Cosmic Connection

An Undevout Astrologer? Friday's Forecast

2012-02-02T16:45:00.001-08:00

Friday 3 February 2012

The moon is gratifying our desire for a happy Friday, for I have not found its square with Venus to be terribly troublesome in the past. It can be a kind of temptation, a desire to jump into some attractive relationship prematurely, but the results do not have to be bad. It can be fascinating. The fact that it is also square Mars, which opposes Venus, is why I couldn't give the day an A rating socially. However, "bold" could be the right word, if you are reasonably careful not to step on toes metaphorically (Mars in Virgo opposite Venus the sign of the feet). Dancing, however, could be a thrill.

Money factors seem on the up-and-up. Your mind can locate strategically whatever will benefit you whether financially or socially. This has an element of fate, which one can lean on as it leans on oneself, in which it is comfortable to trust.

Friday 3 February 2012
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: B
Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: C
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: B
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: B
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: A
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

An Undevout Astrologer?

One reason I am emphasizing the Bible, religion, spirituality, is because of the serious truth of an old adage, repeated by Max Heindel, that "an undevout astrologer is mad." This has more than one meaning. First, anyone who perceived the truths of astrology and yet could deny Intelligent Planning of the solar system and of human beings would indeed be mad! Second, pride would overtake an undevout astrologer, who might begin to think himself master of the universe.

Some kind of devoutness in the face of the Infinite, and of our Creator, however one chooses to visualize Him or It, is absolutely necessary to anyone rising beyond the dull perceptions of ordinary humanity.

On the topic of the Bible, continued:

3. Another problem (two were discussed yesterday) connected with appreciating the Bible is the absurd notion that everything in it is presented and meant to be taken literally. It is as if the critics of religion and the Bible had no elementary perception of what hyperbole and metaphor are, or what inspired writings are, which invariably use hyperbole and metaphor and other literary devices to give some hint of Realities which, of course, if they are of G*d or the Divine, are way beyond our ordinary thinking ability.

Therefore those who make fun of the notion of God as the Creator of the universe in six days are simply silly, unlearned, uneducated. They do not know that centuries ago, by Philo in Alexandria, by the Jewish cabalists everywhere, the teachings of Genesis were interpreted allegorically and spiritually. Only American Christian fundamentalists of the most simplistic sort take these stories literally. Even the scriptures they purport to believe in refute them, for they say that "a thousand years to the Lord is as one day." Then why not a million or a billion years?

Of course, these atheists do not want to know about the truly profound spiritual interpretations of the Scriptures, spanning many centuries, because they are so firmly committed to and locked into their superficial materialistic preconceptions that no one can jolt them out of them, except possibly death or a near-death experience. (I have been reading about these recently in the superb books of Raymond Moody, Jr., which came out a few years ago but are definitely worth re-reading.)

Sir Real

Secret Treasure; Thursday's Forecast

2012-02-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

A lot of thinking is going on. There are intellectual, philosophic or religious differences to reconcile or fight out (Mercury square Jupiter) and differences of habit and predilection which make for separation or covert repugnance or indifference even toward those important to you. Many are struggling to re-invoke health rules they have temporarily abandoned (Mars retrograde in Virgo opposed to Venus). "Oh, I have fallen off my exercise program, or recommended diet." Of course it is well to keep trying.

The moon in Gemini trine Mercury and the sun in Aquarius can be cheerfulness about everyday things, routines, job, and co-workers. It favors also business or financial moves or transactions. A happy social element, plus quick insight, lightens tasks. This may reach its peak just before the time given in the ratings.

Thursday
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: B
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: A, B*
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A
*Beginning at 2:31p PT|3:31p MT|4:31p CT|5:31p ET|10:31p UT
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Secret Treasure

The vexed question of Bible-reading hinges on a lot of things, two of which I will mention:

1. There is a lot of false, injudicious, confused or confusing use of the Bible by a lot of groups, teachers, and preachers. Therefore those who have suffered under their direction or control as children, or later, reject the whole Bible rather than realizing that those who were interpreting it to them were, simply, wrong.

2. The Bible is only part of the world's wisdom. The teachings of the East, especially of Hinduism for me, reaching a culmination way beyond traditional Hinduism in Sri Aurobindo (and at a different level in Sai Baba), are necessary to expand or supplement the Semitic teachings of the Bible. There are also the teachings of Plato and the Neo-Platonists, often compatible with the Hindu contribution, which provide a really important supplement or complement to the Bible, as many gnostic Christian and Jewish groups and seekers have recognized.

So, to any who are interested, I must say: If you were to read the Bible, according to a good plan (I have one which I would offer to anyone who writes to me), and forget everything you heard in Sunday School, or confirmation class, or from TV or street preachers, or anyone else, and just ponder those Scriptures as if you had never heard of them before, with an open, inquiring mind and searching heart, you would be amazed at what you find.

Thus the title, "Secret Treasure." And I mean that more literally than you might surmise. Financial success (or else contentment with what one has), prosperity, fulfillment of every kind, is taught by those peculiar, obscure, disturbing, alarming, yet often comforting and illumining chapters, whether in the Old or New Testament, Tenach or Gospel, prophets or apostles. There are secrets within them which I will not tell, because you need to find them for yourself if they are to benefit you.

"There is no error in Science, and our lives must be governed by reality in order to be in harmony with God, the divine Principle of all being." "The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power." --Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 131

Sir Real

Over the Rainbow, Infinite Love; Wednesday's Forecast

2012-01-31T14:24:00.000-08:00

Probably you are feeling you want to focus and concentrate on your business, your work, your reason for being. If unemployed or retired, this can be a personal project, hobby or volunteer activity. There does not have to be a sense of burden about this, but gladness that you feel you are on the right track.
The time given below for improvements in two categories is when the moon enters Gemini; before that it is only void-of-course a short time, but its last aspect before that is a square with Neptune, good for spiritual contemplation or realization but not usually for business or social affairs.
The hard aspect now is Venus opposing Mars. The ten-degree orb of this is January 25-February 8. It has multiple meanings, all of which I shall not attempt to elucidate, but may give you a clue to the whole schlemiel. It is, yes, disagreement or tension between the sexes, at a basic level, but more than that. Venus is comfort; Mars is challenge. So one person (of either sex) challenges another's comfort, by words, acts or attitudes.
The creative side of it is serious restructuring in order to overcome tensions within oneself. Mars is part of yourself, Venus another. Your Mars wants to be bold, courageous, strong. Your Venus wants to relax and enjoy the "good life." Mars says that life is not good if not manful, challenging, achieving. Venus says, Okay, but don't push me too hard. Life is for fun and pleasure too. And so it goes. Through all this you can arrive at a more understanding reconciliation of these two parts of your nature. For some it will be, for example, a struggle to change diet or other habits.
That may be an oversimplification but it gives a clue. And, by the way, I don't mean to imply that women are lazy; quite the contrary; and in India for millennia the active aspect of Deity has been called the feminine one, Prakriti, Maya, or at higher levels the divine Shakti. This is not exactly Venus, except under her aspect of Mahalakshmi, and so Venus may be called the more passive side of the female gender, the one devoted to beauty, clothing, jewelry, and the like, rather than the active feminine which takes care of children and the household and a job like the Indian goddess with six arms. That aspect of female skill may be, astrologically, both the moon and Saturn. And, beyond all this, females have Mars in their charts and males have Venus.
With the Venus-Mars opposition there can be harshness and unkindness (Mars) plus an extreme sensitiveness to that unkindness (Venus), and so unhappiness and touchiness. What usually would appear a harmless comment or act might seem a mortal insult. The prevailing dissatisfaction can make one highly critical of people, expecting more than they can deliver.
Another facet of this aspect is separation, so that even if there is no obvious argument or disharmony, people drift apart or are forced apart by circumstances. Of course, since the aspect is temporary, the separation may be also.
Back to paragraph 1 for a positive attitude about what can be done today. The rest may help you pass through, and minimize, the emotional stress while forwarding real purposes.
Wednesday
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C, B*
Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: A
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: D, B*
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A
*Beginning at 11:16aPT12:16pMT1:16pCT2:16p ET7:16p UT
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome
Cosmic Piper

Over the Rainbow, Infinite Love

A letter from a reader:
I have been subscribing to your forecasts for several years now, and I find I do not resonate with your new format or your alter ego "sir real". I was raised as a "Christian" and later in my adulthood discovered my own truth about God! Christianity puts a lot of human attributes on God that aren't God at all! Pure and simple God is Love! So, if God is Love then why should I fear God/Love? I appreciate that religion got me to where I AM today, but I AM grateful for a different perception of this Higher Power! I can also understand that this is your path and can accept your need to add some religion and guilt to the Cosmic Piper......I just skip over the alter ego parts. Sir Real......Reality is dependent on Awareness! These are the times to be moving out of 3D and truly experiencing our higher realities and consciousness.
Blessings to you Hugh Howard Higgins! I love and appreciate you!
Y
Thanks for writing, Y. I won't argue with you, except to say that I feel the "New Age" movement is missing the boat by not realizing G*d is larger than themselves. Maybe that does not apply to you. I find that they lack all real humility, all ability to bow down to something greater than themselves, and finally believe there is nothing greater. Which is just egoism, the opposite of spirituality. The Bible is tremendous, enormous, amazing. It is very well worth studying and re-studying no matter what one's beliefs, to aid and refine one's beliefs. And I have to say that no one has transcended the message of Jesus. I understand your statement of a more loving G*d, and that has been around a long time in Christian Science, which I also study, and in cognate movements which were actually the basis of the New Age stuff, which I am afraid has gotten pretty sappy lately. Thus my return to the Bible. Jesus taught an infinitely loving God, for those who have "ears to hear." And I do not apologize for studying the Bible! and shall continue to write about it. The one who humbles himself is the one who is raised up. It has taken me a long time to learn that and I am still learning it . . .
An infinitely loving God loves us enough to make us aware of when we are causing others, or animals, suffering (as all meat-eaters do, considering the horrible tortuous conditions in which "farm," or meat-industry, animals are kept) and so He makes us aware of our "sins" in traditional terminology, our mistakes, the things we are unconsciously doing which make others or animals or the planet suffer. If we are ignoring those messages from conscience, we need to feel more "guilt," not less, in order to correct the situation.
As I have stated often, I am also a student of Sri Aurobindo's teachings, which might accord more smoothly with your own views.
Best,
Hugh
P. S. You might like the writings of Emma Curtis Hopkins, an old-timer who was also, with Mary Baker Eddy, at the base of the New Age teachings but still held on to enough of the message of the Bible to be more profound than the later stuff. Also Charles Fillmore, founder of the Unity movement, who wrote a compendious Metaphysical Bible Dictionary (and was a vegetarian and advocated such a diet). "Reality is dependent on Awareness," yes, I agree, but facing the suffering of others, which is what Christ Jesus is trying to teach me, is also part of awareness . . . in order to heal their suffering, yes, but we need Avatars such as Jesus to enable us to do that. If it weren't for Jesus I would not be writing the forecasts, nor would I even be here physically.
Sir Real

G*d is for the Weak; Tuesday Forecast

2012-01-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Forecast, 31 January 2012

I believe you are making progress in your career and your most basic plans for economic well-being. As we approach the center of the Bright Hermetic Epoch it is well to consider what one has learned in the past month or two and "seal it in" before one forgets it. Or, if there is still more to learn (as always), one can continue to refine or perfect the quest. (That center is technically February 6-7 when Mercury is closest to the sun, a week from now.)

This might be the best "social" day of the week, although I couldn't give it an A rating because of the Venus-Mars opposition. You might want to be in touch with someone special, or get together if possible, or have fun somehow.

Tuesday

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: B

Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: A

Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: B

Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C

Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C

Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

G*d is for the Weak

I find that no one has written expressing the slightest interest, agreement or disagreement with my writings on the Bible and on the nature of the spiritual search according to individual horoscopes. (Oh yes, one individual.) I guess none of you are interested. I guess all you care for is Cosmic Piper's highly doubtful predictions. Maybe you are strong, but I am weak, and try to slip some grain of Biblical insight into your awareness:

"Where is your wise man now, your man of learning, or your subtle debater--limited, all of them, to this passing age? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. As God in his wisdom ordained, the world failed to find him by its wisdom, and he chose to save those who have faith by the folly of the Gospel." --Paul, I Corinthians 1:20-22

"Divine folly is wiser than the wisdom of man, and divine weakness stronger than man's strength. My brothers, think what sort of people you are, whom God has called. Few of you are men of wisdom, by any human standard; few are powerful or highly born. Yet, to shame the wise, God has chosen what the world counts folly, and to shame what is strong, God has chosen what the world counts weakness. He has chosen things low and contemptible, mere nothings, to overthrow the existing order. And so there is no place for human pride in the presence of God." --Paul, I Corinthians 1:25-29

And, from centuries earlier:

"Prosperity and ease look down on misofortune,

on the blow that fells the man who is already reeling [unemployed],

while the marauders' tents [Romney, Gingrich] are left undisturbed

and those who provoke God live safe and sound.

Go and ask the cattle, ask the birds of the air to inform you,

or tell the creatures that crawl to teach you, and the fishes of the sea to give you instruction.

Who cannot learn from all these that the Lord's own hand has done this?

In God's hand are the souls of all that live, the spirits of all human kind.

Wisdom and might are his, with him are firmness and uinderstanding.

If he pulls down, there is no rebuilding; if he imprisons, there is no release.

If he holds up the waters, there is drought; if he lets them go, they turn the land upside down.

Strength and success belong to him, deceived and deceiver are his to use.

He makes counsellors behave like idiots and drives judges mad;

he looses the bonds imposed by kings and removes the girdle of office from their waists;

he makes priests behave like idiots and overthrows men long in office;

those who are trusted he strikes dumb, he takes away the judgment of old men;

he heaps scorn on princes and abates the arrogance of nobles.

He leads people astray and destroys them, he lays them low, and there they lie.

He takes away their wisdom from the rulers of the nations

and leaves them wandering in a pathless wilderness;

they grope in the darkness without light and are left to wander like a drunkard.

He uncovers mysteries deep in obscurity and into thick darkness he brings light."

--Job 12: 5-9, 10-22

Sir Real

Monday Forecast 30 January 2012

2012-01-29T17:11:00.000-08:00

Monday Forecast, 30 January 2012

There's a focus on money, resources, finances, and ways of gaining them or making them more secure. This involves conflicts between various methods or options. However, you are well prepared to estimate correctly which options are likely to be more successful, if you take your time and trust your calm judgment.

Another focus is study, research, learning, in ways whcih are fascinating and mind-expanding. You are determined to hold on to a particular course of study (as in a school or on your own) until you have gained all it has to offer at the current time. You don't mind restricting or limiting yourself, in other ways, in order to do this because the quest for knowledge and understanding is absorbing.

Even your times of entertainment have learning wrapped in or around them.

Saturn in the last degree of Libra trining Neptune in the last degree of Aquarius (where it has been for twelve years) suggests the culmination of some kind of spiritual research or quest for wisdom. You might be able to identify this as something paying off for you at the present time in your inner realizations. "Things are good; the world is good; the Divine is present," is part of what this aspect means, with all the inner content of those brief statements opening up more widely to your comprehension.

The time given below for improvement in the social scene is when things start to loosen up a bit so you can move gradually into an evening mode of fulfillment.

Monday

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: D, C*

Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: C

Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: C

Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C

Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: B

Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A

*Beginning at 1:55p PT|2:55pMT|3:55pCT|4:55pET|9:55pUT

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Weekend Forecast, 28-29 January 2012

2012-01-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

It looks like people are wanting real rest and recuperation this weekend. Things have been good for forward progress, as I have been pointing out, but maybe you feel "Enough is enough for now" and need that relaxation into your subconscious longings known as sleep-and-dream-time, or if you can attain it, the higher ascent into Spirit.

The low ratings for social life do not mean you have to be alone, of course, although some aloneness might be just what you need. If with someone, the clue is to make that time as happy as possible by avoiding the harsh and painful topics you know the other wants to avoid. This is not timidity so much as wise caution, and respect for the Other's predilections. Something within most of us is a repressed prison warden or tyrant or master in a reformatory, wanting to get people to do what we think is for their own good (and ours and G*d's). Believe it or not, the ones you want to reform also have this feeling, and want to reform you. To avoid a pointless tug of war, or fist fight, nobility, generosity, and even magnanimity are called for.

Of course it's not all bleak, but by pointing out these trends I hope to help you find a less stressful middle course. Your hopes and aspirations are strong, and you can continue to develop plans and strategies, but with deeper trust in the Divine to work things out for and with you, so that you do not get yourself or others into a "tizzy" (I am not sure what the technical definition of that word is, which my mother used to use, but I think we all get it).

"In the light of omnipresent intelligence, is there not One who knows all things, all roads, all combinations, and what will be the outcome of every one?" --Charles Fillmore

Saturday
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C, D*
Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: C
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: C, E*
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C, D*
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: B
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always
*Begins at 11:04a PT|12:04p MT|1:04p CT|2:04p ET |7:04p UT

Sunday
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: D
Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: D
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: E
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: D
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: B
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Friday Forecast, 27 January 2012

2012-01-26T19:21:00.000-08:00

The division-time in the ratings is because of the moon being void-of-course at the end of Pisces before it enters Aries. It may be harder to get things under control or in shape before that time.

Generally it seems a bright day full of clarity and promise, so that, at least in the second part, you can track along with plans successfully. Business is on track. What seems right or to be an opportunity probably is a right opportunity.

It is not wise to stir up a hornets' nest, ever, but the human hornet also is prevalent while Venus opposes Mars and the moon joins Uranus. If the matter is touchy, you probably should avoid it, or else be ready for the sting.

"I know what I'm doing; leave me alone" is the general mood. And probably he or she does; and so do you; so it is a matter of individual projects and hopeful schemes each proceeding in its own way and not necessarily conflicting with those of others.

Friday
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: D, B*
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: D, B*
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C, B*
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: B
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

*Begins at 10:29a PT|11:29a MT|12:29p CT|1:29p ET |6:29p UT
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Thursday Forecast, 26 January 2012

2012-01-25T13:18:00.000-08:00

I hope you are developing your work methods, plans, and initiatives smoothly and successfully. There is no astrological reason why you could not be doing that. I give a lot of excuses for confusions, backward tracking, and temporary failure during a Dark Hermetic Epoch, but we are in a Bright one now until February 27. Please do not tell me things are hard. If so, you must soften them, because you can.

We are in the heart of the Bright Hermetic Epoch especially through February 6, or another eleven days, so I recommend surveying your life, figuring out where you stand and what you can do, solidifying your current plans (for the next three months at least) as well as you can. Your judgment is probably as good as it is going to be for a long time. Circumstances always require patience, but they will cooperate with you better now than later, and further, you can "seal in" what you gain in terms of knowledge, wisdom, and planning during this time so that you do not lose it when the Dark (slower, more subjective and confusing) period begins. You will also sense, now, what to leave out or avoid, what matters in your life deserve "benign neglect" for now, while you focus on the important ones. There will be time for the more peculiar, subjective, frivolous or experimental stuff in the next Dark Epoch (February 27-April 22).

All this may be specially true right now while Mercury remains in good aspect with Mars and at point focus between Jupiter and Saturn. Other factors also give the day an A rating for work and projects, including detailed planning in financial, career, job, and household matters. The other C ratings are not bad, just normal.

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, opportunity, concentration on achievement: A
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: C
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Wednesday Forecast, 25 January 2012

2012-01-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 25 January 2012

As for the solar flares, yes, I have been feeling them, although I don't know how to put in words what they mean. According to Theosophists the sun is our Solar Logos, a conscious being whose awareness is beyond anything we can imagine, existing also on other than the physical plane. I have felt an impulsion of deep concern about my life and its ultimate meaning and this may be linked to this outward solar phenomenon, indicating a possible spiritual message directed to us by the source of our physical energy and sustenance, ancient venerable Sol. (He was incarnate, I believe, in Sri Aurobindo, if you can hear that kind of esoteric information.)

Perhaps the toughest aspect we face is Mercury squared both Saturn and Jupiter. At worst this could be too much credulity on one side plus too much carefulness about trivial matters on the other, the individual who tries so hard to scheme his way through life that he loses all common sense and would be more successful following a simpler more straightforward path. Yet at best these two combined could be a focus on brilliant plans which exalt your career, your study and understanding of how to proceed with the most important matters in your life. That is, if you balance contradictory factors wisely.

Socially, I had to give the day a C because Venus is beginning to oppose Mars, a rather nasty aspect showing people, whether of the opposite or same sex, interfering with one another: the nagging wife or abusive husband. (Oh, are there nagging husbands and abusive wives too?) You will encounter those who are totally convinced they know better than you do about all kinds of things, who want to reform you. If you have that same tendency, fine, but be careful how you direct it and try to remain respectful of the other's position. However, a C is not a D or E: You could enjoy people and life in a subtle psychic-spiritual-kindly manner (moon with Venus in Pisces, possibly a budding B grade).

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: A
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: B
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: B
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: B
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Tuesday Forecast,, 24 January 2012

2012-01-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 24 January 2012

This seems a calm, straightforward day, mostly fortunate. It is good for career, work, and projects. You are able to be peaceful and at ease even with those who seem to be out of line in some ways. They are not a threat but a fly in the ointment. It is satisfying to know you can keep working on your goals without serious interruption; with sustainable momentum. Solving job, career, or financial issues is very possible with Mercury prominent in a practical sector of the chart. People sense psychically what can bring them together peaceably, and are glad of that because strife is wearisome.

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: A
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: B
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always
E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Monday Forecast, 23 January 2012

2012-01-23T00:05:00.001-08:00

Monday 23 January 2012

A sense of impending change (New Moon late Sunday and early today) is refreshing and strengthening, because the change seems in a positive direction. This could be a time for entrepreneurs. Moods are somewhat subdued, allowing one to focus on thinking, strategy, and practical potentials, now in process of actualization. Nobody wants to be idle. The friends you choose are spiritually alive and solid, trustworthy and feet-on-the-ground. What you accomplish has resale value, as it were. The higher side of things is not missing, with New Age visions dancing in many heads, and perhaps New Age businesses aborning. Those who don't like business may find their skills and talents usable by those who do, in a fair way which repays. The decline of predatory entrepreneurship means the rise of group-conscious ventures.

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: D
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: B
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: D
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: D
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome
{Monday}

Cosmic Piper

Weekend Forecast for 21-22 January 2012

2012-01-20T23:18:00.000-08:00

Saturday and Sunday, 21-22 January 2012

The moon, approaching the sun from our earth perspective, is getting apparently smaller before the New Moon, which will be Monday. These final days are often less animated, or devoted more to internal processes than to outward ambitious projects. However, there appears to be a good deal of curiosity and intelligent activity, with Mercury trine Mars, an ability to find answers to puzzles or inquiries.

Saturday 21 January
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: A
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: B
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C, D*
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: B
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

*this D rating begins at 3:18p PT|4:18pMT|5:18pCT|6:18pET|11:18pUT

Sunday 22 January
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: E
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: C
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: D
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: D
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Party Day? Friday 20 January 2012

2012-01-19T11:48:00.000-08:00

Friday 20 January 2012

I cannot speak for weather conditions in the world or the nation because I have not been following them on the Weather Channel or anywhere else. But the exact squares of the sun with both Saturn and Jupiter (the former exact on Thursday and close to exact earlier in the week) coincided here in the Pacific Northwest with an unusually severe snowstorm and accompanying cold. This could not have been more in accord with traditional astrological lore handed down for thousands of years, and with what I myself have observed for decades.

I therefore gave the rating-domain called "Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences" a C rating. It would have been D or E except for mitigating factors. As a matter of fact, C was right even here because the school kids in the Seattle area were delighted to get some days off, as well as some employees of firms which shut down. Circumstances (weather) "cooperated with them" to give them a holiday. The ratings do not necessarily indicate physical circumstances per se so much as human reactions to them, which is what astrology is all about. I did not hear of major accidents or loss of life, for example, because of the weather. I aim to make the D and E days in this category warnings of possibly hazardous, or inconvenient and time-wasting, traffic conditions whether on the road, at airports or elsewhere.

Wherever I have lived, New York, Florida, Colorado, Washington, the weather has tended to follow astrological indications to a surprising degree. This is the reason the Old Farmers' Almanac (the old one written by astrologers who knew what they were doing) was so successful in predicting weather patterns. Meteorologists may have the jump on astrologers when it comes to short-term predictions, but astrologers (good weather astrologers, if there are any these days, of whom I do not claim to be one) have the jump when it comes to long-term projections.

I am guessing that the two squares already mentioned will manifest not as tragedy but as inconvenience, therefore the C ratings for Friday; however . . .

Friday gets the first A rating I have given for social life (since beginning these ratings 8 days ago) so it is a truly TGIF day. Venus's good aspects are reinforced by mostly excellent lunar aspects. Luna's square with Uranus could show irruptions of individuality in annoying ways but hardly enough to mar the good times. No matter the weather, let's have a party.

{Friday}
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: A
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: C
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: A
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Thursday 19 January 2012

2012-01-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

Thursday 19 January 2012

The sun's square with Saturn is exact today. This has been evident in wintry weather in a lot of places. Otherwise, it shows a need to balance one's hopeful self-expression with the reality of things, being neither too morose to get moving nor foolishly optimistic along unrealistic lines. So it means estimating one's prospects wisely and proceeding cautiously, but not so cautiously that one is immobilized. People who are older or in ill health may get one's attention or one may have responsibilities toward them. The day has sufficient energy behind it so that that none of these things need be depressing.

Socially, Venus's aspects remain excellent and I wanted to give the day an A rating but held back out of caution (previous paragraph). The moon's square with Mars suggests games might be a good social outlet, or indoor or winter sports (with appropriate caution). People can be feisty in an easygoing way. Working out tricky or difficult matters with a friend is favored.

The day may be more active than Wednesday, but things are on an even keel and ratings remain the same:

{Thursday}
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: B
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: B
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: C
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: D
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

The Iron or the Golden Rule? Wednesday 18 January Forecast

2012-01-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

The Iron or the Golden Rule?

Last night I watched the Republican debates. It is interesting that on Fox News, where watchers could Tweet their approval or disapproval of answers, Ron Paul won! By a huge margin. And Romney came in last! But Fox tried to dissemble and pretend that Paul didn't exist, with one of their "talking heads" showing a big chart which showed the results for Romney, Santorum and Gingrich only. He said, at the beginning, "Ron Paul maintained a constant lead above these three," and then proceeded to ignore the winner!

The lady anchor for Fox was getting hundreds of Tweeted protests from Paul supporters. Because of her (and their) intervention, finally Fox and the "talking head" presented another chart showing Paul as the clear, huge winner and Romney as the flunk-out! It was obvious they hated to do it.

But today that chart is no longer on the Fox website, and the other media have completely ignored those results. Paul is very consciously and deliberately ignored by the media, given fourth or fifth place in coverage even when he comes in second in the voting as in New Hampshire.

The things I really like about Paul are (a) his libertarianism about social and life-style issues and (b) most importantly, his foreign policy. His financial and tax ideas and opposition to "the welfare state" are silly and insupportable. There is a "welfare state" everywhere in the world, to some degree, and nobody is going to change that. It is merely a collective manifestation of basic human decency, a recognition that people need to be supported when they are unable to support themselves completely in economies which have very few jobs left. It may need modification, as I would admit, but not elimination. (For example, I would try to find some way of reducing excessive births {but not through abortion}, for it is ridiculous to expect the middle class to support endless production of children by those who cannot support them, especially when jobs are being replaced by machines everywhere.)

What inspired me to write this was the loud booing the Republicans attending the debate gave Ron Paul when he mentioned the Golden Rule. These Republicans booed the Golden Rule! That shows what they really are. Paul said that if we are constantly bombing other nations, how can we expect them not to bomb us? And then mentioned the Golden Rule. Loud boos! I suppose that if anyone had mentioned Jesus there would have been even louder boos. On Martin Luther King day, no less, the man whose career was based on Jesus's and Gandhi's non-violence, which is a particular application of the Golden Rule. Those who booed the Golden Rule have earned the vengeance of G*d. Fortunately for them, He has commanded us to be merciful and to pray for those who misunderstand and persecute. He himself is merciful, so my only prayer in this case must be that these mockers of God's teachings be converted and turned from their hideous effrontery, before they suffer the educative punishment they otherwise have earned.

Sir Real

P. S. I do not consider myself a total pacifist, although the teachings of Jesus lead in that direction. Sri Aurobindo taught that self-defense and national defense might include violence when inescapable; but we ought to be doing all we can to slow down and finally stop that vicious circle of attack and counter-attack.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

I gave Tuesday a D and then a C for weather, in the forecast, with the change at 11:55a PT. I am now in that zone in the Northwest and although it was still snowing at 11:55, by 12:25 it had stopped completely, although it had been snowing all morning. Score a point for Cosmic Piper. I am not claiming I can forecast the weather for every place in the world, for obviously China has different weather from Brazil, and both from the American Northwest, but I think you will find these indications interesting and, I hope, helpful, if combined with the usual weather forecasts and your own observation and intuition. I am giving that part of the forecast a C for today, even though the meteorologists are predicting more snow where I am. They may be right, but my rating suggests it won't be terribly disruptive (maybe the snow plowers will get it right) and I hope not where you are either. If there is cold or snow, that is to be expected while the sun is square Saturn, exact on Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday might be specially good for something connected with publicity; communication with bosses, superiors or clients; and friendly overtures in any direction which catches your fancy. The moon's square with Neptune, besides often increasing precipitation, puts a small cloud of doubt over many factors but there is sunshine within and around it, so you should not lose faith.

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: B
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: B
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: C
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: C
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: D
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is bold; A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Tuesday 17January 2012

2012-01-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 17 January 2012

I heard that some people in Europe call the third Monday in January "blue Monday" because it is about the most desolate or depressing in the year. This year I would agree, because of the lunar situation Monday, but let us hope today will be somewhat less bleak. It looks like a "get it done" day on several levels, which could be refreshing after the three-day break. The ability to stay with plans and actualize them is strong, with Mars trine both the sun and (increasingly) Mercury in earth signs. There are also feelings of internal peaceful satisfaction, with a mildly erotic streak (Venus well-aspected in Pisces).

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C, B*
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: C, B*
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: D, C*
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: D, C*
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

*After 10:01a PT|11:01aMT|12:01pCT|1:01pET|6:01pUT
and even slightly better after
11:55aPT|12:55pMT|1:55pCT|2:55pET|7:55pUT

E is effete; D is desperate; C is cool; B is better; A is awesome

{Tuesday}

Cosmic Piper

Monday 16 January 2012

2012-01-15T14:30:00.001-08:00

Monday 16 January 2012

The moon in the Via Combusta conjunct Saturn, square the sun and opposed to Jupiter does not make things easy, whether you are working today or not. Maybe it is time to consider the suffering of Martin Luther King Jr., after all, and those with whom he struggled for human rights. One's own suffering makes one sympathetic to the suffering of others and increases compassion.

Venus's good aspects lighten this load, when you can tune in to them, perhaps in the company of someone interesting.

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: C
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: D
Cooperation of circumstances, weather, traffic, conveniences: D
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking, worship, prayer, meditation, positive thinking: A always

E is effete, D is desperate, C is cool, B is better, A is awesome

Cosmic Piper

Weekend of January 14-15 2012

2012-01-13T09:22:00.001-08:00

Weekend of 14-15 January 2012

Since the first of the year we have had a good period for practical matters, planning, developing hopes into workable schemes. I think you can see what that means in your case and hope things are progressing for you.

It is interesting that since November 22, there have been no planets in water signs--except the moon one-fourth of the time on certain days. The emotional, responsive, feeling element has been present only with paucity and the head has ruled. That changes today, with Venus's entrance into Pisces. Neptune will join it in that sign on February 3. More about that later. It could be an interesting transit for the next thirteen years, until March 2025. Today and Sunday you might observe carefully how you repond to people and they to you, to sense what the addition of a planet in a water sign means. Pisces is Venus's exalted position. It is not always as good for romantic erotic love (though it can be) as for universal kindly love, which the ancient astrologers considered more exalted.

However, I could not deign to give the day better than a C social rating, because of other factors. Sunday could be an important day for a relationship, in some sense, even if disappointing.

Saturday 14 January 2012
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: A
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: C
Sheer relaxation, liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking and study, prayer, meditation, idealistic edification, positive thinking: A always

Sunday 15 January 2012
Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: C
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: D
Sheer relaxation, liberating self-exploration: C
Spiritual seeking and study, prayer, meditation, idealistic edification, positive thinking: A always

E is effete, D is desperate, C is cool, B is better, A is awesome.

Cosmic Piper

The Magi: Friday 13 January 2012

2012-01-12T17:18:00.001-08:00

The Magi

The "wise men" or Magi who visited the hotel and manger where the Saviour was born (I accept this as fact rather than myth) were astrologers. So it is said in the best English translation ever of the Bible, the New English Bible (Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970): "Jesus was born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of Herod. After his birth astrologers from the east arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 'Where is the child who is born to be king of the Jews? We observed the rising of his star, and we have come to pay him homage.'" (Matthew 2: 1-3) The wise men, Magi, astrologers, set out toward Bethlehem. "Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and bowed to the ground in homage to him; then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

Cosmic Piper can offer the Christ child, and any who read these reports, no more than what he has: a slim understanding of some aspects of astrology.

I would guess that this week you have done some concentrated and successful work along the lines of your major ambitions and hopes. That is all to the good, and whatever you have achieved, no matter how small, is a foundation for the future and can be developed in a way which is convincing to you from now through at least February 26.

Friday's ratings so far as I can discern them:

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: A
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: B
Sheer relaxation, liberating self-exploration: E
Spiritual seeking, prayer, idealistic edification, meditation, positive thinking: A always

E is effete, D is desperate, C is cool, B is better, A is awesome.

Cosmic Piper

Thursday 12 January 2012

2012-01-11T16:33:00.000-08:00

Thursday 12 January 2012

Experimental Estimations

There comes a point at which astrology has to be completely intertwined with philosophy, psychology, and spirituality. I am at that point in my observation and study. Therefore it is hard for me to write a forecast for the day unless I link it with those subjects. What the aspects mean to you will be different depending, of course, on your individual horoscope but also on your goals, life style, and position on or off a spiritual path.

I have been writing primarily for those who I assume to be on some spiritual path or other, but not necessarily. It is unlikely anyone who merely wants to use astrology to gamble, or enhance his or her sex life, is reading this.

I do point out "good days," based mostly on the daily-changing lunar aspects, and of course those could be used to choose the best day to go to a casino or race track, or seek a romantic or erotic partner . The results would vary depending again on the individual horoscope and aspects to it as well as progressions.

When I say it is a good social or party day, you may depend on the fact that I have been trying to pick them (part of me is a social creature) for decades and have learned a lot in the process. Further, I believe strongly that choosing the best generally good day of the week, based mostly but not only on lunar aspects, is more effective for going out and meeting people or having a good social or party time or seeking a partner than looking at the aspects to one's personal chart. Why? Because the general aspects are much stronger than most people and most astrologers realize. Decades ago when I studied my personal chart and aspects to it, I was puzzled by many things happening which did not fit those aspects well. I had to look at the general lunar aspects (for example the weekly hard aspect of the moon with Saturn) to understand why things were happening when they did. And so it is possible for me to convey that information to you.

After all, if you want to be with people, or a special someone, and have a good time it is not just your personal chart which is involved but that of all participants. The best way to choose such a time is with the general transits, which I use in these forecasts.

That said, it is still difficult because there are so many intertwining aspects and positions each day. Further, a day good for social events or dates and meeting people is not necessarily the same as a day good for getting a lot accomplished in your work or a project. So I try to make these fine discriminations. It is possible I should try to make them more definite, graded on a scale. I tried that in the past and gave up on it, but perhaps with the years of experience since then I could try again and do better. Let's try it for today, Thursday:

Social life, friendship, enjoyment, personal relationships: C+
Work, projects, concentration on achievement: B+
Negotiations, agreements, business, transactions, purchases: B
Sheer relaxation and liberating self-exploration: D

These are not bad ratings. This seems to be a time of opportunity. But I will be chary in giving out A's. You can turn these into A's by the way you handle things. Spiritual seeking, prayer, positive thinking and meditation always get an A.

What I am trying here is similar, probably, to something you are trying in some facet of your life, because we are having still a square between Uranus and Mercury while Mercury remains trined with Jupiter. You have been trying something clever, have you not? connected with adjusting things, finding opportunities, using your skills more fruitfully, improving techniques for income, health, a project, whatever seems crucial. It's an experimental time, but not frivolous. The experiment is designed to have solid practical success (current Saturn aspects with the trine of Mars and the sun).

{Thursday} Experimental Estimations

Cosmic Piper

Foundations and the Horoscope (Wednesday 11 January)

2012-01-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 11 January 2012

"Reality" is a word which scares us sometimes because we think of it as always challenging. So it is, in the sense that the child being weaned from constant parental support and supervision has to face difficulties and learn from them.

Some of that is going on now, but as a theist I believe in the overshadowing and protecting presence of the Supreme One no matter what happens. Of course that is more effective and substantial the more one has faith in Him.

Yesterday and today, as reported before, are the two days of the closest (though not exact this time) approach of Jupiter and Saturn to their opposition. Whatever you have been going through--both crises and opportunities--since April 2010 is at a point where you can comprehend what it means and get a handle on it, perhaps for the next decade or two. Some things you have realized, or are realizing even this week, are solid supports you can rest upon or develop into even better supports over the coming years.

There is some emotional touchiness, or perhaps separations from people, with the opposition of Luna to Venus and Neptune into late evening and early morning of Thursday. A male-female relationship seems to be at a fateful turning point. This is not bad, even if troubling, but probably cannot be understood till later.

Yet abundant pleasures and satisfacitons are available. Some aspect of your work which is unique, which only you can do, is getting your deep attention. Job or career matters seem to be shaping up in ways you comprehend. Someone with a realistic view of health, technique, and friendship irritates you part of the time even though you learn from him grudgingly.

Communication, however fraught with tensions, becomes necessary, and you can do it as best you can rather than worry too much or postpone it.

Cosmic Piper

Foundations and the Horoscope

In writing about religion and people's religious or spiritual approaches to life, as I have been for several days, I sense that one factor is missing glaringly. It is the matter of individual approaches to these things.

It probably does not need to be said that everyone approaches G*d; or the universe, if he or she does not believe in God; or life, if he or she does not believe in the universe, in a unique fashion. Not all atheists are alike, nor all Muslims nor all Christians, and so on. And now with the "new age," however that be interpreted, there are even more diverse spiritual approaches, and people mix them up in endless variety. The "spiritual smorgasbord" turns around in the "spiritual cafeteria."

That is as it should be. And so my current insistence on reading the Bible (for myself) may seem odd, because if anything the Bible, whether Tenach or New Testament, presents not a spiritual smorgasbord but definite rules everyone must follow, a la Moses and the Law. (By the Law I do not mean just the ten commandments, most of which are relatively non-controversial, but all the complex laws in Leviticus, requiring that countless people be stoned to death, most of which are ignored by contemporary Jews and Christians.)

There is a progression in the Bible from the rigid adherence to the laws required by Moses on to the looser but still highly moral pronouncements of the Prophets to the much more gracious but still strict teachings of Jesus.

And now the progression has gone further, in the general consciousness of let's say Europe and America anyway, to the "anything goes," "choose your own path" notion.

I am in deep waters here, because to try to say something intelligent and helpful about all that in a few paragraphs may be impossible. Let's put it this way: The reason I am reading the Bible is that when there are no foundations, it is very good to look to foundations which have worked for people in the past: Not to adopt them blindly but to learn from them, choose those which work, or modify them if needed. And this is not mostly an intellectual process. Intellectual people generally are very impatient with the Bible. It is a process of sensing, feeling, absorbing, what past generations (in the case of the Bible Semitic generations, for the most important early Christians including Paul were of course Jews) have found essential to their survival and success.

One might, with tongue partly in cheek, say that it is an attempt to steal the fire of the group of people which might be the most materially and professionally successful in the history of the world, the Jews. And, following them, the European Christians did in fact seem to "steal their fire" through studying their Scriptures along with those of the early Christians which we call the New Testament. The British Empire may have been, outwardly at least, the pinnacle of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, in terms of worldly power, and the next pinnacle the American Empire. Yes, Manifest Destiny.

It would not be absurd to say that the traditions and teachings encoded in the Bible were the source of that enormous worldly success. Okay then, if you want to be successful, study the Bible! I am sorry if that sounds bourgeois, selfish and stolid.

But of course, there are other great works to study, and other Scriptures and other literatures, one of which, the Bhagavad Gita of India, has my special affection.

And much more for which I do not have time today.

Now to the title of this section: It is obvious to me as an astrologer (and to Cosmic Piper) that individuals' orientations to life, including their religious-spiritual orientations, are very much linked to their birth horoscopes. I could show this in scores of ways in a large book which I may write some day. But assuming for a moment that it is true, one sees at once that everyone has a somewhat different spiritual path, which brings us back to the first two paragraphs of this section. I am not ready to say that "everyone is his own God" because I do not believe that. I am ready to say, however, that everyone has his or her own special relation to the one G*d and that it is partly discernible or better understandable through studying that individual's horoscope. Even the greatest spiritual teachers or Avatars can be understood better by studying their horoscopes. This is an amazing fact. It leads me to make another astounding claim: We will never understand spiritual paths, teachings, and practices, and how they help people, and why some people need some paths and others others, until we begin to understand astrology and individual horoscopes much more deeply and fully.

Sir Real

The Media's Spiritual Blackout (Tuesday 10 January)

2012-01-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 10 January 2012

This is the final day of the |stressful third of this week| according to the formula, but the moon's presence in Leo helps make things more cheerful. The reconstruction of your life continues, with supportive strength (Saturn and Jupiter well-aspected, and a trine between Mars and the sun). Questions of income are being resolved. Your mind is sharp to understand finances and practical matters, and so your choices in that realm are likely to be correct, for the rest of this week at least, so if you are working out something of that nature, now is the time.

Household matters go well, as if you are enjoying your home and prosperity within it. Gifts may be given or received.

The quite rare (twice in 29 years) trine between Saturn and Neptune is almost exact, and so is worth pondering. It is a happy collusion between materiality (Saturn) and spirituality (Neptune). Meditation, prayer, and spiritual study or awareness are favored deeply. Which brings up matters Sir Real has been concerned with . . .

Cosmic Piper

The Media's Spiritual Blackout

Spiritual seekers have been portrayed as escapists. One feels, for example, that the editors of the New York Times have decided, point blank, though never mentioning it to their readers, to publish no good or helpful articles about spirituality or spiritual seekers. They publish very frequently articles by agnostics or atheists, or scientistic thinkers debunking what they consider superstitious beliefs in the mysterious or paranormal. One might think that "the world's greatest newspaper," in the interest of comprehensiveness, might report on the actual beliefs and spiritual practices of the world's people. No dice. Not unless, of course, some religious person or group does something silly or nasty. Then one will find long, detailed, accusatory articles in the New York Times and in the other media (which mimic it when not actually stealing from it). "Look how silly, wrong, unethical or ridiculous these religious people are!" is the very clear message. One might call it a "subtext" although it is usually more blatant than that.

For example, I saw yesterday that the Times had published an article titled "Yoga can Wreck your Body" with a comic-strip drawing of people's bodies knocked out of shape or distorted by hatha yoga exercises. In other words, "We were right all the time, the best way of life is the materialistic agnostic or atheistic New York way of life: work, get rich, have sex, be a real mensch. Yoga is for idiots." It's not hard at all to read that subtext. The editors of the Times also believe, no doubt, that "Christianity (Islam, Hinduism) will wreck your mind and your life," although since they might have a few Christian or Muslim or Hindu paying subscribers they are rather timid about making obvious what they really think.

I have been doing hatha yoga for thirty years, almost every day, and my body is in excellent shape. I chose the best possible exercise to do, the Surya Namaskar or Salutation to the Sun, which I recommend to one and all.

When have you seen in "the world's greatest newspaper" a Christian sermon? Or a Jewish rabbi's sermon? (Although the Times is, of course, pro-Jewish, when it comes to secular Jewish culture, it draws the line at the core of the religion itself.) Or a Hindu guru's instructions to his followers? A Muslim sheik's sermon? Or a commentary by a Buddhist teacher? In my view they might easily, at least once a week, devote a page not to the scandals which ripple across the field of religion as across every field, but to presenting the actual views of religious people. They publish the views of atheists, but not the views of Christians, Muslims, or Hindus. (I won't even mention Theosophists, occultists, and astrologers.)

"The world's greatest newspaper" has a lot of catching up, and growing up, to do.

Sir Real

Why the Bible? (Monday January 9)

2012-01-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

Why the Bible?

I said yesterday that I was reading the Bible and predicted that many would be joining me in coming years. That is not the kind of prediction you see in a New Age blog or astrology column.

Why the Bible? Just because it is something which needs to be faced, it seems to me, by those who are at a crisis point, and many believe our civilization is at such a point.

I do acknowledge, however, the objections of those who say the Bible is outmoded, is primitive, and so on, as for example the late Christopher Hitchens the atheist who loved to point out the ugliest and most contradictory and seemingly unethical or brutal passages in that compilation.

That is absolutely nothing new! The French intellectuals of the 18th century did it long ago, as did the rationalistic scientistic thinkers of the late years of the 19th century. These people did not eliminate the faith of Jews and Christians, nor shall Christopher Hitchens and his like.

Obviously one must use discretion in reading the Bible. For many years I decided to read nothing but the Psalms and the Gospels. That was a wise choice. For someone who does not know the Bible and does not care to delve into it, I wholeheartedly recommend just that. The Psalms and the Gospels. A Psalm in the morning, read at least twice, with perhaps a line or two memorized, the lines that speak to one directly on that day. And one of the 89 chapters of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. No matter how many scholars in the past and future debate the life of Jesus, or the validity of any account of it, these four books as they have come down are the canonical and only reliable source of what Jesus did and taught. It does not matter if there are apparent contradictions in them. Read any account of any recent prominent figure, for example John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and you will find discrepancies. That does not mean the JFK did not exist or that his character did not have a strong impact on American and world history. It means that different observers, scribes, and historians see things differently, as is well known in courts of law where, for example, innocent men have been condemned to prison or death by wrong identification.

Of course the Bible, even the Psalms and Gospels, need to be read with discretion, for example: In the Gospels, one needs to beware of taking a lot of things literally which are parables or parabolic. Millions of Christians believe in a literal eternal Hell where people who reject Jesus and his message are tormented forever. However, they do not believe that Jesus meant literally that if one's hand sinned, one ought to cut it off! Which is something he said. A lot of Christians would be walking around with one hand or no hands if that were true. I decided as a child to reject the idea of a literal Hell. Where Jesus appears to support such a belief, he is talking in the hyperbolic language the prophets always used. Hyperbole means you exaggerate. Some of the ethical offenses Jesus saw in the decadent Roman empire and the parallel decadence of many of the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees were so appalling to him that his language had to be strong to warn people against falling into them. Certainly, at the least, he meant that there is bound to be suffering for sin or for anti-ethical acts of oppression and cruelty. That goes along with the Hindu and Buddhist teachings of the laws of karma. But nobody with a fair mind believes that such suffering is eternal, once the lesson has been learned. I say, give Jesus a break and realize he was using strong language, strong parallels in a hyperbolic prophetic sense, to warn people against suffering for their sins which might seem eternal in some cases.

As for the Psalms, there are large numbers of passages in them which I do not accept into my heart, namely, those condemning one's enemies to torment, death, destruction, oblivion. This is more or less the earlier Semitic harshness which came into Christianity as the Hell doctrine. I gloss over those passages because I understand them to be desperate, exhausted, despairing pleas for escape from intolerably cruel situations into which the Jewish people were forced at various times in their history. It is normal for people to feel, when treated unfairly, that those who so treat them ought to be destroyed. It is supernormal to attempt to understand and forgive them, and I do not hold the authors of the Psalms to such a high saintly standard--although they did reach it at times. What is superb in the Psalms is the constant sense of the presence of the Lord, Yahweh, G*d as the savior, the One who can lift one out of one's misery, the merciful One who can work miracles in one's life. It is this which has made them the model for virtually all prayer in the Western world.

When I run across one of the harsh condemning passages in the Psalms, I usually stop and substitute a silent prayer of my own, not that enemies be destroyed but that they be converted, saved from their errors, guided into the right path. Of course, that might sometimes involve suffering as well as Grace, but not suffering as irrevocable endless punishment.

The strengthening, guiding effect of the practice I just recommended has been proved to me. I believe the same would be the case for any human being no matter what his or her beliefs or presuppositions. A basic (though not sole) prescription for all human ills: the Psalms and the Gospels.

Sir Real

Monday 9 January 2012

We can distinguish between the emotional tone of the day, which could be gloomy frequently, and the likelihood of getting things done, which is excellent. You can work through moods, fears, anxieties, doubts, and get a lot accomplished, which will of course tend to remove those anxieties and doubts. (They stem partly from this being part of the |difficult or emotionally stressful third| of this week, based on the moon-Saturn cycle, from Sunday evening through Tuesday.)

Financial matters get a go-ahead from more than one direction. Some of your hopes are cooking along toward a flavorful dish of fulfillment. There could be enjoyable entertainment at home, and links with people at a distance. There can be reliable business contacts and developments. Sunday evening's Full Moon continues to give us expanded consciousness, fullness of realization.

From a longer-term perspective, the opposition of Jupiter and Saturn commented on often is near its closest point, this week, until it dissipates gradually by April. Again, you might look over the past couple of years since April 2010. Where are you now that is different from then? How have your plans and intentions changed? You are at a point where you can get a firm grip on those changes and dispatch yourself in a solid direction, especially from now through February 26.

{Monday 9 January 2012}

Cosmic Piper

In the Beginning, Fear . . .

2012-01-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

In the Beginning, Fear . . .

the fear of God.

As in, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10), "and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

I believe that someone who does not have a fear of God, that is, a deep respect for Him, is lost. If one believes there is no being greater than oneself, or other human beings, one is lost. That is my firm conviction. (I care not a fig that atheism is the current "hip" belief, or non-theistic [that is, technically atheistic] Buddhism the rage, as it has been for decades in some circles.)

Children know this. A child "bawling," that is, terrified and extremely upset, is praying. And if his parents are the immediate cause of the upset, he is not praying to them, most surely!

He has no word for that to which he is praying, but he knows It, or He or She, is there. G*d heard the "bawling" of Ishmael in the wilderness and sent an angel to his mother Hagar to rescue him (Genesis 21).

As a Christian, but not a "doctrinal" Christian because usually when I read statements of doctrine or dogma I find that they are not in the four Gospels, I feel deeply that "the fear of G*d" reaches its peak in the Crucifixion. A friend reminded me that thousands of other victims were crucified by the Romans. Jesus, according to Christian conviction, embodied the suffering of all those thousands. As it is put crudely and too briefly but correctly, He died for sinners. Beyond sin himself, He suffered the tortured death of a criminal.

And so, the fear of G*d . . . If Jesus Himself, the Son of Man as he called himself (only once or twice did he use the phrase "son of God"), had to suffer a tortured death, what about me? I am no better, in fact much worse, so what of me? Fear. The Crucifixion embodies all the fear that goes on between God and man. As a child feels utterly abandoned by its parents, Jesus faced that in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.

It seems such a simple thing to understand that I don't "get" why non-Christians don't get it. The answer to that, apparently, is that only spiritual experience reveals what the Crucifixion meant and means. The "enlightened" intellect can never get it. Only grief like that of Jesus can comprehend His grief. Which means that "good grief" is a gift from G*d to humanity, perhaps. If the fear of G*d is the beginning of wisdom, its continuation may be the ability to feel grief over others' suffering as much as one's own. It must be said to their credit that thousands of agnostics or atheists do appear to feel such grief (Noam Chomsky for example). In the eyes of the G*d they do not accept they may be better human beings than many superficial nominal Christians.

Have I said anything new here? I don't think so. These are my gropings toward understanding what others have already understood. But somehow, I (and probably you) have to figure it all out on my own. With the help of (I have to say it) the Scriptures.

Yes, I am becoming a dedicated Bible-reader. And I believe--this is a prediction--that thousands of others will join me in coming years. The Bible is going to enjoy a revival. (If being studied by dim-witted human beings is anything to enjoy.)

The conventional "faith" of the 21st century is doomed. Here are its tenets: 1. There is nothing but human beings and their technology--oh, and the planet, the world of nature (almost forgot). 2. Human beings and their technology are the only saviors. 3. There are no miracles but material technology. 4. You are a bundle of flesh and nerves which lives until it dies, and its life may be prolonged by--you guessed it--the only savior, technology. 5. So eat, live, be happy, use technology and its human creators to prolong your life as best you can, and when you die you're finished, might as well be gracious about it.

Okay, if that is your faith, you probably don't want to read any farther.

As for my "faith," I cannot encapsulate it in so many tenets or doctrines. It goes way beyond that. It is the faith of the Bible (Tenach and New Testament) as a whole, it is the faith and gnosis of Sai Baba and of Sri Aurobindo. I am a Hebrew Christian Hindu and a Hindu Hebrew Christian. I arrived at that point after decades of assiduous spiritual research and experiment. G*d is real, the G*d of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, the G*d of my lord Jesus Christ, the G*d of Rama and Krishna and Sai Baba and Sri Aurobindo. He (or She if you wish) is real, conscious, and personal, that is, superpersonal, "beyond imagination and conception" as Meher Baba put it, and yet present as loving Father, Mother, Friend to those who can see "with eyes Divine."

Sir Real

If you read this Friday, I must say Friday afternoon and evening, up to very late, have the benefit of a trine from the moon to Venus, good for social occasions and having a good time. However, it is in positions which suggest concern about work, income, production, career, so you might be discussing or developing such matters with someone you like.

There is a sense of hurry both Friday and Saturday, with the moon square Mars. This could be overeagerness, or else an ability to clinch solutions quickly in anything you want to do with celerity. Saturday should bring munificent awareness and insight, with the moon opposite Mercury while trine both Saturn and Neptune. Answers are coming.

Cosmic Piper

Friday 6 January 2012: New Directions

2012-01-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

Friday 6 January 2012

}New Directions{

In this holy season, the Twelve Days of Christmas, ending Thursday as I write (although Friday January 6 is the wonderful day of Epiphany), I am reconsidering this daily forecast and its place in my life---and yours. I hope it has been somewhat interesting and helpful to you. I believe that at this point it is time to reconsider the way I do it, as in fact I do every day---but more fully.

It has been an experiment from the beginning, which was in the summer of 1999. I have studied, observed, researched, and re-studied, re-observed, and re-researched, day after day, hundreds, thousands of days, not only as they occurred but important days in the past in my own life and others'. The project has taught me an enormous lot about astrology and about human beings.

That the forecasts would be imperfect was a foregone conclusion. Trying to perfect them, however, was a wonderful experience. The methods I have ended up with seem the best methods anyone could use for such a daily forecast, that is, a daily attempt to understand the astrological aspects of our solar system as they correspond with the experiences of human beings on the planet. Other methods there undoubtedly are, but these held up over trial and test better than any others known or hypothesized by me.

The question is not whether astrology works. It does. It is an amazing gift to the human race. The question is whether a report, filtered through one human mind, attempting to reflect the total experiences of beings on planet Terra, can be consistently illuminating and helpful to all the individuals reading it. Perhaps it can. And perhaps mine cannot, that is, perhaps I am not capable of that. There has never been any doubt but that other matters, in terms of astrology especially the natal (birth) horoscope of each individual, are also important in the daily mix of experience. Obviously I cannot look at those in a report meant for everyone. The question has been whether or not each individual can automatically adjust the meaning of each report, while reading it, to reflect his own horoscope and what is going on in his own life so that it will be helpful as a guide along his path.

There is no doubt that the aspects do apply to everyone. All you have to do is go to a public place while the moon is square Saturn, on one day, and then to the same place while it is sextile Venus, on another day, to see the difference. There is no doubt that |the difficult third of each week| is in fact, in most cases, |the difficult third of the week| as discovered by me many years ago and reconfirmed every week. I myself find this very helpful in my weekly planning. Others perhaps do not. Perhaps some are meant to ignore all such signs or signals and learn how to live without them.

One problem is that every astrological aspect and position has a multitude of meanings, within a given circle of meanings. Another is that there are so many aspects and positions each day. Knowing which are most prominent at a given time is difficult. Finding the right words to convey what they might mean is usually even more difficult.

Some day, probably, the statisticians will wake up to astrology, and they will discover amazing things. I am an informal statistician, as is every astrologer who ever lived (if he was worth his salt). And informal observers often have the edge on the formal ones with their peer reviews, because less hampered by clumsy and endless conventional research apparatus. My peers, from whom I learn, are the great writers on astrology, including Marc Edmund Jones, C. E. O. Carter, Grant Lewi, Isabel Hickey, Alan Leo, Robert DeLuce, Robert Pelletier, and others; and my personal teachers Eleanor Bach and Al Morrison. I salute them as bold adventurers into the mysteries of astrology, studying and working with very little pay for the sheer joy of understanding, who have given me an enormous gift.

For example, here is what Grant Lewi wrote about me before I was born: That is, about anyone who has the sun in Aries and moon in Pisces (one in 144 individuals if chance were to rule birth-times): "You express readily, having a facile flow of language, and you have a conviction that you know the truth of many matters which for some reason or other you cannot get across to your associates. This is a Cassandra-like position--a prophet who is very likely to be right but can't make anyone believe him." Yes, Grant Lewi, departed yet present brother in the brotherhood of astrologers, you explained something about me there which has been extremely helpful over the years.

The structures in individual horoscopes are as significant, and perhaps even more significant, than the structures in the sky every day. Both need to be taken into account, although I am convinced that someone who does not know the date of his birth can by studying astrology also learn how to navigate his way more successfully, from current aspects and other indications.

The reports take a great deal of my time and energy. And since the results are mixed, perhaps that energy is, at this point in my life, being misapplied. There are other things I need to do, both in astrology and in philosophic and spiritual research.

If this daily report continues, it may take an entirely different shape. Some of you may not be interested in the way it goes. It might be more personal, more philosophic and religious, more free-form. I may mention current astrological aspects now and then, but not in the systematic way I have been attempting. It might become essays rather than reports.

Or so it seems to me today. Thank you for being a faithful reader and thanks to those of you who have commented because all such comments have helped me.

We shall see what we shall see.

Happy Twelfth Night, and happy Epiphany tomorrow.

Hugh Higgins
Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 5 January 2012

2012-01-04T12:28:00.001-08:00

Thursday 5 January 2012

}Gaining through Providence and Patience{

So many things are humming along smoothly. At least, with a little elbow grease you can sort them out and put them in a workable agenda. I have noted over the years that the good aspects between Mercury and Jupiter are good for business, jobs, transactions, agreements. That aspect (the trine) is with us now through at least the twelfth, or a week from now. Job-hunters, for example, should take note. This could be a very good time to apply for a job, perhaps even one which you thought had been denied to you before. The same might apply to apartment-hunting or house-hunting. It could be a good time to invest or sort out investments, household finances, or handle anything requiring financial planning. It is an opportunity aspect.

Today it is relatively easy to be in the favor of those in high positions.

Music or the arts could be prominent, or else a facilitating background.

Some who are focused on their own ends are somewhat careless of the well-being of others whom they want to use. This does not rule out cooperating with them when that is essential. Perhaps negotiation is possible.

Someone with unique talent at the genius level may get your attention, or his or her works. They are yours to appreciate.

Who has the prerogative to rule, or to administer (in a democracy)? The electoral process is supposed to determine that, rather than privilege or heredity. Yet the populace wants someone it believes in to glory at the top.

What you have labored at long you are willing to labor at more, because you know its value, and so are patient. Therefore good things and people will grace your camp and headquarters.

{Thursday} {Gaining through Providence and Patience}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 4 January 2012

2012-01-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 4 January 2012

\To Each His/Her Role/

At the risk of repeating myself, it's essential to point out that the once-in-20-years opposition of Jupiter and Saturn will be as close to exact as it's going to get a week from today, and you may be feeling what that means subconsciously. Basically, is is a turning point in your life which you have been going through since April 2010. If you ponder what has happened since then you will get clues as to what you need to do next. From now through February 26 is the perfect time to get the momentum going.

If there is a painful part of the process, it is seeing into mistakes you have made, but that of course is only so you may correct them and not make them in the future. You will see others' mistakes also and may need to correct them with as little harshness as possible.

Accounts and finances may be handled well, especially in early morning. Later also, though perhaps with less certainty. You can hold on to what has proved itself, what you know in your gut to be best for you, so that you don't falter amid doubts later in the day.

You could be resourceful about household matters, including changes or improvements.

Someone with prodigious abilities along some line may become closer to you, more intimate or inclined to share in a satisfying manner.

Division of labor means that you have your particular work to do which specially rewards or satisfies you, while you would not want to do what someone else does. You may be sensing, "Yes, this is my work, my part in providing what people need."

When you feel you have been incompetent or unable to save yourself, there is always faith in the Supreme, and in whatever human person or agency the Supreme provides for you. So you can recover and resume a happier voyage.

{Wednesday} /To Each His/Her Role\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 3 January 2012

2012-01-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 3 January 2012

\Basic Ongoing Support Better Determined/

Although technically this is the last day of the |difficult third of this week|, our moon's position in Taurus forming trines with Pluto, the sun, and finally Mars suggests solid practical orientation on the third day of a Bright Hermetic Epoch. You could get material, business, transactional affairs in order to a satisfying degree.

Research is significant, finding secrets which only you know or, if others already know them, they mean something to you other than anyone else has ever grasped.

Amazing things are shaping up in your inner life. The spiritual world, limited only by a horizon of aspiration, dazzles you, casts you upon yourself: upon that in you which wrestles with and embraces the Infinite. We cannot use It, and neither does It use us.

Venus is favorably positioned, yet suggests friendly relations with someone who is crippled, ill, injured or otherwise partly disabled.

An irrepressible part of you faces limitations of location or information with a pure sense of illimitable possibilities and so keeps you on a track of success. You do not have to go far from home, or your ordinary job location, to travel in the spirit and learn what you need to know.

Mental quest and search never ends, but with the Bright Epoch you feel more secure in the quest, as if there were a sure compass needle in your mind. What is career, what is job, what is knowledge or expertise? You are "getting" all that even if you could not define it in so many words.

It seems everyone's goals are separate, yet in teamwork some goals are common. A question might be, what teams are you on and what can you do to keep them winning. Giving up feelings of isolation is essential in the process. Yes, in some ways you are unique and alone. But it is important to avoid bitterness, keeping the door open to cooperation no matter how often that may have failed in the past.

{Tuesday} /Basic Ongoing Support Better Determined\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 2 January 2012

2012-01-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

Monday 2 January 2012

*Inspiration Dissolving Worry*

The "Bright Hermetic Epoch" (which began yesterday and lasts through February 26) may not seem "bright" because it starts off with the moon's weekly hard aspect with Saturn, making Sunday (the 1st) through Tuesday the|difficult or probably most emotionally stressful| third of this week. (A little more than a third this time.) That's just the way it is, as I have observed for decades. In other words, the "issues" you face seem more harsh than they probably will the rest of the week. Hopefully my saying this will help you gain perspective or be calmer, whatever you are going through.

You may be aware of a crafty or predatory quality in some. Yet in yourself, if ethical, it can be a gift for seeing into your self-interest perspicaciously.

There is likely to be surprising erotic or sexual arousal coming from seemingly nowhere, which can be enlisted to give you energy, sublimated, or allowed to pull you into questionable self-indulgence. It can be a gift of enjoying people and the games they play, their bids for applause or popularity.

Disputation, in self-defense or defense of one's opinions, is likely. You are not going to budge on principles you feel to be unquestionable.

You might look for or find something you had lost, or recover something for a friend. Unexpected treasure could turn up, but not of an extravagant sort. People are curious about the natural world and what lies about them. Such curiostiy could extend to the spiritual world, with Neptune playing a strong beneficent role. What to one seems imagination to another is solid superphysical reality.

Cooperating and adapting yourself to what others are doing can be satisfying even if you do it grudgingly at first. Once the momentum starts it can be helpful to all, releasing self-expression.

When there is doubt and delay concerning material affairs, spiritual interests flourish, so turning to inspirational materials could be one of the best things to do. Faith is often born of despair. You might fan a flame of it in someone else also.

{Monday} *Inspiration Dissolving Worry*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 31 December 2011

2011-12-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday 31 December 2011

*Steering Past Reefs to Hope*

The moon in Aries all day suggests people will really be looking forward to a new year with zest. (And, to get this out of the way at the beginning, I am not one who believes the Mayan calendar, or the peculiar interpretation of it some have propounded, rules our lives.) There should be clearer definition of what you want and where you are going than on Friday.

A social trend is present, as always on New Year's Eve, but also a definite desire to be clear about your self-worth, what you mean to yourself and your value in the world. Your bank balance or monetary "net worth" is not an index of your real worth in the eyes of G*d. You care about the latter, and also your reputation in the eyes of human beings, and it is normal in terms of the day's astrological positions that you cannot get that out of your head during partying. So you may choose relatively sober partying, or none at all. Still, there is a tri-quintile between Mars and Venus, and so a happy social trend in one way or another, especially in late hours and early Sunday when the moon is sextile Venus.

You remember what is important in years before, in an evanescent, unpredictable manner, as if a scattered incomplete panorama of your life were displayed before your eyes. Impressions of the present mingle with those from the past.

Preserving yourself from defamation could be an issue (Mercury square Mars continues). People are likely to say things which sound much harsher than intended. It is fine to defend yourself as long as that does not look like self-doubt or whining. If you are in the right you will say what is needed in your defense in a simple inoffensive manner and let it go. That will be more impressive than a pleaful argument.

On the other side of this, you might offend by tactless remarks of which you are quite unconscious. "How does the other person interpret or feel this?" should be a question asked of yourself before every remark. (Maybe this is the secret of the "strong silent type" of days of yore.) People are likely to read a subtext you did not intend.

All this could happen also in connection with opinions, politics, religion, beliefs, agendas, whether your own or someone else's. Yet there is potentially deep tolerance, with Neptune in good aspect with the Jupiter-Saturn opposition, so you can finesse such disagreements somehow and bring good will to bear on the situation. People sometimes do not understand the consequences of their beliefs, and if they did, would change them. If you pretend that they will do that in the future, you will feel better.

Expressing yourself freely is wonderful at certain moments, when the reefs just pointed out are avoided. Then a kind of game-like atmosphere lets everybody relax and joke, no matter how serious beneath the surface.

Subconsciously, some feel that their lives are collapsing or have collapsed. This is not true, in the light of eternity, but seems frightening, so this day and tomorrow could be troubling to them. Helping them feel better could be the secret of a Happy New Year.

{Saturday} *Steering Past Reefs to Hope*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 30 December 2011

2011-12-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

Friday 30 December 2011

~Chaos or Listless Variety~

The major trends can be covered by pointing out (1) that the Bright Hermetic Epoch, lasting through February 26, begins Sunday January 1; and (2) the two-year opposition of Saturn and Jupiter reaches its peak January 10-11, then decreases until it vanishes in April for another 18 years or so. Both of these are good omens, but the second is harder because I believe we are feeling the final bite of that opposition. As previously suggested, look over the past two years of your life and consider what has developed. You are probably still working out some of those issues.

Rather than write a long essay on this, which I felt I might today, I will be brief. Saturn is contraction, Jupiter expansion (to oversimplify). We have all been involved in figuring out how to contract some things so others can expand. For example, the head of Netflix a few months ago decided to increase fees and make his company two companies and make his customers pay on two different accounts if they used both the mail and the online versions of his service. This was expansion of his company, as it were, but it looked to customers like contraction of their service and of their cash! They protested vigorously and many canceled their subscriptions. Eventually the CEO (whose name escapes me at the moment) relented and (a) contracted his "expansion" plans so that (b) his customer base could "expand" because their fees would "contract." This was one way he and his customers experienced the Jupiter-Saturn opposition.

It's easy to see it in finances. To have one thing, you have to cut back on something else. A more expensive apartment or house means fewer vacations, etc. Or in investing: Many investors are finding that they have to cut back their losses (contract) by either trying to "time the market" (which everyone agrees is difficult) or selecting a smaller set of companies to invest in or using some other astringent investing technique. That is the Saturn side of it. They want their investments to expand (Jupiter) but prevailing conditions require them to contract their investments in order for their income from them to expand.

"Less is more" becomes somewhat meaningful in a multitude of directions.

Another example: Jupiter pleasures include eating and drinking. They make the body expand. This is enjoyable at first, then distressing because the expanded body is less healthy. Saturn is needed desperately to curtail overeating and overdrinking. By the paradox of things, enjoying less is enjoying more, because one cannot enjoy anything if one has distended one's body to the point of ill health.

Such basic yin-yang oppositions are always present, but to a more crucial degree during the duration of this aspect. It has included the worldwide sovereign debt crisis and high unemployment. Now, and the first half of January especially, could be the time you will work out or settle some of these issues for yourself, however they are configured in your own life.

Friday may have a lot of frustrating elements in it. It would be wise to calm down and reduce outward expectations. People seem to want more than they can obtain, and so experience intense frustration. Enjoying yourself in private is good, or in a place which feels almost like home to you. You may feel like "making a big splash" while at work and while enjoying yourself, getting attention, but there is no simple way to do it, so you can be content with what develops.

I don't like the word "cruelty" but have used it recently because of the square between Mercury and Mars. This can be anger and irritation with things, necessities, and people, and the result could be intense concentration on your own ends while feeling "let them go to the blue blazes." Of course it would be wise to make sure this does not end up as conscious or unconscious cruelty.

A lecture on alcohol is not something any of us want, but it's interesting that the subject has turned up so much in what I hear and see while Neptune is highly aspected and the moon is in Pisces. So I will just say, you might want to observe closely what happens with the drinking of alcohol either by you or around you. "Moderation" is the wisdom of the ages.

Being on the move is an urge you may feel strongly, partly just to experience the variety of what is in your locale. Since the moon is void-of-course all day (beginning at 5:37a PT | 8:37a ET | 1:37p UT), this restlessness could be haphazard or unpredictable so that you end up going places you didn't expect. As in paragraph 7, home is also good, or a homelike place. People have a tendency to want to assert themselves, which is all right as long as respectful of others' rights and opinions. "Let it be" is often good advice.

{Friday} ~Chaos or Listless Variety~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 29 December 2011

2011-12-28T12:01:00.001-08:00

Thursday 29 December 2011

~Strength Used Diplomatically~

Success could be near at hand, for many, with the sun conjoined to Pluto while the moon in Pisces is harmonious with both. However, Robert Pelletier gives this warning about the former aspect: "Your magnetic charm has a hypnotic effect on people. However, unless you are willing to serve others when they are unable to help themselves, even those who are charmed by you will respond with anger." This could be a warning against "leaving someone in the lurch" whether in business or a personal relationship.

That tendency could come from a lofty feeling that you are above and beyond other people's multiple evanescent troubles. True, we need philosophic detachment from all that, so long as it doesn't squelch compassion. The latter should be available from somewhere because the moon is in Pisces.

Mercury squaring Mars, both in hard aspect with the moon, also suggests cruelty, perhaps unconscious. Again, if this is realism--such as wishing someone would "just get over it" when something can't be helped--fine, although there are better ways than harshness to help people "get over it" such as, by example or precept, showing them a better way.

Strength in others, such as any who teach or aid you, is to be admired and used even if at times they seem harsh or unkind. You in turn can "get over it."

Sheer pleasure is not a sin when harmless although today you may reject its temptations when you feel you have to focus on learning and applying essential skills through study, effort, or both.

Courage in meeting the world's variety lifts you over timidity.

Trusting in the cosmos enough to joke over things which seem mildly unjust could prevent needless conflict, which could be a bar to progress. If investigation or protest is needed, let it be as inoffensive as possible. People will generally take a hint if it is proffered with sincerity and goodwill.

{Thursday} ~Strength Used Diplomatically~

Cosmic Piper

P. S. In the earlier versions of Wednesday's report there was a serious mistake: The end of the Dark Hermetic Epoch was given as January 31 (first paragraph) when it really is December 31. I corrected it in the website versions as soon as it was pointed out by a faithful reader. If you were confused by it, I apologize.

Forecast for Wednesday 18 December 2011

2011-12-27T19:15:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 28 December 2011

}Conscious Strategic Coordination{

The long-term view I try to present is what has helped me over the years and I hope it will help you. When I speak of the Dark Hermetic Epoch (which began November 5 and ends exactly December 31 this year) and the Bright Hermetic Epoch (which begins January 1 and lasts through February 26) I am trying to point out a set of mind which will help you navigate these two-month periods. Dark: be wary, slow, cautious, as if walking in the dark; enjoy and develop your inner life; become more spiritual; beware of totally new projects or moves. Bright: Be more outward-going, more confident in what look like right choices; push ahead with what seems best; rather than slow down as in the Dark Epoch, see where opportunities are and go for them; trust your logical mind and intuition and get on with it. The spiritual, inner, "dark" world is still there, but does not take as much attention and time.

Obviously not every outward move or beginning during a Dark Epoch will be a mistake. But most of them require caution at the beginning and seem plagued with delays. So it is good to be patient with them rather than push them forcefully. If they are worth while they will flower or pick up speed eventually during the next Bright Epoch. That is where we are now, close to it--four days from now. What looks good may be good, and is 'brewing."

On Wednesday you may feel like railing against whatever or whomever has blocked your plans, but you have enough philosophic detachment to know this will do no good. Self-will and resentment can be overcome. What is beyond your conscious control may be working good for you.

It is good to give attention to deep teaching of the past, as Scripture or any spiritual authority you trust. A more superficial interest in antiquities might be part of the day. Either way, you get a sense of personal command from retrospective study or information.

Your fidelity to what has proved helpful is sustaining you, materially and otherwise, so it is pointless to ramify away from it. Astrologer Isabel Hickey says of Saturn trine Neptune, "The inner assumptions and outer facts are not at variance." If this is true, you will be helped in practical, business matters; and perhaps connections with older or mature individuals.

Impatience and laziness could hurt you if you give up too easily on what has lasting value. You do not have to throw in the towel.

Being out and about or in vehicular or foot traffic could be good as long as it is not mere restlessness detracting from more important matters. Business and job seem to have precedence. Your ambitions are uppermost.

When your brain takes the lead, your body needs to follow. You are capable mentally of more than you would do automatically, so need to coordinate your actions with clear thinking to get anywhere. This is not drudgery but exaltation when it gets charged up.

{Wednesday} {Conscious Strategic Coordination}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 27 December 2011

2011-12-26T15:05:00.001-08:00

Tuesday 27 December 2011

}Light into Darkness{

Being devoted to those who do not fully appreciate one's devotion is a common life-issue. It takes a belief in G*d, karmic law, or the ultimate beneficence of the cosmos in order to carry on in the face of apparent ingratitude. The rewards are great.

Your career looks good, well-favored, even if you are not apparently pushing to expand it in any way but content with what you are doing. Questions of work versus home life may arise but you are equipped to handle them calmly.

Insight into work, income, and hopes may come especially during the hours of 9a-1p PT | 12p-4p ET | 5p-9p UT.

Your source of strength is your fidelity to what you consider the spiritual foundation of your living. This brings unexpected, welcome thoughts and insights into your purview, which orient you toward purposes more harmoniously.

It is possible to see into personal disagreements or quarrels more claivoyantly than usual, and, if not resolve them outwardly at least sense inwardly more of their signifcance or role in your life. They are designed to teach you something.

A restless tendency has some mildly erotic urges behind it, or a desire to experience the world's variety. You can do this without being offensive or offended if you are attuned to cosmic realities, which in turn heal worries about work or income. Then wherever you go (even in a traffic tie-up) you feel at home.

You might feel you have a mission to let light into dark places, and this could be controversial because your message is either premature or not understood. Still, you will have to do it as best you can. Opening closed minds may seem impossible but a small ray of light may cause them to open further later on. Or, if you are the one whose mind needs opening, the obverse of this could be true, and you need humility to understand the difficult message given you.

{Tuesday} {Light into Darkness}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 26 December 2011

2011-12-25T20:45:00.000-08:00

Monday 26 December 2011

}Interesting Potentials Brewing{

People may be even more hospitable and community-minded than they were yesterday. (Christmas this year fell during the |emotionally difficult or exasperating third of this week|.)

This forecast is directed more especially to the hours after 9:14a PT | 12:14p ET | 5:14p UT, after the moon enters Aquarius.

Unusual thoughts, connections, and friends are good, opening your mind to see the hidden correlations among things and people (one gain of occult training, as through astrology).

The resourcefulness you feel within yourself is enabling you to take a breather from stressful activity, find what is truly useful in it, reject the rest, and then get on with everything in a more comfortable frame of mind.

We may imagine ourselves magicians in some way, as children do, and this is healthy because it stimulates us to test our powers and use those which are real.

Eliminating mistaken courses of action is a key to profitable ones. It is temporarily annoying to see that you have to retrace your steps, tack backwards a little, and choose a better way of proceeding, but the annoyance is a small price for the gains which come when you improve your stance and methodology.

Some place you go is a good arena for your abilities. You seek something which is fresh and can liberate your powers.

{Monday} {Interesting Potentials Brewing}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 24 December 2011

2011-12-23T15:15:00.001-08:00

Saturday 24 December 2011

\Selfhood Appreciated/

Since there is no Sunday forecast (I need a sabbatical once a week), this will be the Christmas forecast for all practical purposes. There should be a regular forecast for Monday, G*d willing.

To my discredit, I must say that on Friday morning when I read the forecast to help me with a difficult day ahead, I was disappointed and felt I had failed. I then noticed several factors in the daily chart which I should have emphasized more than I did, to give better guidance. Then, to my credit, I must say that a few hours later I re-read it and it was speaking volumes to me which I had failed to see earlier. I say this to help you, in case you have similar experiences. Often we can't see what the forecast means until later in the day, or at the end of it. If they seem like impenetrable riddles when first read, that may change later.

That said, I am yet aware of a need for improvement and strive to make the forecasts better based on daily detailed evaluation.

On Christmas day itself, Jupiter, now going backward, becomes motionless (from geocentric perspective of course) and turns direct. This is important especially because this is Jupiter's "refranation" from making another exact opposition with Saturn. But that aspect remains with us until April by normal ten-degree orb. So we should evaluate what it means.

You have been hard on yourself. Rightly so! You are the only one (with G*d's help) who can rectify your mistakes, and mistakes we all make ("sins" in theological language), and we need to become aware of them. This you have been doing for the past year and a half.

From a more egocentric angle, you have been aware of failures "in the world" or in terms of your normal ambitions and hopes. Hear what Robert DeLuce says of this aspect: "Losses of money, position, and reputation may bring the native to the brink of despair. Let him still preserve his faith, hold his integrity and trust in the unalterable and immortal nature of Truth and he will pass through and recover all that he temporarily loses." And so "recovery" could be a keyword for the period beginning on Christmas and lasting through the coming Bright Hermetic Epoch (until the next Dark begins on February 27).

To re-emphasize the sense of beginnings, we have a New Moon today at 10:08a PT | 1:08p ET | 6:08p UT. Its beneficent nature is shown by its trine with Jupiter. Truly this Winter Solstice is a time of rebirth.

As preparation for that, you might note what you experience during the hours of 4:30a-8:30a PT | 7:30a-11:30a ET | 12:30p-4:30p UT, when the moon trines Jupiter closely. This is a Christmas Eve blessing giving you hope. Since it precedes the New Moon, perhaps you could be quiet, contemplative and receptive at that time. Praise G*d! (represented partly by Zeus, Jupiter).

Criticism of others and resulting upset are not absent, but can be transmuted by remembering that all have their frailties and are learning how to be good, intelligent human beings through more than one lifetime. Some are in kindergarten.

Older ones of good character (embodied or unembodied) are blessing you if you cooperate with them.

If you forsake fault-finding (while yet seeing faults) and focus on your own potentials, you will gain illumination and feel married to the world. (A dangerous partner, but it is hard to find another.)

Rich gains are possible by being bold and fearless, honorable and diplomatic.

Competition is good when it means demonstrating the validity of your acquired or being-acquired skills. You are eliminating mistaken trails or methods. You see far off, and into the future of your career, while at home.

{Saturday} /Selfhood Appreciated\

Cosmic Piper

P. S. Have a Blessed Christmas Eve and a Happy Christmas!

Forecast for Friday 23 December 2011

2011-12-22T19:59:00.001-08:00

Friday 23 December 2011

*Easygoing Natural Authority*

Nothing prevents this from being an executive day when you can get things settled. Not everything, of course, but enough to make you feel on top of your situation.

Powers of mind are strong so long as you don't burn them out by focusing on inessentials. Going direct to the mark saves time and much more. Vacillation could be an enemy.

There are people who seem inconsequential, easy to pass by, who really are giants of the spirit, the salt of the earth, so it is well to be kindly toward them and speak well of them.

The strength in you which is based on long experience, solid perspective, is able to do things which less fortified individuals might regard as impossible or miraculous. Linked visibly or invisibly with those, old and young, who are on your wave length and your "team," you can move mountains.

Doing that ought not to include strife and quarreling. You do not need to get involved in fights or arguments. Subtle ways of quenching those are available, before they cause trouble or diminish opportunities which are right next to them.

You can be creatively sensitive to everything around you in a way which increases rather than diminishes opportunities (see paragraph 2 for the correlative warning). You can link with situations on the basis of whatever people find interesting in you, thereby avoiding uncomfortable confrontations.

Subtlety of manner, blessing one's enemies, puts disagreements in a drawer everyone knows is there but does not have to be opened. People in high positions may seem formidable or remote, but by being natural (not vulgar) with them rather than transparently calculating you win their approval.

{Friday} *Easygoing Natural Authority*

Cosmic Piper

Thursday 22 December 2011

2011-12-21T12:05:00.001-08:00

Thursday 22 December 2011

*Calm Intelligence Gaining Control*

The sun has entered Capricorn, in other words the winter solstice has occurred. Among the multiple, indeed dazzlingly confusing, cycles with which we as human beings on Terra are engaged, this is one of them: the "four corners of the year" as I have called them. Charts set up for the moment of each solstice or equinox can be valuable as showing trends for the coming period. But I in general do not use them at this point. So many techniques in astrology are veritable and true; each astrologer has to choose the ones which have worked most consistently for him.

Since April of 2010 Saturn and Jupiter have been having their once-in-20-years opposition. This is a major turning point in individual lives, yours, mine, everyone's. Of course it is different in each case, but the pattern is there. What has been changing in your life since then? Is it now at a point where you can get firmer control of the change? Jupiter turns direct on Christmas day itself, and from then on this aspect will diminish (although you will still be dealing with it until the end of April, two years from its beginning). Some big changes in your life, of the past two years, are worthy of conscious review this holiday season. The next twenty years may be set in their mold to a large degree.

[The above may not be repeated, so it is well to remember it if you can, and work with it.]

Rapid alternations and connections, changes, are happening today while the moon conjoins Mercury in Sagittarius. This could be travel for some, or local "travel," errands and communications. You may be mediating between differing individuals, groups, and attitudes.

"White magic" is basically the ability to stick with an ethical course through thick and thin, and rely upon the Highest to sustain you. You may be doing this in more than one way. Very few human beings practice "black magic" consciously, but many are pushed and pulled in their raw unevolved emotions by black magicians on the inner planes. It is well to pull away from what seems wrong before you get enveloped in it.

Writing and speaking can be done with great facility and success. This is partly to please those connected with your home or a temporary living situation. Ultimately it is an expression of your basic career or mission.

Seeing into possibilities quickly will help. You get flags on the way, showing the right course, if you are alert to them.

Persevering is essential, even if some individuals have disappointed or forsaken you. There could be mutual assistance between yourself and someone kind and well-meaning. What you fail to gain immediately, temporarily, is less important than the deep purposes to which you adhere.

{Thursday} *Calm Intelligence Gaining Control*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tueday 20 December 2011

2011-12-19T18:27:00.001-08:00

Tuesday 20 December 2011

~Choices Shaped and Perfected by Delays~

From one viewpoint, expounded yesterday, if you get through today you have it made for the week. If you face what needs to be faced patiently. Wild or unusual changes are to be avoided while the moon is in the Via Combusta until tomorrow, but patient effort on things you know to be important will be rewarded. You may not get far-reaching answers today but can prepare the ground for them.

What you know is the right course is the right course and you can proceed with it rather than become inefficacious through timidity or holding back. A triple-sextile formation with Saturn, the sun, Neptune and Jupiter gives strong background support despite the delays of the Via Combusta and the Dark Hermetic Epoch. So your optimism can carry you through obstacles, even if in a less-than-swift, circling manner.

Indecision could be a problem in work, study, communication and choices. A tentative sally down one road might be temporary but at least will show you the terrain so you can decide. Your inner consistency, as displayed in many locales and venues, is setting options up for you even if you don't see how they will manifest yet.

Toil you perform at home, or in obscurity, for those who might be friends, gets its reward at some point and makes you feel better. You recover yourself from either excessive spending or inordinate withholding when you just take charge of emotions and do what feels responsible. This is a money day, in that you sense what to do with money, how to use it.

Neglect of opportunities is unnecessary. They may seem small ones but the small add up to a lot. Delays and slowness are teaching you things, showing you how to persist and giving you valuable clues along the way--clues you would not get if the course were unimpeded.

{Tuesday} ~Choices Shaped and Perfected by Delays~

Cosmic Piper

Monday 19 December 2011

2011-12-18T16:39:00.001-08:00

Monday 19 December 2011

}Bleakness as Comfort Preparing Advance{

The quite rosy forecast for Saturday worked out well for me, and I hope for you. Sunday was not as smooth, for most people I believe, because the square between Venus and Saturn became exact. That continues today, with the moon joining the configuration today and tomorrow, so today and Tuesday will likely be the hardest days of this week.

What problem, for you, hit the "crunch" phase on Sunday or today? It is something you are attempting to master, and let us hope you can do so.

Today you can proceed to do that with a great deal of patience and endurance. You know it will require that and so are willing to do those things which feel dreary at the beginning but exhilarating once you have gotten on with them.

Venus square Jupiter tends toward unwise or over eating, especially because square Saturn also, as an escape from frustrations. Eating can be a security blanket. For some reason, dairy products might be important or helpful. Mars in Virgo (for months to come) tends toward fussing over diet.

Self-preservation is a key to what you are thinking about, what you study or ponder. You are sensing how to defend yourself against loss.
Happy things seem promised in connection with your living situation, where you can hide away from stress and enjoy prosperity while still in touch with people at a distance.

The harshness of the squares already mentioned, plus the moon with Saturn and Uranus square the sun, suggest the possibility of an explosion when you get upset. This could be concerning work, administration, superiors in a job situation, or other matters such as immature attitudes of young (or childish) people. You want to clear away the debris blocking you, but if this is partly people and their actions or attitudes, you need to be careful not to be offensive.

Oh for the Romantic souls, of the Romantic period in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, who could contemplate nature even in wintry bleakness and commune with her and their own souls. Can anybody do that in this technological culture? If you can, today is a good day for it. Bleakness of nature complementing bleakness of mood can be, rather than depressing, uplifting. The "peace that passeth all understanding" can be entered.

{Monday} {Bleakness as Comfort Preparing Advance}

Cosmic Piper

Saturday 17 December 2011

2011-12-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

Saturday 17 December 2011

\Beyond Tensions: Harmonious Self-Training Plus Magnanimity/

There are so many things going on in the sky (the backdrop of our consciousness and all that we do) that it is hard to reduce them to a formula or set of formulas. There are enough smooth aspects so that I can hope they will overbalance the difficult ones. It looks like a very nice Saturday, provided you are able to rise above tensions.

Wouldn't it be sweet to have a friend who is clever, dramatic, interesting, amusing, able to mimic people and make you laugh, always kindly to you and winking at you to lift your spirits no matter how far he goes into brazen comedy? Maybe you do have such a friend, or he or she will turn up. (If not directly, then indirectly through media or reading.)

Something in you is quick, efficient, able, and wanting to run a race or win a contest. This can be thrilling. The "race" could have to do with finances, or with a puzzle or game which pleases you.

Will power can develop into magic. This can be hurtful or helpful but will be the latter if your will is aligned with the supreme Will. Then truly things will fall to you no matter how tough the past has been.

At home or in the neighborhood you encounter those who are wanting change and variety, looking for entertainment, performing or enjoying a performance of music or artistry.This gives you mental peace and equipoise.

Unmobilized resources can be uncovered and used by you. These are partly in your blood and body, you Tarzan or Jane. Self-training is not onerous when you know it is for your good. It develops dexterity in approaching any issue successfully.

There are those who seem gruff and withdrawn, because focused on ordinary demanding tasks, but whose hearts are kind. You might be one of them, now while Venus is square Saturn. Isolated country folk can be like this, but also some urbanites. Patience with others' foibles and your own tends toward saintliness. This is the Christmas spirit.

{Saturday} /Beyond Tensions: Harmonious Self-Training Plus Magnanimity\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 16 December 2011

2011-12-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

Friday 16 December 2011

\Cultivated Equanimity/

I have no desire to be the Grinch of Friday. Let's just make sure we celebrate TGIF and not TSIF (thank Satan it's Friday). I have to give the warning because there are trends toward excess, overindulgence, losing your way in excitation caused by a subconscious desire to forget about your problems. Forgetting them for a while is fine, of course, provided you don't go overboard.

What you seriously need, you should be able to procure, through powers within you which are getting cosmic support (partly good aspects with Jupiter). Such strength, however, could make you too harsh with people in your judgments. You need to understand or else overlook some of their peculiarities and weaknesses. Then you will have a good time, perhaps where there is a change of scene, music or other performance: harmonious variety.

Primitive animal strength allows you to rise to any occasion by asserting yourself and conquering difficulties. You may investigate income possibilities. It would be jolly to coast through life without restriction and connect with fascinating events and people. This is possible to a limited degree, yet still you are concerned about a lot of matters which keep celebration in check. Happiness comes more from equanimity than from wild abandon.

{Friday} /Cultivated Equanimity\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 15 December 2011

2011-12-14T18:18:00.000-08:00

Thursday 15 December 2011

*Past Crisis with Sincerity and Dexterity*

I thank you readers for bearing with me even when, sometimes, a daily report seems not to apply to you very well. I myself go through that. I re-read the forecasts at the end of the day or the next to check up on them. For the past few days they seem to be more accurate, for whatever reason--I would like to believe it's because of recent research into my methods. I believe that if you overlook the days when the report does not ring a bell, you may get more out of them, because the very next day might be the day it works perfectly for you--and if you gave up you would miss it.

Also, it is good to re-read a forecast at the end of the day when you can evaluate its meaning in your life with all of the day's experiences under your belt. Often something which made no sense in the morning will click in the evening. Usually there are more clues in the readings than even I give myself credit for.

Disappointments are part of life, as Buddhists, Hindus and Stoics teach, and need to be met with some kind of spiritual faith on Thursday. It is fine to dream when things are hard, if the dream is something positive to help you over the hurdle.

"Retreat and advance, advance and retreat" is part of the trend of the Jupiter-Saturn opposition, and today you may feel the "retreat" half. Strategic retreat is better than hapless retreat. You have enough awareness to do the former.
Those suffering ordeals involving home, finances, or learning are likely to get vital help just before they reach a point of desperation.

What is "irrepressible purity"? (Taken from Marc Edmund Jones's book on symbols for the degrees.) Something that is yours in your depths. If you let it bubble up into your consciousness it will save you from worry. It grants intuitive powers. It could not be, without some implicit religious faith in life, the cosmos, G*d. (By G*d, I do not mean the cosmos. That would be pantheism. As Sri Aurobindo has explained better and more fully than anyone else in the history of the world, G*d is one with the cosmos but also transcendent of it, greater than it, master of it, Ishwara.)

When people feel morose, a woman singing can console them. This could be a mother with a lullaby or nursery rhyme, a chanteuse in a nightclub, an unknown voice on the radio or in your head.

While you listen to her, your dexterity in meeting difficult situations is remarkable. You can lean on it, and then it allows you to stand forth strong and free no matter what happens.

Sincerity is a magical quality, overcoming unkind destiny again and again. That means saying what you really believe, and making your beliefs coordinate with your highest aspirations. Then without awkward sanctimony you find yourself relating to people in a way uplifting to all.

{Thursday} *Past Crisis with Sincerity and Dexterity*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 14 December 2011

2011-12-13T17:42:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 14 December 2011

*More Sure Path, with Some Festivity*

The restrictions you and others suffer may seem unbearable. You might review yesterday's forecast with its outline of the meaning of Venus square Saturn. People are not likely to blurt out what is troubling them.

Many of your hopes may seem unrealistic to you, as if the cosmos had allied itself to frustrate them. What you thought you could do, in younger years, looks much harder. That is hard to take. Of course there are reasons to keep on hoping, and the moon's position in Leo should help, especially in afternoon and evening.

A definite course of action would help a great deal. This should be easier to decide on now that Mercury has turned direct (on Tuesday evening). Still, you may need time to settle major details. (Tuesday's discussion of Mercury's station still applies. Things are slow or take much time outwardly even if secure inwardly.)

"A man walking on the edge of a precipice" is Charubel's symbol for the current position of Mercury in Sagittarius. Perhaps you feel that is you. Some things seem risky and that could be depressing. On the other hand, you can complete that walk and get out of danger. You do this with a great deal of originality and mental acumen.

Fine or beautiful things, objects, are linked somehow with technology or machines. A beautiful machine, computer, tablet or whatnot could be in your purview. A male friend who is rough-and-ready with skills may be useful.

Geniality and conviviality, linked with holiday parties, could get out of hand or degenerate into embarrassing spectacles. This need not be. Rather you can enjoy the festivities while maintaining appropriate self-management. People can be festive outwardly even when worried inwardly about their lives or feeling unloved (paragraph 1).

{Wednesday} *More Sure Path, with Some Festivity*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 13 December 2011

2011-12-12T16:53:00.001-08:00

Tuesday 13 December 2011

~Mercury's Station: Patient Poise~

There is a likelihood of attempting too much and going in circles. A better focus is gradually returning while Mercury slows to its station before turning direct late tonight or early tomorrow depending on your time zone. Slowdown is good if it is what you feel you have to do. From tomorrow to January 1, Mercury will gradually gain speed and your plans will become sharper and more confident.

A glimmer of this may come after the moon enters Leo at 1:49p PT | 4:49p ET | 9:49p UT.

I believe it is good to slow down, sit down, and meditate or pray while Mercury is at its station or near it (give and take a whole day or more). The station occurs at 5:44p PT | 8:44p ET | 1:44a(W) UT.

I always have to preach a sermon on Venus square Saturn when it occurs. It will be with us through December 21 (smaller orb) or December 26 (larger orb). It need not be a horrible time (encompassing Christmas as it happens to do) but one needs to understand what it is all about.

Love (Venus) is up against reality (Saturn), to put it boldly and bleakly. This is not just romantic love but everything including family relationships, friendships, and casual relations with co-workers, customers, clients.

That formula comes out in a lot of ways. 1. Older people become important, or those with troubles whether older or younger. They are suffering and you may not feel sympathetic. Sympathy is something to cultivate at this time.

2. People are touchy. They are pondering their own problems and may not feel they have time for yours. The little things in your behavior which they don't like but usually overlook become looming horrors to them. You may feel the same about them at certain moments.

3. Income and costs can be a problem. You have to make do with less than usual, perhaps. Let's all accent easy, less expensive forms of gift-giving, whether the merchants like that or not.

4. One tends to feel worse about oneself. One sees into one's own weaknesses and failures. This can make for humility, at best. So let's be humble! (Am I more humble than you?) God became a helpless baby, some Christians say.

5. People from your past whom you usually forget start to loom large. You think about them, whether they are alive or deceased, here or elsewhere, and feel you owe them a phone call or card or some form of communication, touching base. This may always be true this time of year, but even more so with this aspect.

6. "Nobody loves me" is a common feeling with Venus square Saturn. Remember that others feel it too. If this can be transmuted to the faith that "God loves me," or "God loves you," something real has been gained.

Remember, the above points could be specially applicable through the day after Christmas.

Tuesday: When there are hints of strife or contention, you might turn to ancient teachings you believe in which have helped you in the past. The best of our past is there to lean on, an everlasting present.

You can be affectionate and honorable even when you feel down, worried, or anxious. The moon's aspects are a mixed bag. You could pull poise out of them.

(If this seems impossible, the time given in paragraph 2 might help.)

Weakness can be transmuted into graciousness. Humility can be pleasing. Then you find a poise surging up into determination to do the things you really want to do, cutting through all obstacles while the sun's trine with Jupiter grants faith and confidence. Yet, sometimes the slower, more careful and deliberate path is necessary or better (paragraphs 1 and 3).

{Tuesday} ~Mercury's Station: Patient Poise~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 12 December 2011

2011-12-11T16:22:00.000-08:00

Monday 12 December 2011

~Shared Strength of Mind and Body~

A lot seems to happen which links home, family, work, health and income. There are separations which are inevitable, temporarily. There is intense mental activity in connection with your work, job, profession, or a project. Physical health improves through exercise. Mental strength approaches mastery of topics crucial to success.

Helping someone cross a stream at which his or her life has arrived, on a ferryboat of guidance or encouragement, is satisfying. There are always more or deeper resources available.

Someone, perhaps a woman, is pondering self-preservation through whatever means seem essential at present, with a fillip of self-maintained independence of spirit. The frailties or errors of friends are the downside yet an inescapable side of friendship.

Someone sensitive and impulsive has been reckless and pays the price honorably. Danger is sometimes a price of freedom. No-danger means no-movement or stagnation.

Gracefulness and charm in your work, or the work of a superior or a professional person, boosts confidence and good will.

At a deep level, much is possible which seems remarkable. Thoughts gifted to you by the Invisible, or by searching in profound teachings, not only feed the spirit but transmit practical applications which could open doors to greater success.

{Monday} ~Shared Strength of Mind and Body~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 10 December 2011

2011-12-09T13:53:00.001-08:00

Saturday 10 December 2011

}Resting on or Using Tradition{

There is a great clarification. Things are getting simpler or less worrisome. Mercury remains retrograde, but the moon's grand trine with Saturn and Neptune tends toward an "All is Well" consciousness. That is specially welcome at the Full Moon when consciousness expands for better or worse (police departments often see it as the latter, because their work is to deal with those who can't handle the Full Moon's expanded focus without making trouble).

Any travel plans seem settled and smooth, with details in process of resolution. Things done at home, as for example decorating, are sweet and self-fortifying.

Financial luck seems good, partly because you sense when to do or say the right thing at the right time. There are passionate energies, the moon and sun forming a T square with Mars, requiring you to face hassles and transmute their implicit torment into something positive for yourself and others.

A desire to speculate or try doing unusual things could get you moving, whether this is connected with holiday matters or anything else. You may spend more than planned and feel good about it.

Someone you know, youthful and usually at a distance, has magical powers through intense concentration on his or her goals. You can learn or otherwise benefit from him.

Someone with talent, female or male, musical or artistic or both, gives you a breath of fresh air through a performance or just her refreshing presence. (This could be through media if you are not out and about.) If you have talents you haven't used lately, you may find yourself invited to display them.

The gentility of family traditions can be wonderful at Christmas-time. It's trouble to get out decorations or otherwise prepare, or do whatever you do at this time of year as ritual, but worth it when you feel linked to "Chrismases past" in your blood. If you think of a male relative in your history you may be inspired to do something which keeps a tradition alive.

Those contentious or quarrelsome may be evident at times. They have hidden beliefs or assumptions which cloud their understanding, meanwhile thinking everyone else is wrong. Therefore they stir up strife. The day's favorable aspects can contain them. If you give them a blessing you will get a blessing in return and bring out something of their better nature, even if that seems unlikely or invisible.

{Saturday} {Resting on or Using Tradition}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 9 December 2011

2011-12-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

Friday 9 December 2011

}Too Much?{

It's the Full Moon day, and it looks busy, with a lot of confusion unless you are able to contain that. You want to be everywhere at once and do everything simultaneously. You feel pressures and costs. Disorder threatens. But you won't give up til you get things in some semblance of satisfactory order.

You weigh and measure. You get travel or other schedules right. You see how to be efficient and effective.

Those who drive the world and entice the populace to get more money for themselves are highly active in the holiday season. Whether or not there is actual cruelty, there is Scrooge insensitivity.

Many are confident of their powers or charms, which could make them vain. There is luck for anyone who can present himself, or his ideas, products or schemes, with chutzpah and/or charisma.

The greatest danger in the European financial summit is that the course of events will be permitted to drift. Timid action will not be enough. Something decisive and believable is needed. Not everyone will like it, or else it will have no power. Let us hope it is forthcoming.

Persuasiveness is needed. This can be in politics, business, or personal affairs. You could think about what people want to do when at home and without work pressures; then appeal to them on the basis of that preferred activity or pastime. This could be a way of getting them to see things as you do.

{Friday} {Too Much?}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 8 December 2011

2011-12-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

Thursday 8 December 2011

\In Training, with a Bit of Slack/

Most of us, or all of us, are feeling the "drag" of Mercury retrograde. Things go slowly, and often you would rather take a nap or daydream than focus on the "matter in hand." Sometimes this is a very good signal that you need to do just that--take a break. Of course if you are working for someone else, this may not be possible, directly, although the art of "slacking" is practiced in many a corporation.

Adventure is sometimes an escape from responsibility, sometimes a proper escape from the merely humdrum. At these times, adventure or escape can be dangerous, for some people make the worst mistakes of their lives while Mercury is retrograde or slow (in the Dark Hermetic Epoch, in other words, which lasts this time until the end of 2011). Usually those mistakes take the form of running away, quitting, resigning, divorcing, and so on. It is my responsibility to point this out.

You already know what you need to do. You can swallow hard and get on with it, but do give yourself those "breaks" in whatever way is feasible or salubrious. You are not totally isolated. G*d has not forgotten you. You may feel isolated and in fact enjoy that at times when you want your own space.

Are there times to forget your diet, eat and drink what you wish, jump up and dance merrily? (I put it in the form of a question because I don't want the bad karma of getting you in trouble.)

Still, consistency is resourcefulness, so the former paragraph should be practiced in moderation, or when you feel you have finished a good chunk of your work.

There can be prosperity in expected or unexpected ways, and a sense of ease.

Hopes for general economic resolutions and greater fairness in wealth distribution were discussed yesterday; they continue significant in many minds, and a dissatisfaction with current leadership may develop better leadership, as a pearl from the sand in an oyster. We don't want a Robespierre, certainly not a Stalin, and probably not even a Trotsky; but someone needs to do "something," everybody agrees.

Instructing or training someone may be important. You may not think of yourself as a teacher or trainer, yet could do some of that when it seems naturally appropriate. If done in the right spirit, it will not be offensive to anyone. We are all learning how to control ourselves, brain and body. That can be thrilling when it proceeds apace.

{Thursday} /In Training, with a Bit of Slack\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 7 December 2011

2011-12-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 7 December 2011

\Hopeful Signs/

The "financial crunch" of the Euro-debt problem seems to be destined for Friday this week, according to common expectation, with the summit meeting of European leaders. This is quite interesting from an astrological viewpoint. The once-in-20-years opposition of Jupiter and Saturn, about which we have discussed much in the past two years, is still with us and increasing, this month, to its maximum, before it starts to separate in January. This in essence is, in fact, the debt crisis as mapped in the skies.

What is good about it? It is a clearing of financial karma, with Saturn in Libra a sign of justice or fairness and Jupiter in the sign of Taurus or money (as in "bull market" and "pecuniary" derived from Latin "pecus" meaning cattle). The astrological signature could not be more dramatic. Those who denounce astrology, as the late astronomer Carl Sagan, are self-blinded, so deeply drenched in materialism and, yes, atheism (only G*d could be behind the facts of astrology) that they cannot even hear what I am saying at this moment, or read it, or reflect upon it. How sad. And they transmit their self-willed blindness to future generations by teaching them, from grade school up, that astrology is a myth believed only by superstitious fools. As Jesus suggested, speaking of the learned men of his time, they "do not enter themselves and prevent those who were entering from entering."

Again, what is good about this aspect? It does not attain completeness, this time. It "refrains" from completing, because Saturn turns retrograde and Jupiter turns direct, so that it will leave us for another 20 years or so. This was called "refranation" by the old astrologers. With a difficult aspect like this opposition, it is a good sign. And so: We may hope that the Euro-debt crisis, attaining its peak this month, will be, if not solved, at least put into bearable shape so that it will not spook worldwide financial markets and an economic recovery as it has since last spring.

Wednesday looks like perhaps the best day of the week, from some viewpoints, especially in the two or three hours before the exactitude of Luna's trine with Venus at 10:47a PT | 1:47p ET | 6:47p UT. You could profit by, gain from, or at least enjoy whatever you do during those hours, and afterward if you get in the right groove.

It is important to keep up optimism. Failed projects are merely steps on the way to success. (If they have failed, they are obviously in the past!)

What I have called "economic justice" connected with the Saturn-Jupiter opposition might seem anything but just to some. If you are one of them, buffeted by hard circumstances or loss, I implore you to trust the laws of karma, or of the Supreme, rather than give in to despair.

The consistency of your thinking is helping you, if it was good in the first place; if not, you need to get in a pattern of good helpful thinking others have set forth. Your thinking rules your world, well insofar as it is connected with the goodness of the Supreme; not so well if based on fears, worries or animosities. Mental and spiritual resourcefulness leads to practical resourcefulness.

Work, physical or mental, in seclusion could be your lot part of the time. What has to be done has to be done, and the calmer and more patient you feel the sooner it will be done. Not hurrying, that is, calming the flurry of worry, could mean you get it done sooner.

"A strong hand supplanting political hysteria" is the Sabian symbol for Mars today through Friday. Certainly we need that hand! Governments almost going bankrupt, in Europe and here, and a populace harrowed by joblessness and lack of opportunity, are looking for leadership. One friend believes there should be third and fourth political parties in America. Perhaps. Where is the strong hand? (I might nominate Angela Merkel, for one, without idealizing or sainting her. In America, I nominate no one. The floor is open for nominations.)

A subtle, soft, persuasive, amicable spirit is present whenever you let yourself tune in to it. The moon is forming a grand trine with Mars and Venus. This may not be a thrilling love affair but could be something like that painted in gentler colors. It is at least friendship and good will.

{Wednesday} /Hopeful Signs\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 6 December 2011

2011-12-05T15:37:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 6 December 2011

\Resourceful Sublimation/

Happy birthday, Violet Firth! Anybody know who that is? Otherwise known as Dion Fortune, she wrote many occult novels and musings which have been widely influential. She was part of the British movement stemming from its branch of the Order of the Golden Dawn, and founded her own group which still exists. She is not one of my teachers, so far as I know (don't underestimate the invisible power of occultists), but her novels have an amazing psychic knack of making the reader feel she was writing about himself.

Tuesday is the second day of the |stressful or karmically demanding third of this week|, but lunar aspects otherwise are quite good especially into the evening and early Wednesday.

It's possible to see what marks you have aimed at and failed to hit. This is part of the review during the Mercury retrograde cycle. You can recover your arrow and aim again.

Perhaps your arrow will fly toward Eastern regions of the planet, Asia or Euroasia, which may appeal to you through news items or other connections which turn up.

You could gain in a material way. You are resourceful and able to flow with the trend of events so that what you need falls to you, as in holiday shopping or any other act of procurement.

You may hear, in person or through media, someone whose link with your own mission or career is definite and helpful. From him or her you learn. Or you may be that person for someone else more than you realize, without intending to. It is well not to hide what you know.
What people choose, through their affections or erotic tendencies, becomes a lifelong bondage--or set of companions. So by accepting one or another invitation, you invite others into your life, and the mutuality of communion continues in one form or another. The trine of Mars and Venus is with you, even if you are seemingly alone, without a mate. Mate-potentials are all that some experience during such an aspect, but that can be enough.

It is wonderful how some can follow out lines of adventure most of us would shun. We look on amazed. On the other hand, your particular talent or hobby might seem a wild adventure to someone who doesn't have the knack for it. Somehow we end up sublimating baser desires, fleshly satisfactions, and turning them into exploration and enterprise whether sportsmanly, geographic, artistic or intellectual. You may realize how you are doing and can do that.

{Tuesday} /Resourceful Sublimation\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 3 December 2011

2011-12-05T01:20:00.000-08:00

Saturday 3 December 2011

\Private Wisdom/

The day starts with deep spiritual meditation. If it is not deep, but rather a meditation on your worries and fears, try to make it deeper, more confident, more trusting in the Supreme.

People need an overall philosophic or spiritual orientation more than they realize. Lucky those who can find it in a single figure, Avatar or guide such as Jesus. The rest have to patch together a fabric of many colors, which is their right.

(This believer in Jesus does the latter also.)

A contest in your mind between effort on projects and a more voluptuous tendency need not be debilitating. You need some pleasures, some sporting of yourself among those who like you or whom you like. Venus's trine with Mars doubles the force of attraction and mutual fascination.

The moon remains void of course until it leaves Pisces for Aries at 5:52p PT | 8:52p ET | 1:52a(Su) UT. Before that it is fine to "let things be" on this Sabbath day. This is not inertia but rest your soul appreciates. Spiritual seeking in itself is restful. After the time just given, note what happens, what you think about, where your attention goes. This could be an important clue as to what is stirring within you (for the moon in the first critical degree of Aries will be united with Uranus).

The Salvation Army is out and about. They have been good to me, so I put a dollar in their cup almost every time I see them. If not them, then some other agency which tries to help the homeless, poor, or "neediest" as the New York Times used to call them, comes into your purview and you may help.

The part of you which is uniquely separate is facing its separation. You are not outside the human race, exactly, or you would not be in a human body. Yet something in you feels alien to what most people around you do or say or think. Perhaps this difference is why you were born.

Subconsciously ungenerous, indeed greedy, tendencies are present in all of us, for which the outer gift-giving ritual of Christmas is intended to be an antidote. Fear creates misers, so hope and trust are needed for them to let go and give.

Birth is a mystery. Why do you have the parents you have? The rational mind cannot figure it out. The soul's intuition can. Then arises a deep desire to live up to the higher ideals of your parents, which are yours also.

Much which is momentous may come into your consciousness. Things you knew, or thought you knew, are renewed (re-knewed) in amazing ways. You care deeply about the world of work and career, yet are also remote from it somehow, musing on immortal realities. Your consciousness looks down from above, secure in private wisdom.

{Saturday} /Private Wisdom\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 2 December 2011

2011-12-05T01:15:00.000-08:00

~Blocked Hopes Grow Stronger~

[I do not know why this was not posted here when it was written on Thursday. Here it is for retrospective review. Mercury is retrograde.]

With the sun in Sagittarius and moon in Pisces, you may note how you and others gravitate toward universal truths, spiritual realizations. There may be a forgiving attitude, which is greatly needed while the sun and Mercury are sqared to Mars.

Tempests in teacups may seem to be tsunamis until they calm down.

Secret ambushes or strategies may be planned on the international stage or behind the scenes; one thinks of situations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran especially; but whether any of these can succeed is very much up in the air with Mercury retrograde. One gain precipitates other losses and a loss might be a blessing in disguise.

A tendency to legalism and formalities (as in the European and other debt crises) frustrates enthusiasm (Saturn and Jupiter opposed). On the personal level you may find yourself lacking a drive to get things done, so you go through the motions as best you can. If you are fighting out issues or contests in your mind, you find little chance to win outwardly, at least not today.

The moon goes void-of-course at 10:07a PT | 1:07p ET | 6:07p UT. It might be good to wrap up plans for the day before then. Afterward, beware of delays in travel and such, but be willing to adapt to changes as they occur.

"Alienation" was a big word in the writings and thoughts of the existialists of Europe after World War II. We have a dose of that today. How do you connect with "the world," or does the world deserve your connection with it? This last is a dangerous thought. Christians and others with similar ideals insist that the world needs and deserves love, which brings us back to paragraph 1, an ability to be forgiving and kindly. This can happen, even though "with bleeding footprints."

If there are ceremonies or rituals which have helped you in the past, this could be a day for them. They, or rather the forces they invoke, can lift you out of worry into confidence and an ability to cope with whatever needs coping.

We are exacting with ourselves. We are the court, jury and judge sentencing ourselves. We oversee ourselves and write critiques. This is good in that it shows we aspire toward living up to our ideals. But we must not be too harsh with ourselves. TGIF means something today, but even with a companion you are likely to discuss one another's jobs or projects in a serious manner.

Assurance that "you are doing well" is needed by everyone. Yet there is a lofty attitude in everyone which believes it can go it alone. In doing things together with someone, or sharing one another's ambitions and aspirations, we can find close comradeship.

{Friday} ~Blocked Hopes Grow Stronger~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 5 December 2011

2011-12-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Monday 5 December 2011

*Secret Oneness*

It's de rigueur to have a good time while the Part of Fortune is in the 5th, today and tomorrow, albeit these two days are also |the hard days of the week| by a reliable formula. (Not that no other days are hard, of course, but these have a particular emotional flavor of a need to face hard realities or suffer.) So there is fun with a philosophic caste to it.

There is a bookish trend, or a desire to be up on things, to read and gain information or intellectual fodder. Where this takes you is anybody's guess. You might do some writing yourself.

Much is available to you of which you may not be aware, in a large building whether private or public.

What you have failed at in the past seems to cling to you like irons chained to your ankles. This can be depressing. The Mercury-retrograde period is a time to review the past, quite frequently, and learn or re-learn lessons from it. You can be free of those old mistakes as soon as you realize what you have learned from them.

Quarreling is likely while Mercury and the sun square Mars. Maybe you can enlighen someone in a way which is valuable without being unduly cross or mean. Maybe someone you disagree with can enlighten you in some manner.

Venus and Mars are in an exact trine. Whether or not you think you have a thrilling love life, someone likes you, for sure, and there is something of a romantic or erotic nature stirring around you. People have problems, and with the moon opposite Saturn they seem heavy, so whoever you are drawn to will need compassion and kindness even if the erotic trend is also present. You are invited to be with someone, or some group, which could be wonderful and so it is wise not to turn down the invitation.

Secrecy is not always accompanied by dishonesty. Some things are better left unsaid. Boasting especially can be dangerous, for you will give away more secrets than you intended, and some of them could be misunderstood to your discomfiture. It is not so hard to change the subject when delicate matters arise.

May the delicacy you experience be rather of the heartfelt and blissful variety, which is entirely possible. People long to be one with each other.

{Monday} *Secret Oneness*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 1 December 2011

2011-11-30T17:06:00.000-08:00

Thursday 1 December 2011

~Complex Argument, Simple Kindness~

The remote and mystical takes on strength while the moon is in Pisces close to Neptune at the end of Aquarius.

There is love, whether you are at first aware of it or not, which will be even more evident in late afternoon and evening.

There is hate, or annoyance, irritation, disagreement, while the sun squares Mars almost exactly.

People overreach themselves in stating their positions or taking positions on any battlefield or venue of contest. They pretend to be self-assured when they really are not. A name for this is arrogance. It always has its comeuppance, later if not sooner. So perhaps you do not have to fight the belligerent ones, or at least not directly. You can state your case or take your position and be assured that if you are right, or "righter" then they, you will win at last.

You can trust in your natural and developed capacities no matter how unique or unusual they be.

Perhaps you know someone involved in complex riddles, researches, mazes of thought. This could be research of any kind, or puzzled reflection on enigmas, or attempts to solve some difficult theoretical or practical problem. Such an individual is important to you and affection can spring up between you.

Isolation within yourself is an interesting phenomenon. It is a challenge to you to understand that your differences from other people are perhaps not as real as they seem, and yet to use those apparent differences as best you can in the game of life. If we were all alike, there would be no game.

At times it looks as if all is flummoxed, crazy, impossible. Where is hope when things are so complex one doesn't know where to begin? As has been said, beginning is half the matter. This is probably re-beginning, which is even harder, because of the Mercury-retrograde cycle. "Old experience must be labored out once more" in the words of Sri Aurobindo. This is not hopeless: it is a test of faith and persistence.

Exact formulas can help. That is, a formula for keeping your daily activities in order, for doing what you need to do. You can see both sides of every dilemma and arrive at the exactly right choice at each moment, if you have a "formula" in the background to help.

Jealousy, rivalries, and feuds are possible, because Luna brings out the sun-Mars square by her square to the first and opposition to the second, continuing way into the evening and early tomorrow. People are attached to something or someone in a demanding way and when their possessive clutch is frustrated they become upset, in inner dangerous turmoil.

However, Luna is also in good aspect with Venus, Pluto, and Jupiter, and this can save the day if you work with those influences from a heart of kindness and mercy.

{Thursday} ~Complex Argument, Simple Kindness~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 30 November 2011

2011-11-29T17:45:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 30 November 2011

}Ardor{

A love-longing you experienced inwardly yesterday may take more tangible form today, in connection, conversation, meeting or communication.

It is healthy and invigorating to be out and about.

There is intensity about how you handle business, finance, career. This is good when you are sure of what you are doing.

Cruelty can mix with the pursuit of what people want. At worst they ignore the suffering of other humans or animals in order to satisfy their desires or lusts. When this is successful they can go on and on until the karmic price hits them. (The cosmos does not want to punish anyone but cannot help trying to awaken them, by pain if other methods have failed.)

I myself am often amazed at the way corpse-eaters talk about vegetarians with contempt, as if the vegetarians and not the corpse-eaters were betraying the human race and good taste.

As for cruelty, it is being discussed and protested in military circles, as in the case of Pakistan's claim that some of it its soldiers were killed deliberately by NATO. "Callously" was the word its foreign minister used.

There can be catharsis and transformation. While Mercury is retrograde (to December 14) we review our lives and experiences and re-estimate our character and intentions. You may imagine also how friends could be doing this, in some cases.

"A little child shall lead them," and you may find a childlike state of mind a cure for whatever is troubling you. Those who study the Gospels know that it is one thing Jesus recommended.

On the seemingly less childlike front: There is a way to merge the intellectual and the mechanical in your pursuit of excellence. This could be theory on one side, practice on the other; or carefully developed methods, strategies (Mars in Virgo until July) combined with the ideals you want to actualize by their means.

Intelligence is implicit in the invisible human being, and manifest through the brain's dialoguing right and left hemispheres, internal dialogue: and sometimes external dialogue with others.

Someone devoted to what he (or she) does, and to people who mean much to him, may deserve from you a higher estimate and tribute than you have realized. It is a rarity that anyone can be so guileless and devoted. I hope you realize how much this person means to you. Love is in the stars while Venus forms a trine with Mars, and Jupiter befriends both.

{Wednesday} {Ardor}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 29 November 2011

2011-11-28T21:00:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 29 November 2011

}Settling Into Place for Now{

There is idealism, intensity, and deep thought, with the moon in Aquarius while the sun and Mercury remain in Sagittarius. Mercury retrograde helps you probe more deeply into things than usual, so that you might appear absent-minded outwardly. Your mind may be absent from the material world but not from the ideal one.

The possibly angry or quarrelsome nature of the sun's square with Mars, near its peak, could come out at work or at home, but need not be vengeful. You might be petty about things, or see others as petty, and wish to make your point. That point, someone else may feel, is drawing blood.

But the energy this aspect gives can be ambitious, so you can turn it into getting things done, especially those already under way. New projects would probably be disastrous, unless they grow out of old ones naturally and without force or upset.

Some have a gift for being cheerful even when they are losing in life's game, and they are a boon to the rest of us who moan and suffer too much over things which turn out later to be unimportant. A spirit of gamesmanship could be healthy, while the |difficult third of this week| winds down, ending at 6:19p PT | 9:19p ET | 2:29a(W) UT. (I notice that no one corrected me on yesterday's report when I inadvertently typed "2:29a(Tu) UT" which would have made no sense because the earlier times were for Tuesday in the Western Hemisphere. This leads me to wonder if anyone ever uses these times or notices them. I do, so I shall continue to post them with the reports and I hope a few of you pay attention because they can be very helpful.)

You can be happy doing things alone, behind the windows from which you view the world, when they are meaningful to you, even if you sometimes ponder on absent friends.

Stormy kinds of weather, either literally or in your feelings, stimulate you to transform your thoughts or actions in positive directions in order to meet the exciting conditions with competence.

Stuff at a distance involving correcting someone, or being corrected, comes up. Getting the trivial stuff straight helps, giving you more freedom in other things.

Steadiness and industry are good because they anchor you to the situation in which you are and must be for now. That is your basis for everything else which might develop. You can remain content with your lot (a virtue and a felicity hardly ever appreciated in a materialistic restless culture).

Your mind expands by peering into the future, visualizing what you can do or express or enjoy or appreciate. You find the past in the future and the future in the past, or they dance together in your wondering present (presence). And so the contentment (of the previous paragraph) and the "future" orientation (of this one) find harmony with each other.

Someone is hospitable toward you. This person has rigid habits but is generous to you and others who enter her or his domain. The spirit of Thanksgiving has not faded.

{Tuesday} {Settling into Place for Now}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 28 November 2011

2011-11-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

Monday 28 November 2011

\Creativity in Merging with Past toward Future/

Let's start with the difficult stuff. This is the center of the |stressful or karmically demanding third of this week|, which lasts until Tuesday evening at 6:19p PT | 9:19p ET |2:19a(Tu) UT. (It's shorter than usual because the moon is traveling fast.) However, with Luna in Capricorn, much can be accomplished if it is in the train of old things you have already begun and need to complete. You would rather do this than play or have fun, and it will make you happier. Powers of concentration are intense.

Mercury has been retrograde since Friday and I am feeling it. It comes out in slowness, delay, procrastination, and the like. You might set a coffee cup on a spoon and spill some of it. Or burn the toast, or find the toaster won't work, or spend three minutes looking for the pair of shoes you "know" you had left in a certain place last Friday, or miss the bus or train by a minute. I hope not, but when this stuff happens, remember Mercury is retrograde and get a grim smile out of it.

There can be ease and comfort, even placidity, while Venus is trine Jupiter and the sun bi-quintile that planet. This is when you feel you are accomplishing something or have accomplished it and your conscience is at rest.

You actually have a lot of vitality in these early days of a sun-moon cycle, so can push ahead with zest whenever you feel challenged enough to do it.

The worst thoughts you have about yourself and your future--that all is hopeless, that you are on your last legs, that nothing is going to work out--are perhaps natural now, but we need to be supernatural to overcome the demons of doubt. Actually the planetary structure now is more promising than in summer and early autumn.

It might be smart to get major things done before the moon goes void-of-course at 3:01p PT | 6:01p ET | 11:01p UT. No matter what pressures, at least you can focus more clearly before then.

One issue is Uranus in the first degree of Aries--the planet and the sign of independence and freedom--in a tri-septile with Saturn, lasting through December, or in other words through the Dark Hermetic Epoch which happens to end January 1. Saturn in Libra is the social world, the economic world, the world of justice and courts and legality. So, many will be feeling that they, lone wolves (Uranus in Aries), are pitted against the Establishment or the courts or Big Government or Big Business. "The mills of the gods grind slowly," and this one is grinding out self-reliance (oh, I said there was no such thing a few days ago!). (Emerson said that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" so I will be inconsistent when necessary to make a point.) In other words, yes, you have "the world" to contend with, but you are adequate and "the world" is making you more adequte by testing your ability to meet it full-face. (I am not finding this easy any more than you are.)

And so, sometimes, we might think, "Why not go back to the soil? Live on a farming commune and live off our produce?" This especially while Mars is in Virgo (until July), which seems to be a sign of farming. A breath of such realism can be bracing. Some will be changing their diets wisely.

People at a distance may seem to test you. Are you really communicating with them? Is that even possible? Are you condemned to live your own separate lives without understanding one another?

To be original you can be experimental. This may be a time for that. The Dark Epochs, including the Mercury-Retrograde periods (this one lasts until December 14), can be times for originality. Your subconscious is fertile and productive. Watch your dreams! They are giving you amazing links with your past--some disturbing, others encouraging. The past and present commingle at these times, which is one reason people are absent-minded and there are more mistakes. From the mingling of these two comes an urge toward a "different" future, a desire to experiment. In other words, your past is a womb of creativity in which you spend time to be reborn.

And not just dreams, but day-dreaming. While supposedly at work, you dawdle and muse. Suddenly you realize you are in a reverie about something that happened years ago. This is not unhealthy. It is part of Mercury Retrograde and can be strengthening if you have a good attitude about how to use those memories.

Diplomacy is good, to get you past any brewing arguments. You are illuminated by much awareness of who your true allies are and how to benefit by cooperating with them. And so you can keep on with projects which have validity and wait for assured (even if slow) results.

{Monday} /Creativity in Merging with Past toward Future\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 26 November 2011

2011-11-25T16:09:00.000-08:00

Saturday 26 November 2011

*Estrangement is not Self-Estrangement*

I wrote a complete forecast for today, labored over it (I mean labor), struggled with it (I mean struggle) for more than two hours. Then when I copied it, as I have dozens of times, to post, the copy function failed and destroyed the post. No, I did not hit "cut" rather than copy. Then I could have recovered it. It was a failure of a Microsoft program. All this adds up to the probability that I will turn to Apple for my next computer. Usually I write online, in Gmail, which is good because it is automatically saved online. I cannot do that now because of Internet connection problems.

The best I can do is try to recall some of the essence:

Saturday (this paragraph applies to Sunday also): Venus is square Uranus, and Mars square the sun. Beware of arguments, fights, insults, harsh words. You could end a friendship or a relationship.

That is probably the most important warning for the day.

You might worry about a young person whose troubles are on your mind.

Your difference from the world and what most people think or feel is evident to you. It does not have to make you depressed, but could be a key to some talent or skill you have or are developing. In other words, estrangement could be the opposite of self-estrangement. When you separate yourself from the world or others' expectations you may become someone, paradoxically, whom the world looks up to for guidance or expertise.

There are potentials of being an intermediary, finding a way to reconcile opposing forces or individuals, if you are alert to the depth of what is going on and find a position of inner security which will allow you to avoid coming out hatefully or offensively on one side or the other.

There are happy potentials in the trines of both Venus and Luna with Jupiter, a romantic and luxurious ambiance which you can tap into--if the previous warnings are heeded successfully.

That is a truncated and less articulate version of what I had written.

{Saturday} *Estrangement is Not Self-Estrangement*

Cosmic Piper

2011-11-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

Forecast for Friday 25 November 2011

2011-11-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

Friday 25 November 2011

*Self-Trust or Self-Proclamation*

As I write on Thursday morning, I am feeling the effects of the "dying moon" at the end of Scorpio before it joins the sun for a New Moon (10:11p(Th) PT | 1:11a(F) ET | 6:11a(F) UT). I would guess others, like me, do not really feel like getting into a Thanksgiving social ritual, but may still do so as a matter of routine. My own view is that the internal thanks-giving to G*d is most important of all.

Friday contains a reasonable amount of prudence. Those purchasing gifts might find children or younger people coming to mind. First choices may be spurned in favor of second or third.

There could be irascibility or irritability with the moon squaring Mars from Sagittarius to Virgo. With the moon moving toward a now-retrograde Mercury, one may feel thoughtful, and wonder why some others appear to be thoughtless. (Well, they might be feeling the same.)

Something profound happens in your consciousness accenting your separation from other people in a regard which seems important. You realize something they don't, or exercise unique interests they do not appreciate. Being true to yourself, you may find that some others find this attractive or magnetic.

Somehow the qualities in you which make you out of sympathy with "the world" are good for your talent and profession. You muse on them and use them to be something that world finds useful, attractive or interesting.

Whatever you write, or otherwise communicate, comes from your strong viewpoint and could arouse those who either agree or disagree. Some may regard it as superficial whether it is or not. You care about logic and ethics and will speak the truth as you see it.

You are alert to the charms of music whether heard or performed by you. Dancing could happen, even if you uncertainly look to someone else to provide the pattern of it.

Independent discovery along some line, perhaps remarkable, seems natural to you, whether or not anyone else understands or appreciates it.

{Friday} *Self-Trust or Self-Proclamation*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 24 November 2011

2011-11-23T17:37:00.000-08:00

Thursday 24 November 2011

~Thanksgiving~

One wonders often what people mean by "self-reliance" since we rely so much on everyone else, whether we are in business or living on social security or whatever our status. As a matter of fact, the more you think about it, "self-reliance" means just about nothing. Nothing at all.

You rely on whatever it is that gets you through each day and difficult situations. If it is your childhood upbringing, did you bring up yourself? No, your parents and society did. Is it your skills? Did you teach them all to yourself, or did you have help? I could not have learned astrology, and automobile mechanics could not have learned how to fix cars, without teaching from (in my case) dozens of astrologers through their writings and sometimes their conversations with me. Dozens of experienced mechanics. And if you drive a car, while you are driving you are totally dependent on those hundreds, thousands, or millions of mechanics and automobile engineers, for without them your car would not exist and could not be repaired.

Self-reliance? Perhaps one of the most meaningless phrases in English.

Seignior Borelli gives as symbol for the sun's position today, "The Goddess of Mercy Enthroned." This is extraordinarily significant in that today is Sri Aurobindo's Day of Siddhi (November 24, 1926), celebrated all over the world by those who know this Avatar and his work. Sri Aurobindo taught that, as he once put it humorously, "God is a woman," although of course God is also male to the highest degree of exalted, not foolish, maleness. That the Goddess of Mercy (called The Mother by Sri Aurobindo's disciples) should be enthroned on the day Americans celebrate as Thanksgiving---giving thanks to the God of mercy---is wonderful and not coincidental.

Whether you know it or not, you are dependent on the God or Goddess of Mercy.

We tend to become more aware of this when aware of death as having happened to someone, or seemingly likely to happen. Who would not turn to something greater than himself at such a time? Terror at times of crisis is a key to transformation. Why do people watch movies which horrify or terrify them? Or Greek or Shakespearean tragedies? In order to develop their ability to meet crises and transcend them.

Whom or what do you trust? is a significant question. We need to go deep in finding the answer. There could be a hierarchy of the trustworthy, with, for me, the Supreme Lord at the very top, and His Avatars, messengers, and guides in descending order. Then at lower levels there are the things, methods, procedures you trust as getting you through each day or earning you an income. The trust they have earned is always provisional and yet they must be trusted tentatively at least. And then the people who do things on which you are dependent, such as your banker or credit union, your car mechanic.

If we are reliant on a self, it is the Self of all of these and so a Super Self.

On the other hand, there is the rebellious instinct, the need to be oneself, as a child (of which age? I haven't studied child psychology lately) will insist that he is the omnipotent emperor for a period which exasperates his parents. This of course is not ultimate self-reliance because it is actually, unknown or self-hidden to itself, dependent on the parents whom it imagines it rules.
Then there has to be, following this, a period of self-restraint, when one realizes that holding oneself to the standards of the people around one is an inescapable necessity for survival and self-approval. Restraining oneself is not exactly ruling others, but an approach to it in a subtle way. Until, perhaps, the very idea of ruling or being ruled falls away, as in Karl Marx's yet-unrealized vision of "the withering away of the State."

At that point there is utter patience with everything and everyone because one sees how they all fall into a universal pattern of which one is not the victim but the happy active or passive participant.

To wish you a happy Thanksgiving means to hope that you will feel true and deep thanks to the Lord of All, for life and breath itself if nothing more, for if you do you will be happy.

{Thursday} ~Thanksgiving~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 23 November 2011

2011-11-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 23 November 2011

~Mystery Ameliorated by Common Sense and Hope~

Woe unto holiday travelers! Well, take this with a grain of salt. Maybe you will get where you are going in seamless prompt order. However, Luna in the Via Combusta while in the last days of a dying moon, with Saturn in fields of travel and home while tri-septile Uranus in other fields of home and travel, could mean delays big-time. Or it could mean, for those who have no trouble traveling, that they feel out of place this Thanksgiving.

When I grew up, Thanksgiving was "over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go," because all my family lived close by. So the idea of plane flight to get home for Thanksgiving is alien to me. Call me a curmudgeon, but I believe airplane flight is not healthy for human beings or the planet. When it is necessary for vocational purposes, business, and government (although we all wonder these days whether businessmen and government officials know what they are doing or where they are going), okay; and we might allow ourselves one round-trip flight a year for vacation. The rest seems to me otiose. Take the bus or train, and get to know seat-mates from other economic strata during a grueling days-long trip. It might be good for your soul. Or have Thanksgiving with your next-door neighbors. What an odd idea!

Max and Augusta Foss Heindel say of Jupiter opposed to Saturn (going on until the first week of March): "Gives a diffident, vacillating mind unable to form decisions, always distrustful of others, indolent and inclined to drift with the tide." Sound like anyone you know? Your congressman, maybe? Senators? Some of us wish that they would experience the rest of this delineation: " . . . often a ward of society either in the poor-house or the prison, for the character is basically dishonest." Our congressmen? Perish the thought! But a turn in the poor-house might do them good.

The sun's square with Neptune, which occurs about twice a year, is not terrible but has its peculiarities, such as a need for extra rest or sleep. It warns against too much alcohol or drugging. C. E. O. Carter says of it: "The tendency of Neptune to produce scandal is often seen; sometimes the native is to blame, sometimes apparently not. Often the whole affair is involved in mystery, and no one seems to know the truth about it." Sound familiar? Need I mention Penn State? And Herman Cain? (The aspect began November 5.) More of this delineation by Carter also hits at least the first of those marks: "[subjects of the aspect are] sometimes oblivious to the laws of conventional morality and straightforwardness, not perhaps so often deliberately as by reason of a seeming 'blind spot.'" Also, since Neptune is involved and in Aquarius, "the water carrier," many will have experienced peculiar problems with liquids, urinary matters, water, or plumbing. (Some of the incidents at Penn State are supposed to have been in the shower.)

I like to give out older (and in these cases deceased) astrologers' delineations, like this, because they get so little credit for the amazing work they have done.

Wednesday: We should beware of anger and argument because the sun's square with Mars is increasing (witness Egypt) and the moon in one of Mars's signs, Scorpio.

A musician, poet, or painter (deceased or in the flesh) might impress you, with Venus sextile both Saturn and Neptune. His or her glory is yours for free.

You might notice yourself walking up or down steps which are close to the natural world of growing (or dormant) things or animals. This is a symbol of hope and of the beauty and order you are bringing into your life. (The Sabian symbol for Jupiter lends this insight.)

Doubt is an interesting phenomenon. One wants to trust, but feels one has been betrayed in the past, and fears to trust again. You might be feeling this about conditions in your work situation or what you do for income. Yet you have worked out something solid in these areas you can depend on, rather than searching for something new. Individuals and methods proved helpful should be trusted.

The situation of women and men in connection with strained or restrained alliances having sexual overtones is coming up. Fortunately, this is the first day of Venus's trine with Mars, lasting through December 16 (by ten-degree orb); therefore, whatever the problems, happy outcomes are available.

Pleasing someone in a power position could be important. This is not "sucking up" but being responsible so that you are well-regarded rather than seen as impotent or lazy. Going the extra mile on the day before Thanksgiving?

{Wednesday} ~Mystery Ameliorated by Common Sense and Hope~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 22 November 2011

2011-11-21T15:26:00.001-08:00

Tuesday 22 November 2011

}Human Drama: Weep and Laugh{

A "frozen up" feeling is in the air, whatever the weather where you are, that is, a sense that things are on the brink of change and difficult to organize or manipulate. (Mercury goes retrograde the day after Thanksgiving and we are feeling that backdrag already while the "winged messenger" slows down.)

Freedom of spirit and simplicity can mitigate all worries, helping you to trust the cosmic order as it gradually improves your life and consciousness.

You can be aware of gigantic possibilities in one who approaches genius level, someone who could be a friend who is going through work therapy, retraining, or labor pains, or developing amazing potentials in a way hard to understand.

With all the headlines about financial and debt woes, it is hard to believe, perhaps, that you are in a position to acquire what you need in a good strong way, but so it seems. Take that as a grain of faith to plant and see the gradually successful results.

It's true that, as pointed out yesterday, we are in the |karmically difficult third of this week| until Wednesday afternoon at 1:07p PT | 4:07p ET | 9:07p UT. This forces you to focus on what is essential rather than on trivia. Whatever you have neglected is asking for attention.

People set forth their big plans and ideas for socio-political-economic change, and the more one looks at them the more they seem like weak echoes of past and failed agendas. It is fascinating that on the day (Monday) Congress let the debt crisis go unresolved, unable to agree on anything, the sun was in the very last degree of Scorpio, sign of "other people's money" including taxes and entitlements. It was the last gasp, for now, of any smart decisions, while the moon dies (in the final days before the New) in the Via Combusta.

You can be resourceful as you ricochet from one activity to another, refusing to let yourself be depressed despite strong tendencies in that direction. Small pleasures are creative, awakening within you an expanded grasp on the world and its wonders.

Human kindness is not absent, while Venus is sextile both Saturn and Neptune. You will note that someone likes to play-act in a friendly way, to lighten everyone's burdens. Taking on other mannerisms or attitudes is therapeutic even if mocking, which is why we enjoy striking dramatic presentations.

{Tuesday} {Human Drama: Weep and Laugh}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 21 November 2011

2011-11-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

Monday 21 November 2011

}It's Here Now{

The complexity of the aspects among the planets is spectacular. It includes the relatively rare (because of small orb) septile configuration formed with Uranus, Mars and Saturn (the tri-septile in this case). Then other septiles (or tri-septiles) are between Mars and Mercury, Jupiter adn the sun. This is the aspect of fate working out, that is, karma or something inevitable. Of course this is not necessarily disturbing and can be good, and is not totally "fated" because the way we react to it determines whether it helps or hurts us. It would appear that on the political-financial scene it is the ever-recurrent "debt crisis" in Congress. This goes along with the returning long-term opposition of Saturn and Jupiter already mentioned recently (when I gave its term limits, which I do not recall at the moment with exactitude). This is "old business," namely debts, with a vengeance, all over the world. The answers cannot be delayed, yet of course during the Dark Hermetic Epoch (lasting by chance until January 1) they will be delayed. Mercury goes retrograde (as it always does at the center of that Dark or Slow Epoch) the day after Thanksgiving, for about three weeks.

It's not doom and gloom, but a warning to seek your happiness in other than swift and sure progress of outer plans or ambitions. Some of those will inch along well, if you make them, while others will be obstinately slow. So the holiday season, if truly jolly or sacredly serene, should be specially welcome.

On Monday you have feelers out for whatever is happening with people, especially at work or in business. They don't fool you, but you entertain their vanities for the sake of harmony. You know how to please "the boss" whomever that may be, without detracting from your self-approval and poise.

You persuade, you fascinate, and inspire others to serve you for a modicum of service in return.

You also investigate and discover, or learn how to sail above clouds of worry by getting and following the secret formulas of your success. This is in a way which no one else could imitate.

No matter what Congress, European bankers or the stock market may do, somehow you are feeling prosperous: perhaps because it's Thanksgiving week. You can assemble what you have and enjoy, sensing how to display or share it genially.

Reformers are restless and enthusiastic. They put out their ideas as if pamphlets. This could be in politics or within a business or non-profit organization. Even if some such ideas are premature or shallow, there is a search for significant agenda.

I don't want to, but must say that the |difficult or challenging third of this week, according to one formula which has been reliable|, is today through Tuesday until Wednesday forenoon. Good things can happen and be made to happen, but it is important to control depressing or desperate moods.

Despite that, so much is happening that you get on this merry-go-round and can't get off. It can be exhilarating when it goes well. Probably today would be better for concluding an agreement or making a purchase than the rest of the week. You might set things up for later so that you know where you are headed over the holiday.

Hope is always good, even if some forms it takes are excessive or in a misleading direction at first. Calm in the face of infinite expectation is wise, because the infinite is here and now as much as there and then.

{Monday} {It's Here Now}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 19 November 2011

2011-11-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

Saturday 19 November 2011

\Fairytale Project/

One's "place in the world" is indicated by the 10th house of the horoscope, in which the Part of Fortune sails today. This means you care about what you are doing, what your life is all about, your profession or career, or if unemployed or retired, your projects. Further, you care about the overseer or Overseer of all that---if you do not know G*d, you have no real ultimate overseer. So you will have to make do with shifting allegiances and temporary subjection to employers or clients. This is the house which asks from us honor and integrity.

There could be a reclusive trend, so that you can find internal spiritual security. Perhaps nothing in the outer world can give this; yet for myself, Scripture or holy or sacred writings--and what they reveal or inspire--never fail me.

Another trend, seemingly contrary, is to enjoy popularity with someone and cultivate it, which makes you feel better about yourself in every way. This is linked somehow, but not in a heavy way, with the careers or projects of both of you.

You are tightly involved with your impressions and highly sensitive. (The sun square Neptune is part of this.) Therefore you react deeply to everything you see or hear or what is said to you or around you. You are impressionable or mediumistic. This can be a benefit if you are able to use such feelings and perceptions to open your ability to help or be kind to someone or, as in paragraph 2, link with your deeper self.

There is an adventurous and relaxed quality even to projects you want to carry on with, or shared attempts to get something done in a mutually beneficial, jovial way.

Those with no financial worries (as the stars of Gossip Girl) may relax into fantastic fairytale perceptions, hopes, and projects. Those who are financially tight may do the same though with less extravagance and therefore more ingenuity.

Harsher trends (such as the sun moving to a square with Mars) are present, which could erupt in contention, strife, and litigation or conversation about it. Sometimes people cannot separate their eccentricities from their political or other opinions. If wise, you will rise above such incidents when they occur and try to find the point of trust and ease beyond the anger, which is a signal of underlying fear or anxiety.

{Saturday} /Fairytale Project\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 18 November 2011

2011-11-17T11:40:00.001-08:00

Friday 18 November 2011

*Invisible Leadership Becoming Visible*

I feel like a cheerleader trying to tell you things are better than they seem. This would apply to both ends of the economic spectrum: well-off investors, on one side (and not all investors are well-off, by the way), and the "99%" protestors on the other. The former ought to relax a little and invest more so the economy can get jump-started, rather than worry so much about international debts and let them be a drag on progress. The latter have a right to protest what they see as unfair, and much of it is, in one way or another, but also ought to be more optimistic about their individual possibilities and follow them up.

[This is not a political journal, but let me say: Nothing I have said about "deadbeats" and the like means I am not with the protestors, on some issues, especially those who have had to contract debts to go to college, or those without jobs. There are a lot of middle class "deadbeats" not among the protestors, such as those who assumed mortages they could not pay, other debts, etc. The bankers are not the only ones responsible for the mess, by any means. Also, nothing I have said even remotely justifies the police brutality we have seen. These protesters are non-violent and deserve to be treated as such.]

Where are the leaders? I have asked. I don't mean the obvious ones such as Obama and those in politics on either side. I mean among the protesters. I applaud their attempt to figure out some agenda for progressive change in the economy, but bemoan the lack of leadership among them, a clear agenda, a definite plan, party, process for what they want to happen. Today, I believe, some such individual (or individuals) could be rising from among them. Watch for the signs.

Fear is a problem, which is holding back investors---there is a lot of money out there in individual, institutional, and corporate hands which could be released into the economy as stimulus for new jobs and benefits for all---and we need to start to trust one another more. Who among corporate leaders, or Wall Street honchos, is willing to extend a hand to the protestors, say "I sympathize, I want to help"? Who among the protesters is willing to extend a hand to the corporate leaders or Wall Street types and say "We want what you want, a country with more fairness and better opportunities for all. Join us to find that."

And, if that sounds naive, then right there is the problem. It is not naive but contains a seed of the possible solution.

Hope is essential, and can be forthcoming. It "springs eternal" even in November, when the obsolete falls (with its own charm as colored leaves). When hope is expressed in the immediate, in beauty and order, as many of the protestors in their tent cities have done, and as many of their seeming opponents do in their privileged domains, it is a path to shared prosperity.

It's Friday and not everything is serious. There can be exploration and entertainment, though with serious themes lying behind it. I would only say (not to be a wet blanket) that the real wet blanket could be too much alcohol, for some, because both the moon and sun are in harsh aspect with Neptune. I have seen that at those times people already have so much Neptunian tendency toward dreaming and the Invisible (which can be good) that too much alcohol is dispiriting and deadening. For those who drink, cutting one's usual allotment in half might be wise.

Making a psychological adjustment to opponents is important. Because the protests have been in the news, I am thinking of them, but they symbolize other facets of your life and relationships. To develop any kind of intimate interrelation among those from different sides of a fence requires fluid, flexible adjustment so they can appreciate the differences between them rather than make those interesting differences an endless source of enmity.

There are those whose self-mastery and deliberate mental development make them ready for leadership roles. Let us hope we discover them or they are bold enough to step up. In what are you fit to be leader, within the family, corporation, or intimate group? If it is natural for you to assume that role, you are meant for it.

{Friday} *Invisible Leadership Becoming Visible*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 17 November 2011

2011-11-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

Thursday 17 November 2011

*Relying on Connections, Contacts, Strategies*

We have escaped the |hard third of this week| (always allowing for other "hard" times on other days because of other statistical patterns) which ended early Thursday at 1:19a PT | 4:19a ET | 9:19a UT. What problems came up for you, Tuesday or Wednesday, which require solution?

Lunar aspects of the day are cheery, the moon trine both Mercury and Venus especially in afternoon and evening. Old business remains important, and connections with people at a distance, and religious-spiritual consciousness.

The longer-term opposition of Jupiter and Saturn, discussed yesterday, can at worst bring out "suspicion, distrust, indolence, or even basic dishonesty" in the words of Robert DeLuce. It is interesting that these are the character-failures the northern European countries are attributing to the southern ones during the debt crisis of these latter, affecting the whole world. Likewise, the "occupy" protesters in the U. S. are blaming Wall Street for these character disorders. It might be said, indeed, that debt is a character disorder which is racking the world economy. Debtors have their "deadbeat" disorder, and creditors their "vulture" one. The deadbeats want to feed on the vultures and the vultures on the deadbeats, but they have fed and now must fast.

However, as discussed before, Mars is trine Jupiter: Again from DeLuce: "The native [astrological subject] gains through enterprise, activity and diligence in all his affairs." A formula the world needs. This could be specially true because the aspect occurs in earth signs, which have a talent for the immediately, materially applicable. Someone you know and communicate with frequently is helping you do this, whether by support, challenge, or both.

Passions and rages can destroy detached objectivity, while the sun squares Mars. This goes on for at least a couple more weeks; as it sets in, the anger and violence in the protester-police contest has increased. When emotions overcome reasoned protest, things get out of hand, and of course this can be on the side of the police or otherwise. People want to get even or, better, just to win. In your own life you can use this energy of "let me win" to pursue your goals with fine-edged strategy rather than blunt belligerence.

Stability of purpose helps a great deal. Meanwhile, romantic dreams occupy you especially later in the day and evening, when you could indulge them successfully up to a point. You could be a social climber, if so inclined, or find that you gravitate to beautiful, gracious individuals, congenial and helpful.

{Thursday} *Relying on Connections, Contacts, Strategies*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 16 November 2011

2011-11-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 16 November 2011

*Quiet Confidence is Security*

Things may be indefinite until the moon, from the end of Cancer, enters Leo at 8:17a PT | 11:17a ET | 4:17p UT. Then watch out for romantic fireworks. There is a desire to be intimate with someone unusual and compelling. Your ideals can prevent anything unseemly, but you may have to fight it off. Attraction may be incipient love, but this bud is fragile (if not tantalizingly poisonous).

Your influence on people is stronger than you realize, including those at a distance.

The opposition of Jupiter and Saturn, which we have discussed at length in past months under the title of their "Mutation" (with the square, a once-in-twenty-years phenomenon), is with us again (by wide but effective orb) until March 9. This is likely to be a finishing of old problems, a resolution of them, but they have to come back for you to be aware of them and resolve them. It is nothing to fear. I like Robert DeLuce's inspirational take on this: "Losses of money, position, and reputation may bring the native [individual under astrological analysis] to the brink of despair. Let him still preserve his faith, hold his integrity and trust in the unalterable and immortal nature of Truth and he will pass through and recover all that he temporarily loses." Because this aspect does not complete itself (being most exact in early January and then diminishing), I believe that the "loss" in question will be of the past, and that most of us will be recovering from that gradually rather than suffering new loss.

Indeed, exactly today the trine of Mars and Jupiter is exact, promising good fortune financially (whether the Market goes down or up). Either you are reaping rewards, or you have successfully planned for them and are carrying on successfully. This aspect is with us until early December, then returns for most of March. Therefore the long transit of Mars, turning stationary and retrograde and then stationary and direct, in Virgo for 8 months, is likely to be rather good and is one reason I do not predict a worldwide depression or serious recession. I believe you already know how to benefit from all this, if you stay with well-wrought plans.

Correspondence or conversation with someone at a distance could be helpful today.

You'll know how to prevent any extravagant words or choices if you calm down and trust that the prudent, steady course is best. "Hold your horses" is one way to put it.

By doing that, you will be led to continue a course of job or professional activity which leads on to recognition, especially when you trim what you are doing to fit the needs of someone important with whom you can cooperate or collaborate.

You'll get what you need if you stick with what you know.

A hopeful feeling saturates the ambience, with moments when playful childlike entertainment is good. (Paragraph 1 is pertinent here.)

Security through high-minded invocation of ideals and their powers (ideals have powers!), mentioned yesterday, is protection against long-lasting disorder or lapse of judgment.

{Wednesday} *Quiet Confidence is Security*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 15 November 2011

2011-11-14T15:31:00.001-08:00

Tuesday 15 November 2011

~Slow but Persistent~

There is no reason to slack off on efforts, except briefly for rest. Yesterday the times of the |hard third of this week| were given, which includes today and Wednesday. It's a good period to focus on what has the most utility in your life. You can work humbly at what is good for you and anyone you serve.

Another side of you wants sheer entertainment or colorful relaxation. This is normal, and is partly a desire to relax into your roots, that which has sustained you from your birth (or before). This we can do every night in sleep but sometimes the daylight hours want some of that depth-exploration and playful renewal.

Whatever the world of business and the Market may be doing, somehow you are flourishing in terms of resources you have at hand or available. We approach the time of thanksgiving or harvest-appreciation, and it is well to remember how much there is to appreciate. The trine of Mars and Jupiter in earth signs is blessing us.

A trend toward retreat is evident from several factors, including aspects to Neptune. Again, the sleep mode intruding on the hours of activity. If we could all take naps during work this might be a good day for that. Otherwise, it can come out in quiet breaks known only to yourself, internal solitude with prayer or meditation.

A feeling of being abandoned hits all of us at times. Divine protection and security is available to those who invoke it. It might take the form of at least two individuals, Presences, or paths which help you enormously. Then with that aid you will perhaps get back into the spirit of the first paragraph.

{Tuesday} ~Slow but Persistent~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 14 November 2011

2011-11-13T16:06:00.001-08:00

Monday 14 November 2011

~Shared Projects on the Trestleboard~

You are pretty much aware of important projects you could devote yourself to, if you can just summon the interest and enthusiasm to do it.

Someone at a distance might be calling for aid, actually or telepathically.

You could fail to see what is important in terms of career partnership. Yet you could work with someone using professional or trained skills. This can have good results, if you pull yourself out of indifference or gloom long enough to do it.

It seems you need to keep pulling yourself out of "brown studies" which could at worst become "red studies" in anger or imagined retribution. Yet this need not be. If you find yourself drifting in such a direction, you can use firm self-control to recognize that attending to your unique skills and using them for the benefit of anyone will benefit yourself as fully as anything can.

The sciences do not have to be closed to psychic or clairvoyant investigation. It is about time for them to loosen up rather than continuing to throw out the baby with the bath water. Astrology also, any area of amazing investigation, could fascinate and expand your mind-powers.

You can glorify that to which you are dedicated, just by believing in it and carrying on.

At worst, you could give up too easily. There is something you can do in cooperation with someone else which utilizes your skills and even expands them. You might, instead, turn to fruitless interests which go in circles and do not benefit you or anyone.

The moon is in the sign Cancer. The |difficult or emotionally trying third of this week| begins later today at 4:40p PT | 7:40p ET | 12:41a(Tu) UT and lasts through Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be a good time for concentrating on major goals or necessities, rather than on social life or fun. You could get a lot done, especially on started or promised but incomplete projects. Today, leading up to it, could be the time to link with anyone for whom or with whom you might cooperate.

{Monday} ~Shared Projects on the Trestleboard~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 12 November 2011

2011-11-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday 12 November 2011

}Easy-Going Links to Destiny{

Action remains important as a manifestation of your sense of home and security. That is, doing what makes you feel right with the world while at home. Partnership remains a focus needing attention. What are relationships made of? They are being tested.

Robert de Luce says of Mars opposing Neptune (still with us), "only spiritual means can be used effectively to overcome the troubles, dangers and adverse forces which this aspect will bring." It teaches "reliance upon Divine protection." Spiritual study is the most effective way (for mental individuals such as those likely to read these forecasts) to invoke Divine protection. Even in churches and synagogues, the recitation of Scripture is the most important part of what goes on.

Mars is now in Virgo, until July 3. This is a very long time, because Mars will turn retrograde in that sign. Its retrograde period happens only every two and a half years or so. Then it goes to the other side of the earth from the sun, so appears to us to oppose the sun. Its presence in Virgo grants a perspicuous attention to details and a willingness to work. No doubt it will correlate to changes in the labor market all over the world, as they develop in response to global economic necessities. Re-(retrograde)-developing "human resources" as they are so oddly called (as if human beings were coal or soil) will be on the agenda, that is, job retraining for many. We will also see changes in police and military jobs; re-deployment.

There is a flair for variety in your work today, Saturday, and also Sunday. (The rest of this forecast applies to both days.) You want to try various things. You might focus on a hobby or two.

Love relationships are mixed up with mental orientation or information while Venus and Mercury sail along together. One focus is domestic: whoever you live with or near. Another is more professional: study of what will make you better at what you do. Both avenues of activity are enjoyable and fruitful. You approach them with a light touch, easygoing and adaptable.

A straightforward quality is good. You feel you can meet the world honestly. Therefore, with optimism, generosity, and nothing to hide, you feel comfortable with yourself and others. There is also a flirtatious tendency, but held within limits because you are aware of the fateful quality in relationships or possible relationships. You sense "the end from the beginning" and so are careful and, let us hope, wise.

{Saturday} {Easy-Going Links to Destiny}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 11 November 2011

2011-11-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

Friday 11 November 2011

\Self-Rulership Within Relationship/

Aficionados of numerology might make much of this 11 11 11 day! 11 and 22 are said to be Master numbers; and traditionally I believe the highest degree within Masonry is 33. Make of it what you will.

The moon is void of course (in Taurus) until it enters Gemini at 12:11p PT | 3:11p ET | 8:11p UT (eleven again!). (Oddly enough, last night I watched a movie from 2001 titled Ocean's Eleven. I do not recommend it. It's a silly "heist movie" about idiotically clever criminals who rob three [three elevens today!] Las Vegas casinos through an elaborately concocted, preposterous scheme employing all eleven of them. I would stick with the Freemasons if I were you.)

The septile of Mars and Venus---Mars being in Virgo today for the first time in many months---always means something important. It will be something involving a relationship, most likely. (Oh-oh! Venus and Mercury are at 11 degrees of Sagittarius.) What is evolving or happening surprisingly within a relationship? Watch for it and make it as good as you can. It will be "fateful," one meaning of the septile, but can still be good.

There is independence and originality in your thought processes, which require sustained effort to come to fruition.

Arguments over complex issues of "who is to blame" are looming. I feel helpless in giving advice about that. Some of it could happen within a job situation or among those who work together. You need to defend yourself perhaps, but also to see the other fellow's viewpoint. Never easy except for a perfect saint or yogi.

Mars forming a trine with Jupiter (continuing by a ten-degree orb through December 4, and then returning, in the same signs since Mars will go retrograde in Virgo, in February-April) is considered by astrologers to be a superb aspect for money and gain. So I must part from the company of the sour "bears" who tell us that the European debt crisis is the end of civilization, or the beginning of a depression. I heard today about a sort of financial miracle which has happened in Argentina since that country experienced the depths of an economic crisis. Something like that is already under way in America, South America, China, and other places, and will be in Europe also at some point. At the personal level, I would say, do not try anything extraordinary (such as robbing a casino) but do keep your faith in what has worked for you in the past and hold on to those good plans. Circumstances will support them.

Work remains important today no matter what else may be on your mind. Finishing some part of it is crucial for your happiness afterward.

If there seems a peculiarity or standoff in a relationship, this could be the moon squaring Mars and opposing Venus while those two are in the septile. At worst it could be a tendency to interfere with each other. It is a chance for better definition, perhaps, with both of you sharpening your meaning for each other.

{Friday} /Self-Rulership Within Relationship\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 10 November 2011

2011-11-09T14:34:00.001-08:00

Thursday 10 November 2011

\Maintaining Stability/

The Full Moon of Taurus-Scorpio occurs at 12:17p PT | 3:17p ET | 8:17p UT. As it happens in the two money signs, it is not surprising that debt issues are undergoing another re-evaluation in Europe and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, I have to come down on the side of the optimists: I do not see a strong astrological reason why there should be a worldwide depression.

Personal finances ought to be amenable to wise and gainful handling while Mars moves closer to a grand trine with Jupiter and Pluto over the coming weeks, even into December.

The Full Moon brings heightened consciousness on many levels. Panic is to be avoided. Old established methods and systems are the ones to hold on to for dear life when you feel inclined to jump ship or try something radically new.

Any discontent you feel can be eliminated by getting things done, the very things you had intended to do but have not as yet.

{Thursday} /Maintaining Stability\

Cosmic Piper

Wednesday 9 November 2011

2011-11-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 9 November 2011

\Full Generous Moon/

So much is possible now! You might be overwhelmed by a sense of potentiality. Yes, we are in the Dark Hermetic Epoch, but not yet in the Mercury-retrograde period which starts the day before Thanksgiving. It is good to avoid profitless paths which attract your wandering mind; if you succeed in that, you have a chance for consolidating gains and agendas. Your ambitions reach to the skies, and you have a shrewd practical business sense while, today, the moon in Taurus conjoins Jupiter and trines both Mars and Pluto. Further, today and tomorrow are Full Moon days.

Whatever good luck was with you Tuesday is likely to continue through today.

We need to be aware of fanatics or anarchists while Mars opposes Neptune. This has something to do with the protests in Greece, America, and all over the world in regard to difficult employment and financial circumstances. When intelligently directed such protests can be healthy; when merely inspired by malcontent, they go nowhere except to give people jail records. (I do support civil disobedience when inspired by noble ideals. In such a case a jail record could be a credit.)

This aspect also has to do with "the fall of the mighty" when one takes Mars as a strong man and Neptune as the throttle upon him, either imprisonment or loss of status. So we have had the end of Qaddafi during this aspect as well as the resignations of Papandreou in Greece and Berlusconi in Italy. Today I saw a photo of Berlusconi with his eyes raised to heaven as if in prayer. I joined him in prayer for the nations and for the resolution of the world-wide debt problems. It is easy to blame either bankers or profligates, deadbeats or socialists or capitalists. Blaming does not solve the problems. Responsibility, of course, is needed on all sides; but who teaches real responsibility except the prophets and Avatars? Responsibility based only upon fear of consequences is not the sustaining ideal.

Such ideals are another side of Mars opposed to Neptune. It pushes us toward them. Spiritual action is real, and has as a component, sometimes, material renunciation.

Such trends may seem contrary to another which is prominent, the success and prosperity pointed out in the first two paragraphs. Yet they are being combined on the world stage and in individual lives. There is warmth and kindness, with Jupiter well-aspected in Taurus, a desire to share in wise ways.

The Full Moon will be exact Thursday afternoon and is now in full evidence, as a heightening of consciousness, a wide full comprehensive view of things, fulsome memories, flavorful reminiscences, and sharply successful strategies. May you be a beneficiary of this largesse.

{Wednesday} /Full Generous Moon\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 8 November 2011

2011-11-07T16:05:00.001-08:00

Tuesday 8 November 2011

*Concentrated Focus Wins*

The "intent-on-myself-and-my-needs" trend continues. You have a great deal to accomplish and probably feel up for it.

This despite the |difficult third of this week|, which continues through today. The difficulties are almost welcome because you are plowing through them.

Learning gladly from mistakes is a cure for gloom or despondency.

The opposition of Mars and Neptune might spell a period of spiritual struggle, trying to figure out whom or Whom you depend upon for your well-being. For atheists or agnostics, this would be some human organization, enterprise, or ideal-in-motion; for others, that but even more something intangible touched through spiritual tradition.

Luck is with you! The bi-quintile between Venus (plus Mercury) and Jupiter assures that. You are accomplishing something which feels right as rain. Research in a job or financial area goes swimmingly. Activity at home is satisfying and esthetic or pleasing. Study and learning are not only profound but useful in the achievement of goals.

Whatever your inheritance or heritage, you are able to develop and benefit by it while Jupiter and Pluto remain in a trine (continuing through March and perhaps April).

Friendly entertainment is enlivening, although you keep a focus on things you want to accomplish, perhaps blending or interweaving the two trends.

The direct and fearless approach wins while Mars remains in Leo, through Thursday and its Full Moon, for he is trine both Jupiter and Pluto. A good symbol of this is an entrepreneur. Hard economic times are not hindering those who get into this spirit of full bold pursuit.

{Tuesday} *Concentrated Focus Wins*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 7 November 2011

2011-11-06T16:24:00.001-08:00

Monday 7 November 2011

*Ambition to be Useful*

The focus is on yourself and what you want. You have magnetism and may use it almost forcefully. When playful this is mildly sadistic. That is, you want to get a rise out of someone.

Of course, the danger is that you might be more cruel than you realize and therefore offensive. It's "a game of meeting kinglinesses," as Sri Aurobindo has put it.

Research in your career area is highly profitable.

Spiritual control of oneself is an important lesson while Mars opposes Neptune. You have an entree to the teachings which will enable you to do that. And for protection of all kinds, only the Divine is ultimately reliable.

Invigorating life-force is ours while Jupiter trines Pluto, and prosperity in surprising ways, or a feeling of prosperity no matter what the bottom line.

It is interesting how the square between Uranus and Pluto is working out in the OWS, Occupy Wall Street, or 99% movement. Uranus is "give me freedom" and Pluto is "give me moola." So together, in a harsh aspect, they suggest the strains within capitalism; yet also the strains within socialism, as in Greece. At worst, this aspect can be a determination to prosper at someone else's expense. At best, it could be awareness of this, leading to reforms. One trouble is that we often see others' greed but not our own.

The playful side of things can be erotic, though Venus in Sagittarius is an innocent position, childlike, enthusiastic in love without guile. The Scorpio factor, also present, is more reserved and calculating.

Saturn in Libra, however--accented today by the moon opposing it during this first day of the two |specially or emotionally difficult days of this week|--is a desire to be useful. You realize subconsciously that unless you are contributing something or helping someone you are not fulfilling your life. Your way of doing that can be developed quite smoothly; and you do not want to give up.

Balancing this last paragraph with the first three is not at all impossible.

{Monday} *Ambition to be Useful*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 5 November 2011

2011-11-04T16:34:00.001-07:00

Saturday 5 November 2011

~Listlessness, or Relaxed Learning and Sharing~

There can be comradeship and mellow conversation times. People want to be frank and easy with one another.

It could be said the day has two strikes against it, for practical outer matters: (1) the moon is void-of-course (in Pisces) all day; (2) this is the first day of a Dark Hermetic Epoch extending to late evening on December 31. So there could be disorientation. The Sabbath prescription of communion with G*d, or your soul, or whatever feels deeply real to you, is a very good idea.

There could be a musical festival, or musical-chairs dance, of moving noncommittally from one scene to another. People care about something they are trying to accomplish, learn, or study, but are willing to put it away from them while they enjoy the spice of variety.

There is brooding, but it goes on within a context of restlessness and adventure. People want to relax and be friendly without worry, so are hiding or transmuting their worries. Therefore all can seem to be jolly.

Whatever is sublime and refined gets your appreciation. Your ordinary tastes are refined upward a notch or two.

Things ramify in many directions, so you need to balance them without stumbling too far in one way or the other.

Young people get your attention, and probably your worries. You can do something for them (at least serious prayer) yet cannot solve all their problems. Why is there suffering at all? we frequently ask. Whatever the answer you accept, you need one to keep you poised, even cheerful, while you face the problems people have gotten themselves into. I hope the previous paragraphs also will help.

{Saturday} ~Listlessness, or Relaxed Learning and Sharing~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 4 November 2011

2011-11-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Friday 4 November 2011

~Reassuring Turning Point~

A lot of thinking is happening, and a lot of deep stuff that is beyond thinking. People are regrasping their orientations to life.
The stability you want in your life could be as hard as rock, because you are learning to trust yourself and your intuition. (Though from my theistic perspective, "in-tuition" is tuition from the Supreme One, not from "ourselves" limited as we are. Any other viewpoint would be to me extreme arrogance.) Since the Dark Hermetic Epoch (for two months or until late in the day on December 31) begins tomorrow, this is our last day to set in stone, as it were, our major decisions, choices, schedules and agendas for the near future.

You may be sensitive and impulsive in regard to home life and also study which uplifts you. You flirt with mild danger a bit, because you feel confident that you can circumvent it as you go along.

Friendship and adventure could be wonderful. You go where you feel like going and everything confirms that changes happening are good and that you proceed through life with happy company around you.

Visual arts turn up as meaningful, whether you dabble in them yourself (or perhaps are a professional) or notice carefully and elegantly drawn products of others. Architecture both domestic and foreign could be fascinating.

There seems to be a fresh beginning of things, heartily reassuring. (The Dark Epoch inaugurated tomorrow does not mean nothing new can begin, but that it is wise to let new things be experimental rather than relied upon as lasting for a long time. It is a phase for tentative new projects, and sticking with established ones, rather than for deciding on major new ones.) You relax a bit, feeling that your grip on the future is secure. Therefore you are not in a hurry, and can hold back prudently while developing inwardly and outwardly your skills, perhaps subconsciously even more than consciously.

{Friday} ~Reassuring Turning Point~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 3 November 2011

2011-11-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

Thursday 3 November 2011

}Soul Strength{

It is hard to be protecting oneself always from something or someone one fears. This can be a pathological state of mind, or a normal one when real dangers threaten. One can see in TV situation comedies or soap operas how people paint themselves into corners by suspecting things in others which are either not true or only partially true, or which would go away if neglected benignly. Fortunately the disastrous comeuppance is laughable on TV, not necessarily so in real life.

The planetary aspects with Neptune suggest a desire for the marvelous, the romantic and remarkable. You may search for overwhelming beauty, something to admire or gape at. Where this takes you is nobody's business but your soul's.

Disappointment or delay are sometimes merely annoying, but now are likely to toll an ominous bell in your inner consciousness which gives you pause. Yet this is not really frightening; it is a call for reorientation, so that you can sense the kernel of the past's sad absent donation as a gain to further the next stage in your growth. You are missing someone or something deeply. Yet you also know that what they have given you is immortal; and so are they.

Something wild calls you away from the humdrum. Autumn colors haunt you. The splendor of Nature in her autumnal fall from summer's glory is stupendously moving to the soul. At the same time, you need to focus on work either physical or mental, instilling that awe into your endeavors.

Even in autumn, every moment is new: daybreak. It contains the past, the harvest; but points to something fresh.

What is the enemy you need to encounter? Only you can say. Something, first, in yourself which has hindered you. Then, with Mars opposing Neptune, you can carry on a crusade or mission, imbued not with anger or revenge but the soulful depth we have been pondering.

{Thursday} {Soul Strength}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 2 November 2011

2011-11-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 2 November 2011

}Wise Plans Discerned Dimly or Clearly{

This is the last week of the Bright Hermetic Epoch, which changes to Dark on Saturday for about two months. So you might try to finalize whatever plans or ongoing strategies seem to be working for you. This is a matter of Mercury (hence his epoch is called Hermetic, for of course Hermes is Mercury). It is, in other words, a matter of your mind, your thinking, planning, strategizing, your ability to map out your life consciously. It has a lot to do with your everyday routines and methods. What methods have you been deciding on in the past month or two? What are your conclusions? It would be good to write them down before Saturday, when you might start to question things unreasonably. It is very likely that you can trust what you have decided upon in recent weeks. This could be concerning big things involving major decisions, or smaller ones (nevertheless essential) such as daily scheduling, weekly agendas, and so on. You have seen how to direct your life for the immediate future at least, and it is well not to forget what you have learned.

As of Wednesday we have escaped the |harsh or challenging third of this week|, that is, the special segment of it marked off that way. During it, this time, Prime Minister Papandreou of Greece threw his monkey wrench into the world markets which had just started nicely to recover. World markets went down precipitately during the two days of the |difficult third|, Monday and Tuesday. But beware: The market does not always behave like that, as I have explained before. Sometimes people and institutions buy rather than sell during the |difficult third| of each week.

The insecurity you feel about various matters does not have to be an everlasting habit. It is funny how we can worry about things which never happen, and forget to worry about more important things, such as our spiritual standing in the eyes of G*d. Jesus said that men spend too much time seeking honor from other men rather than the honor which comes from the Supreme Lord alone.

Mercury's position (with Venus) at the center of a T square with Neptune on one side and Mars on the other has many possible meanings. One, for today, could be that you see into plots, schemes, and subconscious wiles of people (or yourself) and see how to foil them and prevent bad results from them. We can be detectives on ourselves as well as others, and learn how to stop ourselves from defeating ourselves.

In reorienting yourself from the possible loss or absence of friends or family, you can trust that something new and good will develop, rather than cling to the past when it is gone in any practical sense. Of course it is wonderful to remember all we have known, including those gone from this physical world, and appreciate them and what they have contributed to us, which is immortal insofar as it is progressive. It is equally as important to honor them by attending to things we need to do, which, if they are conscious of us, will please them.

You are leaning how to prevent people from imposing on you without offending them. At crucial times you need your space as they need theirs. You are also subtle and sensitive concerning more abstract philosophic matters which interest you, so you can get the drift of what the Higher Mind of the human race is showing you.

There is significance in your dreams. They are not pointless. They are showing you how to complete some project which you might be conscious of only semi-consciously most of the time.

It seems you are confronting another side of you which wants to forget about projects and coast. It is willing to rest even on a hard bed rather than work for a luxurious one. This is personal choice at work, so no one can tell you which way to go at any given moment.

{Wednesday} {Wise Plans Discerned Dimly or Clearly}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 1 November 2011

2011-10-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 1 November 2011

\From Wariness, Charm and Wiliness/

Although still in the |emotionally challenging third of this week| with its worries, lunar aspects are shaping up to something sweeter in the afternoon-evening to give relief. But people still need to be treated with kid gloves.

People want to be dramatic. This makes it important to see through their masks. They overstate their case to make a point or be sarcastic. If you are not in the mood for humor, it may not please you.

You care about carrying out your mission, like a military man. Although deception is part of warfare, it does not have to ruin everything; at its best it is more like discretion. Rather than war with its maiming and killing, let's cultivate competition whether in sports, business or philanthropy.

Those who have not fully harvested the year's gains in grain or fruit may be doing so. Chores done in nature have a feel of natural satisfaction within them. The rustic life appears in the dreams and sometimes the surroundings of city dwellers.

Taking the long view toward goals will help you cope with delays. Your aim can be perfected though the target is yet out of reach. A rainbow of promise guides hopes upward. When you see significance in the destination, steps on the way are meaningful.

Charm is a mysterious quantity. It is more powerful than suspected, whether exercised in male or female costume. Those who attract or inspire have more lasting power than those who merely command or demand. If they can do the former, they can do the latter more successfully.

{Tuesday} /From Wariness, Charm and Wiliness\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 31 October 2011

2011-10-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

Monday 31 October 2011

\The Long Stretch/

Those who feel bereft of parentage and support sometimes turn out well, facing hard circumstances and learning to fend for themselves. So you might feel today. When immediate goals seem unattainable, it is well to remain confident that remote ones can still be attained.

The |difficult or emotionally challenging third of this week| is today and tomorrow. You can tough it out. As if a pioneer or independent homesteader, you can labor for the day's goodness and be content with it.

Discontent or anxiety has to do with factors you cannot control, which may feel more ominous than they are, though it is wise to protect from harm in a reasonably cautious manner.

Being adequate to what life has asked of you, or you ask of yourself, is a satisfaction in itself. It is not necessary to have higher ambitions. He who can endure does not agonize during the long stretch.

Study and learning are possible in surprising ways. You can look at questions before you and arrive at superb insights or reliable conclusions. This can be with or without complex methodology or technology, depending on your personal situation. You can see how to arrive at answers.

{Monday} /The Long Stretch\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 29 October 2011

2011-10-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday 29 October 2011

*Noblesse Oblige*

It seems a day of good fortune. There is a sense of freedom to explore and to find. You might discover treasure while shopping or engage in some profitable transaction.

You have your own thoughts which you treasure, and see into the folly of humanity at large (while others of course are seeing into you as another example of humanity at large). Yes, people can be brutish, insensitive, crass and self-blinded.
Nevertheless, much which is beautiful strikes your eye and opens your soul. The spice of intersexual strife might add to its taste. Something even deeper happens when aspirations soar.

It is frustrating when noble intentions meet with indifference. Nevertheless, you hold on to those ideal objects and they strengthen you.

You care more about them, and your thoughts, than about your appearance, which could get rather scruffy. So what, you think, people can take it or leave it.

At times you realize that you are partly sacrificing your own interests for the sake of others, or humanity, or G*d. (Yes, He needs help. From one viewpoint anyway, which might be all too human.) To rescue someone who is fighting you is one of the hardest things to do.

{Saturday} *Noblesse Oblige*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 28 October 2011

2011-10-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Friday 28 October 2011

*Wisely Beheld Adventure*

By attention to detail, building up large things from smaller, you are establishing yourself in a way which will get recognition and support.

Ideals to which you lend allegiance are beckoning to you like a flag flying high. You can be in tune with the higher destiny of the human race. This works out in immediate personal relationships (as well as broader long-term destiny).

Magic is happening. Of this you will be only partially conscious. Yet you feel that when you aspire toward something grandiose, the world is upholding you. You appreciate astonishing beauty in people, whether of body or manner.

There is also a deep sensitivity which connects with the sorrow in people. This is not depressing, however, for it looks beyond grief to the soul-depth which the sorrow manifests, precedent to that soul's victory in restored joy of life.

Some of whom you become aware are self-centered, introverted, neglecting their appearance for the sake of their detached imperturbability. You can appreciate that phase of their development, sensing it also within yourself. At worst it can be an episode of neglecting others' well-being while seizing what one can for oneself, not caring what anyone thinks.

It could turn to raw lust also, a perverse ravishment of other-body, other-sensibility. This has its natural limits and for most will end after a momentary thrill has uncovered something wiser beyond it.

{Friday} *Wisely Beheld Adventure*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 27 October 2011

2011-10-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday 27 October 2011

~Internal Strength Manifesting~

Mysterious factors permeate the day. Fortunately the moon has escaped the Via Combusta. Much still seems questionable or confused, however. There is a desire to sweep away the old to make room for the new. There can be deep feelings, even sorrow, while Venus forms a square with Neptune and Mars opposes it, yet this brings out the soul's profundity and stamina.

You are struggling to get something formed, "the bridge built across a gorge" mentioned yesterday, which will bring various factors of your life together when they had seemed to be separate dangling features. This can be done during this autumn season when all things are questioned during Nature's seasonal hibernation. How do you put together into functioning order what seems separated and disconnected?

That is precisely what the European leaders and finance ministers are trying to do in Brussels as I write. From the latest online Wall Street Journal: "European leaders labored into Thursday morning seeking to reach agreement . . . "

This is as I had predicted, that the answer would not come during the |difficult third of the week| which ended late Wednesday or early Thursday. Those who will suffer temporary loss from these agreements will have to wait for better times.

There can be an audacious quality to the day if you get into the spirit of adventure, facing peculiarities of life with a willingness to adjust to them and experiment grandly.

You might work outdoors for a while, greeting the cooler harsher weather with a welcome because you know it strengthens you internally. Things can be done at home, in the yard or garden or neighborhood, which denote human ability to adjust to and use Nature in a liberating manner.

{Thursday} ~Internal Strength Manifesting~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 26 October 2011

2011-10-25T14:54:00.001-07:00

Wednesday 26 October 2011

~New Moon of Care and Slow Beginnings~

I refer you to the third paragraph of Monday's forecast, where I suggested that the European leaders and finance ministers might do better to avoid the |difficult third of the week| extending through Tuesday and Wednesday. Here is what happened, from Tuesday's Wall Street Journal:

BRUSSELS—A meeting of European Union finance ministers ahead of a gathering of European leaders was canceled on Tuesday, raising concerns that parts of the package to stem the region's debt crisis remain in doubt and that a final agreement won't be reached at Wednesday's summit.
The finance ministers from all 27 EU countries had been scheduled to meet Wednesday in Brussels to settle on a package of measures ahead of an evening gathering of EU leaders and then a meeting of euro-zone heads of government.

And so, let us hope they will continue and reach some conclusions on Thursday and Friday, as I had already suggested. It is fascinating that the moon will be in Scorpio, a money sign, Wednesday through Friday, with three other planets (sun, Mercury, Venus), while Jupiter opposite them in Taurus, another money sign, is the "handle" planet in a Fanhandle configuration with them. This certainly points out what is happening, which could have far-reaching effects on the world's, including the U. S.'s, economy. Jupiter (said to rule bankers) retrograde is also significant, since debts from the past are the problem; they have been hashed and re-hashed for months. The New Moon of Scorpio occurs late Wednesday (in Europe) and so it is not surprising that Tuesday, day of the dying moon and within the |difficult third of the week|, did not work out for them. They need Cosmic Piper. I remain guardedly optimistic that something good will happen. Of course, most or all involved will have to "take a haircut" in the graphic term used for debt-induced loss, so it will not be exactly joyous for them, but could save the world from a much worse fate.

The New Moon occurs Wednesday at 12:57p PT | 3:57p ET | 7:57p UT. This often coincides with a gentle inner uplift or sense of "things are better," although, as pointed out, the |difficult third of the week| does not end until late tonight at 9:59p PT(W) | 12:59a(Th) | 4:59a(Th) UT.

Much about the day is deep and soulful. Music of a mellow rather than trivial sort could help you.

There could be a tendency to blame someone, and be cruel. You could even end a friendship by letting yourself be careless with words or actions. This ought to be guarded against.

The Sabian symbol for Jupiter's position is "A bridge being built across a gorge." This certainly makes sense in terms of the complex and painful negotiations among the European nations, who are annoyed with one another and yet have to cooperate in order to save themselves (and perhaps the world's finances, by preventing another recession or worse). In your life you may sense how you are trying to do something similar with someone or some project. "Don't be cruel" is a keynote, otherwise the bridge may not be built. A more childlike attitude would help, giving all a chance to be themselves.

Information coming to you from many sources is helpful. It stimulates you toward a more successful personal economy.

It is wise to slow down and think when you feel like acting from mere habit. Accidents can be precipitated by such carelessness. Messages coming from a higher source are both uplifting and practically helpful, if they stop you in the midst of an addictive or mechanical activity which could hurt you or seriously waste your time.

{Wednesday} ~New Moon of Care and Slow Beginnings~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 25 October 2011

2011-10-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 25 October 2011

}Caution and Patience Promote Gain{

The good taste and idealism of the moon in Libra are tested by that satellite's presence in the Via Combusta and its conjunction with Saturn. People are trying to be nice, and maybe really are, but feel oppressed by things they don't want to mention.

At times you withdraw and feel you want to contemplate life from a detached perspective to gain equilibrium. Childlike interests or the petty adventures of children could give relief from worries. That is good because there is much suspicion, with Venus and Mercury square Mars from the detective sign Scorpio. You and those close to you are, as it were, spying on one another or guessing at one another's opinions of one another and hidden motives. This is not exactly friendly and so keeps some at arm's length, unless there is a fracas where you light into each other. That, most likely, ought to be avoided.

Someone important to you as a true teacher is a real ally to be depended upon. This individual's wealth of mind is enormous, and so a benefit to you. Someone else who is unsympathetic or harsh-minded seems a block on your path, tempting you toward fruitless anger. Perhaps you need to keep your distance; or learn quickly whatever you can from the situation and exit the contretemps.

The sextile of Mars with Saturn shows that common sense is with you, impelling you to wise choices. You can moderate them so that you go neither too far to the left nor the right, neither too slow nor too fast. You try to take account of all significant factors. What you need to enlighten you about any issue is available; there are messages on all sides.

There are things you would be willing to give up, if necessary, to maintain your independence and freedom. By playing your cards well you will give up less rather than more, or recoup losses.

{Tuesday} {Caution and Patience Promote Gain}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 24 October 2011

2011-10-23T17:43:00.001-07:00

Monday 24 October 2011

}Illumination{

Today, Thursday, and Friday are likely to be the best days of this week for business or social matters of importance, or making deals, purchases or agreements. Today, technically the |difficult third of this week| begins at 4:01 p PT | 7:01p ET | 11:01p UT, extending through Tuesday and Wednesday. You can handle essential matters on those days but should avoid any serious departures from the tried and true. There is likely to be confusion and lack of morale, undermining clear thinking or intelligent choice.

Further, the moon is void-of-course today until 8:49a PT | 11:49a ET | 3:49p UT, so those early hours are somewhat suspect also. Routine is what will stabilize you then. That leaves more than seven hours for anything unusually important you need to do before Thursday.

Fortunately, as mentioned last week, general aspects other than lunar ones are getting better. That led me to predict that some workable and not terribly upsetting (to financial markets and the world's economny) solution may be forthcoming from the important gathering of leaders of the European nations and their banking systems. They are trying to meet a Wednesday deadline, but I would suggest that Thursday or Friday would be more felicitous.

Thoughts and hopes of great magnitude will uplift you. You sense who and what is likely to help you. You could be developing a fitness through exercise of some kind, physical and strengthening, which sets you up bodily and mentally to face the world.

You can learn from someone whose wealth of mind is enormous, whose learning and eloquence you trust. This person's writings and instructions are available, even if from beyond the grave. Justice is working out in world affairs, and your own. We are inclined to whine when it cuts too closely to us, eliminating some tidbit we had wanted, but we can make the adjustment and learn from it.

There can be an accentuation of skills through self-discipline. You are aware of what has made you slide from the true path in the past, seducing you into depending on external stimulation as a substitute for effort. So you can rise beyond such temptations, and get thrills from wise activity rather than stimulants or addictions.

Through the clash of teachings, ideals, and seemingly contradictory principles or methods, something great is rising up in you, granting illumination. The One who has formed us does not forget us; therefore true understanding can emerge from within.

{Monday} {Illumination}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 21 October 2011

2011-10-20T16:27:00.001-07:00

Friday 21 October 2011

*Strategically Grandiose*

I'd rather write about current events today than give my usual pep-talk as to how we personally can get through the day with less stress. I consider the latter extremely important. It helps me as much as it helps any of you. But sometimes it is more enjoyable to write about technical astrology as applied to current events. Some of you probably have little taste for that, but even then you might find it instructive or interesting.

On everyone's mind is the death of Muammar Qaddafi (or Gaddafi). I did not predict the time of its occurrence, nor do I or would I predict anyone's death. That to me is a misuse of astrology. One might point out difficult periods, if that would be helpful to the individual in question, but always with suggestsions as to how the suffering can be ameliorated or avoided.

Nevertheless, in afterview one can always learn much from what happens to public figures. Unfortunately, it is usually the tragedies which get the news attention. It might be interesting, as an astrological study, to consider the charts of those who win lotteries and what current aspects are doing at the time. More useful would be studies of when people do well at their jobs or get promotions, since that is something realistic rather than improbable such as a gambling win.

Looking at Qaddafi's birth chart I see Mars at 25 Cancer. That is the sign of Mars's "fall." Obviously, Qaddafi did not "fall" during his whole career, though he was perhaps in the process, one might say; nor does this signature in a birthchart mean one has an evil destiny, by any means. Brilliant people and superb ones have been born with Mars in Cancer. However, at the time of his death it is more than interesting that the sun was also in the sign of its fall, Libra, and exactly square (from 26 Libra) his Mars. Mars is of course, at its worst, a planet of violence. The square is, with the oposition, the most difficult aspect. Mars the planet of violence in its fall squared by the sun in the sign of its fall is self-evident. A difficult day. I say "day" because this has happened to Qaddafi once every year throughout his life, at approximately this date near October 20. What happened on previous years? It would be interesting to know, if one could study his diary. Quarrels, most likely. Threats. And so on.

This time, the aspect was reinforced, unhappily, by Saturn at 21 Libra, and moving toward a square with Qaddafi's birth Mars. A hard aspect between these two "malefic" planets as the ancient astrologers called them has been regarded by most astrologers, historically, as about the worst possible. Still, Qaddafi went through this approximately 28 years ago when Saturn was at that position. It is by no means fatal but points toward "difficult karma" shall we say.

One could go on and study other aspect to his chart, and his progressions, although this could degenerate into morbidiy. What would be the point? To me, the point would be to learn something real about astrology as a basis for future developments in its techniques. Not so that we can predict the death of people, but see into all the complexities of their living and the karma they have earned in a way to help them. As for Qaddafi himself, it is doubtful any astrologer could have helped him at this point, although perhaps that would have been possible at an earlier stage of his career.

In terms of general astrology, as I use it in these forecasts for all of you who dare to read them, the killing of Qaddafi occurred while the moon was in Leo moving toward Mars in that sign of rulership, that is, Leo the royal sign, or sign of the head of any nation or enterprise. These two planets were squared to two planets in Scorpio the sign of death (Mercury and Venus). Sometimes these simple meanings--such as Leo, royalty or ruler; and Scorpio, death or ending--are sufficient to point out, or provide a backdrop for, much which is happening in the world, if one merely contemplates things from an astrological (astral logical) viewpoint. Be it noted also that the square of Mars and Venus is known for violence, sometimes within the family, as here within the national family of Libya. This is intensified when it is in fixed signs and especially when one of them is Scorpio.

Further, I must point out that I pointed out last week the exact hours and minutes of this week's |difficult third| and that the killing of Qaddafi occurred within that period. One might say, Well, but this was not "difficult" for his enemies. True, perhaps, although who can see into the mind of G*d when it comes to the karma of warfare? His enemies exulted, but did that make them truly happy or better off in real terms? No one knows for sure. The |difficult third of each week| is impartial; it is a time, as I have said repeatedly, when karma hits, when one has to face responsibility for what one has done and what one has become. Such was Qaddafi's fate this week. If you look back over Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday until about 2 p.m. PT | 5 p.m. ET, you will note some of the issues you have faced and learned from. This last is, after all, the point of the whole thing. We live in a beneficent universe governed by a beneficent Deity.

The events of 9/11/01 occurred within a |difficult third| of that week, as did the assassination of John Kennedy and countless other difficult events, down to quarrels between husbands and wives or fist fights in schoolyards. The purpose of pointing out this period each week is not to depress you but help you rise above these times and use them to advantage rather than mope about helplessly. One of the best things you can do is, first, pray for guidance before you do anything else.

The next one comes on Monday, October 24 at 4:02p PT | 7:02p ET | 11:02p UT, extending through Tuesday and Wednesday until Wednesday-Thursday at 9:59p PT(W) | 12:59a(Th) | 4:59a(Th) UT. (The period gradually moves earlier, toward Monday-Tuesday at this point.)

Friday this week (October 21) is serious yet beneficent. People are thinking about their jobs and careers in a big way, wondering what the next developments will be. Fidelity to one's purposes is a key to happiness. One could become gloomy if yielding to the fatalism of the fall season (bittersweet in autumnal coloring). Mapping strategies is a good use of your mind. You could be very sharp at that. Also, a spiritual awakening is occurring at a deep level, which can manifest in countless ways. You want to espouse causes and their supporters, link yourself with high aspirations in a way which enhances the depths within your cohorts. You can be humane rather than touchy or angry, turning dissatisfaction into activities and thoughts bold and grandiose.

{Friday} *Strategically Grandiose*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 20 October 2011

2011-10-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday 20 October 2011

*Pride Justified by Achievement*

The |difficult third of this week| ends in mid-afternoon, later in the Eastern Hemisphere.

I have good hopes for the meeting of high-level financial honchos and government officials in Europe scheduled for Sunday. It is said by some, including the financial analysit Martin Weiss, to be the most important event in the world's financial history in a long time and for a long time to come. Are European banks going to fail, sending the world into a deep depression? Some think so. Some say, cash in all your investment chips. Others say, this is a temporary crisis and the markets will soon be up again.

I wish I could give a definite answer; but I do have hopes for something good emerging. First, the sun enters Scorpio on Sunday as this meeting happens; it will be out of the sign of its fall, Libra, for the first time in a month. It is also moving away from its difficult conjunction with Saturn. Second, Mars in Leo has moved away from its square with Jupiter in Taurus (money sign). Third, said Mars will be forming a trine (by 15 degrees) with said Juptiter beginning Monday, for the first time in many months forming a Locomotive pattern in the sky. This is favorable, as opposed to the Vise patterns we have had all summer. Fourth, although Venus and Mercury continue to move toward a square with Mars, and are in Scorpio a money sign, they leave the Via Combusta (15 Libra to 15 Scorpio) within 24 to 48 hours before the beginning of the meeting. And so, I as an astrologer applaud the timing of this meeting. Also, on Sunday the moon will be sextile Venus in said money sign. Agreements are possible.

The pessimists may be wrong. Somehow or other, the Europeans may pull it together. (Without perhaps too-excruciating spanking of the bottoms of the Greeks who brought the crisis on by their self-indulgence.)

For Thursday, much attention to ordinary work is required, despite the moon's presence in Leo, a fun sign. You feel your honor is at stake or that you have to live up to expectations.

Rituals, religious or semi-religious, could be important. They sustain consciousness in ways which keep one functioning harmoniously with the cosmos.

People are awakening spiritually. This is not easy. It requires letting go of too-easy dreams of material indulgence. Pleasures can be dropped only when one becomes deeply aware of something transcending them, namely spiritual joy in being and doing what is concordant with the Supreme Will. This need not be painful but can be hard when one is pulled in both directions. The higher gravity gradually replaces the lower gravity.

There can be anger (Mercury square Mars in fixed signs) over disagreements. Your principles, let us hope, are solid; but you question someone else's, as if he or she needed to be taught true values. At moments one feels, "Enough! This person is beneath me, a bad influence, I need to drop him (her)." Perhaps. Or, if the friendship survives the crisis, there is still something, apart from the diagreement, holding you together.

There are congenial moments. Some will be in a party mood. Still, they will want to hold up their heads in pride about whatever they have been doing.

There is also some indolence, easy drift, whenever one feels one deserves it. I don't want to warn against it, but must, to be honest. Separating fun-time from work-time could be very wise, so that you accomplish what makes you feel good about yourself.

{Thursday} *Pride Justified by Achievement*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 19 October 2011

2011-10-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 19 October 2011

~Shared Concerns Lighten the Load~

Today feels more like the |difficult third| at the mood level than yesterday. Too much worry sums it up. More practically, you need to do things which, thourhg they confine you, are necessary for career development or job security.

There is a mood, at best, of benevolence and hospitableness, letting friends be what they are because feeling more secure yourself at some intangible level. You discern, perhaps, who a true friend is, and are willing to give her or him the benefit of the doubt in a heartfelt manner. This can happen despite differences of opinion, which nevertheless are very important to you.

Comfort and good fortune promote happiness, albeit with the worry already mentioned. Tuesday's Market surge, promoted by good signs in the European bank crisis, may or may not continue, but a feeling of increasing wealth is prominent somehow. You are using a compass in your mind, developed through study and observation, which helps you discover the right direction to move at any time. By doing that without delay you reduce fretting.

Congenial attitudes in people are not absent although it may be necssary to ignore their bleaker moods to bring the former out. Then there can even be a party atmosphere to a small degree, limited by the schedules all feel they need to keep up with necessities.

There may be true comradeship in which someone is not afraid to share his or her worries with you in a way which need not be depressing. Misery loves company, and the informal psychotherapy in friendly conversation sometimes holds the world together.

{Wednesday} ~Shared Concerns Lighten the Load~

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Tuesday 18 October 2011

2011-10-17T17:33:00.001-07:00

Tuesday 18 October 2011

~Wary Security Could Equal Contentment~

Entering into the fray seems hard at times, but there is assurance of victory if reasonable care is combined with the optimism of the spirit.

The anger which certain people feel over disagreements is hard to calm or eliminate and so sometimes has to be ignored. This is a case of truly benign neglect.

The bulls of the American financial market encounter the dismal plight of European debts as well as American ones we have faced for years. The bull is pawing the earth, ready to roar and roam, but held back by fears. I do not pretend to succeed in predicting the financial markets with astrology. There are enough pseudo-predictors out there to take your money for their questionable advice.

Despite such worries, there can be a degree of contentment and placidity, happiness with the wealth one does possess and the comforts one has secured. Financial savvy comes out in small as well as large directions to make sure one has enough, and is able to trade or share with others who need anything.

I pointed out last week the exact hours of this week's |difficult third of the week|, approximately today, tomorrow, and early Thursday. One generally feels less confident at these times. However, late today the moon's trine (from Cancer to Scorpio) with Mercury and Venus promises some kind of enjoyment, entertainment or limited social pleasure, tinged with melancholy but still satisfying. (The |difficult third| by no means indicates ups and downs in the financial markets with any reliability. It functions more on the level of emotion and consciousness. Sometimes worries impel investors to invest, and the markets go up at such times. Sometimes worries impel them to sell.)

You are using science, or scientific methods, or technology, to estimate correct solutions to problems, and this can be successful (Mercury and Venus in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn). You feel constricted and limited when you worry, but rational thinking can release many of the worries when applied straightforwardly.

Defending oneself from loss takes time and thought. However, if this goes too far it becomes degenerating fretting which cuts too deeply into the enjoyment of living. Therefore contentment, especially this evening, is a wonderful blessing.

{Tuesday} ~Wary Security Could Equal Contentment~

Cosmic Piper

Mopnday 17 October 2011

2011-10-16T17:33:00.001-07:00

Monday 17 October 2011

}Regaining Innocence{

[There was no forecast for Saturday because Friday found me working hard at research again, going over past events with a fine-tooth comb to improve perceptions of correlations between human and planetary events. It felt necessary but took my time. I hope good results of that effort will come out in the forecasts.]

As pointed out last week, this should be a smoother day for social and business connections than Tuesday and Wednesday. Business, however, might be less clear after 6:37a PT | 9:37a ET | 12:37p UT, when the moon becomes void-of-course (except for a non-practical but pleasant trine with Neptune) until it enters Cancer at 6:38p PT | 9:38p ET 12:38a(T) UT. That includes most of the day in the Western Hemisphere, so it might be a time for "old business" or finishing up things you have already decided to do. Nor is entertainment or pleasure excluded.

There could be charm, fun, attractive interplay among those drawn to one another. There is also a distant attitude sometimes, when one feels estranged from those who interest one yet continues to think of them. People don't know quite what to make of one another.

Mental work could be important while Mercury opposes Jupiter. You are not so much angry with people as somewhat curious about them, unless they offend you deeply.

It is not cheerful to think of those who suffer for a cause, martyrs in the true sense, yet sometimes important if there is a chance of doing something to aid or protect them. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch come to mind, and the individuals in crisis they work for. Christians, Muslims, those of minority religions, and others suffer for their faiths or beliefs and this ought not to be.

The innocence of children is a wonderful elixir for the human race, inspiring adults to be less gummed up with guile and trickery. To see into the heart of a child or someone childlike is to be healed of self-deception.

When there is anger, an equal concern for oneself and someone else is trying to come out, which could be fostered by taking a deep breath before exploding in outraged insult (even if in one's own mind).

To avoid insecurity, it is well to be observant, but not to the point of fearing what is only imaginary. There is a middle way, when intuition is active, which protects oneself without paranoia.

{Monday} {Regaining Innocence}

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Friday 14 October 2011

2011-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Friday 14 October 2011

\Source of Support/

If you are wondering why, since I said the |difficult third of this week| ended Thursday, you are still feeling rather down. Well, there is always something . . . this time, the sun conjoined to Saturn. It is actually diminishing today, in terms of exact mathematics, but not necessarily in terms of suffering. We are up against our limits (Saturn) and the limits of those with whom we are most closely connected, like it or not (Libra).

How to escape the "always something"? Spiritual consciousness, which is independent of astrology, although the latter helps both in attaining it and in understanding the world, events, and people once one has attained it.

Present duties need to be faced. Then there is hope of something wonderful happening to make you feel you are a favored one. The favor is partly earned, partly sheer Grace.

What sustains you? To one who knows Him, only the Supreme Lord. To others, material activities. And so I cannot answer for you. You are questioning, perhaps, what your true support is, and finding answers, both at spiritual and material (or financial) levels.

Confusion in beliefs or perspectives is likely while Mercury and Venus together oppose Jupiter. This is the religious-questioning aspect, the aspect of skeptics and believers at cross-purposes, resulting in quarrels over philosophy, religion, and approaches to Truth; the clash of gurus, cults, denominations, religions, and viewpoints. Yet you are able to find what makes sense to you and it is not impossible to communicate this to some degree.

(I am almost sorry I mentioned the clash of "gurus," because actually in India most of the time gurus are more respectful of one another than are varying spiritual groups in the West, or so it seems to me. Tolerance is something the West can learn from India.)

There are ways of getting beyond pettiness (yours or someone else's) and recovering poise. Humble prayer is one way. As the day proceeds people will be feeling brighter and happier.

A T square focused on Mars in Leo suggests sports and games could be emphasized.

Exploration and discovery bring wealth. This can work out in smaller or greater ways, reassuring you that life is on your side.

{Friday} /Source of Support\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Thursday 13 October 2011

2011-10-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday 13 October 2011

\Coping with the Difficult Third/

Sometimes life seems a great weariness. This is usually (not always) within the period I have called, for years, "the difficult third of the week" and marked off as follows: |the difficult or trying third of the week|. I stopped doing that because it seemed nobody cared. I wonder if anyone intelligent reads these forecasts? Because if you were intelligent you would see how accurate that |hard third of the week| forecast was, every week, and perhaps tell me how it helped you. No. Nobody said a word. I wonder sometimes who I am writing for, and why.

Nevertheless, for myself and G*d I shall return to mentioning the |difficult or hard or whatever (I use various words but always put it within |these| markers) third of each week|, because it helps me enormously. This time it extended from Monday at 11:36a PT | 2:36p ET | 6:36p UT until Thursday at 9:07a PT | 12:07p ET | 4:07p UT. So, if you are reading this Wednesday evening, you are still in it; if you read it Thursday morning you are almost but not quite out of it. Mark this. Watch it. Think about it every week. I will continue to mention it every week. You will see what it means for you if you are observant.

This time it lasted almost three days. That is rare. I have given the exact percentage of its occurrence before, several times, which probably nobody noticed, but shall not calculate it at this moment. It is a little more than one-third of the time, I think about 35 per cent, less than two-and-a-half days per week (on average). That leaves about two-thirds of the time for less wearing, disturbing, fatiguing, disappointing experiences. Of course it does not always hit Tuesday-Wednesday as it has been lately. It moves gradually earlier so that in a few weeks it will hit Sunday-Monday, then Friday-Saturday, and so on.

How should you gear yourself up for these periods? That is completely up to you, but I usually offer suggestions each week. If you watch these periods you will sense strategies for coping with them which work in your own case.

Usually more, or harder, work is required. Things "go wrong" more often during those periods. People are moodier and edgier. You might experiment with avoiding social connections intended to be for sheer fun, parties or the like, at these times, because they often turn sour, but there are no hard-and-fast rules. Occasionally you might attend a social event or meet someone and have a wonderful experience during these times. But emphasize "occasionally."

Likewise, they are not usually good times to ask the boss for a raise (if anyone ever does that during this peculiar economic period), apply for a job, agree to a contract, and so on. You can explore such options during this time but usually it would be better to slow down in your decision-making until you are sure. Sometimes, of course, one of these periods could be the perfect time to take a job, agree to something, get a new place or whatnot. Again, no absolute rules; but emphasize "sometimes."

Of course, "life goes on." You might find these excellent times to concentrate, focus, get important things done. These are crucial periods. They are karmic. You have to pay up, fork something over to the cosmos for the privilege of having a body on Terra. Usually that means finishing something to which you are committed, or keeping on with it, rather than beginning anything new.

I have run out of time for today's forecast, but what I have just written could be extremely important for you. I will give you next week's |emotionally hard or karmically difficult or concentrating-on-essentials| period: beginning Tuesday, October 18 at 5:44a PT | 8:44a ET | 12:44p UT (all times except UT in Daylight Savings Time for now) and extending until Thursday, October 20 at 1:59p PT | 4:59p ET | 8:59p UT. That means virtually all of Tuesday and Wednesday next week, and Thursday until mid- or late-afternoon. (Somewhat later in Europe or India, as you can calculate easily.)

The rest of the time, beginning by noon today in the Western Hemisphere, is good for fun, parties, vacations, the beach, hanging out, enjoying yourself . . . I wish :>)

{Thursday} /Coping with the Difficult Third\

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Wednesday 12 October 2011

2011-10-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 12 October 2011

*Ideals Felt as Imperative*

There's a trend of wanting to be left alone. You want to feel sufficient to yourself, without interference. Of course, cooperation is essential in many regards. You might frustrate this without realizing it by jumping to conclusions or offending people by stating harsh facts without regard to their feelings. Those also need to be heard, but they may be afraid to say what they feel, or jump in and offend you so that things go in contrary directions with defiance. People need to realize they are not really threatening one another.

All this is likely to calm down after the moon enters Taurus at 6:36p PT | 9:36p ET | 1:36a(Th) UT, though there be remnants of it.

People are sincere in their religious beliefs and practices, even if they are afraid to wear them on their sleeves. You care about your standing with anyone who represents your faith, and also care about his or her ability to "walk the talk." There is a desire to participate in what can uplift the human race. Faith is essential in such projects.

The easy path to wealth is desired by many; few there are who succeed along it. Something, at least good will and kindness, needs to be given back for what one receives. Avarice and revenge dig their own pit and fall into it. It might be that Wall Street types fall more easily into avarice, and "99%" protestors into revenge. G*d, the solution through His Words, is too often ignored or disparaged by either or both. So we are left thinking dark thoughts about one another instead of opening our hearts to Gospel charity.

A public display of something you have done could have edifying results. You demonstrate that in what you care about you are not whistling Dixie. Then your glory is shared by others.

Those who feel frustrated, with the sun conjoined to Saturn, could at worst ignore the previous paragraphs and throw themselves into rage or angry activity. There are signs, however, that this is diminishing. Most are smart enough to see that subconscious vandalism (on either side of the "class war") vandalizes the vandal. Jupiter moving back to a trine with Pluto suggests that people are able to appreciate what they have.

{Wednesday} *Ideals Felt as Imperative*

Cosmic Piper

Tuesday 11 October 2011

2011-10-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 11 October 2011

*The Soul Perseveres*

There's a trend toward being alone, or feeling alone; independent. Yet work for income requires some contact with people, obviously. You are determined to take the long hard path toward being the ruler of your life. You have the will power to do it. You are supported by invisible forces. You could get lost by trusting improbable schemes or out-of-the-box beliefs, yet your romanticism helps you by keeping you optimistic.

Many are wondering how it is that others seem to be more prosperous. The fodder is always greener on the other side of some fence. Yet the harshness of loss is a way of sharpening your abilities. An idealistic streak in you is determined to win out over all depletion of energy, hope or finances. By caring about what is right, you strengthen yourself. Something you do which no one else does as well is your trump card.

The arts, drama or music could be sterling. They get you over hard places, which is one reason we have them. A novel, story, poem or film can work magic, reinvigorating hopes and aspirations. Then you throw more savvy energy into endeavors, almost without trying.

{Tuesday} *The Soul Perseveres*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Monday 20 October 2011

2011-10-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

Monday 10 October 2011

*Awakening to Depth before Breadth*

The characteristics of famous or prominent people are interesting. One sometimes wonders if when seeing into them one is being arrogant in criticizing their weaknesses. On the other hand, it is by seeing such things that we can grow beyond them in our own lives.

While at home or in a friendly place, you can reach toward a higher power. This is the "religious" activity of human beings and I am not at all convinced that atheists do not do it--in their own ways, disguised as humanism.

The quarrelsome nature of some of the Wall Street protests does not obscure their serious purpose, a groping toward some kind of "justice" in the economy which satisfies all sectors. That would be the true nature of a "democratic" solution of economic inequality, though perhaps unattainable, or attainable only in ways which would please some and not others. Still, there are signs of people being willing to put away some of their differences for the sake of the greater good. In the European banking or sovereign debt crisis, this is obviously essential.

A deep side of you is able to look beyond the superficial into the mystical, the other-worldly, what lies beyond death. Rare are those who do not have at least one spirit companion, though unknown to them.

What seems laziness in some could be their temporary way of changing paths. Those who are hospitable even to the obtuse or indolent gain something in return.

Envy of others' economic status can be a path to restructuring one's own. There is also a trend toward constancy in one's principles, so that one is content with what one has because one wants to do whatever is right rather than what might be more advantageous in a worldly or financial way.

Depth of feeling can tend toward the magnanimous. When none feel afraid of loss, there can be more spontaneous sharing, and that at a metaphysical as well as material level.

{Monday} *Awakening to Depth before Breadth*

Cosmic Piper

Forecast for Saturday 8 October 2011

2011-10-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Saturday 8 October 2011

~Cozy, Prescient Drifting~

Carrying on with routines or rituals is sometimes necessary even when they seem futile. There are ways to find inner peace which is actually power, when you are effortlessly linked to a higher power. But usually effortlessness begins with some kind of effort, though done in effortless style (clueful paradox).

Another paradox is the desire for companionship mixed with a reclusive trend, as if you were angry with people or wanted to avoid them even while feeling a need for them. This is partly the moon in Pisces, which goes void-of-course early within that sign at 9:52a PT | 12:52p ET | 4:52p UT. Before that (while the moon is forming a sextile with Jupiter) may be your best time to talk or communicate if there is a serious purpose; make plans or consummate them.

There may be an interest in northern or icy places. Yet you are not bracing up for anything strenuous such as an arctic excursion! Rather you want to take an easy path, let things slide a little, especially after the time given.

Although you have a tendency to attempt too much (in your mind), it appears that you are protecting already-established advantages in some way which makes sense to you. Whether it makes sense to the world is another question, but you feel you are more prescient than the world. You take an easy avenue to social connections, or tentative ones, or sheer relaxed sight-seeing or people-watching.

{Saturday} ~Cozy, Prescient Drifting~

Cosmic Piper