| Dear Readers: I was up bright and early to do the horoscope, and sat here pretty much unable to write. What I had started was my opening essay, in which I needed to make some comment on the situation currently unfolding between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I received an email last night through one of my astrology research groups containing a diary entry of someone who is there. While American media are reporting that there is a crackdown in the Palestinian Authority by the Israeli military (the authority is a tiny region near the Jordan River populated by Israel's 'enemies', the Palestinians, but overseen by the Israeli government) they are not reporting the extent of the massacre of civilians, a death toll which has been put at between 700 and 800 and is rising as the situation escalates. Why this is happening seems complex, but the truth of why will be told in the saga of what happens as a result of the events unfolding today. In other words, what happens next is not an accident, which points to the potential that what is happening now is not an accident. There seems to be little we can do about this from our positions of relative comfort and isolation here in the Western world. But what we can do is think. In our current version of the world, thinking is a form of revolutionary activism. It is easier to focus on your life, to do your little part to keep the world turning, to worry about your problems and hopefully help other people. This I know. It is easier not to confront that over which you have no power. I would love to walk away from this struggle, but there is nowhere to walk. The economics behind the politics of what is happening are clear. We live in one world. It is overheating from the over-consumption of oil. On the political level, Arafat must be moved out of the way because he is too powerful a figure in the Arab world. Can you name one other Arab head of state? He is a (more than) potential rallying point for the entire Islamic world. From the capitalist viewpoint, this is bad. The economics behind this are blatant. A divided Arab world is a weak Arab world. Economically, if you consider the only thing this whole region does is provide oil for the Western economic and military machine, you might say of the Persian Gulf region, "This land is our land." Nothing else happens in the Persian Gulf region, speaking globally of course (there are some fine opium dens -- oh, and poppy fields!), except for war and oil. Consider, too, that all the modern Arab states were carved out of the map after World War Two by England. They are essentially a modern artifice, a political construction of a colonized region. As is typical of colonization processes, resources are extracted at the price of blood of those unfortunate enough to be under colonial rule. Oil is blood. It is really that simple. BUT... There is another view of this situation, as I see it. We can take it personally. As individuals and as a community, we are being presented with an evolutionary opportunity, which is another way to say a chance to raise awareness. We can respond to this challenge together, in an enlightened way, consciously and actively. We can, in however concrete a way possible, or however abstract necessary, make the choice that world peace is a priority. We do this by feeling the need and the desire. We do this by feeling a little of the pain of a war-ravaged world, and a little of the guilt that the leaders of our society are the masterminds, and a little bit of the power that comes with awareness. These are not ordinary days, and so acting in non-ordinary ways is fully appropriate. We have a lot to think about, the world is changing fast, and we are all involved -- like it or not -- in our own individual processes, which are governed by the same astrology that is behind the curtains of the current dramas. In other words, it's all part of the same thing. Astrology demonstrates that we live in one world. There is no horoscope this week, but here is all the astrology you really need. We are, on one level, in a really mellow, stable spell of time. Everything is relative, of course. It's spring up top now and the astrology, on the mundane level is rather lush. But one level behind that, there is immense pressure. This is in something called the heliocentric chart, with the Sun at the center. Maybe you feel it, maybe you don't. But ignoring it won't help. Mainly, what I sense we need are points of release, human touch and long slow breaths. We are also in an acceleration pattern now. Come May and June there are two eclipses of the Moon and one of the Sun, which work like a sequence of gateways. It's as if we are being propelled across several thresholds (for motorheads and engineers in the audience, the image of a venturi comes to mind, like we are riding a stream of air concentrating through a funnel). Eclipses affect the culture and global events, and they influence us personally, in direct, tangible ways. We will land in another world on the other side of this process, though it may not be apparent for a little while. But we will feel the movement through from one space to the next, potentially as chaos, creative power, a sense of urgency, rage, or, possibly, hopelessness, loss and emptiness, all depending on your personal circumstances. The time frame here is late May through mid-June. People who are not so awake may find themselves waking up very, very fast. If, however, you are paying attention now, the astrological prescription is to raise your awareness like an upward spiral, open up a little more each day as you do so, and synchronize yourself with the acceleration. It is a good time to remember why it is we are on this Earth. You have your reasons. They may be very helpful to you now. Eric Francis |