Readers, Speak Out! | Nov. 24, 2004

It's time for me to take a break from daily blogging, but I would like to keep this feature going. So I am inviting you to write to me and have your comments posted. Ideally, posts will be 200 to 500 words. Please write in your best grammar and syntax, honor the rules of punctuation and capitalization, and make your points crystal clear. If you don't think you're such a good editor, have someone go over your work before submitting it; this is specifically to save me editing time and energy. Then, express yourself with love, intelligence and passion.

Here are few legal details. All posts submitted become the exclusive property of Planet Waves, Inc. By submitting your piece, you're expressly granting us publication permission; and the writer waives all fees, copyright claims, and other interests in their work. The writer certifies that their submission is an original piece of writing, unpublished elsewhere.

Please include your day and evening telephone numbers with your email.

Thank you for your posts! Please send to: francis@planetwaves.net.

Thank you!

-- Eric Francis




Dear Diary | Nov. 23, 2004, 10:00 p.m.

My inbox has been buzzing with concern about how there are, like, you know, huge impassioned, rapidly growing protests going on in the Ukraine, in the cold, rain and snow, and the threat of civil war over a stolen election... while most of the U.S. population (about 80%) feels that everything was cool with the 2004 election.

This I read today in The New York Times. The same article reports that half the population believes that the 2000 election was totally cool. Most people seem to be missing something obvious. Or, there are many who have an idea of how they want the world to be, and would rather live in that world than acknowledge what's going on.

I think it's clear that people would rather not have civil unrest and, in exchange, give up their civil rights.

You know, I'm really sick of writing about this. I remember a time when war was an occasional thing; it began and it ended. Yes, there were a lot of wars in the 20th century, but between the time Vietnam ended in 1974 and the early 80s, one was not inundated with news of war every day. However, by 1982, I was aware of the U.S. programs in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the magazines I edited in those years persisted in the best coverage we could offer at the time. Then came the Iran-Contra scandal, which revealed that the U.S. was involved in arming both sides in the Iran-Iraq war, as well as the Contra terrorists. From there, war seemed to gain momentum.

There was a moment of respite when the Berlin Wall and Soviet Union faded into history, but that did not last long.

The first Gulf War, which came soon after, was terrifying. I remember the night of the missiles falling on Tel Aviv, wondering whether there would be nuclear retaliation against Iraq by Israel. Under Clinton, Iraq was bombed weekly. Half a million children died from diseases associated with lack of clean water, after the U.S. bombed the water treatment facilities.

Then came Sept. 11, Afghanistan and Iraq. I don't know if life has always been this way on the planet, but it's getting to be a very tired state of affairs -- and one that more and more people seem to take for granted. I, for one, don't.



The Next Season | Nov. 22, 2004, 11:06 a.m.

Today begins a new season in the story of the world. Scorpio is ended; the Sun went into Sagittarius about 10 hours ago as of this writing. This year for all of Nov. 22 the Sun is in Sagittarius; it's not always the case. Today is the 41st anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which occurred with the Sun in the last degree of Scorpio. As I have said before, the Sun in the last degree of a sign creates a doorway, one that we need to watch carefully.

Venus is about to join Mars and the south node in Scorpio, recalling the Venus retrograde in Scorpio of late 2002 -- a troubling, difficult time for many people. Now, with the south node (release) finishing its 18 month transit of Scorpio, and the Venus-Mars conjunction about to happen here for the first time since prior to the retrograde of fall 2002, we get many images of closure and completion of a long phase of relationship history. The conjunction is exact Dec. 5 and has been the source of many of my references to December for people born under a variety if signs, particularly Taurus and Scorpio.

Mercury and Pluto made the first of three conjunctions this weekend, in the 22nd degree of Sagittarius. Mercury retrograde begins on Nov. 30, but as explained in Planet Waves Weekly, the shadow phase began some time ago and extends through around the 5th of January.

Though we leave the eclipses and occultations that surrounded the election of 2004 behind us, the election issues are far from over. I leave you with a long quotation from the magazine In These Times, an alternative news journal for which I've done a few pieces back in the day.

From "Let's Get Real"
By Mark Crispin Miller
November 16, 2004
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article_rss/lets_get_real/

To let ourselves believe that the "election" was legitimate because this claim or that has been disproved (apparently) is to not honor reason. On the contrary, a veritable sea of evidence, statistical as well as anecdotal and circumstantial, supports the claim that Bush, again, was not elected by the people.

To nod agreement that this was indeed an honest win is to forget how Bush was shoehorned into office in the first place; to ignore the ease with which electronic totals can be changed without a trace; to suppress the fact that Diebold, Sequoia and ES&S - the major manufacturers of touch screen voting machines and central tabulators-are owned and run by Bush Republicans, who have made no secret of their partisan intentions; to deny the value of the exit polls, which turn out to have been "mistaken" only in the swing states; to downplay the weird inflation of the Bush vote in county after county, where the number of votes for president was somehow higher than the number of voters who turned out; to ignore the bald chicanery of the Bush supporters who ran the central polling station in Ohio's Warren County and forced out the press and poll monitors so they could count the vote in secret; to forget the numerous accounts of vote fraud coast to coast throughout the prior weeks of early voting; to overlook the fact that every single "glitch" or "error" that has been reported favors Bush; to ignore the countless instances of ballots - absentee, provisional, thrown away or left uncounted; to forget that the civilian vote abroad (some four million Americans) was being mishandled by the Pentagon (which had somehow become responsible for doing the State Department's job); and to ignore the many dirty tricks reported - the polling places quickly relocated at the last minute, the fake voter-registration drives, the thousands of Americans who found themselves not on the rolls, the police road-blocks, the bullying pro-Bush poll workers, the machines that kept translating votes for Kerry into votes for Bush. And so on.

To forget or ignore all this and to accept-on faith-the mere say-so of Bush & Company (and our compliant media) is to make clear that you are not a member of what the Busheviks deride as "the reality-based community." Those who help discredit false reports are doing that community, and this erstwhile democracy, a precious service. But, those who would abort the whole inquiry in the name of science or journalistic probity and "closure" are putting that community, and this nation, at grave risk.++





Sample Issue Offer | Nov. 20, 2004

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Friday afternoon, seven minutes to five

Ladies and gentlemen, it has been quite the week of loving and learning, and I for one am done writing for a while. Other states of mind and shades of color do beckon. Sweet deep breaths liberated of language & its rhythm.

So good that we know who we are.

With love,

    e




Of Lovers and Warriors | Paris, Nov. 18, 2004, 9:45 am CET

Wow, I had to do a double-take on the Nov. 18 business. I can't believe it's that late in the month, on the one hand, or that late in the year, and that it's only been two and a half weeks since the election on the other.

I want to share an astrology story with you, a kind of synchronicity. Last week, during the Arafat funeral, I was going over some of his birth data with a colleague from across town who was sitting here in my living room hanging out. We were watching the state services in France in some amazement. She'd done Arafat's chart and had some ideas about the situation involving the three sets of birth data that exist for him. There are a couple of birth dates and birth times -- this is sometimes the case with prominent people. Given that Arafat was Arab (another word for "knows the power of astrology") it didn't surprise me that he had a Dirty Data (DD) rating.

She clicked on the late data collector Lois Rodden's page on Arafat and showed me the three horoscopes posted there. These charts just don't do it. There was a fourth set of data, conveyed through the eminent British horoscope writer and astrologer Shelly von Strunkel via a mutual friend of Arafat's wife Suha. Third or fourth hand, but we know where it came from, and Shelly is a solid and inspired astrologer. I cast the chart and gave it a look, and in about 10 seconds had THE most odd sense of deja vu.

I had seen this chart before. All the planetary placements looked familiar. But everything was tipped a little bit; the version of this chart that I had seen had a different ascendant. I looked at the date: it was the birthday of my dear friend and mentor Dr. Betty Dodson. I had done a version of this chart many times, both for her, for articles about her, and in workshops where I taught the chart as one of the most exemplary examples of a chart matching a person that I had ever seen. I have an ongoing commitment to telling the world who she is, and I try to do something about her every year. It was the asteroids I recognized immediately: Betty's chart is THE best study in how the four major asteroids can define or signify the role of a person.

Then there was Chiron on the Moon's north node, exact. In Taurus, the sign of Chiron's discovery. In the degree (as revealed by the Sabian Symbols) with the image: "Head covered with a Rakish silk hat, muffled against the cold, a man braves a storm." I always thought: boy what an image for Betty Dodson.

Betty is the author of the bestseller "Sex for One" and was one of the women's movement's pioneers of the 1970s. But Betty is not your ordinary feminist. Her contribution to the lives of women has been to teach them about orgasm. She published a booklet in 1972 called "Liberating Masturbation" that became famous after a 1974 article in Ms. Magazine -- which Betty wrote, and describes as a long confession -- put her on the map. Betty also facilitated women's consciousness raising groups where women would talk, do yoga, and masturbate together. These continued one Sunday a month into the late 90s.

It is difficult to convey what a revolutionary act this was. You may say, well, that started back in the 70s when everything was groovy. But there was a reason it was groovy, which was that, like today, there was much oppression to revolt against, many people who were afraid of change, and a daring few who decided they wanted to make a difference in their own lives, and in the world. Betty was one of them. Betty changed the world. The fact that we can talk about masturbation comfortably (to the extent that we can) today has everything to do with Betty. It was simply a discussion that you could not have prior to her breaking the silence with a loud moan.

Betty, the woman who projected images of vulvas on the screen during a talk for the National Organization of Women; Betty who managed to shock the New York art world (quite an accomplishment) with her paintings of women's genitals.

So, there I was, looking at the most probable chart for Yasser Arafat, and the confirmation I had was that I knew the chart; I knew what a powerful revolutionary it belonged to. Two charts with a Taurus, Cancer and Leo moons were not doing it; one had Venus in the ascendant, another had Cancer rising -- plausible, but a real stretch.

But Aries Moon conjunct revolutionary Uranus in the 10th house of government and high office -- complete with the asteroid Pallas Athene in the conjunction. There was the warrior. There was the protector of his people. There was the rebellious, even terrorist (think Munich 1972 Olympics), and revolutionary who could go on to be welcomed to applause and cheers at the United Nations and win the Nobel Prize.

Betty has that same Aries Moon conjunct Uranus in the 8th house of sex, orgasm and surrender. This is a kind of ultimate demonstration of how important the house placement -- and thus the time and place -- of birth really is. They are for most purposes the same chart; they are off by two rising signs. Change that one factor and one chart gives you Arafat; the other Betty Dodson.

Now, it was reported this week by Harpers magazine that Arafat may have died of AIDS, presumably as a result of what were described as wild homosexual orgies he liked to have. Given Betty's highly reputed workshops, and her rather distinguished reputation for many, many private orgies in her Madison Ave. apartment (where she still lives) this would not surprise me in the least.

There's just one little thing about Betty that differs from Yasser Arafat: she has devoted her life to healing and pleasure. She is a revolutionary, but she's killed nobody. She doesn't have guns or bombs preferring instead the Hitachi Magic Wand, drawing pencils and paint brushes.

Wilhelm Reich, one of the thinkers who most inspired Betty and helped her see the psychological foundations of her own work, established that oppressive political energies are the direct result of frustrated sexual energies. I think this is something we need to take to heart. As usual, the man who made his point by killing gets all the press. Far be it for the world to make the woman who gave her sisters permission to have orgasms, and a lot of good information, and a place to do it, front page coverage -- but I'm willing to do it.

Attached is my article called The Dauntless Moon, from about a year ago, written in San Francisco, one of Betty's favorite towns. It's the second article down. Don't miss the encounter between Betty and Salvador Dali. I heard that story talking to Betty on my cell phone in a diner in San Fran. It was one of the funniest moments in an interview of my entire career as a journalist.

Betty, I adore you and love you with all my heart. Happy belated 75th birthday! Keep up the good work. Bless your cute little tits.

http://planetwavesweekly.com/xasc9v9qk/current/031010.html

You can reach Betty's homepage at http://BettyDodson.com/

Have fun -- it's juicy.

There you will find links to her excellent videos -- if you're going to get just one, I recommend the first, "Selfloving: Portrait of a Women's Sexuality Workshop."

TRUST ME! It's worth the money; you will wear it out and lend it to every friend.

Here are the charts for Arafat, exit chart first, birth chart second:

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

Link to Weekly Review from Harper's

http://www.harpers.org/MostRecentWR.html




Hello everyone, apologies for no posting today. I have been busy preparing some exciting writing for my column on Cainer.com -- and will be back later in the morning with a few comments about these days of history. Thank you for tuning in. Catch you soon. -eric francis



And the days go by | Nov. 16, 2004, 8:11 pm CET

It certainly has been an interesting few days. Those occultations certainly brought a wave of change through our local subdimension of the cosmic physical plane. We are seeing it on the political level; we're feeling it on the personal level. It seems like the big deck in the sky is getting shuffled over and over again. But the spread has not been dealt. And some people think it's a poker game about to start.

In the "what to do" department, I am becoming aware that most of the attention is being devoted politically. Looked at one way, that's sensible. We do have a political situation on our hands. But there is on a much deeper level the issue of community. Whatever we may think of corporate reality -- the malling of America, chain stores and restaurants taking over every function, and so on -- one thing that it's done is weaken the fabric of our society in a way that most people don't even notice. We don't notice because it's all so convenient.

The introspective level of politics is community. Community puts people into situations wherein they must deal with one another and live with the delicate quality of life; community is the reality that we all support one another, or we all fall down. We are not struggling that much in the United States -- not materially, anyway, or rather, not most of us. There are plenty of people, though, who don't know how bad they have it, and how it is that all the resources and cash flow in their local economies have been sucked dry. What most people don't realize is that high unemployment is GOOD for business because it makes a cheap labor market. But that only goes so far, because these same people are their customers.

Anyway -- community. It is interesting that I have to sit here in France and type these words to you alone; I cannot speak them to you in a meeting, or in a living room or on a college campus; not at the moment, anyway. We get to share some ideas, but we don't get to be together. If we had more contact with one another in situations that were not scripted (like most offices are), we could do some reality checking, we could identify one another's needs, and we could meet them.

If you took 50 people and put them in a circle and everyone around the room took a turn and said what they need, I assure you that amongst the other 49 there would be someone who could meet that need with NO problem. Yeah, I have an extra modem. Yes, I can take care of your kids Saturday. Yes, you can come over to my house and watch movies. Yes, I have extra food. This is a primitive and highly effective kind of socialism. It has no limits, except what people will allow themselves to do.

The trick is getting the 50 people together, and somebody saying, let's all go around the room and say what we really need the most. Not being ashamed to admit those needs. Most people are misers only when it comes to asking others for what they need. Personally, I would love some friends to have dinner with a few times a week. Oh and I don't eat wheat.



Of Rats and Theocracy | Paris, Nov. 15, 2004, 9:01 p.m.

It never ceases to get more interesting, does it? Tonight, I offer you two links. The first is to the website of the Zogby polling organization, which has reprinted an article called "I Smell a Rat," analyzing the statistics behind the recent presidential selection. This was republished tonight by truthout.org

http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=10398

    or

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111604Z.shtml

To wit, quote:

The first sign of the rat was on election night. The jubilation of early exit polling had given way to rising anxiety as states fell one by one to the Red Tide. It was getting late in the smoky cellar of a Prague sports bar where a crowd of expats had gathered. We had been hoping to go home to bed early, confident of victory. Those hopes had evaporated in a flurry of early precinct reports from Florida and Ohio.

 By 3 AM, conversation had died and we were grimly sipping beers and watching as those two key states seemed to be slipping further and further to crimson. Suddenly, a friend who had left two hours earlier rushed in and handed us a printout.

 "Zogby's calling it for Kerry." He smacked the sheet decisively. "Definitely. He's got both Florida and Ohio in the Kerry column. Kerry only needs one." Satisfied, we went to bed, confident we would wake with the world a better place. Victory was at hand.

 The morning told a different story, of course. No Florida victory for Kerry -- Bush had a decisive margin of nearly 400,000 votes. Ohio was not even close enough for Kerry to demand that all the votes be counted. The pollsters had been dead wrong, Bush had four more years and a powerful mandate. Onward Christian soldiers -- next stop, Tehran.

End quote.

Second selection. This came through one of those multiple recipient emails, and I tracked down this link. I've passed it onto people in the Planet Waves network good at tracking this kind of thing down. It's about an allegedly proposed law called the Constitutional Restoration Act, supposedly HR 3799. Please let it be a hoax. [We have checked into it and it is not a hoax. Google it and see for yourself: "Constitutional Restoration Act."

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/HR3799ConstitutionRestorationAct.html

And here is a bit from the heathens over at the Moscow Times:

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/index.php?aid=131199

Everything dates back to spring; not sure why it's suddenly sprung up now.

To wit:

`Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the  Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal,  writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the extent that  relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local  government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local  government (whether or not acting in official personal capacity),  by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government'.

I like to stay focused on solutions, but as A Course in Miracles says, "Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved." The floor is open for suggestions.





What to do | Paris, Nov. 15, 2004, 10:09 am CET

It is a little strange not having the election to push against. I find myself doing odd things like taking the whole weekend off, or sleeping at night. My apartment is finally clean and my laundry is done. Friends who were staying for weeks, sleeping in my living room, have moved onto London.

Having a modicum of order around me feels good. This does not, however, appear to be the case in the world. I can see how easy it might be to say, well, my life is okay. That's enough; I'll forget about all that. But I know this is not a good feeling. This is exactly the response that leads to despair, because despair is about pushing away pain or struggle, holding it down, and pretending it's not there. That is a very unstable state of mind.

I don't find it so easy to slither away. Even on the best day, I'm going to write a horoscope column, and for example, go through this thought process that has me thinking about everyone else, sign by sign: Scorpio. That means Mars; Mars crossed the Moon's south node this weekend. What was that about? How did it feel and what is the range of potential response to that aspect? Old rule, the south node will take the pressure off of a difficult transit. That suggests we can look at the positive side of Mars, for most people. Mars is in Scorpio for the first time in two years, which is going to be either empowering, or stirring things up. Which is the case? And so on.

This is a good moment to review the recent phase three of "bonus eclipses" that just passed by, in the form of four planetary occultations and the Scorpio New Moon. I had predicted repeatedly that the second week of November would be a very interesting week, and of course when I say something like that, expectation is raised and we might expect Neil Young to walk on the Moon or the Titanic to float up from the depths.

In retrospect, it was predictable without astrology that there would be a surge of post-election news, for two reasons: one, the election was clogging up all the news desks; two, an incumbent administration always waits for an election to pass before doing something like the raid on Falluja, which happened to be one of the dominant stories of the past week. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be on the ground in Iraq, either as a soldier or a civilian, thinking: the president of the United States is waiting for the election to happen; then we might die, or lose our children?

This unusually bloody battle in a war where "major combat operations" are over, which 40-year veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas has said is totally unjustified, has basically destroyed the city. Falluja has been described as a hold-out for the "insurgency" -- that is, a place where the Iraquis -- who did nothing to us to provoke our attack -- were fighting back in defense of their homeland against the invaders. The U.S. amassed 15,000 troops to take the place. We know that double the usual number of American casualties are reported and we will never know the number of Iraqi casualties, civilian or otherwise. When you hear American commanders use words like "clean out," remember to substitute "kill."

The battle of Falluja happened entirely under the influences of these occultations.

In attempting to feel into the sensations of those who might support this battle, I am reminded of a little A Course in Miracleism: Only the guilty can attack.

Also, Yasser Arafat died. He was the long-time, one and only leader of the Palestinian people, and he died under the exact influence of Moon occult Mars in the 30th degree of Libra, an event that makes me want to sit with wise old Arab astrologers and discuss the significance of its symbolism. Were astrologers involved in the decision to disconnect the life support machines? Did that even happen? Arafat was certainly an edgy character and this astrology happened "on the edge."

It was incredibly apropos as well. As he was being buried at his compound in Ramallah, we were under the exact influence of the extreme waning Scorpio Moon conjunct Sun conjunct Hylonome, a new planet associated with grief processes.

While it may take some time to see the effects of Arafat's death (and, coincidentally, the sixty day mourning period required under Muslim law coincides with one day with the 60 day Mercury shadow, storm, retrograde, storm, shadow cycle that ends around Jan. 10) this is a major rearrangement of power in the Middle East, which is the center of the world stage, per prophesies of every shape, color and stripe.

The disappointment of this astrology was that there was no apparent shift in the situation regarding the stolen election, but news has slowly started to percolate around the Internet. The facts are coming in from Ohio and other states. But this does not have the satisfaction of a big blow-up, headlines that scream, ELECTION RIP-OFF! and so on. Even if there were an obvious way to "prove" that the election were stolen, do you think the papers would say something? Or do they, too, strive to be vindicated for letting Bush steal it last time?

I love the logic. Steal a piano and you're forgiven for stealing that violin four years ago.

Dick Cheney spent some time in the hospital, complaining of shortness of breath. With his health condition (four heart attacks beginning at age 37, quad bypass survivor, pacemaker user, artificially supported artery), doctors would be normally advising that the most psychologically strenuous activity such a patient should be engaging in is golf. Dick, I think you should take it easy. Your horses up in Wyoming miss you.

There's more to the picture than meets the eye. Let's keep at least one of them open and watching. That's why God gave us two.

--

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What ever happened to Dan Quayle? | Nov. 14, 2004

Those who were born long enough ago remember Vice President Dan Quayle. It was said that President Bush the First chose Quayle as a kind of life insurance policy; nobody would be cruel enough to inflict this man on the world as president. He was right about that, but then he gave us his first begotten son, George.

I often think of the affinity between these two men, who I would trade the ranch for the privilege of seeing debate. Some would say they were separated at birth. Maybe they each got half of the same brain; maybe Dan got a little extra.

What innocent days when we subscribed to the Quayle Quarterly to keep up with these dumb comments, and thought, "What a dork. Thank God he's not president."

Here are a few quotes I found on the web this morning. Cheers to the bondage between mother and child. Remember everyone, the future will be better tomorrow.

 Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/11/89

 Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/15/88

 I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89

 One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 12/6/89

 Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 11/30/88

 We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 I have made good judgments in the Past. I have made good judgments in the Future.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 The future will be better tomorrow.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/21/88

 People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle to Sam Donaldson, 8/17/89

 We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 Public speaking is very easy.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle to reporters in 10/88

 I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/20/92 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

 Murphy Brown is doing better than I am. At least she knows she still has a job next year.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/18/92

 We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/22/90

 For NASA, space is still a high priority.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/5/90

 Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 9/18/90

 The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 [It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle

 What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle winning friends while speaking to the United Negro College Fund

 Mars is essentially in the same orbit... somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is IN the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, September 1989

 You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the American Samoans, whose capital Quayle pronounces "Pogo Pogo"

 We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination of human rights.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans... I have heard a single voice.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

 I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle

If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.
 -- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the Phoenix Republican Forum, March 1990



Planet Waves Parenting


Paris, Nov. 13, 2004


Dear Friends and Clients:

In late summer, I spent a few weeks in Bamberg, Germany (in Bavaria), visiting my friend Maria, with whom I traveled in the summer of 1998. I hadn't seen Maria in four years and by now she had a little one named Theresa Sarah.

This was my first experience of getting to know an actual little kid (as an adult).

Well, I was floored.

I could not believe the intensity of her awareness, I wanted to understand all those sounds she was making, and I have never, ever felt a love so protective and embracing come from me toward anyone.

During the three weeks I was there, Theresa was nine months old; she had just learned how to stand up, and was in the phase where she would try to eat the coffee table. Watching her go crawling across the floor at full speed was, I don't have the word, cosmic. She would kind of breathe in rhythm to the crawling, vocalizing her enthusiasm. So this is what a little kid is! What a fragile little powerhouse.

Her eyes were pure love and curiosity.

Maria had a lot of questions about being a mom. She kept running them past me. Various psychological questions, stuff about her relationship with the dad, stuff about nursing, and questions about all the astrology charts involved. I spent a lot of time with everyone's charts, actually, and this seemed to be quite valuable information as it was coming into the space.

After having these discussions day after day for three weeks, it occurred to me that we might not be the only ones having them. And having decent information or a good working theory seemed so relevant to Theresa's life.

That's where the idea for Planet Waves Parenting came from. I've been mentioning this new newsletter project for a couple of months, warming up the territory as the saying goes, and now we have some tangible information for you, in the form of a letter explaining the project, and an invitation to pre-subscribe. That's at the link below.

Planet Waves Parenting will be a monthly Planet Waves newsletter that offers a hybrid of journalism on important parenting subjects, and articles about astrology of family, kid's charts, relationships, and the changes involved in growing up. It will take a little practice to establish the balance between the astrological and the non-astrological -- though I think we're going to lean toward the spiritual side of things. For example, yesterday I had the idea for an article on interpreting the dreams of small children as a tool for figuring out what's going on with them.

However, we have plenty of non-astrological plans, as you'll read. I have taken an interest in responsible babysitting, for example, and my friend Karen Pardini, a midwife and midwifery teacher in New York (as well as an EMT teacher and paramedic in training) has developed a database on how to train babysitters, all of which I can share with you.

Train babysitters? Gee, Karen that is brilliant. Were I going to leave my child with someone, I would want to know they knew exactly what to do in the event of a small or large situation. Karen sent along the whole Power-Point presentation and said, "Go for it."

Then there are the really big questions: what's the best way to help kids through these rather scary times we're living in? What are their concerns? How can we best meet their needs?

As an astrologer who has focused mainly on family situations (I never planned this, it's just what developed in the course of a very surprising and very short decade) I have quite a few findings to offer. Discoveries about family patterns; information about situations where there are two sets of caregivers (such as adoption); and how to read a child's chart from an advocacy standpoint and get a clear sense of what this child needs.

Like everything else at Planet Waves, the new PWP project is a publishing experiment and proposed adventure. We're going to take the lead of our subscribers whenever possible. Some of it will be written by a small team of freelance writers I've been recruiting the past few months, though I will be the editorial director and give everything my seal of approval before it goes in. I will be guided in this process by the various elders and teachers who I keep around me, and by the good judgment of the my friends on the Planet Waves staff.

And I'll be doing all the astrology writing -- including the Cosmic Child Horoscope, the first horoscope I know of about how kids are affected by the planets.

The first edition comes out around Jan. 10, 2005.

If you would like to pre-subscribe, please give Chelsea a call after 9 a.m. Eastern Time at (877) 453-8265. Or just respond to this email -- and I'll get you signed up. Gift subscriptions will be available, with holiday cards. Just let us know that's what you want.

Existing Planet Waves subscribers can sign up at a nice discount, and you can pass this discount onto your friends and loved ones.

Here is the link:

http://PlanetWavesParenting.net/

Very truly yours,

/efc/

Eric Francis
11:11 am in Paris


P.S., the lead article of the first issue will be about Growing Up Now. I will be circulating a letter soon asking parents to ask their children a few questions about what it's like to be a kid today, and hear it in their own words. All we'll need is the quote, their age, gender, and locale. Thank you!




  



Scorpio New Moon | Paris, Nov. 12, 2004, 4:16 p.m.

I watched the funeral of Yasser Arafat with some amazement, noticing how it coincided exactly with the Scorpio New Moon. Here were my comments in Planet Waves Weekly, which went out a little while ago:

One thing is certain, no matter what his personal legacy: thanks to him, the plight of the Palestinian people will never be forgotten. As I write, I am watching the arrival of Arafat's casket at his Ramallah headquarters amidst a vast surge of Palestinian humanity. This happens under the influence of the exact Scorpio New Moon, conjunct the centaur planet Hylonome. Scorpio is usually considered to be the sign of death and rebirth; Hylonome is a planet that is associated with grieving and the healing of grief. That this New Moon is taking place at the moment of Arafat's return to Ramallah is a positively stunning expression of astrological symbolism.

While it is taking place at the very end of the lunar cycle, this is also the seed moment in the history of the Palestinian tribe.

This seems to be such a strong horoscope and its alignment with world events so powerful that I think Arafat's passing will have effects that are far and wide. What a moment... what a few weeks in world history. I feel truly privileged to be a journalist and in a position to comment on these developments -- but I'm one sleepy journalist so I'm going to keep this a short entry today, bid farewell to someone who was clearly a champion of his people, and hope that they work things out in the Middle-East before Dr. Strangelove moves in on the place.

By the way -- have you seen that film? Most people have, but if you have not, you're in for a really amazing treat. It's in every video store from here to Timbuktu.

I'll catch you later, or tomorrow, with an announcement for the new newsletter we'll be creating, called Planet Waves Parenting.

For those who are thinking, hey this is a cool web site, you're invited to purchase a subscription, which supports all our efforts. If you can't afford one, we give them away free, so don't miss out. See our Terms of Service for more information, which is located on this link below. You can order by phone, email or Internet. To learn more, call toll free from the states, (877) 453-8265. Chelsea, our very friendly office manager will answer the phone and answer your questions.

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

Happy New Moon. It's a hot one -- and some fresh energy would be a great thing right now.

Yours,

Eric Francis



 Yasser Arafat | Paris, Nov. 11, 2004, 5:16 p.m.

"We are fighting because we want to live in peace."

So said the man who has waged war on Israel since 1964 and, among other things, was involved in the 1972 massacre of the Israeli Olympic team.

Still, so powerful a symbol of Palestinian freedom was he that he remains, if not unassailable, a puzzle that one somehow has to respect. However, he left the planet earlier this morning after spending about two weeks ailing at a military research hospital as a guest of the French government.

While three birth charts are recorded, there is probable birth data reported by an astrologer I consider reliable; I will link to that data below, for which no chart is displayed; see Aug. 24 chart.

Arafat's death chart, however, is not disputed. He died at 3:30 am on Nov. 11, 2004 in Paris. The chart is stunning.

In recent months I have written quite a lot about the Aries point and the June 21, 2001 total solar eclipse, which I consider to be the real chart for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks; you might say, the foundation chart. On numerous occasions, transits to this chart have brought developments in our knowledge and understanding of Sept. 11, and the unrelated but related Iraq war. This is in fact the first solar eclipse of the 21st century (there was a lunar eclipse in January 2001).

The total solar eclipse took place the first day of summer, thus in the first degree of Cancer. This is the same degree that's on the 10th house cusp of Arafat's death chart -- the house of admiralty, high office and authority.

The degree ascending in the Arafat death chart is the first degree of Libra. The cardinal points occupy all four angles: the first degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. The Aries Point (or by extension, any of the cardinal points) always brings in the larger public and has consequences and ramifications far beyond what is initially obvious.

[At the bottom, I'll add a link that helps explain why that might be, to a recent Planet Waves article.]

There is more.

This morning was the third of three occultations of planets by the Moon. You will see the third of these in the Arafat's death chart -- the Moon occulting Mars just in the last moments before Mars returns to its home sign, Scorpio. It actually occurred to me before going to bed that Arafat might die under this astrology; the potency of a Moon-Mars occultation combined with the last degree of Libra seemed to suggest that. Note that the Moon and Mars change signs within a very short time: the Moon at 6:06:05 am CET, and Mars at 7:10:55 am CET.

At the time of Arafat's death they are conjunct, applying, to 11 minutes of arc. I assure you that every astrologer in the Middle East is looking at this chart in amazement thinking: wow. Mars. Two other recent news events involving a Moon-Mars occultation involved the death of UK weapons expert David Kelly in early 2003, and the election of Arnie as governor of California seven months later.

Mars, as ruler of the 8th house (notice Aries on the cusp) represents the cause of death. At the very end of Libra, about to go into Scorpio, you could say that he had reached an endpoint, and that the world had reached the end of a cycle. At least the symbolism for an ending or death is strong in the chart.

Now here is something that you would have to be both an astrologer and a conspiracy freak to fully appreciate. Do we all remember that Bush was selected president the night of a Mercury station? And that this particular station was after Mercury had retrograded through Scorpio, and then dipped back into the very, very tippy edge of Libra, that is, at 29 degrees and 56 minutes? This happened just as the polls closed in Florida that night.

This was the exact location, within arc minutes, of the Moon-Mars occultation under which Arafat died.

If we put this chart around the Sept. 11 chart, we see stuff; Venus is exactly in the Ascendant of the Sept. 11 horoscope (which has 14 degrees and change rising). There are many other connections.

So here we have it: Arafat's death chart has some highly unlikely connections to the first selection chart of George W. Bush; to the pre-Sept. 11 total solar eclipse on the summer solstice; and to the Sept. 11 chart itself.

How interesting that Arafat died of "an unknown illness" amidst some of the most qualified physicians in the world. Maybe they should put "Moon occult Mars in the last degree of Libra" on the death certificate.

Arafat's death chart:
http://planetwaves.net/astrology/arafat.html

The Aries Point:
http://planetwaves.net/astrology/libram87.html

Arafat's birth charts (courtesy Astrodatabank):
http://www.astrodatabank.com/NM/ArafatYasser.htm

The Sept. 11, 2001 chart, with article:
http://www.ericfrancis.com/planetwaves/9eleven1984.html





Bruce | Nov. 10, 2004, 9:24 a.m.

One of the things I've taken from the campaign of 2004 has been Bruce Springsteen. I've always felt a deep connection to this man and I love the south Jersey beaches and boardwalks where so many of his early songs are set. This is where my mother Camille grew up -- in Asbury Park.I have has a friend named Jenny who as a teenager got into many of the early E Street Band shows because the bouncers kinda liked her. I have never seen him perform.

We have the same favorite novel -- The Grapes of Wrath, the only book I've read five times, which was the basis of my absolute favorite Springsteen album, Darkness on the Edge of Town ("The dogs on Main Street howl / Because they understand / If I could take one moment into my hands / Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man / And I believe in a promised land"). Steinbeck is pretty much why I'm a writer. All you really need is one person to point the way.

As Springsteen's career developed, his songs changed themes from his own rather Sagittarian quest for freedom -- Born to Run, for example ("These two lanes can take us anywhere") -- to recognizing the struggle of others who cannot break out of their own lives.

Lately I've been listening to songs from The River on the boxed set that I recently got at a local American record store. It took me a few times through before I really understood what the title song was about: a young man whose beloved girlfriend became pregnant and whose youth ended too soon. ("For my nineteenth birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat"). He is haunted by memories of what it was like to be alive and passionate. He remembers. His wife acts like it all never happened; that's how she deals with it.

Don't forget. Remember, because as long as you do, you have that passion and you can express your life force. If the river runs dry, go where there's water. Or go where there's fire.


Blog Archive Oct. 25 to Nov. 9