Expect the expected. Bad shit happened. Dolores was forced to resign. Too many personal problems got in the way of her being able to properly perform her duties. A spanking new supervisor synchronously arrived as Dolores departed. Aside from Do, Dorothy was farther from Dolores than Kansas is from OZ. Dorothy, a Jewish American Princess (JAP) of the mental illness world, looked a lot better than she was. In her mid-thirties, she was petite, pretty, and shapely. Her personality was hard, cold, and phony. She was instantly disliked by patients and staff but had no clue how anyone felt. Most of us smiled to her face, turned away, made weird faces, or stuck a finger down our throats… a sadly laughable situation.
I felt nauseous as I wondered if Dorothy’s sucrose smile and pasty complexion resulted from too much institutional food and florescent lighting. Dorothy was spiteful, contrary, and a stickler for rules and regulations. She was angry that she hadn’t made it to the top of the trash heap yet. She had also failed after many attempts at getting pregnant. ‘Thank god’, I mused. Dorothy might actually be a mother of an anti-Christ. As I got to know her, I began seeing her as a festering canker sore from hell. She sabotaged patient progress and undermined my success at promoting class participation. I hated her.
One day after work we drove away from the employee parking lot at the same time. I followed her onto the Styx River Parkway heading south on Purgatory’s east side. High speed traffic wove perilous webs of chaos betwixt lanes. I imagined myself as Mel Gibson’s Road Warrior and tailgated Dorothy within inches. I’d surely have rear ended her had she braked, but I was confident she’d stay cool.
Glancing nervously in her rear-view mirror, Dorothy wondered what I’d do next. I’d pull up beside her, smile, and drop back on her tail again. That was the beginning of the end of my time working at the hospital and of my letting go of undying idealism and optimism. I decided I wasn’t going to let anyone get away with anything. I felt protected by the Public Service Union. It’s not easy to get rid of anyone who doesn’t want to leave. You have to make a person so miserable that they choose to leave. I returned to work the following week.
Dorothy acted as though nothing had happened. She used the rules to attempt to force me to quit. She hit me hardest in my most vulnerable spot. My desire to work with high functioning patients had been my primary goal since I’d arrived. Dorothy insisted I must devote myself to serving the whole patient population. The Cabinet knew Dorothy was an asshole. They were deaf to my argument that the obvious lack of meaningful programming for the dozen highest functioning patients needed addressing. I’d built trust with this group and made considerable progress. My other argument was that my salary was less than two percent of what those twelve patients were costing the state yearly. What a fabulous investment!
I began flooding Dorothy with memos justifying my self-created career. I copied Zandor, rehab counselor, the cabinet, and the big wigs in Central Mental Health Care in Purgatory. My public relations strategy to save myself was poorly received. Aside from the fact that no one but me was willing to take responsibility, I was kicking the cabinet below the belt by confronting them.
Dorothy countered with an attack on my schedule. She insisted I work three days instead of two. She chose days when she knew I had other teaching jobs and personal business. I tried to compromise, but could clearly see my efforts and circumstances were becoming futile.
“Perhaps you are too creative for the rehab department”, Dorothy told me. “There’s no room for your pioneering spirit”. I was soon summoned to the hospital director’s office for a private conference. She wanted to discuss my dissatisfaction with Dorothy’s supervisory actions, a pretense to warn me that I had better keep hospital business within the hospital. I clenched my teeth and fists and readied myself for battle. The head of rehab for the entire underworld had told me that our hospital was not permitted by law to operate a sheltered workshop under the plan the cabinet had previously encouraged and approved. They’d scammed everyone to enhance next year’s budget.
For several months, Dorothy continued to be abusive and oblivious to my needs and the needs and concerns of staff and patients. She pulled rank on everyone as often as she could. Not only did we feel unappreciated, we were degraded and looked down upon. Every member of the rehab staff was eventually forced to resign. Though I was there the least, I held out the longest. Dorothy had been mandated to clean house. The hidden agenda was obvious. I wrote the following letter of resignation.
It saddens me to be writing this, but I’ve been given no choice. Dorothy was mandated to clean house and fulfill your hidden agenda. This may sound paranoid, but Dorothy has forced every dedicated staff member to leave. Everyone was aware of Dorothy’s physical handicaps and personal problems. We tried to empathize and made allowances for negative attitudes, but that’s no excuse for her complete lack of caring and support. Dorothy has been oblivious to the needs and concerns of her staff and the needs and concerns of patients.
It’s ironic to say that your staff felt underappreciated. They felt degraded and harassed as Dorothy relentlessly made counterproductive and unreasonable demands. She attempted to delegate her responsibilities to Zandor, who received a counseling memo when he objected to doing out of title work. Billy (the other half of my position) received a counseling memo for his generosity in rewarding the dedicated and hardworking maintenance staff a ‘THANK YOU! ‘ Plaque that he paid for himself. They graciously helped us set up the woodworking shop.
Enclosed is a copy of my latest correspondence with Dorothy. Her response was that I’m “too creative” for a rehab department that has “no room for my pioneering spirit”. She insisted I must change my schedule to a Monday or Friday, knowing these days conflict with my other work. She threatened to assign me tasks which clearly don’t use my obvious abilities to their advantage. I’m still waiting for a work evaluation that was due weeks ago.
I’m no longer concerned with the future of my career. I’m concerned about the future of the patients. They’ve been deprived of caring and capable staff members including Dolores, Bruce, Barbara, Billy, Maya, Carolyn, and Zandor. I plan to expose your cruel injustice and confirm your complicity in Dorothy’s horrible behavior and bad management practices.
I sent copies to Dorothy, the cabinet, and other department managers around the hospital. Cabinet members were hostile as they interrogated me behind closed doors. They were on the offensive and squirming in their seats as they attempted to put me on the defensive. They all agreed I was projecting my unresolved conflicts with my mother onto Dorothy. They suggested I seek psychiatric help for my problem. I said I was planning to write a (this) book about my experience and approach the media. They told me they’d find a way to ruin me.
I found my “I don’t get mad, I get even” button and pinned it next to my “Since I gave up hope, I feel much better” button on the lapel of my jacket. I couldn’t believe I’d let down the patients who I’d so eagerly promised to help and champion. Gene’s prophecy had come true. I’d disappear and never see anyone again. I had strengthened everyone’s fear and distrust of everyone’s everything all the time.
I chose twelve high functioning patients for my vocational design classes. It took a few weeks to obtain permissions from the treatment teams. Zandor persuaded members by explaining and clarifying how my classes met clinical goals for each patient.
Most patients were wary. They said ‘yes’ because I offered an opportunity for a unique experience. Initial classes were discussions and planning sessions for future classes. I needed my teams to feel inspired and look forward to their weekly time slots with me.
You’ve met Jesus, Gene, and Benny. Meet David, Jim, and Juan. This was my first session.
David was a die-hard fundamentalist Jew. While shooting cocaine, he and his best friend fought a life and death battle, a drug-crazed rampage, a War of Good and Evil. David was God. His friend, the Devil, lost his life. David’s thick, dense, tough-skinned hands made me imagine what it might be like to get run over by a garbage truck and walk away. A hefty man, David tried to kill himself by tying a noose around his neck and jumping out of a 2nd story window. He survived and had the scars to prove it. David wanted a relationship with me because I was ‘into’ Jewish mysticism.
Jim was the `guy next door’. While high on crack, Jim pushed a stranger in front of a moving train. He died. Jim was tried and legally committed to a forensic psychiatric hospital. Jim was likable, not angry and intimidating like Gene, Benny, and Jesus. He was remorseful for his actions and hoped to serve his time in the best possible ways, hoping to be a useful member of society one day. There were three leaders and three followers. Jim, David, and Juan had no desire to lead.
Juan was resident Pollyanna. A real `brown noser’, he was always sucking up to the biggest assholes. Juan’s crooked pinkie finger dramatically curved inwardly. He secretly wanted and needed to be what everyone else wanted and needed him to be. He was a peacemaker. Most of the staff appreciated his very positive attitude. It was impossible to be pessimistic, sarcastic, or cynical around Juan. He replaced Betsy as manager of the ‘Scene’, where he found his golden opportunity to publish ‘pep talks’ for everyone. Juan’s OCD for enthusiasm was over the top.
We had a tiny 12′ X 12′ space. Two large wire glass windows overlooked razor wire topping the walls of the yard far below. All the windows on the 11th floor had bright unobstructed views of the Styx River and Purgatory. I arranged two 30″ X 60″ tables in the middle of the room to create a square conference table. We could all sit and face each other with our backs to the walls. I wished everyone to look into each other’s eyes as we spoke. I’d look into theirs. As I turned off the overhead fluorescent lighting and closed the door, the sudden unexpected lack of buzzing was obvious as natural daylight streamed through windows and flooded the room.
Our first session was awkward. Patients paused at participating. I peered into their eyes as I prepared to speak. “Thank you for being here. Does anyone have anything to say before we begin?” Labored breathing from chronic cigarette smoking dominated the anticipation and the silence.
“Gene, what would you like to get out of the time we’ll be spending together each week?”
“No offense, Mark. I’m curious to see how you’re going to fail. You’re a nice guy with good intentions, but no one has ever created anything meaningful here. At the moment, you’ve got energy and enthusiasm. People come and go. Eventually, you’ll get discouraged or be fired and have to leave. We’ll never hear from you again.”
“Are you planning to help your prediction become a self-fulfilling prophecy?”
“No. You’ll see. It’s the system. If we actually accomplish anything of value, the cabinet will create a new policy to inhibit or prohibit whatever it is.”
“Leave those problems to me. When they arise, we’ll discuss them together and decide what to do about them. I’ve promised to give you my best. That’s what I have to offer. If you have something more important to do with your time, you should do that”.
“What would you like to get out of this class, Jim?”
“I’m glad for an opportunity to do anything. I want to make things and work with my hands. I want to go into the building trades when I get out. Maybe I could be a contractor.”
“I’ll do my best to help you achieve your goals, Jim”.
“What about you, David?”
“I agreed to come here, but I don’t want to do anything. I’ve never really done anything. I had a sixth-grade education, but I study Torah. When I get out of here, I’m going to find a trailer in the woods and live in solitude and celibacy. I could maybe have a garden and grow some good pot to smoke and study Jewish mysticism.”
“OK David, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. When you’re ready, we welcome your participation in whatever way you see fit.”
Jesus spoke up. “I love gardening. I’m responsible for the care and maintenance of the patient garden in the yard. David, you can help us with planting this spring. We’ll have tomatoes, beans, carrots, and lettuce this year.” David nodded affirmatively.
I thanked Jesus for his offer. “Maybe we can get permission to have an indoor garden for the off season”, I exclaimed! There’s plenty of daylight and floor space on the south and east facing windows of a mostly empty 11th floor. I’ll inquire whether space can be designated for greenery. We could have a community garden and cultivate our own healthy sources for veggies and herbs which can be shared by all.
“This is so exciting!” exclaimed Juan. “I’ll write a column about our class in ‘The Scene’.”
“That’s a wonderful idea Juan, but I think we should keep a low profile until we have some thing good to talk about. Negative publicity could be destructive to our cause. Let’s achieve something of value before going public. Can you put your communications skills to work by researching other projects and other state institutions and businesses, what they’re doing, and who we can network with? I’m hoping to find people who can help us achieve our goals.” “Yes! I’ll do everything I can.”
The last member was Benny. “Is there anything you’d like to say, Benny?”
“I don’t know what I want… I want to make some money. I doubt we’ll ever see any of what we earn and we won’t see that until we’re free.”
“I have no idea how money works around here. I’ll find out. I will say this. There are many ways and means to an end. If we create something substantial, I’ll do my best to arrange escrow accounts or find ways to ensure that you’re remunerated properly for your efforts.” I hoped I hadn’t just bull-shitted everyone. I had no idea whether what I said was possible. My team of misfits felt like a union of retired vampires, ready for an infusion of fresh young virgin blood. The fragility of creating and maintaining group trust was at stake. At the moment, everyone seemed happy to be there.
You met Betsy, Virginia, and Manuel. Jack was a religious Jew with skull cap on balding scalp. Jack had led a wasted life of habitual shame, guilt, and obligation. He had always cared for his hypochondriac mother who had desperate control issues. When Jack turned sixty, her clutching suffocating neediness drove him over the edge. He threatened to kill and proceeded to strangle her. She narrowly escaped and managed to get him committed. Jack was a whole lot happier in a loony bin than he was with his mother. His plan was to stay put until she died. He told me that even if he was old, he’d use his inheritance to start over fresh.
Everyone believed Ethan was developmentally disabled. He was unable to form intelligible words. No one ever bothered to try to understand him. Meanwhile, Ethan was highly intelligent. When we placed Ethan in the furniture repair program, he was the fastest learner and best natural problem solver. He’d always choose the right piece of wood, screw, finish, or right tool for the job. Ethan was born with a severely cleft pallet that had prevented him from speaking clearly. Can you imagine how frustrating that must have been? Billy and I spoke to Ethan’s treatment team and a speech pathologist was called in. A plan was conceived to provide Ethan with corrective surgery. This was the first real and true step in Ethan’s recovery and rehabilitation.
Dick made Arnold Schwarzenegger look like Peewee Herman (God bless). Dick was a Paul Bunyan, seven feet tall and three hundred fifty pounds of solid muscle. When I first met him in the art room, he was quietly crafting teensy weensy clay sculptures with his huge powerful hands. One typical afternoon, Dick said to me, “I’m going to take this place apart tonight.” I had meant to but forgot to say anything to anyone. The day got away from me. Dick completely slipped my mind. I might have remembered if it had been a full moon. That night, as I peacefully slept, Dick went berserk.
Staff and patients abandoned the ward while Dick trashed the place. He lifted and slammed a heavy regulation sized slate pool table against the wall. He pried fastened furniture away from the floor and walls. When Dick was done wrecking the ward, he fell asleep. Hospital security crept in, medicated him, and put him in a strait jacket. The cabinet wanted to send him back to Criminal Island, where Dick would surely be murdered. He’d hospitalized several guards in full riot gear on his last visit. Dick liked me. I liked him too but was glad he was well medicated.
I needed to learn more about my twelve patients and began exploring and examining psychiatric records in the hospital basement in a dreary poorly lit room of records. I kept my research top secret. I had access, but it would piss patients and staff off to know I was poking around in their histories.
The most shocking discovery I made was that psychiatrists never appeared to argue with or modify the original diagnosis or treatment plan. The proverbial buck was passed over and over again. Some patients got much better over time, but that didn’t seem to matter. I spoke to Zandor. He said, “nobody takes responsibility”. What if you said a patient was well and she murdered someone? It had happened before and would happen again. The same old tired patient stories were told over and over again before forensic review committees. I felt hopeful and sorry at the same time, especially for patients who were really trying to grow, learn, and earn their freedom.
I was positive there was a ‘secret agenda’ to keep mental hospitals full. There were certainly enough crazies ‘crossing 42nd Street’ to fill many wards. I began to research the mental health system while attending conferences in Lilith, the state capital. I began networking with other members of rehab departments in hospitals and sheltered workshops around the state.
‘Vocational Rehabilitation’ was becoming a gigantic unprofitable industry, subsidized by taxpayers. Sheltered workshops were making the same old outdated crap they’d always made. Some were contracted to assemble items such as pens or package products for a variety of private profit-making corporations. Developmentally disabled people are best at repetitive work like assembly and packaging. Rarely is anyone violent. Loving approval goes a long way toward team building. There was a gigantic opportunity here. I had no idea of how to tap into it yet. I knew workshops were competing for pennies. They hadn’t discovered fashion.
Stay tuned as students plant seeds that germinate, sprout, and flourish…
As Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transit our Zodiac, they transform Personal & Collective Psyche. Uranus was the only outer planet to transit Aries (1927–1935) in the 20th Century. Uranus in Aries brought fierce individualism, pioneering spirit, infinite energy, and limitless financial resources to facilitate concepts through fruition. Uranus inspired both Individual and Collective Psyche through revolutionary technological changes, spectacular inventions, and unexpected financial events.
German ophthalmologist pioneered first contact lens
First drive-in movie theater opened ~ New Jersey
Model A replaced Model T Ford
First air-conditioned office building ~ San Antonio Texas
Jet engine patented
Charles Lindbergh ~ first solo flight ~ New York to Paris
America captive ~ Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son kidnapped
Mao Tse-Tung developed guerrilla warfare tactics to conquer China
Leon Trotsky expelled from Communist Party
Federal government entered hydroelectric power ~ Boulder Dam
First Talking Motion Picture, ‘The Jazz Singer’ starring Al Jolson
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences born
,Stock Market Crash ~ Time to re-examine Values & Institutions
Uranus completed its eighty-four-year cycle in 2011, turbulently returning to Aries to crumble regimes, topple demagogues, ignite cities, and fuel an Arab Spring that would spread across the Mid-East. Devastating earthquakes in Japan forever changed how governments look at nuclear power policies. We’ll be dealing with the consequences for eternity. Protesters in Spain set the stage for Occupy Movements in New York and London. Osama Bin Laden was killed. His demise appeared on Twitter before being officially announced by The White House. WikiLeaks raised awareness of government secrets, conspiracies, and everything else we shouldn’t take for granted!
Original artwork and signature. My parody facial.
Irrational interpretations of our second amendment fuel fundamentalist & extremist demagogues & ideologues. Armies of angry, confused, and frustrated failures with semi-automatic weapons of mass destruction are a millimeter away from becoming nutcases with guns. The rest of us are a banana peel away from a coma!
Evangelical Christians, corrupt partisan politicians, and NRA members laid a groundwork for another Civil War as Uranus left Aries. As Evil tempts and seduces us, its disciples betray our minds, hearts, souls, and world while pretending to be real. Wannabe emperors, beasts, and frogs, clothed in lies and alternative facts, must see and be seen through a lens of good sense. It takes numerous years and myriad challenging lessons before bad choices can be transformed into healthy outcomes.
“Hasta la vista baby”
Uranus’s unpredictability, along with the blood, guts, and gore of war are a scary combo. Neptune in Pisces and Pluto through Capricorn and Aquarius can become noble and spiritual, or poisoned by passion, devoured by lust, and / or consumed by greed, hatred, fear, and terror. We must shift our broken philosophical and spiritual paradigms or be doomed to an eternity of Mass Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (MPTSD).
A “Big Bang” is a tale of Worlds, Neutrons, Supermarkets, Laundromats, Homogenized Milk, Wonder Bread, Scotch Tape, Model T, and Plastics Recycling, etc. Our human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Why must we always lose what we value to value what we had?
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.
A Moment in Time & Space
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!
SALMAN RUSHDIE
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.
Religion without Spirituality
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 20th of 2001. Pluto in Sag brought Donald Trump to politics. A natal Mercury (11th 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
“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 inTHEALL, 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.
Fall Equinox 2020~ outer planets and their transits symbolize our transforming psyche through cardinal, fixed, and mutable modalities. Massive paradigm shifts take place in both inner and outer worlds. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited the sign of Libra in the 20th Century. Forces of good and evil clashed. Humanity was incapable of balancing optimism with pessimism, tolerance with intolerance, justice with injustice, and progress with regress, which promoted social and political instability.
Without good sense, common sense is nonsense!
Uranus transited Aries (opposite Libra) into Taurus in 2018, entering Gemini in 2026. Neptune in Pisces with Pluto in Capricorn co-create poisonous partisan politics and cultivate calculating plutocratic politicians who deceive voters with empty promises. Morally and Spiritually bankrupt leaders are fueled by fear, hubris, hate, greed, and gluttony.
SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Neptune (Pisces) transited Libra from 1942 to 1957. Nuclear weapons were deployed. Atomic Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Congress had considered bombing Tokyo and Kyoto, but chose not to destroy Japanese culture for eternity. President Truman ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to create an even bigger `Hydrogen Bomb’.
The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Neptune in Pisces is a deluded Emperor without care, empathy, or compassion. He promotes terror, fear, and hatred while punishing and tormenting have-nots and our planet. Humanity must be healthier for future generations. We need to choose healthy thinking, feelings, habits, behavior, values, ethics, relationships, and actions. We must exercise right use of will power, dare to dream, be creative, and be spiritual. We can all be our own best friends and bullshit detectors.
The United Nations was born on October 24 1945. The Charter was ratified by China, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the United States. International cartels firmly established themselves. The European Common Market was recognized. The Civil Rights Movements flourished. Group Psychology became popular. The World Council of Churches was established. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini, founder of Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, became the first American Citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
What Happened?
Religion without morality is bankrupt. Religion without spirituality is blind. Devils are hard at work in our houses of worship. An eternity in hell awaits confused and corrupt priests, politicians, and plutocrats, tempted by wealth, power, erotic desires, and the abuse of the sacred souls they were entrusted to protect.
REPUGLICAN’T KAKISTOCRACY
‘As Above, So Below’
When Neptune exited Libra in 1957, a bestselling novel, Peyton Place, focused on sexual intrigue in a small town. Allen Ginsberg, a popular poet wrote, “I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”. People born 1942 ~ 1957 over idealize relationships, seeing them as they want them to be instead of how they really are. A majority of our most clueless political leaders fall within these birth-dates.
Uranus (Aquarius) transited Libra from 1968 to 1975. The spirit of nationalism shifted from optimism to pessimism. Faith in progress turned into disillusionment in national institutions and world progress. The period was marked by useless popular inventions like a pet rock, giant platform shoes, and shag haircuts. Punk Rock, Primal Therapy, and Streaking became popular. The Supreme Court Legalized Abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy (Roe vs. Wade). Patriarchy isn’t working for most of us.
Uranus in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn are pressuring ultra-conservative forces to bias a Supreme Court that will curtail Women’s Rights. Bumbling bureaucrats choose money over values, promote religion over spirituality, embrace greed over good health, and offer a heaping helping of fear, hate, confusion, and delusion. Where has honesty, integrity, dignity, courage, strength, grace, virtue, and wisdom gone. Our personal and planetary health is controlled by too many pussy grabbers, vampires, zombies, and gluttonous shitholes. We must take responsibility for our thoughts, actions, well-being, and happiness.
EVIL INCARNATE
Governor George Wallace, racial bigot from Alabama, announced he’d be running for President in 1968, on a newly formed American Independent Party ticket. He threatened to repeal the “so called civil rights laws”. In 1971, an assassination attempt left candidate Wallace paralyzed from the waist down. Perhaps history will repeat itself. Diplomat Henry Kissinger approved the financing of clandestine CIA activities in Chile aimed at preventing the election and inauguration of Salvador Allende as Marxist President.
Patty Hearst popularized ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ after she was kidnapped and brain-washed by the Symbionese Liberation Army. A military junta deposed Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. The most popular show on TV was a comic satire about a racist named Archie Bunker. Racism is a popular topic for pundits these days, but it’s not funny.
In Taurus, Uranus brought us a naked Emperor who chose to build walls between us and our closest neighbors and build ideological, philosophical, and spiritual walls while we need bridges between us and the rest of the world. While preaching ‘Christian Values’, he practices hate and greed.
Pluto (Scorpio) transited Libra from 1971 to 1983. ‘RRR’ ‘Reuse, Recycle, and Recreate’ marked the launch of the environmental movement. Growers and pickers reached a settlement that ended nearly ten years of grape boycotts (led by Cesar Chavez). Farm workers had bargaining power as they struggled to accept, compromise, and sacrifice to achieve their goals.
In 1954, Neptune in Libra and Pluto in Leo gave us the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court ruled racial segregation of schools was unconstitutional. On April 20, 1971, the United States Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools. Sadly, creating a law, doesn’t erase hatred. ‘Haves’ Have. ‘Have-Nots’ have not.
EXPELIOSIS !!!
An arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorized the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. Prime Minister Idi Amin slaughtered over 300,000 Ugandans and alienated his country from the rest of the world. Violence in Ireland forced Britain to seize control of Northern Ireland and suspend the Protestant controlled parliament. In 1975 South Vietnam crumbled, bringing an end to the Vietnam War. Because of the Karen Ann Quinlan case, `right to die’ rulings were enacted all across the USA. The serial killer “Son of Sam” was put away after terrorizing NYC. Religious extremist Jim Jones’s followers drank the cool aid and died.
“The Lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the Ears of Understanding” Hermes
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!
Author’s Note: The following observations, insights, and generalizations are derived from over forty years of examining over seventy-five thousand sets of hands.
You don’t need a Cancer sun, moon, planets, or planetary house placements to be Cancer. Feeling types have long narrow palms and long fingers, often held closely together. Healthy hands have a firm consistency with pink elastic skin. Finger joints are pliable, less stiff than Scorpio, and less supple than Pisces. Cancer head and life lines often separate at their beginnings. That symbolizes cardinal energy and independence. If the head and life lines are closely connected at their beginnings, that person has (mother issues) fears like losing control, hates being criticized, and needs approval. Cancers should never ever be taken for granted.
Cancer is sensitive. More peripheral lines add more sensitivity. Be careful what you say because they’ll remember the ‘bad’ things, even if you haven’t said any. Long gently sloping head lines blend with full pink heels of hands and embody a healthy balance between intuition, creativity, and practicality. Heart lines that gracefully curve toward the index finger personify a romantic, idealistic, and sometimes unrealistic vision of other people. I’ve observed lots of round and conical fingertips with long broad nails, loop fingerprints, and romantic heart lines. They’re intuitive communicators, sensing what’s really happening. They prefer to be frank and offer sincere handshakes.
Cancers are intuitive, empathetic, complex, and overly aware of the needs of others. They’re hard to understand because they hide their innermost selves beneath a facade of nurturing actions. Pry into their private lives and they’ll retreat into their shells. They’re cautious and vulnerable, need to be direct, although they often have to be tactful and diplomatic. The only option that makes good sense is to choose satisfying over safe. They shouldn’t avoid emotional confrontation and need to cultivate intimacy wherever and whenever they can. Feelings may swing from loving and devoted to secretive, reclusive, obsessive, and fearful of the future. When Cancers are feeling insecure, controlled, or confined, they can become dark and moody. They need to feel protected and secure before they can fully trust. Once trust is earned, loyalties run deep. You’ll see intimacy in many lines running parallel to the lifeline within the ball of thumb. Healthy family connections and close friendships nourish these folk. The more structure, organization and detail in their lives, the more stable and secure they feel.
Healthy Cancers are loving, compassionate, and devoted beings. They’re most compatible with other feeling types. They feel safest with responsible, reliable, and dependable practical types. Challenged by thinking and intuitive types, they’re nervous that they’ll be left holding the psychic garbage (and they often are) and forced to deal with the consequences when idealism, optimism, enthusiasm, and logic wane (and they do). Cancers are acutely consciousness of everyone’s emotional needs. When insecure, they can become internally secretive and over-ambitious in the outer world. Cancers work hard when income matches output. Motivated by family, good food, emotional security, and fertile soil, their instinct and mission is to nourish, protect, exercise their creative imagination, and make sure there’s plenty of good food around.
“You’ve got to play to lose”
The old guy above is the young guy with me in this picture captured forty-six years ago in a photo booth at Kennywood Amusement Park in Pittsburgh, Pa. Lloyd Wilson (Cancer), my best friend, and I met working part time at a wood, metal, and plastics model making machine workshop where we fabricated preschool children’s learning devices for the University of Pittsburgh. We met because we were making toys for ourselves on our own time. I was destined to become an industrial designer. Lloyd was a painter and sculptor. We were a couple of Peter Pans on a journey to Neverland.
Lloyd didn’t get much nurturing as a child. He developed a quick wit and sense of humor while avoiding extreme physical abuse. When his mother was happy, Lloyd was safe. When she was unhappy, she’d incite Lloyd’s rage filled father to brutally beat him. Lloyd’s mother ended up killing herself, his father was committed to a mental institution, and his favorite sister, (we met while on vacation in Florida) with two beautiful young children, a devoted husband, and seeming idyllic life, suddenly and unexpectedly blew her head off with a shotgun. It’s a paradox to have so much to give and lose.
Lloyd’s slender rectangular palms and long fingers embody his Cancer Sun, Venus, and North Node. They conjunct my Mercury in Cancer. His Gemini ascendant is exactly conjunct my vertex, which is the midpoint of my eighth house Gemini stellium. Lloyd’s head and life lines are tightly intertwined at their beginnings. That reveals his desire to feel needed and appreciated. As a sensitive child, Lloyd desperately needed love and support, but didn’t get any.
Lloyd tried hard to fix his broken parents. They were too sick to see him. Instead, they judged, criticized, and abused him. Lloyd survived without their love and approval. He thrives on appreciation. He’ll give his friends the shirt off his back, but they had better never take him for granted. Lloyd literally gave me the shirt off his back in my moment of need. I was on my way to an important meeting and got a nasty stain on my shirt. Lloyd insisted I take off my shirt and trade with him.
Cancers are collectors. Some stockpile food in case of shortage or emergency. Lloyd collects art books, literature (most well-read person I know), religious art, art supplies, tools, and clothing. When wealthy people die, their families donate clothing to Goodwill and Salvation Army. Lloyd has a keen eye for the finest designer clothing. He’s always first to pick through merchandise. As a master bargain hunter, I call Lloyd my personal dresser. We wear the same sizes. Lloyd chooses coats, suits, and jackets for me He’s gifted me with suits worth thousands of dollars that he only paid ten or fifteen dollars for. Many had never been worn.
Lloyd said to me, “People who tell the truth don’t need good memories”. I replied, “We may be bastards, but at least we’re honest”. Over fifty years of friendship continue to see many challenging lessons in humility for us. We delayed balancing our outer and inner worlds by choosing to learn the hard way. We learned that there are no shortcuts and to let go of the need to be greater than we were.
Lloyd’s extremely flexible thumbs symbolize his ability to adapt to the most horrible of circumstances. They also embody his generosity of heart and spirit. It’s very hard for Lloyd to say “NO”. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it to him, but the gold ring on the bottom middle finger of Lloyd’s unconscious hand symbolizes his need to have clear boundaries, be frugal, and to learn to say no.
Loving his anonymity, Lloyd’s artwork is created by a magical spirit who is him. Lloyd exemplifies Cancer’s most outstanding inner and outer qualities. He’s supportive, sympathetic, receptive, reflective, intuitive, imaginative, and extremely devoted to friends, family, and humanity. Lloyd Wilson is Pittsburgh’s best kept secret.
Cancer is a cardinal water sign, catalyzed by the summer solstice. The moon influences our oceans and tides. The beginning of summer is also the symbolic mother of the USA. Let’s examine the transits of Pluto and Uranus through Cancer during the 20th Century. Transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto influence personal and collective psyche.
Pluto (planet of sex, death, transformation, and other people’s resources), transited Cancer from 1913 to 1938. Partisan politics, nationalism, and isolationism transformed world ideologies. World War I became World War II. In 1913, President Wilson pressed a button in the White House that blew up the Gamboa Dike at the Isthmus of Panama, creating a canal between oceans, and transforming intercontinental travel by sea. Wilson legislated the Carter-Owen Bill that established a Federal Reserve System to transform the strangle hold on the nation’s currency and credit system by banks. How did Plutocracy and Kakistocracy happen?
Daylight Saving Time transformed our nation’s clocks and schedules. Transcontinental telephone service transformed international communications. World infrastructures and atomic energy transformed planetary energy sources and usages. NBC was the first Nationwide Broadcasting Company. Wall Street prospered from war while soldiers earning $16 per month died in the trenches. President Wilson established a lottery style draft promoting patriotism. Congress passed the Espionage Act fining draft dodgers $10,000 and imposing a twenty-year jail sentence. No child was left behind.
“Do your bit” encouraged citizens to buy Liberty Bonds. Wheatless-meatless days were promoted. The end of 1919 marked the end of the Influenza pandemic that caused half a million deaths and a quarter of the nation’s population to be sick. Prohibition banned liquor for all citizens. Black markets and bootlegging industries flourished. Black leader Marcus Garvey organized ‘The Empire of Africa’ with 500,000 followers. Garvey led the largest mass exodus of Blacks with the least sense of brotherhood in US history. Sound familiar? With Pluto currently transiting Capricorn opposite Cancer it’s no surprise.
In 1929, doubt, fear, and panic upset our stock market as we faced our darkest hour. Foundations and structures of home and family transformed. Pluto in Cancer birthed many people who spent their lives taking care of family. Overdeveloped senses of responsibility, guilt, and obligation motivated their children to become dropouts and runaways. That hasn’t worked either.
Uranus (planet of sudden unexpected change, rebellion, and revolution) transited the sign of Cancer from 1949 to 1955. Mothers stopped staying at home and went to work. Women began wearing the “bikini”, a fashionable French bathing suit. ‘I Love Lucy’, a comic show about a housewife and her Cuban bandleader husband became the most popular show on TV. Ranch houses and basement playrooms were popular. The subconscious mind was explored in psychology. If you were born between 1949 and 1955, your psyche is some degree between rational and aware and oversensitive and fearful.
We may want to think twice before we elect (or appoint) another Cancer President. Four USA Presidents were born under the sign of Cancer. George W Bush (7/6/1946) has intuitive hands. His egocentric character matches his Leo rising. George Bush revealed the worst qualities of Cancer and Leo in his behavior, intentions, and actions. Check out these similarities between the four Cancer Presidents.
Like George Bush and Al Gore, John Quincy Adams finished second in popular vote behind General Andrew Jackson. There was no majority. The choice was put before the House of Representatives. House Speaker, Henry Clay, swung the election to Adams. When Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State, Jackson followers cried, “Corrupt bargain”. “Of all the men whom it was ever my lot to accost and to waste civilities upon, he was the most doggedly and systematically repulsive. With a vinegar aspect, cotton in his leathern ears, and hatred in his heart, he sat like a bulldog among spaniels.” W.H. Littleton
President Calvin Coolidge shared a birthday with the Declaration of Independence. He was infamous for “holding his tongue”, earning him the title, “Silent Cal”. Two of his favorite sayings were: “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.” and “The business of America is business.” William Allen White said, “He was an economic fatalist with a God given inertia. He knew nothing and refused to learn”.
The 38th President, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., didn’t know he was adopted until he was seventeen. Gerry didn’t lift a finger around the house. His wife, Betty performed all the domestic chores. As Speaker of the house, Ford passionately pleaded for escalation of the war in Vietnam. He urged “unleashing devastating air and sea power”. He failed to impeach liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as a favor to his buddy Richard Nixon. Ford granted Nixon a “full complete and absolute pardon” for all crimes relating to Watergate. Ford blamed democrats for a disastrous rate of inflation and warned that electing more would “jeopardize world peace”. He admitted to never reading books, but did find time to watch football on TV. It’s a good thing there was no Twitter!
Congressman Robert Drinan said, “I cannot dislike him personally — he’s cordial and gracious, but he’s consistently wrong and consistency is a virtue of small minds. He’s never proposed a constructive solution to anything”. Lyndon Johnson quipped, Ford “had played too much football with his helmet off” ~ “Jerry’s the only man I ever knew who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”. Reverend Duncan Littlefair declared, “Ford isn’t a bad man, but he’s dumb—dumb. He shouldn’t be dumb either. He went to school just like everybody else”.
“The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life…
it should be something useful, something good”
Dalai Lama (Cancer) “The Reborn Soul of Buddha” is Orpheus, singer, priest, healer, poet, and musician who in Greek myth, enchanted Death with his music into letting him enter the matrix of collective unconscious to find his beloved Eurydice. After death warned Orpheus he’d lose Eurydice if he looked back, in a moment of weakness, he looked back. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 to live as a “simple monk” in a remote corner of Northern India. Unable to return, he chose to promote world peace and love. If hindsight is truly 2020, then we must choose hindsight as we vote in 2020.
Today is mom’s birthday. No longer in physical form, mom would be 95 years old. She passed from her body at 83 after living as gratefully and gracefully as possible with metastasized breast Cancer for many years. Before she left this plane, she assured me that if there’s another side, she’ll be in touch. I haven’t heard from her yet, but haven’t given up hope. Mom’s cultivated Gemini hands with her square palms and long fingers harmonize well with her Gemini sun, moon, mercury, and midheaven conjunction.
Even in the direst of circumstances, our family always kept their sense of humor. Mom was lying in her hospital bed with tubes sticking in and out of her. She said to me, “What worries me most is how nice everyone is. Do they know something I don’t?” My sister warned, “You’re not allowed to die until you finish raising my (teenage) kids”. Jennifer joked about buying mom’s casket at Costco and mom loved the idea. Gary quipped, “I’ll start worrying about you when you stop putting on your makeup”. He threatened to taxidermy her and stick her in a corner of his living room. Mom’s intensive care doctor said he had never had a patient so sick and so determined not to look like it. I wheeled mom around the hospital. People thought I was her husband. I’d say, “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m her father”. “Pleased to meet you”, they’d say. At sixty, I could still embarrass my mother. Some things never change.
Mom was a poster child for the geriatric crowd. Approaching 80. she knew her time was limited. To get a real taste of her, watch this exercise ball video. Mom made it as a response to Jennifer sending her the ball. We wanted to keep her around as long as we could. The quality isn’t great, but her humor and attitude are well worth the watch!
