Planet Waves for May 16, 2002

By Eric Francis | May 16, 2002

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Left, The Magician, Trump I, one of three renditions of Thoth/Mercury from the Thoth Tarot, painted by Lady Frieda Harris and designed by Aleister Crowley. This deck was painted in the '40s and first published circa 1969.

One really interesting thing I've noticed about Mercury stations is that the truth comes out right around when they happen. The truth? Two separate stories broke in the past 72 hours about the US government's early knowledge of 9/11 plots, which could, depending on what else we learn, constitute a form of cooperation between government officials and the terrorists.

I have a friend named Allan. I've known him since he was a teenager, and was my extremely competent assistant at Generation magazine at SUNY Buffalo. We live near one another but do most of our relating on the phone. We have had many discussions about 9/11 plots. He holds rather fancy degrees in history from Cornell and Penn, and is no intellectual slouch, so he's interesting to talk to, and he knows that you can't trust politicians. But he was incredulous: there could have been no plot involving US government officials. One day recently, I was sitting at his kitchen table, looking at his sweet face. And I realized he was trying to take a realistic position about this whole terrorism business without giving into hardened cynicism; without somehow becoming a misanthrope, that is, one who hates and distrusts the human race, and thus losing his connection to his own inherent goodness.

I think it's a dilemma many people face.

Because if there was a 9/11 plot, if the US government knew and let it happen, and thus used the World Trade Center as an excuse to bomb the living daylights out of Afghanistan, then that's pretty damn serious news, and maybe it really was about an Enron oil pipeline, and maybe all this "crack down on terrorism" stuff here in the homeland really is a lot of crap designed to steal civil liberties that various aristocrats (noblemen the likes of John Ashcroft) know are unprecedented in recorded human history. Maybe there is an agenda after all. Maybe this is all part of the agenda of whoever put Bush into office.

The first story involved an FBI early warning about terrorists enrolling at flight schools. The second involves Bush being briefed last August that al-Qaida was planning to hijack US airplanes. Here is how Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, explained it away. "There has been longstanding speculation, shared with the president, about the potential of hijackings in the traditional sense," he said. "We had general threats involving Osama bin Laden around the world and including in the United States."

Do we believe him? Is he telling us the whole truth?

Then, the same day, we read that a key Congressional committee approves a huge antiterrorism spending appropriation. According to MSNBC, the bill includes $15.8 billion for the Defense Department; $5.8 billion for domestic security, mostly for aviation and airports; and $5.5 billion to help New York recover from the Sept. 11 attacks. How much of this "defense" money goes back to the Carlyle Group, the Bush family business (headed by two top members of the administration of Bush the First, James Baker and Frank Carlucci, both influential foreign policy advisors to the president) that trades in all kinds of defense and aerospace goods? We need to look up the word GRAFT in the dictionary. There is such a thing.

Chart for this column, Moon quintile Sun on May 18. In this week's edition, I am also looking at the centaurs Pholus, Nessus, Asbolus, 1994TA, Hylonome, and Chariclo, as well as a different set of asteroids than usual, including Sappho, Aphrodite, America, Lilith, Zeus, Toro, Asclepius, Damocles, Tantalus and Sisyphus.

Here is a link to a review for a really interesting book.

Sign dates below are approximate. They now overlap by one day. The date and time of the Sun's ingress to the new sign changes a little each year, so please check with an astrologer if you want the exact position of your Sun, and while you're at it, your rising sign -- this horoscope is written for both your Sun and rising signs. If you find that some other sign's interpretations work for you, then go for it.

Aries (March 20-April 21)

Abundance is the word, of freedom, of intelligence, of ideas to make your life a better place to live. If this is not the case, and you are frustrated with your situation, I ask: are there opportunities you have, but are not taking? Do you have information you are not using? And are you denying anything you know, deeply, to be true, but are not "ready to handle"? You must know that what you care about is important, in that it really does have the power to move your life, and to get you to move your life, and this works whether you are conscious of it or not. So, in case you get any wake up-calls, let them be reminders of just how good you have it, and how many options are wide open.

Taurus (April 21-May 20)

It's imperative that you seek a diplomatic solution to whatever shakeup is brewing in your life, but I can tell you that such a way out will arrive in a pleasantly surprising and highly innovative form you don't expect, if you keep an open mind. In fact, the process of change itself is likely to bring a solution to something that you may not realize is less of a problem than you realize. It all may stem from an inner issue or value that you're trying to work out. I know I keep asking you this, but what in this world is really important to you? Once you figure that out, many things will fall into place.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)

You have, I believe, passed one particular series tests or trials in which you established that you are, at least potentially, fearless in the face of someone who seems quite intimidating and out of reach. But please check out this whole out-of-reach business... how far back can you trace it? Do all the people who have been out of reach in your life remind you of one particular someone? And have you not grown into the feeling that to have what you really, truly want is impossible to have, and is that not, in a twisted way, too intense to give up? Or is it simply very difficult to find your way out of because the way is not marked? Stay with your process and you will succeed.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

There is a planet newly arrived in your sign, the asteroid Vesta. Vesta, in her more mundane delineation, deals with the work we do, but on a deeper level, why we do it. If you keep exploring this really fascinating goddess/process, you get images of work devotion related to tending the sacred flame, the task of Vestal Virgins. If you read deeper yet, she's all about sex, since the virgins were kept for a specific purpose, according to Martha Wescott, the sexual and progeny needs of the priest class. The real issue comes down to, whose fire it it anyway? What if it were your fire -- what if your passion and creativity were yours to do with what you wanted? Then what?

Leo (July 22-Aug. 22)

Electricity is the theme of the week, the voltage is cranked up high, and you may find that your feelings about everything and everyone are intensified, at times, to an unbearable degree. The key is going to be letting the power flow through you, a quality of being about which most people are clueless. Our lives tend to be about resistance, not ease of motion, and about matter, not energy. Those whose power can flow have an enhanced ability to direct the course of their own lives, to deal with unpredictable circumstances, and as a result, to help other people without hurting themselves. As such, forgiveness can come as second-nature, if not first.

Virgo (Aug. 22-Sep. 22)

Work work work -- few are so well suited for effort today, rewards whenever, as are you. But this is no longer the equation. You have worked very well, and the rewards are coming. But the best is yet to happen, which is still a few weeks off. A situation you could not, typically, foresee, is likely to open up the limits on what is possible in your life in a most surprising way. The key will be to see your opportunities, make your plans, but not act too soon, and never, ever act out of greed. Your good name is your most precious possession right now, and you've built it on dedication, understanding of the value of true service, and communicating very openly about your intentions. Keep with the program and amazing turns of events are in store.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)

In the words of your Libra cousin Paul Simon, "Hey, ain't we walking down the same street on the very same day?" Just who is walking down your street today? Take a look. Who do you notice, from the vantage point of your current state of heart and mind, whatever they may be? The events of the coming few weeks promise to be productive, rewarding and unpredictable. And unlike so many others, I know you can stand it. If you keep your expectations low and your attention to detail and quality high, you'll get the most return for your efforts and excellent intentions. Return, as in money, recognition and that incomparable feeling of a job well done. Though it is, really, all about the people you are with: your true family.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)

Take the news of the next few days as an indicator of what is possible in one particular relationship, a range of potential. People are full of surprises. We have to factor that into any encounter with another person. The question is, how much flexibility do we have to handle their changes? Conventional astrological wisdom would say that as a Scorpio, your flexibility is limited and your ability to martyr yourself is highly evolved (especially, I would add, for any Scorpio born from about 1955-1970, due to the presence of Neptune in your sign). Flexibility is easiest for you in the context of clear negotiations. Remember that and you will do well, because you are in an excellent negotiating position right now.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)

Are you seeing the light of day? If not, just a little longer, till the Sun crosses into your opposite sign, Gemini, and blazes yet a little more light on a subject, situation or person very influential in your life. What that light ought to reveal, though, is just how influential you are in these circumstances. You may be giving up one kind of power as an exercise in growth; there is no need to proceed through this life, for example, using intimidation as your main source of currency. It's just not, you know, spiritual. But there are a lot of other ways you can get what you need, or get out of situations where you are not getting what you need. Choosing is one such method. Speaking up is another. Listening is one more yet.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)

Your luck is not running out, and what you may perceive as an omen or setback is nothing of the kind; rather, it points to an opportunity for you to move past the one particular kind of stuckness that has gripped your life for so long. Just beware that you don't harbor the thought that you've been getting the short end of the deal for too long, because if you do, you're rather likely to miss what is offered to you in the next few days or so. How you react to gestures of kindness would serve well to be your most accurate barometer of your emotional and spiritual health, and, I would add, it's never too late to get yourself in shape.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)

One of the themes of the year, if I recall from The Great Curve, was your relationship to women and women's wisdom. And I mentioned that this was especially important for women, who have a tendency (I am told) to act a bit catty and competitive toward one another when cooperation would really be in order. As Pallas Athene makes her conjunction to Uranus, we all have a lot to learn from women right now, from their experiences, from how they perceive their choices, and the way they set their priorities. Properly experienced, this would be a humbling experience, and these are good things to have, here in the seat of empire where we live the illusion of being on top of the world. Or maybe it's the reality: but when you're on top, perspective is a very important thing to have.

Pisces (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)

We know you're not suited for emotional stress -- or so goes the myth. Pisces are survivors, and you are surviving. You are more than surviving, a fact of which I am aware because of the protection that surrounds you, and the opportunities that are on the way. Every now and then, life comes around to this one really fine dilemma: the more fun we have, and the more daring we can be about having fun, the better, sweeter, hotter and more prosperous our experience is. You stand on stable ground, and your choices are guided by some trustworthy intuition. Yes, there is change in the air, but change is best offered to us as a choice. So choose from a position of happiness, and you will choose well.

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Space graphic above from the Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur.
Credit: T. A. Rector, B. Wolpa, M. Hanna. Planet Waves logo by Eric, and Via Davis.