Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 "Back in a bit, hang loose, the Full Moon has passed and I've noticed that a lot of the tension is out of the air. Any similar experiences, or different?" "Well, yes and no," writes Kyla. I have to agree. This has been one of those weeks that proves astrology true. Basic things have been rather different than normal. The Full Moon and a Mercury station, which I forgot to mention was and is square Uranus (Mercury in Sagg and Uranus in Pisces). Sometimes when you get hung up on the minor planets (as I did in Friday's edition, talking about Mercury conjunct Ixion) it's possible to either miss, or miss mentioning, a major planet aspect. Fortunately there is enough redundancy in the symbolism that one usually covers for the other -- but a Mercury station square Uranus is pretty demented. Shall we say surprising? What I have noticed most about this week is how just about every routine has been blown. One of the ways I write what I do is I keep to routines, and an intense schedule where I pretty know what I've got to do every day, in theory anyway. This week the whole thing was taken out of circulation, up for grabs, etc. Which I do not mind because the grind gets tired and the best way to keep my creativity fresh is to do things differently and occasionally from a different place. So on one level, I had the chance to completely ignore my usual early-week horoscope writing schedule; instead, I began work, with help from some very capable astrologers, on my (personally) long awaited project of delineating the first seven named Centaur planets (Chiron, Nessus, Pholus, Asbolus, Hylonome, Chariklo and Pylenor). As Kyla mentioned, she interpreted, "Back in a bit" as, "Back in, a bit"! That's a good one. Of note, not everyone handles this kind of energy gracefully. Turning up the heat a bit more, we are still under a Mars retrograde; a grand fixed cross is fading in and out of existence; and Chiron, Nessus and Pholus are changing signs (into Aquarius, Aquarius and Sagittarius, respectively, this time for good). Pluto, also of note, is direct and headed for a very close encounter with the Galactic Core. Jupiter is about to make an exact square to Saturn for the first time in 14 years. These are things astrologers look back on and notice many years later. I mentioned yesterday that I've begun to interpret Mercury retrograde as "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Over the weekend I noticed that my Canon Eos digital camera was starting to act weird in the download photos mode. There are a lot of variables as to why that could be: the computer, the software, the cable, or the camera. Finally, through about two days of deductive logic, I figured out that it was one CompactFlash card that was the common thread. But by then it was too late: I had filled the card with 259 photos in a session on Tuesday evening. And there was no way those pictures were coming off the card any regular way. There's a good photo store in my neighborhood (very friendly, that's 51% of "good") and Alexander there took the card, put it into his PC's card reader and said, nothing shows up. I assured him I could see the photos when the card was in the camera. He said they'd had a lot of trouble with 1gb cards, so I bought a 512mb card to replace it, as well as a card reader (small investment of 29 euros that I planned, in part, as a Mercury retrograde experiment) and got a theory. Maybe I just needed to delete a couple of photos from the card and it would work; full disks are not happy disks, and though I've filled CF cards in the past, this one happened with Mercury retrograde, so the problem surfaced. Merc Rx is a great time to find out what is wrong and, acting minimally, to repair the weak spots in any system. Anyway I went home, deleted five pictures; took one new one for good measure; and the card's contents appeared and a lot of artwork that could not, in truth, ever have been replicated was saved. Then, right after downloading the card, the hard drive on my laptop filled up -- a warning I have never personally seen until yesterday. So, I carefully backed up about 10 gigs onto my external drive and deleted some materials. Regarding whether France is friendly. Yasmin Boland (basically, my neighbor over in the 7th Arronod; I am in the 5th; we do think it's funny and/or some bizarre past life thing that two Cainerite astrologers landed within about 2km of one another, coming from opposite ends of the Earth [Tasmania via Sydney and New York City via Seattle]) commented about how friendly Paris is, how it's the land of saying hello on the streets. Yaz, I believe you! It is true that different people have different reactions to a place and often see it as totally distinctive than others. It's amazing how unique each response is, and how some people just have a deep sense of belonging somewhere -- or not. I actually meet people who say Amsterdam is full of assholes and is a ratty, boring town, and when I go there, the energy seems friendly, open, it's the most fun I usually have anywhere...and this can have to do with how our personal chart interacts with a locale, or what you were accustomed to growing up; or many other factors. (My Pluto rising line goes through Amsterdam to the degree.) Also, I hear from a lot of women how they don't like how much attention they get from men in Paris; I have never heard a guy complain that he doesn't like how much attention he gets from women (anywhere, and if one said so, everyone would start laughing). And I say to the ladies, "You took an hour to get yourself together, you look great. You think nobody's going to notice you?" This is not Spain, Miami or the Bronx where the vibes from men are expected to be a lot more high-energy, ranging from assertive personal approaches to horn honking to catcalls. Things seem pretty darned subdued here to me; pretty courtly for Planet Earth in the 21st century. People really do say mesdames and messieurs in their hyper-polite singsong tone. In response to comments about the riots being a reaction to the repression of France, yes. I see this as a direct uprising against that 'hold yourself in' attitude, at least as done in Paris. (Other parts of France are VERY different -- particularly Brittany). And it seems to be a very good sign, that society is moving from underneath, and that a fire has been lit under the government. Regarding the creatives we associate with this town, it is true that Paris nurtures expression, but note as well that most of the great artists and writers who have come through have indeed been doing just that: Hemingway, Joyce, etc., etc., etc. Of the artists at 59, rue de Rivoli, a cooperative-artists' squat (search photo gallery please), I would say about half were born outside France (many, however were born here). This town does push people who show up here to flourish in their creativity, but in many ways French culture nurtures and enhances something in outsiders that is not exactly nurtured in those who started here. I am also pretty sure it would not be so supportive to outsiders if the typically banal social scene was available to everyone. It is not quite available; Paris culture envies its visitors while accepting them (psychologically) only reluctantly. And the way to get art and writing done is specifically NOT to sit in a café talking from 7 pm till midnight. But for sure, there is an energy here that I have noticed pushes me out of my shell, and I find it a very easy place to focus on what needs to be done. And it nice being able to go out for eggs at 3 a.m. Do I like Paris? After more than a year -- yes. It has been a challenging adjustment, but at least it happened (it never happened in the Seattle area). I have more friends who are sticking in town, I'm getting over the culture shock, getting better at understanding what people are saying to me, it's great to be in a big city, and the world is changing fast. It's about to get faster, as Chiron and Nessus make their full conjunction, and as Jupiter and Saturn form their once-per-14 years square aspect. ---------- Parallel Worlds... http://planetwaves.net/charts/parallel_worlds_charts/ HERE IS a little preview of Parallel Worlds, the 2006 annual edition of Planet Waves. This is the chart section that it's taken a team of four of us about two months to pull together. We'll also be adding a minor planet ephemeris lookup, with one click. The real question is: what does it all mean??? Parallel Worlds will be the eighth annual edition of Planet Waves. It's included with ALL subscriptions. This is a full Web page, now in development, that includes extended write-ups for every sign; overviews of the year's astrology, into 2007, by myself and several other writers; a Mayan astrology report; an archive of 2005 birthday reports; and articles on a variety of news topics, from the state of water on the planet to avian influenza; and many more little lights, whistles and LCD displays. There will be a review of 2005 astrology as well. Parallel Worlds is included with every subscription to Planet Waves. You can subscribe or renew here: http://planetwavesweekly.com/sales/home.html