Surprise!

Fall Ingress

September 22, 2010; 11:09 PM EDT; Washington DC

With the Fall Ingress on Wednesday evening, swiftly followed by a Full Moon in Aries, we bring in a new quarter.  The dregs of the Cardinal squares that brought in the Summer Ingress in June, has shifted, and is separating.  But there are still conflicts and stressors, lingering like a bad hangover.  Jupiter and Uranus are no longer in Aries, but have shifted back to Pisces, and Saturn is slowly leaving the scene.  Nonetheless, with the influence of the contentious Aries Moon hot on the heels of this Ingress, this should be an interesting quarter.

Placing the Ingress chart in Washington, DC for the US, the Moon in (democratic, socially responsible) Pisces  places prominently in the house of leadership and government, closely conjunct to Jupiter/Uranus.  On its own this would strengthen the party in power, and bring strong support and success.  It certainly would seem that some sort of legislative changes whose time is well overdue will be implemented or applied.  Case in point, some of the first provisions of the recently passed Health Care Reform bills, will become effective this quarter, beginning September 23rd.

• Health coverage cannot be arbitrarily canceled when people become sick just because they made unintentional mistakes on their paperwork.
• Children can no longer be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
• Health plans can no longer put a lifetime limit on health coverage.
• Annual limits on coverage will be phased out over three years.  In 2014, all annual limits are prohibited.
• Insurers must cover recommended preventive services, such as mammograms and flu shots, with no co-pay.

These are good provisions.  Not perhaps as radical as some people would have wanted.. but important provisions.  However there is already a deal of rumbling in Congress by conservatives who, if they can’t repeal these bills, will try to roll back health care reform, by trying to withhold money.  At this point they are not very likely to be successful.  However Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee... referring to mid-term elections coming up in November, stated wistfully “The more Republicans we have here, the more changes we can make.”  In other words, they’re just getting started.

The latest polls, as of today, project that Democrats will lose 7 Senate seats and 37 House seats.  Jupiter/Uranus can also bring unexpected changes, upsets, or surprises.  Now, if Republicans do take these seats, it would bring a definite, and unfortunate change to the balance of the congressional seats.  However, this would not be terribly unexpected, or much of a surprise, as this is often business as usual in mid-term elections. 

If you look at the aspects on the day of the general election, once again there are indications of unexpected results in the elections as Moon comes to oppose Uranus that evening.  Surprise!  But what sort of surprise will this be?  Will more seats fall to Republicans than anticipated?  Will less?  We could only hope.  But there definitely appears to be some sort of upset or change.

Some key seats are also being threatened, not just by Republicans, but by teabagger Republicans!  Sharron Angle took down conservative Sue Lowden who would have been a shoe-in over incumbent Harry Reid in financially strapped Nevada.  At this point Angle is neck and neck with Reid, at least giving him a fighting chance, but also threatening to have wingnut Angle threatening to destroy Social Security and Medicaid, while packing heat. 

ANGLE: You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves (with guns) against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years.
I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies (the right to keep and bear arms) and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.

Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Christine O’Donnell (who at this point doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance... but then, who knows?!) 

Some well ensconced incumbents are having their seats threatened.  O’Donnell already unseated conservative Mike Castle in Delaware... probably the only Republican who considered that we should take some responsibility for global warming, or that global warming exists.  Could she actually beat Democrat Chris Coons in an unexpected upset?  Not very likely, but Mike Castle was an established pol in Washington.  Harry Reid has a weak hold over his seat against teabagger Sharron Angle; Barbara Boxer has an equally weak hold over her Senate seat in CA, against corporate CEO Carly Fiorina.  Progressive sweetheart Alan Grayson is trailing to home boy Dan Webster in his district in Florida.  And blue dog Blanche Lincoln is slated to lose in Arkansas. 

With Retrograde Venus in Scorpio (bleeding tax dollars and subsidies; Bush tax cuts?) sextile Pluto (power/big money), and Pluto conjunct the North Node on the day of the election... who will be the big winners here?  How about BIG money: the banks, big business and corporations. 

Well, no surprise there.

Dream

Sweet joy befall thee as in your own
Bosom you bear your heaven and
Earth and all you behold; Tho
it appears without, it is within,
In your Imagination, of which
this world of mortality is but a shadow.
 

-William Blake

Last night I had a dream that woke me in a tizzy.  I dreamt that I was in an apartment where there was a huge leak coming from the ceiling.  It was not an ordinary leak, but came down in cascades, flooding the floor and pouring down the walls and through the fixtures.  If this wasn’t bad enough, there were exposed wires hanging from the ceiling, and as the water met the wires, huge flashes like lightning splayed, erupted and smoldered.  As I ran from the apartment to get help, the door slammed behind me.  And when I tried to unlock the door, the key that I had bent in my fingers, broke in pieces and was useless.  There was more to the dream, which belied my ubiquitous underlying anxiety... but all I could think, as I awoke, was “How Jupiter conjunct Uranus Retrograde in Pisces!”

When Uranus and Jupiter meet, they can create sweeping changes for either the good or the ill. Electricity, the stuff of Uranus is powerful. It can do great things when it is contained and directed, and if you hold the right keys.  It can be scary and destructive when unrestrained.  Water, the element of Pisces, too, can be powerful in its own right.  Necessary for life, too much of it causes insidious damage and destruction.  Jupiter inflates.  Neither Jupiter nor Pisces respect or understand boundaries.  This is the stuff that storms are made of... but also the inspiration to do great works that benefit all of life.  Running rampant, and uncontrolled, it can wreak mayhem and destruction, much as a hurricane would.  Contained and controlled, it can produce great energy, much as a hydro dam would. 

When Jupiter is traveling in its apparent direct motion, it’s focus is projected out onto the world, through expansion, abundance and application of what we have learned.  When Retrograde, the Jupiter energy is turned within.  We explore where and how we stand in relationship to each other, the other creatures in our world, to Mother Earth, and to the universe at large.  Issues of ethics, truth and justice arise.  In his home sign of Pisces, circumstances encourage us to rediscover our connection, through compassion, fairness, and a realization of our interconnectedness with all of life. 

On the 18th, Jupiter will greet Uranus, also Retrograde in Pisces.  This is the 2nd of 3 conjunctions that these planets will make in this cycle.  The first was in the fiery and impulsive, but inspired, sign of Aries, on June 8th.  The 3rd will be in watery Pisces, again, on January 5th, 2011. 

When Jupiter meets Uranus sudden events transpire, that encourage us to think about universal justice, the rights of one and all, and most of all, freedom.  These are also a vortex for creative realizations, as we are being brought into close alliance with that universal bank of knowledge... Jung referred to this as the Universal Oversoul, some refer to it as Universal Mind.  This is the well of inspired ideas, whose ‘time has come’, and those sensitive to these particular ideas, will find themselves the welcome recipients of ‘inspired’ ideas, that suddenly and spontaneously arise.  In Pisces, these creative ideas are more inclined to benefit humanity and life as a whole, or to inspire through some sort of artistic medium.  Because the planets are retrograde, these may be difficult to manifest, or implement right away, and could haplessly fade away into the ether.  But do pay attention, for it may well be that all that is needed is a little refinement and cultivation, and the right circumstances.

Pisces is a sign that is democratic, altruistic, imaginative and compassionate.  What it lacks in reality, it makes up for through inspiration.  It is a boundless sign that does not limit people or circumstances through circumscribed boundaries.  When the planets of freedom and anarchy come to call in Pisces we are being asked to go beyond the limits of who and what we think we are, and are encouraged to visualize, and to redefine our beliefs.   

So, where do you need to free up your life?  Are there ways that you can reach beyond what you previously believed were restrictions?  It may be that there is a different way of approaching a problem that you hadn’t seen or realized before.  Dream.  But instead of being the recipient of chaotic dreams lacking control and direction, visualize and plant the seeds for what you perceive to be the ideal.  Ideals are hard to fully achieve in the ‘real’ world, but even if you are only partially successful, it could still change your life in remarkable and unexpected ways.

*the above photo "Lightning Dual" is courtesy of jennifer renee on freedigitalphoto.net

A Time to Heal

Mercury stations Direct on Sunday, September 12th, and though its slow motion pace would have most people in freeze tag mode.... I suddenly had all this urge to organize, clean, and set my life in order, once and for all.  Then on the way to the market, by way of the post office and gym this morning, I passed the Fire Station.  All the firefighters were in their dress uniforms, gathering in front of the station, in remembrance of brothers lost, and lives unconscionably taken on a similar beautiful September morning, nine years ago.  My heart welled up, remembering what day this was.  I thought I had escaped the inescapable. 

The dark Moon in Scorpio took over, and I could not watch.  Nor could I watch the repetitive PTS tapes that began to course through my brain, even as I commiserated with my fellow Post Office neighbors, and raced through virtual reality on the stationary bike.  Every trauma I experienced and witnessed from childhood on, had their day... Then I stopped.  So much of my retrospective involved facing my adversaries, and some how getting, if not revenge, at least some sort of restitution.  Towards the end of my reverie I found myself seeking imaginary rapprochement.  That’s when I stopped.

What was so devastating about 9/11, wasn’t just the horrific crime that occurred, it’s also what came after that.  The feelings of revenge, and desire to get even, drove us to allow unthinkable acts to be committed as retribution.  We achieved this by dehumanizing others... and trying to find some elusive other to be the scapegoats of our wraith.  We have terrorized countless others, wreaked destruction in our attempts to restore order after the chaos we created, and in the process, bankrupted our country, and sacrificed our own children.  It is time to stop, cut our losses and move on.  And figure out ways to heal, rather than to keep reopening and worrying the wounds.

Nicholas Kristof published an article in the New York Times on Wednesday, in which he wrote about the efforts of two 9/11 widows who sought healing for themselves by reaching out to their fellow widows in Afghanistan in an attempt to educate them, and give them opportunities to be self-sustaining.  Through bonding, and mutual support, and an ability to make a difference, these women filled the empty sorrowful spaces.

There was also the story, this past week of a Palestinian-American who had built a synagogue in Arkansas (the heart of the bible belt) at no charge.  This was his individual way of creating a healing bridge.

Let's talk to one another, not yell at one another; let's disagree, but do it with the great American spirit of respect and tolerance; let's get to know one another and model for the world how we can live, with all colors, religions and stripes of humanity, together, one nation, under God. That is the American way. ~ Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater

 

When is Food Actually Food?

photo courtesy of Evgeni Dinev (freedigitalphotos.net)

When is food, food, and when is it not food? 

New Moons are generally markers for new beginnings, a time to plant seeds and make new starts.  But what about a New Moon in Virgo (such as we will have on September 8th), where the ruler of Virgo, Mercury, is Retrograde?  In Virgo.  And what about the fact that at the time of the New Moon, 2 planets, Venus and Jupiter, are just about, but not quite, changing signs?  It feels like a beginning, that is not quite a beginning, because in order to make that new start, some things that are broken, unhealthy, or simply not working the way they should, have to be fixed first.   

In recent news we learned (some poor people first hand) about a huge outbreak of salmonella from eggs produced in apparently (appallingly) filthy conditions.  Virgo rules foods and foodstuffs, it rules the harvest, it also rules health and cleanliness.  Reports released the end of August by the US FDA show numerous possible sources of contamination at the targeted “farms” including rodent, bug and wild bird infestation, uncontained manure (lovely), and holes in the walls that allowed the alleged infesters to come in.  It’s enough to turn Virgo’s stomach in utter horror at the mere thought....

Then I spontaneously picked up a book that my daughter had given me, entitled “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan.  I could barely get through the first few chapters without having nightmares about inedible corn, fake tofu and artificially fattened cows, and the corporations that orchestrate this colorful tableau.  Cargill, the largest privately held corporation in the world, and ADM, manage how corn is grown, how much is grown, what grows it, and how much it costs.  They provide the pesticide and fertilizer, operate most of the grain elevators, broker and ship most of the exports, perform the milling, feed the livestock and slaughter the corn-fattened animals; distill the ethanol made from the corn; and manufacture the high-fructose corn syrup and all the myriad of other things derived from field corn.  Corn is in 1/4 of all the items in the supermarket.  It is everywhere and in everything.  It is omnipresent.  And most of the corn grown is inedible.

Then I went to Facebook to escape reality and someone had posted a “link” about “GMO” foods escaping their laboratory mutated fields for some wild herbal cohabitation, thereby mixing their mutant seed with normal, non-carcinogenic, real-food foods.  The title of the article is subtly called “8 foods that could be disastrous for your health”.  I naturally had to download the brochure on GMO foods and how to avoid them.  When you hear that Canola oil and Soybeans are not safe any more, where can you turn? 

All this just begs the question, “When is food actually food, and when is it not food, or just pretending to be food?”  Or, “When is food actually nutritious, and when is it poison in disguise?”

Perhaps what we really need to do, this New Moon, is explore what it is that we are ingesting, assimilating into our systems, and allowing to poison our environments and ourselves, before we can take full stock of what it truly means to have a healthy body, a healthy mind, and a healthy planet.  Ahhh.... Virgo, alchemists of the harvest and the midwives of the fields, we need your healing guidance now more than ever. 

The goal of life is in living in agreement with Nature. ~Zeno