throughout Venus' transit of Pisces (January 13 - February 7), we have the opportunity to set the relational tone to "Pisces for the astrological Aquarian era," but this won't necessarily be easy, especially for those who have been resisting a stronger Aquarian vibe. The Piscean pull into dreamy Never Neverland is strong, becoming stronger as Neptune (illusion, delusion, blind spots) enters its home sign of Pisces February 3, and we have to actively head off its influence at points. 

We're being enticed down many relational rabbit holes we've been down fruitlessly before. The application of rational mind that can break us free is like the fight to wake up from one of those dreams that paralyzes you with its intensity. If the will is not there to do so, we plummet down the rabbit hole. 

For those who would like to avoid the surreal Alice in Relationship Wonderland this time around, things are a little counter-intuitive. Venus is in exaltation in Pisces, which means there's a strong feeling that it knows what it's doing in this sign. There's nothing quite like the heights of Piscean love, and with these glowy, exalted Venusian vibes, it's going to be difficult to convince people that some changes are required. 

There's a lot of criticism from the sign of Pisces (and from those vibing strongly to it) of the more Aquarian take on love, relationship, and partnership: it's cold, unfeeling, hard, heartless, overly intellectual, devoid of emotion, lacking in romance. 

Those who refuse to adopt the more detached, responsible, and self-preserving tack in relationships will continue to play out the same old stories, making the same old excuses. 

The successful tack in our relations involves using the relevant qualities of both Pisces and Aquarius. Determining which are the relevant qualities and which are the redundant and detrimental is what we work out now and throughout Saturn's retrograde through Libra. 

Venus will be on the 29th degree of Pisces - the last degree of the zodiac - at the time of Saturn's retrograde station on the 29th degree of Libra February 7.  

Now the Moon and Mars.  

Moon conjunct stationing Mars in Virgo - 6:36 p.m. 

The Moon is in Virgo this Friday the 13th and conjuncts Mars at 22 Virgo. Mars is slowing for its retrograde station January 24, and its themes permeate the astro atmosphere. The Moon-Mars conjunction occurring as Venus conjuncts Neptune and enters Pisces increases the impetus to sharpen the details, remove the unnecessary, and clear the Piscean/Neptunian fuzz and wishful thinking. 

This is a conjunction of a major feminine planet (Moon) with a major masculine one (Mars) and has to do with the perspective of women/the feminine taking the lead in subtle and influential ways as the male-dominated trajectory on the planet is further set to: war, war, and more war (Mars). This is the fight to stop war and the impetus to discontinue support for the trajectory toward war right down to the finest details in our daily lives. 

More on the Mars in Virgo transit and retrograde here: Mars in Virgo Retrograde: Precise Re-direction Within Grand Earth Trines  

Here: Mars in Virgo Hot or Nots 

And here: New Moon in Virgo Sets a Preparatory Tone For the Upcoming Mars Retrograde 

Now Mercury.  

Mercury conjunct Pluto in Capricorn - 7:03 a.m.

Communication/transportation planet Mercury is in Capricorn until January 27, following more than two months (including a retrograde) in the sign of its detriment, Sagittarius, and we're happy to have some type of solid movement here. Unfortunately, a lot of it is Plutonic movement, as Mercury moves out of its square to Uranus in Aries and into a conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn, exact this Friday the 13th. It doesn't take much to hear (Mercury) the Pluto in Capricorn (corpo-governmental oligarchy) undertone coming through loud and clear these days as we head to the first exact square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn this June. The global war profiteers are just itching to get things started, and oil and nuclear take centre stage... 

Verbal aggression is ramping up (again) through the media from Western governments toward Iran over its nuclear facilities and enrichment of uranium. As always, the Plutonic insanity is only understood by a minority, as the media-fed mainstream accepts a scenario in which the only country that has ever actually used nuclear bombs in an attack against another country (the U.S. of A.) is instated as armed-to-the-teeth global nuclear watchdog, determining who can and can't have nukes. 

U.S. and U.S. Allies: Yes. 

U.S.-declared Bad Guys: No. 

The hypocrisy is amazing, and still relatively very few will openly admit the Emperor's naked as a jaybird. 

The aggression is not limited to the verbal this time, though. The United States (through the United Nations) has brought sanctions against Iran, attempting to force it to discontinue its uranium enrichment program. The sanctions have made it impossible for Iran to continue its international oil exports, leading to the plunge of the Iranian currency to an historic low. Devastation (Pluto) of currency and business infrastructure (Capricorn). 

(Incidentally, don't bother trying to use PayPal or to buy books from Amazon in Syria, either. Both these activities have been blocked as part of the broader and more destructive U.S./EU economic sanctions against that country. People with Syrian IP addresses are told they are in a "forbidden country." A further Pluto in Cap crackdown on the flow of money.) 

It might be useful for those in Cancer Sun nations United States and Canada to imagine a role reversal here. One can only imagine the outrage that would ensue if the U.S. economy and the flow of oil in and out were disrupted and interfered with to this extent by a foreign country. After all, the United States enriches uranium for weapons and munitions (and uses them), does it not? Iran is the fourth largest oil producer in the world with a large percentage of its exports (500,000 barrels per day of its 2.6 million barrels per day output) going to the European Union. This adds an interesting element to the dick-swinging global dynamics. 

Pluto relates to one's underlying interests and the overwhelming impetus of those underlying interests. The European Union is now forced to implement sanctions that are in the best interests of the United States which, in effect, starve its nations of oil. Iran is now threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that carries about 1/6 of the world's oil supply from the Gulf nations. 

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz would be met with military aggression from the U.S. and its allies, aggression that would, again, have the seal of approval from the media-fed masses. 

Transportation routes are Mercurial, and the corpo-governmental steamroller being allowed to progress at all costs is Pluto in Capricorn. This appears to be a primary Uranus square Pluto hot spot. 

Like clockwork, it is. 

In Canada, two massive oil pipelines are in the works - though strongly opposed by many. One is the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would move oil from Alberta's oil fields to the West Coast, with a port in Kitimaat, British Columbia, to be sold and exported at a whopping price to Asia. 

The second massive pipeline, called the Keystone XL, would move oil from the ecological and humanitarian catastrophe that is the Athabasca Tar Sands in northern Alberta all the way down to Texas in the United States. Thousands and thousands of kilometres of pipeline just waiting to spring a leak, ripe for international and domestic sabotage. 

With a majority government led by Global Governor extraordinaire Stephen Harper, we won't be seeing any ecological responsibility coming from the Feds on this one, and it's left up to the citizens of both Canada and the United States to form the resistance. 

The United States' presidential race is now well underway, consuming massive amounts of time, energy, and analysis on media outlets. This doesn't stop at the U.S. border, however. (What border? There are no borders anymore.) 

If you flip on Canada's mainstream news (I wouldn't suggest it unless you are a fan of satire that isn't actually satire), you will see an almost equal fervour and an almost equal obsession with the minutiae of the farce going on to the south. The propaganda readers on CTV Newsnet (Canadian Television is a misnomer if ever there were one) could easily be mistaken for those on CNN these days. 

The hidden merger (Pluto) of media (Mercury) and its ownership (Capricorn). 

Because, you know, there isn't anything going on in our own country that might warrant any airtime. (See: Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines) 

As stated previously, we no longer have even the facade of a sovereign nation in Canada. Pluto in Capricorn has ripped the mask off, and Stephen Harper's Conservatives - good little Global Governors that they are - take their orders and implement them dutifully. 

 In August, 2011, under a Cardinal Grand Cross that will form again throughout the fall of 2013 and in April 2014, it was announced by the "Harper Government" that the Canadian Armed Forces would be rebranded the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy. 

From a previous post: 

"The Canadian Armed Forces shed the "Royal" stamp in 1968, but in a wave of propagandistic nostalgia, the Global Government-aligned Harper Conservatives have brought the "Royal" back with a vengeance, complete with masses of Canadians all too happy to re-pledge allegiance to the Queen and British monarchy. 

Wartime patriotism and pride are being stirred in preparation and hope that the people will gladly repeat the old cycle, hands on hearts." Harper continues to do his mightiest to stir the militaristic patriotism of Canadian citizens as he does his part to create consensus for more global war. He's even adding a commemoration of the War of 1812 to this year's Canada Day celebrations in the country's capital city, Ottawa. "Hey, kids! Forget about ice cream. Look at this cool musket!" 

(You may recall that during Canada Day 2011, again under the Cardinal Grand Cross, the citizens of this country had their Stockholm Syndrome worked into a frothy lather as Wills and Kate came for a visit, also reinforcing the dominion over Kanata of Mummy Dearest in jolly old.) 

At the same time, the "Harper Government" - who sent out memos telling people not to bother calling them the Government of Canada anymore - have made an absolute mockery of the House of Commons, simply shutting it down on two separate occasions. 

The difficulty and lack of transparency Canadian journalists face when attempting to get information from Harper is well documented. 

Really, they have just unveiled, Pluto in Capricorn-style, what was always there. The facade has been stripped, and the idea that the people ever really had all that much of a say in it has gone kaput. 

So multiple exact aspects go down this potent Friday the 13th, a day rich with symbolism and superstition, making it a day with a potentially far-reaching tone. Stay on the good side of luck, as the astro conditions have a bit of a "fated" quality about them and might not let us away with much.

Sun Conjunct Pluto in Capricorn: The Awareness of How Deep it Really Goes Is Lit Up This NYE

The Pluto in Cap hammer coming down...

The Sun is conjunct Lord of the Underworld Pluto on this fateful New Year's Eve, just past exact, as we unfold out of the December 24 Capricorn New Moon. The awareness of how monstrously complex, complicated, and embedded our Pluto in Capricorn situation really is confronts us in our conscious current moment.

The global conditions pretty much speak for themselves, so long as you have the ability to peel away propaganda and rhetoric (not many do). How it filters into our personal lives requires a little more sociological imagination - but not much.

I've been at the ranch for the past little while, attempting to regain some equilibrium with the help of the sun and moon. And really, it's no surprise that my small source of (relative) sanity would now be steamrolled, Pluto in Capricorn-style. It's a miracle it's held out this long, really. This is oil drilling country, after all, and the oil industry is one of the most damaging and deadly Pluto in Capricorn forces on the planet at this time.

I'm a little in shock right now, though. When Pluto would like you to know just how much of a fait accompli it really is, how little chance you have of resisting, it wastes no time. It shows its hand. It plays the high Joker, and that trumps it all. No argument.

The day I arrived, I was bringing my suitcase into the house and stopped for some fresh air in the yard. Instead of the usual quiet of the country, I heard: thump, thump, thump, thump. The sound was alarming and disorienting, as it was the first time in my life I'd heard anything like it from the house steps.

It turns out an oil well was recently drilled about two kilometres from the ranch house, and the sound was coming from a generator at the pumpjack.

As is generally the case with Pluto, it took a while for me to understand fully what this meant. There was a little confusion, a little disbelief, a little putting it out of my head.

But yesterday, the Plutonic situation was fully illuminated for me. I went to the pasture where my Dad was shredding hay for the cows and realized that sometime after Christmas, as the Sun moved from New Moon position to its exact conjunction to Pluto, they had also erected an oil flare. There it was, blazing away, burning off whatever it is they need to burn off and emitting it into the air.


When Pluto in Capricorn lays the smack down, it doesn't mess around.

Oil flares are associated with benzene poisoning, a major cause of leukemia. Living in close proximity to oil flares is also associated with an increased incidence of cancers of the thyroid, bone, pancreas, and connective tissue. Oil flaring has been connected to autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis (Saskatchewan has a higher than average incidence), rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid disease. They are also a cause of increased chemical sensitivity.

This isn't the only oil flare in the area. There are many. The most prominent one is a huge flare emitting a strong sulphur smell along the highway less than ten kilometres east.

All around that huge flare are farms and ranches and on those farms and ranches live people and animals - our neighbours.

All around that huge flare, in the sparsely-populated surrounding area, there has developed over the past years a cancer cluster as well as an increased incidence of autoimmune disorders.

As little girls, my sister and I played with another little girl who grew up on a neighbouring farm. We rode our bikes or walked down the gravel road to her place to play Barbies or to play with new kittens. She developed leukemia when she was 18 years old, received chemotherapy, and has been cancer-free for about ten years.

My Dad's childhood friend and his wife lived about ten kilometres from us. His friend's wife developed cancer and has battled it for more than a decade. His friend was diagnosed with cancer more recently, prior to them retiring and moving to town.

Another rancher and his wife live a few kilometres to the east, closer yet to the huge flare near the highway. His wife was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and has had bouts of chemotherapy since. He suffered from a disorder that involved vertigo and, at times, had a difficult time doing his work.

My mother was diagnosed with fibromyalgia twenty years ago, an autoimmune disorder causing pain, chronic fatigue, and equilibrium problems, among others, and has suffered with it since. She is one of a number of people in and around this area with fibromyalgia or autoimmune disorders like it.

The medical establishment, the oil industry, and anyone benefiting from those things would argue there's no connection. That it's all just a bit of bad luck.

I know better. Even without one word of "scientific" evidence, I would know better.

This is not to say that the oil flare was the only factor. Or that this new flare is the only factor. With the heavily industrialized agriculture going on in this area - chemical herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, genetically modified crops - it's just the factor that pushes things over the edge, blanketing us in one too many toxic layers.

The speed with which the damage is done has increased exponentially during Pluto's transit of Capricorn. The mask is off, and there's not even an attempt to conceal it anymore. It's a race to see who can destroy more, faster.

It wasn't a tsunami, an earthquake, a flood, or a hurricane, but the place where I got my foundation in the natural world, where I learned the basic dynamics and the basic elements that made me an astrologer, the place that helped me maintain sanity, is effectively not here anymore.

My Dad casually remarked a few nights ago that he hasn't heard the coyotes howling lately. They used to serenade this house on an almost nightly basis, and I have to say, it was one of my favourite sounds. One of the last wild sounds. They're gone now. I doubt they'll return.

I can't really put into words how deep this goes. It goes to the root - but to a root that was never properly secured, to a root that always, inevitably, drew poison as it searched for stability.

This unsettled feeling won't be going away. The knowledge that we're in a real motherfucking mess is omnipresent. I'll know it every time I walk down that gravel road.

Photo: Willow

All this for $3,600 per year in surface rights paid to my Pluto in Cancer grandmother, eventually going to my Pluto in Leo father, and then, what? To my sister and me? How do the Pluto in Libras put this one right?

You see, it's the money. The almost worthless mass psychological delusion called money. It always is, right? Thirty-six hundred per year is the price put on the priceless. The Pluto in Cancer and Pluto in Leo involved think they got a hell of a deal.

Yeah, I'd say that's exactly what they got.

Really, all I can do is laugh. What else is there to do? Pluto in Capricorn satire playing out in real life. And it's been going on for decades now. "Absurdity is easy once accustomed to the horror." That's a line from a poem I wrote about 15 years ago. Still holds up. Our sense of pitch black humour is certainly being sharpened to a fine point as we enter this foul year of our Lord two thousand and twelve.

I held out some type of hope that I could one day try to reclaim the spirit of this land, reversing the depletion and degradation that has come about and making it a healing place. That probably won't be possible.

We're grieving as we go now. On the move. No time to stop. The last of fin de Pisces flakes off like layers of paint on an old wagon wheel fence.

And yet, another attempt to paint us into a corner, and all it does is renew my sense of freedom, somehow. My exhilarating sense that nothing that is done, no matter how wrong, poisonous, unjust, vile could really affect me, or us, as long as we don't turn away. The ones who know and who knew all along. The ones who see every dirty move and still can't be swayed. The ones they just can't get rid of, no matter how many of us are put to sickness or death.

Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus in Aries razes old dreams so that something more powerful, more relevant, can emerge. Every long-held dream that dies, every version of ourselves shed, every fall-back plan eliminated lightens the load and frees things up for something new. It positions us in the current, cutting edge moment and nowhere else.

Happy New Year 2012, my fair friends. This could be the most surreal 365 days we've experienced yet.

But honestly, I think we have this one in the bag.

New Moon in Taurus After All Day in the Dark and Broken Record Time

The Moon and Sun come together at 23 degrees Taurus tonight and we have a New Moon (7:04 p.m. MT) after spending all day in the Dark of the Moon. And boy, do we ever need some renewal with this earthiest of earth signs.

This New Moon in Taurus is square Neptune in Aquarius and hearkens back to this time last year when the personal planets in Taurus were squaring the uber over-hyped "triple Aquarius conjunction."

I was talking then about the dangers of getting caught up in intoxicating Neptunian illusions related to the future, technology and the "Aquarian Era" and overlooking the practical fundamentals of life on Planet Earth. With Jupiter involved, over-reaching on this front and blowing "the promise of the future" way out of proportion was recipe for wounding and devastation (Chiron).

And as Chiron dips into the zero degree of Pisces and Uranus bookend transits the final degree of the sign, we have a gaping reminder of these dynamics - and the massive failure in successfully dealing with the requirements of physical, Earthly reality - with the gushing hole at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico still spewing 200,000 gallons of oil per day into the sea. Pisces is associated with both oil and oceans.

In a hearing being conducted by the United States Coast Guard and the governmental Minerals Management Service in Kenner, Louisiana, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Michael Odom testified May 12 that the type of deepwater offshore oil drilling being conducted by companies like British Petroleum is basically unregulated.

"Odom said many of the regulations are based on near-shore operations and are not providing the best guidance for the latest deepwater systems.

"The pace of the technology has definitely outrun the current regulations," Odom said."

In another thumbs up to the awesomeness of globalization, because the deepwater oil rig was flying a foreign flag, governmental agencies could not certify the materials the pipes and rig were built with or the blowout preventers that could have potentially stopped the disaster from happening.

"Like the Minerals Management Service, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects vessels, including drilling rigs, checking the non-drilling related systems on board. It's control over Deepwater Horizon was somewhat limited because it flew the flag of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and foreign flag states have some monitoring using a non-governmental group of inspectors called a "classification society."

Summing up the situation as far as safety regulation, Coast Guard Captain Hung Nguyen said, "We have self-certification of critical equipment and safety notices that are not enforceable..."

This leaves the companies to declare their own operations safe - highly inadvisable considering BP's record on this front.

In a fit of black hilarity, BP executives were actually on board the Deepwater Horizon celebrating the project's safety record when the explosion happened. They escaped unharmed, but nine rig crew and two engineers died in the explosion, which is being reported as having been caused by a massive methane bubble.

British Petroleum's first scrambling-after-the-fact attempt at containing the flow of oil was building a huge coffer dam (dome) and then lowering it to the sea floor to place over the spewing pipe. That attempt failed when the coffer dam became clogged with sea crystals, and now they are planning to lower a smaller coffer dam in the next few days. Basically, there is no protocol for this. This type of deepwater offshore oil drilling is going on without any sort of plan for a worst case scenario disaster like the one now going on.

As online commenter Leonard33 puts it:

"It would be an exciting time to be a BP engineer. Any cockamamie idea is probably given full consideration. Maybe a giant diaper could be placed over the leak -- new diapers are remarkably absorbent."

Executives from BP, the oil services company Halliburton and the rig operator Transocean have now been called before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and are all pointing their fingers at each other. Side-stepping responsibility on all fronts is the name of the game. Shifty, shady Pluto in Capricorn.

It's a broken record, but these are the master Piscean lessons. Twenty-ninth degree stuff being triggered by the neglect of duty and responsibility with this sign from the very get-go, from the very first degree of the sign of Pisces (Chiron on zero Pisces).

We don't move forward successfully into Aquarius without mastering this, or at the very least doing a whole hell of a lot better job with it, and collectively, there is still a massive amount of work to do here. That's putting it mildly.

Let's recall that Chiron will be in Pisces for the first eight years of the official astrological Aquarian Age. Not dealing with these Piscean themes and using this wisdom and understanding as a guiding mechanism for our decisions puts every living thing on this planet at risk. That's not fearmongering. That's fact. We see this reflected in this initial Chiron in Pisces event - the gushing oil leak in the Gulf. This isn't just a problem for Louisiana or Mississippi or Florida. This is a problem that has the potential to destroy the world's oceans altogether. And we've got 16 more operations, more than likely just as shoddy and slap-dash and unregulated, currently drilling at depths below 5,000 feet in the Gulf...

It's broken record astrological dynamics we're dealing with currently, also. (You see why the old souls are so fed up?)

This year, instead of the triple Aquarius conjunction, it's the hyping of the "Cardinal Climax" and overemphasis on the dynamic, masculine, yang energy with so many people already looking ahead to Uranus in Aries.

Well, folks, we've got a whole heaping pile of problems with the 12th sign of the zodiac - the sign most prefer to ignore and keep invisible. Uranus may be dipping into Aries for a couple months, but it's back at this degree of Pisces (the Gulf degree) mid-August and stays in late Pisces all the way until March 2011. Jupiter Rx will also conjunct Uranus Rx at 28 Pisces in September.

Believe me, getting too caught up in Jupiter conjunct Aries (June 8) is not wise. We're not staying there (neither Jupiter nor Uranus is), and the outpouring of excitement this aspect will generate in people who don't understand the retrograding action cannot be spared at this time as wasted energy.

Jupiter conjunct Uranus at zero Aries is significant, yes. It's an official Aquarian Era marker and a potent seed time. What happens now and over the next five years as Uranus and Pluto repeatedly square off is the make or break. It's a very pivotal time, direction-wise.

But just take a quick look back at all the neglected, unresolved Piscean Era problems we're collectively trying to drag along with us. Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter are all going retrograde this spring/summer to help us do just that. None of this cardinal square stuff is coming up out of the blue. We've been working on all this for a good, long while now.

Just like last year at this time, we've got the Sun and Mercury in Taurus - grounded, real, physical reality - and we can no longer stuff this down into the collective subconscious. At the tail-end of the tail-end astrological Piscean Era, the collective subconscious is plumb full. It's stocked. It's overflowing. And we see it overflowing in that three million gallons of oil (and counting) advancing on the Gulf Coast shores.

The travesties being committed by irresponsible Pluto in Capricornian agencies are coming out into concrete physical reality, with help from Mercury and the Sun in Taurus and Saturn in Virgo, where no one can deny them. Pushing up to the surface, just like that oil is, despite all attempts to hide the extent of the damage by dispersing it with chemicals or burning it off.

We've just had a challenging Mercury retrograde period in Taurus trying to reinforce these very issues.

And looking back to last spring, the planets and the dynamics and themes they're indicating are almost a mirror image.

At that time we were experiencing a Mercury retrograde in Taurus while the personal planets in Taurus squared Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune in Aquarius. Pluto was in early Capricorn and Saturn was stationing direct in Virgo, just as it is now.

From the Saturn in Virgo Direct post in May 2009:

"We're meant to take the vision out of the realm of rhetoric and live it. To take it out of the hands of criminal so-called leaders, disconnect from their version of the future, and determine what it really means to us personally.

This is the radical Aquarian break. The line we draw in the sand. Where we take back the "revolution," the "vision," the "future" from those who have co-opted these terms and used them against us. This is where we say enough is enough and demand real freedom, for everyone. To live with that goal at the forefront. This is where we are no longer willing to accept the version of false freedom that is packaged and sold to us. This is where we wrestle our intellectual independence away from the people and institutions that corrupt it.

Or we choose to go along with it. It's a personal choice each individual has to make.

Revolution is a trendy word these days, used by advertisers to sell cars and body spray. Self-declared visionaries run around, a new one every day, it seems, trying to get people on board their particular vision and version of the future.

This is why the use of personal discernment and judgement required by Saturn in Virgo is so important right now. Define these things for yourself.

Cut away the noise and excess. Pare down to what is basic, simple, necessary, meaningful, real to you in your life. The more we sever ties to toxic structures and energy dynamics, the better we feel. Refuse to play the game. Reconnect with simple pleasures and the appreciation you have for what is real and good in your life. Guard that carefully.

It's important that we have our feet planted firmly on the ground now, stripping away falsity to more fully understand the conditions we are working with.

If we don't personally make the choice regarding which version of the "future vision" we wish to bring about, the choice is made for us...

Taurus is a sign rooted to Earth. It's the sign where we commit to making progress in the physical realm. Slow, methodical, sure-footed progress. In Taurus we lay a solid foundation - one that will physically support our grand dreams and goals.

Taurus knows that what is really valuable doesn't just miraculously come into existence. There is effort involved to bring about the quality of physical life it desires. Taurus is a fixed sign, and once it gets going, it wants to keep going. There is nothing it dislikes more than shoddy workmanship. It doesn't want to go back over a crappy job later on. It wants to do things right the first time, and it's willing to put the time and effort into things initially to make sure things are on a solid footing. No movement unless it's the right movement...

We must determine what is required from us in the here and now, in our conscious moment, and take the next step. Taking even the smallest of concrete steps, when we know it's right. Enduring through resistance. Severing ties to anything that does not truly reflect our personal values. This is how the widescale change gets it's legs and digs in in a way that is going to be meaningful over the long run.

So our vision is coming into check by physical-reality-based circumstances. And some fucked up physical-reality-based circumstances they are.

At the same time, the Aquarian part of the square ensures that we push for our preferred future as we see it. Our freedom is at stake. We can't get bogged down in tradition and history (Taurus) and talk ourselves out of what is possible. We know we're in new territory, creating something that hasn't previously existed, and we have to maintain the integrity of that vision."

So yeah. There we have it. It's make or break time.

Our so-called leadership has failed us - politically, socially, spiritually. It has been corrupted in the most egregious manner. We have no leaders among the current crop.

And so we're our own leaders.

Again, I would urge you to give up driving or to drive only when absolutely necessary, with due respect and reverence. Those aren't just dinosaur bodies you're fuelling up with. ;-) Share a car. Start a mini car co-op with family or friends. Just do something small to lessen the pressure on this situation.

It really feels as if those of a certain sensitivity and awareness and spiritual understanding/lineage are hanging by a thread. The situation on this planet, at times, feels at the brink of untenable, and that saddens and scares me. I want the spiritual lineages I know, love and respect to continue on this planet, to carry forward. I don't want people (or animals or plants) who are among the last of their kind being driven to extinction. This is a difficult subject to really delineate, but perhaps those reading know what I mean here. We're all hoping for the best, but it's not enough to hope. Every last decision, action, word seem to count now.

The Lowdown and Mother Earth Water Walk Day

Mercury is retrograde in early Taurus for about another week, turning direct May 11. Our patience is being tested and tested again...and again.

Saturn is slowing in late Virgo to turn direct May 30. More patience required.

The Sun in Taurus has just squared Mars in Leo. Squares from bodies in Taurus have been keeping our forward motion in tight check on this front. Mars is still in retrograde shadow degrees - hitting new territory May 17.

Pluto and Ceres are retrograde in tight conjunction in early Capricorn, trining Mercury. The situation is pretty sombre for those of us not living in some pseudo-transcendent bubble or talking ourselves into the idea that it doesn't really matter, anyway - that we're meant for bigger and better things in this Universe than Planet Earth! Sigh.

Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, is transiting the anaretic degree of Pisces, the last degree of the zodiac. It's tail-end Piscean Era, and we've got what could become the oil disaster to end all oil disasters going on in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a classic case of "closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out," more than two weeks in and after two million or so gallons of oil have been dumped into the sea, British Petroleum is attempting to figure out some way to stop the gush of oil while they drill a relief well, estimated to take three months to complete. BP is now planning to lower a coffer dam (a giant dome) to the ocean floor to place over the leak in hopes that it will contain most of the oil. This coffer dam was built only after BP was ordered by Obama to take responsibility for the ongoing spill. No proactive safety protocols here - just ineffectual scrambling after the worst case scenario has already happened. How can these companies be allowed to continue hideously dangerous drilling practises with absolutely no plan for containing the pressure involved?

If human technology (Aquarius) can't figure out some way to stop this gush of oil (Pisces), it could be game over for our oceans altogether. This is so textbook Piscean/Aquarian overlap, I can't help but roll my eyes in disgust. The Pisceans have seen this stuff coming millenia away, but our cautions too often fall on deaf ears...

All in all, things have been slow, careful, and restricted lately, with Plutonic pressure and Piscean/Neptunian despair threatening around the edges.

When I think of all the wonderful little sea creatures that are going to ingest oil, get sick and die along the Gulf Coast, I just want to cry. But really, there are few tears left this far along.

And it's not only the sea creatures. This is the point most people seem to miss.

Eleven families have a big, gaping hole in them right now.

Fishermen have had their livelihoods destroyed. As we know, along with that comes increased rates of bankruptcy, domestic violence, divorce, even suicide. The farmers know this scenario well.

These are the Piscean lessons, see? This is what most people on this spinning wheel can't seem to grasp - or would rather overlook than take responsibility for. It really is all interconnected. Events like this one have chain reaction consequences that go on for decades, a century maybe, more.

The world probably wouldn't give two hoots about Louisiana fisherman losing their livelihoods and ways of life...but what about when Miami's South Beach is threatened? Or the Florida Keys?

Hmm...getting your attention now, dumb fucks? (Erm...not referring to the people reading this.) When the playgrounds of the rich and famous are at risk, suddenly people's ears perk up. And you get Arnold Schwartzenegger mawing into the camera about it.

So yeah, you ignorant, self-absorbed bastards, this affects you!

What affects one affects all. What is done to the Earth is done to us. Toxifying our oceans, our land, our air, our lakes and rivers toxifies us. It cycles through all living things. When your health is gone, those little scraps of paper we call money don't matter a bit.

As much as the Atlantean Aquarians want to turn us into robots or hybrids or space travellers, we're biological organisms, inextricably connected to the Earth and all its living things. That's the case. No getting around it, no matter what sci fi fantasy world you live in.

Today has been declared Mother Earth Water Walk Day. And wow. Aren't we doing a bang-up job honouring Mama Earth and her water?

A Canadian Ojibwa grandmother, Josephine Mandamin, and a group of other First Nations women walked around all five Great Lakes between 2003 and 2008, carrying a pail of water with them, as a protective action and to bring attention to the necessity of stewardship of the Earth's water, keeping it clean and healthy for current and future generations.

They were also drawing attention to the current state of the lakes, especially Lake Ontario, and the levels of pollution and heavy metals in the water.

You can listen to Josephine speaking about the water walk here:

Mother Earth Water Walk Part One
Mother Earth Water Walk Part Two
Mother Earth Water Walk Part Three

Josephine speaks about the lack of support from men on these issues and the necessity of the feminine and the masculine coming back together to work together. She also speaks of the ongoing phenomenon of science (Aquarius) "proving" what has been known spiritually (Pisces) all along about water.

Our water is precious. As precious as any child. And the horror and rage I feel at these filthy-souled (do they have souls?) men abusing and mistreating our water, our land, our air and us cannot be expressed in words.

All I can do is join with those who know and who feel the same way. It's the only way I can continue to stomach what has been done and is being done to this Earth, to all living things, to us. They have no right to do what they're doing.

Please oppose all offshore oil drilling. Support renewable, non-polluting energy sources and the development of more of these.

Give up driving or at the very least drive only when absolutely necessary. Think about what you're supporting when you drive, when you consume cheap oil and gas, and drive responsibly, with that firmly in mind. The joyride is over.

Ceres-Pluto in Capricorn and the Environmental Irresponsibility of Big Oil

British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward claims his company is not responsible for the offshore drilling rig explosion that killed 11 men April 20 and has resulted in 200,000 gallons of oil per day being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico. There is no way to stop or contain the current gush of oil, and this level of spill could go on for months. Just ponder that for a moment.

U.S. Gulf Coast states Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi have declared states of emergency as they wait for the massive oil slick to wash ashore (just as that bird is unknowingly doing in the picture above). This spill threatens shrimp and oyster beds, fish stocks and fragile marshland ecosystems full of other marine life.

Shrimp and fishing boats are now sitting idle and the livelihoods of fishermen and their families are in limbo.

The Blessing of the Fleet was to occur yesterday (Sunday) at Gulf Island Marina in Chalmette, Louisiana, but no commercial boats were there to receive their blessing. They are docked, restricted from beginning their season due to the oil slick.

British Petroleum, owned by the Rothschild family, is woefully unequipped to deal with a spill of this nature, nor does it care to deal with it. These are the Rothschilds we're talking about. Due care and attention for human beings or animal and plant life on this planet have never been on the priority list. The complete opposite, actually.

And you can see by British Petroleum's track record over the past five years just how absent from the priority list they really are. From an article at The Daily Green:

"In March 2005, a massive explosion ripped through a tower at BP's refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring 170 others. Investigators later determined that the company had ignored its own protocols on operating the tower, which was filled with gasoline, and that a warning system had been disabled. The company pleaded guilty to federal felony charges and was fined more than $50 million by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Almost a year after the refinery explosion, technicians discovered that some 4,800 barrels of oil had spread into the Alaskan snow through a tiny hole in the company's pipeline in Prudhoe Bay. BP had been warned to check the pipeline in 2002, but hadn't, according to a report in Fortune. When it did inspect it, four years later, it found that a six-mile length of pipeline was corroded."

Hideous negligence and arrogant lack of regard for life being given slap on the wrist after slap on the wrist and allowed to proceed - the story of most corporate operations these days.

Obama has pressured BP to take responsibility for the current spill (ha!), and their answer to the ongoing disaster has been to pump chemical dispersants into the source of the oil leak.

As online commenter msdasista points out, this just buries the problem instead of actually cleaning it up:

"This "dispersant" is not "working." It is simply keeping it from getting to the surface, where it can be cleaned up. Now the oil, in combination with another petrochemical byproduct called "dispersant," is hovering in the water column making it much more likely to be ingested by all underwater species (including oysters) and migratory pelagics like tuna, etc. The environmental problem, while now hidden, has been worsened exponentially by the addition of "dispersants.""

Burying and obscuring the environmental destruction caused by your corporate activities and making things even worse through that burying/obscuring - how very Pluto in Capricorn.

But again, Ceres isn't having it. Not this time. This poor old Earth is at the brink. It's fully saturated as far as disaster-absorption of the nefarious corporate oligarchy. And it's about ready to start eviction notices.

Uranus is currently transitting the last degree of the zodiac - 29 Pisces. Pisces is the sign related to both the ocean and oil. The 29th degree of Pisces is the end of the road, the final saturation point - psychically, emotionally, ecologically.

This sign, at the end of the astrological Piscean Age, has been the watery grave dumping ground for far too many dark and dirty secrets. The pollution of our oceans reflects this.

Far too much remains unresolved as we push forward into the Aquarian Era, and this does not bode well.

The forced corporate continuation of the Oil Age - instead of putting resources into the evolution past oil to solar, wind, geothermal and other safe, non-polluting energy sources - is now causing disaster after disaster.

Unfortunately, it's good, decent people who always seem to pay the price for top-down corporate criminality of this nature.

I'm sorry families of the men killed. I'm sorry animals. I'm sorry Gulf Coasters. I'm sorry Louisianans. On top of Katrina, this is way too much.

But we're into the master Piscean lessons here, aren't we?

The only way to shoulder this much grief, pain and despair is to share it around. With true Piscean energetic connection, this has happened to us all. Your ecological tragedy is our ecological tragedy, whether the effects hit now or 10 or 30 or 50 years from now.

Ceres-Pluto in Capricorn Headlines

A quick scan of world headlines from last week finds plenty of Ceres conjunct Pluto in Capricorn themes:

On Tuesday, the day before the Scorpio Full Moon and the Ceres retrograde station, more than 1,500 tractors were driven through the streets of Paris as thousands of French grain farmers protested grain prices so low they don't begin to cover input costs, let alone provide a living wage. These farmers face bankruptcy due to wild fluctuations in grain prices which force them into reliance on European Union subsidies, and their protests highlight a worldwide crisis in agriculture.

“We can no longer make a living out of what we produce,” Yves, a 44-year-old cereal and rapeseed farmer from north-east France told FRANCE 24.

“We’re calling for an end to the subsidy system, which is completely absurd,” added Yves. “We just want prices to be regulated so they honestly reflect what the product is worth. We can’t deal with the unstable prices and fluctuations we’re seeing today. We’re not traders or speculators, we’re men of the land," he said.

This reflects the attitude of many farmers across the world who do not want to be forced to rely on government subsidies, begging for enough to scrape by year-to-year. They want a fair price for their products that will allow them to earn a decent living for their labour.

Another Ceres-Pluto showdown is currently unfolding in the Big Oil arena:

The explosion at a British Petroleum offshore oil drilling rig on April 20 killed 11 people and caused a spill that is still spewing 200,000 gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi have declared states of emergency as the oil slick advances, and Louisiana's oyster and shrimping beds are now at risk.

The growing oil slick threatens the U.S. Gulf Coast, home to some of the richest ecosystems in the world.

"An area of mainly marshes and swamplands, the Gulf Coast states are home to diverse species of fish and crustaceans, as well as whales, alligators, marine tortoises, dolphins, pelicans and other migratory birds. Two key nature sanctuaries that are havens of biodiversity are also based in the area."

This comes just a few weeks after Obama announced plans to expand off-shore oil drilling and gas exploration, including in the Gulf of Mexico - plans that have now been suspended.

The ongoing events coinciding with the Ceres-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, which now widens and does not become exact until October 19, are not going to be pretty, folks. The opposite of pretty, really. The best interests of Ceres (Goddess of grains, the seasons and the fertility of the Earth) simply cannot co-exist with the current agendas of the corporate oligarcy (Pluto in Capricorn), and it's all being forced to a head.

Most people are none the wiser, though. It's Stanley Cup play-offs, don't you know?

Sigh.