Jude’s Threshold

Well, if you’ve ever read my blogs for more than five minutes, you know of my permanent disgruntlement toward secret societies and their chaos-creating social tinkering. That’s why the news that a French woman is suing the Vatican’s Opus Dei cult is of interest to me.

If true, the allegations of her enslavement are hideous and I hope they are fairly resolved in a Parisian court.

Good thing her suit isn’t being heard by the corrupt, corporate-ruled Supreme Court of the United States who, under Justice John Roberts, seems not to have met a US citizen it couldn’t disenfranchise with its unbalanced leanings toward the interests of Big Corporations.

President Obama’s news conference on the US economy (and actions in Libya) is occurring as I type and you may find of interest Reynolds Holding’s argument that in the debt crisis debate, the White House holds the legal advantage under the Constitution which does not allow America to default on creditors.

Hopefully, the blockage from the GOP on the budget won’t result in a constitutional crisis as our current Solar Elcipse Series (June 1, 2011 @ 11Gem02) suggests is possible.

And for a little astrological consideration of President Obama’s first full news conference since March, you’re welcome to try my post Obama presser 6.29.11: Saturn rising which I composed this morning and managed to publish at precisely 11:30 am edt, the time the presser was scheduled to begin. The June 1st Solar Eclipse’s ‘constitutional’ influence is included.

(Note: Mr. Obama actually began speaking at 11:39 am edt.)

Yes, Saturn rising is descriptive of austerity, delays, restriction, inhibition, contraction, and loss yet the president’s clear explanations this morning as he laid out the economic debate’s issues between Rs and Ds are also shown due to Saturn’s realistic influence and supports the Moon’s conjunction with Fixed Star Rigel (to bring knowledge; to educate) at the top of the chart!

What’s so special about the sign of The Crab, Cancer? That it is Moon-ruled, self-protective, and canny in business? Home-loving, family-oriented, Mom-hugging, and a little psychic?

With the current June 1, 2011 Solar Eclipse @11Gem02 in force but followed very soon by a Solar Eclipse on July 1, 2011 (America’s early birthday present since it manifests between our nation’s Sun and Jupiter and 3 days prior to July 4th – it’s the first in a new Saros Series!), what factors will be emphasized by its double Cancer message?

If you have natal planets or points within 2 degrees either side of 9Can12, this eclipse will directly affect your your chart on some level but the nearer the orb, the more noticeable the eclipse energy.

Also involved are any opposite planets/points around 7 to 11 Capricorn (relationships may be affected, also a new awareness may dawn), and if you care to widen your Cancerian fishing net further, also consider the squaring degrees and sextiling/trining degrees: 7 to 11 Aries/Libra, and 7 to 11 Virgo/Pisces. The opposing (Cap) and squaring (Ari/Lib) signs are the strongest with the conjunction in Cancer the strongest of all.

Eclipses falling in Tropical Cancer tend to bring up such issues as feelings and emotions, receptivity, imagination, nurturing (and its evil twins, abuse or neglect), deep attachments, and habits that fulfill emotional needs.

And since Cancer and the Moon both are prone to ‘soaking up’ the energy of whatever planet/s they are linked to, any planets in aspect to the eclipse are particularly important and may exhibit a sort of celestial tofu effect.

Naturally with Cancer, concerns about water, flooding, and marine issues may well be tops on the July 1, 2011 eclipse’s agenda for manifestation as well. Sadly, our country is already seeing these effects playing out in the Midwest with the Mississppi and Missouri Rivers overflowing. And with transiting Pluto, planet of atomic power, opposing the July eclipse, we think instantly of the current flooding threats to the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Planet in Nebraska, a new disaster since early Sunday morning’s breach.

For a little Astrology on the topic, you may wish to see this morning’s Fort Calhoun Nuclear Breach: Neptune to US Moon? post.

Other Cancerians issues the July 1st eclipse may bring to the surface include food or food supplies, dietary factors, emotional hurts, environmental matters, genealogical information, Real Estate, the Homeland, national and personal security, women’s and children’s issues (such as the SCOTUS decision handed down today about violent video games being “OK” for kids! Eclipses can act early, plus, we’re still under the rays of the June 1st eclipse with Gemini, the sign of young people), and karmic family or other close ties. Joining societies or other organizations may come up for consideration or review as well.

Yes, it’s quite rare for two Solar Eclipses to occur just one month apart and perhaps you’ve been feeling a special, intuitive, or spiritualized shift of energy since June 2011 began for we are now in a window of cosmic eclipse energy which included the June 15, 2011 Lunar Eclipse @ 24Sag23.
Near Athens, Georgia, June 15th was a night of tremendous thunderstorms and high winds with some areas experiencing hail. Such is the pull of Earth’s Moon which rules the tides!

Now if you’d like to check out the July 1, 2011 Solar Eclipse from a more political p.o.v., try Stars Over Washington, my Political Astrology site with a common good slant, where you can view the July 1st horoscope set for Washington DC, and see the restrictive Grand Cross pattern which the chart contains.

Having just been bowled over by the 6-photo slideshow of Seville, Spain’s new Metropol Parasol, I want to be certain you’ve snagged a peek at the new and creative architectural marvel, if you haven’t.

Since its completion in April 2011, we now know where to find the ‘world’s largest wooden urban structure’ and it is a show-stopping beauty of a sculptured building of cross-hatched wood over steel in the most graceful of forms. And the Parasol has practical uses for city dwellers and tourists of Seville as Uranian genius pours into Saturnian form!

Plato’s Ideal? Seems very close to me but really you should decide for yourself.

Experientially, it looks like walking underneath a giant wooden mushroom! (As if I actually know what such a thing would look like. Well, now I do.)

And please don’t be dissuaded from taking a peek at the photos by the fact that ‘parasol’, ‘rain’, and ‘rain man’ are related symbols of the sort of largess that tends to come with too many strings attached.

No, let’s not go there.

But do let us run away to Seville to bask under the Metropol Parasol!

A fuller view of my drawing ‘Shroom Trio may be found in the current ‘Mad Majicks’ issue of Emerging Visions e-zine and you’re cordially invited to check out all the Art and Poetry!

Though I’m not surprised and consider this tit-for-tat arrangement to be as old as America herself (as is the obvious hypocrisy involved), I present this article to you in a spirit of keeping a squinty and dissenting eye upon the inhabitants of the White House, no matter their party:

Spoils Of Victory: Obama Financial Suporters Get Top Jobs

By Fred Schulte, John Aloysius Farrell and Jeremy Borden

More than two years after President Obama took office vowing to banish “special interests” from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests.

As they say, old boss same as the new!

Plus, you may be interested in reading my brief astro-peek at Michele Bachmann’s natal horoscope published today over at Stars Over Washington.

Are you one of the participants today who is tweeting from James Joyce’s brilliant stream-of-consciousness novel Ulysses? Mega-kudos to you!

Then perhaps you caught this morning’s NPR interview with Stephen Cole, founder of the Ulysses Meets Twitter project where each tweet represents approximtely 8 pages from the book.

Nearly 800 pages long, Ulysses details a day in the life of Leopold Bloom, an epic novel describing an ‘epic day’ of 24 hours stretched over almost 800 pages – a wild concept for its time. Yes, I did try to plow through it in school and though I usually completed whatever book I began in those days, this one won the battle and was deserted for more interesting novels such as those by Hardy, Dickens, Burroughs, Dreiser, Wharton, Poe, and the like. Sorry Mr. Joyce!

But this Ulysses-Twitter project is a grand idea, isn’t it?

And the date ‘June 16, 1904′ falls within a very interesting historical period which I wrote about for Julie Demboski‘s Fall Issue of her Eclipse e-zine (now a subscription newsletter and worth every penny for Julie’s deep insights and masterful astrological overview!)

My Eclipse article (rather dry unless you appreciate Mundane-Political Astrology mixed with dusty History) is titled, “American Empire: When Jupiter Bowed to the Sun” and relates to the sea change in American government when our ideological (Jupiter) course was expanded and diverted and we ended up – as we now experience – as the world’s police force and imperial (Jupiter) occupier who overspends into oblivion. But I digress…

So what was going on in the heavens on June 16, 1904?

On Earth it was a busy year which began on January 1st with opium production and ended with the first-ever New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square NYC, then known as Longacre Square. Politically of note is November 8, 1904 when Freemason and Jupiterian Teddy Roosevelt won election as US President.

Check out other Events of 1904 as you wish and yes, you’ll find that Bloomsday made the list. And there’s Tennyson’s poem Ulysses about the restless hero.

Astrologically, the 24-hour period of June 16, 1904 began during a Hour of expansive Jupiter trine Uranus posited in Jupiter’s sign of Sagittarius (28:05 Rx); powerful transformer Pluto 20:17 passionately conjoins Venus @ 18Gem31, Sun 24Gem36, and nebulous, creative Neptune 5Can13.

You notice that 1904′s Neptune conjoined US natal Jupiter (’6 Cancer’ = “Gamebirds Feathering Their Nests” (and they still do.) This transit to US n Jupiter indicates speculation – many get-rich-quick schemes were promoted to the unwary, illusion mixed disastrously with extravagance and exaggeration, and idealism was enhanced. We’re now seeing results from this long-ago influence along with other portents of corruption (Neptune) and bankruptcy and debt default issues.

Benefits came from writing, publishing, advertising, sales, marine pursuits, the justice system, the father, as other Jupiterian-Neptunian themes abounded in 1904 with the two planets being ruler and higher-octave ruler of mystical Pisces.

Jupiter’s position on June 16, 1904 @ ’25 Aries’ gives an interesting Sabian Symbol (word picture): “A Double Promise Reveals Its Inner and Outer Meanings.” (Marc Edmund Jones.)

Now I know not where-of I speak as far as Joyce’s novel goes, I’m only reading the horoscopes for 12:00 am, noon, and 11:59:59 pm EST, with Dublin Ireland as the location – for the 24-hour period detailed in Ulysses.

One factor of note since we may take the Sun as significator for Leopold Bloom, our hero: an opposition between Sun and quirky Uranus which was applying during the 24-hour period.

Sun opposite Uranus indicates a willful, erratic, and restless character, one who is independent, hypersensitive, tense, irritable, and high-strung. (Does this describe Mr. Bloom at all? You tell me, oh readers of Ulysses!)

At times, a Sun/Uranus opposition may deliberately flaunt convention just for the sake of causing controversy and excitement. Perhaps this denotes Mr. Joyce’s innovative writing and personality more than it does Mr. Bloom – or both. Impatience may block sustained effort though that’s hard to imagine with an 800-page novel which had to take a while to think up and write.

Mentally exceptional with unusual talents, a Sun/Uranus opposition shows an original genius but one whose quirky changeableness can be his own worst enemy for he is difficult for others to deal with and insists that all be done ‘his way’…a revolutionary and a rebel!

As TIME’s James Joyce bio states, “Ulysses revolutionized 20th century fiction” with June 16, 1904 Astrology as a testament to the genius of a Sun/Uranus opposition shining through this innovator’s literary tour de force (a forcefull Mars/Pluto conjunction, and Mercury the final dispositor in its own writers’ sign of Gemini; publishing Jupiter is the pioneering sign of Aries. Moon reaches creative, dramatic Leo during the day, too; Joyce’s Syzygy Moon – the last lunation prior to birth – @ 29Cap34 was transited by shaman, priest, and Wounded Healer Chiron (29:09 Rx) on Bloomsday 1904.

During the 24-hour period of Bloomsday 1904, there forms a notable midpoint picture which depends on timing since MC (Career; Aspirations; Public Status) is involved yet it may be significant to our topic:

Saturn/MC = Jupiter: simplicity; modesty; contentment; clinging to hopes. (Ebertin; any, all, or none may apply, as below.)

The study of a 24-hour period always intrigues me and this day no less for a midpoint picture which begins with Venus at its apex (focus) has sexy, psychological Pluto joining it prior to day’s end. Here are the word pictures they form…

Mercury/Neptune = Venus: rapturous imaginings; expecting too much from love.

Mercury/Neptune = Pluto: unusual actions originate in the subconscious mind (a stream of consciousness novel!); drawing highly upon nervous energy.

Bloom, Joyce, or both?

June 16, 1904′s Solar Eclipse Saros Series (14 South) provides an undertone of influences and it’s one I dread in 2011 because it manifests again on *May 20, 2012 @ ’00Gem’ (conjunct Fixed Star, Alcyone: ‘something to cry about‘); the initial eclipse in the Series on August 29, 984 OS has a load of Mercury-Pluto content which indicates obsession, spying, and propaganda:

Paraphrasing Brady’s Predictive Astrology, 14S = ‘long periods of hard work (writing Ulysses? jc) bring long-awaited breakthroughs and success; an obsessive idea is finally accepted (NWO in 2012? jc) which brings the promised success of Jupiter’.

James Joyce, the Man

Mr. Joyce was born near Dublin, Ireland on February 2, 1882 during the Great Conjunction/s of Neptune and Pluto, the Robber Baron duet of resource plunderers everywhere.

Using a ‘noon’ horoscope set for Dublin, we see an applying inconjunct (aka, quincunx) between Uranus and natal Sun 13AQ37 (AQ ruled by Saturn and co-ruled by quirky genius Uranus which makes the Sun/Uranus aspect more significant in his personality and hero’s journey of the Sun, all of which resonates with the Sun/Uranus opposition of June 16, 1904.)

A Sun/Uranus inconjunct gives a tendency toward self-sacrifice and others may impose within one’s career by making one feel guilty. Yet freeing the minds of others is an imperative for this inventor yet the actual aspect – 148 degrees – is second in importance to the fact that Sun and Uranus are in contact at all in both charts(Transpersonal meets Personal, an echo of the Ulysses Meets Twitter’s tweeters 2011.)

Of interest is that his natal Neptune 13Tau48 and Pluto 27Tau21 Rx have an idealistic Jupiter/Chiron conjunction snugged between them. Jupiter conjunct Chiron denotes a ‘rainbow chaser’ so his novel Finnegan’s Rainbow naturally comes to mind, another groundbreaking literary effort by Mr. Joyce.

His writers’ planet Mercury @ 00Pis51 is now – June 16, 2011 – being transited by creative if confusing Neptune (’1 Pisces’ = “A Public Market”…Twitter?) Plus, Neptune rules nets, webs, and networks, so we see that in 2011, there’s a vibe of the Internet ‘web’ touching Joyce’s natal planet of writing and communication as his method of self-expression is spotlighted yet magically changed by the catalyst of watery Neptune.

Well, I suggest you take a peek at the charts for June 16, 1904 and at Joyce’s natal horoscope for more details since my blogging time this morning is at an end.

There’s a lot of obsession (Venus-Pluto-Mars trio) in the Bloomsday horoscope (plus, the 14S Solar Eclipse vibes) along with a very creative Sun/Neptune conjunction though it is out-of-sign (Gemini-Cancer); this planetary contact in 1904 focuses on Joyce’s natal Sun/Neptune square which indicates one who spins castles in the air, a perfectly desireable trait and aspect for an inventive genius of a writer who manages to control and use its creative energies productively in the real world.

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*Solar Eclipses in the 14S Series also occurred in the years 1922, 1940, 1958, and last time in 1994; similar themes may be revealed by checking historical events of those years. jc

Well, maybe this tidbit which mainly describes the 2008 presidential campaign cycle isn’t something just uncovered by this week’s revealing Lunar Eclipse in Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius but elite group of donors dole out campaign money among various candidates reminds me of how it’s done on a larger scale when for centuries global banking houses have supplied both sides of wars and revolutions which they themselves fomented from within their secret society chambers.

Perhaps one reason for them to pony up for ‘both sides’ is to establish a win-win situation for themselves by retaining influence over whichever candidate wins a nomination or an election.

Bets are hedged, allegiances are pledged, and they are not meant to protect or defend the US Constitution.

You’ll note that I snagged the article link above from the OpenSecrets site for it seemed appropriate as the Lunar Eclipse in the sign of The Seeker nears.

June 15, 2011 Lunar Eclipse @ 24Sag23.

Believe me, Mr. Parry knows what’s what!

The looming U.S. defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan represent a threat to the political fortunes of America’s neocons — if they get blamed for the disasters. However, if they can hang the failures around President Obama’s neck, the two lost wars might help bring the neocons back to power as early as 2013, writes Robert Parry.

For the full story, go to:

Consortium News

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You know in early August 2011, the transiting South Node (separation; neurotic behavior; talent; the past) will conjoin US natal Mars in Gemini which underscores the themes of war and violence and may point to our troops coming back from the Middle East…a few of them anyway.

And of course, August 2, 2011 is said to be the ‘deadline’ for raising the US debt (credit) ceiling so we can fight more wars. Because we know from recent ‘austerity measures’ that the increase in frothy funds couldn’t possibly be to answer our many dire needs, now could it?

(I’m turning really grumpy from all this, can you tell?)

Anyway, in a couple of hours I’ll be updating Stars Over Washington with a look-see at the horoscope of August 2, 2011, Washington DC, so do drop by when you may!

And wouldn’t you just know that bubbly, inflationary Jupiter-Neptune is involved?

June 4, 2011: Decided to upload my entry for World Drawing Day 2011 to my flickr stream.

Title? ‘Fairy Path w Moss Drawing Day 2011′ by jude cowell.

So have you checked out any of the entries yet? A book publishing will result of a selection of today’s uploaded drawings including some childrens’ drawings which is cool. And there’s lots of Art to view in the online gallery linked below.

Well, I do declare that Drawing Day is the largest art project Ever! You can feel it, can’t you?

Drawing Day

Electric blue clouds with mysterious origins now appearing more southerly than ever…time for the NLCs.

Space Weather News for June 4, 2011

ELECTRIC-BLUE CLOUDS: The 2011 noctilucent cloud (NLC) season has begun. For the past few nights, observers in northern parts of Europe have spotted velvety, electric-blue tendrils rippling across the sunset sky.

NLCs are a summertime phenomenon first reported by polar observers in the 19th century. In recent decades, for reasons no one fully understands, the clouds have intensified and spread as far south as Utah and Colorado.

Visit today’s edition of Space Weather News for photos and observing tips.

CHANCE OF MAGNETIC ACTIVITY: NOAA forecasters estimate a 45% chance of geomagnetic activity on June 4th when an incoming solar wind stream and a CME might deliver a double blow to Earth’s magnetic field. High-latitude sky watchers in both hemispheres should be alert for auroras.

Aurora alerts: by voice or text.

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Hope you’ve checked out today’s global event World Drawing Day 2011! Did you upload an image of your drawing? My entry is titled, ‘Fairy Path w Moss Drawing Day 2011‘.

As always: pencil on paper; by Jude Cowell (coh’ wull) (c)2011