Orchestration

The chemicals of the Mile High Obama nomination are still coursing through my system. The event was so beautifully choreographed. It's impressive when 85,000 people can spend a long day together harmonizing.

Maybe it's because I was in downtown Denver. Maybe it's on account of my Uranus-moon transit. This time of year the sunsets are especially enchanting. The weather was as perfect as it gets on earth.

The special sensation I mentioned intrigued me so I took a look at the chart of the time Obama accepted -- 8:14 PM mountain time, to get a cosmic glimpse.

The midheaven was 26 degrees Sagittarius, in the center of our galaxy. Pluto was 2 degrees away in the 10th. Fiery emotional inspirational power out front.

Neptune and the North Node were in the 12th house adding to the spiritual aspect of the gathering, and Pisces was rising at 23, all contributing to the flow, emotional sensations, and easy music, well paced with a wide variety. Throw in Denver's 29 Sag Venus square Neptune at 29 Pisces and you have quite a poetic convergence.

Uranus was conjunct the ascendant describing the collective experience, and the moon was in Leo in the 5th, a perfect night for grand theater. The moon was quincunx Jupiter in Capricorn in the 10th. Leo-Capricorn, regal and dignified. Uranus on the ascendant also shows the more rebellious tone of the speech, and Mercury conjunct Venus square the elevated Pluto speaks of the beauty of the words.

And then. By another act of destiny, the news cycle was abruptly taken away, freezing the moment forever without the normal second day destruction. Just amazing. The busy cosmology.

Beyond the Eclipse

The future isn't what somebody else tells us it is.
The future is what we decide it's going to be.
Barack Obama

August 28, 1963
"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'

~I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
Martin Luther King Jr.

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke that day Saturn was at 18 degrees Aquarius, exactly where the North Node of the Moon is now on Obama's 18 degree ascendant, nearing the end of a long station. The recent eclipses occurred close to these points and on Obama's South Node in Aquarius and Sun in Leo. This fact tells me something about the nature of light.

Almost everyone responds to the fiery spark that emanates from this man. People move toward it naturally like creatures to stimuli. Could his political opponents express themselves so fully and capture that much attention without him? Why did foreign leaders give him such a regal and loving welcome. The solar flaring from this individual is unmistakable and irresistible with three planets and a North Node in Leo. But there's something else, and the connection to the node can only make me think of one thing. Ye olde lunar. Obama was raised in a family of mostly women and he lives in another one now. He has a Moon on the cusp of his fourth house, the base of his entire everyday life, reflecting his bright solar center and carrying the water of his South Node in Aquarius.

Tonight the Moon is back in Leo touching these eclipse points. Along with the 18 degree baton, it could be a clue in learning how to implement collective ideals, born of the universal mind, traveling along a thread that weaves through history and connects the generations in specific tasks. The Moon being emphasized, but shining in solar Leo does point to a partnership of luminaries, if ever the group is to be cared for properly.

So here it stands. A mile high, near the mountain, close to the sun and moon.

Ladies and Gentlemen, May I Introduce ....

The Mayor of Denver
Sun in Aquarius
Moon in Cancer

John Hickenlooper is a science geek with a literary wife and a weird kid. He developed a sudden impulse to become mayor a few years back and so he did. He's not a politician, but he'll be hosting thousands of them, plus tens of thousands of interested parties a mile up in the air, far away from the political capital of the nation.

It promises to be a wild affair. Intoxication comes easily at high altitudes, and with Denver's Venus at 29 Sagittarius square Neptune at 29 Pisces, the jubilation becomes exponential. While it may be true that some folks will be arriving with something less than fun on their minds I imagine they might be swept up in the hilarity with their protestations secondary. But if they insist on battling law and order, we're secure and ready. Never mind that this is the first encounter with real security enforcement.

Since marijuana is legal in Denver, it's been decided not to prosecute visiting users under state and federal laws. That makes their job that much easier. Denver is one of the premier beer cities in the world. Mayor Hickenlooper had a brewery before he ran for office. An innovator in the new local brew trend of the modern age.

On November 7, 1861, the Queen City of the Plains was incorporated with Saturn at 20 Virgo, Jupiter at 21. Is it clean? Yes. Will it be tidy next week? ROFL!!!!

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, pesky Uranus has just arrived at 21 Pisces to exactly oppose that conjunction. Disruption? Who knows. But here's the skinny. The Sun is in Virgo, and Mercury will be conjunct Venus in Virgo the entire time. Saturn is now in Virgo as well. There is a possibility that the darn thing will be well-organized and with Venus conjunct Mercury, the speeches will be beautiful, I guarantee. Pluto, of course, hanging out at 28 Sagittarius will be activating that dreamy intoxicating Venus-Neptune square. Diverse crowd? Believe it. Add the nominee's Mars at 22 Virgo on the conjunction coupled with USA Neptune and you end up with Virgo to the max. All the better for recovery after the Rocky Mountain Piscean nights.

One really interesting occurrence around Pluto at 28 Sag is that for the first time in history, the convention will be starting with an inter-faith gathering. A beautiful theater in the new Denver center was chosen for the event, and actually, the CEO of the Convention Committee is an ordained minister.

There are the normal fears of coups, cries, and warfare but with Mars newly in Libra I expect intense debate to be the chosen avenue. Spirits at high altitude can work both ways, however. Unity and peace are the longed for results and with Libra, this could very well be the case. But Mars? He swings both ways.

It's our great great fortune to have a Moon in Capricorn which will hopefully provide a modicum of control when the 100,000 or so descend on the Queen City under the planetary influence. Thank god for small miracles.

Fired Up, Ready to Go!

The Prismatic Electric fountain

Denver Colorado, August 19, 2008.
"The fountain on City Park Ferrill Lake sprang back to life Tuesday night in colorful bursts of water that gushed like fireworks -- just as it did a century ago, the last time the Democratic Convention came to Denver. William Jennings Bryan was the nominee.

As the Denver Municipal Band played 'Stars and Stripes Forever,' hundreds cheered the ceremonial relighting of the city's dancing lights in the lake tonight. Columns of water colored red, white and blue burst against the charcoal night, like fireworks, then the 90-foot Old Faithful geyser rose from the middle to salute its return to the city.
Denverites cooed at every change in color in the dancing spires, minutes after Mayor John Hickenlooper told the crowd, 'This is part of our history; now it's part of our future.'

The original was created by the famed designer Frederick W. Darling. 'Denver becomes the first city to ever recreate his work,' said Larry Kerecman, a design engineer who founded the Friends of the Electric Fountain and a consultant for the project. 'There's no other fountain like it in the world.'

From mid-May through September, the fountain will put on a different show each half hour. It had been dark for more than a decade, limping along, falling apart from age and use, By the 1990s the fountain pumped out only a single unchanging stream, and eventually that broke, too.

The Prismatic Electric Fountain at City Park was originally installed in Ferril Lake in 1908. The fountain made its debut on May 30, and Denverites delighted to the modern technology.
In the park's pavilion tower, a city employee sat at a rolltop desk and pulled and pushed levers to choreograph 12 separate geysers and 11 brightly colored beams in a dance set to the music of the city band. More than 4,400 gallons of water a minute sprayed through the fountain across the 1,500-watt pillars of colored lights. The new fountain is run by computer software and LED lights that consume 80% less energy than the old fountain, which in 1908 required three men and a rowboat to operate."

The original fountain

This park is funky. The homeless live there. A magic transformation, indeed. I know it won't disturb their sleep. Forward we go!
Denver Post: Joey Bunch. Rocky Mt. News: John Ensslin

Miswired Up, Ready to Go!

Agatha, don't you remember? I'm your husband!

Onward to Denver!

The Water Bearer

When I lived in Nepal, I carried my water in a clay jug. The smell of that wet earthenware is still with me and often brings back the unique memories of that journey.
I spent my days with foreign travelers who came from all over the world, regular people with a grand curiosity and the motivation to travel far far from familiar territory on limited means. They were a most interesting and varied aggregate of homo sapiens.

In Katmandu there was a young fellow who was in a trance, almost immobile, although ambulatory. He sat day after day staring blankly, never uttering a word, not moving, and never showing any response. In the people's accepting way, they didn't question it or try to get him help. Many human aberrations were considered normal with this odd assortment of travelers.

I was given a house to stay in while the local Peace Corps volunteer was off on a Himalayan trek and the group stayed with me in the little cottage nestled in the rice paddies. Late one night, when everyone was asleep after a cauliflower dinner, I was washing up and across the room a commotion started. It was the inert gentleman suddenly come to life with exuberance. All the others were asleep and he frolicked and leapt about, although still not speaking. I thought, "I need a spoon", and suddenly there he was, handing me a spoon. Beaming.

The next day he was back to "normal", his face expressionless, his responses nil, never to come back again as long as he was there. The human creature with its unimaginable mind is more than I can comprehend.

One thing I recall is the group's relative ease with the situation and the overall communal attitude of the crowd I traveled with. We shared all our money and lived together in whatever rooms we occupied in these strange lands. It reminds me of this full moon eclipse at 24 Aquarius near the US moon. I've mentioned before the connection between the nurturing qualities of the moon and the Aquarian ideal of caring for the human family. Plus the comfort level with deviations from the norm. The water bearer pours his liquid on everyone and the commonality is felt, however subtle. You see that especially with a South Node in Aquarius, as Obama has at 27, and with the United States, who has one at 6.

Until the native is ready to embrace the ego fully, a SN in Aquarius foregoes personal glory for the good of the group, and this is the case with Obama's ascendant and node. This is also the case with the United States of America and her South Node, contrary to what's mostly expressed as fact about her relationship with the world. He is of course eclipsing himself at the Democratic convention, letting the light shine on others who need it as well. Political requirements motivate the decisions in conjunction with the Aquarian node and the supremacy of collective needs. There is a teeny tiny itty-bitty infinitesimal little sliver of a chance, though, that he'll get one teensy tinsy fragile moment of recognition for what he's achieved when he accepts the nomination under a Leo moon hitting the eclipse points. You never know.

Another unusual development during this eclipse was a shocking move by his opponent in the presidential contest suggesting that the 1922 water rights' agreement in Colorado be revised. Water is divinity in the American west. Precious stuff. Big reaction. This summer has been dry as an aged desert bone until yesterday. It's been raining for two days straight and somehow the connection to the future of humanity seems to be emerging with the water bearer and the eclipsing moon. Water claims are the wave of the future. Neptune will be transiting the US moon and all the watery Cancer planets will be meeting up with Pluto, so you can just imagine. Hot wars, cold wars, useless wars, endless wars, water wars, or no wars. That's one of the questions in debate. What to do with everyone?

The Moon and Aquarius bring up the delicate relationship between the emotional-intimate and the non-personal. Sometimes personal needs are overlooked in the quest for group cohesion, but still feeling enough in its togetherness to satisfy the moon. How much to dwell? How big the jug? A quandary, for sure.

Healing in Hawaii

Faith and sainthood .. who dunnit?

Aiea, Hawaii. When cancer spread into her lungs, doctors told Audrey Toguchi she had six months to live and suggested chemotherapy as the only option. Toguchi, however, turned to another source: a Catholic missionary who died more than a century ago. "I'm going to Molokai to pray to Father Damien," Toguchi told Dr. Walter Y.M. Chang after hearing her death sentence. "Mrs. Taguchi, prayers are nice and its probably very helpful, but you still need chemotherapy," said Chang.

Defying Chang and the pleas of her husband and two sons, Toguchi caught a flight from Honolulu to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa to pray at the grave of the priest who had ministered to people with leprosy, until he too caught it and died in 1889. "Dear Lord, you're the one who created my body, so I know you can fix it." Toguchi prayed. "I put my whole faith in you ... Father Damien, please pray for me too because I need your help." On a doctor's visit on Oct. 2, 1998, a month after cancer was detected in her lungs, doctors expected the tumors to have grown. Instead they had shrunk, and by May 1999 tests confirmed that they had disappeared without treatment.

The Vatican conducted an extensive review and concluded Toguchi's recovery defied medical explanation. On July 3, Pope Benedict XVI agreed and approved the case as Damien's second miracle, opening the way for the Belgian priest to be declared a saint.
Jaymes Song: Associated Press . Rocky Mt. News, August 10, 2008
Photo: kalalau Valley: Holger Leue

Hot Tip For Travelers!

The end of summer is approaching and for all of you going on some last minute jaunts, especially with "gas prices declining", this looks like a great place to stop in case you're traveling in Arizona on one of the last stretches of historic Route 66. The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. These concrete tee-pees are the finest remaining examples of Route 66's roadside architecture. American talent at its best.
Photo: Witold Skrypczak.

My Fellow Africans

You Americans might be interested in meeting a group of Kenyans. The collective concept is certainly popular worldwide. Talk about homogeneous. I'm sure they see their differences.
They live in the plains of Kenya with their neighbors: crowned plover, crested francolin, red-crested and black-bellied bustard, bataleur, Fischer's starling, taita fiscal, lilac-breasted roller, and many others. I wonder what they do for a living? There are a million of them in Lake Nakuru.
Photo: Mitch Reardon

14. Ta Yu

Possession in Great Measure
Supreme success

My one in two month I Ching reading revealed this gem of a hexagram. I get a bump whenever I see the title. The judgement says "power is expressing itself in a graceful and controlled way." 6 in the 5th place was included:

He whose truth is accessible, yet dignified has good fortune. The situation is very favorable. People are being won not by coercion but by unaffected sincerity. However, benevolence alone is not sufficient at the time of possession in great measure, for insolence might begin to spread. Insolence must be kept in bounds by dignity, then good fortune is assured.

Good enough. But I guess the message is really trying to get through since the hexagram changed to 10. Lu: Treading (Conduct)

The situation is really difficult. That which is strongest and that which is weakest are close together. The weak follows behind the strong and it worries it. The strong, however, acquiesces and does not hurt the weak, because the contact is in good humor and harmless. In terms of a human situation one is handling wild intractable people. In such cases one's purpose will be achieved if one behaves with decorum.

Thus the superior man discriminates between high and low, and thereby fortifies the thinking of the people.

Life in the Desert

Long ago, on a hot summer Southern night, a stormy artist was born one month too late.
Raised in North Carolina amongst strict Baptists, the tempest discovered his love of bourbon in an empty bottle behind the barn when he was a tender five years old.
He was musically gifted, and years later in sunny Santa Fe, the ever-active creator built this bourbophone in the bathroom with those familiar empty bottles. It played interesting notes when struck with a mallet.

Of course, days could get hot in the desert too, so cool sounds were appreciated by all.

Genius at Work

Do you think it odd that he'd paint toes on his shoes? I didn't.

Crowd Enthusiasm

The second my shoes clicked in the hallowed halls of Vestal Jr. High School I knew I wanted to be a cheerleader. Aries Rising, grand fire trine, four planets, Moon-Jupiter conjunct in Sagittarius in the 9th. In spiritus dominus.

I made the Freshman squad as soon as I got into High School and in a moment of history-making, I was the first one ever to jump from Freshman to Varsity in my sophomore year, skipping Jr. Varsity. There were three slots open when try-outs came and it was a championship team under the leadership of proud Mrs. Dinga. When it came down to the finals it was between me and another girl, one adored by the clique which made up most of the squad. For hours they agonized and then in a moment of high drama, they chose me. I was great. Too good to pass up. And I was thrilled.

Next fall, my first Varsity football game arrived on a beautiful autumn Friday night, and in my deep gold sweater, deep green V on my chest, and matching gold skirt, I was embraced by one of the most exciting experiences in my life thus far. The band, the blazing lights against the black sky, the finest team in the Southern Tier, thick pom-poms, one dark green and one bright gold, a huge green megaphone, an enthusiastic crowd cheering uninhibitedly in unison and correctly, dancing and singing with the pom-poms non-stop for hours -- oh it was magnificent. Oh my god. And we won.

I was complete. I came home to a quiet house and sat before the fire sinking into the deepest feeling of contentment you can imagine. Every fiber of my body felt relaxed and fulfilled.

I always connect my love of cheerleading with my Sagittarius planets. The Friday pep rallies before the games were particularly uplifting. I've often thought that stadiums and the throngs of humans shouting together is a sort of cry out to the gods, maybe to remind them that we're here, or to tell them that we're not to be messed with. We have power too. It's a curious blend of fear and confidence, this ancient ritual. Jubilation as the trigger for calling to the invisible entities. And now with Pluto in the finale of its transit of Sagittarius, I do believe the planet is experiencing some crowd thrills a little out of the ordinary. Welcome aboard.

When Pluto crossed the USA ascendant, the Trade Towers fell heralding the fall of the dollar but the rise of something else -- the start of a new 248 year cycle and an awakening of spirit never before mined in the American psyche. Now that Pluto is leaving Sagittarius, crowd enthusiasm is at a height. It's a brief moment to celebrate life with exuberance, the Sagittarian birthright.

As for winning, I've learned that you don't ask anybody or anything if you can, or if you should, or how and why, you just win. But the real lesson of Sagittarius is acceptance of loss just as much. It's all in the game; and rolling with the punches, then getting back up and shouting with jubilation once again. Live and let live to the limit.

Some fear being swept up in crowd fervor, some love it, but no matter what, it's a worldwide ritual that has persisted throughout human history and shows no signs of diminishing. There's a spot for those who wish to whimper under the SE bleechers. Now where did I put my pom-poms?

Man the Dock!!

Well none too soon. With Pluto stationing in Sagittarius it's Anti-Christ time again. Hallelujah! The omnipotent Swiftboaters are headed downstream and all hell is breaking loose. The prurient ones are busy projecting a picture of the mesmerizing Obama as evil incarnate, heralding the end of civilization, just in time for the Mayan 2012 date. Darn good orchestration. But isn't O a few years too old? I forget.

For some reason the cosmic disaster fear chip is in the human brain, forever ready for action. Probably an alien implant. I wonder if the eclipse had something to do with it. They've been known historically to bring about some creature jumpiness. Thinking about God and them.

Then I got to thinking myself. People are aghast that others could believe such things. Some claim that these faithful are underdeveloped regarding mental skill. But how is this different from believing that the government is conspiring to enslave the masses or at least raise prices and not wages? Or that the earth is going to heat the human race into oblivion? Or that e-mails will be read by unseen forces? Or that Mars made me do it? Or that inebriated Mayans knew anything?

Hell. They just discovered liquid on Titan, one of Saturn's moons, the only other body besides the earth where fluid has been found. So maybe a lucky bunch of us could hightail it to Titan and start over. It was the Titans who started this whole thing, wasn't it?

Jumpin' catfish.

Anyway .. there's a slowboat to China in dock in case anyone's interested in getting out of here.

But ......

A bear's butt is better than a bare butt sometimes. Especially when it's cold.