Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2005

REGARDING RUMORS of the possible resignation of Dick Cheney, I have this to add to the discussion. When Spiro Agnew became the second vice president in US history to resign from office, on Oct. 10, 1973, Mars was retrograde in Taurus. This occurred less than one year prior to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon. This does not guarantee anything -- but it's a very interesting synchronicity that the discussion is even happening at all; it could be a kind of echo effect, since Mars has not been retrograde in Taurus since that time.

Rumors of Cheney's resignation must be precisely that, because if the idea exists, it's only a contingency plan. I am going to guess that White House types are not quite sure what Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is going to do. And in my version of the novel, the intelligence community is not cooperating with their requests for information, either that, or it's too bluntly uncouth to ask. Cheney, after all, is not good friends with the CIA. And while I'm writing a novel, we can be pretty sure Mr. Fitzgerald has a good budget for sweeping his office for bugs, and that he has secure phone lines. He deals with creeps like this fairly often.

But this does tell you something of the tense atmosphere in Washington. We are still waiting patiently for that big oil guzzling dinosaur to do the Watusi.

A Google news search will bring up the discussion of Cheney. Some interesting charts are posted below, a few days down, for the curious or obsessed. Much more on the Political Waves site, linked from the http://planetwaves.net homepage.



Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005

REGARDING RUMORS of the possible resignation of Dick Cheney, I have this to add to the discussion. When Spiro Agnew became the second vice president in US history to resign from office, on Oct. 10, 1973, Mars was retrograde in Taurus. This occurred less than one year prior to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon. This does not guarantee anything -- but it's a very interesting synchronicity that the discussion is even happening at all; it could be a kind of echo effect, since Mars has not been retrograde in Taurus since that time.

Rumors of Cheney's resignation must be precisely that, because if the idea exists, it's only a contingency plan. I am going to guess that White House types are not quite sure what Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is going to do. And in my version of the novel, the intelligence community is not cooperating with their requests for information, either that, or it's too bluntly uncouth to ask. Cheney, after all, is not good friends with the CIA. And while I'm writing a novel, we can be pretty sure Mr. Fitzgerald has a good budget for sweeping his office for bugs, and that he has secure phone lines. He deals with creeps like this fairly often.

But this does tell you something of the tense atmosphere in Washington. We are still waiting patiently for that big oil guzzling dinosaur to do the Watusi.

A Google news search will bring up the discussion of Cheney. Some interesting charts are posted below, a few days down, for the curious or obsessed. Much more on the Political Waves site, linked from the http://planetwaves.net homepage.



Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005

I'VE BEEN ASKED TO CLARIFY what I meant by the comment about people in Iraq needing a strong leader or they do terrible things to one another -- back in Marco Polo's day. Which is simply this: whatever the cause, Iraq apparently has a long history of violence. Given that all the reasons for ousting Saddam Hussein either a) turned out to be false or b) were obviated by the "coalition" coming along and committing its own atrocities in Iraq, killing tens of thousands, the Abu Gharib scandal and so on, we really need to be asking about the real motives beneath the excuses.

But I am holding the faith that in the next few days we will know a lot more than we did before, because the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation seems to be focusing on what was said in the buildup to the attack and invasion, who said it, and why.



Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005

I'LL ASSUME everyone reading has survived the lunar eclipse; but you may need to dust your hat off. I had this whole kind of normal typical extremely busy day of writing astrology planned for yesterday, and I was at the "almost finished" point of the Lemonade December horoscope (when you get as far as Cancer, you're "almost finished," according to Yasmin Boland), when I noticed what a beautiful day it was outside.

One of the Book of Blue models you've seen portrayed on the cover of Planet Waves a couple of times, Melissa, had expressed a highly enthusiastic desire to be photographed nude at Pere Lachaise Cemetery (where Jim Morrison, Samuel Hahnemann and a few other notable freaks are buried). I said I would call on the next nice day. So, it being true that there was beautiful weather in Paris Monday, I called her and next thing I knew, we were poking around a quiet corner of this huge graveyard, really, a mausoleum yard, right near the entrance and the guard house, but in this odd spot where nobody seemed to go and nobody famous was buried. I'll be sharing some of those photos, and others from the pleasantly creepy genre, once the Sun arrives in Scorpio.

This mission was part creativity and part my desire to make an impression on the cosmos, apropos of the eclipse, that I really like taking pictures; this, in keeping with my "talk to eclipses with actions, not just words" theory. The photo project continued on the Metro where, during rush hour, without any prompting at all, my devoted photographic subject spontaneously began to disrobe on various crowded rush hour trains (to wit, the #3, the #5 and the #10), much to the amazement and entertainment of bystanders, as I dutifully documented the experience.

In case anyone is wondering, such inclinations usually have nothing to do with sexual promiscuity (which is in itself an arbitrary term based purely on a moral judgment). If such exists, it's is another critter entirely. This is more like creative intensity and the urge for a different kind of expressive freedom than most people would dare to consider. It is only the repression of sex that makes nudity a powerful erotic statement, so in a way you cannot separate the two; but one is more in the symbolic realm, conveying an idea. As well, some people just like to push the edge for fun and, and as Melissa (who is from Italy, and studies music here in Paris) said yesterday, "People should be naked everywhere because everyone is already naked."

Meanwhile, speaking of the president, this must be a very tense week. The newspapers are reporting that nobody really knows what Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating potential crimes of the Bush administration, is going to do -- but he has until Oct. 28 to do it. And from what I am reading in the blogosphere, the press conference is going to be in the Dirty City, not in Chicago, where he is based. There may or may not be criminal prosecutions in the Valerie Plame spy outing scandal, which now points to the top political assistants of Bush and Cheney and this thing being called the Iraq Working Group, a committee in the White House which was devised to con the public and political community into thinking that Iraq was some kind of real threat (updates appearing at http://rawstory.com/ ).

Whether there are criminal prosecutions or not (and I have predicted that there will be, based on the chart for the Bush Administration II), we do need to relish this moment, wherein some of the most vicious war criminals of our times, men accustomed to absolute power, are contemplating what rather unpleasant fate may befall them, and hoping their evil enchantment will hold up. We can only hope that Frodo makes it with that magic Teflon ring to the Cracks of Doom in time.

Apparently the "conquer Iraq" ideology is a brainchild (if you can call it that) of the Cheney faction; the elder Bush, if you recall, chose to leave Saddam in power after the 1991 massacre to keep stability in the region -- there is an amazing quote from George H.W.'s book on this subject, and if anyone knows where to find it I'll post it here. I believe you can find it on Snopes.

One day in the spring when I was roaming North America, I paid a spontaneous visit to my old therapist and mentor Joe, in Woodstock. He told me he was reading the diaries of Marco Polo. Marco traveled far and wide and among the places he visited was Iraq...which at the time was called...Iraq...and the author/voyager comments (paraphrasing): "Unless these people have a very strong leader, they do terrible things to each other."

This is not true of everyplace. It is not, for example, true of England, where there is currently a very weak leader and people are still reasonably polite and queue up for the cashpoint without much happening. And it's not true of the United States, where most people still mind their own beeswax and go about getting through the day in relative calm even though there is absolutely no leadership at all except maybe for Oprah.

And France could function with no government at all. The people have it programmed into them very nicely, underneath which is a bubbling well of anarchy that comes out a couple of times a year and then goes back into lurking.



Monday, Oct. 17, 2005

The partial eclipse of the Moon in Aries is at 2:13 p.m. CED, or 8:13 am EDT. That means it's at 5:13 a.m. PDT and may be visible on the West Coast low in the western sky if you happen to be up and it happens to be clear. You will need to go to a high place, or a very flat one, because it will be low on the horizon. The eclipse will definitely be visible in Hawaii and according to Jonathan Cainer, Australia.

Here is one last eclipse chart, and I'll catch you on the other side of the aspect. BTW, I may have said this was a penumbral eclipse at some point in the recent past -- sorry! Checking my notes and Raphael's ephemeris, it's a partial eclipse; the lunar eclipse six months ago was penumbral.

http://planetwavesweekly.com/twdco99~/open/eclipselunarAR05_web.html



Inauguration Chart Set

AS PROMISED, the set of charts from the Jan. 20, inauguration of Bush and Cheney, is posted below. The story of the past five years in history is told as clearly in the astrology as it is anywhere else, and this is one of the more vivid moments in the process.

While I have your attention, I would like to request that you take 20 minutes out of your life and read a little about the Valerie Plame spy outing case that is, with any luck at all, about to come to a head in the next week or so.

Here's a snipped URL that will take you to a Google search of the issue on truthout.org: http://snipurl.com/ijzz

Note that most truthout stories are selected from the mainstream media, such as AP and the Washington Post, but are chosen on the basis of simple journalistic standards -- accuracy and balance, and then reposted to truthout to gain more exposure and create a kind of cosmic archive. Accuracy is not that hard of a standard to meet. Everything in a news article needs to be documented somehow, and as you start to assemble those documents, whether a news article is for the most part real or bullshit becomes fairly easy to spot.

The short version of the Plame story (also covered copiously on Political Waves, usually called Weaselgate) is this. In order to justify the massacre and invasion of Iraq, Bush lied to Congress and the American people and said that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons. When this claim -- long known, based on the government's own intelligence reports, to be false -- was debunked by a former American diplomat named Joseph Wilson, who had personal knowledge of the issue, people in the Bush administration retaliated by exposing the identity of Wilson's wife, Valarie Plame, who was at the time a CIA agent working in the Middle East against the prospect of terrorists getting such weapons. In doing so they threatened her life and the safety of the entire spy network with which she had been working for years.

Now, as a result of these lies, the U.S. seems to be intractably mired in a war that is killing and destroying the lives of many people, driving the U.S. deeper into debt by the minute, and diverting resources and attention away from many pressing problems in the U.S. and elsewhere that the whole world must face together.

Does anybody remember that the Republicans attempted to impeach Bill Clinton for saying he had not had sex with Monica Lewinsky? This was an issue with absolutely no bearing on the fate of the Earth except for the notion that the president ought to be an honest guy.

What is about to happen some time in the next week and a half is that a special prosecutor appointed to look into the matter, named Patrick Fitzgerald, will conclude his investigation, which has lasted two years and is scheduled end Oct. 28. Fitzgerald has the power to bring criminal charges against anyone involved in the situation, who include Bush's top political advisor, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, a guy named "Scooter" Libby, and a variety of journalists who cooperated in exposing the identity of a U.S. operative -- a serious federal offense.

Will these guys be prosecuted? Will they take the fall for Bush and Cheney? We will need to wait and see.

Here are the charts for the Jan. 20 inauguration of Bush, entered into the collective consciousness:

http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/inauguration/

And here is the chart showing the progressed Moon reaching an opposition to Mars on Oct. 30, a condition in the chart that will continue over the next four to five months as the Moon opposes Pluto early next year. Other versions are a few days down. Note Mercury exactly in the ascendant of this truly remarkable horoscope, just a shade into the 12th house -- a little echo of the Sept. 11, 2001 chart.

http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/inauguration_chart.html

As usual, my friends helped with the heavy lifting: Tracy cast the charts and Anatoly put the little Web site together. I just sat here and told you the story.

Please let me know what you see in these charts. We are all very curious.

    e



Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005

In reference to:

http://theunitedamerican.blogs.com/Movies/2000A/2000.html

hi eric-

i want to keep this brief, and off the top of my head. thanks for the link to the mind-fuck-of-a-video on "soldiers dead" or "souls lost."   i kept my eyeballs open real wide and let the people's faces blast over them, and i swear within seconds it started to feel like the people's soul were travelling through me, one coming in my head and passing right out the back as
another enters.  it was too much.  tears streamed.  I felt  pain and loss.  my son is crawling under my feet, i expend so much of my energy, suckling him to life, and then i see this loss, sacrafice...it kills me, i lose part of my life in giving life and it breaks my heart that the life is wasted.  i feel cheated then, slapped in the face, suked dry, used. bastards.

so thank you too for the channeler's message.  i'm feeling the gravity of the loss and confusion.
pakistan "decides" to end search and rescue.  what? did you see how big those children's eyes are? so big and brown, still looking for something, and the parent's are desperate cause they know it's a ALL a matter of time.  governments can never be no ones parents.  put that back in the hands of the people.

and thank you for printing on cainer the woman's buddah dream.  it made me recall the dream i had this week...looking into blackness and seeing a thin silver thread and someone told me "it's the piece that runs through all of us."  yea, i feel love and reilef looking at that.

thanks for the writing and sharing other people with me.  it really helps me feel connected to others, helps me know others care and love too.

peace.

K.



Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005

Dear Readers:

I have received a request from a channeler I consider credible:

Please ask the light workers, spirit workers, by whatever name, to please keep working with the souls that have been lost in the past few months. I was allowed a little glimpse of the Asian earthquake children lost souls in my dreams/journeys last night. The children don't know what has happened. Every thought, every hope, every bit of love sent counts tremendously.

Please pass this on to those you know who do lightwork.

Thank you.

    e



Friday, Oct. 14, 2005

       Good evening...

HERE'S A KEY to the week's writings, related to Monday's eclipse and other stuff. An essay on the eclipse has been published at http://Cainer.com as the introduction to Astrology Secrets Revealed. It's called, "Hello, Mr. Eclipse." This is the 71st edition of A.S.R., and it's a juicy one. The last entry is an overview of the astrological houses that I've been wanting to write for a long time, plus we've pulled together a sampling of views on the Aries Point, and a few other fun questions. The link to the CURRENT edition is always here (then it gets archived).

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/eric.html

We are in a truly astonishing, at times frightening, moment of world history. The eclipse chart is a kind of quantum view of our situation.

Today's column makes reference to an article on the secondary progressed Inauguration chart, the chart that goes pop...or rather, the chart that is now going pop...which will be appearing on Planet Waves later in the weekend -- it's still in proofreading and we have to make up the page. This is a preview of the November Planet Waves essay from Chronogram magazine, but it's relevant now because it's based on events that will be precipitated by the Aries eclipse. So look for that in a day or so.

Last, well, not exactly now that I look below this paragraph, I've just sent out the Friday edition to subscribers, which has a lead article a piece called "Water Words," on newly discovered planets named after planets with watery themes. Kirsti Melto and I have worked on this article for the past few weeks, and while there was much else to write about (politics, politics, politics), I spent the day yesterday on this article as a wholesome diversion from the madness of the world.

For those who are into charts, here are some for you.

Presidential Inauguration Charts - original chart, Jan. 20, 2005 - coming soon.

http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/lunar_eclipse.html 
 - Lunar Eclipse with Uranians. See bigger version in Astrology Secrets Revealed.
http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/lunar_eclipse_2.html
 - simpler version of the same chart.
http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/secondary_inauguration_chart.html
 - Progressed Inauguration chart with Uranians, set for the Moon-Mars opposition on Oct. 30.
http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/inauguration_chart.html
 - simpler version of the same chart.

Charts cast by Tracy in SolarFire 5 -- once you learn it, it rocks -- see http://alabe.com/ for more info. Stand by for two versions of the Jan. 20 chart -- I'll add them to this list. Studying astrology is fun, but it's not so very easy -- we try to put as much within easy reach as possible. Your brain still has to work just as hard. If you were here, we'd serve refreshments.

And for those of you who can't believe what an amazing Web page this is (we know! It's the result of a lot of love and about 200 hours a week of work!) PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PREMIUM SERVICE. You may be thinking, how could there be more?

But there is -- and it's not overwhelming. Each Friday, you receive the weekly essay (sometimes posted to the free side, sometimes not), as well as the Planet Waves Weekly Horoscope, as well as a bonus Monday horoscope some weeks, and the weekly Birthday Report (if you ask me, which you did not, the birthday report alone is worth the whole subscription fee).

Subscriptions also include the 2006 annual edition, Parallel Worlds. And your subscription sponsors the Astrology Secrets Revealed column on Cainer.com.

And -- they are money-back guaranteed...subscribers can send copies to their friends (go figure).. and...if you can't afford it, write to us and we'll sign you up for free. You can't go wrong! You have no excuses, unless you've never been on the Internet!

We are the Business of the Future...the CNN of the New Age...or just a really fun project that is in tune with the times. And hey we are really PLANET Waves. Aspects of this project are produced in California, Washington State, Florida, New York, England, France, Finland and the Ukraine.

Here is that link! Please click now because you'll be super happy you did!

http://planetwavesweekly.com/sales/home.html

I will now resume my chirping conversation with the cockatiel in the apartment downstairs. We are discussing raisins. Catch you later in the weekend.

    e



Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005

I was pleasantly answering emails listening to a super-mellow Grateful Dead song I woke up thinking about, called "Row Jimmy"...with its enigmatic lyrics, its slow, pulsating bass line and a dreamy, sweetly screaming Garcia steel guitar lead...

http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/row.html

...when an unmistakable Pink Floyd song called "One Of These Days" started playing in the background. I recognized this song from doing a lot of tripping to Pink Floyd as a kid. I think it's from the album Meddle. Weird. Where could this be coming from? Was there a ghost in the machine? I stopped iTunes and the song continued. I looked for an open account in OSX running in the background...none. I went and found the song in my iTunes library and it was not playing.

Then I remembered that a few minutes earlier I had clicked on this link, sent in by a reader:

http://theunitedamerican.blogs.com/Movies/2000A/2000.html

...which took some time to load, about half the length of a long Grateful Dead tune, and then just started. This is another one of those links to play at home (loudly), or at the office with your MP3 player's headphones -- depending on where you work, of course; you may want to invite the entire staff, or your students, or whoever. They make a very good point, powerfully. All those faces, all those lives.

Of course, you don't need 500 people to make the point, one makes it well enough, but there questions remains why we're so thick and recalcitrant to act.

We don't have time for a Vietnam-like scenario where it takes the public 15 years to figure out what's going on, then we decide it's finally time to speak up. Besides, we already know. And YOU are the public. So, cousin, I suggest you determine what you have to lose by making a commitment and take a moment to decide if it's really worth keeping.

I'll see you later tonight on Cainer.com with a look at the eclipse chart from Monday.

Onamove,

    e



Political Waves

This article from the Sunday Times of London is an amazing read. It went out over Political Waves yesterday. Estimated reading time is about 15 minutes -- get comfy. It is stunning. You're about to meet the Sinead O'Connor of journalism.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2766-1817008,00.html

    e



Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2005

I made a mistake in time of the Pakistani quake chart, apparently casting the astrology of one of the aftershocks rather than the initial quake. The rather interesting 'incorrect' chart is posted several days below. Here is a URL to the corrected chart:

http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/pakistani_corr.html

After a long night of moving the Planet Waves servers (beware that Planet Waves mail addresses may not be working for some hours), I'm about to head over to Place de la Contrescarpe, my writing haunt, and work out the Astrology Secrets Revealed column for today. I will go over this revised chart for the quake, as well as the penumbral lunar eclipse next week; and we've selected a few questions as well.

I suggest you look at the above chart in comparison to the Sept. 11 chart, which is published at this link. There are some chilling connections.

http://planetwaves.net/astrology/september_11th_2001.html

I agree with Will Pitt of truthout.org that we need to get over 9/11. However, I also think we need to keep a close eye on the astrology, because better than anything else I've seen, it explains just what has happened in the United States (and far beyond) during the past five years. Here is another interpretation of the Sept. 11 chart:

http://planetwavesweekly.com/book/chapter17.html

Catch you soon. For subscribers and clients emailing, I believe that Chelsea's email is indeed up and running at this point, and most of mine appear to be as well. If in doubt and trying to reach me, please use the BookofBlue address listed in the photo gallery.

Also, if you volunteered for the chart casting project and have not heard from me, please drop me another note. I thought I got back to everyone by now. Thanks for that.

    e



Acutung! Beauty and Truth Fans...

I took a few odd turns exploring an ancient Planet Waves site that has surfaced from the foggy corridors of the Internet, and wound up on the page linked below. It's an old interview with Rob Brezsny. Definitely a trip down memory lane. The article says that at the time, he was writing his column for 18 years, and I think it was published about 10 years ago (but it is undated). I am going to guess that he began Real Astrology (as it was then called) when Saturn was in Leo. I have written to him in his kitchen and asked; let's see if the Magus reveals his secret. [He just responded YES, Saturn was in late Leo the day his first astrology column was published.]

This is a snipped URL that will take you to a page on the Archive Project, a site you do need to know about. It saves every old Web page it can find, or managed to find at the time. The links don't always work...but usually they do. However, the graphics usually don't work.

http://snipurl.com/ieee

For those people unfamiliar with the subtleties or not so subtleties of American culture, after reading this article there is no doubt in my mind that Free Will Astrology is a creature of California. This is documented in history, of course. If you want to understand California, read this article; and then for the other side of the story, read a book on Richard Nixon. California is a very, very strange place. It produces the Grateful Dead and old Dick Nixon and Free Will Astrology.

I also found this, my first widely-published piece of astrology writing, Astrology as the Art of
Bullshit (written in response to Brad Blanton of http://RadicalHonesty.com telling me that "astrology is bullshit"). However, despite this, I have endorsed Brad in his bid for Congress. More on that another time. Congress really does need a therapist. The Art of Bullshit appeared as a link on the front page of Rob's site for something like 18 months -- gutsy.

http://snipurl.com/ieem

    e



Entertainment update while writing Nov-Dec horoscopes...

We hope you enjoy this highly inappropriate Multimedia Presentation, courtesy of our civil rights attorney in residence, Steve Bergstein. There is music, so plug in your earphones if your boss lacks a sense of humor.

http://filmstripinternational.com/index.php?play=asshole



Mayan Astrology Report by Carol
http://www.galacticalchemy.com/Journal-Chuen-October102005.htm





Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005

Columbus Day is in the neighborhood, celebrating the guy who "discovered America." In Quaker summer camp, we had a song that touched on the theme. It was a Peter, Paul & Mary song.

In 1492, just to see what he could see
Columbus, an Italian, set out across the sea
He said "Isabella baby, the world is round
And the USA's just a-waitin' to be found."

It was actually from a song called Mr. Bilbo (no relation to Baggins, actually, Bilbo is substituted for Mr. Bigot). The chorus went,

Listen Mr. Bilbo, listen to me, I'll give you a lesson in history
Listen while I tell that the foreigners you hate
Are the very same people made America great.

However, admirable as its message is, this song overlooks some important facts.

The American experiment began around the 15th century with the explorers, pioneers and settlers killing a lot of natives of the American continent. Over time, very nearly every last one. With the them were killed the buffalo herds with which the Indians had survived symbiotically for eons; and the forests were cleared systematically. The mass murder of Native Americans went on and on, from explorer to explorer, into the colonies, and became the official policy of the United States government, which waged an official war against the Native Americans for many, many decades. And the buffalo bones were piled high as small mountains, to ensure they would not return.

I have never seen a memorial to the population that the Americans wiped out to make their country. I have seen little historical markers, but not anything on the order of the Buchelwald Memorial that I once visited, where (among many other concentration camp memorials) Germany acknowledges that one of its former chancellors attempted to wipe out all the Jews, intellectuals, liberals, Sinty and Romany people (Gypsies), homosexuals, and just about everyone but 'pure' Germans.

Germany lives with its legacy consciously, and in my experience of living there, feels it as a great burden. The United States does not live consciously with any such burden, and it needs to, because otherwise the genocide on which our country was founded will reside in the shadows and come out in the ongoing campaigns of aggression and murder that we now witness constantly, and in our country's evermore ruthless policies against its own citizens.

The history of the New World continued with the colonies importing millions of Africans, who became entangled in a very curious form of chattel slavery. In most (not all) societies, the slaves were/are not actually owned by the master; they are part of the land or the factory and indentured by the fact that they need to survive off of that same land (or factory); usually this is quite enough. The landholder owns the land, the slaves come with. In American-styled slavery, the slaves were actual physical property, like a wheelbarrow, and thought of as such.

We don't think of slavery as being particularly recently. But my friend Mary Ellen on Vashon Island has a very old father who remembers, when he was little, a freed slave living in his house as part of his family. So slavery still within living memory. But we do not, in this country, discuss the issue to any real extent, certainly not once someone is out of school, and I don't know what is taught in school. I am sure it varies wildly.

What we do not recognize is that the percentage of the African American male population who is in prison is a direct extension of the American slavery system -- that, along with many other forms of institutionalized racism. But the prisons are the real abomination; and most of them are factories of some kind, where people are paid a dollar a day.

According to the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice, I can tell you the following. Here is the reference link. http://www.cjcj.org/pubs/punishing/punishing.html

3. The Race to Incarcerate [10]

As has been well documented by Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Washington, DC-based Sentencing Project, America's incarceration policies have disproportionately impacted minorities, particularly African Americans. In 1997, even though African Americans made up only 13% of the population, half of the 1.2 million state and federal prisoners were African American (548,900). [11] African Americans are imprisoned at 6.6 times the rate of whites (3,253 vs. 491 per 100,000). The nation's imprisonment policies have had their greatest impact among young black men, resulting in alarming rates of incarceration and disenfranchisement:

    • One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 were under some form of criminal justice control (in prison, jail, parole or probation) in 1995. [12] Other studies have shown that half the young men in Washington, DC, and more than half of the young men in Baltimore are under criminal justice control; [13]

    • A black male born in 1991 stood a 29% chance of being imprisoned at some point in his life, compared to 4 percent for a white male born that year; [14]

    • 1.4 million African American men, or 13 percent of the black adult male population, have lost the right to vote due to their involvement in the criminal justice system. In the states with the most restrictive voting laws, 40 percent of African American men are likely to be permanently disenfranchised. [15]

[footnotes in the original]

Wikipedia on Slavery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

Wikipedia on Columbus Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day

Wikipedia on Columbus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus



Monday, Oct. 10. 2005

CHART: http://www.planetwaves.net/charts/pakistani.html

I THINK IT'S REASONABLE to ask what's happening...during the past 48 hours we've been presented yet another situation involving mass death and destruction, this time in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. For reference, events like this used to happen every few years, not five or more times in a single year. Meanwhile, Central America and Mexico continue to experience massive flooding and are living in the aftermath of earthslides brought on by torrential rain from a third major hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico region, Stan.

The chart for Saturday's quake reveals the image of a global event. The chart's focus is a combination of Sagittarius, Pisces and Libra.

The Sagittarius MC (10th house cusp, the 'top of the chart'), is half a degree from the Great Attractor at 13+ degrees Sagittarius; the Moon is a quarter of a degree from the Great Attractor, at 15 degrees Sagittarius and 14 arc minutes. (Explanation of the GA is below.)

Pluto is close by, at just over 22 degrees. The Galactic Core is involved, at 27 degrees. The but the prominence of the Great Attractor (the most massive object known, in this chart located one degree from the MC and the Moon, is the obvious trigger in the chart), which has made itself known in other major quakes, is something to make note of, because (as we are seeing and feeling) the impact spreads far wider than it ordinarily might. This is the signature of the Great Attractor.

So, too, is a split or division of some kind. It can divide opinion, perspective, reaction, response.

Pisces is the sign rising (2+ degrees), with Uranus in Pisces close behind. This Pisces/Uranus imagery, with Neptune occupying the 12th house, looks to me like astrology apropos of the flooding in Central American and Mexico as well.

Libra continues to be prominent in all charts now, in part based on the presence of the South Node, Sun, Jupiter and Mercury close to or in the 8th house (death, power, money, secrets). Mercury, for the quake, was in the last degree of Libra (the exact degree it occupied during the night of the 2000 stolen election). The Sun in Libra was within a degree of the ascendant of the Sept. 11, 2001 chart -- a degree that keeps showing up again and again, continuing to establish that the 9/11 chart is a world horoscope.

Remember that we had an eclipse in Libra just one week ago, on the Aries Point -- the latest in a long series of Aries Point events that make the news personal. We are in the inter-eclipse zone, with an Aries eclipse of the Moon happening in one week from now; this will continue to accelerate the news and involve the wider public, outside the local area of the event, to the greatest degree possible.

But it's the prominence of Sagittarius, particularly the MC angle, the Moon, the Great Attractor, Pluto, and the nearby Galactic Core, that says think big picture; think globally. And the prominence of Sagittarius offers the potential for some hope and for a spiritual perspective.

Consider that former enemies are now needing to cooperate (India and Pakistan) and the United States is in a position to help a country with which it is at war (Afghanistan). The quake ignored the existence of the border. It is centered on Kashmir, which has recently been a territory so hotly contested that we have recently risked nuclear war between the two countries. It was only a few years ago that massive armies were piled up on the borders.

But then there is doing something with this information on a personal level. How is that really possible, in our small lives, which are increasingly dominated by economic concerns? Herein lies the real crisis, the one that determines our ability to actually respond. It seems like the natural response to what is happening is fear, and possibly wondering when your community is going to be next. Fear is a reaction that includes pulling in, cutting off communication with the people close to you, shutting out the world and its events, or acting in alienating ways.

Fear is the response that says don't participate in the world. Remember, any reason will do -- any reason at all.

While the quake and earthslides are not happening in your community, many people are tuned in through media imagery, as well as on the subtle levels; and we have to respond in some way. We know or at least suspect that this is all part of a much larger problem; a much wider situation, and that is potentially quite scary. But right now one issue is overload. Event by event, we are watching the world as it is turned into an evacuation project. But there is nowhere to evacuate to, and for the moment, there is nowhere to actually process our experiences of these crushing events; to say how we feel, and be heard; to have a sense that we are in this together. Processing (or not processing) such massive world events individually, alone, is not going to work -- particularly when their purpose seems to be bringing us together.

But this same state of potential can be used by dark powers to cultivate and exploit a lot of fear, which is another issue that happens to be present now. Fear does nothing but divide people who might otherwise have the same interests. As the world seems to descend into chaos and eternal darkness, we in the United States, the UK and Australia are still being told that the answer is to kill more people, and that the solution is "complete victory."

We will know we have sane leaders in power when someone says, hey, the world is in trouble -- let's move our resources away from making war and into taking care of the planet and it's people. But I want to ask you a real question: why isn't that happening?

I'll have the chart posted as soon as possible. Please check the top of the blog for the link.

    e

More on the Great Attractor:
http://www.ericfrancis.com/sagittarius/sagittarius10.html



New Orleans Survivor Stories
http://citypages.com/databank/26/1294/article13694.asp





Saturday, August 8, 2005 -- oops, it's October.

Reading the Sidney Blumenthal article on the economics of Republicanism (see Political Waves article above, a "plan...a plan..."), I was reminded of a story about my old high school classmate Adam R. Kidan, the first Neocon I ever knew, who has been indicted for fraud along with a bunch of Tom DeLay pals. I told my Adam Kidan story in this blog back in August, after seeing his face on the cover of truthout.org -- if curious, go to the link below, and scroll all the way down to August. 15.

    http://planetwaves.info/blogarch050920.html

I'll classify my story as "humor" in order to avoid categorizing it as geopolitics, from which I have retired. The theme is, "Where does it all begin??" Everything does have a beginning; there was even a first time someone put salt on an egg. But it was before you were born.

When I knew Adam Kidan, he had a job pumping gas. He was about 17. This was back in the days before self-service (which is still illegal in New Jersey -- but I don't think he went to Jersey for work, we lived in Marine Park in Brooklyn). If our elder readers do recall, you would pull up at the gas pump and give the guy a $10 bill and say "$10 please," (or even a $5 bill for $5 worth) and they would pump it for you. When they were done, you would drive off. No paperwork generated; not everything was purchased with a credit card, and not everyone had a "gas card." Petrol was, for the most part, a cash business.

Adam came up with a cool little scam, which he told me about proudly. Instead of giving each customer their full $10 worth, he would only pump $9.90 or something like that. Nobody would notice; nobody was looking. He was friendly, and your gas gauge read the right amount, which is of course approximate. At the end of the night, after filling up 100 or 200 cars, he would have enough left over for a free tank of gas for his own car.

We can see that at the roots of Adam's situation are the virtues of equanimity, fairness, and spreading the burden equally over the public. Unfortunately, we've come a long way from there; and it will be a long way back. But we have begun.

I wonder though. We are at the same time we're facing an increase in fuel costs, seeing that mass transit is the focus of terrorist attacks and government warnings. I don't mean to insinuate a conspiracy, as I am not a conspiracy theorist, merely an observer; but mass transit has been the enemy of the oil business since the first days. Those days when Firestone replaced light rail and Ford replaced trolley cars and Esso filing stations replaced suburban train stations.

Googling Adam Kidan, I came up with this treasure: http://snipurl.com/i96z

Here is a really great quote: << Kidan told the Miami Herald that the payments had no connection to the Boulis murder. “If I’m going to pay to have Gus killed, am I going to be writing checks to the killers?” Kidan asked. “I don’t think so. Why would I leave a paper trail?” >>

Great question.



"Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience must be taken very seriously, and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply. Defeating a militant network is difficult because it thrives like a parasite on the suffering and frustration of others. The radicals exploit local conflicts to build a culture of victimization in which someone else is always to blame and violence is always the solution."

-- George W. Bush, Oct. 6, 2005





Political Waves: New York Times editorial from today

President Bush's Major Speech:
Doing the 9/11 Time Warp Again

 Yesterday, the same day New Yorkers were warned there was a "specific threat" of a bombing on their subways, President Bush delivered what the White House promoted as a major address on terrorism. It seemed, on the surface, like a perfect topic for the moment. But his talk was not about the nation's current challenges. He delivered a reprise of his Sept. 11 rhetoric that suggested an avoidance of today's reality that seemed downright frightening.

 The period right after 9/11, for all its pain, was the high point of the Bush presidency. Four years ago, we hung on every word when Mr. Bush denounced Al Qaeda and made the emotional - but, as it turned out, empty - vow to track down Osama bin Laden. Yesterday, it seemed as if the president was still trying to live in 2001. It was eerie to hear him urge Americans to take terrorism seriously. There wasn't any reason to worry about that even before subway riders were being told about the threat of a terrorist attack on their commute home.

 He seemed to be reading from a very old and familiar script as he revealed that terrorists recruit "disillusioned young men and women," some of whom build weapons based on information available on the Internet. He shared his conviction that "it is cowardice that seeks to kill children and the elderly with car bombs." He said his team was "reforming our intelligence agency" and reorganizing government for "a broad and coordinated homeland defense."

 Americans have seen the Department of Homeland Security in action for several years now, under two directors. The first, a former governor with whom the president had a good personal relationship, was an inept bureaucratic and political player who had a strange obsession with color-coded states of emergency. The current one was at the helm during the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster in New Orleans, when that agency was overseen by an unqualified political appointee.

The administration is still trying to recover politically from Katrina. The hurricane was not just a bad stretch that could be cured by a promise of federal aid and a demonstration of presidential concern. The hurricane showed that despite four years of spinning, America is still unprepared for a catastrophe. It raised major questions about the caliber of people with whom Mr. Bush surrounds himself.

 Ever since the terrorist attacks, the main thing Americans have wanted from Washington is a sense of safety. That takes more than hyperalertness to suicide bombing threats, important as that is. No matter what the terrorists are up to, it is not possible to feel safe if the federal government does not appear to know what it is doing on so many different levels.

 Yesterday was an ideal moment for Mr. Bush to demonstrate that he was really in control of his administration. He could have taken any one of a number of pressing worries and demonstrated that he was on the job, re-examining the problems, working on answers. For instance, he could have addressed the crisis facing the overstretched military due to the endless demands made by Iraq on both the Army and the beleaguered National Guard.

 The speech came one day after the White House threatened to veto a bill onto which the Senate added a ban on the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against prisoners of the American government. This president could not find the spine to veto a bloated transportation bill that included wildly wasteful projects like the now-famous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska. What kind of priorities does that suggest? If we ever needed the president to demonstrate that he has a working understanding of exactly where he wants to take this country, we need it now.

 The president's inability to grow beyond his big moment in 2001 is unnerving. But the fact that his handlers continue to encourage him to milk 9/11 is infuriating. For most of us, the memories are fresh and painful. We mourn the people who died on Sept. 11, as we mourn Daniel Pearl and other Americans, not to mention innocents from other countries, who were murdered by terrorists. The administration's penchant for using them as political cover is offensive. It threatens to turn our wounds, and our current fears, into cynical and desperate spin.



Thursday night...

Note to my friends, I am safely back in Paris.

There are times when this city really gets on my nerves -- it's so dang serious here, most of the time -- but it's always good to come back. Paris has a cocooned feeling...it's gradually become one of the most familiar places I've ever lived...and it's very, very old. As a native New Yorker, I keep thinking I'm having the feeling of what it's like to be a transplant gradually getting accustomed to Manhattan.

It was an interesting trip, to Barcelona and then Valencia...nothing like my vaguest, fuzziest expectations...definitely a "busy break" and not a vacation...and the main thing I discovered in Spain is that I speak French. I also got quite a bit of work done on the 2006 annual edition of Planet Waves -- Parallel Worlds. The picture is coming into focus, for both the annual horoscope and the articles for the associated Web page.

I would like to hear from you on your reactions to the "president's" speech today. Did you see it? Did anyone read the transcript, and if you have any favorite quotes, would you please share them? I'll tell you -- it really got me thinking about our society's priorities.

Why should anyone profit from higher gasoline prices? I just saw on CNN that Sam's Club is cashing in, because they sell petrol. Am I missing something, or is this just market capitalism? This was followed by an ad for a cellular service provider in Iraq -- "free Iraq," as the ad said. That was really weird.

Here is the transcript of Señor's presentation. And now I see that there has been massive flash flooding and mudslides in El Salvador and Guatemala from yet another hurricane -- places that have certainly suffered enough. I am watching video of the places collapsing. People escaping with their dogs and livestock. This world.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/06/bush.transcript/

    e
    



Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005

Okay everyone get out your Red, White and Blue jersey for the acting president's speech. I have been marveling at the irony of how he announces that he plans to use the Army for the flu (not, for example doctors; he really is out of touch, or he thinks that guns heal people), and then in the wake of the hurricane disasters, and many economic problems, he's going to make a speech on...Iraq? But it's called terrorism?

They are STILL telling the lie that the people fighting what is called an insurgency in an occupied country, really a civil war at this point, are the ones who knocked down the World Trade Center four years. This is obscene, and an insult.

They are telling it by calling everyone "terrorists" and by merging the issues, all of which is a smoke and mirror screen for what incompetent, greedy fools they are. But hey I thought I retired from geopolitics blog two weeks ago. Still, it's worth noting that terrorist is just a doublespeak buzzword for "Muslim." I want a presidential speech on Halliburton! I would like to see the Carlyle Group balance sheet based on their military-tech investments.

Based on yesterday's astrology, I predicted "one of a kind world news." Hmmm, does announcing a plan for martial law count? Today, the Sun is going over the South Node, the kind of crescendo of a very interesting astrological week -- eclipse >> Mercury occultation >> Mercury+Jupiter >> Sun South Node. This will definitely be interesting, as the White House spin team desperately tries to keep control of their fishtailing plan for autocracy through fear and chaos as the Sun goes over the release point, and where the echoes of the past are the most audible.

But keep your eye on the fog machine. Remember, if something makes you feel fear (not insight, not the desire for action, just plain raw fear) it was probably designed to do precisely that.

We are the people of the Internet...netizens...we have access to real information. The ones who keep clicking to find out more, to pull away the veil. Please, keep clicking...

    e



Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005

I know a lot of PW readers are not the "Watch the President's Speech" types, being too sensitive in the stomach or repelled by reptillian energy. However, this one is probably going to be worth it, given the timing, i.e., based on what's going on. Here, from CNN.com:

Bush plans 'major speech' on Iraq, terrorism
Democrats say they want to hear more than 'stay the course'

[um...but Repubs just want to hear more 'stay the course'?]

Thursday, October 6, 2005 Posted: 0239 GMT (1039 HKT) Programming Note: Watch President Bush's speech on U.S. efforts against terrorism, Thursday at 10 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush will deliver a "major speech" speech Thursday on the progress of the war in Iraq and the broader conflict against terrorism, the White House said Wednesday.

Bush will deliver his remarks at 10:10 a.m. at a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington.

Bush met with top military advisers Wednesday at the White House, telling reporters afterward that U.S. and Iraqi troops are on the offensive against insurgents who want to disrupt Iraq's October 15 vote on a new constitution.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/05/bush.iraq/index.html



On Bird Flu -- by Jude from Political Waves, Oct. 5, 2005

I WAS HOPING TO AVOID IT -- but, the news is abuzz with Bird Flu stuff, it's all over CNN which is going to increase the amount of personal paranoia [and likely worries about the governments ability to deal with it.] The Dub has proposed his "military solution" -- seems like that's his favorite for just about everything. The topic's real ... The timing's suspect. We've known about this for a long time -- why now? A Nice Big Puff of Scary Smoke to blow over the top of a failing government, imploding and at war with itself?

My great-grandmother died in the 1918 Influenza Epidemic. It's ugly family lore -- the stories and magnitude of this epidemic make the  horrors of  New Orleans seem like a little local problem. The thing we always forget about these events is the psychological toll -- my g-grama's passing left two little kids and a grieving husband to watch  their loved one carted away [heaven knows where, at least for awhile]  while displaced from a home they were forbidden to enter for weeks; a  heartbroken man who never entirely recovered and two kids who's lives were shaken and tumbled and shaped ... who passed on their fears, anger and dysfunction. It's the same emotional wounding and PTSD, I'd think, that we see emerging on the Gulf Coast, and internationally from the Gulf War.  What happened then shaped our world today, and not forgetting the loss of 20-40 million people.

OK -- so this scares us spitless. And, CNN is blaring it -- rather than calm the public with a "plan," Bush is suggesting a takeover -- and those of us who haven't given this any thought are all mouth-breathing. Disaster Consciousness. End Times Rhetoric. Wurra-wurra-wurra!

Because this has been of interest to me, I've collected info on earlier  pandemics -- like plague, etc. It's interesting who lived and who  didn't -- and there's a lot of information out there. The first piece  below is a snip suggesting some evidence that there are natural protections and possibilities at your fingertips. The next piece was sent by Eileen, who uses Olive Leaf Extract and is a big fan. If, as she suggests, you google this, you get 404,000 hits; plenty of interest, there. As a savvy group, you may have suggestions as well -- pass them on, and I'll share them.

Hysteria and paranoia are useless, under these circumstances -- we already have vulnerabilities with our immune systems in this nation, due to food production, water, chemicals, and let's not forget stress. Let's work together to collect some information ... and let's make sure our representatives understand that public health and international coordinator is of the HIGHEST priority. Oh, and ... just to sweeten the pot -- there's an unidentified virus in Canada taking the lives of old folks [and at least one caregiver], and working people's nerves [bottom].

(Articles here)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Political_Waves/message/4208

-- Jude



Context is Everything

This has just appeared on the cover of http://CNN.com -- click quickly, the picture is priceless.

A call by U.S. President George W. Bush for Congress to give him the power to use the military in law enforcement roles in the event of a bird flu pandemic has been criticized as being akin to introducing martial law.

--

"One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move," Bush said yesterday. "So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have."

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 bans the military from participating in police-type activity on U.S. soil.

FULL STORY:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/05/bush.reax/index.html

So here is my question. If I had said this was a plan for martial law, would you have thought I was being paranoid? Because that's what I've been thinking all day. It's nice that somebody in the mainstream media has noticed what should be obvious to everyone.

Using the military to keep people in place if there's a flu outbreak? By this particular president? Considering how easy it is to make a flu outbreak? The problem is -- many things just as weird have happened and next to nobody has said boo. This certainly reveals something of what's on the Dub's mind. He has said that fascism is easier; that quote is in the record. But as James Madison and others have warned, such a way of governance is rarely just announced one day. It is created in slow degrees that nobody much objects to.

But let's remember that this kind of crap is a smoke screen for the immense trouble that is brewing in the White House now. And let's remember that his making these kinds of announcements creates and reinforces the thought forms that make things real.

As for the real agenda...

Please meditate on the photo above (and have a look at the associated article from truthout.org from Editor & Publisher, link contained in the photo caption). Do these people look upset? This is potentially the very meeting in which they read the warning from the CIA that Bin Laden was about to strike. At least it is the very day of that warning.

In the end, the Bush administration is going to come down to a Constitutional crisis. These scoundrels are not going to give up power; there will be a struggle. We need to expect them to use their power to keep their power, unless aware people intervene.

We had better figure out a way to get Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress in 2006.

But with rigged elections so easy to pull off -- Google "Wade O'Dell" -- well now. I have not heard too many objections to that. Maybe we can object now. How about it? Or Google Paul Krugman's "Hack the Vote" series for more information.

This is also a good time to pray for Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor who has the Valerie Plame spy-outing case on his desk. It's a good time to pray for people to figure out what Halliburton is. Or maybe we can recruit Monica Lewinsky...

    e



Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005

Subscribers, please see meaningful note below this post!

OUR LONGTIME READER Tyson Nuss has sent in a link to an article he wrote reinterpreting Libra. Great photos of the tightrope walker crossing between the towers of the World Trade Center, too.

http://htdoctor.com/libra.shtml

Speaking of, did you hear the story about the new Muslim FDNY chaplain who was quitted this week because he mentioned that a diesel fuel fire alone cannot bring down a steel frame building? He was referencing the "controlled demolition" theory of where went the World Trade Center. I believe a piece appeared on Political Waves (link above) this week. This is a very interesting issue that I was honestly reluctant to consider until my buddy Chris had me out for drinks one night in New York City last year and said look man, it's not possible for a fire to take down a building like that. I did not understand the engineering; he did; maybe it's simple -- the melting point of steel is too high for a diesel fire to melt the building, or even seriously damage the frame. This is a matter of science, not politics; but apparently it is really a matter of political science.

I do know the building was designed to withstand a 707 hit -- a commercial airliner on the scale of a 757.

Also, did anyone hear the bit about Herr Bush saying he wants to use the military to enforce quarantines if Bird Flu gets out of hand? Using the armed forces on the American public is one of the things that the Founding Fathers railed against, and banned. But hey, Condi Rice is going abroad again to peddle the virtues of "democracy." War is peace, cousins.

The astrology in Libra continues to be as interesting as it's ever been. Today in Libra we have the exact conjunction of Mercury and Jupiter, planets that bring together the Gemini-Sagg axis as well as the Virgo-Pisces axis. Let's see -- your letters have been interesting, please keep them coming.

    Pax, bonum --

    e

    (From my beachside office in Valencia, Spain)



Important Notice to Subscribers...

Pax at bonum,

You will need to add the domain "PlanetWaves.org" to your list of approved email addresses. If you want to add a specific address, the one to add is horoscopes@planetwaves.org, which is the new address from which horoscopes will be sent. Remember, please tell your spam trap or mail sorting gadget that stuff from this domain and address is not junk mail. This change will be effective SOON.

Thank you!

    eric francis



Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005

Here are links to two additional horoscopes in the 'eclipse' series from Cainer.com.

Monday...
http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/cainer/PW051003.html

and Tuesday...
http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/cainer/PW051004.html

Also, today is St Francis Day, the festival day of St Francis of Assisi. There is a tradition of inviting animals into church...it's a lot of fun, a fine gesture, and one of those things that guarantees a newspaper a good feature article with very little work...here's an article today from Canada...

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2005/10/03/1245822-sun.html

And here is a bit more.

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Francis/default.asp

Needless to say, I relate to this guy in many ways. Thanks for my name, Dad!

Pax et bonum,

    -- Eric Francis
       Brother Moon



Okay here is what it looked like...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4304268.stm

Thanks Mandy for the BBC link...



Staring at the Sun, part v : Personal Account

Hi Eric,
 
The eclipse exactly 0d00m semi-square my Mercury right now may indicate some sort of communication so I suppose it’s relevant that I tell you of my experience being partially but permanently blinded by the sun….
 
I wasn’t into astrology at the time so I unfortunately don’t have exact date for this but I think it was some time in the summer of 2002 -  the year when Pluto went over my 8th house sun for the final two times.
 
This was a time in my life when I was taking a lot of psychedelics mainly ecstasy, weed, LSA [a relatively weak hallucinogen] and 2CB. My drug use was mainly between 2000 and 2003 peaking in 2002.  I took them for their mind expanding, self exploration, entheogenic properties or maybe it was escapism – I don’t know.  I used to take them alone in my room and although I wouldn’t exactly say that I could handle the drugs well and always direct the trips into a positive direction, I enjoyed taking them and tripping, just learning how weird these things really are. I remember while tripping once and having the usual moments of clarity that I thought ‘I wish I had something to remember this’ (the weird but amazing mind state that seemed to be much forgotten after the drugs wore off).  Well they say that you should be careful what you wish for.
 
I took some psychedelics one night – maybe ecstasy on its own – maybe combined with another psychedelic, I’m not sure.  Morning came and the sun came up – something which I always enjoy seeing after being awake all night.  I decided to make the most of this by driving 10 minutes to the hills.  This maybe isn’t the best idea while under the influence but I didn’t believe that it was possible to crash a car while tripping.  I arrived in the car park of a place called Teggs Nose in the UK and proceeded to play some music in my car.  At this time in my life, I listened to music convinced that there were hidden messages or that the songs were singing directly to me.  I suppose this was midway through my experiences of what a doctor would call insanity.  Strange times indeed.  Anyway I put on a CD of Robbie Williams because I thought he was a good source of enlightening messages.  One of the songs on the album has a line about the sun.  I remember it was a point in the song where it said something about the sun followed by an instrumental which lasts for about 30 seconds. At that point I looked at the sun and it looked the most beautiful I’d ever seen it.  It wasn’t cloudy which is unusual for where I live and for some reason it wasn’t in any way uncomfortable to stare directly at.  I let myself slouch on my car seat back further and further while staring at the sun. I felt an amazing feeling of energy through my body and I said to the sun ‘I give myself to you’.  I continued to stare at it for about 30 seconds while feeling the amazing feeling in my body.
 
When I looked away and at other point on the sky I noticed a blackish dot in my vision slightly bigger than the sun had looked.  I thought ‘nooo surely I’ve not just wrecked my eyes!’ but sure enough wherever I looked I saw the same dot. My reality had been altered forever.  Then I looked at the image in front of me and I thought ‘now it looks like this - maybe I can change it’.  I did something and the whole sky turned red – very ominous.  I thought ‘oh shit what the fuck have I done’.  Snip 12 months of craziness which had a very fated feel to it then I tried to get on with a normal life.
 
I learnt how not to let the fuzziness get in the way.  I can still read and most of the time now I don’t notice it.  However if I think about it then I see it again (like now).  It was black only at first.  Now it looks fuzzy but psychedelic – a sort of constantly moving swirly, colourful bit in the centre of my vision. It’s slightly made up of whatever is around the centre of my vision a bit like someone’s blind spot but because it’s on both my eyes I can’t visually fill in the blanks like a blind-spot.  Feeling my body and being centred helps me to see more fully.  It definitely didn’t make my life easier – it gives my life a sort of permanent psychedelic touch.  It was difficult to deal with but I’m glad it happened because I think it forced me to become more spiritually aware.  It changed my life and gave me the choice to either get more spiritual or to suffer.
 
I once searched google for a reference to being blinded by the sun.  Apparently only some people are susceptible to it.  Some can look at the sun for extended periods and be fine while other people’s sight can be affected.  I think I also read that it had been used in ceremonies by some tribes.  There’s an article on erowid supposedly debunking the myth that staring at the sun permanently affects eyesight

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_myth6.shtml

...however I’ve never met or heard of anyone else who has experienced this.
 
I wouldn’t encourage or discourage someone from staring directly at the sun but it can permanently affect you. I’ve pretty much accepted it now and I just consider it a part of my spiritual journey – surely it wouldn’t have felt so good if it was doing harm?

Thanks for listening.  I’m also glad I’ve got the chance to thank you for Planet Waves. Your writing is truly amazing. Thanks greatly.
 
Respect and peace,
 
Lee.



On Staring into the Sun, iii & iv

Actually there were a number of Londoners who permanently damaged their eyesight during the total eclipse a few years back (1999?). Their stories were in the Evening Standard. One of them had watched the sun for less than 30 seconds and lost half the vision in one eye. Basically, the lens is like a magnifying glass which focuses beams on to one point... the fovea, the most sensitive area. What usually happens is that the eyes' ability to discern colour is damaged first as the 'rods and cones' of the eye wall are affected. Prolonged exposure - if you can bear it - will lead to permanent blindness.

-- Dave Nick

Hello Eric,

I was interested in your article about looking at the Sun.....Actually, I stared at the sun every day from age 8  for a period of about 6 months until I got bored with it..... I  stared until I couldn't bear the pain anymore..... I was able to stare twice as .long after 2 or 3 months...... Today at 72, I am the only person in my circle of friends. ... most of whom are in their 40's and 50's who does not wear glasses and can read small print  as well as drive .... even in full Riviera sun!..... I believe that by wearing glasses (sun or otherwise) we weaken our eyes and  deprive the pineal gland of very important light!!  In my town there are several shops selling glasses.... let's face it!! to persuade someone that they they can't see without glasses is very profitable!!!.... same for a lot of other things too.... when is everyone going to wake up to the 'great conspiracy'??? !!!  Thanks for a fine astrology service...

-- Jil



On Staring into the Sun, ii

WELL, I CAN REPORT first hand that an annular eclipse is not the most exciting phenomenon in nature I have recently encountered; the beagle puppy I made out with the other day left more of a conscious impression. But hey, the sky was clear, and I showed up.

Basically, the Sun felt like it was wearing sunglasses. It did not get dark; it got slightly dim and noticeably cool.

If you were Magellan, this was not the eclipse to use to scare the natives into surrendering their territory and women, so I am glad I did not try to pull that trick as a return gesture to Spain. (However, I have a backup plan for later.) But in case you're wondering, we don't need to worry about this eclipse not having an astrological influence. In the right spot, a simple ordinary old fashioned New Moon can have a pretty big impact. This eclipse more than qualified for the right spot, at the right time, with the right collaborating influences.

For my musical selection, I played "All You Need Is Love" as loud as my iPod would vibrate my brain.

Quite a few people came out to the beach here in Valencia to see the event. For some reason, most of them seemed to be Brits. I caught a look at the Sun through someone's tin foil glasses at the exact moment of annularity. And it is was rather cool to see what an exact New Moon looks like. There was the Moon, right over the Sun, looking like the edge of the Sun was exposed by about an inch.

We have got one report back from someone who looked into the Sun for a while, as a kid. It's from Greg, our Filemaker programmer on Vashon Island. Here is what he wrote a few minutes ago:

Eric - when I was about ten, I stared into the sun until I could barely see. After I stopped cuz I feared I really was making myself blind, I could see just enough to find my way inside, and then my sight went away entirely for about 5 minutes. Then it came back over a period of about half an hour. Fortunately my parents weren't home, so they didn't have to freak out.

Also I was temporarily deaf once when I was 22 after stepping on a firecracker.

That's my report.

Greg

So remember, don't step on firecrackers, especially if the fuse is lit. But if you do, make sure you're wearing your Armani sunglasses, so you look stylish when the thing goes off.

From a photographic standpoint, I'm happy I went out at sunrise to get some pictures of that. One will be posted shortly. I also have a collection of newspaperish feature type pictures of people taking pictures of the eclipse on their cell phones through their tin foil sunglasses, and looking at it with expressions of mild amazement, etc., which photos I will spare you, unless one turns out particularly interesting.

    e



On Staring into the Sun

I KEEP SEEING warnings on the Internet not to look directly at a solar eclipse. Since I have not (to my knowledge) issued such a notice yet, I thought I would think the subject through out loud. This is an example of, "The Writing Process At Work."

It is allegedly bad for your eyes to look at the Sun. Anyone can tell you this. Just ask a newscaster, school teacher or lawyer. But I've been thinking how strange it is that I've never met a person who was blinded or who said they wore glasses from having done so. I'm wondering if any of my readers have.

When I was little, I remember discussions on the news about how even welding goggles are not adequate to look at the Sun, regardless of whether they're made by Armani, Gucci or Vaurnet. But when I saw the transit of the Sun by Venus last year at Avebury Henge, the Keeper of the Stones had welding glass that he had used to watch many eclipses and planetary transits, standing in the same spot each time for the past 30 years, looking directly into the Sun like it was a candle. The glass was thick, and felt like holding a slab of onyx. I personally watched, taking notes (I did not have a camera at that point), as he stared directly into the Sun for about four hours, pausing only to feed his guide dog.

Okay just kidding about the dog -- his vision seemed fine; I tested him on the eye chart I carry; and after a while I even took a look (first at the eye chart, then the Sun). I probably spent 45 minutes watching Venus go across the disk of the Sun on the extra piece of extremely thick welding glass he had, useful if others wanted to take the risk. But I was glad the glass was so heavy it felt like a brick. It was not like the usual trashy welding goggles you get at the Home Despot for ten bucks. But I don't recommend you use those even for welding; they are merely a fashion item. And welding is dangerous.

My deceased teacher, Arthur Joseph Kushner, a Leo poet, rabbi and kabbalist from New Paltz (originally from the Bronx), used to go on little teaching campaigns.

For example, one day while waiting on line in Hoffman's Deli, he gave me a concise lecture about how there really is a first time for everything, particularly things we think of as being so old there must have never been a time when the practice actually originated. His tone was 'rest assured, everything has a beginning, even if you cannot imagine when it was'. He had tarot card reading on his mind for that particular discussion. He invoked the image of a person reading cards for the very first time.

He assured me: "There came a time when everything was new under the Sun. Before that time, something did not exist or was not used in a particular way. Then, one day, it was."

I can imagine asking him, "Arthur, was there a first time that someone used a frying pan to cook an egg?"

He would have said that yes, there was. "There was even a first time someone put salt on an egg."

I wonder what this person was thinking, and what kind of egg it was.

On the subject of the Sun, another time, he announced one day, "If looking at the Sun blinded people, then everyone would be blind."

I could not deny this. I have looked directly at the Sun many times, and I am not blind; but I did not look for so long.

In any event, it is my duty and obligation as a responsible member of the Internet community, and as a hobby astronomer, and amateur lawyer, to warn you that you should not look directly at a solar eclipse. But if you do, and you are the first person to go blind, and you write a book about your innovative experience, I want a portion of your book royalties, which I will donate to the Arthur Joseph Trust, or the Church of the First Time.

If you're in California, don't worry -- it will be dark out when the eclipse happens, and the thickness of the Earth will protect you, as long as you don't stare directly at your feet. But if you're anywhere from the UK to Turkey or even a bit east of there, you may see something strange. The annular eclipse, visible in a very narrow band, including in parts of Africa and Spain, details below, is visible as a partial eclipse for many miles on either side.

It is, however, perfectly safe to look at the astrological chart, if you voted for John Kerry.

Reporting live from the Prime Meridian at the 40th parallel, this is,

-- ERIC FRANCIS

------

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100205A.shtml

------


http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/ASE2005/ASE2005.html

and the chart is at:

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/eric.html




Border Song

By Elton John and Bernie Taupin

--

Holy Moses I have been removed
I have seen the spectre he has been here too
Distant cousin from down the line
Brand of people who ain't my kind
Holy Moses I have been removed

Holy Moses I have been deceived
Now the wind has changed direction and I'll have to leave
Won't you please excuse my frankness but it's not my cup of tea
Holy Moses I have been deceived

I'm going back to the border
Where my affairs, my affairs ain't abused
I can't take any more bad water
I've been poisoned from my head down to my shoes

Holy Moses I have been deceived
Holy Moses let us live in peace
Let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease
There's a man over there what's his colour I don't care
He's my brother let us live in peace
He's my brother let us live in peace
He's my brother let us live in peace




Saturday, Oct. 1, 2005

Here is a correction from the "Whole Earth Review" essay, above: Snopes.com has published a report that the 4,500 pound allgator allegedly found wandering the streets of New Orleans is really a 2003 photo of a crocodile from the Republic of Congo. While Snopes debunkings have themselves occasionally needed debunking, this seems reasonable enough, and offers actual specs on the photo. Note that in the original, the trailer's speed limits are apparently posted in kilometers per hour on the back of the vehicle, as is customary outside North America.

I mentioned the 'alligator' as a humorous metapaphor for the reptillian, scavinging oil government now in power in Washington, with apologies to the critter. I'll update the text in the Web version shortly.

Here is that Snopes link:

http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/crocodile.asp

e




Friday, Sept. 30 - Saturday, Oct. 1

Well, here we are in the Mars station zone -- right here-now. It?s a get-reoriented moment, as THE forward moving energy of the astrological system reverses itself. Two articles above describe the phenomenon, though I don?t think I?ve looked at it closely enough from the very personal standpoint. There is time, however, as Mars will be retrograde for the next 10 weeks.

For anyone who missed my daily horoscopes on Cainer.com (as Jonathan takes over again for the weekend), here are the first three editions. I?ll be standing in Monday and Tuesday, the day of the annular eclipse and the day after, as well.

http://planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/cainer/PW050928.html http://planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/cainer/PW050929.html http://planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/cainer/PW050930.html

Also, a brief clarification on the Iran-Contra scandal, referenced in the article Whole Earth Review. There was one resignation from the Bush-Reagan administration as a result of this twisted abuse of public power: Admiral John Poindexter, the National Security Advisor (that was Condi Rice?s old job, the person who coordinates national security issues on behalf of the president); and one dismissal, Lt. Colonel Oliver North, a ranking member of his staff. Poindexter was convicted of felonies but managed not to go to jail. There were other legal actions as well, some of which are outlined in this chronology:

http://snipurl.com/i2jq

This is the Wikipedia link on the "October Surprise" issue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise

and on Iran Contra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair

You will need to put the two together...

In honor of the 19th anniversary of this moment in American history (and the identicl twin eclipse, which happens Monday), we?re pulling together a little self-study resource for you, which will hopefully be ready early next week. These links are to get you started.

Thanks for tuning in.

Catch you soon.

e




Friday, Sept. 30, 2005

Dear Readers:

Here is a little guide to my newest coverage of the eclipse and Mars retrograde. You'll find it in three places.

First, my daily horoscopes covering the eclipse continue at http://cainer.com , where I am standing in for Jonathan. Friday night, Jonathan's week-ahead forecasts looking at the eclipse will be posted as well. My forecasts continue Friday, Monday and Tuesday. They will, sooner or later, be archived on Planet Waves.

Second, tonight's edition of Astrology Secrets Revealed addresses the eclipse. You can find this on Cainer.com (click on Astro Q & A at the link above the blog, or go directly to Jonathan's homepage). I take this column mostly from the personal perspective -- how the eclipse affects individuals -- though there is some information about the likely political implications of the event.

Last, two new articles will be posted to Planet Waves -- one called Whole Earth Review, and another called Whole Mars Review. Whole Earth covers the eclipse from the political perspective, Mar retrograde from the perspective of the petroleum crisis, and developments in the Presidential Inauguration chart that begin to take effect in October. Whole Mars is by Arwynne O'Neill and looks at the last 10 or so Mars retrograde in Taurus cycles. Both will be posted to the front page of Planet Waves fairly soon, if all goes according to plan.

We are offering all this material to everyone -- subscribers and non-subscribers equally. So I would really like to encourage you, on behalf of everyone who so generously supports Planet Waves, to click on our subscribe links and sign up. Your subscriptions support not just the service you receive, but also the Planet Waves open-access site as well as Astrology Secrets Revealed.

Here is that link:

http://planetwavesweekly.com/sales/home.html

Thanks for tuning in tonight, and thanks for your generous support -- in conscience, and in greenbacks. Enjoy the fast moving astrology -- it's almost coming a little too quick for me to keep up with; almost, but not quite. I've got you covered.

Catch you soon, cousins.

    e



Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005

Here is today's Jonathan Cainer Daily Horoscope, stand-in edition by Eric Francis.

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/cainer/PW050929.html

        



Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005

If you like horoscopes and wonder how they are written, I've done two articles recently that get into the spiritual and psychological aspects of the work. There are very few Sun-sign horoscope writers who will actually explain the essential facts of the craft, but I happen to not take that point of view. This partly has to do with the fact that I became an astrologer as a result of taking apart newspaper horoscopes like a kid takes apart an old radio.

The first article is called, "How Could it Possibly Work?" Not the most poetic title in the world! But it does ask the main question. Here is that link:

http://planetwaves.net/astrology/horoscopes.html

The second is called, "The Cosmic Voice of Reason."

It's located here:

http://planetwaves.net/contents/cosmic_voice_reason2.html

For those interested in the technical aspects, I've got a few more selections from the archive that I can offer in a few days.

Thanks for tuning in!

    e



Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005

For those who are into peace movement news, here is a gem. Washington, DC-based photojournalist Joe Tresh has posted some nice, clear images of the protest at which Cindy Sheehan, creator of Camp Casey, was arrested Monday, along with 360 other citizens -- many of them peace movement leaders -- standing up against the war in Iraq.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Photo_Cindy_Sheehan_ar_0926.html

This links to Joe's blog and additional photos, but here is the direct link, for convenience.

http://www.joetresh.com/tresh/blog.htm

    e
    



Wednesday, Sept. 28. 2005

Dear Readers:

For those of you who have not just clicked over from Cainer.com, I'll be standing in for Jonathan Cainer for the next five weekdays; here is the daily column from Wednesday.

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/cainer/PW050928.html

Welcome back!

And for new visitors to Planet Waves, welcome. We hope you'll enjoy our interesting mix of astrology, political analysis and -- to keep things in balance, Libra style -- lots of photography for its own sake. Photos are scattered throughout the various homepages (horoscopes, the contents page and so on), as well as in a photo gallery linked from the main homepage (long download, but fun). And there is a series of about 30 prior covers available through the "prior covers" link on the home page. Cover photos will be updated daily this week.

There is also quite an archive of both horoscopes and articles; these are linked from the Articles & Archives link above.

Planet Waves is an open-access Web page, but we're supported by a premium subscriber service published each Monday and Friday. One of our subscribers recently commented that the free site gives so much, it was difficult for her to conceive of anything doing a better job -- so why subscribe?

She of course figured it out by becoming a subscriber last year, and now supports Planet Waves with gift subscriptions for her friends (much appreciated!). The premium service is different and interesting (and NOT an overload, just the right amount of material). Most of what you get is the weekly horoscope, the birthday report, extra astrology each Friday and the satisfaction of helping our innovative, edgy but quite pratical Internet project thrive. One of the best features is you can forward each Friday's edition to your friends at no additional cost, i.e., bootlegging is permitted.

Planet Waves, as the name implies, is produced with help and creative input spanning from Los Angeles to the Ukraine, though I am located in Paris, the business office is in Florida, and our servers are in New York. We like to keep things moving, and keep that international perspective.

We welcome you -- please enjoy, explore all there is here, and do let us know what you think. We'll see you back tomorrow evening with another daily horoscope. Look for steady updates at the "Political Waves" link, and monthly horoscopes for October have been posted early this month.

Peace & passion,

   Eric Francis
    Paris, France



Cindy Sheehan Arrested at White House

     By  t r u t h o u t

     Monday 26 September 2005

     Cindy Sheehan, along with several well-known peace movement figures, has been arrested at the front gates of the White House in Washington DC. Sheehan had attempted once again to gain an audience with George W. Bush; again she was refused. Sheehan and her supporters then proceeded to sit down and pray at a restricted point in front of the White House. She and many others have been arrested.

     Those who have been arrested with her include Cindy's sister Dee Dee, former state department official Ann Wright, Michael Berg, the father of slain US contractor Nick Berg, Media Benjamin of Code Pink and many veterans and their family members.

    More to come.



A Letter from Eric Francis

Paris, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2005

Dear Friend and Reader:

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED that when you go to a restaurant, dessert costs extra, and usually it's not so cheap? In France, they've figured out it's customary to have coffee after dinner, so you might as well charge 4 euros ($5) a cup. After all, people are going to buy it anyway.

We have a different way of doing business -- friendly, and generous. More like having dinner at your grandmother's house. You know, fresh food, home-baked pie and a lot of really good coffee.

Planet Waves started (depending on when you start counting) in late 1998 as a free, independent Internet site offering our strange-but-true mix of news and astrology. The project developed to an impressive degree quickly. By 1999, less than one year later, a typical, free feature looked like this:

http://www.planetwaves.net/river.html

    or like this...

http://www.planetwaves.net/burning_flashpoints.html

...and the weekly horoscope was free as well. From the beginning, the idea at the heart of our work has been "The personal is political," but we've made both a way of life: never looking away from what's happening on the planet, and always remembering that people are individuals with the desire to grow and to be whole.

In terms of publishing, we do things a little differently now, mainly so that I can get paid as a writer, support the staff that it takes to manage and produce Planet Waves, and cover the Web site's small but solid bills.

But not a lot differently. I still write generous, impassioned, long feature articles. There are two monthly horoscopes available to everyone. Most of the Web page is still available to everyone. But we also offer a premium service called Planet Waves Weekly that supports the whole project -- including the free side of the site, the Q/A on the Jonathan Cainer site (both of which you get in any case) -- and the weekly horoscope, essay and birthday report that are sent directly to subscribers.

Meanwhile, we don't block your access to things we dangle in front of your face. We don't lock away our previously free archives so you can't go back and read old stuff, or do research. We don't delay our best new articles and make you read them when they're old. We don't harass you with dumb-ass blinking ads telling you to check for system errors by clicking here. In fact, we have NO pay ads at all. None, as in not a single one. You're invited here around the clock to chill out and get a different perspective on life. We keep the environment mellow, honest and clear-headed. There's always plenty of interesting stuff to look at, too.

The way we can do this in such a competitive business environment (besides quite a bit of labor of love) is because some people who visit Planet Waves subscribe to our weekly service. For many of you, it makes sense -- you've been showing up for years, we work at developing the site for you every single day, and now you have an opportunity to give a little something back. Or you just discovered the project and want to get involved, and see what we have to offer.

Others want instant access to the weekly horoscope (not available anywhere else online, not searchable in Google and available free only if you know another subscriber). And there are other benefits for subscribers, including three years of weekly horoscopes and birthday reports, many essays and articles that have never appeared on the free side of the site, special search facilities, and lots of other bits and bobs.

The reality is, even if you don't subscribe, there is tons of NEW stuff on Planet Waves that you don't have to pay for. But our sales philosophy is that if you like what we do, we figure you're probably going to sign up sooner or later. So how about sooner? Or, if you've been pondering it for a couple of years, how about later, as in today?

Subscriptions are affordable -- as low as $8.95 a month using Paypal, or $1 a week if you subscribe for a year. If you live in Canada or Australia, you can get a discount. And we do something really weird -- we don't discriminate if you don't have money. Blame it on all my Pisces and Aquarius planets. Blame it on my being a raging idealist. Maybe I'm really good at marketing and I know that people who get complimentary subscriptions are going to figure out another way to help out. But if you actually can't afford Planet Waves, just ask for a comp.

Please click around our subscribe links and sign up. You'll love the weekly service -- it's edgy and exciting, and it's the only place to get the weekly horoscope. And it'll be a big help to us, even if you only subscribe once. The thing is, you probably won't -- our renewal rate is way above the industry standard. But then, so is Planet Waves.

To visit our subscriber area, please check the link below. And thanks for subscribing. Let's surprise Chelsea, our subscriptions manager, with a whole bunch of new orders when she comes into work Monday morning.

http://planetwavesweekly.com/ or go directly to the sales area at:

http://planetwavesweekly.com/sales/home.html

Thanks...it's good to be with you.

Yours truly,

ERIC FRANCIS

P.S. If you sign up Sunday for a full year, we'll give a six-month gift subscription to a friend. Just send us an email after you complete the sales process -- send it to chelsea@planetwaves.net.



A Chart & Notes

http://planetwavesweekly.com/twdco99~/open/eclipsesolarLI05_web.html



Friday, Sept. 23, 2005

As the floodwaters already begin to rise in New Orleans, I am thinking of Varuna. Here is an article from the Planet Waves Weekly archives, which has not appeared on PlanetWaves.net. It's from early July.

The Varuna New Moon

http://planetwavesweekly.com/drdc8/current/050701.html

    e

PS:


Johnson's Cabinet Watched By Ants

By Robert Bly

1
It is a clearing deep in a forest: overhanging boughs
Make a low place. Here the citizens we know during the day,
The ministers, the department heads,
Appear changed: the stockholders of large steel companies
In small wooden shoes: here are the generals dressed as gamboling lambs.


2
Tonight they burn the rice-supplies; tomorrow
They lecture on Thoreau; tonight they move around the trees,
Tomorrow they pick the twigs from their clothes;
Tonight they throw the fire-bombs, tomorrow
They read the Declaration of Independence; tomorrow they are in church.


3
Ants are gathered around an old tree.
In a choir they sing, in harsh and gravelly voices,
Old Etruscan songs on tyranny.
Toads nearby clap their small hands, and join
The fiery songs, their five long toes trembling in the soaked earth.



Friday, Sept. 23, 2005

"It is a sign of balancing, of careful weighing of values, and of achieving the right equilibrium between the pairs of opposites. It might be regarded as the sign in which the first real vision of the path appears and of the goal toward which the disciple must ultimately direct his steps. This Path is the narrow razor-edged Path which runs between the pairs of opposites and which -- if it is to be safely trodden -- requires the development of a sense of values and the power to utilize rightly the balancing, analytical facility of the mind."

-- Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 227



Welcome, Johann Bisesti

ABOUT A MONTH AGO, Mara Lefkowitz, recently of San Francisco, joined the Planet Waves staff helping me out in Paris. I met her husband Johann the other weekend, who is a professional photographer here in Paris. He showed me his portfolio. And...naturally, I inquired...and he said he would be happy to have some of his work presented on Planet Waves. So it's a pleasure to say that he's our first featured photographer. (And I get to take another kind of break!)

His work is, or will be, appearing on all the newly updated pages, including various horoscopes and contents pages. The "Ocean" photo on the cover is his work as well, and I believe we have a couple left over for use on the cover. So there's more to come.

As I browse through the Libra test pages, his work looks more striking than ever. I can't exactly describe what it is...what that quality is...it appears different every time I look at it...one of those odd qualities that art sometimes has. Anyway -- enjoy, and there is plenty more tucked away on Johann's Web site, http://johannbisesti.com .

We'll be updating monthly horoscopes early this month. Horoscopes will be up within the next 24 hours. Thanks for checking in.

    e



Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

-- Bilbo Baggins



"Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy." --Gimli to Legolas, as they leave Lothlorien

"Even the very wise cannot see an end to all things" --Gandalf



Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005

The past 12 hours I've been bouncing some emails back and forth with Phil Sedgwick, who practically invented the field of galactic astrology. (see http://philipsedgwick.com ). Our topic has been the astrological interpretation of the Galactic Core.

As I mentioned earlier in the week somewhere, the Sun is now working past a square to the Galactic Core, which is at close to 27 degrees even Sagittarius. So this was exact about two days ago. Anyway -- I suddenly made the connection that these cyclonic storms we call hurricanes are the same energy figuration as our galaxy and many others: they are spirals. And it seems that things with a spiral shape on Earth are gaining energy.

Meanwhile, the equinox is now occurring and the Sun is closely square something called the Road to Xibalba -- the dark band at the core of the Milky Way that is associated with all things 2012. And this weekend, the Sun crosses the mighty, massive M87 galaxy in early Libra.

We are in the full-strength regions of Aries Point activity in the astrological calendar -- things on the early Cardinal Cross. It almost seems as if all the energy is being shifted onto the Cardinal Cross at this point in history, as part of a world initiation. I'll have a look into what Alice Bailey, the most dependable source of information on this kind of spiritual astrology, has to day about this and get back to you soon.

It is time, however, to begin not just thinking about this initiation, but responding as if it is real. We can be caught in disaster consciousness, or we can apply a higher order of wisdom and information to the situation and make a movie. Okay just kidding about the movie. There is obviously a spiritual component to this; the impacts on us as individuals and as a collective are undeniable; we are in the midst of a planetary shift. It's just that the phrase "planetary shift" is not in the stylebooks of the newspapers and networks. But hey, this is Planet Waves, the CNN of the New Age.

More on the astrology at the Café Blog, and lots more in tomorrow's edition of Planet Waves Weekly.



Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005

Today is the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins -- LOTR fans are invited to send their favorite quotations from Frodo, Bilbo or Tolkien. Please send to francis@planetwaves.net for posting here later today. Thanks! It's also the equinox, exact overnight. Here is the chart:

http://planetwavesweekly.com/twdco99~/open/equinoxautumn05_io.html

"In the fallen state of consciousness, each human being functions in disregard of the song of Life that is going on the others. There is no harmony, no direction, no arrangement. You are like the random notes of an orchestra before the conductor unifies the instruments in symphony. The Grand Conductor is calling everyone to attention, calling now to remembrance of unity and purpose, reminding all that the time has come to stop tuning separate instruments and begin to accept the direction of the One who understands the whole."

-- from The Starseed Transmissions, scribed by Ken Carey

----------------------------

Special Feature -- Sent by Gale McGovern of New Paltz. Verified by Jude, editor of Political Waves.

Timeline of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
 The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM.

 By 7 AM federal troops had reported to the mayor.
 By 8 AM they were patrolling the entire downtown area and searching for survivors.
 The second quake struck at 8:14 AM.
 By 10:05 AM the USS Chicago was on its way from San Diego to San Francisco; by 10:30 the USS Preble had landed a medical team and set up an emergency hospital.
 By 11 AM large parts of the city were on fire; troops continued to arrive throughout the day, evacuating people from the areas threatened by fire to emergency shelters and Golden Gate Park.
 St. Mary's hospital was destroyed by the fire at 1 PM, with no loss of life, the staff and patients having already been evacuated across the bay to Oakland.
 By 3 PM troops had shot several looters, and dynamited buildings to make a firebreak; by five they had buried dozens of corpses, the morgue and the police pistol range being unable to hold any more.
 At 8:40 PM General Funston requested emergency housing - tents and shelters - from the War Department in Washington; all of the tents in the U.S. Army were on their way to San Francisco by 4:55 AM the next morning.
 Prisoners were evacuated to Alcatraz, and by April 20 (two days after the earthquake) the USS Chicago had reached San Francisco, where it evacuated 20,000 refugees.




Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005

"There is another, more ancient language, more conducive to discourse on this level, but you have forgotten it. It is the universal language of light. Its transfer of information is accomplished through the actual projection of living informational units. These units are at once more specific and more inclusive than your words. They have been designed to convey organic information of concise, yet comprehensive, informational content. Simultaneously with this conceptual communication, you are subliminally receiving the same information through the living language of light, though your preoccupation with words leaves you with no awareness of it at this time."

-- from The Starseed Transmissions, scribed by Ken Carey

This space will continue to be available daily for a short thought of the day by another writer, or your submissions of the funniest political satire material you find. Please submit something if you like, though please: keep it short, make sure it's neatly typed, and humor materials need to be in the form of a link to a location on another site.

Some of you have inquired whether I plan to keep writing about politics. I remember when I used to get complaints, lots of them, for writing about politics (which is why we started Political Waves!). I am glad to see the consciousness level on this subject is going up, just in time for the World Series. The answer is yes -- but the question is one of levels. On the level of the game itself, political reality is messy; but it is an indication of how neurotic our society is, how poorly met our needs are, and the extent to which we have (in red capital letters) ABANDONED COMMUNITY.

Astrology is good for deconstructing world affairs, and to some extent for preparing us psychologically for what is coming.

But what we really need is to be able to move through the energy, relating to one other as clearly as possible, while keeping our health, sanity and productivity relatively intact. Many people are hearing the call to enter the world situation more openly as helpers, healers or teachers, and others want to be more aware instead of pretending it's not there. This requires ongoing adaptation on an energetic level, and astrology provides an instruction set for how to make many of these adjustments.

Astrology helps us keep a conscious sense of the pace of reality, and how to time ourselves within that pace. At the moment, as the Moon makes many aspects to planets standing IN ASPECT, as it approaches a pretty big eclipse, and as the Sun is about to cross the Libra equinox point (i.e., oppose the Aries Point) the pace is accelerating in a shape like a spiral. So there is this phase approaching where we reach an out-of-control point right before a kind of dimension shift represented by the eclipse itself.

More astrology details in the Café Blog.

    e



The Genius Behind George Bush

http://www.badmash.org/videos/videos_flv.php?v=george_bush_512K_Stream.flv&t





Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 (revised)

Dear Ladies, Gentlemen, Canines and Felines (and Birds, and Trees),

Today is the day I get to tell you I'm going out of the daily blogging field of reality. Effective immediately, after one heck of a nonstop news year dating back to Stolen Election Round II (with a stand-in by Jude in the spring), this blog -- the Planet Waves cover blog, as we know it here -- is on hiatus, perhaps to return, perhaps not. I am pulling back from daily geopolitical analysis. Being an astrologer and essayist is more than adequate, and just as much as one little Fish can handle.

This decision, arrived at after quite a bit of reflection (several months) is part of a commitment to balance out my life and reduce my workload to human proportions. Many of you write to me asking how I do it, and the answer is, I really don't know. While I have the capacity to handle a lot of work, I am driven by a sense of responsibility that can quite literally keep me going very nearly around the clock for months. So in eliminating the cover blog, I am pulling back a little, to preserve the whole: meaning me, and meaning the Planet Waves project that depends on my health and well being.

The CafeBlog will continue every day or two on the subscriber homepage, focusing on the latest astrological developments and naturally touching on world affairs. To get access to that, it's best to become a subscriber, which has substantial benefits (particularly an astonishing three year archive of essays, birthday reports and weekly horoscopes) -- and of course your subscription helps us because that's how we pay the small but solid bills that this Web page creates. I heartily invite you to join in the fun, even if you only do it once.

If you have not seen our genuine, unsolicited, unedited, authentic subscriber feedback, not even processed by any public relations agency, take a look -- and perhaps you too will be inclined to send some soon:

http://planetwavesweekly.com/feedback.html

You will see the subscribe link from there. Subscribing to independent media is important, now more than ever. Most of us think nothing of paying a $65 monthly cable bill for crap and commercials. We cannot expect to pay for marketing and lies and get the truth for free. In order to have independent sources of information, we have to support them. In this spirit, Planet Waves is a financial supporter of truthout.org, giving 1% of our gross revenues to that excellent, free news site.

Planet Waves subscriptions are affordable, they are guaranteed, there are many discount categories, and we comp anyone who cannot afford it. You have nothing to lose by subscribing, only to gain, and we feel this is a totally equitable method of doing a pay service.

As for the free side of the site, where you are now: cover photos will continue to rotate every two days or so on the homepage; lately, I often feel a lot better saying what I have to say in pictures rather than in words, to the extent being a writer permits that. Planet Waves Monthly and Inner Space horoscopes will continue to be posted from the free side of the site, as will some articles on a regular basis. Weekly horoscopes and birthday reports will continue on the subscriber side of the site, along with the weekly essay.

Thank you for your devoted readership, for checking in every morning to see what I have to say, for your vast majority of kind, insightful letters that keep me thinking, and most of all, for working together with us to help make Planet Waves happen.

Yours truly and gratefully, with the Aries Moon trine Pluto, and Pisces rising,

ERIC FRANCIS
In the 5th Arrond. of Paris


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