Message for Week of April 29--May 5, 2017

Week of April 29--May 5, 2017

\Slow Dawn Progresses/

Many, including most so-called intellectuals, and the New York Times, university professors, high school teachers,  et. al., et. al, believe that the idea that Mercury being retrograde (from geocentric perspective) means anything at all is a blatant superstition and that you and I are fools if we believe otherwise.

I have news for them. They are being deliberately deaf and blind.

Hey guys, wake up. I cannot force you to do that, but for eighteen years, from 1999, I have written thousands of words explaining what this means each time it happens. That is about three times a year, for a little less than two months each time--that is, the longer period I call the Dark Hermetic Epoch lasts two months (the Mercury retrograde period within it lasts a little more than three weeks). 

This time:

Dark Hermetic Epoch began March 27 . . . {Mercury retrograde began April 9 and will end May 3} . . . Dark Hermetic Epoch ends May 20.

The following Bright Hermetic Epoch will last from May 21 through July 23.

I am the one who gave the periods these names. I am convinced that they represent the most basic way of dividing human time as experienced by human beings, more basic than the seasons even. I cannot convince anyone of that except by doing what I have been doing, writing exhaustively about it each time. But I find that many still don't get it, either because they don't read, or read carelessly, or don't think about these periods deeply and observe scrupulously what goes on in each of them. So I keep trying. 

Here are some points to help us, including myself, understand (I keep on observing and my understanding grows each time):

• Of course life goes on. We still have to do our jobs. We cannot drop all routines. But we find ourselves in a different world internally. We ponder the past more. We reconsider our priorities, our relationships, our character, our habits. We may try to reform ourselves. We may sleep more, rest more, "flake off" more or need more "down time." Or if we struggle hard to force an agenda on ourselves or the world, we run into endless small delays or backtracking or little things that go awry or seem to trip us up.
• I called it "dark" not because it is bad but because it is like night in some ways. We need rest; we need sleep and dreams. One might say that the right or intuitive brain needs to have its say (as opposed to the left or rational brain during the Bright Epochs).
• It is "good" in the way that night is good--it gives us rest, a chance for entertainment, respite from our work, and sometimes more liberated social times. We feel freer, unless we feel too much guilt for taking time off.
• All the "re" words are clues to what goes on. Even REst! People think about retirement. Some actually retire. It is more likely that someone will "call it quits." That could be a serious mistake, and is sometimes, even to the point of suicide. At other times it is just the naturally right time for something to end (including relationships, sometimes). More likely, it is time not for an end but for a REspite so that later there can be a REnaissance.
• Work stoppage or strikes are more frequent. Now that is happening in Brazil because of protests against changes in pension funds. What is a pension? Provision for one's REtirement. People are REsisting something which REvokes their rights. 
• Serious mistakes can be made. Ledell Lee, 52 years old, was executed a few days ago by Arkansas. He was denied DNA processing to prove his innocence, even though the Innocence Project took on his case. He said: "My dying words will always be, as it has been, I am an innocent man." Fortunately another man, Stacey Johnson, was issued a stay of execution for DNA testing. REconsideration, REtrial, REvocation of a death sentence (we hope). Why did the State of Arkansas rush through a number of executions during the MR period? Not because Mercury the planet forced them to do it but because Mercury's orbit in relation to our own points out time periods when the past comes forward to be dealt with. Arkansas thought that that meant these men ought to die. Others think otherwise.
• We tangle with the past, or it tangles with us. We feel ashamed of some things we have done or failed to do. We are learning. We should not be hard on ourselves to the point of suicide, of course; but can learn from our mistakes and try again.
• Politics can be a mess during these periods. People find it hard to agree even on facts, much less principles or agendas. I should not have to point out how that has been going on with the Trump administration for the past month. It has been trying hard to get some things done within the artificial "100 days" of the beginning of the presidency, and has failed on health care, taxes, the Wall, on and on. Many are glad that it failed. During these Mercury retrograde (or DHE) periods wrong or silly plans will fail drastically, while good plans will be going through transition to become better before they are put into effect.

So, the message is not "Do nothing during the DHE or Mercury Retrograde," but "Avoid doing things which are precipitous or not well-tested. Work out new plans slowly and carefully, waiting until the next BHE to implement them fully."

Did anyone notice a direct hit in my poem posted yesterday in the forecast for Friday? It included the lines

A woman in the water embraces a seal, realizing oneness

With universal soul. A portly man walks among pigeons,

Who have put their faith in him, to the landing for boats 

Which is washed away. Beyond it an oil rig pumps on and on. 

And today, the day covered by the forecast, the headlines tell us that Donald Trump is revoking Obama's protections for the oceans and trying to re-institute oil drilling in the Atlantic and in Alaska. One of the Sabian symbols from which the poem was derived was "Drilling for oil." That was the degree occupied by Mars in Gemini, which is Trump's sunsign and Mars sign. Of course I knew (and could have known) nothing about the Trump directive on Thursday when I wrote the poem. 

Here is something which started exactly on March 27, the day the Dark Hermetic Epoch began! A young man in Brazil disappeared.  https://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/brazilian-student-disappears-leaves-behind-room-covered-occult-symbols-coded-texts/

It's a fascinating story. He remains "in hiding" it appears. Reddit gives updated information:

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/64xhnm/news_updates_about_the_story_of_bruno_borges_the/

Is it a coincidence that Bruno Borges disappeared on March 27, the first day of a Dark Hermetic Epoch, and remains missing in the middle of it while Mercury is retrograde? No, it is not. Further, if you examine your own life and interests you will find that there is much more of the occult, of the mysterious, of conspiracy theories, of "other dimensions" during every DHE. Verified fact, friends. Verified for me by me. I leave it to you to verify it for yourself. We seem actually to enter a different dimension in consciousness during those times.

For the week beginning Saturday April 19 and ending Friday May 5:

Mercury turns direct Wednesday, but we will still be in the DHE, so not everything changes at once. There is a gradual return to "normality" whatever that may mean for you. Things are still sticky when it comes to outward plans and agreements. Darkness or slowness is with us to be used for our benefit or to our chagrin. We still need patience with others and ourselves.

However, some aspects are better this week. The weepy or depressing Saturn square Venus aspect is still with us, but lessening, and the Jupiter square Pluto aspect takes its place as Dynamic Aptness (technical term from Marc Edmund Jones). This is "a paternal approach to obsession" which might mean you engage in exhilarating discussions and disagreements or agreements. It has to do with out-of-pattern research or study. It can be mysterious but thrilling. 

Mars begins a trine with Jupiter, which is a greater sense of freedom. May it be a progressive yet thoughtful and "slow" (when necessary) week for you. Slowness is better than tripping over one's toes. 

{Week of April 29--May 5, 2017}  /Slow Dawn Progresses\

Cosmic Piper

Daily Data:

Saturday 29 April

Moon in Gemini-->Cancer

|Karmically challenging or sobering third| of this week continues   ** |

/moon goes void-of-course at 2:29p PT | 5:29p ET | 9:29p UT   * / |

until it enters Cancer at 6:49p PT | 9:49p ET | 1:49a(Su) UT   ** |

Sunday 30 April

Moon in Cancer

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues   ** |

until it ends at 6:28p PT | 9:28p ET | 1:28a(M) UT   **

Message for Friday 28 April 2017

Friday 28 April 2017

}Desire Exceeded{

Moon in Gemini   ***

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week begins at 11:11a PT | 2:11p ET | 6:11p UT

(continuing until Sunday evening)   ** |

The tax plan thrown together by the Trump team is getting hoots and negative reviews. Most commentators think it has little chance of getting passed by Congress as it is. This is a perfect example of what happens often when Mercury is retrograde (until Wednesday May 3). Doing things slapdash is not recommended at those times, if one is going to go public with them or use them in career. Slapdash is all right at those times if it is for one's own interest or gratification, or experimental. So from my viewpoint Trump Team should have tinkered with that plan and improved it for at least another week before going public with it and embarrassing itself. But the peculiar hasteful fiction of "the first 100 days" of a presidency got to them and they rushed a half-baked plan through. Guys, you need astrology, or else Cosmic Piper. Mercury Retrograde is not an illusion. You can cut it with a knife. It's a time to go slow and figure things out gradually, not to push them through.

The untoward is warning. It hovers like a sign of what must not be

Done. We have a New Moon yet there's gloom. Soldiers need their

Drills. A boundless plain says "You can get there first" and yet

The darkness of the time is calling us to soberness.

And out-of-season Christmas tree blooms with iridescent

Lights and colors, electrical force which may or may not be

Deception. Pigs and cows and sheep are more comforting

As domestic companions, hiding individuality.

A woman in the water embraces a seal, realizing oneness

With universal soul. A portly man walks among pigeons,

Who have put their faith in him, to the landing for boats 

Which is washed away. Beyond it an oil rig pumps on and on. 

A man dressed in skins holds a club, wondering at the seal and

Woman; desiring no boat, no rig, no Christmas tree.

{Friday}  {Desire Exceeded}

Cosmic Piper

Message for Thursday 27 April 2017

Thursday 27 April 2017

\Reviving Kindness/

Moon in Taurus-->Gemini   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 6:20p PT | 9:20p ET | 1:20a(F) UT   ** /

until it enters Gemini at 6:40p PT | 9:40p ET | 1:40a(F) UT (twenty minutes later)  ***

You may be weary of my going on about Venus square Saturn. Yet it is coloring everything, it seems to me. This unusually long square between the two began on March 21 and continues until May 10. Its effects have been very pronounced because Venus was at her station (motionless) when the aspect was exact. 

At worst it can be tragedy; or sorrow, sadness, and mourning. I learned today of the passing from this world of an old friend I valued very highly, one of the truly best and noblest individuals I have ever known, Anie Nunnally. It is hard for me because I feel I did not do enough to let her know how much she meant to me in her final days. We see into our meanness and selfishness, our egocentricity and lack of kindness, at these times, and that may be harder than seeing those qualities in someone else. 

The planets are not doing these things to us. They are markers of time, showing the sorts of things we need to face at each week, month, or day, and do not indicate fatality in reality but are the times when such things will occur if for some reason they have to occur. Whatever you feel sad about in your life, and whatever inadequacies you are facing in yourself, are being brought to light by this aspect, not caused by it. They are brought to light for our benefit, so we can learn to live more graciously, lovingly and courageously. 

The funeral procession winds through the grove; a griever

Stands on crossed swords, his scepter pointing heavenward.

Soldiers going through a drill pass by, leaving

All in peace. They confide in a higher power.

A mad bull is held by ropes about his head. 

There's no snow for the hearse-sleigh. An iceberg

Displays the aurora borealis. A neat person,

Orderly in business, organizes the memorial.

The guru watches all from a mountain peak where

His face can be seen by believers. An old woman

Collects bits of wood from the river where the boat 

Landing washed away. A radical writer believes in

Himself and Anie. A square column memorializes

Her strength. The guru praises her kindness from on high.

{Wednesday}  /Reviving Kindness\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Wednesday 26 April 2017

Wednesday 26 April 2017

\Love Me, Love Me Not/

Moon in Taurus   ***

New Moon of Taurus occurs at 5:17a PT | 8:17a ET | 12:17a UT

I can only speak for myself, but Tuesday has been a day of lassitude--I hinted at it in the poem for the day in the final couplet, "All are relaxing into something higher then their work." I hope that in my case it was really "higher" rather than "lower." At any rate, the word for it is "lassitude." It was easy to lie down and meditate or dream. Actually there is a distinct difference between positive meditation and mere drifting dreaming, but at this point I fear there was a vacillating line between the two. If you had a lot of work to do, you may have been struggling to keep your motivation going. "What's the point?" can be the feeling when we are in the final days of an Old Moon and Mercury is retrograde. Now, for Wednesday, the New Moon may revitalize us a little, though often it takes a day or two for the more vital trend to set in. 

At the emotional level, we veer between the Venus square Saturn aspect (who cares? who loves? what friendship? how boring!) and the Venus sextile Mars aspect (oh, someone does care, at least one or a few; people are basically good; somehow it will get better and more interesting). The hard side of the Venus-Saturn blues can be breaking up with someone, as a friend did the other day; but also finding someone else either new or old to fill the gap, because of the Venus-Mars positive aspect. So it can be a teeter-totter of ambiguity in the affections.

I watched the final episode of "Thirteen Reasons Why," the Netflix series. I found it rewarding to watch, though depressing. It is also illumining, at the psychological level. I do not buy into what seems a thesis of the writers and directors, that young people are nasty and mean to one another to the point of precipitating suicides, and that adults are clueless about the whole thing. Nor did I really understand the attitudes of the two protagonists, girl and boy, who seemed to be so utterly passive and rudderless that I could only think they needed some kind of religious or spiritual orientation to rescue themselves from the suicidal malaise. Actually one of the more positive and helpful individuals in the series, Tony, was presented as Catholic. And, as often happens among the irreligious, when things got specially crucial people would utter the word "Jesus!" It is interesting that though they do not, supposedly, believe in him, they pray to him in this offhand yet telltale manner. Even Jewish businessmen in New York City do it; I have heard them. 

I am not saying that if only Hannah Baker, the fictional suicide girl, had gone to Sunday School she would have avoided killing herself. And yet at some level I believe that that is true, because a big part of her problem was expecting too much from the people around her, namely, her fellow high-school students. She was looking for love and acceptance from them and did not have a clue that she might find those things from Someone larger, transcending the daily human scene. That is a sign of the times, unfortunately. When we lose touch with the Transcendent and rely totally upon other individuals, we are bound to be disappointed. 

Nevertheless, I look forward to the second season of this interesting series, whenever it comes, to see how these agnostic humanistic individuals (or rather the agnostic humanistic writers and directors) work out these questions at their own level. Yet I believe they are missing key factors they need. "Life is a paradox with God for key." --Sri Aurobindo

{Wednesday} /Love Me, Love Me Not\

Cosmic Piper

P. S. Utterly depressed and alone, G*d asked, "Does anybody love me?"

A little bird sang out: "Tweet-tweet-eroo, twit-twit-twitter, toodle-oo!"

G*d exulted. "Oh, somebody does!"

Message for Tuesday 25 April 2017

^Prismatic Enchantment^

Moon in Aries-->Taurus   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 2:54p PT | 5:54p ET | 9:54p UT   ** /

until it enters Taurus at 6:57p PT | 9:57p ET | 1:57a(W) UT   ***

She stands within a circle on the ground, loving the beautiful

In men, women, nature: magic of encompassment. 

A horse running by, chased by its owner, neighs. 

A tortoise joins her in the circle, head and feet pulled in.

Eyes on his pocket-watch, a bystander counts the minutes.

Each number has a meaning; every moment its assignment.

A boy from the high school considers him a fool, while a bridge

Is built down the road across a gorge neither had crossed on foot.

The man looks from his watch toward a rainbow, counting its

Colors. The woman in the circle lifts her hands toward it;

Tortoise-head emerges. A teacher from the school wears a

Laurel wreath and holds a scroll, with one eye on the rainbow.

All are relaxing into something higher then their work. 

The need prismatic sky-powers in their hearts.

{Tuesday} ^Prismatic Enchantment^

Cosmic Piper

Message for Monday 24 April 2017

Monday 24 April 2017

^Emerging from Apathy^

Moon in Aries

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues   ** |

until 2:28p PT | 5:28p ET | 9:28p UT   ***

The message for this week, posted Friday, of course remains relevant. I put a lot of time, research, and thought into the weekly charts. 

The peculiarities of the international markets are reflected in the fact that, as I write, the futures markets are up by 80 per cent, which is phenomenal, because of the results of the French election, which reassured investors. All this is reflected in the daily chart for Monday by Luna opposing Jupiter while squaring Pluto, which brings out the "too much" or excess of hard Jupiter-Pluto aspects. It is almost a gambling aspect. In investing, it means, either you go overboard or you fail to get on a bandwagon in time. There are plenty of people out there who give very bad investing advice for huge fees, and I am not going to add to their number! But I will note that the huge 'Trump bull market" coincided with the square forming between those two planets, which continues into September of this year. But that, of course, does not mean the bull market will necessarily continue. Verbum sapienti sat est. 

230. Courage and love are the only indispensable virtues; even if all the others are eclipsed or fall asleep, these two will save the soul alive.

231. Meanness & selfishness are the only sins that I find it difficult to pardon; yet they alone are almost universal. Therefore these also must not be hated in others, but in ourselves annihilated. 

232. Nobleness and generosity are the soul's ethereal firmament; without them, one looks at an insect in a dungeon.

233. Let not they virtues be such as men praise or reward, but such as make for thy perfection and God in thy nature demands of thee. 

--Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Aphorisms

{Monday} ^Emerging from Apathy^

Cosmic Piper

Message for Week of April 22-28, 2017

Week of Saturday 22 April through Friday 28 April, 2017

\Gently Revitalized Perspective/

Many feel that they are circling around from good fortune to bad, from greater benefits to lesser, from hope to worrisome doubt, and back. This may be normal, but is accentuated when Mercury is retrograde and Saturn square Venus. Yet potentials of greater prosperity seem in the offing this week, as compared to last. That may seem truer after the New Moon on Wednesday. Until then we coast quite a lot, which is normal at the end of an Old Moon and even more this time. You needn't be ashamed if you are slower then usual and need more rest.

We see ourselves reflected in others more than we realize. Yet we might also see sometimes that others are being decadent, losing their foothold or good sense, and we don't know what to do about it. (I suggest prayer of a humble and questing sort. That is not an attempt to control someone else, but to give him or her support while finding the way.)

The prosperity mentioned in the first paragraph comes fairly easily, that is, in small but promising amounts at least. If you go where there is art, and beauty whether humanly created or natural, you will benefit. Someone dignified and meritorious challenges you, by example, to be successful.

Your mind is ripe for discovery. That is, although you may get wild ideas, even false ones, or questionable enthusiasms, so that you wonder if you are imagining things without substance, still there may be a core of truth in all that for you to discover if you pare down. 

You might be attracted to gardening or horticulture, that is, the welfare of plants or trees. Radical changes in that area are not good, but gentle or considerate ones could win.

The harshness of life, or the stark cleavages of fortune, have seemed to be with us to an unusual degree, and we have to bear with them patiently. Acute observation, as a detective, can solve problems and prevent harrowing happenings. It's realistic trouble-shooting. It requires self-denial or abstinence part of the time. 

The patience of a giant tortoise ambling through life slowly but surely while able to withdraw within itself to security at any time could be yours. Someone who has been successful at teaching or an intellectual mission could inspire you. 

Love is very real, even when it seems under stress or doubtful or even unwanted for a while. It happens magically. The sextile of Venus and Mars, though waxing and waning, remains within orb through July 4, an unusually long time. When you feel isolated, if you stop and ponder you will realize that you have friends and that you are loved. Keeping up with disciplined timing in your daily life will help you to meet opportunities for joyful interaction when those become available. The less delightful tasks prepare the way for meetings and shared happiness.

There is impatience. It is important while Mercury is retrograde not to go running off half-cocked, as if running away from something. You may feel, "Enough of this!" but if you just take a vacation from the drudgery in your mind and feelings for a little while, thinking of something you like or believe in, you will be restored and able to stay loyal to what you really do not want to lose. 

Many are likely to become critical and quarrelsome. There is too much of that in politics. Others' beliefs and traditions need to be respected as much as possible. This is sometimes a mental stretch, which is healthy for the muscles of sensibility and understanding. Those who seem decadent, giving up on family loyalty, spurning the traditions which fostered them, can find their way back, and then understand what they had lost for perhaps the first time, living its virtues rather than suffering its vices. 

{Week of April 22-28}  /Gently Revitalized Perspective\

Cosmic Piper

Daily Data

Saturday 22 April

Moon in Pisces  

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues until Monday afternoon ** |

Sunday 23 April 

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues (until Monday afternoon) ** |

/moon goes void-of-course at 2:35p PT | 5:35p ET | 9:35p UT   * \ |

until it enters Aries at 5:34p PT | 8:34p ET | 12:34a(M) UT   ** |

--HHH/CP

Message for Friday 21 April 2017

Friday 21 April 2017

~Quiet, Patient Insight~

Moon in Aquarius-->Pisces

/moon goes void-of-course at 11:24a PT | 2:24p ET | 6:24p UT   ** /

until it enters Pisces at 12:44a PT | 2:44p ET | 6:44p UT (just over an hour)   ***

There are a lot of aspects going on, some of them good and helpful ones. Others are difficult; others neutral. Actually, we ought to regard Mercury Retrograde (until May 3) as neutral rather than horrid, because it has its advantages. It is good for research, reviewing things, recollecting important matters from the past, letting your memory help you relive certain things which your soul (I really mean soul) wants you to relive. We devalue the period merely because it can be hard on outer, practical, worldly activities. We forget things or do out-of-pattern things, because we are preoccupied with internal ones. But what is wrong with being preoccupied with internal memories, thoughts, and realizations? Nothing! We have a right to them at these times.

For some it might help to write down those internal musings. For others it might help to record them audibly. You may be building your internal bodies, your "permanent atoms" which last from one lifetime to another, during these MR periods. You are preparing your own immortality of consciousness. This can be done totally within yourself; or doing it outwardly in writing or recording might aid the process by making it more explicit.

For Friday, we continue with an emphasis on money or gain which is partly good, with perhaps serious long-term planning which is working out well. However, there is the Venus-square-Saturn aspect we have discussed at length which sticks and sticks and it makes us worried about money usually. There is a desire for greater security. It tends to make us scrimp and save. 

Along with it goes the attempt in Washington to agree on budgetary details to prevent a government shutdown in another week, and also the Trump administration's attempt to develop a new tax plan. On the personal level it can be, as Sai Baba has recommended to his disciples, "a ceiling on desires." Venus is the desires and Saturn is the ceiling. Saturn limits desires; that is, the principle of the planet Saturn is the principle of limitation. We all know that too much of a good thing, food or drink, is harmful. The same principle carries itself out in everything we enjoy, to some degree. Enough is enough. 

I note also during the present period, combining the Mercury backwardness with other aspects, a silence which seems sometimes supernatural. I love silence most of the time, unless I want to hear good music. I note that my noisy neighbors have been quiet for a couple of weeks. It is a good side of Venus square Saturn--something like: "Well I am limited; my life is limited; I am realizing and feeling those limits; I am sober about things. What is there to do? Relax, think, wonder, maybe pray. Not be exuberant or shout or chatter." Something like that is going on. It is a good side of Venus-Saturn aspects. "I see the limits of my life at the current time and so I am going to rest within them rather than struggle and fight and hassle myself." This goes double because of Mercury being retrograde, which can be a sort of supernatural quiet also, at times. We become philosophers. We see our lives and experiences from a broader, higher perspective. This is a gift of the retrograde period.

On Friday through Sunday the Part of Fortune will be in the 11th house of friendship. We may be thinking about friends more than actually being with them, though the latter is possible of course. Their problems become our problems, and ours theirs, to some degree. We care about ourselves first but also about them because they are a part of us, as it were, whether they are nearby or not and even if they are in the past. Breaking through the limits between us and them is not always easy. A trusting, prayerful, waiting attitude helps. 

"Misery loves company" and not only do we need to be patient with others' worries when they give them forth, we need to be patient when they say nothing but we sense that they are silently worried or upset about something. Rather than feel slighted, we can understand that they are hurting and are not neglecting us out of spite or resentment but are just tired, weary of life's limitations and uncertainties. And so this is a time for developing insightful compassion, not only for others but ourselves. 

{Friday} ~Quiet, Patient Insight~

Cosmic Piper

Message for Thursday 20 April 2017

Thursday 20 April 2017

}Aloof Agenda{

Moon in Aquarius   ***

A triangle with a hole in the center marks the old door

Of the old man. A younger strikes a dagger into it.

A storm surges; the boy dashes through rain; lightning

Strikes closely. A catharsis of nature alters humans.

Running away could be the solution, across the bridge

Over the beautiful stream, if retaining one's body

Of lasting loneliness were possible without

Meeting someone creepy, disgusting or cruel.

The storm wrecks a boat on the ocean. Its lifeboat

Is filled with victims. One man, reaching shore,

Lies lifeless on the ground while Sol sets behind

Clouds. Others carry him to a garden nearby.

The captain of the wreck had seen worse. An ultimate

Peacock walks past the recovering man, aloof.

{Wednesday} {Aloof Agenda}

Cosmic Piper

Message for Wednesday 19 April 2017

Wednesday 19 April 2017

}Secrets of Salvation{

Moon in Aquarius   ***

Mea Culpa? I am feeling that I may have misled you as to the "social" or "party" nature of Tuesday. It is now late Tuesday afternoon and I feel like staying home alone. My "party night" will probably be watching Netflix! Sad. I wonder how many others are in the same boat? Since no one speaks up as to whether and how the predictions fit them or do not fit them, I have to rely almost totally on my own experience, and on what I read in the papers.

The trine of Luna to Mars and sextile to Venus seems to be having little or no benefit for me, except that I am not totally depressed. It appears the Venus's square with Saturn, so very important, is winning. It is so strong because exact within a degree while Venus is virtually stationary (in appearance from the earth). This is the "nobody loves me" aspect. If you are feeling it, you are not the only one.

I note, for example, that the man who killed another man and put the murder on Facebook said that his problems derived from two women. Then he killed himself. That would be a very typical example of Venus square Saturn at its very worst. 

Then, if you are at all alert to the news media and to current entertainment, you will see Venus square Saturn everywhere. On the cover of Time Magazine this week is a woman whose husband died young of cancer, and she tells of her bitter experiences as related to his death and how her friends and colleagues responded to it, and how she is trying to help others deal with similar situations. This is another archetypcal Venus-Saturn problem, namely, in one word, grief. It can be because of an actual death of a loved one or because of a separation which feels like death.

Then, when I watch Netflix tonight, I am almost ashamed to say that one thing I will watch is another episode of "13 Reasons," which is about a high school girl who committed suicide but before doing so made recordings on 13 sides of cassettes explaining to her friends and ex-friends how they goaded her on to suicide through their actions, words and attitudes. It is not exactly pleasant viewing but fits the current astrological situation, since a female (Venus) killing herself (Saturn) and then blaming everyone else for her suicide is another archetypal Saturn-square (or opposed to-) Venus situation. It came out on Netflix just before this aspect began and doubtless hundreds of thousands are watching it now. 

The series is also about Mercury retrograde, because of course the drama involves the students listening to the tapes and then remembering bitterly their experiences with the suicide victim, then blaming either themselves or someone else. Venus-Saturn can be a blame game--one blames either oneself or someone else or the whole world or G*d. Such miserable self-entertainment and self-justification! Actually it is a very perverse thing to do but we have all been guilty of it at certain moments. It is when it becomes a lasting obsession, as it did in this fictional girl's case, that it is totally dangerous, poisonous, psychologically disease-ridden. (Or, in defense of the fictional Hannah Baker, one might say that she was a prophetess trying gamely before her death to awaken her friends to their sinful and cruel natures so they could reform themselves. I guess that is what she must have been thinking, theoretically.)

So I and the others who watch this, at best, are being awakened to ways in which we might be (or have been) guilty of such blame-games and their consequences. How hard you want to be on yourself when recalling how you have let people down is up to you, and your relation with the Highest. It can be a repentance or reformation experience, that is, "turning around" from one's totally selfish nature (the cannibalistic ego from which we start) and trying to be merciful and compassionate. 

I am feeling it is more accurate to use the degree-symbols for the day as a forecast, so here they are for Wednesday:

At the funeral there was much speculation: Was it an accident? 

He had dashed off carelessly like a horse without a rider

Into the estate of the black magician, whose powers were displayed

In gloomy tree-trunks, hooting owls, sigils made of stones.

He had had good, amiable qualities; but a mind

Inclined toward the perverse. Wrong notions unhinged

Him at his core. He thought to race to the mountain

Stream for purity. The magician's realm lay across

The path. Could he save himself and other victims from

The darkness of sorcery's tyranny? He tried. Where was

The fertile garden? In it reigned a woman with sword pointed

Toward earth, the sun in her face dispelling demons.

The retired sea captain would know. He worked at a table with

His assistant to discern the secrets of death and its defeat. 

{Wednesday}  {Secrets of Salvation}

Cosmic Piper

P. S. If any more evidence were needed to point out the nature of the Mercury Retrograde period, when things can go backwards (at worst) or when one merely has to review and reconstruct, here it is:

U.S. aircraft carrier supposedly sent as warning to North Korea sailed in opposite direction

Team Trump declared last week [April 11] that it was sending North Korea a tough message when the US diverted an aircraft carrier strike force toward the Korean Peninsula — but the ships were actually thousands of miles away and heading in the opposite direction.

The White House on Tuesday [April 17] blamed the Defense Department for the embarrassing debacle, according to The New York Times, which first reported the story.

--from the New York Post

Message for Tuesday 18 April 2017

Tuesday 18 April 2017

\Patience Paying Off/

Moon in Capricorn   ***

Bad ideas in the Dark Hermetic Epoch:  Assad of Syria's use of chemical weapons against some of his own people. Kim Jung -un's failed missile test a few days ago. We all need to be more vigilant to protect ourselves from such bad decisions. 

Interesting: The founding leader of North Korea, father of its current "supreme leader," was Aries; and the flag and military insignias of the country are all red, color of Aries.

Mercury Retrograde Blues: Trump's refusal to release his tax information could prevent him from getting the tax RE-form he wants. RE-lease rather than RE-fuse while Mercury is RE-trograde, Mr. President! 

I have reported how I can sometimes guess a singer's sun-sign by just listening analytically. I did it with Judy Collins (Taurus). A few days ago I did it with Todd Agnew. He is an excellent Christian singer-songwriter (you would be surprised at the sophistication and power of many of his songs, even if you usually don't like Christian music). I have had his works on my playlist for several years, and every time I heard his voice I thought, "Pisces." He has a deep voice and is a large man. Many sun-in-Pisces people (not Pisces-rising people) are large. To me, it is not the sign of little scaly fishes but of dolphins and whales! These, although mammals technically, were called "fishes" in the days that the astrological signs were named.  Further, there is a strong fervor in Todd's soulful songs which sounds Piscean to me, especially because he is for the downtrodden. Pisces is for the underdog. Listen to his song "On a Corner in Memphis" about a "derelict" as a recommended subject of a Sunday School visit (!), for example. So finally, just a couple days ago, I looked up his birth information, and he is indeed Pisces! Born March 15, 1971. Astrology is real and not at all an illusion for those who stick with studying and observing long enough.   On a Corner in Memphis

Could Jupiter be the planet of long life, because it has always been known as the "greater benefic," with Venus being the "lesser"? I ask this because the world's oldest person, Emma Morano, who just passed on in Italy at 117, was born with six planets in Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter. Then, her successor as oldest known person, Violet Brown, has two planets in Sagittarius and two in Pisces, the other Jupiter-ruled sign (ruled also by Neptune since the latter was discovered). One of the two planets in Sagittarius is Jupiter, in its own sign and so very strong. Yet I would not say that only a strong Jupiter emphasis would show long life. Many other factors could be equally relevant. And non-astrological factors (not only genetics but manner of living and spiritual consciousness) could be paramount.

For Tuesday: It's always more fun to look at smooth and happy aspects, and there are plenty today because Luna is forming both a sextile with Venus and a trine with Mars, accentuating the sextile between these two "lovers." I am not predicting everyone's love life will be hot and randy, but for some that could be the case; for others at least friendliness and concord should reign if one gives them a chance. It could be a good party day, within limits. (The limits have to do with the long-lasting square between Venus and Saturn which requires loyalty and responsibility in all matters, and taking account of others' problems and moods.) Luna's square with Uranus also means that you should take account of the uniqueness of everyone you're dealing with and give them the benefit of the doubt. Uranus is that in people which no one else really gets, so we have to make allowance for it. Trump, have a nice friendly chat with the leaders of China and North Korea. They are chunks of ice but something might melt. 

Mercury, although retrograde, is forming a backward but strong trine with Saturn until the middle of May. This suggests that your thinking, though regressing sometimes while reviewing things, could be very accurate, even if it might be better to wait until the second week in May to put things really into motion if they are new plans. In other words, there is wise realism in your attitudes and reactions which could protect you from the worst Mercury-retrograde mistakes, such as impatiently quitting a task or relationship or other loyalty.

{Tuesday}  /Patience Paying Off\

Cosmic Piper