Astrology in May 2013 - On The Threshold of an Penumbral Lunar Eclipse at 5 Sagittarius-Gemini

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 21 May 2013, 5:20 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Because we’re having a rare event of three Eclipses in a 29 day span, it’s obviously an intense time! However, these Eclipses are not all the same in duration and effect. Today we begin the Gemini-Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse series. This one’s the Third High Moon of Spring, known as “the Christ Fest.”

Though I gave some of this to you a short while ago, I’ll remind you again that it's always good to remember that no eclipse of itself is "bad," nor do we have anything to fear. There is a lot of superstition about Eclipses, mostly focusing on "dreadful" or difficult elements that often seem to accompany them. However, while all eclipses take something away and/or shut something down, an Eclipse can have beneficial effects if we just know "when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to walk away, and when to run."

What’s included in this post was also relevant in the recent Lunar Eclipse Wesak Festival on April 25-26 at 6 Taurus-Scorpio, as well as the recent Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus. Though this Full Moon is considered the “Vesak” celebration of the Buddha’s birthday in many areas in the East that use Sidereal astrological positions, for our purposes this Full Moon of Gemini-Sagittarius is the Christ Fest, where the World Teacher takes the “wisdom form” set into motion at the Wesak and distributes it to the world as a spiritual teaching for the rest of the year.

The Three High Moons this year include the Full Moon at 7 Aries-Libra, the Wesak Eclipse at 6 Taurus-Scorpio, and this Christ Fest Eclipse at 5 Gemini-Sagittarius. The first showed as the Life force for the year, the second set this year’s “Buddha wisdom” into motion, and this one will distribute it to the world.

The Wesak Eclipse will be particularly strong for just over 3 months, and still affect the entire year. This Eclipse is very short in duration, and in fact will only show Eclipse effects for about 2 weeks, the normal influence for a Full Moon. The recent Solar Eclipse will show effects for 45 months.

Eclipses are both dreaded and misunderstood recurring phenomena. Solar Eclipse effects last for several years, while Lunar Eclipse effects last for a few months.

This Penumbral Lunar Eclipse is also the fulfillment of the recent New Moon in Taurus. This “Christ Fest” or “World Teacher” Full Moon happens on May 24, 9:25 pm PDT, 12:25 am EDT May 25, and 5:25 am Greenwich Daylight time on May 25. It will last 33+ minutes, showing an influence that will last about 16-17 days. This is an Eclipse with a VERY short duration. In fact, the recent Wesak Eclipse, which will show Eclipse effects for about 3 ½ months, will still be in play after this Gemini-Sag Full Moon Eclipse fades.

Today we'll discuss a lot about eclipses in general and a little about this one. In following articles I'll elaborate on the Astro-physics of the phenomenon, who is most affected by this Eclipse, symbols, aspects, patterns, and what we can expect from this Penumbral Lunar Eclipse at 5 Gemini-Sagittarius.

Even if you already read this over the past several weeks, I’ll take this moment to offer that I've composed quite a few articles on past eclipses in the archives that bear re-visiting, since the Solar Eclipses of 2010, 2011, and 2012 are still manifesting results, if traditional Eclipse lore is to be believed. (The July 2009 Eclipse effects just ended in December, while the January 2010 Solar Eclipse will still be in play through September 2013).

Core material about the timeline of Eclipse effects can be found in the article, The Solar Eclipse - What It Means and Its Effect On Our Life, as well as many other elements of what we can expect from these recurring celestial events. Links to recent eclipses are at the bottom of this article.

Also, here's another important article explaining even more about what effects we can expect to result from Lunar and Solar Eclipses. For your reconsideration, The Solar and Lunar Eclipse - Is Any Eclipse Destined to Have Bad Effects?

To whet your appetites, here is a bit from the article:

There is a lot of fear and trepidation connected to Eclipses, an unfortunate leftover from previous centuries when Eclipses were believed to augur the fall of empires, dynasties, and powerful people anywhere the Eclipse shadow fell. While Eclipses do tend to shut down some elements in the area of life (house) in which they fall, this is not necessarily a bad thing, since we must bring some things to an end if we are to embrace newer, better ways of doing our Being. While the future effects of an Eclipse may be powerful, in that they last over a long period, they are not necessarily bad.
No Astrological event need be "bad," or have "evil" effects, regardless of whether we're using Vedic, Chinese, Western, or any other approach to defining "All-That-Is" within a precise system of space-time factors. Though a circumstance may seem to have "bad" omens for the future, we can always transcend any negativity and turn the future to beneficent possibilities. No matter where an Eclipse falls, we can turn it to good.

Here it is important to remember Astrology is NOT a "predictive" art, in the usual way this is understood. The craft is less deterministic than most believe, including we professional Astrologers who seem to be able to "hit the mark" regarding future manifestations.

Pattern is everything, and time is a continuity. By knowing the past and present, we can often extrapolate the future. But we can never know how a being will respond to any given life challenge, whether pleasant or painful. Each has their ability to respond as they choose in the moment.

This directly related to the concept that each planet has a duality of function. It is up to us to determine whether the Moon, Sun, Mercury or any other planet involved in eclipses, "bad" aspects, configurations and other phenomena manifests productively or non-productively.

To remind you, a square can be more productive than a trine, and an opposition can produce awareness. Polarization is only a problem on the ego level. Seen from a higher angle, oppositions are necessary for us to acquire objectivity and the ability to encompass duality within a higher view.

By all means, check out the entire article, since I explained how past eclipses affected my chart, and gave examples of the good that can come after an eclipse removes old patterns. This Penumbral Lunar Eclipse in Gemini-Sagittarius active for the next two weeks as an Eclipse and the World Teaching over the next year will show us the light and power of “reaching beyond established forms,” where the ideas we have that have been “bound in form” will show us other views and other realities.

This will lead us to a “translucid wisdom,” as well as a peace and poise in expressing whatever higher awareness we value. This takes the power of our ability to live our lives on multiple levels and find fulfillment and happiness on all of them expressed as a guardianship, concentrated in becoming good “bridge builders” expressed as tearing ourselves away from the known and familiar, and gives us the light of efficiency, sympathy, and reform expressed as “mellow judgment,” confidence, self-worth, and poise. This will shut down old Gemini and Sagittarius energy and open new potential wherever we have 5 Gemini-Sag in our charts.

This one will bring new discoveries in dimensions previously unknown to our minds, and those who can go deeper, understanding the role the subconscious mind plays in what’s going on, will find high specialization and interpretive gifts coming to them. This Eclipse has many quintiles, showing multiple opportunities to expand along lines we’ve prepared for since September-October 2012.

This is where “the God within” is showing us how to rouse our intention to grow and expand in some integral way wherever we have 20-23 Gemini. This Eclipse will be brief and intense in its effects, and while some things will explode beyond the old form, on the whole this will be an incredibly beneficial in opening us to new views, new ideas, new interpretations, and new ways to envision what we want to see presented to us in the near future.

Though ideas and communications will be prominent, deciding and acting are how we will approach the issues presented these next two weeks (and teaching of the year). This is a time to examine old ideas and approaches and get rid of those views that do not serve the expanding future. This is a time of multilevel integration practices, where we can allow our minds to be vehicles for the Soul, finding self-confidence in our Spiritual awareness cultivated up to now. Whatever is taken away will leave us with a sense of peace and poise.

Whatever is stripped away will leave a void to be filled with more diverse understanding and views that help us to achieve a “Soulful state of mind,” so as with other Eclipses, learn to hold the empty space with patience and a sense of attracting what you need “to perfect the great work” between late June and mid-November 2013.

It will bring a greater awareness around recent and current losses, and show us the power of holding the void. Whatever is shut down by this Penumbral Lunar Eclipse creates a space for new ideas, new interpretation of truths or philosophical understanding, and new views that can help us get new ways of communicating, freed of old mental concepts and complexes.

We’ll be tested on these things on June 5, 6, and 7, when Mars transits this Eclipse Sun. So whatever Gemini functions are shut down will bring new activity quickly, these in some way related to developments, ideas, lessons, and discoveries of late June and early July 2012 that were set into motion in February 2013.

All Eclipses radically transform areas affected by the planetary positions, so look to where you have 5 Gemini and 5 Sagittarius to see what will be shut down over the next two weeks. Those life areas will yield alternative views and a new higher understanding. Those who have been clear about role, function, and precise imagery should see “the appearance of the Beloved on the balcony of consciousness.” Given the nodes, we “gain through loss,” and will need to go deeper to understand how to clean out images in the subconscious mind that do not serve our need for spiritual self-mobilization.

In this “World Teaching” Penumbral Lunar Eclipse at 5 Sagittarius-Gemini, we see the most important factors are Mercury and Venus conjunct Jupiter, with all quintile Uranus. The Lunation forms a Mutable T-square with Neptune, releasing energy into early Virgo. All T-squares hold integrative promise, and in this case it deals with our relationship to collective consciousness and the common feelings we share with all others through all time.

This one will help us mobilize toward getting clear about the roles we’re playing, the roles we’re NOT playing, and move us into the step plan of our work. We will need imagination, a way to assimilate what we’ve seen and learned with new things we’re seeing and learning, and this should provide us with skill in the precise use of doing what needs to be done “to win a prize or a free ride.” Pay attention to details, work the routine while getting a new view and understanding, and you should be able to mobilize in natural ways while seeing the manifestation of some heart’s desire you’ve held up to now.

Wherever we have Gemini is the focus of Light, Life, and expansion into greater views, and the houses where we have Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Pisces will see tremendous growth these next two weeks. Go as deep as you need to over the next two weeks, and you could see some things about subconsciousness that will help you to a deeper inner knowing and trust. More to come in future articles.

More on the Solar Eclipses of 2011 and 2012

Though 2012 was no slouch in terms of Eclipse effects, 2011 was a rare year that offered us 6 Eclipses in one year, 4 Solar and 2 Lunar. We had the first Partial Solar Eclipse in January, we had the second one June 1-2, the third one on July 1, and a final one November 24-25! The 2 Lunar Eclipses were also Total Eclipses, following what we saw in December 2010.

While the Lunar Eclipses are no longer in force, the 4 Solar Eclipses of 2011 will affect us for a long time to come, so take a look at the numerous January, June, July, and November 2011 Eclipse articles in the archives. While you’re at it, you may also want to review the articles on the 2012 Solar Eclipses, since they’re also still in major play at the present time and into the future. Some links are at the bottom of this page.

The Solar Eclipses of January and June 2011 brought blessings upon us since they happened. We've simply been challenged to let go of old life patterns that no longer serve the emergent Archetypes we've been living the past two years. Due to such things as the Grand Irrationality and the various Cardinal T-squares and Crosses set up by Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn, we're all going through major changes that will affect our lives for many years. It may have been a wild ride, but power and new potentials have resulted from our choices.

Since the past is prologue to the future, those who prepared, learned, and allowed themselves to be moved into new ways of relating to others in 2011 have found in 2012 an activation of a concrete higher power or value they can trust. Those who have not shown kindness and understanding at critical junctures in the past three years have reaped consequences. Our ability to become an elegant and balanced Spiritual Warrior has been put to the test in diverse ways, and 2011 made clear the consequences for seeking what we have sought.

In 2012 we had two Solar Eclipses. The first one in May was Annular, whereas the one on November 13-14 was a Total Solar Eclipse at 22 Scorpio. We also had two Lunar Eclipses. The one on June 4 was a Partial Lunar Eclipse at 15 Sagittarius/Gemini, and marked the "Christ Fest," the third of the 3 "High Moons" of Spring. The Lunar Eclipse on November 28 was a Penumbral Eclipse that fell at 7 Gemini/Sagittarius. That Eclipse showed effects through mid-March 2013. Please check the archives to find out more if you’re so inclined.

Though there are always endings associated with any Eclipse, these open the space we need to align with Spirit in natural and productive ways. Take a new look to see what really matters and what you do and do not want to bring with you into the new world you're already living.

We've all blasted off into new realms in the past couple of years, and now are moving into a time of stabilizing our long term plans. This Eclipse helps us open to new ideas and perspectives leading us to a greater peace, poise, and wisdom.

See you soon with more on this 2013 Gemini-Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse!

To check out the June 2011 Solar and Lunar Eclipses and their influences, here's Important Cosmic Influences Happening in late June and July 2011. The January eclipses can be found in the corresponding archives.

For more about the November 2011 Solar Eclipse with links to the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse, please check out The Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius November 24-25, 2011 Pt. 3 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means. (You can follow the internal links in this article to the previous articles about this specific Eclipse.)

For more about the May 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse, here’s The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21 2012 Pt. 3 (You can follow the internal links in this article to the previous articles about this specific Eclipse.)

For more about the 2012 Scorpio Total Solar Eclipse, here’s The Total Solar Eclipse at 22 Scorpio Nov 13-14, 2012 Pt. 3 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means. (You can follow the internal links in this article to the previous articles about this specific Eclipse.)

For more about the recent Taurus Annular Solar Eclipse, please go into the archives, as there are quite a few articles explaining how this will impact all of us over the next 45 months.

Astrology and Carl Jung: Part 3, Seeking Answers in the Paranormal

Astrology Explored 21 May 2013, 2:19 pm CEST

(Astrology Explored) Note: As my Facebook friends know I have reentered college to finish up my degree in psychology. As part of one class I wrote this paper on the influence of astrology on Carl Jung. Jung is widely embraced in the astrological world because his theories on archetypes, which he used to create a therapeutic model, fits neatly with the symbolic language of astrology.

Part One–The Influence of Astrology on Carl Jung

Part Two–Jung’s Childhood

When he was a twenty-three old medical student, two paranormal events, a walnut table splitting suddenly in two and steel knife that shattered spontaneously while in a closed drawer was said to influence his decision to enter psychiatry. However, even before these events, Jung attended and even initiated séances, (Main, 1997) a cultural fad in the late 19th and early 20th century. His doctoral thesis was on “The Psychology and Pathology of So Called Occult Phenomena” which featured his cousin as the medium. (Main, 1997). But rather than affirm the paranormal experiences of the feminine side of his family, he chose instead to announce through his thesis that mediumistic experiences were the result of psychological processes rather than paranormal events.

During the first decade of his career he continued his research into séances (Main 1997) and unconscious psychic states and explored dream symbolism (Campbell 1971) and mythology with Freud (Noll 1997).

A letter from Jung to Freud in 1910 gives a hint as to what drew Jung into astrology. Freud and Jung were at that time engaged in a discussion of the symbolism of the ancient mystery religion of Mithrasism. “Mithras (‘s) . . . left knee is on the back of the bull, pinning it down. With his left hand, he is pulling the head of the bull back by its nostrils, and with his right hand he is slaying the bull by plunging a dagger or sword into its neck.  Mithras’s cape . . . depicted seven stars — the seven planets known to the ancient world” (Noll 1997).

Jung and Freud didn’t agree on the meaning of the Mithraic symbols mostly likely because they had intense personal meaning for Jung. Jung and Freud both recognized was that the Mithraic religion was rooted in astronomical observation. By the process of precession, that is the movement of the spring equinox through zodiac by virtue of the wobble of the earth upon its axis, the vernal equinox moved into the constellation of Taurus . This observation led the stoics to “hypothesize the existence of a new divinity responsible for this new cosmic phenomenon, a divinity capable of moving the structure of the entire cosmos and thus a divinity of great power.” Mithras was this deity, and he is seen killing the bull because the act symbolizes the ending of the cosmic age in which Mithraism was born” (Noll, 1997).

In 1911 Antonia Wolff entered Jung’s life as his assistant. According to Noll she taught Jung astrology. From that point on Jung engaged in a serious study of astrology, and may have done so to specifically to decipher Mithraic symbolism (Noll,1997).

Noll tells us, “In early 1912, Jung connected the Mithraic tauroctony with the astrological sign Taurus and with sexuality in a very suggestive footnote to the section on which the tauroctony is discussed in detail.” When Noll attempted to decipher the meaning of the dream, he speculated that the bull represented Freud, whose zodiac (sun) sign was Taurus. What most, except Jung, did not realize was that Taurus, the bull, was the zodiac sign Jung’s moon occupied on the day of his birth. For astrologers the moon represents the feminine, intuitive aspect of the individual, and specifically the individual’s mother. Given the relationship between Jung and his mother, Mithras, the intense male god figure who overthrew the reign of the Taurus bull, would have represented for Jung the male subjugation of an overshadowing and frightening female figure.

Thus in one symbolic insight, Mithras does for Jung what Jung can’t do for himself. Mithras subdues the ferocious mother figure.

Jung wrote a number of years later:

“There are mythological theories that explain everything coming from the sun and lunar theories that do the same for the moon. This is due to the simple fact there are countless myths about the moon, among them a whole host in which the moon is wife of the sun. The moon is the changing experience of the night, and thus coincides with the primitive’s sexual experience of woman . . . The moon, too, is a disturber of sleep, and is also the abode of departed souls, for at night the dead returns in dreams and the phantoms of the past terrify the sleepless. (Campbell, 1971).

Jung’s childhood seems to be summed up in the above paragraph. His sleep was disturbed by paranormal images of his mother, represented in astrology by the moon. Here we see why Jung ascribed the role of the moon as the “disturber of sleep”. The paranormal experiences Jung associated with his mother, the dead and phantom images, terrified him as a child. Astrology held the answers for what he yearned to understand.

References

Campbell, J. (ed) (1971) The portable Jung, Chapter 2, The Stucture of the Psyche, p.41 Viking Penquin Inc. New York, New York

Main, R. (1997). Jung on synchronicity and the paranormal. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press.

Noll, R. (1997) The aryan Christ: the secret life of Carl Jung, Random House, New York.

RIP Ray Manzarek

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 21 May 2013, 12:18 am CEST

Talk about Uranus square Pluto! Another 60s icon bites the dust. The keyboardist for the Doors just checked out and left the building. Will do a tribute in the near future. Birth and death data in comments, along with critical points in his career.

A Happy 2013 Video Birthday to the Awesome Joe Cocker (and Cher!)

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 20 May 2013, 9:00 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Today we celebrate the 69th birthday of a vocal force of Nature, the legendary Joe Cocker. Waving arms, roaring vocals, and a look that could come from a bar brawl rather than a stadium stage, this guy is one for the ages!

It's also Cher's birthday. I have included a brief tribute at the end of the Joe Cocker birthday celebration featuring some of her most famous tunes with Sonny, and 2 complete shows from Las Vegas where she shows a diamond polish! For now, though, we'll postpone the polished diamond and celebrate a very rough uncut stone(r)!

Joe Cocker (20 May 1944) has certainly been blessed with some of the best backing musicians around! Jimmy Page was a contributor to his studio versions of "Marjorine" and "With A Little Help From My Friends," as was Procol Harem's drummer, BJ Wilson. In his touring band he had Henry McCullough, who later went on to play in Paul McCartney's Wings, and by 1969-1971 was part of the rolling party known as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" with Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, Jim Keltner, Jim Gordon, Bobby Keys, and a host of other top shelf musicians.

Joe has given us some amazing interpretations of other people's songs, and so without further delay, here's Joe Cocker!

We begin with his 1968 single, set to a still drawing of Joe back when.

"Marjorine"

From 1969, the studio version set to stills of Leon Russell's "Delta Lady"

Here's the set that introduced the world to his thrashing and flailing on stage! From the 1969 original Woodstock festival, here are live performances of:

"Something's Coming On"

"Let's Go Get Stoned"

And the set closer, "With A Little Help From My Friends."

From 1970, some great live performances at the Fillmore East and other venues by Mad Dogs and Englishmen with occasional montages courtesy of the DVD! And yes, it’s more or less in order of the set list.

First, the intro to the movie! “The Ballad of Mad Dogs and Englishmen”

“Darlin’ Be Home Soon”

"Please Give Peace A Chance"

"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"

"Space Captain"

"The Letter"

"Delta Lady"

Here's the band jamming in a bar after the show!

"Lawdy Miss Clawdy"

Speaking of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, here’s the entire 1 hour 42 minute show in NYC! Mad Dogs and Englishmen Live at the Fillmore East 1970

More great live performances!

From November 1969, "Something"

"You Are So Beautiful" live at Montreux in 1987.

From nearly unplugged, another version of "You Are So Beautiful"

From The Tour For A.R.M.S, live at Madison Square Garden on 9 December 1983, Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker doing "Worried Life Blues"

From the Best of Joe Cocker Live,

"Unchain My Heart"

"Cry Me A River"

From Berlin in Oct 1980, Joe live performing his own unique version of “A Whiter Shade of Pale”

From 1983 with Jennifer Warnes, Joe's Grammy award winning "Up Where We Belong"

Live from Detroit in 1987, "When A Man Loves A Woman"

At the Prince's Trust in 1988, "The Letter"

Joe Cocker in Berlin 1992 doing "Feelin' Alright"

Live from Dortmund, Germany in 1992, here’s Joe live performing “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word”

From Baden-Baden Germany in 1996, here’s Joe belting out the great Stevie Winwood tune from his Blind Faith days, “Can’t Find My Way Home”

From the AVO session, Joe live performing the John Lennon classic “Something”

Here are more Joe Cocker interpretations set to pictures and videos.

"I Put A Spell On You"

"Ain't No Sunshine"

“Everybody Hurts”

“Don’t Let The Sun Go Down”

From the Queen's Golden Jubilee in Buckingham Palace Garden on 3 June 2002, an all star line up with Steve Winwood on organ, Pino Palladino on bass, Phil Collins on drums, Bryan May on guitar, and Joe doing vocals on a great version of "With A Little Help From My Friends."

We'll close today's birthday celebration with another song from that show featuring Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker & Eric Clapton doing John Lennon's timeless anthem, "All You Need is Love"

Joe Cocker's official web site

A most happy and merry to you, Mister Joe Cocker. Even after all these years, your voice is amazing!

ps - Today is also the birthday of the fabulous Cher (May 20, 1946). While I don't have time to do a full tribute this year, here are a few links you may enjoy!

From Can't Miss TV, A page with the highlights of Cher's life and career.

Her biggest hit, and the theme for one of my favorite movies, "Groundhog Day." With Sonny in 1965, here they are live doing "I Got You Babe"

From the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, here they are live doing "The Beat Goes On"

"Baby Don't Go"

From the early 70s, "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves"

Here's a pretty outrageous music video of Cher performing "Half Breed"

Here's an entire 90 minute concert of Cher Live in Las Vegas

And from 2011, another 92 minute concert of Cher Live at the Colosseum

Astrology of Destiny in May and June 2013 – Venus and Mercury Now Triggering the Grand Irrationality

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 20 May 2013, 7:00 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

We now begin entering an extremely important period! Not only are we in the thick of Uranus square Pluto, Venus has now begun to trigger the Grand Irrationality!

In many respects, this is a "final exam" of seeing what we've let go of since June 2011, and appreciating the value of those actions. At that point a Solar Eclipse set major endings into motion in everyone's lives, and no doubt we've all seen the ending of many "ghosts of the past."

Venus has now crossed over the Eclipse degree, and is now entering a triseptile to Pluto for the next few days, By May 22 it will be fully active as it enters the biseptile with Neptune, and Mercury, having also transited the Eclipse degree, will begin to triseptile Pluto. This will lead many to important events wherever we have Gemini, the houses ruled by Taurus, Gemini, Virgo, and Libra, and of course, any house where we have a planet or angle in any of the seven zones activated by this configuration.

I explained more about this important time of choices, changes, critical information coming that will shift the trajectory of many destinies, or alternatively, show the emergence of what we've been preparing for these past two years, whether we knew it or not. If you have any planets or angles in any of the 7 "hot zones" not being set into motion by Mercury and Venus, this week is sure to be a big one for you!

You can find out more by going to The Grand Irrationality in May and June 2013 – Jupiter Leaving, Setting Up Triggers. In that article I explain the process of what's being triggered and when by these planets and the Moon. Those triggers are now being activated, and will continue to be for the next 6 weeks via the Sun transiting that degree span followed by Mars.

It's an important time of important developments, so get ready, and move with the flow! It's time to be a good surfer!!

A Most Huge 2013 Video Birthday to A Musical Genius, Peter Townshend of the Who

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 19 May 2013, 9:47 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Today we send out a huge birthday salute to one of my favorite songwriters of all time, the amazing Peter Townshend, powerhouse behind the band known as the Who, the best live band I've ever seen. If you don't know who he is or what he's written, prepare for a treat like few others!

His work is beyond amazing. One of the most prolific songwriters in history, many of his songs are profound, extraordinary in their breadth and scope of imagination, and sometimes deeply disturbing and haunted.

I saw the Who 6 times between 1967 and 1976. They were a unique pyrotechnical sonic spectacle, and were the first to pioneer the destruction of their instruments as a work of performance art. Even though it started by mistake, it became a standard of their act, and was the influence imitated by Jimi, the Yardbirds in the movie "Blow Up," and a hundred acts since then.

At the forefront of it all was Peter Townshend, thrashing at his guitar, making windmill moves that hit on the strings until his fingers were bloody. As Pete leapt with both feet in the air, Roger Daltrey was slinging the mic in circles that grew ever wider until the mic went straight up to the ceiling only for him to jerk it down at the exact moment he needed to sing, yell, or scream some memorable line into it.

Keith Moon had the biggest drum kit I'd ever seen, and played every one of those drums and every cymbal including both base drums going simultaneously frenetic and pounding out rhythms and counter rhythms no other drummer had ever done, or has ever done since. He played a thousand beats a minute in every form imaginable, and destroyed his kit after every performance I ever saw. I also gather he blew up more hotel toilets than any person in history, but that's a story of "Moon the Loon."

Through it all John Entwhistle stood stiff and tall, expressionless, pounding out bass lines that with the drums created the most frenetic rhythm section imaginable. All of this was held together by the songs, sonic and powerful and soaring and deep and driving and ringing the hall until the audience just stood there in awe.

The Who at their peak are generally considered one of the best rock bands in history, right up there with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin. They played both the Monterrey Pop Festival AND Woodstock!

Pete wrote what are considered the first "rock operas" in pop music, beginning with "A Quick One," moving into "Rael," and then the masterpiece "Tommy." He followed with "Life House" (never quite completed) and "Quadraphenia." He's still composing and occasionally performing, but not in amplified settings due to tinnitus. Unfortunately, since bandmates Keith Moon and John Entwistle have been dead for years, he and Roger are the only original members left. Still, whether with or without Roger, if he ever decides to tour again, you can bet I'll find a ticket somewhere!

Enjoy the videos you're about to see, since the energy is kinetic from a now gone era. Music videos first, then a ton of amazing live performances!!

We begin with some music videos of them doing their early hits from 1965-67!

"I Can't Explain"

"Substitute"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"Happy Jack"

Here they are, live on the last Shindig tv show, in a live performance of “I Can’t Explain,” “Daddy Rolling Stone,” and “My Generation”

From French tv in 1965, here are the Who live doing the great Martha and the Vandellas hit, “Heat Wave”

From 1967, "I Can See for Miles." Here's a 1968 video of "I Can See For Miles," and here's "I Can See for Miles" from 1969.

Here are the Who on the Smothers Brothers Comedy House in 1967, lip synching the first tune and doing the second live, which is strange! Here they are in a “live” performance of “I Can See for Miles” and “My Generation”

From 1971, their biggest hit, "Won't Get Fooled Again."

"Who Are You"

And now for some great live performances. Get ready to enjoy the greatest live band in rock history! Where possible I found entire concerts, and tried to approximate the actual order of the songs.

Here's their second major hit and the show stopper! "My Generation" live at the Marquee Club in London, March 11, 1967.

From a few weeks later at the legendary Monterrey Pop festival, I found the entire set (minus 1)! They really did set the standard for Mod Rock! Here are the Who performing “Substitute,” “Summertime Blues,” “A Quick One,” “Happy Jack,” and “My Generation”

Also from Monterrey, between “Summertime Blues” and “A Quick One” here’s one of their greatest tunes, the oh so controversial "Pictures of Lily"

In case you can’t get enough of this magic performance, here’s "A Quick One"

The closer was a performance that made history! Here's where the pyrotechnics were in full expression!! "My Generation" (It comes up from black after a few seconds, so be patient!)

From their appearance at Woodstock in 1969:

"Sparks"

"Pinball Wizard"

”We’re Not Going to Take it” (includes "See Me Feel Me")

"Summertime Blues"

"My Generation"

Pete's closing solo

Here are Woodstock performances of two songs from Tommy set to still photos:

"The Acid Queen"

"I'm Free"

From the same year, here are the Who Live at London Coliseum in December 1969!

First, if you just want to click on a link and enjoy (almost) the whole concert, here is 73 minutes of the Who at their best! The Who Live At the London Coliseum 1969

If you just want a few from the show, here they are. They kicked it off with the John Entwistle tune "Heaven and Hell"

"Overture from Tommy"

"Sparks"

“Christmas”

“The Acid Queen”

“Miracle Cure” and “Sally Simpson”

“I’m Free”

“We’re Not Going To Take It” (“See Me Feel Me”)

Here's a singularly good performance at their best in 1970 in Massachusetts of ”Amazing Journey” and "Sparks." Amazing energy from all of them with Keith Moon doing some of his best drumming!

From the film "Listening to You," their performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival,

"Heaven and Hell"

"I Can't Explain"

"Substitute"

During this period, they did a lot of songs from "Tommy." From the Isle of Wight Festival, here are three amazing pieces!

"Overture"

"Pinball Wizard"

"I'm Free"

Here's the closer, "Magic Bus"

We now segue into other performances. Here is one of the best versions of "Baba O'Riley" I found, probably from the early 70s since Keith Moon is holding forth on drums.

The Who doing "I Don't Even Know Myself," from sometime in 1970. Radical kinetic energy!!

From Charlton in 1974, another version of "Baba O'Riley"

I found some live performance clips from the Cow Palace in SF on 20 November 1973. They include "Love Reign O'er Me" and "Dr. Jimmy" from Quadrophenia, Pete's scathing social commentary. You can find the original studio version of "Dr. Jimmy and Mr. Jim here, complete with very raw lyrics and the much better sound quality!

From the same show, Keith Moon Collapses during "Won't Get Fooled Again"

After which they called for a drummer from the audience, and Scott Halpin volunteered. Whether brave or foolhardy, he had one unique experience! Here are the Who with Scott on drums doing "Naked Eye" and "Smokestack Lightning"

I was at this show! For your enjoyment another of their biggest hits, "Behind Blue Eyes" at The Summit, Houston, TX, USA, 20 November 1975.

From the Rockumentary movie about the Who, "The Kids Are All Right," an awesome 10 minute performance of "Won't Get Fooled Again"

From the same movie, here's an interesting black and white performance of "Tommy Can You Hear Me?"

Also from the album “Tommy,” one of my favorites! "I'm Free"

Here's a real treat, an incredible one hour performance of "Tommy" in 1989 from their 25th Anniversary tour, said to be one of the only times since 1970-71 that they performed it more or less in its entirety!

From Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, on 16th December 1982 with Kenney Jones on drums,

"Twist and Shout"

From the Camden Entertainment Centre, New Jersey on 7th July, 2000, the Who with Zak Starkey on drums doing a John Entwistle composition, "My Wife"

Then I found the entire set from the October 20, 2001 "Concert For New York City" w/ Zak Starkey on drums,

"Who Are You"

"Baba O'Riley"

"Behind Blue Eyes"

"Won't Get Fooled Again"

These are Live performances set to stills.

From the BBC sessions, some early hits you may not have heard.

"I'm A Boy"

"Anyway Anyhow Anywhere"

"Good Lovin’"

"Pictures of Lily"

"Substitute"

From 1968, Live at The Fillmore East:

"Fortune Teller"

"Summertime Blues"

From the Odeon Cinema, Newcastle, October 30, 1971:

Here's a performance in Long Beach, California from December 10, 1971 of "Bargain"

From Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, December 11, 1975, the Who doing John Entwistle's early hit tune

"Boris the Spider"

From the same Toronto show, "Magic Bus"

From The Who's second to last show with Keith Moon in Kilburn 1977, "Baba O'Riley"

From there we go to a clip from the Rainbow Theatre, London, May 2, 1979 of the first performance of "Bargain" with Kenney Jones on drums. It was played just less than 10 times with him.

From "Face Dances," the first Who album without Keith, here's another of my favorites!

"You Better You Bet"

From Pete's solo career,

Here’s the original music video to Pete’s smash hit “Let My Love Open the Door”

Though it's Pete's birthday, I figured since I found the Who commenting about their drummer Virgo Keith Moon (arguably the greatest rock drummer of all time) I would offer up a little about this amazingly self destructive human gyro.

The Who on Keith Moon"

Moon the Loon"

Keith's last tv interview from Good Morning America in '78.

So thanks for everything, Pete. From one of your biggest fans, Happy Merry Birthday! May you have many more, may your tinnitus heal to the degree it can, and may you keep writing great tunes!

(ps. A very happy to Irish singer-songwriter Paul Brady, who also shares a May 19 birthday! I'll try to do an individual tribute next year....)

It’s Saturday Night Attitude Dance Time - Shakin' It Tonight!

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 19 May 2013, 1:58 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Tonight’s “Saturday Night Attitude” song seems appropriate, given what more than a few have written.

This one’s a state of mind we’ve all gone through at one time or another, one way or another if we decided to kick up some dust, take a chance, or even just try to get by, whatever that might mean. Though I haven’t felt this way for a long time, I do remember that others are still going through it. So let’s get the endorphins rollin’! Time to dance!

From 1978, the original music video of the Bee Gees laying out an infinitely danceable tune, “Stayin’ Alive”

To take it to the next level and keep you dancing, here are the Bee Gees live in 1997 at the MGM Grand knocking out a medley of Barry Gibb tunes to groove to!

“Staying Alive”/”Night Fever”/ “More Than A Women”/“Tragedy”/“Grease”

From Top of the Pops in 1987, “You Win Again”

We now take you to another great live Bee Gees performance in NY April 2001 of “You Should Be Dancing”

From the same show, “Man In The Middle”

For our closer, we have one more great performance of our “Saturday Night Attitude” dance number. This one features the Bee Gees very live in 1989 in Melbourne, groovin’ down on “Stayin’ Alive”

Here are a few of the lyrics that caught my attention:

"Stayin' Alive"

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin', And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.

Well now, I get low and I get high, And if I can't get either, I really try. Got the wings of heaven on my shoes. I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose. You know it's all right. It's OK. I'll live to see another day. We can try to understand The New York Times' effect on man.

Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me. Somebody help me, yeah. Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me, yeah. I'm stayin' alive.

From the top! And a-one, a-two, a-three, and a…..

Astrology in May 2013 – In the Heart of Uranus Square Pluto

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 18 May 2013, 3:57 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

To remind you, Uranus is exactly square Pluto right now, and will be in close square for months to come. While the aspect is exact on May 20-21, it’s still a force majure for everyone, regardless of where it falls in our birth charts. Today we explore the many implications and possibilities of this frictional relationship between two Spiritual heavyweight planets.

Uranus is at 12 Aries, moving forward. Pluto is at 12 Capricorn, moving retrograde. Obviously, this is having a profound impact on anyone with planets or angles anywhere near 10-14 Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, as well as 25-29 Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. This long term erratic revolutionary pressure will be with us a while, so we’re all learning to deal with it, if not in our personal affairs, then in the lives of those we know.

For those who want to know more about this very powerful square that’s transforming our world through clashes of ideology, abrupt turns of events, for good or ill (usually the latter!), and a general atmosphere of revolutionary independence grinding up against institutional controls, subversive hidden forces, or corrosive people and situations, please check out the following articles I offered you over the past two years. Again, though all of this, we are called to demonstrate appropriate Cancer and Libra energy, since they are the voids created by this powerful square.

All also remind you that this life-transforming energy will be focused by transits of the Moon on May 20-21, 27, and June 2-3, as well as the major triggers of Mercury and Venus opposed Pluto and square Uranus between June 7-13 with Moon in Cancer June 10. Be very alert to volatile, extreme, or unexpected conditions during those periods and stay balanced with a healthy sense of perspective and proportion, since the square will be in full force!!

Of course there will be more as we continue to move through this period, but for now, enjoy taking a trip through the woods following these breadcrumbs:

From March 2011, this one includes links explaining the Uranus in Aries period:

Uranus in Aries 2011-2018 Pt. 3 - Uranus Square Pluto in Capricorn Trigger Points 2011-2015

From December 2011, more on the square:

The Revolutionary Zeitgeist - A New World Is A-Borning, As The Old One Dies

From March 2012, a list of historical periods when Uranus and Pluto conjuncted, squared, or opposed each other, and possible ways this one could manifest over the long run:

Uranus Square Pluto - What To Expect

From Sept 2012, more on the square and the Grand Irrationality:

Astrology Now in 2012-2013 - It's the 1930s All Over Again

Gemini Decan 2

Darkstar Astrology 18 May 2013, 10:20 am CEST

Gemini Decan 2 is ruled by Mars. The Sun takes giant leaps through the constellations of the Hunter, the Hare, the Charioteer and the River from June 1-11. This is the zone of the speed freaks and multi-taskers. The hare is known for its swiftness while the charioteer thunders across the sky while holding a whole family of goats! These people don’t do anything by halves. All too often however, Gemini decan 2 just takes on far too much and then suffers burn out. Having an accident or becoming ill is the only way they may get any rest. These subjects can also become totally driven by their desires, Orion is the hunter, so stalking is their speciality. This is surprising in a sign supposed to be so carefree and light-hearted. This decan is ruled by Mars, which is either sex or war, so these twins can get extremely irritable when they can’t channel their libido.

Orion is also the most lusty, phallic constellation in the sky, rivalling only Aries and Taurus in virility. But where the Ram and the Bull are fuelled by procreation and biology, Orion loves the whole drama and courtship of sex. The chase is the best bit, lots of twists and turns, intrigue, titillation and teasing. Sex can also be a sedative for Gemini decan 2, orgasm will be an explosive release of tension. The twins here are extra inquisitive, intellectually daring, and their mind is as agile as their bodies. They need to have this acrobatic ability since their propensity for living on the edge means they often have to make very narrow escapes. They get away with it so often that think they are immortal. Both stars of Orion featured here are connected with victory, or boasting victory over nature. The charioteer has to learn to keep its wayward passions on a tight rein. Channelling Gemini decan 2’s fast and furious mental gymnastics into science and engineering would be a good outlet. They would make fantastic formula one drivers, but are not great with suburban speed limits…

Gemini Fixed stars

Gemini 11º 55’ ~ Tabit in the Lion skin trophy of Orion the Hunter 3.3 Gemini 12º 03’ ~ Epsilon Lepus in the Hare 3.2 Gemini 15º 17’ ~ Cursa in the mouth of the river Eridanus 2.9 Gemini 16º 38’ ~ Hasseleh in the left foot of Auriga the Charioteer 2.9 Gemini 16º 51’ ~ Rigel in the left foot of Orion the Hunter Gemini 18º 38’ ~ Hoedus I kid goat in Auriga the Charioteer 3.8 Gemini 19º 27’ ~ Hoedus II Kid goat in Auriga the Charioteer 3.3 Gemini 19º 40’ ~ Nihal in Lepus the Hare 3.0

Tabit is found in the lion’s skin that Orion holds so triumphantly. This is a great warrior and needs to display it. “Orion will fashion alert minds and agile bodies, souls prompt to respond to duty’s call, and hearts which press on with unflagging energy in spite of every trial.” ~ Manilus. Orion’s sexual energy seems to be about conquering territory; his sword hangs suggestively below his belt. If you look at naked Orion in a sky without light pollution and cloud, the phallus is very clear! For the Egyptians of course Orion was Osiris and we know that the missing member was an important element of his resurrection. With the mix of phalluses and chariots one thinks of fancy sports cars as penis extensions here. Auriga is represented in the sky as a charioteer carrying a mother goat nursing two baby goats in his lap. Diana K Rosenberg interestingly suggests in her findings that the Chariot could also symbolise a wheelchair. She points out Erichthonuis the charioteer was actually half human/half snake and could not walk. In her book she depicts Auriga as a war veteran in a wheelchair (Still carrying the goat family). I’m not sure about the modern symbolism myself however as Auriga as a constellation is very complex.

Roller Coasting

To me Auriga could be a single parent, juggling work while bringing up a family. I also feel Gemini decan 2 has an issue with emasculation (Hence over compensating with fast cars and fast women..) If Auriga stars describe a male single parent, then he could feel his manhood is compromised by having to play mummy. A parent of either sex may think they have to rein in their desires for the sake of their children. These desires are represented by the two kid goats Hoedus I & II. These twin stars have a dubious reputation according to George Noonan when rising “ indicates a native who may be petulant and lascivious, one who is said to be involved in depraved and vicious desires.” Generally however this constellation gives happiness, confidence, a desire to address social problems and great interest in the education of children. Since Erichthonuis was abandoned by his mother (His serpent bottom half disgusted her) and brought up by Pallas Athena, I think adopting handicapped or disadvantaged children may be an attribute of Gemini decan 2. The subject themselves may feel ugly, deformed and rejected as some kind of a freak.

Gemini Decan 2 There are two stars in the constellation of Lepus the Hare, like the rabbit, is known for its fecundity. Robson says they are quick-witted and timid, yet defiant. The hare is a lunar beast, which in common with Orion shares the attributes of rebirth and resurrection. It is also “fleetness..the nimble mind outwitting brute force” [1] Orion thought he could outwit nature too but was brought down by a mere Scorpion for his arrogance. Which brings us to the 7th brightest star in the sky Rigel, a very noticeable blue/white star in the foot of Orion. Despite its accident with the vengeful crustacean, Rigel is still considered extremely fortunate. “It gives benevolence, honor, riches, happiness, glory, renown and inventive or mechanical ability.” This star can propel someone to a great height very quickly, Gemini decan 2 generally has great speed, vigor and an enterprising spirit. It also has the tactical skill to stalk its target relentlessly, never loosing sight of its goals. The problem is holding onto that success once they have it. In their ultra focused pursuit of their goals they may overlook the bigger picture and miss some grand flaw that opens up to engulf them later on down the road. For Gemini decan 2, capturing their prey is easy, the problem is keeping hold of it when they are distracted by yet another passing tasty morsel. Their life can resemble a rollercoaster and they often need to team up with a solid Saturnian type to bring them more stability and to fix their chariots brakes.

Gemini Decan 2 Celebrities

Sun: Johnny Depp, Marilyn Monroe, Marquis De Sade, Angelina Jolie, Gaddafi, Gerry McCann, Peter Sutcliffe, Alanis Morrisette, Prince, Tom Jones, Brooke Shields, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Sandra Bernhard, Allen Ginsburg, Bob Monkhouse, Jason Donovan, Tom Robinson, Michael J Fox, Paul Gauguin, Nancy Sinatra, Pat Boone, Republic Of Italy.

Moon: Sigmund Freud, Erin Brockovich, Amelia Earhart, Van Morrison, Kirk Douglas, Omar Sharif, Christopher Lee, Brigitte Bardot, Kylie Minogue, Kelly Lee Phipps, Jim Carrey, Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Buddy Holly, Prodigy, Steffi Graff, Noel Coward, T. S Eliot, Harold Shipman, Nancy Spungen, Brady/Hindley Davison.

Ascendant: Mick Jagger, Amy Winehouse, Phil Spector, Patrick Moore, Osho, Dirk Bogarde, Drew Barrymore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Giuseppe Verdi, George Bernard Shaw, Gene Wilder, Giuseppe Pelosi, Erica Jong, Myra Hindley, Lynndie England, Johnny Lydon, Mike Barson, Depp/Paradis Davison, Robbins/Saradon Davison, Noel Coward/Wilson Davison.

1. Secrets Of The Ancient Skies. Diana K Rosenberg. Pg 272.

The post Gemini Decan 2 appeared first on Darkstar Astrology.

Gold, SP500, TSX, Europe and the ASX200

Astrological Investing Blog 18 May 2013, 6:52 am CEST

Randall Ashbourne, an associate of Astrological Investing, posts a weekly market report on his web site, theidiotandthemoon.com The following is this weekend's Eye of RA report: Week beginning May 20, 2013

So far, the only real "sell in May" action we're seeing is in gold and mining stocks. This week kicks off with another exact hit of the long-running Uranus square to Pluto and will end with another Full Moon Lunar Eclipse. The Sun leaves stable and money-conscious Taurus and moves into Gemini. Volatility will increase - and in both directions. Mercury and Venus will also be in Gemini and will be joined by Mars at the end of the month. It puts all the inner planets on course for a conjunction get-together with Jupiter. We'll take a close look at the potential implications of that next weekend; but the past two years have seen intermediate tops locked-in as the Sun and Venus conjuncted Jupiter. Wall Street, England and Germany have now reached long-range targets published in Forecast 2013. We'll spend this weekend looking at those targets and the technical state of the charts to see if "that's it", or whether the rally still has legs to run. I'll update Australian readers on the state of the ASX200 and we'll take a look at the latest rundown in gold prices. And it's gold we'll look at first. While the topic is not raised in The Idiot & The Moon, I have on occasion discussed a technical condition called trading against a spike. The last significant one of these we saw was in stock indices in August-October, 2011. Gold now appears to be in a similar state. Basically, what happens is this ... price produces a large-range spike; there is a strong bounceback from the low; and then the spike is retested. It is the nature of how the spike is tested which gives us an indication of whether a larger bounceback is coming, or whether the freefall continues. The planetary charts for gold, and their explanation, were introduced in Forecast 2013 and, so far, gold continues to play to them with almost uncanny accuracy. In the chart below, we see the sudden April plunge ... the strong bounceback ... and now the retest is underway.

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For a stronger bounceback to occur, or even a complete trend change, gold needs to make either a higher low, or only a marginal new low. The higher low would come from around 1337 and a marginal new low should not go significantly below the rising, primary Sun line currently priced at 1320. The reality is that for gold to recover, stock indices probably need to drop ... and that's what we'll spend this weekend looking at. At various times recently, I've published this chart for Pollyanna, the SP500, indicating the index may have been on a run between Uranus/Pluto planetary barriers. The target price was around 1610, though I did warn there was a higher target in the 1660s. And ...

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It's interesting to see how Polly has dealt with these Uranus/Pluto price zones since bouncing off one late in 2012 to launch into very strong rally mode - the resistance has been overcome by forced jumps over the hurdles. The next Uranus/Pluto zone is the 1700s. However, let's look at where the index is in relation to the long-range planetary targets I published in January, in Forecast 2013. The index is now hitting against strong resistance from a Node barrier. The next highest target is Pluto at 1719.

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We are, however, entering the statistically negative period between the 1Q and Full Moons ... and with Polly having breached the topside of the Bi-BBs. As explained in The Technical Section of the book, a breach of the upper or lower outer bands tends to cause either a sideways shuffle, or a countertrend. Last week's price action breached the weekly upper band for only the second time in years. The previous one prompted a 9-week decline after some initial sideways shuffling. One other thing to note is that all the declines so far have travelled the full width of the bands ... so, IF one starts in the next week or two, the history suggests Chicken Little is going to want to slash 200 points from Polly.

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The other warning sign on the chart above relates to the condition of the fast MACD histogram peaks. The signal lines are fine. But the histogram peaks have been in constant decline throughout the rally from October, 2011. Okay. The two other Western indices as brightly optimistic as Polly are the FTSE and the DAX. We'll deal first with Germany, which has had a breakout above the major price target published in the Forecast. Ten-thousand plus seems like a fairytale target. But, that's the next major planetary barrier for the DAX.

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The planetary lines in the chart above are set at their maximum width. However, I used them because the German index has a strong track record of actually reaching them and they cannot be dismissed lightly. But we can use a Fibonacci Extension tool as a guide to potential targets within the 2000 points of "empty" space above. Even so, the nearest higher target is several hundred more points away. AND all 3 Canaries - short, medium and long-range - are not at all unhappy.

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The FTSE's long-range planetary price chart is below and I discussed in Forecast 2013 how the 6300s would be a difficult area, given the index's history of stalling at Uranus/Pluto zones. London has had a strong breakout after the months-long stall in that zone ... and also broken above the Neptune barrier which stopped the 2007 Bull run.

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And in the chart below, the long-range Canary is singing quite happily. Note the divergence which slowly built in the indicator (the blue line in the lower oscillator panel) as price rose into the 2007 Bull peaks ... and note especially that there is absolutely no sign of divergence in its current readings.

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Paris is next and I again use the chart from Forecast 2013. The CAC40 finally managed to break free of the 3800 price zone.

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Since the CAC is not breaking out to new Bull market highs, we need to pay attention to the Fibonacci Retracement levels. There is very strong positive divergence evident in the FiboRx chart below. None of these oscillators has been this happy since the post-2009 recovery began and the higher FiboRx levels correspond with the potential planetary targets.

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Returning now to North America for a look at the Canadian market. The TSX is in a similar state to the CAC40 ... ie: well below its earlier recovery high.

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Now to my home market, Australia. Again, probably the most important thing on the chart is the state of the long-range Canary. While the short-term and medium range Birds are declining, the long-range line has hit new peaks. No negative divergence building, as it did during the push into the 2007 highs.

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Auntie's Weekly Planets chart is below. After being blocked by a Neptune level in March and April, the index is now testing support on top of the line - and the price targets, if it succeeds, are obvious.

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However, there is a warning sign flashing. The long-range Canary is holding above the +100 level, but appears to be increasingly unhappy. Remember this is a weekly chart - and the negative divergence is not present in the monthly chart. Which suggests that any short to medium range price weakness in the index will be overcome and that higher prices are not merely possible, but are probable, over the course of the year. Safe trading - RA

Astrological Investing's associate, Randall Ashbourne, author of the eBook, The Idiot and The Moon, and The Idiot and the Moon, Forecast 2013, writes a free weekly column titled, The Eye of Ra on his web site in which he explains the potential impact of astrological aspects and the current state of technical conditions. Ashbourne's charts are revealing illustrations of exactly what has occurred in the market and the probability of what to expect. Important reading: Randall Ashbourne's The Idiot and The Moon, Forecast 2013 , Jupiter's cycle and its effects on Wall Street and a posting of the weekly Eye of Ra report in this blog, titled A look at the Venus Retrograde effect (Disclaimer: This article is not advice or a recommendation to trade stocks; it is merely educational material.) Copyright: Randall Ashbourne - 2011-2013

The Idiot and the Moon, Forecast 2013

Major trend change dates for the full year, plus a month-by-month breakdown of high-energy trading dates and critical reversal dates.

An index-by-index analysis of Moon Trading across major American, European, Asian and Australian stock indices-

Identifies the major indices where following the phases of the Moon can dramatically cut profits, or even result in large losses.

Old Gods & Gold ... a Eureka! discovery about exactly what drives gold prices during rallies and corrections and charts showing highly-reliable target levels to both the upside and downside.

These price charts are individually-tailored to each index and cover Wall Street, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, India, England, Germany and France.

You will not see these charts anywhere else on the Internet!

And much more...

It is NEVER too late in the year to have this monthly information!

Two Solar Energy Breakthroughs

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 17 May 2013, 4:08 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

This is a good news Friday! Today we have two fantastic stories about the shrinking cost of solar energy that indicate we’re very close to making solar cheaper than coal, oil, and other dirty forms of energy. In fact, we may be on the front edge of solving the clean energy needs of the entire world!!

First, from Reader Supported News.org, in a story by Juan Cole titled The Incredible Shrinking Cost of Solar Energy, we read that the cost of solar power is falling dramatically. From the story:

In many countries– Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal — and in parts of the US such as the Southwest, solar is at grid parity. That means it is as inexpensive to build a solar plant as a gas or coal one. The pace of technological innovation in the solar field has also accelerated, so that costs have started falling precipitously and efficiency is rapidly increasing. By 2015, solar panels should have fallen to 42 cents per watt. Reneweconomy.com says that the best Chinese solar panels fell in cost by 50% between 2009 and 2012 ....
... Important new research also shows that hybrid plants that have both solar panels and wind turbines dramatically increase efficiency and help with integration into the electrical grid. Earlier concerns that the turbines would cast shadows and so detract from the efficiency of the solar panels appear to have been overblown. Because in most places in the US there is more sun in the summer and more wind in the winter, a combined plant keeps the electricity feeding into the grid at a more constant rate all year round, which is more desirable than big spikes and fall-offs.

It seems that besides Germany and China, Japan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Israel and India are also going all-out in solar development. By all means, check out the whole story, since there’s more!

In our second story, a very sharp innovator seems to have found an answer to making solar inexpensive and ubiquitous that has eluded the industry before now. In a story from McClatchy News titled Patent filing claims solar energy ‘breakthrough’ we read “Ronald Ace ... said his flat-panel "Solar Traps," which can be mounted on rooftops or used in power plants, will shatter barriers that have stymied efforts to make solar energy cheap, clean and reliable.” From the story:

… a recently retired congressional energy adviser, who has reviewed the invention’s still-secret design, said it’s “a no brainer” that the device would vastly outperform all other known solar technology.
Ace said he is arranging for a national energy laboratory to review his calculations and that his own crude prototypes already have demonstrated that the basic physics for the invention work.

If the trap even comes close to meeting his futuristic vision, its impact could be breathtaking: It could reorder the world’s energy landscape, end the global economic drag of soaring energy costs, and eventually curb greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for climate change.

That all might sound rather rosy, since the previously undisclosed invention has yet to be constructed and fully tested. But John Darnell, a scientist and the former congressional aide who has monitored Ace’s dogged research for more than three years and has reviewed his complex calculations, has no doubts.

“Anybody who is skilled in the art and understands what he’s proposing is going to have this dumbfounding reaction: ‘Oh, well it’s obvious it’ll work,’” said Darnell, a biochemist with an extensive background in thermodynamics.

“Ron has turned conventional wisdom about solar on its head,” he said. “He thinks outside the box....”

In recent interviews and redacted excerpts from his patent application, he said that his invention can be used to retrofit conventional nuclear- or fossil fuel-fired power plants to produce electricity at about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. That alone would be a staggering advance, slashing the average wholesale cost of power by two-thirds and the cost of solar energy by up to ninefold – estimates that Ace called conservative....

A separate rooftop version, which Ace believes ultimately will power most homes and businesses, would initially provide cheap heating and hot water. Soon, he said, equipment for those traps will be able to convert solar energy to electricity, air conditioning and, if enough panels are installed, to produce excess energy to sell to utility companies. Consumers will be able to reap enough savings on their utility bills to recover their costs within two to four years, a performance that far surpasses photovoltaic solar panels that are gaining a market toehold worldwide, Ace said.

His traps also could for the first time provide a viable way to operate power plants by collecting energy above 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit – the heat needed to drive the turbines that generate electricity. Such high-temperature plants would significantly top the efficiency of conventional nuclear-, coal- and gas-powered plants, further reducing costs, he said.

There’s a lot more in the story, so please go to the link and check it out. If this invention works, solar will be universal, inexpensive, and put individuals in charge of their own energy generation, taking us off the grids that dominate our lives.

While it likely will take some decades before the oil and coal industries are out of business, we can still encourage these types of breakthroughs, since it’s our future. Oil, coal, and nukes are obsolete!

What is The Game: Spot a Pick Up Artist

Mirror of Aphrodite 17 May 2013, 12:14 am CEST

There’s a phenomenon that’s taken place ever since the book, “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists” was first published in 2005. The Game was written by Neil Strauss and is a book about his journey of transformation into his Pick Up Artist (PUA) alter-ego "Style," as guided under the tutelage of “Mystery” – also a self-proclaimed Pick Up Artist. You can now find hundreds of forums and websites dedicated to PUA teachings; teachings that advocate sociopathic behavior and thinking processes in men. And The Game itself goes a little something like this. . .

The Game

The Game advises men to approach a group of women and lead/lean on every woman there by telling them a previously rehearsed exciting story (Phase One: Attract) - every woman that is, except the one that the man is truly interested in. That woman, yea he’s supposed to ignore her and insult her with what is called throwing a “neg.” And this is after he goes waltzing in there “peacocking.” (And if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, you’d be correct. The man is supposed to dress like a kook in some way or to wear/carry a “prop” so as to garner your attention. And if you’ve ever seen the cartoon character that is Mystery, then you know I’m being kind by only applying the word kook.) You see, in this Pick Up Artist process, the man is basically instructed to emotionally manipulate the woman and walk her, like a dog, through a roller coaster of three stages that are all designed to weaken the woman by undermining her value in order to make her more vulnerable - to sex. Because naturally, after the man swoops in there looking like a circus side-show act and pays more attention to all of the other women in the group and then insults and ignores the girl he’s really interested in – he then moves into Phase Two: the “Comfort” phase – where he provides the neglected, insulted woman a shoulder to cry on and attempts to lift her back up so that he looks good. (Awe, how chivalrous of him.) Once he’s undermined his intended target’s self-esteem and self-confidence, he is then instructed to move into Phase Three: Seduction. This phase basically involves charming the woman with a bunch of bullshit so that he comes off looking like some kind of savior and the woman is so grateful to finally receive the man’s withheld attention that she just can’t help herself and she jumps right into bed with him. It’s basically a roller coaster process of “deconstruction” – tearing a woman down (negs), then lifting her up (comfort) and then pouncing when she's in this confused, weakened state (seduction). Sound familiar gals? (I imagine alarm bells are ringing in your head right now.) This emotional manipulation process is meant to affect the woman’s self-confidence and make her weak. It’s meant to turn women into easy prey or VC’s – Victim Chicks – as coined by Pick Up Artists. There are 3 main components to the Pick Up Artist’s tactics: • Attract • Comfort • Seduction And then each of those 3 components is then broken down into 3 separate steps for a combined total of 9 steps. That’s a pick up artists total investment ladies – 9 steps, otherwise known as “The Mystery Method” (PDF).

And believe it or not, this step by step process was first created as a way to aid the cartoon character known as Mystery (Erik James Horvat-Markovic) in his day job at the time – that of a professional magician (shocking, I know). In all honesty though, what else could you expect from a group of men with names like Mystery, Spoon, Sin, Kosmo, Matador, J-Dog and Style? Are these male strippers? Are they members of the Chippendale Dancers? No. “Style” is actually Neil Strauss, author of The Game. Not only are these cartoonish characters advised to dress like circus side-show acts, they are also instructed to name themselves as such. And what do these buffoons consider “the ultimate challenge?” A stripper - yes, a stripper. A woman who sheds her clothing in exchange for money is somehow considered the ultimate challenge to these men. Seriously, how hard is it to get a stripper to disrobe for you? (No disrespect to any of you female dancers out there, I realize you’re simply earning a living and most likely trying to care for your children, but it is what it is.) The simple fact is – all it takes is money – dah, it’s their job. Yet somehow, these cartoonish fella’s consider this a real challenge? A woman who sheds her clothing for money is a real challenge? A woman whose personal boundaries are already much less than that of a woman who is not used to doing this easily or regularly – is a challenge? A woman whose inhibitions are much less than that of a woman who isn’t as comfortable disrobing for a man – is a challenge? Okay, whatever.

The Language of a Pick Up Artist

Now let’s take a look at some of their language; a language all its own, yet one that can give you a real glimpse into the mindset of a Pick Up Artist: Neg, Negging – A backhanded compliment meant to insult the woman. Stunts similar to the ole’ “who is this” response from a woman’s communication attempt, where the man pretends he’s deleted the woman’s number but knows full well who’s contacting him. (Know this ladies, a player/PUA will NEVER delete a woman’s number as he associates the amount of female contacts in his smartphone with his masculinity – in spite of the fact that the rest of society does not). And how these men feel that insulting a woman and decreasing her overall value as a human being is a feeling that she will want more of, I’ll never know. Peacocking – A tactic that makes you stand out above the rest (because you look like a freak). This basically includes “props” such as a fuzzy hat, goggles, fuzzy jackets, brightly colored clothing, a goofy necklace (preferably one that lights up), fuzzy pants – lots of fuzz, feathers, fur and outlandishness will do. PUA – Pick Up Artist (I’d like to spin a female take on this one. PUA – Stinky (PU) Ass. Thanks Gemini50 ;-) IOI – Indicator of Interest AFOG – Alpha Female of Group AMOG – Alpha Male of Group (naturally, a big adversary to the PUA). AK – AMOG Killer (BOOM, my charisma will kill you!) Set – The “stage” of the situation, as in “theatrical production” – ready on the set ladies! ASD – Anti-Slut Defense (when a woman attempts to convince you she’s a nice girl, because naturally, any woman that is comfortable with her sexuality is instantly deemed a slut and, therefore, needs an anti-slut defense). AI – Approach Invitation (a smile, eye contact, etc.) BHRR – Bait, Hook, Reel, Release (basically, the disappearing man; the ole’ “sweep her off her feet” and then POOF, he’s gone method). BAFC – Below Average Frustrated Chump AFC – Average Frustrated Chump BS – Bitch Shield (naturally, this is an unapproachable woman - because any woman who’s smart enough to see past this charade MUST be a bitch – she’s not intelligent, she’s simply a bitch. I know another meaning for BS - Bullshit). BD – Boyfriend Destroyer (because a PUA erroneously believes that the fastest way to success is through bad intention). CR – Canned Routine (need I say more?) CP – Comfort Plan (“There, there, it’ll be alright. I’ve decided that I suddenly like you; put your head in my lap and it’ll all be okay dear.”) DHV – Demonstration of Higher Value (similar to a marketing/PR campaign). DDBL – Doggy Dinner Bowl Look (a compliant woman, “Please, please, please pick me.” *Sad eyes*) DTF – Down To F*ck (the PUA’s entire goal.) EE – Eject and Explain (When you’re getting nowhere so you bail, “I'm outta' here, my friends are leaving; catch me later.” I’d like to add my own spin on this one, ladies. Eject and Explain – Prematurely “eject” and then attempt to “explain your shortcomings” away.) Fatty (Tuna) – A woman who doesn’t look great, but is still doable of course. FGOP – Fat Girl Overhead Photo (creates an illusion of being thin, because naturally, it’s only looks that truly matter to a PUA). FTOW – Find and F*ck 10 Other Women (wishful thinking and a fast track to the free clinic for treatment of all of the STD’s you’re also going to “Pick Up” along the way. Hey, I’d like to coin a phrase myself, “DD - Dirty Dick.”)

MLTR – Multiple Long Term Relationships, MTLR Cubed (3 LTR’s simultaneously), MTLR Squared (2 LTR’s simultaneously). SDL – Same Day Lay STMD – Sealing the Mother Effing Deal SNL – Single/Same Night Lay VC – Victim Chick (the need for the use of this terminology says it all). WPU – Work Pick Up (shared place of employment) ZNR – Zero Night Stand (immediate casual sex). Okay ladies, disgusted yet? Regrettably, there’s more, much more - a full list of this crap, “849 terms and counting.”

The Reality

So just how far does this false illusion of “awesomeness” go? Oh my Lord ladies, you’d be surprised at just how deep it goes. Don’t believe me? Take a look at Neil Strauss here, Author of The Game, err. . .my bad, take a look at “Style,” Author of The Game, in this “after and before” shot. The left is the “illusion” and the right is the “reality.” Now do you see why there’s a need for a fake getup, an alter ego identity and a bunch of schmuck tactics that only work on insecure women? Now do you see the need to prey on the weak and single them out from the pack? The need stems from a complete lack of self-confidence. And the fact is, I’m quite sure there’s more than one woman out there who would’ve accepted this man for exactly who he was had he just worked on his social skills as a human being - instead of caving to low self-esteem and creating an entirely false identity to hide behind. Which then begs the question, how long can one keep up this charade? Not long as inconsistency, insecurity and false bravado will eventually give way to truth. I feel sorry for men using these tactics because what they don’t realize is that these tactics only work on insecure women with low self-esteem – like attracts like, folks. And are those REALLY the women men want to date? Are insecure folks with low self-esteem really the folks that ANYONE wants to date, male or female? I realize we all have insecurities, it’s a human condition. However, when you let them guide you, guide your decisions in life and your perception of yourself – you end up with this. These tactics basically leave men to “slum it,” deep in the depths of the dating ghetto, down in the bottom of the barrel, trolling the clubs and bar scenes for the perfect - Victim Chick (VC). These tactics advocate victimizing women and exploiting their nature – predator versus prey. One of these Pick Up Artist idiots even has what he calls a "rape van." It's crystal clear that these are mentally damaged individuals.

And many of the techniques pick up artists advocate are shameless yet completely obvious once you’re onto them. For instance, many of the online Pick Up Artist forums and chat rooms advocate that men ask random beautiful women in public, complete strangers, to take a photograph with them (be sure to point at the camera so you look cool). That way, the man can then display this image online and give the false illusion that he’s pulling some awesome tail in the real world. The Game also advises men to compliment women on things like shoes and handbags as a way to look appreciative of the ways and efforts of women. I don’t know about you ladies, but if a man ever complimented me on my shoes or handbag, I’d secretly be wondering if he was 1.) homosexual or 2.) a closet cross-dresser 3.) married. I mean really, why else would a man be well-versed in women’s fashion? For me, that’d be a big red flag and a sign of a man that’s trying way too hard. Pick up Artists also wrongly advocate seducing married women and women in relationships. In otherwords, they advocate setting out with bad intention – to break up marriages and relationships, simply to “prove” something to themselves; to prove that they can do this, which in and of itself signals low self-esteem is present in these men because insecure men always feel the need to overcompensate (macho) for their lack of confidence by proving things to themselves for no apparent reason other than – to make themselves feel better about themselves. Confident men do not feel the need to prove themselves to anyone. Confident men don’t need a “prop” to garner a woman’s attention because it’s their masculine, leading energy that garners all the attention they need. Confident men have the skills necessary to please women, sexually, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Confident men have honed social skills and respectful dating skills and don’t have a need for manipulative tactics. And many men agree that confidence is key. Here is “Magic” explaining why negs are NOT the way to win a woman over. As much as I hate his name and his overall persona, I have to agree with him that undermining one’s value is not a recipe for success, nor is it going to make a woman want to spend any significant amount of time with a man: The Game is all about sex. It has nothing to do with real relationships, genuine human interaction or true bonding. Nor does it teach men how to be good lovers. I’d bet my bottom dollar that these PUA’s haven’t a clue what to do with a woman once they actually get her undressed, other than permit themselves to be serviced in some crude manner so as to take the pressure of performance off of themselves and place it squarely on the woman’s shoulders. The Game teaches men absolutely nothing about what it takes to make (and keep) a real woman happy and standing by a man’s side. It’s no “real Mystery” – it’s a loser’s game.

Taurus 2013 – Pleasantly Fixed Earth Spirits

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 16 May 2013, 5:53 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

What do Willie Nelson, the Buddha, Stephen Colbert, Audrey Hepburn, Roy Orbison, Karl Marx, Fats Waller, Harry Truman, and Jack Nicholson have in common?

Each year May features the Fixed Earth sign Taurus, where we confirm and consolidate the new beginnings of Spring. This sign is slow and steady, showing all how to enjoy life, whether working or playing or just hanging out. Being the second sign of the zodiac, this is the time to solidify, capture, and otherwise make solid what we value, or what we need to have to move forward in our life and affairs.

Thanks to Mars, Taurus energies have been highly activated all month. The first half of the month also featured Mercury in Taurus, and Venus was in its home sign of Taurus between April 15 and May 9, boosting the Taurus influence. When Mars entered Taurus on April 20, Venus became the “final dispositor” for all the other planets except Neptune. So we had an undiluted Taurus influence predominating for 19 solid days this year.

Once Venus entered Gemini, it shared power in mutual reception with Mercury in Taurus until Mercury entered Gemini on May 15. At that point it began its transit of its home sign and became the “Final dispositor” to all the other planets except Neptune. These recent transits of Taurus by the inner planets re-activated the Jupiter in Taurus promise we all experienced between June 2011 and June 2012.

You can also find out more about how Taurus energy is in full bloom by going to the recent articles on the Lunar Eclipse Wesak Festival and the Taurus Solar Eclipse, which I've put at the end of this article. Anyway, to sum up, we’re been experiencing a lot of Taurus energy for the past month, and should have seen concrete developments wherever we have that sign in our charts.

And now, let’s get on with the birthday party for Taurus, the second sign of the zodiac!

In Taurus, we learn to value what is meaningful to us, and not get ruffled by conflicting stimuli. The Sun in Taurus shines the light of wisdom on how we must be clear, simple, and firm about what we value or what we have, opening us to what endures from the old life and redeeming whatever promise it held as we confirm new possibilities.

Taurus is the sign where we learn to enjoy life. Taurus symbolizes how we can be content in our worldly existence and how we can pleasantly move through our various experiences while maintaining a self-generated steady course as we set it. It shows us how to rest easy with what is, while persistently plowing the fields of our lives to bring forth what our labors are here to achieve.

Taurus is symbolically associated with the Bull or Ox, the creature that assisted humanity in farming, the foundation of current civilization. It was once said that when the wild ox was domesticated (a daunting task!) it could transport heavy loads to faraway places. Combining the symbols of farming and trade with distant regions, you get a sense that Taurus is vital in keeping us all fed and feeling good about the way things are, or allows us to feel discomfort when something is not enjoyable so we may change things for the better.

Mythologically, Taurus is in the axis of the Warrior, or Guardian. This sign (along with its polar opposite, Scorpio) stabilizes and “confirms” the dance of relationship between self and others begun in Aries. Taurus shows us the lessons of “mine and thine” as we interact with others. It is the part of us willing to hold the line on what we value and have, drawing clear and definite boundaries between our likes and those of others.

Taurus, when freed of the traps of being incurious, stubborn, self-satisfied, complacent, inert, and “sit-down-itis” demonstrate a consistency and reliability that assists and stabilizes situations and groups. They are the antithesis of impulsiveness and the embodiment of contentment and endurance.

Taurus, like Aries, is highly self-sufficient, but slower and calmer in bringing their total focus to situations. They also hang in there after everyone else has bailed. Taurus endures of its own initiative. Convinced in its own “rightness,” this sign loathes being challenged, and sometimes refuses to change its point of view on the principle that they simply don’t have to.

Taurus people are usually pleasant to be around, except when crossed, at which point they snort and stomp, and want things to become more agreeable. On their terms. They believe they win by sitting down, or conversely, by being the proverbial “bull in the china shop.”

They are innately kind, sweet, and straightforward. When Taurus’ tremendous energy learns to speed up, consider other options, and express a consistent generosity, they offer others simple, refreshing ways to enjoy life and its creature comforts.

Where it falls in our charts shows us the way to solidify, value, and enjoy the areas of life it influences. Taurus energies show everyone how to find wealth, comfort, peace and calm in being self-sufficient unto themselves over the long haul, unmoved and unruffled by passing problems.

These qualities all come forth in practicing the illuminated teachings of perhaps the most famous Taurus of all, Gautama Siddhartha, also known as the Buddha. His teachings about the 4 Noble Truths, and the 8-fold Path to the end of suffering, have impacted literally billions of people throughout the world in the 2500 years his teachings have been known.

Another Taurus, Socrates, the teacher of Plato, is said to have been the wisest man Greece ever knew, impacting world thought to this day. The teachings that have come down to us form the foundation for much of Western Philosophy, including the philosophy of learning itself.

Rounding out this immortal trifecta of Taurus superstars, we have William Shakespeare, the playwright and front man for a secret society of enlightened beings and their friends influential in guiding world affairs. Said to be a simple man, his plays are masterpieces of an intricate weaving of philosophy, human interactions, and historical affairs. The works of these 3 bulls will endure forever.

Taurus is featured heavily in American Presidents: James Monroe, James Buchanan, H. Ulysses Grant, and Harry Truman all were known for both their stubbornness and straightforwardness. Other political heavyweights born under this sign include Malcolm X, Marcus Aurelius, Oliver Cromwell, Queen Elizabeth II, Catherine the Great, Ho Chi Minh, Golda Meir, Pope John Paul II, Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden, Tony Blair, Madeleine Albright, and Coretta Scott King, all examples of the staying power of this sign. We finish the list with the famous abolitionist John Brown, uber-mench Oscar Schindler, political activist Bianca Jagger, and Supreme Court Justice extraordinaire, John Paul Stevens.

Other examples of political Tauruses who found themselves on the wrong side of history feature some of the most infamous figures of the 20th century. This notorious bunch includes Adolph Hitler, Lenin, Hirohito, Saddam Hussein, Rudolph Hess, Ayatollah Khomeini, Josef Tito, and Eva Peron.

Famous Taurus philosophers include Krishnamurti, Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, Karl Marx, Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, and John Stuart Mill. In the literary world this sign gave us some very interesting writers, such as the English Master Robert Browning, L. Frank Baum, the satirist and creator of “the Wizard of Oz,” and Niccolo Machiavelli, whose name became a synonym for ruthlessness.

Other famous literary Tauruses include Balzac, Charlotte Bronte, Anthony Trollope, Katherine Ann Porter, Vladimir Nabokov, Harper Lee, Gaston Leroux, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, Peter Benchley, Nora Ephron, Kim Elizabeth, and Studs Terkel.

The world of music features some of the most incredible talent of all time. Of course, this makes sense since Venus, the planet of beauty, love, and music rules Taurus. This sign’s musical hall of fame includes such classical musicians as Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Eric Satie, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Otto Klemperer, Zuben Mehta, and Yehudi Menhuin. In the blues we have mythic legend Robert Johnson, Albert King, and Otis Rush. In the world of jazz and American standards we have such luminaries as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Irving Berlin, Bert Bacharach, Max Steiner, Woody Herman, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Maynard Ferguson, and Lionel Hampton. In the songwriter’s Hall of Fame, we have the Jerry Lieber, Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan, Cricket Sonny Curtis, and my friend Jack Tempchin ("Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Already Gone").

In contemporary music, Taurus includes some enormously talented individuals. One of them is my old acquaintance from Austin, Willie Nelson. Other legends include Roy Orbison, Pete Seeger, Ricky Nelson, Ritchie Valens, Pete Townshend, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Eric Burdon, Bono (Paul Hewson), Bob Seger, David Byrne, Ed Cassidy, Frankie Valli, doowop pioneers Maurice Williams ("Stay," "Little Darlin'") and Johnny Maestro, and guitar slingers Link Wray, Glenn Campbell, and Duane Eddy.

Other great musical heavyweights in recent history include Stevie Winwood, Billy Joel, Rascals guitarist Gene Cornish, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Jack Bruce, Joe Cocker, Danny Kirwan, Joey Ramone, Donovan Leitch, Judy Collins, Creedence rhythm section Doug Clifford and Stu Cook, Trini Lopez, Theodore Bikel, Eddy Arnold, Teresa Brewer, Bobby Rydell, Sid Vicious, and Lesley Gore. Then there are two of the most flamboyant performers ever, Cher and Liberace.

We finish this incredible musical list with contemporary stars Rita Coolidge, Robert Smith, Mike Dirnt, Tammy Wynette, Peter Frampton, Sheena Easton, Kyle Eastwood, Dan Auerbach, Pia Zadora, Holly Valence, Greg Raposo, Lorie, Luther Vandross, Iggy Pop, Darius Rucker, Darren Hayes, Janet Jackson, Trent Reznor, Enya, Ace Frehley, Lance Bass, Eagle Eye Cherry, Stephen Marley, Stuart Mathis, Page McConnell, Craig David, Danny Wood, Lily Allen, Andrea Corr, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Patrick Stump, Holly Valance, Pierre Bouvier, Daniel Johns, Jeff Timmons, Jacob Underwood, Enrique Iglesias, Jon Lee, Kelly Clarkson, Lorie, Jordan Knight, Tim McGraw, and George Strait, and you get a musical tribe that has major talent and sure seems to know how to have fun!

In the world of famous artists I found only Salvador Dali, Thomas Gainsborough, John James Audubon, Joan Miro', Jose Da Silveira, and Jasper Johns. However, in the world of film, we have a phenomenal array of legendary superstars, such as Rudolph Valentino, Orson Welles, Fred Astaire, Lionel Barrymore, Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Joseph Cotton, Anthony Quinn, Tyrone Power, and Shirley Temple.

Show biz hall of famers also include film making legends Harold Lloyd, Frank Capra, David O Selznick, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, John Waters, Michael Moore, and cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs.

Golden age silver screen stars feature Gabby Hayes, James Mason, Glenn Ford, Glenda Jackson, Ann-Margaret, and Raymond Burr. More major twentieth century stars include Nina Foch, Jack Klugman, Anouk Aimee, Harvey Keitel, Alice Faye, Sandy Dennis, Eddie Albert, Celeste Holm, Cloris Leachman, Jill Clayburgh, Jill Ireland, Talia Shire, Sandra Dee, Tom Ewell, Bert Young, Roscoe Lee Browne, Robert Morse, Pat Carroll, James Fox, and Albert Finney.

Contemporary major league talent includes Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, George Clooney, Uma Thurman, Dennis Hopper, Shirley MacLaine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Natasha Richardson, Jessica Lange, Debra Winger, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Day-Lewis, Renee Zellweger, Andie Macdowell, Cate Blanchett, Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox, Chow Yun-Fat, Clint Howard, Ryan O'Neal, Lane Smith, Penelope Cruz, Grace Jones, Ving Rhames, Emilio Estevez, Jessica Alba, Dev Patel, Stephen Baldwin, Robert Pattinson, Bill Paxton, Rosario Dawson, Samantha Morton, Rachel Appleton, Jet Li, Martine McCutcheon, Gabourey Sidibe, and Jason Biggs.

In television, we find Taurus offers amazing legends Aaron Spelling, James L. Brooks, Jack Paar, Carol Burnett, Bea Arthur, George Takei, Phil Silvers, Dennis Day, Dwayne Hickman, Gary Owens, George Gobel, Anthony Zerbe, Nancy Walker, Ann B. Davis, Darren McGavin, and Lee Majors. Here we offer a special nod to courageous pioneering journalists Edward R. Murrow and Mike Wallace, two of the best of all time.

Modern major league television personalities include one of the top talents in faux news, the remarkable Stephen Colbert, as well as real news guys Brian Williams and the late, great Tim Russert. Other television stars feature Tom Snyder, Tony Danza, Kate Mulgrew, Valerie Bertinelli, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Bob Saget, Tom Bergeron, Melissa Gilbert, Joyce DeWitt, Pernell Roberts, James Morrison, Jo O'Meara, Kim Fields, Danielle Fishel, Carmen Electra, Jason Lee, Nancy Lee Grahn, Tina Yothers, David Charvet, and the extraordinary Candice Bergen.

Famous funny entertainers include George Carlin, Mort Sahl, Foster Brooks, George Gobel, Don Rickles, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Hank Azaria, Tina Fey, Gary Owens, Jason Lee, George Lopez, Jan Hooks, and Cedric the Entertainer. Sports figures feature Joe Louis, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Meadowlark Lemon, Emmitt Smith, George Brett, Brooks Robinson, Mister Dale Earnhardt, Dennis Rodman, Andre Agassi, David Beckham, Tony Hawk, and Sugar Ray Robinson.

Other heavyweights across several fields include pioneer dancer-choreographer Martha Graham, Margot Fonteyn, Judith Jameson, “Citizen Kane” William Randolph Hearst, scientists Pierre Curie and Wolfgang Pauli, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, the man who influenced several generations of child-rearing. We finish this list of unique beings by including famous naturalists John Muir and John James Audubon, Mel Tucker, Samuel Morse (Morse Code), Florence Nightengale, Robert Peary, pioneering radio producer-writer-director Norman Corwin, Casey Kasem, Doug Henning, "the Red Baron" Von Richthofen, Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the radio, and Edwin Land, the inventor of the camera.

A special note must be given to the Taurus who was one of the greatest astrologers of all time, William Lilly. His remarkably durable work on horary astrology is still in print after almost 400 years, and the prime source for most teachings on the horary craft. His steadiness of purpose and reliability of knowledge in several fields served England well during the Revolution, plague, and great fire of London.

Another Taurus astrologer for the ages was my old friend Carl Payne Tobey. The first "statistical" astrologer, he was an amazing blend of down to Earth humor and pragmatic analysis, and of course as many know, one of the legendary Grant Lewi's best friends. I have always treasured the years in Texas I knew Carl, for his wit, wisdom, and generosity of spirit. His works are still relevant and insightful to this day, so find them when you can. On a final nod to Astrologers and Astrology, a big happy birthday goes out to The Aquarius Papers.

Finally, a big happy birthday to Holland, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Tasmania, the states of Minnesota and Georgia, the Transcontinental Railroad, the fascistic AMA, Empire State Building, Coca-Cola, Suez Canal, and the Virgin Mary showing up at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.

Since the recent Full Moon Lunar Eclipse was also the Wesak Festival, its energies will extend through the year, with a special emphasis over the next few months. These articles can help you see what’s up for the period influenced directly by the Eclipse, as well as the next year!

Spiritual Astrology in April 2013 - It's A Happy Buddha Birthday at the Full Moon of Taurus-Scorpio, a.k.a. The Wesak Festival!

Astrology in April 2013 - On The Threshold of a Partial Lunar Eclipse at 6 Scorpio

The Partial Lunar Eclipse Wesak Festival Full Moon of Taurus-Scorpio 2013 Pt. 1 – New Directions, New Relationships, and New Potentials Revealing Life’s Mysteries

The April 2013 Wesak Festival Lunar Eclipse Full Moon of Scorpio-Taurus Pt. 2 – Building Bridges To Cross Over From An Old Life And Enter A New Life

The Wesak Festival Lunar Eclipse of Scorpio-Taurus in April 2013 Pt. 3 – Sabian Symbols Showing We Can Bridge a Gap and Find An Abundant New Life

The April 2013 Wesak Festival Lunar Eclipse Full Moon of Scorpio-Taurus Pt. 4 – Mobilization for Gain Leads Us To A Pot of Gold At the End of A Rainbow

Here are the articles on the recent Taurus Solar Eclipse. Its effects will last 45 months.

The Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus May 9-10, 2013 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?

An Annular Solar Eclipse New Moon in Taurus Pt. 2 - What’s Happening in May-June 2013, As Well As 2014-2015-2016

The May 2013 Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 3 – How Will This Lunation Affect Us?

The May New Moon Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 4 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means

Happy 2012 Birthday to the Great Mike Oldfield

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 16 May 2013, 3:09 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Today is the birthday of the amazing composer and musician Mike Oldfield.

Mike Oldfield (May 15, 1953) is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has given us some of the most beautiful and haunting music ever created. His compositions blend rock, folk, world beat, electronic music, and other eclectic musical styles.

This year I can’t do a complete bio and tribute, but I did find some outstanding pieces to celebrate his birthday!

First, the tune that introduced Mike to the world! For your enjoyment, a live performance of “Tubular Bells”

Here’s part 1 of the original studio version of “Tubular Bells”

Here’s an entire 65 minute concert live in Germany of Tubular Bells II

From 1998, the original music video featuring Pepsi Demacque bringing life to Mike’s “Man In The Rain”

Here’s Mike’s Number One hit, clearly one of the most amazingly haunting and beautiful tunes ever written! From “Tubular Bells III” live in London 1998, I found a great performance by Mike Oldfield, accompanied by stunning vocals by Pepsi Demacque, doing “Moonlight Shadow”

From an earlier era, an acoustic live performance in 1985 by Mike Oldfield with the original vocalist, Maggie Reilly, of “Moonlight Shadow”

Here’s a fantastic live performance by Hank Marvin and the Shadows of Mike's “Moonlight Shadow”

We’ll close this brief tribute with a live performance by Mike in Berlin of “Moonlight Shadow”

To find out more about this amazing talent, here’s The Mike Oldfield website.

Tubular Bells blew my mind, and it’s only gotten better since then. Thanks for the great tunes over the years, Mike. By all means, keep doing what you're doing. It's beautiful....

Angelina Jolie: How To Be A Hero

The Oxford Astrologer 16 May 2013, 1:07 am CEST

Yesterday Angelina Jolie told the world she'd had an operation that reduces her risk of cancer from 87% to 5%. She'd had a double mastectomy.

That one of the world's most beautiful women should choose to have both breasts removed is a powerful notion. Jolie in particular has been hailed as a living embodiment of Venus -- a ripe peach of a woman, who exudes the kind of sexuality that melts celluloid and makes strong men, and women, weak at the knees. So for her to remove those potent symbols of femaleness – her breasts – has, well, impact.

From bad girl to mad girl, to femme fatale, to single mother, to philanthropist, to partner, to mater familias: Angelina Jolie's public profile has evolved dizzyingly over the past two decades. While some celebrities respond to publicity by retreating, Jolie looked the paparazzi cameras dead in the eye and kept on walking straight towards them. She's brave. Jupiter-Moon-Mars in Aries. Her decision to write an op-ed piece in The New York Times about the double mastectomy that she's undergone this year is another example of both her brilliant handling of her extraordinary fame and her guts. Her choice to have the operation and to talk about it could well save lives, because she truly can be that much talked about thing, a role model.

Looking at her chart, you can see that she's bound to be known for something more than acting. The magnetic film presence is in the Sun-Neptune opposition, with Neptune in the 5th house of acting. Neptune is, of course, the planet of film and illusion. It's also the mirror, so her Sun shines right at it. But the emphasis in her chart is on the Midheaven and the Ascendant. That is her status and her persona and in those she is blessed by the gods. Venus, the goddess of beauty, sits right on her Ascendant exact to the degree, and Jupiter, the king, is also exactly on her Midheaven - to the degree, crowning her with very high status. That's quite an astonishing double dose of luck, so I checked the provenance of this chart, which gets an AA rating from Astrodatabank. Apparently it's kosher. Jupiter on the MC makes her loom large in the public imagination, but that Jupiter also conjuncts her feisty, ferocious Aries Moon. In fact that Moon is moving away from fiery Mars towards Jupiter. Her emotions must be enormous, towering, sudden, violent. She says that she spent years self-harming with blades and with a partner. This was a pretty literal way of living her chart. Mars rules sharp things, and its proximity to her Moon gives the blade direct access to her emotions. Her 14 or so tattoos are also evidence of the power of sharpness, and drawing blood, for her. Nevertheless, the Mars-Moon contact comes to the fore again with this latest news. The Moon, because of its rulership of Cancer, rules breasts. Transiting Uranus, the planet one would associate with advanced medical intervention (I've seen it with c-sections), is currently at 11° Aries, the midpoint between Jolie's natal Mars and Moon, and it's been hanging around this point all spring. Transiting Pluto, the planet of excision, has been squaring that same point from her sixth house of health. So the Pluto-Uranus square is right at the heart of her chart right now, bringing greater pain, greater fame and greater meaning to her life.

She won an Oscar for this role in Girl, Interrupted.

Her article about the surgery was published as the Moon moved into Cancer, its own sign, creating a grand trine between the North Node in Scorpio, destiny in the sign of deep surgery, and Chiron in Pisces, the wounded healer in the sign of mass consciousness. What is more, Chiron is currently exactly conjuncting Jolie's Dark Moon Lilith at 13° Pisces. Chiron is about both scarring and healing. Jolie has said, in another context: “I find flaws attractive. I find scars attractive.” In fact, she has spoken about scars quite a surprising amount. In a previous incarnation, her Girl, Interrupted phase, Jolie was embodying the energy of the Lilith. In her natal chart, her Sun and Moon are also both at 13°, square and semi-sextile to Lilith in Pisces. This must be the root of some of her mesmerising, voracious and vulnerable, sexual allure. Her Sun and Moon, her nature and her core self, also form a so-called Mystic Rectangle with Neptune, the movies, and Pluto, power. This is, of course, not mystical at all, but shows her true temporal power. Jolie has the ability to influence millions of people with her actions and her money. And with this power comes huge responsibility. Finally, Jolie's North Node is at 0° Sagittarius, the archer. There's an eclipse at 4° Sag on the 25th of May, the last of the Gemini/Sagittarius season. Jolie's Sun is in Gemini and her partner Brad Pitt's Sun is in Sagittarius. They have been through a rapid evolutionary leap in the past 18 months or so, I suspect. That North Node, her destiny and life direction, is in the 5th house of children and acting, so that's good. It makes one exact aspect -- to Pallas Athena, the warrior goddess at 0° Aries, the very first degree of the zodiac. This is the pioneering degree, the beginning, the first step, the breakthrough. Women warriors in ancient times, the Amazons, each removed one breast so that it would not get in the way of a drawn bow. And it also makes an aspect to Jolie's Venus-Ascendant. For the public, this eclipse definitively marks the end of one type of role she was modelling, and the beginning of the next. Aries MC-Jupiter-Moon-Mars is a hero. Gemini Sun has many faces. Which one will it be this time?

The May New Moon Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 4 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 15 May 2013, 6:16 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this month's Taurus Solar Eclipse chart which will show us a new life order and which way the winds of destiny are blowing. This is the time to mobilize and break on through to the other side!

This Lunation, along with the inner planets, continues sign concentrations within the usual "anchoring" span occupied by slow moving planets. Due to the shift toward Jupiter and away from Saturn, the occupied span runs from Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces to Uranus in Aries and completes with Jupiter in Gemini. In this New Moon, there is a huge cluster of planets in Taurus, showing that area of our charts will be very intense and active for the next few weeks.

We’ve now returned to having only one nozzle planet for this “Bucket” Jones Pattern. Jupiter in Gemini was the primary nozzle for quite some time, since it’s been outside the occupied span. However, due to the cluster of planets in Aries, Saturn is now the nozzle for the rest of the energies. So in this chart, Saturn is the nozzle for, and focuses the occupied span from Capricorn through Gemini.

So What is a “Bucket Pattern” and how does it work?

This type of spread, with all the planets in about half the signs with one outside that span wide enough to be a handle, creates a “Bucket” Jones Pattern. The energies of the occupied half are focused through the “handle,” or “nozzle,” in this case Saturn, which is termed the “focal determinator,” and represents the way to greater effectiveness, the cause to be embraced, the lack to be filled, or the way to use the total energies of this time in a focused manner.

Dr. Jones states “the bucket type indicates a particular and rather uncompromising direction in the life effort.” This pattern gives “interest in a cause,” with executive tendencies that will adapt allegiances to maximize results of the effort. He says “the bucket type at its best reveals the real instructor and inspirer of others, and at its worst the agitator and malcontent.” This is the larger planetary pattern within which we’re all trying to do what we do.

We are also told this pattern is more about finding an effective release for energy within social settings, but also about the self imposing its pattern on society rather than adapting to what is there. It’s about focused intention. So all of us can expect some sort of focused attention on the house where we have early Scorpio.

Of the traditional 10 planets, there are 5 planets in Earth signs, 2 in Water, 2 in Air, and 1 planet in Fire. That shows a heavy emphasis on practicality and material things as we flow through feelings and ideas, with relatively little focus on inspiration. The emphasis on Earth shows it’s a time for being efficient and practical, and organizing things so they are in our “enlightened self-interest.”

Air and Earth are cool, Fire and Water are hot. With so many planets in Earth coupled with two in Air, it will be a time when things and people are more cool and practical. This can bring a sense of grounding within our experience of a vaster time frame and a sense of finality at the threshold of a new “law of life,” with a sense of what needs to be done and when.

With Saturn in Scorpio, expect more feelings of being connected on deep and vast levels. This is a time to recognize what you feel, and move that deeper and vaster feeling into action in conformity to the new life order already presenting itself.

As noted in a previous article, this Lunation is the eighth New Moon with Saturn in Scorpio. In 2012 we cultivated a new strength, came to a philosophical completion, and finished repairing or reconstructing something so that some final dues are now paid and old karmas left behind. We are growing into a new intensity, focus, emotional depth, and greater maturity relative to shared values, shared resources, deeper ability to commune with others as well as Nature and Spirit, and getting a more structured connection and a more powerful Spiritual linkage with others and ourselves.

Wherever we have Taurus and Gemini is going to be highly active, due to the presence of 6 planets in that 35 degree span between Mars in mid-Taurus and Jupiter in mid-Gemini. If you have a planet anywhere in that area of the zodiac, you’re going to go through major changes in the part of your psyche represented by the planet and the part of your external affairs symbolized by the house it’s in.

The general theme is that we are being pushed through crises into character development, and can clean out old ideas and see which way the “winds of destiny” are blowing. This will lead us to many new discoveries of things we may not have noticed before now, or things that are “below the surface of daily living.” It’s a time when lots of new information will have to be processed in simple straightforward ways, and those who can still their minds can receive reflections of a higher light.

Since Saturn in Scorpio is one of the “handles” of the Bucket pattern, you may want to regard Saturn in that position as symbolizing a type of “bone regeneration,” or the elimination of all in our skin and bones that would block our ability to meet and greet others at a higher level of dignity, reserve, and “civilized” behavior. This shows us a long wave elimination and regeneration work each of us is doing in our own ways and times.

On a final note about Jones Patterns, Saturn will be the nozzle for the rest of the energies for quite a few weeks to come, since it’s a long time until the inner planets are in Leo, Virgo, or Libra. However, by May-June, the larger pattern will alternate between Bucket and Locomotive, but once Jupiter and Saturn are in trine, a lot of what we’ve been dealing with that seems unfocused and spread out will stabilize.

Important Aspects

Remember that in reading a Lunation chart (as well as a horary, inceptional, electional, or any event chart) the forming aspects show things to come, while separating aspects show things already past. This New Moon makes only one forming aspect, while the other planets also make few, but EXTREMELY important.

The only forming aspect the Lunation makes is the novile to Uranus, which will bring emergent forms of spiritual awareness and a need to let things gestate as they become more solid. However, a much more important set of aspects is made by Venus, which is triseptile Saturn, septile Uranus, and square Neptune, coupled with Saturn triseptile Uranus.

The septile series aspects create a non-rational configuration that will throw us into critical choices and changes wherever we have mid-Aries, early Gemini, and early Scorpio, as well as houses related to Taurus, Libra, Capricorn, and Aquarius. The hot zones include 9-13 Aries, 30 Taurus-4 Gemini, 22-26 Cancer, 13-17 Virgo, 5-9 Scorpio, 26-30 Sagittarius, and 18-22 Aquarius.

If you have a planet or an angle in any of these zones, expect important developments that will throw you into your “destiny.” Many of these changes will involve new discoveries that will either a) put the brakes on old ideas and ideals, turning us to new ones, or b) release our ideals in forms that show how we can be effective on larger or broader levels. Decisions will be made based in these new ideas, views, and discoveries that will throw us quickly into new directions, purifications, regenerations, alternative views and potentials, and many will receive important messages that will help them shift magnetism.

Venus will release the Neptunian energies, and Neptune can be a vehicle for demonstrating Venusian forms of new ideas and ideals. Handling this square between Venus and Neptune will require precision and an eye to details and sequence of function, as well as a broad view and sense of humor. Some will have “reunions with kindred fighting spirits,” or will have to demonstrate skill and fairness in “playing the game” while moving through “the ups and downs and round and round” of emotions. Divine discrimination is required regarding what’s core and what’s peripheral, what’s important and what’s unimportant.

Other than these aspects, other important forming angles include Mercury conjunct the Sun, Mars quintile Neptune, Jupiter sesquisquare Saturn and quintile Uranus, Saturn trine Neptune, and the ever grinding revolutionary energies of Uranus square Pluto.

Mars quintile Neptune will bring specialized conditions wherever these planets are transiting in our charts. Affected areas are 3-6 Pisces, 15-18 Taurus, 27-30 Cancer, 9-12 Libra, and 21-24 Sagittarius. Similarly, Jupiter quintile Uranus opens specialized beginnings, innovations, and ways of externalizing something of future benefit. Affected areas are 8-11 Aries, 20-23 Gemini, 2-5 Virgo, 14-17 Scorpio, and 26-29 Capricorn.

Though the Grand Irrationality is not directly involved in this Eclipse, it will be triggered soon when Venus and Mercury transit through the Gemini zone of the configuration from May 21-25, followed by the Sun from June 3-9 and Mars from June 19-29. I’ll of course compose more as these times get closer.

I recently gave you the 7 current “hot zones” where the Grand Irrationality is most active in the article Astrology in April 2013 – Entering the Grand Irrationality which included times in April when the Moon and Mercury are activating this configuration. Even though this Eclipse isn’t under the influence of the Grand Irrationality, there are many who are being affected by this configuration due to planets in one of the 7 hot zones. If you’re directly affected by this irrational, obsessive-compulsive, hard-edged, and weird energy field, let go of believing it has to make sense, and see what choices you must make so your future trajectory is to your best benefit.

Spirit walks with this configuration, and what direction you choose will determine if the Spirit will grow stronger and closer with you, or if you will move in directions away from Spirit. Given that most of this community is intentionally trying to live in harmony with Life, Nature, and each other, chances are that whatever you – yes, YOU the reader – are confronting will show you a deeper, richer, more powerful Spiritual life. Which is a good thing.

The separating aspects show reality already experienced, or things already set into motion. Aspects of note are the Lunation conjunct Mercury and Mars opposed Saturn, quintile Neptune, trine Pluto, and sextile Chiron. We also see separating Mercury conjunct Mars opposed Saturn, quintile Neptune, trine Pluto and sextile Chiron, Venus conjunct Sun, Mars opposed Saturn, trine Pluto, and sextile Chiron, Jupiter biseptile Neptune and triseptile Pluto, and Saturn sextile Pluto.

Taken together, these indicate we’ve been through a very productive and stabilizing period showing the way of a more accurate intuition and understanding of the core of things. We’ve all confronted fears, endings, loss, and stuck situations that forced us to search for “The Mystery” and find ways to feel secure and cared for. This has led us to the threshold of a greater collective dedication, though it may take some months for that to become clear.

The Sabian Symbols for the New Moon

A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following 4 weeks will demonstrate. This Eclipse will have far reaching effects for the next 45 months. This Lunation falls at 20 Taurus. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.

The symbol is “Wind clouds and haste.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “Exalted state of consciousness; lightness and breadth of being and understanding,” and “mystical and ecstatic self-expansion.”

In the Astrological Mandala, he says this degree involves "the awareness of spiritual forces at work.” He states this degree shows us that “any emergence of life potentialities from the depth of the vast Unconscious is answered by the spiritual activity of superconscious forces” that represent “the ‘Signature’ of divine Powers confirming (our) progress.”

He continues that the “winglike clouds” may also symbolize the presence of angels and devas “blessing and subtly revealing the direction to take, the direction of ‘the wind’ of destiny.” He finishes with this concluding a process where we should find ourselves “more securely established in (our) own original nature, receiving the blessings of super-natural forces.”

He says it falls in the span of Enjoyment, and it’s the final degree of the actional level of the scene of Confirmation in the Act of Differentiation. So for this month (and the next 45) we’re being taught how to let go of an old form of action that used to confirm things in our lives, and find new ways to confirm new life directions, new ways to enjoy life, and new ways to see which way “the winds of destiny” are blowing. Just be patient, and keep it simple and straightforward as you move through various “crises” that confirm your evolved character and values.

According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of “the transiency which characterizes life,” and “the instability which results from the disinclination of most people” to give of themselves due to ego limitations that cling to “superficial excitement.” He offers that “there is a real spiritual lightness here as an outer mark of the soul’s fundamental freedom.”

He offers us the keyword of EXALTATION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “efficiency in controlling events at any point of transition or crisis.”

So we enter a time of enjoyment in knowing the direction of our future destiny. This is about a type of action that stabilizes and confirms something of worth. Keep it simple as you let go of moving in old directions and sense new directions being indicated by subtle or natural forces. The next 4 weeks, as well as 45 months, is a time to do what must be done, with an eye to enjoying the journey. This period opens new directions, new values, new resources, and new ways to concentrate energy directed toward new discoveries.

Other Influences

Pluto, the Cosmic Purifier, will be in Capricorn for many years. It continues to teach us deep lessons about practical, organized economy of energy and efficiency in sprouting seed forms of the new "laws of our lives" we can relax into. 2012 was mainly about being organized in finding and demonstrating ways to get beyond fear and radiate harmlessness and mature fellowship with Nature, whether your own, another's, or Nature Herself.

We’ve now moved into unknown Pluto zones, and can see life as a science experiment as we master discouraging feelings in the collective field. We can now reinterpret “emotion arousing images from our past,” and get a broader perspective in what’s been awakened the past 3 years. This Taurus stellium will help us stabilize the Uranian beginnings first launched in 2011 that were renewed last month.

The next 4 weeks continues to be a time to open to new ways of viewing how to claim our divine power and express it creatively and without fear as we explore the natural laws underlying manifestations, and see Nature Herself as a laboratory where we learn about how our system is constructed. We can “pierce through appearances” to see the magic at the core of things, and through a “keen vision” can find or demonstrate a “universal living touch.” This sets a threshold pattern for what will surface in August as a search for a Mystery.

Jupiter in Gemini

As noted in previous articles in this series, due to the effect of the very strong Gemini eclipse of June 2011 being activated by Jupiter in the recent past through the early April, we have been liberated from the ghosts of the past and letting go of burdens we no longer need to bear since then. Having found what we've been looking for and opened to new ways of doing our Being, we can be more natural in our search for deeper insights into meaning and processes as we reach out to new and more complex vistas of potential interactions.

We’ll go through another layer of peeling off the ghosts of the past in May and June 2013. This is one of the final ones connected to the Gemini Solar Eclipse of 2012. Much in the Gemini area of our lives has been shut down since then, I’ve added links to those articles at the bottom of this one so you can check out how the specifics of the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse and understand what’s ended and continues to end and why in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Jupiter in Gemini continues to invite us to open to new ideas, new perspectives, and new ways of seeing what’s fair and what isn’t. We have been learning how to take the patience and persistence we cultivated while Jupiter was in Taurus between June 2011 and June 2012, and since then have had opportunities to open to alternative ways of understanding new discoveries and new interactions that have rapidly opened since January that continue through June 2013.

Especially with Venus, ruler of the Eclipse, in Gemini along with Jupiter, keep open to new ideas and perspectives, new ways to learn, and see the higher truths all around you. Jupiter accelerating allows us to see various ways to discover and adapt to our expanding vision so we can become more versatile in becoming part of the "corrective force of Nature Herself."

In practicing our unique individuality we can become the answer to some collective need, whether large or small. The next 4 weeks (and 45 months) will show us “a prodigal distribution of life resources,” our “inner wealth,” “rich supply,” and “discriminative use of natural energies.” We’ll begin seeing this May 24-25, and these should be in full motion in our lives by June 26-28.

As Jupiter speeds up in motion, it will accelerate the remainder of our Jupiter in Gemini adventure that lasts through June. Everything happening has the January stationary direct degree as the platform underneath all that we reach out toward during 2013. The degree is “An old fashioned well,” and we are told it’s a degree of “personal self-renewal and simple organic integrity.”

It’s where we take in and give out the substance of who we are, and are compensated for our efforts. It promises self-reliance and “uncompromising faithfulness,” inner assurance, poise, and holds the promise that if we can sense what is hidden that will nourish us, and then do the simple effort to bring it up to the surface of our lives, then we will find “a fundamental trust in and cooperation with life.” This will be the foundation for all that develops between now and late June.

What Is The Priority of Thinking, Feeling and Deciding?

As with recent Lunations, we’re now in a pattern of thinking, then deciding and then feeling. This New Moon Solar Eclipse shows that over the next 4 weeks we lead with thinking infused by feelings, and then must make decisions on the basis of those thoughts, visions, information, and understanding. After that we need to sit with the decision or action and go as deep into our experiences of them as we can.

So find a new view, a new understanding, new information, and new interactions that can help you see clearly what must be done and how. Then do it, and feel what you must on the basis of that decision. Periods of solitude may be required after a critical decision or action. After that direct experience of feelings the results of your decision and action, a new understanding will arise, or a new way to communicate, or a new vision.

Though this is a time when ideas, visions, and communication predominate, we must still follow through on those discoveries with decisions and actions. This is the time to see what we have to do, then do it, and then feel the experience of it after the act.

Given Venus rules the Eclipse and it’s part of the septile-driven configuration with Saturn and Uranus, we’ve now entered a time of very intense and compressed choice and change. As with recent months, eliminate all that doesn’t serve your highest social and cultural expression, and be versatile as you learn to navigate the flow of the many tides swirling around as you concentrate your efforts.

Don’t get antagonized by all that’s in motion, and when possible, reference your own maladjustments in terms of their larger significance. This period, while it will take much away, will also bring major blessings and new directions, as well as exalted states of consciousness. So if you feel things “lightening up,” well, they are. Use that lightness to expand in your awareness of subtle forces showing you which way your destiny is moving.

Here are the previous articles about this Annular Solar Eclipse in Taurus:

Astrology in May 2013 - On The Threshold of an Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus

The Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus May 9-10, 2013 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?

An Annular Solar Eclipse New Moon in Taurus Pt. 2 - What’s Happening in May-June 2013, As Well As 2014-2015-2016

The May 2013 Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 3 – How Will This Lunation Affect Us?

Besides the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse that triggered the Grand Irrationality for years after, we’ve also had a couple of other Solar Eclipses since then that continue to affect all of us. Here are the articles explaining the "Ring of Fire" 2012 Solar Eclipse in Gemini still playing out on the world stage and in our lives in major ways!

Astrology in May 2012 - On The Threshold of an Annular Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini

The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?

The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 2 - How Will It Manifest?

The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 3 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means

Since November and December 2012 brought inner planet transits very close to the degree of the November 2011 Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius (which is still in full force), and the Gemini Eclipses have opposed that Sagittarian Solar Eclipse, here are some links for you to compare and contrast how they are similar and different:

The Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius November 24-25, 2011 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?

The Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius November 24-25, 2011 Pt. 2 - How Will It Manifest?

EVOLUTION AS CREATION MYTH

ASTROTABLETALK 15 May 2013, 4:53 pm CEST

Below is an excerpt from Patrick Harpur’s The Philosophers' Secret Fire. I’m not as sceptical as he is about the evidence for evolution, though I think its mechanism is far from understood. What particularly interests me is the way Harpur shows Evolutionists to be driven by pre-existing myths such as the Goddess and the Great Chain of Being.

PS I think the idea of competition as the driver of evolution merely mirrors the competitive capitalist ideology of our society. In other times we might have seen evolution as driven by co-operation, or maybe by elegance.

“A surprising number of people believe that humans are descended from spacemen who have landed on earth and, like the mysterious Nephilim in Genesis, ‘mated with the daughters of men’. We may smile at this myth but it is not especially disreputable. All traditional cultures believe that they are descended from gods, god-like humans such as the ancestors or divine animals – many of whom came from the sky.

Naturally we do not understand the clans who claim descent from a leopard or a bear because we think they believe in a literal biological descent, which they do not. It is westerners who take their myths of descent literally so that, when we ceased to believe that we were literally descended from Adam and Eve, who were created according to Archbishop Usher of Armagh in 4004BC, we were only to ready to believe we were descended from apes. Tribespeople would understand divine ape-ancestors at once, but actual apes… It would be their turn to smile. The last superior laugh is ours, of course, because unlike the naïve tribespeople and the barmy extraterrestrialists we have a scientific theory of descent: evolution.

In 1992 a science writer called Richard Milton published a book, The Facts of Life, which questioned the scientific validity of the theory of evolution. When I read a review of it by Richard Dawkins, describing the book as ‘loony’, ‘stupid’, ‘drivel’ and its author as someone who ‘needs psychiatric help’, I was naturally grateful to Dawkins for drawing my attention, through this closely reasoned critique, to a work I might otherwise have missed. Mr Milton turned out to be disconcertingly sane. He wrote his book as a concerned father who was nervous about his daughter being taught a theory as if it were Gospel truth.”

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Harpur’s main reservation about evolution is the lack of intermediate species in the fossil record and, in their eagerness to believe, the susceptibility of scientists to hoaxes such as Piltdown man.

He continues:“Why do evolutionists believe in evolution against all the evidence? Partly, I suppose, because there is no credible alternative story; mostly, because it is a powerful creation myth which demands to be implicitly believed. Structural analysis has already shown (earlier in the book) how myths which may look very different on the surface are in fact variants of the same myth. They are simply transformed by certain archetypal rules. This is true of myths of devolution and evolution.

Traditionally, creation myths are devolutionary. They describe how we are descended from gods or god-like ancestors, and our present state is fallen, a regression from the perfection of the past. We are inferior to our forebears. Our task is to recreate the conditions of Eden or Arcadia, the state of past harmony.

Only our western scientific myth is evolutionary. It describes how we have ascended from animals and our present state is advanced, a progress from the imperfection of the past. We are superior to our forebears. Our task is to create the conditions of the New Jerusalem or Utopia, the state of future harmony.

We notice that the two myths are, as so often, symmetrical but inverted. So, while the evolutionary myth claims that it is not a myth at all, but history, superseding all other myths, we see that really it is a variant of the devolutionary myth – an eccentric variant that wants to take itself literally.

Evolutionism places humans at the top of the tree, the position formerly occupied by the gods. It also endows us with god-like powers of reason etc. But it claims, too, that we are only animals, a product of mere biology. In other words, we have ‘ascended’ to become the ‘divine animals’ from which so many traditional cultures claim descent.

The place where ‘transmutation of species’ really occurs is not in Nature but in myth. Species of gods and daimons are always appearing to humans in animal form. Witches and shamans take on the shapes of animals and certain animals shed their skins to assume human form. The interchanging of humans and animals is a metaphor for the reciprocal relationship between this world and the Otherworld, the way each flows into the other. In the old days we believed in werewolves; African tribes still routinely believe in were-leopards or were-crocodiles. Nowadays we believe in were-apes. Myth has no objection to the changing of an ape into a man, or vice-versa; but only evolutionists would dream of taking this literally; transmutation of species is a literalisation of daimonic shape-shifting.

Transitional species are abundant in myth, where we not only have were-animals but also centaurs, satyrs, fauns, mermaids, etc; but they are absent in fact. Evolution works imaginatively but not literally. The search for the magical were-ape, or ‘missing link’, which will transform the myth into history tends to follow the same sequence of events: a tooth or bone is found and hailed excitedly as evidence for the missing link. Time passes – and it is reluctantly re-classified as either man-like or ape-like.

The search for ‘missing links’ in the evolutionary chain can be traced back to the Scholastic doctrine – axiomatic for over a thousand years – that ‘Nature makes no leaps’…. But apart from this sort of philosophical precedent for ‘missing links’, it seems simply to be the case that the need for continuity exerts as archetypal a fascination over the imagination as the idea of shapeshifting. We always construct a series of links between ourselves and the gods (or whatever we conceive to be the ground of our being) such as the Neoplatonic emanations, the medieval Chain of Being or the Roman Catholic saints, angels and Blessed Virgin Mary.

But what, if not Adam and Eve, does the evolutionary chain link us to? The Darwinist answer, of course, is: to an ape-like ancestor in the first instance, and ultimately to protein molecules in the primeval ocean. The psychological answer is that it links us to a symmetrical but inverted version of the transcendent God it has done away with – it links us, that is, to an immanent goddess. Darwinists are not aware of her, but she is present in Darwin’s vision of Nature as a cruel power, which his successors inherited. They still see Nature today in an unwittingly Romantic light as the irrepressible source of all forms of life… When Jacques Monod wrote of the “inexhaustible resources of the well of chance’, he was using a metaphor which traditionally belongs to the creatrix in her manifestation as the Soul of the World.

The goddess is particularly present in any ideology which emphasis growth and development. As James Hillman has noticed, ‘the evolutional terms of Darwinian biology… resonate with the person of the mother archetype.’

Happy 2013 Video Birthday to Gene Cornish

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 15 May 2013, 12:26 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Today we celebrate the great Gene Cornish, lead guitarist for the legendary "blue eyed soul" group the Young Rascals.

They hit the charts in 1965, and never looked back! The Young Rascals, later just the Rascals, were one of THE premier "white soul" groups of the 60s, and their music stands up today as some of the best ever made!! Gene Cornish's (May 14, 1944) guitar licks were pretty incredible, given he was the only guitar in the group as counterpoint to Felix Cavaliere's wailing organ.

Here's their first big hit, a major tune with an even bigger attitude! (The Rascals always did songs with attitude, even when they were just "groovin'") From Shindig in 1965 (with Alan King doing a schtick, deleted from this clip) here are the Young Rascals on tv doing their breakthrough tune "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore."

Here’s a treat! From 1965, a spoof video of the Rascals set to them performing a wailing version of the Larry Williams smash hit, the "B" side of "Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore," “Slow Down”

From early in their career, a live 1966 performance of their first monster hit, "Good Lovin'." Studio version of "Good Lovin'" here.

We'll close this 1965 set of tunes from their first album with a great rave up penned by Gene and the drummer Dino Danelli! One of my faves from that first album, the infinitely danceable tune giving us a hint of things to come, "Do You Feel."

From their second album "Collections," the original studio version of the beautiful "What is the Reason"

The original studio cut of the infinitely danceable "Come On Up."

Here's a great live set showing off Felix's amazing singing and organ work, with some classic and utterly fantastic drumming by Dino Danelli! Seeing this shows how exciting the Young Rascals were at their peak! A two-fer of "I've Been Lonely Too Long" and "Come On Up." From the same show, another two-fer of the soul classics "Mickey's Monkey" and "Turn On Your Love Light."

Here are the studio versions of two songs written by our birthday boy, the first a soulful ballad "No Love To Give," and the second a raw rocker, "Nineteen Fifty Six."

We’ll finish this 1966 set with a great live performance of “Since I Fell”

A great live performance from 1967 by the Young Rascals of the title song of their third album, "Groovin'"

From the "Groovin'" album, two tunes written by Gene Cornish! "I'm So Happy Now" and the mellow bongo sound of "I Don't Love You Any More"

Here's a live performance of "How Can I Be Sure."

Punk attitude with a wailing Hammond B-3 and a guitar riff wound tighter than a watch spring! The original studio cut of "You Better Run."

A live lip-synched performance of "Lonely Too Long."

Here’s another great live performance (not lip synched!) of "Lonely Too Long."

From the legendary “Summer of Love,” here are the Rascals in 1967 on Ed Sullivan doing a live performance of their smash hit "A Girl Like You."

Here’s the studio version of the “B” side to “A Girl Like You,” an amazing soulful psychedelic tune featuring the exquisite flute playing of Hubert Laws! One of my all-time favorites, here’s the fantastic “It’s Love”

From 1968's "Once Upon A Dream," one of their obscure gems! Here's the studio version of an archetypal 1967 vibe, "It's Wonderful."

Also from "Once Upon A Dream," the Gene Cornish tune "I'm Gonna Love You."

Here's the original 1968 studio version of "It's A Beautiful Morning."

Here they are live in 1969, doing their huge #1 hit from the 1969 "Freedom Suite" album, "People Got To Be Free." From Sweden in 1969, a b/w performance of “People Got To Be Free”

Here’s another great live version in 1970 of “People Got To Be Free”

Original 1968 studio version of "People Got To Be Free" here. (This song was written in reaction to the assassinations that year of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and went straight to #1 on the charts.)

Also from 1968 and "Freedom Suite," a video of the Rascals live performing “Heaven”

From "Freedom Suite," studio versions of tunes Gene wrote, "Me and My Friends" and "Love Was So Easy To Give."

From 1969, a live performance of “Carry Me Back”

Here’s a strange video of the Rascals in 1969 set to the original studio version of “See” (It’s obvious where the J. Geils Band got their sound!)

From 1970, the Rascals live on tv doing “Glory Glory”

Here's a clip from 1988, The Rascals on Regis.

We'll close this birthday tribute with a smokin' live performance of 'the Young Rascals and Friends" doing the immortal rock and roll anthem "Good Lovin'" Gene's still got the moves!

Happy Birthday, Gene! You, Felix, Eddie, and Dino made my teen years a true joy!

Gemini Decan 1

Darkstar Astrology 14 May 2013, 11:32 am CEST

Gemini Decan 1 is ruled by Jupiter, the sun crusades through the constellations of Taurus the Bull, Perseus the Hero and the River from May 21 to 31. This section of the sky houses the famous star clusters the Hyades and the Pleiades, plus of course the royal star Aldebaran in the Bull’s eye.These clusters have stormy reputations, Alcyone is scandalous in love and the Hyades bring tears and violence. Perseus is not the most sedate fellow either, brandishing his sword and grasping poor Medusa’s decapitated head.

With Jupiter’s influence here then we get activists and militants who are on a spiritual or religious mission. They see themselves as spiritual warriors and reformers, on this earth to stamp out evil. This area is also very artistic, so those in the entertainment business here will always have a socio-political message behind what they do. They will also want to gain status, and be admired for their intellect. These people are great conversationalists, come out with great one liners and have the ability to abruptly and skilfully steer the discussion off any subject matter that is not their forte. The last thing these brainiacs wants to appear as is stupid!

Gemini decan 1 is the thinking mans warrior, they will rescue damsels in distress, the underdog and the hard done by, all because they want to be the good Samaritan. They are not fighting for the thrill of spilling blood, good gracious no! The twins are chivalrous knights, but nevertheless can’t help getting embroiled in dramas, mainly because they cant keep their mouth shut. Gemini decan 1 thrives on scandal and they are terrible gossips. The medieval “scold” mask was just made for these jesters. These folk are naturally very funny, the mix of Jupiter’s joviality and Mercury wit cannot fail to tickle even the most dour person.

The negative side of Gemini decan 1 is a certain shiftiness however, they could be trickster supreme with Aldebaran’s great gallant charm and Alcyone’s supposedly “Evil disposition”. Gemini decan 1 can get away with murder just because they make you laugh so much that your sides split, followed by your purse, followed by your shiny pennys falling straight into their grubby little hands. Gemini decan 1 are passionate about what they believe in, but because they also have been appointed by God to be his soldier they can also be incredibly arrogant. Having an archangel star here is all very well, but its volatile energy can taketh as well as giveth if the subject gets too big for his boots.

Gemini Fixed Stars

Gemini 00º 00’ ~ Alcyone the central star of the Pleiades in Taurus the Bull 3.0* Gemini 02º 05’ ~ Mirfak in the right side of Perseus the Hero 1.9 Gemini 04º 48’ ~ Menkib in the left foot of Perseus the Hero 4.0 Gemini 05º 15’ ~ Sceptrum in Eridanus the River 4.0 Gemini 05º 48’ ~ Prima Hyadum in the Hyades of Taurus the Bull 3.9 Gemini 08º 28’ ~ Ain in the left eye of Taurus the Bull 3.6 Gemini 09º 47’ ~ Aldebaran in the right eye of Taurus the Bull 0.8

Alcyone is the main star of the Pleiades; this mysterious star cluster has beguiled us for thousands of years. Their role is supposed to help humanity evolve by purifiying our astral and etheric bodies in order to receive higher wisdom. Dissolving away our dirty devils, rather like Perseus’s mission to slay the demon Medusa. Our hero risked life and limb to rescue his love Andromeda, so very chivalrous and noble. Or was he really after her father King Cepheus kingdom..? Somehow it all seems to good to be true, which is why Gemini decan 1 can get the reputation of being a cad. Alcyone has a bit of a sleazy reputation too. Some keywords are “vain, venerated, indulgent, spoilt, easily flattered, flirty, beautiful, poetic, talented, theatrical, ravishing, handsome, designer, dandy”.

These stars, like the Gemini archetype as a whole are a mass of contradictions; they can be the good twin or the evil twin. One twin is constantly at war with its shadow and they are constantly on the verge of becoming the very “darkness” they are trying to eliminate. The challenge for Gemini decan 1 is to try not to create more divisiveness in their zeal to spiritually spring-clean. New-age light workers and Christian fundamentalists alike make me think of Aldebaran, since he is so darned worthy. The Alcyone bunch are the activists, bohemians, eco-warriors and the liberals who are so incredibly “right-on” and politically correct. Gemini decan 1 is all about duality and polarity, directly opposite Aldebaran we get Antares, his nemesis, but that’s another story…

Geek Chic Warriors

Gemini Decan 1 Mirfak on the right side of Perseus this constellation “is said to denote adventurous individuals, but also those who are less than honest in their dealings with others.” Robson also says Perseus has an “intelligent, strong, bold and adventurous nature, but a tendency to lying.” I get the picture of your cheeky cockney chappie who “ducks and dives” to make a living, a modern day folk hero. Mirfak likes to brag and is full of bravado, like Muhammad Ali in his pre-fight spiel. Sceptrum is now part of Eridanus but was once part of an obsolete constellation known as Sceptrum Brandenburgicum.

The sceptre is a ceremonial staff used to display power and authority. There is a real feel of display to this decan. Is it all an act though? Jupiter can be very theatrical and spectacular while Gemini is about surface, and can wear many masks. It makes me think of the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, that geeky old man operating the booming wizard voice and theatrics from behind the curtain. He didn’t think he was impressive enough on his own. Gemini decan 1 promises much and seems suspect, but like the Clintwood (See Sun) inspired animated spaghetti western film Rango, the apparent charlatan did in fact come good in the end.

Sun: Queen Victoria, John F Kennedy, Clint Eastwood, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Helena Bonham-Carter, Rupert Everett, Henry Kissinger, Stevie Nicks, Siouxie Sioux, Paul Weller, Ronald Isley, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Morrissey, Mel B, Kylie Mynogue, Priscilla Presley, Peggy Lee, Julian Clary, John Hinckley, Mary Cassatt, Henri Rousseau, Jeffrey L Dahmer, Harvey Milk, Elena Ford, Cyril Fagan, Vivian Robson.

Moon: Barack Obama, Benito Mussolini, Edith Piaf, Tina Turner, Bryan Ferry, Edwina Currie, Helmet Kohl, Herb Ritts, Jackie Chan, Joan Baez, Johannes Kepler, John Inman, Jon Venables, Tracey Connelly, Le Cobusier, Roseanne Barr, Roy Orbison, Shirley Conran, Queen Victoria, Wayne Gretzky.

Ascendant: Queen Victoria, Miles Davis, Tony Blair, Vic Reeves, Rufus Wainwright, Jennifer Gibbons, Jeane Dixon, Jackie Chan, Greta Scacchi, Greta Garbo, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Francesco Smalto, Christine Keeler, Charlie Sheen, Burt Reynolds.

Star positions for the year 2000. Magnitude.*

Happy 2013 Birthday to the Legendary Stevie Wonder

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 14 May 2013, 12:20 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Besides it being the birthday of Stephen Colbert, today we also send out a huge Happy Birthday to one of the greatest, Mister "Little" Stevie Wonder!

Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950) is one of the most creative and well-loved musical talents of the 20th century. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, this child prodigy who has been blind since infancy is a master musician who has given us some of the most memorable tunes in history.

He is an amazing and extraordinary talent, and his music has been part of the soundtrack of my life. When I saw him years ago he introduced his band by their astrological signs, which let me know he's totally wired into "groovin' on the one!" And he is one of the only blind people in history to drive a car.....

For your enjoyment, “Little Stevie Wonder!”

From 1964, very live and very in the groove on his chromatic harmonica, “Little Stevie Wonder” doing the first part of the tune that first blew the doors down, the amazing “Fingertips”

Here’s a great clip of the exciting rave up that got everyone’s attention and got them hitting the dance floor by the millions, “Fingertips Part 2”

Also from early in his career, live on the Mike Douglas Show, here’s Stevie performing “Up Tight” and “Place in the Sun”

From 1974, an entire 31 minutes of an extremely funky Stevie Wonder concert on German television

We are told this is a rare performance. Live on “Soul Train,” here’s Stevie live performing a medley of “My Cherie Amore,” “Sir Duke,” and more

From our recent birthday tribute, here are some great performances with some more added to round out the sound! If you didn’t catch them then, catch them now!!

Totally in a “live in the studio groove,” an ab-fab live performance by Mister Stevie Wonder of his very funky sendup to Duke Ellington and other jazz legends, the chart-topping “Sir Duke”

In the same spirit, here’s a live performance in Japan in 1982 of his tribute to the Prophet Bob Marley, the very danceable reggae masterpiece, “Master Blaster”

From early in his career, Stevie live performing the classic “For Once In My Life”

Here’s Stevie live on Sesame Street in 1973 doing his hugely funky dance hit, “Superstition”

From 1991 with Tom Jones, a live duet of “Superstition”

Here’s a rare treat! Stevie and Stevie Ray Vaughan live doing “Superstition” and “Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down”

Live in London in 1995, here’s Stevie live performing his masterpiece, “I Just Called To Say I Love You.” From the same show, “Master Blaster”

From 2009, Stevie Wonder and Sting in a great live performance of “Higher Ground” and “Roxanne”

Here’s a great sentiment for these edgy times! Here’s Stevie live in London 2009 performing “Don’t You Worry “Bout A Thing”

From his live performance at the White House in 2009, here’s Stevie doing his smash hit “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”

Also from 2009 at the 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here’s Stevie and the great BB King in a live duet of “The Thrill is Gone”

Speaking of awesome duets, here’s Stevie and the legendary Ray Charles in dueling keyboards doing Stevie’s monster hit “Living for the City”

From “Live at Last, A Wonder Summer’s Night” in London 2008, “Livin’ For the City” and “My Cherie Amour”

From the same 2008 London show, a great performance of “Part Time Lovers” and “Love At Last”

We close this set from London 2008 with 3 of his best!

"(Signed Sealed Delivered) I'm Yours", "Sir Duke" and "I Wish"

Here’s a great performance from 2011 in Glastonbury of “Human Nature” and “If You Really Love Me”

For one of our final tributes, here’s a full 2 hour concert of Stevie Wonder Rock In Rio 2011

If you still haven’t had enough, I found audio only clips of two of his best albums in their entirety. Just hit play and kick back to some great background music that grooves! And of course, if you feel like dancin’, Stevie’s good for happy feet!

The entire 1972 “Talking Book” album

The entire 1973 “Innervisions” album

Here’s a great 74 minute documentary giving us the inside look about one of his greatest albums, “Songs In The Key of Life”

From the show “Biography,” here’s a great 6-part documentary on Stevie Wonder! If you want to learn about this American musical treasure, check it out!!

For our encore, a concert that seems apropos for our birthday boy! From 1989, the full 2 hour CBS television special Stevie Wonder Live in London – The Birthday concert,/p>

Thanks for everything over the years, Stevie. To be one of the best at what you do, and one of the most loved for what you do, puts you in rare company with the legends of all time! May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live! Just watch out for those crazies on the road when you’re behind the wheel....

Happy 2013 Birthday to Master Satirist Stephen Colbert

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 13 May 2013, 10:46 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Today is the 49th birthday of Stephen Colbert, razor witted television maven of "truthiness," born May 13, 1964. His remarkable blend of playful satire, irony, faux right wing reasoning and deliberately obtuse self-centered egomania brings a refreshing humor to America's airwaves through "The Colbert Report" thanks to Comedy Central.

In my 2007 birthday tribute to Stephen Colbert I linked to another article written after his "Triple Taurus" serenade with Richard Holbrook and my old friend Willie Nelson, as well as the White House dinner where he skewered W in a most classy manner. Though that original link is busted, I found another one to the White House Correspondent's Dinner that I included below. By all means check the videos out, since they are the stuff history is made of!

From the 2008 tribute, why he pronounces his name the way he does:

... it's time to offer a birthday shout-out to THE American icon of our times, the august Stephen Colbert. No, not Col-bert. He pronounces his name "Cole-bare" (spelled that way since Steven feels that bears are the numero uno "threat down" in America.) ...Apparently he was raised by enlightened descendants of French Catholics, since his parents allowed all of their numerous kids the privilege of pronouncing their last name the way they want...."

His persona has evolved tremendously from when he was a "correspondent" on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show," and his interviews have gone from amazingly pointed forms of "gotcha" to profound commentaries laced with irony and good humor (sometimes to the chagrin and/or amazement of his guests!) If you haven't caught this icon of our times, he's living the razor's edge of blending wit, wisdom, and wise-guy attitude.

Age 48 is the end of the end of what we’ve been doing since 21, a high point of endings and fulfillment, finishing old life values and relationships. When we are 49, we begin a new 7 year cycle that prepares us for the radical transitions between 49-56. We can now expect to see new approaches, new views, and new messages on his show regarding what he covers and how he covers it. It’s now an entirely different world and future for Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A., and the entire Colbert Nation!

Since the link to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner in the 2007 post is now broken, I found a new link to all 27 minutes of Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.

He really was funny, even if some people weren‘t laughing. And if you can find it, the clip of his show when he and Willie and Richard Holbrooke were singing together is a classic for all time! I’m sure you can find it on his Colbert Report site.

So it's a very Happy and Merry Solar Return and Birthday to this French Irish whirlwind of ironic spin, a Taurus of amazing smiles, perfect hair, and ever-changing new best friends. All the best from this Cosmic Cantina and those of us who count ourselves as part of the Colbert Nation.

Almost thirty years ago

Devine Observations 13 May 2013, 7:55 pm CEST

Most of the commentaries out there in blogs and articles regarding the current “corporate takeover of America,” always say something about how it started roughly thirty years ago, at which time wages pretty much became stagnant. That is how it looks astrologically, as well. I gave a talk to the Fellowship of the Inner Light in Virginia Beach at some time in the seventies about the then approaching planetary pileup in early Capricorn in the last half of the eighties. And now, looking back, it is apparent that the talk was rather clear. I should have made it an article, but I’d been an astrologer for only about five years or so, and didn’t feel sure of myself. When a planet conjoins another planet, it sets off a cycle lasting until the faster planet returns and conjoins the slower planet again. In the late eighties, we had a TRIPLE conjunction of three outer planets with slow, long-lasting cycles, in Capricorn, and the ensuing cycles will carry the theme of Capricorn with them. We have been witnessing this in action. Capricorn is the official ruler of big business and government. It also represents constriction, scarcity and stinginess. Neptune, the planet of deception, lies and secrets (in its negative expression), first entered Capricorn in January 1984. In the USA’s birth chart, Neptune operates in a negative expression. Not only does it semi-square and sesquiquadrate the nodes, showing karma connected with it (material for another blog), it is also square Mars from the ninth house (the legislature), which means we have a deceptive-acting legislature—or in plain language—a corrupt government. It was so from the beginning. After all, right away Hamilton made sure the banks had a stake in making money even though it wasn’t the intent of the constitution. There is a quote online from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis: “However, from the beginning, there were those who argued that the Bank was unconstitutional. The Constitution granted power to tax and print money to Congress, not a private corporation, critics argued.” http://www.minneapolisfed.org/community_education/student/centralbankhistory/bank.cfm? (copy and paste) The Federal Reserve, itself, by the way, is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the country. Just read The Creature from Jekyll Island by Griffin or Money Creators by Coogan to see how it was done. It is simply a private banking cartel making billions off the taxpayer unconstitutionally. If Americans really knew what was going on, they would be storming Washington by the millions! In other words, deception has been a cornerstone of our country from the very beginning and is worse than ever today. But, back to 1984… Neptune was the first of three outer planets to enter Capricorn in the 1980s. The last sojourn in Capricorn was almost 165 years earlier. It set into motion factions that lied, deceived and surreptitiously seeped agendas into plans that were far-reaching decades ahead for the benefit of “big business.” Right behind it entering Capricorn was Saturn on February 14, 1988, and then Uranus two days later. Uranus takes eighty-four years to return to a sign, and Saturn, an average of twenty-eight to thirty. For them all to begin cycles at once in Capricorn was unprecedented in recent history. It was about this time that deceptive plans, begun in early 1984, should have found concrete expression. Uranus is inventiveness and unique ideas, and Saturn is solid, concrete reality. Back then who would have imagined that the originator of Agent Orange, Monsanto, had plans to genetically alter seeds, patent them and try to take over the food supply of the entire planet? We would have assumed that anyone who said so was insane. But that is exactly what has happened, and many other plots, as well. However, just as Pluto in Capricorn brought us the rebellion that birthed the USA (It is in Capricorn in the USA chart), so, too, will Pluto, now again in Capricorn for the first time since then, revolutionize and transform the status quo. All is not lost. Pluto entered Capricorn in January 2008, and by the end of the year, the first cracks in corporate plots appeared when the housing bubble burst, the stock market hiccupped, and we became aware of what “big business” had been doing. Pluto in Capricorn is essentially transformation, dying and rebirthing of big business—and any other Capricorn-ruled item, like government. You can find a list of them in Rex Bills’ “The Rulership Book.” I said in the seventies that when Pluto went through Capricorn, it would revolutionize business and/or government as we know it. They will be transformed into something different. Just as the USA was born while Pluto was in Capricorn, it will die to what it has become and hopefully be re-born in this visit, the first time it has been in that sign since then. Remember, however, that the outer planetary transits are global. They are not directed just at the USA. All countries are affected, but the specifics will depend on their respective charts and how these cycles affect them individually. And now, Uranus has moved into Aries and is making challenging aspects, not only to Pluto, but also to the original triple conjunction that occurred back in the last half of the eighties. This adds outrage and impatience to the mix—historically a time of revolution. The best part will be when Saturn returns to Capricorn in December 2017-January 2018 (remember it has an average 28-30 year orbit and last entered the sign in 1988), and comes back to the original triple threat conjunction, and then goes on to join Pluto in January 2020. It is then that “dues are paid.” Saturn is the disciplinarian. Pluto is forced change, transformation and total rebuilding, and it will not be finished until 2024 when Pluto finally leaves Capricorn and moves on into Aquarius. By then, what it was all about will be clear, but what will happen in the interim depends so much on what each of us does and how we live our lives according to the highest principles. Remember any country’s chart is a collective expression. If we don’t want a corrupt government, we must do something about it.

Astrology in May 2013 – Dealing With Mercury and Venus Square Neptune

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 13 May 2013, 7:00 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

I’ll be posting the final article on the recent Solar Eclipse soon. For now, let’s take a brief look at Venus square Neptune and Mercury square Neptune coming down right now and through this week.

Neptune is at 6 Pisces, the degree it will go retrograde on June 7. That means 4-8 Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, and Sagittarius are directly impacted by this Neptune position. If you have a planet or angle in these zones, your task is to get clear about your role within confusing or unclear conditions, tune in to the collective atmosphere, and figure out how to allow yourself to flow through conditions while being absolutely true to yourself and your ideals.

This is absolutely necessary for those who have birthdays in late February, late May, late August, and late November. It also impacts many others, both individually and generationally. It’s a long range dreamscape we’re learning how to navigate. I have a link at the end of this article that may help you understand what we’re all dealing with during this long wave period of Neptune in Pisces.

Given Neptune symbolizes the collective consciousness and general atmosphere at any given time, we will now begin major collective lessons concerning our dedication to common ideals we share with others, and begin a process of “self-testing” and “perception of high goals.” In short, we’re all going to begin feeling our way to collective values we feel we should defend.

Squares release energy at critical turning points within any larger cycle. They move energy in different directions, show points of correction and realignment, and often bring the need to a) apply the brakes in some way, and b) turn a corner and see that you are in a different situation and therefore need to adapt the energies appropriately.

The waxing, or lower, square is a point of critical emergence relative to the conjunction that preceded it. Today, Venus at 6 Gemini square Neptune, and will be followed by Mercury square Neptune from the same degree this coming Saturday, May 18. If things seem dreamy, spacy, flowing or floating this week, chalk it up to these squares.

Therefore, clarity is of utmost importance in all our ideas, communications, and interactions! While we’ll be in the heart of Venus square Neptune May 13-15, expect this phase to become acute when Mercury enters Gemini May 15-16 and finds new expression through Mercurial means.

These squares can mobilize us to find new information, new views, and new ways of perceiving or expressing ourselves in our world. Again, the challenge is to find a clear, consistent, and reasonably inspired and practical way to express ourselves. Awaken to the larger or broader meaning in situations, and give voice to what you know others need to hear.

Find ways to adapt to immediate changing conditions, try not to get aggravated if you feel too much is going on that is not focused or is contradictory in nature, and see alternate ways to get the cooperation you need from others. See what irks you, or confuses you, or how the ideal and the reality are not meshing well together, and use that knowledge to teach others, or offer it in ways that others may evaluate and learn in the future.

See human motive and folly as vehicles to learn and teach, and find ways to express your sense of things with no apology for who you are or having the view you do. See processes as having phases and stages of development, since by knowing what has been and what is, we can reasonably forecast what will be in the immediate future. And of course, if something seems off track, then finding those who can and will cooperate in getting it back on track is the thing to do.

Keep learning applied skill within “the rules of the game,” and when presented with opportunities to “grab the brass ring while riding the merry go round” of life, stretch a little, since you could “win a prize.” Again, here we learn to get clear and stay clear about our role, others’ roles, how to adapt and find cooperation, and open to learning that which could bring forms of power and/or wealth in the future. Much of what occurs this week will come alive at the end of May and second week of June, with everything percolating to the surface in our lives by late August.

To learn more about what is, and what will be released over the next 15 years during these times of squares and oppositions to Neptune, here’s the comprehensive April 2011 article about Neptune in Pisces

The following were a two part series:

From January 2012, Long Wave Astrology in February 2012 As Neptune Leaves Aquarius and Enters Pisces - Changing Global Mythologies in a 150 Year Dreamscape

From February 2012, Neptune Entering Pisces – Changing Mythologies and World Stories

Happy Mother's Day 2013

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 12 May 2013, 10:11 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

A Happy Mother's Day to all mothers around the world who read this! Today we honor all those who nurture, with a special focus on mothers everywhere, as well as their mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers back to the beginning of time. Let's take a new look at what this day is about, and what the founders intended it to be.

Mother's Day has an interesting history and intention which has nothing to do with the modern commercial form of this celebration of mothers. I promise, Hallmark and the flower and chocolate industries really didn't convince Woody Wilson to ratify this almost a century ago as a marketing ploy!

Several years ago I researched Mother’s Day, and found that there is more than one "founder" and other interesting things associated with this day dedicated to moms of all ages. One thing that amazed me is that originally it was a day dedicated to pacifism and disarmament. If only we could have a day dedicated each year to ending war!!! What a concept.

Throughout the centuries, there have been celebrations dedicated to mothers and mothering. Our modern form of "Mother's Day" evolved from several historical antecedents in the US. The original, Anna Reeve Jarvis, began her "Mother's Day Work Clubs" during and after the very bloody and cruel Civil War the US had to endure from 1861-1865. The day began as health care for soldiers on both sides, as well as a force for reconciliation in the years after that 4 1/2 year tragedy.

A short time after it was a nationally recognized day through the efforts of "The "Mother's Day" antiwar observances founded by Julia Ward Howe in 1870-1873, and continued as a regional phenomenon for years after. According to Wikipedia:

Julia Ward Howe is sometimes claimed as the "founder of Mother's Day," implying that Julia Ward Howe's June 2nd occasion and Anna Jarvis' second-Sunday-in-May event are the same thing. It is even suggested that an antiwar and feminist holiday was co-opted by the forces of sentimentality, tradition, and Hallmark. But although Mother's Day was celebrated in eighteen cities in 1873, it did not take root. It continued in Boston for about ten years under Howe's personal financial sponsorship, then died out.
Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day, celebrated on June 2nd, was first proclaimed around 1870 by Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation, and Howe called for it to be observed each year nationally in 1872. As originally envisioned, Howe's "Mother's Day" was a call for pacifism and disarmament by women. The original Mother's Day Proclamation was as follows:

Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, For caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe our dishonor, Nor violence indicate possession.” As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil At the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace... Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God - In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality, May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace.

(Early "Mother's Day" was mostly marked by women's peace groups. A common early activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War.)

The present incarnation of Mom's Day started in 1908, promoted by Anna Jarvis, the daughter of the pioneer who founded the earlier Civil War efforts. West Virginia recognized it in 1910, Woodrow Wilson signed it into law in 1914, and the rest, as "they" say, is history.

All history (or in this case, herstory) ;-) aside, I offer up my thanks and prayers of gratitude on this day to all my female friends who are mothers, as well as all nurturing women everywhere and all my female relations, all those who preceded them, into the Great Mother, Divine Mother, the all-encompassing ocean of infinite compassion.

So I'll take this day (and every day!) to offer my most heartfelt salutations to The Great Mother in all her manifestations. That includes all the men who are nurturers everywhere, and support the Great Work of caring for all sentient Beings.

Aum namah Mahaboddhisattva! The entire world is forgiven and renewed with each breath of the gentle, vast, and all-nourishing Great Mother. We are all brought to our highest Self through this infinitely powerful, wise, loving, and intelligent all pervasive Divine Feminine Force eternally embodying that which redeems the promise of the victory of light over darkness, truth over falsehood, good over evil, peace over war, and love over fear. Aum Namah Shivaya!

And of course, please take a moment to remember that "War is over if you want it."

It’s Saturday Night Attitude Dance Time – Shakin’ It to “Sir Duke”

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 11 May 2013, 10:00 pm CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Given that Monday is Stevie Wonder’s birthday, I figured this classic from “Songs in the Key of Life” would get us up and dancing!

Totally in a “live in the studio groove,” an ab-fab live performance by Mister Stevie Wonder of his very funky sendup to Duke Ellington and other jazz legends, the chart-topping “Sir Duke”

In the same spirit, here’s a live performance in Japan in 1982 of his tribute to the Prophet Bob Marley, the very danceable reggae masterpiece, “Master Blaster”

From early in his career, Stevie live performing the classic “For Once In My Life”

Here’s Stevie live on Sesame Street in 1973 doing his hugely funky dance hit, “Superstition”

From 2009, Stevie Wonder and Sting in a great live performance of “Higher Ground” and “Roxanne”

Here’s a great sentiment for these edgy times! Here’s Stevie live in London 2009 performing “Don’t You Worry “Bout A Thing”

For our finale, from “Live at Last, A Wonder Summer’s Night” in London 2008, “Livin’ For the City”

For our encore dance, we have a medley to sheik yerbouti! Also from “Live at Last, A Wonder Summer’s Night” in London 2008, we’ll bring it full circle with a great performance of our Saturday Night Attitude song with a couple more for your continued dancing enjoyment!

"(Signed Sealed Delivered) I'm Yours", "Sir Duke" and "I Wish"

The Jupiter squares ... how to make money

Astrological Investing Blog 11 May 2013, 6:21 am CEST

Jupiter Squares - Cancer, Capricorn, Aries and Libra

This weekend I'm going to depart from the normal format to discuss Jupiter's travels through the zodiac ... and how that causes bumps and slumps in groups of stocks. In tech-speak, we call it "sector rotation". We've all seen it in action; investors seem to fall in love with stocks in particular groupings and they fly into the sky like Icacrus ... before their popularity fades and they tumble back down to earth. Well, we can forecast this by watching Jupiter. I first learned this from my old friend, the late Kaye Shinker, one of the real pioneers of research into financial astrology at a practical level. I will explain it as simply as possible. The principle behind Jupiter symbolism is to "expand" whatever it touches. The down-to-earth meaning is that Jupiter will increase either the demand for OR the supply of a particular product as he travels through the zodiac, spending about a year in each sign before moving onto the next one. Products ruled by Jupiter's current sign position will tend to suffer a glut. VERY bad for stock prices in that area. Products covered by the signs Jupiter is squaring will tend to be in short supply AND high demand. Very GOOD for stock prices. We'll see how this works in action by looking at some charts. Now what Kaye discovered is that The Jupiter Effect takes place while the FatBoy travels from the middle-range of one sign to the middle-range of the next. Jupiter is now at 19 degrees of Gemini heading onto Cancer - and that means we are now starting the early stages of what should turn out to be a massive sector rotation over the coming year. To be frank, Jupiter in a particular sign does not necessarily produce a glut. It is one of the reasons I am so constantly nagging you that astrological expectations do NOT over-ride technical conditions. But, let me show you. Jupiter in Gemini should have had a dramatic impact on: telecommunications, media, travel, broadcasting. I am using Incredible Charts monthly data for all the charts in this weekend's edition - and we begin with the telecoms index of the ASX. As we can see from the chart, Jupiter in Gemini prompted a very strong rally in telecom share prices over the past year.

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Now, if we had known ahead of time that there would be some sort of big move in communications, we could have fine-tuned our stock buys for the year ahead ... looking at, say, two of the Dow's biggest companies, Verizon and AT&T.

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Now, these two Dow components did not enjoy quite the same strength as the ASX telecoms index. And it wasn't a particularly good year in terms of phone wars for some electronics companies. But, what happened to stocks from those sectors that Jupiter was squaring? Well, from Gemini, the squares were to Pisces, which rules shipping, oil, alcohol, drugs and "dreams" and to Virgo, which has rulership of health and hygiene. Here's Chevron ... which is now making all-time highs!

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And here's what happened with perhaps the ultimate dream/fantasy/celluoid stock, Disney ...

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And here's what happened with healthcare stocks over the past year, seen through the lens of the ASX healthcare index ...

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We get some idea from these charts exactly HOW The Jupiter Effect works. Some of the Gemini-type stocks, like the phone makers, had an awful year, while there was a glut of that Gemini trait "talk", increasing the demand for telecom service providers. But, some of the biggest winners from the past year were from the "square" areas - Pisces and Virgo. Now, a word of warning! You'll notice that the tech signals in those stocks are starting to roll over. And that's because from where he is now, in mid-Gemini, Jupiter's travels will cause a major shift in investor thinking. Cancer, his next sign, and taking into account Capricorn (the sign opposite Cancer), will impact: food, restaurants, farms, hotels, restaurants, building supplies, household appliances and dwellings of all kinds. The two signs that will be "squared" are Aries and Libra. Aries is military gear, heavy machinery, iron, steel, engineering. Libra is luxury goods, copper, jewels. So, while it might not seem like it at the moment, it is highly likely that mines and miners and heavy industrials are about to make a big comeback. That's the astrological expectation! But, do the technical conditions support the theory? Well, here's the ASX materials index ...

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The index may now be starting that turn. On weekly charts, firms like BHP and Rio Tinto appear to be forming a long-term bottom. The effect may also impact on firms like Caterpillar, which had a very strong rise while Jupiter was actually in Aries.

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As well as strong miners, and heavy machinery makers like Caterpillar, we should also be trawling through our lists of engineering and building companies. The ASX engineering index chart, below, is showing signs of a potential turn northwards

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However, with the Cancer symbolism starting to come into play, we also need to watch for changes in the popularity of building supply companies - like Home Depot, for example.

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And since Cancer specifically rules things like food we need to be aware there will be either a food glut OR food shortages. Cancer rules consumer staples. But Libra is coming into "square" and Libra rules consumer discretionary items. Here is the ASX consumer staples index ...

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And below is the ASX consumer discretionary index ...

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Please note the vastly different status of the long-range Canary on these charts ... consumer staples are showing signs of topping-out and consumer discretionary is showing marked positive divergence. Cancer/Capricorn also rules real estate and office accommodation. Below is the ASX property trust index ...

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And below is the chart of the ASX industrials index ...

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Okay. By now you should have some grasp of what stocks you need to start considering with caution ... and which ones have the potential to rise strongly over the course of the next year. I stress that I have only scratched the surface here! Individual stocks having strong Jupiter transits can resist the Icarus dive for a while; and "square" stocks suffering strong Saturn aspects to their first trade chart might NOT rise as strongly as some others within the sector rotation. Again. You MUST use a technical oscillator to help determine the direction of your trades! The purpose of this weekend's edition is to get you to start thinking about the impact of a large-scale shift in investor thinking and emphasis, now starting to get underway and which will gather momentum over the next year. You need to remember the very first rule of trading successfully - Buy Low, Sell High! It's time to go through your portfolio stocks and look to exit those sectors starting to roll over from highs ... and start identifying those which appear to have spent some time trying to lock in a solid base from which to launch an Icarus flight. The individual stocks will vary from market to market, but the overall principle of The Jupiter Effect knows no international boundaries. The Jupiter squares to Aries and Libra should cause price increases for things like iron ore, steel, copper, heavy machinery and military gear, as well as luxury goods and consumer discretionary items. It MAY cause an increase in demand for real estate and/or office accommodation, rather than a glut of supply. But, exactly which of these actually manifests will depend on local conditions. If you're using The Idiot system properly across the three timeframes AND using one of the recommended oscillators to look for either positive or negative divergence, you should have no trouble identifying the stocks you need to be selling now ... and those showing the potential to run hard and run fast over the next year. Safe trading - RA

The Idiot and the Moon, Forecast 2013

Major trend change dates for the full year, plus a month-by-month breakdown of high-energy trading dates and critical reversal dates.

An index-by-index analysis of Moon Trading across major American, European, Asian and Australian stock indices-

Identifies the major indices where following the phases of the Moon can dramatically cut profits, or even result in large losses.

Old Gods & Gold ... a Eureka! discovery about exactly what drives gold prices during rallies and corrections and charts showing highly-reliable target levels to both the upside and downside.

These price charts are individually-tailored to each index and cover Wall Street, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, India, England, Germany and France.

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It is NEVER too late in the year to have this monthly information!

The May 2013 Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 3 – How Will This Lunation Affect Us?

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 11 May 2013, 5:00 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

This New Moon Solar Eclipse will show us how to consolidate power and resources. It continues to stabilize everything that’s been building since April 2009 that offered us a material promise in late 2011 and first half of 2012. This shows us the way to a greater dedication, and we can find efficiency in controlling events through “transient crises.” Follow “the God Within,” and get it in gear!! Because it's so strongly action oriented, be patient as you push the rapidly ending past into a rapidly developing future.

As noted in an earlier article in this series, this Solar Eclipse Lunation occurred at 5:28 pm PDT on May 9, which is 1:28 am Greenwich May 10. Because this Lunation falls at 20 Taurus, it jumpstarts Taurus energy wherever it falls in our chart.

This New Moon Eclipse has a social-emotional focus. Because it happens in Taurus, Venus and TransPluto rule the Lunation. Open to new discoveries, take a look at what’s below the surface of things, and share what needs to be shared with an open heart and spirit of generosity.

So this Solar Eclipse is ruled by Venus (the worldly ruler of Taurus) and in the spiritual dimension by TransPluto. That means it’s noteworthy that Venus is in Gemini and Mercury is in Taurus, since it puts these planets in Mutual reception, a very powerful closed energy exchange loop. (I’ll be posting an update to that article soon, since the positions mentioned as examples happened a while ago.)

The stellium in Taurus consists of Mars, South Node, Mercury, and the Sun and Moon. If you’re wondering why things may seem so singularly focused and moving in one great big direction, that’s a natural expression of so many planets in Taurus.

These planets rule half the signs, and adding Venus and Jupiter in Gemini ruled by Mercury in Taurus, that includes 4 more, then it’s no wonder there’s such an air of things moving in a groove, or perhaps a sense of inertia or momentum that is leading us to new discoveries, new ideas, and new understanding. Be flexible, and foster communications however you can. If we can adapt how we communicate, we can come to blessings.

Even though it’s separating, we still are within a larger stabilizing and productive field symbolized by Saturn sextile Pluto. With Saturn trine Neptune, we can also find stability and understanding of how to flow within the larger feeling-field. While this Lunation does not trigger the Grand Irrationality, as I mentioned in earlier articles Venus septile Uranus with both triseptile Saturn shows this Eclipse will bring all of us major forks in the road of our lives wherever we have these planets transiting in our natal chart, as well as the houses these planets rule and the planets they disposit. (You can find more about dispositors in the article on Mutual Reception linked above.)

Neptune and Chiron at the Cusp of the Age:

I’ve given you this information in previous New Moon articles, but I figure it’s so important for all of us that it bears repeating once a month. Taking the long view, we stand on the threshold of an entirely new era that will not resemble the old Age in any way within just a few decades. In fact, we’re already solidly in the Dreamscape, and are already seeing long wave manifestations of the ending of the old and the emerging field we’re all learning how to maneuver through.

Other than the brief look we had in mid-2011, this is only the sixteenth New Moon with Neptune in Pisces for the next 150 years. We had Neptune in Pisces for the 3 New Moons for May, June, and July 2011 which gave us a front end look at how Neptune will function through 2025.

Between August 2011, when Neptune retrograded back into late Aquarius, and the January 2012 New Moon, we were given one last look back at a greater ideal, and the changes of the last half of 2011 helped many to break out of our "chrysalis" and transform how we live and all our relationships. That is now established in the collective consciousness, as well as a growing sense of the larger light field in which all sentient Beings live and love.

If you want to know what's coming for many years to come, take a look back at the intuitions and sense of belonging to a vaster interrelated whole you were shown in May, June, and July 2011. It may help to give a sense of our collective lesson in dissolving our separateness as we finish this transition through "the Winter of the 21st Century" on our way to Spring, beginning in 2025!

During those months that both Neptune and Chiron were in early Pisces, we were offered chances to learn about bargaining and trade-offs, with the ultimate payoff a deeper and larger feeling of being connected to others. During the last half of 2011, Neptune retrograded back to 29 Aquarius, the degree where humanity was forced to emerge from its "chrysalis" as a new world is being born.

Chiron retrograded back to 1 Pisces. So those two dancing together kept us attuned to elements of this transitional span of experience for all of 2011 as we prepared to cut loose into the Neptune in Pisces era for many years to come. During 2011 both Neptune and Chiron revealed our unique part to play within a larger light/life field.

During that time, these planets at the beginning of Pisces and end of Aquarius occupied degrees representing "the Cusp of the Age," the span where the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius meet. From one point of view, where we were collectively between February 2011 and March 2012 revealed what the period of (approximately) 1990-2140 is all about in the broader context of human evolution. I suspect that future generations will look back at 2011 and 2012 as being crucial in showing long range patterns of larger evolutionary necessities.

Neptune and Chiron dancing between signs on "the Cusp of the Age" had the effect of making it seem like we have all been occupying a very weird dreamscape which we'll be navigating for years to come. The trick for us is to apply our new strengths and understanding freed from the ghosts of the past, and by riding the waves of intense (but curiously steady) pulses of spiritual energies shaping our minds, we can find techniques where our efforts will lead us to forms of good fortune.

During the year they danced together in this critical degree span, they provided us a bridge to understanding the global lessons we all must embrace, and helped us graduate into a new view of how we are an essential part of a greater whole. I'll give you links to articles explaining more about "the cusp of the Age" at the end of this article.

As Neptune went stationary direct at 1 Pisces around the time of the last 2012 Solar Eclipse in Scorpio, Neptune was literally at the “Cusp of the Age” between April 2010 and January 2013. It was conjunct Chiron the entire time, showing that this era was about all of learning to heal into our Higher Selves through greater awareness and compassion, as well as feeling our place within the larger collective feeling-field.

In this chart, Chiron is at 14 Pisces, the degree where it will go retrograde this Summer. This will help us heal anew through our positioning within collective consciousness, and show us the “camouflage” we need as we pursue our work of destiny. By our “protective shielding,” we can offer what we have to others, and make our “inner worth” manifest in our world.

This awakened in everyone April 2006 through February 2007. We can now heal wounds from that time, or see how what we’ve awakened to since then has helped us healing into our higher Self.

In this chart Neptune has now moved forward to 6 Pisces, where we get another glimpse through intuition and a greater feeling-connection of our positioning within a vaster field. This is the degree where it will go stationary retrograde in June 2013, and marks a threshold in collective consciousness.

According to the Sabian Symbols, this shows the long term lessons of the collective field concern “Self-exaltation through consecration to the task of defending collective values,” “self-testing,” and “perception of high goals.” I suspect the entire world will begin to be sensitive to collective values they want to defend as they sense there are higher goals to be pursued.

Again, Chiron shows us how we can heal into our Higher Self. During 2012 the focus was on healing into our Higher Selves through seeing what we’re dedicated to, what skills we’ve cultivated, what “call” we’ve heard, and how we’ve quickened our striving. During the next 4 weeks we can heal through bringing our inner worth into the open so that our merit may be “certified.” This is a time to show esteem, and be gracious when others show us esteem.

Between now and the end of the year, we will know we’ve been “introduced to Soul-realms” and awakened to a new dedication while saying goodbye to old inner fears. Our process of review over the next 6 months will lead us to a mastery of some realm that is bringing us new duties and responsibilities.

More About Saturn's Universally Important Influence

Saturn has again come to the fore as an extremely important factor in the chart due to it being the nozzle for the “Bucket” Jones pattern. I’ll explain in more detail in part 4 of this New Moon series.

For now, we’ll turn the spotlight on Saturn in Scorpio as the cosmic timekeeper, since it does symbolize the ongoing lessons and limitations within the larger field of existence. Saturn was in Libra through early October 2012, making this the eighth New Moon of the Saturn in Scorpio era!

What we learned from Saturn in Virgo in 2007-2009, returning briefly in 2010, has been of importance in the Virgo New Moons since then. We learned a lot about how to apply those lessons in forms of practical action when Mars transited Virgo between November 2011 and July 2012, and will get a review and renewal of those lessons when Mars is next in Virgo between mid-October and early November 2013.

We showed our skill in applying Saturn in Libra lessons since then while Mars was in Libra in July and August 2012, and had the light of understanding put on those lessons after the mid-October 2012 Libra New Moon. As a side note, Mars in early Scorpio the last week of August and first week of September 2012 gave us a front end practice related to Saturn being in that span of Scorpio from October 2012 through October 2013, so review what you were doing, since it symbolizes ongoing and coming Saturn lessons.

Saturn was retrograde in late Libra between early February and mid-June 2012. During the first 9 months of 2012, we were reviewing how to repair or reconstruct things from the past to come to a philosophical completion. The year between October 2011 and 2012 was about coming to a holistic philosophical view based in a life renewal, learning to read meanings in symbols and things, and moving beyond knowledge into true balanced understanding.

As Saturn rules Pluto in this chart in worldly affairs, it shows that when we are confronted with the need to deal with something or someone in an organized, efficient manner, reference Saturn in Scorpio and the lessons of focusing intensity. Feel what needs to be eliminated to achieve emotional stability or movement, and being efficient and truthful in getting to the core of any matter.

Naturally, the usual Saturn keywords will be crucial to effective behavior - patience, discipline, organization, patience, structure, maturity, patience, understanding, wisdom, patience, authority, responsibility, and of course, patience.

So as you open to the fifth New Moon of 2013, take stock of what larger holistic understanding you achieved in 2012. See how you’ve moved from a theoretical ideal to a new way of living your life and relationships into a deeper connection with your ability to regenerate productively over the long haul, or a deeper communion with some inner or outer element of your Being.

In 2011 we learned about karmic consequences from a wider angle of view, while playing by the rules of whatever system we were dealing with, or acting within. We were challenged to show as much balance, grace, and equipoise as we could, given Saturn's penchant for heaviness.

We all learned a lot about how we use Libra energy to fulfill Dharma during Saturn's stay in Libra, as well as what we should not be trying to prop up through a misplaced sense of responsibility or obligation. As with all Saturn lessons, when we ran into roadblocks or delays it was teaching us about patience, as well as what limitations and burdens we could and could not live with.

As noted in previous articles, Saturn ushered in allies, friends, fellow truth-seekers, more balanced views, and corrective actions as techniques for community building or group awareness during the time it was in Libra. Given that Saturn is “exalted” in Libra, meaning that sign is the lens of greatest growth for Saturn, and Saturn is the worldly ruler of Aquarius, the sign of friends and allies, between October 2009 and October 2012 was a time when we learned a LOT about those parts of our lives.

The transfigurations in our actions and relationships we went through between January 2011 and October 2012 led us to do forms of "repair work," where we confronted the consequences of past actions, whether our own or another's. The repair work could as easily been in the realm of our inner self as in outer affairs.

Saturn in this Lunation chart is retrograde at 8 Scorpio. We are now conducting a review of what Saturn has taught us since November 2012, and the current lessons are similar to what we first confronted in December 2012.

2012 finished our understanding in life areas related to Libra, Capricorn, and Aquarius in our charts, and since October we have entered a Scorpio experience of an intensification of magnetics to attract what we need and repel what is not needed. Saturn in Scorpio will be a MUCH different manifestation of Saturn than we were used to between 2010-2012!

This Lunation shows us that we need to calm the mind to sense the reflected light of higher understanding. We may experience “illumination of the Soul by transcendent wisdom,” and a “quiet touch with cosmic strength.” Calm the mind, go deeper into experience, and feel your ability to control the flow using the Saturn virtues mentioned 8 paragraphs up.

This is a review as part of the long wave process of learning how to conduct ourselves at a higher social level of interaction, which will confirm our “social status” and help us be part of a refined display of interactive class, style, and culture. Where Saturn was in the February and March New Moons began the larger Saturn lessons of 2013 which we’ll be learning until October.

Because of Saturn’s influence in Scorpio, we continue to eliminate and regenerate, let go of that which no longer works, and find ways to meet people at the highest levels of interaction. Now that the inner planets are all in Taurus, we’re confronting Saturn lessons and experiences in huge ways. This is the surfacing of how we are expressing Saturn in our lives, and gaining through loss and creating empty space. By what we hold on to, and what we let go of over the next 4 weeks (and 45 months) we will know how to magnetize matter in our lives.

So Saturn continues to help us get focused and clear about what structures are worthwhile and which need eliminating or purifying. Due to the 2012 Scorpio Solar Eclipse, we’ve been looking back to rehearse the future after eliminating elements of the past.

This opened the doors that we walked through in late December that continued through January. Whether we want to or not, we’ve all had to be willing to embrace a purification process, especially purifying the life of stuck feelings and desires, and open to a new game and a new way of playing that game.

As noted in other Lunation articles, with North Node still in late Scorpio, our greatest development is through our ability to eliminate, regenerate, attract, and repel as part of a greater effectiveness. Consider this as a time of learning more from our losses than what we hold on to. How we grow now will pay major dividends once Saturn moves into the second half of Scorpio at the end of 2013.

North Node in Scorpio shows we can grow through understanding magnetism in a more focused, active way. Where it is in this Lunation chart shows we can grow through learning to trust “the God within,” and through self-reliance and getting the right cooperation between the spiritual and material levels of existence, we can find a “pure self-revelation” and know what the Divine holds for you.

Surrender to the inward way. Contact the innermost “God force” and move beyond old forms. If there’s a conflict between the practical and the ideal, go to your “center of reality” and see how Spirit and Soul are dancing with whatever in your personality is conflicted. Go for your highest potential, regardless of what you must let go of and what you must accept.

This is a time of growth in effective orientation so that we can bring Spirit to matter, and the ideal in a grounded form. What we move into now will take shape once Saturn moves into the second half of Scorpio this Autumn.

We only have a few aspects forming in this Lunation, but those few are extraordinarily powerful. I’ll speak about this in the next part of this series. The major influences are Venus, Saturn, and Uranus activating irrational energies, and Mars quintile Neptune, Jupiter quintile Uranus, and the ever-ominous Uranus square Pluto symbolizing the hard edge of our times. It’s still a wild ride, so buckle your seat belts! And show patience.....

In the next part of the series we'll discuss the various aspects at play in the chart, as well as some important degree symbols and other interesting elements affecting all of us for 4 weeks to come.

Here are the previous articles about this Annular Solar Eclipse in Taurus:

Astrology in May 2013 - On The Threshold of an Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus

The Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus May 9-10, 2013 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?

An Annular Solar Eclipse New Moon in Taurus Pt. 2 - What’s Happening in May-June 2013, As Well As 2014-2015-2016

And as usual for the New Moon articles, here are two that are related to "the cusp of the Age."

Neptune Then, Neptune Now - The Cusp of the Age of Aquarius

Neptune Retrograde Into Aquarius - A New Look At the New Age This one has links to articles related to this theme, so enjoy following the breadcrumbs through the woods of time!

Happy 2013 Video Birthday to the Great Scottish Bard Donovan Leitch

Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology 11 May 2013, 2:33 am CEST

by Robert Wilkinson

Today we celebrate the 67th birthday of Donovan Leitch. Poet, mystic, balladeer, and once considered the Sacred Isles' answer to Bob Dylan, he's still crafting some of the most beautiful songs in the world!

This Scottish singer-songwriter called simply by his first name, Donovan (10 May 1946) came to fame in early 1965 with his hits "Catch the Wind," "Colours," and the timeless "Universal Soldier." Given his folk roots in the Celtic music of Ireland, Scotland and England, which also played a major part in American folk and blues roots, it was inevitable that the press would compare him with Bob Dylan, since both were troubadours in the classic sense. That comparison was not entire fair, since Dylan was far more acerbic and intense than Donovan, who tended toward more a more mystical sense of storytelling, introspective poetry, and playful lyrics.

He followed his initial folk style with pure "flower power" psychedelia, and in 1966 scored a monster #1 hit with "Sunshine Superman." He continued his psychedelic folk-rock stream of songs with "Mellow Yellow," my personal favorite "Season of the Witch," "There Is A Mountain," "Wear Your Love Like Heaven," "Jennifer Juniper," the extremely electric "Hurdy Gurdy Man," "Lalena," and "Atlantis," with dozens more in the years during and after these.

Back in the day he hung out with Joan Baez, Brian Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, Jeff Beck, and The Beatles, and taught both John Lennon and Paul McCartney his finger-picking style in 1968. Besides being one of the first to use sitar and tablas on his songs, his eclectic and unique style blends folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music. If you haven't heard his music, prepare for a treat! And if you remember his music, then enjoy going back to a more innocent gentle era!

We'll begin with some great live performances!

From 1964, "Catch the Wind."

From 1965, "The Universal Soldier"

Live on television in the mid-60s, "Colours."

We'll finish the clips of his early career with Donovan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 doing "The War Drags On," "The Ballad of the Crystal Man," and "Colors," the latter with Joan Baez, and an undated clip of Donovan doing "Ballad of Geraldine."

To dig where his head was at during those years, here's a 1966 Donovan Interview.

Here’s Bob Dylan and Donovan during Zimmie's mid-60s UK tour.

We now move into his psychedelic era, beginning with a French Pop Festival performance in 1966 of his awesome and spell binding "Season Of The Witch." (The video isn't that great.)

Here's an extremely psychedelic performance with the cameras providing a sense of altered reality! For your memories of another time, "Mellow Yellow."

Some songs from the same era include:

"Jennifer Juniper." (1968)

"There Is A Mountain" with Sergio Mendes, 1968.

"The Lullaby Of Spring - All My Loving" (1968)

From 1968, a b/w clip of "Lalena." Here's another performance from "The Hollywood Palace" show of "Lalena."

Here's Donovan at L' Olympia Paris in 1970 doing his major psychedelic fuzzed-out song "Hurdy Gurdy Man," with another version from Beatle Week in Liverpool where Donovan performs "Hurdy Gurdy Man" with a special verse that George Harrison wrote for the song that never had been recorded.

I also found a 1972 Donovan BBC concert where he does "There Is a Mountain."

Here are some live gems from his appearance in 1968 on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Here’s Donovan doing “Lalena” and “Happiness Runs.”

Still on the show, here's Donovan with Mary Travers and Jennifer Warnes on "To Love Me (Lassie Lay Down)."

Also from the Smothers Brothers, here he is doing "Atlantis" helped out by The Smothers Brothers, Peter Paul & Mary, Jennifer Warnes, and Mort Sahl.

I found this Donovan concert from 1972 where he performs "Cosmic Wheels," "Maria Magenta," "The Pee Song," and "Mellow Yellow."

For those who want the original studio versions of his songs, here they are with most set to still photos or footage:

"Catch the Wind."

”Universal Soldier."

"Sunshine Superman."

"Season of the Witch." For two more incredible takes on this song from radically different approaches, I found the original Vanilla Fudge totally psychedelic studio version of "Season of the Witch," which is an amazing piece of work in itself! To close this trifecta of performances of this oh so strange song, here's the funkier "Super Session" version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch" featuring Stephen Stills, Al Kooper, and Mike Bloomfield. Enjoy these three entirely different arrangements of this magnificent mystical tune!

Back to the studio versions of Donovan's work:

"There is a Mountain.”

"Mellow Yellow."

"Wear Your Love Like Heaven." (Bonus points if you remember which company used this song in the 70s to sell its product! Answer to this Kosmic Question at the end of the article.)

"Atlantis."

I figured a fitting closer for today’s birthday celebration would be a two-fer. We begin with a live 2007 performance at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood of Donovan doing a very funky version of “Season of the Witch.” For a 2012 performance at Sundance, here’s a solo performance of “Season of the Witch.”

And for an encore, from 2010 here's Donovan doing "Mellow Yellow."

If you want to find out more about what this amazing talent has been and is still doing, please visit Donovan's Official Website. On a final note, I couldn't find anything from his 1996 album "Sutras," but it's a great album. The themes are definitely spiritual and worth more than one listen, so if you can find a copy, by all means get one!

So it's a very Happy and Merry 67th Solar Return and Birthday to this Scottish poet and mystic, a Taurus of amazing smiles and gentle awareness. All the best from the Cosmic Cantina!

(ps - The answer to the Kosmic Question is the Eau De Love (by Menley & James) fragrance commercial!)

The Late-life Crisis

ASTROTABLETALK 10 May 2013, 6:32 pm CEST

I was reading today that along with the ‘Mid-life crisis’ there is now a 'Late-life Crisis', that happens to people in their sixties. Thank heavens for that I thought. Life does go on after all. Because where would we be without crises, how would we ever make the big changes that are necessary for our lives to move on?

Crisis comes from the Greek Krisis meaning a turning point in a disease. That’s what they are, turning points, and they aren’t of our own conscious making, it’s like life puts them there. Or the gods, the spirits, we call on them, and they respond by turning our lives upside down. Or own unconscious propensities lead us there. Whatever. The Germans have a great word for mid-life crisis: Torschlusspanik, literally "shut-door-panic."

And one of my internal fights (along with the one against reductionist science) is the idea that once we are in our sixties, that is it, it is at best a long decline. I do not THINK that, but somewhere I BELIEVE that, because that is what our culture, to a large extent, believes. Otherwise people would not be forced to retire at a certain age, or become unemployable in their fifties if they find themselves jobless.

This attitude is changing to some extent for purely economic reasons: we are living longer, so the pension pots are no longer big enough, so the retirement age is being gradually raised, in the UK at any rate. But that still means people in their 70s and 80s are left on what can effectively be the scrap heap, though no-one would say that. From their point of view, fair enough, they may not want to work anymore. But to others work can seem like everything, if you can’t or won’t work you’re either a loser or an old person on the scrap heap.

The time is ripe for change astrologically, as the Pluto in Leo generation enter their 60s and 70s, and Pluto transits Capricorn. The generation who knows how to stay youthful (Leo) transforming attitudes to age (Capricorn.)

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What I find myself saying regularly in readings is when you get older, it can be time to start over in a really BIG way. Think BIG, think RADICAL. When you are older, you know that life is about change, you hang looser to some of your beliefs and shibboleths than when you were young, all this achievement stuff is just part of life being a dream that transfixes younger people, so being older frees you to do things and live in ways you have never done before. In ancient India, older people often went off and became wandering mendicants, spiritual seekers. In Australia and the US they buy mobile homes and travel round the country in tribes and their children worry about them.

But what is this ‘Late-life crisis’? It seems to be about people in their 60s experiencing bereavement or illness, and it brings them face-to-face with their own mortality, and there are 2 frequent responses: they either give up and go downhill, or they find a new lease of life.

And this is well described by the two generational transits that we all experience at that time: the second Saturn Return, aged 58-59, which ushers us into our sixties, followed by the closing square of the Uranus cycle, in the same way that we had the opening square aged 21 or so.

So the second Saturn Return. Well I haven’t experienced it yet, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but hey, when did that ever stop me? :)

Before Pluto came along, Saturn was the planet of death, and he still is: he sets boundaries and gives us judgement, the ability to weigh up and learn from the past. At the first Saturn Return, he is orientated to the future, towards what we have yet to achieve. At the second – well, we could look at it as orientated to the past, to what we have done. But, particularly with the modern increases in life expectancy, we can also look at the 2^nd Saturn return as orientated to the future. What we can achieve now that we have many years’ experience behind us, but also, crucially, what we can achieve now that we are aware of our mortality. And what also do we mean by this word ‘achievement’, that is so tied up with Saturn, so tied up with what the world and our parents expect of us and which may have driven us for most of our lives? What is worth achieving now that we know we will die and that we can’t take anything with us, particularly worldly recognition?

(I don’t know what happens after we die, all I know is that I’m quite suspicious of any certainty, including certainty that death means extinction: in its own way, that certainty is also a false comfort.)

So after the rounding-up of our lives through Saturn, and the perspective and realism and awareness of mortality that he gives, comes the Uranus square Uranus. A disruption of what has become safe and routine and predictable in us, in order for new possibilities to get in. And that may involve illness and bereavement. Or unemployment.

It’s like when we were 20-22, but the other way round. First you have the Uranus Square, opening you up, making life seem full of possibilities. Then Saturn square comes along and says OK, but you need to be grounded first, you need to be able to take care of yourself, otherwise all the vision is unreal.

But in our early sixties it’s the other way round, it’s Saturn then Uranus, it’s Uranus who has the last word. And that’s just as well because we shouldn’t need to go off and ground ourselves, that’s there as a matter of course (hopefully), so we can live out those Uranian possibilities in quite a real way.

But it depends, and here’s the crisis, because that’s what Uranian disruption often means, crisis, we can’t carry on as before, something’s changed, and we don’t know what to do. It depends on how you respond to that disruption, and that may depend on the state of your Saturn: have you become so fixed that either you carry on as you are now or you feel you may as well just leave? Or has Saturn taught you his secret lesson, has he taken you beyond what the world wants of you, and you are free? Either way it may still not be comfortable.

But the best meaning of Uranus square Uranus, best in the sense of going where life wants us to go, is to go with that change, begin anew, because that’s what life always wants us to do, however old we are. Jung found through dreams of his elderly patients that life behaved not as though it were about to be extinguished, but as though it was going to continue, and he said the best way to live is according to nature, which therefore means looking to the future. And Uranus is a forward looking planet. Maybe they’ll come up with a new crisis based around the Uranus Return in our 80s.

Because it’s also about recognising old people as people with lives that develop, and that are just as important to them as younger people’s lives are to them, and the more society can do that, the more it will recognise events such as the ‘Late-life Crisis.’

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