Message for Tuesday 7 August 2018

Tuesday 7 August 2018

} Within Chaos, Creative Choices {

Moon in Gemini-->Cancer

/moon goes void-of-course at 0:56a PT | 3:56a ET | 7:56a UT

until it enters Cancer at 9:02p PT | 12:02a(W) ET | 4:02a(W) UT

|Karmically serious third| of this week is with us (until Thursday morning)

It's good to review where we are in the twofold Epoch pattern:

Dark Hermetic Epoch begins   Mercury retrograde   Mercury direct   DHE ends

July 7 2018                           July 26                     August 19       September 2

The next Bright Hermetic Epoch lasts from September 2 through October 28

I have written an enormous amount, over the years, about the DHE and how to deal with it. Here is more:

The way you work with the DHE, which lasts at least three more weeks (although some think the MR period at its core is more intense), depends partly on your temperament. I could say there are two ways:

A. If you are a workaholic or a very determined person and very self-disciplined, you could: Just insist that you keep up with things in the DHE just like you do in the Bright HEs. You will find that this is harder. Your mind wanders more and you have to corral it. Things outside you like mechanical devices, cars, planes, trains, buses, phones, computers, seem to have a mind of their own sometimes and delay you. Other people seem confused or give you contradictory signals or are slow or tardy or hold you up in other ways. There are more interruptions. And so on. Yet you determine to be on top of all that and do the best you can and not blame Mercury or other people but take responsibility for everything. Courageous! Strong!

B. If you are of a more passive or contemplative nature, you might decide deliberately to slow down during these times, at least with some projects or schedules, or  be willing to experiment with them and let your course go "out of pattern" frequently.  You are more flexible than usual. You sense when things are "going kaflooey" and bow to that a little, maybe by changing your schedule, dropping some people for a while when they are unavailable rather than chase them, dropping tasks when there are too many insuperable factors slowing them down, and turning to something else. Even you might meditate, pray, and daydream more than usual and not blame yourself for that but find the value in it. You realize that your inner life is crucial and need not be utterly dominated by your outer life and its hassles. 

I find myself approaching each day during the DHE in both of these ways, though they seem contradictory. Sometimes I beat that stubborn mule to get it going again, and sometimes I let it have a rest. The stubborn mule is some part of myself which objects to the strenuousness of life and its complexities and contradictions. It needs extra rest, but sometimes needs to be prodded to get going again. It's a delicate business knowing which tack to take every hour or minute. 

There is another factor which I want to emphasize: Do not think that you are "losing it" during this time. One might think that one is going senile, or losing one's short-term memory or will-power or focus or will-to-live. Yes, it seems that way. So it is important to know about these periods. It is okay to "blame Mercury" a little, or rather, know that this is naturally a period when we are "supposed to" take a different approach to life than we usually do. We are not losing it but are being nudged to do things in a different way which might seem chaotic just because it requires us to take account of more factors than usual, including our long-term memories, which often surge up either as pride or as guilt. We question life, G*d, and ourselves, and that could be very good as long as it does not lead to fatalism or anarchism or sneakily subtle forms of suicide. Rather, we can deepen our awareness and psychic-spiritual sensitivity in ways which are liberating.

Tuesday:  The above could be specially important because we have both the |difficult third| and Luna void-of-course. One might call it a "triple witching" day. However, life goes on and we can find our way. There are choices between what is childish and maybe worthless versus what has long-term benefits for yourself and the human race.  Some things go backward, some forward. By articulating what they are you benefit yourself.

Perhaps you have outlived some in your family, or you think of someone who has outlived other family members. That brings to mind fascinating memories which have their own intrinsic value. (It is not true that everything has to be for the sake of something else!) 

Some are headstrong and rash, though warmhearted as friends. What they lack in money they have as impulsive enthusiasm.

Someone quarrelsome could meet with disgrace through impetuosity. An impulse toward wounding is not a good one. 

A religious or devotional trend can keep you centered. As for travel versus home, you can bring travel into your home or home into your travel. 

Shifting patterns of events may seem accidental, yet are designed to bring out your creative opportunism. 

{Tuesday}  {Within Chaos, Creative Choices}

Cosmic Piper

Message for Monday 6 August 2018

Monday 6 August 2018

}Obscure but Potentially Helpful Developments{

Moon in Gemini

The fire season has nothing essentially to do with astrology, other than the fact that it happens in the summer; however, I do believe based on years of observation that there are more fires during Dark Hermetic Epochs. There also seem to be more extreme weather problems such as hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and the like. I have noted that there seem to be more intense winds and windstorms when the moon is square or conjoined or opposed to Mars.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season. . . .

It burned so furiously on July 26 that it created what is called a fire whirl. The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph (230 kpxh), which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said.

Yes, the moon was conjoined to Mars that day within 10 degrees; and further, it was void-of-course, which tends to make for strange problems. Importantly, the sun was opposite Mars within one degree, from a fire sign, Leo. Notes giving information such as this might be very valuable in the long term for astrological researchers. 

Monday: The shape of the chart is "splash," quite rare, so we may feel spread out all over the place, turning to this and then that naively. Fashionable amusements, conventional and popular, are pleasing. You may note people entering heartily into whatever is available for entertainment.

One pitfall of all this is that you might get lost in false things which do not forward your hopes. It is well to safeguard your purposes by staying with them despite tempting diversions. Even, someone might call or write about something which seems important but is less important than immediate service in your job or profession.

Thinking about interesting, colorful ancestors or family members and how they influenced you could be wonderful when it happens spontaneously. You are carrying on some special human flavor which they conveyed to you. 

Being ambitious and conscious of one's powers brings recognition. Your superiority in some area is dazzling. It becomes evident through masterful effort. 

Differences in religion, spiritual orientation, or political ethics can be difficult or even painful. Someone may seem unfair and when you object, you are considered unfair. This is the sun square Jupiter plus Venus square Saturn. It could be reflected in disagreements about financial fairness. Appealing to a Higher Power can of course help.

What is beyond control, or seemingly accidental, could be troubling until you get a grip on it. 

Some individuals are melancholy, eccentric, and reclusive.  Others may think that they have "lost their heads," but they are searching, groping mentally, for something obscure. They need tolerance and respect while they pursue their difficult path.

{Monday}  {Obscure but Potentially Helpful Developments}

Cosmic Piper

Message for Sunday 5 August 2018

Sunday 5 August 2018

Moon in Taurus-->Gemini

/moon goes void-of-course at 4:48p PT | 7:48p ET | 11:48p UT

until it enters Gemini at 6:33p PT | 9:33p ET | 1:33a(M) UT

Spiritual lesson for healing, redemption, fulfillment: Love

Message from Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Cosmic Piper

Message for Saturday 4 August 2018

Saturday 4 August 2018

\Ideals Lead Toward Fulfillment/

Moon in Taurus

G*d bless the Pope! His stand against capital punishment, even to the point of changing the Roman Catholic Catechism, is wonderful and overdue. I hope it will inspire American protestants to rethink the death penalty. Many of them oppose it, of course, but many in the "red states" support it. The Pope is leading the way to what should be a universal Christian position on this.  Here is how the Catechism now reads: ". . .  the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”  Amen!

Now, I ask myself, how might this striking announcement by the Pope be reflected in the heavenly motions? A little thought reveals wonderful correlations. Jupiter is considered the planet of the guru in India, and of Church prelates or pastors in the West. It turned direct on July 10, suggesting a possible change in matters it rules, and it was and is in the sign Scorpio, always considered "the sign of death" or of the "natural 8th house" which is the house of death (among other matters). Scorpio can be the sign of murder (a large proportion of crime novelists have Scorpio positions in their charts, and Alfred Hitchcock had Jupiter therein). So Scorpio is also the sign of repentance and reformation, of difficult penance and self-imposed reconstruction. The Pope is acknowledging that these things ought to be the goal of any human so-called "justice system," rather than punishment. And he is right. 

Further, in the sky, as he made his statement, Jupiter is trine Neptune within two degrees, and moving closer to that exact trine This is a beautiful depiction in the heavens of forgiveness and blessedness as derived partly from sheer divine Grace (Pisces) and partly from painful self-examination (Scorpio). The Pope is not a machine, nor is G*d, nor are the heavens except to our lower inadequate perceptions. Rather they are reflections of Formal Cause, which works hand in hand with Final Cause (the Will of Deity). 

Saturday:  Some may seem querulous, cantankerous, or quarrelsome. This has to do partly with the long-lasting square between Mars and Uranus in fixed signs, emphasized today by Luna's square with the sun and Mercury, also in fixed signs. When those signs are right they are righteous, but when wrong they are willfully obstinate. 

The driving power of personality is effective at home and far away, through your influence on people, which ought not to be sadistic but wisely impelling. 

There is constancy in doing what you regard as right, even if this is costly to you.  

You might look back on your family and ancestry and wonder what you represent in that lineage. There is something picturesque and romantic about it, "moss on a hollow tree." But of course more than that.

When accidental events surge up they could stimulate you in a favorable way. Nature is beautiful and fruitful. You can be peaceful while industrious and generous. 

Even strong ideals are compatible with some refreshing divergence into childlike playfulness!

{Saturday}  /Ideals Lead Toward Fulfillment\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Friday 3 August 2018

Friday 3 August 2018

\Aplomb/

Moon in Aries-->Taurus

/moon is void-of-course

until it enters Taurus at 12:52p PT | 3:52p ET | 7:52p UT

There is popularity and prosperity for many. 

There is aplomb in sharing delicacies or treats with someone or in a group.

Under the auspices of Mars square Uranus, still with us very closely, there is indignation at inconsiderate or wrong actions and a flaming righteousness which needs to be kept under control and yet allowed to weigh in on the side of  what is right.

Rebellion against "things as they are" can be right and progressive in some cases. (Of course if it goes too far or is based on wrong premises it can be very dangerous.) Therefore one may need to be defiant in saying "This does not fit with my ideals and I do not truck to it." 

One might decide that something which before seemed very important is not important. 

There are advantages, symbolized by the grandeur and fruitfulness of summer, which make one feel secure, independent and benevolent.

One might feel blunt or awkward in some respects. It seems that even the most successful have some element of the backward or incapable in them, in some area or other. But one does not need to be victimized by incapacity. 

Rather, one might be free of such worry, like "children playing around five mounds of sand." One explores naively whatever catches one's interest without demanding from it any more than a chance to discover unexpected facets of oneself.

{Friday}  /Aplomb\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Thursday 2 August 2018

Thursday 2 August 2018

^Pressures Adjusted Winningly^

Moon in Aries

|Karmically challenging third| of this week remains until 3:17p PT | 6:17p ET | 10:17p UT

/moon goes void-of-course at 7:53p PT | 10:53p ET | 2:53a(F) UT

It is interesting to look at the current display of the planets from varying viewpoints. Using the "temperament types" of Marc Edmund Jones, seven shapes of the planetary display as viewed from Earth, and using also the eighth shape which I discovered, we see that for the past three weeks there has been a "vise" pattern, that is, the planets pretty evenly distributed except for one empty square which is the gap in the vise which holds things by the pressure on each side. One side is the sun in Leo, and in America that is Trump, the "King." The other side is Uranus in Taurus, and that is tariffs and trade policies, because Taurus is the sign of cattle, pecos in Latin, from which comes the word pecuniary, and also our "Bull Market" lingo and we have had one of those for a long time. Trump's luck. But during the last three weeks there has been constant confusion and discussion of exactly what the "King"s trade policies will be, or exactly what tariffs affecting which nations, and on and on. Doubtless the Dark Hermetic Epoch has a lot to do with the constant modifications and confusions. Still, the whole process is neatly defined by the sun in Leo square Uranus (the unexpected and the self-centered or selfish) in Taurus (commerce, buying and selling). 

It is affecting farmers, who are indicated by both Taurus and Virgo, and they don't like it, but the "King" is trying to sweeten it by giving them $12 billion. That would be Uranus trine Saturn, and Venus in Virgo (farmers) trine Pluto in Capricorn (government). 

She is also trine Mars now, by seven degrees today and that aspect increases up to exactitude on August 7 (and will linger another week beyond that). Yes, there should be good luck for lovers and friends, for good social times. Yet Venus will also be square Saturn so we need to care about the friend's or the lover's needs as much as or more than our own in order to take the edge off sensitivities and anxieties.

Also with Venus square Saturn we have the question, from both sexes (although it is supposed to be a "woman thing"), What do I need to do to be more attractive or more loved? Saturn wants to discipline Venus (which is in men's charts too) toward beauty and harmony, such as diet, clothing, hair care and so on.

Thursday:  Some things do not come to maturity as hoped, or are premature. This could have to do with travel, household matters, or other factors.

A religious or spiritual instinct brings good fortune and even rapture.

You may need to corral, conquer or influence someone toward a less barbaric and more ethical standard. 

Extravagant habits bring self-indulgence, which feels good until it doesn't. Spurring oneself to extra effort before granting oneself desire-fulfillment could be progressive. 

There are "rules of the game" but one does not have to adhere to a game-plan which has become meaningless, so one may be defiant and say "No, I do not accept this." 

This, if done courteously, may have better results than expected, for someone might realize how much your goodwill means and respond in a cordial manner. Then one has made one's point but not at the expense of unity.

{Thursday}  ^Pressures Adjusted Winningly^

Cosmic Piper

P. S. I spend more time on these reports than you may realize, winnowing and refining every word and sentence in accord with dozens of factors and long experience. That does not mean they are perfect oracles but that nothing in them is careless or ill-considered, and I hope they are working for you. 

Message for Wednesday 1 August 2018

Wednesday 1 August 2018

^Resolution^

Moon in Pisces-->Aries

/moon is void-of-course

until it enters Aries at 3:56a PT | 6:56a ET | 10:56a UT

|Karmically challenging or sobering third| of this week remains with us, most intense perhaps near 11a PT | 2p ET | 6p UT or twelve hours before and after that 

It is a crisis time for many. Whatever has been most prominent in your life recently as an issue is likely to be exacerbated. What to do? I can only recommend slow, deliberate action, or non-action as the case may require. That is, when Mercury is retrograde people are likely to do "dumb" things. Not always, but too often. That may be the people who are involved in a conflict with you. Or it may be yourself. So it is wise to be calm and try to communicate with people calmly rather than to "fly off the handle" with aggressive comments or actions. Still, the square of Mars with Uranus, now exact, may require some action. I suggest that prayer for the best outcome for all should precede the action.

The first symbol for the day, from Charubel, is almost amusing: "A shovel suspended in mid-air.  Denotes a would-be agriculturist, but he will devote much time and energy to what is impracticable and consequently profitless, as much as digging the air and sowing to the wind." Why is this funny? Here is what is happening: Trump's trade wars are hitting U. S. farmers, so he is offering them $12 billion in aid to make up for what they will lose through his policies! Some Republicans even are furious, saying that this is using borrowed money from foreigners as welfare to pay farmers for what the government is taking from them through trade wars. "A shovel suspended in mid-air." As for you, you may feel that you are "doing nothing" part of the day. 

One may respect the values, achievements, and reputation of someone who is getting respect for some reason (in some cases it may be someone who has departed this world).

You may feel it is your right and duty to object to something, or prevent someone from doing something wrong.

We have to "sow and build for the greater good," says Sepharial, if we are to escape peril. Sometimes fatalism and indolence prevent us from acting until it is too late.

We have to create and sustain our own allegiances, and sometimes to depart from one allegiance to another defiantly. Of course this should not be done lightly or with disrespect to individuals, even though they may be misled. 

Cutting one's way through life aggressively has its pitfalls and yet may be the right course in some situations. Let's be careful yet resolute. 

{Wednesday}  ^Resolution^

Cosmic Piper

Message for Tuesday 31 July 2018

Tuesday 31 July 2018

~Solitary is Not Helpless~

Moon in Pisces

|Karmically sobering or serious third| of this week begins at 5:32a PT 8:32a ET | 12:32p UT

/moon goes void-of-course at 3:43p PT | 6:43p ET | 10:43p UT

It is almost too obvious: Uranus and Mars in an exact square now and the California fires, among other incendiary matters. It can be restlessness, accident, turbulent changes and mistakes due to hastiness. This sort of thing is always accentuated when Mercury is retrograde, for we are more likely to be thinking of deep matters, disassociated from what's around us, so that more accidental problems arise. 

Mysterious boondoggles in travel could be problematic. 

However, there are good indications making for slow or circuitous efficiency in business matters.Taking the long view, with patience, is recommended.

Someone angry could be pestilent or even dangerous. 

Warfare is not my forte, but for warriors there may be inspiration toward conquest which is basically ethical or righteous.

Others, discerning the futility of a given battle-plan, may desert it defiantly, righteously rejecting cruelty or barbarity. 

Artless or informal creativity could be satisfying, so one might be bold with some naive spontaneity or other. 

Luxurious habits, accompanied by pride, make for self-display. Some might resent it, but others could be buoyed up by it. "If you've got it, flaunt it" might apply. 

Loneliness is natural at times, including now while Luna is with Neptune and opposing Venus.  One can accept it if necessary and not make it worse by fomenting resentment or unsocial attitudes. We have to stick with those who seem uncongenial sometimes, at least in spirit, in order to get to the better times. 

Rituals or ritualistic observances, religious or otherwise, may help you navigate the Mercury Retrograde period by giving you inner reassurance. 

{Tuesday} ~Solitary is Not Helpless~

Cosmic Piper

Message for Monday 30 July 2018

Monday 30 July 2018

~Easing Into Harmony~

Moon in Pisces

One can be resolute in training oneself, or someone else, toward better interactions or social skills. If someone is trying to train you, well then you can resist or comply as seems right. 

Being on the defensive is fine when there is no point in trying to forward your interests through impulsive energy probably going nowhere but into tangles. 

Someone who seems baby-like is able to handle a lot more than you would expect, in an indirect or unsuspected manner.

The dangers of Uranus's square to Mars are evident in the fires we have been hearing about, for example. There can be obstinacy and undue haste. It is better to handle travel deliberately and calmly, if at all. 

Exalted spiritual faculties are evident in some. Being misunderstood does not diminish their sincerity or ardor. 

Personal love or devotion peeks out and might develop significantly over the next couple weeks, through August 15, while Venus will be in a trine with Mars. However, she will also be square Saturn, so love has to be devotion to survive; to become mature and mellow more than than coy and seductive. 

Romance mixes with danger when there is roving about in search of fresh sensations. 

Spiritual therapy results in a magical ordering of everything, making work less burdensome.

{Monday}  ~Easing Into Harmony~

Cosmic Piper

Message for Sunday 29 July 2018

Service interruption

Our catalog is currently available for most functions, but you cannot place holds or renew items. Public printing in Library locations is currently not available. We are working to resolve the problem. Thank you for your patience.

That is the message I got from the Seattle Public Library when I tried to renew books Saturday morning. Mercury is Retrograde, and so "Service Interruption" is normal! I have never seen such a notice before from the library and have been using it for seven years. 

Another first: Last night I put a pitcher of water in the freezer to get it cold faster, then forgot it. This morning I expected the worst, but fortunately the pitcher is intact, not broken or exploded as I had expected, and thawing. Not only do we experience more "interruptions" from outside, such as computer freezes or crashes, or trouble with certain sites, or trouble with smartphones, we make more problems for ourselves by forgetful or careless actions such as my forgetting the pitcher in the freezer.  

On the positive side, we recover fascinating insights from the past, or read books we had almost forgotten, or watch old movies, or reconnect with old friends. There is a sort of pleasant drift, when one can relax and enjoy it, so "less planning" can be a blessing, or at least "not overplanning." 

Sunday 29 July 2018

Moon in Aquarius-->Pisces

/moon goes void-of-course at 2:26a PT | 5:26a ET | 9:26a UT

until it enters Pisces at 4:29p PT | 7:29p ET | 11:29p UT

Spiritual lesson for healing, redemption, fulfillment:  Truth

Message from Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Cosmic Piper

Message for Saturday 28 July 2018

Saturday 28 July 2018

}Listless or Not, Playing the Game{

Moon in Aquarius

An outstanding person who has a special mission is in your consciousness and could motivate you.

People find themselves required to cooperate in ways which grate against the sensibilities at times, as a basketball game in which the players have lost interest. Yet there is covert self-expression, and you develop prowess in a contest or anything making you feel strong and on top of things.

Someone youthful may feel misunderstood, and retreat. Yet he or she still has a wonderful attitude even toward those unsympathetic.

Spiritualized self-discipline is therapeutic for others as well as yourself.   

People benefit more than they realize from connections and attachments through social media or phones.

It goes without saying that one should be careful of transactions during any Mercury Retrograde period, yet today there could be surprising luck with money, deals, opportunities, selling or buying. 

{Saturday}  {Listless or Not, Playing the Game}

Cosmic Piper

Paean to the Dark or Contemplative Hermetic Epoch

Yes, life goes on! This is a basic premise of astrology as well as of psychology and metaphysics (that is, the spiritual metaphysics which had its strongest original manifestation through Christian Science). 

Yet life is varied in its manifestation. Whether you believe it or not, I believe that the most definite twofold discrimination of Time is that between the Dark and the Bright Hermetic Epochs. I might call them the Contemplative and the Active Hermetic Epochs. That might give a clearer demarcation of their meaning.  (Why would the motions of the planet Mercury as observed from the Earth demarcate these very important Epochs? Nobody knows! Why should anybody know? Who knows why your body needs Vitamin C or Vitamin D? Just observe, just link, and as E. M. Forster famously said, "Only connect . . .".)

We are in the Contemplative one now, and further, as I write, the moon has been void-of-course all day (in Capricorn). This makes for a giddy time-period.

Not everything went wrong. However, my computer either crashed or froze at least three or four times today, much more than usual. I sat here drumming my fingers on the table and then remembering that while waiting for it to fire up I might better repeat a mantram, which I then did. You can just say something which comes to mind, if it's positive, like "All is Love," or "Peace, Harmony, Truth," or whatever helps you. 

There was the music. It was good. I have been led to my old playlists on Spotify, not the new ones, which fits with the RE nature of the Mercury REtrograde period we are now in. (It is always the center of a Dark or Contemplative Hermetic Epoch.) I felt deeply that REviewing, or rather RElistening to old music was much more real to me than listening to some of the latest stuff I had on another playlist. Songs from even the '20s and '30s seemed just fine to me, not anachronistic. 

Last night I watched about four episodes of the second season of Thirteen Reasons Why, the Netflix series which had, or has, young people going. That is very surprising to myself, because a few weeks ago I watched one episode and said, "No more of this! They are driving this concept into the ground, like scratching off an old scab to make it bleed again." However, last night, when Mercury was at its slowest and turning retrograde, I was fascinated by the series and watched it episode after episode addictively. This series is, that is, both series, the original and the sequel, almost a paradigm of the DHE or of Mercury Retrograde. A dead girl is the focus of everything that happens! She is not there and yet her memory, and the memories of all the high school kids who knew her, are what drive them and the series. We might say that it is a perfect paradigm of what goes on in any Dark or Slow or Backward or Contemplative Hermetic Epoch.

So I was hooked by it last night and am not sorry. I have to admit that the writers and directors of this series (as well as of course the actors) are magicians. They caught me in their net. But it seems, despite the ugliness sometimes of the subject matter, to be a beneficent one. These young people are young in the good sense--open to experience, honest, sincere, even innocent in a way, even when they do cruel things. 

Then yesterday a young person told me of his problems with some complicated negotiations regarding a loss, and I prayed for him, and then today he seems better and said he is trying to kick a habit which is hard to kick. I applaud him. One can do something like that---REclaim one's habits, REverse a dark spell, REinvigorate oneself toward living a better life--during a DHE. We must remember that. (Of course, it is also possible to REvert into vice rather than REcover. It's just that more people seem to be doing both of those things at these times, times of transition and of "taking oneself in hand" as best one can--or failing dramatically to do so.) (One can also make REverse errors. I just wrote "do to so" and had to fix it.)

There was the picnic. For those in my apartment building today. I went down, made a harmless remark to the building manager, and he was offended. I also was offended because from my viewpoint I had said nothing wrong. So I said "I'm not coming to the picnic" and went back upstairs. Then he phoned me and was conciliatory. So I went down. Meanwhile I had texted another resident that I was not going, then had to text back and say that Yes I am going. Mercury REtrograde makes for these reversals in plans. And, just at this exact second, a whole pile of astrology charts just slipped off the table where I am doing this writing. It will take a few minutes to straighten them out. 

Then there was Harry's Bar. I went there after the picnic. It is often like a setting for a Fellini movie. So it was tonight during the void-of-course moon and the DHE. You can expect parties or fun-times to be unusual, out-of-sight, at those times. I didn't mind because I was expecting it. I didn't care about the silly movie being shown, but the music channel was not bad, and I did some serious reading while sipping my drink. I noted that people were oddly moving in all directions, that there was more coming and going than usual, that in a sense nobody seemed to know what was happening, yet since it was a bar and after work, people enjoyed that feeling of irresponsibility or "Who cares?" It was exhilarating. That is one good thing which can happen during a void-of-course period or a Dark or Contemplative Hermetic Epoch.

I wrote this also during the v-of-c and of course the DHE (July 7 through September 1, with the center being the Mercury Retrograde period from July 26 through August 18). I hope it contains clues.

H H H  /  C P 

Message for Friday 27 July 2018

Friday 27 July 2018

}Dreaming Toward Subtle Mastery{

Moon in Capricorn-->Aquarius

/moon is void-of-course

until it enters Aquarius at 3:42a PT | 6:42a ET | 10:42a UT

Full Moon of Leo-Aquarius is exact at 1:21p PT | 4:21p ET | 8:21p UT

It should be easier to plan and get things accomplished today than yesterday. Still, we are in the Mercury Retrograde period until August 19 and so there are an unusual number of slowdowns, backtrackings, mind-wanderings, and what seem like mechanical or technological failures (which might be actually human failures). Everybody would like a summer vacation but not everybody can do it now. So we carry on, perhaps winking at interruptions to routine,  out-of-pattern events and, sometimes, sheer laziness. Good for the soul, if not overdone.

Charubel gives for the sun's degree a symbol of men working in a forge or large steamer, almost nude because of the heat. There have been a large number of fires in the U. S. and elsewhere. I need not comment on the usual summer heat, though perhaps the sun's opposition with Mars makes it either more intense or more noticeable this time around. Charubel recommends living quietly and not taking on too-large responsibilities.

Yet there can be courage in getting out and about to meet life's variety, when that seems rewarding.

One who is outwardly childlike, not understood or popular, may be internally a member of "the kingdom of heaven."

Seeking personal advantages with intelligence could meet with moderate success if one is subtle enough to blend with the off-center currents of the Mercury Retrograde period. Four other planets are retrograde as well, suggesting either sloth or a need to review and contemplate the past in order to gain advantages with all due patience rather than stumble over oneself hastily. 

Attachments and connections which fall to one naturally are favorable for gain.

A therapeutic ministry, whether yours or someone else's, could be yielding good results, "a Hindu healer."

A circuitous path, undecided and changeful, could be almost normal now, though one should not let chaotic fancies erode definite purposes. One imagines and dreams, and all of that leads back to oneself, and one is ready to begin again more masterfully.

{Friday} {Dreaming Toward Subtle Mastery} 

Cosmic Piper

Message for Thursday 26 July 2018

Thursday 26 July 2018

\Rounded Focus Within Rolling Roaming/

|Karmically difficult third| of this week ends at 9:05a PT | 12:05p ET | 4:05p UT

/moon goes void-of-course at 6:42a PT | 9:42a ET | 1:42p UT

until it enters Aquarius in early hours of Friday

It's the first full day of Mercury being retrograde (its beginning time was given yesterday)

We are in a drift. You can keep yourself calm and at peace. You can then do just the essentials, leaving out a lot which would merely confuse the situation or make things impossible. It's a day when knowing what to leave out is useful.

Activity or effort at home could be important.

Consciousness is enhanced and rounded out as the moon rounds out, reaching the Full on Friday afternoon.

You can see what is useful quickly and take advantage of it 

Being rushed is not good and yet sometimes you will have to struggle to keep up with things. This is not contradictory advice. It means you can take account and drop the unnecessary, yet be fast and accurate with the necessary.

Someone beautiful and almost fragile, youthful, is in your mind. There can be sharing of good things and honest comradely talk. 

You can be careful and circumspect, "A cat upon the watch for prey." If what you want seems elusive, your plans for gaining it may be correct and fruitful in time. 

There is ruggedness, sincerity, and robustness in yourself and others. Your antecedents, ancestors, or a favoring group of the living and the deceased are with you in consciousness and can support you.

{Thursday}  /Rounded Focus Within Rolling Roaming\

Cosmic Piper

Graham Greene's Horoscope, and Much Else . . .

Reflections on Graham Greene's Horoscope and much else . . .

"The objects of God's creation reflect one Mind."--Mary Baker Eddy

I am reading Graham Greene's The Honorary Consul. Hard going. I find it as dull as a complex detective novel. Not much human interest so far. Unsympathetic, peculiar characters. Oddly enough at this point, early in the book, I find Dr. Humphries, who is not really a doctor but is one of the three English persons in a town in Argentina north of Buenes Aires, the most sympathetic, just because he seems honest I guess. The others are devious. Or drunk or . . .

Graham Greene is a mixed bag. Didn't he write a story about a dead baby in a suitcase? He found that amusing? I found it so utterly repulsive that I almost decided to read nothing more by him.

Libra, the sign, can go bad. It went bad in Truman Capote. It can become perverse, and I mean really perverse not in a humorous but a truly offensive manner. Greene is supposed to be a religious writer, a Catholic, by some, but then you find that he wrote three "Catholic novels" in which he appeared to be a believer, then seemed to reject his faith, then seemed to not know what he believed. Libra can be a sign of indecision. I am not sure what good it is. Oh, Jimmy Carter is a good Libra individual. So was Eleanor Roosevelt. So was Ike Eisenhower.

Maybe Greene bends over backwards (a Libra position) to see both sides of everything and that is why he seems like a chameleon. By being sympathetic to all of his characters who are opposed to one another he becomes sympathetic to none. But in The Power and the Glory he overcame that problem at least for one novel. Some think it his best work.

His horoscope is "splash" shaped. Maybe that is why people can read into him whatever they want (as they can with Libra also, sometimes, as in T. S. Eliot). His degree-symbols, or that of his sun, make him a proficient critic and analyst who wants to warn people of dangers. He enters the fray because he sees he must. This corresponds to the political elements of his novels, which are disturbing because they bring out the difficulty of winning a war or a political dispute or legal battle when both sides are wrong or partly wrong. He took politics seriously and wanted to "enter the fray" as a gladiator but his Catholicism offered an easier way out, the path of Grace.

I see now that his Mars symbol is "A wolf carrying away a lamb" according to Charubel. That explains the baby in the suitcase. Greene, you ought to be ashamed of that story.

But of course in The Power and the Glory the priest protagonist was accused by the Communists of being " a wolf carrying away" the lambs of the populace, while in fact he was the lamb ultimately carried away and killed by them. So Greene at his best can be on the side of the lamb not the wolf. But he sees the wolf and has to warn us to be wary.

Yet the Borelli-Sepharial symbol for his Mars (at 0 Virgo) is quite different, "A festival or occasion for the assembling together of villagers in gala costume." This too is evident in everything he writes. The local color of his tales is brought out in a way which keeps us grounded in cultural differences. The degree gives "a strong taste for pleasures of various kinds, luxuries, festivities. It promotes friendships and good fortune; the native will be much esteemed for his convivial spirit." Well, something has kept people reading Greene's novels over the decades. Even when themes are serious and destinies dire, the occasions surrounding them can be colorful and enjoyable to ponder.

A day later, I have finished the Honorary Consul. It is resonating in my memory and it may be too early to say a lot that is veridical about it.

Doctors. Greene's stories have doctors. Very simply, horoscopically: He has both Mars and Mercury in Virgo, a punctilious health sign, and Venus in Scorpio, which can be a sign of surgery or clinical medical work of any kind---not always, but often. Eduardo Plarr in this novel is a doctor and his relations with his patients and his remedies are prominent in the story. When he makes love to a woman he does it almost clinically; he first touches Clara with whom he "falls in sex" (not love) because she says her stomach hurts. Greene's chart has a very close, nearly exact sextile between Mars and Venus--good for sexual relations of all sorts, but Venus is in Scorpio and Mars in Virgo, the two medical signs. Sex and medicine are mixed up in Greene's mind and in those of his characters.

The closest square or opposition, called the Dynamic Aptness, is Greene's Mercury in Virgo square his Pluto in Gemini. The formula reads "an inquisitive approach to obsession." At one point Plarr thinks, "I am not in love with Clara. I am in an obsession with her, it appears. What is that?" He is perplexed about it. Here Greene is, without knowing it, explicating one way in which his Mercury-square-Pluto-as-Dyanmic Aptness functions. Plarr can't get Clara out of his mind (Mercury) and is obsessed with her (Pluto) but does not feel love for her, which would be indicated by Venus or Jupiter or Neptune most usually.

Greene, and therefore his characters, are of course capable of love. Otherwise his novels would not be as successful as they have been. His Venus in early Scorpio is not only sextile Mars, very erotic, but sextile Uranus and trine the moon and Neptune. All this might depict a covert, unusual sort of love which sometimes comes off as gruffness. Venus is not comfortable in Scorpio. She is "in her detriment" in that sign, for she is "enthroned" in Taurus the opposite sign. His characters are bitterly self-examining, often; they go to confession, or want to, and the Catholic rite of confession is almost exactly what Venus-in-Scorpio means: You feel guilty of something or ashamed of it. Of course there is the sacrament and absolution, for Scorpio is a water sign, washing away one's sins. And yet oddly it seems there is never any end to this process and at worst it can be like picking off a scab so the wound bleeds again. In The Honorary Consul the major characters, near the climax, celebrate Mass together, but it is performed by a priest who has determined to kill one of those in the room for political purposes which he thinks are righteous. The harshness of Venus-in-Scorpio can be very ugly, a version of contempt. Greene is wise to lift it, when he can, to a sacramental level. When it is not so lifted it is merely mean-spirited, as in Plarr's attitude to his mother, and her attitude to his father, and on and on.

The other close aspect of Venus in Greene's chart is her opposition with Jupiter. This comes out in The Honorary Consul in the long theological discussions. Love (Venus) is mixed with philosophy or theology or politics (Jupiter). In short: When Venus opposes Jupiter, lovers disagree about these things. They have differing religions or one is devout and one atheistic. Their political opinions go in opposite directions. Yet love is there, somehow, trying to survive these differing attitudes and approaches. Most of Greene's stories have this element. The "whisky priest" in The Power and the Glory has to try to avoid capture by the Communists who want to kill him because to them his religion is counter-revolutionary and evil. In The Honorary Consul, the ex-priest who has become a political rebel has long conversations with the man he is planning to kill, about his religion and what it means to him. This is Venus-opposite-Jupiter with a vengeance, because of Venus's location in Scorpio, the sign (sometimes) of death, guilt, and recrimination.

People born with an emphasis in both Libra and Scorpio, like Greene, are condemned to be judges, to judge, to weigh everyone in the balance. What a horrible fate. Greene does it all the time in his novels, directly or, most often, indirectly, or his characters are judging other characters and there is no end to the moral legalism and the political legalism and the religious legalism.

Yet there is more than that in Greene's chart and I consider him at his best a saintly writer. At his worst he gets lost in the legalism and loses sight of the grace. Or perhaps he is embarrassed to emphasize grace, and hopes that we the readers will pick up the few hints of it he tosses at us in the midst of the tragedy. He seems the shy would-be priest who is embarrassed by his religion but hopes we will get some of it by osmosis.

--H H H 

 / C P