Friday, Dec. 9, 2005 Pod sends in this link: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article331947.ece ...which is just one example of how outrageously devoid of any responsibility the Iraq war is, from top to bottom, from the first life lost to the last, from the first dollar spent to the last. When we hear Dub talk about "staying the course," is this the course he's talking about? Please don't miss Steve Bergstein's insightful essays on John Lennon at Psychsound (linked from main homepage), and thanks to Anatoly for yesterday's Lennon montage on the cover. Our continuous news feed is available at: http://planetwaves.info/info.php The article below is from today's Planet Waves Weekly. The Planets and the Moon Mercury is direct and working out of the "storm" phase of the station. After a Mercury station, it always takes time to get accustomed to the new quality of energy, and as the little varmint picks up speed, there may be a flurry of after-retrograde effects, some of which will be surprising solutions to situations that emerged before or during the backslide. We will have one more shift associated with this cycle when Mercury re-enters Sagittarius on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Mars stations direct in Taurus VERY soon, the morning of Saturday, Dec. 10 in Europe and late the night of Friday, Dec. 9 in the United States. In Australia, it's the evening of Dec. 10. So, for the next week or two, with the Moon waxing and many other changes in progress, we are under the influence of the Mars station. Mars stations are intense, and in Taurus, the station direct can possess much of the hologram of the entire retrograde process, particularly on a global scale. This phenomenon was covered in an excellent article called "Whole Mars Review" by Arwynne O'Neill on Planet Waves, which I will link to below. Note that Mars leaves Taurus and enters Gemini on Feb. 18, just as the Sun enters Pisces. The first three Centaur planets are now in their new signs, to stay: Chiron is in Aquarius, Nessus is in Aquarius, and Pholus is in Sagittarius. Asbolus, the fourth centaur, remains retrograde in the first degree of Aries, heading back to Pisces for a bit before returning to Aries. I cover this in last week's Astrology Secrets Revealed. There is a Full Moon exactly aspecting Pluto on Dec. 15. This happens with the Sun applying in a conjunction to Pluto and the Moon opposing it. Coincidentally, this is the same day that Venus enters Aquarius and makes a conjunction to Chiron -- aspecting three other Centaurs in the process. That is a LOT of Venus energy, and a lot of Centaur being related (as often happens with an inner planet) directly through Venus. And, as you will read in the combined Planet Waves essay - Astrology Secrets Revealed (above), the Sun is now passing over the Galactic Core, adding to the whole effect. Here is the link to Whole Mars Review: http://planetwaves.net/contents/whole_mars_review.html