April's New Moon in Aries

Apologies for the tardiness of this posting (hopefully tech issues are resolved now) because astrologer Crystal Pomeroy, who writes for the excellent Daykeeper Journal has kindly given her permission for her article on April's New Moon in Aries to be published here:

Say the Prayer of Effective Action By the Dark of the New Moon in Aries

by Crystal Pomeroy

One of the most significant cycles of the year begins with Saturday night’s New Moon in Aries, with a chart emphasizing assertive Mars energy, strategic savvy and the tension that has marked the year since it began. Luna now opens a door to direct the 2008’s intense energies with initiatives that can ground our personal paths of power, as they simultaneously contribute to healing power issues for humanity at large.

Luna joins the Sun to form a stellium in Aries that also includes Pallas, the goddess of strategy who has been closely squaring Mars for over a month. Mercury–Lord of Communication–completes this group and forms a T-square with Mars and Pluto. The opposition of these two mafia bosses of the zodiac marked the chart for 2008, promising intense action for the entire year, action which can lead to “miraculous manifestation”, as we wrote in our predictions at the Winter Solstice. The special significance of this lunar month is underscored by the day and hour it begins: April 5, 11:55PM. It marks the ancient celebration of the goddess, Fortuna, commonly known as Lady Luck. As for the hour, according to more than one author, eleven and its multiples are master numbers. In his book, Numbers: Facts, Figures and Fiction, Richard Phillips states that “eleven is a master vibration and as such should not be reduced to a single number”. We can indeed make tangible progress to mastering this year’s vast potential during the next twenty-eight days, with special emphasis on the two weeks from now until the Full Moon.

The Sabian symbol for 17 Aries refines our ability to synchronize with its promise, “Two dignified spinsters sitting in silence”. The actions we are led to may require cooperation with others, but they bear out independent inspiration and fortify our self-reliance. The prayer suggestions below are designed to optimize this portal by synchronizing our consciousness with its vibrations.


Ceremony and prayers for the Aries New Moon

Have on hand pen and page, as well as any of the following space synchronizers: Red or bright pink geraniums or carnations, Cactus
Incense, especially carnation or myrrh, Minerals, such as ruby, coral, white quartz, topaz, turquoise


Light your incense, saying something like:
This is an offering for the angels, especially Malchedael, as well as the Angels of Effective Action, Divine Strategy, Focus and Confidence. I call on you and request that you assist my soul and all of humanity, so that we may believe in ourselves and take decisive, strategic initiatives toward our destinies of positive power now

Light your candle, saying something like:
The light of the Divine Strategist is with me, guiding me on the best, most effective path for important, decisive initiatives now.

Take a few minutes to consider what inner and outer initiatives you could take that would further your path of power and strengthen your self-reliance. Place special emphasis on intuitive inspiration that you might otherwise stifle because deep down you feel you need somebody else’s approval or assistance. Some examples include:
Make a treasure map

Write a proposal and send to ____________

Contact ______ (name of teacher, client or other key colleague) ________ about

Write political letter or other activist document

Finish design or creation of product or project

Select new living space or other property

Develop a plan to give a class


Review your chosen initiative or initiatives, taking several minutes with each to consider the most strategic possible approach. Contemplate new avenues, apply all of your intelligence, listen to your gut-level intuition and then make notes that clarify the most effective ideas that come to you for these steps.
6. Bless your prayers by consecrating them to the forces of active good in your own life, and that your own audacious actions may strengthen and inspire those of all people.

7. Repeat words like those that follow during six minutes:

I have been blessed with the talent, ability and whatever other resources I need to move forward on my divinely inspired projects. Only for today, I release concern for the approval of others, and follow my own instincts and intuition with decision and energy now.


8. Program your dreams for the Aries New Moon cycle (until the next New Moon):

Each night before sleeping, go over Step 5 for several minutes. Finish this dream-portal session by asking your angels to help you clarify and adhere to your strategies for tomorrow’s progress, and to help you remember them.

Upon waking, write down your dreams before analyzing them for signs and answers (Betty Bethard’s, The Dream Book: Symbols for Self Understanding is one of the best I’ve found to enrich this process/)

A parting word

San Francisco healer Dr. Asa Hershoff says that whether our chosen practice be prayer or meditation, basically it is a way of remembering the truth about our own powerful beings. Even though it often feels like life is happening to us, we can choose to have it happen with us, from us and through us. This lunation reminds us to refer to that force within as a point of departure and from it create prayers-in-motion: our own audacious and strategic actions.

As we use them to make progress one-day-at a time during this lunar month, we will weave the web of our present and future experience, adding with each initiative a silver thread to the larger fabric of the universe.


References

Aspra, Lucy, Manual de Ángeles, Las Emisiones Sidereales de los Ángeles de la Astrología (Mexico City, Casa de los Ángeles, 2000).

Hershoff, Dr. Asha, Www.dharmamedicine.com

Mendez, Connie, Numerología 22 11 (Caracas, Venezuela, Bienes Lacónica, C.A., , 1996).

Pennick, Nigel, The Pagan Book of Days (Rochester, Vermont, 1992, Destiny Books).

Phillips, Richard, Numbers: Facts, Figures and Fiction (NY, Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Spiller, Jan, New Moon Astrology (NY, Bantam, 2001).

Templeton, John Marks and James Ellison, The Templeton Success Plan (NY Harper & Row, 1987).#


Thanks, Crystal! jc

US economy: what would FDR do?

Stephanie Salter has an article concerning not just Washington DC's FDR Memorial but some of Roosevelt's policies, economic and otherwise.

What Would FDR DO? contains some of the quotations which are engraved in his Memorial in red granite and apply with lasered foresight to today's financial and other societal woes.

Why, it's almost as if he knew ahead of time...

On Jan 20, 2006 I published this: 1933 calling: Hello? also citing a little FDR in quotes such as this...but not this one:

"The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world." Mar 1, 1945

As a lifelong American, one of the Flower Power Generation, this can still evoke in me what it always has--a warm fuzzy feeling about the longed-for unity of all humankind.

Except it's 2008, and I hear his words through a different lens--or perhaps a lens that has been polished into more clarity--FDR's bon mots are code words for the one world government--the New World Order--that we should be fearing, but are kept busy wondering instead where the next house payment is coming from.

(The lens has been polished by the rag of Bush, Clinton, and their like.)

It also is apparent in FDR's words that "one party" can't do it--is a signpost to our "illusory two-party system" which is actually one party in disguise--grinding down our defenses ("con vs lib"; oft-repeated propaganda eventuallly seeps in as truthiness), while rearranging the world to suit their interests both financially and socially, and using revolution and chaos to stir pots, if that's what it takes to perfect the witches' broth.

It Takes a Village, eh Hillary?

Howard Zinn on the American empire

Empire or Humanity?

What the classroom didn't teach me about the American empire

By Howard Zinn

With an occupying army waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with military bases and corporate bullying in every part of the world, there is hardly a question any more of the existence of an American Empire. Indeed, the once fervent denials have turned into a boastful, unashamed embrace of the idea.

Information Clearing House has the rest of the article here.

Got Hillary illusions?

Yes, I'm a couple of days late with this heads-up, but if you've missed it and you've got illusions of Hillary's viability for the Dem nom, read Chip Collis' article debunking Hillary myths...no matter how angrily red-faced Bill wags his finger at super delegates.

And you may wish to check out my continuing series, Wedding Day Astrology, on the weddings'n'marriages of the Clintons, McCains, and Obamas at Jude's Threshold where the tent flap of luv has the inquiring camel's nose poked right in!

President Pet Notions?

"The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs.

Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves is wrong.

We get so identified with an idea that it is literally a "pet" notion and we rise to its defense and stop our eyes and ears to anything different." John Dewey


~~;~~

Do you tire of Politics, that organized system of hatreds? Does Dick seem thick and even a temporary absence by George a refreshing Godsend of relief?

Snag a brief break with my new Psychedelic Kaleidoscope Art Show created with relaxation in mind...

The Clinton's Wedding Day: Oct 11, 1975

Rodham, Clinton, whatever you call her, presidential candidate Hillary R. Clinton married William Jefferson Clinton 32+ years ago...for better or worse:

Here are a few notes on their wedding day astrology.

Earth Hour at the White House?

One of my favorite radio programs Living on Earth has a feature with interviews of the presidential candidates (there are only three and you know who they are) concerning their stands on the green question, global warming, etc.

It includes mention of energy industry funding which seemingly makes their fine campaign rhetoric moot. But all presidents come with strings attached or he/she couldn't have gotten a hoof in the door!

Guess you're making plans for tonight's Earth Hour. What will you do with all the lights out for an hour? Never mind, you don't have to gossip on yourself!

New Zealand anf Figi started the lights-out, of course, and our turn here in Georgia is in 7 hours, so right now I'm looking at the chart for Atlanta, 8:00 pm edt.

The chart for Sydney, AU has few differences from the Atlanta chart as far as planets, midpoints, etc, so I'll use the 8 pm and 9 pm charts for Atlanta which is just down the road from where I type.

8 pm: ASC 11Lib47/ 9 pm = ASC 23Lib55 with lovely Arcturus rising: a different approach; leading and protecting people as they embrace a new lifestyle although the Via Combusta rises during the hour as well--aka the Burning Way (15Lib to 15Sco.)

Well, perhaps lights-out is a good way to 'use' the Via Combusta which is normally considered a nasty bit of zodiacal real estate.

And a new lifestyle with smaller carbon footprints is a humanitarian goal for which we must now strive thanks to greed and overindulgences of the past.

In Atlanta's 8 pm chart, Moon/Mc midpoint is rising...

Moon/Mc = ASC: self-evaluation. The Moon/Mc midpoint itself is: one's strongest needs are out in the open.

Sun 9Ari40 has just set, chart-ruler Mercury 23Pis23 in 6th house along with Venus 21Pis04 just beyond yesterday's conj with Uranus 19Pis50, a new yearly cycle of activity for Venus/Uranus: artists, extravagant people (!), rhythm, music, love, unusual relationships, peculiar notions...and erratic habits with finances.

Moon 10Cap42 has just crossed the Ic into 3rd house of communications/neighborhoods and is snugged between Pluto 1Cap09 and Jupiter 19Cap54...

Jupiter/Pluto = Moon: desire to bring about social improvements; ability to influence the masses through an emotional appeal; emotional conviction guides a new start.

Feisty Mars 9Can50 is at Midheaven (the goal) with Fixed Star Alhena, whose keysords are: to have a mission.

Mars and Mc are part of a Fist of God pattern which is similar to a YOD (Finger of God) but with more 'punch' so we have these pictures with the base of the pattern a square to ASC and pointing to idealistic Neptune 23AQ23...

Mars/ASC = Neptune: magnetism; out of the mainstream; withdrawal as an option; lack of energy.

Mars/ASC = NN: excellent teamwork.

Well, last I heard, 26 major world cities and 300+ towns and have signed up to participate.

ASC/MC = Neptune: idealization; spirituality; quiet.

Yep, things should be quieter than usual for an hour at least! And Earth Hour is a great example of idealization manifesting into action.

ASC/MC = NN: an obliging person (you?); seeking contacts with others; new faces in the environment.

Don't let the wooly-boogers get ya!

Mars/ASC = Saturn (2Vir40 Rx): inhibitions; inbilitiy to express one's ower potential in the right way (it's only for an hour!); sharing worries and anxieties with others.

Then there's the T-square which forms this picture with the Sun conj asteroid Pallas (wisdom; strategy; protector of cities)...

Moon/Mars = Sun: the power to establish oneself in the world (!); conscious of an objective; striving for independence; prosperity through harmonious cooperation.

And when the Hour ends at 9 pm, Atlanta time, this midpoint will be rising...

Jupiter/Mc = ASC: harmony; a festivity.

So where will YOU be for the second annual Earth Hour? Got candles for your candlelight supper?

Obama on The View today

This morning I managed to catch Barack Obama on The View and I've written some reminiscences on the experience here for anyone who managed to miss the performance.

In what we once called junior high school (grades 7 & 8) there was a game I played only once for it seemed excruciating to me. It was called Lemon Twist and the gist is that one person sat in the middle of a circle of young ladies who then gave their worst assessments of the one-in-the-middle.

Well, Obama was in the middle of The View's sofa this morning but didn't come off too damaged--actually more like Lemon Meringue Pie than twisted.

He once again defended Pastor Wright as expected and ended with an offer of his wife as their next vict--er, guest, because Michelle would, he asserted, "dish the dirt."

Oh dear. Wouldn't that be handing ammunition to the Rove-Limbaugh 'Operation Chaos' intitative which is already working quite nicely for John McCain who needs all the help he can get?

Now I have gracious plenty natal planets in Capricorn so respect for Wise Ones advanced in years is no small part of my personality.

But I must ask if the video I saw early this week of McCain paying respects to grand dame Nancy Reagan (and thereby linking himself with Ronald, he hopes) was a helpful view of him as he escorted a doddering lady when he looked just as doddering himself? Was she holding him up or vice versa? It made me wonder...but even if incorrect, the impression was given.

Yes, America does prefer younger presidents when she can get them--or at least those who don't look as if they're about to keel over at any moment. Agism is alive and well in the US.

Yet the bickering and name-calling between Hill and Bar is starting to look as if they WANT to lose to a war-promoting dodderer.

Guess that's understandable though--look what they'll inherit from the get-go--America's wealth has got up and went and the (supposed) Dem plans of retreat from Iraq will be a lesson in humility--a lesson which the objects in need of it will ignore as they kick back on the porch...fattened and self-satisfied till the end.

Iraq War 2003 + 2008: 3 YODs

With the US-occupied tinderbox of Iraq erupting of late, the composite chart of the Iraq War (set for the White House, March 19, 2003 8:00 pm) and the War's 'natal' chart (Mar 20, 2003 6:35 am BAT) when averaged together using the Davison method (which averages time AND place and thus gives a mid-date, in this case: Sept 24, 2005) is showing three YOD patterns.

A YOD, as you know, is aka a Finger of God and indicates a special task or purpose, a crisis situation. YODS express most purely when all the points are actual planets although ASC and MC, points of manifestation, may also be pertinent.

The base of a YOD is a sextile and it points to an apex planet or point. In Iraq's case, the three YODS have apex planets under stress: Mercury, Mars, and Uranus. I have highlighted the YODs in the image so hopefully you can see them more easily.

It would take all day to type out all the factors in this Composite-Davison chart (C/D) and I'm sure you notice that the 10th house Chiron is conj US n Pluto 27Cap. And that's Cheney's natal Venus (money; values; relationships) at Midheaven.

Transit Pluto/Chiron midpoint has been at the general degree area this year (19--24 Cap) so we have the plutocratic, oppressive, racist duo on display.

So let's see what the midpoint pictures for the YODs show, beginning with another plutocrat indicator, Jupiter/Pluto.

*Jupiter/Pluto = Mars: applying controls to suit one's particular purposes; leaderhsip; the desire to achieve great things; organizing talent; publicity.

Mercury/Saturn = Uranus: great inner tension; incompatibility; quick decisions or sudden departure; anxiety about a change of status quo; great tension between the old way of thinking vs the new; the inclination to go one's own way; excitability; haste.

Uranus/ASC = Mercury: the tendency to interfere in everything; nervous planning; fault-finding; caustic; oraganising power; the ability to sum up situations quickly; the stage of making arrangements; sudden news; technological progress.

You may also see that Cheney's natal Jupiter is rising, with his n Saturn following. We may then say that:

Jupiter/Saturn = ASC: the tactitcian; keeping properly in one's place (secret state-of-the-art bunker?)

*Replace Mars with Cheney's natal Uranus and we have...

Jupiter/Pluto = n Uranus: intense application of resources to establish a new perspective; overturning the tables; getting back on track or finding a better one; quick exploitation of every situation; a sudden reform or a quick development; sudden adjustment to new circumstances (how about some hot tar, a bunch of feathers, and a rail out of Washington?)

In Bush's nativity, Neptune (5Lib+) is conj the C/D Mercury, so we may replace Mercury in the YOD with his idealistic, deceptive, over-the-top Neptune...

Uranus/ASC = Neptune: sudden undermining of associations; disappointments; a feeling of martyrdom can be exploited.

Replace the C/D ASC with Cheney's n Jupiter and we see...

n Jupiter/Uranus = Mercury: ready wittedness; an abundance of thoughts; a fortunate turn in one's occupation (!!); planning on success; a series of fortunate breaks.

Hmmm...sounds like Cheney is happy with the way things are going in Iraq this week...still. Quite the "success" for his portfolio.

Now here are the midpoint pictures within the C/D chart which link the war's start in March 2003 with today, March 28, 2008...

Mars/Pluto = Uranus: fight first, talk later; dangerous sense of attack; chip on one's shoulder; cruelty; violence; sudden calamities of great importance.

Mercury/Uranus = Pluto: indefatigability in one's work; over-strained nerves; a hasty realization of plans; getting the biggest job done in a commanding way; leadership; tremendous power for action.

Mars/Jupiter = Saturn (Saturn is conj 2003's Jupiter Rx: the general): difficulties in making decisions; letting good opportunities slip away; having to toe the line; pulling in one's sails.

Saturn/Uranus = Mars: tremendous upheaval possible through calamity or anxiety; challenges leading to a decisive fight; violence; undergoing great efforts and toil.

More YOD details:

Bil Tierney, in his book, Dynamics of Aspect Analysis says that in composite charts, YODs with Mercury as the apex planet indicate one who is combining too many concepts to establish coherency, and that concepts must be streamlined in order to work. Given the current chaos and confusion, the chances don't sound so great, do they?

An apex Mercury in a YOD pattern works in similar fashion to Rx Mercury, and the US natal Mercury is Rx. If you've read my article on the first US presidency (George Wasington, of course) you'll know that the White house tends to 'psych out' the public in order to tell us what to think. We're seeing/reading/hearing war propaganda on the current chaos-in-the-tinderbox, but getting the real picture is another matter, isn't it?

Yet this apex Mercury seeks compulsively to find new communication avenues to make a greater educational impact on the environment--and the C/D chart is in the Disseminating phase which is the spreading info stage.

And remember that this Mercury = George Bush's n Neptune which as an apex in a YOD prefers to stay in his ivory tower, thanks. Ivory Tower = White House? Well, hopefully Bush won't be able to pull the snuggly blanket of power around his shrugging shoulders past Jan 2009--at least not from the Oval Office.

Mars as apex planet in a YOD, if poorly used, shows non-productive energy expenditures which need adjustments within the aggressive instincts. Hostility is aimed at inappropriate targets (and this C/D chart describes all parties of all sides as well, not only the US.)

An acute crisis situation may trigger mobilization of vital forces full of daring and courage, and wavering or vacillation won't do. Ties from the past may be broken by this apex Mars and quick adaptation leads to a new path.

Uranus apex here views everthing from a unique angle and is contrary and perverse (as Uranus may tend to be in any situation.)

New directions are best handled only after this apex Uranus alters his willful mental temperament, and disruption of all carefully formulated plans is jolting. Apex Uranus in a YOD pattern is a catalyst and trailblazer. Lawlessness is part of the turning point and causes irrevocable shifts in the environment.

Playing with fire hardly describes what the actors are up to in Iraq, some from within their Ivory Towers, and some from an independent spiritedness determined toward a new path fraught with fresh perspectives.

George Bush is calling the US offensive in Basra a "defining moment" in Iraq, and after looking at the above composite chart, I must agree--but would have to add that it's also a defying moment.

Now why don't we-the-people leave Iraq as best we can with as many apologies as Washington can muster, and take the consequences from the over-extended, misdirected efforts of the Bush-Cheney regime?

It was, after all, their bad--and they had many foreign actors egging them on in what was known to be their Saddam-removal intentions from the start.

Defeat for America, you say? As Astrology shows, how a thing begins is how it will end so we were defeated by fraud and deception from its beginning by Chalabi, the White House, the Pentagon--and others pulling secret strings.

The US should face the music while the band can still play because the White House isn't protecting its infallibility...it's got none to hide.


midpoint pictures: Tyl; Ebertin.

~~note: please pardon typos--my isp is on the verge of crashing (again) so I must publish now and correct later. ;o(

Can Lunar Eclipses trigger market meltdowns?

If so, then the Lunar Eclipse of Aug 16, 2008 may be the trigger we've been dreading.