Saturday, November 29, 2008

Wal Mart Stampede

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled in Hobbesian Frenzy by EQ Coach Susan Dunn

I think we have all been stunned to read about the Hobbesian frenzy that killed a Wal-Mart employee today. It might also be called a feeding frenzy. It harkens as well to "The Oxbow Incident."

"A Hobbesian frenzy," refers to the the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes.Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death reads the headline in the New York Times article, which refers to a "Hobbesian frenzy" that killed Jdimypai Damour, a 34 y.o. temporary employee, no doubt hired for the Black Friday sale at the New York Wal-Mart, a post-Thanksgiving Day tradition for many. Why is this called a Hobbesian frenzy? Thomas Hobbes wrote: "The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone."

From the article:

A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York was trampled to death by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning, turning the annual rite of post-Thanksgiving bargain hunting into a Hobbesian frenzy.

This article is rapidly making the rounds in emails, sent to me by several people today. Why? Because it is difficult for us to believe that people would break down a door and trample over other people, and trample over the police trying to give CPR to the victim, in order to get to an ipod, a designer sweater, a TV, or whatever else it was that drove them.

And there are still psychologists who claim that emotions aren't contagious??

The article is a nightmare to read.

FEEDING FRENZY, photo taken by Luc Viatour, GFDL/CC, of Carp competing for food at the pond of the Royal Palace Agdal of Marrakech in Morocco.

Says wikipedia about a feeding frenzy, and read the ominous last sentence:

Feeding frenzy is an ecological term used to describe a situation where oversaturation of a supply of food leads to rapid feeding by predatory animals. For example, a large school of fish can cause nearby sharks to enter a feeding frenzy.

"Feeding frenzy" is also a metaphor often used in a non-biological sense to describe excited involvement by a group over some focal point of attention. [An] example would be shoppers frantically looking for bargains during a sale.

We do not like to read about the dark side of us all. The greed, the lack of concern for other human beings, the competitiveness and aggression, the total disregard of normal boundaries (like a door)... and the sort of mob behavior Walter Von Tilburg Clark wrote about in THE OXBOW INCIDENT. When ordinary people in a group turn into a mob and do something they would not ordinarily do as an individual. Turn into predators.

David Bordwell uses the phrase "Hobbesian frenzy" in his blog on cinema.


Cheang Pou-soi’s Dog Bite Dog: This tale of a hired killer from Thailand and the raging young cop who pursues him presents a world in Hobbesian frenzy, with all against all. The most unrelentingly violent Hong Kong film I’ve seen in years...

Quotes from Thomas Hobbes


During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679), an English philosopher, wrote his book Leviathan in 1651, which, according to wikipedia wikipedia, established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory.

In the article you also read that the police were called away from the scene to go to Best Buys and Circuit City, also having problems.


All this for a laptop? What on earth has happened to our social contracts?


Social contract describes a broad class of republican theories whose subjects are implied agreements by which people form nations and maintain a social order. Such social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government and other authority in order to receive or jointly preserve social order.(wikipedia)I don't know what to say to conclude this blog entry. I don't think anyone knows what to say. This has to do with emotions and behavior, but perhaps as much to do with values and materialism, and a disrupted economy. I guess. I really don't know what to say.

Comments welcome.

Friday, November 28, 2008

We are Fields before Each Other


WE ARE FIELDS BEFORE EACH OTHER

How is it they live for eons in such harmony -the billions of stars -

when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their mind against someone they know.

There are wars where no one marches with a flag, though that does not keep casualties from mounting.

Our hearts irrigate this earth. We are fields before each other.

How can we live in harmony? First we need to know

we are all madly in love with the same God.

~ St. Thomas Aquinas ~
[photo from wiki]

Creator and Destroyer of Worlds

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Revolutionize Your Spending Outlook

Great for both Black Friday and Pluto entering Capricorn.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Holiday Travel Tips


Planning to travel for the holidays? Some savvy travel tips can really lessen your stress (a left brain thought). More than that, savvy travel tips can add to your comfort (a right brain feeling).


After all, there's more to life than speed and avoiding stress. There's also comfort, pleasure and enjoying the ride. Yesterday, I came across the article Know Before You Go: Unlock the Secrets of Your Home Airport on msn.com. The lead-in is, "Every terminal has tricks that savvy fliers can use to save time and reduce hassles." And, say I, add to your comfort and enjoyment.


Armed with emotional intelligence (the right attitude, and emotional management), it can again be a rather pleasureable experiene. Reading the article made me realize how much I know about certain airports that I never really verbalized. Just little tricks, things I've learned in going through them many times. And how helpful they would be to someone else. Why hadn't I ever thought about asking other people what they knew??


The author mentions Sea-Tac first. I used to travel to Sea-Tac a lot when my son was at Pepperdine. A friend of mine called me when she was planning a trip there, and I immediately started telling her the ins and outs, which car rental to use and why, this incredibly convenient and user-friendly affordable motel ... I had it all down to a science.


This man's article talks about speed of maneuvering. Mine would include tips on comfort - restrooms, food, places to rest, where the best food is at O'Hare ... what airport has rocking chairs, and which one has a smoking room inside, which has a bar centrally located where if you by a drink you can smoke, how bad the food is at XXX, and what airport is set up so you can quickly go outside between flights to enjoy some fresh air and the beautiful scenery.


I'd also talk about all the Emotional Intelligence (EQ) tips I've applied to personnel at airports that have eased my passage through. Together he and I would write quite a book!


For instance, there's security - a fantastic place to practice your emotional intelligence skills for savvy travel. I read in the Dallas newspaper not long ago that the TSA there was going to move their focus from book-learning to intuition. One official interviewed said that we know intuitively when someone's 'suspect.' I know this has caused a lot of discrimination talk (should every 20 y.o. male Arab be searched?), but there it was in print. The TSA agents were now going to receive training in recognizing suspicious behavior, expressions, postures, gestures, etc. If I had time, I'd love to lead the training!


There's one trick I use that almost always assures I get 'to the front of the line' in most situations.When dealing with airport personnel and TSA, I use a lot of nonverbal behavior that greases wheels for me. In contradistinction, I traveled with a friend of mine not long ago who "hates" airports and the "stupid" security stuff, like having to take off her shoes, and therefore becomes hostile the minute she sets her foot in an airport. She really cops an attitude, AND GUESS WHO ALWAYS, ALWAYS GETS SEARCHED??


Savvy travel through what is often a nightmarish landscape: Another compelling reason to study Emotional Intelligence. Take THE EQ COURSE and start learning more now. This is a unique course - nothing like it on the Internet. Find out about nonverbals and intuition, what they're onw teaching the TSA people; find out what can make you your own worst enemy when traveling. What you learn in THE EQ COURSE can be applied to every situation you encounter anywhere, for win-win outcomes.


Nice people finish last? Nope. Nice people get through airports faster, get better service from stewardesses, get help with their bags, get their own special bus to that far-off terminal ...


Special in time for holiday travel: 50 min. phone consultation, $50. Beats the heck out of the $299 you'd pay for a Clear pass. Also check out the TSA database on security wait times at U. S. airports. (And each airport's own website.) How long is the wait time at Love Field in Dallas? I maintain it's a lot more important for you to know the back route to the airport that I know (saves at least half an hour and avoids one of the most dangerous left turns ever created by man), and about the cell phone parking-waiting area. Wish someone had told ME about them!It's emotionally intelligent to get the information you need to prepare for less-stress travel, as much creature comfort as possible, and to maintain a support network for that, and everything else.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Cell Phone Etiquette

Remember the British noble-woman who said, re: sex, “I don’t care what two consenting adults do as long as they don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses”? She may have said “embarrass,” I can’t find the quote. Either will do, as I proceed to apply this to cell phones.
I agree they’re INDISPENSABLE. I’m uniquely qualified to say so because I was a doctor’s wife in the 60’s. When he was on-call, he was chained to the phone, and we couldn’t use it. Think I don’t appreciate call-waiting and cell phones? Think again.

They’re invaluable for SAFETY. I routinely drive from San Antonio to Dallas and at night, to avoid the traffic. I consider the traffic far more life-threatening than being stranded on the side of IH-35 at midnight, THANKS TO the cell phone.

They’re PRICELESS when you’re lost, running late, or have a teenager.

They allow doctors and therapists to have a life.

But there are some things we needn’t subject others to:

If I wanted to hear why your brother is an asshole, I’d ask you. But that’s actually the kind of toxic environment I try to avoidother people’s hostility. If I wanted to be sexually aroused by explicit phone conversation, I’d be on DIAL-A-PORN. If I wanted to hear your personal angst, I’d be your therapist and charging you for the phone call.If I wanted to be in the bathroom with you…apparently 47% of Americans think it’s fine to talk on their cells “while in the rest room,” and I assume this doesn’t mean while they’re shaving. I find this simply incomprehensible
These conversations are simply TMI.

Talking on the cell phone can also ENDANGER THE LIVES OF OTHERS. A 2002 study suggests that drivers talking on their cells cause 6% of auto accidents each year, killing an estimated 2,600 people and injuring 330,000.

And you should listen up to this: companies are now being held LIABLE for employees who have accidents while driving and talking on the cell phone. Maybe this will knock some sense into people.

There are currently 120,000,000 cell phone users in the US, and 40 state governments are considering proposals to restrict or ban their use while driving.

We are quickly moving into the realm of “frankly bizarre.” I had lunch yesterday next to a table of teenagers. The entire time two of them were on cell phones, and this made it too noisy for the other two to talk to each other - real people right in front of them.

Joanna Krotz says in “Cell Phone Etiquette “: “Every executive has their can you beat this cell story? But Mary Westheimer of Bookzone.com offers one totally over the top: At a recent Publishers Marketing Association conference, a panel member was presenting his part of the event. ‘His cell phone rang and he stopped his presentation and answered his phone!’”
We don’t need an anthropologist (Robbie Blinkoff, principal anthropologist for Context-Based Research group) to tell us “people are defining new rules and new behavior for what’s personal and what’s private.”

Apparently not much is personal any more. I don’t know about you, but I resent hearing that tinny William Tell Overture while I’m watching a movie. Last year a New York City Councilman introduced legislation to penalize anyone making or taking a call during an indoor performance. Pending … they couldn’t figure out how to enforce it.

How about working through the pocketbook? The last concert I attended, the people behind me were drunk and disorderly. The manager said she couldn’t do anything about it. I demanded a refund. She then seated us elsewhere, but our pleasant evening had become a major stressor. I told her I wouldn’t be back until they figured out “something to do”.

Apparently people are taking and making calls during funerals. Is nothing sacred any more?
I’m torn because I enjoy being connected with loved ones via cell phone, and I’m on-call to my coaching clients. I’m all for using it to make the cold cruel world less so, but why not find a quiet, private place?

Are we doing this to look important and get attention? If you are, that’s not how you appear. We perceive you in one of three ways —

Either you can’t function alone and need a constant umbilical cord Your self-esteem is so low you’re desperate for attention.You are rude, egotistical, and have no social consciousness.
If you do have to take a phone call in public, you should be apologetic about it, not proud.

Here are some common-decency suggestions for use of the cell phone:
1.By all means use the phone for essential business - this means to the point and brief.
2.Maintain a distance of at least 10′ from others, lower your voice, turn away, act like you’re doing something private BECAUSE YOU ARE.
3.Value the real people in your presence over the cell phone. It is RUDE to take a phone call when you’re with someone else, with few exceptions.
4.Doctors and expectant-fathers have emergencies; you, rarely.
5.Get some balance in your life. If you can’t take time off to enjoy a play or visit an art museum without taking phone calls, what are you doing to yourself?
6.Understand that we think you’re rude and egotistical when you violate common decency.
7. Get a quiet ringer or vibrating cell.
8.Don’t give your cell number to everyone.
9.Let other people know you expect to use the phone with etiquette.

You know how it goes - when a few people don’t behave right, rules and laws follow, and then everyone gets penalized. Work for quiet, no-phone zones, but most of all, enforce your own and maybe we can avoid massive legislation.

It would be a shame not to be able to use your cell phone in a public place in case of a real emergency, and this is where we’re headed, folks.

About the Author
Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, offers personal and executive coaching, Internet courses, and business programs in emotional intelligence. Visit her on the web at http://www.susandunn.cc/ and sdunn@susandunn.cc .

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Getting Your Pluto On

I am becoming a no crap zone. "Gettin my Pluto On".\~Anonymous client comment today

Worth Passing Along

“Earth”

The earth is not our mother. It is our child. And as with any child, its well-being demands that it be held - to be held in our dreams, as we would hold an infant in our arms. And, as an infant with its smile reflecting the environment of the home provided by its parents, so is Earth a reflection

of humanity's collective embrace. Your relationship with your own body is a microcosm of your part in the collective and its relationship to our planet. To see yourself, your body connected - as a part of the Earth - is to require imagination. Watch a child and how they play with leaves or the light bouncing on the wall, or feel freedom in the wind. It is in times like these, where the imagination is charged, the dream is on, that to the Earth you become a moment of calmness. The embrace is secure.

To laugh at meditation; to deny yourself time to contemplate; to ignore all your experience while out of the body; to fear your own nature; to see your path - is to fear nothing more than your own imagination. And it is this fear, fear of dreaming, that disconnects you, not just from yourself but from the whole.

Now let us take a deep breath and return to a simple picture: the space around you, right around your body, is not empty.

- John Fulton , Aesclepion News Letter, San Rafael

Visit John's website and learn more: http://www.aesclepion.net/Dreams.html

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Pluto Has Been in Capricorn Before

What happened in years past when Pluto was in Capricorn?


042 – 061
43-51 Romans invade Britain; Brits defeated in 51
58 Emperor Ming-Ti introduces Buddhism to China



287 – 306
301 Kingdom of Armenia is first nation w/ Christianity as official religion
303 – 311 Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
285 – 305 Roman Empire divided; Civil & Military functions separated;
Currency unstable & new fiscal system introduced; senate loses
remaining power





532 – 551
500-550 Mass migration of Celtic monks to Brittany as Celtic
Monasticism spreads through Europe
530 St. Benedict codifies the Benedictine rule for monasteries in Europe
532-537 Hagia Sopia, the cathedral of Constantinople (Byzantine) built [some say the most beautiful building in the world]
542-594 Plague spreads through Europe, killing ½ population
550 The churches of Georgia and Armenia split
550 The great Mar’ib Dam, built in 500BC collapse and the agricultural garden of southern Arabia dries up. The land becomes desert and the Arab tribes turn to nomadic pastoralism [this was a cataclysmic change similar perhaps to toda's climate changes]



[ruins of the Mar'ib and origin of th eArabs]











778 – 796
772-785 Charlemagne ending the Dark Ages in Austria, Saxony & Lombardy
785 The Roman year 753 became 1AD under Charlemagne
793 Vikings invade Britain for the first time



1024 – 1041

1025 Sugar extracted from sugar cane by the Persians
1030 Normans set out to conquer all of So. Italy
1032 Burguny made part of Roman Empire
1040 Macbeth murders Duncan, king of Scotland
1041 Movable type developed in China


1269 – 1286

1250-1273 Imperial authority dissolves (Holy Roman Empire)
1270 Korea negotiates peace with Mongol invaders
1271-1295 Marco Polo of Venice to China
1271 Moscow becomes the capital of Grand Duch of Suzdal-Vladimir
1273 Thomas Aquinas writes “Summa Theologica”, the basis of all Catholic theological teachings, based on Aristotle
1274 Council of Lyon ruinites Byantine & Roman churches; repealed in 1282
1274 Mongols first attempt to invade Japan defeated by a typhoon
1275 Mechanized clocks reinvented in Europe
1277 Landmines used by Chinese against Mongol invaders
1279 Kublai Khan creates the Yuan dynasty
1280 The spinning wheel, the first geared machine, used in India
1281 Mongols second attempt to invade Japan defeated by a typhoon
1282 Eyeglasses invented by Alessandro di Spina in Florence—extending
the productive period in men’s lives
1282 Salting fish used in the Netherlands for preservation
1283 Edward I conquers Wales


1515 – 1532


1515 The fur trade becomes a major economic force in North America
1515 Anarchy in Ireland
1516 Portuguese sail directly to China for 1st time and settle in Canton
1516 Sir Thomas Moore publishes “Utopia”
1517 Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses
1519-1521 Hernando Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain
1519-1522 Ferdinand Magellan begins journey to circumnavigate world
1520 Martin Luther excommunicated
1523 Spain takes sugar cane to Cuba
1524-1526 Peasant uprisings (Ger/Holy Roman Empire)
1528 Spain takes wheat to Mexico
1531-1533 Francisco Pizzaro conquers Peru
1531 First modern stock exchange established in Antwerp
1532 Sir Thomas Moore resigns over Henry VIII’s divorce
1533 Henry VIII marries Ann Boleyn


1762 – 1778

1762 Mozart tours world as a 6-yr old prodigy
1764 The spinning jenny accelerates the spinning of thread
1764 Expulsion of Jesuits from France
1766 Henry Cavendish discovers hydrogen
1768-1779 James Cook begins 3 Pacific explorations
1769 James Watt improves Newcombe engine—practical power plant
1769 First steam wagon produced in France
1771 Carl Scheele discovers oxygen
1773 Pope Clement XIV dissolves Jesuit order
1776 Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” & Edward Gibbon’s “Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire” published
1778 Franz Mesmer used hypnotism




























In America

1764 Sugar Act
1765 Quartering Act, Stamp Act
1770 Boston Massacre
1773 Boston Tea Party
1774 First Continental Congress
1775-1783 War of Independence
1775 Battles of Lexington & Concord
1775 Second Continental Congress
1776 Declaration of Independence
1781 Articles of Confederacy ratified
1782 Treaty of Versailles
1787 Constitutional Convention


2008-2024
First African-American president of the US
Global warming
Economic disasters

STAY TUNED!

INFP Reader "Outs" Another Introvert


M writes ...

"Reading Barbara Walter's books "Audition".... where she confesses to being an introvert...used to send people letters when she wanted to interview them and only phoned when she wanted to shore up last minute details...she says she hates the phone.

"She also dated Alan Greenspan...another introvert...but he at least had the chutzpah to ask her to dance when he met her."
My thoughts: No wonder she does such interesting, penetrating interviews. She's really listening!!!

The Jeans Transformation


I dived back in to my favorite old jeans for about ten days after I got them bak from Miss Lee and then last night I was invited out for dinner so I figured, with a Plutonic twinkle in my eye, "O why not wear my spankypants?".

Shoutout to Leos

Advice given to a lovelorn Leo from a Leo friend...

"Why do you lower yourself? He didn't deserve your love and to waste time exploring him, the chart and the relationship is to dignify the pig. Truly i think this is a lesson every person with pronounced Leo needs to learn. God some of the people i poured my love out to were worse than straw men in retrospect. I was seeing something in them and trying to find something in them that one cannot find in trogoldytes .. stuff like character, honesty, self awareness, compassion, not to mention dignity, kiindness and the lion heart."
~Anonymous


Barrack Hussein Obama's Birth Chart

[photo from wiki]

Obama's own chart has an exact quincunx between Saturn and Uranus, conservative or revolutionary. This is the transit that occurred (incredibly) on election day increasing the polarized tension between Republican and Democrat candidates. Even their ages were highly symbolic, youngest and oldest.

The trouble with this aspect in our president-elect's chart ... and this now involves all Americans ... a quincunx is never resolved. He will always feel like he's on the verge of finding the proper balance but it will never happen. That boils down to volatility, wouldn't you agree?


What usually happens is the person takes one side of the argument vehemently for a long time, years, even decades and then "one day" the other side takes over the whole chart with a vengeance.


Hmmm. Seems we may have a conservative backlash after all. My guess would be when Saturn in Libra squares his natal Saturn in Capricorn, in mid-2011.


The potential for demagoguery in that North Node in Leo flanked by Uranus and Pluto may be pushed forward when Pluto squares his natal Venus in Cancer in the 5th house from the 12th house. The combination of Leo/Pisces 5-12 houses with Venus/Pluto involved can create an idool (or love goddess). In addition, by our unconscious friends and those still feeling secretly guilty for the sins or our slave owning fathers, he may become "identified with" America as a means of compensation and redemption.

Or maybe he'll just do a 180 like Lyndon Johnson only heading down the oher track..

A little nudge from wiki:


Demagogy (also demagoguery) (Ancient Greek δημαγωγία, from δῆμος dÄ“mos "people" and ἄγειν agein "to lead") refers to a political strategy for obtaining and gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, emotions, fears and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist or populist theme.

Please comment below. In general all comments are published on my website unless hate filled or obscene.

Saturn and Neptune together in Libra


Beginning to look at Saturn in Libra and their upccoming Saturn Return in a few years.



Those born within 5 years of you have Saturn and Neptune together in Libra. This produces difficulties in a social aspect, knowing who people "really" are and where you stand with them, why they act one way one time and another the next.


Many with this aspect learn hard lessons in good judgment about people by having relationships with sociopaths because there is difficulty getting a handle on when a person is acting or when they are sincere. It is hard to touch the core of another person with any reliability when ou have Saturn and Neptune in Libra.


There are usually many lies or denials within the birth family about things like adoption, legitimacy, who's doing what to whom which leads to mixed signals later on. What can really help is when you meet somemone or wonder why someone is acting the way they are - like at work, one day cordial, the next day you're invisible - identify a grounded realistic person and ask their opinion.


This challenge occurs only in a social setting interacting with others but it can lead to being insecure about who you are because we form our impression of ourselves in the mirroring of others. In this case the mirror is inevitably distorted.


Another issue is holding your own in a relationship. It's hard to strike a balane between placating or calling the whole thing off. Passive agressive behavior is a danger.


If you have Saurn and Neptune together in Libra (born around 1952) what are YOUR issues?
[Buy the bad Libra magnet at AllPosters.]

Saturday, November 22, 2008

What IT's Like to Get a Tarot Card Reading with Nancy

Generational Astrology

Read a great article about GENERATIONAL ASTROLOGY.

Charles de Gaulle Used an Astrologer

[picture from wiki]


From Susan Bell in Paris, excerpt from THE INDEPENDENT

"The man who guided France into the modern era, General Charles de Gaulle, consulted a personal astrologer throughout his political career before making important decisions.
But unlike another French president, Francois Mitterrand - who enlisted the services of the professional astrologer Elizabeth Teissier, with whom his relationship was rumoured to have extended beyond the purely astrological - General de Gaulle turned to a fellow soldier, who broke his silence on the subject yesterday.

"De Gaulle met Major Maurice Vasset when they were in Toulon soon after the leader of the Free French made his triumphant march down the Champs Elysees in August 1944. Major Vasset had studied astrology in Dakar while convalescing from an injury in 1940...."

p.s. Winston Churchill is supposed to have consulted the fortune-teller Barbara Harris. I haven't found any substantiating evidence of this.

Astrologers and fortune tellers are not the same thing!!

Before We Blame Anyone Else ... for Anything!

Syphilis

As if to repeat both history and human frailty,
the English called the disease the French Pox,
the French called it the Neapolitan or Italian disease,
the Italians and the Dutch called it the Spanish disease,
Portuguese called it the Castilian disease,
Russians called it the Polish disease,
Polish called it the Russian disease,
Turks called it the Christian disease,
Persians called it the Turkish disease,
and Japanese called it either the Portuguese or Chinese disease

A Successful Saturn Return!

And oh, by the way, I remember writing to you about my Saturn Return. Little did I know that at that time, I was only at the tip of the iceberg. I'm 31 now and the last year has been crazy. I changed careers from lawyer to novelist. I am trying to get my debut novel published now. I have a great pet for the first time in my life. And all that craziness of 29 with going back to law school and dating losers are all part of the past now. What a difference a year makes! The Saturn Return and Pluto on my Midheaven changed my career and life direction. Insane!!! But great/
~Anonymous

Have You Ever Noticed .. for the Week

  • how merciless Michael Lutin is on Pisces
  • how much Uranians love to shock people
  • how religious Venus/Pluto people are in their obsessed devotion to the object of their desire
  • how great it feels to get kicked in the butt by an Aries when you need it the most
  • how unattractive it is to be needy on any level
  • how Tauruses always have kleenex, a spare set of keys, Auto Club insurance and cash on hand
  • how shy Capricorns are
  • how much Virgos love to clean up messes (on all levels)
  • how easily Scorpios can say no
  • how droopy Leos are when they aren't getting any attention

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Pluto Poll - Pluto Enters Capricoron November 27 2008

Thank you for participating.

Come to Hadley Ajana's Amnesty Write-a-Thon




About Amnesty Internationa's Global Write-a-Thon:'




Each year around International Human Rights Day (December 10), activists from across the world take action on behalf of selected individuals at risk of human rights abuses.



Through the Write-a-Thon, tens of thousands of participants in more than 30 countries bring concentrated pressure to elicit positive change in the lives of the highlighted human rights defenders, prisoners of conscience, and other victims of human rights abuses.



I will have the featured cases this year and all writing supplies.



Cookies, tea, coffee, and hot chocolate provided.



Please stay all day or drop by for just a few minutes. Any letters or postcards you write at the Write-a-Thon will make a difference ~ pens, paper, envelopes will all be provided along with samples of what one might say.


December 14


10 to 4


4823 Twain Avenue, San Diego (Allied Gardns) 92120



Learn more about the Amnesty Write-a-Thon.



Sami al Hajj was helped by the letter writing campaign. Sami was a Sudanese cameraman working for al-Jazeera and was taken into custody in Pakistan on his way to cover Afghanistan. He endured torture at Bagram and then went to Guantanamo for two years.
According to Amnesty International:
"Thousands of people wrote letters on behalf of Sami al Hajj, culminating in the 2007 Global Write-a-thon. In May 2008 Sami al Hajj was released and reunited with his wife and young son."
See the video of Sami after release below and read more of his story here.


Interesting Exchange with an INFP


INFP, The Healer, is the one that knows all about the battle of good and evil.

NANCY: Quote from Robert T. Allen
Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not remain so if you only perceive an ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. Here is a youth hard pressed by poverty and labor. Confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop; unschooled and lacking all the arts of refinement. But he dreams of better things. He thinks of intelligence, or refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life. The wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest urges him to action, and he uses all his spare time and means to the development of his latent powers and resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the workshop can no longer hold him. It has become so out of harmony with his mindset that it falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside. And with the growth of opportunities that fit the scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it altogether. Years later we see this youth as a grown man. We find him a master of certain forces of the mind that he wields with worldwide influence and almost unequaled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities; he speaks and lives are changed; men and women hang upon his words and remold their characters. Sun-like, he becomes the fixed and luminous center around which innumerable destinies resolve.


INFP:
I read through some of that book a couple months ago. Good stuff.
I remember stealing a quote from it to put on my blog:

"Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace."

NANCY:
Are you busy forging weapons or making tool?

INFP:
Forging weapons and/or tools in the armory of thought? I'm probably busy doing both.

When it comes to mental weapons of self destruction I have a fully loaded arsenal in my possession. But once I became conscious of how dangerous they all were I made it a priority to learn how to disarm them. Most of the tools I'm making nowadays are specifically engineered to disarm the arsenal. They're good sturdy tools though, so hopefully one day they'll also help me in building some heavenly mansions of joy, strength and peace.


Visit the INFP Good and Evil series.

Pluto in Capricorn

Last Review of Pluto in Sagittarius

work in progress ...

Pluto, the planet of transformation, has been moving slowly through the sign of Sagittarius since January 17, 1995. It will leave Sagittarius for good on November 27, 2008. This article updates my predictions from 1995 and allows you to see the magnitude of change that will becoming in Capricorniian areas for the next sixteen year.


I predicted:
Mental health is a major issue on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis, as it is with the other mutable signs, Virgo and Pisces. As contrasted with depression and psychosis which are "water" conditions, the sorts of problems that arise on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis are specifically conditions that result from trying to manage an unmanageable environment with the mind. Autism and schizophrenia are dramatic examples. Learning disabilities and hyperactivity are less dramatic examples.

The nature of the problem could be described as an inability to regulate the amount of information which arrives at the brain for processing. In the case of autism, the mechanism seems to shut down. In learning abilities, frustration results along with confusion.

In schizophrenia, the child may have been confronted with a split in the outer world, the home environment.

A good breeding ground for the kind of mental illness found on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis would be parents of different ethnic, cultural, income, educational or religious backgrounds and the lack of a good mediation, such as the presence of an understanding grandparent. Colloquially we like to say such things "make us crazy" and indeed, such things do.

Often differences become exaggerated as the honeymoon stage of marriage draws to an end and the real work of marriage and child rearing begins.

"My mother says I will go to hell if I don't go to church every Sunday and my father says only idiots believe s--- like that." These kinds of things "drive us crazy" as a kid.

Or, after the divorce ;-), Daddy says his new boyfriend is a worthwhile and caring individual. "Mom says the Devil has gotten hold of Dad and not to go near that evil man living with him."

You can easily understand that in order to survive, the child may need to become "two different people". But there are many reasons why people can become split and not always to such a harmful degree as schizophrenia.


We can put this humorously: everyone knows that Geminis are really two different people and that Sagittarians are only around half the time!

What happened:
Mental health issues were highlighted in the trial of Andrea Yates who drowned her four chldren iin the bathtub in 2001. Post partum depression is supposedly difficult to prove ... as if anyone needed to prove she is insane. The behavior of Tommy Ray Brent Marsh with his Tri-State Crematory where hundreds of rotting bodies were found by police investigators on a tip in 2002 will likely open up some areas of speculation regarding mental health as well.

Mental health issues were also in the news when the Supreme Court recently ruled that people with very low IQs could not be given the death sentence because they were not capable of assisting in their own defense and could not grasp abstract concepts such as Miranda rights and death.

The incidence of autism has increased 263% in the State of California over the past 11 years and everyone wants to know why.



Other things ruled by these two signs are short and long trips, other cultures, language and language acquisition, the school years, communication, meditation, education, beliefs (about God), belief systems (such as religions or physics), breathing, asthma, "the way your mind works", large animals, farm animals, wild animals, zoos, evolution, ethics, philosophy, law and mythology (someone else's religion).



I gave a talk at San Diego's Better Worlde Galeria in Mission Hills, California when Pluto first went in to the sign of Sagittarius in early 1995. Although I seem to have temporarily lost the paper, these are some of my conclusions as to what issues would be highlighted during this time period.

I predicted:
NATURAL HEALING I'll develop these ideas further, as time permits, but the Benedictine monks began to flourish when Pluto was formerly in Sagittarius and at other times alternative healing became pronounced under this transit. Not only did the monks work side by side with St. Bernard dogs (interspecies cooperation), they used herbs and other remedies for healing. Jesus Christ, the healer (and teacher) was born under this transit.

I predicted:

IMMIGRATION The changes here have just begun, although there has been continuing pressure in this area of our society for many years

I predicted:
SLAVERY The period in history where slave trade flourished was when Pluto was in Sagittarius. I consider slavery a 9th house issue also because its success depended on the cooperation of three races: Arabs, Whites and Blacks. This is perhaps the only time in the world when these three groups cooperated on anything. If you are not aware of this, blacks living along the shores of Africa, betrayed their brethren from central Africa into the hands of Arab traders. No white person or Arab could possibly have penetrated the African landscape at that time due to disease, wild animals and other brutal conditions of nature.

What happened:
It was front page news in 1999 that Thomas Jefferson had a black mistress for many years.

At the death of Strom Thurmond in 2003, speculation continues as to his relationship with a black woman and a child of that relationship, purported to be a 70 year old widow now living in California who will never comment on these speculations.

Just as Pluto completed its overhaul of Sagittarius in November 2008, an African-American was elected 44th president of the United States, Barrack Hussein Obama. How's that for transformation?

The connection between immigration annd slavery is made cogently by MA Hadley Ajana in Voices on the Run: What the Slave Narratives Can Tell Us about The Immigration Debate,.


I predicted:
CROSS CULTURAL ISSUES Cross cultural issues have been exacerbated by racial and ethnic profiling that followed 9-11, as well as by mutual discrimination between Muslims, Jews and Christians.

What happened:
SARS and AIDS continue to unite the world in the worst way possible.

The fall 2008 collapse of the world economy [based on poor ethics among other things] has us truly interelated in complex ways, Chimerica being a good example. Hmmm, the invisible ties that bind.

I predicted:
I have expected public opinion to move from Israel during this time period.


I predicted:
LANGUAGE I expect a politically INcorrect backlash. Our language has become so full of euphemism and so watered down by circumlocution, that a reaction is bound to occur during this transit. There will also be heated debate as to what our national language is.

What happened:
A document about Spelling Bees was a big hit in the summer of 2003, for good reason. It was an utterly charming movie.


I predicted:
EDUCATION This will be the most besieged and ultimately transformed profession in the world for another ten years.




  • violence in the classroom

  • violence on campus

  • tenure

  • status - traditionally this profession has been high in influence and low in status

  • changing expectations for the role of teacher

  • computer and home schooling

  • ethics in the classroom

What happened:
April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at Columbine High Schoolfor a assacre.


The week of Valentine's Day 2003 there was an article of national interest about a teacher in the Midwest who resigned when the principal refused to back her up after she caught children in her class cheating.


During summer 2003 we heard in the news about the college professor with the criminal record (he killed someone in cold blood in his early teens) - in the process, we all learned that colleges are notoriously bad at checking back references.


April 16, 2007, Seung Hui- Cho killed 32 people and wounded many others before turning the gun on himself. According to wiki, "The massacre remains the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in United States history, on or off a school campus."


All would agree there has been a proliferation of online learning.

I predicted:
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION Overcrowding and her minions ...



  • asthma

  • irritability

  • allergies

  • phobias

  • nervousness

  • "nerves"

  • "space"

  • pollution


What happened:
There is a rise in asthma in children -- it is environmental, not physiological ;-) but that's for us to know and them to find out.


By 2008 Global Warming is finallly taken seriously.


On November 20, 2008, 7 days before leaving Pluto leaves Sagittarius, Rep. Henry A, Waxman of California, an advocate of stiff measures against global warming, replaced Michigan Rep. John D, Dingell as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.




AIR TRAVEL Well, the impact is already staggering. Soon it will take longer to get across town to the airport and wait in line than it will take to complete a transatlantic flight.


An interesting case in the late 90s involved a woman who was denied the right to take her asthma inhaler onboard at the gate after having been guaranteed the right over the phone when booking the flight. She died shortly after landing at her destination. This is the first time an airline has been held responsible for the baggage matters.


Southwest Airlines came under a public relations storm for their policy on obesity .


According to the BBC, in March 2004 "a two-year-old boy was escorted off a British Airways plane along with his grandparents after he had a tantrum just before take-off.


T"he family of Marcello Ferrand, from Kensal Rise, north-west London say he panicked after the aircraft crew tried to fit him with a seatbelt. blah blah blah"



We are seeing the near demise of some airlines and the big-3 car companinees while prices plummet on airfare and cruises.



IMMIGRATION AND REDISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION The migration patterns of groups throughout history has had major impact on culture, language, religion, resources and power. Today the computer is providing an environment where more and more people can live wherever they want and "work from home".


When census reports were released in 2002 showing that for the first time more people left California than moved to it ... we might consider that the virtual end of the westward migration and displacement of peoples which began with the Mongols in the early 1200s had finally come to a close.


As Pluto leaves Sagittariius, in 2007, a very sympathetic movie was made about the life of Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes, called Mongol by Khabarovskia Sergei Bodrov following the book by publishedin 2005, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. In 2008 the movie Genghis Khan was released by director Henry Levin.

GENOCIDE AND RACIAL PURGING/INTERNATIONAL LAW The third trial for genocide and war crimes in the history of the world is underway at the Hague, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.


Here are some good websites to refresh on the history of the events leading up to the trial.
Genocide (ruled by Sagittarius) is defined by the tribunal as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".



January 15, 1999 is the date for the massacre at the Village of Racak
Saturn was at 27 Aries
Pluto was at 9 Sag



Why is there so much activity at 25-27 Aries/Libra ?? ... stay tuned for an attempt to answer this in the article on Princess Margaret, The Royals



Rwanda - the second international tribunal in history was established in Arusha, Tanzania, for cases resulting from the atrocities carried out in Rwanda in 1994.


Adolf Eichmann was tried in 1960 for his role in Nazi atrocities during World War II. Learn more: Interpreting Eichmann: Exploring the Significance of the Eichmann Trial by Hadley Ajana.


Click here to review PBS special online version
The little girl in the red coat - an example of meaningful coincidence or synchronicity


POLLUTION
noise - boomboxes, curfews, regulation



  • as Pluto reaches the halfway point through Sagittarius, the cell phone problem on public transportation on the east coast and in public places everywhere is becoming a crisis
    air

  • busy-ness - too many choices with lack of ability to prioritize, lack of morals, values

  • SPAM



    THE CELL QUESTION I love this issue because it combines so many Gemini/Sagittarian things. Driving with the cell phone is dangerous because, as any good astrologer knows, driving is a Sag. activity and talking on the phone is a Gemini activity. They use exactly opposite sides of the brain and can't be done at the same time without a great deal of brain development, which doesn't seem to be the case with many of the people I see engaged in this activity.

    It is an established fact that driving while using a cell phone is almost as dangerous (statistically) as driving under the influence. Iit is noww (208) out of law to drive without a handsfree in many states and etiquette films are flashed at mmmovie theaters to curb the inmates.

    The use of cell phones has also brought forward new questions of etiquette, a mutable sign issue.

    Geminis know all the rules and are very fussy about them but pretend they aren't
    Virgos are the Miss Manners


  • Sagittarians really were raised in the barnyard and if you don't like it, that's your problem, it doesn't bother them!


  • Pisces -- huh? they are delicate and exquisite by nature and often quite phobic about manners

    One reason that manners are changing so much right now, particularly in the work place, is because the generation now funneling into the workplace is the Pluto in Virgo generation. They will bring sweeping and transformative change to the way we think about work and how we do the work.

    Geminis don't like to be bored for a minute or alone with their own thoughts, which drive them crazy, basically. So, who's got the cell growing out of their ear? Gemini. And who wouldn't be caught dead with one? Sag.

    A Sagittarian I know considers them slave bracelets. It isn't all that far from micro chips, she feels.

    I leave you with this thought: Gentlemen, how would you like your wife to slip a microchip in you when you're not looking?


    JOHN FORBES NASH, JR.A BEAUTIFUL MIND
    John Forbes Nash, Jr. won the Nobel Prize in Economics

  • he is equally well know as of late for the mental illness he experienced after his Saturn Return, at 31

  • the movie version of the book about John Nash, A Beautiful Mind, hits the public just as Pluto transits Nash's own natal Saturn (see stills from the movie)

  • mental health issues are also at the core of the Yates trial and certainly at the core of the Marsh indictment

    "Now I must arrive at the time of my change from scientific rationality of thinking into the delusional thinking characteristic of persons who are psychiatrically diagnosed as "schizophrenic" or "paranoid schizophrenic". But I will not really attempt to describe this long period of time but rather avoid embarrassment by simply omitting to give the details of truly personal type. " [from Nash's Nobel acceptance speech]

    John Nash was born June 13, 1928. He was given the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994. He has two planets in Gemini and one in Sagittarius but they are very important planets. His Sun is in Gemini conjunct Venus. These planets are opposed by his Saturn in Sagittarius. Moreover, the Moon Nodes are in Gemini/Sag.


In his own words at his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Nash states, "The mental disturbances originated in the early months of 1959 at a time when Alicia happened to be pregnant." The dead giveaway here is the word "happened". Learn to not skip over things like this. We'll return to this later in the interpretation.



Nash says further in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "So at the present time I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health. One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person's concept of his relation to the cosmos. For example, a non-Zoroastrian could think of Zarathustra as simply a madman who led millions of naive followers to adopt a cult of ritual fire worship. But without his "madness" Zarathustra would necessarily have been only another of the millions or billions of human individuals who have lived and then been forgotten." [Emphasis mine.]


Read the speech for yourself.



He concludes:



"Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at the age of 66, would be able through continued research efforts, to add much to his or her previous achievements. However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical. Thus I have hopes of being able to achieve something of value through my current studies or with any new ideas that come in the future."



Read the complete speech @ Nobel Acceptance Speech for 1994 in Economics (Official Site)


It is easy enough to jest at this movie, as the BBC does when it comments that math can be fun.
Perhaps when Nash's wife got pregnant, this was confusing to him.
Sun/Venus opposite Saturn @ 15 Sag RMoon/Mars/Jupiter/Uranus square Mercury/Pluto
South Node at 8 Sagittarius; North Node at 8 Gemini This is conjunct the very negative Fixed Star Aldebaran (responsible position and danger of violence).



This seems to be a critical degree. It features prominently in the charts of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Click here.



Neptune trine Jupiter



Nash has many of the characteristics of genius (click here), including a lack of social skill which is remarked on by everyone. He seems to have been a very strange character.


TERRORISM Travel and terrorism go hand in hand as Pluto goes through Sagittarius, because terrorism is multi-national. Terrorism is actually the "keynote" of Pluto in Sagittarius.


The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as MarTin Luther King,. core usd it as headquarters to register African-American votters. On Sunday, 15th September, 1963 it was bombed. Four little African-American girls were killed. It seemed the perpetrator would escape justice until the case was reopened in 1995.


The Westboro Baptist Church in was bombed August 10, 1995 in retalilation for gay rights.


The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist attack On April 19, 1995 the Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist attack aimed at the US government when the target being the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. According to wiki, the attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 people injured. It was the first major terrorist attack and until the 9/11, it was the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.


This mix of religion and bombings reached an apex September 11, 2001 with Al-Qaeda's attack on New York's Twin Towers. Almost 3,000 people died.


RENEWED INTEREST IN ROYALS With the baby boomers reaching their mid50s, "history" is beginning to fall into place regarding the events that preceded World War II. Most of this generation were born during the war years in the early 1940s.



Vanity Fair magazine recently had a 50 page spread on "the Modern Royals". It tracked the royal houses of the European countries and Russia, many of whom had been deposed in the first half of the century, to find what they are about today and to suggest that perhaps there is/was a use for royalty after all. (The article was written by Prince Michael of Greece.) Sagittarius is the royal sign.


Writing in 2008, certainly England has produced Prince Charming incarnate in William.



ANIMAL RIGHTS Sagittarius rules bigger animals and activities such as dog breeding, animal husbandry, animal control, education about pet care and apparently, reverse snobbery (are you fit to own a pet?)



An interesting book to read about this topic is "A Crowded Ark"



Also see page on large animals in the news


OPERA It's multi-cultural. For over a century people from all over the world have cooperated with one another to produce Grand Opera. We have been seeing a global upsurge in opera attendance.

By the way, I did a survey not too long ago on composer and most of them have Gemini prominently in their charts.


ALPHA PERSON The mutable person is the Alpha Person in the 21st Century. The mutable signs are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. Mutable signs will thrive because they



  • speak other languages easily

  • they naturally play the roles of financial and information brokers, interpreters and guides

  • deal well with the ra te of change

  • adapt easily - nomads, traders \

  • Am I My Brother's Keeper

Cain the Farmer, the first born, the murderer and Abel, the shepherd, the second born ...



And Cain said to Abel his brother, "Let us go out to the field." And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" And the Lord said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground."

SIBLINGS We will see more news and discoveries about sibling relationships. The American Psychiatry Association has had some articles about the profound influence of these relationships. If you wonder ... try calling your sister by her real name and see how your feelings may change.



Examples:
The Younger Sister, Margaret Rose



Cain and Abel is grotesquely reversed a sibling is genetically engineered and given birth to save the life of a terminally ill older child



siblings abuse their parents due to sibling rivalry during the parents' declining years (over inheritance, etc.) - stories like this have been hitting the news



The Royal Tannebaums features a doomed love between siblings who are "not really siblings"
who can forget seeing Uday and Qusay Hussein laid out by the mortician - these brothers featured large in the news during the summer of 2003 .



The Bijani conjoined twins won hearts all over the world as they made their hopeful but heart-rending visit to Raffles Hospital in Hong Kong early in 2003.


RACE, RELIGION AND LARGE ANIMALS AND MORE Click here to look further with Nancy at recent stories in the news that bring these Sagittarian issues forward.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Cash Cab, So Fun





I love this show to relax after work! I love Ben and seeing the day to day sights around New York City.

See more: http://dsc.discovery.com/video/?playerId=203711706&categoryId=934464199&lineupId=1453557111&titleId=1612659507

See more: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/cashcab/cashcab.html

Some Thoughts about Xmas Gift Cards

This got mixed reviews on snopes.com but it's well worth considering ... t's circulating the internet.


I wanted to give a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankruptcy Planning).

Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.


Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots) Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores Loews to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores

Have You Had a Near-Death Experience?



An Open Letter from Sharon Lund


To My Dear Global Circle of Friends,


Wow, what a powerful month November has been - and Divinely Guided.

I pulled my book from iUniverse and started my own publishing company, Sacred Life Publishers. My book The Integrated Being: Techniques to Heal Your Mind-Body-Spirit will be on the market right before Christmas - YEAH!

As you know, after my second near-death experience I was told to break the silence about dying and death and bring the sacredness back. My book Sacred Living, Sacred Dying: A Guide to Embracing Life and Death has been published for a couple of years and I’ve been giving presentations. Now it’s time for me to take my wisdom and speaking to the next level.

Monica Hagen, my editor, for The Integrated Being: Techniques to Heal Your Mind-Body-Spirit and I have joined hearts, minds, and spirits and are in the process of making a documentary about part of my life story, but mainly about the near-death experiences. Monica is the writer and director of our documentary Dying to Live. We start shooting this Friday at UCSD, we will be interviewing students about how they feel toward dying and death. Then we're going to other locations to interview various types of people and ages to record their thoughts and feelings.

We'll also be interviewing men, women, and children who have had near-death experiences. If you know of anyone who has had a near-death experience please have them contact me. I would like to talk to them about participating in our project. We'd love to also interview children who are faced with life challenging illness for the documenta ry. If you have any suggestions, contacts, or thoughts please share them with me.

Our camera person is Lee Ann Dillingham and she has received five awards for her films. Hector is our production manager. A talented and gifted man by the name of Rick Mathews will be creating our music and has offered to write us an original song for Dying to Live- FREE! He wrote the theme song for a new movie, "Camille" (http://www.blogger.com/www.camillemovie.com) coming out in the theatres in a few weeks, staring Sianna Miller and James Franko (from Spiderman) - which is about a woman who dies and comes back to her lover - kind of like the movie Ghost.

We have received bountiful gifts of free light rentals, equipment borrowing, and networking. A gentleman on the East Coast, after hearing about the project, gave me his domain name for FREE (sacredlife.com and sacredlife.org), which we’ll use for my publishing company – books, CD’s and documentary.

We're in the process of seeking funding - through individuals, friends, and organizations.

We are seeing synchronicity in action, and would love for you to be part of it. If you see any way you can assist us, please let me know.


Also, please feel free to pass this e-mail along to your friends as they may know someone who has had a near-death experience or would like to offer financial support. Every dollar counts and will be put toward the development and promotion of our Dying to Live documentary.

Checks can be made out to SLSD, Inc. and mailed to:
Sharon Lund
3959 Utah Street
San Diego , CA 92104

Any person who donates more than $100 will have their name in the credits of the documentary. We’re all volunteering our time for this fabulous project. Though we can’t pay the people we interview, they would be part of an amazing project, one that can help MANY people with their fear of death.

Life can be beautiful, and the lesson of near-death experiences is one treasure that can ease the pain and energy wasted on resisting and fearing death.

Thank you for your support and continued love and friendship.

Love and Blessings,
Sharon
http://www.blogger.com/www.sharonlund.com
619-692-9507









The Perfect Pear

I have loved pears since I first tasted one as a kid. I even used to drink pear juice.
But it seems like through the years it is harder and harder to get a good one. They are so hard and then they ripen to mush overnight!
People my age remember LUSCIOUS fresh fruit so unlike the grocery chain's hothouse varieties. I simply haven't had a good pear in a decade ...
until ....
TODAY!
So I wanted to share it with you. Sometimes happiness is made up of a lot of very little things and this was certainly a happy day.
Here it is. I wanted you to see it.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Getting Your Pluto!

Have you ever read "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck? It is a simple book, since the main character is a farmer, but rises to power by acquiring land and in the end, his own children plot against him, just like the family he bought all the land from. It also has lust and drugs, the makings of an interesting book.

It reminds me of recent events, and how people scratch their way to the top, stepping over those, and then they get their "Pluto On" how funny, and get their just deserts.

~from a reader

"Real Astrology" Says it Best


Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the god of extremes who throws a volcanic temper tantrum, gets it out of his system, orders a round for the entire house, and insists that everyone drink and be merry.

[image from wiki]

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Jackie Kennedy

Personal Quotes
"I don't think there are any men who are faithful to their wives."
"The first time you marry for love, the second for money, and the third for companionship."
"The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse."
"I want to live my life, not record it."
"Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, Jack [President John F. Kennedy] always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summer."
"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much."
"What is my proudest accomplishment? I went through some pretty difficult times, and I kept my sanity."
"Our dreams and goals are never completely realized. They are always there before our eyes, but always just slightly out of reach. And so as we strive to fulfill our vision, we must make the most out of every living moment."
"They will never drag me out like an old widow like they did Mrs. Wilson when President Wilson [Woodrow Wilson] died. I will never be used that way."
"There are two kinds of women. Those who want power in the world, and those who want power in bed."

Introverts aren't "Unhappy" People

An introvert reader visiting TheIntrovertZCoach sends this email,

"I don't want to be introverted, I want to be happy ...."

She still doesn't get it!! The whole message here is introverted doesn’t mean “unhappy” – counseling might help with that but it is not a “characteristic” of introversion, you see.

The Onion

Marketing to Introverts

The Top 10 Ways to Market to Introverts (you know, the ones with the high income)


Statistics indicate that introverts make up 10-30% of the general population but as IQ increases, the proportion of introverts rises dramatically. Since there is a correlation between intelligence and income, you target more introverts as buying power rises. The greater the price of the product or service you are marketing, the greater the chance you are selling to an introvert. It pays to understand your audience.


There are some critical differences in the way introverts initiate consumer dialogue, process information, make decisions and put their decisions into dollars and cents.


1. Introverts are territorial. This includes their personal space.

Introverts don't like interruptions, uninvited visits or phone calls. What's new about that? you may be asking. No one likes telemarketers. But here's the difference that you need to know. Whereas extroverts will huff, puff, hit the high blood pressure button, yell, take a drink or hit somebody, they do answer the phone. Introverts get an unlisted number, a fancy answering machine and they turn the ringer off. Also they have no qualms whatsoever about hanging up on you or closing the door in your face. This is the reasoning: if you are rude enough to invade their private space, you are sub human and they treat you that way. Jackie Kennedy was an introvert who hit photographers with her purse when they got too close to her.


2. Introverts love to read.

See that person over there on the cruise reading the small print on the cereal box? That's an introvert. See that woman across the aisle there, actually reading the inflight magazine? That, too, is an introvert. Whoever thought about putting advertisements in elevators and inside toilet doors had introverts in mind. Well ... it's better than having to talk to the other people in the elevator!!


3. Introverts, despite appearances, are not shy and they are frequently not braindead just because they don't say anything while you are talking to them.

Never assume you have reached your introverted audience just because you have talked to them. As you leave (and make it quick), put a fact sheet on their desk and tell them you would like to hear from them in a few days if they have any thoughts or interest.


4. Introverts are not impressed by personality.

Having none ourselves, except the one we drag out on State Occasions :-) we do not put any value on yours. Please don't be cute, peppy, positive, enthusiastic or motivating. Instead, be polite, know your stuff, get to the point, leave written material and invite a response at a later date.


5. The assumptions, guiding principles, underlying beliefs and expectations of introverts are so different from the extroverted majority that you may not even realize you have a bad map to the territory. May I give you a few examples.

A client of mine recently complained that her husband was impressed with a woman we'll call Monrovia because she hung out with movie stars and threw their names around. My client posed the question, "Why is he impressed with that? We don't even know these people." She was quite serious.

A young man was having trouble with his career and had failed again to establish a permanent position for himself as a commnity college professor despite talent and dedication. A peppy extrovert suggested that he make the best of it. "At least tell people you got a better offer but it won't materialize for a few more months. Do a little window dressing. That way you won't feel like such a loser." His reply: "That's ridiculous. I am very disappointed and what other people think about it makes no difference at all."


6. Introverts hate being rushed.

This means N O H Y P E. Never. Not ever. No hype.

Not only does it not work, it is exhausting to introverts because we give energy while extroverts take energy. As every introvert in the world is only too aware, people who use hype suck more energy that should be legally possible in 52 states.


7. Introverts are greatly afraid of making mistakes in public and of humiliation in public during a learning period.

If you have a new product or service for them to try, make sure they will be able to do this in private. Give clear instructions and a demonstration. Then leave it with them and go!

A brilliant introvert I know has many interests and hobbies beyond her career as an attorney. She is an intense amateur astrologer. As a result of her interest in astrology, she became curious about astronomy and the Night Sky. Her daughter surprised her on her birthday with a gift basket that contained a Night Sky map, a flashlight covered with red cellphane, several printouts about the mythology of the constellations and suggested that take their chairs up on the roof to get at it.

Bad idea. The woman couldn't figure out how to relate the scale of the map to the stars in the sky and became absolutely speechless with mortification and humiliation because of the presence of a third party as well.

Sound ridiculous? Not to your favorite introvert.


8. Introverts hate small talk.

If you would like to make an excellent first impression, be polite and come quickly to the point. Above all, don't ask personal questions and by that I mean things you think don't matter such as how many children I have or what work my husband does.


9. Introverts hate phones and especially cell phones.

Don't expect a return phone call. We figure, why bother someone when we can dash off a note, leave a message on an answering machine or click off an email.

Above all else, do not use your cell phone in our presence. Introverts are hysterically vexed by what we consider this ultimate rudeness. If you want me to give it you straight, we also think you are pathetic because you can't be alone for a moment with yourself.


10. Introverts say what they mean.

No means no.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Jungian Food for Thought

"Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart throughout the world. There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul."
-- Carl Jung

God Save the Queen

I

I'm enjoying "The Monarchy at Work" series on Wednesday nights.

Great Article for Introverts

http://briankim.net/blog/2007/10/top-5-things-every-extrovert-should-know-about-introverts/

Today's "New World Order"

[as published in insiderreports , this article was written a few years ago]


Recent front page events in the business world have Americans wondering, "What has happened to our business ethics? Are they all crooks?"


The chart of the New York Stock Exchange has Saturn in the 9th house indicating hard lessons involving ethics.


Before one more CEO takes a perp walk, let me go on record as saying this is inexcusable. But is it new? Or even "news?" Greed (and violence) surface cyclically in the collective. This does not excuse these qualities in human beings but an approach of trying to place "blame" for recent events seems simplistic and nonproductive. The blame seems to be in our very nature.
My purpose in writing this article is less to blame than to teach those who are interested about the nature of cycles and the reaping of harvests so that we all learn to take seriously what seeds we plant.


The harvest may take a long time (this one: 38 years) and the seeds grow in the dark for a long time but the fruit ripens.


The seeds of a new World Order were planted in 1982 when Saturn and Pluto were conjunct in Libra.


This cycle brought a crisis in ethics and culture to the stock exchange at its halfway mark on July 30, 2001, within a few days of Harvey Pitt's taking office at the SEC. (Pitt took office August 3, 2001.)


When I wrote this article, Sarbanes-Oxley with its 66 separate sections was not yet in place. Since then I have heard regulators refer to these times as "the New World Order".


The New World Order -- life after Sarbanes-Oxley -- demands that public corporations have transparency, reliability, accuracy and timeliness in their reporting capabilities. Investors want to know that the financial reporting they receive is accurate. CEOs are taking the demands of Congress and shareholders seriously. They are also heeding the need to create "cultures of ethical behavior" reinforced by their own examples. In a September 29, 2004 Compliance Week webcast, Richard J. Wolf, Senior Vice President, Legal and Corporate Compliance Officer of Cendant Corporation spoke about the need for ethics training for all employees.


According to his press release, Mr. Wolf has "global responsibility for Cendant’s new business records and information management system, which includes records management policy and procedures, and the general corporate compliance program for Cendant and its subsidiary companies."


Others who oversee compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley in companies around America are Chief Compliance or Governance Officers, CFOs, Chief Accounting Officers, Internal Audit Groups, IT Security Staff and others in Senior Management.


Everywhere that global business is seriously considered, mention is made of the desirability of transparence, not because it is the law but because it is better for business. It has been well known for centuries to be better for business. In his book The Wisdom of Crowds, New Yorker economics columnist James Surowiecki speaks briefly about the foundation of corporations that was laid in England a few centuries ago by Quakers who were noted for their honesty. These people actually created the business model that is preferred around the world and perfected in America. America's capital markets are the envy of the world. The "New World Order" is about preserving them by restoring ethics.


The New World Order is technology driven. Information must be stored and retrieved responsibly in "digital vaults". CEOs are striving for a "single source of truth", one that is incorruptible. Digital fingerprinting is in the offing -- to reveal who has seen electronically archived information and who may have changed it. The storage and retrieval of eMail is a big issue.


Mr. Wolf spoke about including the ethical behavior of executives in their compensation performance measurement. Those who fostered atmospheres of trust and comfort, including comfort to blow the whistle, should be rewarded in their salaries. Provision of anonymous Whistleblowing apparatus throughout a public corporation is now the law.


In this article, I explore important events in the stock market, the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC, the Federal Reserve Bank and other important components of the American economy beginning in 1982 forward which laid the ground work for these developments. The turning point proves to be Harvey Pitt's term at the SEC.


This article is intended to be thought provoking and open ended -- explorative rather than conclusive -- since we are dealing with a very big cycle on a very big scale and with the nature of humans and their collective life.


The good news is that more investors than ever are participating in the stock market. The bad news is that business coverage has moved to the front pages and confidence is at an all time low. The sagas of Enron, WorldCom and other publicly held companies have revealed greed and corruption on the part of CEOs, CFOs and stock analysts plus ignorance, negligence and complicity on the part of auditors and directors on a scale that has investors outraged and on the attack.


"I was robbed, lied to and stolen from," said a restaurant owner in the Southeast who invested over $300,000 with WorldCom a few years ago on the advice of his broker who relied on a telecom stock analyst.


Another investor expected her investment in WorldCom to triple in a couple of years. She put in $32,000 hoping to retire on her profits and has seen her "life savings" dwindle to nothing.
This March 3, 2004, Bernard Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom, took a perp walk on federal charges in the biggest corporate fraud case in US history.


Our story actually begins a few months prior to the exact November 1982 conjunction of Saturn and Pluto with the beginning of the longest bull market (generally rising upward trends) in US history that began in August 1982.


On November 4, 1982, Saturn and Pluto conjuncted at 27 degrees of Libra and the seeds for this year's front page news were planted. That year Bernie Ebbers and his Brookhaven, Mississippi pal Murray Waldren, founded LDDS [Long Distance Discount Services], the company that morphed into WorldCom. Also that year MCI became the first long distance competitor of AT&T. Fiber optics was the big news that year. This was the "rise" of WorldCom.


The "fall" of WorldCom coincides with the turning point or "opposition" in the Saturn/Pluto cycle. The exact date of this critical mass was reached July 30, 2001, with Saturn at 12 degrees Gemini opposing Pluto at 12 degrees Sagittarius. That year Arthur Levitt relinquished Chairmanship of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC ") to Harvey Pitt. The SEC is the government watchdog of publicly held companies like WorldCom and the agency that's supposed to see that these things don't happen.


Despite the fact that Levitt, in his unprecedented eight year term in office, created a public relations of educating investors and used his "bully platform" to warn of an impending crisis in the accountancy profession, the gross excesses of Enron, WorldCom, etc., occurred under his watch and were part of the harvest that Pitt reaped shortly after taking office.


Pitt's term was short and controversial but he may go down in history as a very effective crisis manager and dynamic initiator. Let's look at more of the facts.


Aside from the greed that is inherent in human nature, there are two major causes for the events which recently culminated in Ebber's walk.


The first primary cause is deregulation of fixed rate commissions which took place on "May Day", May 1, 1975 under Ray Garrett, Jr.'s term as Chairman of the SEC.


The deregulation of fixed rates, coupled with the Telecommunications Acts of 1996, enabled hundreds of thousands of uneducated and unsophisticated investors into the stock market, many of whom traded at home on their PCs. An "unsophisticated investor" is someone who thinks they can triple their investment in two years without risk. Such an investment would be de facto a high risk investment unsuitable for "life savings".


The greed of inexperienced traders can't be undervalued in assigning blame for the current state of affairs. However, there is more than enough blame to go around. This article will reluctantly assume that a certain amount of greediness exists in human beings and will seek to find more interesting currents at work in the undertow of the American economy.


Deregulation helped to end one of the most devastating bear markets that began with a new Dow Jones high in January, 1973 and fell for 21 months to a low of 60.96. Bear markets generally decline at 20-25-30%. This one dropped 50%. Recovery was slow. The Dow Jones didn't break its January 1974 high until July 1980, almost six and a half years later.


When Garrett deregulated fixed commissions, Neptune was at 11 degrees Sagittarius. Harvey Pitt, Chairman of the SEC in 2001, reaped the harvest when Saturn was at 12 degrees of Sagittarius. This strikes me as a karmic exchange of 9th house energies at some mystical level, an echo of the pairing of Saturn and Neptune across the 3rd and 9th houses of the "natal" NYSE chart. In some way Pitt's term gave form to the aspirations of Garrett's vision ... or were they nightmares? It should be remembered by those who are old enough that the early 70s were desperate times where the stock market was concerned. This is not to be said that Levitt didn't try to educate this influx of new investors between 1993-2001. It was one of his principal goals. However, as history keeps teaching us in repeating cycles, the task is daunting.


The second primary cause of recent failures is the more remote but critical repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which took place in 1999, capping a decade of perhaps unprecedented greed and excess in business. The repeal of Glass-Steagall essentially permitted Sanford Weill to build the colossal CitiGroup by combining his investment banking house, Salomon Smith Barney, with the commercial bank CitiCorp which could lend huge sums of money. It is the huge investment banks which drive corporate America.


Weill had been aggressively lobbying the President, the Federal Reserve Board and Congress for many years. The climate for repeal changed when anti-regulatory Alan Greenspan took over the Chairmanship of the Federal Reserve Board in 1987 but progress was still slow.


CitiGroup's Sanford Weill, together with his high profile "rock star" telecom stock analyst Jack Grubman, might be considered the masterminds behind WorldCom ... the rise. Prior to teaming up with another Christian from Mississippi, Bernie Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom, was a small town high school basketball coach and ran a motel.


Many have speculated that Ebbers could not have taken WorldCom global without help. Telecom analyst Susan Kalla said on Frontline, "You had a small player that came from nowhere, a CEO that did not have a technical background, did not have a financial background and did not have an industry background and catapulted him into number one. You couldn't do that without a lot of help."


Help is something Jack Grubman was more than happy to give. WorldCom was the dream of every analyst ... a capital intensive business with lots of acquisition banking fees. Grubman had begun to act as a bird dog for investment banking rather than a representative for the investor. This could be considered a conflict of interest and illegal.


New York State Attorney Eliot Spitzer said on Frontline, "Analysts would help you to take [your company] public, keep a strong buy on your stock, become a part of your management team ... who got hurt was the ordinary investors who didn't understand the game."


Jack Grubman more or less "tagged" Ebbers back in 1986. He admits to attending at least three WorldCom board meetings. The "morphing" of the stock analyst during the 90s, from scrupulously independent bookish nerds to "rock stars" tied in relationships that might be considered conflict of interest to investment banking firms is personified by Jack Grubman and is a contributing factor to the crisis in recent years as is the condition of the accounting profession which openly declared war on the SEC in the 90s. The accountants were represented collectively by Harvey Pitt.


Weill was under intense scrutiny by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for various reasons but so far has escaped criminal penalties for his conduct. Grubman has been fined $15 million and excluded from stock market analysis for life. Bernie Ebbers may wind up behind bars. Isn't this rather like arresting the doorman because the owner of the building is negligent? I think this speaks plainly for the sophistication and ultimate accountability of these three men, though you may disagree with me.


Let's take a God's-eye look at how these events evolved and coincided to change the face of Wall Street in the past few years by looking at astrological cycles.


The new cycle between Saturn and Pluto began on November 4, 1982 with both planets conjunct at 27 degrees Libra, the same degree as Neptune in the chart of the New York Stock Exchange opposed by Saturn at 26 degrees Aries in the 9th house (ethics). This cycle brought a crisis in ethics and culture to the stock exchange at its halfway mark on July 30, 2001, within a few days of Harvey Pitt's taking office at the SEC. (Pitt took office August 3, 2001.) Transiting Saturn was at 12 degrees Gemini opposing transiting Pluto at 12 degrees Sagittarius.


The problematical Saturn/Neptune opposition in the founding chart of the NYSE is a theme throughout this cycle and this article. Saturn/Neptune aspects bring a kind of fundamental confusion, denial and conspiracy ... at least in the sense that someone may conspire not to see what is plainly obvious.


Saturn is the planet of structure and infrastructure. Pluto is the planet that destroys structures. It is interesting that Harvey Pitt has often referred to a "kind of Darwinism" operating in corporations today. Pluto may symbolize a kind of Darwinian survival of the fittest.


#1: KEY DATES
These are the key dates for the squares and oppositions in the new Saturn/Pluto cycle. A complete listing and discussion can be found here.

beginning conjunction 1982 - Ebbers founds LDDS


semi-sextile 1985-88 - Grubman meets Ebbers; Ken Lay takes over Enron; Black Monday; Greenspan appointed to Fed; Sanford Weill begins comback


sextile 88-91 - Drexel Burnham Junk Bond King Michael Milliken pleads guilty to fraud
first square waxing cycle 1991 - "Accounting Wars" begin


trine 1993-95 - second Saturn Return for the SEC; Leavitt appointed Chair; Rubin sworn in as Sec. of Treasury


square 1995-96 - Telecommunications Act is passed; Ebbers changes name to WorldCom


trine 1996-98 - demise of Glass-Steagall a fait accompli; data traffic really was doubling every 90 days; CitiCorp created


inconjunct (crisis) – important 1998-2000 - Greenspan warns elderly not to invest in dot.coms Glass Steagall officially repealed; Rubin joins CitiCorp and gives investors 90 days to get out of telecoms; David Chacon tries to blow the whistle at Salomon; Volcker makes public statement that accountancy profession is in a state of crisis


opposition - August 3, 2001-2002 - dot.com layoffs peak, Enron and WorldCom fail; Pitt appointed SEC Chair; Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002


inconjunct (crisis) – important 2003-05 - Sarbanes-Oxley Act enforced; Grasso steps down;
This cycle culminates in 2020. Then a "New World Order" begins.


The symbolic meanings of the major aspects are these. At the conjunct and semi-sextile, the car pulls out of the driveway in 1st and 2nd house fashion. At the sextile, the car heads down the road in 3rd house fashion, passing through the neighborhood at appropriate speed.


At the waxing square it picks up speed and pulls out onto the freeway. This is called "leaving home" in 4th house fashion. At the trine, you're doing great, on the open road, making good headway.


At the opposition, in 7th house fashion, there is a psychological crisis. This is because at the halfway mark you are 180 degrees across the circle from home and psychologically the farthest from your goal, though you are actually halfway there. This is the point where quitters quit and winners go on to win. At this time in the Saturn/Pluto cycles, Harvey Pitt was appointed Chairman of the SEC, Enron and WorldCom failed.


If we want to predict the "outcome" of this new world order cycle, all we need do is look at how far we came between 1982 and 2001 and project the "other half" to 2020. In this regard 2001 was the shakedown ... what's working, what isn't ... with deregulation, telecommunications, unsophisticated investors, investment banking, accounting and other issues. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 followed quickly and is an excellent sign of hope and progress.


Let's be optimistic and assume that the good inherent in all of these events will prevail by 2020.
At the waning trine, things get back to normal and you continue making progress toward your goal. This is the time period we are experiencing as you read this article.


The waning square is a "returning home" or a 10th house aspect.


The waning sextile is one of genius, an 11th house aspect. This is where we get every last bit of what "it" is we're supposed to get in a cycle. If it seems difficult to understand what there is to get in a cycle, rely on someone with 11th house energy to grok it for you.


The semi-sextile is like an exaggerated Balsamic Moon, in some ways like a Void-of-Course Moon, a 12th house letting go and releasing back in preparation for the new cycle.


There are inconjuncts which take place on either side of the opposition which could be compared to tightening the screws. Inconjuncts remind me of the wratcheting music in a Verdi opera when someone is being tortured in the other room. By nature, these things may happen behind the scenes as there are not major events in the Saturn/Pluto cycle at these times.


In conclusion, we have seen how the unfolding of the Saturn/Pluto cycle from 1982 to the present – including the transit of Saturn through Gemini and Pluto through Sagittarius, signs that have to do with ethics - has precipitated a “New World Order”, one that will not permit the kinds of chicanery and dishonesty that became rampant during the 90s and culminated in 2001 with the largest bankruptcy filing that had ever taken place up to that time.


In swift reaction, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the seriousness with which it is being implemented in public corporations in America, brings hope that the ethics will return to the American market stronger than ever.


Available at my website are the following astrology charts plus detailed information about this cycle:


The New York Stock Exchange - Saturn in the 9th house indicating a potential problem with ethics [there are various charts for the NYSE]


Charts reflecting the Evolution of the New York Stock Exchange since its creation in 1792
1972 founding
transit at 1929 Crash
transit at 1987 Crash, Greenspan appointed
transit in 1993 Leavitt appointed Chair SEC
transit in 1999 Congress repeals Glass-Steagall
transit at 2001 midway point in Saturn/Pluto cycle
transit for 2003 Grasso leaves
Ray Garrett, Jr. - Chairman, Securities Exchange Commisson (1973-75)
Alan Greenspan- Chairman, Federal Reserve Board (1987-present)
Bernie Ebbers - CEO WorldCom (1982-2003)
Robert Rubin - Secretary of the Treasury (1995-1999); assistant to Sanford Weill (1999-present)





To read the complete article with charts and graphs, click here.