Tuesday, July 11, 2006 | Astrology & Dad >> PHOTO http://www.planetwaves.net/home/joe.html THANK you for all your good wishes re. my dad, who was able to undergo a minimally invasive form of mitral valve repair yesterday morning. No need for a replacement (such as a pig valve or artificial valve) or to do the surgery in the conventional way -- it was done orthoscopically by somebody who is apparently pretty good at the procedure. It is definitely a specialty. They don't know what method they can use till they try it orthoscopically and if it won't work, they they have to be ready for open heart surgery. When my dad gave me the date of the surgery a few weeks ago, I covered the astrology this way. I said 1. I'll check for you, and if I see something I consider to be a serious red light, I'll tell you. 2. I'll give it to a more experienced astrologer to check. So, with his consent, that's what I did; and the astrology checked out (by two other astrologers) well enough to qualify for no serious red lights. No day is perfect, and electional astrology is challenging because there are always so many little obstacles. It happens that there's a lot of Chiron in his chart right now, which is an image that fits surgery well (in French, it's called chirurgie). On the human rather than stellar level, I listened for how confident he felt; listened to the story of how he picked his surgeon; called my brother for a vibe check, who said everything felt fine to him; and then made sure that a few people close to me were aware of what was happening, all of whom have a knack for prayer. Heart surgery counts as a trip past the exit ramp. A lot of things do, but heart surgery qualifies for sure. So, what I said to my dad is: make sure you decide, i.e., if you want to be here, then decide to be here. We all have a lot to work out on this planet. It's not such an easy place to be, and we don't exactly live in the most encouraging time of history. So I imagine that unless you feel like you've got a lot of work to do, or you're having an amazing time in life, the temptation exists get someplace that feels better. I have not talked to too many people around my dad yet; Chelsea got the call from a cousin that he was doing well, and I spoke briefly yesterday with one of his ex-lovers. But the feeling that's been growing over the past few days is that he and a bunch of other people close by have affirmed that despite the challenges, this is the place to be, and it was beautiful to watch, feel and experience. Thanks to everyone who has been holding the light the past 48 hours.