LIBRA & HANDS

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You don’t need a Libra sun, moon, planets, aspects, or houses to be Libra. Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius are ‘thinking’ types with square palms and long fingers. Dominant Libra has low set thumbs, widely spread fingers, round and square fingertips, and loop fingerprints. Many Libras have judiciously engraved long unobstructed headlines that fork at the end. Thinking and Intuitive types dominate political, publishing, public speaking, public relations, education, legal, marketing, sales, and entertainment fields.

Note: I’m basing my generalizations on over 40 years of reading hands of every age, race, religion, education, career, politics, and long term clients. My observations are subject to other possible interpretations, which may all be right or wrong by degree.

It’s not easy for Libras to make up their minds. They see every side of an idea or situation and it’s hard to limit options. Dominant pinkie fingered folk with large broad nails communicate clearly and frankly. Strong  index fingers embody ambitious managers, powerful directors, and courageous leaders. Dominant bottom and middle finger phalanges work best in banking, real estate, and restaurants. Dominant first phalanges make the best public speakers, lawyers, directors, journalists, educators, and religious leaders. Libra can be idealistic, romantic, aesthetic, refined, manipulative, controlling, selfish, and unethical.

Widely spaced head and life lines embody spontaneity, love of freedom, need for action and personal space, and not caring what others think. Like a Samurai swordsman, Libra wields logic, tact, and diplomacy. They compartmentalize, analyze, and rationalize feelings until they achieve their desired goals. Changing a Libra’s mind is like playing mental monopoly. Be direct. Make good sense. Don’t get emotional. You’ll regret it otherwise.

Libra handshakes are firm and sincere. Pink elastic skin and long graceful heart lines flow from the pinkie to index finger, combining grace and romance. Firm elastic hands add energy and practicality to balance a sentimental nature. Branches from the heart line that touch the head line reveal one or both parents withheld emotions early in life. The child learns to rationalize, analyze, and compartmentalize difficult feelings that they are unable to verbalize. Stiff thumbs with a firm percussion under a pinkie reveal strong will, dogged determination, and unrelenting persistence. Gently curving lines following along inside life lines are lucky because they have real intimate family ties and true friends. Lines parallel within the lifeline are blessed with quality time and intimacy!

Athena, Greek archetype of Wisdom and Justice, is one of a trifecta with Aquarius and Gemini. Athena holds the ‘Scales of justice’ in one hand and a sword of thinking in the other. She balances ethics with action. Aries wins battles, while Athena rules the strategic thinking required to win wars. Odysseus (Libra), Achilles (Aries), and Theseus (Gemini) were heroes who worshiped Athena. Sometimes pictured as a handsome Goddess dressed in battle armor, Athena sports a shield of Intuition with an owl of Wisdom on her shoulder. Athena’s sword is applied with icy detachment as she cuts to the quick as she discards emotions in favor of clarity of thought.

Libra is the Autumn Equinox, 7th sign of the zodiac, and 7th house of marriage. October offers an opportunity for real partnership, sharing, and giving without expectation. Libra strives for balance, idolizes harmony, hates discord, despises confrontation, but faces conflict honestly when it’s unavoidable. Decisive when it matters, Libra is notoriously indecisive when it doesn’t matter. Questions like what and where to eat and what to wear are challenging. Libra can be aggressive and passive at the same time. Being frank and direct doesn’t understand acting and pretending. ‘Nice’ is easy. ‘Safe’ is unsatisfying. Honesty is the best policy…

Everyone has Libra in their symbolism and psyche. Twelve different characters rule our character. As ruler of our 7th and 2nd houses, Venus knows our truths, values, boundaries, and the difference between right and wrong. Two popular Libra aphorisms are “Locks keep honest people honest” and “Contracts are as good as those who make them”. 

“Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in favor of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.” Truman Capote…

A wealthy lawyer friend reminds me that rich people are innocent until proven guilty while poor folk are guilty until proven innocent. Wealth encourages players to shirk social responsibility, justify awful personal and social behaviors and actions, and manipulate the law. Poor folk are cursed to an eternity of scraping for pennies at the bottom of the barrel while HAVES have privilege and a birthright of those who can afford to have. Why must we lose what we value to value what we had?

Libra knows something could change an outcome, and fails to mention it. Philip Morris knew cigarette smoke was toxic. Monsanto knows ‘Roundup’ causes cancer. Bayer knows they’re murdering bees and butterflies. Politicians in Flint, Michigan, knew they were poisoning people who were depending on them for protection. GE was aware it was polluting the Hudson River. Giant companies choose profit over the health of our people and planet. Trump knows the potential of the Corona Virus, of Climate Change, and of promoting hatred. Partisan politicians rule public health. Donald deceives and exploits us by preaching poisonous political propaganda, empowering spiritually bankrupt religious fanatics, encouraging morally and ethically bankrupt business behavior, and enraging hordes of clueless gun lovers. Greta is an Athena/Artemis.

“EXPELIOSIS!”

Learning to judge hands is the most challenging aspect of palmistry. Long and firm may appear short and soft, based on context and by degree. Rigorous practice and learning to ask the right questions is key to understanding and interpreting human character as reflected in the morphology and topography of our hands. Few of us are pure types. Many of us behave contrary to our sun signs. No matter what hands say about a person, it’s not what you see, but what you say and how you say it that matters.

My brother Gary is a Pisces, a mutable feeling type. Gary may be Neptunian on the inside, but his hands reveal he’s ruled by Libra. His behavior is rooted in cardinal thinking. Supported by practical firm thumbs, healthy, smooth textured, elastic skin, and pink coloring, Gary’s analytical and logical thinking merge gracefully with his compassionate feelings and intuition. His commitment to working with frustrating clients and stressful situations reveals a natural empathy many Libras lack. They analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize feelings rather than trust them. Gary is a loving husband and father, devoted son, generous brother, compassionate friend, and healthy human being. Gary is also an adventurous geriatric psychiatrist, practical philosopher, and prankster. I used to tease Gary that I was going to go completely crazy with age. I conjured and shared scary fantasies of how he’d be stuck with me. Lucky for both of us, as a Gemini, I decided not to get old.

Andrea, Gary’s middle daughter and my niece, is a Libra with Libra hands. Independent. likable, and easy to be with, Andrea is a giver. I read Andrea’s hands when she was young, but old enough to understand me. I mentioned how she likes getting her way and usually does. She giggled as if I had discovered her secret. Matching Sun Signs and hands can be good or bad, depending on what a person does with them. There’s no substitute for noble intent, clear choice, critical thinking, and right use of free will.

Cousin Richie, Libra extraordinaire, philosopher, sculptor, and inventor, is father of Tangle, the infinite sculpture (series of interactive interlocking elbows). Our mothers were sisters. We share the ancestral “happiness” and “seeker” genes, and we have similar existential queries. I once suggested to Richie, “If you put the same religious fervor into saving the world as you put into plastic elbows, we’d be saved”. “I am saving the world”, he replied, “one Tangle at a time.” He meant it.

My cousin has sold tens of millions of Tangles worldwide. A mutual friend from NYC visited a monastery in Tibet and saw a poster of the Dalai Lama playing with with a chrome Tangle. “Nothing surprises me”, I told him. When I visited Richie at the annual gift show at the Javits Center in NYC. He was selling Tangles to a conservative buyer from Wal-Mart. I leaned closer and heard him say, “Let me show you the only product in this show worth more than money”. He meant it.

Blending astrology and hands is how I view character. Few of us are pure types. Most are mutts. Richie’s fingers may seem short for a thinking type. He’s got dominant air and fixity, and very strong Aquarian energy. Richie loves new ideas and enjoys sharing his opinions with incorrigible tenacity. I might see Richie’s hands differently if I didn’t know him. Libra opposes Aries as Autumn opposes Spring. A Libra and Aries opposition is a quest for higher awareness and a journey from light to darkness and back. Odysseus fanned the flames of Jason’s inspiration on his quest for the Golden Fleece. Richie quests to untangle truth, maintain inspiration, channel passion, and harness desire. Healthy intent, right thinking, careful actions, and a handful of good luck wins the fleece.

LIBRA & PSYCHE

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Fall Equinox 2020~ outer planets and their transits symbolize our transforming psyche through cardinal, fixed, and mutable modalities. Massive paradigm shifts take place in both inner and outer worlds. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited the sign of Libra in the 20th Century. Forces of good and evil clashed. Humanity was incapable of balancing optimism with pessimism, tolerance with intolerance, justice with injustice, and progress with regress, which promoted social and political instability.

Without good sense, common sense is nonsense!

Uranus transited Aries (opposite Libra) into Taurus in 2018, entering Gemini in 2026. Neptune in Pisces with Pluto in Capricorn co-create poisonous partisan politics and cultivate calculating plutocratic politicians who deceive voters with empty promises. Morally and Spiritually bankrupt leaders are fueled by fear, hubris, hate, greed, and gluttony.

SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Neptune (Pisces) transited Libra from 1942 to 1957. Nuclear weapons were deployed. Atomic Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Congress had considered bombing Tokyo and Kyoto, but chose not to destroy Japanese culture for eternity. President Truman ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to create an even bigger `Hydrogen Bomb’.

The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Neptune in Pisces is a deluded Emperor without care, empathy, or compassion. He promotes terror, fear, and hatred while punishing and tormenting have-nots and our planet. Humanity must be healthier for future generations. We need to choose healthy thinking, feelings, habits, behavior, values, ethics, relationships, and actions. We must exercise right use of will power, dare to dream, be creative, and be spiritual. We can all be our own best friends and bullshit detectors.

The United Nations was born on October 24 1945. The Charter was ratified by China, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the United States. International cartels firmly established themselves. The European Common Market was recognized. The Civil Rights Movements flourished. Group Psychology became popular. The World Council of Churches was established. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini, founder of Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, became the first American Citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

What Happened?

Religion without morality is bankrupt. Religion without spirituality is blind. Devils are hard at work in our houses of worship. An eternity in hell awaits confused and corrupt priests, politicians, and plutocrats, tempted by wealth, power, erotic desires, and the abuse of the sacred souls they were entrusted to protect.

REPUGLICAN’T KAKISTOCRACY

‘As Above, So Below’

When Neptune exited Libra in 1957, a bestselling novel, Peyton Place, focused on sexual intrigue in a small town. Allen Ginsberg, a popular poet wrote, “I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”. People born 1942 ~ 1957 over idealize relationships, seeing them as they want them to be instead of how they really are. A majority of our most clueless political leaders fall within these birth-dates.

Uranus (Aquarius) transited Libra from 1968 to 1975. The spirit of nationalism shifted from optimism to pessimism. Faith in progress turned into disillusionment in national institutions and world progress. The period was marked by useless popular inventions like a pet rock, giant platform shoes, and shag haircuts. Punk Rock, Primal Therapy, and Streaking became popular. The Supreme Court Legalized Abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy (Roe vs. Wade). Patriarchy isn’t working for most of us.

Uranus in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn are pressuring ultra-conservative forces to bias a Supreme Court that will curtail Women’s Rights. Bumbling bureaucrats choose money over values, promote religion over spirituality, embrace greed over good health, and offer a heaping helping of fear, hate, confusion, and delusion. Where has honesty, integrity, dignity, courage, strength, grace, virtue, and wisdom gone. Our personal and planetary health is controlled by too many pussy grabbers, vampires, zombies, and gluttonous shitholes. We must take responsibility for our thoughts, actions, well-being, and happiness.

EVIL INCARNATE

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Governor George Wallace, racial bigot from Alabama, announced he’d be running for President in 1968, on a newly formed American Independent Party ticket. He threatened to repeal the “so called civil rights laws”. In 1971, an assassination attempt left candidate Wallace paralyzed from the waist down. Perhaps history will repeat itself. Diplomat Henry Kissinger approved the financing of clandestine CIA activities in Chile aimed at preventing the election and inauguration of Salvador Allende as Marxist President.

Patty Hearst popularized ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ after she was kidnapped and brain-washed by the Symbionese Liberation Army. A military junta deposed Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. The most popular show on TV was a comic satire about a racist named Archie Bunker. Racism is a popular topic for pundits these days, but it’s not funny.

In Taurus, Uranus brought us a naked Emperor who chose to build walls between us and our closest neighbors and build ideological, philosophical, and spiritual walls while we need bridges between us and the rest of the world. While preaching ‘Christian Values’, he practices hate and greed.

Pluto (Scorpio) transited Libra from 1971 to 1983. ‘RRR’ ‘Reuse, Recycle, and Recreate’ marked the launch of the environmental movement. Growers and pickers reached a settlement that ended nearly ten years of grape boycotts (led by Cesar Chavez). Farm workers had bargaining power as they struggled to accept, compromise, and sacrifice to achieve their goals.

In 1954, Neptune in Libra and Pluto in Leo gave us the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court ruled racial segregation of schools was unconstitutional. On April 20, 1971, the United States Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools. Sadly, creating a law, doesn’t erase hatred. ‘Haves’ Have. ‘Have-Nots’ have not.

EXPELIOSIS !!!

An arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorized the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. Prime Minister Idi Amin slaughtered over 300,000 Ugandans and alienated his country from the rest of the world. Violence in Ireland forced Britain to seize control of Northern Ireland and suspend the Protestant controlled parliament. In 1975 South Vietnam crumbled, bringing an end to the Vietnam War. Because of the Karen Ann Quinlan case, `right to die’ rulings were enacted all across the USA. The serial killer “Son of Sam” was put away after terrorizing NYC. Religious extremist Jim Jones’s followers drank the cool aid and died.

“The Lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the Ears of Understanding” Hermes

“Imagine there’s no country,

It isn’t hard to do.

Nothing to kill or die for,

And no religion, too.

Imagine all the people.

Living life in peace”

John Lennon

VIRGO~HANDS~HEALTH

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“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”  Stephen King (Virgo ~ 9/21/47)

You don’t need a Virgo Sun, Moon, planets, aspects, or planetary placements to be Virgo. Practical types (Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo) have square palms and short fingers. Virgo is a mutable modality and the most adaptable of all three types. Virgo often has strong middle and pinkie fingers, dominant middle phalanges, and square fingertips. Virgo hands are much more flexible than Taurus hands. Their skin is more pink and elastic than Capricorn with whitish flat palms and developed first knots on lean stiff closely held fingers, embodying a frugal and pragmatic character.

CROOKED FINGERS

Virgos are frequently accused of being critical. They can be, but they can also be their own worst critics. Their methodical approach and need for natural order is embodied in their square palms and fingertips. Large second knots and short fingernails add order, preciseness, utility, and purpose. Middle fingers that lean or crook toward ring fingers strive for perfection and need personal space. Fire rising or watery moon have less knotty and crooked fingers. Intuition and feeling adds passion, inspiration, and empathy to practicality. Chewed nails are self-critical and critical of others. Nails bitten to the quick embody a contrary person who chooses another side of an argument, just to make a point, even if they agree with you. Grilled lines beneath middle fingers confirm frustration and lack of satisfaction.

Famous for cleaning up everyone else’s messes, Virgo obsesses on details. Contrary to popular belief, Virgo doesn’t like details. They’re thorough and meticulous, but need to see the whole picture. Virgo is happiest and most desirable where reliable, modest, orderly, and discriminating service is required.

Short fingered folk (Practical & Intuitive) generally dislike details. Details are a nuisance. Others can do them better, but who can do them better than Virgo? Virgo selflessly rationalizes and wills herself to do what must be done. She knows her value, but asks too much of or too little for herself. Others must value and appreciate her. Virgo works hard to be useful. Never take a Virgo for granted. Virgo is symbolic of the harvest time.

Virgos who have worked hard and have been rewarded for their efforts are Agatha Christie, Leonard Cohen, Alan Dershowitz, Marcia Clark, J.P. Morgan, Warren Buffet, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Paul Walker, Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Michael Jackson, Beyonce’, Margaret Trudeau, Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace, Yasser Arafat, and John McCain (Taurus hands). John’s short index finger, conical tip, prominent knots between phalanges, and a thick 3rd phalanx made him a bundle of contradictions. His slightly crooked pinky with intuitive tip says ‘what you see is not what you get’. Few knew John’s secret truths.

“The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding” Hermes

HERMES

Mercury, (Hermes) winged messenger, holds a caduceus (medicine). Virgo rules healthcare. Virgo is earthy, practical, and represents the technical aspects of thinking. Feminine in gender, Virgo is empathetic, logical, healthy, and helpful. Gemini is masculine, intellectual, and clever. Gemini rules communications, thinking, and wit. Imagination and thinking must be balanced through practical action. This Gemini needs Virgo friends, city, and country homes to maintain his sanity and create the balance and harmony needed now and always to overcome darkness.

You can see everything in hands! This is true and not true. A hand is a small space for a large life. A seasoned palmist can see many things, but it’s not what you see, but what you say and how you say it that matters. When you’re focusing on something specific, combinations of qualities and markings will confirm your search. I began practicing palmistry in my early thirties. A young man showed up one day asking “When am I going to die?” He was a Virgo, healthy, well proportioned, energetic, smart, and multi-talented. He appeared in perfect health. His well-balanced square palms were pink and firm with short straight fingers. Pink elastic skin, resilient palms, flexible wrists, and mildly flexible finger joints revealed a healthy balance between purpose, determination, and adaptability. Basic lines were clear and deeply engraved. What a lucky man, I thought, but fate had chosen a different future for him with AIDS as his life focus.

AIDS was a death sentence at the time. I hadn’t a clue how to see the dis-ease. Nothing stood out. I lacked the experience to counsel him. “I’m sorry, only god can answer your question”, I awkwardly replied. “You’re a naturally healthy person. If anyone can beat this, you can.” I lauded his positive qualities, but he didn’t want to hear that. We chatted, like friends, about what he planned to do. He wanted to be proactive. I helped him plan a future of healthy food, exercise, sleep, honesty, meaningful relationships, and quality time management.

My curiosity and desire to make a difference inspired me to volunteer at Bailey House, an AIDS housing organization. I showed up 2X weekly for 2 years to examine hands, share astrology, and interpret tarot cards for clients and staff. Metaphysics was my lens for viewing their issues and challenges. My job was to help them choose what’s next. In the final analysis, I entertained, listened, and cared for whoever was there at the time.

I printed hands in the AIDS community monthly to monitor the progress and regress of the disease. Lack of adequate funding, limited time, and not enough statistical data made it impossible for me to be thorough or scientific. I did notice changes in skin ridge patterns on the percussion of the hand. Ridges got smoother and began to disappear as a person got sicker. People with AIDS suppress their potentials because they obsess on the harsh realities of their impending mortality. I supported their talents and strengths and inspired some to continue making positive choices and taking meaningful actions.

Anyone can learn to examine and reflect on their hands and the hands of others. Hands are mirrors that empower us be true to ourselves and each other. Once you’re good at interpreting hands, you can be your own best friend and bullshit detector. Hands are morphological and topographical maps of character. Hands reveal our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. In the days before computerized medical diagnosis, doctors combined knowledge, experience, and intuition to diagnose illness as they tasted a patient’s urine, looked into their eyes, examined their tongue, skin, and especially scrutinized their hands.

Fingernails are windows to a person’s health. Anemia, thyroid disease, malnutrition, carpal tunnel syndrome, psoriasis, eczema, liver disease, heart, lungs, colon, chronic respiratory disease, lymph system problems, diabetes, Raynaud’s disease, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers, Hodgkin’s disease, and sickle-cell anemia can be seen in nails.

Few palmists actually diagnose illness. Most of us observe symptoms. When I see a potential health problem, I let the person know I’m not a medical palmist and suggest they see a specialist. Dozens of stress related illnesses and several types of cancer can be seen in the ‘dermatoglyphics’ (skin ridge patterns) of hands. Conditions of lines can indicate conditions of heart, brain, kidneys, liver, and stomach in males and females.

Health challenges are natural predispositions to specific character types. Know the type and understand the corresponding potential health challenge. The following list of health issues are gross generalizations that correspond to a person’s dominant astrological sign and hand features. You can click on links to learn more about how a finger is dominant, what that means, and about other features and qualities embodied in hands.

Dominant index finger ~ Sagittarius ~ blood disorders, liver trouble, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, problems with hips, thighs, throat, and temptations to overindulge in rich foods and drinks.

Dominant middle finger ~ Capricorn ~ skin problems, teeth with age, knees, ligaments, secretion of bile, skeletal wear, tear, and misalignment, left ear deafness, paralysis, rheumatism, gout, hardening of the arteries, hemorrhoids, and varicose veins.

Dominant ring finger ~ Leo ~ eyesight, heart, and blood circulation.

Dominant pinkie ~ Gemini ~ nervous system, bronchial, and respiratory systems, thyroid gland, headaches, memory loss, and speech impediments.

Dominant ball of thumb ~ Taurus ~ throat, lymphatic system, venereal diseases, heart, circulation, and worry.

Dominant heel of hand ~ Cancer ~ bodily fluids, stomach, tumors, female disorders, epilepsy, mucous membranes, gout, rheumatism, kidney, bladder, and mental illness.

Dominant thumb and percussion of hand ~ Aries ~ inflammations, acute fevers, blood diseases, infections, muscular disorders, hemorrhage, infectious and contagious diseases, throat and chest trouble, and high blood pressure.

Peripheral lines on heel of hand ~ Scorpio ~ reproductive system, ruptures, hemorrhoids, ulcers, venereal diseases, and problems with prostate or urethra.

Nails and qualities of lines ~ Aquarius ~ ankle weakness, anemia, cramps, heart weaknesses, nervous diseases, varicose veins, and sensitive skin.

Pointed finger tips / yellow skin / islands on health line ~ Pisces ~ problems with feet, toes, bunions, gout, colds, mucous discharges, tumors, addictions, and liver trouble.

VIRGO & PSYCHE

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Outer planets symbolize transformations in personal and collective psyche as they pass through the twelve signs of our Zodiac. As Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited Virgo in the 20th Century, preconceived ideas and paradigms were shifted.

Born between 1962 and 1968? Uranus and Pluto in Virgo symbolize your need to analyze, rationalize, organize, and compartmentalize your decisions and actions. You’ll be more free, healthier, and happier when you combine your need for practicality and purpose with your highly developed sense of responsibility and do the work.

Neptune entered Virgo in 1929. Neptune’s dark and nebulous side manifested when Wall Street crashed, catalyzing the great depression. Neptune left Virgo in 1943. Submerged in confusion from the Second World War, propaganda and deception poisoned the rationality of Germany. Millions had been exterminated in the name of racial purity.

Humanitarians and labor unions were born. Plutocratic institutions tried (and are still trying) to crush them. New concepts in medicine such as psychosomatic illness were practiced. Neurotics, terrified of reality, dropped out and ran from responsibility. “We Want Beer” marches were held in cities across the country to protest prohibition, which was repealed. The time has come for Cannabis to be legalized.

As Donald Trump has taught us, it’s not what you do, but what you get away with that matters. Fake news, fake politicians, and real plutocrats are poisoning us. Transiting Neptune in Pisces is opposing Virgo as Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Taurus are transiting our Zodiac. It’s no surprise we’re experiencing negative karma as we ignore history and abuse our physical, psychological, and spiritual climates.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the top money making movie of 1938. Walt Disney animated a castle, woodland settings, a wicked Queen, a huntsman, a handsome prince, and seven devoted dwarfs. The Prince and Princess lived happily-ever-after.

Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was the best-selling book of 1936 and the highest grossing film of all time. “African-Americans have protested against it from the start, even if white America didn’t want to hear it.” “When HBO Max announced… that it was temporarily removing “Gone With the Wind” from its streaming service, it seemed as if another Confederate monument was coming down.”(NY Times)

Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times was released. Silk stockings became nylon stockings. DuPont was unable to satisfy the demand for nylon. Gasoline rationing was put into effect in 1942. A new mold discovered on cantaloupe yielded ten times as much penicillin as previous sources and reduced shortages. Born 1929 ~ 1943? The Neptune in Virgo generation was destined to “serve or suffer”.

When Pluto entered Virgo in 1957, we realized how easily we were enslaved to scientific and technological trends. Awareness of dangers of chemical pollutants affecting our environment entered mass consciousness. Environmental special interest groups formed. Geneva nuclear test ban talks reconvened. Official school prayers became unconstitutional. People born 1957 ~ 1971 were thirsty for bottled water and hungry for health foods. Organic growing and eating transformed into huge businesses.

As Pluto left Virgo in 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. Ellsberg was indicted for espionage and conspiracy. The Times published government documents about the Vietnam War that revealed that the American public had been consistently lied to. Anti-war demonstrators protested in Washington where two thousand Vietnam veterans rallied. Many threw their combat medals on the steps of the capitol. The 26th amendment giving eighteen year olds the right to vote became law. If hindsight is 2020, we’d better claim our right to vote because the lying is worse than ever.

Uranus transited Virgo from 1962 to 1968. As natural and organic foods entered mass consciousness, the “Good Health” revolution began. Rachel Carson’s bestselling book Silent Spring highlighted ecology and inspired concern for widespread chronic damage caused by pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other hazards of technological progress. Holistic healers began appearing. Cigarette companies were forced to print health warnings on packaging and advertising.

There are more Virgo doctors, nurses, and social workers than other signs. Healthcare is a major mundane correspondence for Virgo. Good health is our birthright. Corrupt politicians, priests, partisan governments, acquisitive plutocrats, and greedy purveyors of health insurance have negatively transformed our healthcare system by extorting those who are unable to afford insurance or advocate for themselves. Pharmaceutical drug lords care more for profit than people. Healthcare providers and partisan politicians are paving golden paths to their own prosperity. Greedy money managers and powerful plutocrats prosper while doctors are forced to ignore root causes, treat symptoms, and prescribe medications. Saturn was in Virgo from 9/2007 – 10/2009. Seeds for structural healthcare change were sown as the Affordable Care Act was born. Balancing physical, mental, emotional, and psychological health is primarily a spiritual challenge.

President Johnson signed the civil rights act on July 2 1964, integrating all public accommodations and prohibiting job discrimination. Civil rights were turbulent. Voter registration drives and segregation protests increased. Several thousand black and white supporters were arrested. A black church in Birmingham Alabama was bombed, killing four girls. Two blacks died in riots following that bombing. Martin Luther King had a dream, but legislating equality doesn’t eliminate prejudice.

Reconstructionism had been imposed. Malcolm X was assassinated while speaking in NYC in 1965. Thurgood Marshall was the first black Supreme Court justice in 1967. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis while supporting a sanitation worker’s strike in 1968. Riots in 125 cities after his death resulted in 46 more deaths. In 2020, ‘Black Lives Matter’. Peaceful demonstrators should not be protesting about things that matter to them in danger and fear for their lives!

Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles after becoming the Democratic front-runner for the presidential nomination. Anti-Vietnam war rallies were held in major cities and universities across the country.

Bob Dylan became a superstar while singing about the hypocrisy of American values and culture. The worst earthquake in modern history leveled Anchorage Alaska. Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine and inoculated the masses. The first televised presidential debates were broadcast. The first transatlantic TV broadcast was made via Telstar, AT&T’s privately owned satellite. Russians crash landed the first spacecraft on the moon. Pop Art had its first exhibition. Rock & Roll became popular. The Beatles skyrocketed to musical fame and fortune. As we seek remedies for symptoms like Donald Trump and Covid 19, the human race races toward bad shit happening!

Common sense without good sense is nonsense. Money without values is worthless. Religion without Spirituality is blind. We must reexamine history and make healthier choices for a healthier future. Greedy liars, bigoted hypocrites, and fanatical leaders promote hate and fear. We must transform ourselves by clearly seeing their and our own secret desires, needs, and truths. We’ve strayed too far from our humanity and Constitution.

LEO PAWS

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You don’t need a Leo sun, moon, ascendant, planets, aspects, or houses to be Leo. Leo’s character and behavior can be readily seen in the morphology and topography of their paws. All three Intuitive (fire) types have long rectangular palms and short fingers. Leo’s hand shape is identical to Sagittarius and Aries. Fire (intuitive) and air (thinking) are masculine in gender. Earth (practical) and water (feeling) are feminine. Practical types have square palms and short fingers. Thinking and feeling types are long fingered. Thinking types have square palms. Feeling types have long palms.

Leo is a fixed modality. He hates change. Leo’s hands are less flexible than Sagittarius and Aries. His skin is less elastic than Aries (cardinal). Sagittarius (mutable) hands are softer and less stiff than Leo’s hands. Leo loves his pleasures and being center of attention. Sagittarius can be a self indulgent pleasure-seeking optimist. Their secret fear is that the pessimists are right! Aries acts without thinking and has to learn the hard way to take responsibility for the consequences of his actions. Clear line formations reveal clarity, resolution, choice, and commitment.

As a highly spirited enthusiastic individual, Leo hates details, needs to see the whole picture, and feel free to express himself naturally. Leo’s great ideas need to be supported by inspiration, passion, commitment, teamwork, and an occasional kick in his procrastinating butt by someone who cares about him. Leo is masculine. As an independent objective thinker, Leo must learn to set realistic goals and channel his pride and passion through the lenses of honesty, integrity, dignity, nobility, and virtue.

Leo’s eager fans await his contagious humor and compelling stories. Creative, enthusiastic, dramatic, generous, and fiercely loyal, when Leo chooses ‘you’, he lavishes you with ‘praise’, then expects you to love, admire, and worship him forever.

Closely braided beginnings of head and life lines reveal folk who care too much what others think, even though they act opposite. The longer the chain, the stronger the need to be appreciated. Once Leo’s on the defensive, it’s impossible to reason with him. He often takes what you say personally, even if it wasn’t personal. Leo needs to feel liked and appreciated. Encourage, support, and give Leo permission to be himself. Don’t allow him to let himself be taken for granted. He’ll be much happier and so will you.

Leo’s physical sense is sight. The spiritual equivalent is enlightenment. Leo must learn not to be judgmental of others, to keep his expectations real, and to choose courage, dignity, love, and truth over false pride and future losses. Leo’s most common health problems are poor eyesight, damaged heart, and poor circulation. Leo must focus his light inward to heal himself. Many multi-talented Leos spread themselves too thin. Later in life, they look back at having become a jack of all trades, master of none. 

Our character, values, thinking, feelings, will power, work and health issues, relationship potentials, creativity, philosophy, purpose, career possibilities, hopes, dreams, fears, and spirituality are waiting to be seen at the ends of our arms. A seasoned palmist can readily interpret a person’s character from their hands. Despite the accuracy of the science of hand reading, human nature cannot be defined through details. The ‘art’ of palmistry is in connecting with another being through touch, sight, dialogue, intuition, and then interpreting combinations of details. Our hands reveal our physical, mental, and emotional choices and actions, and provide context for our behavior. Palmistry is a metaphysical method of observing and interpreting human nature through knowing hands.

Cultivated Leos have strong ring fingers.  Rounded and square shaped tips are common. You’ll find spatulate tips on innovators and problem solvers. Balanced finger proportions with dominant second and third phalanges are common and embody a love of family, home, food, and natural style. Short straight fingers, developed second knots, and broad nails tell us “what you see is what you get”. OCD at times, everything must have their designated places. Qualities of lines such as breaks, islands, and chains show what challenges and obstacles a person has had, is having, and may have on his path to knowing his purpose. Consistency and flexibility of hands and elasticity of skin reveal three modalities. Whorl fingerprints (concentric circles and spirals) add originality, spontaneity, eccentricity, and unconventionality. Loops embody adaptability. Arches tend to be more practical and conventional with respect to the meaning of the particular finger.

Look to ring fingers for insights into artistic and aesthetic abilities, dramatic talent, versatility, salesmanship, satisfaction, recognition, and reputation. No matter what your archetype, long straight ring fingers add mental and/or emotional adaptability, creativity, and expressiveness. Cultivated Leos love beautiful things and savor their sense of taste and style. Most long ring fingered Leos are likable and they know it. Leo’s greatest weaknesses are bossiness, showiness, hubris, and gambling.

The ring finger is judged for length against the middle finger. If the tip is shorter than the middle of the first phalanx of the middle finger, it’s short. When longer, it’s long. Many actors, artists, architects, designers, craftsmen, photographers, curators, businessmen, teachers, salesmen, politicians, and diplomats have long strong ring fingers. The luckiest gamblers have very long ring fingers. Their challenge is knowing when to stop.

No matter your archetype, people with square tips and stiff knotty joints are more practical, methodical, and cautious than those without. Crooked middle fingers embody perfectionism, self-criticism, and crankiness caused by a need for personal space and not having enough of it. A widely spread pinkie is another indication of a need for personal space. Crooked pinkie fingers embody avoidance of conflict and a compulsive need to make the peace. On the dark side, it can symbolize manipulating bullies, liars, and grifters like Donald Trump and his clan.

Defective Genes Hard at Work

Healthy Leos like to shine like the sun. Their strength and courage are heroic! Leo is naturally charming, talented, and versatile. They’re natural designers with an ability to balance objectivity with creativity. Liabilities are self-consciousness, insecurity, vanity, clinging to obsolete circumstances, perpetuating unhealthy behavioral patterns, cultivating confusing situations, and nursing fruitless relationships. Leo needs an inspiring quest or risk mundanity and mediocrity. He must cultivate clear vision and enduring patience. Naturally restless, impatient, and impulsive, it’s best you stay out of his way to If you can’t help him. Don’t ever take him for granted unless you want to make him angry or scarce.

Leos are at their finest when they’re responsible, honest, patient, and natural in their behavior and relationships. Frequently accused of ‘being opinionated’, Leo’s point of view is very important. Clear and effective communication is a key to Leo’s success. Leo’s greatest obstacles and challenges are setting clear boundaries, knowing his limitations, overcoming inertia, and letting go when the handwriting is on the wall.

Our four most recent Presidents are dominated by Leo

Bill Clinton is a multi-talented charismatic Leo. Bill’s rectangular palms and short fingers reveal Leo (intuitive) hands. Head and life lines are closely tied at their beginnings. Bill cares more than you know about what others think of him. Philandering is a common challenge of having power. Bill’s hubris undermined the power he worked so hard to acquire. I’ll bet he and Hillary had a “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” partnership. Bill wasn’t supposed to do anything stupid or get caught! Rest assured that Hillary (Scorpio Sun/Capricorn hands) gave Bill a spanking they’ll never forget!

Unearned power is a curse. People born rich or beautiful take it for granted. Many believe they actually deserve what they have. George W. Bush desperately wanted to be a ‘good old boy’ like his dad. Unfortunately, George clung to his frat boy mindset, well into his Presidency. George is a Cancer with Leo rising and Leo hands. Ego and false pride controlled George and ruled us. You can bet that George is ashamed of his poor choices and bad behavior as President. A broken mirror, Donald Trump has taught George Bush humility. He’s happy not to be the worst President.

Barack Obama is a Leo with Aries hands and Aquarius thinking. A warrior of ideas and ideals, Barack embodies many of the best qualities of Leo. He’s proud, respectful, and very loyal to family and friends who have earned his trust. Barack’s greatest challenge as President was trying to be bi-racial and bi-partisan in a partisan world. Barack should have grabbed power when Democrats ruled congress. Repuglican’t opposition has been truthless, ruthless, relentless, remorseless, and shameless.

Would you buy a used car from this man?

Donald Trump is Gemini with Leo rising. His small stiff Leo hands, braided head and life lines, and crooked pinkies reveal Donald also cares more than you know about what you think of him. While flaunting the worst qualities of Gemini and Leo, his flippant attitude toward others, ignorance of our planet, and constantly intimidating behavior is wrecking havoc on a human race against bad shit happening. How many polished brass towers, glitzy gambling casinos, graven images, beauty queens, shark tanks, celebrity idols, screwed contractors, scared people, and have-nots scraping for pennies at the bottom of the barrel does it take to screw in a light bulb? Donald’s minions have mistaken ‘no love’ for ‘tough love’. Too many horrible role models are being reincarnated every day into darkness, despair, and fear that support Donald’s emptiness!

Pestilential presidential practices and partisan political paradigms poison public psyche. Pious philosophies and prejudicial policies pollute our collective psyche. We analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize Trump’s insane beliefs, illogical ideologies, and illicit actions, while we sacrifice our dignity, integrity, nobility, and virtue on the altar of nonsense.

The Presidency is not a job. It’s is a calling! The Presidency is a mission for a spiritual person with a balanced mind, heart, healthy attitudes, a strong need to give, and a desire to make a real difference. Donald Trump blew his golden opportunity to be truly loved by choosing to rule with fear, anger, hatred, and greed. How much tyranny, intimidation, and avarice must we endure before we lose our humanity, health, family, friends, and planet?

Donald’s failure to help humanity is a symptom of his desire to hurt humanity. His story is an allegory that teaches us not to take what we value or have failed to value for granted. In November, Donald’s humiliation, shame, and fall from grace will bring great relief and satisfaction to masses of people! Shouts of hope and joy will echo round the globe. The Trump brand will become worthless and symbolize evil in the 21st Century.

LEO & PSYCHE

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Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited Leo’s constellation during the 20th century. Colossal happenings transformed personal and collective psyche. Technology and inner workings of governmental rights and power were dispersed, revolutionized, and controlled by Plutocrats.

Uranus (Aquarius), planet of sudden change, transited Leo from 1955 to1962. Rosa Parks sowed seeds of discontent, catalyzing a fiery civil rights happening. She defied a segregation ordinance by not giving her bus seat to a white man in Alabama. The Supreme Court upheld Rosa’s rights after a nasty year long battle. University of Mississippi was forced to enroll its first black student. President Eisenhower deployed federal troops to Little Rock Arkansas to enforce school desegregation. President Kennedy ordered the National Guard to keep schools open in Alabama. Cultural shame catalyzed positive change. We don’t understand our differences. A ‘stable genius’ has chosen to lead us with hate, greed, consumption, waste, and depletion instead of wellness and happiness for all. What a fantastic opportunity for a human with a balanced mind, heart, and generous spirit! Black and white are extremes of shades of gray.

New inventions promoted convenience and provided time for recreation and leisure. Kentucky fried chicken and Play-Doh became popular. Davy Crockett and coonskin caps were fashionable. Pampers were the first disposable diapers. Crest was the first fluoride toothpaste. The first electric toothbrush was developed my Colgate in 1939 and marketed in the USA. The Teflon Company introduced non-stick cookware. Smith Corona introduced the first portable electric typewriters. Mattel Inc. introduced Barbie, who preceded Ken. Felt tipped pens became popular. Soft drinks were packaged in aluminum cans for the first time. K-Mart (bankrupt 10/18) and Wal-Mart (thriving) opened. Bank of America and American Express issued our first credit cards. The first transatlantic telephone cable began working. The first transcontinental helicopter flight was made.

Neptune (Pisces) takes fourteen years to change sign. Individual and collective psyche passes through ambiguous and confusing changes when it does. Neptune transited Leo from 1916 ~ 1929. Phenomenal world confusion took place. World War I brought tremendous prosperity to Wall Street while soldiers earning $16 a month were being killed in the trenches. England blacklisted and prevented over 80 US firms from dealing with neutral countries because they were suspected of trading with Germany. Influenza caused over two hundred deaths a day. Approximately one quarter of the US was sick. Half a million people were dead before the end of 1919. Daylight savings time began. Arkansas farmers dedicated a monument to the Boll Weevil, whose devastation of the cotton crop caused diversification and profitability. By 1927, the farm population had dropped dramatically as countless small farmers hopelessly and desperately sold their farms. Sound familiar?

History repeated itself as Neptune transited Aquarius from 1998 – 2012. War brought prosperity to Wall Street. Agribusiness and Chemical companies like Monsanto and Bayer crushed small farmers, while poisoning our water, air, and land. Small farms (especially organic farms) struggled to survive as politicians deregulated chemical companies, indemnified banks, and permitted toxic individuals, companies, and chemicals to pollute our planet. Energy, banking, transportation, communications, and food industries continue to control, manipulate, and addict us to our own selfish behavior. Partisan politicians con a gullible, angry but apathetic, and vulnerable public.

Underworlds thrive because Neptune rules drugs. National prohibition for alcohol began in 1920. Liquor smuggling and bootlegging was big mafia business. Recreational marijuana will be legalized in our country before Neptune leaves Pisces in 2025.

Congress set quotas limiting the number of immigrants allowed into the country. They didn’t separate their children, lock them in cages, and treat them horribly.

A senate subcommittee was formed to investigate the Teapot Dome oil leases. Texas tea barrels through pipelines while exploiting, depleting, and polluting our Mother.

Walt Disney released the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in 1928. George Eastman created the first color motion pictures. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was performed for the first time as a new form of symphonic jazz.

Doubt, fear, and panic caused the stock market to crash, leaving everyone in a state of terrible confusion. Lies, fear, and pandemics will soon cause our markets to crash.

Pluto (Scorpio) takes twenty years to change sign as it disintegrates, destroys, and transforms psyche. Pluto rules death, sex and orgasms (little death), and the dark side of the force. Pluto transited Leo from 1938 to 1957. Ten million people were unemployed in 1939. National and personal pride and power were transformed by the New Deal. President Roosevelt increased funding for building the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Congress adopted the Naval Expansion Act. Roosevelt transformed the Federal Reserve by creating a ‘withholding tax’ and social security. Roosevelt was the first president to appear on television. If all men are created equal, Biden has an opportunity to promote sustainability, repair and replace infrastructure, and encourage energy independence, moderation, and autonomy.

The House investigated un-American activities. It was the beginning of huge multi-national business conglomerates. Western Europe tried to appease Hitler with the Munich Pact, which turned Czechoslovakia over to Nazi Germany. Polls revealed Americans approved. Ouch! Nazis invaded Poland, causing Great Britain and France to declare war. Winston Churchill asked President Roosevelt for help.

In 1941, Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans paid a high price as they were forced from their homes into concentration camps where they became innocent victims of hate and prejudice. Fundamentalist devotion to ideologies and tyrants began crumbling. In 1943, fascist dictator Mussolini fell from power. By 1945, most people knew six million Jews had been slaughtered in Nazi concentration camps. Sound familiar?

The Atomic Bomb, ultimate plutonium weapon, destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered. In 1949, we supported a war in Korea that killed three million Koreans in less than a year. In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy began a tirade against communist subversives and traitors in the US. Julia and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to the electric chair for stealing bomb secrets.

United Nations complex was completed in New York City in 1951. AT&T was the first company with over a million stockholders. Christine Jorgensen was the first transsexual to go public in 1952. Norman Vincent Peale’s best seller, The Power of Positive Thinking was published. The first kidney was transplanted. The first artificial heart happened. Chevrolet introduced a powerful sexy Corvette in 1953. We launched the Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine in 1954. The Soviet Union opened the world’s first atomic power station. Reigning British Monarchs made their first visit to American soil. We reached for outer space.

The Pluto in Leo generation, 1938 ~ 1957 have employed technology to build personal power. Pluto in Leo rules crony capitalism. From the `ME NOW’ generation, Bill Clinton (Leo), George W Bush (Leo rising), Donald Trump (Leo rising), and I (Leo Midheaven) were born with Pluto in Leo. My life is huge on the inside, and thankfully, my footprint is small.

Rest assured, if we haven’t destroyed ourselves and our planet by the time Donald Trump and his band of cutthroat thieves’ are locked up, new plutocrats will have no problem finding money, obtaining rights, capturing resources, and employing technology to own, harness, package, distribute, and sell our own sustainable resources back to us. As Uranus returns to Leo (2039 ~ 2046), will history repeat itself? We’ll know after November whether hindsight truly is 20/20!

CANCER & HANDS

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Author’s Note: The following observations, insights, and generalizations are derived from over forty years of examining over seventy-five thousand sets of hands.

You don’t need a Cancer sun, moon, planets, or planetary house placements to be Cancer. Feeling types have long narrow palms and long fingers, often held closely together. Healthy hands have a firm consistency with pink elastic skin. Finger joints are pliable, less stiff than Scorpio, and less supple than Pisces. Cancer head and life lines often separate at their beginnings. That symbolizes cardinal energy and independence. If the head and life lines are closely connected at their beginnings, that person has (mother issues) fears like losing control, hates being criticized, and needs approval. Cancers should never ever be taken for granted.

Cancer is sensitive. More peripheral lines add more sensitivity. Be careful what you say because they’ll remember the ‘bad’ things, even if you haven’t said any. Long gently sloping head lines blend with full pink heels of hands and embody a healthy balance between intuition, creativity, and practicality. Heart lines that gracefully curve toward the index finger personify a romantic, idealistic, and sometimes unrealistic vision of other people. I’ve observed lots of round and conical fingertips with long broad nails, loop fingerprints, and romantic heart lines. They’re intuitive communicators, sensing what’s really happening. They prefer to be frank and offer sincere handshakes.

Cancers are intuitive, empathetic, complex, and overly aware of the needs of others. They’re hard to understand because they hide their innermost selves beneath a facade of nurturing actions. Pry into their private lives and they’ll retreat into their shells. They’re cautious and vulnerable, need to be direct, although they often have to be tactful and diplomatic. The only option that makes good sense is to choose satisfying over safe. They shouldn’t avoid emotional confrontation and need to cultivate intimacy wherever and whenever they can. Feelings may swing from loving and devoted to secretive, reclusive, obsessive, and fearful of the future. When Cancers are feeling insecure, controlled, or confined, they can become dark and moody. They need to feel protected and secure before they can fully trust. Once trust is earned, loyalties run deep. You’ll see intimacy in many lines running parallel to the lifeline within the ball of thumb. Healthy family connections and close friendships nourish these folk. The more structure, organization and detail in their lives, the more stable and secure they feel.

Healthy Cancers are loving, compassionate, and devoted beings. They’re most compatible with other feeling types. They feel safest with responsible, reliable, and dependable practical types. Challenged by thinking and intuitive types, they’re nervous that they’ll be left holding the psychic garbage (and they often are) and forced to deal with the consequences when idealism, optimism, enthusiasm, and logic wane (and they do). Cancers are acutely consciousness of everyone’s emotional needs. When insecure, they can become internally secretive and over-ambitious in the outer world. Cancers work hard when income matches output. Motivated by family, good food, emotional security, and fertile soil, their instinct and mission is to nourish, protect, exercise their creative imagination, and make sure there’s plenty of good food around.

“You’ve got to play to lose”

The old guy above is the young guy with me in this picture captured forty-six years ago in a photo booth at Kennywood Amusement Park in Pittsburgh, Pa. Lloyd Wilson (Cancer), my best friend, and I met working part time at a wood, metal, and plastics model making machine workshop where we fabricated preschool children’s learning devices for the University of Pittsburgh. We met because we were making toys for ourselves on our own time. I was destined to become an industrial designer. Lloyd was a painter and sculptor. We were a couple of Peter Pans on a journey to Neverland.

Lloyd didn’t get much nurturing as a child. He developed a quick wit and sense of humor while avoiding extreme physical abuse. When his mother was happy, Lloyd was safe. When she was unhappy, she’d incite Lloyd’s rage filled father to brutally beat him. Lloyd’s mother ended up killing herself, his father was committed to a mental institution, and his favorite sister, (we met while on vacation in Florida) with two beautiful young children, a devoted husband, and seeming idyllic life, suddenly and unexpectedly blew her head off with a shotgun. It’s a paradox to have so much to give and lose.

Lloyd’s slender rectangular palms and long fingers embody his Cancer Sun, Venus, and North Node. They conjunct my Mercury in Cancer. His Gemini ascendant is exactly conjunct my vertex, which is the midpoint of my eighth house Gemini stellium. Lloyd’s head and life lines are tightly intertwined at their beginnings. That reveals his desire to feel needed and appreciated. As a sensitive child, Lloyd desperately needed love and support, but didn’t get any.

Lloyd tried hard to fix his broken parents. They were too sick to see him. Instead, they judged, criticized, and abused him. Lloyd survived without their love and approval. He thrives on appreciation. He’ll give his friends the shirt off his back, but they had better never take him for granted. Lloyd literally gave me the shirt off his back in my moment of need. I was on my way to an important meeting and got a nasty stain on my shirt. Lloyd insisted I take off my shirt and trade with him.

Cancers are collectors. Some stockpile food in case of shortage or emergency. Lloyd collects art books, literature (most well-read person I know), religious art, art supplies, tools, and clothing. When wealthy people die, their families donate clothing to Goodwill and Salvation Army. Lloyd has a keen eye for the finest designer clothing. He’s always first to pick through merchandise. As a master bargain hunter, I call Lloyd my personal dresser. We wear the same sizes. Lloyd chooses coats, suits, and jackets for me He’s gifted me with suits worth thousands of dollars that he only paid ten or fifteen dollars for. Many had never been worn.

Lloyd said to me, “People who tell the truth don’t need good memories”. I replied, “We may be bastards, but at least we’re honest”. Over fifty years of friendship continue to see many challenging lessons in humility for us. We delayed balancing our outer and inner worlds by choosing to learn the hard way. We learned that there are no shortcuts and to let go of the need to be greater than we were.

Lloyd’s extremely flexible thumbs symbolize his ability to adapt to the most horrible of circumstances. They also embody his generosity of heart and spirit. It’s very hard for Lloyd to say “NO”. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it to him, but the gold ring on the bottom middle finger of Lloyd’s unconscious hand symbolizes his need to have clear boundaries, be frugal, and to learn to say no.

Loving his anonymity, Lloyd’s artwork is created by a magical spirit who is him. Lloyd exemplifies Cancer’s most outstanding inner and outer qualities. He’s supportive, sympathetic, receptive, reflective, intuitive, imaginative, and extremely devoted to friends, family, and humanity. Lloyd Wilson is Pittsburgh’s best kept secret. 

CANCER & PSYCHE

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Cancer is a cardinal water sign, catalyzed by the summer solstice. The moon influences our oceans and tides. The beginning of summer is also the symbolic mother of the USA. Let’s examine the transits of Pluto and Uranus through Cancer during the 20th Century. Transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto influence personal and collective psyche.

Pluto (planet of sex, death, transformation, and other people’s resources), transited Cancer from 1913 to 1938. Partisan politics, nationalism, and isolationism transformed world ideologies. World War I became World War II. In 1913, President Wilson pressed a button in the White House that blew up the Gamboa Dike at the Isthmus of Panama, creating a canal between oceans, and transforming intercontinental travel by sea. Wilson legislated the Carter-Owen Bill that established a Federal Reserve System to transform the strangle hold on the nation’s currency and credit system by banks. How did Plutocracy and Kakistocracy happen?

Daylight Saving Time transformed our nation’s clocks and schedules. Transcontinental telephone service transformed international communications. World infrastructures and atomic energy transformed planetary energy sources and usages. NBC was the first Nationwide Broadcasting Company. Wall Street prospered from war while soldiers earning $16 per month died in the trenches. President Wilson established a lottery style draft promoting patriotism. Congress passed the Espionage Act fining draft dodgers $10,000 and imposing a twenty-year jail sentence. No child was left behind.

“Do your bit” encouraged citizens to buy Liberty Bonds. Wheatless-meatless days were promoted. The end of 1919 marked the end of the Influenza pandemic that caused half a million deaths and a quarter of the nation’s population to be sick. Prohibition banned liquor for all citizens. Black markets and bootlegging industries flourished. Black leader Marcus Garvey organized ‘The Empire of Africa’ with 500,000 followers. Garvey led the largest mass exodus of Blacks with the least sense of brotherhood in US history. Sound familiar? With Pluto currently transiting Capricorn opposite Cancer it’s no surprise.

In 1929, doubt, fear, and panic upset our stock market as we faced our darkest hour. Foundations and structures of home and family transformed. Pluto in Cancer birthed many people who spent their lives taking care of family. Overdeveloped senses of responsibility, guilt, and obligation motivated their children to become dropouts and runaways. That hasn’t worked either.

Uranus (planet of sudden unexpected change, rebellion, and revolution) transited the sign of Cancer from 1949 to 1955. Mothers stopped staying at home and went to work. Women began wearing the “bikini”, a fashionable French bathing suit. ‘I Love Lucy’, a comic show about a housewife and her Cuban bandleader husband became the most popular show on TV. Ranch houses and basement playrooms were popular. The subconscious mind was explored in psychology. If you were born between 1949 and 1955, your psyche is some degree between rational and aware and oversensitive and fearful.

We may want to think twice before we elect (or appoint) another Cancer President. Four USA Presidents were born under the sign of Cancer. George W Bush (7/6/1946) has intuitive hands. His egocentric character matches his Leo rising. George Bush revealed the worst qualities of Cancer and Leo in his behavior, intentions, and actions. Check out these similarities between the four Cancer Presidents.

Like George Bush and Al Gore, John Quincy Adams finished second in popular vote behind General Andrew Jackson. There was no majority. The choice was put before the House of Representatives. House Speaker, Henry Clay, swung the election to Adams. When Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State, Jackson followers cried, “Corrupt bargain”. “Of all the men whom it was ever my lot to accost and to waste civilities upon, he was the most doggedly and systematically repulsive. With a vinegar aspect, cotton in his leathern ears, and hatred in his heart, he sat like a bulldog among spaniels.” W.H. Littleton

President Calvin Coolidge shared a birthday with the Declaration of Independence. He was infamous for “holding his tongue”, earning him the title, “Silent Cal”. Two of his favorite sayings were: “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.” and “The business of America is business.” William Allen White said, “He was an economic fatalist with a God given inertia. He knew nothing and refused to learn”.

The 38th President, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., didn’t know he was adopted until he was seventeen. Gerry didn’t lift a finger around the house. His wife, Betty performed all the domestic chores. As Speaker of the house, Ford passionately pleaded for escalation of the war in Vietnam. He urged “unleashing devastating air and sea power”. He failed to impeach liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as a favor to his buddy Richard Nixon. Ford granted Nixon a “full complete and absolute pardon” for all crimes relating to Watergate. Ford blamed democrats for a disastrous rate of inflation and warned that electing more would “jeopardize world peace”. He admitted to never reading books, but did find time to watch football on TV. It’s a good thing there was no Twitter!

Congressman Robert Drinan said, “I cannot dislike him personally — he’s cordial and gracious, but he’s consistently wrong and consistency is a virtue of small minds. He’s never proposed a constructive solution to anything”. Lyndon Johnson quipped, Ford “had played too much football with his helmet off” ~ “Jerry’s the only man I ever knew who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”. Reverend Duncan Littlefair declared, “Ford isn’t a bad man, but he’s dumb—dumb. He shouldn’t be dumb either. He went to school just like everybody else”.

“The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life…

it should be something useful, something good”

Dalai Lama (Cancer) “The Reborn Soul of Buddha” is Orpheus, singer, priest, healer, poet, and musician who in Greek myth, enchanted Death with his music into letting him enter the matrix of collective unconscious to find his beloved Eurydice. After death warned Orpheus he’d lose Eurydice if he looked back, in a moment of weakness, he looked back. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 to live as a “simple monk” in a remote corner of Northern India. Unable to return, he chose to promote world peace and love. If hindsight is truly 2020, then we must choose hindsight as we vote in 2020.

Summer Solstice 2020 ~ Honoring my Gemini Mother

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Today is mom’s birthday. No longer in physical form, mom would be 95 years old. She passed from her body at 83 after living as gratefully and gracefully as possible with metastasized breast Cancer for many years. Before she left this plane, she assured me that if there’s another side, she’ll be in touch. I haven’t heard from her yet, but haven’t given up hope. Mom’s cultivated Gemini hands with her square palms and long fingers harmonize well with her Gemini sun, moon, mercury, and midheaven conjunction.

Even in the direst of circumstances, our family always kept their sense of humor. Mom was lying in her hospital bed with tubes sticking in and out of her. She said to me, “What worries me most is how nice everyone is. Do they know something I don’t?” My sister warned, “You’re not allowed to die until you finish raising my (teenage) kids”. Jennifer joked about buying mom’s casket at Costco and mom loved the idea. Gary quipped, “I’ll start worrying about you when you stop putting on your makeup”. He threatened to taxidermy her and stick her in a corner of his living room. Mom’s intensive care doctor said he had never had a patient so sick and so determined not to look like it. I wheeled mom around the hospital. People thought I was her husband. I’d say, “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m her father”. “Pleased to meet you”, they’d say. At sixty, I could still embarrass my mother. Some things never change.

Mom was a poster child for the geriatric crowd. Approaching 80. she knew her time was limited. To get a real taste of her, watch this exercise ball video. Mom made it as a response to Jennifer sending her the ball. We wanted to keep her around as long as we could. The quality isn’t great, but her humor and attitude are well worth the watch!

GEMINI ~ SEVEN SECRETS OF HEALING

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“The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding.” Gemini secrets are secret only to the uneducated and uninitiated. In ancient Greece, Hermes was god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves, travel, and wisdom. The Roman version was Mercury, ruler of Gemini, liaison to death, and messenger for all gods. Thoth was the Egyptian archetype, scribe of gods. Loki was the Norse god of mischief. In Tarot, Hermes is a Magician at a crossroads with important choices and critical decisions to be made. Having both physical and metaphysical resources and tools, Hermes could go anywhere and do anything at anytime.

Hermes was reputedly a real person in ancient Egypt. Refusing to grow old, he spent much of his youth as a petty thief and mischievous trickster. Hermes allegedly lived 350 years in the flesh. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Puck was Hermes adolescence. The 20th Century version is Peter Pan. Peter never grows old. Wendy darns his socks, sews his shadow back on, and lets him fly away when he wants to. Wendy was likely a Virgo. Hermes has an innate ability to transform ambiguous and ambivalent thoughts and feelings into clarity and good sense. Gemini (social) and  Virgo (technical) are Hermes city and country homes as he passes through our Zodiac.

Hermes was the mystic teacher of Abraham and the father of wireless communication. Hermes realized our brains are cell communication hardware while our minds transmit and receive messages. Hermes understood that relationships between cells cause energy and matter to vibrate on different planes at the same time. He described three separate and forever blending planes as physical, mental, and spiritual. Long before Moses, while other alchemists were still attempting to turn lead into Gold, Hermes taught us that everyone and everything, including every thought are made up of individual cells; physically, mentally, and spiritually connected to all other cells on all other planes at the same time. We can connect with anyone or anything at any time once we take a leap of faith, see our truths, establish connections, and tune our links.

Alchemy is not turning lead into gold. Alchemy is metaphysical. Alchemy is a set of magical formulas, tools, and esoteric instruction for being healthy, happy, and fulfilled. In practice, alchemy is about nourishing healthy vision, making healthy decisions, and nourishing healthy relationships. Positive attitudes, right uses of will power, and rock solid faith builds sound structures on solid foundations. By embracing courage, strength, wisdom, and grace, we blend and balance Saturn (Lead) with the Sun (Gold). It’s a lot of work, but through structure, discipline, and focus, alchemy helps us be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually connected with ourselves, each other, and our planet.

Hermetic alchemy is the mastery of mental forces by transmuting one mental vibration into another. Hermes describes the unknowable and indefinable spirit as “The ALL”. “While ALL is in “The ALL”, it is equally true that “The ALL” is in ALL. “To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge”. The inner nature of The ALL is unknowable. That’s why we have anthropomorphic gods and institutionalized religion. Spirit is the essence that forms and glues the whole. Spiritual development depends on the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Great Spirit within and without.

Hermes taught seven basic metaphysical and philosophical principles.

“The Secret”, was popular and a profitable PR campaign for Hermes “Law of Polarity”. “Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.” Polarity is spiritual magnetism. The law of attraction works best when you know what you want and your intentions are clear. Anyone can transform negative thinking into positive circumstances by taking a leap of faith, letting go of fear, and doing the work.

Hermes ‘Law of Polarity’ enabled me to transform trash into treasure

GURU of GARBAGE

Opposites are two extremes of the same thing with many varying degrees between. Where does heat end and cold begin? Where does darkness leave off and light begin?  What of positive and negative, hard and soft, sharp and dull, noisy and quiet, high and low? The same principle operates on the mental plane. Love and hate are simply degrees of the same thing. Somewhere in the middle are shades of like and dislike. The vibrations of hate can be transformed into the vibrations of love through the art of polarization, a phase of alchemy known and practiced by ancient and modern masters. Correspondence, Mentalism, Vibration, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender are Hermes other six ‘Secrets’. Knowing these secrets enabled Hermes to explore, examine, and explain everything.

Hermetic masters possessed knowledge of transcendental astronomy called astrology, transcendental chemistry called alchemy, and transcendental psychology called mystic psychology. They cultivated inner and outer wisdom. Critical thinkers throughout history have unlocked mysteries using hermetic thought and principles. Confucius, Galileo, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Nostradamus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell were a few of our luminous Grand Masters of hermetic thought.

Hermes used astrology to unlock ancient mysteries. Astrologers espouse Hermes second principle of correspondence “As above, so below, as below, so above”. Astrology is a symbolic system that compares and contrasts our heavens with the affairs of man on earth. Every relationship changes every other relationship on a cellular level by raising or diminishing its vibration, polarity, and rhythm. A diversity of astrology symbols embodies the characters, plots, and stories of this eternally dysfunctional family we call humanity.

Hermes asks us to know ourselves; to think critically, to be motivated, to make healthy choices, to nourish positive attributes, and embrace our healthiest qualities. As we flourish, we choose nourishing relationships and embrace meaningful roles for ourselves. We can transform lead into gold by choosing wholeness, happiness, healthiness, peacefulness, and gracefully negotiating the rest.