taking a leak

With Mercury aspecting Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus over the weekend, we would expect all kinds of information to be flying around. The release of more sensitive U.S. information via Wikileaks is a prime example. The huge (Jupiter) number of documents - over 250,000 - leaked (Neptune) has been creating shock (Uranus) waves all around the world.
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The documents show that U.S. diplomats are being asked to spy on U.N. officials and that Saudi Arabia put pressure on the U.S. to attack Iran, among other surprising things. The documents are expected to create a public relations nightmare for the United States and many other countries (to a lesser degree). The heat will surely be turned up on Wikileaks itself.

With Mars aspecting Jupiter today, we will be seeing the effects of the release reverberating around the world.

The same principles can apply in our lives. Think of where you have been active - and verbal - in the past few days, and the reactions you have received. Very possibly you've been making plans and announcing your intentions - to mixed results - and are now ready to put them into action.

Today is certainly a day to act, and in fact this entire week is characterized by aspects to Uranus and Jupiter (Mars squares Uranus on Friday), so what we talked about last week we will be more inclined to actually do this week.

Of course, as with the Wikileaks story, there is likely to be a certain amount of blowback for all concerned.

basic black

Today is "Black Friday" in the United States, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season and the day that many stores go "into the black" as profits beat out losses.
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In ever-increasingly high pitch, the ads have been pulling people in earlier and earlier, with some stores opening up as early as 2 a.m.. Ironically and sadly, Thanksgiving has become the prelude to Black Friday rather than the focus of the weekend.

Also ironically, the use of the term "Black" to describe a day is most closely associated with Black Monday, the day of the stock market crash in 1929 and the beginning of the great depression. Today, Black Friday signals the prayer for big sales that will keep our economy going - a necessary link in our economic chain. Say what you will about the insanity of getting up at 1 a.m. to go shopping - if people didn't do it, we'd all be screwed.

With Mercury aspecting Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus this weekend, sales should be strong. People will spend too much, putting themselves in debt, while keeping the economy moving.

My bank opened at 6, but according to the teller, it will be a waste of time. "Last year," he said, "the first customer came in around nine."

After all, no one's paying cash for anything, are they?

24 new red hats

In the shadow of the dual station of Venus and Jupiter on Thursday, the Catholic Church has been in the news. That makes sense, as Jupiter rules conventional religions. The Hierophant card in the Tarot, for example, is very Jupiterian (think - the dogmatic, inflexible side of your favorite Sag).

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But the church has actually "changed direction" on a Venusian, or should I say, Venereal (they both have roots in the name Venus) issue, in lifting its absolute ban on the use of condoms. Although the Pope has said that condoms don't constitute a real or moral solution to AIDS, the Church can see the use of condoms with respect to the disease. That should be good news in Africa, where both AIDS and the Church are strong.

In an impossibly funny coincidence, the New York Times has published this story today - "24 New Cardinals Get Red Hats"

popularity contests

With Venus about to go direct tomorrow at 4:19p EST, this is no time to be making moves if you are a prominent woman. But Nancy Pelosi will be re-elected as the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, although this time around not as Majority Leader.

There was an attempt to delay the vote, but it failed, and Pelosi is more or less assured of winning the election today, although with quite a few dissenting votes. I'm reminded of Will Rogers' famous quip, "I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat."

Women are literally dominating the news these days, from the Florida woman who has a confirmed case of cholera to Meg Whitman.

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But other Venusian news out of Burma is more interesting and hopeful, as Aung San Suu Kyi was released last weekend after being under house arrest since late 2007. She has spent about 15 of the last 20 years under house arrest, and the reasons for her release are - as with everything in Burma - mysterious. Ms. Suu Kyi is already working on rebuilding her political party.

a three-hour tour...

Hours after the Neptune station on Sunday morning, the Carnival cruise ship Splendor set sail out of San Diego for a cruise of the Mexican Riviera. All was going fine until Monday morning at 6 a.m. local time, when a fire in the engine room left the ship stranded without power.
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Without any power - how Neptunian - the ship listed and rolled with the waves, increasing sea sickness on board. Passengers had to eat "safe" (canned, and so on) rations, and had no phone or internet services. Two tug boats are towing the ship back to San Diego, and they are expected to arrive on Thursday afternoon.

Click here for the Time story on the cruise ship.

foggy with a chance of showers

Haiti was shaken by the Uranus station back in January, and the temporary shelters (at this point perhaps a bit less than temporary) have been threatened by Hurricane Tomas on this Neptune station.

Nothing is clear, as we might expect. Last night I checked Google News and read that Haiti had been spared the worst of Tomas, while today I read that floods and mudslides had killed seven people and Tomas had driven Haitians to higher ground.
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Neptune rules floods, and generally makes things unclear.

Interestingly, the other major natural disaster this week was a Plutonian volcano, Mt. Merapi, in Indonesia. Now, at his station, Neptune is angular to the east of both islands, indicating a kind of 'near miss.' But Mars is directly angular through both islands, on the midheaven in Java and on the IC in Haiti (and through the Eastern tip of Long Island). Mars is the fiery god of war, more closely linked to volcanos than floods.

In typical Neptunian fashion, even the moment of the station is hard to find, since it occurs at 1:05a Sunday. Because of the clock change, setting the hour back at 2:00a Eastern Daylight Time, there are not one but two 1:05 a.m.s tomorrow! (I verified by checking the station in Pacific time).

It has been a bad week for flying. The Mt. Merapi incident has grounded planes over Java, a plane crashed in Cuba, and a brand new Qantas Airbus A380 was forced to land in Singapore when one of its engines failed (and apparently spewed parts over Indonesia).

Perhaps this is Neptune's way of bidding farewell to Aquarius as he heads towards his home sign of Pisces in April. He will, however, station once more in Aquarius, next November.

On a personal level, this is a good weekend to chill out, space out, or freak out. But by Tuesday, things should be feeling a bit more grounded.

the audacity of hope

Well, we ought not to be too surprised.
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A momentary blip two years ago, brought on by a serious economic downturn, doesn't do much to shake things up in any fundamental way. Pluto, Saturn and Uranus weren't going to bring about an "easy" revolution. Things will get more intense, and there will be more fuel added to the fire so that the pot can really boil, and boil over.

Change isn't easy. Evolution is not really like a butterfly turning into a caterpillar (that's metamorphosis, anyhow). It's more like the dinosaurs going extinct so mammals can take over... not exactly the kind of agenda you can endorse if you're a brontosaurus.

And change isn't what anyone - or any party, or any viewpoint - wants it to be. All of our debates are the pushing and pulling that turns the engines of real change, which go where they will, not where we would like.

Oh, well.