Some advice from Howard Zinn

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic, it is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness -- and if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now, as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself, a marvelous victory." - Howard Zinn

Here is a link to a previous SO'W post with more words from Mr. Zinn on the American empire and a video of him expressing his views on class in America and our delusion of the 'one big happy family' that Washington and Madison Avenue have sold us for so long.

We're going to miss Howard Zinn now he's gone.

US arms sales to Taiwan a Presidential misstep?

China will impose sanctions on the US and that's just for starters. Is President Obama 'misstepping' as they love to term their mistakes in Washington?

If so, he's really stepped in it this time.

Will such a large amount of weapons even fit on the island of Taiwan? Is the US-China relationship on thin ice already? Or is sparking Armageddon on all world leaders' to-do lists? ("I want to start it - no, me!") They seem psychotically insane, imho, and highly delusional about who will end what they arrogantly start.

Now I definitely don't wish to ignore the plight of the good Taiwanese people, but does anyone else think that Mr. Obama's arms sale to Taiwan is pure madness?

Yet with timing being everything, maybe the weapons sales are meant to make a point or provide a bargaining chip. Yeah, that must be it - diplomacy. Otherwise it seems that a serious psychological evaluation is needed pronto at the White House.

But never mind about the Pentagon - they went nuts when they went nuclear decades ago.

Perigee Full Moon in Leo Jan 30, 2010 est

FULL MOON AND MARS: Friday night's full Moon is the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year. It's a "perigee Moon," as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than other full Moons you'll see later in 2010. But that's not all.

Mars is having a close encounter with Earth, and on Friday night, Jan 29, it will join the Moon for an all-night-long conjunction. Don't miss it!

You'll find sky maps and images at SpaceWeather.com.

~:~

There are too may storm clouds here this evening to view 2010's perigee Moon. And I know you've never heard this before, but it's a rainy night in Georgia. jc

Horoscopes of the Tea Party Convention Feb 4 - 6, 2010

Here is a dual-wheel display of 2 charts for the Tea Party Convention set for Feb 4 and 6, 2010, Nashville, Tennessee - symbolically, the Convention's start and its end.

Quite a few details are written on the charts so I hope my notes are readable if you click the image to enlarge.

Chart data:

Upper right: Feb 4, 2010, sunrise 6:49:58 am CST, Sun/ASC 15AQ36 (bringing up Sarah Palin's natal Sun-Mars-Saturn conjunction (22 - 26AQ); Hour of Saturn; Disseminating Sun/Moon phase = gettin' out the info, or propaganda, depending on how you perceive Politics.

Moon begins in late Libra (27:41 @ sunrise) and asteroid Hidalgo (one of the 'power' asteroids/myths) is at Mc (the WHY? Point) of the sunrise chart (or 'solar chart' which I use here to describe the purpose of the day and the Convention itself, Feb 4); at left you see Mrs. Palin's natal planets listed.

The interesting thing about Hidalgo is that by the time Feb 6, 2010, 11:59 pm comes (2nd chart), Moon ('a woman'; popular woman; the public) is @ 3Sag06 and Hidalgo? 3Sag06! I think we may surmise that Mrs. Palin is represented here by Moon/Hidalgo, with a 'powerful woman' vibe going on (and which very much includes her considerable sex appeal - but she's taken, fellas, ladies.)

Key concepts for Hidalgo:

self-assertion; a rebel with a cause; expects to be in charge; a revolutionary patriot (such as its namesake, Miguel Hidalgo y Costillas, a Mexican priest who is known as a 'champion of liberty'.) Perhaps a few words along these lines may be noticed before, during, and after Palin's keynote speech. In fact, these charts indicate to me that the event itself, a money-making endeavor that has caused two other speakers to bow out, is in part a showcase for Mrs. Palin's future political dreams of grandeur and social improvement.

And with the ongoing Mars Rx period affecting Mrs. Palin's natal Moon (5AQ) by opposition, there is much energy crackling around her now (including her FOX News contract.) Yet with her hectic schedule, Palin may be late in arriving or beginning her speech. (I believe this is par for her course, however, for whatever reasons.) Mars opposing natal Moon can bring anger or quarrels into one's environment, equipment breakdowns, intense emotions, or...debates.

But perhaps that's only if she can call you, Joe.

And if Mrs. Palin's efforts toward success do pay off, a large payback will probably be required. Will she be - or remain - willing to pay the price? Is her Tea Party performance an audition for a higher position? Hidalgo's myth carries a 'lower nobility' flavor ('don') of one who desires to move up in society to a 'higher nobility.' And in Celtic myth, 'don' is associated with the mother archtype. Mrs. Palin certainly is that, yet 'glamorous woman' Lilith is one of her 'faces' as well.

(We all have them though - 'faces' or 'masks' - so don't get your Sarah knickers in a twist over my comments concerning this political lightweight who has, imo, a 'priestly' vibe that concerns me, for when anyone presumes to dictate to others how to read the Bible, I get all up in it. Plus, once The Original came, sacrificed, and was sacrificed, all other 'priests' became unnecessary to my salvation. Nice, sometimes. Useful even. But wholly unnecesssary.)

Sarah Pied Piper Palin?

Well, now I must advise you that Art is upon my drafting table at the moment with an Art collaboration scheduled for Spring Equinox 2010, so I must soon mosey along since graphic work must be finalized pre-March 19. Also, in Georgia, an ice, sleet, or snow storm is said to be at my very door as I type so we'll see how that goes in the electricity department.

So if you want to say anything about the charts you see here, the Tea Party event or movement, or the politicians hoping to rouse the masses from its stupor on Feb 4 - 6, please leave a comment here.

Btw: I'm happy as a puppy with two tails to report that a few readers who have been silent until now, have spoken up to let me know they're reading - yay! Thanks, Guys.

Interlaced YODs, you say?

A YOD pattern = turning point = special task = Finger of God:

Why, those two interlaced YODs in the Feb 6 chart are enough to stir up a heap of trouble...they're listed lower left and show a 'special task' for Mars and for Jupiter, as Moon conjoins Hidalgo, and along the way, conjoins a few midpoint combos in Mrs. Palin's natal chart from '1Sag' to '4Sag'; I must note that '1Sag' is the "A Grand Army of the Republic Campfire" degree, which emphasizes revolutionary Hidalgo's 'patriot' flavor. The Tea Partiers will love and adore her on this score.

Here are her natal midpoint combos in order of the Moon's fleeting stimulation, then I must vamoose:

N Sun/Uranus = tr Moon: rashness; nervous, excited, or agitated women; impulsiveness; a demand for need fulfilment; an intense woman.

N Mars/Uranus = tr Moon: special effort expended by a woman; desire for recognition. (Easy, just go where they're enthralled and chanting your name!)

N Saturn/Uranus = tr Moon: emotional courage emerges under duress; changes for freedom; strong emotional strains; a sudden desire to liberate oneself from emotional stress (uh-oh! she's a maverick, y'know!); separation from females.

N Sun/Pluto = tr Moon: irritability, esp of women; illness; brutal suppression of feelings; attempts to project power and persuasion; feelings possibly trampled in relationship.

N Mars/Pluto = tr Moon: publicity; self-belief; daring; taking a chance; playing a powerful hunch (that Sarah!)

After the 'Embassy Ball' is over (see Sabian Symbol of the ASC degree in the Feb 6 chart), and the confetti is being swept up, transit Moon, a 'popular woman' in our mystery play, conjoins Sarah Palin's Saturn/Pluto midpoint...

N Saturn/Pluto = tr Moon: emotional coldness or rigidity of feeling; nunciation; giving up giving.

Can this refer to her giving up tea, Tea Parties, or her association with the founder of the organization? Alternately, she may simply be exhausted and feel all used up by the time the Convention balloons are popped. Plus, the amount of profits in ticket receipts will color everyone's attitude when the party ends, the lights go down, and Hidalgo-as-Pied-Piper has sung her siren's song of power, patrons, and patriotism.

~:~

Update Jan 29, 2010 8:48 pm est: here's a post concerning the 2010 Tea Party Convention's Sun/Moon blends from Feb 4 to Feb 6, as the Moon traverses Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius while the Sun remains in Aquarius; a bonus blend is included to cover the atmosphere of the immediate hours after the Convention ends on Feb 6...Sun AQ/Moon Capricorn.

Like Day from Night: Poverty vs Politics in Washington DC

Sadly, the following Day/Night conditions affect nearly every city and town in America now that the fascist state is better established and ensconced in the US than ever before:

Twice years ago I resided a while in the midst of a beautiful city that has a large bit of history dogging its steps -- Washington, the jewel of the District of Columbia. Or more like the bellybutton that holds the jewel, that fount of enrichment that our 'Game birds Feathering Their Nests" politicians *constantly repair to for sustenance and succor. (And silken trappings.)

These days I suspect that there remain more than two levels of lifestyles in DC but only two are portrayed in an article about Washington's sociological unmasking when the sun sets in a Day vs Night theme. The premise of the article works because it is uncomfortably true.

In Georgetown of the 1970s, I saw my first bag lady and had not thought there could be such a woman in that condition in the US. Being a 19-year old and from a more southern region of the country where ladies were still often called 'm'am', it never occurred to me that women - or children - would be left to fend for themselves on the cold streets. Yet there she was, all her belongings fitted somehow into two enormously stuffed shopping bags, a kerchief snugged over her wild hair, a forlorn yet defiant expression on her face.

Greedy vs Needy goes on and on...

Anyway, I recommend the article to you for it captures the underbelly conditions that can result from a perfect storm of bad legislation, purposefully bad legislation, programs that do the opposite of what their cynical titles assert, "unintended consequences" of bad decisions, city resources pilfered and diverted from the people...the list of infamy goes on.

Politics by Day - Poverty by Night shows a snapshot of a suffering city whose Day's veneer at sunrise swallows the starkness of its disenfranchised Night with a cruel smirk of righteousness that chills to the bone.

~:~

*My reference is to the Sabian Symbol for America's natal Jupiter from wa-a-y back in 1776: '6 Cancer' = "Game birds Feathering Their Nests"; now we say that Jupiter = the Republican Party and its members in Mundane charts yet party platforms and players change through the years. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar but a liberal isn't a flip-flopper. Nor is a GOPer a not-my-brother's-keeper type but a...oh wait. They are that type. These days. Sorry. The 'magic Christian' dust had me fooled for a second there.

Anyway, America's natal Jupiter @ '6Can' represents Jupiterians during the 1770s and later, but certainly signifies those who were on the scene and in the mix on July 4, 1776. Jupiter represents the banking class, too, as you know, plus religious leaders, professors, and gurus and sages of all persuasions.

Yes, the usual factors that 'come along with' our nation's natal Jupiter's condition (sign, house, rulerships, aspects, etc) are of influence still (because a natal chart = the character) yet, it's difficult to ignore how Capitol Hill, its environs of law firms and lobbyists, and the national and international banking institutions and other corporate entities (in which I include monarchies) who 'donate to' US politicians have wrested most of the control of the US government away from the American people. Not that the 1776 ideal has ever been perfectly realized but these crooks and wastrels have taken America far far away from her ideals, her basic self-esteem, and ability to protect national sovereignty.

And that's one of the more basic things I have against the recent 'Dred Scott Moment' that the US SCOTUS whacked us with last week, an activist move which will open the front door to foreign interests to meddle in our election processes more freely even than we have long meddled in theirs.

Rob Our Treasury, Buy Our Senators (but we must give a No Money Back Guarantee on the politicians - keep 'em, they're yours..."Them's your pigs" - Rip Torn; just take them with you, No Refunds, don't say we didn't warn you of their turdiness)...

Now here in the South we have a tradition, a saying, really: "Y'all Come!" meaning we'll miss you when you're gone, so please come back when you may. Yes, we are polite down here (and I was surprised to find the DC of my day to be much more of a southern city than I had previously suspected; yet a swamp with a fancy city built upon it will always remain a swamp underneath...and Scorpio holds sway in DC.)

So with the recent SCOTUS invitation extended to more fatcat internationals than we can shake a stick at, will it be part of President Obama's duties to stand at the White House front door, issuing "Y'all Come" homilies to meddlers and foreign agents who have long tired of sneaking in and out of the White House back door?

If so, then it's going to be up to the collective 'we' ~ not 'wii' ~ to take back the mike from Kanye and tell them how things are gonna be, for we have the right to determine our own futures without their chaos-creating events designed and implemented to keep us off-keel and weakened.

Might this much-needed mike-snatch be an imperative of the current Cardinal T-Square (2010 - 2014) with its Saturn/Uranus opposition at the pattern's base, and both Saturn and Uranus squaring Pluto as they did in 1875...but in different signs?

(1875 - Saturn AQ/Uranus Leo = Pluto Taurus; now it will be Saturn Libra/Uranus Aries = Pluto Capricorn, sign of government, business, and law; authority, control, and cold-hearted ambition.)

Now there's another way I've been considering the Cardinal T-SQ and perhaps you have been, too. It requires speaking of the planets as 'actors' in a mystery play (life) so the script is determined in large degree by the planetary aspects involved since aspects describe the relationships and energy circuits between them.

Saturn and Uranus (old vs new, tradition vs progress, rules vs freedom) are now 'applying' to Pluto, the puppet master/s of the Universe, and somehow he feels blocked by obstacles caused by adherents in both the 'tradition' and 'progress' camps. The tension within the relationships between the three actors is, of course, more complex than if it were only one actor applying to Pluto at one time.

As it is, a pattern is formed, a T-Square, which awaits a trigger or stimulus to reach the empty point - in Cancer opposite Pluto. Plus, a natal or progressed planet may fill this requirement in a longer-term manner; then the T-SQ 'occurs; to the natal or progressed planet as a transiting configuration.

Ex: The Cardinal T-SQ falls hard on American noggins with our natal Venus (values; money; relationships, etc) filling that empty spot - Pluto opposes our national Venus...and a Grand Cross is thus created with inequalities keenly felt.

Pluto-opposite-Venus is a time when present circumstances adversely affect material conditions, joint ventures, and relationships, so if you have a mo, see what pops out at you from the Events of 1875 list, facets of events or issues which might possibly re-run or re-surface in 2010 and beyond in the Sat-Ura-Plu departments of life. This comparison may supply a hint of shades to come while the Universe is giving us another chance to manage these difficult yet dynamic energies more consciously and maturely - a feat which precludes allowing ourselves to be duped by cynical 'leaders' who manipulate the masses based on a plutonian, draconian ideal of utopian one-world control.

An opinion of SOTU 2010 - Mars rising 1/27/10

All in all, it is my opinion that President Obama's delivery of this evening's SOTU Address 2010 was a great expression of a Virgoan Mars used intelligently.

~~~
Update 10:35 pm est: now listening to the Republican rebuttal to a Democratic President, and it seems to me that in Washington (or 'DC' as we called it when I lived there many moons ago), Republicans always call for limited government when Democrats hold the reins of power. Then when Republicans hold the reins it's we-the-people who call for limited government.

You've noticed it, right?

Am I the only one?


You know, echoes are only amusing for a little while then their charms soon fade.

SOTU 2010 -- Sun Aquarius--Moon Cancer

January 27, 2010

With tonight's SOTU Address from President Obama I wonder if you've by chance peeked at the just-published details for the Sun AQ-Moon Cancer blend of energies and the flavors it will lend to the evening's events and presidential message?

Here's the SOTU 2010 Horoscope for Jan 27, 2010 @ 9:00 pm est, Capitol Building, DC, along with a few notes, in case you'd like a view.

List of DC street closings for SOTU Address 1.27.10

If you're in DC this evening before or during the president's SOTU Address, be advised of street closings that begin at 6:00 pm around the Capitol Building until the presidential event ends.