New evidence supports the theory that Mars may have been the home to life forms at one time:
NASA researchers want to determine whether the planet could support, or ever has supported, life. The nutrients are among a few positive indicators they have gleaned since the Phoenix Mars Lander began collecting and testing soil samples last month. Early findings, including ice crystals and nutrients, point toward water -- the chemical basis for life.
Phoenix co-investigator William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead TEGA scientist, called the data "spectacular."
"At this point, we can say that the soil has clearly interacted with water in the past," he said. "We don't know whether that interaction occurred in this particular area in the northern polar region, or whether it might have happened elsewhere and blown up to this area as dust."
read more here...For years
scientists have speculated that Mars was formerly a wet planet. Some UFO-logists and conspiracy theorists have hypothesized that life on earth was seeded from Mars when the planet ran out of water and its inhabitants relocated to a lusher, greener planet. We now have evidence that
leaky seas could render the Earth as dry as Mars (this will be in a billion years so there's no need to panic just yet!).
What pleases me is the ever-growing pool of evidence that what seemed far-fetched ten years ago (life on Mars) is no longer so far-fetched. As we shift into the Aquarian Age our minds will have to expand to accommodate new paradigms of information and reality!
Astrology provides us with clues about the future, and sometimes that instills fear in us if we lose sight of the larger picture. Carlos Castaneda explains it here:
The world of everyday life cannot ever be taken as something personal that has power over us, something that could make us, or destroy us, because man’s battlefield is not in his strife with the world around him. His battlefield is over the horizon, in an area that is unthinkable for the average man, the area where man ceases to be a man.
It is energetically imperative for human beings to realize that the only thing that matters is their encounter with infinity. The term infinity cannot be reduced to a more manageable description. It is energetically irreducible.
This is an energetic fact, which means that it is a conclusion that is arrived at when the shaman is engaged in a function called seeing. Seeing is the act of perceiving energy directly as it flows in the universe.
The end result is a realization, which, by its simplicity, is so difficult to attain: that we are indeed beings that are going to die. Therefore, the real struggle of man is not the strife with his fellowman, but with infinity, and this is not even a struggle; it is, in essence, an acquiescence. We must voluntarily acquiesce to infinity. In the description of the sorcerers, our lives originate in infinity, and they end up wherever they originated: infinity. (From The Teachings of Don Juan – A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda.)
Remembering this idea that the process of our unfolding evolution occurs at the deepest and most internal level within us will help us to be able to navigate any rough seas that come our way.
We all know people who have relatively easy lives but are unable to experience any level of happiness because of the misery they carry within them; we have also seen people who have gone through unimaginable horrors and have come out of them with strength and wisdom.
This idea of acquiescing to infinity is what Pluto teaches, and the key to a life of bliss and power.
Dharmaruci had an interesting couple of posts a few days ago about factoids being the shadow side of Sagittarius.
DR writes about the theories espoused by David Icke and others that the ruling class is actually a reptilian race:
For a while this sort of belief had me a bit gobsmacked, like how can these people, who do not have mental health problems, believe these things? But then it occurred to me that it is no different to believing in the literal truth of the Bible, and there are plenty of people, and always have been, who are prepared to believe this.
You could argue that I’m an astrologer, and believing that there is a relationship between the motions of the planets and human existence is no less strange and far out. And I would have to concede that point. But I think what matters most is the WAY in which beliefs are held, rather than the beliefs themselves.
With astrology, I am the first to say that I cannot think of an explanation as to why the subject works. All I can say is that it does seem to, at least on most days of the week. I think with this sort of position discussion becomes possible, and there is an awareness that beliefs are only beliefs, they are not reality itself. . . .
Under Pluto in Sagittarius we have seen a growth in conspiracy theories, reptile notions, religious belief etc, which is what you would expect, but we have also seen the shadow side of Pluto in Sag, which is an associated lack of reason and lack of respect for observable facts. This is the province of the opposite sign, Gemini. The recent growth in conspiracy theories and the recent growth of fundamentalist religion have the same astrological signature.
By the way, I’m still waiting for someone to come up with a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that is presented as well-argued probability/possibility, rather than certainty based on factoids. I’m not against such theories, but the difficulty in finding well-argued theories demonstrates that many of them belong to the shadow side of Sagittarius.
With my Scorpio Mercury my thinking (Mercury) tends toward the shadow side and tend to look for the darker forces lurking beneath the surface. I have studied the Kennedy assassination since the 1970s, and after September 11 I became a conspiracy fanatic and regular visitor of the many sites that feed a hunger for knowledge of Truth. This hunger falls right in with the symbology of Pluto in Sagittarius, which approaches the search for Truth (Sag) with the compulsion of Pluto, and we've seen this in the spread of fundamentalist Christianity and Islam during this period (1995-2008) as well as conspiracy theories which look for meaning (Sag) in the dark corners of the human psyche (Pluto).
In DR's
follow-up article he writes,
Pluto is currently spending its last few months in Sagittarius. So this is a good time for looking more closely at those things which you would perhaps like to be true – like UFOs or Alien encounters or the faking of the Moon Landings or the various 9/11 conspiracies or the suppression of alternative technologies by the car companies or the role of 'junk' DNA. They may well be true. But what we think of as ‘facts’ around these phenomena, often well-established, can turn out not to be so.
I would add that in Sagittarius we tend to hold on to our established belief systems in a way that can be rigid and dogmatic and leave little room for facts. With Pluto in Sagittarius it's the belief that is crucial - the facts only stand in the way.
Uranus turned retrograde last night, as it does every year, creating interesting sudden shifts and reversals for citizens of Planet Earth.
Planets don't really change direction, of course, but because astrology looks at the movement of planets from our perspective on earth it appears from time to time that planets slow down and then reverse course. When this occurs their influence is felt more intensely, especially if our personal planetary radio is tuned to the frequency of that planet (if the retrograde planet is strong in our birthchart) or if we are experiencing a transit of that planet to a planet or point in our own chart.
It could just be a coincidence, but the stock market in the US chose that moment to make the biggest drop since 2006. This was largely driven by a sharp increase in oil prices, proving that increasing supply (since Saudi Arabia had just agreed to begin pumping more oil) is not the cause of high oil prices. Speculation in oil futures is rampant - the last gasp of the Pluto in Sagittarius mindset as Pluto completes its Sag journey before re-entering Capricorn at the end of the year. OPEC is now warning of oil prices reaching $170 a barrel (consider that oil was around $80 a barrel when Bush took office - but that's another story.
In other reversals, the Supreme Court declared that the right to bear arms found in the second amendment of the US Constitution applies to individuals. For the last 200 years this language has been in contention, and the conservative Supreme Court in this ruling gives free rein to gun ownership. Uranus rules personal freedom and social justice for all, so in some ways this ruling complies with the Uranian desire for equal access. But it also paves the way for the social uprising that is coming when Uranus transits into Aries and begins the square cycle to Pluto in Capricorn.
President Bush removed North Korea from his Axis of Evil blacklist, and in a gesture of cooperation the North Koreans yesterday blew up a nuclear reactor tower. This gesture is largely symbolic, because the agreement signed does not address uranian enrichment or sale of nuclear materials to other rogue nations.
As Uranus travels back through Pisces it will begin a series of oppositions to Saturn that will begin during election day. That opposition cycle will enter its second phase in September of 2009, and will conclude in May of 2010 with the final opposition to Saturn which will then be conjunct Jupiter. The first rumblings of the Uranus/Pluto square begin in the spring and summer of 2010.
Change is inevitable, and change is easier for some of us than for others. Regardless of how well we adapt to change, knowledge is power and understanding the energy behind these cycles help us to be better prepared to navigate them.
Last month I, along with other astrologers, reported on a challenging transit coming up for Barack Obama: the transit of Mars to his natal Uranus which coincided with a longer-range transit of Uranus to his natal Mars. I wrote at the time:
There is, however, a dangerous aspect looming on the horizon: a "double whammy" combination of transits from Mars to Uranus and from Uranus to Mars. When these two conflict, there are fireworks and danger from accidents or violence of some kind, and the opposition from Uranus to Mars in Obama's chart occurs as transiting Uranus is at its most powerful, between now and early August. Transiting Mars will hit Uranus in his chart around the 23rd of June, and he is vulnerable to some sort of attack at that time. Obama has been a very cool character throughout this campaign, but under this Mars influence (particularly in late June) we will begin to see some fissures in his smooth exterior. This is typical of the Uranus/Mars combination and is likely to bring some real fireworks to the campaigns! Hopefully it will not present a danger to his physical person.
The conjunction of Mars to Uranus in Obama's chart occurred on June 23, and as we can see there were no accidents and it does not appear that Obama was in any kind of physical danger. But we did see a reversal and strong expression of a desire (Mars) to go his own way (Uranus) in Obama's announcement on Thursday that he would not accept public financing of his campaign.
Just about at the exact time transiting Mars made a conjunction to the natal Uranus, Obama's position on the FISA bill (and those of other Democratic leaders) came under angry attack from members of his own party as being overly conciliatory to the telecom industry.
Uranus is the Awakener, and as much as I would like to hope in the Neptunian dream of a Utopian America, I am willing to concede the possibility that we will look back on this Mars/Uranus moment as the point at which Obama's campaign for President revealed itself as just another political maneuver rather than a crusade for hope and change we can really believe in.
So I ask that you
support the MoveOn effort to convince Obama to honor his promise to block the passage of any bill that supports retroactive immunity for telecommunications company that engaged in warrantless spying against ordinary Americans.
Another great journalist has died: George Carlin succumbed to a heart attack yesterday at the age of 71.I expected to see a strong Uranus component to his chart since he was so irreverent and iconoclastic, and there is a wide...
Following the unusual crop circle found near Barbury Castle, England last week, an hour away in Cardiff Wales:Stunned police gave chase to a UFO after it attacked their helicopter near a military base.The mystery aircraft zoomed straight at the chopper...
The four tropical cardinal points of the year are commonly known as the Solstices and Equinoxes, commonly celebrated on the days that the Sun enters the four cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. For thousands of years these times...
I'm giving my brain a rest today so please visit some of my friends:Robert Wilkinson brings back a fascinating post on the Mayan Calendar and the whole 2012 thing.Sally McDonald compares the current world situation to the book The Fourth...
Disclaimer: Barack Obama is my choice for president.This is part III of the series, catch up with Part I here, and Part II here. Venus in Obama's chart is in Cancer, the sign of the family and nurturing those we love....
I interrupt the Obama series to bring you the Full Moon! NASA reports: On Wednesday night, June 18th, step outside at sunset and look around. You'll see a giant form rising in the east. At first glance it looks like...
This is part II - catch up with Part I here.Obama's Mars is in Virgo, a thoughtful and cautious place for Mars to be. Mars shows the kind of drive we have and how our aggressive instinct is expressed. This...
This is turning out to be longer than I thought so I'm going to serialize it. Here's part One: Barack Obama sprang seemingly from nowhere to become the winner of the Democratic primary run for President. Until he gave the...
Thanks to Elsa for this link. It's really fabulous....
Ireland yesterday rejected the European Union Lisbon treaty, an agreement between member states that centralizes more power in Brussels and could potentially weaken the power of the member states. Ireland was the only nation to put the treaty to a...
American political junkies have become familiar with Tim Russert over the past 15 years or so since he took over the Sunday talk show "Meet the Press." Russert had established himself as one of the most respected newsmen in the...
Thanks to the many readers who sent me this link to the actual birth certificate as posted on Daily Kos. This now official time of 7:24 pm is very close to the 7:11 time that came from the UAC conference.No...
Last week I heard a show on NPR that highlighted a woman who had always been unattractive because of her big nose until she had an accident and the doctor suggested that while she was having surgery that she have...
I found this link on Ellie's World about the new crop circle in Barbury, England that includes a very detailed analysis of the crop circle and its relationship to the number Pi and has rounded up to an astonishing 10...
New consumer protection regulations in Britain classifies astrologers along with fortune tellers and double-glazing salesman under a new consumer protection act. Astrologers, faith healers and spiritual advisers will now have to post a sign that says "for entertainment purposes only."...
Venus and Mercury are conjunct right now in Gemini, along with the Sun, and the power of Venus to soften the mind (Mercury) is illuminated by the Sun and offers an opportunity to open the doors to the wisdom of...
We can't blame everything on Mercury retrograde, because don't forget there are four other planets retrograde as well. Today, astrodynamics.net went down and I'm in good company because Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, yesterday was "hit by technical failure"...
Thanks to Astrococktail for this enlightening link about America's Seventh Saturn Return by astrologer Robert Cole that appeared in Mother Earth News in 1981. I love it when astrology is taken seriously by the mainstream media!On October 22, 1981—in the...
Even my assistant, who doesn't believe in astrology, now is an expert on Mercury Retrograde. The expression "forewarned is forearmed" was never truer than when dealing with Mercury's retrograde travel time.So I was pleased to see this article posted in...
Elsa is a tireless supporter and promoter of the entire astroloblogosphere. I know she's having a Pluto transit to her Moon, but this is ridiculous.Please drop by and give her some love....
In the news today:Children will learn by downloading information directly into their brains within 30 years, the head of Britain's top private schools organisation has predicted.Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said "Matrix-style" technology would...
Reports are mixed as to whether Hillary Clinton will end her campaign after the last two primaries today. On Countdown last night:Senator Hillary Clinton appears on the verge of suspending her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, and endorsing Senator...
Skywatch for June has been posted, offering a tantalizing look at the delicious planetary opportunities in store for us this month. Here's a tidbit: Welcome to June! Because we have a number of planets changing direction this month, turning retrograde...
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe