Knowing When to Turn the Tap On and, More Importantly, When to Turn it Off

Mercury enters deep, dark Scorpio on September 29 (6:38 a.m. CST), and our mind, our communications, and our connections are filtered through the penetrating, unwavering gaze of the scorpion.

Creepy.

Mercury in Scorpio wants to see what lies beneath the surface. It wants to know what's really going on. It wants some validation for that sick feeling in the pit of its stomach, for the crawling of its skin, for the tingling spidey sense. Mercury in Scorpio is a researching mind, an uncovering mind, drawing uncomfortable tidbits of information up to conscious awareness for integration into the broader scene.

The festering stink-pile of corruption and lies on Planet Earth is one of the prime targets for this laser mind, this Mercury in Scorpio. And there can be no doubt, really, about the state we're in on this planet. We're teetering at the point of no return, led there by generations of materialist mass murderers masquerading as our leaders. We're close to the point of energetic impossibility.

And let's not be silly about this: we'll be making some life-or-death connections throughout this Mercury transit of Scorpio (September 29 - December 4, 2013). It's that serious. Messenger planet Mercury has some reality-based information that we must digest over the course of the transit, and it's in our best interests to heed every last squirmy detail.

Mercury will retrograde in the sign of sex, death, birth, healing, X-Ray vision, and hardcore soul drive from October 21 to November 10, travelling backward in the zodiac from 18 to 2 degrees Scorpio.

This is the third and final Mercury retrograde of 2013, all of which have been in water signs.

As Mercury transits Scorpio, it will conjunct the North Node and Saturn three times, reactivating the obscenely powerful and intense Venus-Saturn-North Node conjunction, which occurred at 8 degrees Scorpio on September 17/18. That conjunction occurred exactly sextile stationing and inky-potent Pluto at 8 degrees Capricorn, which turned direct September 20.

Those unaffected by the intensity and energetic demands of the week of September 16 - 22 were fortunate. There were exhaustion, breakdowns, meltdowns, and acute stress involved. At the end of our ropes and beyond. We processed a massive amount of energy through our bodies and through our relationships during that week - and we're still processing it. We'll be processing the energy of that week and integrating its lessons for some time to come, including during the transit of Mercury through Scorpio.

We set a whole new, soul-driven tone in human relationships that week, and it was no joke. The way energy is distributed in our relationships, the underlying power dynamics, the allotment of that precious, supportive, soulful Scorpio energy are all under a state of reconstitution and reconstruction, continuing with the Venus retrograde in Capricorn at the end of the year (December 20, 2013 - January 30, 2014).

With restricting Saturn involved, we had to pull the reins in on a number of relational fronts. To continue in the old dynamics brings depletion.

We're working with restricted energy, particularly emotional, psychological, sexual, and psychic energy. At times during the transit of Saturn through Scorpio (into September 2015), this will be severely restricted.

We need to invest our precious time and energy oh-so-wisely now in order to make it through the next couple years successfully.

So heading into autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere, we went through a very extreme Pluto station, a very extreme Venus-Saturn-North Node conjunction, and an over-the-top Harvest Full Moon in Pisces.

We now get a little breather with the Sun in Libra working to rebalance our upset energetic systems.

But it won't last long.

Mercury enters its retrograde shadow at 2 degrees Scorpio on October 1, just in time for the Libra Sun to enter a cardinal Grand Cross formation ahead of the Libra New Moon October 4.

In other words, kiss that harmonious Libran equinox breather goodbye, and prepare to play your 'A Games.' If you were expecting an easy breezy Libra season, you're in for a surprise...


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What is Mercury retrograde?

Getting Crystal Clear on What's Hurting & Sickening Us: A Pisces Full Moon Re-Post at This Harvest Moon

Photo: Willow

The Moon is currently growing full in dewy and sublime Pisces, opposite the Sun in late Virgo, and it touched wounded healer Chiron in Pisces early this morning on its way to the peak.

This late-Pisces Full Moon (exact at 6:13 a.m. CST on September 19) is the Harvest Moon, the Full Moon closest to autumn equinox, so named because farmers could work well into the night under its light. The Harvest Moon, along with the Hunter's Moon and Beaver Moon in following months, rises earlier and sets later than the Full Moons in other months, providing more moonlit hours.

This Harvest Moon in Pisces has end-of-era themes radiating from its moonbeams, as well as an impetus to get much clearer on the things that are hurting and sickening us on this planet.

This is a re-post of an article I wrote for last year's Pisces Full Moon. The themes continue to apply, maybe moreso than ever. The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan continues to unfold, two-and-a-half years after the initial event, and genetically modified alfalfa has just started contaminating the natural crop in the United States.

"A Chiron-Infused Pisces Full Moon, Pisces for the Aquarian Era, and Shifting Ideas Around Healing and Health" from the last Pisces Full Moon August 25, 2012:

"When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied."

- Herophilus, some 3rd/4th century doctor dude who fancied himself a philosopher

I read this quote recently on the back of a $13 package of smug hippie cereal that comes from the Canadian West Coast. There are a lot of smug hippies out there. The thing is, though, a lot of times, the smug hippies get it wrong.

I've been ill (though improving) for almost three years now. The military industrial complex disguised as Big Pharma disguised as an inexperienced doctor in a walk-in clinic slipped me poison in the form of an antibiotic called Cipro, and it devastated my system.

That said, I have to refute the quote by the good doctor up there. The best astrological work I've done has come during the time since I was poisoned. Since then, wisdom has revealed itself more fully, art has been expressed more richly. Not only was I able to fight, I was Plutonically strengthened to fight. Fighting those to-the-roots Plutonic fights gave me almost otherworldly strength at times, even as my body and physical system were weakened. Even as I was picking out words on the keyboard with a pencil in my mouth because my arms and wrists were not fully functional. Intelligence was most certainly applied. I don't think there can be any doubt that cosmic intelligence is coming through loud and clear.

People often say, "If you don't have your health, you don't have anything." I really wish people would stop saying that. It's kind of an assholish thing to say, especially to people who have compromised health.

Douche of the Day at Willow's Web Astrology - Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart

That's a whole lot of assholes.

Photo: Willow

The first case of GM alfalfa contamination is now being investigated in Washington state in the U.S. after a farmer had his alfalfa crop rejected for export because it (unknown to him) contained genetically modified material.

This is the first case of what will be many.

Monsanto's Roundup Ready GM alfalfa is the first genetically modified feral perennial ever planted in North America. Pollinated by insects and the wind, this highly tenacious plant used for livestock feed and organic fertilizer, among other things, spreads like a weed. In fact, if you do not want alfalfa in your field, it is extremely difficult to eradicate.

As seen in the initial case in Washington state, genetically modified alfalfa will inevitably cross-pollinate and contaminate the natural crop.

Currently, 93% of Canada's alfalfa crop is unsprayed. This means, farmers and ranchers do not have to pay thousands of dollars to apply chemical herbicide or pesticide to their alfalfa crops. These crops are natural, non-genetically modified, and unsprayed.

Monsanto would like to change that.

There are ongoing plans to introduce genetically modified alfalfa in Ontario and Quebec in order to set up an export hay market (talk about unsustainable). This hay would be sold to countries that desire 100% weed-free hay and are willing to purchase genetically modified, heavily chemically-sprayed alfalfa in order to achieve that.

Since Canada's federal Conservatives are as pro-GMO as you can get, the next step in appealing to our so-called leaders is at the provincial level. Municipal governments in British Columbia have passed laws making their areas GMO-free, and there is no reason provinces cannot do the same.

I wrote a letter recently to my home province's Agriculture Minister, Lyle Stewart, appealing for a moratorium on the sale, planting, and growth of genetically modified alfalfa within the province's borders.

What I got back was a very robotic and ill-informed letter from a very robotic and ill-informed Lyle Stewart of the Saskatchewan Party (AKA provincial Conservatives).

In the letter that he more than likely did not see or write, our boy Lyle passed the buck to the Federal government and denied there are any concerns over GM alfalfa at all.

"Lyle" went on to say: "The Government of Saskatchewan takes a science-based approach to promoting research, commercialization, and marketing of all aspects of agricultural biotechnology. We are committed to working with the industry to ensure farmers and ranchers have the latest advancements in agronomic and production tools available to help them remain competitive."

In other words, the Government of Saskatchewan is pro-GMO and (falsely) believes farmers and ranchers need GM alfalfa in order to "stay competitive."

Now, y'all, if Lyle knew his ass from page eight on this subject he'd know that farmers and ranchers in Western Canada - yes, including in his own province - have already rejected GM alfalfa wholeheartedly.

He would know there is actually zero benefit to going from an unsprayed, natural crop to a heavily chemically-sprayed GMO crop that costs thousands of dollars more to produce. And farmers and ranchers know this. Anyone with common sense does.

Our boy Lyle would also know that, rather than making farmers and ranchers "more competitive," the unintentional spread of GM alfalfa will actually destroy export crops to any country that does not allow GMOs within its borders. This is the entire European Union, which happens to be a big importer of Canadian alfalfa.

He also touts the science. But what science would that be, Lyle? The Seralini study showing increased incidences of cancer, organ damage, and premature death in lab rats fed GM corn and glyphosate, the primary ingredient in the chemical herbicide Roundup?

Or would it be the suckling pig study that found stomach inflammation and fertility damage related to diets of GM corn and soy?

Or is it the study that found Roundup toxic to dairy cattle?

What, exactly, is the science you're using to support your pro-GMO claims, here, Lyle?

Because the science I see says GMOs cause health damage in animals, and what causes health damage in animals will certainly cause health damage in human beings who eat animals or animal products.

For the fact that the provincial Agriculture Minister in prime livestock country, Saskatchewan, is ill-informed on the issue of genetically modified alfalfa, for the fact that he is not listening to the farmers and ranchers in his own province, and for the fact that he is implementing policy that puts the entire food supply at risk:

Lyle Stewart is Willow's Web Astrology's Douche of the Day!

Congratulations, Lyle. It isn't just any old douche who makes it to such a high level of douchery!


Get your "Stop GM Alfalfa" bumper sticker from Willow: $5 each or 5 for $22.

Grumbling, Fuming, and Mental Stress As We Move Through the Week Ahead. Pace Yourselves.

We start the week on Monday morning under a Scorpio Moon conjunct Saturn, with both bodies forming a square (hard aspect) to Mars in Leo.

This is the sweet and sensitive, feminine Moon - already uncomfortable in the sign of its fall, Scorpio - in aspect to the two Bad Boy malefic planets, Mars and Saturn.

By Friday morning, the Moon is in Capricorn (the sign of its detriment), conjunct stationing (ie. very potent) Pluto, just as we head into another tense and highly-strung cardinal Grand Cross formation, exact September 14 - 19.

It's going to take a very strategic game this week to not come out emotionally shredded.

Find your emotional sustenance where you can - just don't broadcast your sources. People are going to be a little crusty, looking for a sticking point they can latch onto and pick apart. (We are in Virgo season, after all.) Though Mars in Leo may be urging us to be expressive, boisterous, fun, and generous, the square to Saturn in Scorpio indicates that even well-intentioned efforts on that front could have some karmic bite-back.

As we start the week, war drums are being beaten as the United States government and its allies attempt to manufacture consent for yet another brutal war to secure long-term oil interests, this time in Syria. The media blackout related to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan is starting to crack around the edges. The "green shoots" of economic recovery in the United States and around the world (if they ever really existed) have officially withered and died. Saturn in Scorpio requires that we keep in mind the very serious context of the times in which we are living, and you do so to your own benefit this week.

Maintaining the right tone means you will not get caught on any Saturn in Scorpio bramble bushes.

As the workweek begins this Monday morning, the mood is sombre, touchy, irritated, under-appreciated, and a little burnt out. People are not in the mood for any shenanigans or for any forced joviality, either. Emotionally, we're playing our cards close to our chests, gathering our energy to us, despite the urgings of Mars in Leo to radiate our fabulousness for all to see, to fight for our rightful attention and acclaim.

You can fight for what's rightfully yours this week. Just do it in a matter-of-fact way - no blowing your own horn, no overkill - and then withdraw from the proceedings.

If you are passed over this week and can fly under the radar, consider yourself lucky.

As was mentioned in a previous post, the Mars in Leo square to Saturn in Scorpio has been restricting our wills, our actions, and the expression of our fun-loving personalities since the beginning of September.

However, this square that has been so peeing on our Leonine parades is exact at 6:06 a.m. CST on Monday, September 9. This means, as we wake and get our Mondays underway, the discomfort, restriction, and frustration indicated by this square has reached a peak. We are dealing only with the aftermath of this aspect, the denouement, throughout the week.

This is not to say that the Mars-Saturn denouement will not be feisty, challenging, or action-packed. Its potentially pissy, frustrated themes reverberate throughout the upcoming week.

It is in our best interests to keep our big, bold personalities in check, or Saturn in Scorpio will do it for us.

Further adding to the fun is an uncomfortable quincunx between Mars in Leo and Pluto in Capricorn on Wednesday, September 11. Power issues continue to simmer within the hierarchies as they exist, as we continue the shift from a Pluto in Leo world that we all just live in (love you, Pluto in Leos!) to a stronger Pluto in Virgo-led scene.

One saving grace is communication planet Mercury, which shifts into congenial and sociable Libra on Monday morning, as well, until September 29. This does help to maintain a modicum of social decorum under all these emotionally spicy and feisty layers.

However, Mercury in Libra also moves into the cardinal Grand Cross formation by the end of the week. Lovely Libra is going to have its work cut out for it keeping the peace under these conditions.

There's some definite subtext and some underlying charge to our social interactions through the next two weeks. Honour this. Don't be phony about it. Understand that the things you say and the tones you take with people - even in brief moments of frustration - could have enduring social and professional ripple effects, with Mercury in tight-as-a-drum cardinal Grand Cross.

Love, money, and relationship planet Venus in Libra first activated the cardinal Grand Cross involving Uranus in Aries, Jupiter in Cancer, and Pluto in Capricorn at the end of August (exact August 23 - 27). This set a new tone in relationships while testing them under intense pressure. New social leadership was initiated under that configuration, particularly involving new era-oriented leadership in our personal and professional relationships.

Now, as communication and intelligence planet Mercury enters Libra and re-activates the cardinal Grand Cross September 14 - 19, we start to wrap our minds around the social, professional, familial, and interpersonal shifts underway. We're gathering information and attempting to find our own social context within these pressurized and changing circumstances. We're working to maintain social continuity and right human relations during times when those things are too often being shoved to the side as unimportant.

Relationship-ruler Venus enters the sign of its detriment, Scorpio, on September 11, indicating human relations will have their sticking points through the end of the transit October 7. The relationship planet transiting the sign of sex, death, regeneration, secrets, and emotional suppression indicates our relationships are more tricky, complicated, and complex than we would prefer. However, a trine between Venus in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces, exact September 14, indicates that there is a whole lot we can transcend, give up to the universe, or see under a spiritually-compassionate lens on the relationship front.

The combination of the tail-end of the Mars-Saturn square, the Moon conjunct stationing Pluto in Capricorn, and the Mercury-triggered cardinal Grand Cross indicates that people could be quite fed up, past their breaking points, by weeks end. You will hear it in their tones, as the sociable Mercury in Libra convos show strain.

Big egos that are used to getting what they want with a free course could be particularly fuming, uncomfortable and perplexed as a new pecking order emerges.

Women in the workplace could also reach an "enough's enough" point, as it becomes too much to maintain the nicey-nice social façade, as well as the invisible and often unrecognized social work so often expected of females in the workplace.

This week is a bit of a minefield, though it's not impossible to navigate. Pick through carefully, and don't allow temper tantrums, shitty remarks, or desperate passive aggressiveness to throw you off course.

Willow on Ask the Astrologer with Matt Savinar This Thursday, September 5

I'll be a guest on Matt Savinar's community radio show, Ask the Astrologer, tomorrow (Thursday, September 5) as we open out of the Virgo New Moon.

Fittingly for a Virgo (analysis, health, hard work) New Moon opposite Chiron in Pisces (wounds and pain that affect us all), we'll be talking about Fukushima, media blackouts, and the importance of independent citizens doing the job that governments should be doing in protecting and informing us.

The collective can't seem to fully grasp the lessons of Pisces at the end of the era. People, en masse, don't get that what affects one, eventually affects all as Aquarius pulls them into extreme individualism and technology/science as God.

Let's see if we can assist on that front, shall we? Fukushima and its nuclear fallout are pretty good illustrations of the point...

The show is on KOWS 107.3 FM, out of Occidental, California, and starts at:

10 a.m. Pacific time
11 a.m. Mountain and Central Standard time
Noon Central Daylight and Eastern

You can listen to the show live online here. Look to the right part of the screen for the link: KOWS 107.3 FM

Or the show will be up at Matt's YouTube channel a little later.

An Alchemical Social and Professional Mix Percolates As We Head to Equinox

Photos: Willow

As we move into September, the Grand Water Trine summer of 2013 is officially winding down. The good vibes that buoyed us from Jupiter and the personal planets in Cancer, Saturn in Scorpio, and Neptune in Pisces have now mostly dissipated, and we are left with a more challenging series of cardinal Grand Crosses to navigate between August 2013 and April 2014. I hope you soaked up all the water magic you could this summer - we're going to need it!

 

We're now in the thick of Virgo season, harvest time, with the Sun and Mercury travelling through the sometimes persnickety sign of the virgin. Our focus for most of this month is on work, diligent effort, and attention to detail in preparation for the long winter ahead - physical and/or metaphorical.

A Virgo New Moon at 13 degrees, opposite Chiron Rx in Pisces, occurs September 5 (6:36 a.m. CST), and we open into new work, new roles, and a newly streamlined modus operandi. We're honing, purifying, and perfecting our skills as we move through this New Moon doorway, increasing effectiveness and eliminating unproductive efforts.

However, we also have to ask ourselves how we are so-very-effectively directing our personal efforts at this time.

(The Nazis were highly effective, too, after all. Efficacy is not always a good thing - Pluto in Virgos, I'm especially looking at you right now.)

The opposition to wounded healer Chiron in Pisces at the time of the New Moon indicates that we're working to heal the gaping psychic/spiritual wounds carried forward by humanity at this time, or we're working to support systems and ideas that cause further damage, tossing more salt in the collective wounds.

This New Moon is a time to get very clear on which effort you would like to support with your own time, focus, work, and energy. The condition and orientation of our souls at this crisis time on the planet are of utmost importance. We don't have as much time as we may have thought.

As we move through this clean-and-clear Virgo New Moon portal, small adjustments to our courses can create lasting improvements, particularly for physical and psychic health.

If there are changes you know you need to make in lifestyle or mindset, there's no better time than the present to implement them, propelled by this New Moon.

In light of recent information coming from Fukushima, eliminating certain foods in an effort to decrease the possibility of radioactive contamination may be wise.

What You Should Know About the Ongoing Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima, Japan

Click to enlarge.

This is a graphic showing the current crisis at the Daiichi nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan. As was reported in the New York Times on August 6, 2013, tons of radioactive water are now being released into the Pacific Ocean every day from these reactors. 

Officials at the Tokyo Electrical Power Company (Tepco) have said the leak started sometime between December and May of 2012. (Just a guess, guys?)

What has always been a global emergency has now become an acute, immediate global emergency.

How I understand it: The groundwater flowing under the nuclear site has become radioactively contaminated and is flowing out to sea, despite efforts to contain it. 

The nuclear cores from the reactors have breached their containments and are somewhere in the ground beneath the site, contaminating the soil and groundwater.

Since the beginning of the disaster, water has also been pumped through the nuclear reactors to keep the ongoing radioactive reaction - still kicking off massive amounts of radiation - as cool and contained as possible. This has been going on since the start of the reaction in March 2011, endangering the lives of many workers who are pumping the water.

The radioactive water used to cool the reaction is now being stored in storage tanks. Some of the storage tanks have sprung leaks and are also releasing water containing radioactive isotopes into the ground beneath the Fukushima Daiichi reactors.

This appears to be an escalation of the nuclear crisis, with Japan now asking for international assistance to contain the situation. Previously, it had refused offers of international assistance.

As ever, we need every brain and every set of eyes in the world on this issue, coming up with a solution to contain or stop it, evacuating people, teaching people what to do to protect themselves from contamination by radioactivity, providing equipment, and educating people around the world about radioactive food, milk, water, etc.

Venus Enters Home Sweet Home Libra, Kicking Off the Cardinal Grand Crosses

Jay Kimball pottery

Photo: Jay Kimball

Venus enters its domicile Libra tomorrow morning at 10:37 a.m. CST (where it will be until September 11) and swiftly moves into the first wave of cardinal Grand Cross configurations August 23 - 27.

A new social framework is being put in place over the next nine months, and this first wave, initiated by Venus, sets the tone.

Venus will square Pluto in Capricorn (August 23), oppose Uranus in Aries (August 26), and square Jupiter in Cancer (August 27), forming an acute, stressed, and highly-strung configuration that may require action, initiative, and strong social leadership skills under pressurized circumstances.

The personal planets Mercury, the Sun, and Mars will follow Venus into Libra, activating further waves of cardinal Grand Cross configurations in September, October, and December 2013, culminating in The Big One - an exact Grand Cross formation involving Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto at 13 degrees of the cardinal signs in April 2014.

We're being positioned and re-positioned - often dramatically, often unexpectedly - over the next nine months in an effort to reformulate relationships and social scenes to better fit the requirements of the astrological Aquarian era. Rules are changing. Ideals are shifting. Conventions are dissolving. Power dynamics are breaking down.

We can expect situations to escalate around the times that the Grand Crosses become exact, reaching crisis points that require decisiveness and leadership. These crises will often be related to the failure of the old set-ups, requiring that we find a new way...and quickly.

With Pluto involved in the Grand Crosses, potentially uncomfortable issues related to power are being drawn to the surface in relationships with an impetus to examine, make aware, and then transform. With Uranus involved, relationships and personal directions within relationship can change dramatically and unexpectedly as new insights and events arise. People will be rebelling from attempts to pigeonhole them in outdated relationship roles. With Jupiter in the mix, it is our wisdom, our truth, and our personal guiding philosophies (and those of our families) that provide shelter during the Grand Cross storms.

Jupiter in Cancer is now moving out of range of the Grand Water Trine with Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. The flowing, energetic glue that was holding things together is now gone, and there is little buffer from the tensions of the Grand Crosses.

Understand that people are going to be a little (or a lot) on edge.

As we experience the series of cardinal Grand Crosses, we will also experience retrogrades of both relationship-related planets. Love and partnership planet Venus goes retrograde in Capricorn (28 to 13 degrees) from December 20, 2013 to January 30, 2014. Sex, attraction, and desire planet Mars goes retrograde in Libra (27 to 9 degrees) from March 1 to May 19, 2014. These retrogrades within cardinal Grand Cross indicate a major 'turning over of the earth' in relationships of all kinds as we hurtle further into the astrological Aquarian era. It is movement in our relationships and social scenes that catalyzes the biggest shifts as far as the ways in which our lives are structured.

The personal planets in Libra will be hitting all the relational marks we were challenged on during Saturn's transit of Libra (October 2009 to October 2012). During that transit, we set new, concrete standards for relationships and partners. We were challenged by illusion, delusion, and wishful thinking in love and relationship. We were tempted by dead ends, siren songs, and karmic loops. Don't be surprised if themes (or people) you thought you had resolved are kicked up again by the transiting planets in Libra. As the personal planets move through Libra and activate the Grand Crosses, we must prove in active and immediate ways that we've earned our new social authority, our new social positioning.

The transit and retrograde of Mars through Libra, in particular, is an activating transit for the Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in Libra generations, who are challenged to create "right human relations" during a quite inhumane period in human history.

The way people are treating each other on this planet, and the way they are being treated by the state, is fairly dismal in many cases, to say the least.

The eight-month transit and retrograde of Mars through the sign of its detriment, Libra, indicates we will have to fight (Mars) for the social relations (Libra) we wish to see on this planet. It is going to take active effort to maintain respect and a sense of peace, as well as our care for others despite exhaustion and overload.

Keeping our social balance and grace under these very intense and demanding cardinal Grand Cross energies will not be easy, but what is worthwhile is rarely easy.

'Social justice and change' are the names of the game with the personal planets in Libra activating the cardinal Grand Crosses, and these urges can be seen around the world.

Beauty-themed Venus in Libra within cardinal Grand Cross, in particular, indicates a time when we can flip the bird to destructive, media-driven beauty ideals once and for all.

There is a leveling of false beauty hierarchies underway as we move further into egalitarian Aquarius. We can assist this process by rejecting the soul-devoid, competition-based versions of beauty so often stuffed down our throats and by opting for something more humane, more fair, more realistic, more respectful, something that honours the beauty in all of us.

In fact, this is a time when we can pop the beauty illusions altogether, deconstructing all image-related mindfuckery and releasing ourselves from its grip. This is a time to ask: Why let someone else dictate to you what's beautiful? Why does it matter how we look at all? Why do certain people get special treatment simply because they fit societal beauty moulds? And how do we justify all the time, effort, money, resources, and worry it takes to achieve those societal beauty standards?

Whereas the Piscean era was obsessed with a sublime, surreal, soft-around-the-edges beauty, a glowing beauty that could be placed on a pedestal above all the rest, an idealized beauty for which  we were all then trained to strive, beauty in the astrological Aquarian era is more egalitarian, diverse, eclectic, unconventional, friendly, rough-around-the-edges, comrade-based.

The truth of the matter is: human beings are kind of weird. Being a human is kind of weird. We look sort of odd, when you get right down to it. The fact that humans are so enamoured of how they look - driven to a new, narcissistic extreme by digital cameras and social media - is actually kind of silly.

Alien life forms coming across a pack of humans would more than likely not be struck by their amazing and ethereal beauty. More than likely, they would think we were kind of odd. And we kind of are.

The things that make us different are the things that make us beautiful under Aquarius. No one has to fit him or herself into Piscean-era cookie cutter beauty ideals now. No one has to strive to look like anyone else. No one has to give any weight to these outdated ideals, at all.

We can drop the outdated Piscean-era beauty hierarchies and their corresponding misery - it's just going to take our conscious effort to do so.


* The lesser benefic and relationship planet Venus enters Libra on August 16, forming the first cardinal Grand Cross August 23 - 27. This is four 90-degree square aspects (frictional, clashing, dynamic) from bodies in all four cardinal signs (leadership, initiative, new direction).

Mercury in Libra forms the second cardinal Grand Cross September 13 - 19.

The Sun in Libra forms the third October 1 - 12.

Mars enters Libra December 7, 2013 until July 26, 2014 for an almost eight-month stay in the sign of the scales (its detriment), including a retrograde period from March 1 to May 19, 2014.

This transit activates the Uranus in Libra, Neptune in Libra, and Pluto in Libra generations in new ways for the astrological Aquarian era, as well as anyone with a strong contingent of personal planets in Libra.

Mars will form its first cardinal Grand Cross moving direct between December 23, 2013 and January 8, 2014.

The second cardinal Grand Cross will be an exact formation, blisteringly potent, forming April 21 - 24, 2014 with Mars Rx in Libra, Jupiter in Cancer, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn all on 13 degrees of the signs.

"Stop GM Alfalfa" Bumper Stickers from WWA Activism

 Stop GM Alfalfa bumper stickers available at WWA Activism

Many of you will be aware of the ongoing "Stop GM Alfalfa" campaign I'm working on in an effort to raise public awareness and political opposition to genetically modified alfalfa.

This campaign actively supports a moratorium in Canada and the United States on the sale, planting, and growth of GM alfalfa. This campaign also supports independent, long-term animal feeding trials of GM alfalfa, unaffiliated with and unfunded by GMOs corporation like Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, and others.

Monsanto's genetically modified RoundUp Ready alfalfa was unconditionally approved for commercial sale and growth by the pro-GMO Obama Administration in January 2011. GM alfalfa has been planted in the United States for the past three seasons. This decision is still highly contentious, and lawsuits attempting to stop GM alfalfa are ongoing in the U.S.

Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics is now planning to sell RoundUp Ready alfalfa for the first time in Canada amidst major protest. It is making its way through the last steps required for commercial sale in this country and could get the green light from the pro-GMO Harper government at any time.

Alfalfa is a feral perennial plant. This means it grows and spreads like a weed, and it grows back year-after-year without re-planting. In fact, if you don't want alfalfa in your field, it can be very difficult to eradicate.

Alfalfa is pollinated by insects like bees and by the wind. As bees and wind do not respect provincial or national borders, genetically modified material can be spread far beyond the area in which it is initially planted.

Monsanto and the rest of the GMO/chemical corporations are trying to make GM alfalfa the first ever feral perennial planted in Canada.

GM alfalfa, if released in Canada, will contaminate the natural crop. There is no doubt about that on the part of farmers or educated citizens. You can read a recent report written by the National Farmers Union and the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network on the impossibility of co-existence with this GM crop here: "The Canadian Seed Trade Association’s so-called “Coexistence Plan” is a gateway to GM alfalfa contamination"

Alfalfa is used primarily as livestock feed. It is used as a natural, nitrogen-fixing fertilizer in organic agriculture, and it is also used as the transition crop when farms move from conventional to organic.

If genetically modified alfalfa contaminates the natural crop, the current markets for Canadian alfalfa-based products (particularly European) will be lost. Livestock and human health may be harmed by this untested, experimental crop. And the entire foundation for organic agriculture could be destroyed.

The stakes are high. Now is the time to get vocal and active on this issue if you feel it in your heart and soul to do so.

I've launched a WWA Activism section of the Willow's Web Astrology blog. The primary campaign at this time, due to its immediate relevance, is the campaign to stop GM alfalfa.

If anyone would like to get involved with GM alfalfa activism in his or her local area, please contact me at willowsweb [at] hushmail.com, and I can help you with some basics.

You can also voice your opposition to GM alfalfa in a very easy, simple, and effective way with a Stop GM Alfalfa bumper sticker.

There are three versions available: "Stop GM Alfalfa in Canada: Say 'no' to Franken-hay" (for Canadians), "Stop GM Alfalfa: Say 'no' to Franken-hay," and "Stop GM Alfalfa."

Stickers are $5 each or five stickers for $22. Shipping is $3.00 for orders in Canada and the U.S. Please contact me with international orders, as shipping rates may be higher.

Bumper sticker orders can be placed through the WWA Activism button at the top of the main page. Contact me if you would like to pay by a method other than PayPal.

The bumper stickers are printed at a local, independently-owned, small-town printing shop.

Please provide your full mailing address, and allow three weeks for shipping.

We can stop this. I wouldn't be pouring the coal to this issue if I believed otherwise.

Thanks for your help in this effort.

Genetically Modified Alfalfa Primer - Please Distribute

Stop GM Alfalfa bumper stickers available from WWA Activism

 

GM ALFALFA PRIMER

Franken-Hay: Stop GM Alfalfa

Monsanto is currently attempting to make its Roundup Ready alfalfa the first genetically modified (GM) perennial planted in Canada.

Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics International plans the wide-scale selling of Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) alfalfa seeds in Ontario and Quebec as early as 2013.

Monsanto's alfalfa strains have been genetically modified to withstand its glyphosate-based chemical herbicide Roundup. Genes not naturally found in alfalfa are implanted by scientists into the alfalfa seeds so the plants will withstand large doses of the herbicide.

GM alfalfa was very controversially approved in the United States in January 2011, and genetically modified alfalfa has been planted there for the past three seasons. It now accounts for 70% of the alfalfa crop in some states. Lawsuits to stop the commercial sale of GM alfalfa in the United States are ongoing.

A Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Genetically Modified Alfalfa in Canada

The introduction of genetically modified alfalfa has the ability to wipe out the entire foundation of organic and non-genetically modified agriculture. Alfalfa is a staple livestock feed. It is a crop often used during the three-year field transition from conventional to organic farming. Alfalfa is also essential in the organic crop rotation as a nitrogen-fixer and natural fertilizer of the soil.

As alfalfa is embedded in the entire organic agriculture system, contamination by GM alfalfa would be devastating.

As a staple livestock feed, alfalfa is made into bales of hay that are fed to animals. What we feed our animals, we end up eating ourselves if we eat meat or animal products. Contamination by GMOs would particularly affect organic/non-GM meat, dairy, eggs, and honey. Because GM alfalfa would have an effect on soil quality, however, vegetables, fruits, and grains could also be affected.

The first genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were released in the mid-1990s. GMOs have spread faster than anyone could have imagined, and due to the lack of labeling and segregation within the agricultural system, GM crops grown widely in Canada, especially soybeans, corn, and canola, have contaminated the non-GM versions. If you are eating a non-organic product that contains a derivative of those three crops (soybeans, corn, or canola), you are almost guaranteed to be eating some genetically modified material.

Already, there can be no guarantee that a food product labeled organic is completely free of genetically modified material. However, because the effort is made to keep organic crops separate from genetically modified crops, organic crops remain the best bet for non-GM food choices.

(Source: Manitoba organic inspector Priscilla Reimer)

Co-existence is Impossible

Currently, the plan touted by GM proponents is a "co-existence policy" where genetically modified alfalfa can be grown, harvested, and used alongside non-genetically modified alfalfa.

What organic and non-GM farmers know is that this co-existence is actually impossible, particularly with a feral, perennial crop like alfalfa that cross-pollinates widely, including via the wind and insects.

PhD work done between 2004 and 2007 in Manitoba on the spread of genetically modified canola found unintentional GMO contamination as well as cross-breeding between GM strains. Escape populations of canola were studied - plants growing outside fields where they had not been planted - and widespread contamination by genetically modified organisms was found among them.

The study found that the transportation and containment systems were most often the cause of the spread of the seeds (spilling from trucks, trains, and elevators), making the standard solution of "buffer fields" between GM and non-GM crops almost useless to stop contamination. Unless the growing, transportation, and containment of genetically modified seeds/crops is kept separate from non-genetically modified versions, contamination is inevitable.

In the case of alfalfa, even those measures could not contain the spread of genetically modified versions.

The same PhD work found something the GMO companies had not intended: some of the GM canola plants 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 owns the patent there?

(Source: Alexis Knispel Kanu, PhD)

Major GM and Glyphosate Safety Concerns Uncovered in 2012

An unprecedented animal feeding trial has found that lab rats fed genetically modified corn as well as glyphosate residue - the primary ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup - developed high incidences of tumours, multiple organ damage, and premature death.

The results of the GM feeding trial were published September 19, 2012 in the scientific journal "Food and Chemical Toxicology." The peer-reviewed study was conducted by a team of scientists led by biologist and endocrinologist Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen in France.

The study was attacked vociferously as flawed by other scientists and biotechnology groups. Despite the uproar, the Food and Chemical Toxicology journal, a major journal on toxicology, refused to retract the study.

 

In addition, the European Food Security Authority has published guidelines for GMO feeding studies that validated the methodology of the Seralini team.

The Seralini animal feeding trial studied the long-term effects of exposure to NK603 GM corn (Monsanto's Roundup Ready variety) and glyphosate - individually and combined - on the health of rats over two years.

The study found that even exposure to levels considered "safe" resulted in severe negative health effects in the animals.

Of the rats fed GM corn or glyphosate residue, 50% of males and 70% of females died prematurely. This was compared to 20%-30% in the control group. Female rats developed fatal mammary tumours and pituitary disorders. Males developed liver damage, kidney and skin tumours and had problems with their digestive systems.

The study found that ingestion of GM corn and glyphosate caused similar damage in the rats whether consumed separately or together. Even the lowest doses of GM corn and glyphosate, touted as "safe" by industry, were associated with severe health problems.

Previous studies have produced similar findings, but this was the first ever feeding trial done over the course of the entire lifespan of a laboratory rat - two years.

No genetically modified animal feeding trials have been done up to this point for longer than 90 days.

This means, genetically modified seeds/foods have been rushed onto the market in Canada and the United States without any longer-term studies on potential effects. The majority of the tumours and devastating health effects that developed with the rats were detected after 18 months, which means that prior GM testing done over 90 days would not have discovered them.

Glyphosate-based Roundup is currently the world's most popular and widely-used herbicide. Its global usage is set to double by 2017, according to Global Industry Analysts of San Jose, California.

The Battle As it Stands

The sale and growth of genetically modified alfalfa were initially stopped by a lawsuit in the United States in 2007, but that lawsuit was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010. A compromise that would have limited the growing of GM alfalfa, potentially protecting organic and non-GM farmers, was scrapped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture when it announced approval of unrestricted commercial cultivation on January 27, 2011.

This decision is highly opposed by organic farmers, who stand to lose the most money (and their entire livelihoods) from contamination by genetically modified alfalfa or even by the belief that their products are contaminated. This would mean the end of European markets, which ban GMOs, for Canadian alfalfa products.

 

But it is also opposed by all who wish to eat GMO-free food.

Genetically modified alfalfa was approved under Tom Vilsack as Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Vilsack is the ex-Governor of Iowa, a corn belt state. Genetically modified corn is big business in Iowa. As might be expected, Vilsack is a major supporter of Monsanto and their genetically modified seed varieties. Vilsack was even named Governor of the Year by the Biotechnology Industry Organization in 2001.

Genetically modified alfalfa has now been sold, planted, and grown in the United States for the past three growing seasons. Already, it makes up 70% of the alfalfa crop in some states.

In Canada, a motion on a moratorium on the planting and growing of genetically modified alfalfa was tabled in Canadian Parliament in March 2011 by Liberal members of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee.

That motion was left unaddressed as Stephen Harper dissolved Parliament ahead of the federal election in May 2011.

Now, the widespread selling of GM alfalfa seed has been proposed for Ontario and Quebec.

Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics International plans to sell Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa seed in Ontario and Quebec as early as this year. This would be the first wide-scale commercial sale and growth of GM alfalfa in Canada and the first ever genetically modified perennial released in Canada.

Ontario and Quebec have been chosen as the introduction points for genetically modified alfalfa because farmers in Western Canada have already rejected GM alfalfa.

National Farmers Union protests are ongoing in Canada.

This is a crucial time for the future of food on this planet and for the future of food quality in Canada.

Two thousand thirteen is a make or break year for the natural, non-genetically modified, and organic agricultural industries in Canada and the United States and for anyone who wants to keep food natural and non-genetically modified.

A Moratorium on GM Alfalfa in Canada   

We, as concerned citizens, are calling on our elected officials to do the responsible thing with untested, unproven GM alfalfa. We are calling for an immediate moratorium on the sale, planting, and growth of genetically modified alfalfa in Canada.

We are also calling for additional two-year laboratory rat feeding trials to be conducted on genetically modified alfalfa and glyphosate by independent scientific bodies unaffiliated with and unfunded by GM corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, Dow, and DuPont.

How Genetically Modified Alfalfa Affects You - Please Distribute

Stop GM Alfalfa bumper stickers available from WWA Activism

 

Alfalfa is a staple livestock feed. It is collected and made into bales of hay, which are fed to animals.

What goes into an animal's body goes into our bodies if we eat meat or other animal products like cheese, milk, yogurt, chocolate, eggs, or honey. If we are feeding animals toxic food, it will eventually make its way to us.

So:

alfalfa ---> hay for animal feed ---> you eat meat or animal products ---> you are exposed to genetically modified material

Currently, Canada's alfalfa crop is natural (non-genetically modified). It is one of our precious national crops. It's how we feed our animals. Ninety-three percent of it is unsprayed - no chemical herbicides or pesticides.

Monsanto and the other GMO corporations would like to change that. They would like to make sprayed, genetically-modified alfalfa a much larger percentage of the Canadian alfalfa crop, and the initial foot in the door is planned for Ontario and Quebec.

Genes that do not naturally occur in alfalfa have been implanted in GM alfalfa seeds by scientists so the alfalfa plants will be able to withstand massive doses of chemical herbicide.

With a feral, perennial (grows year-after-year) crop like alfalfa that pollinates widely, including by wind and insects, cross-contamination by GM alfalfa is certain.

Already, GM crops have contaminated much of the non-GM food supply, particularly foods with corn, soybean, canola, or beet sugar ingredients. The organic label, which prohibits genetically modified material, cannot be guaranteed GM-free.

The company selling the seeds, Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics, is choosing Ontario and Quebec for the introduction of GM alfalfa because it has already been rejected outright by Western Canadian farmers.

There is no benefit to introducing genetically modified alfalfa in Canada, financially or health-wise.

The results of an unprecedented animal feeding trial found in 2012 that GM corn and glyphosate (the main ingredient in Monsanto's chemical herbicide Roundup) cause much higher incidences of tumours, organ damage, and premature death in lab rats.

This means, if genetically modified alfalfa is introduced and contaminates the natural crop, we will be feeding our animals something that could cause major health problems. When we eat those animals or products from those animals, this is passed on to us.

If you eat meat, dairy, eggs, honey, or other animal products, this affects you.

Even if you don't, it affects you.

Alfalfa is a natural fertilizer. It is used widely in organic agriculture. If GM alfalfa contaminates the alfalfa crop in Canada, that means genetically modified plant material is going to make its way into the soil as fertilizer...and stay there.

This will make it effectively impossible to call any food certified organic. If the soil isn't organic, the food grown in that soil will not be organic.

New Moon in Leo Squaring the Nodes: Opening Into A New, Alchemically-Charged Creative Cycle

Photos: Willow

The New Moon at 14 degrees Leo on August 6 (4:51 p.m. CST) conjuncts asteroid Vesta and squares the Scorpio North Node and Taurus South Node.

This New Moon indicates a dynamic new creative cycle is opening with a mix of participants that starts to gel around fall equinox. The house where 14 degrees Leo falls in your birth chart is the area where this new creative cycle is getting underway.

The influence of "hearth and home" asteroid Vesta, exactly conjunct the New Moon at 14 degrees Leo, indicates that we're invested in our own creative output and in the power of our personalities. We've kept our creative flames stoked through trial and tribulation. We've put time, effort, and energy into expressing the love, style, and passion in our hearts - even when it was hard, even when it was devalued, even when it seemed pointless. An investment has been made in pure human creativity, joy, and play. We've banked on the power of our personal artistry and creativity. Now we start to see what that investment is going to reap.

With a transiting Scorpio North Node, we are challenged to address energy shortfalls now by coming together with others in creative/working partnership. We are seeking true win-win partnerships where we accomplish more together than we could alone.

But with the Sun and Moon coming together in Leo, the sign of the diva, the celebrity, the star, there is friction possible within these partnerships that must be addressed.

Big personalities, big egos, and big creative power are coming together, with a particular gel point this fall under the Saturn-North Node-Venus conjunction at 8 degrees Scorpio.

This requires a careful understanding and distribution of power. It also requires the careful, proactive honing of our personalities and egos. We have to drop a whole lot in order to achieve the things we need to achieve, in order to fit through the slim doorway to Aquarius. Coming out of this Leo New Moon, square the Scorpio North Node, we're determining the essentials of our personalities from the non-essentials, the benefits of a strong ego versus the pitfalls of an oversized one.

We're purging any potentially detrimental ego bloat coming out of this Leo New Moon with an eye toward long-term gains. The more honest we can be with ourselves, the better, though this will not necessarily be easy. We can expect some ego burns and bruising around this New Moon as we are stripped down, charged up, and positioned for the long term.

We may not get the attention we were expecting, but the attention we do get is meaningful.