Message for Monday 1 May 2023 \Serenade/

Message for Monday 1 May 2023

\Serenade/

For me and some others known to me it has been a difficult weekend. Today should be somewhat better. Still, we are in the Mercury Retrograde period for another two weeks. Someone told me today that he is going to retire from his job. I recommended that he continue, but with fewer hours. We are tempted to "throw in the towel" during the MR periods but often this is not wise. Patience improves prospects. Monday:

A farmyard implement, a fork with four prongs,
Is useful unostentatiously, like some individuals
Contented to labor away usefully.
Sparrows collect together, chattering and pluming,

Like humans who are social, convivial, jovial.
We are happy in the company of others, expressing
Honesty; persuasive and sympathetic. Two butterflies
Rest on a bright orange flower, fanning their wings,

Graceful, granting recognition and affection
To each other in hopeful happy reciprocity.
The heavens smile on gondoliers in a serenade
In harmony with the exuberant music of life itself.

A symphony of cooperation, sentiment, personal traits
Crescendos toward high consummation.

{Monday} /Serenade\

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Virgo -->Libra
/moon goes void-of-course at 4:54p PT | 7:54p ET | 11:54p UT
until it enters Libra at 11:10p PT | 2:10a(Tu ET | 6:10a(Tu) UT
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week ends at 8:29a PT | 11:29a ET | 3:29p UT

Message for Week of Saturday April 29 through Friday May 5

Message for Week of Saturday April 29 through Friday May 5

\Chessboard in the Air/

"The chessboard is thrown up and all the pieces are in the air!" said Shannon Joy on her podcast yesterday. "Everything is in flux." She was talking about politics but that applies equally to other things, such as whatever is going on in your life. It is, (duh), Mercury Retrograde! You've read what I've said about that in the past week but there is always more to say . . .

(It began April 21 and lasts through May 14, though the encompassing Dark Hermetic Epoch is very much the same, from April 6 through May 31.)

The "chessboard in the air" syndrome can be exhilarating as well as upsetting. It's like a scene from Alice in Wonderland or the Wizard of Oz. "A different world" is the way it feels. The riddle is something like this: Enjoy that "other world" and its fascination and revelations, but at the same time keep your feet steady on the ordinary schedules which are the bedrock of your outer life. Don't go too far into the "boring ordinary" when that feels oppressive, yet don't go too far into the "light fantastic" when that would be irresponsible.

In the weekly chart both Mars and Jupiter are at point focus in T squares, and both are also square to each other. This is not good for finding peace, but finding peace in Ukraine is what the world needs to do. "A prima donna singing" is Xi of China who sings that he wants to negotiate a peace deal, and this could be good for all of us, yet is it any more than singing? How endeth the opera? In "an earthquake"? There could be a reversal of viewpoint, by Zelensky and by the military brass in the Biden Administration. Two dogs are running after a bone, but this ought not to be the bones of Ukrainian and Russian young men conscripted away from their families, to go into a meat-grinding abattoir, a tragedy which we could end if we had the will to do so. "Winter frost in the woods" is supposedly thawing but there is mud on the ground in Ukraine and the "spring offensive" is stalled yet the killing continues. Our American tax dollars are prolonging this.

"Lost opportunity regained in the imagination" could be opportunities for peace, so far neglected or spurned, and it could also be, for individual presidential candidates in the USA, their attempts to regain control of their campaigns and of the voters. RFK Jr. is reformulating the Kennedy heritage in a striking and significant manner, for example. DJT is regaining, in imagination, the lost opportunity of November 2020. And so on.

As mentioned in the Friday report, Venus sextile Jupiter is a favorable aspect lasting through this week (and longer) and could be represented by "a woman sprinkling flowers." Literally true for gardeners, it is also tender care for humans, plus "the soul's constant and tangible manifestation of its creative powers." We are "eager to pour ourselves into every potentiality of living."

"A large star in the western sky, more brilliant than the moon" denotes "a great genius." That could be you or I or . . . Whom do you believe in as "a great genius" who could save the world?

{Week of April 29 - May 5} /Chessboard in the Air\

Cosmic Piper

Saturday 29: Moon in Leo-->Virgo
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week is with us
/moon goes void-of-course at 3:54a PT | 6:54a ET | 10:54a UT
until it enters Virgo at 12:00p ET | 3:00p ET | 7:00p UT

Sunday 30
Moon in Virgo
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week continues until Monday mid-morning

Message for Friday 28 April 2023 ^Gently Reconstructive^

Message for Friday 28 April 2023

^Gently Reconstructive^

I'm still winging it while Mercury is retrograde rather than writing a daily sonnet.

There is bad and good during the Mercury R period. The worst right now is the war in Ukraine. We should not be supporting it because it is a war of attrition, unwinnable. Watch the podcasts of Judge Andrew Napolitano and you will find it impossible to support Biden's "no off-ramp," "until everyone is dead" war "plan" which is not a plan for anything but the suicide of Ukrainian (and Russian) soldiers. Often they are conscripted, with no training, virtual cannon fodder. Americans ought to be ashamed of not seeking, but actually preventing, peace negotiations, which is what the Biden Administration is doing. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDkEYb-TXJVWLvOokshtlsw

Not nearly as bad but interesting, and difficult for some media people, is the fact that Fox News is in bad shape after firing Tucker Carlson, that MSNBC is in bad shape (good!) and has fired Don Lemon (I have no opinion about him), that Buzzfeed News has ended, that Nate Silver and his 538 have ended (dropped by Disney) and that an era in the information world "is dead" according to Saagar Eneti of Breaking Points (which is a good news source). All this is very typical of Mercury Retrograde when things can go into a "chrysalis state" before RE-forming.

How is that working out in your own life? It can be good, ultimately, even if upsetting temporarily.

And there are the "little things," such as out-of-pattern incidents in food preparation, more walking from kitchen to dining area and back than usual, delays in everything, etc. I just had a wrong delivery to my door which I had to give to someone else in the building, for example. Not a biggie but typical.

Still, looking at the aspects among the planets, Venus is sextile Jupiter from now through the first half of May, very good for prosperity, so even if the financial forecasters are predicting inflation and doom, most will find that in one way or another they have plenty, or more than they expected. There can be sincerity, grace, warm feelings, sociability, comfort, and pleasurable events. These happen often in out-of-pattern, unexpected ways, the signature of MR.

Mar sextile Uranus, Cancer to Taurus, can be unusual ways of food preparation, or unusual foods, which work out happily.

Again, spiritual seeking--meditation, prayer, chanting, yoga, scriptural study, inspirational music--is excellent during the MR period. That is true also during the |difficult third| of the week, which begins late today and takes up the weekend. May it be a peaceful, gently reconstructive time for you.

{Friday} ^Gently Reconstructive^

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Leo
}Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week begins at 12:19p PT | 3:19p ET | 7:19p UT (until Monday mid-morning)

Message for Thursday 27 April 2023

Message for Thursday 27 April 2023

^Tangled-Untangled^

I woke up this morning with a lucid dream. I was typing: "I am trying to give you here the path to God."

More grandiose than my usual style! But after all it was a dream, and it seems to have been challenging me to think, "What am I doing as Cosmic Piper?" And my current answer is, "Try to make easier the passage through Time of my readers as well as myself."

"Life changes for him its time-constructed scenes,
Its images veiling infinity."
"But none learns whither through the unknown he sails
Or what secret mission the great Mother gave."

That is us sailing through the days and I try to make our journey more comprehensible or at least illuminate it with uplifting images.

"There is a truth to know, a work to do;
Her play is real; a Mystery he fulfils:
There is a plan in the Mother's deep world-whim,
A purpose in her vast and random game."

(Quotations from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri)

"Out of pattern," as I said yesterday, is part of our fate during every Mercury Retrograde period (this one April 21 - May 15). So I am writing these disquisitions on the MR period rather than the daily sonnets. It feels right.

"It feels right" is one motto to work with during the MR time. (And all I say of that applies also to the entire Dark Hermetic Epoch of April 6-May 31, perhaps to a lesser degree.) Uncertainty is a keyword and so constant decision and re-decision is required. How do you choose? "It feels right" is one criterion. If ethics are involved, even then your conscience "feels right" with some ethical choice rather than another which might seem equally "right" to your reason.

Small things go wrong but can be repaired; for example, even RFK Jr., who seems virtually faultless, admitted today on Twitter that he had made a mistake in referring to a corporate conglomerate; he had called it "Vanguard" but really meant "Vanguard-25" which is an entirely different thing.

And we feel "bound to the past." I sat in my reading-and-meditation chair this morning and saw some papers lying at my feet. An old defunct driver's license plus other official papers connected with it. I picked them up and had to sort through and choose which ones to preserve. The old license might prove valuable should I ever misplace the new one. But I was looking at an old REplaced photo of myself and saving it, representative of how we need to link past with future in unusual ways during the MR period. This took about five minutes--where do I save this stuff so I won't forget where it is?--and was harmless yet felt like taffy sticking to me. Trivial, yet a dozen such trivial incidents in a day can feel like oppression. It definitely helps to know that this is normal during a MR period. One can smile at it rather than fume over it.

Then there are "old friends," another MR syndrome. I was thinking of my college roommate during my freshman year, who remained a friend after that, and hoped I could communicate with him. I had not tried this while Mercury was sailing forward but it felt crucial during the MR period. A blast from the past. I wrote to my old friend on LinkedIn and also used the email address it provided. No response. Is my friend still in this world, or passed on? I do not know and that is sad, but I feel he could be aware of my good wishes for him even if he is in another sphere.

It is healthy to think of those who are absent from your life and link with them psychically when that feels appropriate.

Sometimes things seem to be in a chrysalis state during MR, that is, inchoate, re-forming, tangling and untangling. For me this has been true of politics. I listen to several political podcasts every day. (My favorite is Glenn Greenwald's System Update.) DeSantis and Trump seem to be tangling, but what precisely are the issues? Not at all clear. Biden and RFK Jr. and Marianne Williamson should be "tangling" in the public mind but the media are determined never to report at all on RFK or Williamson, they want to cancel them, as does the Democratic National Committee which says it is not even going to have Primary debates next year during which Biden could lose his foothold to some announced or yet unannounced candidate. And so we are in that chrysalis state of "debate or no-debate" and that is also true on the Republican side with DJT saying he will not debate unless the hosting of the debates meets his approval. So both parties are in the "debate or not" chrysalis and we don't know if a butterfly-debate-season shall emerge. But everybody seems to realize, without astrology, that at present that is just the way it is. Nobody can speed up Mercury.

The best side of MR is the spiritual, I believe. This could be through Scripture, other spiritual reading, chanting, mantra, yoga, music, or whatever uplifts you. When our ordinary picayune, logical or semi-logical minds are in a chrysalis state, our higher faculties and intuitions can prevail.

Speaking of the Divine Mother, or God, Sri Aurobindo says:

"This ever she meant since the first dawn of life,
This constant will she covered with her sport,
To evoke a Person in the impersonal Void,
With the Truth-Light strike earth's massive roots of trance,
Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths
And raise a lost Power from its python sleep
That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time
And the world manifest the unveiled Divine."

{Thursday} ^Tangled-Untangled^

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Leo
(except for very early post-midnight hours on the East Coast, see yesterday's report for times)

Message for Wednesday 26 April 2023 ~Easy Goes It~

Message for Wednesday 26 April 2023

~Easy Goes It~

It's essential to keep REmembering that we are in Mercury's REtrograde period (April 21 through May 14). Sometimes being REclusive or REtreating is a good idea. Other times one has to press forward though with an internal meditative slow-down of thought processes.

I mentioned yesterday how Tucker Carlson's REjection from, or REtirement from, Fox News is an example of the REtreating or REtiring syndrome. Joe Biden is REfusing to REtire though many wish he would not seek REelection.

A differing trend during these three weeks may seem almost the opposite, trying or experimenting with new things. When you RElease something old you try something new to replace it. I'm doing that now, with two beverages I bought last night I have never drunk before. I find the one I'm drinking now has some caffeine in it, which I did not realize when I bought it. So things can go wrong, but I am not going to REturn it to the store. (It's GT's Alive,, which seems excellent, derived partly from rare mushrooms.)

Another REtrograde phnomenon is REliving old experiences or REmembering, whether with criticism or affection, old friends or relatives. An example was what I saw today on Twitter, a clip from an old TV show from 1967, an interview between Harry Belafonte, who passed away a day ago, and Robert F. Kennedy Sr., posted by RFK Jr. The ghosts of the past are not usually spooky but living spirits conferring their blessings upon us. It is healthy for all of us to slip into such REminiscences.

On a less exalted plane, one might forget things, misplace them, or neglect in one's mind-wandering to do something important. Do mechanical or technological instruments really fail, or misperform, more often, or do we just think they do? I leave that to your observation.

Doing one's schedule in an "out-of-pattern" way happens a lot during the retrogradation. I overslept today, after staying up much later than usual the night before. Consequently I am late today writing this REport. Maybe neglecting the daily sonnet in favor of what you just read was a benefit to you. I hope so.

Catching up on old things could be good today, with Mars sextile Mercury and Uranus. Prosperity and good fortune could smile on us while Venus is sextile Jupiter (through May 15 by a ten-degree orb, exact May 3-4).

{Wednesday} ~Easy Goes It~

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Cancer-->Leo
/moon goes void-of-course at 4:42p PT | 7:42p ET | 11:42p UT
until it enters Leo at 11:31p PT | 2:31a(Th) ET | 6:31a(Th) UT

Message for Tuesday 25 April 2023

Message for Tuesday 25 April 2023

~Unfolding Toward Mind-Wealth~

A broken pitcher on the ground is surrounded
By spilled fruit. Vain pursuits lose powers.
Pursuing the impractical is impotence.
A natural well surrounded by moss, shrubs and briars

Is clear as crystal, cold as ice. It reveals secrets
To the natural or metaphysical researcher.
A germ--effervescing radiance and love--
Is growing into knowledge. Living substance

Irresistibly presses forward and unfolds,
Making evident the Philosopher's Stone.
A man in the prime of life standing on a dais
Holds a scroll of papers; on his head a laurel

Wreath. Through large understanding he
Is regarded with favor by the people.

{Tuesday} ~Unfolding Toward Mind-Wealth~

Mercury is slow, that is, we are in a Dark Hermetic Epoch through May 31, and today the media are all a-flutter because Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News. Some say he could ask his price on another venue, so this may ultimately be good for him, but REsignation or REjection are DHE words. You may feel like dropping some association, person, group, or connection. Wise? Only you can know but often it is better to wait and let things untangle before making a decision. The DHE is sometimes like a snake coiling; one does not know in which direction it shall slither. Patience is a virtue at these times. Good things can happen but they are often "out of pattern," a result of unexpected circumstances calling forth a flexible response.

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Cancer

Message for Monday 24 April 2023

Message for Monday 24 April 2023

~Limiting or Expansive Focus~

A man is sitting on his heels, breaking stones
With a hammer. His intellectual powers are small
Or unused and he labors much to little profit.
He has always been considered peculiar and is

Unpopular because nothing he says adds up
To anything abstract or anything concrete.
But he is given a cottage in an orchard and
A flock of sheep. He develops a happy disposition,

Loving Nature and loved by her. His wealth
Is his contentment. His neighbor has a different
Path, scholarly and profound, examining all things
By logical-judicial standards, sitting before

A square with a manuscript scroll before him.
The orchard rejects any negative limiting focus.

{Monday} ~Limiting or Expansive Focus~

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Gemini-->Cancer
/moon goes void-of-course at 5:16a PT | 9:16a ET | 1:16p UT
until it enters Cancer at 12:00p PT | 3:00p ET | 7:00p UT

Message for Week of April 22-28, 2023 (Saturday through Friday)

Message for Week of April 22-28, 2023 (Saturday through Friday)

Mercury turned retrograde Friday morning, April 21, at 1:36a PT | 4:36a ET | 8:36p UT, until late in the day on May 14. I am feeling it as I write Friday afternoon, with the familiar symptoms: Things seem slower, harder to keep aligned, but there are psychic or intuitive insights aplenty. Also, the |karmically difficult third| of the week began Friday and lasts until Sunday evening. Despair is not necessary, but a bit of melancholy could accompany a deeper peacefulness.

The week as a whole shows many things slowing down. There is a mercurial trend of trying to figure things out. One tries to transcend all difficulties through a self-contained, easygoing process devoid of theatrics. One has targets and can aim well at them yet it is not clear how soon one can attain what one has envisaged. If one is on a disabled ship one has to wait for the right breeze. If the globe one lives on seems artificial, a map of irrelevant boundaries, one can still investigate patiently. If there is cruelty, one can pray for mercy. Let us do that for all who may be tortured, physically or mentally, in prisons around the world. There are invisible forces and beings, spirit companions, who can help and protect. One can commune with them and invoke their assistance. They might be angels; they might be saints; or other delegated servants of the Supreme. 

Whence comes kingly or queenly authority, a scepter offered from one in power to one deserving it through aspiration and attainment? When one is ready, a regal might lifts one up and confers more authority. During lighter moments one may feel like a woman lightly clad lying on a field of violets, without a care, or like a man waring a rakish silk hat, winking to display sophistication. A refuge for all is an old adobe mission, representing the durability of tradition and its comfort, which translates into a continuous fund of reassuring strength.

{Week of April 22-28, 2023}

Saturday 22: Moon is void-of-course in Taurus
until it enters Gemini at 3:12a PT | 6:12a ET | 10:12a UT
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week is with us

Sunday 23: Moon in Gemini
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week continues until 4:25p PT | 7:25p ET | 11:25p UT

Message for Friday 21 April 2023

 Message for Friday 21 April 2023

\One, Two, None, All/

The Stranger seems lost, even to himself,

With sharp opinions verging on insight

Though they make him unpopular.

Duality discomfits him, a sense that every

One is a Two, that is, out of sympathy with

Himself and therefore Other. Thus his companion

Is Isolation. If he meets with someone congenial

They are like two wolves in the moonlight

Devouring a carcass. Roaming and unsettled,

Revengeful or crafty, he yet has social moments

When linked with a group of people who overeat

And enjoy their satiety. Fullness does not have to be

Overindulgence but can be compensation for what is

Lacking in a life trying for competent smoothness.

{Friday} /One, Two, None, All\

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Taurus

/moon goes void-of-course at 8:42p PT | 11:42p ET | 3:42a(Sa) UT

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Message for Thursday 20 April 2023

Message for Thursday 20 April 2023

\Secret Assurance/

His character resembles a black diamond-shaped figure;
Morose, with magical powers and a strong will.
When too reserved he could be misanthropic, cruel.
One of his victims feels like a young laurel tree

Broken by the wind and withered, spoiled by unforeseen
Misfortune. Contentment could be the beginning of
A calm regathering of forces. Though seen as weird
Or wacky, he has projects for the future.

Unpopular, always a stranger, forced in upon himself,
In old age he faces a vast dark space to the northeast,
Immeasurable reaches of experience which strengthen
The human spirit by their very unfamiliarity.

Is life a pointless paradox? he wonders.
Not when he's uncovered deep hidden assurance.

{Thursday} /Secret Assurance\

Moon in Taurus
Sun enters Taurus at 1:15a PT | 4:15a ET | 8:15a UT

Message for Wednesday 19 April 2023

Message for Wednesday 19 April 2023

^Waning Gypsy Moon^

Weird! His mind is peculiar, like isosceles
Triangles blowing in the wind; his thoughts are
Nugatory to his associates. But he lifts his flexed
Hand with its prominent thumb, determined to

Rule ruthlessly rather than just give up
To popular opinion (the only animal with a five-
Digited hand). There is steadiness and practicality
Along with isolation (because he serves himself

Alone). Resting on his horse, armed for battle,
He watches the moon, waning like his fortunes.
Then he espies a group of vagrants seated around
A fire and cauldron. Food is preparing. He joins

These wanderers, gypsies with sensuous appetites,
Absconding from opportunities for fresh seeking.

{Wednesday} ^Waning Gypsy Moon^

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Aries-->Taurus
Second New Moon of Aries at 9:14p PT | 12:14a(W) ET | 4:14a(W) UT
/moon goes void-of-course at that moment
until it enters Taurus at 9:31p PT | 12:31a(W) ET | 4:31a(W) UT

Message for Tuesday 18 April 2023

Message for Tuesday 18 April 2023

^Dominion^

Elon Musk could use a good astrologer (that would be me) because he had to delay his SpaceX launch again although it was scheduled for Monday. The last day of a waning moon is not a good time for an adventurous project, and further, the moon went void-of-course mid-day. He says it may launch in a few more days; then Mercury will be retrograde. It may work out anyway but it is specially important then to choose a day with good lunar aspects.

Tuesday:

Two isosceles triangles, fixed to an upright, point
Left, and a strange person resembles them in quixotic
Peculiar thinking void of conceptual clarity.
But he flexes his hand, with prominent thumb, to show

He's determined and confident. He wants to rule his environment
In a ruthless manner, steady in every issue.
His strength may use an axe to fell a tree.
Simple and persistent effort contends against obstacles;

An honest nature cuts out its part in life.
A woman holds a globe in one hand, a scepter
In the other. Widespread knowledge gives her power
And importance. Proud and loving herself, she yet

Has dignity, conscientiousness, self-reliance.
The dominion she has earned could rule the world.

{Tuesday} ^Dominion^

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Aries
The second New Moon of Aries arrives Wednesday (tomorrow) late in the day. Mercury turns retrograde early Friday. Things are on the verge of change but it may not be clear what that means at this point. We should not get ahead of ourselves.

Message for Monday 17 April 2023

Message for Monday 17 April 2023

~Quizzical Materialization~

I just tweeted to Elon Musk on Twitter: "Elon, before hearing about it, I more or less predicted the delay of your launch in my Cosmic Piper forecast:

"Saturday 15: Moon in Aquarius-->Pisces
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week is with us until Monday
/moon goes void-of-course at 8:17a PT | 11:17a ET | 3:17p UT
until it enters Pisces at 3:58p PT | 6:58p ET | 10:58p UT

Sunday 16: Moon in Pisces
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week continues until Monday near sunrise

"The |difficult third|, based on the moon's relation to Saturn, has been hitting the weekends and shall continue to do so until early July. On those days, usually the keyword should be Peace rather than Exuberance".

I don't know if Elon actually read this. Naturally I have not heard from him, nor from anyone about these weekly forecasts of the |karmic third| of each week, but they are ALWAYS accurate and meaningful. Elon's SpaceX launch is scheduled for today, Monday.

Monday:

A strange person, unpopular, cannot think on abstract truths
And is ignored by the public. The direction of his thinking is always
Subject to twisted quirky modifications.
Someone rash and warlike does not realize how much havoc

He may effect, even to setting his own house on fire
At night-time. Turmoil and dispute bring desolation upon
Others and himself. It might be better to live a peaceful
Life akin to a dairyman whose farmyard is filled with cows.

Milk, cheese, butter are gifts of nature.
A Chinese woman manages such a farm while also
Nursing a baby. Somehow she knows that his destiny
Will be far-flung and embody universal values.

What begins in questioning, continues in turmoil, and settles in
Comfort is gently materializing Godlike resources.

{Monday} ~Quizzical Materialization~

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Pisces-->Aries
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week ends at 3:33a PT | 6:33a ET | 10:33a UT
/moon goes void-of-course at 11:58a PT | 2:58p ET | 6:58p UT
until it enters Aries at 6:10p PT | 9:10p ET | 1:10a(Tu) UT

Message for Week of Saturday 15 April through Friday 21 April

Message for Week of Saturday 15 April through Friday 21 April

Last week I wrote a story for the coming week, now ending, based on symbols in the weekly chart. How did it play out for you? It made sense to me, so let's do the same this week. I continue to use mostly male pronouns for convenience but may use female ones when the sun enters Taurus, Venus's sign.

A man lies upon a sheaf of corn, asleep, with viands at his side. His dreams and visions seem real but his lassitude amounts to neglect of his opportunities. (Would laditude give him more latitude, or just be attitude?) At times he rouses himself to be, in appearance, a horseman armed for battle, watching the waning moon. Independent and domineering, he is forsaken by friends and colleagues and has woman trouble. "The dog and his bone are best left alone." The thinning moon is at least comforting.

Two bulls are fighting, while some humans are petulant and warlike, so there is danger, and the making of enemies. Why all the strife? Toxic masculinity? A pugilist, however, has trained and converted his machismo into an art form,. He enters the ring without personal sensitiveness but with concentrated exertion.

Another individual, desiring peace and quiet, has become the owner of a green field surrounded by shrubberies, with a lovely villa on the north-east side. What he has is adequate for his needs, and he is content. In leisure he tends a garden where a monstrous gourd-plant rises up spontaneously from beneath the soil. Mighty energies and rapid growth seem magical, as do all things the lucky one engages in, though he is advised to temper exuberance with cool, deliberate reflection.

At a church bazaar, community allegiances develop. Games of chance and tasty treats conspire to revivify human contacts, and all benefit one another through entertaining philanthropy. An old man in a booth does card readings combined with Bible verses. He wonders if his messages are permeating the minds of his "clients," yet is pertinacious in attempting to reveal the Mysteries.

The sky presents a new moon, crescent, yet implicit within it is a gibbous moon, fat and luxurious, with a Hermetic caduceus intervening. Through a changeful temperament, and travel, comes the pursuit of knowledge and an impressive memory. Actually we are having a New Moon in Spring, but it presages a harvest moon later in the year. Life's culminations, as in autumn, are thresholds of new achievement, as if heralding spring. "Nature in her immeasurable prodigality is forever showering man with the products of her untiring creativeness." (Marc Edmund Jones) The keyword is Benediction.

{Week of April 15-21, 2023}

Cosmic Piper

Saturday 15: Moon in Aquarius-->Pisces
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week is with us until Monday
/moon goes void-of-course at 8:17a PT | 11:17a ET | 3:17p UT
until it enters Pisces at 3:58p PT | 6:58p ET | 10:58p UT

Sunday 16: Moon in Pisces
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week continues until Monday near sunrise

The |difficult third|, based on the moon's relation to Saturn, has been hitting the weekends and shall continue to do so until early July. On those days, usually the keyword should be Peace rather than Exuberance.

Message for Friday 14 April 2023

Message for Friday 14 April 2023

}Hidden Treasure{

A shabby house with a dark loft has a
Ladder up which homeless ones climb
For a place to rest. Vagrants or beggars,
Perhaps, yet sometimes they laugh at fate

Like clowns making grimaces. Irony is
Surprisingly comforting. Each, inimitable,
Guards his bag of possessions as if a casket
Of jewels over which he and a cohort fight,

Trying to win a competence for themselves from
Jealous hazard. One, reclusive, retires to a dark
Cavern, its mouth covered by a somber curtain as if
Veiling hidden knowledge. Solitude allows for

Deep unearthing of secrets unknown to those
Too busy with trivia to turn their vision inward.

{Friday} {Hidden Treasure}

Moon in Aquarius
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week begins at 6:23p PT | 9:23p ET | 1:23a(Sa) UT (until Monday morning)

Message for Thursday 13 April 2023

Message for Thursday 13 April 2023

}Genteel Eminence{

An anchor unattached to any vessel lies
With its hook fast to a rock, the cable broken.
The process and end of things is very mysterious,
And control elusive. A large diamond not

Completely cut depends on human art and skill
For its value. What remains latent can yet be endowed
With dazzling, expanded significance. A venerable and kindly
Man of noble disposition rises to eminence in his

Sphere. Retiring early, he secures a green field
Surrounded by shrubberies, with a nice villa on the
North-east side. This is adequate for his needs so
He is disposed to contentment. What has seemed uncertain

Or perilous has become through virtue secure, while
Deeper cultural dimensions are ready to flourish.

{Thursday} {Genteel Eminence}

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Capricorn-->Aquarius
/moon goes void-of-course at 7:15a PT | 10:15a ET | 2:15p UT
until it enters Aquarius at 1:43p PT | 4:43p ET | 8:43p UT

Message for Wednesday 12 April 2023

Message for Wednesday 12 April 2023

\Latent Marvel/

The farmyard implement has four prongs,
Solid and reliable for modest but needed
Attempts at usefulness yielding contentment.
In a bar a man stands with tankard in hand

While two others gossip about him with averted
Faces. Can their envy hurt him? Not if he corrects
A drift into low-life habits. He owns a large diamond,
Not completely cut, which depends on human arts and

Skills for its value. Likewise what's latent in him
Is brought to power by expanded dimensions of significance
With which he endows it. A troubadour stands with one foot
On the ledge of a rock, his instrument slung at his side while

He listens to the music of a cascade falling at his feet.
Refined tastes, love of the marvelous, evince harmony.

{Wednesday} /Latent Marvel\

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Capricorn

Message for Tuesday 11 April 2023

Message for Tuesday 11 April 2023

\Approach Toward Security/

A man of uncertain gate, tottering, spills
Water on the ground. Indecision and faulty judgment
Deprive him of a stable direction. He could pick up
A fork of four pongs, farmyard implement, to make

Himself useful. Small efforts, laborious even if
Unambitious, keep the bad-karma wolf from
The door. Freshly and freely, a tiny nude miss
Reaching in the water for a fish brings her divine

Estate to whatever she touches. Simple curiosity informs
Her inclinations. Parents marvel at her brave
Ingenuity. In Spring-to-Summer, two yellow flowers
Grow beneath the shade of a luxuriant tree where human

Friendships prove sincere and advantageous.
Protective influences, widespread, assure security.

{Tuesday} /Approach Toward Security\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Monday 10 April 2023

Message for Monday 10 April 2023

^Inclinations Favored^

A scrawl of a pen purports to convey truth or poetry
But lacks convincingness. People try to assert their
Opinions-feelings with flourishes of words yet get
Little response. A shovel standing near an open grave

May be used some day, or never. Disposing of what could
Pass is of no value should there be no passing.
The undertaker digs to no purpose when death is dead:
"There'll be no dying then." A tiny nude miss, ignorant of

Adult confusion, reaches in the water for a fish,
Unsullied and fresh in her inclination for making
Anything at all her own. A dark man, richly appareled,
Surrounded by courtiers, lies on a couch. Luxurious and

Artistic tastes coincide haply with influence and wealth.
What others seek he has, plus love of ease.

{Monday} ^Inclinations Favored^

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Sagittarius
}Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week ends at 2:56p PT | 5:56p ET | 9:56p UT

Week of Saturday April 8 through Friday April 14

Week of Saturday April 8 through Friday April 14

The Dark Hermetic Epoch of about two months began Friday April 7 at about 5:12a PT | 8:12a ET | 12:12p UT, lasting through May 31. It is not to be feared but is a more inward rather than outward phase, sometimes confusing but always interesting. What seems "dark" to the outward vision can be wonderfully illuminating to psychic consciousness. Little things may seem obstructive,, and plans tangled, yet by dealing with "what is" we are led to what would not have been possible without the detours.

I do my best to survey trends of the week ahead. The method is in constant evolution and has undergone fascinating changes in the past few weeks. This time let's try making a story from the zodiacal symbols of planetary positions in the weekly chart. If you want to know how I construct the weekly chart you may write me about it. In the story I will use the male pronoun because that is easier and more natural for me but I might use female pronouns sometimes in the future. As for "they," I'll think about it.

The story is circuitous actually so the beginning and end could be anywhere within it.

April 8-14, 2023 (Saturday through Friday)

He is lying asleep on a sheaf of corn, viands at his side,. HIs dreams and visions are real but there is no work to bring them to reality. Others often just push him aside. A woman holds a bag of food out of a window and wants to toss it to him. She likes to facilitate people's lives toward the better.

Another man has a fork, a farmyard implement with four prongs, and employs it n a laborious way, useful to society. He is content with his lot. He cultivates a bulbous plant pushing its way upward from beneath the sod, reflecting its grower's soul-force, which is immense. He has a strong will and his plant is unfolding its beauty.

He joins some heavy traffic on a narrow isthmus, winding toward personal fulfillment for each traveler, though each might temporarily block the way of the other. Yet within the convergence lurks a hidden, well-integrated community. He leaves the crowd at an inn where he orders a drink. As he stands lifting it to his mouth two individuals, apart from him, talk together with averted faces, as if critiquing him, but then they invite him to join them in a drinking bout leading to drunkenness.

Still, he has his smartphone and, alone, sits by himself to explore the latest on internet media. Politics, politics, politics. Who is responsible, who deserves a position of trust? Each candidate holds a roll of sealed parchment lying across a scepter, brilliant plans for the nation should he or she gain leverage. Everything is possible on this rectangular tube illuminated from within, but who shall win coveted authority in the world apart from the phone?

He has left the bar, alone with his thoughts as he heads back toward familiar territory. But is he alone? Something occult is with him, a strange influence. It must be a "familiar," a spirit companion. Is he obsessed? Could he really do what this presence is suggesting? He looks up and sees a gate he has never seen before, above it a signboard: "The Garden of Desire." Is this just naïve optimism? Yet there are always immeasurable frontiers yet to be crossed. Why not enhance his dreams and pass through the gate to whatever prospect unfolds before him?

(And, perchance, back to the beginning of the story.)

Week of April 8-14

Cosmic Piper

Saturday 8: Moon in Scorpio
< moon in the Via Combusta until 2:58 a PT | 5:58a ET | 9:58a UT
|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week begins at 9:17a PT | 12:17p ET | 4:17p UT

Sunday 9: Moon in Scorpio-->Sagittarius
/moon goes void-of-course at 2:10a PT | 5:10a ET | 9:10a UT
until it enters Sagittarius at 5:58a PT | 8:58a ET | 12:58p UT

|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week continues until Monday afternoon

Message for Thursday 6 April 2023

Message for Thursday 6 April 2023

}Pride and Passion Lightened and Elevated{

A lion is rampant on an elevated ground,
Powerful and haughty. His servants are not his friends
For his pride relies on force rather than merit,
Making him pitiable at last. A woman holds scales

Weighing a cup of red wine against a number of
Golden coins. Pleasure or wealth? What is the true
Value of each? Earthiness is fine but probably not
Extravagance. On the ground a large elliptical figure

Contains a standing man, a great admirer of the beautiful
In nature, art, and the opposite sex. His passionate love,
By eventide, cavorts in the moonlight as if divided into
Two fairies. There is release, with lightness of self-

Expression, exaltation of fancy ameliorating the lion's
Pride. Magic of sensitive healing is ascendant.

{Thursday} {Pride and Passion Lightened and Elevated}

Cosmic Piper

As shown in the following data, it's an unusual day, with the high consciousness of the Full Moon filtered into a Via Combusta and void-of-course period (almost all day). Plans are changeable or uncertain, so perhaps the "fairies" can be our guides.
Moon in Libra
Full Moon of Aries-Libra occurred Wednesday evening at 9:36p PT | 12:36a(today, Thursday) ET | 4:36a(today) UT
< moon remains in the Via Combusta
/moon goes void-of-course at 5:44a PT | 8:44a ET | 12:44p UT
until it enters Scorpio at 11:30p PT | 2:30a(F) ET | 6:30a(F) UT

Message for Wednesday 5 April 2023

 Message for Wednesday 5 April 2023

}Self-Completeness{

In the bed of a dried-up river crows are feeding.
Following useless tracks, and trusting too much in
Wayward and deceitful men, one's misapplied virtue
Brings decline. And so one resembles a ram standing

Alone, looking toward a distant flock of sheep,
Totally male, unsympathetic toward the female.
Aries can be a lonely sign. Yet game birds chirp and
Flutter while feathering nests, satisfied by participating

In family-group destiny. They are meticulous in providing for
Themselves and their offspring. Beneath them in the glade
Wanders a youth, book in hand, fond of the trees and sunlight
Outlining his passive beauty while he contemplates theirs.

Reclusive like the ram, he wants no fame
But delights in what nature provides for meditation.

{Wednesday} {Self-Completeness}

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Libra
< moon enters Via Combusta at 7:28p PT | 10:28p ET | 2:28a(Th) UT (until Saturday morning) 

Message for Monday 3 April 2023

Monday 3 April 2023

\Sun-like Steadiness/

A black diamond is the magical gem of a morose 

Magician of strong character whose will-power can

Verge toward cruelty. Some victims, riding in a ca

 Speedily, heedlessly, across a railroad track may

Have been dazzled by his hypnotism when struck by the

Train. Recklessness causes a wreck through some inevitable

Compulsion. Across the way lies a field of rich grass

With a tree encircled by a swarm of bees, maintained by

One whose diligence brings money, success and friends. 

Industry and thrift return much during the balmy days of summer,

But the black diamond ultimately betrays its owner.

Who is the true Solar man or woman, empowered 

To rule or command? She who like the sun is steady

And calm, undisturbed by others' sins and follies.

{Monday} /Sun-like Steadiness\

Cosmic Piper

Moon in Virgo

|Karmic sobering, challenging third| of this week ends at 7:31p PT | 10:31p ET | 2:31a(Tu) UT