The Angel's Herb or the Devil's Weed?

The bitter with the sweet. Nothing is pure, it seems, in this world. Nothing wholly good or bad. Now it turns out that certain elements in cannabis could be antidotes against cancer. If you're going to live your life cancer-free in this fashion be sure to have plenty of sweets around.

Nurse Jill, the Angel

She's back with her THC: Tender Hearted Care, also known as the active ingredient in cannabis, or ganga as it's known in the great nation of India. Ganga is as old as woman and man herself and himself. I wonder if the Bonobos know something about it. In India, bhang lassis, a very popular beverage, are available for anyone interested in well being -- ganga mixed with yogurt and a healthy dose of sugar. Anti-cancer, anti-anxiety, and pro-Constitutional. Nurse Jill is an expert in cure using the most benign medicines available, all in her little magic bag. She's always on call, and don't worry about being tapped. She's legal.

The Omnipresent i

There was a young lady from Fisa

Whose wires were tapped in disguisa

She was soon driven mad

Lost all the sense that she had

But can anyone really criticisa?

The Fickle Sun

Those of you familiar with me know that I'm not much for maintenance. I clean only what's necessary, on occasion, and I don't have a yard. Mowing would be out of the question as would be watering. Through the years, though, I've gardened when I could, and when I moved to the city I had flowers on my balcony every summer. My latest home is weird.

I get late afternoon sun and now my trees are shading even that, so my petunias did nothing. Zip. Ridiculous. And I'm not crazy about shade plants. So I said, "Aw, to hell with it," and I put some fake ivy out there. No watering at all. Complete freedom. Perfect.

But still, every year I come to this point and ask myself, "Should I get some pansies or something?
Or should I get another fake something or other and preserve my freedom?"

I'll take a look around this evening.

The Realm of Imagination

Sun in Cancer

The Sun is in Cancer once again. Like a flashlight shining under a rock alarms, Cancer likes her privacy and the hot glare of the Sun can send her scurrying. It's no wonder that the subject of "public" privacy came bounding to the forefront.

It's the ancient battle between the light of day and the cover of night, where senses rule and non-linear, non-rational experience dominates. When the two meet, mysterious images come into the light seeking conscious appraisal. Hidden feelings emerge for recognition. As a Cancer I've battled all my life with exposure. Does the sun kill the essence of dreams and my rich imaginary world, or does it add vitality and meaning? Mercury has just gone direct in Gemini becoming the hook for these fears looking for events as a road to understanding.

Obama has terrified the Netroots Community on the issue of privacy. The Constitution has become a copy of Moses' tablet imbued with extreme mystical power that must be obeyed with dictatorial force. Never mind that it is a flawed document created by imperfect beings. All forgotten in this mighty imaginary world. Privacy is God. The Constitution is now the umbilical savior. The 4th Amendment, 4th planet Cancer, 4th house. With 4 planets in Cancer, yes, the United States is concerned with privacy. The Sun is just crossing Obama's Venus soon to transit the USA stellium. The deity of light is illuminating as he usually does.

What are they really afraid of? Constitutional violations? Every rule is destined to be violated. The Holy Book has been ejected, after diabolical acts, into the netherworlds they say, and we are doomed without mercy, but it's much more primordial than that.

Cancer governs human instinct, unschooled response. What people are grappling with is trust. Should we trust this unusual man, the chalice holding our dreams at the moment, or is he just another corrupt politician?
Or is it a mask covering fear of change as the attempt to equate him with the past gears up? Or perhaps the fear of authority has made it imperative to diminish him immediately now that he's emerged triumphant. And, of course, the obsession's basic fact -- the masking of people's fears about their own lives, the only thing that really matters. And the feeling of powerlessness to do anything about it. Enter the 4th Amendment. And the love of wrapping the tongue around anything repeatable ad infinitum en masse unsubstantiated by fact. Oddly like the dreadful media icons. They do so love capital letters and the Z sound.

So the latest conflict has uncovered the truth of feeling and imagination, apart from logical reality. The desperate attempt to rationalize is failing since the omnipotent legislation in question is understood by no one, except perhaps the creators in the inner sanctum. Whether or not Obama is to be trusted is based on individual wiring and response. While some are facing the fear that was always lurking in the subconscious, others are opening up further to trust, as the polls indicate.

Sure, privacy is great. I love it with my Cancer in the 4th house, and my house literally excludes everybody from the outside world, save a few fix-it people. But the second you pick up the telephone and dial, you've given up your privacy and no law can guarantee it. Didn't the people sacrifice it when they got online with windows peering everywhere? Doesn't secrecy work both ways? What is anyone hiding and why? And why find out? But no matter how many wires are tapped and words read, there are crevices in everyone that no one can reach. When the light shines, some entities will scurry into dark spots, others will wiggle around and enjoy the heat. Individual preference.

Cancer also governs the reflective mirror that shows us the reverse dimension of reality. Obama is good at this, and now the flip sides of people's emotional bodies are showing their might. Obama, the angel suddenly became a monster as the Sun entered Cancer. It promises to be fascinating as Mercury transits Gemini and people try to apply logic to their fears while the Sun goes deeper and deeper into Cancer, shining under the rocks exposing their true feelings. A terribly mixed up realm I might add.

What the Presumptive Nominee is doing now is making the political chess moves to get elected. And they're the right ones. Considering his name and skin shade he has to be superb. So FISA is moot at this point, although his judgement of the revised bill is intelligent and his approval and criticisms are based on knowledge.

There are simple political calculations behind the Democratic Party's decisions, such an important victory being rather high priority. Once president he can deal with it appropriately. If unconstitutional, the courts can strike it down, all the more reason for him to take the job and appoint federal judges. There are loopholes so he can pursue the perpetrators if he wants. And he with a Democratic Congress can render most of it impotent. It's solely foreign surveillance and some of it is actually useful. And I believe the tapping is done by computers, those sentient beings, little of the endless chatter contacting human ears.

The Sun is in Cancer for a month .... fears will be felt, then on to Leo, privacy forgotten for the moment, Obama the hero once again with the added knowing dark dimension. Then the nomination and historic speech, and forward we go, the confident pulling the fearful by the hand. Hopefully. Rather than kicking them from behind.
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: John Anster

Life and Maintenance

Time for an oil change.

Immune To What?

The Sun is at 29 Gemini exactly opposite Pluto in Sagittarius. Hello??? Communication and power anyone? Shriek!!! The Horror!!

The latest panic in needle park is telecom immunity after violation of privacy. Well, well, well. Communication is a big one. Problems galore. Everybody's problem. Who's telephone is it anyway? Who's foolin' who? Wait a second while I take this call.

The telecom industry was formally given massive power in 1996 and now it's a fact, an old story through all of history ... consolidation of control. The game of monopoly. And we still arrived here safely. Hold on a sec ... another call.

So now we have Pluto in Capricorn to deal effectively with the situation. Aspiring prophets have predicted mysterious enslavement by monstrous corporations or equally monstrous governments when Pluto transits Capricorn but they're forgetting one teensy tiny little fact. Power consolidation is everywhere. People, rulers, small business, big business, the smart, the dumb, you name it.

Meanwhile, talk in whispers if you must. In a quiet place away from the shrieking. Upp! Another call. Excuse me.
Painting: Salvador Dali

Whose Fault Is It?

The Staple Singers

I admit it. It can get tiresome how many times I say this, but finding the entity that causes people's suffering is impossible. S*He doesn't exist.
It's not the president, the evil dictator, your mother, your spouse, the sheriff, the white, red, or blue man, not even the earth. The business corporations?? Are you kidding? Who really pulls the strings? Where is the root of injustice? Of self-respect?
It's a big system that involves everyone and everything, including the whole conscious and subconscious realms of each individual. We're guided by attraction and repulsion and know not where the source resides. I think in some ways, we have to trust our luck.

Bad things come. They go. Good things come. And then all the in-between. And the moon grows full.

Nina Simone did a great version of the old Blind Willie Johnson tune Nobody's Fault But Mine. It's been covered by a lot of musicians.

Well, it's nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul get lost
Nobody's fault but mine

My mother taught me how to read
My mother taught me how to read
If I don't read, my soul get lost
Nobody's fault but mine

It's nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I should die, my soul be lost
It's nobody's fault but mine

The Crossroads

Hermes was the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and the mysterious nymph Maia, also called Mother Night. When Hermes was a baby he toddled out of his cradle and stole a herd of cattle from his brother Apollo, the sun god. To fool Apollo he put on sandals which faced backward, so that the angry god went in the wrong direction looking for the culprit. When Apollo finally confronted him, Hermes presented him with a gift; a lyre he'd made from a tortoiseshell. Hermes flattered his brother with high praise, telling the older god that the gift was meant to honor the sun god's wonderful skill at music. Apollo was so beguiled that he forgot about the cattle, and in return bestowed upon Hermes a gift of his own ... that of divination. So it was that Hermes became the master of the four elements, and eventually taught people the skills of geomancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, and aeromancy; divination by earth, fire, water, and air. He was always worshipped at the crossroads, where statues were erected to honor him and invoke his blessings upon the traveler.

"Hermes, the Magician, is the guide", so says Liz Greene who equates the two. "This means that somewhere within people there is something which has foresight and can divine what direction to take and what choices to make."
The last full moon in Sagittarius conjunct Pluto is upon us. The Sun will form a conjunction with Venus in Hermes-rich Gemini, and Mercury will be just turning direct in same sign. I get the impression that directions are beginning to be defined as Pluto makes this generational transition. In some boss orchestration, when Pluto comes back to 29 late November for the last crossing, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Mars will all be conjunct in Sagittarius. What a trip.

My view? Gemini is one of the most underestimated signs in the zodiac. I think they prefer it that way. The fact that they are given carte blanche to travel the worlds freely, upper and lower, has always been my clue. No one else gets to go everywhere. They do know the routes. And mostly, the crossroads, those spots of possibility.Illustration: Juliet Sharman-Burke

Happy Hour

Morning in Varanasi

I love this town. So full of life you can't imagine. Naked sadhus, sari-wrapped beauties, boats, bells, chimes, songs, slapping chapatis, the slap of sticks hitting cows' rear ends (they roam free), all in a symphony day and night. My irreverent father came to visit me there and suggested one day, "Hey! Let's go down to the burning ghats and see what's cooking!" The guy always made me laugh.

I lived for awhile on the Ganges in a houseboat so tiny it could hold 5 ft. me and little else. Naturally I didn't entertain much. But I did play nightly for the international hippie crowd on larger boats. And in a house by the river. Guitar. Songs. Drums. All out in the open. Never a dull moment.
Varanasi, India: Richard Anson

That Curious Minneapolis Bridge

Once again Minneapolis is in the news, or neighboring St. Paul, and one can't think of Minneapolis these days without thinking of her collapsed bridge now being rebuilt. Is it cosmic? Wouldn't surprise me.

Senator Obama has decided to acknowledge his nomination right there, in the exact spot the Republicans are holding their own nominating convention. Hmmmm. The nerve of the upstart claiming the territory, framing the debate, as they say, and leaving his vibes in the Excel energy center. This relative stranger who possesses no doubt that he's going to be the next president of the United States of America, as he likes to call it. Of course, he could be paving the way to the promised coalition with his adversaries. Who knows?

He'll be delivering his victory speech tonight and wouldn't you know it? It's the new Moon in Gemini, the sign of speech and communication. New directions is the theme, I understand, and Mercury is retrograde in Gemini for a reverse look, coupled with Uranus and all his wild cards. Mars is under the influence as well.

But even of further interest is the coming full moon conjunct Pluto just back in Sagittarius..... the bridge we've been so diligently trying to cross. Could this Minnesota bridge symbolize a greater crossing? Say one into the 21st century for example. A new frontier, considering Uranus soon in Aries. You can't keep Mars in the house. And you can't keep his ice a secret.

Well, St. Paul has Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto in Aries. That ought to get it kick started. Even the bridge itself is a bridge between the cities, if I'm not mistaken. And their personalities are quite different. I must say, this Saturn-Uranus election is quite out of the ordinary. Lots of education involved. That leads me to believe that we are as a whole in an unusual place, on a bridge if you will. Under construction.

A Question Came Up Tonight

Do you know the muffin man
The muffin man, the muffin man,
O do you know the muffin man,
That lives in Drury Lane?

No I don't, actually. I'd like to.