Weekly Weather April 11, 2011
Our outer planets all in their proper and new places ask us to start to work on our future. We still are releasing until Saturn turns direct on June 12 and now that Pluto is going retrograde, the releasing will be deeper and stronger. At the same time, now that the planets’ energies are all in their new signs, we can begin to wade slowly forward, toward our future.
As noted before, we have in the heaven’s 2 planets in signs that no one currently alive on earth has ever experienced before and 4 other planets who shifted into long cycle changes, evoking major shifts in our lives, world and being. We are being asked to wake up and work with a new and changing reality. The changes ahead of us will be profound as 4 of the 6 planets are in Cardinal signs and on the world axis/angles.
Let’s look again at the changes taking place and reflect on the changes that took place in earlier times. The cycles will repeat in your life now:
Jupiter 12 years ~ think back to 1999, 1987, 1975, 1963, 1951 and 1939
Saturn 29 years ~ think back to 1981, 1951, 1922.
Chiron 50 years ~ we go back to 1960 to 1968.
Uranus 84 years ~we go back to 1927 to 1934
Neptune 164 years we go back to 1847 to 1861
Pluto 248 years we go back to 1762 to 1778.
In the case of Pluto and Neptune, no one alive on earth has ever felt this energy of dissolving powerful structures built with Capricorn and Neptune in the sign ruling the water of the ocean and dreams.
For most of us under 84, Uranus has never been as supercharged as he is now in Aries where the free-wheeling energy led to major changes in the world. Folks under 50, never experienced the Pisces Chiron energy of the 60s where the wounded in the collective gathered together to make changes.
Folks under 28 never experienced the energy of Saturn in Libra. And all of us over age 11 have experienced Jupiter as he begins a brand new cycle in Aries, expanding our desire to take action to expand our lives.
You study the heavens or read columns like this one that speak to how to work with the energy. It is SO MUCH change. Think of all the people you know and how much change is going on in their lives right now. Look at the major changes going on in the world. You are right where you are supposed to be if you feel the stresses of change flowing through your chart.
And, on a spiritual note, you are to BE HERE NOW as Ram Das says. You have a job to do, a reason to exist, a purpose to fulfill. What is your heart singing, quietly or loudly, that it wants to do? What is your dream?
Imagine the chart of the Anima Mundi.
The four cardinal planets are in angular houses fighting with each other. Or better put ~ stimulating each other ~ to take action and get crazy in making needed changes. Jupiter and Uranus in Aries want us to go for it ~ change and change now to start a new chapter in our lives. Saturn in Libra, fighting with Jupiter and Uranus, opposing them, asks us to consider our relationships and the structures we have built to get where we are now. What do we want to do with those people and things? And Pluto on the top of the chart, pushing down on all three of them asking for a clarification of the power dynamics in our lives. Power over, not so good. Power with and shared, much better. Power directed at your dreams the best option. The two planets in Pisces, Neptune and Chiron, are lurking in the 12th house, encouraging us to change our dreams, heal our wounds and stop self sabotaging ourselves.
So forward we go with a relatively quiet week ~ we are departing the Pluto station so there can be an earth quake or two but otherwise the planets are reasonably well behaved. We should be able to get quite a bit accomplished. Mars is square to Pluto on Monday so we can expect some fire works and explosions as the Planet of War fights with the Lord of the Underworld. There is our final releasing Full Moon at 27:44 Libra on Sunday. Mercury and Venus are full of ideas this week so watch for their inspirations and suggestions as ideas pour into your consciousness.
My friend Llorraine wrote a lovely piece on Venus, currently in her favorite sign of Pisces.
Venus is my love
The Banished One she is banished because she dares to love without condition
She rules abandoned, not the concept of abandon She onto Herself
(as I have been left) but the concept of abandon…to be free to create
beauty, to love, to BE
This is why she is so feared
She counsels us to abandon fear and choose joy
Venus dares to abandon and be Herself… golden, laughing, the eternal
possibility of mature love that is life everlasting
And therefore she is a threat
Not because we are happy but because Venus exists…
Perhaps the undercoat of fear
Venus as you know is a PRINCIPLE OF LOVE
Abandon yourself to Venus this week. Listen to your desires ~ and answer them. Nurture yourself with your Moon ~ listen to the whisper in your ear to grow, be, not forget, become…
Because so many planets are in the early degrees of signs, we have quite a few long void moons. Void moons are times when the Moon kicks back and does nada! While she is on vacation, we should be too. Or at least we should not be focusing on moving forward with gusto. Void moons are spiritual times, dream times, lay on your back and gaze at the clouds in the sky times, get a new vision of where you are going or why you are here times, take a nap times, or if you absolutely HAVE to work, to do the mundane routine kinds of work that always continues projects that can pile up on our desk or the mean to get to it one of these days projects. Mail your taxes in on a void moon. No launches of new businesses or starts of projects or cosmetic procedures. Gather together a pile of Void Moon projects for the upcoming voids. I decided there are so many that I will put them in the front of the column so you can find them:
Monday 8:05 am to 11:37 pm EDT
Wednesday 3:58 pm to 2:40 am EDT Thursday
Friday 4:49 pm to 2:59 am EDT Saturday
Sunday 10:44 pm to 2:19 am EDT Monday
Monday Moon’s day April 11, 2011 Moon is void in Cancer ALL DAY LONG! So do the fun projects, clean up your piles, send the cards out, file the papers, do your taxes, make your nest at home and office cozy, eat comfort food and relax from the crazy schedule imposed on you by others. Moon has a separating aspect today as it squares the Sun in action taking Aries ~ google Homey D. Clown, watch a few videos and start saying “Homey don’t do that!” to requests you find out of line. Mars squares Pluto offering us the urge to fight or argue with others ~ redirect that powerful energy out into the world and take action as you need to. Mars and Pluto get along ~ Mars provides, via war and death, bodies for Pluto’s realm in the underworld. Perhaps what you want to do is take all that power and go for what you want rather than struggling against what you don’t want. Reframe the argument. Focus the conversation. Sun’s brilliant aspect to Pallas allows you to see how to re-strategize the issue. Remember your creative juices are flowing with the Cancer Moon, even if she is void, so take that sensitivity and nurture what you want to grow. Don’t water the stuff you want to shrivel up and die. Don’t give it water, energy, fuel, choke it off. Mercury joins with Jupiter bringing a great idea to you late today ~ embedded in the discord that you found yourself in today is the gem of the vision for the future. See the discord as the struggles for your soul and being to change things. Change happens with you. You can’t make them change. Deep dreams tonight so note your dreams upon awakening tomorrow.
Tuesday Mar’s day April 12 Moon in Leo is quite productive, creative and happy ~ playful even. Moon has a closing trine to exalted Sun in Aries so today is a day to kick proverbial butt, take no prisoners, wham bam, knock stuff off your to-do list ~ get stuff out the door, conquer the world with charm and a giggle, strategize, alliances form, and GO for it. Yesterday’s squabble energy is replace by today’s get it moving fiery stuff. Mars launches new diets or ideas of how to nurture. Clear out painful memories of your past ~ post it for sale on eBay, or send it out to good will. Venus has an aspect of brilliance to Pluto suggesting his no from the past few weeks will reframe into a yes if you ask now. Venus has a square with Cupido so your family of origin or choice can be getting on your nerves today. Breathe. Astraea is active so you can find there is a incipient cold sniffing around your body or health issues you have to deal with. Get them handled so they don’t progress. Moon trines all the fire planets today making it a fast moving kind of energy. Just ride and keep going yes, yes, yes as that is the answer for the day. Tonight when you sit with your cup of tea before bed, reflect on all you accomplished. And plan for tomorrow as Wednesday has the same kind of kick butt aspects until the Moon goes void at 4 pm EDT.
More to come.
Mundane: A friend of mine, Matt Jones, a Freedom Singer, Civil Rights Activist and excellent astrologer passed away as Mercury stationed and Neptune entered Pisces. His obituary is below. He was a wonderful man and our world is a better place because of his love of life, activism and the inspiring songs he wrote.
MATTHEW JONES, FREEDOM SINGER, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: 1936 – 2011
By John Pietaro
Somehow the reports were too slow to come in; a quick note on the internet, a bare posting on a folksong blog, but no details, no sense of the powerful life and legacy left behind. The social fabric that Matt Jones helped to re-shape hadn’t bothered to note his passing. Sitting at my keyboard in cool early Spring, in the hours after just reading these sparse notices, I type with care, vexing over the disturbing lack of news. It simply wouldn’t do to leave it at that. We cannot accept silence in memory of a man who made a joyful, intense, indeed agitated noise throughout his life….
Matthew Jones was already a schooled, experienced musician when he became active in the fight for civil rights by joining the Nashville Student Movement in 1960. He also became an outspoken participant in the struggle in Danville, Va., for which he organized a vocal group, the Danville Freedom Voices, in 1963. Shortly thereafter, Matt relocated to Atlanta, Ga., with his brother Marshall and the two became affiliated with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and their powerful music ensemble, the Freedom Singers. This legendary group was actually born via a series of meetings held between Cordell Reagon, SNCC Executive Secretary Jim Foreman and Pete Seeger, already viewed as an elder of the protest song. In 1964, Matt, a SNCC field secretary, became a Freedom Singers member and then the group’s director.
That year, the Freedom Singers toured the country as part of the wide organizing drive to build the Friends of SNCC, initially focusing on northern states to build the movement’s momentum. Of the Freedom Singers, Matt has said, “We were organizers first, singers second.”
During such tumultuous times, the fight for equality in the Jim Crow South could often be terrifying. Matt faced down the Klan on many occasions and endured 29 arrests. His experiences developed him into a “freedom singer” in the most visceral manner.
“I don’t think of myself as a cultural worker,” Matt said. “I am a freedom singer; a freedom fighter. I’ve always been a freedom fighter; I’ll probably go down that way, too. Freedom songs are different than other protest songs because they are really a mantra. The use of repetition allows for the message to be understood. If we sing a powerful statement enough times in a song, like ‘This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,’ then we can internalize it”.
Matt maintained his role as an artist-activist even as SNCC broke apart, performing his radical repertoire around the world, including alongside freedom fighters in Northern Ireland.
During the struggle against the Vietnam War, he recorded a 45 that has become quite legendary, “Hell No, We Ain’t Gonna Go” backed with “Super Sam.” For this occasion, Matt worked in collaboration with lyricist Elaine Laron to produce two powerful selections accompanied by a muscular rock band complete with a horn section. It stands out as an exciting moment and its antiwar message is still relevant today.
Matt’s experiences included performances alongside such luminaries as Seeger and the Reverend F.D. Kirkpatrick. He worked with Barbara Dane and performed at the legendary Vietnam Songbook concert. He sang at the Highlander Folks School. He became a frequent contributor to Broadside during that magazine’s far-too-brief run, working closely with its founder, legendary protest singer Sis Cunningham, a dear comrade. He’d been a participant in the annual Phil Ochs Song Nights from the start and his music has been heard in such lasting films as ‘The Ghosts of Mississippi’. And in Harlem he organized an annual tribute to Dr. King which was never without the body of song that Matt had always marched to.
Over the decades he continued to perform for numerous rallies throughout New York and beyond including several of this writer’s May Day concerts and the 1998 ‘Hanns Eisler Centenary Festival’, tributes to Woody Guthrie and of course Sis, when that icon was lost to us. But Matt could be found at any number of events where people gather for an important cause. Starting with 1986 he led a weekly song circle at the Advent Lutheran Church on 93rd Street and Broadway. This series, dubbed the Open House Coffeehouse, was not just any vehicle for folksingers and poets, but a venue that encouraged original music with a strong message.
To Matt, there was little space between the song and the activism. In this sense he was sure to reach out to younger generations of singer-songwriters, shepherding in as he taught; his respect for new songs of struggle was only matched by his need to preserve older forms including spirituals and ballads. In the latter decades he’d returned to his prized nylon-string acoustic guitar, that which he seemed to barely tickle most of the time, the softest accompaniment to a hushed, thickened voice–but the notes played where always the necessary ones, those which would touch us deepest. Matt called out to the muses with open hands, conjuring up just what was needed to be heard. And the audience always left feeling terribly, wonderfully moved.
Matt never ended a gig without “The Freedom Chant,” an affirmation he based on a famous quote by Fannie Lou Hamer and his own many years of direct action. It, more than anything else, speaks volumes about this musician of the people who refused to tire:
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.
I will not allow anybody at any time
To violate my mind or my body
In any shape, form or fashion.
If they do they’ll have to deal with ME immediately!
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”
—Surely Matt ‘went down’ as a freedom fighter and it is certain that he’d like to always be recalled as such. Let’s not forget. Let’s not ever forget.
