Message for Thursday 24 August 2017

Thursday 24 August 2017

}Protecting Sanity{

Moon in Libra

We need to protect our sanity, and we need protective sanity. That is partly because Mercury is retrograde. It began on August 12, the very day of the Charlottesville incidents. And people have been going berserk. Just because others around you seem to be losing it, you do not have to. I shall not repeat my commentaries on the crazy politics of it. But at these times we get embroiled in too much, worry too much, and need to cut back and find our own proper, more narrow pathway, preferably one with which we are familiar and in which we are competent. 

The water-wheel turns in the stream running through the ashram.

The Master sits at his window above. He ponders the political

Situation, a threat to his nation. He weighs the value of contradictory

Courses, consults horoscopes, watches the wheel turn.

Men from the army consult him. They have peered and peeped  at the

Enemy, measured strategies, reconnoitered. Something audacious?

The guru was a bareback rider in his youth. But the general is solemn,

Raised from poverty, agnostic and grave. He does not look hopeful.

He was not qualified for all his positions. He sees the stream

As a dry riverbed, the wheel as a broken bridge. 

Too often he has felt tethered, as a horse fearing attack

By a tiger. The guru commiserates. He senses an answer.

He founded a school of yoga, not a military academy.

But he removes the general's fears and he sees a way.

{Thursday} {Protecting Sanity}

Cosmic Piper

Message for Wednesday 23 August 2017

Wednesday 23 August 2017

\Riding the Waves through Moderation/

Moon in Virgo-->Libra

/moon goes void-of-course at 1:03p PT | 4:03p ET | 8:03p UT

until it enters Libra at 6:06p PT | 9:06p ET | 1:06a(Th) UT

|Karmically serious or challenging third| of this week continues (until fairly early Thursday morning)

It's hard to avoid politics at this time in America. Part of the reason is that Saturn is almost exactly opposite the U. S. Mars, which is, according to one widely received moment for the "birth" of America (by the signing of the Declaration of Independence) almost exactly on the U. S. ascendant. Read yesterday's report about all that for more information, as it relates to Donald Trump's chart. That birth-chart reveals him as a mini-"avatar" of the United States, at least of its Mars, male, and military side. 

I have written here, especially during the campaign, of his faults and lies. He is problematic, as most of us know. However, there are good features in his chart also. And in his behavior and policies, although some of course refuse to recognize that he does anything at all right.

We are fortunate that we have a constitutional government rather than a monarchy. So there are plenty of forces in place to contain and ameliorate his worst features or choices. That is why I am not an extreme anti-Trumpite and feel that I need to speak of his better features.

For example: I watched his rally in Phoenix, posted on the New York Times (I commend them for doing so since they are one of his chief opponents in the Press) tonight. It is worth watching and I recommend it if you want to try to understand the man and the near future of the nation.

Especially I recommend the earlier segment in which he discusses how the media (almost all of them) distorted and in fact lied about (my words) his statements after the Charlottesville tragedy. That you ought to watch because Trump was right about that. I myself had read very carefully all of his words in his three statements after the incident, and he very directly and without any wavering condemned the racism, in fact very eloquently. 

And Trump is right: The media, almost all of them, literally lied (my words) about his statements, implying that he was a racist. It was a shameless thing to do and it consolidates Trump's arguments that the media are out to destroy him. 

Mercury was and is retrograde during the Charlottesville incident itself and during all the hoopla about it and the media's lying about what Trump actually said. They did lie. There was nothing in his comments which implied racism and he did in fact condemn that, and the neo-Nazis, and the white supremacists, and the KKK, in those exact words. He condemned all three of them without equivocation. How the media turned this around into an endorsement of racism is beyond me, unless, as Trump says, they in fact are lying about him in order to destroy him.

Perhaps it is partly his own "karma" for his insisting that Barack Obama was not born in America and was a Muslim, a lie he perpetrated for many years and did not stop perpetrating even when Obama's birth certificate was produced. He lied about Obama, and now he is being lied about. Karma pure and simple perhaps.

Still, the media ought to be ashamed of themselves in this case. They consciously and deliberately distorted, in fact lied about, what Trump actually said. Shame! That includes CNN, the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, on and on. They are not earning very good karma themselves.

Let's not either denigrate or glorify Trump, but consider him dispassionately, especially with the help of his horoscope. There is a great deal more to be said about it which I shall probably be doing here.

Meanwhile I am going to post some wise words from David Brooks of the New York Times:

Donald Trump is not the answer to this nation’s problems, so the great questions of the moment are: If not Trump, what? What does the reaction to Trump look like?

For some people, the warriors of the populist right must be replaced by warriors of the populist left. For these people, Trump has revealed an ugly authoritarian tendency in American society that has to be fought with relentless fervor and moral clarity.

For others, it’s Trump’s warrior mentality itself that must be replaced. Warriors on one side inevitably call forth warriors on the other, and that just means more culture war, more barbarism, more dishonesty and more dysfunction.

The people in this camp we will call moderates. Like most of you, I dislike the word moderate. It is too milquetoast. But I’ve been inspired by Aurelian Craiutu’s great book “Faces of Moderation” to stick with this word, at least until a better one comes along.

Moderates do not see politics as warfare. Instead, national politics is a voyage with a fractious fleet. Wisdom is finding the right formation of ships for each specific circumstance so the whole assembly can ride the waves forward for another day. Moderation is not an ideology; it’s a way of coping with the complexity of the world.

There will be more of this from Brooks as we go along.

I am not turning this into a political blog but the exigencies of the moment demand this approach, I feel.

{Wednesday}  \Riding the Waves through Moderation/

Cosmic Piper

P. S. Further on in Trump's Phoenix speech he is getting a little weird about some of his favorite obsessions such as trade policies, jobs, etc., and seems to be distorting the facts in his usual style. This is something he has got to change if he is going to be respected. His speech on Afghanistan on Monday was very respectable, whether it was strategically wise or not. He ought to find that mode and stay with it rather than sounding like a petty charlatan-tyrant as he did again toward the end of the Phoenix rally.

Message for Tuesday 22 August 2017

Tuesday 22 August 2017

\Self-Maintained Good Fortune/

Moon in Virgo

|Karmically serious or challenging third| of this week is with us (until Thursday forenoon)

It is a big time for Donald Trump. 

And it is happening at the eclipse, perhaps not coincidentally.

But there is more than that. At the time of the eclipse, the sun and moon were at 29 Leo, within three degrees of Trump's natal Mars at 26 Leo. Very important in that Mars rules the military. Trump has surrounded himself with military officers, including General John Kelly, General Mattis, General McMaster, and several others. Trump has Mars in the first house, in Leo, with Leo rising. Anyone who does not sense what that means does not know astrology. A very strong, affirmative leader who says what he thinks and wins allegiance (especially perhaps from Mars-type individuals, males and military sorts, although in fact woman also voted for him in droves) because he exudes confidence and believes deeply in his own destiny. Leo is in color yellow or gold (the sun) and Mars is red, and so we have his red cap upon his yellow locks. 

So, one astrological factor is Trump's very important Mars being emphasized by the eclipse, which turned out to be the very day he gave his brilliantly effective speech outlining what he hopes to do in Afghanistan. The speech was the result of his generals' influence on him, because his initial impulse was to stay out of Afghanistan as much as possible. 

There is more. I have not been able to neglect the position of Mars in the United States birth-chart, July 4, 1776, at 20 Gemini. Planets aspecting it, especially by opposition and conjunction, have indicated very often major events in the United States government. For example, both Mars and Venus were near 20 Sagittarius (by two degrees) at the time of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, opposite the U. S. Mars in Gemini, and Kennedy himself was Gemini by sun-sign. That showed me decisively that the position of the U. S. Mars, and transiting aspects to it, are extremely important. 

And now, what do we have? First, Trump himself is Gemini and his two Gemini planets are very close to the U. S. Mars: Uranus at 17 Gemini and the sun at 22 Gemini. The U S. Mars is just about at their midpoint. And guess what? The current position of Saturn is 21 Sagittarius 11', opposite the U. S. Mars by less than a degree (by about 12 minutes of arc, very narrow). It is also, then, opposite Trump's sun by two degrees and opposite his Uranus by four degrees.

What else? Trump's moon is at 20 Sagittarius, so Saturn is conjoined to it. His Jupiter is at 17 Libra, trine his Uranus exactly, and sextile his moon; and the current transiting Jupiter is at 20 Libra, very close to his own Jupiter (favorable) and exactly sextile his moon (favorable) and trine his sun and Uranus (favorable). 

And so when some astrologers predicted bad things for him during or after the eclipse, I wondered how they could have ignored all that. The fact that Jupiter now is in good aspect to his sun, moon, and Uranus, and also near its natal position, suggests good fortune, at least for the moment.

He is turning out to be a military leader, and if not a savvy and effective one then at least an impressive one. His speech on his Afghanistan decision, which I just watched, will endear him to his followers, many of whom will feel their loyalty to him increasing. 

I am not saying that all of his decisions will be correct or in the best interest of the United States or the world. That would be too strong a claim to make for any leader. But when he was unexpectedly elected, although I had not predicted his win, I considered that perhaps his destiny was to be a military leader or guide the U. S. through some sort of military situation, because of his chart's evident multiple close connections with Mars in the U. S. natal chart. 

And so it is happening. Perhaps the "final cause" or "reason" for his election, in the Mind of G*d, as it were, was that he was best fitted to do something, in conjunction with his generals, utterly essential for the safety of the U. S. and the world at large. I do not know but that is a distinctive possibility. (Despite all his faults, which are evident and which I do not need to elucidate for you. They are evident from his chart, and one of the worst is Mercury square Neptune there, which tends to obscure the truth under wishful thinking or deliberate untruth. It has a higher side of stubborn idealism, which we may hope and pray he will learn to manifest.) 

We shall see.

Tuesday: Both Mars and Venus are at critical (strong) degrees. Interesting. It's a significant day, while the sun is in the final degree of Leo and the first of Virgo. It is a |karmically difficult third| day but these are not impossible, just challenging. We want to live worthy lives. 

Trump's speech yesterday, and the eclipse, occurred while the sun was exactly trine Uranus, in fire signs, quite favorable. We are "feeling our oats" or sensing who we really are and how to continue with our personal momentum toward success in our own eyes. 

That is good.

The difficulties today involve details, communications, study, research, and health. We want to be precise in diet and exercise, not giving in to temptations to indulge ourselves or be lazy. We can do that. Foregoing some things enables us to accomplish major things.

{Tuesday}  /Self-Maintained Good Fortune\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Monday 21 August 2017

Monday 21 August 2017

\Calm and Collected, Please/

Moon in Leo-->Virgo

Total Solar Eclipse exact at 11:26a PT | 2:26p ET | 6:26p UT

(These times are from the American Ephemeris. They may need adjusting to your area so you ought to check local information if viewing the eclipse. Be careful of your eyes when viewing it. Filters or else very quick glances at it, followed by looking away, are recommended.)

/moon goes void-of-course at 11:31a PT | 2:31p ET | 6:31p UT

until it enters Virgo at 1:26p PT | 4:26p ET | 8:26p UT

We are all learning to be careful what we say and how we say it. Partly this is Venus square Uranus on one side and Jupiter on the other. Friendships or alliances seem to fracture for little clear reason except that people "rub each other the wrong way." Of course this does not have to happen if we are conscious and careful. Sometimes it can be opinion differences on politics or religion (Jupiter) and sometimes differences of personal style (Uranus). 

As for fractured alliances, it is interesting to note that Steve Bannon is Scorpio; and the man who was probably most effective in removing him from Donald Trump's team, John Kelly, is Taurus; and these are opposite signs. Of course they are not always "enemies," they can even be marriage partners, but they have things to work out. Likewise, James Comey is Sagittarius and Trump Gemini, opposite signs. Some of the inter-Administration differences and battles are being worked out along traditional astrological lines, it seems. 

Mercury being retrograde, and opposed to Neptune, where did efficiency go? You can still summon it, and be sufficiently efficient to avoid disaster, but it seems hard because things seem to interrupt or intervene, or there are more unexpected details to handle than you had anticipated. One has to be a master of timing, of juggling tasks, to come through such periods without upset.

Political-Spiritual-Astrological Statement

I wish I did not have to write this, but circumstances seem to be compelling me. 

There is so much excitement, anger, self-righteous ranting and even rage on "both sides" or "all sides" of current controversies in the U. S. A. that I too have to say something.

Let's take the astrological side of this first. Mercury is retrograde! Mercury is retrograde! Mercury is retrograde!

I have to say it three times because (a) it is so important and (b) although it is one of the most popular bits of "knowledge" in astrology, still the majority believe it is a superstition. It is not. It is not. It is not a superstition.

It is real. It is real. It is real.

I have said.

So what does it mean, now? That people are going nuts. Mercury symbolizes, among other things, the human mind. The human mind can get confused; it can get tangled; and it can go berserk. It is doing all of those things, in various people, at the present time (August 12 through September 4. The Charlottesville rally was on August 12.). 

It can also be a period in which people slow down, rethink, re-estimate, re-analyze, ponder, remonstrate sometimes, repent sometimes, regather impressions and conclusions, regret mistakes, reply to others' misleading statements or accusations, and on and on. It is a big "re" time. And it is totally recognizable once you have observed two or three of these periods consciously.

And so now, after the Charlottesville "march" of about 300 (it is impossible to find a good estimate of the number but this is what I have seen) sad, confused individuals, the whole nation is going berserk with recriminations if not acrimonious verbal attacks. 

Meanwhile, at these times, facts sometimes go into the discard. Have you read a news report which carefully estimated the number of various viewpoints held by the 300 or so people in that sad little "march" in Charlottesville? I have not. I did see a Nazi flag among the marchers, and was abhorred by it. But how many would have identified themselves as Nazis, or pro-Nazi? I would guess maybe 50, maybe 30, maybe a handful? It takes only one to carry a flag. The information about who these people were is just lacking. Nobody seems to care; everyone just wants to get angry or upset. 

Many were there to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, which is what the march purportedly was about. That does not mean they were Nazis or fascists! Not everyone in the South who believes that some bits of their history ought to be preserved in monuments is a racist, in fact probably most are not. Maybe you have to be born and raised in Dixie to know Dixie. Yes, there is racism there, but not very much of a serious sort in 2017. 

But here is one problem with Mercury retrograde (hereafter referred to as MR for convenience): People jump to conclusions. If there is one Nazi flag in the march, they are all Nazis. If Trump says there are "many sides" in relation to the issues brought up by the sad little march, he is a white supremacist. Does the conclusion follow? Not at all, but too many, while Mercury is retrograde, rely on their previous conclusions (the "mind" is going backward after all) rather than on testable facts and logical thinking.

Now that I have said all this, I will probably be accused of being a Nazi, fascist, or white supremacist. People! Please. I am just asking for patience, sobriety, and common sense. 

Here is something I recommend: Read viewpoints opposing your own. I subscribe to the online New York Times. I am very weary of its now very boring anti-Trump propaganda, although of course I did not vote for him and as you know if you have been reading these reports I opposed him vociferously during the campaign. But he is the President for now, until the constitutional processes of our democracy remove him, in three and a half years or sooner, and so it behooves us to work against or for him through legal processes rather than go about like madmen with bees in their bonnets. 

Just saying.

So if you read always CNN or the New York Times, do yourself a favor and spend some time reading Townhall, the Weekly Standard, Breitbart, and Fox News. You need to try to comprehend a little about that viewpoint before you launch into attacks upon it which may be uninformed and biased. You may still hold the same opinions, but you will at least know what your opponents are saying. They are probably less crazy and racist than you think. Then your articulation of your opposition will be much wiser and more effective. 

If you always read the above "right" publications, spend some time with the New York Times, CNN, the New Yorker, Huffington Post and other "liberal" or leftist rags. We do need to try to understand one another. There is "fake" or edited-to-opinion news on both sides, including the New York Times sometimes--in that case, often through omission, that is, not reporting certain things, such as the persecution of Christians and others by Muslims around the world. The NYT is terrible at that, and culpable.

History works out through complex dialectical processes. The tiny number of the original marchers or ralliers has become almost insignificant because apparently the issues they raised were ready to burst in the national consciousness, apart from numbers. The World Spirit, in Hegel's terms, is working something out. It does not have to be with clubs and balloons filled with urine (as some of the leftist counter-protesters were said to have used). It does not have to be through people yelling at each other, although that has been happening. 

It is interesting, but sometimes alarming when otherwise sane, good people start to go berserk. 

Now there is the eclipse. As I have said, I do not believe that eclipses indicate disasters. They may be unusually significant as showing trends coming to fruition. I make no predictions about this one except that obviously people are hyped about various things. We shall see. 

Meanwhile, during the Dark Hermetic Epoch (of which Mercury retrograde is always the inner core), until September 19, it would be well to be very cool, calm, and collected--to use an old cliche which has fresh meaning.

{Monday} /Calm and Collected, Please\

Cosmic Piper

Messages for Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 August 2017

Saturday 19 August 2017

^Selfness^

Moon in Cancer-->Leo

/moon goes void-of-course at 8:18a PT | 11:18a ET | 3:18p UT

until it enters Leo at 10:56a PT | 1:56p ET | 5:56p UT

He rolls the stone up the hill; down it comes again;

And up it goes. He needs to study his horoscope.

He could find somewhere work in seclusion, labor using

His talents. He sees many birds light on a large tree.

At night he reads, studies, and goes to a book club. 

There he senses who people really are. On weekends he lies in the sun, 

Soaking up some kind of energy and dreaming of an alliance

With someone amazing, real, alive, hands clasped together. 

The pastor in his heritage tells him to take it slow, trust and believe. 

He knew a mountaineer whose figure in the setting sun inspired his

Hope to be someone rugged and real. Who is the woman waiting for

Him? He rolls the stone but is not the mountaineer.  He reads the book.

The birds fly from the limbs of the tree, ramifying as his thoughts.

Now he shall go home to darkness, loneliness, dreamed alliance.

{Saturday} ^Selfness^

Cosmic Piper

Sunday 20 August 2017

^Raw Self-Being^

Moon in Leo

There is strength because of the Grand Trine in fire signs, as there will be Monday during the eclipse, but also, today and early Monday before the eclipse, the "downward" or relaxing trend of the "dying moon" before the New, which coincides with tomorrow's eclipse.

That means that inwardly you are quite sure of yourself and strong. Outwardly in some phases of your life you may feel like relaxing and getting extra rest. What is wrong with that, at appropriate times? Especially, one might say, on a Sunday.

I do not feel all the hoopla about the eclipse that many feel. I intend to go out to view it Monday, briefly, but do not attribute any great power or influence to it. The eclipse clips nothing.

In more than sixty years of observation I have not seen huge, striking, world-shaking events happening when eclipses do. So I consider their power to be little more than that of an ordinary New Moon which we have, of course, every 29 days. The excitement about this one appears to me to be among "popular delusions and the madness of crowds." Or, if you disagree, that is cool.

Daily devotions of the ancient magi descend into our era

Ascending toward them if it can. Daily? Not "the News and 

Weather" but dues to all of us together, or to G*d. 

We work sometimes in seclusion but face inception of commingling. 

Infinitely varying multiplication, ramification mark the spells of 

Deity. Depending on drugs or drink is makeshift delusion. 

Accentuated links with those adapted to lift us higher grant us

Entree into lands rarely glimpsed with invisible guides.

There is always raw self-being, nude self-expression, a crowd upon

The beach. Tension-release accompanies freedom of motion and studied

Carelessness. Then what? Mastery in a castle on a rock, freedom

From worry or loss of reputation, daring; honor; fame.

Too much to ask? Clip the eclipse into a notebook, let it mark

An inspiring vision of something subtly intimate shared forever.

{Sunday| ^Raw Self-Being^

Cosmic Piper

Message for Friday 18 August 2017

Friday 18 August 2017

~Respite~

Moon in Cancer

A star surrounded with many rings rays its reassurance into

The field of warfare and contention. Two arrows crossed on the

Ground suggest the eccentric one who brags himself to rancor.

A woman sitting near looks to the sea for a sailboat approaching.

A man working in a pit looks up in time to avert a falling stone. 

He is waiting for when he can attend a congenial houseboat party.

Before he arrives he must confront an ill-at-ease man brandishing

A dagger. Noticing the woman perched on the shore, he passes on.

She turns to see that he is an old friend, whom she joins.

They head toward the houseboat. A priest mumbling prayers

Walks along the shore, his destination the same. A curious

Crew. A man asleep on the beach yawns, stretches; joins them.

The hostess greets them with wonder that they arrived together.

Respite from work and also from rest; hopes secured; prayerful glory.

{Friday}  ~Respite~

Cosmic Piper

Message for Thursday 17 August 2017

Thursday 17 August 2017

~Stability of Pursuit~

Moon in Gemini-->Cancer

|Karmically serious or challenging third| of this week continues (until Friday morning)

/moon goes void-of-course at 6:39a PT | 9:39a ET | 1:39p UT

until it enters Cancer at 9:14a PT |12:14p ET | 4:14p UT

Trying to be a spiritual adviser as well as an astrological delineator in these reports can be exhausting. I would gladly give up the former, but the two seem inseparable, because "an undevout astrologer is mad." I am working with the symbols given by remarkable clairvoyants, who I believe were actually prophets, and so what I derive from them might speak at a soul level:

Something very high and wonderful is afoot, if we can tune in to it. There has been too much contention and strife and let us pray that cool heads will prevail. Divine Providence can be invoked if we make the attempt humbly and persistently. 

One has skills and excellences and wants to perfect them. It is possible to gain wealth through means which others have neglected.

A pleasant pocket of life is congenial. People may wish they were at a party, and come close to a party spirit, though feeling rather that they need to complete something laborious. In that case they can accomplish much in an intelligent, modest way.

Instability would lead to failure. Utterly new directions would probably lead nowhere or to loss of time and means. Perseverance and hopefulness in established paths are much better. The religious or spiritual life may give protection and favor to those who manifest it.  

{Thursday} ~Stability of Pursuit^

Cosmic Piper