How I Lost my Sanity 2

Posted on July 25, 2023 by markseltman

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

This is a tale of how I tempted fate and lost my sanity. You may think you know your dark side, or you may know someone who has been devoured by theirs, but until you’ve been seduced into madness, breached your sacred boundaries, and tasted the forbidden fruit; you won’t experience the boundless breadths and desperate depths of darkness in your psyche along with the stark realization that you can’t turn back.

Black and white are metaphors for oppositions that fuel our awareness and allegories that guide us between our whitest whites and blackest blacks. Love and hate are extremes of the same basic substance. Like and dislike are varying degrees of gray between black and white. If insanity is black and sanity is white, where does happiness end and misery begin? When does pleasure stop and pain begin?

As a life-long student of craziness, I coveted the opportunity to serve criminally insane people. I might never get another chance. Back in college, I studied Industrial Design. I minored in bizarre psycho-ideologies and isms. As an active member of a twice weekly study group at a Gestalt psychology institute for two years, I whetted my appetite for more knowledge and understanding of human behavior. I finally had a real chance to explore authentic craziness incarnate.

Criminal minds fascinated me. I learned from my study of astrology that each of twelve sun signs has its own unique criminal style. Take this with a grain of salt, but here are a few gross generalizations. Gemini / Mercury rules con artists and pickpockets. Taurus / Venus commits sex crimes and breaches of trust from petty theft to grand larceny. Aries / Mars loves warfare and commit crimes of passion. Sagittarius / Jupiter wears white collars. Capricorn / Saturn rules master criminals. Aquarius / Uranus rules arsonists, terrorists, and unexpected bad shit happening. Pisces / Neptune rules drug dealers and users. Scorpio / Pluto rules seduction, rape, murder, and betrayal. Pluto lustily awaits you at your final destination.

Our outer planetary pictures provide a karmic backdrop for past and future generations of actors and actresses striving to learn their roles. Life is a play of plays. Unconscious creates drama. Subconscious directs plot. Consciousness is stage manager. Sun enlightens. Moon reflects. Mercury connects. Venus senses. Mars energizes. Jupiter expands. Saturn limits. Uranus disrupts, Neptune dissolves, and Pluto destroys. ‘God’ is Master Playwright.

Before proceeding with my vocational classes, I need to regress and provide background material for my year of preparation preceding my choice to teach classes. It may take a couple of posts, but I promise you’ll be glad I did.

I entered the hospital from my first day through guarded locked doors, metal detectors, a bag inspection station, faded institutional beige paint, and buzzing fluorescent lights like parasites that sucked my vital essences. Hospital staff appeared to be the dregs of humanity’s helpers. Most had physical handicaps like limping, scarring, splotching, or gazing in hopeless desperation with myopic eyes. I hoped it wasn’t contagious. I had easy access to patient records and treatment plans. I could attend treatment team meetings with psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. It felt too good to be true and it was.

Forensic hospital life is about rules, regulations, and self-defense. There are many more don’ts than do’s. Employees are sworn to secrecy, fingerprinted, and instilled with awkward feelings of mistrust. Orientation had been designed to help new staff members understand the organizational goals, policies, and procedures affecting job safety, security, performance, and delivery of care. We filled out a lot of questionnaires, surveys, and evaluations. We were briefed on the nature, structure, and policies of the facility. We learned about patient rights and privileges, rights and privileges of staff, and hospital policy.

The largest portion of hospital staff were security called SHTA’s. They accompanied patients to every activity. I attended life safety training with them: CPR, First-Aid, and Management of Violent Patient Behavior (MVPB). A violent person could `go off’ and all we could do was to defend ourselves. We weren’t permitted to be aggressive. We were taught Judo style moves by serious martial artists and laughed heartily as we fell, flipped each other on gym mats, and got to know each other. We were encouraged to nickname one another to help us connect. Based on obvious personal peculiarities our nicknames stuck. There was `Skinny’, `Luscious Lips’, `Gigolo’, and `Tortoise’. I was `Smiley’. Forever after, we addressed each other by our nicknames.

Fighting with patients was a scary idea. Despite my comprehensive training in self-defense, I envisioned myself grabbing the nearest chair and clobbering a violent patient over the head in a crisis. I’d be instantly fired and then indicted on criminal charges. Fortunately for everyone, most of the furniture was anchored to the floor or walls with specially designed hardware to prevent that kind of violence.

When I wasn’t watching over my shoulder for violent patients, I was cautioned to be on the lookout for ‘bacterial pathogens’ which cause disease. A lot of patients have hygiene problems and are unhealthy. Samplings are taken regularly from surfaces around the hospital in order to monitor disease. There were patients with AIDS. In 1986, that was scary! What if a patient with AIDS bit a staff member? We were briefed extensively on care and prevention. This job began to seem more than a little risky.

When I first met the patients, they appeared to be the most motley crew nature had ever assembled. They looked like R. Crumb characters. Many had deranged eyes. They were so whacky that I felt like laughing. Some had been given massive doses of thorazine. I couldn’t wait to find out who had done what. I’d heard there were a few notorious celebrities in the mix.

I was given a photo I.D. (I had to wear it at all times) and keys for areas I had access to within the hospital. Keys were given upon entering the hospital and deposited before leaving. Patients observed me with random glimpses, furtive glances, and glaring gazes. They saw me as one more ‘keeper of the keys’ who was attempting to figure them out, discipline, rehabilitate, or fix them. One thing for sure, I wasn’t one of them (yet).

I was directed to sit in on patient activities, assist rehab staff, and familiarize myself with patients. The first few days were uneventful. Important goals were getting the patients to brush their teeth, comb their hair, and to try not to be generally disgusting. Another important goal was to get them to stay awake and participate in activities such as art, music, education classes, and exercise. There were no interesting conversations yet.

The rehab staff consisted of nine members. As Director of Rehab, Dolores was beaten down by too many years in state service. Her sad name complemented her careworn face. A telltale twitch made me wonder whether she was smiling or frowning. Her unhealthy-looking teeth were yellowed from too many cigarettes and too much coffee. A deep raspy voice coughed her words. I was concerned she was ineffective. I was right. Dolores was caring but couldn’t say ‘no’ to anyone. She promised me full health benefits and then let me serve my half-time position by working two ten-hour days while the hospital’s needs would have been better served if my time were spread over three days.

Respiratory, pulmonary, and circulatory health problems could be seen in her bulbous whitish nails. Her square palms and short square fingers revealed a practical nature, while her dry, reddish, dishpan skin had weathered many storms that seemed to endlessly arrive from every direction. Despite our differences, Dolores and I liked each other.

My `other half’ was a furniture maker and restorer named Billy (Skinny). Billy was tall, thin, and bony. He looked like a scruffy middle-aged Abraham Lincoln. Billy was one of the hardest working, enthusiastic, and idealistic persons I’d ever met. Like me, he’d never had ‘a job’. An eccentric renegade from societal rules and regulations, Billy maintained a furniture restoration and refinishing business on the side. Like me, Billy had a hidden agenda. His was unselfish and equally unrealistic. He believed that he could actually rehabilitate lunatics and transform them into functioning members of society.

Billy’s ‘feeling hands’ had rectangular palms and long fingers. A hardness and stiffness ruled his fingers, and knotty joints enhanced his compulsive need to control his physical and mental life. His especially long middle fingers bent towards the top of his ring fingers. Billy had an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, obligation, and guilt. An oversensitive perfectionist, Billy spent endless hours thinking about the best thing to do next.

Billy and I tried to set mutual goals, but my hidden agenda clashed with his righteous cause. Billy wanted to turn patients into furniture restorers. I wanted to help, but I wanted private time with them. Billy committed to creating a sheltered wood working shop. I chose to offer design classes to higher functioning patients. I’d also help Billy set up a workshop that would serve the entire patient population.

The Rehab staff was a smorgasbord of affirmative action. Zandor was Estonian. He was a rehabilitation counselor and second in command. Zandor should have had Dolores’s job, but upper management didn’t want a person they couldn’t control in that position. Zandor’s ‘thinking hands’ correspond to his strong handshake, firm elastic skin, long straight fingers, square fingertips, and open and frank nails. Zandor had also been abused by too many years in state service, but it didn’t break him. He had grievances pending against the Public Employees Union for obvious discrimination against him. Despite unfavorable circumstances, Zandor always presented himself with pride, integrity, and dignity. We became comrades.

Bruce (Luscious Lips) arrived at the same time as Billy and me. His meaty practical hands had square palms and short square fingers that were soft and supple with dominant plump third phalanges. His head and lifelines were tied together at their beginnings. He was a Taurus and a huge procrastinator. Bruce was in charge of recreation. He’d served state social service agencies throughout his entire work experience. Sweet and mild mannered, his desire to make a real difference had dulled from too many years of compliance to authority, rules, and regulations. Bruce had gone as high as he could in institutional politics. He was caring and attentive with the patients but seemed depressed and resigned to mediocrity the rest of the time. The only times Bruce revealed real passion and genuine enthusiasm was when we talked about gourmet food or going fishing together.

Barbara was the schoolteacher on our team. Her goal was to help as many patients as possible reach high school equivalency. She was a large boned middle aged Afro-American woman and a very kind person. I don’t remember her hands except for her large broad nails and the sparse clear lines engraved in her palms. Barbara had spent many years in state service. She was one of a very few state employees who managed to maintain a sense of humor and a life outside of her work. She complained the least of any full-time staff member and always kept her cool. Once during English class, one of the male patients pulled out his huge erect penis and started jerking off. Barbara walked over, looked him straight in his eyes and without raising her voice calmly said, “please excuse yourself and go to the bathroom”. He did. I wished I could have read her report about the incident.

Bob was the librarian. He reminded me of a Spam and Velveeta Cheese on Wonder Bread sandwich. Bob was a real life Walter Mitty. He was helpful when asked, but most of the time, gazed into the distance under thick lens wire rimmed glasses. As I think of him, I can still feel his cool damp mashed potato hand shake that confirmed a total lack of will power, energy, and enthusiasm.

Andrew was art therapist when I arrived. His tenure was short. The only thing I recall about him is that he sent his estranged daughter a gross of condoms for her sixteenth birthday. He quipped in his southern drawl, “If she’s going to do it, might as well be safe.” The new art therapist was Janice. She was an unsuccessfully aging frustrated starving artist in need of a steady income. There was a frequent staff turnover for art therapists.

Maya was recreational therapist. She was young, very private, and a very athletic Afro-American woman. Maya managed sports activities and the patient newspaper, the Scene. All of the staff liked Maya. Patients loved her. Her powerful ‘intuitive hands‘ were well suited for sports like football, soccer, and wrestling. Everyone thought Maya was gay, but that was nobody’s business.

I was a card-carrying member of a band of misfits in search of a fit. On the whole, I liked the rehab staff and felt like I was becoming part of a team. I looked forward to our working together and began to imagine that we might actually make a real difference…

CANCER & PSYCHE

Posted on July 13, 2023 by markseltman

Cancer is a Cardinal Water sign that is governed by our Moon which influences our Oceans and Tides. Cancer rules Motherhood, Family, Food, Feelings, Home, and our Personal and Collective Unconscious. The birth of the USA is embodied by the Summer Solstice. When the Declaration of Independence was signed in Cancer on July 4, 1776, our Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter were in the sign of Cancer. That’s a lot of Cancer.

There’s some controversy among astrologers as to the correct time of signing the Declaration. Aquarius or Sagittarius is rising. I believe it’s Sagittarius because the placement of planets in that natal chart indicates leadership and sticks our noses in everyone else’s business. Let’s look at how the 20^th Century transits of Pluto and Uranus through the constellation of Cancer influenced Personal and Collective Psyche.

Pluto, archetype of sex, death, and transformation transited the sign of Cancer from 1913 to 1938. Plutocrats, partisan politicians, nationalism, and isolationism transformed world ideologies. World War I turned into 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 that created a canal between oceans that transformed travel by sea. Wilson legislated the Carter-Owen Bill that established a Federal Reserve System that transformed the stranglehold on the nation’s currency and credit system by banks.

NBC became the first Nationwide Broadcasting Company. Daylight Saving Time transformed clocks and schedules. Transcontinental telephone service transformed international communications. World infrastructures and atomic energy transformed planetary energy sources and usages. Wall Street prospered from war while soldiers earning $16 per month died in the trenches. No child was left behind. 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.

Pluto in Cancer catalyzed Kleptocracy (government by people who use their power to steal their country’s resources) and Kakistocracy (state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens). “Like all good illusionists, the kleptocrats know how to distract us from looking at their misdeeds and the kakistocrats know how to distract us from their ineptitude. They do it by talking to us about ideology and attacking those of their rivals. While we watch and play our part in these ideological circuses, they steal. Or tinker with government policies they don’t really understand. And we pay the price.”

“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. Pluto passing through Capricorn opposite Cancer is furnishing the wisdom necessary to not make the same mistakes. Hindsight has few surprises and many possible benefits.

In 1929, doubt, fear, and panic upset our stock market as we faced our darkest hour. Foundations and structures of home and family were crumbling. Pluto in Cancer birthed many people who spent their lives taking care of family. Their overdeveloped senses of responsibility, guilt, and obligation motivated their children to become dropouts and runaways. Neither extreme has worked.

Uranus, planet of sudden and unexpected changes, invention, 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 became popular. Subconscious mind was explored in psychology. Born between 1949 and 1955? Your psyche may be shipwrecked somewhere in time and space in opposition between rational awareness and fearful confusion.

We should think twice before we elect (appoint) another Cancer President. Four USA Presidents were born under the sign of Cancer. George W Bush (7/6/1946) has an egocentric character to match his Leo rising. George Bush demonstrated some of the worst qualities of Cancer and Leo in his behavior, intentions, and actions. Check out the similarities between the three other 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”.

W.H. Littleton proclaimed, “Of all the men whom it was ever my lot to accost and to waste civilities upon, he (Adams) 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.”

President Calvin Coolidge shared his birthday 7/4 with the USA Declaration of Independence. Coolidge was famous 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 of him, “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. Betty performed all the domestic chores. Gerry never lifted a finger around the house. As Speaker for the other 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 the disastrous rate of inflation and warned that electing more would “jeopardize world peace”. He admitted to not reading books, but did find time to watch football on TV. 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 “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 proclaimed, “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”

The Dalai Lama (Cancer) is “The Reborn Soul of Buddha” who fled Tibet in 1959 to live as a “simple monk” in a remote corner of Northern India. Unable to return home, he chose to promote world peace and love. Like Orpheus, singer, priest, healer, poet, and musician in Greek myth, the Dalai Lama must charm Pluto into letting him enter into the domain of death to mine the matrix of collective unconscious and restore humanity. Death warned Orpheus that he’d lose Eurydice forever if he looked back. In a moment of doubt, Orpheus looked back and lost Eurydice forever. If hindsight is 2020, we must be fully conscious in 2024 of the consequences of our choices and corresponding votes.

i~Hermes

Posted on May 29, 2023 by markseltman

i~HERMES

Save

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

Alchemy is not transforming lead into gold. Hermes turned Saturn (Lead) into Sun (Gold) by building stable structures on solid foundations, being disciplined, and focusing on his metaphysical quest to prepare mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to connect to any and all others at any and all times. Alchemy is a set of magical formulas, tools, and esoteric instruction for becoming healthier, happier, and more fulfilled in life. Alchemy is the mastery of mental forces by transmuting one mental vibration into another. Our Sun passing through Gemini ~ May 21^st to June 21^st is a perfect time to share our selves on a soul level with anyone and everyone who is able!

Every thought is made up of individual cells; physically, mentally, and spiritually connected to all other cells on all other planes at the same time. Our brains are our cell communication hardware while our minds transmit and receive messages. Relationships between cells cause energy and matter to vibrate on different planes of reality at different times and places. Combining physical, mental, and spiritual planes, enables us to connect any with any and every being at any and every time and place. We can achieve wholeness by letting go of fear, taking a leap of faith, making connections, tuning our links, and creating nourishing environments.

“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 and indefinable. That’s why humanity needs anthropomorphic gods and institutionalized religion. Spirit is the essence that embodies “ALL”. Spirituality requires the recognition, realization, and manifestation of Great Spirit within and without.

Hermes Seven Laws

“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.”

“The Secret” is only a secret to the uninitiated. The ‘Laws of Attraction’ work best when you know what you desire, and your intentions are clear. Polarity is spiritual magnetism.

Anyone can turn negative thinking into positive circumstances by letting go of fear, having clear intent, choosing a worthy quest, and doing the work. See how the ‘Law of Polarity’ transformed trash into treasure!

GURU of GARBAGE (Click for short video ~ Good Day NY)

Opposites are extremes of the same basic substance with varying degrees between. Where does heat end and cold begin? Where does darkness leave off and light begin? What about positive and negative, hard and soft, sharp and dull, noisy and quiet, high and low? The same principle operates on a mental plane. Love and hate are simply degrees of the same thing. In the middle are shades of like and dislike. Vibrations of hate can be transmuted into vibrations of love through the art of polarization, a phase of alchemy known and practiced by ancient and modern masters.

Hermes other Six ‘Secrets’

Correspondence, Mentalism, Vibration, Rhythm, Cause, Effect, and Gender are Hermes other six Laws. Practicing metaphysical principles enabled Hermes and enables anyone to explore, examine, and explain the unexplained, and to execute any and all thoughts, ideas, and visions.

Having inner and outer wisdom has helped critical thinkers throughout history to unlock mysteries using Hermetic thought and principles. Hermetic masters possess knowledge of transcendental astronomy called astrology, transcendental chemistry called alchemy, and transcendental psychology called mystic psychology. Confucius, Galileo, Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Nostradamus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell were all Grand Masters of Hermetic thought and principles.

Astrology is a symbolic system that compares and contrasts our heavens with affairs of man on earth. Astrology unlocks ancient and modern mysteries using Hermes second principle of correspondence “As Above, So Below, as below, so above”.

An infinite variety of characters, plots, and archetypal tales are mirrored in lots of dysfunctional humans, unable to see the forests from the trees. Too many lost souls are Idolizing gold-plated Calves on brass-plated pedestals and Worshiping Sacred Cows on the Altars of Nonsense. The human race has become a race against self-created bad shit happening. Our planet’s sixth extinction is nearing more quickly than we think.

Hermes was Greek god of wisdom, wealth, trade, luck, fertility, language, animal husbandry, thieves, travelers, sleep, and providing safe passage to death. Mercury was Hermes’ Roman version, messenger of gods and ruler of Gemini. Thoth, in ancient Egypt, was a lunar god and patron of science, literature, wisdom, and invention. Loki was the Norse god of mischief. In Tarot, Hermes, a Magician at a crossroads has crucial decisions to make and critical actions to take. Merlin, Gondolf, Harry Potter, and Dumbledore are modern Hermes. Having metaphysical tools and mystical knowledge enabled Hemes and enables ALL of us to choose our thoughts, feelings, what to do, and who to be.

Hermes was reputedly a real person who lived for 350 years in the flesh in ancient Egypt. Refusing to age, Hermes misspent much of his adolescence as a trickster and petty thief. He was ‘Puck’ in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’. He’s Peter Pan, a Gemini, who never grows old.

A 76 year old Hermes, I’m no longer adolescent. Peter needs and depends on Wendy. My Wendy is Joanna, Aries with Taurus rising. She strongly disagrees with my assessment. I call her ‘Rambull’. I’m a Gemini with Scorpio rising. She calls me ‘a piece of work in progress’. Being born twelve years apart makes us ‘the bores’ at Chinese New Year’s parties. I’m a Pig on a Mountain. She’s a Pig in a Monastery.

Wendy is a Virgo type, a practical and responsible friend who darns Peter’s socks, sews his shadow back on, and patiently awaits his return as he flies away to Neverland whenever he chooses. Wendy brings an awareness that balances Peter’s ambiguous and ambivalent thoughts and feelings with clarity and good sense.

Michael Jackson actually lived in Neverland. Priscilla and Liz were his Wendys. Johnny Depp is Peter Pan who played Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Carribean, Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, and many other child centered characters. Hermes & Aphrodite gave birth to Hermaphrodite. David Bowie has flourished and blossomed in musical creativity, originality, and androgynous performance art.

Know thyself. Common sense without good sense is nonsense. Cultivate clear vision. Make wise choices. Nourish real relationships. Choose right uses of will power. Act decisively. Maintain positive attitudes. Balance courage, strength, wisdom, and grace with critical thinking, real feelings, and right actions. Having solid faith creates strong structures on sound foundations. We can change our destiny and the destiny of our planet on a cellular level by raising our vibration, polarity, and rhythm.

AQUARIUS & PSYCHE

Posted on January 31, 2023 by markseltman

Aquarius & Psyche

Save

Personal & Collective Psyche transform as Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto change Sun signs and personal relationships. Uranus transits each of twelve signs for seven years. It takes eighty-four years for Uranus to pass through twelve signs.

Uranus surprises, revises, and revolutionizes. Uranus entered Aquarius twice in the 20^th Century. 1912 to 1919 brought sudden unexpected political and social upheaval, provocative philosophical & spiritual ideologies, loss of faith in humanity, and lack of trust in ourselves.

1912 ~ “The Unsinkable Titanic” sunk on its maiden voyage… karmic lesson in Hubris

1913 ~ Tornadoes & Floods devastated Middle America. 3,000 dead + $100,000,000 in damages… a painful and expensive lesson in preparedness

1914 ~ World War I ~ Greed, Hatred, Fear, and Terror levied a heavy toll on humanity

1915 ~ Jan. 25… Sun, Uranus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Lunar North Node, energized by Uranus and powered by Aquarius. Alexander Graham Bell began international mass communications through the first transcontinental phone call made Jan 25^th, 1915. A powerful concept’s time had come. The Dark Side: German submarine torpedoed the British Ocean Liner Lusitania

1916 ~ What kind of wall would have prevented Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, from invading the USA? President Wilson retaliated by sending 6,000 troops into Mexico.

Official Gazette of London published the names of 80 United States firms suspected of trading with Germany. Prescott Bush (banker) was on the list.

1917 ~ USA declared war on Germany. Hitler’s enemies became our allies. Hatred & Bigotry was bountiful, catalyzing the worst race riot in American history in Illinois.

Congress amended laws that prohibited beer, wine, and liquor from being profitable

1918 ~ Spanish Flu was the worst pandemic since the Bubonic Plague that wiped out one quarter of Europe’s population in the 14^th century. Daylight Savings Time was born.

1919 ~ Prohibition was ratified as the 18^th amendment to our constitution. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. President Wilson disagreed and went on public tour to fight the decision. He died trying.

Uranus transited Aquarius again in 1996. The final leg of his journey marked the fall of the World Trade Centers. Had we chosen faith, love, and brotherhood over fear, selfishness, and convenience, we’d be building bridges instead of walls!

Neptune was in Aquarius from Nov 27, 1998, to Apr 4, 2011. Neptune eroticized and romanticized male vanity and virility. ‘Getting it up’ got popular when Pfizer introduced Viagra in 1998.

The stock market created a new form of gambling addiction called “internet day trading” where the present is more profitable than the future. DVDs were the fastest growing consumer electronics product in history. Bribes and drugs tarnished the Olympic Games. Innocence and civil liberties were transformed as our ideals, illusions, and delusions about private and social security and stability dissolved. What we think and how we feel about our past, present, and future is what matters most in the eternal here and now.

Neptune impelled illusion & fantasy to find reality when body piercing & tattoos became popular. President Clinton’s first political act of 1996 was to sign a welfare reform bill that made life harder for poor people. The downtrodden were deceived, divided, and demoralized by the powers that be. Madeline Albright became the first female Secretary of State. Ellen DeGeneres was the first gay star on an ABC sitcom. Taiwan’s first democratic election was held. Four major plane crashes happened.

Neptune rules vision, illusion, delusion, and confusion. In 1998, Neptune in Aquarius represented a House of Representatives who impeached Bill Clinton for giving “perjurious false and misleading” testimony in front of a grand jury. Bill’s Hands, Sun, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto are ruled by LEO. Rest assured, Hillary mercilessly spanked Bill’s sorry butt after he got caught being careless and cocky. In Leo of 2005, the IRA announced an end to its armed campaign and committed to complete decommissioning of all its weapons. Catholic and Protestant believers, practitioners, and clergymen voted for peace in Ireland.

Outer planets rule the electronic (Uranus) ether (Neptune). The US government and twenty state attorney generals charged Microsoft with anti-trust practices for dominating the Internet access market. Bill Gates has a Scorpio Sun, Venus, and Saturn, with Leo hands. Bill fantasizes about being god, but has much to hide and too many secrets not to be humble. Bill is a god in the underworld.

Andrew Carnegie said, “He who dies rich, dies disgraced.” Imagine having enough power to make gigantic differences for all of humanity and our planet and not do anything of value? What’s the ethical, moral, and spiritual responsibility for knowing the difference? Many people give more time and money to charity than Bill Gates compared to their available time & money.

Neptune entered Pisces in 2012. 1/10 of 1% afflicted and infected the other 99.9% with physical, mental, emotional, ideological, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual pathogens and disease. Our illusions, delusions, and deceptions of becoming old, poor, sick, disabled, and/or unable to afford bad shit happening were dissolving. Individual and collective hatred, fear, and terror prevent us from transmuting our inequities into equities. We must learn to see clearly and take full responsibility for our behavior, values, thinking, feelings, health, relationships, creativity, philosophy, purpose, hopes, desires, fears, and spirituality.

Whether

Look / See ~ Listen / Hear

Haves rule. Neptune in Pisces symbolizes billions of individuals around the world seeking security, stability, and spiritual answers. Neptune is also revealing despair, fear, and terror. Historians will describe the 21^stCentury as an era of false prophets and false profits. Indentured folks are at the bottom of the barrel scraping for pennies. Plutocrats skim the cream as they bribe and extort the partisan help who permit them to deplete, pollute, and poison our planet, manage our healthcare, regulate our welfare, gamble with our social security, control our pensions, and manage our pretensions. The middle and lower classes are pawns, collateral damage, in a crooked game of chess. If freedom and slavery are white and black, what shades of gray are you?

Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23, 2023, and leaves in 2044. Pluto will expose our dirty little secret agendas and realign humanity’s ideals, hopes, and dreams. Pluto could also hammer the last rusty nail in the impatiently awaiting coffin of humanity’s sanity. It’s up to us…

The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Never have so few been permitted to influence, manipulate, and control so many.

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

Hermes

“All is in THE ALL” “THE ALL is in All”

To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge.

Hermes was the father of the ‘Cell Phone’. Everything is made of cells. Hermes taught that the brain is our hardware whose function is to connect inner with outer cells and fine tune our links.

In ancient Egypt, Hermes was the mystic teacher of Abraham. Hermes reputedly lived to be 350 years old in the flesh as a real person. @ 75, I’m ready to upgrade my operating system from Peter Pan (adolescence) to Hermes (adulthood). Joanna, my ‘Wendy’ (‘Artemis’), calls me “a piece of work in progress”. She says I’m still in my first childhood. Joanna has an Aries Sun with Taurus rising. I call her “RamBull”. Our friends remind us that “We deserve each other!”

“As Above, So Below” Hermes

SAGITTARIUS & PSYCHE

Posted on December 21, 2022 by markseltman

Collective psyche overrules personal psyche. Fate or Destiny? Nature or Nurture? Whatever your astrological symbolism says about you, a tsunami, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, flood, drought, pandemic, war, or banana peel can transform your psyche.

Twelve basic character types are featured in astrology. Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto symbolize family, friends, and enemies and embodies a collective consciousness that includes beliefs, behaviors, and interpersonal relationships. Humanity’s patterns correspond to conditions and positions of inner and outer planets that embody ideologies and circumstances that seed and catalyze outer and inner change. We can choose to see, know, and be our behavior, values, thinking, feelings, will, health, relationships, creativity, philosophy, purpose, dreams and fears, and spirituality.

Astrology has endless permutations and combinations of details. Each and every detail means something, but until you’ve decided on basic character type and context, details are superficial. The meaning of any detail can change because of the question asked and the balance of elements, planets, signs, houses, and aspects. Adding stars, asteroids, and man-made points to a natal chart can make accurate interpretation impossible.

In my metaphysical practice, I examine every detail within the context of the whole picture and every other detail at the same time. Comparing and contrasting symbolic details and combinations of details is vital for observing, examining, and analyzing human behavior. One danger in interpreting isolated details out of context is in substituting one form of predetermination for another by reducing individuality to cookbook formulas. That’s what most readers do. It’s the primary reason I don’t make predictions. Free-will rules. We get to choose what we think and how we feel no matter what is happening. Canned readings may be a good place to start, but they’re no substitute for time and experience. Other people’s ideologies, opinions, and generalizations should not be taken literally or too seriously.

I’m writing this on 12/2/2022. Sun, Mercury, and Venus are comfortable in Sagittarius. A frustrated Mars is battling a lot of misinformation and dealing with too much Gemini bullshit. Mars is trying to communicate with siblings, but instead, he’s creating tension for everyone. Mars rules energy, sports, and military under Saturn’s decisions, missions, and guidance. Saturn in Aquarius is trying to choose healthy ideologies, values, and thinking.

Uranus transited Aries during the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and passed through Taurus 1935~1942. That period symbolized a destabilization of foundations, structures, economies, institutions, and values. Focusing on values forced many people to question materialism. The USA went off the gold standard. President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Labor organized, forming unions that went on strike and engaged in sit-downs across the nation. There was strength in solidarity. Roosevelt defended the Four Essential Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. Having Real Faith might have prevented the human race from racing so randomly, recklessly, and desperately against and toward bad shit happening.

Neptune & Jupiter are happiest in Sagittarius & Pisces. Friendship thrives where and when imagination, vision, and spirit are openly shared. Jupiter is naturally generous. He also attracts excess and greed. Jupiter can make you believe anything. His voice is designed to persuade. Neptune can be a martyr, savior, or saint. He can also be a liar, crook, or master criminal. Together, Jupiter and Neptune can heal the widening gap between haves and havenots. Neptune must shed the veil of illusion and delusion while Jupiter takes the reigns of confusion, collusion, and irresolution, and redirects us to clarity, inclusion, and resolution. Haves must share wealth with havenots for the betterment of mankind and for our world. Pluto in Capricorn will expose secrets that need to be seen. Pluto can transform business in ways that bring humans together instead of irreconcilably dividing them through partisan Politics, Business, and Religion. How can we transform fear into courage and hate into love? Is it possible to truly balance our outer circumstances with our inner worlds?

Uranus transited Sagittarius from 1981-1988. Politics became more accessible to females. Sandra D. O’Connor became the first Woman elected to the Supreme Court. Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman nominated by the Democratic Party for Vice President. Benazir Bhutto became the first Muslim female prime minister in Pakistan’s first free election since 1977.

Uranus brings sudden and unexpected upheaval and disaster. The space shuttle Challenger exploded on takeoff in 1986, while millions watched in horror on their TV screens. Ronald Reagan created “Star Wars”, an absurd and overly expensive national defense idea. Greenpeace’s flagship, Rainbow Warrior, was bombed while protesting France’s nuclear testing. George Bush Sr. was the first sitting Vice President elected as president since 1836. IBM introduced personal PCs. AT&T’s communication monopoly ended via a powerful combo of Anti-Trust Laws & the Department of Justice in 1974.

In 2018, Donald Trump announced a sixth branch of our military services that organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect US. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force. Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, Uranus in Taurus, and Neptune in Pisces represent fundamental conflicts and issues like ‘money vs values’ and ‘religion vs spirituality’. We must find and embrace healthy resolutions and actions for all mankind and for our planet.

Neptune transited Sagittarius from 1970 to 1984. The idealism of the 60’s turned to pessimism with a marked lack of trust in national institutions. The war in Vietnam united masses of skeptical angry protesters, who were ready for confrontation. The Arab oil embargo created a major energy crisis in 1973 to finally ‘teach’ the USA not to take energy for granted. We keep forgetting to remember to observe the handwriting on our walls!

Gas is expensive, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the economic and social consequences of unbridled public and personal abuses of precious natural resources. Raising prices is essential to increasing profits. Fossil fuel profiteers have prevented energy independence by controlling and manipulating natural resources that no private individuals should own. Controversial pipelines are endangering our environment with long range consequences for our bodies, souls, and body and soul of our planet!

Sagittarius rules publishing and religion. In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death after publishing The Satanic Verses. Rushdie’s tales of good and evil incited riots in India and book burnings in England. His literary success fueled an ocean of fear and stirred teeming cauldrons of Islamic hatred! After 23 years of threats, on August 12, 2022, a man stabbed novelist Salman Rushdie multiple times as he was about to give a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.

Donald Trump attracted and motivated masses of Evangelicals, Holocaust deniers, White supremacists, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religious fundamentalists who embraced the dark force. Having a bible in one hand and an AK in the other is not about GOD! It’s no surprise that Trump was inaugurated on Jan 20, 2017 while Uranus was in Aries.

Sun, Mercury, and Venus in Sagittarius opposing Gemini and Mars is a good time to shift our values and philosophies from profit over people to social justice and equality for all. It makes good sense to care for and nurture everyone and everything.

Neptune rules false prophets, illusion, delusion, deception, and victimization. Richard Nixon was the first President to announce his resignation while Neptune was in Scorpio in 1974. New York was the first city to be bailed out of bankruptcy by the federal government in 1975. Neptune can also be imaginary and visionary. A religious paradigm shifted when the Catholic Church elected its first non-Italian pope in four centuries. Mother Theresa accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in the name of the poor. In 1979, Televangelist Jerry Falwell founded the ‘Moral Majority’. It became an ‘Immoral Majority’ sometime prior to January 20^th of 2001. Pluto in Sag brought Donald Trump to politics. A natal Mercury (11^th house) square Neptune (2nd house) aspect can be interpreted as pretending to be your friend to get your money. Inwardly curved pinkie fingers confirm Donald lies. He doesn’t realize the difference. Don grifted us until Jan 6 2021 when Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, and Uranus in Taurus raised mass conscience, no longer permitting Don to piss on humanity.

Authors Note: Not everyone with curved pinkies is a liar. Many learned to behave in ways that worked in early childhood and are still trying to be themselves. Old habits die hard.

Neptune rules chemicals and drugs. The first test-tube baby was conceived without a womb when Neptune was in Leo in 1978. Genetic engineering generated new horrors for theologians, religious fundamentalists, and ideological extremists. Environmental activists protested industries creating “Acid Rain”. ‘Three Mile Island’ fiasco derailed several major nuclear energy projects in 1979. The World Health Organization announced an end to smallpox. Crack cocaine became popular. A deadly sexual epidemic was officially named AIDS in 1981. Fear of an eventual pandemic spread. Covid 19 was official on Mar 11 2020. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto were in Capricorn. Aggression and gun control dominated personal and collective psyche. A dark side of Uranus in Taurus & Neptune in Pisces is a constant flow of blame and denial from extremist ideologies that catalyzed an insurrection on Jan 6 2021.

Pluto transited Sagittarius from 1995 to 2008. Political extremism, corporate greed, religious fanaticism, white supremacy, Second amendment rights, fundamentalism, and terrorism germinated quickly in fertile soil, transforming politics, business, and religion. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing law student. Pluto was in Sag and Sun was in Scorpio. The Middle East peace process was disrupted. President Clinton resumed diplomatic relations with communist Vietnam. In July 1997, Great Britain let go of Hong Kong. Hundreds of thousands of Black Men flocked to Washington to march for freedom. It was the first time in 40 years Republicans controlled congress. Y2K was not end time. People woke up, brushed their teeth, and went to work.

Sex scandals rocked the Catholic Church in 1995. The House of Representatives impeached and later acquitted Bill Clinton for lying about his sex life. Two students killed themselves after murdering twelve students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado. The Unabomber was caught and sentenced to life in prison. Oklahoma City bombing established large-scale American terrorism on our soil. On 9/11, government power transformed, giving leaders permission to supersede human rights and civil liberties. Political machines preempted war without world consent. In 2022, lairs of corporate foxes tended hen houses while packs of political wolves herded sheep. Sacred cows gave birth to golden calves.

Saturn began his journey through Sagittarius on December 23, 2014. Pluto was visiting his siblings in eleven other homes for twenty-eight years prior to that. Astrologers predicted Saturn would wield a sobering influence on society as he transited Sagittarius to Capricorn. Saturn’s natural process is accepting responsibility, laying foundations, building structures, and being methodical, disciplined, and focused. Saturn rules bureaucracy, business, energy, transportation, education, communications, food, housing, healthcare, law, politics, and religion. Father Time asks us to remember, to be here now, and to plan as far into the future as possible.

Sagittarius rules transportation. He loves prestige, luxury, power, and status. He leaves racing for Aries and showing off for Leo. The Lords of the automobile industry must shift their paradigms of profit before people to people first. Transportation must be designed from a more spiritual perspective. Guzzling fossil fuels is unsustainable. Do we really need hundreds of horses galloping under our hoods?

Perpetuating illusions that overly expensive gas guzzling cars are glamorous, maintains delusions that it’s OK to deplete our planet’s natural resources and poison everyone and everything. Car companies pretend their products are healthy! We must rethink what healthy transportation will be for our future. Raising mass consciousness will profit humanity and our planet. We can no longer get away with substituting money for values and religion for spirituality.

Whether our planet warms, cools, floods, quakes, droughts, burns, or is blown by giant winds, fossil fuel prices still remain artificially repressed. Legislation and energy umbilical cords prevent sustainable energy minded competitors from building sound structures on solid foundations. Fuel efficient, non-polluting, practical, and economical mass transit is essential to creating a healthy world and economy. We must cut our energy demands and costs while thinking globally and acting locally. Transportation must reform and transform.

We go wherever and whenever we want in the comfort and safety of our cars. Our hidden costs are insidious, usurious, and deceitful as we guzzle gas, fight oil wars, deplete and squander finite resources, and poison Mom’s body, circulatory, and respiratory systems.

Too much carbon dioxide, monoxide, and toxic gases hover in space and time by degree. Smoke, smog, chemical, and human waste poison our oceans, reservoirs, rivers, streams, and faucets. A pandemic of pestilential pollution binds to the walls of our veins and coagulates in our arteries like cholesterol on its way to a coronary. Highways and roads are like varicose veins feeding bloated glands that nourish cancerous sores we call cities. It’s time to shift our usurious paradigms and steer ourselves clear from death and destruction toward a hopeful future characterized by clear intent, healthy values, critical thinking, honest feelings, right use of will, good physical health, honest relationships, freedom to explore and understand our fears, creativity, philosophy, purpose, dreams, and spirituality.

Greed and avarice are symptoms of poisonous partisan political philosophies, flawed fundamentalist faiths, extremist social ideologies, and too many desperate people. As we wander through barren deserts and toxic wastelands, too many unhealthy psyches with too many guns and second amendment rights are worshipping sacred cows and praying to golden calves. Why are we trading money for values and substituting religion for spirituality?

Why must we lose what we value to value what we had? Jupiter transited Sagittarius this year, shamelessly flaunting greed in capitalism and revealing present and future costs of climate change. Choosing healthy values and accepting full responsibility for being healthy and happy is Spiritual Alchemy! Our fate is unknown; however, our destiny is in our hands.

Uranus transits Taurus May 14, 2018 ~ Nov 7, 2025. Time for rebirth, to make sense, to accept responsibility, and to choose courage, strength, grace, and wisdom. Combining truth with nobility, dignity, integrity, ethics, and virtue will heal everyone and everything. How can we see the forest from the trees? Can we all become healthier in more sustainable ways? “The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding”. Hermes

GREENING OF THE PSYCHE

Posted on November 8, 2022 by markseltman

GREENING OF THE PSYCHE

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

Hermes was father of alchemy, god of wisdom, mentor of Abraham, Roman scribe, Mercury, messenger for gods and ruler of Gemini. As Loki, Norse god of mischief, Hermes transforms looking into seeing, listening into hearing, and believing into knowing. Hermes was reputedly a real person who lived for 350 years in the flesh in ancient Egypt. In Tarot, Hermes is a magician at a crossroads who must choose a correct path, clear vision, and pure intent. A pragmatic philosophy enabled Hermes to offer us the tools, knowledge, and wisdom to be healthier and happier and to better maintain and nourish everyone and everything.

Hermes was the real father of the Cell phone. He taught his disciples that thought is made up of individual cells, physically, mentally, and spiritually connected to all other cells on all other planes at the same time. Physical, Mental, and Spiritual planes merge to form a metaphysical Cell tower. Making Connections and tuning our links is our work. Our brains are our communication hardware while our minds transmit and receive messages.

“While ALL is inTHE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in ALL. The inner nature of THE ALL is unknowable. Whoever understands this truth hath great knowledge”. An unknowable and indefinable spirit rules everyone and everything. Spirit is the essence that bonds body and soul with the whole.

Alchemy is not turning lead into gold. Alchemy is a set of magical formulas, tools, and esoteric instruction for becoming healthier, happier, and more fulfilled in life. By combining courage, strength, wisdom, and grace (gold) with patience, structure, discipline, and focus (lead), we can choose and have healthy goals, meaningful relationships, and fulfilling accomplishments. We can become more satisfied as our life choices and actions support our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual balance and growth. We can combine critical thinking, real feelings, and true faith to build sound structures on solid foundations.

Personal Spirit depends on the recognition, realization, and manifestation of Great Spirit. Focusing mental forces can transmute one mental vibration into another. Taking a leap of faith, establishing connections, and tuning our links enables us to be fully present in time and space. Focusing our minds on what we truly desire allows us to gather priceless value from thin air.

Polarity

The law of attraction works best when you know what you want and your intentions are clear. Polarity is spiritual magnetism. Opposition creates awareness, which sets destiny in motion. Negative thinking may be transformed into right actions by letting go of fear and choosing love. Vibrations of hate can be transformed into vibrations of love through the science and art of ‘Polarization’, a phase of mental alchemy known and practiced by ancient masters.

The Secret” is 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 by degree; all extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled”.

Where does heat end and cold begin? When does darkness stop and light begin? What about positive and negative, hard and soft, sharp and dull, noisy and quiet, high and low? The same principle operates on mental and emotional planes. Hate is black. Love is white. All thoughts, ideologies, feelings, and beliefs are varying shades of gray.

Correspondence, Mentalism, Vibration, Rhythm, Cause, Effect, and Gender are the other six laws Hermes used to visualize clearly. Transcendental astronomy became Astrology. Transcendental chemistry was Alchemy. Transcendental psychology was mystic psychology. Having inner and outer wisdom enabled critical thinkers throughout history to unlock ancient mysteries by combining old practices with new principles. Confucius, Galileo, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Nostradamus, Leonardo Da Vinci, George Washington, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell were all Grand Masters of Metaphysical Thought.

Astrologers practice 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 characters and affairs of humans on earth. Astrology unlocks ancient and modern mysteries that reveal how every relationship changes every other relationship on a cellular level by raising or diminishing its vibration, polarity, and rhythm. A horoscope is a script. A diversity of astrological symbols embodies the cast, plots, and stories of a very disorganized and dysfunctional family we call humanity. That’s why we have anthropomorphic gods and formalized religions. Religious doctrines, rules, commandments, and laws are supposed to keep us sane, but instead are making us insane. Is it possible to be sane in an insane world?

The human race is a race against bad shit happening! An immoral and spiritually bankrupt society worships idols from amateur hours and applauds scripted survivors. Masses of meek minds are mesmerized by meaningless media. Captivated by TV courtroom melodramas, we’ve become critical and judgmental of the pettiest of behaviors. Cunning narcissists, warped exhibitionists, and pious perverts perniciously present their sleaziest selves to a desperate and depraved demand. A culture of winners and losers has become a world of more haves with more and many more have nots with less than ever.

Appallingly apparent apathy produces pandemic pathological paradigms. Where are our healthiest role models? Why do we mistake no love for tough love? We preach love and sympathy and practice hate and fear. We fixate on sex, death, violence, and disease, while fear, greed, mistrust, and shortsightedness sabotage our personal and collective psyches.

Pious philosophies, pointless partisan political paradigms, and pestilential pecuniary practices pollute higher purpose and poison our psyches. Faulty families feast frenzily on flawed feelings, vague values, and toxic thinking, copiously spiced with needless fear, desperation, and hatred. As we analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize our insane ideologies and beliefs, we sacrifice our dignity, integrity, nobility, and virtue on the altars of nonsense.

‘Psychic Pollution’ is Mother of All Pollution. We must wake up and whiff the weirdness. There’s a huge difference between common sense and good sense. Why do we consume massive amounts of highly toxic chemicals every day in our wars with insects, rodents, weeds, dirt, stains, odors, germs, bacteria, viruses and other invisible enemies? Why are we marinating in chemicals that heat and cool us; power our transportation; provide us with products; color, flavor, and preserve our foods; and enable us to communicate on a grand scale? Why do we fight senseless energy wars? Why do we choose fossil fuel guzzling vehicles that deplete natural resources and pollute our planet? Why do we breathe, drink, wash, and apply risky substances to scalps, mouths, armpits, fingers, toes, and crotches. Must everything be bright white, squeaky clean, and lemon fresh?

Puzzlers puzzle while guzzlers guzzle. Pollution and depletion are profitable. We value our health and the health of our planet in dollars while we short-shortsightedly debate CLIMATE CHANGE. Energy, communications, transportation, pharmaceutical, apparel, and cosmetics industries are busy creating chemicals that protect us from their past, present, and future chemicals. Why do we have to screen ourselves from harmful rays from our sun? How soon will we ‘All’ need air and water purifiers? How soon will oxygen canisters be marketed like bottled water? When will designer oxygen masks and lemon scented oxygen become popular? Will we be purchasing a “breath of fresh air” at oxygen bars?

Industrialization has transformed cities and towns into malignant melanomas that fester and ooze like open sores joining veins and arteries that bleed through decaying spigots attached to our bodies and spirits. Roads and highways, shrouded in carbon monoxide and dioxide, pollute our planet’s respiratory and circulatory systems and body. Toxic streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and oceans of negative beliefs catalyze fear and terror that endangers our well-being and the well-being of our planet. Contagious viruses contaminate the microbes of our bodies, mycelium of our earth, mitochondria of our minds, and microbiomes of our souls! We must wake up and smell the Psychic Garbage. Spiritual Cancer is Mother of all Cancers.

Vengeance is not a solution to violence. Too many minds focusing on toxic thought can catalyze self-fulfilling prophecies. Lies deceive, walls divide, boundaries detach, behavior obscures, and censorship destroys. We preach love and faith and practice hate and fear. Our most difficult challenges, greatest obstacles, and worst impediments are clearly symptoms of ideological, philosophical, and spiritual dis-ease. We can close landfills, but what do we do with malignant mind-fills and toxic emotional-spills?

How many gilded towers, glitzy gambling casinos, graven images, shark tanks, beauty queens, celebrity idols, and fired apprentices do we need? Why must we bow before self-indulgent-self-appointed emperors on bullshit plated pedestals. Moral corruption and spiritual blindness are perilous paths to the rape of innocence, bankruptcy of values, and blindness for our collective soul.

By observing our plant world, we can learn how to green our psyches. To feed a healthy mind, we must first select healthy thoughts for planting. Having positive attitudes fertilizes favorable circumstances that enable new hope to sprout. Society must have healthy nutrients and supportive environments in which to create strong roots. We need to sow seeds of positive change in the fertile soils of our personal and collective minds, hearts, and psyches. We must weed out and prune destructive and unproductive thoughts. We must eradicate and eliminate unhealthy codes, doctrines, laws, ideas, and practices that make no sense. We must pull the weeds of greed and prune the branches of power to serve humanity in the best possible ways.

Envisioning humanity as a flourishing garden insures, assures, and ensures a bountiful harvest of good health, happiness, prosperity, and peace of mind for all. We can harvest love and unity by supporting all gardens and harvests. The time is now to nurture healthy relationships and nourish healthy conditions that fortify our world. Our gardens will bud and blossom after we fertilize our crops with caring, sharing, diversity, and tolerance. Many plant species can flourish together in a garden. Many types of people can blossom, flourish, and thrive together in our world. Love, truth, and your healthy vote will disinfect, heal, and nourish everyone and everything.

Gemini & Hands

Posted on May 24, 2021 by markseltman

Self Portrait

You don’t need a Gemini sun, moon, ascendant, planets, or house placements to be Gemini. Thinking Types have square palms and long fingers. No matter what your astrology says, pure Geminis have square palms, widely spread long fingers, flexible joints, supple thumbs, and dominant first phalanges on slightly knotty first phalanges with rounded tips. Gemini (mutable) is mentally and socially adaptable. Aquarius (fixed) is unique, eccentric, and innovative. Libra (cardinal) is strategic, balanced, and fair. Of course, there are dark sides…

When major lines in thinking hands split at their ends, that person is able to see many possibilities and outcomes. They often think or feel they have too many choices and decisions to make in order to get whatever done or go wherever they’re going. Mutable types are the most indecisive of the three modalities, especially air and water.

Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces are water signs. Feelings must be balanced with Thinking. Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini are the opposing forces. Ambivalent feelings are incarnate in chains and islands on heart lines. Branches of feelings appear to be magnetically drawn to thinking. Parents who aren’t physically or emotionally present and / or don’t talk about their feelings are teaching their children to analyze, compartmentalize, and rationalize feelings. Rationalizing is safer than verbalizing feelings. A physically or emotionally absent parent as role model in the formative years is a recipe for struggling to learn to value ones’ thinking, feelings, and being. A short index finger often goes with a head ruled heart. Split lines are split for many reasons. Most people have challenging journeys.

Astrology reveals potentials. It’s impossible to accurately foretell a future. It’s hard to predict what we’ll do with potentials in our natal horoscope. Symbols may or may not reflect what you choose to integrate into your character and behavior.

Hands are topographical maps of character in past, present, and future. It’s easy to see the person’s corresponding strengths and weaknesses. While exercising our free will, changing our thinking, modifying our behavior, and re-scripting our story, we can observe the results, clearly etched and reflected in the morphology and topography of our hands over time.

Healthy Geminis have long straight pinkie fingers. They’re master bullshit detectors, acutely aware of their own bullshit, like knowingly being tactful and diplomatic when they’re much better off being frank and direct. Critical thinking, careful decision making, and crystal clear communication make good sense out of nonsense. What you see is what you get!

Dominant Gemini has square palms and long fingers, firm pink elastic skin with loop fingerprints. Long ring fingers with whorl prints add attractiveness, talent, salesmanship, risk taking, and luck. Knowing when to stop is the challenge. Gambling is a bad habit and horrible addiction. Dominant middle fingers, square tips, and developed first knots add technical, scientific, and pragmatic attributes. Powerful index fingers increase leadership potentials, speaking abilities, career potentials, partnerships, friendships, and goals.

Geminis make great lawyers, bankers, doctors, orators, writers, engineers, teachers, salesmen, accountants, and shopkeepers. Dominant pinkie types play small musical instruments that require physical and mental dexterity. Music makes great sense since hearing is Gemini’s physical sense. I’ve worked at special events with top magicians with dominant pinkies. They astound their audiences while deceiving their eyes and minds.

Cultivated Geminis are consummate communicators, social magnets, intuitive geniuses, and great judges of character. Most social of all signs, Gemini is often accused of being an impractical dreamer because he loves ideas so much. He can detach himself from mundane reality, still remaining objective about everyone and everything. He overvalues intellect and undervalues emotion. He feels threatened when his ideas and opinions are ignored without good reason. He can accept your viewpoint, even though he disagrees with you. He’s easily distracted and doesn’t want responsibility for making decisions that have consequences. Longing to be free and unrestricted, he actually needs most to stay focused, disciplined, and structured. Earning rewards requires doing whatever needs to be done with courage, strength, wisdom, and grace.

Hermes (Mercury) was the shortest god. The pinkie is the shortest finger. If the tip is longer than the crease between the first and second phalanx of the ring finger, it’s long. If shorter, it’s short. Dominant pinkie folk are often short in stature like Ed Harris (Sag) with slender body and face. Pure types are animated, with dark hair and penetrating eyes with crow’s feet in the corners. Gemini is the most youthful of all types, eternally childlike, they love children. Men often sport thin beards like Johnny Depp (Gemini). Michael Jackson (Virgo, ruled by Mercury) was a real life Peter Pan. He actually lived in ‘Neverland’. Brooke, Liza, and Liz were Michael’s Wendy’s.

Gemini is androgynous. In Greek myth, Hermes & Aphrodite (siblings) had an incestuous relationship that spawned Hermaphrodite. Dominance of Hermes in one’s psyche (known or unknown) creates bi-sexual tendencies. David Bowie was Capricorn with dominant Hermes. Mick Jagger is Hermes with strong Leo. Cate Blanchett is Hermes with a powerful Taurus sun. She played Bob Dylan, who is Gemini. Boy George is Gemini. Grace Jones, Taurus, has Mercury conjunct Uranus in Gemini. That’s a lot of uniqueness and eccentricity.

Our pinkie finger reveals our ability to communicate. It indicates truthfulness. Early family dynamic can be observed in how the pinkie is set and held. Very short or low set pinkies reveal lack of trust as a major issue. Many women with low set pinkies have told me they have trouble having orgasms. Their real challenge is in trusting someone enough to have real intimacy. Lengths and proportions of pinkie fingers symbolizes technical, language, sexual, financial, and family potentials.

Gemini rules hands and governs our nervous and respiratory systems. Health issues revolve around nervous and bronchial systems. Geminis have potential problems with headaches, thyroid glands, memory loss, and speech impediments. I’m Gemini. I’ve coped with Tinnitus (ringing in my head) for many years. It’s the worm in my apple.

Gold and diamond rings are normally found on the ring (marriage) finger. You’ll see rings on pinkie fingers of acquisitive people. Pinkie rings can symbolize sublimation of sexual energies to accomplish something that requires a lot of libido. I once examined a group of fifty young people born into powerful families in the 80’s. Considering the prosperity of the period, it seemed a paradox that every person I read had short phalanges on the bottom segment of their little fingers. Money will never be the motivation for their career choices. In the final analysis, their families, personal matters, and values will drive these individuals.

Would you buy a used car from this Gemini? Gemini’s liabilities are deceitfulness, trickiness, fickleness, nervousness, restlessness, and shallowness. People preaching on soapboxes, pickpockets, and most con artists have powerful pinkies (inwardly curving). Donald’s curve inward, confirmed in his natal astrology by a close Mercury Neptune square. It’s not what you do, but what you get away with that matters. Our trickster is not hiding his dark side. The streets are littered with conned contractors, jilted beauty queens, and fired apprentices. The Emperor grabs our pussies as he tortures our mother. If you believe mom (GAIA) is happy about her body, respiratory, circulatory systems, and spirit, we’re all in serious trouble!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Many wonderful people have curved pinkies. They learned the hard way as little children to ‘act nice’. Their job was to avoid confrontation and keep the peace. Learning to say ‘NO’ is a lifelong challenge for them (especially with a large ball of thumb). It’s hard to straighten a curved pinkie, but it can be done. The person must stop trying to please and be whatever everyone else wants and needs them to be. If you’re pretending whatever is OK and it isn’t, check your pinkies.

VIRGO & PSYCHE

Posted on August 23, 2020 by markseltman

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 20^th 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 26^th 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 & PSYCHE

Posted on July 23, 2020 by markseltman

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!

TAURUS & PSYCHE

Posted on April 24, 2020 by markseltman

Uranus transited Taurus from 1935~1942. By ignoring the hard lessons learned, resolutions made, and actions taken, our psyche has been polluted and progress poisoned. It doesn’t take a seer to see that the human race has become a race against bad shit happening. We’re primed and ready for a loss of hope and faith. Pundits joke, but having no hope is no laughing matter. We’re feeling impotent, incompetent, and indifferent, and resigned to apathy and acceptance as Uranus transits Taurus again.

People focused on values and questioned materialism. Labor organized, forming unions that went on strike and engaged in sit-downs across the nation. There was strength in solidarity. The USA went off the gold standard. President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act and defended the Four Essential Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. What happened?

Uranus in Taurus awakened aristocracy, autocracy, and plutocracy. Greed and anti-socialism flourished. Uranus in Taurus brought William Randolph Hurst and Orson Welles, both bulls, who bullied each other over the creation and release of Welles’ movie, ‘Citizen Kane’. Welles smugly, immodestly, and arrogantly modeled the notorious media mogul Charles Foster Kane after Hearst. Despite his abundant natural charm, brilliant portrayal, ground breaking cinematography, and exceptional directing, Welles art was no match for Hearst’s wealth and capacity to influence courts and public opinion. Welles persisted in his righteous defiance of Hearst, while Hearst relentlessly tortured Welles with legalities and bludgeoned him with bad publicity until Welles could no longer afford his principles, rise to his challenges, or control his self-indulgences. Ironically, like Kane, Welles longed for his lost innocence at the end of his life.

‘Less is more’ learned Midas as he yearned for a touch of gold, got it, and transformed his beloved daughter into a cold hunk of metal. His food turned to gold as it touched his lips. How many gilded towers, glitzy gambling casinos, graven images, beauty queens, shark tanks, and celebrity idols do we need? One important lesson of Midas is in having stability, security, good health, meaningful work, and satisfying relationships, and not needing more than that. Healthy humans value what they have, nourish their relationships, choose higher purpose, and feel satisfaction and fulfillment without needing affluence.

Having too much or too little of anything raises our awareness of what truly matters. Black and white, all or nothing, good and evil, love and hate, and rich and poor are opposites of equal value; identical in nature, but different by degree. An old billionaire dying of cancer will gladly trade $ for youth and good health. A famous celebrity with a brain injured child would gratefully scrub public toilets at Grand Central Station to heal her child.

Can a ‘Stable Genius’ destabilize a nervous and fickle public with lies and manipulation? Our political, financial, and religious ideologies, philosophies, and paradigms are partisan! On November 3, will we see our Emperor for who he is or who he wants us to see? In 2021, Pluto will conjunct Saturn and square Mercury, Saturn will square Sun and Uranus, and Neptune will square a Gemini North Node. Our time of reckoning is now because hindsight is 2020. The handwriting is on the wall.

The New York Stock Exchange and Federal Reserve are bulls. Philosophical, ideological, and spiritual paradigms must shift as we approach a ‘Black Tuesday’ worse than ‘29. As transiting Saturn opposes our Stock Exchange’s natal Chiron and squares its natal Moon, transiting Pluto will be squaring natal Jupiter, Uranus will conjunct Venus, and Neptune will oppose Mars! People born 1935 ~ 1942 know and understand unexpected gain and reversal means that we must lose what we have to value what we had. It’s time for a new generation to learn those very same lessons again.

Needing guns is a symptom of a decaying culture. There’s lots of nostalgia and talk of Civil War these days. Resurrection-ism was imposed on the south because the Confederacy lost the war. Donald Trump has given bigots permission to express their hatred. Black and white wages endless war on battlefields of infinite shades of gray. What will we do when Repuglican’t bullies with their laws, fascists and terrorists with semi-automatic weapons of mass-destruction, and evangelical fundamentalists wielding bibles and handguns show up at our doors? Sensible people are afraid of crazy people. I’m not a fan of guns, but protecting family, friends, and humanity is a good idea.

Alchemy is not transforming lead into gold. Alchemy is synchronizing Saturn with the Sun and blending the Sun’s talents, energy, optimism, and initiative with Saturn’s skills, skepticism, master planning, determination, and enduring patience. We need our family, friends, and everyone else to be equal and to live, work, and play in harmony. Clients ask, “How long will I live?” “When will I die?” Everyone dies. Life is about quality, not quantity. I encourage my clients to be responsible for their thoughts and feelings.

Courage, strength, wisdom, and grace embody the four pillars that support good mental, emotional, and physical health. Responsibility, discipline, determination, and devotion are ideas, ideals, and values that help us build sound structures on solid foundations. Spirituality is innate, but godliness is earned by practicing faith, virtue, integrity, loyalty, dignity, nobility, and honesty. Shine your brightest light on your innate talents, abilities, and desires. Be clear in your intentions, decisions, and actions. You too can be an alchemist, your own best friend, and master bull shit detector.

Limericks by Steve Benko ~ Artwork by Mark Seltman

Said Donald, “Our minions I’ll galvanize,
And with porn stars and thugs again fraternize.
Vlad, I’m walking on air,
But though Mueller was fair,
For my insults I’ll never apologize.”

Mark Seltman's Real Palmistry Blog

Hold Up Your Hands

Category Archives: planets